Chapter 334 Blessings and Contingency Plans
9 is in a slightly better situation, but not much better. The cracks in its ribs are slowly repairing, but the residue from crystallization erosion has not been completely removed. The newly grown shell is thinner than before, and its body is barely filling the gaps with insufficient material.
J looked away. They needed time.
"Seed, please sprout soon..."
Just then, without warning, a faint green light suddenly appeared on the ring's body.
Light shone through the skin, spreading along the burn marks on half of the face, and something buried deep in the flesh was remotely activated.
At the same instant, the wound on 9's ribs also lit up, with green light seeping out from the gaps in the cloth strips, turning the wrapped white cloth a light green.
J paused, the bowl in his hand still.
His gaze instantly froze on the light emanating from the ring.
Jie opened his eyes, looked down and saw the green glow seeping from his body, and his expression changed.
Q stood up from the window and was already walking towards the door.
J doesn't need anyone to explain; there's only one person in Bronze City who could leave a green glow on Ring and 9!
Klaus came knocking!
J gently placed the bowl on the counter and got up quickly but calmly.
"It's too late, prepare to break out."
His voice was very low and flat.
Jie sat up from the corner, coughed, his breathing fluctuated violently, but then gradually became stable, and his skin began to shimmer.
9 had already stood up straight, withdrawing his hand from the ground's texture, and his chitinous skin began to turn a deeper grayish-white.
J glanced at the ritual area; the seeds were still suspended, the wooden structures were still kneeling in worship, and the dark patterns were still faintly glowing. The ritual had not stopped.
Without hesitation, the black liquid gushed from his sleeve, spreading rapidly along the ground, enveloping the suspended seeds and the textured base at the bottom, then rolled back and trailed behind him.
"Take your things and let's go."
Outside the workshop.
The tracking crystal in Klaus's hand emitted a steady green light, the beam of light precisely pointing to the stone building a hundred meters away.
At the same time, the crowd instantly surrounded it. Upon closer inspection, a very faint sound could be heard from inside, and an aura was gradually rising.
They obviously discovered it too.
Klaus didn't rush in.
He lowered his voice and spoke.
"Whoever comes out will be arrested."
His gaze swept over the formation behind him, and he spoke slowly but clearly, each word distinct.
"Jie and 9 are injured, don't give them time to recover. J is the slipperyest, you can ignore him."
Rex responded from behind, "Mm."
Klaus nodded and glanced at Lu Yuan.
"Don't get too close."
"Understood." Lu Yuan's reply was brief.
Just as Klaus was about to raise his hand to give the order, a calm voice came from behind him.
"Hold on."
Adrian, dressed in a plain dark gray coat, stepped forward from three paces away, his face kind and his tone unhurried. "Hang some things first, don't rush to your death."
Klaus paused for a moment, then nodded. "Thank you for your trouble, Archbishop."
Adrian didn't say anything more, and raised his hand.
Golden light slowly emanated from his palm, flowing upwards along his arm, seeping into the fabric of his dark gray coat, and then overflowing from the collar and cuffs.
A book of scriptures rose from his chest.
The bronze cover was worn at the corners, giving it an old appearance. The book opened by itself, the pages turning slowly in the windless night, the densely packed scriptures beginning to glow.
Golden light emanated from every page of the scripture, spreading outwards and enveloping Klaus, Lu Yuan, Rex, and everyone behind them.
Grayish-white text appeared one after another at the edge of Lu Yuan's field of vision.
You have received the blessing of angels.
You are protected by angels.
You have received the attention of angels.
[Your rationality, resistance to strange phenomena, and physical attributes have been moderately enhanced. You have gained the favor of the light, and for a short period of time, you will be significantly less susceptible to the effects of pollution.]
Three notifications appeared simultaneously.
A warm power seeped into his body from the surface, spreading along his blood vessels to his limbs. The last time Lu Yuan felt something similar was in the underground rotunda of the Tower of Learning, during the collective blessing outside the church. That time, the gray text jumped four lines, and his rationality increased by fifty points.
This time there was no prompt for a rational response, but the sensation was very close. I was wrapped in a warm shell that kept out the chill of the night and the oppressive feeling of the Bronze City inscriptions from the inside out.
Rick's reaction was the most obvious. His body, which had been slowly wriggling, accelerated the moment it was covered in golden light, and his activity level visibly increased.
Klaus's bone ring flashed with a dark green light.
Two afterimages appeared behind him.
After the last ambush in the narrow street, only one figure remained. It has recovered in the past few days, with two afterimages staggered one after the other, their outlines blurred, looking as if they might dissipate at any moment.
The bone ring began to deform, the withered bone-colored material extending and expanding along the fingers, condensing into a withered bone-colored longsword in the palm. Green light spread along the spine of the sword. Unlike the bone blade in the narrow street last time, this time it was a complete sword shape, more than twice as long as the short blade.
Klaus gripped the bone sword and looked at the stone building.
"The rats."
His tone carried a chill that traveled far in the empty night.
"Are you still hiding?"
Lu Yuan stood not far to the right rear of Klaus, his gaze shifting from Klaus to his left.
Margaret.
He no longer carried the supply list in his arms, and his face no longer looked tired.
Her aura erupted at that moment, and a light blue light emerged from her body, condensing into the outline of armor.
Something liquid flowed across the body and then solidified, covering the shoulders, forearms, and chest.
A large amount of water vapor rose from around her body, spreading into the night, carrying a salty smell.
The person standing next to him now is completely different from that Margaret.
[Target for detection: Margaret (Mysterious and Extraordinary) (Special)]
Humans with special physical characteristics seem to be favored by the sea, bound to some peculiar and mysterious entity within its depths.
Upon seeing this long string of prompts, Lu Yuan couldn't help but take a few more steps back.
With her unique physique and strange abilities, it's no wonder Klaus said she was very strong.
Rex stood at the back, his tendrils already beginning to spread. Clearly, Gray Contract was waiting in the shadows, and so was Klaus.
The count's squire stood to the right, this time armed with a narrow-bladed longsword, which was already half-drawn. His aura erupted at that moment, a purple light enveloping his entire body, spreading from his feet to his shoulders.
The path and Klaus's dark green are somewhat similar.
The moment the purple light burst forth, a wisp of white smoke rose from the darkness in the distance.
The two hooded figures silently moved forward two steps from the shadows, following closely behind Klaus.
His hood was pulled low, obscuring his face, and his aura was extremely restrained, yet his presence was no less than that of any of the fourth-tier individuals present.
Lu Yuan silently took a few more steps back.
"Yeah, just take a look for yourself."
The Gray Contract Society did not wait for Klaus to make a move first.
A dull cracking sound came from inside the workshop.
It was a woman's figure, clearly Jie. She took out a small object from her bosom. Lu Yuan couldn't see what it was, but he could feel a short, sharp fluctuation of energy spreading from inside the building.
The next moment, the inscriptions on the entire bronze city were activated.
The inscriptions on the inner city walls began to emit a faint blue light, which spread outwards in concentric circles from the nearest wall, along the outer walls of the stone buildings, the walls on both sides of the street, and the rooftops in the distance.
The oppressive atmosphere of the city suddenly descended.
The air grew heavy, and every breath was more difficult than usual. Lu Yuan could feel it; an invisible pressure was squeezing in from all directions, just like the feeling he had when he watched Klaus being suppressed in the narrow street last time.
It is the suppression of extraordinary beings by the Bronze City inscription.
Last time on the narrow street, it was this oppressive force that caused Klaus's bone blade to shorten, the afterimage to disappear, and his aura to drop rapidly.
The Gray Pact Society, on the other hand, was unaffected; they seemed to have some special means to circumvent the Bronze City's detection.
This was Jie's first move. She knew she was surrounded, but she also knew the inscriptions of the Bronze City would suppress her opponent. Daring to hide in the inner city was one of her trump cards.
The moment the dark blue inscriptions spread and suppressed our area.
It did not take effect.
Adrian's golden blessing light shone at the same moment the inscription suppression arrived.
The golden light and the dark blue light collided on the contact surface without making a sound. The golden light simply lay there steadily, suppressing and blocking the inscription from the outside.
Klaus's bone ring did not lose its luster.
The tentacles on Rick's body did not shrink.
The three layers of blessings on Lu Yuan's body heated up at the same time, spreading from his chest to his limbs, suppressing and isolating the inscriptions outside his body.
Lu Yuan suddenly understood why Klaus insisted on inviting people from the church; it wasn't just about having one more fourth-tier combatant. Without the Archbishop's blessing, the Bronze City's inscription suppression was the Gray Pact Society's home-field advantage.
A second wave of energy fluctuations emanated from inside the workshop.
Jie's expression changed. The moment the inscription suppression was neutralized by the golden light, she realized that the Bronze City card had been played in vain.
Without hesitation, her expression darkened, and she unleashed a powerful mental shockwave towards Klaus.
The wave of mental erosion spread out.
Lu Yuan was completely unaffected this time.
Last time on the street, Jie's rational impulses still managed to have some impact on Lu Yuan.
But this time, with the blessing of good fortune, Lu Yuan was not affected at all.
Looking at the other side, Lu Yuan already had a plan in mind. If the Gray Contract Society only had these cards to play, then they could keep them.
The Gray Pact went from making a move to failing in just a few seconds.
Inside the workshop, the armor of 9 began to coalesce. Grayish-white chitin spread along the arms and shoulders, while a constantly flowing black liquid gushed from the gaps in the armor.
J is already moving.
The moment Jie's two initial moves both failed, he completed his judgment.
He saw the faint green light on Jie and 9, clearly indicating that the last ambush had given Klaus the opportunity to plant the mark.
He saw the golden blessing; the church had intervened this time. He also saw purple light shining in from the side, indicating that the count's men were also present.