Chapter 740: The Bastard of Life

Chapter 740: The Wild Seed of Life

One was far from enough.

As long as conditions permitted, Karen was willing to keep playing this game with them until he was the only one left at the card table.

Demetria's head wobbled around Karen's waist. Karen reached out, grabbed her ear, and adjusted her position to his side.

He remembered her introducing herself earlier as the captain of the Elite Night Watcher Squad of the God of Night Church.

Well, it certainly sounded like the kind of title where gold leaf flutters across the sky.

In every church, there were specific positions designated solely for outstanding young people to gain experience, which meant rapidly earning credentials to gild their reputation.

Therefore, her family background was bound to be excellent.

As for her talent, it was also beyond question; after all, for someone in her age group to force Karen to fight seriously was the best possible proof.

The difference lay in the fact that she only needed to focus on this final battle of her life, whereas Karen not only had to stay alert to the opponent's outside help but also had to carefully calculate the consumption and loss of every single battle he fought.

Karen took out a cigarette case from his pocket, pulled out a God of Thunder Church cigarette, bent down, and lit it using the scorching heat of the ground. He took a deep drag, suppressing the restlessness of the hunger addiction deep within his soul.

Utilizing the power of the hunger addiction to break through the opponent's mental onslaught was, after careful consideration, the lowest-cost option for Karen. He could certainly use many other methods to resist that spiritual attack, but the speed of resolving the battle would slow down as a result.

"Alright, alright, calm down. If it really doesn't work out, and there's an opportunity later, I'll catch the soul of some prey to feed you."

Whether it was because the agitation had run its course and wanted to rest, or because Karen's "comforting promise" actually worked, the tearing sensation in his soul surprisingly began to settle down gradually at this moment.

"Heh."

Karen smiled, took another puff of the cigarette, and then wastefully flicked the remaining long stub onto the ground.

There was no need to step on it to put it out, because the boiling sand quickly ignited it completely.

If the body were compared to a house, then the soul could be considered the most private and important master bedroom.

Right now, he was only the owner of the house in name; his name was written on the property certificate, but he had absolutely no way of even touching that master bedroom.

Fortunately, the hunger addiction only wanted to devour him to gain its own rebirth—it merely wanted to change the name on the title deed, not set the house on fire.

Karen began to sense those two auras. One was staying put, while the other was moving, but instead of approaching, it was moving away.

Karen had no intention of pursuing the tactful one. To save time, his figure transformed into a patch of black mist and drifted toward the one who remained in place.

Desert terrain was often tedious, and at such times, a person's gaze would unconsciously and actively seek out something tangible to focus on.

For instance, in the center of that patch of quicksand stood a bald young man wearing a black-and-white divine robe.

He was stepping on a wooden staff. From both ends of the staff, tender shoots constantly sprouted, budded, blossomed, and then quickly withered and died, repeating in a continuous cycle.

He was Daliwenluo, a believer of the God of Life Church.

The God of Life Church had a long history. In a strict sense, the existence of this church was nearly double that of the God of Order Church, because the God of Life who founded it was a deity of the Eternal camp.

However, during the divine war between the Light camp and the Eternal camp, a branch god of the God of Life Church defected to the Light camp. After Light triumphed over Eternal, this defected branch god naturally replaced the original main god, becoming the new main god of the God of Life Church.

In church history, they were referred to as the Greater God of Life and the Lesser God of Life.

The reason for this description was that church historians generally believed these two Gods of Life did not represent the new replacing the old, nor did it belong to any form of rebellion, but rather a hedge by this single lineage on both sides of the bet.

The most crucial evidence was that even after the Lesser God of Life replaced the Greater God of Life, the latter's status in the mythological narratives of the God of Life Church could still stand side by side.

Consequently, when the God of Light distributed the postwar spheres of influence during the victory banquet at Mount Analaminde, the old interests of the God of Life Church were stripped away and partitioned.

Although the God of Life Church belonged to the victorious side in name, it still lost many vested interests and suffered a great deal of suppression.

Not only did the main gods of the Light faction continuously oppress and dismantle it with a tacit understanding, but during the era when the God of Order reigned supreme, the God of Order had once personally gone to the Garden of Life to call the God of Life to account for a certain matter.

The records of that period were rather amusing. The God of Order Church recorded that the God of Order went to demand accountability, and the God of Life admitted the mistake with a good attitude and accepted Order's punishment.

The record in the mythological narrative of the God of Life Church, however, stated that the God of Order was invited to be a guest in the Garden of Life, where the God of Life brought out life vintage to drink with the God of Order, and the two main gods had a very pleasant conversation.

When the mythological narratives of other churches recorded this event, they had absolutely no intention of saving face for either side; they recorded that on that day, more than half of the ground in the Garden of Life collapsed, countless rare birds and exotic beasts were turned to dust, and the Lesser God of Life was beaten by the God of Order until his divine body was nearly shattered, forcing him to summon the Greater God of Life who had

That year, at sixteen, he received the opportunity to enter the Garden of Life for training under the joint recommendation of his teachers, a milestone that all but guaranteed a brilliant future.

He returned home and shared this joyous news with her.

He hoped she could finally let go, for he understood the humiliations she had endured; more importantly, he could choose not to hate her for everything she had done to him since his childhood—truly, he could.

Yet the gears of fate had long since dragged her in, and she had grown accustomed to driving those wheels herself to keep grinding forward, even dragging in everything within her reach to suffer this agonizing torment alongside her, lest her own heart be thrown into utter imbalance.

She said: "Take this news and go to his house. His family will open their doors to you, and to me."

Hearing these words from his mother, Dalivunro felt weary.

He did not hate her; he even pitied her, pitied this miserable, cowardly, and selfish woman.

But the exhaustion ran too deep; to live while bearing the shackles of life was an insult to life itself.

And so, he strangled his own shackles.

He was plagued by inferiority, a habit cultivated over long years, not because he believed himself fundamentally lesser, but because there were things normal people could do that he could not; he recoiled from facing the "radiant," just as he recoiled from radiant people.

Therefore, he envied Karen.

The Church of Order was the premier orthodox faith of the contemporary world, and the events transpiring within it invariably commanded the attention of the entire ecclesiastical circle.

Karen was young, possessed a fine personal appearance, and with his stunning resume and meteoric promotions, he naturally garnered immense attention; when he walked across the campus of the University of Order, he even had to wear a mask.

Even in foreign churches, Karen’s popularity was by no means low.

Dalivunro had seen Karen’s photographs in the newspapers, and Karen’s expressions and gestures during interviews had left a profound impression upon him; he had also watched the live broadcast of Karen in the Tribunal of Order—an orphan, actually managing to reach such heights.

The distortion born of filters did not manifest in Dalivunro alone; across the Church of Order and beyond, various versions of Karen’s origins circulated.

Born an orphan, well-acquainted with the warmth and cruelty of human relations, and having experienced the chaos and anarchy of the bottom rungs, Karen had understood the importance of order from a very young age, which ultimately propelled him to become a devout follower of Order.

Dalivunro deeply envied the propriety in Karen’s speech and conduct; he envied it, he desired it, to the point of near-obsession.

Thus, while others came here to headhunt, he did not; he came to flay.

He wanted to meticulously peel off Karen’s skin so that he might drape it over himself as a blanket when he slept at night.

He believed that if he too possessed this layer of skin, he would likely be able to harvest that very same propriety.

Neo, who had invented the spell "Proper Burial," had once cursed at Karen: "Oh, this damned propriety, it truly makes one wish to strip the skin right off you."

It had to be said that the words of the old hound possessed a certain prophetic foresight, for today, the flayer had indeed arrived.

Yet, when Karen appeared before him, and when he saw the severed head belonging to Demetria tied to Karen’s waist, he frowned slightly, pointed a finger, and said:

"This is highly improper."

"Hmm?" Karen had not expected the first words spoken upon their formal encounter to be this, but he still replied earnestly, "My apologies. I have no other way to properly dispose of her for the time being, but I have already applied a purification spell to her head, which effectively preserves it."

"That is not what I meant."

"Oh, I see." Karen untied Demetria’s head and placed it onto the sand beside him.

Immediately following this, Karen adjusted his clerical robes, and once satisfied, looked toward Dalivunro: "Hello."

"Hello. Dalivunro of the Church of Life. I have no surname, for I am a bastard, and my father does not acknowledge me."

"Karen of the Church of Order. I shall omit my surname as well; it was just chosen at random anyway."

Dalivunro smiled; yes, he thoroughly enjoyed this feeling.

Only, he misunderstood one thing: he assumed Karen’s words meant that because he was an orphan, his surname had been chosen arbitrarily.

"I have known of you for a very long time." Dalivunro licked his lips. "I envy you deeply. I even collect your photographs, and I have written you several letters. Thank you for replying to me; though the encouragement in your letters was useless to me, I liked the fragrance of the stationery."

The replies had not been written by Karen; many people within and outside the Church sent letters to Karen, but all were redirected to the intelligence office managed by Richard, who would filter and categorize the senders, replying with postcards to those of lower standing, while mimicking Karen's "handwritten reply" for those of higher status—after all, whenever Jerry took over his mind, none of this posed any real difficulty.

"Thank you," Karen said with a gentle smile. "Turn back now and promise me you will not interfere in what comes next, and I can choose not to kill you."

Dalivunro shook his head and said, "You misunderstand. I am not speaking sweet words to beg for your mercy. I envy you, and so I wish to possess this skin of yours. When I kill you shortly, I will do my utmost to avoid causing too much damage to your body.

Heh, you actually thought I was begging for your clemency? Is this the kindness you show me?"

Karen also shook his head and replied, "No, you misunderstand as well. I am not showing you kindness."

With that, Karen pointed a finger at his own head and continued:

"You are bald. After taking your head, it will be inconvenient to tie it to my waist. I find it bothersome."

Dalivunro’s mouth fell open, and a trace of bashfulness actually surfaced upon his cheeks. At this moment, almost unable to control himself, he lowered his head slightly and bowed to Karen, mimicking Karen's tone:

"I am truly sorry to have caused you such trouble."