Exorcist's Self-Cultivation

Calm and rational were Du Wei's marks.

But now, someone killing an Evil Spirit outside the door made him slightly annoyed.

Why stay inside the door and not go out?

Wasn't it to mark all the Evil Spirits detained by Alvin Dowqui before his death, so as to increase the odds of success when facing the Antique Clock head-on?

He had no so-called feelings for any Evil Spirits.

Of course...

Perhaps he held something special for Black Shadow.

After all, Black Shadow was hardworking and persistent, stubborn and committed.

In his view, all the Evil Spirits bearing the Mark were his subordinates.

But now there was someone outside killing his subordinates.

To think about it from another angle, this was disrupting his plans, reducing his capital to confront the Antique Clock.

It was akin to sentencing him to death.

Therefore.

In this instant.

The oppressive feeling within the door made all the Evil Spirits tremble.

Those who tore the Envelope into pieces, and watched as it resurrected, were now completely still.

The Envelope, resurrected again, was equally terrified.

On the paper, a line of text unexpectedly appeared.

[Master, the Envelope really doesn't want to make any more wishes!!!]

All the Evil Spirits were repelled, darkness surrounded them, and at the very heart of this darkness, Du Wei's face was filled with indifference, devoid of any trace of humanity.

His aura grew even colder, unlike that of the living.

The exposed skin was showing an unusual pallor.

Du Wei lifted his head and looked up.

For a moment, all the Evil Spirits seemed to be drawn in, looking up following his gaze.

Harmonious yet eerie.

On his Right Hand, the pattern of the clock's hand moved imperceptibly.

Then, like a stone sinking into a lake, the pattern of the hand disappeared.

In its place emerged the pattern of a mask.

Except for the hollows where the eyes would be, it bore no other features.

This was the original mask from the Evil Spirit Du Wei, only later, that mask had turned to ash.

Du Wei glanced at the Envelope, his gaze icy and somber.

He did not respond, because the question was meaningless.

Immediately following.

He slowly raised his Right Hand and covered his Right Eye with his palm.

This eye had once been sacrificed by the Evil Spirit Du Wei.

A different kind of Spirit Vision...

Then, he saw outside the door an old man in Priest's attire with a hood, whose chilling aura was even more terrible than that of a Demon Nun.

Not an entity of the same level.

And beside him was Mercer Crocker with a mask.

The two were engaging in a battle incomprehensible to ordinary people, but the old man clearly overwhelmed Mercer without any ability to respond.

Because he could even be distracted enough to casually crush the body of Alvin Dowqui, no matter how strong the replacing Evil Spirit was, it seemed easy for him to kill.

Frighteningly powerful.

And the old man was speaking. He said, "Alvin Dowqui, you disappoint me so much. Life is already full of pain and filth, yet you cling to those inexplicable beliefs of yours."

"Look at you now: your body controlled by an Evil Spirit, the Evil Spirit you turned into after your own death crushed by me with ease."

"We hunters, like the Evil Spirits, should not exist in this world."

"Why not join Dusk Bell?"

"You abandoned kindness, beauty, everything, for such little power in return. What do you have left now?"

"A corpse, how laughable?"

Perhaps he wasn't speaking to Alvin Dowqui, but rather expounding on something indescribable and elusive.

This is complicated…

Du Wei remained silent because another Evil Spirit marked by him had left the door and then was strangled to death by the old man.

He knew that this man was supposed to be Matthew.

The Envelope beside him was almost freaking out at this moment.

["Master, please say something. Envelope is panicking. Although we are the villains, right now you're no different from the Evil Spirit. What's happening to you?"]

["Envelope has signed an Indenture Contract, you must not mess with Envelope!"]

Du Wei glanced at it and said calmly, "I just want to see who's outside, killing my subordinates. I didn't expect them all to be acquaintances."

Envelope was stunned.

["There's such a thing? Who is it? Envelope will definitely kill them for you. These ant-like creatures, daring to kill our people, and even to act all high and mighty, they are simply courting death!"]

Du Wei said indifferently, "This is not something you can be involved in. It so happens that I also want to test how much of a gap there is between Matthew and me."

["Mat... Matthew? Master, you're not joking, right? The one outside is Matthew?"]

["Let's escape, we can't beat him."]

Du Wei agreed, "Although we cannot beat him, if we simply run away, the other Evil Spirits will still die at Matthew's hands. What's the point of that?"]

["Then what do you plan to do?"]

Du Wei smiled sardonically, "Take the corpse and run, but I can't do that alone, so I need to transform into an Evil Spirit."

He did have two identities, after all.

Having said that,

he moved his Right Hand away and took out a mask from his pocket, placing it on his face.

The black pupils slowly closed.

When they opened again, darkness spread from the center of the pupils, gradually tainting both eyes until they resembled the abyss, tempting anyone who looked to plunge into it.

"So noisy..."

...

Outside, in the world beyond the door.

On that road, Mercer was being brutally tortured by Matthew, and Alvin Dowqui's corpse had not been spared either.

Whenever an Evil Spirit appeared, it would be directly killed by him.

His earlier words were indeed not addressed solely to Alvin, but also to himself.

Matthew was a high-ranking hunter of the church, and he defected from the church because, when he was on the verge of undergoing Evil Spirit Transformation, he lost all his humanity and killed his wife and children.

For him, everything was tragic.

But at this moment, after carelessly killing another marked Evil Spirit, Matthew's face suddenly became extremely expressive.

An overwhelmingly suppressed, chilling malice emerged from the corpse.

"A boring struggle, that's all it is."

Matthew frowned deeply; he didn't bother with Mercer, who was about to be done for, and instead focused his energy on Alvin Dowqui's corpse.

Intuition told him that the situation was spiraling out of control.

There was danger...

Meanwhile, Mercer spat out blood and lay on the ground, his life hanging in the balance.

Suddenly...

The next second.

From Alvin Dowqui's corpse, a vast shadow spread out like a tide.

Inside the corpse, a terrifying cracking sound echoed.

It was the sound of broken bones knitting back together.

Creak... the sound of a door opening.

Alvin Dowqui's corpse suddenly stopped moving, reached a hand to touch its face.

An aged voice came out of the throat, unmistakably Alvin's, but with an indescribable, eerie undertone. It felt as though a nonchalant nobleman suddenly stumbled upon something interesting.

It said, "You're stronger than I imagined."