Master the Abyss, starting from an apprentice priest.

Chapter 573: Order Killer, Mutual Assistance Association

Holy Abyss.

On the golden throne, Luo Xiu gazed at the petite figure standing quietly in the hall before him.

Indis, the leader of the Apostles of the Holy Abyss, the "Faceless One"—who is now the "Blood Witch" of the fifth level of the [Crimson Lotus] destiny—returned to the "Holy Abyss" in response to the summons of her lord after completing her hunt and advancement.

At this moment, the aura emanating from Indis in front of me is completely different from before.

Her spirit seemed to be boiling. Although she still appeared cold and serene, Luo Xiu could feel that the blood in his only companion was burning. The "Destroyer" had indeed given her new power.

"...Your Excellency."

Indis bowed to her "Lord" on the golden throne.

Her voice trembled slightly, both respectful and trembling with excitement, as she spoke:

"I have achieved it—I have fulfilled your expectations!"

"I have hunted down Moon Westbrook, the 'Skullpiercer' of the Mutual Aid Society. The blood of the Saint of [Bitter Tea] has also been successfully used as fuel for the [Blood Feast Ritual]. I saw the 'Obsidian Gate' within the ritual, opened it, and passed through it!"

“I have ascended, Lord. I am now the ‘Blood Witch’.”

"..."

Intis said these things.

The more she told her "Lord," the more excited she became.

This gave her previously pale and thin face a hazy red glow, and her emerald green eyes were tinged with crimson at the edges due to the restless, vibrant spirit of blood.

Luo Xiu simply smiled as he looked at her, while simultaneously opening the [Fountain of Spirit] panel.

From this divine object containing abundant spiritual energy, Luo Xiu extracted enough experience points to allow Indis to leap to the middle level of the "Fivefold Destiny Path". He raised his right hand and extended his finger towards Indis. The abundant spiritual energy seemed to materialize, bursting forth with dazzling light at Luo Xiu's fingertip.

—Wow!!

The sound of flowing water emanated from the source, and the spirituality extracted from the [Fountain of Spirituality] quickly transformed into pale white silk, which swirled and hovered around Indis.

That intangible and pure spirituality then slowly flowed into Indis's body—

Indis clearly felt her power soaring, rising from the initial level of the "Fivefold Destiny" to a higher and deeper realm.

This process must have been painful for Indis of [Crimson Lotus]—

But Indis enjoyed the pain. Even though her body felt like it was being torn apart and bursting, she just gritted her teeth and a pleasant, joyful expression gradually appeared on her face.

"Thank you for your gift... Your Majesty..."

"..."

She let out a slightly hoarse voice from between her teeth, and in Luo Xiu's panel detection, "Blood Witch" Indis's level had gradually risen from the initial lv.40 of "Fivefold Fate" to lv.49, which was close to the median value of "Fivefold Fate".

This can be considered a "reward" for Indis's promotion, and a special incentive for her "fellowship".

This was also a reward—Indis successfully hunted down "Skullpicker" Moon Westbrook, who was also the target that Luo Xiu had designated to kill when the opportunity arose.

“Very good, Indis.”

After gazing at Indis and having nearly absorbed all that intangible and pure spirituality, Luo Xiu smiled and said to her:
“You have not disappointed me. This is your reward, Indis. Congratulations on finally reaching the level of ‘Sainthood’.”

"..."

As Luo Xiu spoke, the blush on Indis's face grew even brighter.

She felt quite excited, even though she should have felt weaker than ever after just being promoted—

But it was at this moment that her inner desires were hardest to suppress, and the new power bestowed upon her by her "Lord" truly satisfied her.

"So,"

Luo Xiu continued to gaze at Indis, then asked her—

"Did you find anything from the 'Skullpick' Moon Westbrook at the Confederate stronghold, Intis?"

"Regarding the clues about those 'Order Killers' that I asked you to investigate."

This was the task that Luo Xiu had assigned to Indis, who had been conducting investigations in Songyuan City for some time.

Thanks to the extensive network and intelligence support of the Gold Country Bank, Intis learned that things related to the "Order Killer" were going very smoothly.

Of course, she did not conduct the investigation directly under the name of "Order Killer," but rather investigated intelligence related to "Hayek Nolan," "Austonville Nolan," and "Harkasville Nolan."

Hayek and Harcasville, these two members of the imperial family, were known to Luo Xiu to be "Order Killers".

As for Austinville and Harcasville, the two "Red Crown Princes" who held the highest positions in the empire, the clues related to them are not difficult to trace.

With the help of President Jordwin of the "Golden Country Bank," Intis was able to easily trace some of the unusual fund flows.

Because the "Golden Country Bank" was an overseas bank for them, the Order Killers, it was indeed much more convenient than the Imperial Bank for certain shady transactions.

The "Golden Country Bank" was not actually a monolithic entity.

Among the several golden families that hold major shareholder positions, there are also a few high-ranking members who have reached some kind of deep cooperation with the "Order Killers" within the empire.

Among them are core senior executives who are at the same level as President Qiao Dewen, or even have higher authority levels than him.

Luo Xiu had previously heard Indis report to him that President Qiao Dewen had used his authority to find out that a huge sum of money from the Chamber of Commerce under the name of "Hayek Nolan" had flowed into the bank account of a member of the Mutual Aid Association under an alias.

Although this wasn't core intelligence, it did give Indis a breakthrough—the "Skullpitter" Moon, lurking in Songyuan City, was the middle node in the flow of that unknown funds.

Moon usually goes by the alias "Lorne Brooke" and works as an administrative staff member specially hired by the Department of Justice. His employer is one of the "Order Killers"—

According to the intelligence obtained by Intis's investigation, the person was a "Supreme" arbitrator, a mole specifically planted in the Department of Justice's branch.

The Order Killers chose to cooperate with the "Mutual Aid Society" because they needed these [Bitter Tea] assassins to help them eliminate potentially threatening troublemakers.

As "Skullpick" Moon-Intis learned, he had already launched several operations against the "Round Table" in Matsubara territory.

According to reliable sources, the former eighth and fifth seats of the Round Table were both assassinated by the "Commonwealth," and both were killed by Moon. The Round Table has issued a warrant for his arrest. Moon's actions are not limited to the "Supreme" Knights of the Round Table; he has also assassinated two holy deacons and one bishop of the Grand Church, and two Sages' Chairs of the Grand College.
Two of these operations were successful, with the perpetrators escaping unscathed on both occasions, and one involving a perilous retreat after sustaining serious injuries.

The opportune moment for Luo Xiu to have Indis "hunt" him was precisely after he was severely injured—

"..."

"some."

Intis nodded.

Then, she took out a brand-new piece of silk paper from the bracelet on her right wrist. It contained a list and briefings on several operations, written in fresh ink.

The Mutual Aid Society and the Order Killers have a cooperative relationship. As one of the leaders lurking in Pinewood City, Mu En must have some information about the Order Killers.

He was well hidden, but Indis, besides not being destined for [Bitter Tea], was also an assassin skilled in stealth, so he was naturally good at discovering hiding places. Therefore, finding out the information about Moon's hiding place was not difficult.

Instead of taking the original list and intelligence documents from Moon's room, Intis transcribed them into an appendix. She then handed this transcribed appendix to Luo Xiu, who took it.

Looking at the white silk paper, Luo Xiu was shocked to see a row of code names and the places where they were hiding.

Those were mostly distributed in Songyuan City, and the majority of them were officials of the highest rank, and some were even clergy of the General Church and scholars of the General Academy.

It is obvious that the Law Hall of Songyuan City has been deeply infiltrated by the "Order Killers".

It seems that the same thing happened in the end in my previous life... Luo Xiu thought to himself.

The "war of judgment" in the previous life did not actually proceed so smoothly.

Therefore, the empire's ultimate fate was very close to disintegration because the Dark Principality and the Holy Tower Theocracy, which had previously swept into the empire's territory, had diverted too much of the empire's orthodox "Supreme" power, allowing the Order Killers to discover an opportunity to completely overthrow the empire's rule and take its place.

The “Order Killers” pose a significant and undeniable threat to the Empire and even to themselves, regardless of how the trial war unfolds.

Luo Xiu thought to himself that there were actually two paths he could take with the "Order Killers". From the perspective of turning away from the Empire, he could actually make the "Holy Abyss" and the "Order Killers" have a mutually beneficial relationship.

But Luo Xiu also knew that the dark side of these "supreme" powers was essentially aimed at destroying the existing order.

Cooperation with them is not a stable guarantee; they can only be used as "weapons" to be wielded. Therefore, Luo Xiu can only take the second path: use them until he has accumulated enough power to destroy them.

"..."

He thought to himself, then looked at the paper in his hand.

Among the recorded Order Killers whose rank was below the "Triple Fate Path," Luo Xiu saw that most of them were numbered as code names, with only a few having their real names directly registered. That might be some kind of attention-grabbing or identification/confusion tactic.

The "Fourfold Fate" uses words as code names, such as "Burning Iron Cavalry," "The Hedonist," "Secret Blessing Master," and "Thorn Rose." Luo Xiu didn't know who each of those code names actually referred to.

However, through the information obtained from "General Lionheart" Pampas, who had been transformed into an "Apostle of the Holy Abyss"—Pampas's codename among the Killers seemed to be "Fang of the Roaring Lion"—Luo Xiu indeed saw this codename at the end of the list he was copying in his hand.

Perhaps Pampas could be asked to "translate" this list, Luo Xiu thought to himself.

Alongside "The Lion's Fang," two other codenames—"Lament" and "Noble Red"—were written on it.

Only the word "mourning" was crossed out—the part that Intis copied seemed to be copied from the original and then crossed out... Was that perhaps the illegitimate son of the former Marquis Bakal, "Vellino Bakal"? Does the crossing out mean... he is actually dead?

"..."

Luo Xiu guessed that there was another "pure red"... which meant that there was another [Supreme] five-fold destiny killer in the Round Table or the Hall of Justice?
Could that be the code name of the confirmed Order Killer, the former seventh seat of the Round Table, "Yasod Gates"?
But why wasn't it crossed out?

"..."

Luo Xiu's mind wandered as he thought about these things, but he didn't delve into them for too long.

This was actually all the information that Moon, the "Skullpick" of the Mutual Aid Society, could obtain.

The list of "Order Killers" whose highest level of destiny is only five is not a significant threat to him. Its main purpose is to encourage the Church and the subordinates of the Holy Abyss to take precautions or launch targeted attacks.

Another transcribed report details the operation—it primarily records some of the action plans of the "Order Killers" and the Mutual Aid Society.

Luo Xiu saw it—they had planned to assassinate Lord Gawain, but failed; they had planned to assassinate Albert, the leader of the Round Table, but failed; they had planned to assassinate Bishop Luo Xiu Carlos of the Red Maple City Church, but canceled the plan…

"..."

"Ok?"

Luo Xiu became alert.

Although most of the actions of the Order Killers and the Mutual Aid Society failed, the last operation was one that Luo Xiu had not expected. The Order Killers and the Mutual Aid Society eventually canceled the operation, seemingly intimidated by the terrifying strength they had displayed in a short period of time.

But there is no doubt that the other party must have been motivated to kill because of what happened at the bottom of the Blood Cave. Since they couldn't confirm whether it was me, they decided to eliminate me first.

The ultimate mastermind behind it must have been Hayek, that royal nobleman of the empire, "Hayek Nolan".

However, he unexpectedly advanced to the "Sixth Destiny" in a short period of time, causing the other party to abandon their plan.

Or perhaps Pampas of "Lionheart" was the one who carried out the plan, but it was because of Pampas's feedback to the higher levels of the Order Killers that they ultimately chose to give up.

--grass.

For some reason, Luo Xiu had the feeling that he was the one being gossiped about.

"...This intelligence is very valuable, Indis."

After putting away the piece of paper that Index had given him, Luo Xiu said to Index:
“‘Skullpitter’ Moon is dead. The Killers who are still lurking in Pine Plains City, as well as the members of the ‘Mutual Aid Society’, will definitely be shaken. Remember to hide yourself well, Indis. If necessary, you can return to ‘Holy Abyss’ to avoid some trouble.”

"You have just advanced to the fifth level of destiny, and your power as the 'Blood Witch' is not yet stable. From now on, I will not give you any new tasks. You are free to move around and focus more on consolidating your own strength or managing the Iris Merchant Guild."

"..."

"As you wish, Your Majesty."

Intis responded respectfully.

……

(End of this chapter)