Chapter 005: Heavenly Holy Water

Shards of stone gates lay on the white jade stairs. Spalitis stepped forward gently, his expression oddly peculiar. He went to one side of the stairs and gazed into the nearly infinite void below, then spoke in a tone devoid of emotion, “Oh… so this is where it is… But it’s the first time I’ve come here in all these years. How amusing!”
Before him appeared layers of stairs floating in the sky. The interior of the World Tree was completely hollowed out, with endless void below. Above, along those spiraling stairs, lay the Demon God Temple…
From Spalitis’s vantage point, however, the Demon God Temple seemed rather insignificant.
He narrowed his eyes, suddenly his chest heaved violently, and a trickle of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. Wiping away the pale golden blood, he couldn’t help but say, “Damn you, Toronus… Still able to inflict such severe injuries on me. Hmph. But since I’ve been devoured by the Fangs of the Abyss, you’ll never get a chance to escape again… For a Seraphim to try to save the Demon God… it’s nothing but a joke… Hmphmph… Demon God, you rejected me back then, but now I’ve come… Tell me, do you still have the strength to reject me?”
As he spoke, Spalitis raised his head to gaze at the Demon God Temple above. His eyes were filled only with raw ambition and desire!
Finally, Spalitis took a deep breath and resolutely stepped onto the stairs. He had waited for this day for a long time—perhaps a thousand years, perhaps ten thousand years. But who knew?
…
“So… does that mean if I don’t fight Spalitis properly after going outside, I’m doomed?” Du Fan frowned.
“No… it’s not just you,” Gannon said. “It’s us… me… you… and of course, Ringne!”
At the end, Gannon smiled at Ringne.
Ringne remained pale, staring at her teacher, not knowing what to say.
Du Fan snorted and stepped between the two, saying gravely, “You old fool, aren’t you just talking nonsense? You should know I’m no match for Spalitis. What’s the point then? Even if you taught me the Blood Sacrifice now, giving me the strength to use it eight or ten times, the Sacred Rank is still the Sacred Rank… No matter how much I strain my body with blood sacrifices, I still can’t reach it.”

Gannon smirked and said, “Since I sent you to deal with Spalithis, I’ll naturally give you the strength to do so… But you need to promise me that once you have that strength, you must protect the body of the Demon Lord at all costs from that bastard desecrating it.”
Du Fan’s expression changed unpredictably. After a moment, he said, “Alright, old man. I promise you—only if you can get us out of this place and give me power equal to Spalithis’s, then it’s possible for me to fight him for you. But let me be clear upfront: if I’m still no match for Spalithis, I’ll run away immediately.”
Gannon nodded. “Agreed. I promise you…”
“And one more thing,” Du Fan added. “Even if I have the ability to defeat Spalithis, how am I supposed to get out? Can you tell me that too?”
Gannon replied calmly, “It’s fine to tell you. There are no other ways out of this place. Unless you can fly, in which case you could fly straight out. But… it’s not just about using magic to fly. You should know that a barrier has been set up in the sky here. Once you reach that height, your magical power will drain… So unless you have wings of your own, there’s no way you can leave.”
Du Fan sneered. “Then what’s the point of leaving like that?”
“How can it have no point?” Gannon smiled. “Although you can’t leave from above, you can still return the same way, right? Once you have the power of the Sacred Rank, you can just walk back the way you came. Whether you can defeat the magical beasts you encounter depends on your own skills. But as for the Submerged River… with the power of the Sacred Rank, can such a small river really stop you?”
Du Fan pouted and said, “If that’s the case, stop talking nonsense. Tell me what to do. How can I gain the power of the Sacred Rank? And how can we get out of this place? If I don’t get these two questions answered, I won’t agree to anything easily.”

Gannon smiled and said, “That’s easy. Giving you the power of the sacred rank isn’t that difficult… Young Master Du Fan, you might not know it, but the power of angels comes from those sacred light wings on their backs… Although I can’t give you those sacred light wings, it’s not impossible to transfer a portion of my power to you through magic. Of course… the amount won’t be much. But even if it’s just a little, with this power, you can still be considered half a sacred rank. Though compared to true sacred rank, you won’t have your own sacred domain, so you naturally can’t match them. But against a Spalitis with less than 10% of his original strength, isn’t that enough?”
Du Fan frowned and asked, “What if I still can’t defeat him?”
Gannon smiled and said, “There’s no need to worry… If I remember correctly, there should be a pool in the Demon God Temple. The first thing you should do after going out is to jump into that pool without hesitation.”
“Jump in? To take a bath?”
“You’re joking, Young Master Du Fan,” Gannon said. “The pool in the Demon God Temple isn’t for bathing. What’s stored there is the holy water from the Heavenly Sacred River. Different from the so-called holy water in your human world, this Heavenly Sacred Water is made from the purest divine power. Although it has no effect on gods and angels, for humans, if you can bathe in it, even if you can never reach the sacred rank your whole life, your body will already be at the sacred rank.”
Du Fan frowned and asked, “What do you mean?”
Gannon snorted, “You’re really lucky. After bathing in the holy water, your body will become as strong as an angel’s. By then, even true sacred rank might not be able to harm you at all… Hmph, even a Spalitis at his peak won’t be able to do anything to you, let alone one with only 10% of his usual strength?”
As he spoke, Gannon looked at Du Fan with a half-smile and said, “Young Master Du Fan, see? I’ve given you such a great benefit—giving you an invulnerable body from now on… Aren’t you tempted by such terms? After breaking the seal of the Demon God, that so-called Pope of the Demon God Cult you mentioned will naturally be you… Of course, even if you refuse me now, there’s nothing we can do. We might as well wait for death here together.”

Du Fan smiled bitterly in his heart. He knew his own strength. He had heard of that so-called Holy Water from the Heavenly Realm mentioned by Gan Nong before. It seemed that the first pope of the Holy Church had been immersed in that Holy Water. Legend had it that the first pope was invulnerable to weapons and fire. Just in terms of his physical condition, he had already reached the level of a demi-god. Although successive popes had all been extremely powerful, no one had ever surpassed the first pope in this regard, which showed just how rare that Holy Water was.

But even if he were immersed in that Holy Water and obtained some of Gan Nong’s angelic power, could he really be a match for Spalitis? Although Gan Nong spoke with great confidence, given his personality, how could he possibly let him gain such a huge advantage? There must be some scheme behind this.

Du Fan thought for another moment but still couldn’t figure out the problem. Gan Nong kept looking at him with a half-smile, which made him even more anxious. Yet the current situation didn’t allow him to hesitate any longer.

Finally, Du Fan gritted his teeth and said, “Alright… Since you’re so confident, I agree. If possible, I’ll do my best to deal with Spalitis. As for the body of the Demon God, I’ll also try my best to protect it. But there’s one more thing—since you’re here to liberate the Demon God… does that mean I just need to hold on until he wakes up?”

A sly smile appeared on Gan Nong’s face as if his scheme had succeeded. He nodded slightly and said, “Since Young Master Du Fan already understands, why ask?”

Du Fan snorted and said, “Then fine… If that’s the case, stop wasting time. Give me your angelic power right away… And then let’s get out of here. I really don’t want to stay longer.”

Gan Nong closed his eyes and pondered for a moment before saying calmly, “If I’m not wrong, Spalitis should have broken through the gates of the Demon God Temple by now. We don’t have much time, so let’s begin… Young Master Du Fan, I assume you’ve already copied down the secrets of the three barbarian mystic arts from the altar in the Great Temple, right? Show them to me now.”