Lord of Prayer

Chapter 604: Chapter 387: Li Xiye’s Gift

10:00 PM.

After seeing Sasha back to her hospital room to rest, Zhou Chen and Erin finally had some time alone.

"Want to go for a walk?" Zhou Chen asked as they left the medical department building.

"Huh?" Erin froze for a moment. A flash of panic crossed her eyes, but she quickly forced herself to calm down.

’He’s asking me to go for a walk this late... He’s not thinking... thinking of taking me to a hotel, is he?’

’Even though... even though we’re officially a couple, isn’t this too fast? We only just held hands...’

Erin couldn’t help but let her imagination run wild. Thanks to the internet, she was no longer a naive girl who knew nothing. She was well aware of what it meant when a guy invited a girl out so late. Nine times out of ten, it ended with them getting a hotel room and doing... adult things.

As the child of a noble family, she had been raised with strict etiquette and rules. She was actually very conservative about *that* sort of thing, believing it was best to save her first time for her wedding night. But the passionate feelings surging within her were slowly eroding her reason and resolve. The sweet, budding romance made her want to do something more intimate with Zhou Chen, and it also made it very difficult to refuse his request.

Fervent emotion clashed with her ingrained principles, leaving Erin deeply conflicted and in a difficult position.

After a short while, she seemed to have made up her mind. Biting her lip lightly, she said, "Let’s go."

An hour and a half later.

Erin returned to the entrance of the Star Association holding a box of grilled cold noodles, her face a mask of bewilderment and confusion.

Beside her, Zhou Chen was devouring a signature fried chicken leg from the night market. The juicy, golden-brown skin was sprinkled with black peppercorns, sea salt, and a fiery red ghost pepper sauce. The meat was tender and succulent. With every bite, the symphony of seasonings exploded on his taste buds. It was absolutely amazing, and he was thoroughly enjoying himself.

Erin couldn’t help but glance at him before looking away. She silently took a bite of her lukewarm grilled cold noodles, feeling utterly drained.

They had walked to a food night market three blocks away, wandered around, and then walked back.

That was it.

She had mentally prepared herself, but Zhou Chen hadn’t brought up *that* kind of thing at all. The entire time, they had just held hands properly. He didn’t even make a move when they walked through a deserted grove.

Erin’s emotions were a complicated mess. She didn’t know if she should be angry or happy.

When they reached the entrance of the Star Association, Erin saw the package lockers and suddenly remembered that Li Xiye had sent her a package. She took out her phone, opened her messages, and found the pickup code in the notification text. She then walked over to the locker and entered it.

CLICK. A small door in the upper left of the locker popped open. Zhou Chen reached in and took out the item. It was a small, light box.

"It’s so small?" Erin said in surprise. She had thought it was clothes.

"Doesn’t feel heavy enough to be jewelry, either," Zhou Chen added. He was also curious about what kind of gift Li Xiye had sent.

He finished his chicken leg in a few bites, then used Alchemy to conjure a sharp blade in his hand and sliced through the package’s tape.

He opened the box.

On the packaging inside, a few lines of large text caught their eyes.

—Ultra-Thin Texture, Lubricated and Smooth, Spiral Ribbed, 12-Count Intimate Pack, Love Boldly, Super Thin 0.00001...

Damn!

Zhou Chen felt his vision go dark.

’She’s really messing with me, isn’t she!’

"This... This is..." Erin’s face instantly turned as red as if it were on fire, like an overheating steam engine.

Zhou Chen coughed, trying to act serious as he took the item out of the box. A sticky note fell from the back. Erin picked it up. It was in Li Xiye’s handwriting:

’Zhou Chen and I don’t use these, so it’s a waste to let them sit around. They’re yours now. Be safe. —By Li Xiye.’

Silence.

The silence was deafening.

After a long moment of quiet, Zhou Chen felt he should say something to break the awkwardness, but Erin spoke first.

"I-I’m going back now!"

Erin shoved the sticky note and the grilled cold noodles into Zhou Chen’s arms, then covered her burning face and scampered away toward the dorms.

"Hey..." Zhou Chen started to call after her, but on second thought, decided it was best to give Erin some time to process things. ’If I chase her now, she’ll probably explode on the spot, right?’

Erin ran all the way back to her temporary room at the Maple City Star Gathering. She dove onto her bed, buried her face in her pillow, and then hugged it while rolling back and forth, venting her embarrassment and shame. "AHHHHHHH..."

She never would have dreamed that Li Xiye would send her *that* kind of thing... Was that something you could just give away to people?!

It was simply... simply... shameless!

But speaking of shameless, she, who had been letting her imagination run wild about that very thing just moments ago, wasn’t much better. She had completely forgotten the dignity of a noble and elegant lady.

At this thought, Erin rolled around on the bed even more frantically, wishing she could dig a hole and crawl into it.

’She should be fine...’

Zhou Chen sent a few messages to comfort Erin, telling her not to overthink it, but he received no reply.

He put the things away and sent a few more messages to Erin after returning to his temporary dorm, but still there was no reply.

’I’ll just let her cool down for a bit.’

Zhou Chen then messaged Li Xiye, asking why she sent it.

Li Xiye’s reply was concise: "Be safe. Don’t get anyone pregnant."

This left Zhou Chen completely speechless. His hand hovered over the keyboard, unsure of what to say.

Li Xiye waited for a moment, then suddenly sent another message: "Did you start already?"

Zhou Chen was even more exasperated. He typed back to clarify: "Start my ass. We went back to our own dorms. Erin probably couldn’t handle it so soon."

"Fine. Just remember to use them when the time comes."

"..."

’What is all this...?’ Zhou Chen pinched the bridge of his nose. Seeing no further reply from Li Xiye, he scrolled through videos while finishing the rest of the grilled cold noodles, then went to take a shower.

Feeling refreshed, he emerged from the bathroom, sat cross-legged on his bed, and closed his eyes to enter Meditation. His consciousness ascended, arriving at the Round Table Hall.

At that moment, a dozen or so members were gathered in the ancient and solemn Round Table Hall. They were mainly exchanging information and intelligence, as well as trading Extraordinary Items.

Under Eva’s management, the number of members in the Round Table Hall was growing. Gatherings like this were not uncommon, and some members had even met in reality and formed Extraordinary groups.

The number of members with the Prayer System had now reached seven hundred. Among them were true believers in the "Lamp God," like Lin Ya. After numerous comparisons, Eva discovered that believers both received and provided more Prayer Points than others.

Therefore, Eva had resumed her missionary work. She sought out potential believers, granted them the Prayer System, and guided them to become devout followers of the "Lamp God." Eva would often appear as the "Lamp God" to preside over gatherings, occasionally respond to prayers, and assist members in crisis, all to maintain the "Lamp God’s" mysterious and powerful image.

Honestly, without Eva, Zhou Chen had no idea how long it would have taken him to achieve this on his own; a person’s energy is finite, after all. But now with Eva, his coronation as a Crowned King was just around the corner.

Zhou Chen didn’t disturb the members’ gathering. He appeared beside the Wishing Fountain, materialized a table, and procured a Crystal Ball for divination.

He was going to divine the source of the terrible premonition in his heart.

After a moment of deliberation, Zhou Chen made a wish, stating his divination request:

"Tell me the source of my uneasy premonition."

[Prayer Points -1000]

[Current Prayer Points: 369]

Lately, Zhou Chen had been running into high-Status Ascenders and had also hired Marvin as a bodyguard, so he had been spending quite a few Prayer Points. He had just saved up a little over a thousand, and now they were gone. Fortunately, at the current scale of the Round Table Hall, accumulating Prayer Points wouldn’t be too slow.

"A thousand points?" Zhou Chen frowned. He was currently in the Prayer Space; even with the amplification here, it still cost a thousand points?

Just then, a hazy, illusory scene appeared in the Crystal Ball. He focused his gaze and saw the towering walls of a prison, the Red Moon hanging high in the sky and emitting an ominous, blood-colored light, and the crazed face of Dupe.

Immediately after, the image in the Crystal Ball changed violently, showing fragmented scenes like a glitching TV screen before finally going dark.

And in that darkness, a pair of infinitely magnificent eyes opened, radiating a divine light that illuminated the world. The blinding brilliance rushed toward him like a torrent.

"Argh!" Zhou Chen suddenly cried out, clutching his head as he collapsed to the ground. The white mist around him churned violently, and the entire Prayer Space trembled. The members who were gathered were startled.

CRACK!

The divination Crystal Ball exploded into a cloud of dust, and the divine light vanished.

A few minutes later, Zhou Chen finally regained his ability to think. He pushed himself up with difficulty, steadying himself on the edge of the Wishing Fountain.

"Fuck, what the hell was that..."

Zhou Chen cursed as he rubbed his head. If he hadn’t been in the Prayer Space with its Power amplification, that impact would have been enough to destroy his Soul!

Even so, he felt awful. His thoughts were a chaotic mess, and his head was splitting.

"Restore my condition," he wished.

[Prayer Points -10]

Zhou Chen’s thoughts gradually cleared, and his headache faded.

With a thought, he commanded the white mist to sweep in and annihilate the dust from the exploded Crystal Ball, erasing all traces of the divination to prevent the entity from tracking him through the connection.

He had guessed the divination would involve a high-Status Power before he started, but he never imagined it would be *this* high!

Zhou Chen had seen plenty of Crowned Kings and had even felt the pressure of a Demigod. The feeling he got from those eyes was clearly Demigod-Level Power!

"Prison, Red Moon, Dupe..." Zhou Chen clutched his forehead, recalling the images he had seen.

All these elements combined were practically concrete proof that the defecting Life Church Regional Bishop, Ke Feng, was one of Dupe’s men!

In other words, Dupe really had plagiarized the "Ghost’s" ritual!

"But why did the divination lead to a Demigod...?"

The magnificent eyes appeared in Zhou Chen’s mind again, and a flash of inspiration struck him. ’Could that be the malevolent entity that granted the "Ghost" its Future Vision? That’s right. "White Bird" said that entity was Demigod Level.’

"Hiss... To be able to withstand the impact from a Demigod, the Status of the Prayer Space must be very high too. At least Demigod Level..."

’Based on the divination, Dupe must be performing the Red Moon ritual in some prison and summoned that malevolent entity? No, it’s more like the divination pointed directly to the entity itself. That’s a common occurrence in the field of divination. I need to be more careful with divination in the future, I can’t be so careless.’

’Hmm... But it’s also possible that Dupe did summon the entity. After all, the ritual mentioned "awakening the slumbering Evil God with the souls of the sacrifice."’

’Right, that malevolent entity has a powerful corrupting Ability. Just knowing its name can lead to corruption. It glanced at me... there won’t be any problems, will there?’

Zhou Chen immediately manipulated the Power of the Prayer Space to scan for and eliminate any threats. Fortunately, he didn’t find any issues. The Prayer Space’s Status was high enough, and its Power was strong enough to block the danger. No matter how you looked at it, it was just an image from a divination. Even the Power leaked by a Demigod would be extremely limited.

"If Dupe’s ritual succeeds, a Demigod Tier malevolent entity might awaken. That would be an absolute disaster..."

Zhou Chen pondered for a moment before returning his consciousness to reality. He pulled out his phone, and just as he was about to dial the "Prophet’s" number, his ringtone went off.

The caller ID was none other than "Prophet"!

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