Chapter Seven: Harvest and Temptation

  Breathing in the faintly crimson mist around him, Lucien's limbs went numb, his head throbbing with a dull ache, and the scene of Corey and Hausen fighting before his eyes transformed into Corey battling a gigantic rat, only to revert back to the two men slaughtering each other, as if reality and illusion had merged.

  "Wait, an illusion?!" Lucien thought of this and had a rough guess in his mind. He concentrated his attention, allowing the feeling of spiritual tide to emerge, and the scene stopped changing. The red mist stopped twisting, everything stabilized, and the fierce battle was indeed between Koria and Hausen. There were multiple wounds on their bodies with fresh blood flowing out, and each movement looked extremely slow and laborious, as if they had already reached a limit.

  "Is it the blood of the red-eyed mouse itself that has a hallucinogenic effect, or is it the blood that has been absorbed and transformed by that strange plant that causes people to have hallucinations? What a clever magical trap."

  Lucien finally understood that Hausen's disappearance and Gari's sudden attack were all due to the influence of illusions, which may have started from the moment he killed the first red-eyed rat, and by the time his senses were completely obscured, it was difficult to distinguish between reality and illusion. Only Lucien managed to break free from the illusions because he received the protection of the Holy Light Shield later on, and his mental state also improved somewhat.

  The "Holy Light Strike" that was just shot out from the True Cross Emblem not only vaporized Gari's right hand and part of his shoulder, but also pierced upwards, directly hitting the stone ceiling above the secret room, creating a deep hole. The falling rocks were like rain, as if the entire secret room would collapse at any moment.

  Shattered stones and dust filled the air, dispersing the pale red mist of blood, and Lucien's powerless state was somewhat restored.

  Lucien didn't know if there were any more linked magical traps behind him, so even though he was temporarily safe, he didn't dare to relax and quickly thought of a solution.

  "The Seal of Truth" can no longer activate any divine magic except for two bright spells, and has lost its greatest reliance. Even the physical strength of the body itself has become extremely weak due to the paralyzing effect contained in the pale red mist.

  Suddenly, Lucien saw that strange plant being shaken back and forth in the falling gravel.

  "Is that the only ability it has to protect itself, creating illusions?" Lucien immediately came to his senses, propping up his weak and limp hands and feet, and walked towards the strange plant.

  His legs were weak, stumbling and staggering, Lucien walked very slowly, fell several times on the gravel, was scratched all over, in great pain, and even had a few places where blood flowed out.

  "Ah." Lucien took a deep breath, enduring the pain, and using the temporary clarity and strength brought by the painful wound, he struggled to walk to the side of that strange plant.

  After this series of experiences, Lucien's greenness and confusion decreased a lot. Without hesitation, he held his breath, carefully but firmly stretched out his right hand, and grasped the main stem of that strange plant.

  Under his hands, the pulse was throbbing, and the blood was flowing like a small stream. Lucien felt that he was holding not a plant, but a living creature, then suddenly pulled it to the side.

  "Ah!"

  The strange plant suddenly retracted all its branches and leaves, emitting a sharp and mournful cry, as if it were a dying person.

  It didn't break off this time. Lucien continued to pull, and the strange plant let out a mournful cry as it stretched its branches back out towards him.

  A damp, slippery and nauseating feeling came from the skin, countless tiny hairs pierced into his body, Lucien forcibly suppressed his fear and fear, and pulled hard again.

  "Uggghhh..."

  The crying sound stopped abruptly, Lucien was sprayed with a pale red liquid from the plant's body to his chest, and the bloody smell rushed into his nose, making Lucien's hands and feet even more numb, he could only lean against the stone wall beside him to avoid falling to the ground.

  As Lucien tore the plant in two, the pale red mist in the surrounding air grew thicker, almost coalescing into **.

  The three books on the nearby desk that were emitting a faint glow, as soon as they sensed this thick pale red mist, quickly decayed, from the first page to the last page, it only took two or three seconds to completely disappear, so fast that Lucien and others around didn't even see what was written on them.

  Of course, with Lucien's current physical condition of paralysis, it is definitely impossible for him to stop it, and even taking a step forward is difficult.

  The desk suddenly became empty, but strangely, except for the place where the three books were, there was no sign of corrosion anywhere else. Lucien thought briefly and then understood the key point: "It seems to be another magical trap. When the concentration of red mist reaches a certain level, the magical traps on those few magical notes will automatically start, destroying themselves to prevent them from being obtained by the enemy."

  "What a pity about these few magic notebooks." Lucien couldn't help but sigh in his heart, those were the magic notebooks that could learn extraordinary powers!

  Suddenly, Lucien was taken aback, and he found that the library in his soul emitted a strange faint light.

  Out of curiosity, Lucien probed his spirit and then saw with wide eyes that a brand new bookshelf had appeared in the library, on which were written the words "Magic (Arcane)", and on the bookshelf, there were already three books, which were exactly the three magic notebooks that Lucien had seen earlier.

  "Is this library still capable of collecting books? But where does the content come from?" Lucien was extremely surprised. "Or do I need to see the content with my own eyes, huh? Just now, those three books were corroded very quickly, but if you slow down the whole process, it should still be page by page being corroded. This strange library can't possibly remember the content from start to finish and then project these three books, otherwise it's impossible to fabricate the content out of thin air."

  Lucien can only be guessed at present, and it will take several experiments with other books in the future to confirm.

  Looking at these three magic notebooks, Lucien, who was just regretful, hesitated: "If I learn magic, in this world where divine arts are powerful and magicians can be openly burned to death, won't it be too dangerous?"

  Unable to make a decision, Lucien temporarily put it aside. After all, he and the others were still in the secret room and had not yet completely escaped danger. So Lucien began to accumulate his strength.

  The strange plants were gone, the pale red mist was getting fainter and fainter. Correa and Hausen gradually got rid of their hallucinations, staring at each other in shock, but it was too late, both of them had reached the brink of death.

  …………

  Benjamin on the ground, in Lucien's spiritual touch "Truth Holy Emblem", triggered "Holy Light Strike" at the same time hummed a sound, put down his right hand, looking at the secret passage with surprise and uncertainty.

  "Governor Benjamin?" Guard Paul asked hastily upon seeing Benjamin's strange behavior.

  Under the light of the Silver Moon, Benjamin's face turned very unsightly. He said in a low voice: "Something unexpected has happened below, my spiritual mark inside the Holy Emblem has been triggered. That damned thing, just an apprentice magician, has actually gotten to this point, it's really useless! Paul, you wait here for me, if I don't come out within five minutes, you go seek help from the Archbishop."

  It was precisely because of the spiritual imprint within the Sacred Emblem that Benjamin felt at ease handing it over to Lucien for use. Otherwise, even if the Sacred Emblem, as a standard divine artifact passed down through generations, was far weaker than Benjamin's own abilities and other divine artifacts on his person, he would not have handed it over so readily. Who knew that his spiritual imprint would be triggered, failing to prevent the divine technique from being activated at the critical moment?

  Negligence and arrogance have always been the companions of pride and prejudice.

  In Benjamin's heart, he had a deep prejudice against knights who relied on physical strength, thinking they were rough and lowly, far inferior to the noble spellcasters who explored the world's secrets, even if they were evil mages. Therefore, he subconsciously handed over the Truth Holy Emblem to Lucien, whose spiritual power was higher than ordinary people.

  Such an attitude comes from Benjamin's origin and his experiences all along.

  As one of the most powerful families in the Principality of Valore, the Laferti family relies on their bloodline's "divine blessing" power, but unlike the knights, they wield magic through their bloodline power and are true spellcasters. As a member of the Laferti family, Benjamin, despite having thin blood that cannot ignite his own power, entered the seminary at a young age and quickly rose to prominence, becoming a priest and firmly walking the path of a spellcaster.

  But now, as a regular pastor, such a small thing has made a big mistake, and his position in the church will inevitably be affected. That's why Benjamin rushed down.

  Paul was equally astonished: "With the True Cross emblem, would there still be a mishap? Is it that there are other formal magicians?"

  …………

  Lucien's strength had recovered a bit, and just as he was about to lean against the stone wall and head out of the secret room, he suddenly heard footsteps approaching, his heart immediately tightened, his spirit tense, if it was the magical creature left behind by the witch or her friend, he feared it would be difficult for him to escape.

  When he saw that it was Benjamin's white holy robe, Lucien half let out a breath of relief, but still didn't dare to relax, what a good place the secret room was for murder and silence.

  "Lapland Blood Vine?" Benjamin took a glance at the situation in the secret room, and from his knowledge of magic and botany, he quickly judged the general process, understanding why Lucien, who was leaning against the wall and moving slowly, and Gari, who was on the verge of death on the ground, had ended up like this. "Fortunately, none of them have died."

  "This kid's luck isn't bad, his spiritual power has actually increased a bit, reaching the level of a low-ranking apprentice pastor. It seems that the impact of breaking through triggered my spiritual imprint. Unfortunately, it's no longer the era when the church was invincible over 300 years ago, and one could learn divine magic just by relying on talent. Without laying the foundation from a young age and systematically studying magical knowledge, he will never become a formal pastor. It has to be said that it was indeed that 'Arcane Emperor' who opened up the golden era of rapid development in magic and sorcery over the past 400 years."

  As a member of the Lafati family, Benjamin knows more about world affairs than most pastors and does not seem to be very devout in his faith. To put it accurately, as a nobleman, Benjamin is at odds with himself as a member of the church.

  What's more important is that after the "Highest Theological Conference" over 300 years ago, the church split into two factions, one in the south and one in the north, accusing each other of heresy. However, despite this, neither side was affected in their acquisition of divine magic, which made many bishops and cardinals secretly wonder if God truly existed, or if it was just a test for believers.

  Such an attitude directly affected every young man who became a minister for centuries, including Benjamin.

  Moreover, in order to adapt to the rapidly changing era, several popes introduced some of the knowledge gained by great mages exploring the world to reform the theological foundation. Although this also allowed divine magic to develop rapidly and produced many powerful figures, enabling the Southern Church to maintain its position as the most powerful force, standing firm against numerous formidable enemies such as heretics, evil magicians, and dark creatures, it once again caused more rifts to appear in the already unstable internal faith.

  Benjamin's mood relaxed, and the fine white powder slipped from his hands. He made a strange sound with his mouth, and a strong gust of wind blew by, blowing away the faint red mist without a trace.

  Then he didn't recite incantations, nor did he throw out spell materials. He simply pointed at Gari, and a pale white light fell on his body, causing the charred skin to fall off, wounds to heal, and he escaped death, becoming an ordinary serious injury.

  Every one to two seconds, Benjamin cast healing spells and revived Correa and Hausen, also healing Lucien's injuries.

  After asking Lucien, Correa, Hausen, Gary and others about the situation, Benjamin looked at the desk and made sure they were not lying before instructing: "Move all items in the secret room to the church, including these dead mice."

  At the same time, he received Lucien's holy emblem: "The sin on your body has been cleansed, go back and rest, may the Lord bless you."

  Originally, if Lucien had succeeded smoothly this time, Benjamin would not have been stingy with monetary rewards and might even have secretly tried to cultivate him. However, since things turned out so dangerous, Benjamin naturally didn't have the mood to encourage Lucien anymore. After confirming that he wasn't hiding anything on his body, he quickly sent him away. After all, Colley and Hausen were fine, but Gari without a right hand was more troublesome - regrowing severed limbs wasn't a divine technique he could master.

  Lucien saw that Benjamin didn't make any move to silence him, so he quickly walked out of the secret room. When he reached the outside corridor, Lucien suddenly heard a sentence from inside that made his mood slightly heavy. He whispered to Hausen: "Gary has lost his right hand and will probably not be able to become a knight anymore. Moreover, he will likely be dismissed from the guard."

  Lucien walked out of the secret passage with an unknown mood and was immediately greeted by inquiries from the surrounding poor people.

  "Little Evans, have you purified the ghost?" Aunt Elisa asked from afar.

  Lucien nodded: "Already purified by Lord Benjamin and several guards."

  Everyone suddenly relaxed and began to ask eagerly: "Lucien, what does a ghost look like? Is it scary?"

  "Mr. Benjamin is indeed a formal pastor."

  "Lucien seems to have obtained the Lord's protection this time and can actually use the Holy Emblem of Truth."

  "It's a pity that Lucien is no longer a child, and cannot be sent to the monastery for training. Otherwise, it would be a great honor for our Adel district to produce a Lord Lucien."

  Hearing these rumors, Lucien was slightly stunned: "I can't become a pastor?"

  Although Lucien had never thought of becoming a pastor due to his identity as a transmigrator, after experiencing the superhuman power of divine magic, he was told that he couldn't take this path, and it was inevitable that he felt a bit downhearted.

  "Poor little Evans, look at your face, you must be exhausted. Hurry back and rest." Aunt Elisa said as soon as she saw Lucien's poor complexion.

  Lucien had a lot on his mind and really needed some quiet time, so he nodded and returned to his small cottage, sitting on the edge of his bed, listening as Benjamin and others went out and left, listening as the poor people who were watching dispersed, listening as the deep night restored its tranquility, suppressing thoughts of his parents in the depths of his heart.

  "I am unable to become a pastor and it seems that due to lack of training from an early age, there is little hope of becoming a knight, stirring up the power of blood."

  "To gain extraordinary power, I'm afraid you have no choice but to learn magic."

  "But once you choose magic, you have to be an enemy of the church and most ordinary people, including Aunt Elisa."

  "Perhaps there is another way?"

  "Anyway, the magic notebook is in my mind, let's take a look first, yeah, it should be fine like this."

  Lucien, who was hesitant and struggling, decided to take a look at the magic notes first, so he entered the library spiritually and opened the magic notes.

  After a long time, Lucien's low, helpless voice echoed in the house:

  "What if you can't read?"