Perfect Immortality?

"Blasphemer against God."

"Lester, what have you done?"

"Come out and confess your crimes."

"Why aren't the priests of the Yinsai Temple judging such an evildoer?"

Someone threw a stone into Lester's house, shattering the window glass.

The rolling stone came to rest at Lester's feet.

Lester sat at the table, his head bowed low amidst mountains of scrolls.

He glanced at the stone at his feet, listening to the commotion outside.

He pressed his hands against his face.

Taking a deep breath, he continued his writing.

Outside Lester's door, a crowd surged. These were the families of patients who had become "living dead," along with a few onlookers who had heard rumors of Lester's evil experiments.

Dozens, even hundreds of people shouted and cursed outside the door. Fortunately, servants at the entrance prevented them from rushing in. The crowd only dispersed from dawn to dusk.

That night, the servants bid farewell to Lester.

These servants dared not look up at Lester, for he had indeed treated them well in the past.

But still, someone stepped forward and bowed to Lester before speaking.

"Mr. Lester."

"I really can't take it anymore, it's becoming dangerous here. You should move to a safer place."

"Or go to the countryside to lie low for a while, and come back after some time."

Lester said nothing.

He silently paid the servants their wages and watched them leave.

As the last servant was leaving, he called out to him.

"Do one last thing for me!"

The servant nodded: "No problem, Mr. Lester."

He said to the last departing servant.

"I'll move out tomorrow. Please hang a sign at the door saying the house is for sale."

Donning a dark robe, Lester walked with his head down along the street.

Now in Cross City, he could only sneak out of his house under the cover of night.

On the dark street, he walked towards his clinic.

At the central intersection of the city, he suddenly saw scattered debris on the ground.

It felt uncomfortable under his feet.

He looked up.

He discovered that the tall statue once erected by the city's commoners to commemorate him had been toppled. Half of it was already smashed beyond recognition.

The other half would likely be destroyed tomorrow, then dragged out of the city as scrap.

Lester felt as if his chest was blocked, unable to speak for a long time, just staring blankly.

After a long while, he finally uttered a sentence.

"It's over."

"My glory was... truly short-lived!"

Lester once thought he would become a figure like Saint Stan Tito in Cross City, but now the idea seemed so laughable.

Not only was he unlike the saint, remembered by all after death, but everything he possessed had been torn down while he was still alive.

Lester arrived at his clinic, where everything inside had been cleared out.

Only one apprentice was waiting for him.

The apprentice handed him the key: "Mr. Lester, I've been waiting for you."

Lester looked at the key: "Then let's disband."

The clinic's door closed, leaving Lester alone in the empty space.

Lester sat alone on the ground, hiding himself in the darkness.

The moon gradually rose, finally bringing a bit of light to the dark corners, but Lester remained motionless.

Until dawn, when he suddenly erupted.

He took down the white ceramic sign of Lester's Clinic and smashed it to pieces on the ground.

"Go!"

"All of you, go!"

Lester cupped his face and straightened up, then bent deeply at the waist.

"I did something wrong, but I saved so many more people!"

"I saved thousands upon thousands of people, I freed countless from suffering, I taught my medical skills to apprentice after apprentice, I shared my medical knowledge with others without reservation."

"Were my achievements fake? All erased by one failure?"

Lester kicked away the fragments on the ground, waving his hands in fury.

"Why is it taken for granted when I save people, but all blame falls on me when something goes wrong?"

"Why?"

"Why?"

"It was you who begged me to save people, it was you who begged me to save them back then, not that I had to save them."

Finally, he could only kneel on the ground, sobbing.

Everything he had possessed was lost in this moment.

Lester returned home, where the servants had already left.

A "For Sale" sign hung at the gate of the courtyard.

The next day dawned.

By the time people gathered around, the place appeared deserted.

The main gate was locked.

It never opened again.

But in reality, Lester had secluded himself in his laboratory, working tirelessly day and night.

In the laboratory, a female corpse began to emit a glow. Gradually, a faint, hazy shadow floated up from the body.

Lester recognized it; he knew this figure.

The shadow seemed to be saying something to him, but Lester couldn't hear anything at all.

He excitedly stepped forward, wanting to embrace her.

"You're back."

"You're finally back."

The method to resurrect the dead given by the "God of Knowledge" was to transform the remaining memories in his wife's brain into a ghost.

But this wasn't the end, only the beginning.

He still had to use the Life Blood Stone to create a new body and stuff his wife's ghost into it.

According to what the deity had said, he could then resurrect his wife.

Lester reached out to touch his wife's ghost, his hand passing through the ethereal form.

He lowered his hand in disappointment, but immediately his eyes filled with a glimmer of hope.

"Just one last step."

"Just..."

"One last step."

—

The Yinsai Temple in Cross City received an oral decree from the High Priest of the God-Descended City, along with a scroll imprinted with secret text.

The scroll stated that the God of Knowledge had been declared a demon by the Yinsai Temple, and anyone worshipping or believing in him was forbidden.

The God-Descended City had heard that faith in the so-called "God of Knowledge" had also appeared in Cross City, and immediately sent people over.

After reading the scroll, the temple priest asked the messenger.

"Has something happened?"

The messenger's reply was grave.

A group of "God of Knowledge" believers in the south had caused a great disturbance, actually using living people as sacrifices to pray for power or immortality.

Moreover, some master craftsmen who had obtained supernatural talents and skills from the so-called "God of Knowledge" went mad not long after receiving these gifts.

Among these people, some killed their own families, while others committed incomprehensibly insane acts in their frenzied pursuit of further knowledge.

One after another, incident after incident.

These horrifying and bloody events made the priests in the temple shudder, with only the Yinsai God statue behind them offering some comfort.

"What?"

"These madmen."

"What kind of demon is this, able to turn people into lunatics, and simultaneously in different territories?"

The duty priest of the Yinsai Temple in Cross City also knew the problem wasn't simple, and the first to be investigated was the rumored painter.

Immediately, soldiers and temple priests in the city mobilized, heading towards the south of the city.

"Hurry!" A soldier ran on the ground, holding a long spear and shouting back.

"Hurry!" Squad after squad of soldiers followed, numbering at least several dozen.

The lead soldier forcefully kicked open the door, and soldiers and priests rushed into the painter's house together.

As soon as the door opened, they smelled a strong odor of blood and decay.

Several corpses were piled in the hall, with the painter sitting on a tall chair, his back to the door.

In one hand he held a brush and a knife, in the other a silver cup filled with red liquid.

On the wall hung a long, framed canvas, to which the painter was adding details.

But combined with the corpses on the floor, the ceramic basin for extracting blood, and the filth everywhere, one could imagine what was in the cup.

He was actually painting with blood.

Moreover, someone recognized that these corpses were all the painter's relatives.

"Hiss!" Faced with this dark atmosphere and horrifying, bizarre scene, everyone who burst in couldn't help but draw a sharp breath.

"Madman, truly a madman." Even the priests fully understood why the God-Descended City had declared this "God of Knowledge" a demon.

The painter painted, his body convulsing and dancing, his head swaying left and right.

Nearly insane.

What kind of painting was he creating!

With broad strokes, as if depicting a scroll of purgatory.

A giant open door, covered entirely in red patterns.

Casting down terrifying shadows, also in a brownish-red tone.

Behind the door were countless distorted, screaming ghosts, their dark and terrifying faces with mouths wide open, as if emitting an ear-piercing sound that made one want to cover their ears just from looking.

But the background of this painting was not this door, but a figure so large it occupied the entire canvas.

Like a distorted human figure, yet also like a giant tree growing according to some rule.

"Ah!" The soldiers present cried out in horror when they saw this painting.

"Thud!" Many directly fainted on the spot.

"Ugh!" Some of the younger priests also felt dizzy after seeing this painting, continuously vomiting.

The painter, faced with the suddenly opened door and all the intruders, still made no movement.

His eyes were fixed only on the canvas before him, continuously perfecting his painting.

He was muttering to himself, as if in a trance.

"God~"

"Oh God!"

"This is Your kingdom, this is Your divine realm."

"I will..."

The duty priest of the temple bellowed in anger, "Seize him!"

The soldiers rushed forward, intending to grab the painter.

The painter turned his head, his terrifying gaze so frightening that the soldiers and priests present stopped in their tracks.

The painter grinned, revealing an extremely horrifying smile.

"Mortals."

"Eternal darkness is coming."

After saying this, the painter stabbed the scraper in his hand into his own eye.

Then he spread his arms.

He fell from the high chair in a spread-eagle position, crashing to the ground.

The silver cup in his hand made a crisp sound, spilling sacrificial blood all over the floor.

He had committed suicide.

The duty priest of the temple looked at the painting and the painter who had died in madness, his hands involuntarily shaking.

"Demon."

"Demon~" he repeated, this time his voice seven times louder.

"Indeed, it is the deepest evil, a demon daring to claim to be a god."

He stepped forward, wanting to destroy the painting, but found that he couldn't cut it down no matter how hard he tried, not knowing what material it was made of.

It was as if an invisible force was blocking him, a voice whispering in his ear.

This was a scroll painting depicting mythology, something mortals could not destroy.

The duty priest stepped back repeatedly, hastily covering the painting with a cloth.

"This thing is problematic, cover it and take it back."

Afterwards, the priest not only found various evidences of worshipping and sacrificing to demons in the painter's house, but also discovered things related to Lester.

In the painter's notes before he went mad, someone found records of Lester visiting him.

Among these findings were details about Lester and the painter discussing how to worship and contact the God of Knowledge.

"Holy Hands Lester?"

"Is it really him?"

"What Holy Hands Lester, he must have made some deal with this demon."

"That's right, otherwise why were all the patients he treated rejected by God's realm?"

The temple priests had always been suspicious of Lester's suddenly acquired power, but had not taken any action due to Lester's previous reputation.

But now it was completely different. The facts proved that the power of Holy Hands Lester was not holy at all.

His strange power very likely came from an evil and insane being.

"But Lester disappeared many days ago," a temple priest said.

"I know where Lester is," a soldier in the crowd raised his hand.

"Speak quickly!" The duty priest stepped forward.

The soldier immediately replied.

"I heard that Lester never actually left, he's been hiding in his house all along."

"A few days ago, the patrol saw someone sneaking out from the back door of Lester's house at night."

The crowd, having just finished searching the painter's house, immediately rushed to Lester's home.

Everything that had happened at the painter's house had already united the priests and soldiers in their hatred.

They absolutely could not allow the tentacles and evil plans of such a terrifying demon to appear in Cross City, their hometown and home.

"Open the door." The main gate was very sturdy, difficult to break down.

"You, you, you, climb over the wall and go in." The soldiers immediately assigned tasks.

"You few, enter from the back door." More than a dozen people rushed to the back of the house.

Soon, the main gate opened.

Lester was also alerted and ran out to stop the priests and soldiers.

"What are you doing?"

"This is my home."

"How dare you break in like this."

The duty priest stepped forward and grabbed Lester's collar, taking out the scroll issued by the temple.

"Lester, you are guilty of conducting evil research, betraying the faith of Yinsai, and worshipping demons—three unforgivable crimes. We are now going to search your courtyard."

Soldiers and priests rushed into Lester's home.

Soon, they discovered a house at the back, along with a secret door leading to a basement.

In the underground laboratory, they found numerous evidences of his crimes. People even discovered that Lester's wife had long since died, but he had never buried her.

Instead, he was conducting some kind of experiment on his wife in the basement.

People looked at the jars containing various organs in the basement, Lester's wife's corpse, and all sorts of mysterious symbol tablets.

The scene before them suggested horrifying and evil experiments had taken place.

The duty priest of the Yinsai Temple in Cross City looked at the female corpse, these mystical books and divine technique secrets that even he couldn't fully understand, and finally fixed his gaze on the "God of Knowledge" symbol on the spirit contract ritual tablet.

"Holy Hands Lester."

"How could such a person be called holy."

Seeing that his wife's corpse had been found, Lester excitedly rushed forward to stop these soldiers and priests.

"Don't touch her!"

"Don't touch her!"

Lester used the power of the blood-sucking worm, his arms transforming into tentacles like worms, sweeping towards the others.

Seven or eight soldiers were swept away like rag dolls as he rushed to his wife's corpse.

In doing so, he also exposed the strange, inhuman power he possessed.

The soldiers, seeing Lester's monstrous form, no longer dared to approach.

They all fled.

"Monster!"

"He's a monster!"

This completely confirmed Lester's crimes. His terrifying form and power not only scared the ordinary soldiers into retreating, but even startled the priests present.

The duty priest immediately issued an order: "Capture him, dead or alive."

The entire squad immediately formed a formation, their mental power controlling various weapons to attack Lester.

Although Lester possessed supernatural power, he clearly was not skilled in combat. This was his first time fighting against ability users.

And it was an entire priest squad.

Especially in such a narrow space, he had even less room to maneuver.

"Boom."

He waved his hand, tearing off the top of the laboratory.

He jumped out carrying his wife's corpse, leaping more than ten meters high.

The priests immediately followed, various divine techniques raining down on Lester.

Soon after, another priest squad arrived, carrying silver spiked chains.

Lester was quickly subdued, his body pierced by chains. Any movement would immediately overwhelm him with excruciating pain.

Lester glared at his captors, his eyes filled with rage and disbelief at the invasion of his home and the disruption of his experiment.

"Ah!"

"What are you doing?"

"By what right?"

"What have I done wrong?"

Everyone else looked to the duty priest: "How should we deal with him?"

The duty priest looked at Lester's strange power and form. With such injuries, chains piercing his body in over a dozen places, an ordinary person would have long since died.

Yet Lester still looked full of vitality.

Moreover, during the recent battle, Lester's body had been severely wounded multiple times, but he recovered from his injuries in the blink of an eye.

This healing ability left everyone present dumbfounded.

The duty priest made a decision: "He is no longer human. Taking him away might cause problems, and the city prison can't hold him."

"We must dispose of this monster immediately, otherwise it will bring trouble."

A priest said: "Ordinary methods can't kill him."

The duty priest looked at Lester with cold eyes: "Then burn him to death."

"Burn him at the execution ground. Let's see who in Cross City dares to sacrifice to demons after this."

Those present nodded: "Good idea, we must make an example of him."

Lester was tied in a cage, his two hands bound by silver chains, unable to transform back for some reason.

Several soldiers pushed the prison cart, with four priests on each side holding the other end of the silver chains, closely monitoring Lester's every move.

Their caution was evident.

The street was filled with people, with more coming out of their homes to the main street.

For the one about to be judged was once the glory of Cross City, the representative of light, the Holy Hands.

"Is this Mr. Lester?" People looked at the monster-like Lester, recognizing his face, but hardly daring to believe this was Lester.

"How did he become like this?" More and more people gathered to watch, but upon seeing Lester's terrifying form covered in blood, they retreated repeatedly.

"Monster, Lester is actually a monster!" someone shouted.

"No wonder the people he saved all became living dead." People in the crowd suddenly realized, speculating about the truth.

"He deceived us, he's just a fraud. He's not Holy Hands at all, he's been conducting his own evil experiments on innocent patients all along." Someone on the street scolded and cursed.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, Lester was pushed onto the execution ground.

A priest stood in front of the execution ground, shouting to the dense crowd.

"After unanimous deliberation by the temple priests, we find Lester guilty of blasphemy, desecration of corpses, sacrificing to demons, and more..."

"This is God's judgment."

"You are sentenced to death by fire."

Lester was tightly bound by chains to a stone pillar, kneeling before everyone.

Lester couldn't understand what he had done wrong.

He had done his utmost to treat every patient, he had gone to learn from the witch doctors to obtain true medical skills, bringing back the witch doctors' knowledge and techniques for everyone.

He had created the universal elixir to save his wife and the lives of others, he had never intended to harm anyone.

Why?

Why had it come to this?

Lester looked at the hateful, suspicious eyes below him and roared.

"I just wanted my wife to live."

"What did I do wrong?"

"I never meant to harm anyone, I only save people."

"I..."

But his words were cut short by a stone striking his head.

The one who threw the stone was the mother of that child.

She looked at Lester with utter hatred, letting out a shrill cry.

"Demon!"

"He is a demon."

More people joined in, pointing at Lester, their curses and angry shouts merging into an overwhelming wave.

"Kill him!"

"Kill him to avenge those who died in his evil experiments."

"What are you waiting for?"

"Light the fire! Burn this damned blasphemer."

The more these people had once worshipped and trusted Lester, the more they now hated him.

Lester never imagined he would be treated like this one day.

He knelt on the ground, laughing madly, but tears kept flowing from his eyes.

"Hahahahaha!"

"What is this..."

"What is this thing?"

"This world... this world..."

Lester seemed to have gone mad, his speech becoming stuttered and broken.

The priest at the execution ground said to the soldier: "Begin!"

The soldier poured oil on the "monster" Lester, while several priests chanted the Redlichia Covenant, hoping to cleanse this evil and sin with God's power.

While Lester was being judged at the execution ground, the search of his home had not ended.

The painting just seized from the painter's house was also brought by several temple priests, placed in the main hall of Lester's house, ready to be taken back to the temple after the search of Lester's mansion was completed.

During the search.

A priest standing in the hall suddenly noticed something on the stone beam above, pointing at it.

"Look, is there something up there?"

The priest beside him nodded: "Seems like there's something."

The two found a ladder and climbed up.

They discovered it was actually a stone coffin.

The two looked at each other and nodded.

"Open it!"

They both exerted force from both sides, lifting the lid of the stone coffin together.

The moment the stone coffin was opened, a brilliant light burst forth from inside.

The cloth covering the painting suddenly lifted by itself, the paint on the painting began to flow, and the half-open door in the painting gradually opened completely.

The terrifying shadow on it slowly distorted, as if trying to break free from the canvas.

"Boom!"

With a thunderous sound, Lester's house was engulfed in light.

Everyone present was unable to move, swallowed by the light.

The two priests fell from above, shattering into pieces on the ground like stones.

At the execution ground, the chaotic judgment continued.

"Monster Lester."

"Kill this monster."

"Look at his ugly form, how evil it is."

Everyone shouted and cried out, a soldier holding a candlestick was about to use it to ignite the oil.

Just as Lester was about to be burned to death.

In the distance, a lightning-like light exploded from the ground, breaking through the clouds and connecting to the sky.

The soldier holding the candlestick was startled, dropping the candlestick which rolled down.

Lester immediately looked over, only he vaguely guessed what had happened.

His wife's corpse had long since become an empty shell, he had already created another body for his wife, a strong and perfect body made from the universal elixir.

He had been waiting for the fusion of the ghost and the body.

He hadn't expected that at this last moment, his "resurrection ritual" would finally be completed.

Lester looked at the commotion in the direction of his house, suddenly struggling forward.

The chains rattled as he moved.

"I've succeeded, I've succeeded."

However, the situation was clearly not right.

Because resurrecting a person shouldn't require such a big disturbance.

Everyone at the execution ground who had gathered to watch the "monster" Lester burn turned to look, their eyes filled with shock and bewilderment.

They saw the sun in the sky suddenly dim, the bright noon turning into a dark, overcast sky.

A terrifying figure rose from the direction of Lester's house, transforming into a black shadow twisting on the ground, finally descending to the earth with the light.

In Lester's house, something had clearly descended.

Everyone in Cross City heard a soft voice, filled with madness and mockery.

"Mortals!"

"Your god has descended."

Then, streams of light spread along the streets, rapidly extending from the horizon.

The duty priest present, sensing imminent danger, shouted urgently.

"Not good."

"It's a demon, it's the power of a demon."

"Everyone run, flee towards the outside of the city."

The Light of Original Sin.

The power that plunders mythical blood and creates ghosts.

That Light of Original Sin swept across the land, instantly turning countless people into statues.

Street after street, district after district.

Dozens, hundreds, thousands of people died one after another in the light, turning into pale, hollow statues.

"Ah!"

"A demon, a demon has descended!"

Families rushed out of their homes, fleeing outwards, thousands of people ran frantically in the streets, the scene was so familiar.

But no matter how fast they ran, they couldn't outrun the light.

A second Ghost City appeared.

At the execution ground, the crowd scattered in chaos.

No one cared about burning Lester anymore.

But the duty priest at the execution ground fixed his gaze on Lester, erupting in a roar.

"It's you!"

"It's you!"

"You summoned the demon."

The duty priest roared as he rushed forward, wanting to ignite the oil and kill Lester.

However, he had barely taken two steps when the light from the sky swept over him, freezing him in an instant, unable to move.

But interestingly, when the light was about to sweep over Lester, it deliberately avoided him.

Lester saw a huge vortex appear in the sky, endless fluorescence rushing towards the vortex, heading to a distant place.

It was the bloodline of the Trilobite Men, the blood originating from the First King Redlichia.

The city's clamor and noise gradually faded into a deathly silence.

At the end of the road, a figure in luxurious robes walked out.

"How is it?"

"Lester..."

"Are you satisfied with this resurrection?"

Lester looked at the figure and shouted: "What's going on?"

"What's going on?"

"Wasn't it supposed to resurrect my wife? Why is it like this?"

To Lester's horror, it wasn't his wife who had been resurrected. Instead, another terrifying being had descended into this world using the body he had created.

The figure laughed: "Your wife has been resurrected! She's even become an immortal ghost!"

Lester: "It's not like this, the resurrection you promised wasn't like this."

The figure: "Then what kind of resurrection did you want? You didn't specify!"

"Anyway, the resurrection I gave you... is like this."

The figure spread his arms: "But, you did very well."

"Look at this body you created for me, it's truly wonderful."

"The only two beings in the world with the power of immortality, the witch doctors and me."

"Now, I've obtained the witch doctors' share as well."

The God of Knowledge laughed: "Perhaps, this is perfect immortality!"

He grinned, tilting his head to look at Lester.

"I've fulfilled your wish."

"Now, it's time for me to collect the price."

Lester looked at him, dazed: "What... exactly are you?"

The being's voice entered directly into Lester's mind: "Me?"

"Do you even need to ask?"

"I am God!"

Lester struggled violently: "How can there be a god like you?"

Lester roared at him frantically: "Why don't you kill me."

"Kill me!"

The figure laughed loudly: "Your life has long been mine, you're very interesting, you've accomplished a great thing for me."

"I won't leave you here, I'll turn you into a ghost and take you with me."

"Lester."

"You are my prized possession."

The figure looked at this dead city and exclaimed.

"Look! How beautiful this scene is."

"I'll collect your life last."

"Enjoy the view of this city of death you've created!"

That voice was evil to the extreme.

But at this moment, the "God of Knowledge" hadn't noticed the changes deep within this body.

This body was rapidly mutating, the bloodlines of wisdom and life were quickly conflicting, soon manifesting on his body.

His method of descending into this world relying on the Life Ability was simply not feasible.