Chapter 251: Divine Grace? Evolution!
The trusted aide was stunned for a moment, probing, “Send her now…”
A cold glint flashed in the Second Priest’s eyes, “No need, wait until this sacrifice is completed, then I’ll see what that so-called pursuit is. Get what the Third Priest wants as soon as possible, best if found before the sacrifice.”
The three trusted aides’ complexions changed, and they quickly went out to handle matters.
Chaotic footsteps came from downstairs.
The Second Priest walked to the window, looked down, and saw a large number of people streaming out of the resort hotel, each wearing mismatched clothes, with the common point being a large piece of red cloth tied on their arms.
They looked like a rabble, but all composed of evolvers.
Apart from the sacrifice participants, this was already the entire population on the island.
All survivors who came to the island, whether ordinary people or evolvers, had to participate in a sacrifice once, and after gaining “divine grace,” they didn’t need to participate again.
If they didn’t gain “divine grace,” they had to keep repeating.
Until death or evolution.
This was also the reason Guanchao Island had persisted until now.
The vast majority of the population had been consumed in repeated sacrifices.
Once this sacrifice ended, he could openly annex the High Priestess, and all around five hundred evolvers on Guanchao Island would fall under his control.
The Second Priest stretched out his palm, looking at the smooth ruby on it, lost in thought.
“Do you think it’s possible that I am the one pursuing the giant whale?”
In the suite, there was only his question, no answer.
He turned his head, tossed the red crystal to the figure standing in the corner, and at the instant it was about to smash into the face, a palm covered in scars caught the crystal, stuffed it into the mouth, and the sound of chewing glass shards echoed in the empty room.
“Puppet?”
A slightly puzzled gentle female voice suddenly sounded in the room.
“Who!”
The Second Priest’s hair stood on end, and he abruptly turned back.
But he saw nothing suspicious.
On the coffee table was an unfinished card game, on the sideboard were two bath towels, the bedside table was transparent, with his just-opened red wine on it.
Even the airflow was steady and humid, with no anomalies.
The female voice just now seemed like his illusion.
The Second Priest looked suspiciously toward the corner.
That tall figure made no movement; normally, if anyone dared enter within ten meters of him without permission, they would be instantly strangled on the spot by his “death god.”
But that voice was definitely not an illusion!
Someone had infiltrated the room using a method he didn’t know!
Thinking that the person might now be standing in front of her, or sitting on the sofa coldly staring at him, the Second Priest broke out in cold sweat, waving for the puppet in the corner to come to his side.
Feeling the icy killing intent from the death god, the Second Priest felt slightly reassured.
He suspiciously scrutinized everything around.
But he didn’t ignore the things outside the window.
As soon as he looked out, his eyes couldn’t pull away.
The small hill on Guanchao Island had been artificially shaped into a crescent, with the resort hotel sitting right in the middle of the crescent.
Behind was the small hill, on both sides were hills gradually extending to embrace the hotel, like a wall slightly higher than the outer island.
Because of the floods all around, New Eden also had no habit of setting sentries, leaving a few people to guard the door, who now didn’t know where they were napping.
A strange group walked down from the dirt slope in front.
The leader was clad in pitch black, with long hair, not looking like a good person.
From far away, a pair of half-smiling eyes locked onto him dead-on.
At this moment, the other party was walking toward the resort hotel.
What concerned him more was that the High Priestess and A’duo were following behind him.
A thought suddenly emerged.
“Could she really have found him?”
How is that possible!
“Found it!”
The door was pushed open, and a trusted aide shouted loudly inside.
The Second Priest was startled, took a few steps forward, staring at him with terrifying, man-eating eyes, “Impossible!”
The trusted aide retreated half a step, shrinking back, “Really, really found it.”
“They’re just a group of survivors who happened to stray into Jingchao Lake, absolutely not the person in the prophecy!”
The trusted aide saw the bloodshot eyes of the Second Priest and immediately realized what was happening, hurriedly explaining, “I mean the thing for the Third Priest has been found.”
The Second Priest then breathed a sigh of relief, glaring at him fiercely.
“Next time make your words clear, come with me to greet the High Priestess.”
Although success was imminent, he still couldn’t ignore the High Priestess’s prophecy deep down; though unwilling to admit it, her prophecies had come true six or seven times out of ten.
New Eden’s development to this point couldn’t be separated from the High Priestess’s prophecies.
Now that she brought back a group of strangers, he wouldn’t be able to sleep without figuring it out.
Su Huan’s arrival also attracted the attention of the evolvers downstairs.
But seeing the two behind him, the High Priestess, these people showed hostility but didn’t attack immediately.
Yu Yue took a few steps forward and said something in Su Huan’s ear.
“A puppet like Yu Jing? Interesting.”
Su Huan licked his teeth, nodded his chin toward the Second Priest approaching in a black robe ahead, “This is the Second Priest, right?”
A’duo was on high alert, vigilantly staring at the “death god” wearing a mask behind him.
The Second Priest had no intention of paying her any mind; though he liked this body very much, the man in front of him was really… too eye-catching.
When he stood there, it was as if he should be the protagonist of this world.
An inexplicable magnetic field drew everyone’s attention.
But strangely, the Second Priest felt no threat from an evolver on the other party.
Forcing himself to shift his gaze to the High Priestess’s face, the Second Priest’s complexion darkened, “You have defied god.”
The High Priestess turned her turbid eyes, her gaze seeming to pass through the Second Priest and land on the death god behind him, “Child, I have never defied god.”
The Second Priest pointed to Su Huan leisurely standing beside, “But he hasn’t participated in the sacrifice.”
“Oh, he didn’t make it in time, so next time.”
The High Priestess said calmly.
The Second Priest’s gaze burned, “It’s not too late to join now; after all, the ceremony hasn’t officially started yet, right?”
A trusted aide sneered and stepped forward from behind, “Exactly, now there are still one thousand… no, half are missing!”
The trusted aide said in shock.
Everyone around, including the Second Priest and A’duo, had their complexions suddenly turn grave.
This kind of large-scale casualties likely meant an unknown disaster had occurred on the island.
The Second Priest’s face flickered uncertainly, staring dead-on at the High Priestess’s eyes, saying word by word, “He is the person in the prophecy.”
Not a question, but an affirmative statement.
“Who, me?”
Su Huan acted as if he had just noticed his own abruptness, pointing at his nose tip.
“To the altar, let god decide, whether it’s him or me this peeper of destiny, all left to god to decide! Whether to hell or to the Garden of Eden, left to god to decide!”
The High Priestess suddenly shouted sharply, her voice shrill and hoarse.
Making everyone around’s expressions change, all looking toward the Second Priest.
The latter stared dead-on at Su Huan, but the more he looked, the less certain he felt; in those narrow eyes, he saw nothing, not even his own reflection.
“On the mountain?”
Su Huan looked at the small hill behind the resort hotel, ignoring everyone’s reactions, and walked past the Second Priest toward the back.
If quantifying his current interest, maybe 1~2 for New Eden, -1~0 for the infighting between the two priests, but 5 or so for this so-called “altar” and “god.”
As for whether it existed, he wasn’t certain.
In his previous life, he hadn’t seen gods, but he had seen people more god-like than clay idols.
The Second Priest didn’t argue further with the High Priestess, instead acting as if he had confirmed something, bringing his trusted aides and three hundred evolvers to follow behind the High Priestess.
He gave a few instructions to a trusted aide, who quickly left.
The remaining people surrounded Su Huan and the others even more tightly in the middle.
A’duo secretly regretted in her heart; if she had known he would be so reckless as to walk into the Second Priest’s lair, she should have brought more people.
The small hill wasn’t high; though somewhat slippery, with Su Huan’s foot strength, it was as easy as flat ground.
The group soon reached the mountain top.
Su Huan looked around, curiously asking, “Where’s the altar?”
……
“Pa!”
A barely audible muffled sound.
The head of a large flower python hanging from a branch exploded, its body twisting as it fell down.
Qu Hang put away his sniper rifle, and a faint breeze around him swept through, severing all the plant vines quietly wrapping around from all sides.
Pangtu covered the herb pack on his face with one hand, while picking through the plants on the ground, then took two kinds, crushed them and added to the medicine pack, then trotted over to gut the fallen flower snake, swallowing the snake gall in one gulp under He Zhenzhen’s terrified gaze.
Only then did he sigh, “Finally about done.”
Qu Hang frowned, “This poison is that potent?”
Pangtu shook his head, “Not like that, it’s always been this way, killing is easy but saving is hard, that dog thing mixed a lot of compound poisons in there, in the whole corps, Only I can solve it., even that kid Licking Rabbit can’t.”
While the two spoke, they had already emerged from the jungle.
He Zhenzhen stuck closely to Qu Hang’s side; if not afraid of affecting his combat, she would have already grabbed his arm.
On the open space, a large group of raggedly dressed sacrifice participants were squatting on the ground hugging their heads, mostly young and strong adults, with armed soldiers holding guns watching over them.
Goat looked at the two approaching, headache-inducing, “How to handle these people, do you two have any ideas?”
Qu Hang glanced at He Zhenzhen
The Goat shook his head, “They are all ordinary survivors who were forced to participate in the evil sacrifice…”
“I see there are only about three hundred people. Give me half of them, I’ll watch here. You all continue deeper inside. There shouldn’t be any combat targets behind, right?”
Pangtu said.
Goat chuckled and said, “Then it’s settled. You stay here and watch.”
Pangtu rolled his eyes, “md! Digging a pit for me here, is there anything else?”
Goat restrained his smile, stretched out his hand, and inside it was a large handful of red crystals. “This thing was found on them. According to my observation, this thing can be eaten by people, but after death it will precipitate out through some method, and the volume becomes larger…”
Qu Hang was stunned for a moment, “General Energy Crystal?”
“There is General Energy, but it doesn’t feel like it. I always feel like it’s some kind of material synthesized by the Manufacturer. What do you all think we should do with it?”
Qu Hang said indifferently, “Keep it for now. Give it to the Train Conductor to handle; he’ll definitely recognize it once he sees it.”
Goat said, “Then that’s it, let’s head out directly.”
Qu Hang nodded and glanced at He Zhenzhen, but seeing her appearance as if she would grab his hand at the slightest disagreement, he swallowed his words.
“Leave this place for Pangtu to handle.”
“Let’s go.”
Pangtu was speechless and rolled his eyes again in greeting.
……
Seeing the scenery before him, Su Huan was immediately greatly disappointed.
The so-called Altar was a piece of open space enclosed on the mountain top, with the ground below covered in black stones, and eighty percent of those stones were pre-Apocalypse flooring remnants.
A stick stood in the middle, with three layers of steps laid around the stick.
At the very top was a rough seat. Although the upholstery had been stripped off, it looked like a single sofa dragged out from some room in the hotel.
A bunch of colorful cloth strips extended down from the stick and covered the stone.
“Do not underestimate it. As long as you hold awe in your heart, the gods will grant you divine grace,” the High Priestess said.
Su Huan narrowed his eyes. Since the other party’s “Divine Grace” was equivalent to evolution, that meant there was something in the vicinity of this altar that could promote evolution.
“General Energy Perception” instantly unfolded.
Almost in an instant, he felt a response from underground beneath the Altar.
His “General Energy Perception” seemed to have been amplified, and the perception range directly doubled!
The area had even reached a terrifying four times larger.
It almost covered the entire Guanchao Island.
He could sense Yu Jing leading a group of people busy with the decomposition of the Giant Whale to the west, He Jie leading a small team slowly advancing toward the small mountain, but stopping halfway.
A large amount of familiar General Energy Fluctuations from the east were about to approach the foot of the mountain.
There’s also a group of unfamiliar guys who just climbed up.
This isn’t Divine Grace at all; this is clearly an opportunity for Evolution!
An opportunity similar to the Crown Pear Tree!
“Once you become the High Priestess and preside over the sacrifice, you’ll be able to feel Divine Grace here…”
The High Priestess said softly to Su Huan.
“How is the effect?”
Su Huan stared at the seat above with interest and asked.
The High Priestess hesitated to speak, and A’duo beside her softly scolded, “This is the place closest to the divine, even the Second Priest doesn’t dare to be presumptuous.”
“Moreover, you haven’t inherited the High Priestess’s position yet, even if…”
A’duo looked at the everyone glaring around her, as well as the Third Priest who was saying something to the Second Priest, her tone carrying a bit of resentment, “Because of your recklessness, even the chance to prepare is gone. You haven’t even inherited the High Priestess now—what do you have to contend against him with!”
“A’duo!”
The High Priestess scolded.
Her face turned toward the direction of the Altar, and she said in a low voice, “The effect is very obvious. The first time, I unintentionally sacrificed to the deity, and then I gained the Ability to glimpse Destiny. But this Ability was always vague and blurry. After sacrificing to obtain Divine Grace, the trajectory of Destiny becomes extremely clear before me…”
“There’s a Thing underground that can enhance the Ability.”
Su Huan’s lips moved slightly, Yu Yue looked thoughtful, and Shu Wei quickly noted these contents on her Tablet.
White Deer and Giraffe fixed their gazes on the god of death behind the Second Priest.
