Lord of Prayer

Chapter 608: Chapter 391: Emperors Have Extremely Short Lifespans

An ordinary hotel.

Zhou Chen walked into the room and locked the door behind him. With a thought, a large cloud of metal shards materialized and floated in the air, instantly coalescing into an Alchemy Matrix. It lit up, releasing an invisible Sound Insulation Barrier.

He then wiped his face a few times, removing his disguise. He looked at the woman with the unfamiliar face in the room and said with some surprise, "Your disguise technique is pretty good."

If it weren’t for her familiar scent, he wouldn’t have recognized her as Jiang Che at all.

"I used the Hypnotic Pocket Watch," Jiang Che explained.

"Huh?" Zhou Chen was stunned. ’What does the Hypnotic Pocket Watch have to do with changing one’s appearance?’

Suddenly, he recalled that Jiang Che could use the Hypnotic Pocket Watch to hypnotize herself into an ordinary person with no Extraordinary Abilities, thereby hiding her identity as an Ascender. If the watch could accomplish something so incredible, changing her appearance seemed plausible too.

’So she hypnotized herself into looking like this, and she just... became like this? Then what if you hypnotized a man into being a woman, or a woman into being a man? Would their physical bodies actually change? What if you hypnotized an ordinary person into being an Ascender? Would they just awaken their powers?’ A series of wild ideas ran through Zhou Chen’s mind. The Hypnotic Pocket Watch was the powerful Forbidden Object C-003; theoretically, it should be able to do all these things.

A moment later, he collected his thoughts and asked, "Now that you’re here, what about things back at Jinzhu?"

"Lin Ya is covering for me. This is a covert operation. The fewer people who know, the better." Jiang Che sat on the bed and crossed her legs.

’A covert operation...’ Zhou Chen mused for a moment. "You came alone? No one gave you this mission?"

"I came on my own." Jiang Che pulled a tablet out of thin air, tapped it a few times, and flipped it around to show Zhou Chen. It displayed a search warrant issued by the Judgement Court, stamped with a solemn red seal. "Once this warrant is out, it’s only a matter of time before Dupe is arrested. And he definitely won’t go down without a fight. As long as he gets into a direct conflict with the Judgement Court, I’ll have a chance to pick up the pieces. Even if I don’t get that chance, I need to see him die with my own eyes."

"Based on current intel, I suspect Dupe has obtained the ritual that ’Ghost’ has been preparing. The defection of Ke Feng, the Bishop of the Feng City Life Church, was to provide him with the components for that ritual. Hai City is Dupe’s main base of operations. Now that he has nowhere to run, there’s a high probability he’ll perform the ritual here. That’s why I came. And after seeing you, I’m certain that’s his plan."

Jiang Che had run into Zhou Chen by chance on the street. They hadn’t shared their travel plans with each other. At this time, Zhou Chen should have been in Feng City getting cozy with Erin; he had no reason to be in Hai City. The only explanation was that the Prophet had given him another secret mission. With a little thought, it wasn’t hard to guess it was related to Dupe.

This actually irritated Jiang Che. She was Zhou Chen’s superior; even if he had a mission, she should have been notified first. But she hadn’t heard a thing, and this wasn’t the first time. More importantly, Zhou Chen was hiding things from her again, just like before. If she hadn’t happened to run into him and see through his disguise, she would have had no idea he was already in Hai City on a mission.

"If I recall correctly, I believe we’ve discussed the issue of trust before." Jiang Che put down her tablet and stared at Zhou Chen with a gaze so calm it was unsettling. "Why didn’t you tell me?"

"Ha..." Zhou Chen grinned, confidently pulling out his phone. He unlocked it, opened his chat with Jiang Che, and showed her the screen.

In the chat box was a half-typed message—

"I’m in Hai City. The Prophet gave me a mission related to Dupe. I need you to..."

"Don’t you dare say I was hiding it from you. I was just about to send you a message. You just showed up so suddenly I didn’t even finish typing," Zhou Chen said with a smile, shaking his phone. He feigned curiosity and retorted, "Speaking of trust... why didn’t you message me? Did you think I wouldn’t come help you? Or does the one who’s always talking about trust not trust me in the end?"

"I wasn’t a hundred percent certain of Dupe’s plan before, so I was going to investigate a bit before contacting you. It would have been pointless to notify you otherwise," Jiang Che replied calmly, then added a reminder. "Besides, don’t forget what you’ve been through these past few days."

’What I’ve been through...’ Zhou Chen thought of the attack by the Saw Murder Association and it dawned on him. "You were afraid those psychos would come after me and expose my presence?"

Jiang Che pointed to Zhou Chen’s face. "Even though you’re in disguise, people who know you could still recognize you at a glance from your posture and aura. Hai City is a major international metropolis. It’s a chaotic mix of people. You never know, an old enemy might spot you.

And fundamentally, you’re the reason Dupe is being investigated in the first place. What do you think he’ll do if he finds out you’re in Hai City? Go on a vindictive rampage?"

"Good point," Zhou Chen nodded. "So—"

He drew out the word, then his tone suddenly shifted as he declared, "You really don’t trust me! You thought I would hide it from you!"

Jiang Che’s expression was blank. "Whose fault is it that you’ve hidden things from me so many times before?"

"Then I promise I’ll never hide anything from you again, and you promise you’ll trust me completely from now on. How about it?"

"That would be for the best."

Just as she said that, Jiang Che suddenly paused and sighed. "Just as I thought. You’ve been noticed."

Zhou Chen also sensed the unwelcome guests outside the hotel, who reeked of blood. He couldn’t help but be surprised. "How is your Perception Power stronger than mine?"

Jiang Che had been the first to sense the intruders.

"I advanced to Tier Three yesterday. The maximum range of my Spiritual Power can reach seven hundred meters, and my Perception Power is more precise than most Ascenders’," Jiang Che said nonchalantly.

’Seven hundred meters?’ Zhou Chen was stunned. His Spiritual Power was supposed to be much stronger than Jiang Che’s, but even he couldn’t extend it that far. In fact, most Tier Three Ascenders had a limit to their Spiritual Power’s range; extending it beyond two hundred meters was already considered impressive.

Jiang Che’s Extraordinary Ability was Telekinesis, a pure Spiritual Element ability, so it was normal for its range to be wide. After all, as the saying goes, every trade has its master. But a maximum range of seven hundred meters was still a bit too exaggerated.

"There are three of them in total. Two Tier Two and one Tier Three. They all have a heavy killing intent. They’re probably from the Saw Murder Association. They knocked out the owner and are coming upstairs," Jiang Che said.

"Don’t these psychos ever learn their lesson..." Zhou Chen sighed helplessly and took a large, cat-hair-covered cardboard box from his Storage Waist Bag. He was planning to test the Forbidden Object C-002, Schrodinger’s Box, on these three.

"C-002?" Jiang Che raised an eyebrow when she saw the box. "I have a plan."

·

TICK. TOCK. TICK...

The ticking of a clock echoed in their ears as three men walked silently down the quiet hallway.

Suddenly, the man in front stopped and pointed to a specific room, giving a hand signal: ’This is it!’

The man behind him signaled back: ’Get ready to move!’

The three exchanged glances, their faces twisting into vicious snarls as they pulled hidden guns and even grenades from their clothes.

One of them lunged forward and kicked the door. BANG! It flew open, but inside was a pitch-black darkness so absolute you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. The man who kicked the door was swallowed by the darkness from his own momentum, and all sound from him ceased.

His two companions were shocked and opened fire wildly into the darkness beyond the door. Countless bullets vanished into the blackness like stones into the sea, causing not a single ripple.

Even after they had emptied their clips and thrown all their grenades, the darkness behind the door remained undisturbed. Their companion who had fallen inside was completely silent, as if devoured by some monster lurking within.

Overwhelming Fear washed over the remaining two. They turned and ran for their lives, but they soon encountered something bizarre—no matter what they did, they couldn’t get off the hotel stairs!

It was a ghost wall!

The two of them ran on the stairs for some time, but they always ended up back where they started, as if caught in a strange loop.

·

TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP...

By the door to the room, two men were frantically marching in place. Their eyes were wide with terror and panic, making the whole scene look utterly comical.

Jiang Che was swinging the Hypnotic Pocket Watch, its crisp ticking sounds maintaining the hypnotic illusion.

The moment the three men stepped onto the staircase, she had used her Telekinesis to expand the Hypnotic Pocket Watch’s range of influence, using the sound to put them into a deep state of hypnosis.

Meanwhile, Zhou Chen opened Schrodinger’s Box and tipped out a corpse, its face frozen in an expression of ultimate terror.

"It worked..."

Just now, he had aimed Schrodinger’s Box at the doorway. One of the hypnotized attackers had charged right in, and the box had closed automatically. When he opened it again, the man was dead.

To put it bluntly, Schrodinger’s Box had a fifty-percent chance of instantly killing an enemy. To succeed on the very first try, Zhou Chen felt his luck was pretty good.

While the remaining two were still under control, Zhou Chen stuffed them into the box one by one. The second man died immediately, but the third did not.

So, Zhou Chen put him in again. He still didn’t die.

He tried one more time. Still alive.

"This guy’s luck is a little too good," Zhou Chen gasped. To survive a fifty-percent chance of death three times in a row was something else.

Refusing to believe it, he stuffed the tall, thin man into the box again.

"I’ve found their files. They’re not from the Saw Murder Association; they’re subordinates trained by Dupe," Jiang Che said in a low voice, looking at her tablet. "The one who’s still alive is nicknamed ’Emperor.’ His Extraordinary Ability is the ’Law of Luck Conservation.’ He can accumulate good luck by deliberately courting misfortune."

Zhou Chen then opened the box and tipped the man out. Sure enough, he was still alive.

"No wonder he dodged it four times. So he’s a European."

Zhou Chen ground his teeth, then casually snapped the man’s neck. "Let’s see how ’European’ you are now!"

"We could have kept him for interrogation, you know," Jiang Che said faintly.

"..." Zhou Chen paused for a second, then waved his hand dismissively. "No need. We already confirmed they’re Dupe’s men. Interrogating them would be a waste of time."

"They might have had some intel on them."

"What would a bunch of grunts know... Oh, right, I need your help with something."

Zhou Chen finally remembered the important matter at hand. He quickly closed the door, took out a pen and paper, and sketched the prison scene he had seen in his divination.

"This should be where Dupe is holding the ritual. I’m guessing it’s a prison somewhere in Hai City. Can you find it?"

Jiang Che nodded. "I’ll try."

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