Silver Lantern

The gunshot did not dampen the revelry in the camp in the slightest. The cultists grew even more frenzied, their reckless, manic laughter seemingly keeping even the dark from daring to step closer. "Is she dead?" At a corner of the hospital building, Sally used a floating mirror condensed from water vapor to observe the top-floor office. She knew how much importance Touch attached to this purge. Not only had he deployed her, a member of the Four Pillar Praetorians, but in his pursuit of speed, Touch had actually expended the last use of his spatial gate quota to teleport her instantly from the Crow Slaughter Zone to the Calamitous Fire Zone. Because of that, even though the target was already torn to pieces, Sally did not relax her vigilance in the slightest. According to Touch, the target was supposed to be merely a Two-Winged Sorcerer, with a slight chance of being a Sanctuary Sorcerer. But whether she had a Sanctuary or not, it was impossible for her to withstand a single shot from Sally—after all, that was the Extinction Sniper Rifle loaded with a Saint-Breaking bullet. In modern Senluo Land, the number of gun sorcerers was pitifully small. Guns from the Grey Fox Divine Era all had identity verification features, and after the Cataclysm caused all factory production lines to collapse, the various factions could at most manufacture crude bird-guns with terrible accuracy—worse than using bows and arrows. Yet conversely, the gun sorcerers active on Senluo Land today were terrifying without exception, because every single one of them had stepped onto this sorcerous path through the sheer fortune of acquiring Grey Fox firearms. Sally had previously belonged to the Mist Extinction Sect, following the Grand Law of Extinction Mist. Her coming-of-age ritual had involved touching the Grey Fox firearm enshrined within the sect, which offered a minuscule chance of passing the Grey Fox's identity authentication—and she was the only one to succeed in the past ten years. As she rose to prominence, the Mist Extinction Sect expanded its domain alongside her, until the Grand Law of Extinction Mist completely dissipated. Only then did she and her Extinction Sniper Rifle turn to follow Touch. The power of the Extinction Sniper Rifle was beyond doubt. Even without the empowerment of a sorcery spirit, its immense kinetic force was sufficient to pierce through any building within a thousand meters. On top of that, Sally had used a Saint-Breaking bullet—ammunition designed to accompany the Extinction Sniper Rifle that would unleash spatial turbulence upon colliding with a Sanctuary, ripping it apart. She only had three such bullets left. Even though she was only a Two-Winged gun sorcerer, she had already sniped and killed three Sanctuary Sorcerers using this set of equipment. In Senluo, the most dangerous sorcerers were not Sanctuaries, nor even Legends, but legacy sorcerers—sorcerers who inherited the legacy of the divine era! Through her Light-Sound Prism, Sally watched the other two assassins enter the office. Neither of them was a cultist from the Calamitous Fire Zone; they were the Chief Priests of the Rotating Light Zone and the Ice Breaking Zone, both Sanctuary Sorcerers. To purge a traitor who might not even be a Sanctuary herself, Touch had dispatched three Sanctuary-level combatants. "Great Mercury Trojan," Sally murmured, "the good follow you, the evil adore you..." Meanwhile, in the hospital's top-floor office, the two chief priests crept soundlessly toward the headless corpse. Both of their bodies were wrapped in Sanctuaries, their hands gripping their respective weapons, fully prepared in case the target's corpse suddenly sprang to life. They had no choice but to be nervous; even within the Four Pillar Cult, the target was among the first tier of powerhouses. The vast majority of believers capable of hosting a grand law would never surrender; they would fight the Four Pillar Cult to the death, preferring to drown holding on to their ideals. Yet this target could not only host a grand law, but host multiple grand laws at once, and through this had even attained the blessing of the Four Pillar Gods—a privilege not even Touch enjoyed. Regardless of how weak her physical body might be, her ability to host grand laws gave her combat prowess rivaling that of a Legendary Sorcerer. How could the two chief priests let their guards down? They monitored not only the corpse, but also the movements of the grand laws with great tension. Yet the grand laws seemed entirely indifferent to the death of their host. The Little Flame White Tiger hopped onto the desk and paced around, while the rabbit, lizard, and snake watched them quietly, as if saying, 'Make yourselves at home.' The chief priests sighed with relief. Because the target was skilled in directing grand laws, they had worried the grand laws might defend their master or seek vengeance. Grand laws differed from sorcery spirits; sorcery spirits could be easily crushed, but a grand law would not dissipate until its source was exhausted. Even the most formidable grand law, however, required a God-Hosting Ceremony to unleash its might. So long as the target was dead, even if the grand laws wanted revenge, the most they could do was knead their laps like housecats. When the distance between them and the target closed to within three paces, both attacked at once. Fist wind and moonlight obliterated the target along with her chair into fine powder! Amid the bursting mist of blood, the pair saw four cards flutter down, completely undamaged. They fixed their eyes on the cards, instinctively exchanging a glance. Dragon Gate Array shopping cards from the Grey Fox Divine Era! As long as one used these shopping cards to locate a Grey Fox store, one could claim a Grey Fox legacy! Yet they quickly realized another problem—Sally the sniper had surely seen this as well. Their devotion to the Four Pillar Gods suppressed their fleeting greed; immediately abandoning their weak avarice, they stood in the pool of blood to carefully inspect the other items in the desk. "Speaking of which, what was her name?" the Chief Priest of Rotating Light suddenly realized. "She was clearly the Chief Priest of the Calamitous Fire Zone, yet I've never heard her name mentioned..." "She has no name," the Chief Priest of Ice Breaking replied. "No name?" "She used to be the Saintess of Calamitous Fire. After emerging from the Silent Spiral, she mastered a miracle that concealed her name, allowing her to evade most detection miracles. Furthermore, she never gave herself a codename, nor did she ever respond to any title anyone used for her. She is a nameless one through and through." "How do you know this so clearly?" "My former sect was hostile toward the Holy Temple of Calamitous Fire. When she appeared as their Saintess, I attempted to assassinate her several times, but she evaded me every single time for one reason or another. In battle, she never left survivors and always managed to ambush our units. Step by step, our sect's vital forces were whittled away by her. In the end, the Holy Temple of Calamitous Fire launched a direct assault on us; our grand law faded, and our sect was wiped out," the Chief Priest of Ice Breaking recounted. "At that time, the Four Pillar Cult took me in. Harboring deep resentment, I devised strategies for Touch, hoping that one day we could bring down the Holy Temple of Calamitous Fire. And yet..." The Chief Priest of Rotating Light understood his complicated feelings: the Holy Temple of Calamitous Fire had indeed been destroyed, but it had nothing to do with him. The very enemy who had caused him endless misery had turned around, become his colleague, far surpassed him in power, and even enjoyed greater favor from the Four Pillar Gods than he did. Perhaps that was why Touch had dispatched him... The Chief Priest of Rotating Light continued asking, "Still, you had to call her something, right? Did you just refer to her as 'that person,' 'that woman,' or 'she'?" The Chief Priest of Ice Breaking nodded. "More or less. Because she once followed the Grand Law of Dust Calamitous Fire, we referred to her as the 'Saintess of Dust Calamitous Fire.' Later, when she joined the Four Pillar Cult and the Holy Temple of Calamitous Fire stripped her of her family name, we called her the Silver Lantern Saintess." "The Silver Lantern Saintess?" "In the Holy Temple of Calamitous Fire, holy sons are called Golden Lanterns, and saintesses are called Silver Lanterns. But there were multiple holy sons and saintesses of Calamitous Fire; the title was not exclusive to her." The Chief Priest of Ice Breaking paused, then suddenly chuckled. "Yet now, all the holy sons and saintesses of Calamitous Fire have been slaughtered by her hand. She was the sole remaining Silver Lantern Saintess—and she is about to reunite in the Void Realm with the companions she betrayed." *Whoosh.* A chill abruptly crept up the spines of the two chief priests, penetrating straight through their bodies. They looked down and saw hands of blue flame thrust through their chests. Their blood froze into scarlet ice, and freezing fire spread through their blood vessels into every corner of their bodies, frosting over their very eyeballs! It was too late to deploy their Sanctuaries now; a Sanctuary could not protect the inside of a body! *How is this possible?* They had personally shredded the target into pieces. Unless it was the legendary miracle of the time faction, Localized Time Reversal, or the ascetic faction's mythical Rebirth from a Drop of Blood, it was impossible to resurrect after being turned into a splatter of bloody mist— *Bloody mist?* Their vision blurred. They realized the floor and desk were clean as new, without a speck of blood or gore. How was that possible? Where was the gore from her shattered head? Where was the blood splattered when they ripped her apart just now? They blinked and discovered that what they had taken for blood was merely wood grain, shadows, and the pattern of the floor tiles. Why had they suffered such an illusion? "I don't particularly care for the title of Saintess. If you insist on calling me something," her voice sounded slightly distorted, "you may call me Silver Lantern." "Never mind, you'd better forget it. I don't want information about me appearing in your sorcerer manuals." The two chief priests turned their heads with immense difficulty, finding a figure made of blue flame standing behind them. ... ... The Grand Law of Dust Calamitous Fire! Sally's heart sank. Through the Light-Sound Prism, she watched a mass of blue flame suddenly emerge from the floor, piercing through the backs of the two chief priests in an instant before they could even deploy their Sanctuaries! This blue flame undoubtedly came from the Grand Law of Dust Calamitous Fire. When had the target hosted the Grand Law of Dust Calamitous Fire? Besides, the Grand Law of Dust Calamitous Fire couldn't bring someone back to life after their head was blown off, could it? Wait—Sally suddenly remembered that she seemed to have seen the Grand Law of Dust Calamitous Fire before! That blue-flame squirrel! Yet the blue-flame squirrel had clearly been elsewhere in the office, not hosted within the target's body. What was going on— Sally froze. She looked closely through the Refraction Prism, confirming that only the flame white tiger, rabbit, lizard, and snake were in the office. The squirrel that had been there just moments ago was nowhere to be seen. A human could not survive having their head blown apart; the soul would swiftly sink into Hell... An ordinary sorcerer could not be reborn from a drop of blood either, but for a grand law, so long as its source wasn't exhausted, it could recover instantly... Right then, Sally felt the Extinction Sniper Rifle grow slightly heavy. She looked down and saw a squirrel pressing down on the barrel of her rifle. In a daze, she saw the squirrel transform into an unfamiliar young woman wearing spectacles. Though she had never seen her before, and her features were entirely different from the intelligence files, Sally knew that this was her assassination target, the nameless one... or, by the name she had just chosen for herself, Silver Lantern! Silver Lantern pushed the rifle's muzzle aside with her right hand and clamped her left around Sally's throat, her eyes as calm as a placid lake. Sally finally understood the secret behind this trick. "You turned the grand law... into an avatar?!" "Do not panic," Silver Lantern said flatly. "Compared to the peace of the Void Realm, reality is but a fleeting moment of pain. When you return to eternity, you will realize that everything was an illusion." Sally struggled with all her might, but Silver Lantern's hand gripped her throat like a vise. She forced a few words out from her windpipe: "Mercury Trojan..." "Actually, I was also considering whether to break away from the Four Pillar Cult. Thank Touch for helping me make up my mind." *Boom!* Suddenly, an explosion rang through the night sky. Silver Lantern turned her head and saw chunks of stone blasted out from the distant hospital's outer wall. Though it was hard to see clearly in the dark, she remembered that location seemed to be... the cell holding those otherworld travelers.