6: Raid on the Temple

Shen Xiaochuan stood at the entrance of the valley, his hand gripping the hilt of the sky-rending blade tightly.

Eight thousand Believers had finished lining up; he could clearly hear the sounds of footsteps and breathing intertwined behind him.

The air was filled with a faint scent of blood, but he had no time to worry about it.

"Chen Yan!" he shouted, turning back.

"Here!" Chen Yan, leaning against a rock with his right shoulder soaked in blood, still forced himself to lift his head.

"Take your men and hold the front; don't let Lin Ku escape."

"Understood."

Chen Yan gritted his teeth and stood up. "You go. I can still hold on."

Shen Xiaochuan nodded, turned around, and charged into the valley.

Five hundred elites followed closely behind, their footsteps making a clattering sound against the gravel.

Fifty meters ahead, a black light barrier rippled like water.

He knew that touching it would cause severe injury, but he had to break through.

"Ready!" He raised a piece of crystal Ore and smashed it hard against the ground.

With a deafening bang, the Ore shattered, causing the light barrier to shake violently and instantly develop a crack.

"Charge!"

He was the first to crash into the light barrier.

His body felt as if it were being pierced by countless steel needles, and beads of blood seeped from his skin.

He did not stop and continued to run forward.

Screams came from behind; some fell, but others still followed closely.

After passing through the light barrier, he looked back—thirty people had failed to follow.

"Move," he said in a low voice, taking the lead.

The temple was getting closer and closer.

Undead guards began to assemble, and skeleton soldiers holding rusted swords blocked the path.

"Kill." Shen Xiaochuan spat out only one word.

A flash of the blade, and the head of a skeleton soldier flew into the air.

He did not stop and headed straight forward.

More Believers surged up, engaging the undead in battle.

He bypassed the battlefield and moved quickly along the wall.

Suddenly, an explosion came from the direction of the granary, and black smoke billowed into the sky—the second team had succeeded.

The self-destruct rune array set up by Lin Ku had detonated early, causing him to lose his final trump card.

This tactic had worked.

The temple gate was right before his eyes.

Five black iron skeleton guards stood before the gate with menacing spears.

The Skeleton Commander had also returned, carrying a giant axe, its blue eye-socket flames coldly locked onto him.

Shen Xiaochuan stood still and raised the sky-rending blade high.

His combat power was 153.

The potion was still in effect, and faith points were continuously increasing by 1 per second, with over twenty thousand currently accumulated.

"Die!" he roared and lunged forward.

The Skeleton Commander swung its axe in a horizontal sweep; he dodged to the side and backhanded a strike that hit the opponent's arm, causing a crisp sound of bone cracking.

The giant axe fell to the ground.

The Skeleton Commander retreated a step.

Shen Xiaochuan did not give it a chance to catch its breath and kicked its breastbone.

The Skeleton Commander flew into the air, crashed into the stone pillar of the temple gate, and its skeleton frame scattered and shattered.

The five skeleton guards lunged simultaneously, their spears pointing directly at his chest, throat, and abdomen.

He spun around, and the sky-rending blade traced a perfect arc.

Crack! Crack!

All five skeletons were cut in two, their remains scattered across the ground.

Silence returned to the front of the temple.

He panted slightly and looked up at the top of the steps.

Lin Ku was kneeling there, his face pale, holding his head in his hands.

"Don't kill me..."

His voice trembled. "I can give you resources, give you Believers, give you blueprints... Whatever you want, I'll give it to you..."

Shen Xiaochuan stepped onto the stairs one by one.

His footsteps were heavy.

Lin Ku kept backing away. "I am an A-rank deity, and I have the Alliance behind me. If you kill me, they will definitely hunt you to your death... Please... let me go..."

Shen Xiaochuan walked up to him and raised the sky-rending blade.

The tip of the blade pressed against his neck.

"Are you done speaking?"

"I... I still want to say... I can help you build a city, I can..."

The blade flashed down.

The head rolled down the steps, eyes still wide open.

Blood gushed out, staining the stone steps red.

The temple began to tremble.

The runes on the roof extinguished one by one, cracks appeared on the walls, and black mist overflowed from the gaps, then dissipated into the air.

The ground cracked, and the distant city wall collapsed with a roar.

A server-wide announcement suddenly rang out.

[First player to kill an enemy deity in the Novice Zone! Shen Xiaochuan earns the title "First Edge," combat power +5!]

The message flooded all channels.

The Chinese novice players were in an uproar.

"Holy crap! Who? Shen Xiaochuan? Which Shen Xiaochuan?"

"It's that guy from the Mechanical System! No one looked favorably upon him before!"

"I saw him at the Eastern Awakening Plaza, and everyone laughed at him for having no combat talent!"

"What about now? The first person to kill an enemy deity is him!"

"Awesome! A peerless talent of the nation!"

Private messages popped up crazily, and friend requests came one after another.

He did not look at them, nor did he pay them any attention.

He stood in the center of the ruins, the sky-rending blade dripping with blood.

He drove the blade into the ground, supporting his slightly unsteady body.

Sounds of fighting still came to his ears.

It was not over on Chen Yan's side yet.

He looked down at his palms.

His palms were mixed with sweat and blood, slippery and cold.

The Faith Mall opened automatically.

Current faith points: 20700.

He glanced at the summoning list and then closed it.

Now was not the time to recruit people.

He lifted his eyes and looked inside the temple.

On the altar, a black stone tablet was placed quietly.

The runes flickered slightly, but were gradually dimming.

He knew this was Lin Ku's divine core.

Only by destroying it could he completely prevent the opponent from resurrecting.

He stepped toward the gate.

Arriving at the altar, he reached out to touch the tablet.

As soon as his fingertips touched it, a chill traveled up his fingers.

He frowned and pulled hard with both hands, detaching the tablet from the base.

Hum—

The entire temple shook violently.

A few pieces of debris fell from the ceiling.

He held the tablet up before his eyes.

The runes on it were disappearing rapidly.

"Is that it?" he muttered to himself.

Suddenly, a line of small text appeared on the back of the tablet.

He squinted to look closely.

It was a string of coordinates, in latitude and longitude format, located in the Northwest Wasteland.

Below it was another line of text: [Seventh Seal point, activated].

He froze.

This was not something Lin Ku would know about.

The way the text appeared was also wrong—it was as if it had been carved into it long ago, only waiting for this moment to reveal its true form.

He flipped the tablet over and over several times.

When he looked up again, he discovered that a secret compartment was hidden at the base of the altar.

He crouched down and pried it open with his hand.

A copper coin lay quietly inside.

The style was ancient, and the front was cast with the three characters "Qin Ban Liang."

He picked up the copper coin and flipped it over.

Four characters were clearly visible on the back: Cast by the First Emperor.

His pupils suddenly contracted.

He had seen this kind of summoning scroll on the hidden page of the Faith Mall, which required one hundred thousand faith points to exchange.

He had always thought that it was an item that would only be useful in the Late Stage.

He had never expected that the clue would appear here.

Footsteps came from outside.

It was Chen Yan.

"Main God!"

He shouted at the door, "The enemies have retreated! We won!"

Shen Xiaochuan put the copper coin into his pocket and picked up the sky-rending blade.

"Mm," he replied and walked out of the temple.

Sunlight shone on his face.

Among the ruins, collapsed houses and broken flags were scattered everywhere.

Believers began to clean up the battlefield and move the corpses.

Chen Yan walked over, his left arm wrapped in a cloth strip, his face covered in dust.

"Is Lin Ku dead?"

"Dead."

"What about the divine core?"

"Here." He tapped his pocket lightly.

Chen Yan smiled: "You are the first to kill an enemy deity; from now on, no one will dare to look down on you."

Shen Xiaochuan was silent for a long time and did not speak.

He looked at the distant horizon, where there was nothing.

But he knew in his heart that some things had already quietly changed.

He opened the Faith Mall.

+1 per second.

faith points were slowly increasing.

He glanced at the coordinates in the northwest direction.

The time was not yet right.

But now, he had a goal.

He gripped the sky-rending blade tightly, his knuckles turning white.

"Chen Yan."

"Here."

"After things are handled here, you take men to guard this area."

"Where are you going?"

"To check on something."

"Alone?"

"Mm."

Chen Yan did not ask again.

He knew that once Shen Xiaochuan decided on something, no one could stop him.

Shen Xiaochuan turned around and walked toward the valley exit.