Chapter 61
Lu Chuan drank the so-called divine blood, and at once the game system’s prompt rang in his ears:
[Player “Arrival of the God of Wealth” has consumed God-Slave’s Blood. Buff stacking in progress…]
[Buff stacking failed]
[God-Slave’s Blood conflicted with Divine Mark. The former has been devoured. Effect nullified.]
Lu Chuan blinked, stunned.
“System, you didn’t activate the God of Wealth’s coins, did you?”
[No, Host. I didn’t. It seems this thing simply has no effect on you.] #888 also heard the prompt and immediately grew furious. [That damned bishop dared make you drink God-Slave’s Blood? This is a direct insult to our God of Wealth!]
Lu Chuan didn’t fully understand, but the name itself was already revealing.
#888 raged on: God-Slave’s Blood was the lowest-grade trash, a mixture of divine energy, the blood of fanatics, and alchemical reagents. Drinking it turned you into a slave—a consumable that stripped away free will.
At first you would obey your master unquestioningly. Then your self would be slowly eroded, until nothing remained but an empty shell.
The bishop feared Lu Chuan’s cunning and ambition but also couldn’t bear to lose him, so he resorted to this.
Unfortunately for him, what he hadn’t accounted for was that Lu Chuan wasn’t just any believer—he was a candidate for the God of Wealth, marked by the Executor himself. Compared to that, God-Slave’s Blood was laughably weak.
Good thing he hadn’t wasted a skill. If they’d burned money only to counter such garbage, #888 would’ve vomited blood out of sheer frustration.
“Wait a minute, System—so now the bishop thinks I’m his slave? That means no matter what I do, he’ll completely trust me, right? That whatever I do won’t ‘break character’?” Lu Chuan asked.
[In theory, yes.] #888 was cautious.
But Lu Chuan immediately began testing it.
“Bishop, today you are truly wise and mighty.” Lu Chuan spoke with a perfectly straight face.
Instead of taking offense, the bishop actually looked pleased. “From now on, you will swear loyalty only to me. Publicly, we cannot appear as allies. You will gather the dissenters in the church and give me their names. If you have ideas, bring them directly to me. Don’t bother currying favor with the god. Understood?”
“Yes.” Lu Chuan nodded solemnly. “Bishop, I believe we no longer lack money or manpower. What we need now is to form our own army.”
“You speak well. What do you propose?” The bishop, convinced now that Lu Chuan was bound by God-Slave’s Blood, no longer doubted him at all.
“We can recruit those knights rejected by other sects, or trainee knights. They’re already trained, ready-made fighters. They also understand other churches’ systems. Recruiting them would be the most efficient option.”
The only downside was the risk of spies.
But what church didn’t have spies? If nobody bothered sending infiltrators, that only meant your church was too weak to be worth the trouble.
“That’s a good idea… but loyalty would be a problem.” The bishop frowned. If only he had more God-Slave’s Blood—but this vial had supposedly been granted by Father God himself.
“As long as you recruit them personally, Bishop, and let them witness your sincerity and Father God’s power, loyalty won’t be an issue.” Lu Chuan smiled. “And if even that doesn’t work—what about the prisoners?”
“Hm?” The bishop narrowed his eyes. “You mean the captives from other churches?”
“Exactly.” Lu Chuan guessed that at least some of his teammates were imprisoned by rival sects. Now that indulgences were spreading, surely Shen Li and the others would realize where he was.
“Those prisoners’ own churches have never rescued them. If we step in, they’ll surely be grateful.” Lu Chuan said solemnly. “Small churches like ours should ally together against the big sects. Bishop, once we form an alliance, who else could be president but you?”
The bishop brightened immediately.
“Excellent, excellent! If we can unite the others, we won’t need to fear the great churches.” To him, the prospect of leading dozens or even hundreds of churches was far more intoxicating than ruling just one.
“It’s my duty to ease your burdens, Bishop.” Lu Chuan smiled. “If you’re too busy, hand the indulgence business fully to me. I promise I’ll bring you even greater wealth.”
“Very well.” The bishop nodded. “Tell me what people you need—I’ll give them to you. Do as you see fit.”
“Thank you, Bishop.” This time, Lu Chuan’s smile was more genuine.
Before, he’d skimmed a little profit off indulgence sales, but the bishop had been in charge, so he’d had to be discreet. Now that it was all entrusted to him, things were different.
Moving money from one pocket into another—did that even count as stealing?
If he’d known drinking some useless blood would’ve smoothed the way like this, he’d have asked for it sooner.
[Host, are you seriously making him alliance president?] 888 was still reluctant to let the bishop profit.
“As if. Gods are incompatible. Forming an alliance is courting death. I won’t even need to lift a finger. When he dies, I’ll raise the banner of vengeance in his name—it’s far easier than scheming to kill him myself. This dungeon may not have a time limit, but I know one thing: the longer it drags on, the faster the gods will revive. I can’t afford to waste time.” Lu Chuan grinned.
While he plotted his takeover, Shen Li finally managed to escape his cell.
Feigning illness and injury, he had lulled his guards into lowering their vigilance. After biding his time, he picked his shackles and slipped free.
His goal was clear: find the church selling indulgences, and through it, Lu Chuan.
Luckily, fortune was on his side.
Soon after escaping, he ran into Lilus.
“I was looking for my sister, but instead I found you.” Lilus was annoyed. He’d left coded marks around the city’s walls, hoping to regroup with teammates. The first to show up being Shen Li was not what he’d expected.
“Sorry, it’s just me.” Shen Li gave a wry smile. “This dungeon is huge. We’ve all been scattered into different places and identities. Have you seen any players from the righteous faction? The gods haven’t fully revived yet. We should eliminate the enemy side first.”
Though Shen Li disliked fighting fellow players, they had chosen opposing factions. It was kill or be killed—there was no middle ground. When one side won, the other would be erased by the system.
“I’ve spotted one.” Lilus nodded. “They seem to have gathered, with their own codes and methods of contact. I was planning to infiltrate by faking their signals. Given the game’s balance mechanics, the system should be feeding the righteous faction more intel.”
“What about Messiah?” Shen Li pressed on. “He should be the core of our mission this time. Have you noticed any trace of him?”
“You said it yourself—he’s the core. How could we find him so easily right now?” Lilus replied helplessly. “But there is some news.”
“Oh?” Shen Li waited curiously for him to continue.
“I’ve recently found out that the biggest church in this dungeon world, the [Church of Light], supposedly took in a ‘Holy Son’ many years ago and raised him. But that Holy Son has never appeared in public. No one knows his name or what he looks like. Some say he was born solely to be dedicated to the gods. I suspect, if Messiah has arrived, he’s very likely to end up becoming that Holy Son. Otherwise, who else could possibly be qualified to marry a god?”
Lilus had his own channels for gathering intel.
After figuring out his identity, he sought out the underworld gangs in this world and dug up related information. With half the same blood as NPCs and the ability to keep others from noticing him, extracting intel was a breeze.
“Lu Chuan’s situation is much easier to trace. In that [Omniscience] Church of his, he’s already either a bishop or vice-bishop—probably bishop in just a few days.” Lilus shrugged. “Also, from what I heard while tracking a player from the Pro-God, a few of their people got eliminated, and they still don’t know how. I think it was my sister’s doing.”
“As for that Starry Shasha in your church, she’s probably hidden herself too well. I haven’t been able to find any trace of her, same with Edith—too steady and cautious, nothing leaks out.”
Shen Li couldn’t help but feel impressed.
No wonder this guy was ranked fourth on the newcomer leaderboard—his skills were on a different level.
He himself had only just broken out of prison, while Lilus had nearly completed his intel gathering.
The poor Pro-God players… running into opponents like this was really unlucky.
Meanwhile, on the Pro-God’s side—
“…We’ve got new intel. The mirror the system gave us just revealed the whereabouts of one of the Anti-God players. He should be nearby.” a Pro-God player reported.
“Seriously? Then let’s hurry up and eliminate him!”
“The sooner the better. We outnumber him—we can’t lose.”
“Silence!” The leader glared at his so-called geniuses, almost exploding with frustration. “Think for once! The game system is all about balance. The mirror doesn’t just help us gather intel—it even hands us the enemy’s location. Do you know what that means?”
“What?”
“That it means we’re going to win?”
“…It means the gap between us is so huge that the system has to cheat on our behalf just to even things out. Outnumbering them? If we don’t change our base right now, we’ll be the ones wiped out in one strike!”
Author’s Note:
Pro-God players: Exhausted [shattered] … Just what kind of monsters are we up against?
