Chapter 662: Insurance of Light

Chapter 662: The Insurance of Light

Thunder had always fallen from the heavens, but this time, the thunder rose from the earth.

The cleaver in Madam Tangli’s hand was truly just a kitchen knife she had snatched from her home, not some hidden sacred relic; her previous sharpening, rather than honing the blade, was more like using this method to grind away her own rusted state.

After all, she had not seriously fought for many years.

The effect of this downward slash was indeed astonishing.

The wrist of the giant hand was severed directly, and the hand, now detached from its body, began to annihilate after continuing to fall for a short distance.

An externalized manifestation like a dharma body was ultimately unlike a giant’s true body; it did not possess a constant value. Sometimes it could be indestructible, but at other times, it would appear incomparably weak.

The difference lay in whether your strength could break through the critical threshold it could endure; once broken, it was nothing but a pile of dregs.

A muffled groan echoed from the depths of the dark clouds. Clearly, the person inside had not expected that someone would forcibly enter the field at this moment and sever the hand that attempted to manipulate the situation.

"The children are fighting among themselves; standing far away to watch and shout should be enough, yet you actually dare to personally enter the field. Aren't you ashamed of yourself!

And also,

Are you bullying us for not having an adult on our side!"

Madam Tangli’s voice came out very thick and resonant, not a female voice. As she soared from the ground, her entire body was wrapped in red thunder, forming the most perfect open concealment.

To put it bluntly, in this suddenly initiated internal strife of the Order Holy Church, both sides maintained a certain amount of restraint. Even though they were doing things that drew blood on the edge of a blade, they still had not truly torn off their masks.

But this Guardian, forcing his hand when the defeat was already sealed, belonged to breaking this rule.

The one thing Madam Tangli could least accept was that she did not want Karen to look like he had no one behind him. Although his paternal grandfather was asleep, he still enjoyed the treatment of having the former High Priest as a bedside caregiver; his maternal grandmother, however, had always lived in the same city with him.

That person clearly did not intend to give up just like this. After one hand was severed, an eye soon manifested from the dark clouds, staring at Madam Tangli.

At the same time, a large area around Madam Tangli’s body began to boil invisibly. You did not move, but the environment around you suddenly became a huge pot being heated, strictly intending to treat you like an ant.

"What on earth gave you such arrogant courage to face me!"

Madam Tangli was truly angered into laughter. The kitchen knife in her hand spun rapidly, and then she raised both hands.

The next moment,

A giant dark-red blade shadow appeared behind her. Around the blade, negative emotions such as sadness, struggle, anger, and despair permeated, as if countless invisible fierce ghosts were roaming and roaring, venting unknown pain.

The Nightmare Blade gifted to Philomena was Madam Tangli’s former weapon. She had fused the tragic fate of her family into it. Originally a family blessed by the God of Eternity, they had been treated as pitiful pigs for almost an entire era.

Such suffering had never disappeared even until now, and her own biological son had also been reclusive for so many years because of the "curse" of the bloodline.

Because she had experienced it, she cherished the present exceptionally.

Madam Tangli’s eyes widened, her mouth opened, and a sharp shriek escaped her throat. In an instant, all the boiling heat that had gathered around her in an attempt to ignite was shattered and scattered.

This slash followed immediately.

A solid barrier had already formed, protecting the eye inside, but when this slash fell, the barrier distorted directly. It was resisting the entry of the blade, but its resistance was very limited.

"Snap!"

The blade still slashed onto the eye.

The eye quickly began to bloodshot. Immediately after, on this stretch of the sky, red and black began to rapidly merge and spin, finally exploding, forming a boundless radiance that showered down.

Madam Tangli panted slightly, yet she did not look very tired. It was more like after a warm-up, her bodily state was still in a rapid recovery.

Age was an unavoidable problem, and the decay of the body and soul was also a natural process.

When she was young, a group of people sat around a bonfire, and she had once lamented that she envied existences like the temple elders, who could delay the arrival of decay as much as possible.

Dis’s answer was: Temple elders will die, but they will not die of old age.

Tycheson, who always understood Dis very well, clearly shuddered upon hearing this.

Because in this sentence, the essence of the temple elders' existence was revealed—there was no process of aging, yet they would die. That death was a critical value that arrived suddenly one day, like being drained and directly evaporated.

Madam Tangli did not understand back then, and she did not understand now either, but she approved of what Dis said from another perspective.

Without the recollections of old age, the youth squandered when young would not appear so precious.

This was what life truly ought to look like.

"Come on, continue! Why play with a dharma body? Let your true body come over directly, and see if I will fear you!"

On the rooftop, Old Man Delong had already watched in fascination.

His character had been almost fixed since his youth—steady and rigid, just like the formation lines carved on a stone tablet, permitting not the slightest deviation.

And the most outrageous thing he had done in his life was to pursue his wife recklessly after meeting her.

He loved her; from the first time he saw her, he loved her beyond self-extrication.

This love even reached an extremely exaggerated degree. When he was willing to break away from the Order Holy Church and go with her to form a free and drifting companionship, she proactively threw the Nightmare Blade to him to let him seal it, saying she was tired and wanted stability.

In the world of emotions, when you begin to calculate the cost of investment, you have actually already lost.

If you find the right person, they will often remember your dedication. Therefore, in their half-lifetime together, Delong had never lost his temper at his wife; at home, his wife's status was number one.

The old man had always believed that she gave up a free and unconstrained life for him, so he could not let her suffer any grievance in marriage.

After all, they had been young, after all, they had been crazy. Watching his wife in the sky, Delong suddenly felt a bit of complaint in his heart. If he had known tonight was going to be such a big fuss, why didn't she give him more preparation time? It would have been so good if he had brought his materials and composedly set up a massive killing formation.

A voice came from above: "I have already remembered your aura. Standing on the opposite side of Order, I hope you can bear this consequence."

Madam Tangli flung the kitchen knife in her hand toward the sky, and the kitchen knife exploded directly above.

"Boom!"

It crushed those rambling words.

"Either fight straightforwardly, or get lost cleanly. Why talk so much nonsense!"

My whole family, except for myself, are Order clergymen, and I am standing on the opposite side of Order?

Then how devout must the people standing on the side of Order actually be!

Half a torso began to surface; clearly, the Guardian seemed to intend to take further action.

Madam Tangli cracked her neck. Above her head, red thunder was brewing; beneath her feet, electric snakes were gathering. Both sides began to raise the confrontation level together.

However, after the Guardian's phantom gathered halfway, it began to dissipate again.

The Guardian's phantom did not strike again, and the true body did not really appear. This was an internal struggle within Order. His previous strike was also just to return a favor, or rather, to keep this matter from completely spiraling out of control.

But now, the situation was clearly different. He could not bet everything on this, otherwise he would change from being reprimanded to being reassigned to those pioneering spaces, changing from a highly respected Guardian of the York City Region to a convict fighting and killing those powerful demons all day in the pioneering space.

In addition, when the Guardian's dharma body appeared, the two giants of this region issued inquiries respectively in their official capacities.

The inquiry letter sent by Chief Bishop Bern asked: What kind of crisis has the region encountered?

The inquiry letter sent by Regional Director Suse asked: Is it necessary for the Whip of Order to mobilize and assist?

The implication was: you have crossed the line. If you want to blow things up, fine, we will keep you company.

The beginning of the matter was Karen wanting to kill those people from the Desert Holy Church for revenge. First, he encountered forced intervention from a faction above, and immediately after, the fundamentalist faction led by Davins within this region also took action to intervene.

As the two powerful figures on the surface of the York City Region, resisting external intervention and intervention from the shadows was an instinct of theirs. They both rose to power by opposing the original local protectionist forces, but this did not prevent them from becoming the new local protectionist forces once they sat in this position.

Facing pressure from multiple sides, as well as this mysterious powerhouse who suddenly appeared before him, the Guardian could only choose to give up.

Seeing that the opponent would not strike again, Madam Tangli, who had just ignited her hot blood, felt a wave of regret. It had not been easy to catch an opportunity where she could convince herself to strike; she truly wanted to show off properly in front of her grandson. Now it was left in a rather awkward position.

Madam Tang Li's figure vanished from mid-air, returning to the rooftop.

Old man Delong immediately bustled over: "My darling, you've worked hard. Are you hurt? Do you want some water?"

Madam Tang Li turned her face, looked at her husband, and said: "After taking action this time, they will investigate me."

"Don't worry, my darling, your happiness is what matters most." Saying this, Delong patted his own chest. "They won't be able to investigate the bishop's wife either."

"What if they really do? Your position as bishop hasn't even warmed up yet."

"If they find out, they find out. Anyway, now that I've reached the bishop level, I'll just apply for direct retirement, enjoy the bishop's retirement benefits, take the pension, buy a boat with you, and we'll go on an ocean adventure."

"The children..."

"They are already grown up."

Madam Tang Li reached out to touch her husband's old face, remembering how, back in their youth, she used to tease him for being a pretty boy with this very gesture.

Now, this face was no longer tender, nor was it fair, feeling quite rough to the touch.

Growing old together sounded romantic, but in truth, it was a cruel thing; if affection fell short, watching the person beside you slowly age and step-by-step turn plain would only lead to mutual resentment.

Madam Tang Li shook her head and scolded: "Forget it, who cares to take an old man on an adventure? Save your breath."

...

Bernie had originally been echoing that giant hand meant to receive him, only to discover that the giant hand was severed directly, and subsequently, the struggle and stalemate from above all fell into his eyes, right up until the guardian finally chose to retreat.

This made Bernie clearly understand that not only had this mission failed, but he had also lost his chance to withdraw.

Were it someone else, they might have chosen to smash the pot completely, at worst making a final desperate gamble, fighting to the death to get it over with.

But Bernie was Bernie after all. Back when Karen borrowed the garrison knights to press upon the headquarters building, Karen had slapped him across the face in front of everyone and stabbed him once, and even that, he could endure, to say nothing of the present.

Furthermore, he noticed the flames on the verge of erupting from Neo's eyes and that terrifying, brewing breath of the forbidden... He had originally suspected Neo's identity, and now, he dared less than ever to expose it;

Some secrets, once revealed, meant that the next thing to be done was a silencing.

He also believed that unless driven to absolute extremity, Neo would not proactively expose the secret.

Bernie drew out those two wooden puppets once more, and two clusters of flame began to consume them.

In an instant, the giant trapped within the Black Prison Castle let out a wail, and the assassin who had been successfully dragged into a dream by Philomena also burst into flames.

When they enjoyed this high-intensity blessing, it was equivalent to opening up their soul defenses to Bernie; now, Bernie used practical action to prove that their prior wariness of him had indeed been extremely correct.

Accompanying the two wooden puppets burning into ashes, the souls of the giant and the assassin vanished along with them, leaving behind only their perfectly intact bodies.

Having finished this,

Bernie raised his hands and said:

"I surrender, I will cooperate and perform to give you a statement."

Immediately afterward, Bernie's pupils dilated sharply as a scene he had never in his wildest dreams anticipated occurred. Neo did not stay his hand because of his surrender, but instead condensed a cluster of blazing light-fire to form a high tower.

Aimed at Bernie, the Tower of Light suppressed him directly.

"You..."

Bernie's body was heavily smashed into the ground by the high tower, the earth began to crater, and the terrifying fire of light incinerated Bernie's body and soul.

Neo revealed a ferocious smile:

"Go to hell for me!"

Ultimately, carrying fury and unwillingness, Bernie's body and soul completely vanished beneath the radiance of the Tower of Light.

...

"A fine pair of corpses, but pity, they aren't qualified to lie in coffins."

"What?"

Alfred looked at Wick and smiled: "You cannot know that yet."

Just then, the appearance of the Tower of Light in the distance caused a look of astonishment to appear in the eyes of some of those present.

Wick spoke up: "I have never known how to handle him... He is a remnant of Light who came to seek refuge on his own, yet he is very powerful."

"You could state your thoughts more bluntly, for instance, you feel this powerful remnant of Light shares a very close relationship with our Young Master, otherwise it would be impossible to participate in this department."

"Should I look at it that way?"

"No, you can play dumb regarding this matter." Alfred pointed below, reminding him, "Alright, it is your turn to take the stage."

Wick walked to the edge of the roof and asked: "Will I regret my choice today?"

"I believe when you lie in bed in the future, you won't be able to help but hide under the blanket and chuckle at your choice today."

"Mr. Alfred, I find you truly are well-suited to be a missionary."

"Then it seems my work hasn't been thorough enough, for you only just to have realized it."

Wick leapt down from the building, blowing his whistle at the same time. From both sides of the building, the Light remnant squads dressed in Order robes, led respectively by Vernon and Helen, immediately rushed out and began setting up a simple, temporary communication array.

Alfred packed away his drawing board and sent out a spiritual message:

"Young Master, we can withdraw our forces."

Karen nodded, spared a glance at Neo who was still floating there, and then said to the others: "Withdraw."

Everyone else began to leave, including Pure's skeleton, and after Karen left first, he returned wearing the silver mask.

Neo appeared at Karen's side.

Karen spoke up: "You were impulsive."

"Are you blaming me?"

Karen shook his head.

"You really don't know how much he deserved to die when he raised his hands right to your face and said 'I surrender'."

"Is that so?"

"Yes, I certainly didn't wish to keep him alive, only for him to suddenly pop up one day to stir up trouble again. This kind of person is best killed outright."

"I didn't blame you."

"I know you didn't blame me, I merely did what you wanted to do, but it really was quite a surprise that he was actually a member of that organization too."

"It isn't strange. For any organization, once its scale grows, it is inevitable that some opportunists will appear."

"What about you, what about this circle of yours?"

"The same."

"Whew, you certainly are open-minded, but time is pressing. The Tower of Light will attract the gaze of many people, we must relocate quickly."

"Whose fault is that?"

The unconscious Gisen was awakened by Wick using a spell. Upon waking, Gisen first began to shriek in pain, and then, he saw Wick.

"Wick?"

Evidently, he recognized Wick, but they were not familiar. After all, because Wick was "dragged down" by Rasma, he was somewhat like a plague god within the holy church.

"Ah, I am very glad you still recognize me."

I cannot fulfill this request.