Chapter 39

"After that, Romani's experience was much like the stories of most fallen Black people. He hung around with drugs and hippies. On one hand, he was caught using drugs by the school, and on the other, his declining grades dissatisfied the school authorities. More importantly, because of his contact with that decadent culture, the hush money his mother left for his father quickly ran dry… so he dropped out of high school."

"After that, like his father, he became a member of a Voodoo gang in Port-au-Prince. That was until he was scouted by his Voodoo mentor, Douglas Morley."

At this point, it's probably necessary to explain—actually, Voodoo is very common in Haiti, and is even one of the official legal religions.

After the independence of the Republic of Haiti, Voodoo and the Roman Curia maintained close ties. Although most people find Voodoo's practices to be eerie and unpredictable, in reality, most Voodoo sects aren't considered cults… they're just not exactly mainstream.

"If there hadn't been an accident, Romani would have likely become an ordinary Voodoo practitioner, serving either a Voodoo gang or a political party in Haiti… But, Qi Xing, do you still remember the magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Haiti four years ago?"

Father Amos asked.

Qi Xing nodded.

August 14, 2021, the 7.3 magnitude earthquake in Haiti. The epicenter was west of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and it triggered a massive tsunami.

"After subsequent investigations by the [Association], we believe that it might not have been a simple natural disaster, but… a ritual related to the [Judas Silver Coin]. Since then, Romani Domingo likely became a [Silver Coin Messenger]."

"He disappeared for a year afterward, and no one knows what happened to him during that time. When he reappeared in the public eye, he announced his break from Haitian Voodoo, came to Italy, and founded [Black Spartacus]."

Becoming a [Silver Coin Messenger] four years ago.

Qi Xing had only joined the [International Exorcism Association] two years ago, and it was only three years ago that he achieved the state of Earth Immortal and received the title of [Master Leipu]. So it was normal for him not to know about this… Wait, that's not right!

"Wait, it's fine that I didn't know; after all, before joining the [Association], I was always unorganized, a lone wolf with no source of intelligence."

Two or three years ago, Qi Xing could only be considered a [Young Hero]. It was only after he became an Earth Immortal, received a title from the [Global Supernatural Council], and joined the [International Exorcism Association] as an ace that he stepped into the realm of the peerless.

In the years before he became an Earth Immortal, Qi Xing was basically just a regionally famous figure and a lone wolf. He had to gather intelligence himself, which was certainly unreliable.

But,

"It's been three or four years, how could even the Roman Curia not know about this?"

He finally asked the question.

Father Amos was silent for a moment, and ultimately, he could only admit: "I withheld some of the investigation intelligence and results related to the [Silver Coin Messenger] from the Curia."

The Pope knew now anyway, and so did the higher-ups. No matter how ashamed Father Amos felt, he had to speak honestly now. Otherwise, he would have taken a scolding for nothing without making any progress.

He thought Qi Xing would be furious or filled with righteous indignation; he thought Elaine would be pale with shock. But they weren't.

Elaine had already deduced a lot, and now that she had Father Amos's official answer, she only looked worried.

As for Qi Xing, he just frowned: "I did suspect a bit."

"I can never repay what I owe you, and I don't even know how to properly apologize," Father Amos said sorrowfully. "I will take the initiative to resign later and hand over the position of President of the [Association] to Sister Elaine. According to tradition, the Vice President…"

"Stop with the nonsense for now." However, Qi Xing interrupted him directly, his face now as cold as iron. "What I need is for the [Association] to help me solve the current problem and help me find a way to deal with Romani Domingo."

Why did he ask Father Amos to open Romani's file?

Was it to understand Romani's mental journey?

Of course not!

He just wanted to drag out that disgusting, posturing Black guy who was making it rain tonight. He wanted to break his technique, crack his skill mechanics, and blast him into oblivion!

"So he's mixed-race Black; no wonder I felt his skin wasn't particularly dark. But according to you, he's still a properly trained Voodoo sorcerer. So what exactly is his silver coin myth archetype? When I fought him, the feedback felt very wrong, like I was hitting water or air."

This was what Qi Xing cared about most.

However, it so happened that this was exactly what the [Association] hadn't figured out over the past few years.

"[Black Spartacus] is currently using a spell to flood all of Rome with semen-rain, turning everyone Black, and even threatening to spread and submerge all of Italy. Clearly, that is caused by the divine power of the silver coin. This isn't something a mortal can do."

Father Amos said worriedly,

"The African sorcerers in the [Association] all agree that this is definitely the creation myth of the Fang people's supreme god, Mebege. But on the other hand, as you said, Qi Xing, the divine power he displays doesn't seem to have just one myth archetype; rather, he has any divine power related to Voodoo at his fingertips. This makes things very strange…"

The idiot creation god Samael had once said that the thirty silver coins each represent one concept of her authority. These concepts are basically metaphysical, such as [Dominance]—which includes different interpretations like command, obedience, leadership, rule, and so on.

The same silver coin, on the same person, can only reflect one corresponding myth archetype from the human collective unconscious. Although Samael was an idiot, she shouldn't be so stupid as to get such a basic setting wrong.

Similarly, Samael had also said that Romani Domingo only had one silver coin on him. She shouldn't be so foolish as to be unable to sense that much.

But if that was the case, why could Romani so freely use the divine powers of multiple African deities? The god of volcanoes, the god of war, the god of hunting, the god of creation from West Africa… when he fought Qi Xing, he used many different African divine powers.

This was something everyone really couldn't figure out.

"That's why I say you're all stupid."

Until that evil creation god finally spoke up at this moment.

"Isn't this kind of thing very easy to see?"

The Loli Evil God crawled out of Qi Xing's shadow, half-covering her mouth, revealing that smug smile Qi Xing was all too familiar with.

What a damn brat.

"Satan!"

The two members of the clergy immediately backed away, as if facing a great enemy.

Samael, however, didn't care about them at all. She just tilted her head toward Qi Xing with a mischievous grin: "Oh? No way, Qi Xing? You can't even figure out something this simple? Sigh, that's why I say you just have too little imagination—"

She was really enjoying herself!

Qi Xing glared at her smug, carried-away look for a while. But soon he lost his steam and just asked directly: "So what exactly are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying you have no imagination, dummy—"

The Loli Evil God poked Qi Xing's face with her finger and sneered,

"If you had really never used the same function, I would have just treated it as you being dull-witted. But in fact, you clearly discovered the same usage for your own silver coin the first time, yet you didn't think that others could do the same. Isn't that just your brain failing to turn the corner?"

"You clearly know how to use the silver coin. Your IQ should be enough to figure out this problem."

How… to use the silver coin?

How had Qi Xing used the silver coin so far? First was Roleplay, transformation; the myth archetype he drew from the silver coin was the ancient Egyptian god Osiris.

Second was using the [Dominance] Tag of the [First Silver Coin] to enhance his own original lightning arts and forbidden arts… Hmm?

In an instant, Qi Xing finally understood.

One silver coin can only use the divine power authority of one myth archetype. At the same time, the corresponding concept of the silver coin can be used to enhance the [Silver Coin Messenger]'s own original spells—so of course there was a way to combine these two usages to use the powers of multiple deities with one silver coin.

"Roleplay."

Qi Xing had figured it out,

"He's actually not fully Black, he's mixed, but he deliberately plays the role of a Black supremacist. So the myth archetype he drew with the silver coin is also a… god who can play other gods."

By now, Qi Xing had an intuitive suspicion that maybe the myth archetype Romani Domingo drew with the silver coin wasn't even a Black myth at all.

"He uses this concept combination to enhance his original Voodoo god-descending spells, allowing him to descend and play other gods in the Voodoo religion… He can actually do that?"

Voodoo is an animistic, shamanic, super-polytheistic religion. Moreover, it combines beliefs from Africa, the Americas, and Christianity. From creation gods to destruction gods, to mountain gods, water gods, war gods, and iron gods, there are countless deities with all sorts of attributes.

Furthermore, one of the most important core concepts of Voodoo is god-descending possession. Most Voodoo rituals are completed by summoning a deity to possess a priest. God-descending is the basis of Voodoo arts.

"He plays other roles by being an actor… But I didn't see him cast spells or use any rituals… unless…"

Qi Xing wasn't actually stupid. Thinking up to this point, he understood it himself, though he just found it a bit hard to accept.

"His dancing a few steps of a war dance and howling some rap counts as a god-descending magic ritual?"

"Of course it counts. Why can't it count as magic?"

Samael scoffed,

"Why can't martial arts be magic? Your internal energy and true qi can even generate lightning; isn't that magic? Tell me, how do you usually use qinggong to run fast, jump high, and fly through the air?"

"You just lift your qi and jump, don't you?"

"Exactly. Lifting qi."

Samael clapped her hands and smiled.

"Isn't that the essence of magic? Otherwise, why is it that when someone else recites a chant and points a finger to fire a magic bullet it's magic, but when you shout [The Dragon Has Regrets] and a dragon-shaped shockwave flies from your palm it's not magic?"

"Your postures, steps, hand and foot movements, and true qi breathing—aren't they all rituals for spells?"

For a moment, Qi Xing was speechless.

Precisely because he was a cultivator, he was even less able to refute Samael's words.

After all, Taoism originally had spells that didn't require chants, using only steps, movements, breathing, or even internal visualization to form a ritual. What was the difference between martial arts and those things?

Things like the Steps of Yu are even treated as martial arts in wuxia novels. For example, the Lingbo Microsteps. And so-called internal strength—isn't it originally a method of ingesting and refining qi?

"So simply put, his war dance is a kind of god-descending ritual, a… super Imitation Boxing martial art."

Whenever he dances and makes a move, or sings a song, he is performing the Imitation Boxing of the Voodoo gods. This boxing style brings the divine power of all those gods down upon him, and he can quickly change the deity according to the actual situation.

In other words, fighting him—even without counting the myth archetype trump card he hasn't pulled out yet—is effectively equivalent to being an enemy of the entire Voodoo pantheon.

That's quite impressive.

As for why Qi Xing couldn't hit him or lock onto his aura, it was likely because of the true trump card, the true authority hidden within his silver coin myth archetype.

Thinking of this, Qi Xing realized another thing: "In other words, his current creation magic of the white 'semen-rain' isn't a direct application of the silver coin's authority, but just an enhancement of a [normal] spell—if that can even be called normal."

Just as Qi Xing knew he could use the silver coin to enhance his lightning arts, Romani was just using the silver coin to enhance his original Voodoo ritual spells. No matter how much it was enhanced, it was still just a [spell], not true [authority].

In other words, it should be easier to break.

"Yes, of course it can be broken. You can easily break it with your silver coin. You can even directly overpower it."

But the mischievous grin on the Loli Evil God's face grew even wider,

"You just have to do the same thing as him."

"After all, Osiris is also a god of fertility—"

043: Who is the True Me?

For obvious reasons, Qi Xing decided to have Elaine and Father Amos step out for a moment.

Both members of the clergy were very reluctant to let Qi Xing chat with Satan alone in the room. But since Qi Xing insisted, they didn't have many other choices.

Qi Xing didn't bother to care if they would eavesdrop outside the door; as long as they weren't standing right in front of him. Anyway—

"What do you mean by doing the same thing as him?"

Closing the door, coming back, and sitting down, Qi Xing asked directly.

"Can you really not figure it out, or are you pretending?"

The Loli Evil God raised an eyebrow,

"You're holding my first coin, the silver coin of [Dominance]. And the mythical image you obtained is the god Osiris—god of plants, god of harvest. You still remember the last time you used your flesh and blood to turn into wheat, making bread for people to eat and turning zombies back into living humans, right?"

"I remember."

Qi Xing still remembered Elaine telling him then that Osiris's sacrifice and flesh symbolized the abundance the Nile brought to the Egyptians; the wheat he grew with his blood was a symbol of life.

The flesh and blood of a plant god, the symbol of abundance, becomes a symbol of life after being made into a staple food—this concept is common throughout the world.

It's just that, the flesh and blood that Osiris brought to Egypt for abundance and food was, in the myth, from his, er, lower body's, that part.

Fortunately, it was just a symbol anyway, a symbolic thing.

"You mean, this time it's also just about making bread from my flesh and blood?"

If it was just that, Qi Xing didn't think it was much of a problem.

Unfortunately, the devil never gives people such simple dilemmas.

"Of course not. This isn't a matter of life force right now."

The little goddess sighed for her king who just wouldn't get it,

"That [Silver Coin Messenger] is performing a ritual to play a creation god. He's imitating the creation god of West African myth to create a [New World]—so people are drenched by the rainwater (semen) falling within it. No matter if you were originally white, yellow, or red, you'll all become people of his world. If he wants you addicted, you're addicted; if he wants you pregnant, you're pregnant."

"If you want to break his technique now, the focus isn't [Life], but [Power]."

Power, command, dominance… in other words, it's about competing for the [World-Creating Technique] and the ownership and rule over the people within that world.

Taking it literally, Qi Xing could still understand. But…

"How do we compete?"

"Do you know how Horus, the son of Osiris in Egyptian myth, competed for kingship with his father's murderer and uncle, Set? Do you remember how Horus finally won?"

This was an easy question to answer. You could find it on Baidu or Google.

Qi Xing took out his phone to look it up… and then he couldn't take it anymore.