Exorcist's Self-Cultivation

Within the Duke Bai's Cult, the voice that emerged after the statue shattered was cold and terrifying.

The tone carried a trace of irony.

This voice was identical to Du Wei's.

But now, Du Wei had become Evil Spirit Du Wei, engaged in a conceptual battle with the Demon God Paimon.

So...

It was Black Du Wei.

Matthew knelt on the ground, unable to make out the appearance of Black Du Wei, seeing only the dense black qi, as if the being that had appeared did not have a physical form.

That was stating the obvious.

Black Du Wei indeed had no physical form.

Matthew was very curious about where the body of "His Excellency the Duke" might be.

The next second.

Black Du Wei glanced at him and said in a strange tone, "You have the power of a Demon God in you."

Matthew replied, "Yes, it is power I have stolen."

Black Du Wei nodded, placed his hand on Matthew's head, who was completely unable to react, and his eyes suddenly bulged outwards.

"So now, what was taken returns to its owner."

Black Du Wei extracted the Demon God's power from Matthew's body.

In the palm of its right hand, there was now an eye pattern that had opened.

But it frowned.

Displeased, it said, "Only a part of it?"

Then.

Black Du Wei stepped into the darkness.

It could feel that the power Matthew had stolen was not just this bit; the rest of the power should be in its other body.

The location of that other body.

Du Wei had suspected, but could not be sure, yet Black Du Wei knew everything clearly.

Because at that time, when the Demon God Rahmer had not yet been banished, the connection between Black Du Wei and Du Wei had not been severed; it knew many things and knew exactly who lay in the remaining sarcophagus.

It was another body of Matthew, or rather, another Matthew.

Originally.

The substance Matthew assimilated, akin to the Blood of Jesus, was a pattern of a pair of eyes. The twin pupils, the twin births, gave rise to two Matthews.

One elderly, one middle-aged.

The middle-aged Matthew was the one locked in the sarcophagus.

And the one who took action was Ryan Hamel.

Walking in the darkness.

Black Du Wei whispered, "My body is almost formed."

Its emergence did not mean it was hiding in some corner of this world.

But rather, it had returned to the past, flowing from the Victorian era to the present.

And in fact, that's how time itself works.

What existed in the past naturally exists now, just in a different form.

Just like a person who travels to the past, if he can stay alive, then there must be his existence in the modern era.

This is a time paradox.

The same period cannot have two identical existences.

Therefore, there is information about things like 'true name being stripped away' as mentioned in the Black Leather Book.

Black Du Wei changed into a different guise and has been lurking in the shadows.

The guise it took was that of His Excellency the Duke whose true name had been stripped away.

And now, it had laid out plans in the past and come to the present, knowing everything about Du Wei and wishing to take away everything that was Du Wei's, completely and thoroughly.

...

The church.

The sky is overcast with dark clouds.

St. Bodia Cathedral, the church headquarters that had not seen an evil spirit for hundreds of years, today faced the most terrifying and evil presence.

Archbishop Skadi knelt in front of the statue of God.

The statue cracked.

He looked desperate...

And here.

Kane and other hunters who had come from different places, at least seventy in number.

All these seventy or so people were gray-haired and mostly old.

Some had lost an arm.

Some had lost an eye.

But each person's expression was so detached, with no trace of emotion in their eyes.

In the dark sky.

A figure tore through the darkness, drawing ever closer to them.

Kane looked around; all the hunters were composed.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are a group in despair," he said.

"We are fighting the Evil Spirit on one front and battling ourselves on another."

"From the beginning, we had no choice but to walk this path until death."

"Today, a terrifying presence has descended upon the church."

"Perhaps we will all perish, but that is our destiny."

The hunters showed little reaction.

Kane's words were meant to be inspiring, but his tone was too indifferent; the threat of Evil Spirit Transformation had already brought him to the brink of losing control.

In fact.

It was basically the same with all the hunters present.

One said, "There's no need for more words, Your Excellency Cain; we knew what awaited us the moment we became hunters."

Another stated, "We choose, so we bear the consequences."

Yet another declared, "The very existence of hunters is hope within despair. Therefore, all the good things in the world are unrelated to us. We ask for neither pity nor sympathy, and even in death, we don't need anyone to mourn us."

Kane nodded in agreement.

He raised his hand and, with a cold voice, called out, "So now, let us do what we must."

All the hunters entered into Evil Spirit Transformation.

They launched an attack on the approaching blurry figure.

But from a distance, it could be seen that the figure merely reached out and grasped.

And thus, the hunters lost control over their bodies.

The figure of Black Du Wei became clearer.

He was like a Demon God, drawing out all the abilities of the hunters.

Then, he glanced at Kane.

Like looking at a lowly ant through eyes devoid of any emotion.

After that, he passed by the group of hunters and entered a secret chamber beneath the church.

Two stone sarcophagi were placed inside the chamber.

With a gesture from Black Du Wei, the lids of the sarcophagi were opened.

The upper body of a middle-aged Matthew straightened up. His gaze complex, he looked at the Black Du Wei before him: "You are not His Excellency the Duke."

Black Du Wei said, "No, I am the Duke."

After he finished speaking, the middle-aged Matthew burst into a cloud of blood mist.

In the palm of Black Du Wei's right hand, the pattern of an eye opened once again.

There was yet another eye within the eye.

A double pupil.

Having done all this, Black Du Wei turned and left: "My body is now formed."

As it departed, it also stretched out a hand, giving a light tap.

The entire St. Bodia Cathedral collapsed.

Dust billowed, and rubble filled the sky.

There were sounds of people wailing and weeping, untold numbers from the church perishing amidst the ruins.

...

And the altar beneath the church was affected as well.

Or rather, the tap from Black Du Wei had been directed at the altar in the first place.

The entire altar shattered with a boom.

The blood pool, the Blood of Jesus, was also ground to nothing.

Black Du Wei knew that the Blood of Jesus was the blood of Minette.

...

Europe.

Inside a museum.

Alex looked at the long sword before her.

It was a knight's sword, but in reality, it was Strangeness, and had once been Minette's sidearm.

The blade was trembling as if it had been waiting for years just for her appearance.

Alex's eyes, filled with blood vessels, were taken over by a crimson hue, and with her naturally silver hair, she now had an even more uniquely charming appearance.

"So it wasn't stopped, was it?"

Alex sighed; her form overlayed with another figure.

She reached out and gripped the sword's hilt.

The other figure also reached out and grasped it.

"Du Wei, I know everything now. It wants to replace you because it is one of Solomon's Seventy-Two Pillars Demon Gods; it has been entangled with you for too long."

"If it replaces you, then I will personally end you or die alongside you."

"As for what happens to this world, let it have nothing more to do with us."