Chapter 41

Even if the universe were to explode tomorrow, and the only way to save it was for Qi Xing to be insulted by four gays today, he would not be willing!

He could sacrifice his life to fight strong enemies and save thousands of civilians when he [ wanted ] to; he would also let millions of civilians die miserable deaths when he [ did not want ] to.

Is this a kind of selfishness?

Perhaps it is.

But a real person cannot have only one feeling in their heart. Qi Xing does not believe that his care for others' lives is fake because of this. He has not twisted himself to that extent yet.

"As for you saying that my fear, hatred, and anger are the fundamental driving forces of power… perhaps what you said is indeed correct."

Speaking of this, Qi Xing exhaled a breath of turbid air, sneered, and released the burning hatred suppressed in his heart.

"Thank you, Samael. Your words give me a feeling of crossing a mental barrier. I have benefited a lot."

After all, he was originally a cultivator.

The Dao of Immortality values the Self; the most important thing to becoming an immortal is knowing what [ I ] truly want. Otherwise, one can only be stuck as a half-baked amateur for a lifetime.

Since he knows it now and honestly admits it, then when he uses this anger and hatred to drive the power of the silver coin later, Qi Xing… how terrifying will he become?

"You are welcome."

The Loli Evil God smiled slightly, "Your aptitude is indeed very good."

Character is aptitude. Obtaining power is easy—to put it bluntly, as long as you collect a few more silver coins, you will become stronger rapidly, just like using a cheat code.

Because the silver coin is a fragment of the universe's console, a power that directly helps you enable cheat tools.

But it is easier to change mountains and rivers than a person's nature. The silver coin cannot change character. For two thousand years, many people have obtained Samael's silver coins and gained invincible power.

But their characters could not match their power, and they all eventually met tragic ends.

Only those who are mocked by Samael but still do not escape, do not fly into a rage, but instead calmly think at the first moment, humbly accept it, and break through the mental barrier with unyielding will. Even if they cannot break through in the end, those who accept it gladly and maintain a normal mindset can be considered to have truly good aptitude.

Otherwise, they are just people with desires but no soul.

So Samael is very satisfied now—only such a person is worthy of her training and can become the king of her future new world!

"I am in a very good mood right now, so I will teach you a way to transcend fear."

She held a finger to her lips and smiled like a cat, "Didn't I just say? Everything in the world is related to █, only █ itself concerns power. █ is power."

"So as long as you violate the whole world and all of humanity, and make all of humanity bow down to your █ █, you can naturally become the absolute ruler of █, Venerable Leipu—"

"Stop for a second. You are a bit too extreme."

044: My meaning of existence!

For obvious reasons, Elaine and Father Amos were very unwilling to let Qi Xing talk alone with Satan in the room.

But since Qi Xing insisted, they did not have many other choices.

So they chose to eavesdrop outside the door.

What they overheard was not very optimistic. And when they overheard the second half, Samael waved her hand and soundproofed the inside from the outside.

"Looking on the bright side, at least Qi Xing rejected Satan's temptation and did not yield to her to perform some evil art of shooting █ at the sky."

After a moment of silence, Father Amos said, "He is not wrong. I let the person in, and I raised the disaster. We must find a way to solve it ourselves."

He said with a dark face.

"Let [ Master Leipu ] rest and recover, and focus on how to defeat Romani Domingo. Since the evil art causing tonight's heavy rain is not the authority of the silver coin, we will find a way to break it ourselves."

Mortal magic is basically impossible to directly overcome the divine power of the silver coin. Even the most powerful mortal magic must dissipate in the face of the silver coin's miracles. A fire mage's heat-insulating shield cannot block the silver coin's divine fire authority; a psychic's mental defense cannot resist the direct command of the [ Domination ] silver coin.

—But on the other hand, if the authority is not used directly, but only to strengthen the holder's original spells with the silver coin, then because it is still a [ spell ], it is possible to normally resist and break it.

At least theoretically, it is possible. The difficulty is of course still very high.

To give a crude example: the silver coin's authority is like a modifier or a console. If it directly modifies a game character's data, then a mere game character cannot resist no matter what.

But such direct usage is very crude, and it is also the easiest way for a [ Silver Coin Messenger ] to self-destruct. Just look at how Professor Van Stra went crazy to know.

Conversely, if you only use the silver coin to modify the game character's original attributes and skills, for example, a fireball's original damage is 50, and I use the silver coin to modify it to 9999 damage. Then although a normal person hit by it would certainly die instantly, a high-level character with 100,000 HP would have a way to withstand it. If a smart person prepares fire immunity spells in advance, they can of course resist it mechanically.

For example… everyone might remember that Elaine once used a holy talisman to resist Professor Van Stra's hypnosis. Because the professor's Dao heart had already collapsed at that time, and he couldn't use the [ Domination ] silver coin's authority well at all; he was just using the silver coin to strengthen the hypnosis he already knew. Elaine had the opportunity to prepare in advance to resist.

If a [ Silver Coin Messenger ] cheats too much, it is easy to bug themselves out and get stuck, or collapse first.

If they cheat too little, it is (theoretically) possible for mortals to find an opportunity and a flaw to counter-kill them.

This intermediate level needs to be grasped by the [ Silver Coin Messenger ] themselves. This is also the main means for mortals to fight against [ Silver Coin Messenger ].

So Father Amos's words can basically be said to be reasonable.

However, Elaine was just listening nearby, but she looked a bit absent-minded.

"What's wrong, Sister Elaine?"

Father Amos frowned.

"It's nothing."

People who say it's nothing, eight out of ten have something going on. While Elaine said this, her eyes were still glancing at the door.

Although Father Amos had never been in love—don't complain about why he hadn't been in love, he is a priest, and it was precisely because he had experienced the cruel events of World War II and had no attachment to life that he became a priest—he still understood a little bit.

However, precisely because the old man only understood a little, he was now a bit puzzled—[ Master Leipu ] saves two beautiful girls on average every week, and about less than half of them fall for him. The priest often saw Elaine calmly writing reports about these things; he didn't see her anxious before, so why is she suddenly panicked now?

She certainly had her own change of heart.

But regardless, the important business now still needs to be done.

Since they have to rely on the Church's own power to solve tonight's white rain, they have to bring out the strongest people the Roman Curia currently has on hand.

That is, the leader of the Order of the Holy Lance who is also waiting in the lounge nearby, as well as Lady Remina Dracula.

" [ Master Leipu ] is not helping to deal with this rain? That is actually fine."

After learning the current situation from Father Amos, the usually calm Commander Gwendolyn nodded calmly, "Since it is just an evil ritual imitating the West African creation myth, we have a way to break it."

"The premise is," Lady Remina, who was sitting nearby, interrupted unhurriedly, "that the ritual is not presided over by a [ Silver Coin Messenger ] personally."

As she spoke, she flicked her red dragon tail.

Commander Gwendolyn is a vampire who believes in Christianity.

The Dracula family, on the other hand, are dragons who believe in Christianity—specifically, Dragon-born (Alovit), which is a folklore belief of the indigenous people of the Balkans, passed down in four countries: Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Serbia.

Some people reading this might be puzzled—isn't Dracula a vampire? How did he become a dragon?

But in fact, the word [ Dracula ] means [ Son of the Dragon ].

Vlad III's title is [ Little Dragon Lord ].

Their family crest is their ancestor, the fire dragon Zmeu from Romanian mythology, which is also the origin of the title Dragon Lord (Dracul).

Originally, the meaning of Dracula is [ Son of the Dragon ], which has nothing to do with vampires.

Vlad III was once a famous great hero in the history of Romania.

Not only did he "guard the nation at the gate," but he was even hailed as a noble warrior who served as the shield of Christianity.

Vampire is merely a stigma added to him by later generations in novels; he is an innocent monster.

If one must attribute the reason why the term "Dracula" became synonymous with vampire, it can only be blamed on the fact that Vlad III, in order to fight his enemies and defend his country, was too unscrupulous in his methods, and his actions were truly too bloody.

It is simply the same as Qi Xing's title, "Master Leipu."

Back to the topic.

Unlike the common legends of fire dragons, the Zmeu of Romania is a type of dragon that possesses the ability to shapeshift, is skilled in various magical powers, enjoys intermarrying with humans, and is inherently arrogant and conceited.

As a descendant of these dragons, Lady Remina clearly inherited her ancestors' pride, confidence, and a touch of willfulness, making it difficult to ignore her presence.

The Roman Curia's supreme combat forces consist of one vampire who believes in God, one dragon who believes in God, and another, a werewolf who believes in God who cannot make it back from Northern Europe in time—no matter how you look at it or how many times you say it, this is particularly strange, yet this is indeed how the world is.

The vampire is the Sword, the dragon is the Holy Grail, the werewolf is the Wand, and the "Association" represents the "Wizards," which are the Pentacles of the Church.

These four things, which appear heretical no matter how you look at them, happen to represent the traditional "Four Great Powers" of the Roman Curia in the supernatural society.

In fact, everyone should know that long, long ago, at least as early as the Middle Ages, the Curia had a tradition of employing professions such as alchemists, astrologers, and the like.

The "Association" can actually be considered their modern version, so it is not strange.

However, at this moment, even a strong person as confident and willful as Lady Remina does not believe that they could defeat a "Silver Coin Messenger" even if they all attacked together.

"Even so,"

Commander Gwendolyn's tone remained calm, but she frowned slightly,

"We also have an oath to protect the Church that we must uphold…"

However, before she could finish speaking, they heard someone beside them whom they had not expected say something unexpected.

"This rain ritual should not be maintained by the 'Silver Coin Messenger' personally."

Elaine spoke quietly at this moment.

For a moment, the Commander of the Order of the Holy Lance and the Duchess of Dracula could not help but be stunned, not expecting her to say such a thing.

"Where did this conclusion of 'should' come from?"

Lady Remina then smiled and asked with great interest.

"Because Romani Domingo was struck heavily several times in the battle against 'Master Leipu.' In the last five minutes of the battle, 'Master Leipu' also fully utilized the power of the silver coin, basically completely suppressing Romani Domingo."

Elaine explained calmly,

"It is hard to imagine that Romani Domingo could maintain the War Dance Descent ritual while fighting 'Master Leipu' with all his might, and at the same time preside over a creation myth ritual of such massive scale and complex effects. He most likely just injected the divine power of the silver coin into the ritual artifact, started the ritual himself, and then handed it over to his subordinates to maintain."

This statement, in terms of the magic common sense of this world, actually makes some sense.

Voodoo magic, or rather, the magic of all shamanistic and animistic religions, their rituals, in all honesty… are mostly rather crude.

Some friends may know that Voodoo is a relatively "new" religion, which gradually developed after black Africans were sent to the Americas through the slave trade.

Therefore, Voodoo mixes the original deities of black Africans, the Catholic worldview of Europe, some folk magic, and even Native American customs and immigrant cultures from all over the world, among many other things.

Just looking at the richness of its elements, it is indeed a new religion.

But discussing it from the fields of witchcraft techniques, theoretical systems… and so on, it is hard to say that Voodoo is an advanced religion.

Most of their incantations are learned (copied) from other religions and witchcraft, and their gods are also learned from other religions and mixed together.

They also have no theological theories of their own creation.

The famous Voodoo doll is actually a very common technique in other witchcraft systems around the world and has no originality at all.

You should have all seen spells in other religions and legends where one curses by nailing a doll, right?

In some places, Voodoo followers even worship Guan Gong.

Because they learned about the deity Guan Gong from the Chinese who went to the United States.

But can you say that Guan Gong has therefore become a Voodoo god?

That doesn't seem very reasonable; it is just a form of "imitation."

The vast majority of Voodoo magic belongs to human imitation of divine power, so most of it is very complex ritual magic.

Imitation rituals are essentially performances.

Imagine an ancient myth; it might tell of the origin of the world, the deeds of gods, or the legends of heroes.

These stories are not just about telling things from the past. They also carry people's understanding and expectations of the universe, life, and supernatural forces.

Religious rituals and magical rituals are actually like a "performance" or "reenactment."

In the ritual, people use specific actions, language, symbols, music, and signs to "reenact" that myth.

And when the myth is "reenacted," this reenactment can stimulate power similar to the original prototype.

"The West African creation myth that Romani Domingo is currently 'imitating' involves injecting three types of body hair and █ fluid into an egg to hatch the 'world egg' and create the world. This kind of ritual can completely be handed over to others to hatch the egg after completing the first step."

Elaine explained coldly,

"Conversely, when 'Master Leipu' was fighting Romani Domingo, we did not find anything resembling an egg on his person or hidden nearby. Considering this was a battle between two 'Silver Coin Messengers,' and considering the area around the battlefield had already been destroyed by the aftermath of the battle, it is obviously more likely that he handed over the maintenance of the ritual to his subordinates in advance."

Lady Remina nodded slowly: "Reasonable… but this is still just a speculation. Many of the powers of the 'Silver Coin Messenger' are unknowns; perhaps he really does have a way to do such a thing."

"It is not unknown."

But Elaine said,

"I cross-referenced all recorded battle records related to 'Silver Coin Messengers' since the 4th century in the Curia's secret archives. I found a total of 11 similar phenomena and 138 related pieces of information—when a 'Silver Coin Messenger' uses a silver coin to strengthen an original ritual, they cannot break the relevant magic rules. There can be no mistake."

Her calm words stunned both Lady Remina and Commander Gwendolyn.

"Analyzing and cross-referencing battle records since the 4th century? Where did you get so much time?" Lady Remina was particularly shocked, "It's only been a few hours since it started raining… at most three or four hours."

"It is enough for me."

Elaine replied calmly.

For a moment, the dignified Duchess of Dracula could not help but look at Father Amos beside her with a pleading look: "Father Amos, your apprentice wouldn't be… what was it called, something popular among young people recently? An AI thing?"

"No," Father Amos replied, his tone finally showing some pride, "This is the result of her talent and hard training."

Commander Gwendolyn also asked: "Sister Elaine, do you have photographic memory?"

Photographic memory, also known as eidetic memory, is a talent that was once very famous because of a Japanese light novel heroine—it is not a superpower, but a very realistic rare talent that allows one to quickly and almost perfectly remember all images without using auxiliary memory techniques.

But Elaine shook her head: "It is not photographic. I have always hoped it was, but when I study, I still have to use auxiliary memory techniques and read it twice to remember it completely."

Commander Gwendolyn was speechless instead—to some extent, this is even more terrifying than a pure eidetic memory talent.