The Priest of Corruption

that’s it.”

“Really? That’s huge.”

Luckily, when I asked the question, the woman, who introduced herself as Parna, spat out everything she knew as if she had been waiting for someone to ask.

The story was simpler than I thought.
Their purpose was to sacrifice all the humans in this city to create an incarnation, a moving mass of divinity.
They worked in hiding in this city for three years for that plan.
Originally, five more days of preparation were needed to create the perfect incarnation.
Still, the operation was rushed because they had lost Carmen.

I was so glad that Carmen managed to get out.

Once I put Parna behind me, I harvested the corpses of the man and woman I killed.
The man was worth three and a half fingers, and the woman was worth three.

[Divinity: 7582]

I put the unlimited refill washbasin into one of the two compartments in my inventory and returned it to Parna.
She looked stunned.

“W-What the hell did you just do?”

“What do you mean? I took their lives and gave them to my Mother.”

“That easy?! It is common sense that a complex process is required to convert life into divinity!”

I grinned and brought the Butcher’s blade to Parna’s throat.

“You’re talking a lot all of a sudden.
If you ask, do I have to give you an answer as to how or why? Guide me to the place where the monster called incarnation is.”

She glanced at the Butcher’s blade, the saws still coated in blood, then swallowed.

“O-Okay…”

I followed Parna, picked up the Froststeel sword I tossed aside before I hid, and strapped it to my waist.
Even my priest’s uniform was slowly regaining its shape, and my hair needed a little more time.

The incarnation was being made in the center of the city.
A gigantic mass of flesh covered in red blood clots squirmed and emitted divinity.

I clapped.

“It’s greater than I thought.”

Parna looked at the chunk of flesh with pride.

“Of course.
We’ve been here for three years working on this.”

I started the Butcher, not caring whether she was proud or not.

Whaaaang!

“Y-You! What the hell are you doing?!”

Raising the Butcher, I smiled brightly.

“What do you mean? I’m trying to kill the monster that grew up eating innocent people before it wakes up.”

There was no way this unexpected monster couldn’t be unrelated to the main quest.
I decided that it would be better to slow down the progress of the main quest as much as possible, even if it meant killing this monster.
All I needed was enough time to acquire more power.

“D-Don’t do it! You can’t do that!”

I ignored Parna and struck down.
As the Butcher ground through the incarnation, bright red blood splashed on my face.

Whooop.

Something popped out of the lump of flesh and pierced my shoulder.
I stepped back.
Blood wouldn’t stop flowing from the wound.
Damn it.
The attack had divinity.

Parna clasped her head and screamed.

“Ahhhhhhhhh!!! The monster woke up in an unstable state because you threatened his life! We can’t even communicate with him like this!”

A huge chunk of the flesh cracked open, and something of a barely human shape came out.
The skin where a mouth was supposed to be split apart, and a sharp scream echoed through Kelton.

“It huuuuuuuuuuurts!!!”

An ominous divinity flowed from the body of the imperfect incarnation born from consuming a city.
This was really getting troublesome.
My shoulder still hadn’t stopped bleeding.

‘Kill!!!’

Mother’s urgent cry had two meanings.
First was the fact that there was one of the eleven holy relics I was looking for in that incarnation’s body.
Next was her warning to run away immediately because she didn’t need such a thing.

“Thank you for your concern.”

“What?! When did I…?”

Cut.

Parna’s head rolled to the floor.
I brushed off the bloody Froststeel and harvested her corpse.

[Divinity: 8582]

‘Kill!!!’

She warned me again to run away immediately.
I answered my Mother by heating the Froststeel sword in a nearby fire and scorching the hole in my shoulder.

“Today, I will awaken a new power and offer Mother the relic that resides inside that fleshy monster.”

The bright red flesh monster’s forehead cracked, and a single eye popped out and looked straight at me.
The monster, finally able to see, opened its mouth again.

“It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts! It huuuuuuurts!!!”

There was no time to answer him.
Divinity, which I accepted to my limit, penetrated into the Corruption Arts and amplified my body’s abilities.

And I ran away from the square, through the burning buildings of Kelton in search of corpses.

‘Kill!!!’

That one’s done, and that one was still fine.
I approached it quickly, touched his hand, and muttered.

“Mother, stop being angry and take it.”

The corpse rotted and spat out one point of divinity.

[Divinity: 8583]

“It huuuuuuuuurts!”

A horrifying scream approached.
The Incarnation, returning to its senses, was chasing after me with all its might.
This was a chase where the outcome depended on whether I could awaken a new power without being caught.

I searched for more corpses.

“If we leave such a monster alive, surely many people will die, right? Besides, the relic in that monster’s body should be harvested when there is such an opportunity.”

‘Kill!!!’

She rebuked me for being too reckless.
I was happy with her concern.

“Mother.
I’ll try hard once, and if I don’t feel it’ll work, I’ll run away.
So please stop being angry.
Now is the time for us to join forces.”

‘Kill…’

Along with the lamentation that I was unbelievable, she told me to do whatever I wanted.
I chuckled.

“I’ll show you a great fight.
I hope you enjoy watching it from my pocket.”

If you want to support us, please download our awesome cultivation game Taoist Immortal!