Exorcist's Self-Cultivation

At this moment.

Brand and Ryan Hamel clashed.

It was a one-sided suppression.

Brand completely dominated, but that was all he could do; he couldn't kill Ryan Hamel.

The latter was battered.

His body was torn and tattered.

But only the mask remained intact.

Even so, Ryan Hamel still taunted, "Give up, Brand, you simply can't kill me. Your stupidity is laughable."

Brand struck with a punch, sending Ryan Hamel flying far away.

But the latter still hung on, neither dead nor alive.

He really was like an indestructible cockroach.

Honestly.

Brand was now somewhat troubled; he discovered he had absolutely no way to deal with Ryan Hamel.

He couldn't kill him.

And he couldn't remove the mask. Ignoring him could lead to more troublesome issues.

Even Brand considered asking "His Excellency the Duke" to take action.

In his view, everything would be resolved once the Duke intervened.

Despite knowing that the Duke's strength and memory had not fully recovered.

And that his power was far from its peak.

Meanwhile.

Du Wei didn't make any moves at all.

Shadows stood loyally by his side, protecting him.

The envelope floated out, with dice, the Joker Card, and coins clustering around Du Wei as their center.

This scene looked extremely magical.

But Du Wei's attention wasn't on this at all.

At this moment.

He was thinking about something: "Why is this Ryan Hamel behaving so recklessly, to the point that there doesn't seem to be any plan or conspiracy at all?"

Long ago.

Du Wei had already learned of Ryan Hamel's existence; the other was a genius with mysterious and great strength, standing at the peak when he appeared.

Whether in skills or intelligence, he far surpassed the ordinary person.

Aside from his bizarre love for middle-aged women, he could be said to be the most terrifying man Du Wei knew of, even more oppressive than Hannibal.

But now.

Du Wei felt that even without Brand's assistance, he could easily kill this Ryan Hamel.

There must be something wrong.

"Something's off."

Thinking this, he turned to look at the sarcophagus.

Now, the sarcophagus no longer showed any anomalies and appeared utterly ordinary.

Du Wei narrowed his eyes.

He said, "The ability to deceive the senses, along with this coffin and that piano piece, I seem to have found some irregularities."

As he spoke, Du Wei walked over to the sarcophagus and pressed his hand against it.

The Marking ability activated.

But it wasn't successful.

Nevertheless, Du Wei smiled, "So that's how it is."

The sarcophagus seemed to sense something and began making a creaking noise again, as if someone inside was scratching at the lid with nails, trying to push it open.

"I can mark strangeness, Demon Spirits, and what I can't mark are either living people, certain inanimate objects, or things related to the Demon God."

"This sarcophagus may appear to be an inanimate object, but that's just on the surface."

Du Wei's voice was slightly unusual.

He outright turned to look behind him.

And saw.

Brand holding Ryan Hamel's neck with one hand and trying to rip off the mask with the other.

Right away, Du Wei was about to intervene and stop Brand.

But just as he opened his mouth, he remembered something.

The Ryan Hamel in front of him definitely had a problem; he was not the real deal.

But the one who appeared at the beginning.

Was definitely him.

However, perhaps due to the ability to shield the five senses, coupled with some miscellaneous things at play, Du Wei and Brand made a mistake in their judgment.

The real deal might be secretly watching everything that's happening.

He hoped to see this.

So the question arises,

Who is the being that Brand has beaten to such a state?

A Demon Spirit?

Or something else?

Keep in mind that previously, Du Wei deliberately let the shadow stay on Lake Heart Island, waiting for Gascogne to give chase, and then had the shadow bring back the envelope.

Judging by the time, Gascogne should have arrived by now.

For a moment,

Du Wei thought he saw the figure of Ryan Hamel, who seemed to be watching him as well.

Two men of equally high intellect.

At this moment, they seemed to resonate with each other.

Du Wei knew what the other man wanted to do, and the other must have realized that Du Wei had already seen the truth.

"Brand, you're not fighting alone,"

said Du Wei with implied meaning.

Because he felt that the real Ryan Hamel was probably cooperating with Brand in an invisible way, attacking the unknown being that had met a dire end together.

And this unknown being,

was most likely Gascogne.

No sooner had he finished speaking,

than Du Wei immediately added, "I'm fighting him with you; we must take his life."

Upon hearing this,

Brand was somewhat abashed, "Your Excellency the Duke, I alone am enough, I will kill him."

Du Wei charged forward, saying at the same time, "No, with just you alone, it's really too slow."

In reality, what he was thinking was,

They had to beat Gascogne to within an inch of his life, no longer able to fight back.

Or, they could just kill him outright.

Not taking advantage of such a good opportunity, it wouldn't be easy to get the answers he wanted from Gascogne's mouth later on.

Even the dead, Du Wei could make them speak.

Bang, bang...

Du Wei fired three shots.

The shadow also appeared eerily, thrusting two daggers into the head of that "Ryan Hamel," cutting it into pieces.

And,

It cocked its head to the side.

It seemed to feel that it had experienced this scene before.

However, the shadow was, after all, an idiot; it only listened to Du Wei's orders. If Du Wei asked it to attack, even a Demon God would be confronted by its daggers.

The envelope was not to be outdone.

The dice it once despised and doubted about life began to spin.

At the same time, one of the two Joker Cards, the Wishing Card, was activated.

[I, the envelope, make a wish here: the next coin I throw will show heads on every side.]

Wish fulfilled.

The coin landed.

It was indeed heads.

And the six sides of the dice settled down.

Number 6...

[My God, I, the envelope, have finally grasped my master's methods—I realized that only by exploiting layer by layer can I achieve my goals.]

Yes, the envelope had previously pondered why it had such terrible luck.

Then it thought of utilizing the Joker Card to bridge to the coin, then to the dice.

Like a pyramid.

Exploiting layer by layer, much like the abhorrent deeds of a capitalist.

But just then,

the sarcophagus opened...

Within lay a body of an exorcist with golden hair dressed in priest's attire.

The corpse suddenly opened its eyes, filled with a hollow silence of death.

Everything around was enveloped by darkness in the blink of an eye.