Devil's Bible

"What right do you have to look down on me now that you're standing here waiting to die?!"

Niall's questions spurred Jacques's already desolate heart.

Are you going to give up now?

"To die with all the shame, while the real murderer goes unpunished?!"

The image of the old pastor appeared in Jacques' mind, as did the appearances of the elders and heads of the family in Dartment.

A spark reignited, and then the heart, which had been ashen, began to beat again.

“I will not die like this…!” Jacques shouted, swinging his sword.

It was as if a power was bursting forth from within his body, and this power cleaved through the darkness in his hand.

However, after the darkness was split open, no light came into view; it remained dark.

It was only then that Jacques realized his predicament.

He was also tied to the rack.

Its entire body was covered in black hair.

However, upon closer inspection, one can see that these black hairs are actually extremely fine blood vessels.

The old pastor was on the other side, his back to him, working on something on the table in front of him.

"Don't worry, the black veins on your body are the best bloodline manipulation tools I obtained through research on nest beasts."

"It's ridiculous. Most of the dangerous creatures around Qiquan City have been eliminated, so I've never actually seen a Nest Beast before."

"When I first came to this village and treated the nest beast parasites, I realized what a valuable tool their fur is."

The old pastor turned around with a bottle of medicine in his hand. The gentleness on his face had not faded, but at this moment, this so-called gentleness seemed so terrifying.

"You understand that feeling now, when everything has failed, and then you discover something that can greatly increase the success rate." The old pastor spoke with the characteristic rambling of an elderly person.

Perhaps these things had been buried in his heart for too long, and the old pastor finally found someone to confide in, so he poured out all these things to Jacques at this moment.

"The replay of your past experiences was merely a setup by me to activate your mind and unlock the potential of your sacred bones." In the illusion, Nair's words of rebuke and encouragement were spoken under the control of the old priest.

All of this was orchestrated by the old pastor.

"You're insane!" Jacques struggled desperately, but couldn't break free.

These black veins pierced his body, suppressing his strength, and even pierced his cheek as the old priest walked by, forcing him to open his mouth.

"Yes, that's right, I've been insane for a long time." The old pastor readily admitted to Jacques's words.

"The research mission on the Holy Blood and the Holy Son was sent by the Church, and I began the research with my apprentices."

Ron Datmenley.

“You may not know him, but you definitely know his son, yes, it’s Nair.” The old pastor’s eyes were full of memories and guilt when he spoke of Ron.

He had no children of his own, so his apprentice Ron was like a son to him.

He thought everything would go smoothly and that he could use his research on the Holy Blood to advance to the Golden Seed level.

However, the experiment became increasingly out of control, with more and more resources being invested but very few results being produced.

From using illegally obtained materials from floating whales to achieve good results, to using innocent but potentially valuable people as test subjects, they did not persist for long.

When the experiment was halted due to insufficient funding and the test subjects were sealed away, they finally came to their senses. By then, their hands were covered in blood, and no amount of washing could clean them.

"Ron couldn't accept all of this and chose to atone for his sins. He wanted to kill his wife, who had also participated in the experiment."

“Nell’s mother was seriously injured as a result, and Ron’s suicide attempt failed, but I saved him.”

"Then they were taken back by the Dartmenley family."

"Gradually, they disappeared from my life, and I chose to return to my birth village to atone for my sins."

As the old pastor spoke, he fed the medicine to Jacques.

"I didn't know what had happened until I received the news that Nair had reported the family."

"My guilt towards my disciple led me to save Nair."

"Then I saw the traces of Ron's modifications on Neil, and I realized that Ron was also unwilling."

"It's fortunate you didn't leave, otherwise I really couldn't bear to continue using Neil as a test subject." Although he said this, the old priest was also preparing for the experiment before he found Jacques.

Jacques, who had been forcibly given the drug, felt heat all over his body, especially in his bones.

"He's feverish, that's it." The old pastor stared fervently at Jacques's transformation. "Our research was almost successful back then, just a little bit short, just a little bit short!!"

"Once I replenish this last element, I will be able to complete the Holy Son Project."

"Then I will be able to atone for my sins!!!"

Jacques could feel a power emanating from his bones and quickly filling his body. He felt his stats increase rapidly, along with his overall strength.

This force propelled Jacques to evolve from a Black Stone species to a Steel species.

However, Jacques soon felt the heat in his bones disappear.

"As expected, it won't work. The whale element is too scarce." At this moment, the old priest returned to 'normal,' displaying the composure expected of an experimental subject.

However, this composure quickly vanished afterward.

“Jacques, do you know, I was originally planning to give up because I couldn’t get enough of the floating whale oil.”

"But fate orchestrated everything, and God guided me."

“At that time, whale-like disease appeared in the village.”

"Everything was just right."

“Op and his team have already set off, and I believe they will bring back the materials I need soon.”

"I'll trouble you to taste my potion for the Holy Son. Don't worry, the experiment will definitely not fail."

"You will also benefit greatly from this. Your holy bone is incomplete because the knowledge that Dartmanley stole from Ron is not complete."

"My potion can restore it, making you a saintly being, like the direct descendant of the founding ancestor of your Dartmenley family."

With that, the old pastor turned and walked away.

Jacques struggled to say something, but the words wouldn't come out.

Bound by numerous black blood vessels, and with everything going black, he fainted.

cuckoo

Chapter 45 Confrontation

After confirming that there was a problem with Jacques, Nemes immediately notified his men with the Oath Rope.

At the same time, she looked at Isabella, who was sitting under the half-collapsed church, her eyes closed, connecting the grid, using the power of faith in the idol to restore her energy with divine magic.

Isabella certainly wouldn't be able to use up all this faith power, so as long as I accept this faith power, a major element of my ability transformation will be completed.

"Of course, if possible, I can also obtain the results of the old pastor's research."

"That way, perhaps we can reduce our need for faith."

It can be roughly determined that the old pastor's research focused primarily on developing the Holy Blood.

So-called saints are basically beings who have been blessed by God.

Because of this blessing, saints are generally able to reach the Golden Age.

In terms of expressiveness, the Saint surpasses the ordinary Golden Seed.

The bloodline of a saint can thus contain special power.

This is why the descendants of saints are mostly able to become nobles.

For example, the Dartmenley family.

However, the special nature of this bloodline will gradually diminish over time.

God rarely creates saints, so much so that some churches occasionally study the bloodline of saints in order to create individuals that resemble saints using a high concentration of holy blood.

This is a fairly normal situation; however, the old pastor's experiment may not be that simple.

Otherwise, it wouldn't have failed despite the church's significant investment.

So much so that the old pastor had held a grudge for twenty years.

"But now, the battle on the other side should have started too, right?" Nemus's thoughts involuntarily turned to the other side.

Now that we know the old pastor was behind this for bloodline experiments, it's not hard to guess why he let the village guards go, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

"If they can't find Leah, they'll go to the village guards. They'll definitely capture Leah and extract experimental materials from her."

“At this point, what I need to do is quite obvious.” Nemus instantly figured out how to maximize his profits.

-

The midday sun shone down, and Aupu pondered what to do next.

He thought that once things calmed down, it would just be a matter of starting smuggling again.

But unexpectedly, the big one arrived.

The old pastor had completely gone mad. Not only did he take away all the materials he had collected, but he also gave him orders to capture the village guards, find the patients with whale-like disease, and bring them back.

The old pastor did not mention Op's future.

By this point, Opp knew that if he didn't agree, he would die immediately.

Compared to others, Op had a profound understanding of the old pastor's power.

Now that things have come to this, he has few options left and can only follow the old pastor's advice and take it one step at a time.

"When the old pastor's experiment failed, even though the church discovered many violations, no one took any action."

"The research was stopped simply because of insufficient funding."

"This is just a follow-up to the research. Perhaps as long as the experiment is successful, the Church will let it go easily." This was the only way Op could comfort himself at the moment.

"We've found the village guard. He and some villagers are heading towards the village because of the commotion earlier." Just then, a member of the Aupu caravan came to report.

Most of the people in his caravan were outlaws from other places, or die-hard loyalists whose interests were closely aligned with those of Aupu.

The bulk of the smuggled whale skin ore was used to purchase various experimental materials and tools for the old priest, while a smaller portion was used to buy drugs to suppress the nest beasts within his body.

The rest of the money was used on these people.

Oprah put a lot of effort into these people.

Since being manipulated by the old priest eight years ago, Op has been secretly training henchmen, hoping to one day cultivate subordinates of the Iron Seed level and then break free from the old priest's control.

Unfortunately, advancing to the Steel Rank is too difficult. He has six subordinates who are somewhat talented, but their basic stats are only around six to eight. The other caravan members are too poor in talent. Even after several years of training and with resources, they can only improve their stats by one or two points, making them useless.

In the past, these subordinates were all hidden in the caravan, rarely revealing their own strength, and almost never attacking the villagers.

However, at this moment, there was no time to worry about that.

"Go, capture him."

"According to intelligence, the opponent has the power of controlled whale transformation, so we need to be careful about this change in him."

"As for those villagers, let's clean them up while we can."

Given the current situation, the more people who know about these things, the greater the potential trouble will be. Therefore, Oppein coldly issued the order.

“I understand, but…” The subordinate looked up, his words becoming hesitant.

This surprised Op. Could it be that the other party still couldn't bring themselves to harm innocent villagers?

Then he looked at his subordinate, his expression momentarily blank. The man was missing his right forearm; it was the result of the man taking a knife for him in a dangerous situation.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed that his hair was already gray. Although he was not older than me, he looked more haggard and aged.

"What's wrong, Aro?" Op asked, suppressing his own agitation at the dire situation.

"You'd better think about your escape route, Lord Op." A subordinate named Borei Aro gave this serious warning, even though he shouldn't have been the one to offer it.

Op's heart sank, then he forced a smile: "Don't worry, you be careful too."

"The time for Xiao Luo's grave is approaching, and we'll have to go clean it up afterward, won't we?"

Aro simply looked at Op, then lowered his head, nodded, and without saying another word, rushed toward the village guard's position.