Chapter 13 The Truth

Blood Moon City's central plaza.

"You wouldn't be discarded failures, would you?"

Lan Qi asked sincerely.

Lashaer probably didn't hear clearly just now and wanted him to ask again, so he asked.

"Landry, you're courting death!!!"

Lashaer shouted hoarsely.

His violent palm controlled the blood mist, and countless deep red tentacles stretched out from the mist, sweeping towards Lan Qi like poisonous snakes, wanting to send this ignorant human into the abyss of eternal damnation!

"Why are you getting angry?"

The figure in the dark gray coat neither dodged nor hid in the blood snakes and sea of fire, and did not show the panic of facing death that Lashaer had expected. He simply stroked his right cheek and sighed.

Apart from the magic power emanating from his body with casual ease, when all attacks around him were blocked, the surrounding atmosphere seemed to freeze at that moment. The deep light became a myriad of dark stars dancing in Blood Moon City, like living magic energy that could strike the eyes directly and invade the mind.

Weak creatures with insufficient mental strength might experience a long journey beyond the flesh and time in an instant when facing this aura that strikes the soul for the first time.

Eventually, they would become completely petrified, kneel on the ground, or even burst into tears.

The swirling text did not belong to any known era. Only those who had seen the ruins of the Age of Gods would know its meaning.

This was precisely the aura that the Seal Tablet emitted when it was empowered.

"Seal Tablet?"

When Lashaer saw the radiance of the original tablet, his movements momentarily stalled.

According to information from Farma, the Corrupt Bishop, the new holder of the Seal Tablet was the new Cardinal who replaced Ascsang, the Bishop of Annihilation, in the Northern Continent.

If Landry was the Bishop of Mad Love, then it would make sense for him to be mixed up with the Bishop of Overlord and the Bishop of Dimensions.

"That's right. This time, I have obtained new power."

Lan Qi said to himself thoughtfully.

"..."

Talia was listening in Lan Qi's heart, hesitant to speak.

What Lan Qi was saying now might sound like an incomprehensible riddle to Lashaer, but she felt that Lan Qi was starting to mess around.

This morning, she had merged with Lan Qi again, transformed back into the Demon King of Mad Love, regained all the characteristics of the Poet of Great Love, hid in Lan Qi's soul space, and possessed him.

Lan Qi, at the seventh rank, could basically reach the eighth-rank level after being possessed by her again. This would save more magic power than directly summoning her and reduce Lashaer's attack target by one.

"Master, if you want to say something, just say it. Your silence is making me a little uncomfortable."

Lan Qi sensed Talia's thoughts and communicated with her through telepathy as the Demon King of Mad Love used to do.

Their telepathic communication was very efficient. They could exchange dozens of messages in an instant.

"Seriously, Lan Lan, you're in the mood to chat with me at this time."

Talia had just decided to quietly be a tool demon providing him with power.

To avoid distracting Lan Qi.

"Him and me, Bo5, never lost."

Lan Qi responded to Talia.

Lan Qi never felt any pressure when fighting Lashaer.

The real pressure came when facing Talia. There was no escaping, no resisting, and in the end, he could only be conquered by her heavy pressure on the ground.

"I'm starting to wonder if you're enjoying being ridden by me? Are you deliberately asking to be ridden? You really are asking for it!"

Talia scolded him in her heart.

She believed that Lan Qi felt no pressure facing Lashaer because this guy had completed several tasks with one sentence, and she couldn't even tell them apart.

Thousands of black mists surged from the Blood King's Palace Square, swirling in the air as if they had a life of their own. At the center of the vortex, crimson lightning crackled, illuminating Lashaer's cold face.

Under this offensive, Lan Qi remained unmoved. He used Absolute Immunity to block the ninth-rank spell of Duke Lashaer, the Third Progenitor, until the power dissipated.

"No wonder, so you are the strongest of all. You actually hid it, Professor Landry."

Lashaer's initial anger gradually calmed down after a brief outburst.

After one attack, he understood the other party's approximate strength.

When he first landed, the other party had disguised himself as a seventh-rank.

When he truly revealed the Seal Technique with immunity properties, he no longer concealed his Cardinal's strength.

If he was really a top eighth-rank Seal Master who could defeat Ascsang, then he was indeed not an ant that could be easily annihilated.

Of course, it was just the difference between killing him without effort and killing him with a little more effort.

"So Lashaer, can you tell me why your True King doesn't want you anymore?"

Lan Qi looked at the Third Progenitor Lashaer, completely ignoring what Lashaer was saying, and focused on figuring out what he wanted to ask.

"..."

Talia was too used to Lan Qi's way of speaking when fighting, which was completely talking at cross-purposes.

In an instant, the blood vessels near Lashaer's temples began to twitch.

He forced himself to calm his anger.

The Bishop of Mad Love might indeed be a Sword Mound Bishop who liked to attack the heart, but the more one faced such a being, the more one needed to be as calm as still water.

"Professor Landry, although I don't know where you heard about the Blood Clan's True King, if you want to experience pain beyond death today, I will satisfy you. Before that, I still want to ask you, who exactly are you?"

Lashaer raised his hand, condensing his vast ninth-rank magic power, ready to bring down Landry's life at any time and send this Seal Master down to accompany Ascsang.

If Landry came from the north, then it was not impossible for him to know about the True King.

But if Landry couldn't give him a satisfactory answer, then he would send this Seal Master down to be with Ascsang.

"Don't I look like Landry?"

Lan Qi asked as a matter of course.

"Forget it, I'll see for myself!"

Lashaer felt that the Bishop of Mad Love was treating him like a fool. He had never seen a Cardinal with such a personality.

His magic power surged violently, and invisible anti-magic ripples spread across the Blood King's Palace Square, stirring up a gale.

Under the ninth-rank dispel spell, any disguise magic would have nowhere to hide.

Anyway, that guy on the opposite side must have used a disguise-type spell to turn into Professor Landry.

"How could you do this..."

Lan Qi raised his eyebrows in surprise, glancing at the strands of hair fluttering in front of his forehead, and found that this layer of disguise magic was being unreasonably stripped away.

But it didn't matter.

He had already prepared a new outfit, equipped with a saintly and ordinary equipment card: the white robe of Pope Saint Plant.

In an instant.

The Blood King's Divine Fire that spread out from the Blood King's Palace danced wildly, but it could not invade the white-robed Pope at all.

Before coming here, he had already drunk a mouthful of violent wolf blood. A wolf shadow, like the protection of the Moon Goddess, warded off the Blood King's Divine Fire for him, preventing him from being invaded by the flames.

After Lashaer's forced dispel magic took effect, Lan Qi was covered in a white robe and a silver-white mask, still not allowing Lashaer to see his true face.

Only the green eyes under the mask's holes were full of compassion, pity, and a hint of regret.

But at this moment, Lashaer didn't want to see this person's true face anymore.

"Ah ah"

Lashaer's spell suddenly stopped, his lips and teeth trembling, and his complexion turned from violent to pale in an instant. The thick panic in his abruptly contracted blood pupils was like a dark cloud, blocking his progenitor's reason and courage, making his previous confidence vanish.

Unsurpassed fear filled Duke Lashaer's limbs.

He didn't understand why that man would appear here, why he still existed in the world tens of thousands of years later!

"You duke, you truly delight me."

The white-robed Pope looked at Lashaer with the same peaceful gaze, saying with a hint of gratification.

"Stop playing tricks! Landry!"

Lashaer shouted angrily, his throat trembling.

"Lancrose is dead! He died tens of thousands of years ago! He can't be here!!"

This fear and anger intertwined, not only a deterrence instinct when facing an enemy but also because the most unbearable memories surged into his heart again, about to crush him!

"Go to hell!!"

Lashaer's eyes were like two black holes, bottomless, exuding endless madness.

Countless dark red mental tentacles extended rapidly from Lashaer's body, covering the entire Blood King's Palace territory like a thorny jungle.

The chill coming from his spine made Lashaer ignore everything and escape from here.

But if this guy was really the eternally immortal Pope Saint Plant, where could he escape to?

The only thing he could do was tear off the mask of this liar, Landry!

"You know, I'm too lazy to dodge the power of your spell attack."

The moment the dark red tsunami touched Lan Qi, it was like hitting an invisible wall, instantly splitting apart and turning into specks of blood-colored light that dissipated into the air.

"?"

Lashaer couldn't believe that his proud ninth-rank attack spell had no effect.

This only reminded him of the final battle tens of thousands of years ago.

Pope Saint Plant, that monster with near-magic immunity.

"During your days of being sealed, I thought of you every day."

Lan Qi said to Lashaer, maintaining the Black Sun Tyrant's Eternal Punishment Edict.

"Who exactly are you?!"

Lashaer looked at the absent-minded Pope.

A sense of doubt, a sense of incongruity, a sense of disappointment, and a sense of being fooled while punching the air made Duke Lashaer's head explode.

He could only believe that under this mask, there must be another trickster.

"Do you want to see what's under my mask?"

Lan Qi answered with a chuckle under his mask.

The frank and unintentional words made a trace of confusion flash in the eyes of the Third Progenitor Duke Lashaer.

"You desperately hide your true appearance, isn't it because you are not him?!"

Third Progenitor Duke Lashaer questioned Lan Qi in exasperation.

"How similar do you think I am to Pope Saint Plant?"

Lan Qi put his hand on his cheek, turned his mask aside, and let them see the centipede-like black brand crawling on his right cheek.

"This meeting is a delight."

He spoke frankly, telling Lashaer the answer.

The face half-covered by the silver-white mask, the playful eyelids at the top of the black centipede, and the clear, cold, emerald green eyes made Lashaer couldn't help but feel chills.

"No, you are not him..."

Lashaer only muttered in confusion.

That true face, without any disguise magic, was surprisingly similar to the young Pope Saint Plant.

If Pope Saint Plant was a shattered jade that had been repeatedly tempered and reborn, then the young man in front of him was pure and flawless glass from the beginning.

Now, even he himself didn't believe that this guy had nothing to do with Pope Saint Plant!

His body's instinct had already made him start to retreat.

Now, the only thing he could rely on was the protection mechanism of Blood Moon City.

As long as the sub-temples of the other marquises were not broken, even if the real Pope Saint Plant was resurrected, he couldn't do anything to him.

But he was only afraid that Pope Saint Plant would go to the other sub-temples to capture and torture the marquises one by one, and then come over to deal with him.

Pope Saint Plant's strength was too epoch-making in this era. Even Blood Moon City could be dragged down by him. He could clear the sub-temples by himself and then come to the Blood King's Palace.

So, the fact that this guy would come to the Blood King's Palace to find him meant that he didn't have the strength of the peak Pope Saint Plant!

"I understand better than you how difficult it is to bear the will of the Black Sun."

Lan Qi said calmly to Lashaer, taking slow steps towards Lashaer proactively.

Just like returning to find him after ten thousand years.

"If you have the ability, make a move and let me see what you're capable of!"

Lashaer roared, summoning countless blood-colored mirrors again, and the blood-colored poisonous snakes like kaleidoscopes swarmed up, twisting and coiling, intending to entangle Lan Qi's limbs. At the same time, the mental attacks reflected by the mirrors also followed closely.

Lan Qi didn't dodge.

"If you can't handle it, you're not worthy of being the Third Progenitor."

He walked straight towards Lashaer with his hands behind his back.

Once this step was taken, it was unstoppable.

The moment the blood-colored poisonous snakes touched him, they encountered black mist and hissed, having no effect.

Lashaer didn't know what the other party was going to do, only feeling that everything was over and he was on pins and needles.

"The Pope Saint Plant from the gutter is still chasing me!"

Lashaer completely didn't believe that his spells were completely ineffective.

The white-robed Pope approached Lashaer, and every step made him feel a hallucination of his brain trembling.

West side of Blood Moon City.

Two Blood Clan Earls who arrived at the black city rushed towards Abigail, who was concentrating on her work, like lightning.

Barton quickly pulled out his magic-guided vibrating sword, the blade gleaming coldly in the moonlight.

He blocked the Countess's attack, and the collision of metal and claws made a harsh sound, with sparks flying everywhere.

At the same time, Barton threw a flying blade, nailing the Earl's leg attacking Abigail to the ground. However, the Blood Clan Earl, unafraid of pain, forcibly tore off his leg and pounced towards Abigail.

For a time, the battle situation fell into a stalemate.

Just then, Abigail finally completed the construction of the mechanical space barrier.

The huge mechanical dimensional gate unfolded in the night sky, emitting a faint blue light.

Mechanical doll soldiers, parts, and weapons poured out from the dimensional gate, and under Abigail's control, they were assembled into mechanical armies, repelling the Blood Clan Earls in the firelight.

Seeing this, the Blood Clan Earl's face changed slightly. Before he could dodge the barrier attack, Barton, who had caught up, pressed down on the back of his head and smashed him into the ground.

At this time, Hyperion had already disappeared from the temporary camp.

Abigail's protection was correspondingly reduced.

Fortunately, she successfully built the barrier.

Next, she could spare a little more attention to commanding the battles in other places and sharing information.

"Meow meow, is it really okay to let Hyperion go by herself?"

A black cat's head peeked out from the shadows under Abigail's feet.

Seeing the barrier formed, it dared to show its head.

Otherwise, it was best to stay in the shadows most of the time and open a life-saving shield for Abigail at any time.

Cat Boss originally wanted to go with Hyperion, but according to Hyperion and Abigail's on-the-spot judgment, Cat Boss should stay in the west camp to ensure stable communication. Otherwise, once they lost contact with intelligence and command, everyone would lose the map and the latest battle situation.

"Believe in Hyperion."

Abigail stared solemnly at the pictures sent to her by hundreds of mechanical messengers, focusing her gaze on the Abyssal Temple.

As a commander, she knew she couldn't die. She could only trust her teammates.

The premise that Hyperion could hold Ulysses successfully was also that her communication support couldn't be cut off.

"According to my real-time analysis just now, the seal at the bottom of the Abyssal Temple not only needs to meet the conditions to be initially broken, but also needs to break the high-density anti-magic crystal inside."

Abigail issued a notice to all the other assault teams via communication, mainly to inform Hyperion.

She didn't mind the cat coming out and talking to her. Instead, she reached out and pulled it out, placing it on her shoulder to help her look at the map together.

Her mechanical messengers couldn't get close to the black crystal. Otherwise, they would be immediately swallowed by the blood snakes left by Ulysses in the abyss, and they could only identify a little information from a distance.

"I understand, Abigail!"

Hyperion's voice rang in Abigail's mechanical earpiece.

Before coming to Blood Moon City, they had already studied all the possible seals.

There were two types of seals: deadlocks and livelocks. Deadlocks were similar to Ascsang's seal, which couldn't be broken unless the caster was killed. Livelocks were similar to the Chimera Edict, which could be actively released or broken.

According to the judgment of the professional Seal Master Lan Qi, the seal applied to Duchess Migaia must not be the type that could only be dispelled by killing the caster, which would violate the principle of strong correspondence between applying and dispelling the seal.

Moreover, the Blood Clan wasn't good at sealing techniques. They preferred to study how to unseal.

Then, the type of seal used to seal Duchess Migaia was similar to the spell used to seal Viscount Augustine that they had seen at the Night of the Scoundrels in the Holy Church.

Lan Qi, Hyperion, and Frey had gone to the underground wine cellar to find the sealed Viscount Augustine at the end of the second Shadow World castle night. The process of dispelling the curse was that Lan Qi asked Hyperion and Frey for some blood to dispel it.

The sealing condition when Viscount Augustine was sealed in Lichtenstein Castle was during the day, under the influence of the witch and werewolf's power. So, the curse was dispelled by reversing it: during the night, offering the blood of the witch and the werewolf could dispel it.

By the same token, if they wanted to dispel the Blood Clan's seal on Duchess Migaia, the curse-dispelling material would be the blood of the upper Blood Clan containing magic power, or even the Blood Moon Essence for creating a familiar.

"Meow meow!"

Cat Boss nervously looked at the picture of Hyperion that Abigail asked it to help watch. A mechanical messenger was specifically following Hyperion. She was smoothly high-speed sneaking towards the southernmost Abyssal Temple.

The Blood Clan that Iphatia had captured earlier had a lot of blood extracted by Lan Qi and the others, and it was even concentrated into artificial Blood Moon Essence, which was placed with Abigail. Abigail had just handed it to Hyperion.

In other words, they had the necessary key to unlock the seal.

The real difficulty was how Hyperion was going to lure away the eighth-rank blood snake and gain enough time to break the high-density anti-magic crystal that was enough to imprison Duchess Migaia.

But as long as the anti-magic crystal was attacked by Hyperion, Marquis Ulysses X would most likely be restrained.

"Hey hey, I've stabilized my side."

Lan Qi's voice suddenly came again, allowing Abigail and Cat Boss to hear it together.

"Lan Qi meow!"

Cat Boss knew that the battle situation was not good. Hearing Lan Qi's voice at this time undoubtedly gave it a shot in the arm.

"I just heard your appraisal of the seal situation of Duchess Migaia at the Abyssal Temple. I said that what Teacher Laosang taught me was right."

Lan Qi's voice was accompanied by the faint mechanical sound of communication.

"Grass meow."

Cat Boss thought about letting Laosang go at this time.

Lan Qi that kid also had a big heart. He could contact the camp while fighting Lashaer.

"Abigail, I can participate in the command now. You can concentrate on upgrading the camp's barrier and mechanical units. Just share the information with me."

Lan Qi said to Abigail in real-time.

"No problem."

Abigail immediately looked at the picture of the Blood King's Palace where Lan Qi was.

Just like she had initially expected, after Lan Qi initially went online with Lashaer, he could spare the attention to help her participate in the command together.

Because Lan Qi couldn't beat Lashaer, and Lashaer couldn't beat Lan Qi either. They could only consume each other in the Blood King's Palace.

Lan Qi really couldn't do anything to Lashaer. Even if the Blood Moon City's blessing mechanism for Lashaer was broken, Lan Qi and Talia couldn't subdue Lashaer at all. The last time in the Shadow World, Antanas, Sinora, Planai, and the Ice Witch were all added together to defeat the ninth-rank Third Progenitor Lashaer by combining the special attack power of the sun.

The only thing Abigail didn't expect was that Lan Qi came up with the most torturous way to fight.

Cat Boss accidentally caught a glimpse of the situation on Lan Qi's side and his eyes twitched.

Now Lan Qi and Lashaer were at most on a flat line. Neither of them could leave the Blood King's Palace, but Lan Qi was enjoying it, while Lashaer was in jail.

End of Chapter