Chapter 1241 - 688: Whatever, They’re All Demon Pillar Gods! (2)

Chapter 1241: Chapter 688: Whatever, They’re All Demon Pillar Gods! (2)

He howled in mad agony, yet could only watch as his body was devoured by the flames bit by bit.

The power and body he had gained by devouring so many lives became the best fuel for the Dawn’s flames.

The scorching flames baked the entire dungeon red-hot.

The twisted, bloody flesh underwent an evolution within the flames.

After reaching a certain point, these chunks of flesh turned into white light, making the dungeon within the blazing inferno shine with a holy radiance.

"Man, he’s really fireproof." Alice watched the scene before her and sighed.

Shen Sui couldn’t help saying, "But this guy isn’t the Alro we’re looking for. Don’t tell me we have to track down every single Demon Pillar God?"

Alice, who had already turned to leave, stopped, scratching her hair with her Magic Staff. "Shouldn’t be, right? It’s just one prison; how many hidden dragons and crouching tigers can it really have?"

That’s only because you’re here.

Forget it...

Even if they all showed up, it doesn’t feel like there’s much to be nervous about.

Worst case, we just flatten everything.

It’s not like I don’t have that kind of power.

The blaze ignited by the Gluttony Demon Pillar God seemed to calm the frenzied criminals down a little.

The next day, the Empire’s army finally and cautiously took over Alorde Prison.

Alice was lying in bed, a storybook in hand, yawning as she flipped through it.

Shen Sui glanced at the Dueling Device.

After confirming that the airship was still in flight and hadn’t reached its destination yet, Shen Sui put down the Dueling Device.

"What are you reading?" Shen Sui asked curiously.

Alice was definitely not the type of good student who loved studying.

"I don’t even know." Alice glanced at the book cover and answered honestly, "I just grabbed it yesterday."

Shen Sui instinctively tried to recall, "Yesterday, when did you..."

"When we passed by the warden’s office."

No, hold up! We were only passing by for like under thirty seconds, right? You managed to snatch a book in that time?

"But this book is actually pretty interesting." Alice shook the book in her hand and said, "If that hero named Abus hadn’t died saving a little girl, this world might have been saved, you know."

"Uh... huh?" Shen Sui had planned to brush it off casually, but he seemed to hear a familiar name. "Who did you just say?"

"This guy." Alice opened her mouth, then went back to double-check the text before continuing, "Come to think of it, his full name is kind of weird—why is it so long?"

Shen Sui already had a very bad feeling. He quickly raised his hand and said, "Alright, no need to read it out."

That actually made Alice more alert.

"This story’s from over a thousand years ago... That guy isn’t you, is he?"

Shen Sui was helpless. "I dropped the game not long after I started. I didn’t even finish the newbie quests. How could I possibly have left records in this world?"

"I feel like you actually did a lot." Alice said, "This book says your landlord was the Empire’s first Saintess, and your neighbor was the Son of the Evil Dragon of the Abyss... Your appearance changed how they thought, which then influenced the world’s later situation."

"By the way, what did you do to help them?"

"Unclog toilets."

"Huh?"

Shen Sui said helplessly, "The newbie quest. It was literally helping them unclog the sewer."

"...Alright then."

"So, who exactly is this Abus?"

Shen Sui coughed twice and turned his head away. "Just treat it as a normal in-game username."

"Hmm... A normal username probably wouldn’t be..." Alice rubbed her chin, "giving heart-to-heart counseling to a Half-Dragon Maid named Abus, right?"

Shen Sui covered his face.

I really just did the newbie quest! How is there someone out there recording my black history!

"Let’s stop talking about this!" Shen Sui suddenly sat up straight and said solemnly to Alice, "This is not the time to rest. Our top priority right now is to find the Demon Pillar God Alro."

"...You’re changing the subject, aren’t you?" Alice eyed Shen Sui suspiciously. "Whatever. My Miniature Puppets just so happened to find a group of Esoteric Cultists preparing a new sacrifice."

As she spoke, Alice stood up.

"By the way, why are these Esoteric Cultists so obsessed with bringing Demon Pillar Gods into the world?"

On the way, Alice asked curiously.

"You can’t understand the mindset of fanatics." Shen Sui said. "Besides, didn’t you infiltrate all Three Great Churches? Don’t tell me you still don’t know what these guys are like?"

"Ah..." Alice seemed to recall something unpleasant. "Forget it. These guys really are better off all dead."

Hearing Alice say that, Shen Sui quickly tried to talk her down. "Don’t be so extreme."

He paused, then continued, "Just killing Esoteric Cultists isn’t safe enough. Best to scatter their ashes too."

Alice’s eyes clearly lit up at Shen Sui’s words. "Relax! I’ll make sure there isn’t even ash left."

While they were chatting, the two of them arrived at the spot where the Esoteric Cultists were secretly gathering.

By the time they arrived, the ritual to summon a sacrifice had already reached its midpoint.

Unfortunately, these Esoteric Cultists still looked like total amateurs.

The offerings they’d prepared weren’t enough to actually bring a Demon Pillar God down, so the Demon Pillar God simply sucked their lives dry as well.

"Why do I feel like I’ve never met a single professional Esoteric Cultist?" Alice skillfully took out a Sacrificial Puppet to hook into the ongoing ritual.

While lying and guiding this Demon Pillar God’s descent, she asked suspiciously.

Shen Sui said, "Might be a problem with their textbooks."

"Textbooks? No, hold on, why is there even a textbook for this kind of thing?"

Bringing that up made it hard for Shen Sui not to crack.

Because when he’d first seen this part of the game’s story, he’d had the exact same thought.

In the era where the game was set, Esoteric Buddhism was actually very popular already.

Disasters caused by Demon Pillar Gods were happening all over the world.

And the Empire at that time was already on the verge of falling apart, totally unable to deal with these issues.

So the players’ mentor came up with a nasty little trick.

He organized the compilation of professional series books on how to summon the various Demon Pillar Gods.

These books described in great detail every ritual and material needed to summon a Demon Pillar God.

In the story, the players’ teacher patted his chest and guaranteed that ninety percent of what was in these books was accurate and true.

Huh? You’re asking what the other ten percent is?

Errata!

It’s just that all these "errata" very precisely fell on the quantities of various materials.

Thinking of this, Shen Sui looked at the materials laid out on the ground.

If you strung all those quantities together, they just happened to be 11451...

"Yeah, definitely their reference books’ fault." Shen Sui said to Alice with certainty.

Why was he so sure?

Because in this newbie quest, he was one of the people who helped compile that book.

The devs had very thoughtfully let the players fill in the numbers themselves.

Back then, Shen Sui was in that brain-dead meme-goblin phase, and without a second thought, he filled in those familiar digits.

Ah...

How is this game nothing but black history wherever I look.

Still, since the other side was using that textbook to summon a Demon Pillar God...

Their identity was pretty much obvious!

Shen Sui raised his head and looked at the towering figure gradually appearing before them.

The Demon Pillar God born from filth and excrement!

The legendary source of plagues.

The evil god overseeing disease.

Alro Tabus.

With a sharp, shrill screech, countless rats, lice, mosquitoes, and bedbugs swarmed out of the fully formed Summoning Array.

A gigantic mirage-like shadow crawled out of the hollow.

The rolling stench was the very embodiment of the disgusting smell of excrement and vomit.

The instant Shen Sui smelled it, he instantly remembered why he’d used that meme text when designing this god back then.

Compared to Shen Sui, Alice’s reaction to this scene was much more normal.

After all, Alice was a proper countryside kid.

She’d seen enough of this sort of thing not to be fazed.

More than that, Alice was focused on a different question right now:

How do you kill this guy?