Chapter 624

Chapter 9: The Book

I didn’t say anything more, lost in thought. After a while, I suddenly looked up and realized that the little girl had left. However, most of the lamps in the cellar had been lit by her, leaving only a few nearby ones unlit. The flickering flames made the entire chamber seem much brighter.

… If what she said was true, and those knights had found this place, what should I do?

Of course, I couldn’t let them discover…

But since the townspeople had reminded me through the little girl, it showed that they also did not trust the church…

I stood there for a moment, my mind in disarray, then lowered my head again, staring blankly at the book open in my hands. The words on it were clearly reflected in my eyes.

[October 26, 1185, all the disqualified ones have died…]

Regardless of whether the people in town were the Gate of Truth or not, they seemed not to want outsiders to know about my presence here… Those people might know more than I thought… Hmm?

It took me two seconds to realize the content recorded in the book.

… Disqualified ones?

The disqualified ones were—

Ah, I remember that woman mentioning it!

The disqualified ones were those weak ones in the Purgatory stage whom the clown brought to Silgayya, right?!

Angel found a disgusting moving flesh lump inside one of the frozen corpses I had dealt with, and he showed it to me… And that kind of flesh lump had also appeared in the dream Yilushu had created for me…

As I struggled to recall, I flipped the manual back to the cover.

The cover was clean, with nothing written on it. This seemed to be just someone’s notes, casually “rustling” as I turned the pages, revealing densely written content inside. When I reached the first page, it read “List of Blood Sacrificers, Records and Progress,” followed by a series of times and names below.

[January 1181

Bruce, Bazil, Baker, Egbert…

July 1181

Boris, Black, Chad, Chazo, Andy…

January 1182

Selt, Gale, York, Shawn, Walgut, Hillary, Donald, Vivian…

July 1182…]

The handwriting was messy and not very beautiful, even somewhat ugly, but fortunately, it was still legible and clear enough. From the cramped, unpretentious writing style, I vaguely guessed that this was likely written by a woman…

Hmm, probably that dancer named Elina.

Looking over it roughly, the book only recorded times in January and July each year, starting from 1181. As time went on, the number of names under each period increased, but all the names were crossed out with slashes. Considering what I saw earlier, I guessed this should mean they were dead.

Disqualified ones, blood sacrificers…

Blood sacrifice, does it refer to the third stage of Purgatory power?

… In any case, this is important information.

That woman wanted me to know these things…

I held the book with a furrowed brow, slowly walked back to the wooden table, pulled out a chair, and sat down, placing the book on the table. I rested my chin on my hand and quickly scanned the crossed-out names before turning to the next page.

[… January 1183.

Tim, Tiffany, Wayne, Morin… Theresa.]

!

My eyes widened suddenly.

Under the list for January 1183, I actually saw Theresa’s name.

And among the dense list of names that year, only her name was not crossed out with a slash but circled instead.

Theresa…

She is the one who survived.

Or rather, the one who succeeded.

1183, 1183…

Ah…

I had seen Theresa’s notes in the royal city, which Margaret later handed over to the church. The content recorded there… She sacrificed the children’s blood to the relics… When did all of this start…?

I remember it was around…

In the year 1183…

My thoughts raced, and my scalp began to tingle.

I understood…

I finally grasped the significance of this list.

There was no wind in the cellar, yet I felt a chill creeping into my bones. I couldn’t hold back a shiver, tightening my robe and pressing down the complex emotions surging within me. I bit my nails and continued to read.

The subsequent pages were filled with dates and names.

From January 1181 to January 1187. The later the recorded time, the more names appeared under each period. Starting in 1185, I noticed that besides Teresa, some names were not crossed out.

But these names were not circled; they had no markings at all.

Such names only appeared once in July 1185, named “Harry,” the Harry Potter. I was certain it was an unfamiliar name. However, by January 1186, there were suddenly many more unfamiliar names. Roughly counting, there were at least seven or eight in each period.

Among the names left uncrossed in July 1186, I saw “Longman,” a name that felt vaguely familiar.

Who was he…

I must have heard about him somewhere…

After much thought, I recalled it was the golden mask and the disfigured man from before.

Back when I was in the Valen Empire, he had secretly helped Edward come to the Winter City to capture me.

Later, we fought, and the golden mask revealed a power close to the Blood Sacrifice stage, but his body couldn’t withstand it, and he died soon after.

Hmm…

This Longman must be the same person.

There’s no mistake.

By July 1187, the names left uncrossed were very familiar to me.

Marcus, Weatherby, Angus, Hacha…

There were eight in total.

Most of them were not just familiar by name; over half of them had died by my hand.

Yes, they were the people the Joker brought along, the ones Elma called the disqualified. There were eight here, plus the sixth senator, the Mist Hider, and the Joker himself, making ten in total.

These eight, although still far weaker than the Joker, Teresa, or the true power of the Blood Sacrifice stage, were stronger than the golden mask I had seen in 1186.

At least they wouldn’t die immediately after using their power.

Perhaps this was why the dancer dared to make such a crazy plan, to face the Church head-on.

Otherwise, these disqualified would die too quickly…

I remembered her mentioning this.

Even if she hadn’t, I could tell from the list that previously disqualified names did not appear in earlier battles.

…So, was this also some kind of unknown experiment?

Every January and July, the dancer ordered the capture of test subjects—these people on the list—and forced them to accept the power of the Blood Sacrifice through some unknown method—perhaps related to that disgusting tumor—turning them into heretics. Those who couldn’t adapt died, while those barely surviving became the disqualified, gaining power but dying shortly after.

They knew they would die, so they acted without restraint, becoming demons…

As for Teresa, she might just be an exception.

“Hmph.”

I clenched my fists and sneered.

Madmen…

Unreasonable…

Even crazier than the Church, no wonder they were considered heretics, bloodthirsty ghosts…

No matter the reason, anyone capable of doing such things deserved to die…

With gritted teeth, I continued reading. Gradually, I realized that things were slightly different from what I had imagined…