When Chen Shouyi drew his sword and turned back to look, he found that the Barbarian from earlier had disappeared without a trace.

He quickly took a step, bolted through the door like a gust of wind, looked around, and circled the office building, but found no sign of him.

He felt a deep frustration rising within him.

Wasn't this guy supposed to be a follower of the God of Courage?

Where's your courage now?

Why are you running faster than a rabbit?

It was like this last time, and it's the same this time.

However, Chen Shouyi believed, he must be nearby.

The earlier fight was swift like a rabbit's leap and a bird's flight. From the start to the end of the fight, it only took about a second or two.

In such a short time, given the current state of his body, how far could he have gone?

What's more, the surroundings were deathly silent, and he hadn't heard the faintest sound of footsteps while running. He must be hiding in some corner.

It seems the Shell Lady is needed. With the sharpness of her senses, nothing can escape her notice.

"Little girl, come here quickly."

Hearing the call, the Shell Lady quickly jumped down from a small tree hole and ran over swiftly, agilely climbing onto Chen Shouyi's shoulder. Before Chen Shouyi could ask, she was already breathlessly speaking loudly, her little face flushed with excitement:

"Giant, Giant, I've found where the bad Giant is hiding!"

Chen Shouyi was delighted and quickly asked, "Where is he?"

"That bad Giant is hiding in that big tree over there." The Shell Lady quickly pointed with her small hand.

As expected, he was hiding nearby.

Upon hearing this, Chen Shouyi quickly looked in the direction. The big tree the Shell Lady was pointing at was near the office building, just over thirty meters away. With his eyesight, even in this deep night, nothing would be indistinct from this short distance.

However, he couldn't see where the opponent was hiding at all.

He furrowed his brow slightly.

This was the second time he saw the opponent using invisibility.

Such an ability was truly disgusting.

He wondered how the Shell Lady discovered it.

Chen Shouyi took a deep breath, his gaze turning serious.

Holding his sword, he walked step by step, and after taking a few steps, his eyes finally distinguished a slight incongruity. He noticed a slight distortion and blur in one part of the tree's branch, like it had been photoshopped.

He approached cautiously, highly alert.

When they were within ten meters of each other, the opponent finally couldn't hold back.

As the light twisted, the Barbarian suddenly appeared, angrily kicking the branch. The branch, the size of a bowl's mouth, instantly snapped. At the same time, his body rapidly expanded, looking down from above, and he punched heavily toward Chen Shouyi.

Seeing the fierce attack coming at him, Chen Shouyi felt a sense of relief instead.

He was most afraid that the opponent could remain invisible during combat. If that had been the case, it would have been troublesome. Fortunately, the worst-case scenario didn't happen.

Watching the rapidly approaching figure, he had been preparing for a while. With an easy sidestep, he avoided the attack while slicing his sword toward the opponent's chest and abdomen. The Barbarian raised his right hand to block, but with a flash of the sword light, a sturdy arm already detached from his body.

The High Priest let out a low growl of pain, stepping back continuously upon landing, his eyes filled with despair.

His previous injuries were too severe, his abdomen perforated with a bowl-sized blood hole. Although his Divine Art had barely healed the wound, it couldn't possibly recover so quickly. Just a slight movement had already torn the wound back open.

Compared to the beginning, when he possessed terrifying Giant Spirit God-like strength and speed, his condition had declined by more than fifty percent, his movements weak, and his steps wobbling.

Chen Shouyi leisurely walked toward him step by step:

"That kick just now hurt me a lot."

The High Priest looked at the dense muscle of the opponent's chest, where a dark footprint was clearly stamped, unable to stop the twitching of his face.

He distinctly remembered that with that kick, he had broken a few of his opponent's ribs. Such an injury was not much less than his own. Yet, he couldn't figure out how, in the blink of an eye, the opponent was already lively and bouncing, as if he hadn't been injured at all.

"I... I am the High Priest of the God of Courage, you foolish unbeliever..."

Before he could finish his sentence, he saw the opponent's footsteps suddenly blur. The High Priest immediately swallowed the threat stuck in his throat. Having no way to escape, he could only fight to the death. In despair and anger, he let out a low roar, gathering his remaining strength, he stomped forcefully towards the rapidly approaching figure, choosing to advance rather than retreat.

The two brushed past each other instantly. The Barbarian continued a few more steps, a head rolled off the body, and blood spurted into the sky.

Seconds later, the small giant-like headless body fell heavily to the ground with a muffled thud.

Chen Shouyi flicked his sword, spraying the blood droplets clinging to it away at high speed, before sheathing his sword.

"That scared me!"

"But the position of the High Priest doesn't seem low!"

According to his understanding, in an alternate world within a mature True God Church, priests are generally divided into Priests, High Priests, and further up, Chief Priests and Popes.

Although the High Priest is only the second level in the hierarchy, the productivity in the alternate world is underdeveloped, and the population density that it can support is extremely low.

Miles of uninhabited land are almost the norm, and even a True God might only have hundreds of thousands or millions of followers.

In an entire tribe, the chances of becoming a priest might be less than one in ten thousand.

After all, priests are the shepherds of the gods. Their main tasks are to propagate the gods' might and greatness, persuade people to believe, inspire followers, and fight if necessary to handle the tribe's crises.

But all this requires daily divine art bestowed by the gods, consuming their own Divine Power. The more priests there are, the greater the consumption, and if too many are trained, it might not be sustainable.

In a tiny church with only about a hundred people, the position of a High Priest is obviously not low, since there are fewer people above.

But once killed, they're killed. As far as he knows, not even True God is omnipotent. Unless wholeheartedly praying with utmost devotion, even a True God cannot receive the information from followers. Moreover, this is still Earth, Chen Shouyi quickly abandons these thoughts.

Just as he was about to call the Shell Lady to leave this place.

At that moment, he suddenly noticed something strange about the corpse, a cold breath permeated, and soon a faint glow emerged as a shadow slowly floated up from the body.

His facial features were blurred but faintly visible, one could see the visage of that Barbarian.

Chen Shouyi whispered with curiosity, as it was his first time witnessing a soul with his own eyes.

Perhaps because these priests often use divine arts, their souls were tainted with a hint of Divine Power, and these souls emitted a barely noticeable glow, possibly invisible during the day, but quite conspicuous in the darkness.

At this time, he looked around in confusion:

"Have I reached the Divine Country?"

"Why does it look different from what I imagined, yet some of the scenery seems familiar!"

Soon he noticed Chen Shouyi nearby, was startled, and displayed a hint of fear as he quickly backed away, floating like a gentle breeze close to the ground.

At this moment, he vaguely sensed a faint and elusive guiding force, and he was overjoyed. In the soul state, his thoughts were sluggish and incapable of complex thinking. If he were a rational person, he would definitely first distance himself from danger.

But for him at this moment, this matter was obviously more important. He immediately shook off the fear of Chen Shouyi and prayed loudly with unprecedented devotion: "Great and merciful God of Courage, your most faithful servant pleads for your guidance..."

However, he soon discovered in despair that although the soul's guiding force was a lot clearer than before, it still wasn't enough to draw the soul to the Divine Country.

"Impossible! Impossible!" he muttered to himself as his expression gradually turned manic.

Suddenly he felt a gust of roaring wind; his figure was swaying. He raised his head blankly.

He saw the human rapidly approaching, with a sword in hand radiating a blinding glimmer like the sun, and in the next moment, all his thoughts halted completely.

The entire soul disintegrated, bursting into countless faint points of light.

Chen Shouyi was taken aback, looking at the sword in his hand.

Feeling somewhat unexpected.

"I didn't expect that a single sword could annihilate it. Could physical attacks also harm souls?"

"No, it's not. It should be the Sword Aura of will!" With his mind somewhat muddled, Chen Shouyi felt a stirring in his heart.

He suddenly remembered there was still one more in the office building, immediately returned to the hall, searched around, but didn't see the spirit of this Barbarian.

Did it escape?

Chen Shouyi immediately called over the Shell Lady, hiding nearby. After asking, she expressed that she hadn't noticed anything.

He didn't doubt the words of the Shell Lady; she was always timid. If she said she hadn't noticed, then she surely hadn't.

But why, when killed in the same way, did one manifest a spirit and the other not?

Of course, that High Priest Barbarian was much stronger than this Barbarian, which might have been a reason.

But Chen Shouyi felt it definitely wasn't due to this reason.

Even during the first mutation, the soul of an ordinary Earth person could turn into a spirit due to their resentment after being assassinated.

A Barbarian warrior, on the other hand, couldn't, which made no sense.

At this point, he had a sudden thought and remembered the powerful damage the will-infused Sword Aura could inflict on spirits.

He couldn't help but ponder.

He recalled the earlier scene when he dispatched the Barbarian High Priest.

At that time, as the two were rapidly approaching each other, just about to contact, he sidestepped to avoid the opponent's punch and slashed off the head with his sword, relying on his speed.

In such circumstances, he couldn't concentrate his spirit, and the sword might not have formed a will-infused Sword Aura, which led to an escapee slipping through the net.

"It seems I'll have to be careful in the future. After the mutation, death is no longer the end. Earth is gradually becoming a supermundane world."

PS: The second chapter will be supplemented tomorrow afternoon.

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