After making his decision, the old officiant took off his top as he talked with the deacons about things they should and should not do. Then he began to draw a charm on his old and shrivelled body with the specially-refined chicken blood. He had drawn the charm numerous times, but since it was his first time drawing a charm on his body, he was a little bit clumsy. He grew annoyed and sighed when he realized this, and felt very sorry for the lack of preparation, so he asked his deacons for help.
These deacons knew what this charm was for, and how dangerous it was as well, so they were very shocked when they saw this was all happening. Since in the Evil God's Church, people in the lower level must follow the orders given by people in the higher level, they had no choice but to follow his order. Soon, on the officiant's chest and back, plenty of scarlet charms were drawn, and those charms formed a bizarre magic array.
He tried to have a go at the charm by practicing magic on the magic array, and happily nodded when he found that it worked.
"Do you remember what I have said?" he asked.
The deacons nodded.
"Good. Later, all of you should pray to our Lord and let him decide who should be my successor. Sadly, my limited knowledge blocks me from seeing the future. You should all remember that you can only survive your death and be immortal for eternity by dedicating both your body and mind to our Lord!" The thin and shrivelled man began to smile with satisfaction.
"See, I am the best example." Then he turned to face the baldacchino, while holding tightly the wooden stick "sacrifice", and stabbed his own chest with it.
The enchanted hard stick was even harder than iron or steel. Its sharp end, which was just like a spear, directly pierced through his skin and penetrated his heart. The blood spurted out and splashed the enchanted stick, then the red stains became crimson lines that were spreading into the air in a circle. The phrases and sentences written in magic words were actually the paean to the evil god.
Although the old officiant was severely injured, he still did not fall, and instead his mood elevated as if he did not feel any pain at all. He opened his arms, and made a posture of hugging. He was laughing aloud, and his laughter was as bright as the sunlight. To the deacons who had got used to his gloomy face, this was an incredible miracle. Then, his body began to wither rather quickly, and became a deadwood almost in the blink of an eye.
"My dear Lord, I can finally go to the world where you reside..." Came the whispering which was too weak to be heard. Now his body was already too disfigured to be recognized. Starting from the head, his body began to crumble and turned into dust.
In a short time, the old officiant had already become a pile of dust, as if he had never existed in this world before. The baldacchino that was in front of the pile of dust started to dazzle in a red light, which was as red as the blood and as unfathomable as the ocean.
Among the deacons, the oldest one took a deep breath, pulled himself together, and walked to the front of the baldacchino. He then held up a holy emblem, closed his eyes, and began to whisper the spell, while the other deacons stood around the baldacchino in a circle and sang the paean all together.
Then the statue on the roof began to sparkle in red, at the same time, a strong negative energy arose, which was extremely terrifying.
Sui Xiong immediately sensed this, and frowned. Although he did not believe the so-called "Good Camp" or the "Evil Camp", he, as a good guy, was indeed disgusted by such a strong and negative energy. There was a saying, "Do not attempt to work with people whose way is not your way."
"B*stards! Having such a powerful tactic, while all this time they had just been keeping it a secret..." He glared at the statue and secretly kept an eye on it, while having a big fight against the skeleton army.
Very soon, he found that he had made a huge mistake. The statue sent out a dazzling red light, which targeted not the skeletons, but him!
As soon as the red light appeared, Sui Xiong had already known which direction it was aiming at. He dodged it subconsciously, or thought he could manage to do so. Although he had great strength and was very agile, he forgot a very important thing— His body was not a human being's, but an enormous jellyfish. If he ran at a human's speed, he could easily dodge the red light, but since the jellyfish's body was too big, even though he had already moved a few meters in the blink of an eye, he did not manage to escape from it in time and was hit.
After he was hit, he felt a weird energy which had come out of nowhere, and it was quite magnificent and frighteningly dignified. Accompanied with the energy was a disorderly and fierce willpower, as if thousands of people were shouting at him and asking him to kneel down and surrender. Although he still did not know too much about this world, his instinct told him that he must never give in, otherwise he would be doomed for eternity!
Sui Xiong's instinct was right. The spell he was under was called "Thrall", which was a powerful magic tactic could only be practiced by the Evil God. Practicing this magic was heavily restricted, which meant that one could only practice it around a Hallow that was given a particular attention by a god. However, this tactic also came with a big price: a faithful officiant must be sacrificed so as to build a connection with the God's Kingdom, and then the enemy could be brought to his knees with the God's power.
This magic was indeed very powerful; once a person who was hit failed to stand up to the great pressure from the God's Kingdom, he would become a faithful servant of the God.
But this tactic's effect was not that obvious on tough men, since every strong man had gone through countless adversities and shed blood or sweat on their way toward success. The God's Kingdom was indeed magnificent, but the tough mens' will were still quite something. So, trying to tame them in this tactic was very unlikely.
But for huge, mentally feeble creatures that had used all of their energy to make themselves more powerful, this magic was not something they were capable of resisting.
Inside many Churches of the Evil God, there were many huge creatures that were enslaved and fed to be their strong helpers.
That old officiant in the White Leaves Village meant to practice the thrall to brainwash the huge jellyfish and make it a helper of the church. Once he managed to do so, his church could defeat other churches in the surrounding area, and then he could rule the whole area. To do this, he would not even mind sacrificing himself. He was indeed a tough guy! The old officiant's sacrifice had actually paid off.
For Sui Xiong, this was the biggest crisis he ever faced since he had been transported. The great pressure from the Evil God's Kingdom made him dizzy, and he felt his soul shaking. The thought of giving in arose more than once, but every time it started, he managed to kill it. Even so, every time when the thought appeared again, it always became much more powerful than the last.
In the world of his own mind, there were already frightful billows and terrible waves. He felt he had become a small boat floating in the waves of the sound that was forcing him to surrender, and he could be defeated and drown in the water at any time.
"I can not go on like this!" He was both frightened and angry, and subconsciously practiced a life-saving magic tactic.
The gemstone inside his big jellyfish's body heavily trembled and began to dazzle in a bluish white light, instantly, his whole body started to dazzle and became as transparent as a gem. Meanwhile, an incredible magic energy erupted and became an actual solid shield, which firmly kept that assault outside. The magic energy of Sui Xiong's and the energy of the God collided with each other violently, continually creating a booming sound which was extremely terrifying. At the same time, a cold air kept spreading and immediately pervaded a few miles. As long as they had an actual form, no matter what they were— the people, the skeletons, the grasses, the trees, the rocks, the irons or the steels— as soon as they touched the cold air, they were all frozen inside the hard ice, changed from the cold air. In particular, more than half of them could not stand this extreme coldness that the human world never had known before, and became very weak and fragile. One could imagine that when the ice began to melt, they would all turn into powder.
The raging sound in Sui Xiong's mind suddenly stopped, and the magnificent pressure weakened too. Before it finally disappeared, Sui Xiong howled and strove to crush that pressure into pieces.
Now he finally got time to have a look at the surroundings to see what on earth had happened. What he saw was a dreary scene.
The whole village, all the farmlands and open ground had already been frozen, even the forest far off in the distance. Everything covered within the bluish white ice was still, quiet and lifeless. Only the statue on the roof of the stone house was still sparkling red, while the red light was gradually weakening, and in a short while, it vanished as well.
He was silent for a while and sighed deeply, then he started to absorb the cold air back into his body, and stored it in the gemstone. He found that the cold energy he had stored for such a long time had been consumed more than thirty percent in such a short period. It was only that one move that had turned the whole village into a dead land.
The animals, humans, and even the skeletons were deeply buried underground, and had been completely destroyed. The moon was still shining in the sky, but there were no more skeletons coming out of the ground anymore. Not long ago, the villagers and the skeletons were still in a big fight. Now, they were all lying on the ground as lifeless remains.
"This is...completely unbelievable!" Sui Xiong lowered his head and forced a smile in silence. His big jellyfish body trembled and floated in the cold air that had not entirely drifted away.
After a long time, when the sun rose, he suddenly woke up with a start, and strode toward that stone house. He had a gut feeling that the answer to all these strange events could be found inside.
Because the village was not that big, it only took two to three steps for him to walk into the stone house, and since his jellyfish body was too big to enter, Sui Xiong decided to tear the house apart.
He grasped the roof with his tentacles and struggled to pull. The firm roof shook a little bit before it separated from the house. He held it up and looked inside the house, and now everything was revealed in front of him.
Sui Xiong shot a glance at the lifeless girls in black, sighed, and then focused on the baldacchino. Still, he had a gut feeling that this baldacchino was the key. He put the roof aside, and reach out one of his tentacles to touch the baldacchino.
Before he even touched it, a cruel and cold willpower came out of nowhere, and prevented him from moving forward. It was the same as the willpower that tried to enslave him last night, majestic, cold and supercilious.
Sui Xiong humphed and activated the cold energy before that willpower overcame him. This time, the bluish white cold air only enshrouded a small area– only himself and the baldacchino.
The willpower was indeed kept out by the cold air. At the same time, Sui Xiong rolled his tentacles and entangled the baldacchino, trying to pull it out from the ground.
Seeing that the baldacchino was going to be taken away, the willpower suddenly grew very angry. Meanwhile, thick clouds appeared in the clear sky, and the inexhaustible power of its killing-instinct shrouded the land like a thick fog.
Sui Xiong had no idea where this willpower came from, but it was indeed powerful, and great changes had taken place both in the sky and on the land before it even initiated attack.
But he was not afraid at all. The cold energy condensed quickly, and became a sharp knife. He felt as if there was a fire in his heart, and thought that since the willpower was asking for trouble, it should also have realized that it would be stabbed once or twice by him as a result!
Both he and the willpower had prepared to fight, and the conflict was about to start at any time. But before they took any action, a golden lightning rod struck across the sky and tore the dark clouds apart. Meanwhile, a laughing sound of an old man came out, which was very delightful.
The cruel and cold willpower was both frightened and angry, but since it would not want to be caught between two fires, it left resentfully. The warm and heroic willpower spread toward Sui Xiong, and became a golden light which fell on the barrier of the cold energy and started to permeate. The golden light was very vigorous, and it refreshed him, cheered him up, and even refilled the energy he had exhausted earlier. Soon, the golden light disappeared, with only the magnificent sound of an old man still echoing in the sky.
Although he could not understand the sound, he could felt that the sound conveyed a clear message—kindness and encouragement.