Chapter 213: Demon Sword Cultist

Chapter 213: Demon Sword Cultist

“This was only part of the research results. What else remained hidden was unclear for now, but your development path and magic really did not have much of a connection.” Zheng Yichen saw some of Lily’s thoughts and said. He had noticed long ago that Lily had been trying to learn the magic rune array he had taught her before.

Unfortunately, she had failed until now.

“Why?”

“Why? To put it this way, you have no soul or mental energy yourself. To learn magic, you must have a foundation of mental energy.” Zheng Yichen said helplessly to Lily. “But even though you have no soul, you do not need to worry. Your current state is very good. As long as you do not die, there is no problem at all. Only… once you die, you will not even have the chance to return to the River Styx. You will completely disappear from this world!”

“I understand.” Lily said with a heavy face. In this world, people with goals often did not fear death under many conditions, because it was common knowledge that souls return to the embrace of the River Styx. Even beggars on the street knew this, so for many people in this world, death was not their own end.

Therefore, their fear of death was much lower.

But knowing that after death she would not even have the chance to return to the River Styx, Lily’s mood undoubtedly became much heavier.

“Ahem! Think of the good side.” Zheng Yichen coughed lightly, not knowing what else to say.

Lily looked at Zheng Yichen speechlessly. The good side? Being immune to magic or abilities that target the soul or mind, but what use was that now?

If possible, she would rather trade this convenience for the chance to cast magic!

But that was clearly impossible. Zheng Yichen rubbed his chin and muttered, then finally tapped his claw hard. “Your magic dream shattered long ago. Wake up and face reality quickly. Continuing with your current mindset, you will not achieve anything. It is better to focus on developing the directions you can pursue.”

Zheng Yichen said this because he suddenly thought of something. He had read many martial arts novels before his transmigration. He was very familiar with the theories about those martial arts moves, like external force, internal force, and transformative force. Lily’s body had no special power . While trying to cultivate battle qi, she could also explore martial arts or wushu with Zheng Yichen.

The conditions on Earth were insufficient, but were the conditions in the Otherworld any worse?

First, they needed to organize a theory.

“Hmm.” Lily struggled for a long time and finally gave up her longing for magic. Since this path was impassable, she would choose the path she could walk. Continuing to wallow in self-pity… Why did she have such thoughts now, when she had never thought that way even during the hardest times?

While giving up on the power of magic, Lily also thought about why she had such negative thoughts. It was probably because she had seen too much overwhelming power recently, which shocked her and made her long for and pursue destructive power.

“Let’s go, let’s go. We are changing locations.” After making a new basket, Zheng Yichen put Lily inside and prepared to leave. Sitting in the basket, Lily took out a small bottle from her pocket. Inside were a few red eyeballs, which made Zheng Yichen pause. “Huh? Why are you still keeping these?”

“After those small animals died, they fell off on their own.” Lily said. Knowing Zheng Yichen had a strong desire for research, she clearly described what she remembered. “Then those small animals all became dried up.”

“Is that so?” Zheng Yichen took the small bottle and examined it. The mucus that had attached to the veins was gone. Now the veins had become the main body, and they looked a bit tougher, losing the fragility they once had when they needed the mucus to stay active. It seemed the nutrients that maintained their activity were stored in these altered veins. He could see the ends of the veins connected to the eyeballs were very thin.

It looked like poor development. He guessed it was because the stored nutrients inside had been consumed. He took out another small bottle and poured the normally prepared nutrient solution into it. The veins extending from the eyeballs immediately showed slight pulsations. The nutrient solution in the bottle quickly decreased, stopping when less than half remained. The veins connected to the eyeballs now looked like leeches full of blood.

“Well, it seems these things still have some potential for growth.” Zheng Yichen nodded. He did not hope for infinite growth, as that was only theoretical. Things created through forbidden alchemy, wanting to obtain legendary infinite growth… well, that was a bit of a dream!

Such artificial products might achieve extremely strong growth potential, but stability was hard to improve. After all, they were not natural products, lacking that touch of perfection. He was not God.

These mutated eyes now showed some growth potential. Zheng Yichen estimated their growth limit was probably after the exposed veins were perfected. After that, there would be little potential for further growth. As for forced acceleration, even humans could collapse their bodies doing that, let alone accidental products like these.

“Keep them as pets.” Zheng Yichen said. Anyway, the visual-sharing between these eyeballs was quite good. Distance limitations could not be tested due to insufficient conditions. Their numbers were limited; losing one would make Zheng Yichen feel a bit distressed. Rather than losing them, it would be better to dissect one slowly for research in the future. “For now, you can take them as toys. Be careful not to get bitten.”

Since these things grew by absorbing what remained from the small animal carcasses, Zheng Yichen guessed their growth was somewhat similar to eating.

“Your batch of Demon Sword Cultists is really low-grade.” Achille looked indifferently at this group of surrounded cultists. Their numbers were not large, only over twenty people. Each exuded a faint dark purple aura. Their skin, soaked in this evil aura, began to turn reddish. The look in their eyes was extremely similar to the sinister, evil eye on the blade of the magic sword Apophis…

Demon Sword Cultists, a recently emerged cult, developed very quickly. Moreover, the many cultists were quite powerful. Most importantly, their growth potential was rapid. They did not even need extra bloody sacrifices to obtain the Evil God’s ‘blessing’ to enhance their power. They only needed to keep killing!

Most of the people they killed died drained of blood. Also, the bodies of Demon Sword Cultists differed from ordinary cultists, being exceptionally tough. Many vital points seemed to become unimportant. Unless their heads were cut off directly, they survived. Other cultists might have quite bizarre powers, but their bodies would undergo malignant mutations under the erosion of the Evil God’s power, becoming neither human nor ghost.

Let alone physical strength. Some even became like skeletons. Could one expect their bodies to be very strong? Demon Sword Cultists were different. Each had strong and vigorous blood essence, stronger than some warriors more powerful than them. With such conditions, it would be strange if their physiques were not strong!

Such a cult was a breath of fresh air among cults. Which Evil God did not find ways to treat grassroots cultists as harvestable crops, occasionally drawing their blood, vitality, or spirit as nutrients for growth? To avoid this and gain more Evil God power, cultists could only intensify their efforts, using others as sacrificial offerings. Only a few selected by the Evil God for true subordinate development might escape this harvest cycle.

Of course, they merely changed from being harvested crops to becoming the scythes that harvest crops.

Did this pattern seem somewhat familiar?

The Demon Sword Sect did the opposite. Even grassroots cultists could easily gain great power. As long as they were willing to work hard, sacrifices? Not needed… just kill more people. Didn’t want to kill people? That was fine too. Go pick fights with magical beasts. Anyway, as long as it was a living thing, it was fine to attack.

The stronger the target, the better. Choosing weaklings… before acting, think: killing too weak a being might yield less gain than the consumption from swinging the sword. Moreover, Demon Sword Cultists did not face the risk of forced or subtle brainwashing by the Evil God. They just became a bit irritable, a bit bloodthirsty, and might occasionally go into a frenzied emotional outburst. That was all.

These side effects, for people choosing to become cultists, what were they? Not a problem at all!

Thus, this cult, which avoided forced or subtle brainwashing, where one was not treated as a crop to be casually harvested, and upon joining, offered a watered-down version of the demon sword aura with a click (cough)… Look, which cult had such benefits? Not forcing people to stay and even giving equipment? Such a cult was extremely attractive to those who wanted to join a cult, were comparing which cult had better benefits, and were hesitant.

After learning about the existence of the Demon Sword Sect, why bother choosing which cult to join? Definitely this one! Want to become strong quickly? Want powerful equipment? The Demon Sword Sect was the right choice.

Thus, this newly emerged cult rapidly grew stronger under such circumstances. The number of Demon Sword Cultists increased again and again. Of course, some people linked the power of Demon Sword Cultists to the magic sword in the Magic Weapon Summoning Book, but so what?

After research, that magic sword remained unchanged. Summoners also found nothing amiss. It seemed the emergence of the Demon Sword Sect was just a coincidence.

Coincidence? Achille pondered many possibilities. The most likely was that some entity used the magic sword in the Magic Weapon Summoning Book as a basis and created a strange Evil God product through an Evil God ritual. He had another thought. So far, no one had truly gained any extra benefit from the magic weapons in the Magic Weapon Summoning Book. They had only been borrowing the power of the magic weapons, using them.

The Magic Weapon Summoning Book and the magic weapons themselves possessed an irreplicable and indecipherable nature. Anyone attempting to decipher them paid a great price. Especially as the accumulated power of the Magic Weapon Summoning Book grew, the price paid by those who still did not give up became increasingly severe.

Previously, the cost might have been reduced strength. Now it had turned into severe damage to strength, and serious cases of mana or mental energy exhaustion leading to death were not unheard of. So, another consideration was whether the Demon Sword Sect was related to the true master or creator of the Magic Weapon Summoning Book.

…Under such conditions, even if something went wrong with the magic weapon Apophis in the Magic Weapon Summoning Book, they were merely renters using the magic weapons by paying with their own mana, not masters. They had no chance to understand in detail.

The rapid growth of the Demon Sword Sect had drawn the attention of the Sanctuary Church, which began purges a few days ago. The Sanctuary Church had conducted many purges of cults. Even though some methods of the Demon Sword Sect differed from other cults, some activities of cultists were still somewhat similar.

Even though their methods allowed many cultists to operate in small, scattered groups without needing frequent gatherings for sacrifices and trouble-making, making them troublesome to deal with when too dispersed, some sacrifices were still necessary. After all, cult sacrifices were also a way to unite people. No matter how great the benefits, the Evil God should appear to show its authority and power. Otherwise, these cultists might soon develop the view that the Evil God was a tool from which they could draw power.

Although… from Achille’s understanding, the original purpose of creating Evil Gods was to make a tool with god-like power. But this method was too reckless, causing the created ‘tool’ to go out of control, backfire on the ritual performers, and create the first ‘Evil God’. Then Evil God rituals began to spread, developing into who knows how many different versions by now.

These different versions, regardless of how special the created Evil Gods were, the more magically modified they were, the more severe the Evil God’s loss of control became. By now, the original version of the Evil God ritual had long been lost.

Achille was most worried that some individuals might take this as an example and inspiration, subsequently creating new cults similar to the Demon Sword Sect. Now there was an Evil God with power similar to the magic sword Apophis. Who could guarantee that in the future, a similar cult based on Frostmourne would not appear?

This was not impossible. Once a mental gateway was opened here, it could lead to a situation like a riverbank collapsing due to an ant hole. Such mental gateways would only be widened, not closed again. A mental gateway that had been opened up, wanting to close? Dream on.

Cults were once a product of such mental gateways. And the result? They evolved into a plague of locusts!

“Low-grade?” The leader of this batch of Demon Sword Cultists, a burly man with a hint of bloodlust in his eyes, stared at Achille. The aura and skin color change on their bodies were not constant; they appeared only after activating the Evil God’s power. Normally, they were similar to ordinary people. Apart from being detectable by some magic, outsiders could not tell. This was also a foundation for the Demon Sword Sect’s rapid growth.

Unlike other cults, where everyone looked inhuman or ghostly, and were denounced by all upon sight. Unlike them, who normally ate and drank in cities, and when nothing was happening, found some enemies to chop chop chop… it was simply great. So, ordinary Demon Sword Cultists generally looked down upon other cults…

Trash cults, simply embarrassing to their clean and upright image!