Chapter 278 | Paladin Class: Awakening the Strongest Demon System

The golden light on the Eight Extremities Holy Sword lit up once more, stable and solid, like a lamp reignited in a dark room.

Immediately after, the middle layer's spatial anchoring activated.

A silver-white halo rose from the second ring of patterns, intertwining and overlapping with the dark red binding aura, forming a doubly sealed zone.

Blood Raven's body was anchored within that small pocket of space, making even the motion of lifting his hand extremely slow.

Then came the inner sacrificial array.

Jiang Lin chanted the prayer in a low voice, but every syllable landed with absolute precision onto the altar's base.

Dark red light welled up from the array core, spreading level by level along the third ring of patterns, soaking the entire ground floor of the watchtower in a flowing crimson.

Blood Raven finally began to struggle.

The dark red blood mist on his body churned frantically like an angered swarm of bees, repeatedly battering the edges of the binding array and spatial anchoring.

The outer halo flickered violently a few times, cracking with several fine lines, but it did not shatter.

He could still hold on for a little longer.

Jiang Lin did not give him enough time.

He raised his right hand, closing his fingers together, and made a squeezing motion toward Blood Raven from afar.

The Demon Lord Seed inside the depths of his heart trembled slightly.

A cold energy originating from the same source as the altar surged down his arm and merged into the altar's dark red light, causing the crimson halo to suddenly thicken several times over.

Blood Raven's pupils contracted sharply.

“You...”

His voice was cut off before he could finish.

Dark red threads of light surged from the altar's base like countless fine tentacles, wrapping around his limbs, torso, and neck.

The moment the threads of light contacted the blood mist, they seemed to recognize their own kind. Far from repelling it, they wrapped even tighter.

The blood mist was being “assimilated” by the altar's threads of light.

They no longer formed a protective layer, but instead became channels for absorption.

The connection made Jiang Lin feel surges of warm energy flowing through the altar's base and into his meridians.

“I accepted a quest,” Jiang Lin said, his voice as calm as if he were discussing the weather. “Hunt Secret Cult High Priest Blood Raven. The description said to confirm his location and eliminate him, but it never said I couldn't sacrifice him...”

By the time he finished speaking, Blood Raven's struggles had already grown feeble.

The threads of light completely enveloped his body, freezing his movements in the posture of his final struggle, like an insect trapped in amber.

The power within his body was being extracted, refined, and funneled into the altar's core at an ever-increasing speed.

The power surged along the base into Jiang Lin's meridians, circulating through his dantian and continuously swelling his total pool of 5th-Rank early stage magic essence.

The altar's light finally began to recede.

The dark red halo receded layer by layer from Blood Raven's body like an ebbing tide, revealing the completely lifeless husk beneath.

Jiang Lin watched the figure slowly collapse.

He didn't immediately check Blood Raven's corpse. Instead, he walked over to the altar first, pressing his hand against the base to feel the remaining residual energy.

The sacrificial conversion rate was extremely high. Over ninety percent of the power within Blood Raven had been drained dry, and what remained was no longer enough to pose any threat.

The altar slowly dimmed beneath his feet, the rune patterns extinguishing layer by layer.

He retrieved a purification reagent from his spatial ring and dripped a few drops along the edge of the altar's base.

Only after doing all this did he walk over to Blood Raven's corpse, confirming that the man had completely lost all signs of life.

His gaze lingered for a moment on the withered, distorted face, and then he pulled out a dark red crystal pendant from the inner lining of Blood Raven's worn robe.

Stowing away the pendant, he checked Blood Raven's personal belongings again.

A few magic crystals, a small scroll carved with runes, and a bone token of unrecognizable purpose.

He stored everything he could take into his spatial ring, then poured the rest of the purification reagent over the corpse.

The light blue reagent dissolved, evaporated, and dissipated amid the dark red light.

Jiang Lin stood on the gradually dimming ground, feeling the newly surged power slowly settling within his body.

The bottleneck of the 5th-Rank early stage had loosened the moment the sacrifice was completed, leaving him just one step away from the 5th-Rank mid-stage.

He estimated that after cultivating on his own for a bit longer, he should be able to break through to the 5th-Rank mid-stage.

But truth be told, the evil god's cut was incredibly steep.

Even after sacrificing a 7th-Rank powerhouse, he, a mere 5th-Rank early stage, couldn't even reach the 5th-Rank mid-stage.

He flexed his stiff fingers and confirmed that the items in his spatial ring were all neatly organized.

Then he squatted down, gathered the remaining fragments of the altar on the ground into a pile, and packed them into a bag retrieved from his spatial ring.

Those fragments could not be left here. The traces of tonight had to be thoroughly cleaned up, just as completely as the previous two times in Anvil Town and the mine.

After completing his work, he stood up and reactivated the short-range teleportation array in the corner.

A silver-white light flashed briefly across the bottom floor of the ruined watchtower, and his figure vanished on the spot along with the bag of fragments.

...

When he reappeared at the drainage outlet in the western outskirts of Shadow City, the sky was already beginning to turn a very faint grayish-blue.

The darkness before dawn was the deepest and the least likely to be noticed.

He silently made his way back to his quarters along the base of the city wall, climbed through the window into his room, took off his dust-stained outer coat, and stuffed it into a corner of his spatial ring.

Returning to his room, Jiang Lin stored his changed clothes deep within his spatial ring and wiped the dust off the soles of his boots with a damp cloth. Only after confirming that no traces remained did he sit down on the edge of the bed.

The magic essence inside his body was still churning.

The power from Blood Raven's sacrifice flowed slowly through his meridians. Although most of it had settled, a small residue remained undigested.

He could feel the bottleneck of the 5th-Rank mid-stage just ahead, thin as freshly formed winter ice on a river—one could see the water flowing beneath, but it wasn't yet time to shatter it with a single step.

He closed his eyes and circulated his breathing technique, letting the magic essence cycle through his meridians for several revolutions.

The residual power was gradually absorbed, causing his total magic essence to rise slightly, but there was still some distance to go before reaching the 5th-Rank mid-stage.

After all, Blood Raven had only recently broken through to the 7th-Rank, so his realm was unstable, and the power in his body was incomplete to begin with. Combined with the evil god's cut, what was left for Jiang Lin was indeed meager.

However, it was more than enough.

It was the perfect excuse to raise his “apparent strength” within the Secret Cult hierarchy.

He stayed in his room until daybreak.

As the morning light filtered through the eastern window, he stood up and walked to the mirror. Looking at his disguised, thin, and pale face, he mentally adjusted his aura to the threshold of an imminent breakthrough.

It was a very subtle state.

It felt as though a surge of energy, suppressed to its absolute limit within his body, was churning and could burst through its bounds at any moment.

Yet it lacked that final push, always falling just a tiny bit short.

When he stepped out of his room, Big Guy was squatting on the stone steps by the courtyard gate, chewing on a piece of dry flatbread.

Hearing footsteps, he glanced over at Jiang Lin. His gaze lingered on Jiang Lin's body for two breaths before he retracted his eyes and continued chewing his flatbread without saying anything.

But the speed of his chewing slowed down slightly.

Jiang Lin sat down on the stone step beside him, pulled out half a piece of dry ration from his vest, and began to eat slowly as well.

Separated by about an arm's length, the morning sun shone diagonally over the courtyard wall, casting two parallel shadows on the blue-brick ground.

“Your aura was a bit unstable last night,” Big Guy said, swallowing his last bite of flatbread and dusting the crumbs off his hands. “Are you about to break through?”

Jiang Lin's chewing did not pause.

He replied, “Almost. I probably won't be able to disguise it anymore. I'll be breaking through to the 4th-Rank soon.”

Big Guy nodded, asking no further questions.

He naturally knew that Jiang Lin was far past the 3rd-Rank.

But since Jiang Lin put it that way, it meant someone nearby was watching them.

His own perception hadn't detected anything, but Jiang Lin had already sensed it.

...

That afternoon, Jiang Lin met the gray-robed deacon in the small room he had visited several times before.

The deacon sat behind his desk with a document spread out in front of him, a quill resting beside an inkwell as if he were handling some routine business.

Seeing Jiang Lin enter, he set down the papers in his hand, his gaze lingering on Jiang Lin for a moment.

“The magic essence fluctuations inside your body are somewhat unstable,” the deacon spoke, his tone flat, carrying a routine sort of scrutiny. “Your aura is fluctuating. Are you about to break through?”

“Yes,” Jiang Lin said, standing three paces from the desk with his head slightly bowed. “While cultivating these past few days, I've felt like I can't suppress it anymore. It will likely happen in the next couple of days.”

The deacon fell silent for a moment, then nodded slightly.

“A breakthrough is a good thing. For an official Holy Son candidate, having a 3rd-Rank peak cultivation is not considered weak. Once you actually break through, I will have someone arrange new tasks for you.”

He paused, then added:

“Go out less over the next two days and focus on regulating your breath. When you break through, make sure not to cause too much of a commotion.”

Jiang Lin first showed a look of slight bewilderment, then thanked him:

“Thank you, Lord Deacon.”

He played it as though he had never known the other party had “seen through” his “3rd-Rank peak” status, putting on a surprised face.

As Jiang Lin turned and walked out of the room, he felt an extremely faint gaze from the corner of the corridor linger briefly on his back before moving away.

The old-robed man.

He didn't show himself, but Jiang Lin knew he was there.

Lately, whenever he had nothing to do, he would come to secretly check up on Jiang Lin and Big Guy.

However, after spending so many days together, Jiang Lin had long since learned how to see through his disguise.

...

After Jiang Lin left, the old-robed man stepped into the deacon's office.

“That kid has indeed reached the 3rd-Rank peak.”

“It seems he is indeed ruthless, but his experience is still too shallow. He was actually baited by me just like that.”

“If nothing else, his disguise methods are truly ingenious. I watched him in secret for so long, yet I never discovered that his 3rd-Rank early stage cultivation was a disguise.”

“If he hadn't sacrificed so many of his colleagues and rivals, his strength would definitely not have stagnated. I would have suspected he possessed even higher combat power.”

“Indeed. But it seems that as his breakthrough drew near these past few days, his 3rd-Rank peak cultivation became somewhat impossible to hide. Perhaps none of us can fully see through his disguise.”

“Exactly. That kid is truly terrifying. If he can grow and become a true Holy Son, he will surely bring a lot of trouble to those kingdoms under the Temple's jurisdiction.”

“Hmph, he is still a long way from becoming a true Holy Son. Out of a thousand candidates, there might not even be one pseudo-Holy Son. And out of a thousand pseudo-Holy Sons, there might not even be one true Holy Son...”

...

That night, Jiang Lin sat cross-legged on the hard board bed in his room, intentionally accelerating the circulation of the magic essence inside his body by thirty percent.

The liquid Holy Light magic essence in his meridians let out a faint hum, like a stirred whirlpool.

He controlled the amplitude of the hum, keeping it loud enough to penetrate the wall and reach Big Guy's perception next door, yet quiet enough to avoid drawing the attention of the high-ranking cultists further away.

He was waiting for the right moment.

On the morning of the third day, before the sky was fully bright, Jiang Lin pushed the circulation of the magic essence inside his body to a critical point.

At this moment, his disguised aura suddenly became unstable, as if torn open by the energy welling up from within.

In that instant, the 3rd-Rank peak aura expanded to the edge of the 4th-Rank early stage, receded slightly, surged up once more, and oscillated back and forth for about a dozen breaths before finally stabilizing at the level of the 4th-Rank early stage.

He did not make too much of a commotion.

The entire stone house did not shake, and the dust on the windowsill did not fall.

Only on the old locust tree outside the courtyard wall, a few leaves swayed gently in the morning breeze, like an airflow kicked up by something passing beneath.

He opened his eyes and exhaled a long breath.

That breath was mixed with a few faint golden specks of light, dispersing in mid-air.

The aura breakthrough was complete.

He sat on the bed for a moment longer, reinforcing his newly stabilized 4th-Rank early stage aura to ensure there were no flaws before standing up, pushing open the door, and walking out.

In the courtyard, Big Guy was already standing by the well, scooping up water with a wooden ladle to wash his face.

Hearing the door open behind him, he straightened up and glanced sideways at Jiang Lin. His gaze rested on Jiang Lin's body for a brief second before he lowered his head and continued washing his face as if nothing had happened.

“Broke through?”

“Yeah.”

Big Guy wiped his face with a wet cloth and set the wooden ladle back on the edge of the well.

“Congratulations,” he said in a flat tone that carried no extra emotion. However, Jiang Lin noticed that when he put down the ladle, the handle lingered in his palm for a breath longer before he let go.

Jiang Lin walked over to the well and scooped up a ladle of water as well.

The water was very cold, carrying the unique crispness of the underground.

He took a sip and placed the wooden ladle back where it belonged.

That afternoon, the gray-robed deacon sent someone to pass on a message, saying that the Bishop wanted to see him.

Jiang Lin followed the young gray-robed messenger through the afternoon streets of Shadow City, once again entering the side door of the black stone cathedral.

Ascending the spiral stone staircase to the third floor, he found the heavy wooden door half-open, with the afternoon sun shining through the crack alongside a faint scent of incense.