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[Translator - Peptobismol]
[Proofreader - Demon God]
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Chapter 346
At the center of the sanctuary, Johan stood alone, looking up at the massive cross.
A faint red glow shimmered in his eyes as he gazed upon it.
Just then, someone quietly approached from behind.
“I have a report, Johan-nim.”
The man in crimson robes was none other than the Inquisitor—Joshua.
Johan turned to Joshua and said,
“Hm! I’d prefer it to be good news, but it doesn’t sound like it.”
“My apologies.”
“Enough. Just report.”
“The situation is not favorable.”
“What do you mean?”
“All factions have learned that the Saint we’re searching for is, in fact, a high-ranking healer.”
Johan’s eyelid twitched slightly.
He hadn’t seen this coming.
“How?”
“Rumors have spread widely throughout Neo Seoul. Because of this, each district and raid team is now moving to secure the Saint.”
“That’s absurd. How could such a rumor get out? Don’t tell me our own followers are the ones blabbing?”
“I apologize. We tried to trace the source, but came up with nothing.”
Joshua bowed his head as if he had committed the offense himself.
Johan, his face flushing red, asked,
“So what’s the current situation?”
“It’s not good. One by one, we’re losing contact with our followers within Neo Seoul.”
“They’ve been taken out, then.”
“As you know, our influence inside Neo Seoul is limited. These followers were secured with great effort…”
Joshua trailed off, unable to finish.
It took an enormous investment of time and money to convert even a single proper believer within Neo Seoul. That’s what made each one so precious.
And now they were going silent.
It was clear they’d lost their lives in clashes with other Awakened.
A painful loss for Dongdaemun.
Who knew how long it would take to secure new believers in Neo Seoul again?
Frustrated, Johan looked up at the cross.
Joshua simply stood silently and watched him.
After staring at the cross for some time, Johan finally spoke.
“At this point, we must secure the Saint at all costs. Once we have her, we can easily make up for all those losses. Have we found no leads on her yet?”
“I’m sorry. Nothing yet.”
“Deploy more followers. Have them search more aggressively. And what about the Dark Saints—any word from them?”
“No significant updates yet. Though… we have lost contact with a few.”
“Even the Dark Saints have been taken?”
The calm that had barely returned to Johan’s face distorted once more.
The Dark Saints were the priests who protected Dongdaemun from the shadows.
Naturally, it took several times longer to cultivate them than other personnel. Losing a Dark Saint was not comparable to losing a mere follower.
“Martel, Elixon, and Chen Xi. We’ve lost contact with those three. Martel and Elixon disappeared in Guro, and Chen Xi in Sinchon.”
“Sinchon?”
Johan’s eyes glinted with a chilling light.
There was one person that came to mind the moment Sinchon was mentioned.
“Did Zeon eliminate Chen Xi?”
“I don’t believe so. We’ve had her under 24-hour surveillance, and there have been no suspicious movements.”
“Are you sure? With his skill, deceiving a watchful eye is child’s play.”
“Lubo-nim is the one monitoring her personally.”
“Hm…”
Johan let out a low hum.
He knew better than anyone just how capable Lubo was.
Blasphemously dubbed the ‘Eye of God,’ Lubo had earned the title with good reason.
His awakened skill was Clairvoyance.
While it didn’t literally allow him to see hundreds of miles away, it did enable him to monitor targets with precision over several kilometers.
Its true power lay in its ability to pierce through any illusion or barrier.
No deception, no false image could fool Lubo’s clairvoyant eye.
He was, in every sense, a surveillance specialist.
That’s why Dongdaemun only deployed him to observe the highest-priority targets—like Zeon.
“You’re saying Lubo’s watching him directly?”
“Yes. He’s been on him around the clock.”
“Then it can’t be Zeon…”
Johan’s expression twisted further in displeasure.
If it had been anyone else, he might have doubted it—but if Lubo was personally watching, then he could trust the report. Not even Zeon could evade or deceive Lubo’s eyes.
Which meant Zeon wasn’t the culprit.
Still, he couldn’t shake the unease gnawing at him.
“Track the missing Dark Saints. And tighten the surveillance on Zeon.”
“You want more agents assigned, beyond Lubo-nim?”
“Double it. Triple it. I want his every move monitored perfectly.”
“Understood…”
“Zeon isn’t the type to sit still. The fact that he’s not doing anything makes him even more suspicious. He’s up to something.”
Johan considered Zeon his nemesis.
Time and again, Zeon had thwarted his plans.
Zeon was the only one who had delivered him such repeated failures. And that made Johan obsess all the more.
‘Zeon… Zeon…’
Johan repeated the name over and over.
* * *
Chen Xi paused her steps as she walked through the underground sewer and looked around.
Not a single speck of light was to be found.
It felt like wandering endlessly in a maze with no exit in sight.
To her, it already felt like she had been down here for days.
Naturally, all contact with the outside world had been lost.
Dark Saints were supposed to report their location to Dongdaemun at regular intervals. But down in the sewer, that was impossible.
This was an entirely different world from the surface.
Chen Xi had never imagined such a dark, damp realm existed beneath her feet.
Total darkness so thick she couldn’t see her own hand. A stench so vile it overwhelmed the senses.
Had she not been an awakened, she would have gone mad already.
That’s how horrendous the environment was.
And yet, she kept walking—not back toward the surface, but deeper underground.
Because of her sacred duty.
‘If the Saint is here, then I will find her and escort her back to the surface.’
The most beautiful flowers always bloomed in the filthiest, darkest places. If the Saint had truly been born here, it was her mission to bring her back to the light.
With that sense of duty, Chen Xi pushed forward, enduring the hellish surroundings. And then—at last—she saw it.
A faint glimmer of light appeared in her vision.
“Ah!”
She gasped without meaning to.
That sliver of light piercing through the pitch darkness felt like a divine revelation.
Chen Xi hurried toward it.
And arrived at Zetoya’s village.
In the center, a mana generator was running. Electric lights were lit throughout, and people were busily going about their tasks.
Chen Xi’s expression brightened.
But the villagers, seeing a stranger, immediately grew wary.
“Who are you?”
“She’s from the surface.”
Just by her clothing, they knew she wasn’t from here.
Raising both hands, Chen Xi addressed them,
“I mean you no harm. I am a messenger sent by God, who pities you all.”
“God?”
“Yes! God is always watching over you.”
“Lies! There’s no such thing!”
“If God existed, we wouldn’t be suffering like this!”
The villagers rejected her words outright.
Those born and raised in the underground didn’t believe in gods.
If God truly existed, they believed they would not have been condemned to live in such filth.
The unexpected resistance caught Chen Xi off guard.
Even on the surface, people often looked at Dongdaemun believers with suspicion—but rarely did they openly defy them like this.
Most feared Dongdaemun’s power too much.
But these people were different.
To them, Dongdaemun wasn’t something to fear.
Most didn’t even know it existed.
If they didn’t know of its existence, there was no reason to fear it.
Chen Xi decided to calmly try convincing them.
“Please, believe me. God is real. If you trust me and come with me, I’ll take you to the holy temple. There, you’ll have plenty of food and warm beds.”
“You’ll give us food and shelter?”
“Yes! I’ll prepare a place for you on the surface. Surely that’s better than living in this dirty, damp place.”
“You mocking us?”
“Huh?”
“You don’t even know how deadly sunlight is to us, do you? Just a bit of exposure and our skin burns right off!”
One of the villagers shouted furiously.
Though Chen Xi had meant no harm, her words had unknowingly touched their deepest wounds.
Without awakening, it was impossible for these people to live on the surface. That she’d made such careless remarks enraged them.
“Get lost, bitch!”
“Surface folks should stay up there! Don’t come crawling down here!”
As the angry shouts grew, Chen Xi’s expression briefly faltered—then turned cold.
She wasn’t a missionary by nature.
She wasn’t the kind who went door to door persuading others to believe in God.
She was the kind who punished those who refused.
And she realized: reasoning wouldn’t work with these people.
She asked one last question,
“Is there a woman here with special powers? A girl who, say, has healed incurable illnesses?”
“Stop talking nonsense!”
“There’s no such thing!”
Their voices rose reflexively at the unexpected question.
Chen Xi’s gaze grew even colder.
“So there is one.”
From their fierce reactions alone, she could tell.
The person she was looking for was here.
Radiating a chilling presence, Chen Xi said,
“Hand her over. She does not belong in this filthy place.”
“Screw you!”
“Don’t spout crap!”
Several burly men, unable to restrain themselves, charged at her.
In that instant, a silver flash burst from Chen Xi’s hand.
Slash!
The leading man was cleaved in two.
Thud!
His body fell, bisected cleanly mid-charge.
His organs and blood spilled out onto the ground.
The horrific sight triggered screams throughout the village.
“Aaaagh!”
“Murder!”
Chen Xi smiled coldly at their reaction.
“You should’ve listened when I was being nice.”
In her hand was a nearly invisible silver thread.
A weapon made by blending metal into spider silk extracted from a spider-type monster.
Sharper than any blade. More flexible than any whip. Far longer.
Her own weapon, which she had named Divine Judgment.
Its effective killing range extended dozens of meters.
Snap!
“Gah!”
A flick of her finger, and the silver thread sliced through another man’s neck.
The man collapsed, blood gushing like a fountain from his headless body.
Having taken two lives in an instant, Chen Xi declared,
“I’ll be asking you some questions now. And every time I don’t get the answer I want, one more person will die.”
“……”
“What is the name of the girl who performed miracles?”
“……”
While everyone hesitated and glanced around—
Slice!
“Guh!”
Chen Xi’s silver thread claimed another life.
The villagers froze in terror.
“Her name?”
“Damn it! Remura. Her name is Remura.”
At last, someone confessed.
A smile crept across Chen Xi’s face.
“See? Isn’t it so much better when we’re honest? Let’s keep having open conversations like this. Is she still in the village?”
“Her mother took her and left.”
“Why?”
“Her mother was greedy. She wanted to use her daughter’s powers to rule the village. When it didn’t work, she left.”
“And?”
Chen Xi continued asking questions.
The terrified villagers, unable to even think of lying, answered every one.
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[Translator - Peptobismol]
[Proofreader - Demon God]
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