Lovis's voice continued to grow louder, intending to shatter Wen Wen's mind with its sheer volume.
However, Wen Wen immediately retracted the rune book into the containment facility, instantly cutting off the sound.
Afterward, Wen Wen stood still for a while to recover, the buzzing in his head finally ceasing.
Yet, that brief moment of impact had caused a trickle of blood to flow from each of Wen Wen's ears.
"I understand it all now. This rune book is directly connected to that evil god called Lovis, and Lovis can communicate directly with the book's holder!"
"For His 'divine dependents,' that book is a sacred artifact that allows direct communication with the deity. But for those like me who do not worship Lovis, obtaining the book leads to harassment from the evil god's nonsensical chatter."
"However... Lovis mentioned that I am not 'it,' who is 'it' referring to?"
After a brief moment of thought, Wen Wen knew how he should handle the rune book.
Henceforth, when studying the knowledge within the rune book or inscribing rune arrays onto it, he must be inside the containment facility and simultaneously activate the Cataclysm Jailer state.
When using the rune book in the outside world, he should do so within a safe timeframe, ensuring Lovis never gets a chance to finish a single sentence.
Fortunately, Wen Wen's strength had increased significantly compared to before; otherwise, he wouldn't dare to use this rune book.
After stowing the rune book away, Wen Wen turned to look at Xia Weiyi, who was nailed to the wall.
During the brief period Wen Wen was studying the rune book, Xia Weiyi's hair and beard had turned completely white, and he was incessantly muttering a name.
That name was 'Tang Xiaoyi'...
Xia Weiyi's obsessive desire to aid the evil god's descent was likely related to this Tang Xiaoyi.
Wen Wen rummaged through Xia Weiyi's clothes and found his identification documents, sending this information to Ding Mingguang with a request to investigate the details of these two individuals as thoroughly as possible.
Ding Mingguang possessed exceptional skill in searching for information on computers, which was why Wen Wen frequently sought his assistance, always rewarding him with demon-hunting currency.
In a sense, Ding Mingguang had become Wen Wen's private computer expert.
By undertaking private jobs for Wen Wen, Ding Mingguang had quietly become the wealthiest demon hunter in the Furong River City Hunter Association.
Throughout the entire process, Xia Weiyi remained expressionless, his complexion dull and lifeless, only continuing to mumble that one name.
Lovis's inability to descend and being forced to retreat by Wen Wen caused Xia Weiyi's faith to collapse directly, rendering him as if he had dementia.
However, according to the identity information Wen Wen had found, Xia Weiyi was only two years older than Wen Wen.
Since Xia Weiyi was not particularly old, his wearing antique glasses, the kind favored by old scholars, seemed rather peculiar.
Thus, Wen Wen removed Xia Weiyi's glasses, conducted a simple risk test, and then placed them on his own nose bridge.
At first glance, there seemed to be no change, but after a period of study, Wen Wen discovered that these glasses could translate Yuta script into the written language of the real world.
Unfortunately, Wen Wen himself had already mastered the Yuta script and had no need for translation aids, so he decided to sell them in the containment shop.
Finally, Wen Wen confined Xia Weiyi within the containment facility.
Although Xia Weiyi had lost his normal cognitive abilities and posed less of a threat than a guard dog in a rural village, he had still attempted to sacrifice over seven thousand people as offerings to an evil god. Regardless of his reasons, he had to face the consequences.
Wen Wen intended to keep him in the containment facility until his death!
Following this, Wen Wen heard the blare of sirens. People in black clothes sealed off the surrounding area, and several demon hunters rapidly approached the villa.
Wen Wen curled his lips. If he hadn't discovered Ning Zhewan in time, given the efficiency of the local hunter association, they likely wouldn't have been able to prevent Lovis's descent.
However, he bore no ill will towards these demon hunters; their abilities were limited, and in his previous state in Furong River City, Wen Wen wouldn't have acted much more skillfully than they did.
Wen Wen entered the containment facility directly, avoiding any encounter with the demon hunters.
Entrusting the troublesome task of liaising with the local hunter association to Tao Qingqing was sufficient; he had released Tao Qingqing precisely for such duties.
...
One by one, the eyes on Ning Zhewan's body closed, and the crimson imprints vanished in succession.
Once the last imprint disappeared, Ning Zhewan collapsed onto the ground, gasping for air.
The resentful faces on his body began to blur. Countless crimson imprints had appeared on him, like a water dragon drawing in moisture, voraciously absorbing the resentment from his body.
In less than half an hour, over half of the resentment on him had been siphoned away. The flesh and blood energy of the voters was meant to sustain the summoning ritual's continuous operation and would be absorbed gradually over five hours.
However, Ning Zhewan's resentment was different. This resentment was crucial for sustaining the descent ritual, hence its extremely rapid absorption.
The once clear faces of resentment gradually became indistinct. Resentment alone was not powerful; it was only when aggregated that they formed the current Ning Zhewan.
Now, a significant portion of the power had been drained from each small pocket of resentment, making it difficult for them to even maintain their clear forms.
An elder's face looked up at the stars with unwillingness, black smoke emanating from his features as he was about to vanish.
But he was unwilling; he had not yet seen the voters punished, nor had he forgiven them...
To disappear midway like this was worse than doing nothing at the beginning, for at least then he could have continued to harbor his hatred.
Ning Zhewan let out a bitter smile. After the old man vanished, a patch of his skin returned to normal, but he wished he could have remained in his distorted state.
During his time coexisting with resentment, he had heard many stories, stories that had happened to those resentments.
He could call each face on his body by name. In his view, these resentments were more pitiful than anyone else; they had no bodies, no souls, only the ability to drift in the void in solitude, maintaining a near-pathological hatred.
Yet, ironically, no matter how much they hated, they could not influence anything until Ning Zhewan's appearance changed this situation.
Ning Zhewan wanted to bring closure to these resentments, whether it was receiving apologies from the voters or retaliating against them, but now he could do nothing.
A bright crescent moon was suddenly obscured by something. Ning Zhewan blinked and then realized it was Wen Wen, who had rescued him earlier.
Ning Zhewan said self-mockingly, "I'm about to be done for. Your job is finished."
Wen Wen lowered his head and asked expressionlessly, "How much longer can you hold on?"
"At most another ten-plus hours. After that, the resentment will completely dissipate, and I will vanish too..."
"In ten hours, I will give you a result. Until then, don't die."
With that, Wen Wen turned and left.