Chapter 8: Seven Visas's left eye
"Are you planning to lie here until dawn?" While Ulu was immersed in the joy of revenge and unable to extricate himself from the bloodshed around him, he heard Bai Wei's mocking voice inside his head, "Or do you intend to leave the scene as is for everyone to come and admire your great deed?"
Only then did Ulu snap back to reality, remembering that he still hadn't dealt with the scene.
Although this wasn't his first time committing murder, and he shouldn't be nervous, the person he had killed this time was indeed very special. Lu Ji had been an authentic priest of the Rhein Divine Sect, and if his superiors found out what he had done, he would be condemned to the gallows.
With this thought, the sense of pleasure that had been swirling in Ulu's heart was suddenly washed away, and he couldn't help but feel a wave of fear as he looked at Lu Ji's corpse again.
"No, it's fine," he muttered, as if to reassure himself as well as Bai Wei. "There are only two priests in this church, him and me, and he was so old and in such poor health that his sudden death wouldn't raise suspicions."
Hearing this, Bai Wei let out another light laugh, as if mocking Ulu's current cowardice.
Naturally, Ulu caught the mockery, but he certainly didn't dare to show the slightest dissatisfaction, especially after Bai Wei had demonstrated his abilities.
So he quickly got up and began to clean up the scene.
During the cleanup, he couldn't help but ask Bai Wei, "The spell you just used was..."
"That wasn't a spell," Bai Wei said indifferently, "it was merely a little trick."
Just a little trick?
Ulu was even more shocked. He knew that the spell Lu Ji had cast before was his strongest lifesaving skill, yet it had been dispelled by a simple snap of Bai Wei's fingers, and Bai Wei still referred to it as a minor technique.
This was the power of Visas?
It was terrifying.
What Ulu didn't know was that what had just happened was the strongest action Bai Wei could currently perform.
Simply put, it was "Silence," capable of interrupting all spell chanting, and terminating any ongoing spells, but beyond that, it had no offensive power.
There was no helping it, Visas indeed possessed many abilities, but after his death, these abilities were divided among the corpse blocks by the All Gods. In the game, players needed to collect these corpse blocks to gain new abilities. And this ability to Silence was considered one of the strongest throughout the entire game.
After all, its interruption was irrespective of level, capable of disrupting even the chanting of Divine Arts in the later stages.
Therefore, all the abilities of Visas were also crowned with the name "Rule."
However, the use of these Rules was not without cost, or rather, only Visas himself could use them without a price.
The physical bodies of mortals found it hard to withstand the backlash brought about by these Rules. In the game, this was represented by the protagonist losing at least a quarter of their health with every snap of the fingers, which could not be restored during the battle. Therefore, a maximum of three snaps was possible within a single fight. The stronger the enemy, the greater the health loss; in battles against the All Gods later in the game, they could lose half or even three-quarters of their health with a single snap, limiting them to a single use in a fight.
Now, as the game turned into reality, the cost of "Silence" was naturally more than just draining health, but a price still had to be paid.
However, clearly, the price was not for Bai Wei, who had only a single finger, to pay.
"Cough, cough, cough, cough!"
Suddenly, Ulu started coughing violently, continuing for half a minute.
"Damn it." Ulu didn't think there was any issue, he just stared fiercely at the thoroughly dead Lu Ji and cursed, "This damned old ghost, even his blood stinks, getting the last word even in death."
Bai Wei did not speak at such times, of course.
Perhaps truly harboring deep resentment for Lu Ji, Ulu kicked his body hard again before continuing to clean up the room.
Ulu was indeed no stranger to killing. He buried Lu Ji's body in a pit outside, cleaned all the blood from the room, and considered the task finished. The whole process took less than an hour—a routine well practiced.
Of course, this was also because the location of Lu Ji and Ulu was so remote, like two people in a solitary skiff at sea; if one fell into the water, the outside world would never know, nor care.
At least, that's what Ulu had thought, until, while rifling through Lu Ji's possessions, he suddenly found an unfinished letter and began to tremble all over.
"This, this guy was already in contact with Bishop Corey!" Ulu's voice changed, "This is... his reply to the Bishop!"
Bai Wei didn't need to look to understand what was going on; he knew the story.
Bishop Corey was their immediate superior, and the relief food also came from him. Ulu and Lu Ji had been embezzling by selling the grain, and clearly, Bishop Corey was aware since he too was part of the share.
Twenty years ago, it had been Lu Ji who had made contact with Corey, and now, twenty years later, it should have been Ulu in contact with the bishop. However, Lu Ji had beaten him to the punch, making contact with Corey even earlier and had even received a reply, which he was now readying to send back.
In other words, Ulu's imaginary isolated journey without any connection to the outside world had suddenly established one.
"What am I to do? What am I to do?" Ulu was suddenly flustered. "If Bishop Corey hasn't received Lu Ji's reply, then, then…"
He stopped mid-sentence, as a thought struck him, and he lowered his head to examine the letter more closely.
Then he realized that the letter was almost complete, with only the date and signature left to write.
An idea struck Ulu right then.
"If I break it off here, and then replicate Lu Ji's handwriting to fill in the date and signature, there shouldn't be any problem, should there? Bishop Corey wouldn't scrutinize it too closely... would he?" After a moment of thought, Ulu still decided to discuss this with Bai Wei, "Lord Visas, what do you think..."
Bai Wei did not respond, as if he had already fallen asleep.
Ulu didn't dare to awaken Bai Wei with such a "triviality" and, after some hesitation, decided to just use the method he'd thought of.
If he consulted Bai Wei on everything, he might lose his respect, mightn't he?
With that thought, Ulu sat down at the work desk and carefully completed the letter.
His handwriting was already quite similar to Lu Ji's; it was just the final touches, and he believed Corey wouldn't notice.
After writing it, Ulu carefully packaged the letter, planning to send it off first thing in the morning to avoid any unforeseen complications overnight.
At that moment, having dealt with everything, fatigue and sleepiness surged over Ulu like a tide. He pocketed the letter, returned to his room, and without bothering to tidy up, he collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep.
After Ulu had completely fallen asleep, his left middle finger, to be precise, the one belonging to Visas, moved.
Bai Wei "looked" at Ulu, confirming that he was soundly asleep, before leisurely "waking" his index finger.
As previously mentioned, Ulu using Bai Wei's power would lead to his soul being devoured by Bai Wei.
And now, he had already lost an index finger without realizing it.
As long as Bai Wei wished, he could take control of this finger at any moment, as he was now.
The index finger and middle finger worked together to prop up the whole palm, resembling a standing person.
With just two fingers, very little could be done, but not nothing.
Bai Wei controlled the miniature hand to extract the letter from Ulu's pocket and unsealed it.
Then, using the index finger, he dabbed some of Lu Ji's blood from the clothing and stamped it prominently onto the letter, precisely where it read, "Respected Bishop Corey."
Afterward, Bai Wei was satisfied and put the letter back, dragging it back into Ulu's pocket. Then he returned nonchalantly to his previous spot, lying down as if nothing had happened.
As for the reason behind doing this.
Because Bai Wei knew exactly who this Bishop Corey was.
His full name was Corey Anderson.
But that wasn't important. What was important was that he secretly harbored an "Eye of Truth," rumored to see through everything in this world.
...Yes, that so-called "Eye of Truth," its name in the game was,
[The Left Eye of Visas].