Chapter 1 A Man Without Breath

A man devoid of any presence sat in the corner at the far end of the banquet hall. He was enveloped in black robes, almost blending into the dark environment around him. The plain black robes were devoid of any decoration, making it impossible to imagine that this could be one of the highest leaders of the Demon Hunter organization. His face was covered with a bizarre mask, a lifelike golden mask like those of ancient Egyptian pharaohs, but crafted from black metal. The mask depicted a solemn face, which, if correct, should be the appearance of this Saint before he was corrupted by forbidden knowledge.

The moment Tutan recognized the mask, he immediately identified the figure, whispering in surprise, "Saint Bedetis…"

This was Saint Bedetis—after all their troubles in this Korpus space, after finally breaching the defenses of the Council of Elders, after finally venturing this deep into the Spirit World Clock Tower, Hao Ren and his companions had finally met their first Demon Hunter Saint, yet it was under these circumstances.

Bedetis was utterly devoid of presence. After a simple scan, the data terminal determined that he had no vital signs. Hao Ren cautiously reached out and grasped the edge of Bedetis' mask, slowly lifting the metal covering.

Everyone stared in disbelief.

There was no flesh underneath the mask, not even any physical substance. A cloud of grayish-white smoke swirled gently within Bedetis' robes, with not a single thing that could be recognized as a "core" or "skeleton." As the mask was removed, the smoke seemed to lose its restraints, immediately dispersing in all directions, practically vanishing in the blink of an eye, leaving Bedetis' black robes to flutter to the ground.

"Dead…" Hao Ren held the strange black iron mask in his hand. "And reduced to ashes."

"Did they turn into this 'mist' form from the start? Or did their bodies mutate like this after death?" Vivian turned to look at Tutan, feeling that this question was important and might reveal the cause of Bedetis' death.

"Since the Saints put on their masks, no one has ever seen their true faces," Tutan said with a strange expression, seemingly unable to believe that a Saint had simply vanished into nothingness. "But what's certain is that they still had physical forms when they put on the masks—although those forms were already twisted beyond description."

"Then let's assume that some terrible death transformed Bedetis' body into smoke," Vivian said, frowning. "Can you determine the time of death?"

The data terminal flew around the clothing left behind by Bedetis. "Unable to determine the time of death, but based on the dust accumulated on the clothes and the density of suspended dust particles in the surrounding environment, he arrived here and ceased activity approximately eight days ago."

"Eight days?!" Hao Ren immediately recalled the dusty tables he had seen on the lower floors. The strange flow of time within the Spirit World Clock Tower once again drew his attention, because until yesterday, the Spirit World Clock Tower had maintained contact with the outside world, and there was evidence showing that the Saints were personally directing the front-line defenses. Yet Bedetis had died here eight days ago. "The flow of time here is very strange."

"This unit has also detected this problem, but the current flow of time is normal," the data terminal said, having clearly calculated the data in this regard. "This unit has just calibrated with the data network and confirmed that the relative time distortion is zero."

"But the spacetime here was definitely abnormal before… and it's still not quite normal even now," Hao Ren said, straightening up and looking at the faded, otherworldly banquet hall. "The flow of time has indeed returned to normal. Perhaps it returned to normal after we entered the Clock Tower."

Elizabeth had been wandering around, the little girl's eyes flashing with the unique red light of a fire demon in the darkness. The clever little one seemed to be considering some problem. Finally, she returned to the clothing left behind by Bedetis. "This person is one of the highest leaders of the Demon Hunters, right?"

Bai Huo and Tutan nodded in unison. "That's right."

"Then how could such a big figure die alone in this hall?" Elizabeth pointed to Bedetis' "remains." "What did he come here for?"

Elizabeth's words reminded everyone present: the Thirteen Saints had been living in seclusion deep within the Spirit World Clock Tower for thousands of years. They not only never left the Clock Tower, but rarely left their respective secluded floors and chambers. They only appeared during organization events such as the Saint-Demon Council or the Instructor Assembly, and even then, they only gathered Demon Hunters in specific locations—so why would Bedetis die in a banquet hall that seemed so out of place for a Saint's seclusion?

"What is this hall used for?" Vivian asked curiously.

Tutan spread his hands. "It's just a normal ballroom. We usually gather here to relax, but the Saints never come to this place—because they can't have contact with too many people. Those who meet with them must be carefully selected."

Lili muttered casually, "It feels like these Saints are infected with a plague, spreading it wherever they go."

"Forbidden knowledge is no different from a plague," Tutan said, shaking his head gently. "Those intelligences that don't belong to this world, or even to mortals, will distort reality. They lure the ignorant to learn about the darkest and most bizarre other worlds, and the deeper they delve, the more they become trapped in that world, completely falling into it. Those who are completely immersed in it will become bizarre beings in the real world. In the end, some things are not meant for us to understand. Our weak brains simply can't handle those things—the Saints voluntarily absorbed this knowledge in order to defeat the ancient alien gods, and they paid a huge price for it."

The others present felt somewhat unable to understand these obscure descriptions, but Hao Ren deeply agreed with Tutan's words. He understood even more deeply than Tutan, because he had truly come into contact with those things, those mysteries that exceeded the experience of mortals, that would twist mortals into monsters with just a glance.

Raven 12345 had once taken him to overlook the entire universe from a hyperdimensional perspective, seeing clearly every corner within billions of light-years in an instant. He had also entered the mental world of the Mind Flayers and the ramblings of the First Born. Every thought of those demigod creations was enough to burn any mortal brain to ashes. In addition, even reading the thoughts of ordinary alien races would place a huge burden on flesh and blood nerves. These super-experienced knowledge could not be processed and accepted by the Earthling brain. If it weren't for Raven 12345's blessing, for this Pope physique that could be considered "divinely favored," he would probably be twisted like the Thirteen Saints, or even worse.

The Thirteen Saints had forcibly learned the knowledge of countless ancient alien species using the Demon Hunter brain. Hao Ren could imagine how twisted they would become as a result.

"Bedetis must have been severely injured elsewhere and barely managed to reach this place before dying," Vivian said, stating her thoughts. "There are twelve other Saints. I think they're very suspicious."

Lili held up Huo Zhi Fei Chang Gao, shining it around, seemingly wanting to find evidence of Bedetis' struggle to get here, but she found something else. "Hey, hey, look, there are words on the wall over here!"

Hearing this, Hao Ren quickly went over to check the situation. He saw that on the wall not far from where Bedetis had died, there was indeed a line of crooked writing. The distorted appearance of the handwriting seemed to indicate how weak the writer was at the time. The message was only one sentence:

"We released the monster in the nightmare. It is at the top of the tower."

"Did Bedetis leave this?" Vivian asked Tutan.

Tutan carefully identified it. "Although it's difficult to recognize… it is indeed the handwriting of Saint Bedetis."

"The monster in the nightmare?" Hao Ren had a bad premonition, and considering the true nature of this Korpus space, this bad premonition became even worse. "... Damn it, this had better not be related to the True Gods. I'm just a few days away from my year-end bonus."

Just then, a series of hurried footsteps suddenly came from outside the hall, and it sounded like there were many people.

Everyone subconsciously tensed up, but Izhaks waved his hand. "It's the follow-up troops catching up."

Sure enough, the "normal faction Demon Hunters" commanders and a portion of the Demon King Army officers led by Lanina, as well as the elite soldiers of both allied forces, walked in from the hall entrance.

Seeing friendly forces in this gloomy and strange place was truly a heartening thing. Even Tutan, who always had a stern face, looked relieved. Lanina quickly walked towards Izhaks. "Your Majesty, I apologize for the delay—the Council's people detonated the last defensive device, and the spatial turbulence caused a bit of trouble."

Then she waved to her subordinates behind her. The warriors of the Demon King Army immediately stepped aside, and a Council Demon Hunter walked forward under the escort of three elven magisters, the same Claude who had been captured earlier.

Hao Ren was a little surprised. "He… can communicate now?"

Lanina nodded. "Although I don't know why, he seems to have suddenly regained consciousness."