High-level martial arts: Invincibility starts with basic archery.

In the underground, in a spacious hall, a flame burned silently in the corner.

In the middle of the hall stood a dozen or twenty men in black robes, their faces obscured by wide brims of their hats, adding an eerie touch to the already quiet atmosphere.

Just then, from the left front came the sound of footsteps, like leather shoes stepping on the floor.

A middle-aged man dressed in a red robe slowly walked towards this place.

He looked to be in his thirties or forties, with a head of fluffy curly hair and a smile on his face that gave him a friendly and approachable air.

"Greetings, Your Excellency the Bishop!"

More than twenty men in black knelt down on one knee in unison, their eyes filled with respect as they looked at the man in the red robe.

"Lord Dark Lord is above."

The man in the red robe looked devout, tapped his body a few times with his fingers, and looked diagonally upwards.

Then, he slowly lowered his head, his smile becoming even gentler, and said, "Get up, all of you."

The group of men in black robes then stood up from the ground.

"Your Excellency, is there something you wish to announce that you have summoned us here?"

The leader, a man in black robes, asked respectfully.

The man in the red robe nodded, his gaze sweeping over the crowd, and said, "There are two things in total. Let's start with the first one."

He clapped his hands.

The next moment, a person who had been strapped to a wooden frame was pushed out through a small door by two men in black robes.

Suddenly, a bloody smell filled the hall.

The person tied to the wooden frame was covered in so much flesh that there wasn't a single good spot on his body. He was barely breathing and clearly had been tortured; he could die at any moment.

Seeing this, many of the men in black robes showed a look of pity in their eyes.

It wasn't that they hadn't seen anything worse than what they were witnessing; it was simply that they knew the person being tortured.

Or rather, a few days ago, I was one of them.

"You all know him, right?"

The man in the red robe asked with a smile.

"know."

"know."

No one dared to be negligent, and they all spoke up.

The person tied to the wooden frame seemed to be awakened by the commotion around them, and struggled to open their eyes a crack to look at everything around them.

The atmosphere in the hall quieted down at this moment.

"Lord, Lord Bishop."

The man seemed to have regained consciousness, his eyes filled with pleading, and he said weakly, "Your Excellency, please, give me another chance."

"Shall I give you another chance?"

The man in the red robe smiled.

"Yes, yes," the man said haltingly, "Last time, there was an accident, Your Grace. Please, please give me another chance. I will definitely take back what I lost last time, tenfold. Please, Your Grace."

If Chen Fan were here, he would definitely recognize that the man in front of him, who was barely recognizable as human, was the pawn he had placed into the cult that day.

His original intention was to use this guy to obtain information about other cult groups. On the one hand, it was to rid the people of evil, and on the other hand, he would gain a lot of experience points by destroying the black ball in their hands.

Judging from the scene before him, it seems that he has not achieved his goal.

"Do you think I should give him another chance?" The man in the red robe looked at the crowd.

The group exchanged glances, unsure of the man's attitude, and remained silent.

At this moment, the man who had spoken first straightened his chest and said, "Your Excellency, I feel this is inappropriate."

"Oh? Why?" the man in the red robe asked with a smile.

"Your Grace, Peng Song has been incompetent. He not only lost the sacred relic but also caused the deaths of other members of the team. If we let him go this time, what will happen next time? Will Your Grace let the next person go too?"

"Fang Liang, you, you..."

Peng Song stared at the man who had spoken, his eyes filled with deep-seated hatred.

"Your Excellency, I believe that Peng Song should not be allowed to live."

Another person in black robes stepped forward; judging from the voice, it was a woman.

Fang Liang, standing to the side, frowned, seemingly somewhat displeased.

The woman said coldly, "Peng Song lost the sacred artifact, yet he still has the nerve to come back. Moreover, everyone else in the group is dead, and he's the only one alive. Is it possible that he's a coward who abandoned the sacred artifact and the rest of the group in that critical moment?"

"You, you, you're spouting nonsense!"

Peng Song's eyes turned blood red.

He clearly remembered that it was his teammates who sacrificed their lives to buy him time, allowing him to escape with his life.

It wasn't desertion or cowardice at all!

"Me, spouting nonsense?" the woman sneered. "Even if I am, you failed in your job and should atone for your mistakes by committing suicide. Shouldn't you? If it were me, having lost the sacred relic, I would never have returned. Even if it meant death, I would have taken the enemy down with me."

Upon hearing this, a hint of approval flashed in the red-robed man's eyes.

Fang Liang stared at the woman, his fists clenched tightly.

This guy is just parroting others and sucking up to them; he's shameless!

The man in the red robe glanced at the others and said, "Where are the others? Don't they have anything to say?"

The people behind looked at each other.

Among them were many who had a good relationship with Peng Song. They had already felt sorry for him when they saw him suffer so much, and now that they heard Fang Liang and the other man's words, which meant to kill Peng Song, they felt even more sorry for him.

In addition, everyone present was doing the same thing.

Today, Peng Song died from torture because he lost the sacred object.

So tomorrow, they will be the ones who have lost the sacred object.

Is Peng Song a cautionary tale for them?

Therefore, in a sense, helping Peng Song is helping ourselves.

"Your Majesty Bishop."

A man in black robes spoke up: "Peng Song has devoted himself to the Church all these years. Even if he hasn't made any great contributions, he has certainly worked hard. This time, he lost the sacred relic, which is indeed a capital offense. But Your Excellency, could you please give him a chance to atone for his sins and make amends, considering his years of diligence and the punishment he has already received?"

"Yes, Your Excellency," someone said, and other voices followed one after another, "If Peng Song loses the sacred object again next time, I believe he will commit suicide to atone for his sins without Your Excellency needing to intervene."

"Your Excellency, please give him a chance."

Hearing more than a dozen voices pleading for him, Peng Song breathed a slight sigh of relief.

With so many people pleading for him, he should be able to escape this predicament today.

Sigh, if he had known he would be treated like this after returning, he would have preferred to flee to another place, even if he would be hunted down, it would still be better than suffering this inhuman torture.

Of course, now that it has already happened, it's too late to say anything.

His gaze swept over Fang Liang and the other man who had spoken earlier.

He would make those two pay for what they said today if he ever had the chance!

"Oh?"

A playful smile appeared on the red-robed man's face. "So many people are pleading for him."

After he finished speaking, the hall fell silent.

The dozen or so people who had initially pleaded for leniency were so frightened that they quickly shut their mouths.

"Should I praise you for your deep friendship, or should I praise you for your cleverness?"

He walked slowly toward the crowd, his smile vanishing instantly.

"You people, on the surface, seem to be pleading for him, but in reality, you're thinking that if you fail your mission one day, you'll have a way to survive when you come back, right?"

Everyone was so frightened that they quickly lowered their heads.

Peng Song's unease grew stronger.

What does that mean?

Is Your Excellency resolutely unwilling to grant him a way out?

"Do you remember what your situation was like before you joined the church? You couldn't even get enough to eat, you didn't even have a place to live, and you were always in danger of being killed and eaten, or dying in the mouths of those ferocious beasts in the wild."

And now? Well, not only do you all have plenty to eat and wear, but you also have strength comparable to Awakened Ones. All of this is thanks to Lord Black Demon, all of it was taught to you by Black Demon.

When you joined the cult, you all swore an oath to give everything for the Black Cult, even your own lives.

"What's wrong? Now that you've all enjoyed the benefits of power, you've become cowardly and unwilling to sacrifice everything for Lord Dark Lord?"

"Thump!"

Everyone knelt down in unison, shaking their heads and vehemently denying it.

Those who had previously pleaded for Peng Song were especially heartbroken and wept bitterly.

Seeing this, the man in red robes regained his smile and said, "Alright, get up, all of you. Of course I know you are loyal to Lord Black Demon and willing to give everything for the Black Demon Cult. Moreover, your pleading for Peng Song has shown me the brotherhood within the cult. However..."

He changed the subject and looked at Fang Liang and the other man who had spoken earlier, saying, "What Fang Liang said earlier is very true. If Peng Song fails his mission this time and I let him go, what will happen next time when someone else fails his mission?"

"Am I supposed to let him go like I did this time? If I do that, doesn't that mean everyone gets a chance to fail the mission? After that, who will care about the mission anymore? Right?"

"His Excellency the Bishop is right." Fang Liang, who was kneeling on the ground, raised his head and said, "Without rules, there can be no order. Peng Song failed in his mission and should atone with his death."

"That's right, Peng Song has only himself to blame."

"His mission failed, and he actually has the nerve to come back? I really don't know where he gets the courage!"

"Kill him!"

"Kill him!"

"Kill him!"

Soon, all the sounds became those three words.

Peng Song was pale. He hadn't expected that the glimmer of hope he had just seen would disappear so quickly.

"Lord, Lord Bishop."

Tears welled in his eyes as he pleaded, "Please, give me another chance. I promise I will never, ever let you down."

"It's not that I'm unwilling to give you a chance, it's that everyone else is unwilling to give you this chance."

The man in the red robe sighed, and a black ball appeared in his hand, twice the size of the previous one.

The next moment, streaks of red and black energy flew out from Peng Song's body and converged towards the black sphere.

Peng Song's body rapidly withered and aged before the naked eye's eyes, and within seconds, only a pile of clothes remained, stacked on the ground.

Just like those he had sacrificed before.

The crowd watched this scene with expressions that were a mixture of indifference and fear.

The man in the red robe retrieved the black ball, looked at the kneeling crowd, and felt very satisfied.

"Next, the second thing I'm going to talk about is very important, and it concerns Anshan City. You must listen carefully because, for both me and for you, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity." (End of Chapter)