Chapter 212: True God Ritual
"Oh? Then I'll have to deal with you first."
After saying this, the High Priest made no movement; it simply stood there watching Lin Ye.
Lin Ye also remained still. He had a gun in his hand, and there were many more guns on the ground. The High Priest could see all of this, yet it showed no intention of evading, indicating that the High Priest possessed some method to counter firearms.
Therefore, Lin Ye decided not to launch a preemptive attack, opting instead to first observe the High Priest's methods so he could respond promptly.
Two minutes later, the two were still standing in the tunnel. The High Priest looked at Lin Ye with slight awkwardness.
"Aren't you going to attack?"
Lin Ye watched the High Priest warily, suspecting that the opponent possessed some kind of attack method that could only be used as a counter, such as a means to reflect bullets.
"Why isn't the divine flesh around you attacking you?"
The High Priest was deeply frustrated. Most of its methods were related to the surrounding divine flesh. If it couldn't manipulate the divine flesh to attack Lin Ye, it would have to rely solely on its own body to fight.
And its body was merely that of an old man nearing 70 years old. Although it still had some other tricks, the rifle in Lin Ye's hand was no joke. "I can also control that Active Flesh. I tried just now; they aren't willing to attack you either. It's a mutual cancellation. Now we can have a fair duel."
Lin Ye raised the muzzle of his gun, pretending to pull the trigger while carefully observing the other party's expression.
He still hadn't ruled out the possibility that the opponent had some kind of countermeasure, because the other party was just too calm, as if it wasn't the one being aimed at with a gun, but rather Lin Ye.
"Don't shoot, let's talk some more."
The High Priest suddenly said.
"Sure, what do you usually do for work?"
Lin Ye spoke casually, but suddenly raised his hand and shot at the High Priest.
Bang!
The bullet was stopped mid-air by an invisible, transparent barrier just before hitting the High Priest's head.
Lin Ye had already ducked behind a mass of Active Flesh the moment he fired the shot.
"You are truly cautious. Unfortunately, this protective item is trigger-based. If you empty the magazine, you will trigger the item's second effect."
The High Priest sounded somewhat regretful. If Lin Ye had been a bit more impulsive, it wouldn't have needed to lift a finger.
"If I weren't cautious enough, I wouldn't have survived until now."
Lin Ye began firing at the barrier, but paused for a few seconds between each shot, only firing the next bullet after the previous one had fallen to the ground.
The High Priest stopped talking. It closed its eyes and began silently chanting words of unclear meaning.
The Active Flesh on the walls stirred restlessly. They began crawling towards the High Priest, entangling and merging into its body.
While shooting, Lin Ye threw Bone Traps at the High Priest. The Bone Traps activated upon hitting the barrier, consuming the energy sustaining it.
The energy barrier gradually thinned. During the attack, Lin Ye took the opportunity to toss several small Flesh Puppets into the nearby Active Flesh.
The High Priest noticed Lin Ye's actions. Unclear about what those humanoid flesh shapes were, it decisively stopped absorbing the flesh.
Lin Ye hadn't actually planned to use the Flesh Puppets to defeat the opponent; he just wanted to leave markers first to prevent the other party from escaping.
A bullet finally pierced through the energy barrier. The High Priest lunged fiercely at Lin Ye.
Lin Ye grabbed a spare rifle he had prepared earlier and emptied the entire magazine at the High Priest.
For the first few shots, he controlled the rate of fire. Only after seeing the bullets hit the High Priest's head did he pull the trigger all the way down.
A large number of bullets penetrated the High Priest's body, but they only slowed its approach; they failed to kill it.
Two small Flesh Puppets appeared behind the High Priest. They fired at its back, but their shots not only failed to stop the High Priest, but instead caused it to quicken its pace.
Lin Ye retreated while shooting, holding the woven bag, simultaneously laying Bone Traps at his feet. The woven bag still contained some reserves of traps and firearms.
"Time is running out! If we don't perform the ritual soon, in a little while, we will all die here!"
The High Priest was getting anxious. It hadn't expected that the divine flesh would be unusable against Lin Ye. This state couldn't be maintained for long. When it ended, it would die here.
"I won't die, but you are certainly dead."
Lin Ye didn't believe a word the High Priest said. In his view, as long as the Truth-Seeking Society cultists were eliminated, these strange occurrences would end.
"You won't die? If the ritual cannot be performed on time, hiding anywhere will be meaningless, because the thing within the ruins will destroy this world! Is there really nothing left in this world that you care about? Right now, we still have a chance to fix this!"
The High Priest wasn't deceiving Lin Ye; these words were all heartfelt truths spoken from genuine feeling, because it didn't want to die.
"Tell me about the ritual."
Lin Ye stopped shooting. He faintly felt that the High Priest wasn't lying to him.
"As long as we kill the two main sacrificial vessels deep within the ruins, the True God will not awaken, and the world will not be destroyed."
The High Priest cooperatively stopped advancing as well. It still had a final card to play, but that was a mutually destructive move, best left unused if possible.
"Main sacrificial vessels?"
Lin Ye put his hand into the woven bag. He had a bad feeling.
"One is a little girl named Lin Jing, and the other is a student named Yang Hua. That Lin Jing was supposed to complete the ritual in the city, but her brother brought her to the Visit Camp. We tried to stop it, but failed. In the end, we had to change the ritual location to deep within the ruins."
The High Priest explained.
"Does it have to be them? Why?"
Lin Ye didn't rush to act. He needed to understand the reason first; otherwise, similar incidents might happen again.
"It must be them. There is no 'why'. If I had to give a reason, it's because the True God chose them."
The High Priest said devoutly, like a true member of the clergy.
"...Then the only option is to take down the True God."
Lin Ye pulled out a shotgun and fired a shot directly at the High Priest's head. That was his answer.
"Are you incapable of understanding human speech?! If this continues, the entire world will be destroyed! Everyone will die! Do you just not care about anything?!"
The High Priest roared furiously.
"Of course I understood. But I don't care about the world in the slightest. Your True God chose the wrong sacrificial vessels. I'll go and remind it of that fact."
Lin Ye would never allow his little sister to become a sacrificial vessel, even if the other side of the scale held the entire world.
He wasn't like Li Ze, who would just sleep next door at a critical moment. For the sake of those important to him, he could do anything.
He had to!
"Then there's no other way! I didn't want to use this move originally! You forced my hand!"
The High Priest angrily used its final move, activating the energy barrier deeply embedded within its body.
The energy barrier shattered, and the accumulated energy erupted outwards, sending the surrounding flesh and bullets flying in all directions.
While the High Priest was roaring, Lin Ye had already leaped into the mass of Active Flesh on the tunnel wall. The nearby Active Flesh gathered around him. The mask granted him the ability to influence this Active Flesh. He hadn't used it earlier because he couldn't control this flesh to attack the High Priest.