Super Righteous Player
Chapter 378 - 375 Bait (First Update)_1

Chapter 378: Chapter 375 Bait (First Update)_1

...Book of the Celestial Chariot?

Jiu’er vaguely felt that the name sounded familiar.

It always felt as though she had heard it before, or had some innate understanding of it... but she was certain she had no idea what it was.

Jiu’er was quite confident in her memory.

Perhaps that was the pride of someone not yet twenty years old.

Not like the useless old lump she lived with, who had gradually returned his memory and the knowledge he had learned to his teacher, two-for-one...

"I’m not clear."

After pondering deeply for a while, Jiu’er very seriously responded, "I think you can tell that I really don’t know."

Even though Bernardino Treshaw had lost the ability to control minds and read memories at will, the ability he had learned during his Soul Reaping Wizard stage to judge others’ emotions and states through their expressions and actions was not something that could be forgotten.

Moreover, Jiu’er believed that the reason Bernardino had dragged her soul out to talk was definitely because in her spiritual state she would be less likely to lie, or he could more easily detect lies—

That would be the logical situation.

Yet, in the face of Jiu’er’s reply, the old man with no limbs and eyes like a plaster bust in an art classroom merely smiled serenely, without a word.

No...

Jiu’er suddenly made a connection to the gemstone eyes she had seen in the Longjing tea and realized something.

...It wasn’t so much that the old man had lost his eyes and limbs.

It was more like he had willingly replaced these parts with prosthetics that had no soul.

So, in the spiritual vision, one couldn’t see the soul of these parts. It would appear that only the upper half of his body was floating on the wheelchair...

And Bernardino’s eyes were made from the top-grade gemstone curses—then what about his limbs wrapped in bandages? His skin?

Could it be... they were also curses?

Had Bernardino transformed his entire being into a curse?

What was it for?

For enhanced strength? Or life extension? Or something else...

Perhaps in her spiritual state, Jiu’er’s perception had become heightened.

She suddenly sensed a faint, cold, and sticky malice emanating from the old man who was smiling, like black and slippery silt clinging to her skin.

But that malice was not directed at her...

Jiu’er felt her consciousness getting increasingly blurred.

She suddenly had a bizarre hallucination.

—Behind Bernardino, there seemed to rise a fuzzy and semi-transparent giant made of countless black spiritual bodies.

The giant, like the old man, only had an upper body, but it had arms like silt and a golden "single eye" that revolved slowly like a nebula.

...No.

That didn’t seem like an illusion.

Not long after the giant emerged, Jiu’er, in her spiritual form, felt the air around her quickly become cold and sticky, and the ground covered by strange black muck.

...What is this?

—Was it Bulaxiu or a proxy messenger?

Such a thought flashed through Jiu’er’s mind.

As the black muck drew near, she felt a chill as if a damp breeze on a rainy day had passed through her body, similar to the "intangible cold wind" she had felt when her soul had left her body before.

When the black muck truly touched Jiu’er, she felt a powerful numbing sensation—she couldn’t say a word.

But she was merely numb.

However, Jiu’er, in her spiritual state, could see very clearly—

The semi-transparent black silt that composed the giant spread rapidly across the ground. The moment the black muck touched those two "underlings," their bodies immediately went lifeless and fell backward.

If one had to describe it...

It was as if the black muck "stuck" to their souls and then slapped the bodies away. Without any resistance, they were instantly dead.

But unlike Jiu’er, who had already embarked on the path of the Transcendent and thus possessed a gaseous spiritual body,

those two people were merely ordinary humans.

Their souls were not even fully formed—when their bodies fell and their souls were forced out of their bodies, their gray and dull souls shattered like tofu pudding upon exposure to the air, and the remaining "powder" was also absorbed by that black mud.

...Why kill them?

A doubt flashed through Jiu’er’s mind.

It wasn’t that they couldn’t be killed, but there was simply no need.

When they saw Bernardino coming to trouble Jiu’er earlier, they did not even attempt to protect her but turned their heads away without hesitation, not daring to watch or speak.

Aside from the first two sentences, all the others were asked in a spiritual state... and the initial part did not require any secrecy at all, did it?

Yet despite this, they were still killed by Bernardino.

—Even directly crushing their souls.

Although it seemed effortless, it was not an easy feat.

Nor was it a casual killing.

The power that could instill a tremendous fear in Jiu’er and even take her life without any resistance might be a highly evolved Elemental Power... or something else acquired from the Gold rank. But it must be a high-ranking power only attainable by the Gold rank.

And Jiu’er remembered clearly. Annan had told her, the Gold rank was different from the Silver... once at the Gold rank, using some powers came with a great cost. Either it would burn up one’s lifespan, or there were other flaws.

Therefore, even at the Gold rank, many Transcendents still resorted to using enhanced ordinary skills to fight, rather than unleashing their ultimate moves.

And the power that killed her must have come from the Gold rank.

At the level of the Silver rank, it wouldn’t cause Jiu’er to suddenly die without even a check or struggle.

Using such power against them—one Bronze and two ordinary people... It was clear that Bernardino wanted to prevent them from leaking any information.

...But what exactly?

They clearly hadn’t heard anything.

Unless what they were supposed to keep secret was the mere fact that "they had seen him"...

Jiu’er thought quickly.

If it were just ordinary life-or-death pressure, she would probably have gone mad by now. But with the crisis potentially spreading to others, Jiu’er instead regained her sanity.

She had to do something—

At the very least, she had to obtain some information!

"What do you want to do? What do you want to obtain?"

Jiu’er tried her best to ignore the two crushed souls and did not consider the possibility that she might be erased.

She just maintained a calm manner and asked, "The Book of the Celestial Charriot, or do you want to assign me another task?"

"Be quiet, miss," the old man said softly with a gentle smile on his face. "You remind me. I need to keep you quiet."

He glanced at Jiu’er, and the giant shadow behind him also pointed its nebula-like single eye at Jiu’er in unison.

Under the heavy pressure only perceivable in a spiritual state, Jiu’er’s soul immediately lost the ability to speak. She distinctly felt a strange, weak force of attraction targeting her soul and gradually intensifying.

It seemed as if she was being sucked in, looking very critical and urgent.

—But that was merely "seeming."

As the person involved, Jiu’er knew very well in her heart... even if this attraction continued for a whole day, it wouldn’t affect her in the slightest.

Was it because Bernardino was weak and powerless?

Clearly not possible.

Then there was only one answer left—

The moment she realized that result, Jiu’er felt a chill run through her entire body.

—She was likely nothing but bait.

What Bernardino was truly after... was Annan, who had not long arrived in Noah’s Royal Capital!