Exorcist's Self-Cultivation

Minette's pain was perhaps incomprehensible to the average person.

The man she loved, who was obsessed with her, had ordered his subordinates to kill her.

First it was Alfaria.

Then the Envelope and the shadow.

Minette felt she had always been kept in the dark, a Puppet pulled by the strings of her beloved, who never cared about her feelings and never felt the slightest affection for her.

"So, was I just deluding myself?"

With tears in her eyes, Minette said mockingly, "So why did you come into my life, why did you help me, and why did you save me?"

"If you wanted to kill me, you could have done it from the start."

"And now you resort to these means to deal with me."

"Do you know? This is torture for me."

"What exactly did I do wrong for you to treat me like this?"

The aura emanating from Minette grew colder and colder, as did her heart, which had completely chilled.

The so-called obsession.

The so-called love.

At this moment, it was nothing but a joke.

"I want nothing now, I only want an answer."

Minette felt dead inside as she clutched the long sword, her azure eyes filled with hatred and sorrow to the extreme.

Her gaze pointed directly at Lake Island.

"My intuition tells me you're there."

"So please tell me why."

...

Elsewhere.

In the forest shrouded in dense fog.

The faint mist was tinged with the scent of blood, after a slaughter had taken place here before.

The members of the Vanity Sect fought against Gascogne and others.

Some were weak, others strong.

But on the whole, the strength of the Vanity Sect was just a bit greater.

...

A breeze blew.

Gascogne could only feel a chill emanating around him as he leaned against a large tree, one hand holding a Flintlock Gun, the other gripping a cross.

The cross was not made of silver.

Its surface was covered with some sort of grey substance, looking as if it was painted over.

The cross was not very large.

He could grasp its entirety in one hand, and if he extended his hand now, it would be evident that the cross was an Inverse Cross.

The church's iconic cross with the middle bar much higher up.

An Inverse Cross equates to Satan and sometimes refers to demons, devils, and other such beings.

Religion was mainstream during the Victorian Era.

But the choice of power was not constrained by faith.

Everyone has devils inside them.

Of course...

Du Wei certainly didn't, because according to Freddy, he was a devil himself.

At this moment.

Gascogne felt very uneasy.

He had already concealed all his presence, and with the help of the cross, basically no one could detect him.

Now, he had been hiding for a while.

The screams and moans from the earlier slaughter had already ceased.

But Gascogne knew those people hadn't left.

Because the fog had not lifted.

He couldn't help but think to himself, "Damn it, why did the Vanity Sect attack us, have they gone mad?"

In the distant past.

The Vanity Sect had always maintained a bizarre modus operandi, as well as a mystery known by none.

But they had never before attacked hunters.

Well... it might also be that such incidents never made it out.

Suddenly...

Crunch...

It sounded like leaves or branches being crushed.

Something stirred in Gascogne's heart, and he instantly pricked up his ears to listen carefully.

The noise was getting closer.

Gradually, cold sweat began to bead on Gascogne's forehead.

His heartbeat also accelerated, but fortunately, the cross concealed him, otherwise he would have been discovered long ago.

"Is it someone from the Vanity Sect?"

"Or someone else?"

No sooner had the second thought appeared than Gascogne dismissed it, knowing that under these conditions, even if there were any living people, they would not be able to walk in the fog.

Otherwise, what would be the difference from seeking death?

What's different from the future him is this.

Although this era's Gascogne was a sycophant, he was more rational and not blinded by power.

He kept himself calm.

He was prepared for the possibility of remaining undiscovered, as well as the possibility of being discovered and then fighting desperately to escape.

But...

Suddenly...

Gascogne heard a scream.

The scream was too sharp, and very close to him.

So close it was within arm's reach.

Gascogne's pupils shrank violently as he heard the scream right behind him.

To be precise, it was behind the trunk he was leaning on.

"Foolish pigs! Which idiot really ran out here."

The scream was definitely from one of his own people.

That meant the thought he had just dismissed was actually true.

Gascogne's face turned very ugly.

Because the dead person was right behind the trunk he was leaning against, at such a close range, the murderer need only to walk over to spot his presence.

You don't fear a god-like opponent, but fear a pig-like ally.

Behind a tree big enough to require three people to encircle it.

A body knelt on the ground.

His chest had been pierced by a sharp blade, his heart already shattered.

Blood was gushing out as if a faucet had been turned on, unabashedly spurting forth.

Pfft...

The head of the body suddenly twisted one hundred eighty degrees.

So much so that blood surged upward, the blood vessels bulging, with eyes swollen and the whites filled with blood vessels.

The eyes of the corpse stared stiffly at the tree trunk.

Gascogne felt only the thick malice locking onto him.

A cold fear gripped his heart.

This malice was accumulating but not bursting forth, like a cruel butcher sliding a knife back and forth across his neck, torturing his spirit.

Gascogne knew he had been discovered.

He could no longer hold back, and he charged out, attempting to fight the other with a death wish.

But when he saw the corpse behind the tree, his eyes widened in shock.

Because the dead person was wearing a black robe.

That was someone from the Vanity Sect.

"How could this be..."

Gascogne had always considered himself strong, capable of taking on anyone from the Vanity Sect alone, and even if he couldn't defeat them, he could still escape.

But for others, there was only a path to death.

Not to mention someone capable of killing a member of the Vanity Sect.

Yet the reality before his eyes forced Gascogne to be shaken.

"Could it be that someone concealed their strength?"

Gascogne's eyes were gloomy and dark, and he cautiously retreated, wanting to leave quickly.

But the head of the corpse turned its back started to slowly rotate back.

Creak...

The sound of bone friction instinctively caused discomfort.

A pair of eyes filled with blood vessels, carrying the coldness of death, looked towards Gascogne.

Behind him.

An Evil Spirit Scalpel appeared silently.

It went straight through Gascogne's heart.

The shadowy figure was like an assassin. After extracting the Evil Spirit Scalpel, it vanished without a trace.

In the absence of explicit instructions.

The shadow was free.

It instinctively slaughtered everything in front of it.

As for the relationship between the Vanity Sect and its master, the shadow's intelligence could not discern it.

Unfortunately, it was Du Wei's shadow.

Whatever it did, in a certain sense, was condoned.