Zhou Qianlin's face was a deep crimson. She gently slapped him on the cheek.
By now, the two of them were close to the Cathedral of Reims.
The Cathedral of Reims was heavily guarded and filled with people from the Inquisition.
Clergy, too.
Aside from a few particularly devout Ascetics, most of the clergy were Adepts.
The Pontiff's Citadel wasn't just a place of faith. It was also a center of Adepts.
Unfortunately, they could guard the places they could see, but what about the places they couldn't see?
Blue electricity coursed through the walls of the Cathedral at high speed. Noiselessly, it crept deeper into the Cathedral.
There was a flash of light, and the Inquisitor's office was suddenly occupied.
There was no one there. In contrast to the lavish decorations of the Cathedral, this one was simple. It had a metallic feel to it.
Lan Jue's senses were on full alert. He didn't need to use his eyes to feel the presence of any living thing.
No one!
It looked like his plan had worked.
Now that the Pontiff had left the Citadel, there was no one here that could threaten his life.
Without the Pontiff, there was no one to cover every nook and cranny.
A ninth level Adept's perception range was vast, but there were so many people in the Pontiff's Citadel. Who would be able to tell the enemy from the clergy?
Lan Jue knew he didn't have the ability to.
The King of Angels wasn't likely either.
That was the difference between Adepts and Paragons.
With Sariel's information, Lan Jue quickly located the entrance to the crypt.
The Angel of the Moon had told him that there were alarms at the entrance.
There were also powerful traps.
Even a ninth level Adept could be injured.
As for what the traps were …
She had no idea how to open them.
This was a secret of the Inquisition, and ran parallel to their system of clergy.
Of course, this wasn't a problem for Lan Jue. He didn't need to know what the traps were.
Whatever they were, they were made with electricity and metal.
As long as he wasn't completely insulated, he could enter.
Lan Jue found the right spot, and as he did so, he transformed into a bolt of lightning.
There was another flash, and he found himself in a dimly lit world.
There was a tunnel ahead.
Both sides of the tunnel were made of stone. He looked around but didn't see any power outlets. They were all made of stone.
If that was the case, he wouldn't be able to use electricity to sneak in.
He quietly opened his perception and looked forward.
Lan Jue's body floated gently under the influence of her ability. At the same time, she felt all the energy fluctuations in the tunnel.
As it turned out, he had been overly cautious. Everything in the passageway was normal, and no other traps appeared.
He walked for twenty meters.
It was another flight of stairs.
Walking down the stone steps, a huge underground palace appeared in front of Lan Jue.
The underground palace was brightly lit.
Cages were lined up in all directions, extending inwards.
As far as the eye could see, there were at least a thousand cells.
Some clergymen wearing the black robes of the Inquisition marched in the corridor.
All sorts of chaotic noises echoed in the cage.
Seeing this scene, Lan Jue could not help but be a little stunned.
He wasn't surprised that the Pontiff's Citadel had an underground world. After all, every power had its secrets.
But why were there so many cages here?
With just a glance, he could sense that the people locked up in these cages were not very old. Moreover, most of them had energy fluctuations coming from their bodies.
That meant most of them were Adepts.
Why did the Pontiff's Citadel keep so many Adepts?
Lan Jue had no way of knowing.
But on the surface, the Cathedral was a place of faith!
Who would have guessed that beneath it was a prison?
Lan Jue paused for a few seconds in his dark corner, then sprang into action.
He knew he couldn't stay here for too long. The Pontiff could return at any moment.
The two Citadels were on opposite sides of the planet, but a Paragon could make a round trip in no time at all. In short bursts, a Paragon's speed was faster than any airship in the world.
After all, a powerful airship needed time to accelerate, but a Paragon didn't!
The cells were made of alloy, which gave Lan Jue a chance to move about.
The prisoners in the cells only saw a blur in front of their eyes, and a flash of lightning flashed past. The lightning was very weak and not strong.
They were listless, and didn't pay it much attention.
It didn't take long for Lan Jue to find his target.
In the deepest part of the prison, atop a circular altar, a person was bound to a cross.
Her long hair was a mess, and the black strands seemed to stick together.
Her head was bowed, and her hands and feet were pierced by silver metal spikes. But no blood dripped.
Circles of white light constantly swept past her body and gathered in a magic circle below. Then, through the eight pillars around the magic circle, they condensed to the top and shot out eight rays of light into a golden diamond-shaped crystal above the man's head.
There were four people sitting in the four corners of the altar. Each of them was sitting upright and still, as if they were in a state of meditation.
Their auras were strong. They were all ninth level Adepts, and they didn't look very old.
Each of them radiated a holy aura.
Ninth level Adepts were ninth level, but they were at the beginning stages of the ninth level.
Now that they were here, Lan Jue didn't need to hide. What he needed was time.
There was a flash of light, and Lan Jue appeared out of thin air in the corner. The four ninth level Adepts sensed him, and opened their eyes.
They felt the world spin around them, and everything around them began to twist.
Lan Jue's hands formed a circle in front of him. Black and white light coalesced into yin and yang energy, then burst outward.
The four Level 9 Arcanists felt their bodies fall forward, and at the same time as they fully released their Arcana, a huge force followed, and the four of them flew backward at the same time, slamming into a distant wall.
In a flash, Lan Jue appeared above the black-haired woman's head. He reached out and grabbed the golden crystal. His yin and yang energy stirred, severing the connection between the crystal and the eight pillars.
At the same time, he slid down and slammed his palm on the back of the cross carved with various runes.
The black-haired woman screamed, and her body was thrown off the cross. Her pierced hands and legs were also detached from the cross.
She seemed to have lost all her strength. As she screamed, she fell to the ground.
In the blink of an eye, Lan Jue had her in his arms.
At the same time, he twisted his body.
In an instant, the four Adepts who had just climbed to their feet saw a huge black and white yin and yang fish light up behind the man in front of them. His whole body seemed to have turned black and white.
Then, as he twisted his body, a black and white light coalesced and smashed into the cross.
"Boom — —" A huge roar shook the entire underground palace. The terrifying impact instantly burst out in all directions. The underground palace shook violently, and a large amount of dust fell from above due to the tremors.
The incomparably powerful shockwave blew the four ability users away again.
Lan Jue's hand flashed with silver light, and the Moonfiend Empress was returned to his interspatial ring. Lan Jue's body flickered, and he turned into a bolt of lightning and flew away.
The cross was gone. Not only that, but there was a large crater in the ground. The terrifying energy caused the entire underground palace to feel like a Category 12 hurricane.
The prisoners in the prison fared better. They had the support of the prison, so they wouldn't be blown away. However, the clergymen in the corridor didn't have it so good. The strong ones were blown away by the strong wind, while the weak ones were directly blown away. All of them had bruised noses and swollen faces.
By the time they reacted, the man was long gone.
Alarms blared throughout the Cathedral.
The Archangels, who had been meditating in the great hall, opened their eyes.
Constantine was the first to react. "That's the alarm from the Inquisition's dungeons.
Not good. Did he come for the dungeons? "
As he spoke, Metatron transformed into a beam of golden light and shot off into the distance.
The rest of the Archangels didn't dare tarry. They followed Metatron's lead and flew out of the room.
The Inquisition's dungeons were important to the Pontiff's Citadel.
If there was a problem there, it would be more serious than Raphael and Uriel's capture.
Now they understood. The man's goal was most likely the dungeons.
What was in the dungeons?
Aside from the prisoners, there was Little Moon, the Angel of the Dawn.
Every one of the Pontiff's Citadel's top brass had to be intelligent. It only took a moment for the Archangels and Metatron to understand. The man who'd kidnapped Uriel and Raphael wasn't trying to start a war between the two Citadels. He was trying to save Little Moon!
This person had been making a ruckus all along and had been hiding his true intentions all along, only revealing them at the very last moment.
Constantine was both shocked and furious. He had been the one guarding the Inquisition all this while.
Today, the Pontiff was absent, and the situation was unique. He hadn't expected to be tricked.
In the blink of an eye, the Inquisition's dungeons had fallen.
(To be continued.)
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