Although he knew that death was a pursuit and a belief for those favored by death, Phil Gray still felt a flash of anger as he watched the restaurant owner who lent him the skeleton bird die.
Who exactly wanted to assassinate them, and even implicate innocent people?
He leaped off the bird's back, and the skeleton bird let out a mournful cry, as if it had lost a beloved, before finally falling beside the mangled, bloody corpse.
As if it were human, it gently rubbed its bare skull against the pile of flesh, then opened its mouth and devoured the remains of the corpse like a glutton.
Then, it shrank to the size of a palm and landed lightly on Phil Gray's shoulder.
"Would you like to follow me?" he murmured softly.
The skeleton bird lightly pecked at his shoulder, as if conveying its approval.
"Very well, I will avenge your master."
He turned his head. Eli, who had just suffered the backlash from the Soul Chains, looked somewhat weak, while Yilai Zhe was like a candle flickering in the wind, teetering on the verge of collapse.
"Are you two alright?"
Eli shook his head gently: "I'm fine, I'll recover in a bit."
After the zombie died, Yi Lai Zhe's spirits retreated behind him. He leaned against the barrier and said weakly, "I have something to do. My divine power is severely depleted and will not recover for a while. Please take me back to the mansion and tell the Grand Elder that I cannot participate in tomorrow's selection. I hope he will understand."
He had barely finished speaking when he closed his eyes and collapsed to the ground.
"Divine power overdrawn?"
Phil Gray pondered for a moment. He really couldn't do anything about other injuries, but as for the power of death, he certainly had plenty!
Considering that this guy had put in a lot of effort, he couldn't just stand by and do nothing. He had Eli help the unconscious man up, and then extracted some of the divine power of the Death Stone and channeled it into the man's body.
A moment later, Yi Lai Zhe slowly opened his eyes.
He clearly felt as if his entire body was filled with a surging divine power of death. This feeling of being filled with divine power was something he had not experienced for a very long time. The surprise in his heart was like a surging wave, difficult to calm down.
"Have I been unconscious for a long time?" Yi Lai Zhe asked involuntarily, only to find himself still inside the barrier. The two people and the ghost standing beside him were exactly the same as before he lost consciousness, as if only a blink of an eye had passed.
"What's going on?" He stood up, feeling incredibly good.
Phil Gray's lips curled into a slight smile: "I've restored your divine power, you're welcome. Now we need to work together to break this barrier."
"How did you help me recover?" Upon hearing this, Yi Lai Zhe's eyes widened as if they were about to pop out of their sockets. He looked at Phil Gray with great eagerness and even involuntarily grabbed his shoulder.
"Hey! Let go of your hand. We're trying to help you, don't be ungrateful!" Eli forcefully pulled Yi Lai Zhe's hand away.
“Please tell me, this is really important to me,” Yi Lai Zhe said with an unprecedentedly serious expression, his eyes filled with earnestness.
Phil Gray was somewhat surprised by his appearance, so he stopped hiding it and explained, "You were late for the first day of the selection, so you may not know that I have the Death Stone, a token bestowed by the God of Death. I don't know if you have heard its legend. It was formed from the bones of the first generation of the God of Death after his fall, and it contains almost endless death power for us."
He glanced at Yi Lai Zhe again and added, "It was given to me by the God of Death and is now bound to me. Only I can use it, so don't even think about taking it."
After listening to Phil Gray's explanation, Yi Lai Zhe stood there stunned for a long time, seemingly lost in thought, his eyes sometimes angry and sometimes dazed.
It wasn't until Phil Gray and Eli broke the barrier and a faint light illuminated the ruins that he came to his senses, and then knelt down in front of Phil Gray with a thud.
The undead behind him, like puppets being manipulated, all knelt down, forming a dark, uniform mass that startled Phil Gray.
"Huh? What are you doing?" Phil Gray asked in surprise.
Yi Lai Zhe gave a wry smile, as if he had made up his mind: "I want to ask you for a favor, and I'm afraid only you can help me with this."
"What is it? Although you are indeed quite annoying, I will definitely help you if I can. There's no need for this." Phil Gray reached out to help him up, but Yi Lai Zhe remained stubbornly kneeling on the ground.
After the barrier disappeared, the horrific scene was revealed, attracting many curious passersby to gather around.
The undead knights responsible for maintaining order in the area also arrived and approached the remaining survivors.
Seeing that more and more people were gathering, Phil Gray said in a low voice, "Someone's coming. Okay, get up, we'll find somewhere else to talk later."
“Okay.” Yi Lai Zhe nodded, looking preoccupied.
"What happened here?" One of the undead knights, who seemed to be the leader, examined the huge zombie corpses left in the ruins and the blood and flesh that stained the floor, and asked sternly.
Another undead knight carefully examined the three people in front of him, and suddenly exclaimed in surprise, "Holy Son Yilai? There are also two other candidates, Miru and Eli?"
Phil Gray nodded gravely. "It's us. Someone wants to assassinate us. They not only sealed off this space, but also specifically sent out that giant zombie."
"What? Someone actually dared to attack a papal candidate! We must go and report this to the archbishop immediately!" One of the undead knights' expressions changed.
"Wait, don't rush." Phil Gray gestured for them to calm down, then said calmly, "You'd better check the scene again for any clues, especially the zombie's body, to see if you can determine where it came from."
Upon hearing this, the undead knight leading the group immediately led his companions to carefully search the surroundings.
However, after a lot of work, they shook their heads helplessly: "No significant features were found on this zombie."
“That’s right, it certainly doesn’t look like a naturally generated undead creature, but it’s hard to tell who created it.” The other undead knights chimed in, agreeing with their leader’s point of view.
Phil Gray stroked his chin thoughtfully. Although there were no clues, it was indeed not hard to guess, just as Yi Leizhe had said.
He turned to the undead knights and instructed them, "Alright, we understand. However, please report everything that happened here to the Archbishop truthfully."
"Yes, sir!" the undead knights responded in unison. Some remained where they were, while others rode their horses toward the cathedral.
"Let's go back to the mansion first."
"Um."
...
"What do you want me to help you with?" After closing the door, Phil Gray slowly walked to the sofa and sat down, his gaze fixed on Ilya. "You made this request after hearing that I possess the Death Stone. I guess it must be related to the power of death, right?"
Yi Lai Zhe nodded, took a deep breath as if considering how to begin, and then said, "Before I state my request, I want to be frank with you about something. I suppose you've always been quite curious about these undead spirits behind me, haven't you?"
As he finished speaking, the undead who had been laughing and playing around instantly stopped and stood quietly to the side.
They watched the people talking silently, their presence filled with a silent power.
“Yes.” Phil Gray was practically dying of curiosity.
He had actually wondered if this seemingly young but hoarse-voiced fellow was actually an old monster, and that the spirits following him were his subordinates who were haunting him.
However, he dismissed this conjecture, arguing that the elders must have watched Yi Lai Zhe grow up, and it was unlikely that an old man would be chosen as the Holy Son.
Moreover, these undead did not treat Yilaizhe as an enemy; on the contrary, they seemed to be subtly protecting him.
Yi Lai Zhe's voice interrupted his wandering thoughts: "Actually, these spirits are all my ancestors."
"What? Your ancestors?"
"ancestor?"
Phil Gray and Eli asked in unison.
Yi Lai Zhe slowly turned around, pointed to the men and women, young and old who had become ghosts, and said in a low but firm voice: "Yes, they are all my ancestors. Some lived hundreds of years ago, and some came from an even more distant era—thousands of years ago, or even ten thousand years ago..." His gaze was filled with sorrow and grief that transcended time.
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