While the Evangelist still had a breath of life left, Xia Yu waved his hand and swapped the talisman in his grasp for the Darkwraith's Dark Hand.
The Darkwraith's glove retained the power to drain souls, and with the support of Xia Yu's mana, he activated this power directly.
A mist of interwoven black and white emerged from the glove. Xia Yu slapped his palm onto the Evangelist's head, and in the next moment, a grayish-white soul was pulled out.
Although it seemed a bit redundant, it was a necessary measure.
He could absorb the souls of the dead, but once those souls entered his body, they would be refined into the purest soul energy by the faint embers remaining within him.
Then he could find the Fire Keeper to use that soul energy to strengthen himself.
During this process, all remnants of the soul would be removed, including memories, so he couldn't obtain knowledge or memories from the souls he absorbed.
Of course, powerful souls were an exception. Powerful souls could maintain a condensed state and wouldn't be refined by the faint flames. For instance, Vordt's soul; if he didn't crush it, Vordt's soul would remain condensed.
But weak souls didn't receive such treatment, which was why Xia Yu used the Dark Hand.
By pulling out the opponent's soul directly with the Dark Hand, such weak souls wouldn't be refined into soul energy by the faint embers in his body.
And he could also obtain memories through Soul Searching. The Deep Sorcery he had just used was scoured from the soul of another Evangelist.
Although his initial thought was to have the Fire Keeper help him read the Scripture held by the Evangelist to see if he could find any Deep Sorceries.
But thinking of how Irina of Carim in the game suffered after reading the Deep Braille Divine Tome, he abandoned that idea. The Deep was no good; it was better not to let the Fire Keeper come into contact with it.
He really was a gentle Ashen One. Once he got back, he'd teach the Fire Keeper to dance to 'Tougen Renka'... "I wonder if there's any new knowledge in this soul. Let's take a look first."
Xia Yu looked at the small, grayish-white clump of soul on the Dark Hand and used the Soul Searching spell of Demon God Xia Yu.
In an instant, a dense flood of memories flashed through Xia Yu's mind. It was the life of this Evangelist: growing up in the slums, being adopted by a mentor, entering the Cathedral of the Deep, memorizing the Scriptures, learning Dark Miracles, and then being given the heavy responsibility of coming here to spread the faith of the Deep.
After discarding the useless memories, Xia Yu opened his eyes and curled his lip in disdain. "Tsk, another life memory that's more or less the same. No new knowledge either. What a loss."
With that, Xia Yu clenched his hand, and the Evangelist's soul was crushed instantly, turning into a soul mist that entered his body.
"Alright, time to go subjugate the Greatwood."
After casually putting away the Evangelist's Mace and Scripture, Xia Yu walked toward the gates of the cathedral's Great Square.
The Curse-Rotted Greatwood was inside the Great Square, being worshipped by a group of Hollow Farmers who had lost their humanity and sense of self.
Thousands of years ago, the Curse-Rotted Greatwood was still a Spirit Tree. It used to be the Spirit Tree worshipped by the Undead Settlement—the former Undead Burg—and was the focus of their divine tree faith.
But now, in the Undead Settlement where curses gathered, the Spirit Tree was inevitably eroded by curses. Various curses converged and deposited onto the Spirit Tree, turning it into a complete monster.
The Curse-Rotted Greatwood was the great Spirit Tree eroded by curses.
The stairs were lined with ominous purple flowers swaying on uneven tombstones. Xia Yu followed the stairs to the gates of the Great Square. The gates were still massive, like the dwelling of a giant.
Behind the gates was a floor made of crushed stone. Deep black blood deposits filled the cracks between the stones. The scent of blood had long since vanished with the passage of time, leaving only filth to tell of the past horrors.
After turning a few corners, he reached the end—the Great Square.
In the massive square, the Hollow Farmers were all facing a giant tree, offering prayers and worship. Although they had lost their humanity and memories, their residual instincts still led them to revere the Spirit Tree that had turned into a monster, just as they always had.
The trunk of the Curse-Rotted Greatwood was covered in twisted human organs. Agonized human faces formed the patterns of its bark, and fleshy spheres resembling fruit hung from it, covered in ominous black spots.
In the game, these fleshy fruits were the Curse-Rotted Greatwood's weak points. Breaking them would cause the Greatwood to lose a large chunk of health. But reality was not a game; simply breaking these swollen fruits likely wouldn't kill the monster directly.
Fortunately, Xia Yu hadn't planned on fighting the Curse-Rotted Greatwood one-on-one. He wanted a righteous gang-up. Why fight alone when you can gang up on someone? That would be stupid.
Xia Yu stopped at the steps of the square. The ground inside the square was very fragile, and the Curse-Rotted Greatwood would jump up and smash down when it attacked.
Therefore, the floor would definitely shatter, and they would fall into the cavern beneath it.
That cavern was called the Pit of Hollows, a gathering place for the mad.
Looking at the Curse-Rotted Greatwood in the distance, Xia Yu opened the Chat Group, selected the direction, and directly claimed the mechanical army Red Envelope.
In the next moment, the mechanical army appeared in the Great Square like a dense tide. Their extinguished eyes showed that they were still powered off.
The Hollow Farmers in the distance also noticed this. They stood up in a daze and looked over. Seeing the dense mechanical army, they let out bewildered cries.
Those machines, devoid of any life aura, couldn't trigger their madness. So they just stood there, howling at this illogical scene. The Curse-Rotted Greatwood remained motionless; if not actively attacked, it was like an ordinary, strange tree.
In the next moment, red lights lit up in the eye sockets of the mechanical army. The reactors inside them began to hum as they marched forward with clanging steps, their vocal components shouting aloud.
"Charge! Charge!"
"For the Master! Kill the enemy!"
"To restore the glory of humanity is our duty!"
Xia Yu listened in shock to the mechanical-sounding battle cries of the mechanical army. How should he put it? It was a bit embarrassing.
One star. He was definitely giving them a one-star review.
But the mechanical army wouldn't change because of Xia Yu's thoughts. They ran forward on their short legs, gun barrels extending from their chests as golden energy bullets condensed at the muzzles.
"Swoosh—!"
An overwhelming barrage of energy bullets instantly poured out like a rain of light. Before the Hollows even understood what was happening, their bodies were torn apart by the energy bullets.
Even the Red-eyed Hollows, who were much stronger than ordinary Hollows, failed to survive the sun-blotting hail of energy bullets.
"Roar—!"
Just as the surrounding Hollows were dying and the energy bullets were about to reach the tree, the Curse-Rotted Greatwood's roots suddenly tore out from the floor.
Amidst dust and smoke, fragments of stone were sent flying in all directions. The surviving Hollows weren't killed by the energy bullets, but were instead crushed to death by the flying debris.
The other survivors scrambled to their feet in terror, instinctively dodging attacks from all sides and howling in fear.
Pitiably, both sides ignored the Hollows' thoughts. The Curse-Rotted Greatwood's tangled roots pulled out completely like legs, and yellowish, steaming pus spread from beneath the roots, its foul stench instantly filling the air.