Lord of Prayer

Maple City Star Gathering.

As was routine, Zhou Chen underwent a series of detailed physical examinations. This time, however, they actually found something: a barely perceptible egg detected in a pore on the back of his right shoulder.

It was the egg of an Abyss parasite called a "Blood Silk Worm," named for its appearance as a fine, blood-red thread. Blood Silk Worms grow by feeding on the host’s blood. In just two days, they can spread through the entire vascular system like the roots of a tree, eventually gaining control of the nervous system to manipulate the host’s body and begin frantically reproducing to spread their offspring.

Clearly, the egg had been planted by "Ghost." The method was so secretive that neither Li Xiye nor Wang Yaoting had noticed it, to say nothing of Zhou Chen himself.

After discovering that Ghost had surreptitiously planted a gu on Zhou Chen, the Knights of the Life Church underwent physicals as well. As expected, all the Knights except for Wang Yaoting had been afflicted with a malicious Abyss Curse Gu. In two of them, the parasites had already begun to grow. Fortunately, they were discovered and exterminated in time, or the consequences would have been dire.

Judging by the final outcome, they had lost the battle horribly.

The betrayal of Li Miao, a Platinum Knight, was enough to bring shame upon the Life Church, not to mention the casualties and financial losses from the battle...

According to the post-battle statistics from the Star Association, the fight, which lasted less than three minutes, resulted in 97 deaths, 133 injuries, and economic losses in the tens of millions.

That evening, the Life Church announced it would take full responsibility for the incident and cover all compensation for the damages.

But the pain of losing a loved one was not something that could be soothed by financial compensation.

On the television in the lounge, a news report on the Feng City incident was playing. The host was interviewing the family of one of the deceased—a young female university student. She was crying so hard she couldn’t speak, unable to form a complete sentence in response to the reporter’s questions. Anyone could feel her anguish.

Behind her, more victims’ families were visible, and every face was etched with sorrow.

"She comes from a single-parent family. Her father was a construction worker who raised her by hauling bricks and unloading cargo day and night."

Wang Yaoting stood by the window with his hands behind his back, gazing out at the city lights as he spoke calmly. "She got into Hai City University last year with excellent grades. Just a few days ago, she received her scholarship money and immediately bought her father a new set of clothes and a new phone.

Her father was on the first floor of the restaurant eating with his coworkers at the time. The surveillance footage shows him bragging to them about his daughter, saying how filial and considerate she was, using her scholarship money to buy him new clothes and a new phone the moment she got it.

The package just arrived tonight, but he’ll never get to use them."

A heavy silence fell over the room. No one spoke.

"I bear all the responsibility for this incident," Wang Yaoting said in a low voice. "I failed to discover that Li Miao had been implanted with a Seed of Distortion."

"Captain, the Seed of Distortion is planted deep in the Soul. It’s incredibly hard to detect. This isn’t your fault, it’s Li Miao’s," a Knight said, grinding his teeth. "He’s the cowardly traitor who became a mole and let Ghost find our position! That son of a bitch doesn’t deserve to be a Knight! To hell with him and his whole family! I saw it back when we were in the youth training camp. If it weren’t for his parents’ connections, he never would have even made it into the Knight Hall!"

Wang Yaoting shook his head. "Li Miao was my subordinate. Failing to notice something was wrong with him was my dereliction of duty. I’m just very curious about when exactly Ghost implanted the Seed of Distortion in him. Based on the seed’s maturation time, it must have been within the last two weeks, but he was almost always with the team during that period. He rarely acted alone."

"The memory extraction will be done in a little while. We’ll know everything then," said Zhou Chen, who was sitting on the sofa.

The Church Knights had passed a cruel judgment on the traitor, but they hadn’t killed Li Miao, because he still possessed vital intelligence.

However, Li Miao had already been completely corrupted by the Seed of Distortion and couldn’t be interrogated through normal means. He could only be sent to a lab for memory extraction, a simple but limited process. In a short while, Li Miao’s entire life history would be laid bare for all to see, including when he met Ghost.

At that moment, someone on the news suddenly said Zhou Chen’s name. He looked up and saw a girl who looked to be high-school-aged. Her eyes were red-rimmed and her tears were flowing endlessly. Her gaze was dim and lifeless, her heart like dead ash—the clear signs of someone who had suffered a devastating blow.

From the subsequent interview, Zhou Chen learned that this girl was a fan of his, but that her father had died at his hands.

’Those Corrupters...’ Zhou Chen sighed inwardly.

When the Mutated Darkness had spread, many people didn’t have time to escape and were instantly eroded into Corrupters. And a completely corrupted Soul cannot be saved, unless a "miracle" or "divine sign" were to occur.

But there was none.

So Zhou Chen had no choice but to kill them.

Even if he hadn’t killed them, someone else would have. Besides, in that situation, allowing the Corrupters to run rampant would only have caused even greater casualties.

But Zhou Chen never would have dreamed that something so melodramatic, like killing a fan’s family member, would actually happen to him.

But the girl being interviewed didn’t call him a murderer or anything of the sort. She just said, trembling, that she understood. She knew that once a person was corrupted, they couldn’t be saved, and that not killing them would only lead to greater chaos.

But as she spoke, the girl’s composure shattered, and she broke down into loud, wailing sobs.

The female Knight with her hair in buns sighed. "The Church will send someone to provide psychological counseling... Do you need it? Someone in the Church went through something similar before. They felt so guilty afterward that they attempted suicide many times."