Soul Trigger

Chapter 602 Priest
No wonder this object of rest possesses time-related rules such as "reincarnation" and "reset"—it is because it is itself a fragment of time.
"Filin, can you feel it?"

【Um. 】

The sound of thunder reached her ears, calm yet slightly turbulent, after all, it was yet another fragment of her power.

It seems this is the gift the tombstone placed for him.

But Ji Li couldn't help but think that if the Time Domain Fragment was a gift, then something else must have been used to solve his problem of being an "unregistered" knight.

Ji Li's gaze was fixed on the figure in black robes.

The two of them moved with lightning speed and made a great commotion, but the man seemed to be oblivious, stretching out his arms towards the hourglass, seemingly performing some kind of immersive sacrifice or something else entirely.

At this moment, Ji Li noticed that, in addition to the boy on the altar and the man in black robes, there seemed to be a person lying at the very front of the church pews, completely lifeless.

“Pulitzer!?” Anya Foster exclaimed in surprise.

"Who is that?"

"...The school's notorious bookworm, it was because Jason and his friends tricked him into coming into this house that everything that followed happened!"

Anya Foster was somewhat agitated and held onto Ji Li tightly.

It was clearly not as simple as she made it out to be; there was more to the story. But Ji Li didn't pay much attention, because in the Soul Trigger's perception, the boy was already dead.

Just like the one lying in the front row of the bench:
"I thought you were talking about the one in black."

"Black clothes?"

Anya Foster shrank closer to Ji Li, glancing left and right as if she hadn't seen the man in black at all.

Judging from her appearance, Ji Li realized that this girl probably couldn't see the man in black robes, which meant that the man must be protected by some kind of magic.

So, are you choosing to ignore me because you have a spell in operation?

Ji Li briefly described the man's features to Anya Foster, who then called him by name:
"Father Kelton?!"

"What's the origin?"

"He's a priest at the town's seminary and a math teacher. Clementine was one of his students... Could they be the ones behind all this?!"

Clementine was the nun's name. Anya Foster recalled the strange interactions between Ji Li and Clementine and seemed to realize something.

This made Ji Li burst out laughing:

"He doesn't have that much ability."

A deep male voice suddenly interrupted him:

"Really?"

Anya Foster was startled and turned around to see a man in black robes who had appeared in front of her at some point.

She screamed and lunged at Ji Li, but he shoved her away and, in a swift motion, drew his sword and slashed.

The sharp blade tore through several layers of benches, and as the broken planks flew, the priest's body was also shattered into pieces, dying instantly without a trace.

Before Anya Foster could even complain about Ji Li's brutal behavior of throwing a rag doll, she saw the suspected culprit be hacked to pieces:

"Dead... dead?"

Then, as if belatedly realizing something, she quickly covered her mouth.

She had just been speeding along carrying Ji Li, and under the influence of her surging adrenaline, she didn't feel anything even though blood and internal organs were gushing everywhere.

But then he clearly saw the internal organs and flesh rolling all over the ground, and he immediately felt nauseous and almost vomited.

A long laugh echoed throughout the entire church.

With a loud thud, as if a bell were tolling from afar, the priest's mangled remains, as if time had reversed, rose up and reformed into his body, even his clothes were intact.
"I can sense the powerful spiritual energy within you, but I have transcended time and space, transcended death!"

He opened his arms, and the sound of the clock ticking backwards continued incessantly, as an invisible spiritual energy instantly spread out.

Sensing the familiar power within, Ji Li's pupils contracted:
This is……? !

He tightened his grip on the cane handle slightly, but then, as if remembering something, loosened it again.

In that instant, as an invisible wave spread outwards, everything fell into stillness: Anya Foster's astonished expression, Ji Li's hand gripping the cane handle, and a boy who had just rushed into the church, frozen in a position of wide-open mouth and roaring.

Everything froze in place, as if the pause button had been pressed.

"As expected...it really works! Hahaha!!!"

The priest burst into laughter, gesturing wildly:
If it weren't for an unknown, powerful knight who had visited this place half a month ago, he wouldn't even have known that there was such a powerful yet easily accessible place of rest in the town where he had lived for many years.

This place not only contains a resting object with powerful temporal energy, but also a complete red array that can borrow power as long as it is infused with spiritual energy.

As long as he has enough spiritual energy, he can use that array to absorb the sustenance and use it as a basis to complete his oath and become a true knight!

The only problem is that his spiritual quality level is not high enough, his well of souls is not deep enough, and he has too little spiritual quality.

Originally, the plan was to torture these students and extract the spiritual energy they generated when they encountered danger and death to accomplish this, but now, there is a better candidate.

After a brief moment of revelry, he gradually calmed down, his greedy gaze fixed on Ji Li.

He could sense the terrifying power that Ji Li had unleashed in that instant. Although he didn't know the specific level of spiritual energy, it was enough to make one's heart tremble.

The priest slowly approached Ji Li and reached out his hand. He closed his eyes to carefully sense Ji Li's spiritual essence, then suddenly opened them the instant he touched him, and abruptly retreated several meters:

"Such profound spiritual essence...such a powerful sovereign!"

His expression was uncertain as he scrutinized Ji Li, especially his current demonic form, which made the priest unable to look away.
Such exquisite knight's armor, such profound spiritual power.

He had met a top-tier sovereign-level knight many years ago, and even compared to that person, the spiritual quality of the person before him was no less impressive.

This guy is definitely not a nobody; he must be a powerful knight.

However, it also possesses absolutely sufficient spiritual energy for him to complete the absorption and oath-taking... This slaughterous feast doesn't need to continue at all!
He carefully and clumsily took out a piece of parchment, but before he could do anything, he coughed up blood, and the surrounding space began to become unstable.

The priest knew that with his skill level, the power to stop time could not be maintained for long.

He quickly began reciting the circuit texts, and the spiritual circuits on the parchment began to glow. Then, three clumps of multicolored spiritual energy burst forth from them and crashed into the ground. Chen Gong pried open the blood-red array diagram located at the bottom of the church.

The crimson array rapidly gathered red light and then slammed it into the hourglass above.

After trembling for a moment, the hourglass also emitted a deep red beam of light, half real and half illusory, which wrapped around Ji Li:
The priest was covered in sweat, but his eyes were filled with surprise:
"Success!"

He activated the spiritual circuit with his own spiritual essence, used the spiritual circuit to pry open the blood-colored circuit, and then used the blood-colored circuit to graft the spiritual link onto Ji Li, directly supplying the resting substance!

His thinking was indeed correct!

But the surprise began to fade the next moment:

"Wait, why isn't it responding?"

He stared at the motionless hourglass, realizing that the crimson array beneath his feet wasn't absorbing Ji Li's spiritual energy at all—

Is it because my spiritual quality level is not high enough?!
The parchment in his hand was a spiritual circuit that he had spent half his life developing. With his expertise in spiritual circuits, he was able to borrow the power of the sedative, otherwise how could he have stopped the knight in front of him for so long?
But why is it that now, at this crucial moment, we are unable to absorb Ji Li's spiritual essence by manipulating the array diagram?

"No, there's no time left, where exactly did things go wrong..."

Just as he was pacing anxiously, a figure rushed into the church. It was Sister Clementine, the Gothic nun who had been hiding among the students. She was completely unaffected by the time stop.

Seeing that Ji Li and Anya Foster had been frozen in place by the priest using the power of the sedative, she, who had rushed over, breathed a sigh of relief:

"Teacher?! Are you alright?! Where's Anderson?"

But she didn't notice that the moment he saw her appear, a glint of light flashed in Kelton's eyes.

Before she could finish speaking, the priest appeared in front of her:
“Clementine, you’ve come at the perfect time…”

Before Clementine could react, everything went black, and she felt a sharp pain in her head and neck.

Father Kelton grabbed his head and lifted him up:

"Teacher?! You..."

The moment Clementine was mentioned, the priest started working on the parchment in his hand again.

Clementine felt an indescribable pain emanating from the depths of her soul, and the entire Trinity began to disintegrate and fragment:
"No!!! Why? Why?!"

(End of this chapter)