Chapter 203: The Corrupted Hand of the Apostle
"Riley" returned to his original appearance.
But his face still maintained the look of being possessed.
"This guy is very angry; it seems I guessed right!" Erin thought inwardly.
She indeed had a trace of wavering earlier.
But recalling William's serious eyes, Erin decided to try again.
That's why she fed him Holy Water later.
Although she saw through the evil spirit's trick, Erin still had some lingering fear.
These evil spirit bodies were far trickier than she imagined.
They actually knew how to use forms that were more believable to bewitch.
"Good thing I carefully memorized Father William's words." Erin breathed a sigh of relief.
If she had faced it alone, she might have been deceived by the evil spirit long ago!
She looked at the two beside her: "Mr. Priest once said that the evil spirit's irritability and anger are likely a disguise."
"We'll just stay where we are and wait for them to solve this guy."
Jade and Sue nodded seriously upon hearing this.
The three leaned back a little further, each tightly gripping the holy artifact in their hands.
Riley: "..."
Inside Mia's apartment.
Max leaned on his chair; his eyelids were very heavy, and his tilted head nodded from time to time.
"Bitch!"
Suddenly, an angry roar woke him up.
Max hurriedly picked up the long stick beside him, staring vigilantly at his "Daughter" in front of him.
He saw one of Mia's eyes full of anger, staring intently at a certain spot.
"Oh? Done?"
William got up from the ground, looking Mia up and down.
"I thought you would succeed."
His words were full of pity for the evil spirit.
"Put away your sympathy; evil spirits don't need this!" Mia narrowed her eyes, speaking word by word.
William sneered: "Oh? Didn't you just use Mia's pain to attract her father? How did you forget so quickly?"
"You!"
The evil spirit was momentarily speechless.
"Since you are back, we should talk business." William said.
Not long ago, after this evil spirit claimed to have a backup plan and temporarily left, William began to set about rescuing those souls.
But he encountered considerable resistance.
He could feel many spirit bodies trapped in the porcelain hand.
But no matter what method William tried, he couldn't open the space inside.
There seemed to be some powerful sealing force on the Hand of the Ancestor.
If forcibly broken, it would likely cause the spirit bodies inside to perish.
And even trigger accidents in reality.
Plus, the "Porcelain Hand" was the item the Archbishop instructed to retrieve, so William could only give up the idea of a "Forced Attack."
So he waited in place for the evil spirit to return, to see if he could find a way through the other party.
As for the other party successfully killing Riley, Erin, and the others...
This situation could of course happen.
But William had given sufficient instructions before leaving.
If under these circumstances, they could still be deceived by the evil spirit's tricks.
Then William could only silently say "Amen" for these people in his heart.
Fortunately, the final result seemed good.
The evil spirit snorted coldly: "What do you want to talk about?"
Many thoughts flashed through its mind, judging what could be utilized.
William smiled slightly: "Let's talk about your name first, how about that?"
Mia, controlled by the evil spirit, raised an eyebrow and spoke: "You can call me—Anto."
William rubbed his chin: "Doesn't seem to be very famous."
Anto narrowed its eyes: "Ignorant guy, when we galloped during the Holy War, you weren't even born yet."
"Oh? I didn't expect you to actually come from the Church." Surprise flashed in William's eyes.
Only Holy Clergy Members would call the war in Jerusalem a thousand years ago the—Holy War.
"Maybe I even read your story in the classics." He smiled.
A strange look flashed in Faya's eyes aside.
Anto was instantly speechless.
Realizing it had been tricked into speaking, it immediately shut its mouth tightly, only saying one word: "Despicable."
Seeing no other information could be obtained, William returned to the main topic: "Let's talk about those souls in the porcelain hand."
"Oh? So you intend to save them." Anto snorted coldly, "As long as you do as I command, I can consider letting you be a savior."
Its tone was weird, seeming to be very contemptuous of this saving behavior.
William's tone was flat: "Let's skip this meaningless probing; the bargaining chips are not with you."
Anto seemed to hear something ridiculous and couldn't help laughing out loud.
"It seems you are the one who hasn't recognized reality."
Anto raised the corners of its mouth.
"This girl in front of you, the boy in the hospital, and these souls in the porcelain hand."
"Their souls are all controlled by me."
As it spoke, it blinked, and black blood vessels immediately surfaced around Mia's eyes.
"I advise you to weigh your words before opening your mouth."
Faya also shook her head secretly at William, lowering her voice: "I can only control her skeleton; don't enrage it."
But William gave her a "Reassuring" look, then took two steps forward.
"Since you have already shown your 'Bargaining Chips'."
He made an air-quotes gesture with his hands as he spoke.
"Then for the efficiency of the negotiation, I cannot fall behind either."
As soon as the voice fell, golden patterns surfaced in William's pupils.
Immediately after, a stream of Holy Power projected from his eyes and landed on the wrist area of the porcelain hand.
In the next moment, Anto widened its eyes.
"Stop! What are you trying to do!"
William didn't stop, continuing to assimilate the aura there with Holy Power.
"Damn it! Stop! Stop! Are you planning to obliterate all those souls!"
Faya looked at William with a surprised face, hesitating whether to intervene.
But William looked calm: "You can continue to bewitch with words."
"Let's see if my companion stops me first, or your consciousness disappears first."
Hearing these words, Faya realized something and dismissed the thought in her heart.
Anto's eyes flickered; a moment later, it spoke: "Okay, I can talk to you."
It raised its head, then its eyes sharpened: "Hey! Stop, you guy! Didn't I say we could talk!"
William smiled slightly: "Sorry, my ability is somewhat insufficient, so I didn't control the force well."
Faya's eyes looked strange, not believing the former's words at all.
"Hmph."
Anto snorted coldly and said no more.
"It seems my guess was right." William thought secretly.
He had long discovered that the evil spirit in front of him was not quite right.
General evil spirit bodies would have Origin Power, usually located directly within the spirit body.
But this evil spirit only had consciousness manifested externally, and its source of power came from that space in the porcelain hand.
If not for the sensitivity of [Holy Eye] to the aura of spirit bodies, William wouldn't have discovered this either.
And in the previous attempts, he had already discovered that he could assimilate this connection with Holy Power.
Once he did so, the evil spirit's consciousness would be completely disconnected from the origin.
Even though William hadn't encountered much, he knew the difficulty of extending power from an otherworldly space.
Presumably, the evil spirit paid a great price to achieve this.
Therefore, William probed.
And the result was indeed as he thought.
That space was like a prison, and the evil spirit was also one of the prisoners.
"If you want to save these souls and leave, I advise you to give up early."
At this time, Anto spoke again.
"This is not a threat; if possible, I also want those souls to leave."
William raised an eyebrow, waiting for the other party's next words.
"You should know the origin of the porcelain hand, right." Anto raised its head.
Faya looked at William, hesitated, then nodded: "It comes from the Ancestor Barnabas, but it has been polluted by evil."
"Heh, indeed so, but do you know who polluted it?"
Faya shook her head.
"Demon God Marquis Samigina, the right hand of Lord Bael."
William narrowed his eyes.
These two Anto mentioned were exactly the existences ranking in the top ten among the Seventy-Two Demon Gods.
Among them, Bael commanded the entire Demon God Legion.
Seeing the expressions of the two church personnel, Anto finally felt a sense of superiority, and it continued:
"The invasion of Demon Gods into the human world has long been no secret; the Holy War thousands of years ago was also related to this. But they failed that time, and the Church also suffered heavy losses."
"As for the inside story, I don't know clearly; I'm just a spirit body possessing partial memories."
Perhaps guessing William's thoughts, Anto added.
"For this reason, Samigina planted hidden hands everywhere in the human world to replenish the troops for the Demon God Legion; the porcelain hand is one of them."
"It can corrupt dead spirits; over a long period of time, gradually depriving them of the right to reincarnate."
"In this way, they can become slaves of the Demon God for all eternity."
Faya opened her mouth slightly; obviously, this intelligence was beyond her expectation.
William rubbed his chin: "So you are the same as those dead spirits?"
Anto hesitated for a moment and spoke: "Although I don't want to admit it, you are right."
"This is related to a certain rule of the porcelain hand. When a certain condition is met, the porcelain hand will be completely swallowed by darkness."
"At that time, the Demon God will personally cross the rift in space to come and take the porcelain hand back to the Demon Pillar Abyss."
"That is their territory."
"Even I cannot escape from the assimilation of darkness."
Anto sighed inwardly.
On this matter, it didn't deceive the two opposite.
However, the real truth was far more than this.
Unlike other dead spirits, Anto was granted certain authority.
It was exactly relying on this that it could project its Origin Power into reality.
But this was not a loophole, just a reward given to it by "That One."
As long as Anto could collect enough souls, it could regain its freedom.
However, it never believed these tricks for coaxing children.
But Anto did know a way to leave—raising its rank.
As long as it bewitched enough souls and absorbed them into its own spirit body, Anto could change from an evil spirit to a—Demon.
This is the rank that can truly control the power of "Rules."
It was originally just one step away.
But! It encountered this damn priest!
Once Anto's consciousness was erased, all previous accumulations would vanish into bubbles.
Therefore, it was forced to compromise with that despicable guy.
On the other side.
After hearing the evil spirit's words, William quickly grasped the main point: "What is the rule you mentioned?"
Complexity flashed in Anto's eyes, seemingly not wanting to mention this matter.
But thinking that the other party was holding its lifeline, it could only speak: "This is a game about human nature."
"Worth it, or not worth it."
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