After a brief silence, Jie Ming stiffly changed the topic.
“By the way, where’s David?”
His gaze swept over the group, lingering on Kaelern and Anya. He recalled hearing something about “Kaiden.”
“That rural warrior… is it him?”
Seraphina frowned slightly, shaking her head. “Honestly, I’m not sure, but I can confirm David’s definitely not dead.”
“Oh?”
At her words, the other three subtly leaned closer, listening intently.
Seraphina brushed back her hair. “David majored in Alchemy Technique and minored in Puppetry. Plus, his mentor is Noren Workshop’s top human transmutation alchemist. Even I don’t know how many spare bodies that guy has.”
“So it seems Kaiden isn’t David, but based on his actions, he’s likely another wizard.”
Jie Ming felt a twinge of regret. David’s situation remained a mystery.But right now, the priority was activating the arrays as soon as possible.
They soon turned into the depths of a long-abandoned sewer network.
Jie Ming led the way, his Scouting Eye under his cloak running at full power, vigilant for potential enemies.
“It’s just ahead,” Rex’s voice came from behind, tinged with rare excitement.
Shedding his scholarly demeanor, his eyes gleamed with calculation as his fingertips traced faint rune patterns in the air, guiding the path forward.
Based on the arrays’ location, they were now deep beneath the capital’s cathedral district.
This was the heart of the city’s faith convergence, where countless underground pipelines and ancient ley lines intertwined, forming a natural energy nexus—a veritable faith hub.
The three large-scale arrays Jie Ming had refined and optimized radiated outward from this core, covering the entire capital.
The closer they got, the stronger the energy fluctuations became. Near the arrays’ core, the damp air even carried faith energy palpable to the wizards.
“What an exaggerated concentration. This must be the most faith-dense area in the plane outside the divine realms,” Kaelern said, adjusting his glasses and reading the data displayed on them.
Soon, they reached the end of the sewer network.
By their calculations, twenty meters ahead was their final destination—the core where the three arrays converged.
“No choice but to dig,” Jie Ming said, spreading his hands and stepping forward to start excavating with Alchemy Technique.
“Forget it, we’ll dig. You set up the final array nodes,” Kaelern said, patting Jie Ming’s shoulder and pulling him back.
Jie Ming didn’t insist, nodding silently and beginning to lay runes under Seraphina’s protection.
Soon, they reached the core area, digging and setting up runes along the way.
“The arrays are in place, and the energy guidance is exactly as expected,” Rex said, stepping forward and lightly touching the central rune hub on the altar, a flash of admiration in his eyes. “Jie Ming, your rune optimizations are astounding. They’ve greatly improved energy compatibility and transmission efficiency.”
Jie Ming chuckled lightly, saying nothing.
“Let’s begin,” Seraphina said softly, her voice carrying a hidden thrill.
She looked at Jie Ming, her eyes gleaming with a wizard’s fervor. “Thanks to you, we get to go wild for once.”
Without further ado, the five took their positions at the five points of the core rune array.
“Activate!” With Jie Ming’s low command, the light from his fingertips sank into the altar. The runes of the three core arrays erupted in dazzling brilliance, flowing across the ground and walls like living entities!
The underground space lit up, emitting a low hum as the endless stream of faith energy shifted, converging toward the core array.
In the next moment, the five wizards extended their hands, injecting their prepared contamination mediums into the array’s center!
Jie Ming took a deep breath, sinking his consciousness into his internal space. Seeing the brimming mortal dust aura, he couldn’t help but smile.
This was his medium for contaminating the deities, the source of his confidence in affecting them.
Though mortal dust aura was easy to gather, it was no low-grade substance.
If one’s will wasn’t firm or they were suddenly exposed to a massive amount, even immortals could lose themselves in it.
Of course, the mortal dust aura he’d collected in such a short time couldn’t achieve that.
But due to its unique nature, it was practically tailor-made to target faith-based deities.
Taking a deep breath, Jie Ming carefully employed a technique, guiding the vast, impure mortal dust aura from his internal space.
It was a chaotic blend of fear, anger, greed, and piety born from the war fervor of millions.
This aura, like an intangible torrent, was channeled by him, surging toward the array’s core.
The moment the formless mortal dust aura touched the faith energy gathered at the core, it blended into the array’s holy radiance like black ink, tainting and distorting its light.
Seraphina gracefully waved her hand, her fingertips scattering an invisible cloud of “Dust of Delusion.”
This was an exquisitely crafted level-6 wizardry creation. Once injected into the array, it silently fused with every fluctuation of faith energy, subtly amplifying desires, fears, and distortions within the faith.
Kaelern slammed his palm against the ground, unleashing a wild, primal aura from within.
It was the deepest savagery and chaos he’d collected from beastmen through a “Chaos Blood Pact.”
Like a raging flood, this force was violently channeled into the faith network via the array, turning the orderly faith channels restless and unbalanced.
Anya gently pressed her hands on an array node, her eyes glinting with eerie green light.
Her immense life affinity was reversed, transforming into countless “Seeds of Decay.”
Under her power, these seeds spread rapidly, like insidious vines, parasitizing the life roots of the faith connections, slowly and stubbornly sapping their vitality, causing internal withering.
Rex activated a miniature alchemical device in his hand, which emitted a cold mechanical whir as countless tiny rune light points sprayed forth.
These points, Rex’s meticulously crafted “Paradox Runes,” injected precise contradictory commands and algorithms into the faith network, creating internal conflicts within the once-cohesive faith system, causing its power to self-consume and collapse.
Five distinct contamination methods, linked by the three arrays, merged like five torrents into a sea, instantly fusing with the capital’s vast faith network.
Rumble!
The underground space trembled violently! The altar’s light was no longer pure and holy but a chaotic, multicolored glow tinged with nauseating decay.
It twisted and churned, as if in immense pain.
Then, the anomaly spread from below to the surface!
Cracks began to appear in the ground of the cathedral district. A wave of turbid, glowing energy, like an invisible shockwave, erupted from beneath!
In an instant, the entire cathedral area blazed with light!
The light was no longer holy, now tinged with eerie chaos, like a vast canvas splattered with filthy, vibrant paints.
This light shot skyward, illuminating the night and briefly outshining the capital’s magical streetlamps.
Within the capital, alert guards and clerics immediately noticed the sudden phenomenon.
Shrill alarms pierced the night, and countless figures converged on the cathedral district.
“It worked!” Rex’s voice trembled, more with excitement than fear.
“The divine faith network is a marvel—its energy transmission efficiency is incredible. Without it, we’d be delusional to think we could contaminate the entire plane with just the human kingdom’s faith hub,” Kaelern remarked, unable to suppress his awe.
He was the only one besides Jie Ming who had studied the divine faith network, though not as deeply.
Jie Ming said nothing. While the others marveled, he had already silently dashed out.
The commotion they’d caused would surely alert every high-ranking official and powerhouse in the capital.
This was the cathedral district—if an angel-level being descended, they’d have no chance to escape.
Without hesitation, the five streaked like black lightning along their preplanned escape routes, vanishing into the outer layers of the sewers.
Their figures soon melted into the darkness, while the chaotic, skyward light above the cathedral district continued to flicker, a massive, twisted beacon signaling the “contamination” of the faith hub was complete.
However, the contamination’s effects weren’t yet obvious. For a time, the deities wouldn’t notice the subtle undermining of their faith foundation.
Their power would, for now, remain outwardly intact.
Jie Ming knew that only when the wizards next tore the plane’s barrier, engaging in fierce conflict with Elosia’s deities, would the deities instinctively draw on faith energy to replenish themselves under heavy strain.
At that moment, the contaminated, impure faith energy would erupt like poison!
The deities’ judgment would be severely impaired, possibly even backfiring.
And by then, with the plane’s barrier breached, Noren Workshop’s high-tier wizards outside would instantly sense this “opportunity” and act swiftly.
So Jie Ming and the others retreated decisively. Now, they only needed to wait quietly.