The Times Have Changed

Wien had long held the custom of holding coming-of-age ceremonies for young people. Even ordinary households would arrange some ceremonial touches when their children reached that age—such as visiting a church to seek a priest's blessing, or tossing extra mushrooms and diced meat into the bean paste the family would share that evening. Karen felt that today was his own "coming-of-age ceremony." This noblewoman of the Laks Church had made him experience a sense of confidence both physically and spiritually, yielding satisfaction in the literal sense of "body and soul." The power of the hunger addiction grew alongside Karen's own rising strength. After Karen achieved God's Revelation, the hunger addiction was further nourished and fortified. However, Karen had already changed the way he approached it. From his initial goal of finding a way to thoroughly eliminate it, he had shifted to shelving disputes and pursuing peaceful coexistence. As long as the hunger addiction did not actively launch an assault on his conscious existence—unless provoked by severe stimulation—Karen tacitly accepted its presence, allowing the depths of his soul to serve as its private plot. He took charge of growing stronger, yielding passive benefits to the hunger addiction, while the hunger addiction had to shoulder the duty of defending its private plot—his soul. It was, in effect, paying rent. Karen had never negotiated with the hunger addiction; in truth, no effective, direct channel of communication existed between them at all. Yet a tacit understanding had naturally formed. At this moment, the artifact spirit of the Spear of Sin had nearly abandoned all resistance. Karen had seen similar scenes many times. Sometimes, no matter how fiercely one's spirit and willpower surged, it could not alter the bloody, brutal reality. Even now, whenever Kevin sensed the aura of the God of Order, he would still prostrate himself in sheer terror. And mind you, he was no mere artifact spirit—he was a genuine god. Anyone who had not personally lived through the previous era could never truly fathom what a crushing gloom that overlord, who had crazily slaughtered across the divine realm, had cast over the hearts of every powerful existence in that era. The disparity between god and god was sometimes even vaster than the gulf between human and god. Karen reached out his arm, and behind him, the hunger addiction statue extended its arm as well. It was a marvelous sensation: not that he was controlling the hunger addiction, but that the hunger addiction was inherently a part of him—or perhaps that he was a part of the hunger addiction. Karen did not know how much longer this tacit understanding with the hunger addiction could last, but recalling the ongoing struggle between the God of Order and the hunger addiction in the last era, he was certain that once the hunger addiction believed it had accumulated enough strength, it would inevitably cast aside all pretenses and renew their war. Yet that did not prevent him from savoring the terrifying soul-level empowerment bestowed by the hunger addiction right now. Crack... Karen closed his fingers in an empty grasp, and the hand of the hunger addiction statue gripped the Spear of Sin. This was not destruction; it was pacification. Upon being "grasped," the artifact spirit of the Spear of Sin finally calmed down, and through this direct contact, Karen was able to further sense the artifact spirit's conscious emotions. This artifact spirit was very much like Luoya. They shared a common trait: both were new-generation artifact spirits, bearing no comparison whatsoever to the spirit within the Spear of Eternity. Consequently, suppressing, controlling, and mastering it became far simpler. In everything, one had to consider cost-effectiveness. Karen did not want to pay the price of falling into a coma, being confined to bed, or ending up in a wheelchair just to finish this. He still had a battle to direct. In Neo's current state, leaving military command entirely in his hands felt just a bit unreliable. Azure flames drifted over. Upon striking the Spear of Sin, they rapidly divided into ten, a hundred, a thousand, and eventually tens of thousands of tiny fireballs that clung to the weapon's body, commencing the process of stripping away impurities. Compared to the physical body, the soul was extraordinarily fragile. Thus, the spiritual power required by each tiny fireball was minuscule; in the physical world, so little fire probably couldn't even ignite a sheet of paper. Therefore, the total expenditure placed no great strain even on Purr, who was not currently borrowing Karen's power. Yet precisely controlling tens of thousands of tiny fireballs was a terrifying feat. What exquisitely subtle mastery it must take to achieve such a thing. To make an evil god willingly carry someone around everywhere and treat them like a little sister required being exceptionally clever—clever even by the standards of an evil god. If Karen, due to his inherent traits, the hunger addiction's empowerment, and the heritage of Order, had always pursued market expansion, then Purr, constrained by ancestral power, had long since min-maxed to the absolute limit within a finite market. It was truly hard to imagine how monumental her achievements might have been back then if she hadn't faced such constraints, had bypassed the family faith system, and had instead joined a church to follow a church faith system. What the tens of thousands of tiny fireballs baked and smelted was the portion of the Spear of Sin's artifact spirit belonging to Ruiqier. The two had long since merged seamlessly, yet Purr was actually distinguishing them apart once more, burning them away from each other. This was truly high-end surgery. Karen knew that even he could not accomplish this feat as he was now. Ruiqier turned back and watched the scene in terror. As the subject, her perception was crystal clear, yet her thoughts were in complete disarray. But Purr's progress was so rapid that it forced her back to lucidity. She was a decisive young woman. She possessed neither the rebelliousness of a "discarded piece" like Daliwenluo nor the pretensions of God's Son Mavaglio; she was practically the most classic and quintessential archetype of an ecclesiastical scion. The sole anomaly about her was perhaps her admiration for Karen—yet that admiration hadn't stopped her for a second from seizing an opportunity and staking everything to assassinate her idol. Thud... She dropped to her knees, crossing her hands over her chest, and pleaded to Karen: "I beg Your Greatness to grant me the chance to offer my loyalty! I will abandon my devotion to the false god Laks and take serving you as the greatest glory of my remaining days!" To be fair, Ruiqier might not actually be stalling for time or plotting betrayal this time; in all likelihood, she truly wanted to switch her allegiance. From the shockwaves caused by the earliest explosion of the Temple of Order to the recent collective omens across the Church of Order, the realization that the God of Order would likely be the first returning god was virtually accepted as fact within church circles. And now she had personally witnessed the divine miracle of the God of Order and seen the artifact spirit of the Spear of Sin cower before Him in humility. Even if her life hadn't been in jeopardy and she had merely witnessed this while walking down the street, kneeling to pledge fealty would have been an entirely natural choice. Moreover, in her eyes, this war between churches was practically the God of Order paving the way for His return to the pinnacle and coming back in His complete form. Everything was part of the divine design and orchestration of the God and the Church of Order. Never mind that not even the Church of Order itself knew their god had secretly gone down to the grassroots. Karen, however, paid no heed to Ruiqier's words. He heard them, but couldn't be bothered to respond. Count Rekar had simply been lucky. Karen had chosen Rekar's grave in the Allen family cemetery to test his "Awakening" ability, and later, during the Queen's Visit incident, he had awakened Count Rekar to resolve the crisis. Out of consideration for his relationship with the Allen family, Count Rekar earned the right of residence in the very first coffin. Old Saman had given gifts and unwittingly built a rapport with Karen, which earned him the privilege of being awakened to eat egg fried rice after committing suicide. Madame Gandiluo was something closer to a semi-coerced transaction, and when she failed to report immediately upon Alfred's summons, Karen's attitude was simply that if she didn't come after one more call, so be it. Daliwenluo had entered the coffin fastest of all, yet strictly speaking, he had qualified as a coffin resident through the most politically correct manner possible: he had criticized the two Gods of Life who sat atop the Laws of Life right to Karen's face, and had even put on a performance for Karen depicting the beauty of life's withering. Alfred had once lamented about when they would ever fill all twelve coffins, but he was also well aware that as his young master's status and power grew, the admission criteria for the coffins would only become steeper. Just like the First Knights of Order, not just anyone was qualified to lie within. In short, Karen had no interest in this noblewoman. If death were compared to a test, a performance, or an opportunity to showcase oneself, then she had failed to captivate Karen's aesthetic sensibilities. She might have personality and distinctive traits, but taking her into a coffin was neither necessary nor interesting. Before the "surgery" began, Karen had told her: when you choose to assassinate me, whatever method I use to repay you is entirely justified. Under Purr's astonishing efficiency, Ruiqier's form began to fracture. She had merged with the artifact spirit of the Spear of Sin, but to Karen's side, her presence was nothing more than grime clinging to that spirit. She took a deep breath, her gaze sharpening as she seemed to draft another plea in her mind, preparing to beg once more. Yet Karen merely lowered his head in silence and glanced at her; the hunger addiction statue likewise lowered its head and looked down at her. A colossal pressure imprisoned her completely. Her soul consciousness was entirely locked down within, incapable of transmitting fluctuations, and naturally unable to utter another word. This plunged her into overwhelming grief and indignation. What was crueler than quietly awaiting death was being stripped of the right to speak before death arrived. Because Karen did not want any more noise ringing in his ears, he didn't even bother looking at her anymore. A cloud of black mist enveloped her. The number of tiny fireballs upon the Spear of Sin began to dwindle, from tens of thousands to thousands, and finally to hundreds, like candles snuffed out batch by batch. When the last one was extinguished, Karen looked down once more. The black mist enveloping the area dispersed, revealing Ruiqier shattering into shimmering crystals at that very moment, every scattered fragment of her absorbed by the hunger addiction statue. She was dead, and yet she was not dead. The "her" on the outside was actually still "alive," but the entity animating that life had shifted from her to the artifact spirit of the Spear of Sin. This transformation was very much like the dynamic between Karen and the hunger addiction: if Karen were consumed by the hunger addiction, he wouldn't die either; the hunger addiction would simply continue living in this world within his body. Karen's gaze darkened slightly. Perhaps one day in the future, this would be his fate as well. The hunger addiction statue behind him did not mirror Karen's expression; within its eyes, an intensely suppressed delight and anticipation surfaced. Karen did not look back at it. He knew that if he turned his head, the hunger addiction would likely follow his movement and turn as well, but he was certain that, at least in this moment, the hunger addiction's mood was the exact opposite of his own. This was the third time. Even in death, she had served as a warning to him. She really was a good person. "Meow!" "Woof!" With everything finished, Karen exited Ruiqier's soul space. Standing within the array, he opened his eyes. Ruiqier opened her eyes as well. Her pupils were pitch-black, and a chilling aura radiated from all around her. The leakage of this aura not only caused Neo, standing inside the military tent, to look grave, but also startled Daliwenluo, Philomena, and the others guarding outside. This was the aura of the Spear of Sin's artifact spirit. It now completely controlled this body named Ruiqier. Her body shuddered as she instinctively struggled, causing the seals placed upon her to begin collapsing one after another. At the same time, she tried to stand up on her own. Kevin widened his canine eyes. He suddenly realized there was a critical security flaw in his plan. One could guarantee that within the soul space, Karen could suppress anything with the hunger addiction, but reality was not set up the same way. Essentially, Ruiqier's existence as the "host" had actually suppressed and weakened the power of the Spear of Sin's artifact spirit. Without Ruiqier, this body could unleash even greater power, and she could more freely resonate with the physical Spear of Sin located not far away. However, there was no way to accurately gauge right now just how much power she could mobilize. If she truly went berserk and the people here couldn't contain her, Karen might have to mobilize an entire army just to suppress his own command tent. Just then, Karen closed his eyes and reopened them. Behind him, rust-flecked Chains of Order swept outward. At the sight of this, terror flashed across Ruiqier's face. Just as she was about to stand, she fell back to her knees. This was the lingering awe from the soul space, persisting even now. Yet there had to be a way to plug this loophole. You couldn't simply kill it, or all that effort spent refining it earlier would have been wasted. Sealing it completely wasn't realistic either, because you still needed to influence the Spear of Sin through it. Kevin's canine brain worked furiously, and finally, he barked: "Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof!" Without waiting for Purr to translate, Karen nodded. From the innermost pocket of his divine robe, he took out a copper coin—a Laks copper coin, inherently of the same origin as the Spear of Sin. Karen summoned the Key to the Rubik's Cube. The array on the ground began to erase itself, and materials all around floated into the air, swiftly assembling under the Rubik's Cube's guidance into a simple, single-use summoning array. Gripping the copper coin, Karen stepped into the array. "Luoya." Before long, Luoya's crisp, sweet voice came from the copper coin: "Big Brother Karen~" Purr turned her head away, opened her mouth, and mimed retching. Every time she borrowed Karen's power now, she had to utter that humiliating phrase—all thanks to this artifact spirit. This artifact spirit had targeted her from early on. Purr remembered back at the scene of the Qihe case, when the spirit relocated everyone to safety, all the others ended up on the ground, while she alone was left hanging from a tree. "Luoya, can you help me suppress her?" "I can, Big Brother Karen. Just make sure she doesn't resist right now." Karen placed the copper coin atop Ruiqier's head. Ruiqier didn't dare move; at least for now, she didn't dare resist. A luster emanated from the copper coin, enveloping Ruiqier. Immediately, the blackness in Ruiqier's eyes rapidly receded—or more accurately, was drained away. With a thud, she collapsed onto her side on the ground. She was still breathing, but her consciousness was suppressed. The copper coin remained firmly stuck to her scalp without slipping, and upon the coin, the engraved pattern of a spear had appeared. They shared the same origin; Ruiqier could now be considered Luoya's "cousin." "All done, Big Brother Karen. Don't let the copper coin leave her body, and she'll have no choice but to obey your orders. If she dares to disobey, Big Brother Karen, just call me to discipline her." "Thank you, Luoya." "Big Brother Karen, when will you come see me again?" "Once I finish this battle, I'll visit you at the containment space office." "Ah, a battle? Oh, right, I heard about that! Some artifacts were transferred from here to support the battlefield. Then focus on the battle, Big Brother Karen. I shouldn't have brought this up at a time like this; I was being inconsiderate." Purr lowered her head again and opened her mouth: "Gag..." Quit acting! As if you couldn't sense that this setup is a military camp! Your sensory abilities aren't that weak! "Goodbye, Luoya." "Mm, goodbye, Big Brother Karen! I'll be waiting for you~" ... Inside the containment space, Luoya, who had been taking an afternoon nap, opened her eyes and scrambled up. "How nice! Not only did I get a wonderful afternoon nap, but I also saw Big Brother Karen. Hehe, you've got to do your best and rack up merits, Big Brother Karen. Huh... wait, I forgot to tell him: among the artifacts transferred out this time, there's one that helped design surgical plans for him..." Luoya stood up, and something immediately slipped out from beneath the hem of her skirt. She looked down and picked it up. It was a miniature spear. "Heehee, looks like you'll be moving in here soon too." ... Karen squatted down beside Ruiqier and placed his hand on her forehead: "I know you can hear what I say. Now, I order you to resonate with the physical Spear of Sin. Do so to whatever extent you can." The blackness that had just receded from Ruiqier's eyes returned once more, and a projection of consciousness appeared before her. It was a visual feed from a high vantage point, and within the image lay a dense cluster of black dots. Neo spoke up: "The dead center of the Zuomaisi Mountain Range defense zone. Look, diagonally to the flank is the positioning point for the logistics supply base." Karen asked, "Those black dots are..." "The integration of the Spear of Sin and the fortifications. Each of those black dots is an attack coordinate calibrated for the Spear of Sin. Unlike those functional artifacts, the Spear of Sin is an offensive artifact. "The enemy arranged the Spear of Sin as the final offensive defensive safeguard outside their core area. "If we attacked our way here without knowing, countless men would die in an instant. "No, even if we knew about it, we would still have to pay an enormous price. "Fortunately, we can influence this artifact now. Can we achieve complete control over it, Karen?" Karen shook his head and said, "Not complete control, but we can disable it for a short duration." "Sigh, I'm being too greedy," Neo sighed with emotion. Karen said, "While the entire Army Group launches a massive assault, we can employ rapid-advance tactics, aiming to cover the insertion of an elite unit close to this core area." Neo looked at Karen with the same look Mr. Aisen had given Richard earlier outside—gratified, yet somewhat crestfallen. "Keep going." Karen pursed his lips. "We need to put on a convincing supporting act. If I were the commander of the defending forces across from us, once I deciphered our attacking intentions, I'd probably deliberately let our strike force approach the core area, then use the artifact's might to swiftly crush them, thereby utterly foiling our offensive. "They won't imagine their own artifact will fail at such a critical moment. And if this strike force can punch into that core area, they can blossom from the inside out." "A splendid battle plan," Neo said. "However, I must add one point. The commander leading this strike force must possess rich combat experience, razor-sharp battlefield insight, and an exceptional ability to seize fleeting opportunities. "After all, there is only one chance. If it fails this time and the enemy discovers the problem with the artifact, they might sever the link between the artifact spirit and the physical weapon itself. "So this candidate is the decisive key to the entire battle. We must very seriously..." "You go." Neo: "My hearing hasn't gone bad, has it? Am I hallucinating?" Karen looked at Neo. "There is no candidate more suitable than you." Neo clutched his chest, speaking in mock heartbreak: "Students nowadays—as soon as they learn something, they can't even wait for the teacher to starve to death before burying him alive?" "I just don't want to see you commit suicide, not that I don't want to see you die. Even I can die for the cause of Order; as long as the occasion and opportunity are right, so can you." "But right now, I'm a Light remnant." "You took Order's pension." "Uh..." "You also took the condolence money from your funeral." "I..." "Of course, if you're unwilling, I can choose someone else. This commander cannot be afraid of death." A smile broke out across Neo's face. Pointing to his forehead, he said, "Do you know that the Mad Pope in my head is roaring right now?" "What is he saying?" "He says this is against the rules. In the Divine War of the last era, the God of Order acted as the vanguard for the God of Light, going to the most dangerous places to slaughter for the cause of Light. "Seeing that I'm about to agree, he's currently cursing me for being worthless, betraying the faith, defiling the Light, and disgracing the heritage... Philias is trying to calm him down, while Mr. Luther is still fanning the flames." Karen said, "Pass along a message to the Mad Pope in your head for me." "Sure, tell me, and I'll pass it along." "Tell this Pope of ours: Just say: The times have changed."