Chapter 269: Fought Each Other

Chapter 269: Getting Into It

After Neo and Taffman departed, Mr. Eisen arrived with a shovel slung across his back. He set it down first and produced a slip of paper containing three written lines.

The first line read: Lay down a formation here.

Mr. Eisen pocketed the note and began setting up the formation on the spot.

Once the formation was complete, Mr. Eisen opened the slip of paper a second time.

The second line read: Dig a hole and bury yourself in it.

Mr. Eisen picked up his shovel, dug a pit nearby, and buried himself inside, deliberately preserving the initial ring of sod so that after jumping into the hole, he could balance that patch of lawn right on top of his head.

He pulled out the note once more.

The third line read: Upon hearing keywords or synonyms like "This is the inner sanctum of the Palace of Yearning, outsiders are forbidden to trespass, forbidden to offend...", detonate the formation.

Mr. Eisen muttered these words to himself, then squatted down, completely concealing his form within the tall grass.

Every single step had been arranged beforehand; he only needed to follow instructions. He quite fancied this manner of assigning tasks.

And so,

He truly remained in the dirt pit, absolutely motionless, his mouth merely repeating those keywords over and over.

...

"I've had enough, had enough, truly had enough of those damned Order bastards, those scumbags!!!"

"Aye, losing this war leaves such a suffocating bitterness in the chest. At the end of the day, they won by relying on a sneak attack. If both sides actually lined up for a proper battle, my Samsara wouldn't necessarily lose!"

"At the very least, it wouldn't have been such an easy victory for Order. Watching those Order folks these past few days makes them look like monkeys with tails attached behind them, tails cocked straight to the heavens, reeking of sheer arrogance."

"Haha, exactly. I swear, even my uncle's unwashed boots, left for years, don't smell as pungent as they do right now."

"All right, stop bickering. Since we've come out to play, just relax and unwind properly. Cast your troubles to the back of your mind for now. In the future, Samsara will still need us to hold up the sky."

"Yes, Captain Pat."

"The Captain is right."

Nearly twenty men, each walking into a red compartment, every stall separated by a curtain, containing a simple sofa bed inside.

After Pat walked in, he quickly stepped out again, producing a purple ticket to show the waiter at the door before heading up to the third floor.

A purple ticket wasn't considered terribly expensive for him, but openly buying twenty purple tickets for all his subordinates to go up to the third floor would have cost too high a price. He could only accompany them to the second floor first, then ascend to the third floor alone.

When he finished and came down later, he would have to be quick about it so they wouldn't notice, otherwise leadership would become difficult to maintain.

Arriving at the third floor and entering a private room, Pat walked over to the javelin launcher, aimed below, and selected a mermaid in the most central area.

Afterward, he sat back down at the edge of the bed, reaching up to tug twice at the collar of his divine robe.

Though he had maintained a calm and steady composure in front of his men earlier, the depression and fury in the depths of his heart were actually far higher than theirs.

His subordinates only had to endure the mockery and playfulness of the Order faction at the doors of the conference hall, whereas he had to bear the wrath of his superiors whenever he interacted with them.

The Church had clearly lost so miserably under the leadership of those higher-ups, and now they were forced to come here to beg for peace. Yet even when they wanted to fight for some shred of dignity through negotiations, they were threatened on the very first day by Order with a continuation of the war, thoroughly frightened into submission, and agreed to nearly every single clause.

How did they still have the nerve to lose their tempers, damn it!

Pat's mouth grew parched. He picked up the water on the nightstand, hesitated briefly, then opened the nightstand drawer, which held a box of red pills—medication meant to heighten a guest's interest and stamina.

He took one,

Took another,

And took a third,

Three in total, tossing them into his mouth and washing them down with water.

Moments later, a knock sounded at the door. Several waiters stood outside carrying a bathtub, within which rested a gentle and charming mermaid.

Pat was quite satisfied, his eyes flashing slightly bloodshot.

The bathtub was brought inside, and the waiters all departed.

The mermaid produced a vial of potion, inquiring with her gaze as to the guest's preference.

Pat shook his head and said, "Not yet."

Promptly, Pat drew a thousand Samsara vouchers from his wallet and tossed them into the bathtub. The vouchers were waterproof and wouldn't be ruined by soaking, while the wallet was carelessly tossed onto the nightstand.

Due to the Samsara Church's defeat in the war, the Samsara vouchers had depreciated by nearly half, and it was foreseeable that after the results of these negotiations were made public, the currency would slide even further.

Because the Samsara Church needed to pay war reparations to the Church of Order, the Church of Order naturally wouldn't allow them to pay in Samsara vouchers; they insisted on Order vouchers. To raise this money, the Samsara Church would surely sell off its own assets and materials on one hand, and inevitably over-issue Samsara vouchers on the other, plundering the wealth of their own church and the believers within their sphere of influence.

For this reason, Pat felt not the slightest sting of regret spending these thousand Samsara vouchers.

The mermaid blinked. She only knew that vouchers were worth a lot of money, but remained ignorant of the current exchange rates between different currencies.

Pat leaned down, his hands stroking across the mermaid's body, while the mermaid stretched her form as much as possible to serve her guest.

Right at that moment, a thin cord appeared in Pat's hand, instantly binding the mermaid's mouth. For a moment, the mermaid was bewildered, then instinctively assumed this was some eccentric preference of the guest before her.

But very quickly, she realized she was mistaken.

"Rip!"

"Rip!"

Pat tore two fish scales straight from the mermaid's tail, and fresh blood immediately flowed down her leg.

"Mmph! Mmph!"

The mermaid wanted to cry out from the pain, but with her mouth bound, she couldn't make any loud noise. Even if the waiters standing outside heard it, they would probably assume it was just standard sounds of service.

"Hahaha!"

Watching the mermaid's body twist in pain as her tears cascaded down, the fire of depression in Pat's heart received a measure of relief.

"Rip!"

"Rip!"

He continued tearing away scales. The mermaid ceaselessly begged Pat in her agony, hoping he would spare her, but Pat was right in the middle of his excitement, so how could he stop.

Who knew how much negative pressure had accumulated in his heart over these past days, and it desperately needed a release!

"Rip!"

"Rip!"

Scale after scale was forcibly ripped away by Pat until fresh blood dyed the bathtub red, while the smile on Pat's face grew increasingly savage.

He wasn't worried about what the owner of this theater might do to him. Even if the Samsara Church had lost to the Church of Order, Samsara remained an orthodox church, not something a small theater faction on Dark Moon Island could afford to provoke.

At worst, he would just pay some token vouchers in compensation later; they were becoming increasingly worthless anyway!

Pat continued to torment the mermaid. The more agonizing her pain, the more thrilled he became, his laughter growing more and more distorted.

"Does it hurt! It hurts, right! Let it hurt you to death, hahaha!"

The ugly side of human nature could be said to be entirely laid bare at this moment.

Just as Pat was losing himself, completely immersed in his cruelty, the room door was cracked open a sliver, and a hand reached inside, grasping the wallet left on the nightstand.

Right as this hand prepared to steal the wallet away, Pat suddenly felt a sensation and snapped his gaze toward the doorway, then let out a low growl, rushing forward to yank the door wide open. Standing at the threshold was a man wearing a snake-head mask.

With a sinister grin, Pat sneered, "To think someone actually dares steal from me, ha."

Neil's entire body began to tremble, his left hand still clutching the wallet while his right hand pulled out a small, battered dagger, brandishing it before Pat as his whole form quivered.

"Lowly dog-like creature, you are asking for death."

A sphere of grey light mist manifested in Pat's palm, but right at that moment, the thief in front of him suddenly lunged forward, swinging the dagger like a madman. Just as the grey light mist in Pat's palm was about to bind him, the thief managed to stay exactly one step ahead, slashing Pat's wrist with the dagger.

"Sss..."

Blood welled from Pat's wrist.

"Ahhh!"

Neil shrieked, hysterical in the way a thief behaves when caught red-handed.

"Go to hell!"

Pat let out a furious roar, his forehead flashing as a ghostly apparition materialized behind him, while a barrier manifested before him at the same time.

Seeing the ghostly apparition appear, the thief was utterly terrified out of his wits, flinging the dagger straight at Pat before turning to flee without looking back, wailing "wah-wah-wah" in the local dialect as he ran.

The dagger thrown "in a panic" naturally missed its mark and struck the wall.

Yet, the dagger ricocheted off the wall and plunged directly into Pat's thigh.

"..." Pat was speechless.

Even for a cleric on the combat pathway, unless they

"Good God, why did you have to hide with me!" Neo cursed, "Both of us are going to be exposed instantly like this!"

Neo’s previous leap and subsequent concealment had seized the very last window of opportunity, just as the guards had turned their attention to rush over here.

Tafman’s subsequent leap was executed almost at the exact moment the guards threw their gazes toward this spot, which was practically telling them someone was hiding here.

"This flowerbed has the densest cover," Tafman explained.

He wanted you exposed, after all.

"Heh," Neo laughed.

Hearing the laughter, Tafman suddenly realized one thing—he shouldn't have jumped here.

Sure enough, the Dark Moon guards were taken aback at first, but then, with an unspoken understanding, they refrained from surrounding this flowerbed because they saw their general jump into it.

Though the general wore plain clothes and a mask, they had seen him in this exact guise not long ago; though they did not know why he was doing this, they had no authority to intervene.

Instead, the Dark Moon guards blocked a group of Samsara people who had pursued them to this spot.

During this period, many members of the Samsara Church delegation had accumulated quite a bit of anger; putting aside those who had chased Neo all the way from the theater with the most primal and distinct hatred and rage, those who joined later had entered of their own accord upon hearing the commotion, looking for someone to vent their frustration on.

Tafman looked at Neo crouching in front of him; had he already discovered his true identity?

"A fight is about to break out, and once it does, we’ll seize the chance to go inside, open the coffin, and get the Covenant Conch."

"A fight won't break out."

The leading Dark Moon captain stepped forward and shouted, "This is a restricted area of our Dark Moon Island, no trespassing allowed, may I ask who you all..."

To be fair, this Dark Moon captain handled the situation quite appropriately; he had already recognized the spellcraft aura emanating from the crowd that had run over, and at this stage, the only ones on Dark Moon Island capable of gathering such a force were the people from the two orthodox churches staying at the Hotel Bernard.

The captain did not want to spark a conflict; he wanted to de-escalate the situation immediately and figure out what was going on.

But his words cut off right there;

In a nearby patch of grass, a man who had been crouching there motionless for ages slowly raised his head:

"Keyword!"

Over there, the Samsara priests who had chased all the way here had only just halted their steps; many were still catching their breath, and even more did not even know exactly who they were pursuing.

Then they heard the opposite side shout, "This is a restricted area of our Dark Moon Island, no trespassing allowed..."

"Boom!"

Beneath their feet, an explosion suddenly erupted!

This was an explosive formation personally laid down by a Justiciar of the Church of Order, successfully detonated at the most opportune moment.

In an instant, the bodies of several Samsara Church priests were blown to pieces, while even more were wounded and sent flying by the blast.

The situation descended into absolute chaos; under these circumstances, the Samsara people almost reflexively unleashed their spells, hurling them at the Dark Moon guards, who had no choice but to begin fighting back.

Neo turned his head to look at Tafman,

"Snap!"

He snapped his fingers:

"Tsk, it's on!"