After meeting with friends, Xiao Qiong and Gu Xingmian returned to the military area.

Just as they were about to look for Admiral Gwen, they unexpectedly ran into Fang Xihua, who showed an excited expression when he saw Gu Xingmian.

After the card maker family knew Gu Xingmian's identity, there was no need to hide it anymore, so with his consent, Gwen told Fang Xihua about it.

Fang Xihua was particularly excited after knowing it and wanted to meet Gu Xingmian, but due to various reasons, the two of them were unable to meet at that time, and Fang Xihua always felt very sorry.

Now that they finally met, his usually eloquent speech failed in front of Gu Xingmian. After holding it in for a long time, he could only say a muffled "thank you".

After so many years, these apprentice card makers had already accepted their fate.

Not being born into a family of card makers, no matter how outstanding or talented they are, they are born inferior.

Even if there are those who are unwilling to accept their fate, the result is nothing more than becoming a wanted defector like Grove.

The appearance of Gu Xingmian made them see a ray of light in the endless darkness.

When they learned that the card maker family was going to assassinate Gu Xingmian, they were furious. Recently, there have been many more activities against the card maker family.

The most aggressive one among them was Fang Xihua.

However, when he met Gu Xingmian, he was like a little fan who met his idol, his face flushed, and he couldn't even open his mouth.

Gu Xingmian was very curious about him: "Were you the one who proposed the auxiliary card amplification method before?"

After the card maker apprentices and independent card makers formed an alliance, they knew that they could not compete with the card maker family in terms of star pattern reserves, and they did not want to rely on the mysterious host all the time. In addition, the good atmosphere in the forum before made everyone willing to share their ideas.

Although some methods were wild and unrealistic, with everyone's efforts, they did have some results.

Among them, the method of auxiliary card amplification impressed Gu Xingmian the most.

Therefore, he also remembered the proposer Fang Xihua.

In Gu Xingmian's view, he was really talented, comparable to Grove. Now that he could see the real person, he was also full of interest in him.

Who knew that Fang Xihua, under his gaze, stammered: "Yes... it's me..."

The two discussed it.

To Gu Xingmian, the star pattern seemed to be engraved in his body, as if it was something instinctive, but he had only been exposed to the star pattern for less than a year. In comparison, although Fang Xihua and others did not have as deep an understanding of the star pattern as he did, they had been immersed in it for many years and had their own different understandings.

The things he said were completely new and very meaningful to Gu Xingmian.

Of course, it would be better if Fang Xihua could be calmer and not look like he would suffocate to death at any time.

Fortunately, Admiral Gwen's personal guards came out to pick them up in time, and facing outsiders, Fang Xihua finally returned to normal.

Led by the personal guards, they entered the conference room together, and Admiral Gwen was already waiting there.

Fang Xihua came to see Admiral Gwen this time mainly because of the matter of dealing with the Card Maker Family a while ago.

The Card Maker Family underestimated the enemy at the beginning and did not take Fang Xihua and his men seriously. They always felt that they had suppressed the enemy for a thousand years, and even if they started to make trouble, it would not be a big deal.

It was precisely because of their contemptuous and arrogant mentality that the Card Maker Alliance survived the most difficult period at the beginning. After receiving support from the military region, it immediately developed in full swing.

Recently, because of Gu Xingmian's matter, the Card Maker Alliance began to frequently attack the Card Maker Family.

The original reliance of the Card Maker Family was the Star Mark and the Card Masters they trained, but now that the Star Mark cannot monopolize, the Card Masters they trained do not have much advantage over the military district, even against mercenaries and those Card Masters fighting at the bottom.

These days have become a nightmare for the Card Maker Family.

However, Fang Xihua came this time to report another thing: "We have been sending people to follow the people of the Card Maker Family, and found that they really went to the Temple for help."

Everyone: "!!!"

Gwen narrowed his eyes.

In fact, as early as when Gu Xingmian was attacked by the Card Masters of the Card Maker Family, he guessed because of the secrecy of this news that only the Temple could know Gu Xingmian's identity and tell the Card Maker Family this news.

But he hesitated at that time, thinking that the Temple would never do so.

But after what happened later, he began to realize that the Temple might not be on the same side as them, and he thought of this matter again.

Fang Xihua's words only made him confirm this point.

But Gu Xingmian thought of another point.

The auxiliary card is based on blood crystal and uses the power of star patterns. To a certain extent, it seems to come from the same power system as the evil spirits.

The card maker family must be very clear about the principle, and now that the card maker family has asked the Temple for help, it means that the Temple also knows it, and it is associated with the God Card which is also composed of star patterns.

All of this seems to constitute a huge secret.

He looked at Xiao Qiong, and Xiao Qiong obviously thought of this as well.

Both of them thought of one thing: "Could it be that the evil spirits were created by the temple?!"

Fang Xihua was shocked, and he didn't know how the information he said made them think of this.

Gwen understood. When he and other military generals met, they had thought of this possibility, but they rejected it later.

Gwen gave the reason, but added: "Although the evil spirits should not be created by the temple, they should know some inside information." Xiao

Qiong and Gu Xingmian nodded thoughtfully.

Now, if they want to figure out everything, they have to go out of the defense line and take a look.

Central City, God Tower.

Clement climbed out of the blood pool with his weak body. This was his fifth blood punishment.

The pain of the blood punishment not only did not weaken, but it kept increasing. There were several times when Clement almost couldn't hold on. He almost bit his teeth until they bled before he managed to hold on.

But for him, there was more to do today.

He didn't allow himself to rest for too long. He stood up with difficulty, leaning against the wall, and moved step by step to the door. He listened for a while before pushing the door open. Sure enough, there was no one outside.

Ever since he felt the words left by the young master of the Ignatz family in the corner of the room, he has always wanted to go to the bottom of the tower to take a look.

The guards on the top of the tower are much stricter, but on the seventh floor, it is the space of the high priest Douglas. Except for a few confidants of Douglas, few priests would set foot there, so the guards are not particularly strict.

Originally, when Clement was punished with blood, there had to be a priest guarding him, but the priests seemed to be a little afraid of this room with the blood pool and were not very willing to come. In addition, Clement behaved very honestly, so the priest called a novice priest to come and guard him.

However, this novice priest was very timid and did not even dare to enter the room. He wished to stay away from this house.

Afterwards, Clement secretly found out that the novice priest liked gambling, and that he would rush to the casino as soon as he took Clement out.

So Clement had an idea. During his last blood punishment, he lay in the room for a long time before pretending to be weak and went out.

The novice priest didn't dare to come in, and because of Clement's delay, he hadn't been able to go to the casino today, and he was scratching his ears and cheeks outside in anxiety. Clement

deliberately said that it was very painful after the blood punishment, and it would take a long time to recover, and he might have to rest for a longer time next time.

Sure enough, the novice priest didn't resist the temptation, and ran out to gamble while he was suffering the blood punishment.

Clement thought that he would have to pretend at least a few more times, but he didn't expect to succeed in one go.

But it was a good thing for him. After all, the pain of each blood punishment would increase, and in the future, his physical strength would definitely become worse and worse.

The temple had fallen to this point.

Only a little thought like this flashed through his mind, and then he shifted all his attention to what he was about to do.

Today happened to be the day when Douglas' new mansion was completed.

The previous priests of the temple had various hobbies to burn money, and Douglas's hobby was building houses, so he went to see his new house early in the morning with his trusted priest.

Clement also chose this day to come to the blood punishment.

He waited for a while, and when he didn't hear any movement, he slowly walked down the tower.

He was originally on the second to last floor, and soon reached the bottom.

The bottom floor was very empty. Clement scanned it and didn't see anything suspicious. But he thought that since Anthony left a mark in such a hidden place, it must not be a joke.

So he thought about the sentence and the arrow carefully again, and suddenly understood.

He identified his position, and then walked in the direction of the arrow. Soon he found something wrong.

There were two wall lamps on the wall in front of him, but one of them was covered with dust, while the other was much brighter. Without thinking, he held the wall lamp and found that it could be moved.

As he turned the wall lamp, the wall in front of him moved to both sides, revealing a passage.

The lights on both sides of the passage lit up one by one as the walls opened, leading to an unknown direction.

Clement felt panic rising in his heart, but he still gritted his teeth and walked in step by step.

The passage was not long. Clement turned a corner and saw another staircase leading down in front of him.

He walked down the stairs, which were not as long as he had imagined. There was a door at the end.

He pushed open the door, but was shocked to find that this place was the same as the lobby on the bottom floor of the ziggurat.

He walked out and saw the stairs leading down again in the lobby.

He seemed to have guessed something, and walked down, and sure enough, he saw the same scene as the second to last floor.

If he guessed correctly, the underground ziggurat was reversed from the ground.

His eyes suddenly fell on the door of the room that was exactly the same as the one with the blood pool.

He was punished with blood in that room, so what would be in this room? Would there be an identical blood pool?

Would someone... be punished with blood in this room?

He shuddered and suddenly felt goose bumps crawling all over his back.

His heart was beating violently like a drum.

He swallowed his saliva, walked towards the room step by step, and pressed his palm on the door.

With a little force.

The door creaked open slowly, revealing a familiar scene inside.

But when his eyes slowly moved to the identical blood pool, his eyes suddenly froze.

In the blood pool, a white jade statue stood in it.

Although Clement was not a card reader, he had seen statues of gods.

The god had a gentle and loving face, and was so beautiful that it was difficult to tell whether he was male or female. He had long silver hair that fell behind him, and a pair of huge horns protruded from his hair. The horns did not look like animals, but rather like simple constellation patterns. Each node was shimmering with white light, and his face was also shrouded in this light, like a dream.

He held a book in his hands, and the pages of the book turned into cards surrounding him.

Holy and mysterious.

However, the statue under the tower was not like that.

He stood in the middle of the blood pool. The cards that were supposed to surround him turned into chains, binding him tightly. Drops of red liquid were dripping from his head, corroding his beautiful horns. The

bright red liquid flowed over his cheeks, turning his originally holy face into a hideous and horrible one.