Devil's Bible

“It’s just normal business dealings.” Nemes immediately sensed the probing. Nemes had received some bribes from Op, but Nemes thought they were just ingratiating gifts.

Clearly, the old pastor's earlier statement, "Op seems to be doing a good job," was a question. The real situation was likely that Op might have done something taboo, which brought the church to its attention.

“Nair, you’re utterly useless…” Nemus had undoubtedly been tricked.

Your continued reading is the greatest support for Xu Ming, thank you!

Chapter 8 Discipline Paladins

Regardless of the reason for the gift, it was so generous that it caused Neil to maintain a good attitude towards Op.

This also made Nair less attentive to the supervision of Op.

Above the floating whale, there are churches in various villages and towns, which serve two purposes: to guide people's faith and to monitor the local 'extraordinary' beings.

Demons don't appear every day; in fact, many garrisoned paladins may not smell a single demon for over a decade.

However, there is no shortage of people with extraordinary abilities who break the rules.

One of the doctrines of the Discipline Church is to encourage people to 'save energy'.

The God of Discipline spoke the truth of the world: the world's resources are finite, especially after the great cataclysm on the ground and the migration of people to the floating whales.

In this context, energy conservation is the healthy lifestyle.

However, human nature is never satisfied. In order to gain more for themselves, there will always be people who break the rules to obtain various extraordinary powers.

Just like a black stone seed whose value has reached nine or higher and has hit a bottleneck, it discovers an illegal thing that can allow it to break through the limitations and sublimate into a steel seed.

Then there is a high probability that they will take risks.

Of course, many more violations involve the overexploitation of non-renewable resources.

Most ways to make big money are written in the criminal law, naturally because the more something is prohibited, the more sought after it becomes.

It is very likely that Oppein took this path.

The village of Backfin is lacking in renewable resources, which are mainly some herbs from Backfin Mountain, but it is not necessarily lacking in non-renewable resources.

Nair lacked even this much foresight, which only proves that it's normal for someone like him to fail.

Nems narrowed his eyes slightly, then broke into a smile.

"I will investigate the matter thoroughly."

"That's good. You're a good boy, so don't go down a path of no return!" The old pastor's eyes seemed to grow increasingly cloudy.

He was getting on in years, and the impassioned hymn he had just performed was not easy.

The pastor's system is based on meditation; they need to meditate on the glory of God and then generate holy light from their spirit.

Every time the Holy Light is used, it is a challenge to one's spiritual will. If one's faith is not firm enough, then the Holy Light will only become more and more difficult to bear.

Many elderly priests develop a luminous body because their decaying bodies can no longer bear the weight of the holy light.

"Furthermore, I discovered my own weaknesses in this battle against the demons, so I wish to be promoted to Discipline Paladin." Only then did Nemus reveal his true purpose for coming to the church.

Sending Downs over to test him with his demonic aura was only one aspect; another was naturally to explore the influence of the power of faith in the God of Discipline on the power of the God of Discipline.

The old pastor was a priest of the Iron Race. He looked like just an old man, but his existence had surpassed that of a normal human, and he could even be considered a supernatural being.

Given the current resource situation, it would take Naim at least ten days to half a month to develop before he could kill the opponent without taking any damage.

If we want to get away from the old pastor's rampant theft of faith under these circumstances, we can't do it secretly; we have to do it openly.

According to information obtained by Nems from various sources, becoming a Discipline Paladin is currently the only relatively easy path to take.

A Discipline Paladin must take a Discipline Oath under the witness of God, then fully activate their life spirit, actively draw the faith of the Discipline God into their body, become a humanoid idol, and thus gain power beyond the limit.

This is an extremely extreme method. Nemus and Kurog had previously fought without being willing to use too much of their life essence, because this thing is limited.

Once fully activated, it means that all one's potential has been transformed, and it also means that the path to extraordinary success is cut off.

At the same time, their lifespan will be significantly reduced.

Generally, it is only fanatical believers within the church who have reached their limits who choose to take this path.

Although Niel had previously given up, he still harbored a sliver of hope for being promoted to a Steel-type, so he had never considered such a thing.

"Are you sure?" The old priest was taken aback and said incredulously, "Even a Discipline Paladin with power beyond its limits might not be able to defeat the Ironborn!"

"I know, but this is my last chance!" Nems wasn't the original owner of the body, so he stood up and kicked as fast as he could.

"Today?"

“Today!” Nems nodded, his expression resolute.

The old pastor stood up and paced back and forth in front of the idol, occasionally turning to look at Nemes, as if deep in thought.

"Sigh..." The old pastor then let out a long sigh, finally making up his mind.

"Come on! Go close the door!"

"Consider it something I owe you." As he said this, the old pastor's face seemed to grow even more sallow.

The old priest then had Nemus sit on the kneeling cushion in front of the idol, and then began to practice the paladin's secret breathing technique.

Nemus's breathing constantly changed, stimulating the spiritual light within his body, aiming to transform it into numerical power within his body.

It might take years to truly transform this level of breathing.

This is the bottleneck that this body has reached.

Conventional breathing exercises are unlikely to mobilize much life force, and the secret breathing techniques used to fight demons are a way of using life force as a temporary buff, which is not worthwhile.

Breathing continued incessantly, and soon reached its limit.

At that moment, a holy light suddenly appeared in front of the old pastor.

These holy lights transformed into sharp blades that pierced into Nemus's body.

Then, as if adding fuel to the fire, the rate of breathing was rapidly increased at this moment.

A significant amount of life energy was instantly extracted. This is similar to the previous secret breathing technique. This kind of suddenly extracted life energy is unstable and will dissipate quickly instead of rapidly increasing the body's stats.

However, it was at this moment that the Holy Light changed again.

"By the God of Discipline, today a believer wishes to inscribe the commandments with faith; may God grant them glory!!!"

The old pastor's words stirred the faith accumulated on the idol, and this faith, following the changes in the holy light, was subsequently nailed into Nemus's body.

Discipline Paladin's Law - Holy Nail!

Nems silently recited his own commandment of forgiveness, and then the holy nails forged by faith responded, quickly nailing themselves onto the life aura and stabilizing it.

As the life force stabilized, a tremendous power surged from within the body.

The value quickly rose from eight to nine, then to ten, and then soon broke through the limit, finally stopping at thirteen.

[Discipline information has been updated]

Your continued reading is the greatest support for Xu Ming, thank you!

Chapter 9: Upgrading the Discipline

[Main Theme: Forgiveness—Forgive others for their mistakes, so that they are not harmed by sin!]

[Discipline Feedback: Every time you forgive someone, you receive a positive reinforcement from that person.]

[Current bonus: Towns - Health bonus (value is 1).]

"So that's how it is. The power of faith can elevate the way the commandments are completed to a certain extent, and also make the feedback closer to the essence?" Nemus carefully savored the holy nails within his body.

Originally, forgiveness required one to forgive others and to actually absolve them, but now it is no longer necessary to be so strict.

At the same time, while forgiveness originally only granted a health bonus, the bonus it now grants has increased.

Currently, the only person he has forgiven is Towns, so he is still only receiving the life bonus from Towns.

"It's still not enough. My faith isn't strong enough. Currently, I only have seven holy nails in my body, representing twenty-one years of faith power."

The village of Backfin has more than 100 households and a population of about 500. Although everyone is outwardly a believer, only about 200 believers actually pray every day.

In other words, the entire village would have approximately two hundred years' worth of faith power over the course of a year.

These forces of faith would flow from the small shrines in each household to the statues in the church.

Subsequently, the majority of the power of faith is transferred to the God of Discipline, with only a portion remaining, thus making the statues in the church increasingly divine.

Nemus opened his eyes and looked at the statue of the God of Discipline in front of him. Based on the three years of faith power and one holy nail, the statue still had about seven hundred years of faith power remaining.

Based on the wear and tear, it can be roughly estimated that the God of Discipline probably hasn't drained the faith from the statue for three years.

"It coincides perfectly with the time I fell into the abyss. It seems the God of Discipline suffered considerable damage that time," Nemus thought with delight.

"But that's normal, since part of His divine essence is with me."

Nemus, who had some doubts about the faith, stood up, and a series of explosions came from his body.

By slightly circulating his breathing technique, Nemus could feel that his own life force had dimmed.

A person's life aura is a feedback from the numbers they possess.

Squeezing out the aura will extract its numerical value, and from then on, the aura of life will only serve the function of sustaining life.

Its dimness suggests that Niall's body likely only has two to three years left to live.

Furthermore, its potential is exhausted, and unless a miracle occurs, it will no longer have the opportunity to become a steel species.

The secret breathing technique has also failed, making it impossible to directly summon spiritual light to obtain a temporary buff to damage the demon.

Of course, Nemus's stats don't need this kind of temporary buff anymore.

After breaking through the limits of the Black Stone species and reaching thirteen, Nemus did not become a Steel species, but he did gain extraordinary characteristics.

Unlike the imp possession that grants the body supernatural abilities and immortality, this is different.

Nemus has gained two extraordinary abilities at this moment.

A type called—Initial Breakthrough.

This is actually a temporary buff obtained from the secret breathing technique, the kind that can directly damage demons with immortality traits, but now it's fixed.

Another one is called the gift of forgiveness.

This is because Nemus gained this trait by becoming a Discipline Paladin through the discipline of forgiveness. Its effect is that the one who forgives others will also receive forgiveness, be immune to damage of no more than ten, reduce damage of more than ten to a certain extent, and also reduce negative statuses such as mental stress and curses!

These two extraordinary properties are closely related to the Holy Nail within Nemus's body; as long as the Holy Nail remains, these properties will continue to exist.

Nemus roughly sensed his own condition and confirmed one thing: with these two characteristics, he could fight even a Steel-type monster using the methods of a Paladin.

This is the power of a Discipline Paladin: a Paladin who is stuck at a bottleneck can break through the limit value directly and also gain related extraordinary characteristics, greatly enhancing their own strength.

The Church of Discipline is one of the top churches in the material plane, and this is no exaggeration.

"Alright, you've got what you wanted. I hope you don't get to go before me." The old pastor looked at Nemus, a sigh flashing in his eyes, before turning and walking towards the confessional.

As Nemus looked at the other person's aged body, he pondered what the chances of successfully taking him down were if he were to launch a sneak attack at this moment.

However, Nemes ultimately abandoned the idea and decided against playing on the opponent's home turf.

The priest's combat power in the church will be greatly enhanced, because the Holy Light can, to a certain extent, draw upon and strengthen the power of faith.

At the same time, when a church is built, there is a high probability that some sacred objects are buried there, and those sacred objects can unleash powerful energy when necessary.

On the other hand, Nemes was also very interested in the secrets buried by the old pastor.

Nair was exiled to this small village because he had fallen out with his family and exposed some of their scandals.

What about the old pastor?

One steel species, which surpasses 80 percent of the world's priests.

How could someone like that be a resident pastor in a small village?

This is no longer a matter of using talent for a small task; it's a serious waste.

In times of great instability, the problems that the Iron Seed Priests can solve are enough to ensure a stable life for tens of thousands of people, or even more.

“He arrived in this village earlier than Nair and didn’t have a name. He was quite considerate of Nair.” Nems probed Nair’s memories, trying to find more information about the old priest.

For example, according to custom, Nair should have stayed in the church's rest area, but he instead stayed in the house provided by the village chief, Op.

The old pastor would occasionally have heart-to-heart talks with Nair, offering him comfort and so on.