Chapter 177: Chapter 109: Authority, Coronation (Part 2)

Compared to this powerhouse, the single point of Origin Power he’d obtained was nothing...

"Are we going over now?"

Wei’en thought for a moment and said, "I haven’t prepared much this time. I’m afraid I won’t be making any trades."

"Your presence is an honor in itself. I’m sure the others won’t mind."

"That’s good to hear."

"Sir, please follow me," Flanta said, his tone growing more respectful. "I’ll take you there now."

"Mm."

Wei’en followed Flanta toward the tower, paying attention to the chatter of the people around them.

"...The people from the Abyssal Sect are truly insane. They’ve sacrificed and summoned another Abyss Lord recently..."

"Damn it, the Dawn Church has another Saintess. Everyone in the central region of the Eastern Continent should be careful."

"I’ll pray for you all..."

"..."

’It seems I should come to the Nightmare Realm World more often. The people here are from all over the continents, so I can pick up a lot of interesting information.’

At this thought, Wei’en calmly asked, "The Dawn Church has crowned a new Saintess. Does that affect your Blood Spirit School?"

"It affects us quite a bit."

A wry smile appeared on Flanta’s illusory, distorted face. "I’m a bit better off on the Western Continent. Many of the Blood Spirit Mages on the Eastern Continent haven’t been able to retrieve the bodies of Holy Professionals lately. They’re all preparing to go into hiding or return to the Western Continent."

"Oh?"

Wei’en looked at him curiously, hoping he would say more about the Dawn Church.

"Every time the Dawn Church crowns a Saintess, they carry out a purge of who they call ’heretics.’ This is especially true for a Saintess who has obtained the Heroic Authority, as she is a powerful Holy Professional in terms of combat."

Flanta explained, "Based on past experience, she will likely carry out a three-year-long purge. She won’t stop until she has killed at least several minister-level, that is, Great Mage-level, Extraordinaries."

"Can Dawn have more than one Saintess?"

"Usually, they only have one Saintess at any given time. It’s unexpected that there are three this time. This is a very rare situation. Hmm, at least it’s never happened in this epoch."

’Very rare?’

’It seems the difficulty for Sister Kali, a Saintess Candidate, to be crowned as a new Saintess has increased significantly.’

’Authority...’

Wei’en asked thoughtfully, "What are these Authorities? Are there many of them?"

"Well,"

Flanta hesitated for a moment, but after seeing the number on Wei’en’s forehead, he answered decisively, "Generally speaking, Dawn’s Saintesses don’t have many Authorities. They are Heroic, Benevolence, Light, and Judgment."

"So you’re saying they can have at most four Saintesses at the same time?"

"No."

"Hm?"

Flanta leaned in closer and whispered, "If you were to ask anyone else, I’m afraid they wouldn’t be able to answer. But our Blood Spirit School has clashed with the Dawn Church many times over a long period, so we know them extremely well."

"According to the school’s records, at one point during the last epoch, the Dawn Church had eight Saintesses."

"Eight?" Wei’en thought of the eight Guardians of the Lord of Dawn that Kali had mentioned before. "Are they the so-called Guardians of the Dawn Church?"

"The school has very little information on the Authorities of the other four Saintesses. I’m not very clear on it either."

"I see..."

Wei’en nodded, feeling he now had a preliminary understanding of the Dawn Church.

"Sir," Flanta glanced at him and asked cautiously, "Have you been targeted by the Dawn Church?"

"Hmm, yes and no."

Wei’en thought of Melbel and chuckled lightly. "Perhaps in the future, I’ll sell some Holy Professionals to you."

"In that case, please be sure to find me! I guarantee my retrieval price will be the absolute highest among all Blood Spirit Mages."

"...I’m curious, what does your school do with their bodies?"

Flanta was stunned for a moment. ’This powerhouse doesn’t even know that?’

However, the thought only lasted a moment in his mind before he continued, "To increase our Origin Power."

’Origin?’

’No wonder.’

Wei’en understood. But then another question suddenly occurred to him. ’It can’t be, can it?’

"You... you don’t... eat them?"

"Of course not! We simply have a method to absorb the Dawn Faith Power from their bodies. Please, Sir, don’t entertain such ideas."

Flanta nearly jumped out of his skin. Using their school’s Magic to absorb the Faith Power from a Holy Professional’s body was already enough to anger the radical faction of the Dawn Church.

In fact, in most cases, Blood Spirit Mages would return the bodies to the Church so they could be properly buried.

"My apologies, I just wasn’t familiar with it..."

Flanta wiped away the non-existent sweat from his brow. That idea was truly terrifying.

If word got out that they ate the Holy Professionals—the entire Dawn Church would never let the Blood Spirit School go.

’From this point, however, he could roughly guess which school of Wizards Wei’en belonged to...’

’Besides the cold and indifferent Ghost Soul School, what other school would have such... hmm, twisted ideas.’

Before long, the two entered the tower.

This was Wei’en’s first time here, so he couldn’t help but be curious about the scene inside the tower.

He had assumed the inside would be as dilapidated as the exterior, but to his surprise, the interior was exquisitely furnished.

Upon entering the first floor, he was drawn to the dozen or so massive stone pillars. These pillars were carved with fine, intricate patterns, some resembling runes, others seeming like meaningless decoration.

A staircase spiraled around each pillar, ascending a full thirty meters. Many dark silhouettes were moving up or down the stairs.

Besides the pillars, there were many bookshelf-like structures next to stone tables. This was another gathering place for the dark silhouettes, and the numbers on their foreheads generally didn’t exceed 15.

On the other side, there were small, partitioned rooms, seemingly designed for these Extraordinaries to discuss the details of their trades.

"The first floor of the tower is the most crowded part of the Transfer Area," Flanta explained proactively. "Aside from the gathering area over there, across from it is the special trading area, which is managed by people from the Nightmare Sect."

"Sir, follow me. The meeting place is on an upper floor. Taking the stairs takes a long time; there’s another way."

"Oh?"

Wei’en followed him to the special trading area and saw him find a figure noticeably larger than the other dark silhouettes and exchange a few words in a low voice.

"Two people, 49th floor?"

Flanta grunted in acknowledgment. "Confirmed. I’ll send the gold pounds to you later via a Nightmare Worm."

"No problem."

"What’s this?"

"It’s something the Nightmare Sect came up with to help everyone quickly reach their desired tower floor."

"Teleportation?"

Wei’en clicked his tongue in amazement. The people from the Nightmare Sect were quite clever.

Not only had they created a place like the Nightmare Realm World for convenient trading, but they had also set up considerate services within it...

"That’s about it. The one-time fee isn’t expensive—1 gold pound per person, with no limit on the floor..."

Before he could finish, the person from the Nightmare Sect pulled out two tokens with the number "49" on them and handed them over. "Recite the floor number in your mind."

Wei’en reached out and took one. ’A teleportation fee of 1 gold pound isn’t expensive?’

’They’re so greedy... Truly worthy of the name "Nightmare"...’

"Sir, please."

Wei’en held the token and thought of the number 49. The scene before him blurred and flowed rapidly. He felt his entire being shooting upward, catching glimpses of dark silhouettes on different floors as he passed.

Some floors had many silhouettes, while some had only one. He wondered what that person could be doing all alone on a floor...

In what felt like the blink of an eye, Wei’en came to a stop, and the token in his hand vanished.

"Whoa, someone else has arrived. And a powerful Wizard with an Origin Power of 34, no less..."

"Oulike, you’re not far off yourself. You must be close to becoming a Great Mage, right?"

"Still a long way to go..."

Wei’en looked at the dark silhouettes before him: 21, 25, 30... ’The highest Origin Power level here is 41?’

"Sir, please. The gathering will begin in a little while."