Lord of Prayer - Chapter 242 176: Underworld Playing House

The back garden was shrouded in night.

Pansi’s face was grim, radiating killing intent. The blood-colored short knife in his hand seemed to have a life of its own, coiling toward Zhou Chen’s arm like a cunning viper.

Silently, it struck for his head with an eerie and exceptionally vicious speed.

Zhou Chen raised a hand and pushed Pansi’s wrist away. He secretly channeled Rock-Breaking Force through his sword arm, and with a touch of Alchemy, his Silver Longsword suddenly erupted with a torrent of metal shards. They formed a silver downpour that viciously pierced Pansi’s body. The Blood Race Saint Child couldn’t help but grunt in pain as a sizzling sound of burning came from his wounds.

For the Blood Race, Silverware was an extremely deadly danger. However, Pansi, with pure, noble blood flowing through his veins, possessed a strong resistance to it. He wouldn’t suffer from rotting flesh just from being wounded by a silver object, unlike a low-ranking member of the Blood Race.

After the metallic downpour, Zhou Chen’s Silver Longsword had shrunk into a lighter, more agile short sword. It clashed with the blood-colored knife that attacked once more. The short weapons met several times, their exchange punctuated by the sound of displaced air and a constant spray of sparks. Both combatants displayed exceptional close-quarters fighting skills.

However, the blood-colored short knife was emitting a particularly sinister and malevolent red glow. Under its light, Zhou Chen felt an uncontrollable urge in his blood, as if it wanted to burst from his veins.

Without a doubt, this blood-colored short knife was an Extraordinary Artifact.

Zhou Chen’s eyes were calm and composed. He found the right moment and, at the instant their weapons clashed, activated the Hammer of Forging’s “Decomposition of All Things.”

To Pansi’s astonishment, the blood-colored short knife suddenly disintegrated into a sand-like metallic powder that trickled through his fingers. Unopposed, the Silver Short Sword drove straight forward, its edge flaring with the glow of a pale flame.

At the critical moment, Pansi used his arm as a Shield to block. The blade effortlessly pierced his right arm, only to be immediately clamped tight by his muscles. Enduring the agony of the Silverware and Cyan Flame, his other hand’s fingernails rapidly elongated, becoming like five daggers that viciously stabbed at Zhou Chen.

SWISH!

The claws were incredibly fast, tearing through the air. Zhou Chen dodged instinctively but was still slashed across the shoulder. Blood sprayed out as a large amount of toxins and Curses invaded his body, gradually numbing half of his shoulder.

The corners of Pansi’s mouth curled up, and his pupils were veiled by a thick layer of crimson.

The blood that sprayed from Zhou Chen’s wound transformed in mid-air into crimson spikes that shot out and pierced through his body with a PFFT. No blood flowed from the new wounds; it was all absorbed by the crimson spikes to strengthen themselves, allowing them to branch out into even more spikes.

In just a few seconds, these crimson spikes would drain all the blood from a person’s body like vampiric parasites, riddling their host with holes as they grew wildly.

Essence surged. A fierce Cyan Flame erupted from within Zhou Chen’s body, completely evaporating the mutated blood before the crimson spikes could branch out inside him. He then violently yanked his sword hilt. The short sword, stuck in Pansi’s arm muscles, created immense inertia that pulled Pansi straight toward him.

PFFT!

The Cursed Blade, brimming with calamity, plunged right into Pansi’s stomach—or rather, Pansi had actively lunged onto it.

Pansi’s eyes widened. He felt calamity, Curses, misfortune, and even potent venoms invading his body. As a preeminent creature of Darkness, he was extremely sensitive to such negative Power, which was why he felt a bone-chilling terror that originated from his very Soul.

‘Just how much cruelty and evil has settled into this blade…’

He retreated in terror, and after putting some distance between himself and Zhou Chen, he impatiently reached into the Darkness and pulled out a golden Holy Grail of ancient design, filled to the brim with crystalline crimson blood.

Pansi solemnly raised the Holy Grail, chanting an incantation. The Holy Grail lit up, revealing the ancient runes engraved on its surface. He poured the crystalline blood over his head, as if performing some unique Blood Race baptism.

As the crystalline blood flowed over his entire body, Pansi’s wounds healed rapidly. The flesh that had been rotting from the potent Curse was filled with life anew. The Soul-Burning Flame that scorched his will and the calamity coiling in the depths of his Soul were being cleansed, bit by bit.

That Holy Grail was a single-use Artifact. After the last drop of blood fell from it, its light faded, its color drained away, and it turned into an ordinary stone cup.

‘A replica of the Blood Race’s Holy Grail. It must be a healing Artifact, but it even purified all the Curses…’ Zhou Chen was slightly surprised. He manipulated his Cyan Flame to cleanse the Curses and toxins in his own body, evaporating and expelling all the mutated blood. Then, with a mere thought…

BOOM!

The Essence remaining in Pansi’s arm detonated. His entire arm exploded into pieces, sending flesh and blood flying. Because Pansi had been in the posture of raising the Holy Grail, the explosion also hit his head, blowing off half of his face.

However, Pansi paid no mind to such an injury. All that mattered was dealing with that terrifying, calamitous Curse. Although his opponent’s strange flame could suppress the Blood Race’s regenerative abilities, he had received a powerful enhancement from the Holy Blood baptism.

On his shattered face and severed arm, shredded flesh writhed, slowly regenerating.

Pansi’s single remaining eye was filled with viciousness. He raised his one arm, opened his remaining hand, and condensed his corrosive blood into long, thin threads. They flew toward Zhou Chen like bared fangs and claws, forming an inescapable net that closed in to strangle him.

Zhou Chen stomped his foot, activating the Hammer of Forging’s “Shaping of All Things” Ability. A high wall of rock and earth suddenly rose from the ground, its surface blazing with Fiery Fire. Under an Alchemy conversion formula, the surface of the wall quickly took on a metallic sheen as it was transformed into a hard, specialized metal.

However, the power of the blood threads was beyond imagination. They possessed the terrifying destructive force to shred metal and stone. The nigh-impenetrable iron wall was instantly crushed as the threads closed in, and fragments of metal mixed with earth rained down.

At that moment, a malevolent glint shone in Pansi’s single eye, and tiny, twisted runes appeared in its depths. He unleashed a Spiritual Attack to affect Zhou Chen’s thoughts and mind, as the long, thin blood threads capable of shredding metal and stone attacked once more.

Zhou Chen froze for a split second, but he immediately broke free from the effects of the spiritual impact. Pale flames rose to envelop his entire body, and he used Flame Dancing to evade the strangling blood threads. He then detonated the residual clusters of fire, blasting apart the writhing threads that filled the sky.

“His Spiritual Power is that strong…?”

Pansi’s face darkened, and he clicked his tongue in displeasure. The disruptive Eye of Spirit was one of his greatest trump cards, yet it had only managed to stun his opponent for a moment. This was completely beyond his expectations.

He reached into the Darkness beside him and pulled out an eyeball made of Crystal. He placed it flat on his palm and made the eye look at Zhou Chen, who had just finished repositioning himself.

“Huh?” Zhou Chen grunted in surprise, discovering that his movements had been slowed down infinitely, as if someone had pressed a slow-motion button.

‘Another Extraordinary Artifact.’

But that wasn’t all. Pansi’s severed arm had already healed. He once again reached into the Darkness beside him and pulled out a doll with a stiff smile, completely shrouded in an ominous aura, and aimed it at Zhou Chen.

—Abyssal Cursed Object: Alice, the Doll of Home Play and Murder.

“Alice, he says he wants to play house with you,” Pansi whispered to the doll.

Then, something bizarre happened. The lifeless doll suddenly came to life. It stood up on Pansi’s hand and began to hop about, letting out a melodious, bell-like laugh. It seemed very excited as it sang a nursery rhyme in a tender, childish voice:

“Let’s play house, you be the daddy, I’ll be the mommy. I’ll eat your heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys, so we can be one big family.”

“Hubby, hubby~ Alice wants to eat your heart~ Please let me eat it~~~”

‘Fuck, what kind of fucked-up thing from the Underworld crawled out of a horror movie…’ Zhou Chen’s thoughts raced, and he decisively made a secret wish:

“I wish for the target of this Cursed Artifact to be changed to the Blood Race Saint Child, Pansi!”

There were currently ten stars in his Wish Bottle—some from the woman he had just saved, others from Li Xiye. At that moment, eight of the stars lit up and vanished without a trace, a clear sign that the Cursed Artifact’s rank was by no means low.

Zhou Chen’s wish was granted. The Cursed Doll seemed to glitch for a moment, then it hopped around, turned to face Pansi, and said in an innocent, carefree tone, “Hubby, hubby~ Alice wants to eat your heart~ Please let me eat it~~~”

Pansi’s expression changed drastically, his eyes wide with terror.

‘What the fuck is going on?’

‘I clearly designated Zhou Chen as the target, so why did the Killing Doll turn to look at me?!’

Before he could recover from his shock, the doll named Alice leaped from his palm, latched onto his chest, and gently grabbed at his torso with her tiny arms. An expression of agony appeared on Pansi’s face.

The next second, without a single wound appearing on his chest, a large heart was pulled out by the doll. The doll let out a joyful, innocent laugh. “What a great heart! Alice is going to eat it!”

The sound of ravenous feasting echoed in the air, as if some savage, bloodthirsty beast had opened its cavernous maw.

One bite, then another.

Greedily devouring the fine, delicious flesh and blood.

Bite marks appeared out of thin air on Pansi’s heart, and blood streamed down, staining the doll red. It made joyful chewing sounds:

“So yummy, so yummy! Hubby, your heart is so yummy!!! Alice loves it! Alice loves you!!!”

Pansi’s face turned pale. As a member of the Blood Race, any of his organs could regenerate. His heart could be ripped out hundreds or thousands of times without issue. But the nature of this Abyssal Cursed Object meant he was in for a world of hurt this time.

—It affected the body and the Soul alike.

What was being devoured now was not just his heart, but the corresponding part of his Soul.

Once the five organs—heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys—were all eaten, his Soul would collapse, and he would die on the spot.

His only way to survive was to get rid of or deal with the Cursed Puppet before all five organs were devoured.

At that moment, the Slow Crystal Eye Pupils Pansi held in his right hand shattered. It was a single-use Extraordinary Artifact that was destroyed after use. He had been so wracked with pain from having his heart ripped out and eaten by the Killing Doll Alice that he hadn’t kept the Slow Crystal Eye Pupils aimed at Zhou Chen, causing the Artifact’s effect to end prematurely.

Zhou Chen regained his mobility. Seeing that his plan to kill with a borrowed knife had succeeded, he gripped his Silver Short Sword and charged at Pansi.

He raised his Silver Sword high, its blade igniting with raging flames like a scorching light of judgment, and viciously slashed down at the creature of Darkness.

CLANG!

The sound of ringing steel.

Pansi had vanished, replaced by an armor-clad Blood Knight.

The descending blade was caught by a pair of hands covered in hard armor. The tall Knight, clad in heavy plate, stood like a high wall. Two crimson lights shone from beneath his helmet, and the aura he exuded was immensely oppressive.

He clamped one hand firmly around the Silver Sword. In his other hand were two chess pieces, covered in fine cracks, which shattered and crumbled under the slightest external force.

Zhou Chen abandoned his sword and retreated, narrowing his eyes slightly.

‘Those two chess pieces are some kind of spatial Extraordinary Artifact. Using them directly swapped Pansi’s position with this Blood Knight’s.’

‘As expected of the Blood Race. With their vast resources, they have countless Extraordinary Artifacts.’

“Molei, you hold the rear. It’s time for us to go.”

Pansi’s pain-filled voice came from the Darkness in the distance. He was desperate to leave so he could deal with the Abyssal Cursed Doll that was trying to kill him.

Besides, their objective had already been achieved.

A swarm of Blood Race members, transformed into bats, flew over from the direction of the manor. The bats swarmed around a large, blood-stained cardboard box—the one containing the files for the Eternal Life Project.