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Chapter 697 Ceremony of Great Cleansing

Countless high-ranking warriors interrogated the fleeing soldiers and surrendered Delarosan members for answers.

"Please take me away from me, Lord! I\'ll do anything you want and answer anything you ask! Just take me anyway from this place, please!" a terrified Delarosan member pleaded.

"Oh?" Duke Gamliel glanced at the Delarosan member with interest and disdain. "Aren\'t you from the Delarosa Household? You\'re a little too quick to flee your master, aren\'t you? Where is your loyalty?"

"Loyalty? My loyalty lies with the Holy Mother, the giver of life and knowledge! What else am I supposed except flee if the Holy Son, the Holy Mother\'s Chosen One, had turned his back on her and served another Great Devil?" the Delarosan member replied with horror.

"The Holy Mother?" Duke Gamliel raised an eyebrow before demanding an answer, "And who is this Holy Mother you speak of?"

"The Holy Mother is the Giver of Life and Knowledge, the mother of all witches and witchcraft! Her Divinity is what the world knows as the Great Devil Hecate! However, Her Divinity is a good devil who looks after humans and views them like her children!" the Delarosan member explained with blind faith.

"A good devil? The only good devil is a dead one!" Duke Gamliel snickered with contempt before barking dismissively, "Men, take this boy away for further questioning later! He looks like he will provide some useful information!"

"Yes, my Lord!" several men answered.

At the same time, similar situations occurred throughout the vicinity of the Delarosa Household as people fled the territory.

…

Meanwhile, Kuvat\'s group and Emperor Varan\'s close retainers remained within the Delarosan Household. They did everything they could to destroy the source of soaring red light.

However, no matter what attack or spell they used, they couldn\'t get close to the totem beacon embedded within Galen\'s stomach. The intense blood-crimson light was in and of itself a barrier—one that was far more powerful than anyone could imagine.

"Dammit! How could this light barrier be so damn powerful?!" Emperor Varan cursed with urgency.

"It used the blood offering of several thousand lives as the fuel," Kuvat chuckled bitterly, shaking his head, "How can it not be powerful?"

The red light\'s main function wasn\'t meant to act as a barrier. However, it was more powerful than any barrier-type totem the Delarosa Household had revealed.

This was because of the quantity and quality of the blood sacrifice used to activate.

Blood sacrifices could grant power beyond one\'s imagination, depending on the quantity and quality of it.

That was also why it was usually considered taboo.

"We have failed the Supreme Leader," Fraegar sighed with regret and disappointment.

However, her regret and disappointment didn\'t come from her inability to stop Galen from activating the totem beacon; it was from failing to live up to the Supreme Leader\'s expectations.

Nevertheless, this wasn\'t something that could be blamed on their group.

The truth was that even if the Old Demon hadn\'t used the blood of thousands of lives as the offering, the Old Demon would have still been able to activate the totem beacon upon his death.

The blood potency of a Peak Transcendent would have achieved the same result, albeit a little weaker.

As such, no matter what they did, they were doomed to fail. The enemy had been scheming for a very long time and wouldn\'t leave any room for error; they were too meticulous.

…

As the pillar of blood-crimson light soared into the heavens, it was easily seen throughout the Great Ratholos Empire, let alone the Imperial Capital, the heart of its source.

As such, the Sacred Tirtha was definitely not an exception, given its relatively close distance.

"The first beacon has been lit! The Holy Son has sent his signal! Activate our second beacon at once! The Ceremony of Great Cleansing shall commence henceforth!" the Great Shaman Laemana quickly instructed.

Following her command, hundreds of Sacred Tirtha members immediately activated their fire-type totem powers on an enormous pit-like furnace located underground.

A shocking wealth of several million mana stones were quickly burned within the pit-like furnace, melting into liquid form. The liquid-state mana soon traveled into designated pipelines, spreading throughout the Sacred Tirtha\'s sacred ground, connected rivers, and even the Imperial Capital\'s sewage system.

As the entire Sacred Tirtha lit up with an eerie red light, Great Shaman Laemana, Ex-Great Shaman Laeticia, and everyone else within Sacred Tirtha suddenly felt weak and lethargic.

They immediately realized something was wrong.

"Something\'s not right… The Ceremony of Great Cleansing… Great Cleansing… Hahaha, so that\'s how it is… Even we are not excluded from the Great Cleansing…! You are too cruel, Father," Laeticia felt bitter as she was enlightened at the moment of her death.

Shortly after, she was turned into withered skin and bones, completely void of blood, along with Great Shaman Laemana and a hundred thousand other members within the Sacred Tirtha.

After the underground array received their blood offering, a heaven-reaching pillar of blood-crimson light also soared into the skies from the heart of the Sacred Tirtha.

However, that wasn\'t the end of it.

After the two pillars of blood-crimson light appeared, the blood-crimson light started to spread to connect with each other and create an even wider pillar of blood-crimson light.

Every living being caught within the blood-crimson light also became a blood offering to the grand array. Within a matter of minutes, countless lives perished in the red light.

Ten thousand… A hundred thousand… Several hundred thousand… A million…!

When the two pillars of blood-crimson light connected after fifteen minutes, the number of deaths reached a terrifying two million count!

Two million blood offerings! The generated power would be unimaginable!

Fortunately, thanks to Kuvat\'s fast thinking, he realized the danger early and withdrew from the red light with his peers. Even Emperor Varan and most forces gathered outside the Delarosa Household managed to retreat safely.

The veil of blood-crimson light didn\'t move very fast, but it wasn\'t slow either; there simply wasn\'t enough time to notify all the citizens.

As such, only the oblivious people living in the area of the blanketing blood crimson light became its victims.

If the grand array hadn\'t been sabotaged to a great extent, such a horrifying light would have covered the entire capital city. In that event, the death toll wouldn\'t have been as simple as a mere two million.

After all, the grand evaluation event was just around the corner. Thus, the Imperial Capital was in its most bustling period. The population during such a period definitely exceeded fifty million.

But even though the worst situation had been avoided, a death toll of two million was a disastrous loss in the history of humankind, let alone the Great Ratholos Empire.

On a hill outside the blood-crimson light-covered region, Emperor Varan knelt on the ground with a pale look, feeling a sense of inexplicable loss and defeat.

"This… is the worst day in human history since the period of the Holy War…"