In the desolate chill of winter, the natural sunlight in Herrom, the Imperial Capital, seemed far weaker than in other seasons. It drifted softly through thin layers of clouds, casting only a faint semblance of warmth upon the frozen earth.
Lanqi walked alone along the wide thoroughfare.
Today was a weekday.
He had no need to go to the Protos Royal Academy to tutor Zestira, spending his days in a nearby inn living a life as comfortable and quiet as retirement.
After receiving a letter this morning informing him that he had passed the written exam, he finished his lunch and set out toward the Temple of the Knights of Extinction. He wore his usual argyle vest under a thick, dark-gray overcoat suited for fending off the cold, looking neat and well-mannered.
His green eyes appeared even clearer under the sunlight, like emerald lakes.
As he progressed, the pedestrians along the road dwindled.
Most citizens of the Imperial Capital gave the Knights of Extinction a wide berth, treating the area as though it were a forbidden zone on the city map.
Lanqi, walking against the general flow toward that obvious destination, drew curious glances from several passersby. They wondered why such a gentle, respectable-looking youth would be heading in that direction.
"Lanqi, are you sure you're just acting, meow...?"
A slightly timid, childish voice drifted from his shadow.
When no magic-sensitive individuals were nearby, Boss Cat could use its psychokinetic magic to project its voice straight into Lanqi's ear. However, its mana control was still rather unrefined; if a skilled spellcaster were nearby, they would quickly notice something amiss in the shadow.
To Boss Cat, Lanqi's mingling with the clerics of the Domination branch back in the Southwestern Province had already been dangerously reckless.
It never expected that after finally acquiring the identity he wanted, shaking off those Resurrection clerics, and settling into the capital where he could live quietly as an ordinary tutor, Lanqi would actively seek to join the Extinction Branch on his own initiative!
Boss Cat thought the boy had completely lost his mind!
"Don't worry, Boss Cat. My faith is rock-solid. It's totally normal for an undercover cop to infiltrate a bandit's den," Lanqi whispered with a smile, as if sharing a secret.
"...If you say so."
Boss Cat had to admit that after Lanqi worked his magic in Lilom City, what had begun as a nightmare start had turned around completely. Lanqi had even brought it along to enjoy a surprisingly idyllic, dreamlike life in Herrom.
After a moment's thought, the cat fell silent again.
It decided to wait and see what Lanqi would do before they met up with Hubao.
It was already content with their current situation, but the kid seemed to have further ambitions and had no intention of stopping just yet.
Still, he surely had some brakes, right?
And so Lanqi drew closer to the domain of the Knights of Extinction.
Eventually, aside from a few drifting, faint snowflakes, virtually no other pedestrians remained on the street.
In the distance, the imposing architecture of the Knights of Extinction gradually rose before him.
Even though he had visited once before, seeing a legitimate Resurrection Church temple with his own eyes still filled Lanqi with a strange sense of wonder.
So this was the Northern Continent.
It truly was vastly different from the Southern Continent.
It was always in moments like this that he acutely realized he was in a foreign land, unimaginably far from his familiar town and home.
Lanqi shook his head, walking at an unhurried pace toward the heavily guarded front gates.
A knight in dark-gray heavy armor eyed him up and down. After inspecting the letter, one of the guards nodded, signaling that he could enter.
Lanqi tucked away his notice for the second round of examinations and stepped inside the cavernous, shadowy structure.
He remembered the directions written in the letter.
Following the corridor on the left, he soon found the venue for the second examination.
At the far end of the hallway stood a pair of massive metal doors, tightly shut. On either side, clerics stood in silent vigil, their gazes cold and poised for combat at a moment's notice.
"Go in."
Without requiring Lanqi to produce the letter again, the clerics pulled open the heavy iron doors leading to the examination hall.
Behind them lay a vast hall steeped in a solemn, oppressive atmosphere.
A colossal chandelier hung from the high ceiling, casting a faint, eerie glow. The surrounding walls were covered with the original sculpted murals of the building, depicting the Northern Continent Holy War in grotesque, twisted detail. The faces of heroes and demons drifted between light and shadow, looking as though they might step off the walls at any moment to join the room.
Under the suffocating silence, the air felt thin. Most of the room lay shrouded in gloom. The faces of the waiting candidates seemed swallowed by deep shadows, and darkness pooled behind them.
Compared to Lanqi, who had arrived relatively late, more than twenty candidates were already gathered in the hall.
They sat scattered across chairs around the perimeter, keeping their distance from one another. Some rested with their eyes closed; some sat in brooding contemplation. A few ruffians muttered under their breath, their lips moving rapidly in the gloom as though chanting curses, yet making no sound at all.
Most of them possessed the unmistakable aura of dangerous villains. The most prominent among them seemed like lords of this gathering of malice, making the others reluctant to sit too close.
Lanqi scanned the hall. Soon, the heavy door slammed shut behind him with a resonant boom.
Above the door, a massive pendulum clock ticked away, the grinding of its gears sounding like an omen of the trials of fate to come.
Once a person stepped foot in here, there was no turning back.
Lanqi's arrival quickly drew several glances.
Eyes drifted toward him from time to time, sizing up his every minute movement.
At this moment, the black-haired, green-eyed youth looked far too gentle and harmless—the very image of a pure white lamb that had wandered into a pack of dark wolves.
Perhaps there had been others who looked just as orderly and law-abiding during the first round of written exams.
Yet anyone who had taken that paper knew that scoring well required more than just an exhaustive knowledge of the Resurrection Church and the Extinction Branch—it demanded the mindset of an extreme villain.
No matter how one looked at him, this youth appeared exceedingly weak, possessing not the slightest hint of a threat.
Even if he had passed the test, he had probably scraped by right on the passing line, relying on solid theoretical knowledge to answer the objective and conceptual questions.
Lanqi simply walked over to an empty seat on one side of the hall and sat down. Folding his hands neatly on his lap, he looked forward with a calm, untroubled expression.
As time ticked by, the tension within the hall grew increasingly palpable.
Lanqi wasn't nervous in the slightest, but Boss Cat was already shivering from the suffocating malice permeating the room.
If it could flee, it would have run away long ago, slightly regretting that curiosity had prompted it to tag along with Lanqi.
Every single person here was a heavy hitter.
Compared to these pure villains, a wholesome youth with a clean record like Lanqi was clearly not on the same level when it came to danger and chaos!
Clang. Clang.
The clock above the metal doors struck the hour.
Even sitting in the corner, Lanqi could hear the layered chimes echoing clearly. Each strike felt like a warning, reminding everyone present that the danger grew with every passing moment.
Inside the hall, the faint light coming from a far corner merged with the dim glow of the chandelier. The frigid air seemed to freeze in that instant. As the tolling of the clock faded, a soft, rustling sound slipped into the hall from the darkness beyond. Like an incantation freezing time, every corner of the room, every candidate, and every sculpted detail seemed frozen in place.
It was the sound of footsteps.
Though not particularly loud, in this tense silence, the steps fell like drumbeats striking upon everyone's hearts, seizing their attention and drawing their gazes toward the unknown.
From the cracks in the inner iron doors, an occasional gust of wind blew in, bringing a bite of cold along with the rustle of the faded curtains hanging in the corners of the hall.
Like the other candidates, Lanqi watched through the shadows of the hall, waiting for the figure to appear.
Gradually, a faint light emerged from deep within the hall, revealing a figure clad in dark-gray vestments stepping out from the darkness.
He walked at an unhurried pace, revealing his features to the crowd. It was a face marked by the passage of time, yet grim, cold, and austere. Deep-set eyes radiated a detached lust for control, and beneath an aquiline nose sat thin, severe lips.
What truly sent a chill through the candidates was the purple holy crest resting upon his chest, glowing with a faint radiance that illuminated his vestments.
Not a single villain present dared underestimate him. The right to wear that purple holy crest signified that he was not merely a notorious rogue, but an illustrious high priest of the Extinction Branch—a true high-ranking figure of the Resurrection Church and a terrorist dwelling in the dark underbelly of the Northern Continent.
With that, High Priest Caius, the examiner in charge, stepped to the front of the hall.
"I am Caius, the chief examiner presiding over this second round and the final evaluation."
In the dim light, Caius's frame appeared even more imposing. He spoke slowly, his deep voice carrying throughout the entire hall.
"To prove your most fundamental and essential loyalty to the Resurrection Church, you must complete an assignment. That will be the subject of this second examination."
His gaze swept slowly across each candidate. When he ceased speaking, silence once again swallowed the hall.
Puzzled looks appeared on the faces of many candidates. None of them could fathom what method could accurately assess one's loyalty.
Even if there were magic capable of peering directly into a person's inner thoughts, only an eighth-tier powerhouse specializing in the mind and soul could pull it off. Even if an ancient magic item of that caliber existed, this examination certainly didn't warrant deploying such a treasure.
"Some time ago... a trend emerged within the Church of the Goddess of Fate over in the Kingdom of Asethelan. They developed a method for identifying Resurrection clerics. While not entirely foolproof, it did indeed weed out quite a few of our people. This tyrannical doctrine of 'accuse first, demand self-vindication later' was coined by the preaching priests as 'Wilfortism.'"
Caius addressed the crowd in an even, dispassionate tone.
"Now that our positions with the Church of the Goddess of Fate are reversed here in the Protos Empire, this 'Wilfortism' can likewise be turned to our advantage.
"I will start by assuming every single one of you is a mole from the Church of the Goddess of Fate. It is up to you to prove to me that you are not.
"The task for this examination is very simple: modify a statue of the Goddess of Fate.
"Each of you will be provided with a statue of the Goddess of Fate. You are free to reshape, desecrate, or even defile her as you see fit to prove your loyalty and devotion to the Resurrection Church. You will submit your finished piece to me, and through it, I will judge your allegiance, your style, and how well you resonate with the artistic spirit of our Extinction Branch."
With that, Caius laid out the theme and rules of the examination with absolute clarity.
Chapter 262