Life Game In Other World
Chapter 786: The Believers of Eternal Radiance (Super long - , seeking monthly passes)

Chapter 786: Chapter 786: The Believers of Eternal Radiance (Super long Chapter, seeking monthly passes)

He Ao had two purposes for conversing with Lockway just now.

One was to tease out intelligence, to confirm whether Lockway was indeed the mastermind behind Yiluo’s incident years ago.

The second was to distract Lockway’s attention to rescue the red-dressed little girl who had been aiding him and had deep connections with this church. He had just taken Lockway by surprise with a direct move, knocking away Lockway’s scalpel and saving the little girl.

However, the little girl in red was still by Lockway’s side. With the power and vigilance Lockway had shown, if He Ao’s intentions had been too obvious, Lockway might have prioritized "killing" the little girl.

Therefore, He Ao first had to shift the topic to himself to divert Lockway’s attention.

There was an information gap here: Lockway was unaware that He Ao had already made contact with the little girl in red earlier, which his words and behavior had revealed.

Moreover, given Lockway’s perception of Yiluo’s parents as ’righteous good people,’ he would subconsciously assume that He Ao’s rescue of the little girl was a spur-of-the-moment action. Now, by following along with Lockway’s topic and deliberately falling into his ’provoke and lure’ trap, He Ao could achieve the goal of misdirection.

"Young man, your growth surprises me," Lockway said.

Lockway raised his hand, and invisible threads spread from his fingertips into the void, a terrifying force instantly covered the entire hall, and countless cracks spread across the wooden chairs beside him, then—boom—they exploded into myriad splinters.

The chaotic splinters momentarily obscured the core area of the hall, as well as everyone’s vision.

He Ao gestured lightly with his hand, then rose with his sword and dashed forward, his entire body merging into the whirl of splinters.

The red-dressed little girl behind him took a leaping step backward, twisted in midair, and flipped, dodging away from her spot.

Clang—

The invisible threads swiftly traversed where they had stood.

"Have you seen through it?" Lockway’s eyes narrowed slightly behind the round glasses, and his figure disappeared in an instant.

The pure white Eternal Radiance sliced through the flying wood splinters, appearing where he had just stood a second ago.

Traces of blood seeped from the boy’s pale skin. After a missed strike, he did not hesitate and immediately turned with his sword to slash behind him.

Clang—

The pure white knight’s sword collided with the numerous cutting threads; behind these threads was the slightly surprised face of Lockway.

The next second, He Ao channeled his Divine Sense into the knight’s sword, instantly activating the sword’s inherent enhancing Array, and the sharp blade cut through the threads, slashing toward Lockway’s face.

"Interesting," Lockway remarked as he retracted the threads, watching the knight’s sword in He Ao’s hand, then receding, disappearing again amidst the flying splinters.

Watching this scene, He Ao sheathed his sword, quietly observing the swirling wood splinters around him.

In normal vision, these splinters would have obscured the invisible threads in Lockway’s hands, making them harder to detect and advantageous to him.

But in He Ao’s Spiritual Vision, although these flying splinters were composed of scattered patterns, they were not as conspicuous as the threads also made of Transcendent power.

If the splinters were like dust in the Spiritual Vision, then the threads were like ropes dazzling with brilliance, extremely evident in He Ao’s sight.

Of course, Lockway did not know this; he probably still thought he was well-concealed.

He Ao held the sword with one hand, the tip touching the ground, ’vigilant,’ watching his surroundings.

Then an invisible thread passed through the flying splinters, entwining around the knight’s sword in his hand. The thread suddenly straightened and pulled, attempting to snatch the knight’s sword directly from He Ao’s hand.

But when the thread tensed, it failed to pull the knight’s sword from He Ao’s grasp.

Boom—

With a thunderous roar, the stone floor beneath He Ao’s feet shattered instantly. The other hand, which had hung in front of him, abruptly gripped the hilt of the knight’s sword, and he yanked it back.

The hidden figure behind the splinters clearly had not anticipated He Ao’s sudden move. Not only did the attempt to steal the sword fail, but He Ao’s forceful tug also dragged the figure out from the chaos of splinters.

The threads wrapped around the sword hilt loosened instantly with He Ao’s pull, making him lose his leverage point, but by then, Lockway’s figure was already pulled out from the wood dust.

He Ao took a step forward, activating Super Memory, wielded his sword like light, employing the Heavy Strike Technique. His body traced through the void, instantly aiming for Lockway’s chest.

This was the opportunity he had been waiting for.

The previous two times Lockway had disappeared in front of him, it wasn’t actual ’disappearance,’ but rather utilizing part of the power of the Inner Church to increase his speed to a level that even He Ao with Super Memory couldn’t match.

Since he couldn’t keep up, He Ao simply decided to wait for his chance, exposing the sharpness of the knight’s sword and waiting for Lockway to come and try to snatch his weapon.

This also made use of the fact that Lockway did not know his spiritual vision could penetrate the disguise of invisible thin lines.

Lockway had not expected He Ao to suddenly burst out with such speed. At this moment, his body was being pulled forward by He Ao, and it was already too late to dodge.

Cling—

Countless thin lines converged in front of Lockway, and at the same time, several invisible threads appeared behind He Ao, slicing towards his back.

The lines in front of Lockway were abruptly cut by He Ao, and the sharp blade drew close to Lockway’s chest.

There was no time to reassemble the severed lines in front of him, so Lockway quickly pulled on the threads attacking He Ao’s back, trying to force He Ao to defend.

But He Ao did not turn back his sword. Instead, he made a downward cut, abruptly and without hesitation, towards Lockway’s chest.

In that extremely brief moment, Lockway stamped his feet on the ground, violently pulling back his body to evade and releasing the threads in his hands,

He Ao withdrew his sword, spun it, and drew back, passing by Lockway.

"You little madman..."

Lockway’s body twirled and flew away, falling to the ground, a deep wound visible to the bone on his chest, where one could even faintly see his beating heart.

Blood glowing with an orange luster continuously gushed out, staining his gold-threaded white robe red.

Bang—

He Ao slammed his sword into the rocky ground, wiping the fresh blood from the corner of his mouth.

The back of his wide down jacket had been sliced by the sharp threads, and even though Lockway had retracted the threads at the last moment to save his own life, they had still left three deep gashes on He Ao’s back.

However, compared to the damage to his body from the high-intensity use of overlimit power, activating Super Memory, and Martial Techniques, these were insignificant.

At this moment, nearly all of He Ao’s skin was covered with a thin layer of blood, like a dying blood man.

"Your life is withering away, you’re dying,"

Lockway also noticed He Ao’s condition. He staggered to his feet, watching He Ao with a slight smile curling on his lips,

"Indeed, a child cannot suddenly acquire such great power. You’ve traded your life for some ’Grace’. Now, every time you use your overlimit power, you get one step closer to death. Your soul would be such fine spiritual material, what a waste."

"Everyone will die,"

He Ao calmly drew his Knight’s sword from the ground, "but the length of life is relative. As long as I live longer than my enemies, that’s all that matters."

Lockway’s expression changed slightly. He straightened up, and a string of pendants emitting a pale golden glow fell into his palm, which he promptly crushed.

In an instant, layer upon layer of muscles squirmed under his skin, and growing buds of flesh surged from his wound, intertwining and halting the flow of blood. He watched He Ao and spoke slowly,

"Children always like to talk big, hopelessly idealistic dreams. I hope your remaining soul can make up for my losses this time."

He Ao also calmly watched his wounds beginning to seal.

Just now under the gaze of Divine Sense, Lockway had only one large energy convergence point, right at his chest.

But when He Ao seized the opportunity to shatter that large energy convergence point, Lockway’s energy circuit did not collapse but split into four smaller energy convergence points.

This was the first time He Ao had seen such a dual-layer energy circuit structure.

The first layer had only a single energy convergence point, but this point was much larger than the commonplace ones.

The second layer had multiple smaller energy convergence points, significantly tinier than normal ones and even smaller than those of many energy convergence points of life He Ao had seen before, but still capable of maintaining the body’s entire energy circuit.

From the size of these energy convergence points, He Ao felt that Lockway probably did not possess a third layer of energy points.

This dual-layer energy circuit clearly had some ’deceptive’ qualities.

But the approach to deal with it was obviously similar to He Ao’s experience with the ’main with multiples’ energy points; first destroy a main energy convergence point and then destroy the remaining smaller ones.

However, this multi-energy convergence point structure was also reflecting another ’fact’: Lockway’s body had undergone some kind of ’transformation’. He was no longer human, not now, and probably not for a long time.

From all of He Ao’s experiences, humans have only one energy point, and killing it means death.

Only those creatures that have come into contact with mythological powers and whose bodies have been transformed by such forces possess several energy points.

"Have you turned yourself into a monster?"

He Ao looked at Lockway, gently lifting his Knight’s sword, watching his body twist and swell.

"This isn’t a monster, it’s ’Grace’,"

Lockway, his body bloated with swollen flesh, watched He Ao and revealed a slightly cruel smile, fresh red blood threading through his teeth, "This is power far greater than that of humans, aren’t you envious?"

"I just think you’re getting uglier."

He Ao watched him, shrugging his shoulders.

"Arrogant little madman."

Lockway’s expression changed slightly; he leaped forward, lunging at He Ao.

The same words have different effects on different people; from Lockway’s initially meticulous attire, one could tell he was someone who cared a great deal about his image.

He Ao sidestepped in advance, dodging Lockway’s attack.

His massive fist smashed onto the floor, shattering several stone tiles on impact, sending chunks of rock flying.

This inner church’s hall was much sturdier than the one in the surface world.

Judging by Lockway’s current actions and explosive force, his enhanced physical condition must have reached close to five thousand by now.

His original physique was around three thousand, slightly weaker than He Ao’s. Under the inner church’s rules, he could exhibit a speed close to four thousand, and now, after the enhancement wave, his speed must be nearing six thousand.

He Ao cleaved through the flying shards hurtling toward him with his sword.

This physique had far surpassed the three thousand mark that he could achieve when only activating Super Memory.

The weapon advantage of the Knight sword could make up for some of the disparity, but not by much.

The power of Super Memory could not be used for long, the longer it was used, the greater the damage to the body, and even though Lockway’s enhancement was temporary, He Ao was not certain he could outlast it.

Just then, a somewhat distorted force spread out from the bottom of the hall, entering He Ao’s body and beginning to heal his wounds.

In that moment, He Ao’s mind raced, and he glanced surreptitiously at the little girl in the red dress in the corner of the hall.

At this time, the red-dressed little girl had her eyes tightly closed, her hands crossed in front of her chest, her thumbs and little fingers touching each other, forming a somewhat strange ’hand gesture’.

Clearly, those powers coming from the hall were being manipulated by the little girl in the red dress.

At this moment, Lockway also seemed to notice something wrong with the hall’s power. He lifted his hand, and countless thin threads, like a spider web, spread out, trying to seal He Ao’s body, then immediately turned and looked towards the little girl in the red dress.

Meanwhile, He Ao raised his Knight sword, cutting through the thin threads in front of him, and stabbed his sword towards Lockway’s back.

In that split second, Lockway’s corner of the mouth twitched as he spun around; his massive fist, like a comet, crashed towards He Ao.

His glance at the little girl was a feint, luring He Ao to attack while his real intention was to strike at He Ao.

Yet, confronted with the huge fist, He Ao didn’t dodge, instead hoisting his Knight sword using the Heavy Strike Technique, stabbing out in an instant and piercing through Lockway’s fingers into his palm.

At the same time, Lockway’s fist landed on He Ao, sending him flying.

He Ao pulled out his Knight sword and soared backward.

Invisible threads flew from the air, trying to entangle and slice him midair into pieces, but he cut through them with his sword.

He finally crashed against the hall’s wall, creating web-like cracks before spitting out a mouthful of fresh blood and watching Lockway.

Lockway’s palm squirmed, closing the sword wound, but the energy nexus that had been pierced in his palm could no longer be restored.

He Ao had guessed Lockway’s strategy from the start; he had targeted the energy nexus from the beginning.

He could clearly feel that Lockway’s speed had slowed, the enhancement he received from the hall greatly reduced under the influence of the little girl.

He extricated himself from the wall and glanced down at the sword scabbard and scalpel not far in front of him.

Lockway looked at the little girl in the corner, then at He Ao, who was closer and stuck in the wall’s crevice. After a brief hesitation, he charged towards He Ao like a whirlwind.

At the same time, the red-haired woman, who had been standing beside the wooden cabinet, had already taken a long, narrow wooden box from her pocket. She opened the lid, revealing the dark purple throwing knife inside, radiating a chilling aura.

She glanced at the knife in the box, a pained expression flickering across her face, yet without hesitation, she reached out, her fingertip sliding across the blade. As her blood, glowing with a red brilliance, seeped out, the knife quickly floated up.

Among all those present, she was the weakest, which was why she finished her preparations several exchanges into the fight between He Ao and Lockway.

The red-haired woman’s face turned pale; she gritted her teeth and gently lifted her hand, "Go!"

In that moment, she and He Ao were absolute allies; if He Ao died, she, too, would be killed by this madman of the Eternal Secret Teachings.

The sharp throwing knife carried a certain tranquil aura as it shot out like a phantom, striking at Locke who was charging towards He Ao.

"What is this!"

Locke’s expression changed as he reached back to grab the knife, but in that instant, the knife suddenly changed direction, skimming past his fingertips and spinning towards another side

The actual power of the throwing knife wasn’t strong, but its speed was extremely fast and it was exceptionally sharp, just like a true phantom.

Locke burst forth with power once again, trying to grasp the knife.

But immediately after, he saw He Ao, who had just freed himself from the wall, surge forth like a streak of light, slashing at his thigh.

Locke’s expression changed, and he quickly withdrew his hand, as countless fine lines spread out in the air, trying to entangle the knife. At the same time, he twisted his body back, and a golden radiance piled up into huge gauntlets in his hands, smashing towards He Ao’s face with a thunderous sonic boom.

At this moment, He Ao had already reached where the sword scabbard and scalpel were. He thrust the tip of the knight’s sword into the ground, flipping the scalpel up towards Locke. As Locke slightly dodged the scalpel, He Ao’s other hand pulled the sword scabbard out of the ground.

Then, his right hand holding the knight’s sword followed the motion of lifting the sword and spun it into a flourish, changing from a standard grip to a reverse grip

Immediately, He Ao thrust the scabbard forward, using the Heavy Strike Technique, to deflect Locke’s incoming fist to the side while stepping and leaning forward. He raised the knight’s sword in his hand, slicing horizontally with his backhand across Locke’s abdomen

Given the power disparity between them, He Ao had not directly clashed with Locke, but instead used skillful strength to manipulate the direction of Locke’s force and followed through with his own attack.

All of this happened in the blink of an eye, and He Ao had already passed by Locke, moving to his rear.

He raised his head and glanced at the little girl in the red dress who had opened her eyes in the corner, his lips parting slightly to pose a silent question.

After a brief hesitation, the little girl in the red dress gently nodded, then closed her eyes again

He Ao looked forward, where the red-haired woman’s throwing knife had been entangled in a web crafted by fine threads. He Ao raised his sword and cut through the web, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, looked at the torn wound on the palm holding the scabbard, and turned back to look at Locke

The little girl in the red dress was still harnessing the power of the hall to heal his injuries, but this speed of healing could not keep up with the rate of damage brought by activating Super Memory

However, this also significantly reduced the damage he sustained, allowing him to endure for a longer period of time.

At this point, Locke’s physical condition was around four thousand, approaching five thousand, so the gap between him and He Ao was just over a thousand. With that gap, coupled with the amplification from the Heavy Strike Martial Techniques and the help of his teammates, it had already been largely diminished

It was evident that Locke rarely took part in real combat. Most of his power came from Grace, and although he possessed great strength and even fairly strong combat talent, he lacked the experience and skill required at this level.

As strengths and weaknesses shifted, the gap between He Ao and Locke had already been greatly reduced.

This wasn’t the first time He Ao had fought against a stronger opponent.

Locke clutched his bleeding abdomen and turned to look at He Ao.

Although his punch had been deflected by the scabbard, resulting in an injury to He Ao’s hand, the damage was not significant, only causing a tear at the base of his thumb

Compared to his own injury, that was much less severe.

Moreover, he had an inkling that as He Ao progressively inflicted damage, the strength in his body had become slightly unstable. All of He Ao’s attacks were not random

"Yiluo, I underestimated you,"

He watched He Ao, casting a glance at the airborne knife and the little girl in the red dress still firmly closing her eyes in the corner

Under the observation of Divine Sense, He Ao noticed that two of Locke’s four energy convergence points were already destroyed in their exchanges just now.

The remaining two energy points could no longer fully maintain his energy circuit. Destroying another one would completely collapse his energy circuit.

But evidently, Locke wouldn’t be killed that easily

He raised his palm, as bright radiance emerged on his skin. Curling the corners of his mouth, he stared at He Ao, "Now, I will make sure you die thoroughly"

Watching the familiar patterns slowly appear on Locke’s body, He Ao’s expression darkened, yet it seemed as if he affirmed something, sighing softly,

"Are you from the Eternal Ancient Teachings?"

"No,"

Locke shook his head slightly, "I am a Believer of the Eternal Radiance, and unfortunately for you, you’ve encountered the strongest one in this church."

He Ao raised his knight’s sword, charging at him without any hesitation

And in that instant, an endless cascade of radiance spilled from the top of the church, invisible lines coalescing into a grid-like wall, blocking in front of Locke

Locke raised his head, gazing at the sky’s brilliance and suddenly bellowed,

"The Universe of All Beings is steeped in sin, only the light shines upon the end!"