Lord of Prayer

“I see that,” Zhou Chen replied grimly. He was tense, but not truly worried. ‘As soon as her life is truly in danger, the Life-saving Talisman from Lin Yun will activate. Then Li Xiye will be free from the crisis of the Curse.’

A flash of white light, a fleeting spark, left a fiery afterimage in the air. Wreathed in Fiery Fire, the lapis-gold Long Saber easily tore through the body of one of the Harpies, and blood splattered.

Its momentum undiminished, the slash took the head off a humanoid monster climbing onto the Chariot. Zhou Chen kicked the headless corpse off, sending it tumbling to the ground. It tripped up the foremost pursuing monsters, which fell in a heap and were trampled into a bloody pulp by the horde behind them.

During the brief respite, he glanced back at the endless torrent of monsters and exhaled. “That should be enough of them. Time to bring out the big guns.”

“You still have something else up your sleeve?” Li Xiye asked in surprise.

An eye-shaped metal ornament appeared in Zhou Chen’s hand. After he injected Essence into it, the metal shell retracted layer by layer, revealing the Petrifying Gaze embedded within.

The venomous eyeball gazed out upon the world, hating everything, cursing everything.

A grayish-brown substance began to spread over the bodies of the monsters in the lead. The affected areas grew hard, cold, and lifeless. In the blink of an eye, their entire bodies had solidified into statues, devoid of any sign of life.

The petrification spread rapidly over a wide area. More and more monsters were overcome by the grayish-brown affliction, only to be shattered to pieces by the impact of the monstrous tide surging from behind.

Stone fragments flew and dust billowed.

It wasn’t just the pursuing monsters. Even the roadside buildings, the asphalt streets, the abandoned vehicles, the fallen trees—anything within the Petrifying Gaze’s line of sight was completely turned to stone.

Li Xiye’s jaw dropped. She hadn’t expected Zhou Chen to be hiding such a powerful Artifact.

Under the unblinking stare of the Petrifying Gaze, the monsters were turned into fragile statues and mercilessly destroyed. Their numbers plummeted.

BOOM!

Artillery fire rained from the sky. Searing heat and terrifying destructive power incinerated and obliterated countless monsters, raising billowing clouds of smoke and dust—reinforcements from the Star Association had arrived.

“Excellent! Let’s push through in one go!” Li Xiye cheered, slapping the roof of the Chariot in excitement.

The Hell Tank barreled through the falling shells and ceaseless explosions, broke through the blockades of countless monsters, and finally burst out of the encirclement, coming within a kilometer of the pure white tower.

The tower emanated a terrifying, intimidating aura that kept the Nightmare Monsters and Spirit Realm creatures from daring to approach. It was also protected by a powerful lockdown Barrier, capable of withstanding artillery bombardment and invasion from the outside.

“We finally made it out,” Li Xiye said, collapsing onto the roof of the Chariot, panting and smiling.

“No, it’s not over yet.”

Zhou Chen aimed the Petrifying Gaze at a rocket flying from the top of a nearby building. The projectile quickly petrified into a sculpture, which then plummeted to the ground and shattered.

He saw a group of figures appear on that high-rise, and among them was an incredibly familiar face.

“Pansi.”

Zhou Chen waved at him from across the distance, smiling as he asked, “Are you here to get slapped again?”

On the rooftop, a vein bulged on Pansi’s temple. A stinging phantom pain flared on his cheek; the slap from Zhou Chen had wounded his pride and humiliated the dignity of the Blood Race Saint Child. Every night since, he would recall the disgrace, consumed by the desire to flay Zhou Chen alive and devour his raw flesh. He snatched the rocket launcher from a subordinate’s shoulder, locked onto the moving Chariot, and pulled the trigger without hesitation. A rocket shot out, trailing a long plume of fire.

“Fire everything! Bury them under heavy fire!” Pansi snarled through gritted teeth.

Members of the Blood Race, shouldering heavy weapons, appeared on the surrounding buildings. Bullets, grenades, and rockets formed a torrential downpour of metal, a ranged attempt to blast their targets to smithereens.

Zhou Chen swept the Petrifying Gaze across the sky, turning all the incoming ordnance to stone. Overuse was making Medusa’s eyeball dry and bloodshot; the speed of petrification was no longer as fast as it was initially.

“Angela.”

“Yes, Master.”

The Gothic Puppet in the passenger seat abruptly vanished, traversing the Spirit Realm, and reappeared silently behind Pansi.

She reached her small hand into Pansi’s shadow and pulled, drawing her sister, Alice, out from the darkness.

Alice was currently in a sealed state. Having been betrayed by her twice, Pansi no longer dared to use the Killing Doll, Alice. But she was, after all, an incredibly precious Cursed Artifact, and it would be a terrible waste to either throw her away or store her in a vault. He could only have a Count seal the doll for the time being.

A blood-drenched cleaver appeared in Angela’s hand. She swung it down on Alice. BANG! A restraining matrix materialized around Alice, a crack instantly appearing on its surface.

Wielding the bloody cleaver, Angela began hacking at it frantically. Before Pansi and the other members of the Blood Race could react, she had shattered the Sealing Matrix on Alice’s body.

“Sister, wake up,” Angela called.

“Sister Angela? Alice missed you so much!” Alice said, delighted.

“Alice, it wants to play house with you,” Angela said, pointing at the dumbfounded Pansi. “Remember, you have to kill it quickly, or Master will be upset.”

“Do you want to play a game with Alice? Hey? You look so familiar… You’ve already played house with Alice two times! Alice won’t let you get away this time! Alice wants to be with you forever!”

Alice lacked Angela’s intelligence; she could only follow kill orders. But when facing her “sister,” she was capable of simple responses and would obey her commands.

Pansi’s eyelid twitched violently as he roared in his mind, ‘Fuck, not this shit again!’

‘Why does this damn Cursed Puppet always turn on me!’

Having learned his lesson from the past two times, he decisively transformed into a bat and flew off. ‘As long as Alice doesn’t catch me, the kill protocol won’t activate!’

“Sister, my husband flew away. Alice can’t catch my husband,” Alice said dejectedly.

“It’s alright. Sister will take you to it.”

In a doting manner, Angela grabbed Alice and pulled her into a Spirit Realm Instant Teleportation, appearing without warning right on top of the bat that Pansi had become.

“Caught you!” Alice cried, hugging the small bat tightly. “Husband, husband, Alice is going to eat your heart now!”

Pansi’s vision went black. He was filled with utter regret.

‘I shouldn’t have been so greedy! I should have just thrown this damn broken doll away!’

Alice’s little hand reached in and tore out Pansi’s heart.

This time, she had her Sister Angela’s order to finish the game of house quickly. She opened her little mouth and wolfed down the heart, devouring it completely in seven or eight seconds. Then, she pulled out his liver.

“Time to eat!”

Pansi was terrified. ‘Why is she so fast!’

‘At this rate, I won’t last long enough to find a Blood Count for help!’

If Soul loss exceeded sixty percent, there was a risk of total Soul collapse. And in just a dozen or so seconds, Alice had already devoured his heart and liver. The damage to his Soul had already reached forty percent!

Pansi felt an unprecedented Weakness and pain. The cold breath of death washed over him like a tide. He beat his wings, descending, and reverted to his human form, collapsing wretchedly to the ground.

Then, a cold gun barrel was pressed against his forehead.

“Surprise, motherfucker.”

Li Xiye sneered, returning his own words to him:

“This winged sewer rat… would you be so kind as to go and die?”

Pansi’s face was as pale as a sheet, his eyes filled with despair.

BANG!

The gun fired, but no blood splattered.

This was a Soul Bullet from Zhou Chen. It contained the power of retribution for violating a Soul Contract. This was a contract Zhou Chen would sign with the representative of the Blood Race sixty years in the future—he had taken the penalty for breaking that contract and Forged it into this very bullet.

Having already had over forty percent of his Soul devoured by Alice, Pansi was in no condition to withstand such a grievous spiritual wound. The moment the Soul Bullet’s power erupted within him, his Soul underwent a swift and total collapse.