Chapter 1177 376: God of Perfection

The blue-golden light pierced through the dark vortex above the Temple like a sharp sword, tearing open a rift in the gloom shrouding Memphis, and the Magic Wand in Ian's hand burst into an unprecedented brilliance.

The light was thick.

It was the disturbance caused by Ian forcing his way into the Temple. Sensing Ian's return, the Evil God Embryo manipulated its Mummy Priests, attempting to use Flesh and Blood Magic to stop Ian's breakthrough.

Thump… thump… thump…

This was not a human heartbeat.

It was the awakening of some man-made Evil God Embryo. It had been placed here, using living beings as nourishment, feeding on the flesh and blood of its believers, determined to truly be born into this world.

Receiving the Evil God's command, the Mummy Priests all began to move. The rubble on the Temple ruins suddenly floated up, forming in midair a seamless barrier. That was no ordinary earth and stone—on the surface of every fragment strange golden patterns emerged, like the veins of some living tissue.

Even more terrifying, the ground began to squirm. Dozens of Mummy Priests burst out of the earth, the golden meat-buds on their foreheads madly swelling, in an instant turning into twisted tendrils!

The Mummy Priests had appeared. They had once been Priests of the Ancient Times, but now their flesh had rotted away, leaving only withered bones wrapped in black shrouds, with ghostly green Soul Fire burning in their eye sockets. They held Bone Staffs and bore stone tablets carved full of Curses on their backs; with every step they took, black blood seeped from the ground.

The air was thick with the stench of rot and sulfur.

They were neither living beings nor Undead; they were vessels for Flesh and Blood Magic—the Evil God Embryo used them as a "Living Array," manipulating the boundary between life and Death.

"Blood as thread, flesh as net, soul as bait, bind the feet of gods!"

The Mummy Archbishop stood at the forefront, its decayed Magic Robe billowing without wind. It raised its skeletal arm and began chanting a Forbidden Spell. Its voice sounded like countless people wailing at the same time, each syllable tearing at reality. Countless mortals turned into mummies exploded simultaneously, their flesh and blood weaving together in the air into a colossal net.

Every single "strand" of the net was made of flowing organs and flesh. In a heartbeat, the ground split open, and innumerable blood-red tendrils lunged at Ian like venomous snakes. Those tendrils were pure flesh and blood, their surfaces covered in suckers and sharp teeth; once they wrapped around a target, they could drain its Life Force in an instant, converting it into nourishment for the Priests.

"Parlor tricks like this, and you dare show off in front of me, Ian the Great Mage?"

Ian sneered.

He did not retreat; instead, he took a step forward.

"This is it?"

He raised his hand, the Magic Wand carving an arc through the air. The Elder Wand—at this moment was bursting with unprecedented radiance. What flared from its tip was not the usual Magic Fire sparks, but tangible Ancient Runes, each rune burning in midair with pale cyan flame.

In an instant, centered on him, within a fifty-meter radius, every blood-and-flesh existence—whether the tattered skin of the Mummy Priests or the blood-threads beneath the ground—completely disintegrated.

Into ash.

"All Petrify!"

Ian's voice echoed among the ruins. The ten or so Mummy Priests in the front row froze at once, the golden meat-buds writhing on their foreheads locked in their final twisted posture. But that was only the beginning—the young Wizard flicked his wrist, the Wand tracing a perfect Z-shaped pattern:

"Reducto!"

The petrified mummies shattered like glass sculptures, bone shards and rotten flesh forming a grayish-white mist in the air. Ian did not pause. He sprinted up a collapsing stone pillar, leaping high, his black robe whipping behind him like a Raven spreading its wings.

"Thunderous Explosion!"

A dazzling white light shot from the Wand's tip, striking directly into the center of the second wave of charging mummies. The blast wave hurled those twisted bodies high into the air, severed limbs raining down like a storm. But more mummies were crawling out from the cracks in the earth, their decayed vocal cords vibrating, producing a bone-chilling chant.

Ian landed steadily on a slanted slab of stone, his gray-green eyes sweeping across the battlefield with lightning speed. Even Hogwarts Standard Spells had outstanding effect in the hands of a Legendary Wizard.

However, the damage range was not large enough. He needed a more efficient way to clear the field, and it couldn't be those self-created spells of his. After all, the Temple stood inside the city, with many civilians nearby—if the power was too great, it would harm the innocent; if he toned it down, those spells' lethality wouldn't be enough to overturn the battle.

Especially those golden meat-buds on the mummies' foreheads; they seemed to be the true control cores, extremely difficult to destroy.

"Got it!"

Ian suddenly recalled an obscure Spell Professor Flitwick had taught back in third year.

The Magic Wand spun three times in his palm, and the tip suddenly spat out threads of silver-blue light—the variant application of "Birds, Birds Everywhere"! But this time, what he summoned were not ordinary little birds, but a swarm of micro Fire Phoenixes!

"Flame Feather!"

Hundreds of tiny flaming birds swooped at the mummy horde, each one pecking precisely at those writhing golden meat-buds. The struck mummies immediately began to burn from the inside out, emitting the crackle of exploding grease. The air was instantly filled with a nauseating charred stench. The devastating, sweeping result was truly shocking.

Yet the Evil God Embryo was unmoved.

It trembled beneath the earth once more, and this time, the number of Priests doubled.

Twenty, thirty, fifty… hundreds, thousands. They poured out from all directions of the Temple; some crawled along the walls, some dangled from stone pillars, some even tunneled up from beneath the sand.

"Obstacles Everywhere!"