He's Mine!

Muri asked, "Madam, are the ruins of that abandoned missionary post still there?" "My husband went back there later, but the place had already been leveled to the ground. Everything related to the Church of Order is taboo here; they want nothing more than to erase every last trace." "I see." Muri nodded, pointing to the painting in Karen's hands. "Then this painting has immense collector's value. It's an out-of-print rubbing." Karen put the painting away into his backpack and thanked Mrs. Ganfusen once again: "I will treasure it dearly." "No, you may dispose of it however you see fit. So long as you deem it appropriate, I believe my husband would have thought the same were he still alive." Mrs. Ganfusen bowed to Karen, then turned and walked over to look after the others. After the elderly woman left, Karen asked, "You said it has immense collector's value—can it be sold for point coupons?" "It has enough of a story behind it, so it can definitely fetch point coupons. It would sell for a very high price to a collector inside the church, and an even higher price if sold to one outside." "How many point coupons?" "Depends on how well the story is promoted, but I'd guess at least twenty thousand Order coupons at a minimum." "That valuable?" "Do you really plan to sell it?" "No, just joking. But if someone offered two million Order coupons, I probably would." "Are you that short on coupons?" "Yeah, I am. Before you ran away from home, you should have considered cracking open your family's vault and bringing it along. That way, you could have made a much cleaner break from your family." "It's a good idea, but I'm afraid I wouldn't have made it to York City alive." "See? You're still leaving yourself a way out." "Haha. Still, haven't you noticed? That painting from just now is rather similar to what happened earlier. The God of Order chose four retainers, and you chose four youths." Karen paused and asked, "What about it?" "Don't you think this kind of coincidence represents good fortune?" "In what way?" "That the rest of our journey will be blessed by the God of Order." "The Church of Order, which represents the will of the God of Order, hopes that you, Muri Benda, will devoutly kneel to welcome Lord Gaetanbert taking possession of your body. Meanwhile, the noble Chief Guard of the High Priest, Lord Mobiten Benda, who is loyal to the God of Order, hopes that you will pass away more peacefully and swiftly, so as not to cause even the slightest hiccup for Lord Gaetanbert's return." Muri was stunned by these words and immediately held up both hands. "I was only making a joke. Did you have to be so serious?" "In my eyes, your joke sounded like a curse." "I'm sorry, my apologies. I only meant to compare you to the God of Order. Even though we both know that's not true, I thought it was just a compliment between friends." Karen looked at Muri with complete solemnity, making Muri's expression stiffen slightly under his gaze. "Please do not blaspheme the god." "Understood. I won't do it again," Muri promised earnestly. Just then, a girl's voice chimed in. It was Nailu. "Lord Auspices, are you no longer planning to enter Heisen City?" The young girl Nailu had two tasks along the way: first, to act as a guide, and second, to collect the referral fee after entering the city. Yet she had just learned that the Lord Auspices seemingly had no intention of going into Heisen City anymore. This was because the two squads had already secured the contract souls suited to Heisen City's attribute ahead of time. With those four youth souls, there was no longer any need to enter Heisen City. "Yes, Nailu, we don't plan to go into Heisen City anymore. Furthermore, I have a task I'd like to entrust to you." "A task?" "I hope you can lead them back to Tagima Village now, and tell your grandfather that it's my wish for Tagima Village to shelter and care for them. That way, every ten years when the Auspices descend, the altar of Tagima Village will never be deserted." Karen genuinely meant well. Tagima Village would become an internal training base for the Church of Order; every batch of trial takers from the Church of Order would come here specifically to select souls of their own church's faith and forge soul contracts under the witness of the gray moon. This was definitely a path for long-term growth; over several decades, Tagima Village might even expand into a city. However, Karen had inadvertently overlooked the young girl's perspective. In her eyes, not only had she failed to collect her referral fee, but she now had to lead a bunch of burdensome displaced people back with her. The young girl grew panicked. The Lord Auspices, whom she and the whole village had dug bamboo shoots to feed, were about to abandon her village. Tears began welling up in Nailu's eyes. Seeing this, Karen couldn't help but lightly tap his forehead. "Don't worry, we'll compensate you. I..." Only then did Karen realize that neither he nor his subordinates had any of those crystal coins, and the point coupons he carried were not accepted here. "I have crystal coins here," Mrs. Ganfusen said as she walked over carrying a parcel. "I believe this should be enough." With that, Mrs. Ganfusen opened the parcel and took out a handful of translucent gray stones that gave off a dense aura of soul power. Nailu froze the moment she saw the stones and mumbled, "The highest quality crystal coins!" Mrs. Ganfusen looked at Nailu and asked with a smile, "I believe these should be enough to cover our living expenses in Tagima Village. Besides, even if you went to three cities and collected referral fees, it wouldn't amount to more than this." "Yes, Madam, you're right. But it won't take this many crystal coins for your group to stay in our village." "I have more where that came from—not just what I'm carrying, but plenty buried elsewhere." After speaking to Nailu, Mrs. Ganfusen turned back to Karen. "Please don't worry about these matters; we can manage ourselves." "We need to continue our journey. Once it's over, we will return to Tagima Village, and I expect we'll bring back plenty of crystal coins then." "No, no, no, you don't need to worry about that. We don't care much about such things. What my husband longed for most during his lifetime was for the spark of Order to shine peacefully in this world. I believe his wish is already halfway fulfilled, and I look forward immensely to the blueprint you painted for me earlier." And so, Nailu did not continue forward with Karen and the others, but set out on the journey back to Tagima Village with Mrs. Ganfusen's group instead. Meanwhile, Karen's group rested in place for half a day to give Ventura and the other three enough time to recover before setting off again toward the Dark Grotto. Because everyone had gradually adapted to the environment of this world, the second leg of the journey was easier and far more efficient. They avoided all villages along the way and stopped to dig bamboo shoots whenever they came across bamboo groves. However, after marching for several more days, the bamboo shoots brought from Tagima Village were finally finished. Yet after dividing and eating the last bit of bamboo shoots, no panic showed on their faces; instead, everyone wore an expression of "relief." No matter how delicious a fruit was, anyone would go crazy if forced to eat it as their sole meal for over ten days straight. Compared to the starvation that might lie ahead, they hated those damn delicious bamboo shoots even more! Out of necessity, during the remainder of the journey, they had to consume the supplies in their backpacks while constantly searching for other food that "living people" could eat, similar to the bamboo shoots. In the end, they actually found one: a type of field rat. The rats' skeletons were not white but black. For whatever reason, all the "toxins" accumulated in their bodies gathered entirely within their bones, leaving the meat harmless. They caught quite a few rats, skinned and deboned them, and began roasting them. When the aroma of meat drifted into the air, even the girls set aside their reservations and began savoring the delicious roasted rat meat. Karen tore off a piece of meat and popped it into his mouth. The flavor was dry, tough, and carried a hint of astringency. One could only say that the unique environment had caused even the rats to mutate—otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to survive here either. In short, this drastically reduced both the yield and the quality of the rat meat. Yet once roasted, it genuinely possessed a faint meaty flavor, which was more than enough to drive everyone wild with excitement. Thus, over the next stretch of the journey, the group advanced while simultaneously eradicating pests. Along the way, Karen also sampled some food they deliberately stole from villages. He wanted to identify foods with lower toxicity as advance preparation for the most extreme circumstances. Finally, they reached the Dark Grotto. As usual, rather than entering the grotto right away, they chose to set up camp on the periphery first. "Say, what do you think past Samsara trial takers ate after coming in here?" Paxio asked. "Maybe they brought plenty of food with them?" Bart said. "Their backpacks didn't look any bigger than ours, though. They couldn't have carried that much more food than us," Paxio countered. Muri chimed in, "Perhaps they have supply points inside the gate. After all, the Church of Samsara holds absolute dominance in the world inside." "Once we get back, the first rule in that booklet ought to be changed—it should say to pack more food before entering the Gate of Samsara," Digat said with a laugh. "If I'd known it would be like this, I would've brought salted fish and smoked meat." Karen responded, "What they carry in their backpacks might not be food, but antidotes." Hearing this, everyone fell silent, finding their captain's guess extremely plausible. It wasn't that this place lacked food; rather, the food here generally contained toxins targeting either the soul or the body. Bringing food along was troublesome and made traveling inconvenient, but bringing just antidotes was much easier. They could source food locally, boil a pot of it, and drop in a single antidote pill to neutralize the toxicity before eating it directly. A lot of the nutritional value might be lost, but what did that matter? Muri pressed his lips together. "So the intelligence department made an error and overlooked such a fundamental issue." "It's too late to say that now, and we can't remedy it unless we immediately run into a Samsara trial squad and seize their supplies. But first, we were dumped in an extremely remote location, and second, I don't think actively provoking them inside the Gate of Samsara is wise. "Still, when I surveyed the grotto's periphery earlier, I noticed a black plant with bamboo-like joints growing there. Tomorrow, we can try digging some up to see if it's edible. "For now, everyone get some rest. Night watch, keep your eyes peeled. I'm certain the native Church of Samsara is frantically searching for us." ... By the time reckoning of the outside world, it was the next morning when Karen formally stepped into the Dark Grotto leading Bart, Ventura, Yilaman, and Demel. They made no attempt to conceal themselves, so when the grotto souls on the outskirts spotted them, every single one froze. Immediately after, shouts rang out: "The Lord Auspices have delivered themselves to our door!" Things went much smoother than Karen had anticipated. The hierarchical order within the grotto was exceptionally clear, which meant that when it came to dividing interests, everyone behaved very "rationally." Karen did not venture into the depths of the grotto, however; instead, he waited on a hillside on its outskirts, with Bart and the other three acting as his bodyguards behind him. Soon, a centipede—not particularly large in build, but dark green all over—was carried over, "lifted high" by a crowd of subordinates. A green gleam flickered in the centipede's eyes, full of intelligence and cunning. After a short while, a spider crawled out from the depths, its body covered in special runes. The last to emerge was an enormous ladybug with strange, vibrant patterns across its back. During the initial contact between the two sides, Karen had stated that he had three spots, as there were only three array masters across the two squads. And from inside the grotto, three bosses had emerged. This kind of settlement was very much like a syndicate; they probably ranked themselves from the first chair, second chair, and so on down the line. He provided the headcount, and they internally decided which bugs to send. The ladybug flew before Karen, parted its wings, and shook down over twenty identity medallions. Karen noticed that they were all medallions belonging to Samsara priests. "We just disposed of them. Consider it a greeting gift." Evidently, following the incident outside Heisen City, the local Church of Samsara was indeed hunting for Karen and his companions, but Karen's group had deliberately taken a concealed route and avoided detection. Furthermore, if the initial incident had taken place at Tagima Village, Karen's squad's subsequent movement trajectory and destination would have been easy to deduce, as the three major cities near Tagima Village were obvious targets. However, taking Heisen City as the starting point opened up numerous major cities radiating in all directions, not to mention the teleportation arrays within the towns. As a result, tracking Karen down proved extremely difficult for the local Church of Samsara—especially since Karen, to be safe, hadn't even entered Heisen City, continuing on foot toward his next objective instead. In short, using the crudest, clumsiest method had deprived the opposition of avenues to track them down. For now, everything was progressing smoothly. Even so, Karen added another condition: "Follow me one by one. No probing, no tailing." "Agreed." "Agreed." "Agreed." All three grotto titans consented. They understood what Karen was worried about; this was a transaction, but one fraught with the risk of coercion, so everyone had to exercise caution. Karen led the centipede away first, guiding it into the array set up outside. The centipede willingly lowered all bodily defenses and stepped into the array. "I'll go first," Digat stepped forward, deciding to forge a soul contract with this centipede. Next came the overlapping screams of Digat and the centipede. Fortunately, the array not only possessed containment properties but also provided various buffs; coupled with Blanche and Sijini guarding Digat together, it was painful, but concluded quickly. Digat was helped aside to rest. Undeterred by the hassle, Karen returned with his four bodyguards and brought the spider over. Paxio chose the spider and began forging the soul contract. Mars didn't try to claim the first or second one, because he hadn't seen his captain wink at him. Finally, Karen fetched the ladybug. Along the way, the ladybug even remarked, "I've heard the world inside the gate is magnificent, teeming with boundless possibilities." "Yes, it is." In truth, none of the three understood the difference between inside and outside the gate, but that didn't stop them from eagerly agreeing. Because whenever the Auspices descended once every ten years, those who responded most actively were often the powerhouses of the Church of Samsara. Every time, powerful Samsara figures would sign soul contracts with Auspices to enter "inside the gate." Over time, this established perception formed: if the world inside the gate weren't magnificent and alluring enough, why would those mighty beings of the Church of Samsara be so tirelessly eager to enter it? The ladybug suddenly halted, turned to Karen, and said, "I want to sign a soul contract with you." "I've already selected a candidate for you." "I think you are more suitable." "The candidate is already set." "Heh." The ladybug spread its wings, and a beam of light appeared from its back. Immediately after, the phantom figure of a woman materialized on its back, giving off the exact same aura as the ladybug. The woman spoke: "My intuition tells me you are more suitable." "Please abide by the agreement." "No, I don't mean to force you with violence. What I mean is that I am much stronger than those two fellows, and you have no aura of any other soul on you. I think signing a soul contract with you is the better choice." "You're mistaken. I already have a contracted soul." "Haha, you're lying to me. I don't sense one." Karen didn't want any mishaps at the final moment of what could have been a quick and smooth expedition to the Dark Grotto. He replied earnestly, "Sometimes, feelings can be deceptive." "I don't believe my instincts could be wrong. You shouldn't try to deceive me like this." Karen smiled faintly and began summoning his symbiosis contract partner. Promptly, the phantom figure of a woman holding a wand materialized behind him. Yet Karen's smile quickly froze. Because the phantom of Miss Purr behind him—who had always kept her eyes tightly shut as though asleep—had actually opened her eyes, and now spoke: "He's mine!"