The more they oppose, the more it shows that I am doing the right thing

News of this morning's events had already spread throughout the border city.

The "Seaside Daily" was the first to report, with a nose for news sharp as a dog's.

It removed yesterday's headline "Eliminate Violence, Preserve Peace! Holy Knight Kavensis's Secret Witch-Hunt,"

and replaced it with the latest sensation: "Shocking! For the first time in sixty years, the Church goes home empty-handed, all because of him?"

Other newspapers followed with reports like "The unnamed hero, the dark knight guardian of the border city,"

"The Big Reveal! The true face behind the nameless hero,"

and "Why has the border esoteric religion mysteriously disappeared? Why is the person of light silent? Is all this a distortion of human nature, or a loss of morality?"

Various bizarre rumors, spiced up by the media, grew wildly throughout the border city like weeds after spring rain.

It seemed that the public was indeed very interested in these news stories.

And that was only natural.

After all, the image of a mysterious and powerful hero of the night who leaves no name is most adored by young girls and idealized by young boys.

Plus, he doesn't charge money.

When the Church sets out to eliminate esoteric religions, they would levy a tithe tax on the common people.

The sudden appearance of a hero who silently solves problems without charge was bound to be popular.

Now, the burning question on everyone's mind was, what is the name of this heroic figure?

As the fervor continued to brew, Holy Knight Kavensis's blunders from the previous night, along with his unbecoming conduct as an almost-saint, spread as well.

The next two days turned out to be anti-climactic.

With the initial setup of An Su's industrialized sacrifice of cultists, the sacrifices began to operate like an assembly line.

The next day, he collected 90 life points and 60 faith points.

The area he cleaned expanded from a ten-kilometer radius to fifteen kilometers.

The Church usually wouldn't thoroughly clean their surrounding outposts.

After all, they needed to leave some seeds, waiting for the spring breeze to blow life into them again—a sustainable overfishing of sorts.

But it was different with Brother Xianzong.

Adhering to the principle of thorough eradication, he spared no one—cleaning one place and moving to the next was fine, as An Su wasn't going to stay in the border city forever.

What could be guaranteed was that child kidnapping cases in the border city would drop by at least half for the upcoming year.

An Su's cleaning was exceptionally thorough; not only did he have Enya mop the floors, but he also became more excessive afterward.

This scoundrel even planned to remove the cultists' altars and dig up the grass.

Preparing a large wagon, he loaded up various ritual artifacts—things like severed heads and skins, tainted sacrificial items, taboo books—and hauled them off to bury them himself somewhere else.

As An Su put it, "Since I'm already here,"

who knows, they might be useful later on?

Meanwhile, his other secret identity gained even more popularity in the border city, becoming the hottest topic.

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The media dubbed him "The Dark Night Hero," "The Nemesis of the Esoteric Religion."

The entire city was on the lookout for these heroes.

On the third day, the harvest wasn't as good as the previous two days.

Perhaps because he had been too active the days before, the cultists caught wind of the infamous Nemesis, and even those who normally laughed in the face of death became timid.

Maybe take a break this year?

The cultists had been slaughtered into taking a holiday.

The third day's harvest was only 20 life points and 15 faith points that were unconverted.

So, the total income for the three days was 170 life points and 115 faith points.

He spent 40 faith points on the first day to exchange for four magic points, becoming an intermediate-stage magician.

As an intermediate-stage magician, the exchange rate became 20:1.

An Su then spent sixty faith points, boosting his total magic power to 13.

And the remaining 25 faith points, he planned to use to exchange for a few low-level Holy Light magic spells for complementary purposes.

Life points were exchanged for a plethora of magic: several low-level magic books, an intermediate-stage dark magic book, and a high-level dark magic book.

Among those low-level magic spells, there were also some non-dark magic books since the Mother Goddess wasn't solely associated with the dark aspect.

As a Child of the Curse, when he used dark magic, its mana cost was halved, so he could use intermediate spells as low-level ones and high-level spells as intermediate ones—barely enough for practical use.

With the remaining 10 life points, he added them all to his physical attributes.

Thus, his Light and Dark Priest System was initially formed, reaching the first stage.

On the third day, quite early, before he even really got started, An Su's grand enterprise encountered an unexpected accident.

An Su and the Holy Knights from the Church bumped into each other.

To say it was the Church's Holy Knights was a bit of a stretch.

Because there was only Kavensis.

It looked like they were operating separately.

An Su had heard that he had a bit of a disagreement with the knightly orders.

After two consecutive days of fruitless witch-hunts, Kavensis stated angrily that he must find the trickster behind the scenes and declared that he would duel him honorably to reclaim his honor.

In fact, the border Church also had quite an issue with An Su,

first for stealing the Church's targeted prey, second for undermining the Church's authority, as the common folk were now all worshiping this "Dark Night Hero," who paid taxes to the Church anyway.

Kavensis's priest father also issued secret orders to find the troublemaker and dispose of him.

When they encountered each other, the blood moon was red, and the pale clouds were spread across the leaden sky.

An Su was driving the wagon when he spotted the Church's Holy Knight from afar and decisively retreated, dropping the title "The Newborn" and adopting the newly acquired "Gradual Dawn." He then told Enya to hide, in case her identity was uncovered with Scouting Magic.

Kavensis rode on his beloved horse, squinting slightly as he watched the suspicious carriage before him.

What was a carriage doing on the desolate plain at this time?

Moreover, he sensed the smell of blood coming from inside.

Years of intuition told Kavensis that the man before him was the one he had been searching for.

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Finally found you!

The very source of disgrace that has tormented him these three days!

Foes meet with heightened animosity.

Despite knowing the opponent's extraordinary strength, how could Kavensis, with his mind clouded by rage, care about that?

Moreover, even if he couldn't defeat him, all he needed was to delay him for a moment.

Once the other saints arrived, they could settle him together.

Tonight, he would wash away his humiliation and prove his honor to all those who looked down on him!

This would be a duel of sacred honor.

Upright and forthright.

"My name is Kavensis Pierson; state your name," he declared.

He dismounted and grabbed his magic wand, shouting at the person in the carriage opposite him.

After a moment,

the reply came from across, "You can just call me Xianzong."

"I challenge you to a duel—a duel of honor!"

Kavensis proclaimed righteously, as the cold wind fluttered his cloak, rustling softly.

What a complete idiot...

An Su was in a hurry to grind monsters.

You grind your monsters; I'll grind mine, and we won't interfere with each other.

And An Su also knew that this so-called duel of honor was laughable.

Kavensis couldn't have come alone.

If he got delayed by him and those holy knights accompanying him arrived, it would turn into an honor brawl instead.

Dealing with Kavensis was easy, but those holy knights would be troublesome.

"Do you need me to take care of him?" Enya whispered in An Su's ear.

If Enya were to make a move, it would only result in both parties being damaged.

Furthermore, if Enya intervened, his own identity would be easily exposed.

With a squad of holy knights gone missing, the border church would be furious and definitely conduct a thorough investigation.

And then, even the headquarters would send a Heretic Judge.

Heretic Judges are Fourth Order or higher in strength, specializing in handling the dark affairs for the Church.

If it came to that, things would definitely blow up.

Normal players would choose to kill Kavensis quickly and remove any traces—like sacrificing him and framing the cultists, then fleeing before the saints could arrive.

This would still carry some risk of exposure, and the night's harvest would be ruined.

That's how normal people would act, reaping no benefits but also taking fewer risks.

But An Su was a maverick player.

Maverick players had their own unorthodox solutions.

For this unexpected situation, he had a contingency plan.

"...No need. I'll handle it myself," An Su replied, already having thought of a solution.

Just right, he could also use this guy to test out the system to see if it is viable and what needed adjusting.

He was in need of test material, after all, it was necessary to put it into practice.

An experimental guinea pig—that should be the contribution of Kavensis, an NPC without much of a description.

Just right, his magic power was also similar to his own.

"I accept your challenge."

An Su dismounted and approached a few steps, the blood-colored moonlight falling on his cheeks,

"As you say, this will be a battle of honor."

Kavensis looked clearly at Xianzong's face, and in an instant, felt the latter to be inscrutable and terrifyingly formidable, surely a hidden master.

The air of effortless intellect carried an inscrutability and pressure that seemed plain at first but constantly exuded a sense of stability.

Moreover, this person was very young, much younger than expected.

But this did not cause Kavensis to lower his guard.

Kavensis watched for the opponent's first move, clutching the amulet around his neck—a mid-level amulet gifted by his father, capable of warding off two attacks from an enemy.

It could even fend off curses.

What kind of magic would Xianzong use?

Would it be the highly lethal Fireball Technique?

Or is it something from the Holy Light series, like a light spear?

Or perhaps Druidic magic?

Plant magic?

But no matter which system of magic he used, Kavensis was confident that he could counter it, having his own plans as a near-intermediate-stage magician.

"God's—"

Xianzong finally made his move.

The blood-like moonlight enveloped Xianzong, endowing him with a hint of divine sheen.

He stood upright on the plains, majestic and sacred, chanting as the winds stirred and clouds billowed, and it seemed a great deity was about to descend upon the world.

"Gift."

God's Gift—Kavensis had never heard of such magic before.

From the name, could it be magic from the Holy Light series?

Is it the Blessing Magic?

Good, truly a duel filled with honor!

Kavensis's blood surged with excitement in an instant.

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