Exorcist's Self-Cultivation

In the blink of an eye,

Evil Spirit Du Wei had merged into the darkness and completely disappeared.

Matthew hadn't even had time to react before Evil Spirit Du Wei left, and only then did he hear a crisp snap of fingers.

It seemed that just before leaving, it had snapped its fingers.

"This doesn't quite seem like the His Excellency the Duke I know..."

Matthew said expressionlessly, and when he looked up again, eleven members of the Vanity Sect had surrounded him.

These people were not only possessed by Demon Spirits.

There was something even more terrifying about them.

Matthew looked at them and after a long silence he said, "If I said this was all a misunderstanding, would you believe me?"

No response…

Among the eleven people opposite him, one lifted their head, revealing a pair of numb, empty eyes that stared fixedly at Matthew.

Matthew immediately wanted to meld into the darkness.

But he found that this ability was completely unusable.

"Your Excellency, what you've done is really too much."

Two others parted from the group, reaching out to hold down Mercer, who was restlessly squirming.

With a pull, a mass of blood water was forcibly extracted from Mercer's body.

The process was extremely painful.

Every drop of blood seeped from Mercer's pores, a fate far more gruesome than being flayed a thousand times.

Grinding his teeth, Mercer howled, "Hurry up, I can't hold on, I'm being assimilated..."

No one paid him any heed.

Within the Vanity Sect, the relationships between core members were not harmonious.

Though they shared the same goal, everyone was doing different things.

Just like the tenets of their faith.

Vanity is everything.

...

Elsewhere,

Evil Spirit Du Wei silently appeared in a field dozens of kilometers away and then vanished again.

After flashing in and out over ten times,

it returned to Philo Town.

Therefore, in this now deserted town, a very unnerving scene unfolded.

Rain was falling from the sky.

Tip-tap, in the dead of night in Philo Town, Alvin Dowqui's body lay stiff on the ground, thoroughly drenched by the rain.

The huge wound in his chest was oozing a lot of black blood.

This was already illogical.

But what was even more illogical was that suddenly, there came the creak of a door opening.

The body from the head down along the shoulders revealed a fissure, as if a door was being pushed open from within.

Split in two.

Pale-faced, Du Wei walked out from inside, one hand covering his mouth, from which many crimson strands of blood seeped.

"Cough cough..."

Excessively weak.

Ever since he merged with Evil Spirit Du Wei, he had not suffered any injuries, and dealing with evil spirits had always been effortless.

Most of the time, information he deduced told him that aside from Demon Spirits and Strangeness, there were few beings that could harm him.

But today's encounter had made him completely abandon that notion.

Just the Evil Spirit that Alvin Dowqui had become trapped him in a door using a bizarre method.

Although he could easily come out, it didn't mean the Evil Spirit couldn't do something to him.

As for Matthew, there was even less to say.

Du Wei hypnotized himself to see everything from the perspective of the Evil Spirit and logged into his powerful persona to test the gap between them.

Unexpectedly, he never gained the upper hand throughout the process.

Moreover, this was because Matthew's fusion with "that thing" wasn't thorough enough.

"And then there are the eleven members of the Vanity Sect. They scare me way more than Mercer, although individually, they might not be as strong as Matthew, but to think there are eleven of such people."

Du Wei wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and clutched his head, letting out a painful growl.

He was, after all, still human at this point.

And the power of the Evil Spirit Du Wei originated from the essence of an Evil Spirit dimension; even if his will remained the same, becoming the Evil Spirit Du Wei put an immense burden on his body.

Perhaps using this power forcefully seven or eight more times would actually turn him into "Evil Spirit Du Wei."

Of course, there was a price to pay, but Du Wei didn't just suffer losses.

He also obtained much more useful information.

"His Excellency the Duke... he seems to have mistaken Evil Spirit Du Wei for someone from the Victorian Era, but after I merged with Evil Spirit Du Wei, our memories were completely synchronized."

"I don't have any memories about the Duke."

"Or could it be that Evil Spirit Du Wei had some connection with that Duke before becoming the Masked Evil Spirit?"

Now, Du Wei had a headache. The affairs of Evil Spirit Du Wei could temporarily be set aside, but some of the information revealed by Mercer and Matthew's words simply couldn't be ignored.

Mercer said that both he and Matthew had fused with that kind of thing.

But the only thing I've fused with is the Evil Spirit Du Wei. How could it possibly be something like the Blood of Jesus?

If that were true, after the fusion, the will that would prevail should be its.

"Do I have something extra on me?"

Du Wei stretched out his hand and glanced at the pattern on his Right Hand.

The mask pattern had faded away, replaced by the original pointer design.

Seeing this,

Du Wei furrowed his brows tightly and looked up at the dark night sky amidst the torrential rain.

"After Mercer merged with the blood water, a pattern appeared on his body, but Matthew said that it's a curse attached to him after opening that door, coming from Solomon's Seventy-Two Pillars Demon Gods."

"Matthew's pattern is that of a double-pupiled eye, while mine is a pointer, representing Rahmer's Bell."

"Rahmer's Bell is related to Solomon's Seventy-Two Pillars Demon Gods, it might be one of them."

"Which means that Mercer, Matthew, and I are all similar kinds of people."

"But why am I so weak?"

The last sentence was genuine curiosity from Du Wei.

If he hadn't merged with Evil Spirit Du Wei, allowing him to temporarily power up and go head-to-head with Matthew, he would probably still be scheming in the dark, plotting a way to kill Matthew.

Without comparison, there's no concept of difference.

What is Du Wei's power?

An occasional ability to see images of future deaths and then the Marking Ability he barely managed to use skillfully, a bug-like trick.

All of them were assisting abilities, one more useless than the other in a fight.

And yet Du Wei still had to bear the strain of the Antique Clock and keep moving forward.

At this moment, the Envelope floated out of Du Wei's pocket.

[Master, you're actually not weak at all. In the Envelope's heart, you are the sun, the moon, and the high mountains. What are the likes of Matthew or the Vanity Sect compared to you?]

[You're a villain, master. The world can no longer find a hunter as cunning, ruthless, calculative, intelligent, and cold-blooded as you.]

[You are the King of Evil Spirits!]

[Matthew and the others are just lucky ones. The so-called triumph of good over evil is merely a fairy tale. Only a villain like you can have the last laugh.]

Du Wei looked at the Envelope and asked through gritted teeth, "What makes you think I'm like a villain?"

[Um... don't you resemble one?]

[And master, Matthew calling you His Excellency the Duke, that title sounds very much like a villain, doesn't it?]

Du Wei couldn't be bothered to interact with the Envelope and stuffed it back into his pocket.

When he turned his head back to look at Alvin Dowqui's corpse, a hint of hesitation flashed in his eyes.

"All those Evil Spirits have been marked by me, but I don't know if I can extract that door from the body. I feel like the ability of that door is very useful. If I can bring it home, it would be perfect for imprisoning Evil Spirits."