Chapter 33: The Fresh and Juicy God

Inside the church, almost everyone except Frank and his companions standing against the wall had been affected by the eye. They wailed in agony, their bodies trembling uncontrollably as blood streamed from their eyes, noses, mouths, and ears. Their spirits were on the verge of collapse.

"So beautiful, so fragrant..." Jiang Ren murmured, as if oblivious to the suffering around him. He calmly looked up at the blood-red, single eye descending slowly toward him, swallowing involuntarily. To him, this eye—which no ordinary person could approach or even look at directly—was a delicious dish, perfect in both appearance and scent. Now, having seen the color and smelled the fragrance, only the final taste remained.

"Soon, I will be able to shed this withered body and replace it with a young, vibrant one." Frank, who was kneeling with his forehead pressed to the ground, waiting for the manifestation ritual to complete, felt an overwhelming surge of excitement. In this age of rampant materialism, a truly pure believer was non-existent, and he was no exception. As a winner at the top of the pyramid, he would never worship a deity with his whole heart unless that faith brought him greater benefits—such as a lifespan that money could not buy.

However, all things were finite. While the deity had promised to grant lifespan to believers upon its manifestation, the amount granted and the number of recipients depended on their contributions. This was why Frank had kept the manifestation of the God of Omniscience a secret from the headquarters of the Celestial Society; only by doing so could he maximize his personal gains. His helpers, including Taylor, had chosen to follow him precisely because they were dissatisfied with the distribution of benefits from the headquarters.

"Almost there. Just a little longer." Jiang Ren suppressed his increasingly ravenous appetite. At this distance, he did not have absolute certainty that he could capture the blood-red eye.

Facing the fearless gaze of the vessel below, a flash of human-like confusion crossed the blood-red eye. But having finally found a satisfactory vessel and being only one final step away from manifestation, combined with confidence in his own power, the entity did not dwell on it.

*Pop!*

Just as the blood-red eye touched his head, Jiang Ren reached out his left hand. "Got you!" In the blink of an eye, he had the eye clutched in his palm, a smile breaking across his face.

"Lord Hosamael, I am your devout belie—" Frank began, looking up in excitement at the sound. But the sight before him shattered his fantasies. The deity he believed to be omniscient was now firmly gripped in the palm of the chosen vessel, unable to break free.

The other robed figures looked up as well. Seeing their god held captive by Jiang Ren, a complex mix of doubt, rage, and terror surged within them.

"Damn blasphemer, release the God of Omniscience!"
"Impossible! This must be fake, I'm hallucinating!"
"A conspiracy! This must be a conspiracy by the headquarters!"

Some cursed at Jiang Ren, others questioned their own sanity, and some were convinced that Jiang Ren was a trap set by the powers at the headquarters after they discovered their plot.

*Pop!*

The moment it was caught in Jiang Ren's grip, the blood-red eye began to pulse like a heart. Countless dark red blood mists erupted from within it, rapidly covering Jiang Ren’s skin and surging into his body.

"Energy with three distinct characteristics: disease, weakness, and aging," Jiang Ren said, looking at the eye in his palm. "Even for a Tier 4 hazardous species, accidentally touching this energy would likely force them to discard half their body to survive, or worse, die." He smiled. "Too bad it's useless against me."

As the blood mist entered his body, it behaved just like the cores of the hazardous species he had consumed before: most of the energy was absorbed by his left arm, while the remainder served as nutrients to nourish the rest of his body.

"You were right about one thing earlier—I do have to thank you. Thank you for this feast!" Jiang Ren expressed his gratitude to the paralyzed Frank, then shoved the eye, which was the size of half a fist, into his mouth and bit down hard.

A strange sound rang out as the juices exploded in his mouth.

Succulent and juicy! A flavor so complex that words failed to describe it flowed between his lips and teeth. As he swallowed the shattered eyeball and the juices, every cell in his body began to cheer, and his heart let out a thunderous beat. In a trance, Jiang Ren heard a painful scream echoing from within his own body.

"How... how could he dare to do this..." Frank’s heart was filled with regret. The perfect plan he had envisioned was flawed from its very inception. The vessel he had chosen after half a year of investigation was, in reality, a monster hiding its true power, a creature capable of blaspheming a god!

At this moment, caring nothing for the years of preparation that had just gone to waste, Frank turned and bolted toward the door. He did not believe that such a monster—one that dared to scheme against and even devour a deity—would let the mastermind behind it go free. As he ran, Frank pulled out a piece of parchment and tore it to shreds. The two halves of the parchment emitted a faint glow before rapidly dissipating.

"Mr. Frank, could you give me a chance to host you properly?" Jiang Ren said with a smile.

Just as he prepared to chase and capture him, he felt a vicious gust of wind from behind.

*Thud!*

Jiang Ren’s right hand whipped out like a steel lash, striking behind him. The attacker was sent flying, crashing into a stone statue and leaving a spiderweb of cracks on the wall before sliding to the floor. It was a creature that looked neither human nor beast. It had the shape of a man, but dozens of tentacles, two or three meters long, grew from its surface.

"Dorn?" Jiang Ren recognized the blood-stained face and looked toward where Dorn had been unconscious; only a pool of blood remained. This monster was Dorn.

"As expected of someone who could summon a powerful hazardous species," Jiang Ren chuckled, unconcerned. Of all the people present, he might let anyone go, but certainly not Frank. It wasn't because of Frank being the mastermind, but because he was very interested in the Celestial Society. If a branch could summon a "blood-red eye" of such power, he wondered how strong the hazardous species summoned by the headquarters might be. As the branch leader, Frank likely knew quite a bit and surely wouldn't refuse to help him resolve this curiosity.

*Hiss~*

Dorn let out a snake-like sound, crawled up from the floor, and lunged at Jiang Ren again. While the previous strike had temporarily incapacitated him, it clearly wasn't enough to cause fatal damage to him in his transformed state. At the same time, a dozen more similar tentacle monsters lunged at him. It was Taylor and the robed figures. Apparently, they too had been abandoned by Frank, turned into tools to stall Jiang Ren.

"Do you think this will let you get away?" Jiang Ren didn't care about these tentacle monsters, whose strength and speed were inferior to his own in every way. He started to dash out of the church to catch Frank, but after just two steps, his expression changed abruptly.

Taking advantage of his brief pause, the tentacle monsters piled onto him, engulfing him in an instant.