A Merciful God?

In the dimly lit laboratory, Lester wrote in his notebook: "My hypothesis is not wrong. There are no issues."

"It must be achievable."

"But this requires supernatural power. I don't have the bloodline of the Wisdom Ability, so how can I obtain supernatural power?"

Lester immediately looked at the blood-sucking worm being kept in the laboratory.

The divine technique knowledge in his head instantly provided him with a direction.

Moreover, it also supplied him with a plan and the power to implement this idea.

The "God of Knowledge" seemed to have given him not just knowledge, but also something else, making him feel completely different.

How to describe it?

Like a genius.

A mad genius.

Lester looked at the blood-sucking worm with fiery eyes, then lowered his head and continued writing in his notebook.

"I can sign a Spirit Realm Covenant with the blood-sucking demon worm, then I can use its power."

"It is a supernatural life form, capable of forming a Spirit Realm Covenant."

He began using the knowledge he obtained from the "God of Knowledge" to design the Spirit Realm Covenant he would sign with the blood-sucking worm.

The knowledge given to him by the "God of Knowledge" was incredibly powerful and precise. Ordinary Spirit Realm priests might know how to draw a Spirit Realm Covenant, but most would only copy patterns left by their predecessors.

However, what the other party gave Lester explained the function of every stroke and pattern in the Spirit Realm Covenant.

This was the most orthodox priestly inheritance.

Originating from the legacy of Sandean, the first Sage of Truth.

In the laboratory, Lester once again drew a Spirit Realm Covenant.

While using it, Lester was continuously digesting the knowledge in his mind.

The blood-sucking worm had no name. Lester took a piece of its skin and placed it on the Spirit Realm Covenant.

He also dripped a drop of his own blood onto it, writing his name in blood.

What was originally just an ordinary pattern immediately displayed supernatural power after being completed, with power from another world infusing into it.

Above the ritual array, the shadow of a golden divine cup appeared.

It was blurry, but radiated a sun-like brilliance.

Lester stood before the array, chanting loudly.

"I, Lester, am willing to give a part of my life to you, to form a symbiotic contract with you."

On the blood-sucking demon worm's body, lines of the contract appeared, emerging on the surface before quickly sinking back in.

But it wasn't over yet.

With a mixture of determination and trepidation, he swallowed the blood-sucking worm, forming a symbiosis with it.

The blood-sucking worm burrowed into his heart, coiling around it, pulsing in sync with his heartbeat.

At the same time, he suddenly felt something strongly attracting him.

He looked over and found it was a fingernail-sized blood-red stone.

"Life Blood Stone."

He felt the Life Blood Stone resonating with him, because the blood-sucking worm's power came from the same bloodline.

That was the Life Ability of Shelly, the Mother of Life and Queen of the Ruhe Beasts.

Lester was not an ability user, he was just an ordinary person, yet now he possessed a powerful force.

Lester stretched out his hand.

His hand suddenly softened like noodles, turning into a mass of blood-red paste.

He extended his hand, and in an instant, it transformed into several blood-red tentacles.

As he retracted it, it once again became an ordinary hand.

A surge of exhilaration coursed through him. This new power was beyond anything he had ever experienced, filling him with a mixture of awe and excitement.

He wasn't an ability user, he was still just an ordinary person, but now he had obtained part of an ability user's power through symbiosis with the blood-sucking worm.

"Witch doctor?"

"This is the power of witch doctors, I finally have their power too!"

Lester stared at this power, entranced.

For over a decade, he had been pursuing the power of witch doctors.

At last, he had finally obtained it.

Although it was only a weakened version of the witch doctors' power, Lester hadn't even figured out exactly how to use it yet.

But using this power, he could sense the intestine-eating worms that had multiplied inside his wife, kill them, and remove them without worrying about his surgery causing further harm to his wife.

At the very least, he could now temporarily sustain his wife's life without issue.

Lester was overwhelmed with excitement. He ran out of the laboratory and into his home.

On the operating table.

He placed his hand on his wife's abdomen, and a mass of blood-like filaments spread out like fine needles.

They pierced through the gaps in her carapace, and his wife immediately fell into a deep sleep.

When his wife woke up, that bone-deep pain had disappeared.

His wife opened her eyes to see Lester's face beaming with joy.

"Your illness is cured."

His wife's eyes widened in disbelief and hope. "Really? Is it truly gone?"

She suddenly realized that the torment that had kept her sleepless and wishing for death had dissipated.

Lester nodded: "However, your body is still very weak."

"You've been sick for too long, these wretched worms have been damaging your body continuously."

"But don't worry. Just hold on a little longer."

"My universal elixir is almost complete. When it's done, I'll give you a completely healthy body, restored to its youthful vigor."

Although his wife was weak, she looked much more spirited.

"Universal elixir?"

"Isn't that just an absurd legend?"

Lester's eyes were full of confidence: "In my hands, it's about to become reality."

His wife's improvement gave Lester enormous motivation.

Lester began to conduct the next step of his experiment, to record the so-called healthiest and most perfect Trilobite Man form onto the Life Blood Stone.

He immediately searched for corresponding methods in the memories he had obtained from the "God of Knowledge".

"Memory Model Divine Technique."

Lester instantly found a method.

Originating from the Spirit Activation Technique, it was a divine technique that could qualitatively fix an information model onto supernatural power. It wasn't particularly powerful.

Many workshops used this method to mass-produce miracle artifacts, so it wasn't rare.

But Lester immediately applied this method to his own experiment.

He extracted blood from many Trilobite Men, inputting information about various healthy internal organs, tissues, and skin into the Life Blood Stone.

"The more information collected, the more accurate it will be, and the better it can adjust different people's bodies to their optimal state."

Eventually, the Life Blood Stone gradually changed its appearance, showing two embracing figures.

One male and one female.

It was like an exquisite sculpture, a tiny work of art.

When it was completed, Lester didn't feel happy or excited.

Instead, he was completely lost in thought.

He held the "universal elixir" as if looking at the most beautiful work of art, a perfect creation he had spent his entire life sculpting.

"This is it."

"This is it."

"It's perfect, truly perfect."

According to Lester's idea, this could instantly restore every Trilobite Man to their healthiest state, capable of curing every disease in this world.

In other words, the universal elixir.

On the bed, Lester and his wife gazed at each other.

There was some unease in Lester's eyes. Although he had created the universal elixir and had confidence in his years of hard work.

But after all, this was the first time it would be used on a living person.

Lester: "Are you ready?"

His wife saw the anxiety in Lester's eyes: "I believe in you."

Lester took a deep breath, finally calming his emotions.

He held the "universal elixir" in one hand, gripping his wife's hand with the other.

A blood-red power surged, spreading from Lester's body to his wife's.

Finally, a drop of red liquid materialized from thin air.

The liquid rippled, dripping into Lester's wife's body.

"Mmm~"

Lester's wife let out a soft moan as a powerful force directly acted on her body.

Her depleted internal organs, her increasingly frail body, her clouded eyes.

All were now being continuously repaired.

Remarkably, Lester felt that his wife seemed to have instantly become years younger.

As the red light faded, his wife, who could previously only lie in bed, supported herself on the edge of the bed and gradually stood up.

She moved her body a bit, discovering that she was truly completely healed.

His wife looked at herself in amazement, then turned to her husband, Lester.

"What exactly happened?"

"This is truly incredible!"

Lester embraced his wife, resting his head happily on her shoulder.

All these days he had been living in fear and anxiety, unable to bear the thought of losing her.

"This is the universal elixir I created for you."

His wife patted his shoulder: "I've always believed you could accomplish whatever you set your mind to."

He led his wife out of the house.

As soon as the people outside saw Lester, they burst into cheers.

"Mr. Lester has come out!"

"His wife has also recovered, Mrs. Lester is healed."

Hundreds, even thousands of people gathered around, all looking at Lester with admiration and worship. Some even knelt on the ground to express their gratitude to Lester.

"Holy Hands."

"Holy Hands."

After this plague, Lester's reputation reached its peak.

People truly erected a statue for him, just like the one made for Saint Stan Tito in Anho City.

On the base of the statue, Lester's name and deeds were carved.

Surrounded by a group of nobles, Lester stood before the statue, expressing his thoughts and thanking everyone.

"Thank you all."

"Thank you all."

The name Holy Hands spread throughout all of Yinsai.

—

Lester's clinic.

A child who had become weak and near death due to the plague infection came seeking treatment. The mother, holding her child, kept begging Lester.

"Please save my child."

The clinic's doctor said to the mother: "There's nothing we can do in this situation. Rather than letting the child suffer in the clinic, it would be better to spend the last days at home with family."

But the mother was still unwilling to give up. She looked at Lester.

"Holy Hands."

"You're the most skilled doctor, surely you have a way, right?"

Lester looked at the child's pain-stricken face and felt incredibly distressed.

He once again thought of the "universal elixir" he had created.

He thought: "If I've used it once, why can't I use it a second time?"

Lester said to his apprentice: "Bring her in."

The apprentice looked at Lester in surprise: "Mr. Lester, this..."

In his view, this person was completely beyond saving.

Even if they forcibly tried to save her, it would only add to her suffering.

However, Lester's "medical skills" far exceeded his imagination.

In just a few days, he had gone from an ordinary person to someone who wielded the power of the "universal elixir."

For the first time in front of others, Lester demonstrated his power that was even more miraculous than the witch doctors'.

With one hand activating the power of the "universal elixir," and the other holding the child's hand.

In an instant, he revived a patient who had been deemed certain to die. As soon as she got off the sickbed, she was identical to other healthy children.

"A miracle!"

"This is truly a miracle!"

Other patients who witnessed this scene cried out in shock.

This was no longer just medical skill; it was a miracle.

"When did Mr. Lester become so powerful?" The clinic's apprentices looked at Lester, all dumbfounded.

"This must be the power of the witch doctors, the legendary power of the witch doctors." The older doctors immediately recalled the legends about witch doctors.

From this moment on, no one ever died in Lester's clinic again, and the title of Holy Hands became truly well-deserved.

Everyone agreed: Lester had learned the power of the witch doctors.

Some even said that Lester had mastered a method to make people young again, because those he treated not only recovered but became even healthier than before.

This also led many nobles to visit Lester, begging him to treat them.

Lester refused them all, calling it nonsense.

On a sunny day.

Lester sat at his desk, head lowered, pen in hand.

He looked at the scroll, hesitating repeatedly before finally putting pen to paper.

"Great Witch Doctor, my teacher Lord Left Hand."

"Please forgive me for only telling you now, but a few years ago..."

Lester wrote to the House of the Witch Doctors, telling his teacher about his theft of the Life Blood Stone years ago, and asking about the method to create it.

He was determined to create more universal elixirs.

He wanted doctors to become another profession that wielded supernatural power.

He asked the merchant group to deliver the letter, then returned home.

"It's dark."

"Why haven't we lit the lamps?"

However, as soon as he opened the door, Lester saw his wife lying motionless on the ground.

He immediately rushed over, anxiously helping his wife up.

He found that his wife seemed to be just sleeping, with no other issues.

"Hey!"

"What's wrong?"

Lester patted his wife's face, and she slowly opened her eyes and woke up.

However, her first words upon waking sent a chill through Lester's heart.

"Who are you?"

"I..." Lester's words caught in his throat.

"I'm your husband, Lester!"

It took his wife a long time to recognize him, and she nodded.

"Oh!"

"It's Lester!"

At first, Lester thought it was just because there had been too many patients at the clinic these days, and his wife was too busy and exhausted.

But then this situation began to occur repeatedly, each time more severe than the last.

His wife kept forgetting memories of the past, began forgetting her relatives, forgetting her friends.

She even forgot where her home was.

She could no longer leave the house, let alone assist Lester as his helper.

Eventually, his wife became completely bedridden, unable to move.

Lester stayed by her bedside, constantly calling his wife's name.

"Hey!"

"Wake up!"

"Wake up!"

He called his wife's name, but there was no response at all.

This time, the "universal elixir" he had placed so much hope in couldn't save his wife. The problem was no longer at the physical level, but seemed to be on another plane entirely.

He could only watch helplessly as his wife became someone neither alive nor dead.

He refused all visitors to care for his wife, even abandoning all matters at the clinic. He turned away apprentices and doctors who came looking for him.

He was constantly in the laboratory, poring over books, searching for the problem with his wife's body.

More precisely, he was searching for where exactly his universal elixir had gone wrong.

However, even until the end, he couldn't find the problem.

At first, his wife was awake for nearly half a day.

But even when awake, she didn't remember who Lester was.

Like an infant, she waved her hands towards the sky, making unintelligible sounds like a baby learning to speak.

His wife turned her head, her eyes unfocused, and let out a soft, confused sound towards Lester.

Her eyes were full of unfamiliarity, as if asking who he was.

Tragically, she could no longer even form the words to ask.

Lester, his heart breaking, could only nod helplessly, unable to find the right words to respond.

He stroked his wife's face, tears streaming from his eyes.

His wife's condition worsened day by day, beyond recovery.

Until the last moment of her life, his wife suddenly had a moment of clarity, as if awakening from a state of living death.

She lay in bed, her empty pupils suddenly gaining life.

But she seemed unable to see anything, constantly groping around the edge of the bed with her hand.

"Lester!"

"Les...ter."

Lester was by the window, looking at the mountain of books piled up, when he heard the voice and immediately turned around.

He excitedly threw himself onto the bed, grasping his wife's hand and looking at her.

"I'm here."

"I'm here."

He was shaking with excitement, repeating over and over.

"You're finally awake, you're finally awake."

"Do you know?"

"I've been... I've been... waiting for you all this time..."

Lester choked up, unable to speak.

However, his wife only looked at him sorrowfully.

She opened her mouth and said one sentence: "What you created... was it really a universal elixir?"

This question struck Lester like a bolt of lightning, shocking him to his core.

This question.

It was also what he had been doubting all these days.

After saying this, his wife fell back into a deep sleep, her hollow eyes completely losing their luster.

Then.

She never woke up again.

Two days later, Lester's wife passed away.

Looking at his wife's cold body, Lester sat on the ground in despair.

"How could this happen? What exactly went wrong?" he muttered, his voice barely above a whisper as the weight of his failure crushed him.

He stumbled out of the house, wandering the streets like a walking corpse. Many people on the street pointed and whispered about him.

These days, Lester had not left his house at all, focusing all his attention on his wife.

He didn't know yet.

His wife was not the first person to experience these symptoms, nor was she the first to die.

Rumors were spreading all over Cross City, with everyone secretly talking about Lester's evil experiments and tales of the living dead.

All the critically ill patients that Lester had treated began to develop problems a few months later.

They gradually forgot their past, then became mindless living dead, and finally, unable to eat or move.

They slowly died.

This inevitably led people to wonder what Lester had done.

Gradually, rumors spread in the city about Lester experimenting on patients.

Especially recently, his constant absence had only increased these suspicions.

Lester wandered the streets in a daze when suddenly he bumped into someone.

A person who, like him, was like a walking corpse—a mother overcome with grief.

The mother was cradling a child, wandering aimlessly through the streets.

The moment this mother saw him, she pushed through the crowd as if mad and rushed towards him.

She immediately blocked Lester's path, repeatedly asking him.

"Did you do this?!"

"Was it you who did this?!"

At first, Lester didn't understand. He stared blankly at the mother, then recognized her as the mother of the little girl he had saved with the universal elixir—his second patient.

Then he lowered his head and saw the child.

No.

It was the corpse of a child.

Clearly, she had died just like his wife.

Dead in her mother's arms.

The mother clutched Lester's clothes tightly, finally falling to her knees, wailing and crying.

"Tell me!"

"You tell me!"

"My child, my child... what exactly did she die from?!"

"Before she died, she said..."

"She said she couldn't see the light anymore, she asked why no boat came to pick her up."

"She... was abandoned by God!"

The mother cried out in despair.

"What exactly did you do?! What did you do to my child?!"

Lester completely broke down.

He stood in the middle of the street, tears streaming down his face as he shouted.

"I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry."

"I didn't want this, I didn't want this either."

Lester cried out the pain he had been holding in his heart all these days, his voice full of self-doubt and despair.

"I used a power I shouldn't have, I overestimated myself."

"I thought the experiment was successful."

"I thought I had succeeded."

The crowd was in an uproar, everyone looking at Lester in disbelief.

"It can't be!"

"Mr. Lester, he..."

"So he really was conducting experiments."

"He was experimenting on patients?"

"I knew it, how could he suddenly possess such powerful abilities, able to revive people on the brink of death, even make them young again."

Overnight, Lester fell from grace.

He became a despised outcast, with even more victims rushing towards him.

Lester was in extreme pain.

Amidst the accusations of thousands, he returned to his home.

He pushed open the door and saw his wife's body lying on the bed.

He fell to the ground, fearfully backing away.

"This isn't real."

"This isn't real, it's all fake."

Lester knelt on the ground, covering his face as he wept.

However, no amount of self-deception could fool the world, nor could it change reality.

His wife was dead, and the patients he had saved had become living dead.

Even worse, when they died, there wasn't even a boat to receive them; they couldn't return to God's realm in the sky.

At this moment, he thought of someone again. Not just someone, but a being that claimed to be a god.

He threw open the door to his laboratory, not even bothering to close it, and rushed straight to the basement.

He hastily drew the spirit contract ritual array on the ground, finally writing the names of the supplicant and the one being supplicated on it.

A sudden, ethereal breeze swept through the room, and the ritual array illuminated with an otherworldly glow.

"Quick!"

"Hurry!"

"Faster."

Though the ritual activated swiftly, to Lester, each moment felt like an eternity.

He was so desperate to see the other party that he couldn't bear to wait a second longer.

The sensation of falling from the sky descended, and he once again arrived in an illusory realm.

Lester stood in this empty world, turned around, and saw that enormous door.

And the figure on the giant door, the so-called God of Knowledge.

The "deity" lowered his gaze, looking at the tiny, ant-like being beneath the giant door.

"Witch doctor apprentice Lester."

"Why have you come back?"

Lester didn't care about whether it was a god or not anymore. He excitedly stepped forward and told the other party.

"Tell me."

"Why did I fail? You said you gave me enough knowledge, but I still failed."

"I can't find the reason at all."

The figure on the door calmly told him: "I told you, there has never been such a thing as a universal elixir."

"What I gave you was only the knowledge and power you wanted."

"As for why you failed?"

"You should ask yourself that."

"Why did you assume from the beginning that you would definitely succeed?"

The figure on the door lowered his head, looking at him indifferently.

"Mortal."

"It was you who was arrogant!"

Lester was already at a loss, panicking and not knowing what to do.

"Please!"

"I beg you."

"Tell me, what should I do?"

He pleaded desperately to the "deity" on the door, as if grasping at a last straw.

"If you really are a god, then please give guidance to this insignificant mortal!"

The figure rested his chin on his hand, looking at Lester with boredom.

He felt no empathy for the sorrow, pain, and despair; he only found this mortal before him quite interesting, like a clown on a stage, twisting and swaying his body under the teasing of fate.

This was something that such a rational yet mad being couldn't understand or feel.

"Well then."

"Mortal, what else do you want?"

"As a deity, perhaps I can offer you a little help."

Finally, a thought emerged in Lester's mind. He no longer wanted to create any universal elixir; now he only wanted to bring his wife back to life.

"I want the knowledge to resurrect my wife."

The figure nodded, speaking in an extremely casual tone.

"For a great deity, this is not a difficult matter."

"But as a deity, there are principles that must be followed."

The light dust figure looked at Lester: "And I..."

"Am just such a fair and principled deity."

"I adhere to the law of equivalent exchange. Anyone who wants to get something from me must pay a price."

Lester shouted at the giant door: "Any price is fine, I just want my wife back."

The figure on the door asked him: "Really, anything is fine?"

Tears flowed from Lester's eyes: "Really, anything is fine, merciful god!"

"Everything I have, I'll give it all to you."

The figure's dignified expression was almost breaking; the corners of his mouth curved into a mad grin.

"Very well."

"Very well."

"Then I shall teach you the method to resurrect the dead."

The figure stood up, spreading his arms.

"The merciful deity will once again bestow grace upon mortals."

The giant door opened, and endless light engulfed Lester.

Lester watched as the door slowly opened, the light behind it shining on his face.

His pupils bloomed with infinite hope.

"Ah!"

"I don't want any universal elixir anymore, I just want... just want my wife."

He abandoned his grand ideals, choosing another existence.

Behind that door was what he believed to be the answer to his salvation.

"Boom."

The door slammed shut, and the figure on the door could no longer contain himself.

He laughed maniacally, doubling over with laughter.

Gone was the dignified and merciful image from before.

"The merciful deity, ah."

"Hahahahaha."

He grinned, speaking in a tone full of madness: "Not only will I give you the chance to live again, but I'll also bestow upon you the gift of immortality."

"How about that?"

"What deity could be more generous than I, more magnanimous than I?"

But then he suddenly fell into contemplation, doubting Lester's universal elixir.

"What exactly is this thing?"

"Universal elixir?"

"This thing's power is quite strange, how could it achieve such effects?"

"I've actually never seen it before."

The little person in the bottle immediately recalled something, the memories inherited from Anhofus instantly bringing back the scene of meeting the witch doctors.

"No."

"This couldn't be... the power of immortality of the witch doctors, could it?"

—

Cross City.

In the south of the city.

The sleeping painter suddenly turned over and got up, as if he had received a call from some being.

He hurriedly opened the door and came to his studio.

In the darkness, portraits hung on the walls of the studio, leaning against the walls, as if countless eyes were watching him.

It looked somewhat eerie and terrifying.

He flipped through the mountain of paintings piled up in the studio, hurriedly and anxiously, tossing aside his own works as if they were trash.

At last, his gaze fixed on a canvas painting of a giant door hidden in the corner, and he looked at it as if in reverence.

The painter knelt on the ground, bowing devoutly to this painting.

"Great God of Knowledge!"

"You have finally responded to me."

The so-called "God of Knowledge" had transmitted divine revelation to his believer.