The two pushed open the door of the small house, and the old door creaked loudly.
This quickly attracted the attention of the church members dressed in white nearby.
They were questioning an old man in the village when they turned and faced Gu Zhan and Garen.
These people didn’t seem to recognize that the two were the ones they were looking for immediately, and they stood there dumbfounded for a moment.
In that brief moment, Garen immediately urged Gu Zhan, “Go, quick!”
The two of them ran towards a small path without looking back, but the church members quickly reacted and shouted, “It’s them!”
In an instant, more white-robed figures were alarmed and began to chase after them.
But Gu Zhan and Garen had already entered the forest, where the trees obstructed their view, making it difficult for the white-robed figures to pursue.
However, before Garen could catch his breath, he heard the sound of fireballs being launched from behind. Startled, he turned around to see half the sky painted orange-red, and then that orange-red flame fell into the forest behind him.
He was taken aback and couldn’t help but curse, “They want to burn us to death!”
Gu Zhan replied, “They probably don’t want to burn us to death.”
They just wanted to force them out of the forest.
It was hard to catch people in there.
Gu Zhan said, “Let’s leave from another direction. If we go out this way, we’ll have to separate. You need to ensure you don’t get caught.”
Garen thought for a moment and said, “I’ll go to the church. They won’t know me there, and it’ll be safer since I’m not familiar with the area… Benefactor, you must succeed!”
Garen looked at Gu Zhan with hopeful eyes.
“Hasan City… No, this world relies on you!”
This statement was odd enough to make Gu Zhan’s escape pause slightly.
He opened his mouth, wanting to comment on this statement.
However, nothing came out.
In the end, Gu Zhan simply nodded.
Soon, they reached the edge of the forest, and Gu Zhan glanced back once.
The plants in this forest are extremely flammable, and in this moment, over half of the forest has already caught fire.
For the animals in the forest, this is simply a calamity without reason.
Meanwhile, the members of the Church have long set up a barrier on the outskirts. Looking at the translucent magical shield, Garen feels a bit anxious: "What do we do now?"
Gu Zhan reaches for his space rune and says, "Just keep moving forward."
He takes out a wind rune, tears it apart, and a fierce wind is unleashed. The wind seems to understand Gu Zhan's intent, blowing behind him and sweeping up the flames from the forest, transforming them into a fire dragon that rushes toward the white-robed members of the Church.
In the minds of these white-robed people, Garen is still just an ordinary boy raised in the countryside.
How could an ordinary boy wield magic? They never anticipated this, and the white-robed members are shocked.
Some people have already started to flee in fear.
But it’s too late; the fire dragon rushes toward the barrier with unstoppable force, and before it, the barrier appears fragile and easily breakable.
Those standing near the barrier and not having moved away suffer the consequences; their white robes are incredibly flammable, and soon they have no time to focus on Garen and Gu Zhan.
Gu Zhan and Garen arrive at the blockade line. Before parting, Gu Zhan gives Garen a push: "Go quickly."
The boy’s speed suddenly increases, and he vanishes from view.
The white-robed members finally react and begin to organize their forces to capture Gu Zhan.
But by now, their main target, Garen, has already fled.
The angry white-robed members, however, don't care about that. Since Gu Zhan was with Garen and had burned so many of them with magic, even though no one was killed, the sight of the noble Church personnel rolling on the ground in an attempt to extinguish the flames is already a huge disgrace!
"Capture him!"
"Offer him to the Pope!"
"Stop right there!"
They shout as they rush toward Gu Zhan. Gu Zhan once again controls the fire dragon, sending it toward them.
These lowly subordinates have no hope of capturing him. While controlling the fire dragon, Gu Zhan manages to escape and quickly shakes off the group.
Behind them, the Church personnel shout, "Their target is Hassan City; hurry back!"
—
Since he has already begun to use the magical runes in his space, Gu Zhan doesn’t hold back.
He directly pulls them out to make his way.
However, his supplies are limited; if he can't resolve this situation, he might end up waiting for the system to deduct all his points and turn him into a homeless person.
Entering the city, he faces no significant obstacles.
The Church has also sent people to guard the entrance.
But while they need to send people to search the village, they also have to guard the altar, so their manpower is clearly insufficient.
Gu Zhan takes a slight detour around the sparse guards and continues.
After the last divine miracle of Klipper, Hassan City appears to be slightly better.
But the city is still shrouded in deathly silence.
Everyone seems to be sleeping, waiting for either awakening or death.
Gu Zhan heads straight for the Lord's mansion, where he encounters those familiar crows and that recognizable large door.
He does not venture into other parts of the Lord’s mansion but heads directly to the dungeon.
However, upon arriving at the dungeon door where the Lord was imprisoned, he discovers that the Lord has already disappeared. The things used to block the dungeon doors have been torn to pieces, and the iron bars of the death cell have been bent.
The Lord has escaped.
After the sacrifice, he seems to have gained powers that do not belong to him.
As a sacrificial offering, he can still run around the altar.
Gu Zhan feels a headache coming on as he suddenly remembers the book he saw in the secret chamber where Garen was held.
"Bloodline Inheritance"
Perhaps he should go back and take another look.
—
In the choice between searching for the Lord and reading the book, Gu Zhan opts for the latter.
It seems the Church members have emptied out, searching for him and Garen outside.
As a result, there aren’t many people left in their stronghold.
Gu Zhan makes his way smoothly to the secret chamber where Garen was previously imprisoned. This room has become quite disheveled, with many footprints on the floor, indicating that Church members have been in and out of this room repeatedly since he and Garen left.
The book remains on the corner cabinet, and Gu Zhan quickly spots the one he is looking for: "Bloodline Inheritance."
Upon opening it, he finds it also contains a method for depicting an evil array. It seems that it requires an elderly person and a younger one who are related by blood, allowing the younger person’s lifespan and health to be transferred to the elder.
However, this method requires both individuals to lie within the array; the essence of the array is to convert life force into some form of energy that is transmitted between the two. Of course, this array can be reversed, allowing the elder's life force to be transmitted to the younger one as well.
At the end of the book, there is a note written in red ink.
“Lord, transformation… energy channel, residents of Hassan City… for my Lord.”
After reading the book, Gu Zhan roughly understands the Lord's current condition.
Clearly, the person who read this book has modified this array.
He first deceived the Lord into agreeing to become their focal point by using the life force exchange. Then, utilizing the array, he transformed the Lord's body into a channel connecting to the god, allowing the life force of all residents of Hassan City to be channeled through him to the dormant Shadow God.
However, since these arrays are based on the Bloodline Inheritance array, the focal point must be a blood relative of the Lord.
Gu Zhan remembers that Garen once mentioned the Lord has a married-off daughter...
No wonder.
A commotion arises outside as the Church personnel, like locusts, seem to have returned.
This is not a safe place to linger.
Gu Zhan quickly puts down the book and prepares to leave.
However, just as he turns, his gaze is suddenly drawn to something on the ground...
—
The Lord’s mansion is completely shrouded in the aura of death.
Crows, rats, snakes, and other ominous creatures gather here.
They scurry through the empty house, occasionally popping out to startle anyone nearby.
In the empty corridor, sinister red runes were painted on the walls, extending into every room like a spiderweb, connecting the entire lord's mansion and the whole of Hassan.
From time to time, anomalous energy fluctuations emanated from these red runes.
As Gu Zhan stepped onto the second floor of the building, he noticed these red runes.
He walked along the path of the red runes, observing that their density increased…
However, when he isolated these red lines, they resembled the formation he had seen in his books about bloodline inheritance.
It seemed his previous speculation was not wrong.
All the lines ultimately converged and led to the third floor.
To his surprise, there was only one room on the third floor, and the door was ajar, allowing a clear view through the crack; it was a bedroom.
The bedroom was spacious, with a luxurious golden woven carpet on the floor, and the walls were wrapped in thick velvet.
Under normal circumstances, it would have been a very luxurious and comfortable bedroom.
At that moment, there was not a ray of sunlight outside, and the overly decorated room felt dark and oppressive.
On the massive iron bed lay a bulging figure—the lord Gu Zhan was searching for.
The red runes and lines converged onto the bed.
It was clear that the bed was the center of the entire formation.
The Church had truly gone to great lengths to deceive the lord into compliance; this formation had lost all dignity and was directly drawn on the bed.
However, there was a slight discrepancy in the positioning on the bed, which should have been meant for the lord lying flat, but at that moment, he was lying on his side.
Although overlapping with the runes, there was a tiny difference.
Gu Zhan: "…"
Standing outside the door, he felt a deep malice from the world toward his obsessive-compulsiveness.
But there was also something quite sad.
Even if the error was less than half a meter, this formation could not be passed on.
Thus, to rectify this half-meter difference, he had to wake this troublesome sacrifice.
What seemed like a half-meter gap was, in reality, a distance dictated by divine retribution.
It was indeed a sad fact.
Gu Zhan was still unwilling to give up. Standing by the door, he observed and contemplated ways to wake the sacrifice, get him to shift slightly, or perhaps turn over…
At that moment, the lord on the bed emitted a "huffing" sound.
This was definitely not snoring.
He was awake.
Alright, there was no need to study this anymore.
Gu Zhan regrettably reached for his magic runes.
The awakened lord was particularly sensitive to the breath of the living; the moment he opened his eyes, he lunged toward Gu Zhan.
He seemed to recognize Gu Zhan as the one who had imprisoned him in the dungeon, his expression full of rage.
Gu Zhan tried to pull out a rune to defend himself, but when he reached for it, he found nothing.
Not good; the runes were used up.
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