Hong, standing nearby, heard Ye Ling and the consciousness of Chuyuan Realm preparing to act against the Grand Archbishop. After a moment of hesitation, she confirmed with Ye Ling, "My lord, are you truly intending to confront the Grand Archbishop?"
Ye Ling raised an eyebrow at Hong's question and asked, "Why? Do you have any insights?"
Hong quickly smiled and replied, "Insights would be too strong a word; I can only offer a suggestion."
Ye Ling inquired, "Aren't you afraid of leaking secrets now?"
Hong gave a wry smile. "I am, but since you've already come this far, even if I remain silent, the Grand Archbishop won't spare me later. It's better to go all out, follow you, and fight for a chance to survive!"
Ye Ling appraised Hong with amusement and then said, "Very well, tell me your suggestion."
Hong took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself, before saying to Ye Ling, "This space is actually a projection of the Grand Archbishop's inner self; his true body is not here."
Ye Ling asked, "Then how do we find him?"
Hong explained, "This is the Grand Archbishop's inner world. Therefore, we only need to present what the Grand Archbishop desires most here to cause a fluctuation in his consciousness, and his true body will naturally descend."
The consciousness of Chuyuan Realm interjected, "What the Grand Archbishop desires most, isn't that me? How should I lure him out?"
In response to the consciousness of Chuyuan Realm's question, Hong did not answer immediately but looked at Ye Ling. She understood clearly that Ye Ling was the decision-maker among them, and without Ye Ling's command, Hong dared not speak carelessly. For someone of her minor status, saying less and doing less was the primary way to ensure survival.
Ye Ling understood that Hong was awaiting his approval and told her, "Continue."
Seeing Ye Ling signal her to speak, Hong continued, "There might be some risks. As far as I know, there are five altars in the Grand Archbishop's inner world. We need to divide the power of the world consciousness equally among these five altars to awaken the Grand Archbishop."
"However, doing so might lead to the Grand Archbishop directly absorbing all the world consciousness upon awakening, which would have unimaginable consequences."
"Therefore, my suggestion is that we can use other similar powers to replace the world consciousness and deceive the Grand Archbishop's inner self."
Ye Ling asked, "Where are those five altars located?"
Hong shook her head. "I don't know that. I've never entered this place before; everything I know is hearsay."
"I understand..."
Ye Ling nodded and stopped asking further questions. Instead, he extended his divine soul to cover the blood-red space.
Soon, Ye Ling found a blood-red altar in each of the four directions of this blood-red space. In the center of each altar was a quarter of a stone head. The four blood-red altars, when combined, formed a complete head, which appeared to be able to fit with the headless statue.
"It seems the last altar is the headless statue."
After discovering the four heads, Ye Ling expanded his divine soul further outwards but found no other altars. In the vast blood-red space, besides the headless statue before them, there were only those four blood-red altars. The identity of the fifth altar was self-evident.
Ye Ling directly used his soul power to retrieve the stone heads from the surrounding four altars, piecing them together into a complete head and placing it onto the headless statue.
Rumble...
The moment Ye Ling placed the head onto the headless statue, a blood-red altar rose from beneath the statue. The statue, now with its head, began to anthropomorphize, its stone body slowly transforming into flesh and blood.
Seeing the statue gradually gain flesh and blood, Hong's expression changed drastically, her eyes filled with boundless fear. She cried out in alarm, "No, this is bad! We've alerted the Grand Archbishop! He might already know what's happening here, so we'd better hurry!"
Upon hearing Hong's words, the consciousness of Chuyuan Realm felt a sense of urgency. "It's probably too late to fake the power now. I'll have to do it myself and lure the Grand Archbishop out!"
As the consciousness of Chuyuan Realm spoke, it prepared to divide its power into five parts and inject them into the five altars of this blood-red space, but Ye Ling stopped it.
"Ye Ling?" The consciousness of Chuyuan Realm looked at Ye Ling, who had stopped it, with confusion.
Ye Ling replied, "I'll do it... After all, I'm now half the consciousness of Chuyuan Realm, possessing its authority."
Saying this, Ye Ling released his power of creation, transforming it into Chuyuan Origin Power, and injected it into the five altars respectively.
Rumble!
As Ye Ling injected power into the altars, the entire blood-red space began to shake violently. The statue completely transformed into a living person and slowly opened its eyes! A powerful aura erupted from the statue.
"He's here! He's here!"
Seeing the statue turn into a real person, Hong's fear intensified, and she began to scream desperately.
Ye Ling ignored Hong and calmly looked at the statue, which had now fully transformed into a person, surrounded by runes. However, Ye Ling did not attack immediately. Instead, he communicated with Karma through telepathy, asking, "Karma, do you sense the presence of Karma techniques?"
Karma's telepathic reply came back, "Yes... it's getting stronger. I can confirm someone is using a Karma technique, but the target isn't us, so I'm not sure what the effect of that Karma technique is yet."
"Master, why don't you deal with this 'Grand Archbishop' first, and I'll sense it slowly? As long as the person using the Karma technique dares to attack us, I can counter it!"
Ye Ling stated, "That statue is not the Grand Archbishop of the Red Robe Cult."
Karma was taken aback. "It's not? Then where is the Grand Archbishop? Didn't Hong say he's here?"
Ye Ling chuckled. "He is indeed here, but not as the statue. Rest assured and do your job. Let's aim to acquire that Karma technique for ourselves."
"Alright." Hearing Ye Ling's words, Karma stopped thinking and focused on sensing the location of the Karma technique's wielder. Compared to the status of the Grand Archbishop of the Red Robe Cult, Karma was more concerned about the Karma techniques it could consume.
Thump!
While Ye Ling was conversing with Karma, Hong directly knelt before the revived statue and kowtowed, "My lord Grand Archbishop, spare me! I was forced into this! I did my best to deceive them!"
"You were deceiving us!!!" The consciousness of Chuyuan Realm, upon hearing Hong's words, immediately questioned Hong.
Hong, however, dared not answer the consciousness of Chuyuan Realm. She quickly got up and fled into the distance in a panic.
"Trying to run?"
Seeing Hong attempting to flee after deceiving them, the consciousness of Chuyuan Realm immediately condensed a long spear and pierced through Hong's back, pinning her in the blood-red space.
The blood-red space began to shake more violently. The altars, which had absorbed the void origin power, now glowed with an eerie light. Ye Ling witnessed all of this, and... he chose to stand by and watch.