Chapter 50

Samael once said that everything in the world is about █, except for █ itself. █ is about power.

Then, if you possess the power to control every single cell and every single thought of others, what does █ even amount to? You wouldn't even need to use █ at all. How could a mere █ be cooler or more satisfying than that?

But Qi Xing himself knew that even if he could find a way to cheat today, using clever tricks to dodge the question Samael had just mocked him with, and defeat Romanie—he would still have to face this question someday.

Because he truly wasn't devoid of █ desire, nor was he uninterested in █ █… He wasn't impotent, after all!

But where exactly is the line drawn between falling, wallowing in the mire with this world, and normal █?

Precisely because he had spent ten years in this absurd world, Qi Xing now felt somewhat lost, overthinking and caught in a dilemma.

This is your own life; think it through, Master Leipu!

To keep from having regrets, keep using your brain, Master Leipu!

So, while Qi Xing was worrying and thinking, he didn't notice that Elaine was silently watching him from the other side, through the communication stone.

By now, the nun could no longer allow Satan to run wild with her hero, whispering temptations into his ear.

She had to act.

053: She went straight for the attack.

The rain had stopped.

Golden dawn light spilled over the entire city, its brilliant flames burning away all the white rain and dark clouds, and the white floodwaters surging onto the streets were instantly evaporated. The dead infant monstrosities struggling in the darkness let out shrill screams, turning into ash and dissipating in the wind.

On the banks of the Tiber River, the vampire knights of the Order of the Holy Lance had already cut down the last of the [Black Spartacus] The Four Titans—[Clematis]—by the sword.

Fabienne Dezier, one of [The Four Titans], nicknamed [Clematis], was a Voodoo practitioner skilled in the secret arts of controlling plants and toxins.

However, her █ █ attire made her look less like a Voodoo practitioner and more like a █ whore.

With that bewitching appearance, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say she was the top girl at some █ house.

Aside from Francesca, the other three [Titans], these cadres of [Black Spartacus], were all either married or had boyfriends, only to be cuckolded by Romanie later using an ice-coated █.

That said, the other two—[Hot Girl] and [Madame Poison Bee]—at least had some reasons that could be called reasons, such as blind faith or madness. However, as for [Clematis], she was originally a respected herbalist in western Haiti, with a husband who was a long-haul sailor and away from home for several months out of the year.

Perhaps it was this family environment that caused her to live such a repressed life; Fabienne had merely been █ █ forced by Romanie to be penetrated a few times, yet she had fallen so easily, even actively offering her husband's tragic death as a sacrifice to her new master to gain more of Romanie's favor, using her husband's life in exchange for the [reward] of a new lover.

—All of this was what Qi Xing learned only after returning to the Vatican, listening to Elaine report the battle results in the Sistine Hall, and hearing Francesca explain the intelligence on [Black Spartacus].

There was, of course, no need to dwell on the process of the Vatican's strongest Holy Knight cutting down this evil sorceress; it was simple and easy. But it was said that before [Clematis] died, she was still wailing and begging her master, Romanie, to save her.

Clearly, Romanie did not come. Gwendolyn calmly chopped off her head and burned the body.

When Qi Xing heard Elaine report the battle results, he couldn't help but frown.

Although some say the essence of cuckoldry works is watching how women fall into █ █—but for Qi Xing himself, he only felt disgusted when seeing such stories.

If it were just a woman breaking up because she fell in love with someone else, that wouldn't be strange at all. After all, free love is just how things are.

But, oh, but!

Qi Xing simply could not accept the vile behavior of insulting, mocking, torturing, and toying with people like Romanie did; he only felt rage surging, determined to tear him into ten pieces.

"How are things on Father Amos's side?" he asked.

"Father Amos led a team to find traces of Voodoo magic in the catacombs and eliminated a group of zombie monsters," Elaine reported. "But the caster has already escaped. I fear that seeing the ritual broken, they have already fled in the direction of leaving Rome."

That was quite clever. At least it was much smarter than the other three flesh-weapon cadres under Romanie.

So Qi Xing glanced at Francesca beside him. She immediately shuddered and hurriedly explained: "I don't know that last guy well either! He only joined recently! He wasn't part of [Black Spartacus] before at all!"

"He?" They were speaking English with Qi Xing, so Qi Xing immediately noticed the word choice: "The last cadre is male? And he's not one of Romanie's flesh weapons? Do you have any more specific intelligence on him?"

"That's why I said the last one is a newcomer! I haven't even seen him; he wore a black Voodoo mask during communications!" Francesca immediately defended herself desperately. "I don't think he even considers himself part of the organization. I feel like he was just there for a technical stake. Now that he saw things weren't going well, he ran off early."

A technical stake, huh. Hearing this, Qi Xing couldn't help but exchange a glance with Elaine, both of them thinking of the same thing—everyone had previously discovered that there might be a mole in the [Association].

And the vice president of the [Association] happened to go missing today. How could it be such a coincidence?

"Since the battle has temporarily come to an end, take this opportunity to thoroughly investigate all members of the [Association] headquarters. At the very least, keep them all under watch and don't let them run around," Qi Xing mused. "In any case, since Rome has been retaken, there is only one BOSS left."

[Silver Coin Messenger] Romanie Domingo claimed to be waiting for Qi Xing's arrival beneath the ruins of Herculaneum.

Francesca said the same, adding that Romanie had his own [Inner Realm] beneath the ruins, which hid the weakness of his immortality—his [wife].

Really? "At least I don't think Francesca is lying. So I will go myself," Qi Xing said. "I will go alone."

He said this to all the Vatican experts.

Lady Remina frowned immediately upon hearing this: "Kid Qi Xing, I know you think we are weaker than you. But we aren't going to be killed in one hit by the [Silver Coin Messenger]. You can't hog all this rare fun for yourself."

Qi Xing certainly understood the Duchess's meaning. In a battle between top-tier powerhouses, the key factor in deciding whether secondary powerhouses could help was whether they would be instantly killed by the battle's aftermath, and whether they could survive one hit from the strongest. Even if it only took two moves for a top-tier powerhouse to kill a secondary one, in a duel between two top-tier powerhouses, wasting two moves could become a fatal flaw for the former.

If a full-power strike from a secondary powerhouse required a top-tier powerhouse to expend energy and movement to defend against, even the slightest expenditure could become an opportunity for the other top-tier powerhouse.

At least theoretically, that was the case. Precisely because they were both top-tier powerhouses, human devils, neither side could waste a powerful strike to kill someone else during their duel, nor could they afford to be distracted.

Suppose Qi Xing brought Captain Gwendolyn, Lady Remina, and Father Amos along; Captain Gwendolyn could probably hold out against Romanie for dozens of moves at full power, and Lady Remina was slightly weaker than her. As for Father Amos… he could at least hold out until the second move, right? Ganging up like that would at least greatly increase Qi Xing's chances of winning!

However, Qi Xing insisted: "No. You all stay in the Vatican to guard the base."

"By now, I don't intend to waste time with nagging probes against a madman anymore," he said calmly. "I want to go all out from the very beginning. Your presence on the sidelines will only distract me."

He said this calmly and nonchalantly, yet it sounded ironclad. For a moment, Remina and the others were even somewhat shocked.

Was this… really a rational judgment? Although Remina didn't fail to understand the desire for the thrill of battle among the strong—after all, she was a dragon who followed her whims—she was also a monarch of a nation, so she knew that one couldn't just do everything based on preference. Was it really okay to make decisions so casually for a battle that determined the fate of tens of millions of lives?

Captain Gwendolyn frowned even more upon hearing this. Because, for the Vatican, this was not just a battle of the strong; it was a slaughter between two [Silver Coin Messenger]s, two human devils, a battle to compete for the silver coin. How could she not be on the sidelines to watch?

For a time, although the experts didn't directly oppose him, it was clear that none of them agreed. Although they didn't agree, if Qi Xing refused to budge, they clearly had no way to deal with him. The atmosphere became somewhat awkward for a moment.

It wasn't until Sister Elaine suddenly spoke up, breaking the silence: "Qi Xing, can I talk to you alone?" As she said this, she also gave a wink to Father Amos and Captain Gwendolyn, as if to say—it's fine, leave it to me!

Honestly, Gwendolyn was very worried about this. But what else could they do? They had to leave it to her.

Elaine thus pulled Qi Xing into the previous lounge. Qi Xing frowned, waiting to hear what she had to say.

"I'll say this in advance: there is no way I'm taking you with me this time," he said. "You shouldn't be that stupid, right?"

"Of course I'm not saying I want to go with you." Elaine's reaction was calm. Following that, she actually asked a question Qi Xing had completely not anticipated: "Qi Xing, do you remember asking me before… what kind of history I had with these Haitian Voodoo people?"

After a moment of silence, Qi Xing's furrowed brow finally relaxed: "Tell me about it?"

"Actually, it's nothing special," Elaine replied calmly. "Fourteen years ago, when I was not yet seven years old, my parents took me to Haiti for a trip—I know you want to say again how could there be fools who go to such a place for tourism—but in 2011, the public security in Haiti was actually relatively good at the time, and there were UN peacekeeping forces."

"That's what they said, but in the end, we were still kidnapped by the Voodoo gang… Then, Father Amos rushed into the Voodoo gang's stronghold before I could be blood-sacrificed and saved me. I was then taken to an orphanage in Rome."

She didn't explicitly say what happened to her parents. But only a fool would need to ask, and only a fool would press for details at this time.

"I grew up in a church orphanage. The Vatican discovered I had talent and asked if I wanted to join the exorcist nun training. After I turned eighteen, I officially began executing missions. As for the first time I went on a mission… do you remember me?"

Qi Xing did remember. That was over two years ago, before Qi Xing had joined the [Association]. On the island of Sardinia in the Mediterranean, a crazy evil sorcerer summoned a great demon, merged with it, and turned into an indescribable human-demon monster, beating the exorcist nun squad to pieces.

At that time, Qi Xing happened to be nearby, taking jobs to hunt down bad guys. Upon receiving the emergency distress signal, he flew over and beat the hybrid human-demon to the ground. Enduring its super-regeneration ability, he smashed its head to pieces with punch after punch, tore it apart with claw after claw, ripped out its heart, bones, and brain piece by piece with his bare hands, and burned them again and again with thunder-fire.

He saved half of the surviving exorcist nun squad. Elaine was among them. A few days later, Father Amos brought Elaine over and invited Qi Xing to join the [Association].

Qi Xing had noticed Elaine back then, but since she didn't mention it, he didn't ask. Anyway, Elaine was just his assistant… right? He wasn't even sure why Elaine wanted to talk about these old matters now.

"I'm not trying to say how miserable I am," Elaine explained helplessly, sensing Qi Xing's confusion. "I'm actually quite lucky. To be picked up and trained by Father Amos, and to be saved by you just in time. If I were to complain about being miserable, what about those who weren't saved?"

"So, all along, what has bothered me the most is actually the part of me that was helpless."

"Others fight to save the world, fighting on a level much higher than mine, like thunder and lightning in the sky. While I hide in the basement, hoping for the storm to end."

"For so many years, this realization has been stuck in my throat—I am a victim saved by others, a single note in the symphony of someone else's life… This is my greatest, greatest fear, a secret I never dared to tell anyone… even the priest doesn't know."

Father Amos only knew that Elaine was afraid of Voodoo. Even he didn't know that what Elaine was truly afraid of was not the [phenomenon] of Voodoo, but the situation where she was once powerless and could only wait to be saved by others.

Now, hearing this confession, Qi Xing finally understood why Elaine sometimes appeared particularly nervous before.

But… "I am honored to know your greatest secret and fear," Qi Xing lowered his head, puzzled. "So why do you want to tell me this now?"

"Master Leipu, are you really a block of wood?" This time, Elaine's tone was finally a bit sharp. "If this continues, one day all the women you've saved will turn into yanderes and stab you."

Eek.

"I wanted to confess everything to you, and I hope you can confess too." Saying this, she raised her eyebrows. "Actually, you could have clearly used the silver coin to make everyone shut up and accept your decision. Captain Gwendolyn might be able to resist remote domination. But if you just beat her, hold her head down, and pour divine power into her, she would certainly have no choice but to submit."

"I just read the history of the silver coin recorded in the Forbidden Library last night. Those who obtain the [Dominator] silver coin are the most terrifying. If they have enough willpower and crazy desire, it would only take half a day to dominate a country."

"What stopped you from doing that?"

Good question. Qi Xing was speechless for a moment. But actually, he had been asked this question twice recently and had answered it twice already. It was just that the first two times, it was the devil mocking and interrogating him, not someone sincerely seeking from him like Elaine. So he couldn't hesitate any longer.

"We have all seen Professor Van Stra use the silver coin to hypnotize indiscriminately, only to end up losing everything."

When the professor truly wanted love, true love had long been buried under hypnosis.

"We have all seen how Romanie Domingo wantonly steps on everyone's heads, trampling others' lives and souls under his feet."

Finally, Qi Xing admitted it directly, suppressing the fear in his heart, "I don't want to become like them."