A secluded spot near the city wall.
Here lay a scattering of abandoned real estate developments, encompassing high-rise buildings and standalone villas alike.
Inside one of the villas.
"Lord Cardinal, everything has been arranged," someone whispered.
"I'll go take a look," An Qi said.
She headed downstairs into the basement. Bound by numerous branches were the corpses of twin teenage girls, their agonizing expressions in death frozen in time, kneeling in an attitude of prayer.
An Qi circled the two bodies, nodding in satisfaction.
"Death, fear, beauty, and a feast of souls—the Great Being will surely love it."
She stepped forward and raised her hand.
Flames sprang from her palm and descended upon the corpses.
Boom!
Instead of immediately consuming the bodies, the fire surged upward into midair, coalescing into a woman's head.
"My Cardinal, you summon me?" the woman's head spoke.
Delight flooded An Qi's face. Kneeling excitedly on the ground, she began, "O Great Being, this is a gift I have painstakingly prepared. Please accept this devout sacrificial offering."
The woman's head glanced toward the twin girls' corpses.
This was one of An Qi's little tricks to curry favor, something it had seen far too many times.
In the past...
It might have offered a few words of praise, comfortably enjoyed the two tender souls, and thought An Qi had done quite well.
However—
Things were different now.
Looking upon those carefully posed corpses with a fresh perspective, it couldn't help sensing an indescribable pettiness.
A mere two souls.
And it required so much fuss and fanfare?
Ye Huan's words echoed in its ears once more.
"Please believe in my noble character... The number of souls I offer in each ritual is the measure of my character."
Character.
Just how much character was that again?
"Something suddenly came to mind," the woman's head murmured in contemplation.
"What did you recall, Great Being? Might we be honored to hear it?" An Qi asked reverently.
"Back when you held that sacrifice of three hundred souls, a hundred and fifty-six of them were contributed from the ritual in the mining area," the woman's head said.
"That is indeed so," An Qi replied with a smile.
"In that ritual, wasn't Ye Huan also responsible for part of the credit?" the woman's head asked.
"If he had been counted back then, it would have been one hundred and fifty-seven souls. Pity he didn't die," An Qi replied, her smile growing somewhat strained.
The woman's head sank into deep thought.
Character.
Humans placed great importance on measuring a person by their character, and that truly made quite a bit of sense.
Looking at the cult's growth from this angle—
An Qi had stolen credit many times before, but within the cult, such internal rivalry was commonplace.
Her character...
Those hundred-odd souls that truly belonged to her had taken a long time to amass.
Yet that single incident in the mine had yielded the other half all at once.
And it was tied to Ye Huan.
In fact, Ye Huan had claimed the lion's share of the achievement.
After that...
An Qi became a Cardinal, and her character underwent a qualitative leap from before.
She grew increasingly noble.
And yet!
The overall character of the entire cult had not changed at all!
This proved that she had simply taken the cult's soul count and claimed it entirely as her own.
There was nothing inherently wrong with that.
Humans were selfish creatures by nature.
Yet she brought no change to the cult, failing to expand the total harvest of sacrificed souls.
That was a dereliction of duty.
Looking at the other side, however...
Ever since it accepted Ye Huan, his sacrifices had grown grander and more magnificent with each passing ritual.
The first was three souls.
The second swelled to a hundred and twenty-eight, and the spiritual potency of those assassins had been thoroughly satisfying.
The third was currently underway.
It had already fed to its heart's content and harbored immense anticipation for what he would do next.
Anything else could be faked.
Souls never lied!
—If he truly possessed such character, then he was a natural born to achieve greatness!
He deserved to be placed in an important post!
Luosha had an exceptionally close relationship with him.
A Holy Maiden paired with a ritual executor of noble character might very well usher in a brand-new era for the cult.
When that time came, whoever it wished to devour would be branded as the evil shunned by humanity—
And it would stand as the very embodiment of justice.
Heh. Humans truly were incomprehensible creatures.
"O Great Being!"
An Qi suddenly called out, breaking its train of thought.
The woman's head looked down.
An Qi had produced a crimson cloak.
"The Cardinal's bloody cloak... Why have you brought it out?" the woman's head asked.
An Qi knelt on both knees and said respectfully, "I remember you said that whenever I use this cloak, you will grant me one request."
The woman's head gazed at her.
That ceremony had merely been a performance for the cultists in attendance to observe.
You actually intend to use it?
"Speak, then. What is it?" the woman's head asked.
Under that piercing gaze, An Qi felt her skin crawl, yet she gritted her teeth, bowed her head, and spoke with deference:
"I dispatched all our elites and have no hands left to prevent Ye Huan's assault on the cult. Please, severely punish Ye Huan!"
The woman's head watched her, hesitating for several breaths before speaking: "Since you have used the bloody cloak, very well. As you wish."
With those words, the woman's head dissolved back into flames and vanished without a trace.
Inside the basement, only An Qi and her attendants remained.
"Congratulations, Cardinal! You have attained your wish!"
"That kid is dead for sure!"
The attendants stepped forward, showering her with flattery.
An Qi's face, however, turned deathly pale.
The corpses of the twin sisters were still where they lay!
The Great Being had departed without even touching her sacrifice.
This was unprecedented.
What should she do now?
After a few moments of silence, An Qi ordered, "Go find the assassin syndicate. Tell them I wish to speak directly with their leadership."
"Yes, Lord Cardinal," an attendant responded respectfully.
...
Ye Huan shuffled his feet, slowly making his way over to the two young boys, and crouched down.
He inspected them carefully.
Uninjured.
Thank goodness.
Soon, several familiar figures clad in investigator uniforms emerged from around the factory.
His colleagues had finally arrived.
Ye Huan let out a long breath, slumped to the ground, and fell flat on his back.
He didn't want to lift a single finger.
Only now did he realize that his clothes were completely drenched in cold sweat.
"Where are the cultists?" an investigator asked.
"All eliminated. But these two children are still tied up—they probably know a thing or two, so please help untie them. I'm exhausted to death," Ye Huan groaned.
The group looked around.
There were marks of scorching fire everywhere.
Whenever Black Tide cultists died, their bodies were consumed by raging flames.
—Both corpses and souls were claimed by the fiend.
However, their scattered personal belongings were still intact, sufficient to trace the original identities of each person.
There was no mistaking it.
So now, all that remained was rescuing the children?
"Handing us such an easy piece of business—how are we supposed to write the report?" a middle-aged investigator asked with a chuckle.
"'Together, everyone rescued the hostages from the clutches of the cultists'—just write it like that," Ye Huan replied.
"Works for me." The middle-aged investigator nodded.
Some stepped forward to examine the children's condition.
Others began collecting personal effects.
A few kindhearted colleagues even brought over a stretcher to carry Ye Huan.
At this moment.
A notification suddenly surfaced in Ye Huan's mind:
"You converted slaughter and terror into an executable operational workflow, winning the favor of the Great Being."
"You evaded An Qi's trap, avoided a falling-out with Luosha, and rescued two children in the process."
"Rating +2."
"Total Rating: +3."
Chapter 37