The two deacons lay on the ground, blood gurgling from their wounds and spreading across the bluestone floor.
Faint wisps of blue smoke still drifted from the muzzle of Lu Yuan's gun, the air thick with the acrid scent of burnt gunpowder.
Lu Yuan's hand had been steady; four bullets, four hits to the limbs.
It wasn't that he was being soft-hearted, but he knew very well—killing members of the Holy Church in Gelimu Port was something even the Nightwatchers would have to weigh the consequences of.
Timekeeper was deactivated, and the world returned to its normal speed. Lu Yuan watched Priest Andrew quietly. After all, the combat power he had just displayed was enough to prove he wasn't just a doctor. Anyone with a semblance of a normal brain would carefully consider whether they could afford the consequences of continuing the fight.
But Priest Andrew clearly did not intend to leave himself any room for retreat.
Andrew's face was ashen, his originally somewhat kind features now twisted almost to the point of deformity.
The scripture in his hand suddenly burst with intense golden light. Within the Silence Barrier, the holy radiance was particularly blinding, appearing like a miniature sun suspended in mid-air.
Lu Yuan instinctively narrowed his eyes; the light was far too bright.
"The price for blaspheming the Angel is more than you can bear!"
Andrew's voice held suppressed rage, and even a hint of... fear?
Lu Yuan keenly caught that detail.
Yes, fear.
An esteemed priest of the Holy Church, bringing two deacons to 'invite' a child, only to have all his subordinates wounded by a mere doctor. If this got out, where would he hide his face?
More importantly, in that instant just now, he had clearly felt a strange aura surge from within the clinic.
That aura was ancient and dark, the polar opposite of the light of the Angel he believed in.
Andrew pressed his palms together, and the scripture floated before him, its pages flipping on their own.
With every page that turned, the holy aura in the air grew denser. The suffocating pressure made Lu Yuan instinctively raise his muzzle again.
"Bang."
"The Angel grants me the Power of Judgment!"
The sound of the gunfire and Andrew's voice rang out simultaneously.
In the next moment, a beam of golden light shot forth from above the scripture, aimed directly at Lu Yuan.
It instantly melted the silver-plated bullets in mid-air!
The beam came far too fast.
So fast that Lu Yuan didn't even have time to think.
But at the edge of his vision, a line of glaring gray-white text suddenly emerged:
【Warning! Holy light attack detected. Please evade!】
Lu Yuan's pupils constricted.
His hand reached into his coat almost as a reflex.
Timekeeper.
Click.
【Timekeeper · Acceleration (Activated)】
【Sanity in consumption... -1... -1】
Worldly motion slowed down once again in Lu Yuan's eyes.
The golden beam was now like frozen lightning, slowly flying toward him.
The originally blinding light now looked like elongated golden threads, each strand clearly visible. He could even see the holy runes flowing within the beam.
Lu Yuan tilted his body slightly.
He watched as the beam grazed the edge of his trench coat, leaving a trail of scorching sparks.
He smelled the stench of burning fabric and felt the stinging pain of the holy power—even a glancing blow made his skin feel as though it were being seared by fire.
Boom!
The wooden door behind him was struck head-on by the beam.
It instantly turned into a mass of charcoal, and even the doorframe began to burn.
If he had been even a tenth of a second slower just now...
Lu Yuan didn't dare think about it further.
Since Andrew was actually using lethal force, he couldn't be blamed for what came next.
The revolver was aimed once more. This time, he fired three consecutive bullets, targeting Andrew's hand holding the scripture, his head, and his chest!
The bullets traced straight lines in Lu Yuan's vision, drifting slowly toward Andrew.
But at the moment they were about to hit.
A golden light screen exploded! The silver-plated bullets were seemingly hit with a pause button, stopping dead in their tracks before being blasted apart!
Bullet fragments flew in every direction.
Andrew's expression remained unchanged, the scripture continuing to brew golden light as new rays began to emerge.
【Sanity: 72/75 → 71/75 → 70/75...】
The numbers at the edge of his vision continued to drop, like a silent warning.
Lu Yuan gritted his teeth, fine beads of sweat breaking out on his forehead.
It was clear that the moment Andrew saw Lu Yuan using a transcendent item, he had prepared himself.
The large-caliber revolver actually couldn't breach Andrew's protective light screen!!
Moreover, the drain of Timekeeper was too immense.
Every second was devouring his Sanity.
He couldn't keep it active indefinitely.
Lu Yuan adjusted the revolver's angle and pulled the trigger three times in rapid succession toward Andrew's head.
If even a string of silver-plated bullets couldn't break the golden light screen in front of him, then Lu Yuan would have no choice but to prepare to run.
In the next moment, Timekeeper was deactivated, and the world returned to its normal speed.
The elongated perception snapped back, and the surroundings became noisy and chaotic once more.
Whoosh, whoosh.
The bullets sliced through the air, kicking up ripples.
But in the next second.
Hum.
The scripture trembled, and the bullets were once again pinned in the air before being shattered into fragments.
Seeing that his attack had missed, a flash of surprise crossed Andrew's eyes. Then, looking at his activated protective badge, a surge of anger flickered in his gaze.
The corner of his mouth curled into a cold sneer, one that looked particularly hideous under the reflection of the golden light.
"You have some skill, but this is as far as you go, isn't it?"
There was a hint of playfulness in his voice, like a cat toying with a doomed mouse.
"How many bullets do you have left? And how many times can you dodge?"
The scripture glowed once more.
This time, three beams shot out simultaneously, spreading in a fan shape that sealed off all of Lu Yuan's paths for retreat.
Lu Yuan's heart sank.
The world slowed again, and the three beams were like three golden pythons slowly closing in on him.
His body wove through the gaps between the beams, every movement precise to the millimeter.
Side-stepping, ducking, rolling—
He barely managed to break free from the enclosure of death, but the cost was two more charred marks on his trench coat, and—
【Sanity: 70/75 → 67/75】
Three points of Sanity were gone just like that.
Lu Yuan's face turned somewhat pale, not from fear, but because the consumption was simply too fast. This seemingly high amount of Sanity felt pitifully meager when actually put to use.
Andrew pressed forward step by step, his pace steady and forceful, each stride carrying a sense of fearless confidence.
The light from the scripture in his hand grew even more blazing, the holy runes on the pages leaping incessantly.
"The Angel's judgment is inescapable!"
He stopped, his voice like thunder echoing within the Silence Barrier.
Another even thicker beam was fired.
This one was more ferocious than any before it, as wide as a bowl. Everywhere it passed, the air was scorched, letting out a piercing hiss.
Just as Lu Yuan was about to activate Timekeeper—
Suddenly.
A powerful aura radiated from behind him.
It was ancient and eerie, carrying a heart-palpitating sense of pressure.
It wasn't bright and flamboyant like divine arts; instead, it was as murky and deep as the abyss, as if it could swallow all light.
Every hair on Lu Yuan's body stood on end.
He was all too familiar with this aura.
It was Ink.
A black barrier appeared out of thin air, blocking his path.
That barrier was as black as ink, its surface flowing with strange runes, like some ancient and mysterious title page.
The golden beam struck the black barrier.
There was no explosion.
No sparks.
No sound whatsoever.
That holy beam of light was like a meteor falling into the abyss, instantly swallowed whole by the black barrier without even stirring a single ripple.
It was as if it had never existed.
Andrew's expression changed drastically, his eyes full of disbelief.
"This is... a Knowledge Page?!"
His voice carried hesitation and confusion.
As a priest who had served the Angel for many years, he knew better than anyone what this kind of power represented.
It was an existence opposed to the holy, and even more, it was the power of knowledge made manifest!
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