At the bottom of the Chaos Abyss, Suna was still diligently helping the Chaos Demon Soros decipher ancient texts.
After enduring a barrage of unfamiliar characters, the four characters now before her were comparatively simple:
【If you’re bad, then train more.】
“Uh… ‘Vegetables, just practice more’? This phrase probably means to eat more greens and exercise more.”
With this, Suna finally finished translating Truth’s automated text message. Soros began summarizing the meaning she had uncovered but felt something was off.
“So, you’re saying these messages are all about a certain treasure. The message sender hid it somewhere, and anyone who defeats the sender can receive a hidden clue.
But those complicated characters afterward—you can’t read any of them and can only guess that they indicate the sender’s challenge location, right?
And the treasure’s value—you say it’s the top treasure of the Goddess’s sanctuary ‘Heaven’? And it even involves the Order God…”
Soros reviewed the original message again:
【Baby, spying on me secretly like that is really embarrassing】
【Don’t waste your mana spying—I’ll just tell you who I am. Open the King-Tier Arena leaderboard in Heaven, the one ranked first is me】
【If you want to challenge me, just send the challenge directly. And honestly, I care if you open the last hidden message after fighting me】
【This message has been marked as heavy content…】
Though Soros couldn’t understand the meaning of those words, he knew that the translation from this little historian must have errors. For instance, the sender’s last sentence, “Eat more vegetables and practice more,” made no sense at all!
“I… I’ve probably only translated half the meaning, so take it as a rough reference. But if I could study for a few more years, I’d probably decipher over eighty percent.”
Suna tried to prove her worth to Soros, afraid that after finishing the translation, he’d kill her with a glare. After all, demons had countless records of killing off their trading partners after transactions.
And indeed, Soros intended to do just that.
Since this matter involved the Order God, anyone with knowledge must keep absolute silence—and the only ones who can guarantee total secrecy… are the dead.
The next moment, Soros’s large purple eyes began to gather energy, preparing to blast away Suna’s body and soul.
After all, she wasn’t the only historian in this world.
“Eh?!”
Suna sensed the intense killing intent immediately and reacted at once:
“Wait! Act… actually, we’re on the same side. I’m part of your demon faction too!”
Driven by survival instinct, Suna lifted the long hair from her neck, revealing the mark the Seeker Demon had left on her. She guessed this mark signified “one of us.”
Soros immediately halted the energy buildup:
“The Blood Demon’s Hunting Mark?”
No way. What a coincidence. How did that Shadow Demon manage to bring back someone else’s prey? And it’s the Blood Demon’s mark… Is it the Night Bat’s prey?
Or is it the high-ranking Blood Demon that the Heavenfire Lord mentioned appearing suddenly?
The former was unlikely; the Night Bat was thousands of kilometers away in the Demon King City, and it wouldn’t let its prey run from the Demon King City to the Deya Plateau.
Looks like it must be that sudden Blood Demon…
Damn, why does this keep dragging me into the demons’ Death Cause?
Soros usually dared not meddle with the Blood Demon faction’s prey, let alone high-ranking Blood Demons. This was a tricky situation.
“Tell me everything about that Blood Demon.”
Since he couldn’t just kill her, Soros decided to find out who she really was. Maybe he could recruit her.
“Tell you?! No, no, no! If I tell you, it’ll definitely kill me!”
Suna shook her head repeatedly. She still remembered the time the Seeker Demon had pinned her against the wall by the neck, warning her not to expose its existence.
“Afraid of being killed?”
Suna’s answer left Soros bewildered. Isn’t it normal for those marked with a Hunting Mark to be hunted down? Why would she want to protect a secret even when she’s almost dead?
Soros had no reply.
This human’s intelligence was a problem—he had no experience negotiating with idiots. If all else failed, maybe brainwashing her…
But hiding the truth wasn’t an option either. The Blood Demon would definitely come roaring:
“Damn it! Who told you to turn my prey into an idiot? How am I supposed to play then?!”
Then for hundreds of years, he’d have to constantly watch for sneak attacks by one of the strongest assassins, the Blood Demon.
One slip, and his eyeballs would be pierced by blood claws and blades.
No way. Being targeted by a Blood Demon messes with your mind too much. Soros pondered for a long time before finally coming up with an excellent plan.
He would pass this hot potato off to someone else.
He wasn’t good at dealing with humans, but there was someone who was…
Soros then lifted the vision barrier from Suna, revealing the endless deep purple chaos around her.
The light here was distorted by the Abyss, the shapes blurred like ink wash painting, colors unnaturally saturated.
Just looking for a few seconds made one’s eyes ache.
Only now did Suna realize she was suspended midair in the Abyss’s center.
Just as she was about to rub her sore eyes, the next second, she clutched her Fire Pattern Staff and plummeted toward the Abyss’s bottom:
“Ugh!”
As she fell, the surroundings shifted from bizarre colors to a sprawling expanse of gray rock intertwined like blood vessels.
In the distance lay magma solidified long ago, atop which were ruins of ancient broken structures, desolate like the remnants of an ancient battlefield.
“This scene… isn’t this what the book described as the sealed Hell?”
Suna had once skimmed a book about Hell in the library, but the descriptions were absurd—cruel underground realms, wars between gods and demons, even the fall of gods.
How could demons defeat gods? It was all made up! After reading that, she’d closed the book. Yet today, she found herself in Hell firsthand.
The Chaos Abyss was actually one of the gateways to Hell.
Just as she was about to smash into the surface and be crushed to pulp, a glowing green shield imbued with life energy caught her in time, slowing her fall rapidly until she safely landed on the dark red ground.
“Life… element?”
There was life energy in Hell? Suna watched the shield dissolve into glowing particles. Then, a girl’s voice sounded nearby:
“Hey, black-haired girl, state your name!”
On top of an ancient, enormous, strange skull sat a girl with chestnut hair tied in a single ponytail, wearing slightly tattered black cleric’s robes. She pointed a delicate magic wand at Suna.
The girl looked unfriendly, and faint life energy flickered around the wand.
“Suna! From Deya City!”
Suna stood up immediately and replied without hostility. To find a peer in such a wicked place—was she also kidnapped by demons like her?
The chestnut-haired girl cautiously approached, glanced over Suna, and pointed at the Fire Pattern Staff wrapped in cloth:
“What’s that?”
“My magic wand…”
“You’re a mage? Hmm, second-rank…” The girl frowned, then raised her head and shouted:
“Hey, big-eyed one, why’d you drop a weakling mage down here?”
“She’s the prey of that suddenly appearing Blood Demon, and even negotiated directly with it. It’s just the human is a bit dumb and hard to deal with, so better let you handle it.”
Soros’s words echoed in the girl’s mind. After hearing this, she tilted her head and scrutinized Suna again:
“That can’t be. She acts pretty calm and doesn’t look dumb at all.”
Dumb?! Damn it, what did that Chaos Demon tell this girl? Calling me a weakling and dumb? Don’t underestimate me… with my Fire Pattern Staff!
With the staff’s help, as a second-rank, if I unleash fully, I’m not worse than a third… Uh, third rank? Okay, I admit I’m a weakling…
Because third rank here in Hell isn’t enough to stand out… But why do they say I’m dumb?
“Um, can you first tell me your name? And then explain what’s going on right now,” Suna asked calmly.
She had been kidnapped by demons to decipher ancient scripts, then thrown into Hell after finishing, like a nightmare. Now she met a perfectly normal yet somewhat arrogant girl in Hell…
This was just too abnormal.
“Mary,” the girl answered, then spread her arms and said,
“I’m Mary, the boss here. You can call me the Lord of Hell!”
Lord of Hell… Suna was silent, showing no surprise Mary expected. After all, it didn’t really seem that way. But it was clear Mary probably had a good relationship with the demons.
A demon’s ally? That meant caution! That name also felt strangely familiar…
“Mary… What a coincidence, isn’t there a Saintess named Mary too?”
Suna recalled the eighth or seventh Saintess was called Mary, but before she could remember more, Mary cut her off:
“Let me add: besides being Lord of Hell, I’m also the Eighth Saintess under the Seat of the Goddess of Life.”
“Oh, oh, you have quite a few titles… huh?!”
……
Deya City, Suho Manor.
Earl Suho and Maina, Mailun’s father, entered the living room after just finishing a full council meeting, brewing a pot of tea.
Due to the Ninth Saintess’s strong stance, no one at the meeting gained any benefit, and relations between the parties even worsened.
“Maybe our Saintess is just a figurehead, or rather, she lacks the talent to govern Deya City.”
Maina said to Suho. He had expected the Ninth Saintess to unify their scheming old factions, but she only provoked everyone with harsh words, stirring resistance.
When ending the meeting, the Saintess said she hoped to hear more sincere speeches tomorrow.
Ridiculous—if even five people show up tomorrow, that’d be surprising. Most will have all sorts of excuses.
The nobles formed various factions based on their interests, and upon realizing the Saintess couldn’t benefit them, they went home with ulterior motives.
Maina and Suho were among them. Together with Ross and Milton, the four were behind the Deya City trade caravan, now waiting for everyone to discuss future plans.
Though Suho hadn’t offended the Saintess like others, he worried she might suddenly say something like, “Don’t you think the commoners can’t afford healing potions and feel sorry for them?” and demand that potion prices be lowered or even given away free.
High-ranking healing potions were the foundation of his family’s business. Suho sighed:
“Let’s take it step by step. Until we figure out what the Saintess really wants, better not act rashly. Maybe she has someone backing her?
And in the meeting, Ross and Milton actually dared to challenge the Saintess. That was really unwise!”
“The two have been cozying up to Lyman recently and their absence must mean something. Plus, with Wangsheng City’s growing influence, our situation will get tougher.
By the way, maybe your daughter could spy on the Saintess. Suna is close to her, right?”
“Hah, she better not turn traitor. Forget it.”
They continued discussing how to align themselves. Since the Saintess hadn’t shown her value yet, they preferred their usual partners.
But tonight, Suna and Maina would witness the benefits of siding with the Ninth Saintess firsthand.
……
“Why’s the tea cold and those two still not here?”
Dead outside? Maina stood, about to send someone to find Ross and Milton, when a gray-haired man in a butler’s uniform burst into the living room, face full of panic:
“Two Dukes, bad news!”
The man was Milton’s personal butler. Stumbling to the door, Suho hurried to help him up and asked what happened.
The butler took several deep breaths:
“Milton… Lord Milton… was… assassinated!”
“What?!”
“Terrible!”
The next moment, another butler, panting, arrived at the door—Ross’s butler:
“Lord Ross was assassinated at Beck Restaurant!”
Tonight, Deya City was far from peaceful. Demons ran rampant. Law Enforcers and Demon Hunters were everywhere on the streets.
Civilians locked their doors and windows, envying the distant brightly lit villas.
“So jealous of those rich folks, living in the best houses with the best security, not having to worry about demons at all…”
Indeed, the wealthy didn’t need to worry about low-ranking demons thanks to the best protection in Deya City. But unfortunately, tonight a far more terrifying presence targeted them…
……
East Street, Deya City’s most luxurious restaurant, Beck Restaurant.
Ten minutes ago, Law Enforcers had sealed it off. Three bodies wrapped in white cloth were carried out from a private room.
Since the Law Enforcers refused to disclose the victims’ identities, bold children were paid silver coins by reporters to rush in and lift the cloth.
“Hey, get away!”
The Law Enforcers couldn’t stop the kids’ sudden onslaught. They neither fought nor arrested them, resulting in the gruesome bodies of Dukes Ross, Milton, and banker Lyman exposed to the public.
All three died horribly, each with a palm-sized hole on the left side of the chest—identical methods. The scene caused an uproar.
“Great, here’s our headline for a while!” The reporters dashed back to their offices:
“Shocking! Bloody power transition happening quietly under the cover of night!”
“Heart-extracting assassin rampages, targeting the rich—is it class struggle or rebellion from below?”
“Suddenly a madman sharpening knives at night!”
All Deya City’s news agencies worked overtime through the night, but every time they finished a headline, new reports of deaths among nobles arrived—some horse merchants died at home, some real estate tycoons were executed in alleys. They could barely keep up!
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