The tomes and scattered gold coins of the Church of Light inside Blount's space ring did not attract Han Shuo's attention, nor did the few knight's weapons inside, which were clearly far inferior to the ones Blount had been wielding. However, there were two magical scrolls that stood out; one was a space magical scroll for escape, and the other was an earth magic scroll for creating a sort of earth shield. Both of them were meant to ensure survival.
But it was a pity that the series of attacks on Blount during the battle a few moments ago had left him with no power to retaliate. With Han Shuo bombarding Blount with punches left and right, he hadn't even had a chance to activate a magic scroll, and was only released after the bones in his entire body had been shattered.
The two scrolls belonged to Han Shuo. Although they were precious, they weren't incredibly rare. It was the few sheets of thin yellow paper, or more specifically their contents, that piqued his interest.
The Church of Light, the self-proclaimed most compassionate church on the Profound Continent, was actually doing some rather shady business out of the public eye. From the thin yellow papers, Han Shuo learned exactly how Blount had managed to gather so much power in the space of three years. As it turned out, the miracle was due to the blessing ceremony of the Church of Light.
As the most influential religious organisation on the Profound Continent, the Church of Light cared most about two things. One, to gain an abundance of devout followers of the God of Light, and two, to have pure-soul believers selflessly offer sacrifices. Through these official records, Han Shuo learned that once pure-soul followers sacrificed to the God of Light, the blessed would receive even more divine power from the God of Light.
However, many of the pure souls were not followers of the Church of Light. And every so often, even the staunchest believers in the Church of Light would suddenly wake up to the realisation that offering their souls meant certain death, and find that perhaps they weren't so ready to give up everything and give their souls. Well, it was at times like this that the Church of Light used certain means to force them.
The percentage of people with incomparably pure souls was minuscule. Blount's full recovery and tremendous increase in strength was paid for by the sacrifice of eighty-seven pure souls.
These eighty-seven pure souls were secretly captured by the Church of Light from various countries by all sorts of dishonourable means. The thin yellow papers were application forms submitted by Sacred Knight Blount to the Church of Light for a sacrifice ceremony. They bore the handwritten signatures of the current Pope of the Church of Light and other senior members.
"No wonder. No wonder Blount has come to possess such power in such a short time! Clearly, the Church of Light is no more ethical than the likes of the Calamity Church. From the outside, they appear respectable, promoting all sorts of virtues and such, but what they do in the shadows is no different from the latter."
Having made such a huge leap in power, Blount must have thought himself immortal, so he stored the documents in the space ring. But who would have thought that they would now be in the hands of Han Shuo. Han Shuo understood that the documents contained the signatures of more than half of the high-ranking members of the Church of Light, and what that meant.
Although Han Shuo was concerned about this unusual method the Church of Light used to obtain divine energy for its members, he also felt a sense of extreme joy and excitement at having obtained such information that could be used against the Church.
"Hahaha, I bet the Church of Calamity will be very pleased to hear about this! This document contains the signatures of the Pope of the Church of Light and his senior members. They will use their own means to expose the wrongs of the Church of Light," Han Shuo laughed triumphantly.
"Master, the other members of the Church of Light are all dead!" Elizabeth's face only showed excitement. The five cyclones in her body were spinning rapidly as energy entered her shriveled body strand by strand.
Han Shuo held the sheets of yellow paper very carefully in his hand and turned his attention to the surroundings. Just as Elizabeth had said, this group from the Church of Light, without a single Light Grand Magus in their team, were all dead from the attacks of the undead.
Han Shuo's eyes narrowed and his mind went round and round Elizabeth's body. By his estimation, Elizabeth had absorbed enough divine energy to double her strength. However, even though Elizabeth had absorbed the divine energy from Sacred Knight Blount, she was still far from reaching the level of strength that Blount possessed.
One reason for this was that Blount's mighty strength didn't rely solely on his divine energy. His combat aura played the most important role. On the other hand, after going through the transformation cycles, the divine energy that Elizabeth could actually use had been reduced to a fraction of its original amount.
After all, Elizabeth wasn't a follower of the Church of Light, so she couldn't use the divine energy. This was similar to Han Shuo's situation; he had to completely remove the dross energy from the huge killing aura he had absorbed, after which only a tiny amount of pure energy would be left for him to utilise.
After absorbing all that divine energy, Elizabeth's strength would barely be enough to reach the level of a Sacred Swordmaster. Even without the demonic blood in her body, the strength she currently possessed could not pose a threat to Han Shuo. After examining Elizabeth deeply, he nodded and said, "Very good. You have done a good job. I see there is still raw divine energy in your body. Would you like a quiet place to digest it?"
"Thank you for Master's concern. My body will slowly convert this energy without the need to consciously digest it," Elizabeth replied immediately.
Nodding, Han Shuo did not speak any further but looked in another direction.
Not long after, the Dark Mantle arrived under Karey's guidance. By then, the undead creatures Han Shuo had summoned had completely disappeared. There were only about a dozen corpses of Church of Light members left around Han Shuo and Elizabeth.
The disciples of the Church of Light had died in a grotesque state. The body of Sacred Knight Blount was reduced to a pile of mush after his bones were crushed and his body trampled. The disciples, partially devoured by undead creatures, died in an even more gruesome scene, parts of their bodies missing. The metallic stench of blood hung in the air.
Cecilia and her party glanced at the scene and felt sick to their stomachs. Fortunately, the Dark Mantle were a rather determined, hardy group and did nothing to embarrass themselves in front of Han Shuo.
"Bryan, what happened?" Carefully avoiding the bloodstains on the floor, she made her way over to Han Shuo.
"You're the reason I came here this time. Hmm, now that Blount is dead, it seems my business here is finished!" Han Shuo said with a faint smile and raised his head to look at the sky. He was thinking about paying Wolf a visit and giving him some fascinating 'souvenirs'.
As a sinister organisation with influence all over the continent, it was most appropriate for the Church of Calamity to do such things. They were also a mortal enemy of the Church of Light, and would never miss an opportunity to strike at the Church of Light. The document in Han Shuo's hand contained the signatures of their highest leaders, including the Pope. Once exposed by the Church of Calamity, the squeaky clean image of the Church of Light would surely be tarnished. The thought made Han Shuo somewhat impatient.
"Sacred Knight Blount is dead?" Cecilia's petite mouth dropped wide open as she stared at Han Shuo in confusion. She could not believe what she was hearing.
"There, right under my feet. That headless body!" Han Shuo said coolly as he pointed to the unsightly Blount. The puddle of fresh blood was still warm.
Cecilia's expression was blank as she stood there staring, utterly speechless. "Lord Bryan, that, that old woman, why is she here?" Karey asked, pointing to Elizabeth who stood respectfully behind Han Shuo. Karey had nearly been killed by Elizabeth.
"From now on she will be my slave!" Han Shuo replied. After a short pause, Han Shuo said to Cecilia, "If there's nothing else, let's say goodbye!"
Han Shuo had little interest in the strange phenomena in the depths of the Tarrag Canyon.
""Um... err..." Cecelia watched Han Shuo leave, speechless again. She stammered as she thought of reasons to make him stay, but could not come up with an excuse.
Suddenly, a rumble came from afar, the sound of a mountain collapsing in the depths of the Tarrag Canyon. The ground within a ten mile radius of the epicentre shook as if an earthquake had struck.
Han Shuo, who had just left, furrowed his brow and discovered that herds and herds of Tarrag Canyon's magical creatures were running frantically to the edges of the Tarragon Canyon. There were even a few super-ranked magical beasts among them.
"What's going on? What's happening?" Cecilia cried in shock as she looked in the direction of the sound.
"It was coming from deep inside the Tarrag Canyon. Something must have happened in there," Karey blurted out.
"Let's have a look!" Han Shuo said to Cecilia. His curiosity had been aroused and he had no desire to leave.
"Thank you!" Hearing this, Cecilia's heart was soothed. "Don't worry about it!" Han Shuo replied. Then he turned his head and glanced at Elizabeth and instructed, "Follow me!"
"Yes Master!" Elizabeth replied eagerly.
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