Volume 3 Chapter 24: Grudge Soul Orb

“Splash!” Xiao Dao emerged from the water, glanced back at the Phantom Demons flailing chaotically in the river, and a smug smile appeared on his face.

“Qin Lun was right!” Xiao Dao clutched the three Phantom Demon Pearls in his hand, recalling Qin Lun’s earlier instructions.

Qin Lun hadn’t simply given him two Phantom Demon Pearls for free—the doctor had also assigned him a mission. The mission required him to cause chaos on Île de la Cité, preferably by setting the city on fire.

Île de la Cité guarded the heart of Paris, yet stood apart from the world. The island was a sanctuary where many cultural giants had lived in seclusion. The former residences and memorials left by masters like Rousseau, Zola, Hugo, Balzac, Maupassant, Monet, Gauguin, Cézanne, and van Gogh were all located on Île de la Cité.

Most of these former residences of famous people were built with bricks and stones, but they retained a lot of wooden furniture and decorations inside. Although the outer walls of these buildings were slowly being covered from top to bottom with Phantom Demon flesh, this transformation was not complete—at least it hadn’t affected the internal structures yet.

Xiao Dao was a gangster by nature, very familiar with causing trouble and setting fires. For him, pulling off such a stunt was not difficult at all. The only thing to worry about was his escape route if the Phantom Demons discovered him.

The risk Qin Lun mentioned was exactly this. The doctor had a theory: currently, there were no aquatic Phantom Demons on the island. After causing chaos, Xiao Dao just needed to jump into the Seine River, and the Phantom Demons couldn’t do anything to him for the time being.

Fortunately, Qin Lun’s judgment was correct. The Phantom Demons that entered Paris through the Time-Space Node indeed had no aquatic types yet.

Whether it was Blade Ashigaru, Axe Ashigaru, Three Eyes, Fuyue, or Kirutosumu, none of them could swim. Most Phantom Demons had protective armor, and coupled with their low internal moisture and high body density, they sank like stones as soon as they fell into the water. Even if they had known how to swim in their past lives, with the little intelligence they had left now, they had long forgotten it.

Looking at the Phantom Demon Pearls in his hand, Xiao Dao’s face showed a hint of mixed emotions. The most critical condition for Main Mission One was already completed. Now, as long as he safely got through the remaining six and a half days, he could escape the Phantom Demon World.

Actually, before leaving, he had asked Qin Lun what to do next. The doctor didn’t brush him off; instead, he thought carefully and pointed out two clear paths for him.

The first path: the doctor believed that since the Phantom Demons currently had no combat power in water, Xiao Dao could swim along the Seine River all the way out of Paris. Once Xiao Dao left the Paris city area, hiding out for the remaining time would be no trouble at all.

In this era, human military power was still strong. The French military absolutely would not be completely defeated in just seven days and give up on recapturing the capital, Paris.

The main difficulty of Main Mission One for new Reincarnators lay in obtaining three Phantom Demon Pearls. The seven-day stay requirement could actually be handled with clever tricks. After all, for new Reincarnators, as long as they could get three Phantom Demon Pearls, demonstrating courage and wisdom beyond ordinary people, the trial mission’s purpose was considered achieved.

The second path was more risky: Qin Lun told him to enter the Paris sewers via the Seine River, using the Greater Paris underground network to conduct guerrilla warfare, targeting the Paris citizens who had turned into Phantom Demons.

However, Qin Lun thought that given the current situation in Paris, the Phantom Demons might completely occupy all above-ground buildings in Paris in just two days. Starting from the third day, they would begin infiltrating the sky, the Seine River, and the underground network.

The city’s situation would become more severe day by day. As for how long Xiao Dao could hold out, and whether he could last the full seven days, even Qin Lun couldn’t predict.

Of course, if Xiao Dao chose to do this, the rewards would be huge. He might even complete the 1000 Faction Reputation for Main Quest Two and exchange for many good items.

Originally, Xiao Dao wouldn’t have considered the second path. Since he already had three Phantom Demon Pearls, he planned to prioritize safety and escape Paris first. However, during the recent battle, he discovered that setting fire to those semi-Phantom-Demon-transformed buildings actually earned him over two hundred points of Oni Clan Faction Reputation.

Gazing at the three Phantom Demon Pearls in his hand, Xiao Dao’s eyes flickered slightly, feeling indecisive. After a long moment, he finally took a deep breath and submerged into the water again, swimming towards a drainage pipe on the bank of the Seine River…

…

Notre-Dame de Paris was a typical Gothic church, with a unique style, rigorous structure, and an appearance that was very majestic and solemn.

The whole was vertically divided into three large sections by pilasters; three decorative bands horizontally divided it into three parts, with three recessed archways on the front. Above the archways was the so-called “Gallery of Kings,” featuring twenty-eight sculptures representing the successive kings of Israel and Judah.

Above the “Gallery of Kings” was the central part, flanked by two massive stone bell towers, with a large rose window in the middle. Its diameter was as wide as 10 meters, with the Virgin and Child enshrined in the center, and statues of Adam and Eve on either side.

The interior of the church was extremely simple. In the center were the backrest benches used by Catholic followers during worship, with two aisles separated by tall stone columns on either side. There were numerous carvings and paintings on the altar, aisles, doors, and windows, and the recesses of the side colonnades held a wealth of medieval artworks.

The hall of Notre-Dame could accommodate 9000 people, with 1500 able to sit on the platform. The pointed arch ceiling, characteristic of Gothic architecture, had excellent acoustics. Whenever the grand pipe organ in the hall accompanied hymns, it always gave people a particularly sacred and beautiful feeling.

Qin Lun had no time to carefully appreciate the elegance and sanctity of Notre-Dame de Paris. As soon as he entered the main door, his attention was completely captured by the time-space vortex at the altar.

The doctor quickened his pace, walked down the central aisle between two rows of benches, and came before the altar to examine it closely. He saw that the original altar had disappeared, replaced by a dark green time-space vortex gate level with the ground.

This time-space vortex was very similar to the Arc de Triomphe Time-Space Node Qin Lun had seen before, only its diameter was countless times smaller.

Qin Lun flipped his hand and took out a palm-sized Time-Space Energy Collector from his Storage Space, throwing it towards the time-space vortex. The Time-Space Energy Collector, which looked like a brick, extended eight metal strips from its sides, floating and sinking in the center of the time-space vortex like an octopus.

However, after only five seconds, Qin Lun frowned, reached out and forcibly pulled the Time-Space Energy Collector off the vortex, his expression turning grim.

The Time-Space Node in Notre-Dame de Paris was five meters long and seven meters wide. The progress bar on the Time-Space Energy Collector showed that absorbing all its time-space energy and condensing it into a Time-Space Core would take at least ten minutes. Moreover, the process couldn’t be interrupted; if interrupted, collecting the time-space energy would have to start over.

Although Qin Lun didn’t know if disturbances in the time-space vortex would be detected by the Phantom Demons, he understood he absolutely wouldn’t have ten minutes of uninterrupted time. Staring at the huge temptation right before his eyes, the doctor could only sigh helplessly.

Qin Lun’s eyes flickered uncertainly, a faint, enigmatic sneer on his face. Earlier, he had given Xiao Dao two choices; he hadn’t expected that just half an hour later, it would be his turn to make a choice.

Hill’s assessment of him was correct: Qin Lun didn’t care about Xiao Dao’s life or death. He just wanted to see Xiao Dao struggle painfully between difficult choices. He never possessed the humanity ordinary people should have. Just like a wolf child raised by wild wolves from a young age, without integration into human society, humans were no different from beasts.

Although Qin Lun had read extensively in Handan Prison, the solitary life of a prisoner and his split personality had long twisted the young man’s spiritual world, making it impossible for him to ever become normal again. Besides, as early as when he was eight years old, little Qin Lun—or little Joey—had already made up his mind to walk this destined path.

So many years had passed, but Qin Lun had always kept two secrets. One of them was that Qin Lun had no memories from before that incident. He simply couldn’t determine whether he was Qin Lun or Joey before the age of eight. In other words, even now, he didn’t know which of the two personalities, Qin Lun or Joey, was the real him.

Retreat or advance…

If he couldn’t step onto the field himself, how could he experience the fun of the game?

Qin Lun gave a light laugh and stepped towards the time-space vortex. But as soon as he took a step, a glint of light from near the altar caught the corner of his eye.

“Huh?” Qin Lun bypassed the Time-Space Node and walked towards a statue display area in the left aisle of the altar.

On this small recessed stone altar was enshrined a statue of an Angel. The Angel had its hands clasped together, kneeling on one knee, its wings crossed in front of its chest as if praying to God. The glint that had caught Qin Lun’s eye earlier seemed to come from it.

However, when he got closer, the glint from before had disappeared. Qin Lun frowned slightly and re-examined the stone statue, finally discovering a faint red glowing orb in its clasped palms.

“What is this?” Qin Lun curiously reached out a finger, wanting to pry the orb out of the Angel’s palms.

But as soon as he touched the orb, the doctor involuntarily shivered. He felt a cold chill seep into his body from his fingertip, as if even his Law Body was frozen stiff by this cold.

In Qin Lun’s Death Notice, prompt information about this blood-colored orb immediately appeared.

Grudge Soul Orb: This is the residual soul power left by humans after being slaughtered by Phantom Demons. These soul powers belong to Catholics who, after death, instinctively gathered around this Angel statue. The entire Grudge Soul Orb contained a total of 74 Remnant Souls.

74 Remnant Souls? Qin Lun was startled. It wasn’t that every human who died would leave a Remnant Soul. These 74 Remnant Souls must have belonged to Catholics with extremely firm faith; the actual number of people slaughtered was likely more than ten times this number.

What a pity! Qin Lun stored the Grudge Soul Orb and looked at the other statues in the hall with a hint of regret. The Phantom Demons could return here at any time; he didn’t have time to search each one individually.

Perhaps after completing the Time-Space Core mission, he could come back and check! Once Qin Lun made up his mind, he resolutely turned and walked toward the time-space vortex at the altar.