"Damn it!" Zhang Yuanqing cursed inwardly. Decisive as ever, he pried open the Cardinal's mouth, jammed the tube firmly into his throat, and injected a vial of Life Source Fluid.
He pulled out another vial of diluted Life Source Fluid, tossed it to Commandery Princess Yinyao, and said urgently:
"You save him and talk to him. If communication fails, let me out of the coffin—worst comes to worst, we'll just kill him again!"
With that, he cast Star Escape and vanished from the bottom hold.
Zhang Yuanqing had to leave. Given his decisive, ruthless nature and the heightened aggression brought on by the corruption, seeing that the Cardinal had survived and that Yinyao had mutated into an Aberrant would almost certainly drive him to attack on instinct.
Unflustered, Commandery Princess Yinyao picked up the Life Source Fluid. Mimicking Yuanshi Tianzun, she pried open the Cardinal's mouth and injected the diluted fluid.
Then she drew back the Mountain God Scepter and waited for the medicine to take effect.
*Crack, crack, crack.* Crisp sounds of splitting charcoal echoed from the Cardinal's body.
Before long, the dying Cardinal opened his eyes, his pupils somewhat unfocused. He sat up and looked around in confusion. Once he caught sight of the knights locked in battle and the eerie woman with crimson eyes beside him, the details preceding his "death" rushed back into his mind.
His pupils shrank violently. Without hesitation, he began coalescing a lightning spear crackling with electric arcs.
"If I were you, I would wonder why I'm back from the dead," Commandery Princess Yinyao raised her small bullhorn, staring impassively at the Cardinal.
The Cardinal froze for a moment as his reason gradually returned. He did not disperse the lightning spear, but he held back from attacking immediately. "You saved me?"
"His mind was corrupted and his perception twisted. After nearly being blown to pieces by you, he regained his senses," Commandery Princess Yinyao explained matter-of-factly. "Unwilling to become a puppet, he wants to find a solution, which is why he had me save you. That is how things stand. I trust that with your wisdom, you can tell truth from falsehood."
The Cardinal glanced at the two hard-pressed knights. After several seconds of thought, he said, "You truly had no reason to save me."
He dispelled the lightning spear.
"How can he be saved?" Commandery Princess Yinyao asked hurriedly.
"The only redemption is to ascend to Heaven and pray to the Lord for forgiveness. The Lord will welcome all lost lambs who turn back." A devout expression appeared on the Cardinal's blackened face as he traced a cross over his chest.
Commandery Princess Yinyao nearly wanted to send him straight to the Lord.
Thinking it over, she asked, "Is there any way to alleviate the corruption?"
The Cardinal looked at the ruined circle on the deck. "A purification ritual can purge the aura of the demon seed. When Lieutenant Stephen last mutated into an Aberrant, he briefly regained himself within the ritual."
Commandery Princess Yinyao said quickly, "Please set up the ritual once more."
"You wish to undergo the ritual's purification?" The Cardinal's expression grew solemn, and he fell silent.
"Is there a problem?" Yinyao countered.
*I just feel they died in vain...* The Cardinal glanced at the fallen bodies of Isabella and Captain James, silently tracing a cross over his chest.
"Can you make them stop?" The Cardinal looked at the two knights struggling to hold on.
"They are not under my control," Commandery Princess Yinyao shook her head.
Hearing this, bright blue arcs flashed in the Cardinal's palm, condensing into a long whip. He took two strides forward and snapped his arm.
*Bzzzt, bzzzt, bzzzt!*
The Cardinal unleashed a rapid five-strike combo of lightning whips, lashing Greed Divine General and Bai Ren Zhan one after another. The overbearing lightning-attribute spiritual power violently tore through the talisman arrays within the yin corpses.
Like blowing out the internal wiring of an electrical appliance, Greed Divine General and Bai Ren Zhan instantly froze stiff.
Relieved, the two knights' knees buckled, and they collapsed to the floor leaning on their swords, panting heavily.
They did not take advantage of the opening to strike back against the two yin corpses, having seen that the enemies had revived the Cardinal.
The two heavily injured knights and the Cardinal laid Isabella's and James's bodies side by side and prayed in silence. Once finished, one knight took a wet mop to wipe away the broken hexagram circle.
The other knight brought the required materials to assist the Cardinal in inscribing the array.
Commandery Princess Yinyao watched from the side, raising her bullhorn to say:
"This is no Cleansing Talisman. I just thought about it, and no class in the First District possesses purification abilities."
As he scattered red powder, the Cardinal replied:
"I do not understand what you mean. These are magic runes, known in ancient legend as the Runes."
He understood neither "Cleansing Talisman" nor "First District."
"What are Runes?" Yinyao asked promptly whenever she did not know something.
The Cardinal explained patiently:
"Runes are the supreme power in Norse mythology, said to be the wisdom comprehended by the Allfather Odin from the World Tree, the source of all magic in the mortal realm. The magic wielded by witches evolved from Runes and is one of its branches.
"There are twenty-four Runes in total, each carrying a different power. The one I am inscribing now symbolizes sanctity and light, possessing the effect of purifying evil forces."
Commandery Princess Yinyao only half-understood, but she committed it to memory, intending to ask Yuanshi Tianzun later.
She said no more, only letting out a breath of relief once the Cardinal finished drawing the hexagram circle. Then, she dissolved into starlight and vanished.
In the captain's quarters, starlight rose. Commandery Princess Yinyao walked to the coffin, knocked on the lid, and called tentatively:
"Yuanshi Tianzun?"
No answer.
Yinyao pushed the coffin lid open and hastily retreated a few paces, while having the Elvis Presley speaker emit mind-suppressing drumbeats, staying on high alert.
Zhang Yuanqing sat up from the coffin with a frigid expression, but under the deterrent of the drumbeats, his conscious self quickly revived, revealing agony on his face.
"It's settled!" Yinyao said quickly.
"Good work." Zhang Yuanqing wasted no words and climbed out of the coffin.
The coffin could dampen the demon seed's whispers and reduce corruption, but it could not isolate it completely. Lying in the coffin was an expedient measure; receiving purification was the true path.
Taking advantage of his clear mind, he executed Star Escape, traveling from the captain's quarters to the bottom hold.
Zhang Yuanqing's gaze swept across the room. He saw the two yin corpses lying motionless on the ground and paid them no mind, his eyes falling on the circle before shifting to the Cardinal.
The Cardinal pointed to the circle. "You should stand inside."
Zhang Yuanqing stepped calmly into the circle.
The Cardinal clasped his hands before his chest, rested his lips against his fists, and began silently chanting an incantation. After a dozen breaths, a pure, immaculate white light shone from the dark-red circle.
Zhang Yuanqing felt an enraged roar emanate from within his body as wisps of black smoke steamed off and drifted away.
With the departure of the black smoke, his sanity fully returned. His thoughts became clear and unimpeded, free of cognitive distortion and hallucinations.
Yet Zhang Yuanqing knew well that this was only temporary. The demon seed would continue to corrupt—and amplify—him as a spirit realm walker, because this was the dungeon's "gift" to him.
Tomorrow and the day after, the corruption would be several times more intense than today. By then, whether the purification array would still work was unknown.
Therefore, what Zhang Yuanqing needed to do now was practice the Pure Yang Body Cleansing Record to restore his divine power of the sun to its peak and bolster his resistance until the dungeon concluded.
As long as he did not completely fall into depravity and merely suffered mild corruption, he could purge it himself using the divine power of the sun once he left the dungeon.
Amid these thoughts, he sensed the Cardinal's hostile, vigilant gaze.
"Do you still remember your name?" the Cardinal asked.
"Stephen Simpson," Zhang Yuanqing said.
The Cardinal showed a flash of delight. "The purification worked even better than last time."
Watching the Cardinal beaming with joy, Zhang Yuanqing thought to himself that when it came to distorting cognition, the Spirit Realm was truly the most terrifying. In a dungeon, no matter how strangely a spirit realm walker acted, the NPCs automatically accepted it without the slightest suspicion.
And these NPCs were living beings—flesh and blood, carbon-based organisms with independent souls, no different from humans in the real world.
Zhang Yuanqing suspected that if the Spirit Realm did not reset dungeons, the NPCs inside could probably get pregnant and have children.
"Your Eminence, please monitor my condition. The demon seed corrupts a target each day. If I die, then the next to be corrupted will be you and your companions," Zhang Yuanqing said. "Cardinal, you wouldn't want your companions to be corrupted, would you? So please protect me and remain ready to purify at any time."
Though he said this, Zhang Yuanqing did not rush to practice the Pure Yang Body Cleansing Record.
Night was when lunar energy reached its zenith, unsuitable for practicing the Pure Yang Body Cleansing Record.
Zhang Yuanqing circulated the technique to let the divine power of the sun flow sluggishly through the meridians across his body, using it as a shield against the demon seed's corruption.
At the same time, he secretly guided the Cardinal's emotions, asking in a casual tone:
"Your Eminence, do you know the origins of that demon seed?"
He cast his gaze toward the low wall built of flour sacks, behind which lay the demon seed.
The Cardinal shook his head.
"Could it be a Dominator-level item? Perhaps a prop of some kind?" Zhang Yuanqing probed while manipulating the Cardinal's emotions to coax candor from him.
He figured that encountering a dungeon set in the year 1900 and coming into contact with spirit realm walkers of the Holy See was a rare opportunity he could not let slip without gathering intelligence.
Still recovering from severe injuries and in a weakened state, this Cardinal was ripe for "bewitching."
The Cardinal remained silent for a few seconds before saying in an exceptionally grave tone, "I do not know what it is, nor do I know where it came from. According to the prophecy of the Compass of Light, the celestial object that sank into the southern seas possesses the terrifying power to destroy the world. His Holiness the Pope views this with utmost gravity, which is why he dispatched me to handle it."
"The Compass of Light? Did you just say the Compass of Light?" Zhang Yuanqing blurted out.
The Cardinal was taken aback by his reaction, not understanding why he was so shocked. "The Compass of Light is a sacred relic of the Holy See, standing alongside the Bathing Pool and the Sacred Plate as our three great sacred relics."
*The Compass of Light is actually a sacred relic of the Holy See? The President said the Compass of Light was thrown into play by the Covenant of Freedom to advance the factional conflict, and it was the Covenant of Freedom that destroyed the Holy See.*
*So, that's how the Covenant of Freedom got their hands on the Compass of Light?*
*Wait, I remember the President also said that a spirit realm walker brought the Compass of Light out of a dungeon by chance? Well, back then, my relationship with the President was just ordinary; what he said might not have been the truth.*
Zhang Yuanqing stopped dwelling on the origins of the Compass of Light and focused instead on the prophecy mentioned by the Cardinal:
"Since the Compass of Light prophesied that the demon seed could destroy the world, why did the Holy See only dispatch Your Eminence out to sea?"
Even if the Pope did not come personally, they should have sent a Dominator.
Moreover, the Thriller Cruise dungeon truly had hidden lore. The demon seed was indeed far from simple—after all, the Compass of Light was a rule-based item of supreme standing.
The Cardinal caught the slight in Lieutenant Stephen's words and frowned:
"My level and standing are second only to the Pope and the Paladin. Even across the entire Spirit Realm, I rank in the top five. What is wrong with dispatching me to handle a celestial meteorite?"
*I almost forgot. In 1900, the First District had only been open for sixteen years. Back then, there were no comprehensive dungeon walkthroughs; spirit realm walkers leveled up slowly and suffered high mortality rates. It makes sense that a peak Saint could be the Holy See's third-in-command.*
*However, I remember the Holy See fell during World War I. In other words, in another fourteen to eighteen years, the Holy See would produce three demigods. That's remarkably fast development...*
*It's understandable that the Holy See developed rapidly, given that it's a major organization with legacy and heritage. But why did the evil faction, especially the Covenant of Freedom, develop so fast too?*
*A major organization with three demigods, just thirty years after the Spirit Realm opened—how did they pull that off?*
Countless thoughts flashed through Zhang Yuanqing's mind in an instant.
"What level of spirit realm walker is the Pope? And the Paladin?" Zhang Yuanqing asked.
"His Holiness is the greatest in the world, Level 9. The Paladin is Level 8," the Cardinal answered, his tone filled with reverent awe.
"Did the Pope obtain the Compass of Light in the Spirit Realm?" Zhang Yuanqing asked.
The Cardinal shook his head. "The prophetic power of the Compass of Light does not belong to any known class. It is a treasure passed down from antiquity, preserved all along in the Holy See's treasury."
"Where is the Holy See's treasury?" Zhang Yuanqing's spirits lifted.
The Cardinal looked at him strangely. "Anyone who leaks the location of the treasury cannot enter Heaven after death. Do you truly think I would tell you?"
*Lieutenant Stephen's mind is still not quite right. To ask about such a secret with such brazen confidence.*
"You won't go to Heaven after death; you'll only enter the Spirit Realm. Just like now," Zhang Yuanqing muttered snarkily.
Yet the Cardinal, his cognition warped, automatically glossed over the earth-shattering secret revealed in those words.
Believing Lieutenant Stephen was still suffering from mental instability, the Cardinal ignored him. Zhang Yuanqing said no more, quietly intensifying his emotional guidance.
A few minutes later, the Cardinal let out a sigh:
"I suppose I can tell you. No one knows the location of the Holy See's treasury, for it is recorded only on a map. Wherever the map shows it to be, that is where it is."
"What does that mean?" Neither Zhang Yuanqing nor Commandery Princess Yinyao caught the sense of it.
"According to the Pope, the location of the treasury shifts periodically. Only by following the map's guidance can the treasury be found," the Cardinal explained.
"Where is the map?" Zhang Yuanqing asked smoothly, silently reinforcing his emotional guidance.
"Guarded by successive generations of Paladins," the Cardinal said.
*Guarded by successive Paladins? But the Knights have already been wiped out...* Disappointment washed over Zhang Yuanqing, but quickly, he thought of that punchable sole-inheritor Knight.
*The treasure map is kept by successive Paladins... I think I know why that surviving Knight went to such lengths to keep the Knight heritage alive!*
*The treasure map is in the sole-inheritor Knight's hands—or at least, he knows where it is.*
*Once I'm out of the dungeon, I have to find a chance to get in touch with that sole-inheritor Knight again,* Zhang Yuanqing thought.
He was also curious about another matter: according to the dungeon introduction, the Petrel mysteriously vanished during its mission in 1900, never to be heard from again.
If the Petrel's disappearance truly happened in history, where did the demon seed go?
What happened next?
He was intensely curious about the demon seed's whereabouts, because in the Compass of Light's prophecy, it possessed the power to destroy the world.
*Once I leave the dungeon, I'll use Heaven's Punishment's channels to investigate,* Zhang Yuanqing thought.
In the days that followed, Zhang Yuanqing quietly circulated the Pure Yang Body Cleansing Record and was no longer corrupted by the demon seed, nor did he hear those terrifying whispers.
Once dawn broke, he practiced the Pure Yang Body Cleansing Record right away, and with the cleansing effect of the hexagram circle, he passed the day without incident.
During that time, he constantly struck up conversations with the Cardinal to pry for information about the Holy See. However, as the Cardinal's condition improved, manipulating his emotions grew increasingly difficult.
By the third day, the Cardinal flatly refused to chat with him.
By the fourth day, the Cardinal simply stopped speaking to him altogether, standing guard beside the circle alongside the two knights to prevent Lieutenant Stephen from losing control.
On the fifth day, Zhang Yuanqing's Pure Yang Body Cleansing Record returned to its peak. The demon seed's whispers dwindled to an irritating, restless buzzing that could no longer twist his cognition.
Late that night, with less than an hour remaining before he was to leave the Spirit Realm, Zhang Yuanqing returned to the captain's quarters to retrieve the coffin. Returning to the bottom hold, he skirted behind the "low wall" and saw the true face of the demon seed for the first time.
Just as described in Stephen's journal, it was a five-meter-tall giant egg of dark brown hue, its surface covered in pores and raised blood vessels that pulsed sluggishly.
It stood silently beneath a massive hexagram circle, constantly enduring the purification of runic power.
*I wonder if this thing can be taken away. Is the demon seed the genuine article, or a replica created by the Spirit Realm? If it's the real deal and I bring it back to the real world, wouldn't that fulfill the Compass of Light's prophecy and bring a catastrophic disaster upon reality?*
Zhang Yuanqing pondered for a long time before deciding not to court death. Better to clear the mission first and see what rewards this S-rank dungeon would yield.
In any case, the main quest was to survive for five days, not to unseal the demon seed or eliminate the Orderly classes on the cruise ship.
Time ticked by, second by second. Just past midnight, a chime from the Spirit Realm rang out beside Zhang Yuanqing's ear:
[Ding! Congratulations on completing the solo Spirit Realm mission—Thriller Cruise. Difficulty rating: S. Calculating rewards...]
Chapter 712