Chapter 7 Harvest and Temptation

　　Breathing in the light red mist of blood around him, Lucien's hands and feet went limp, his head swelled with convulsions, and the scene in his eyes of Correia and Hausen fighting turned into Correia and the giant rat at once, and then back to the two of them killing each other at once, as if hallucinations were superimposed on reality. 　　"Wait, an illusion?!" As soon as Lucien thought of this, he had a rough speculation in his mind, focusing his attention and letting that feeling of the spirit spreading like a tidal wave appear, so the scene stopped changing, the red mist stopped distorting, and everything stabilized, and the ones who were struggling to the death were indeed Correia and Hausen, with blood flowing out of multiple wounds on their bodies, and each of their movements looked very slow and strained, as if they had already reached a limit. 　　"Is it the blood of the red-eyed rat itself that has a hallucinogenic effect, or is it the blood that is transformed by the absorption of that strange plant that gives people hallucinations? What an ingenious magic trap." 　　Lucien finally realized that whether it was Hausen's disappearance or Gary's sudden attack, it was all due to the hallucinogenic effect, which most likely started from the moment he killed the first red-eyed rat, and by the time it completely blinded his senses, it was difficult to tell, and it was only because of the protection he received from the Holy Light Shield later on and his spiritual advancement that Lucien was able to get rid of it from the hallucination. 　　The "Holy Light Strike" from the Holy Emblem of Truth not only vaporized Gary's right hand and part of his shoulder, but also penetrated upwards, directly hitting the stone roof above the chamber, making a deep hole, with debris raining down like rain, as if the entire chamber would collapse at any time. 　　The rubble and dust filled the room, washing away the light red blood mist and restoring some of Lucien's weak hands and feet. 　　Lucien didn't know if there were any other magic traps behind him, so even though he was temporarily safe, he didn't dare to have any relaxation, and quickly thought of a way out. 　　The "Sacred Emblem of Truth" was unable to activate any divine spells other than the two light spells, so he was no longer able to rely on it, and even his own physical strength had become very weak due to the paralyzing effect of the light red mist. 　　Suddenly, Lucien saw the strange plant being shaken by the rustling falling debris. 　　"It doesn't have the ability to protect itself other than creating illusions?" Lucien immediately snapped out of it and stood up with strong, limp and weak arms and legs and walked towards the strange plant. 　　With no strength in his feet and stumbling, Lucien walked very slowly, falling into the gravel several times, being scratched and bruised with unbearable pain, and even moistened with blood in a few places. 　　"Bare." Lucien sucked in his breath, endured the pain, and with the temporary wakefulness and strength restoration brought about by the pain of these wounds, he walked with difficulty to the side of that strange plant. 　　After this series of encounters, Lucien was much less green and disoriented, and without delay, holding his breath, he carefully but firmly stretched out his right hand and gripped it on the main trunk of that strange plant. 　　With a meridian pulsing under his hand and a small stream of blood running, Lucien felt like he was holding not a plant, but a living creature, and then violently yanked it to the side. 　　"Ah!" 　　All the branches and leaves of this strange plant contracted at once, letting out a sharp and mournful scream, as if it were a dying man. 　　Not ripping it off at once, Lucien continued to exert force, and the strange plant let out miserable screams while re-stretching its branches and leaves out and wrapping them towards Lucien's body. 　　Wet, slippery and disgusting sensation came from his skin, countless tiny burrs were sticking into his body, Lucien forced himself to hold back his fear and dread, and once again pulled hard. 　　"Oooh ......" 　　The cries came to an abrupt end, Lucien was sprayed to his chest by the light red liquid inside the plant, and the smell of blood hit his nose, which made Lucien's arms and legs become more and more limp, and he could only avoid falling to the ground by leaning against the stone wall next to him. 　　As the plant was ripped in two by Lucien, the light red mist in the surrounding air became denser and denser, nearly condensing into a liquid. 　　The three books on the nearby desk that were flickering with a shimmering light, as soon as they sensed this dense light red mist, they corroded quickly, starting from the first page, to the last page, it only took two or three seconds for them to disappear completely, so fast that Lucien, who was in the neighborhood, didn't even see what was written on them. 　　Of course, with Lucien's current state of physical paralysis, it was definitely too late to stop it, and it was difficult to even take a step forward. 　　The desk immediately became empty, but strangely enough, except for the place where those three books were, the rest of them did not show traces of corrosion, Lucien figured out the key point after a short period of wondering, "It seems to be another magical trap, when the concentration of the red mist reaches a certain level, the magical traps on those magical notebooks activate on their own, destroying themselves lest the enemies get." 　　"It's a pity about these magic notes." Lucien sighed in his heart regretfully, those were magic notes that could learn transcendent powers! 　　Suddenly, Lucien froze as he realized that the library in his soul was emitting a strange shimmering light. 　　Curious, Lucien probed his spirit into it, and then his eyes stared roundly as he saw that there was a brand new bookshelf in the library, with the words "Magic (Arcane)" written on it, and on the bookshelf, there were already three books, which were exactly the three magical notes that Lucien had just seen. 　　"Could it be that this library still has the ability to collect books? But how did the contents come about?" Lucien was very surprised, "Or maybe I need to see the content's with my own eyes to be able to do so, en, just now these three books were corroded very quickly, but if you slow down the whole process, it should still be corroded page by page, could this strange library have been able to write down the content from beginning to end, and so there was a projection of the three books, or else it's impossible to make up the content out of thin air. " 　　Lucien can only guess at the moment, have to wait for a few experiments with other books in the future to be sure. 　　Looking at these three magical notes, Lucien, who was quite sorry a moment ago, hesitated instead, "If we learn magic, in this world where divine magic is so powerful that it can openly burn magicians to death, will it be too dangerous?" 　　Unable to make a decision, Lucien put it down for the time being, after all, he and the others were currently still inside the secret room and were not completely out of danger, so Lucien began to build up his strength. 　　Without the strange plant, the light red blood mist was getting fainter and fainter, Correia and Hausen gradually got rid of the hallucination and looked at each other with shock, but it was already much too late to wake up, both of them were at the edge of dying. 　　※※※ 　　Benjamin on the ground, when Lucien touched the "Holy Emblem of Truth" with his spirit and activated the "Holy Light Strike", he grunted, lowered his right hand and looked at the secret passage in disbelief. 　　"Lord Benjamin?" Seeing Benjamin's strange behavior, the guard Paul panicked and asked. 　　Under the illumination of the silver moon, Benjamin's face became very bad as he whispered, "There has been a change of heart down there, my spiritual imprint within the holy emblem has been touched, damn it, just an apprentice in magic, it has gotten to this point, really useless! Paul, wait for me here, if I'm not out in five minutes, you'll ask the bishop for help." 　　It was due to the existence of the spiritual imprint within the Holy Emblem that Benjamin was relieved to hand over the Holy Emblem of Truth to Lucien to use, otherwise even if the Holy Emblem, a standard Divine Magic Curiosity that was assigned down to him was a lot weaker compared to Benjamin's own strength and the other Divine Magic Curiosities on his body, he wouldn't have casually handed it over to someone else, who would have known that his own spiritual imprint would actually have been triggered, and didn't manage to prevent the Divine Magic from being stimulated in the crucial moment that shouldn't have been there. 　　Negligence and carelessness were never the companions of arrogance and prejudice. 　　In Benjamin's heart, he had always carried a deep prejudice against the knights who relied on the physical power of their bloodline, believing that they were crude and lowly, and were not at all comparable to the noble spell casters who explored the mysteries of the world, even if the other party was an evil magician, and as such, they were not at all worthy of using Divine Art wonders, and thus he subconsciously handed over the Truth Sacred Emblem to be used by Lucien, who had a higher-than-normal spiritual power. 　　Such an attitude came from Benjamin's origin, from the experiences he had been through. 　　As one of the most powerful families in the Duchy of Vaorette, although the Rafferty family also relied on their bloodline's "Divine Grace" power, they were different from the knights in that they relied on their bloodline's power to cast spells, and they were true spell casters, whereas as a member of the Rafferty family, even though his bloodline was so thin that he was unable to stimulate his own power, he had always had a good understanding of his bloodline after studying in a monastery since he was a child. After entering the monastery to study from a young age, he rose to prominence and smoothly became a priest, firmly on the path of a spell caster. 　　But now, as a full-fledged priest, such a small matter had made a big oversight, and in the future, his position within the church would inevitably be affected, which is why Benjamin rushed down in a hurry. 　　Paul was just as surprised: ''There is the Holy Emblem of Truth, and there will still be a change of heart? Could it be that there are other official magicians?" 　　※※※ 　　Lucien's strength recovered a little bit, and was about to lean against the stone wall to go outside the chamber when he suddenly heard a sound of footsteps coming, immediately his heart lifted and his spirit was tense, if the one who came was the witch's residual magical creatures or her friends, he was afraid that he would have trouble escaping. 　　When he saw that it was Benjamin's white holy robes, Lucien was half relieved, but he still didn't dare to relax, the secret room was such a good place to kill and kill. 　　"Lapland Blood Vine?" Benjamin took a look at the situation inside the secret room, from the general knowledge of magic and plant knowledge that he had learned, he quickly judged the general process, and understood why Lucien, who was moving slowly against the wall, and Gary, who was on the verge of dying on the floor, and the others had ended up like this, "Luckily, none of them are dead." 　　"This kid is lucky, his spiritual power has actually grown a bit, reaching the level of a low ranked trainee priest, it seems that the impact brought about by the breakthrough touched my spiritual imprint, it's a pity that it's not the time more than three hundred years ago when the church was incredibly strong and you could learn divine magic by relying on your talent, without laying a foundation from a young age and systematically learning about divine magic, you will never be able to become a full-fledged Priests, it must be said that it was indeed that 'Emperor of the Arcane Arts' who opened the golden age of nearly four hundred years of sudden advancement in the development of divine arts and magic." 　　As a member of the Rafferty family, Benjamin knew more about the world situation than most of the priests, and did not seem to be that pious about his own beliefs; to be precise, Benjamin as a member of the aristocracy and Benjamin as a member of the church were conflicted in their positions. 　　More importantly, after the "Supreme Theological Council" more than three hundred years ago, the church split, one south and one north, accusing each other of heresy, but even so, no matter which side, the acquisition of divine magic has not been affected in any way, which makes many bishops, cardinals in their hearts silently doubt whether God exists or not, and whether this is a test for believers. This caused many bishops and cardinals to silently wonder in their hearts whether God existed and whether this was a test for believers. 　　Such an attitude directly affected every young man who became a priest over the centuries, including Benjamin. 　　Moreover, in order to adapt to the rapidly developing era, several popes introduced part of the knowledge obtained from the Great Arcane Masters' exploration of the world to revamp the theological foundations, and although the same allowed the divine arts to develop rapidly and strong people to emerge, allowing the Southern Church to maintain its position as the greatest power, standing firm under the watchful eyes of heretics, evil magicians, dark creatures and many other powerful enemies, it also once again caused the already unstable internal beliefs to appear with more cracks. 　　Benjamin's mood relaxed, a fine white dust slipped from his hands, odd syllables escaped his lips, and a gust of wind blew through, blowing the pale red blood mist out of sight. 　　Then without reciting an incantation or tossing out the materials for the spell, he simply pointed at Gary and a pale white light fell upon it, causing the charred blackness to fall off his body and his wounds to heal, freeing him from his dying and turning him into a normal, serious injury. 　　Casting Healing Divine Arts one to two seconds at a time at intervals, Benjamin revived both Correia and Hausen, and also healed the injuries on Lucien's body. 　　After asking Lucien, Correia, Hausen, Gary and the others about what happened, Benjamin looked at the desk to make sure that they weren't lying, and instructed, "Move all the items inside the chamber to the church, eh, including the bodies of these rats." 　　At the same time, he caught the holy emblem that Lucien returned to him, "The sins on you have been cleansed, go back and rest, may the Lord bless you." 　　Originally if Lucien could successfully succeed this time, Benjamin would not begrudge the monetary rewards, and would even secretly try to see if he could cultivate it if he had the chance, but after making it so dangerous, Benjamin naturally no longer had the mood to encourage Lucien, and after determining that he did not have anything hidden in his body, he sent him away early, after all, Correia and Hausen were okay, without his right hand Gary was more troublesome, and regeneration of amputated limbs was not a divine art that he could master. 　　Lucien saw that Benjamin did not make a move to kill and exterminate him, which still had the heart to stay here, and hurriedly walked outside the secret room, when he reached the sewer outside, the spirit broke through a certain boundary Lucien suddenly heard Correia's words inside, which made Lucien's mood become a little heavy, he whispered to Hausen: "Gary without his right hand, I'm afraid he can't become a knight, and will be invited out of the guard." 　　Lucien, who didn't know what mood he was in, walked out of the secret passage and was immediately greeted with inquiries from the surrounding paupers. 　　"Little Evans, did you purify the ghost?" Great Aunt Elisa asked from afar. 　　Lucien nodded, "It has been purified by Lord Benjamin and a few guards." ��　Everyone instantly became relaxed and began to eagerly ask and exchange questions, "Lucien, what do the ghosts look like? Is it not scary?" 　　"Lord Benjamin is worthy of being an official priest." 　　"Lucien seems to have received the Lord's blessing this time, he can even use the Holy Emblem of Truth." 　　"It's a pity that Lucien he's no longer a child and can't be sent to a monastery for cultivation, otherwise it would be a great honor for our Adejean District to produce a Lord Lucien." 　　Hearing these comments, Lucien was slightly in a trance, "I can't become a priest?" 　　Although Lucien hadn't thought of becoming a priest due to his identity as a traveler, but having only experienced the extraordinary and inhuman power of divine magic, it was hard not to be a little downhearted when he was told that he couldn't take this path. 　　"Poor little Evans, look at your face, you must be exhausted, quickly go back and rest." Seeing Lucien's bad face, Great Aunt Elisa quickly spoke. 　　Lucien had a lot on his mind and really needed to be quiet, so he nodded and went back to his hut, sitting on the edge of his bed, listening to Benjamin and the others come out and go away, listening to the onlookers of the poor people leave, listening to the late night to return to peace and quiet, pressing the thoughts of his parents and others deep in his heart. 　　"I can't become a priest, and it doesn't look like there's much hope of becoming a knight and inspiring bloodline power due to the lack of training from a young age." 　　"I'm afraid the only way to gain transcendent power is to learn magic." 　　"However, once you choose magic, you have to make an enemy of the church, and you have to make an enemy of the vast majority of ordinary people, including Great Aunt Elisa and the others." 　　"Perhaps there are other paths?" 　　"Anyway, the magic notes are in my head, let's read them first, eh, that shouldn't be a problem." 　　The hesitant, struggling Lucien decided to look at the magic notes first, so his spirit entered the library and flipped through the magic notes. 　　After a long time, Lucien's low, crying voice resounded within the room: 　　"What if I can't read?"