Chapter 59: Followers of Mammon, Ambition

This was the method Louis had figured out on his own.

The inherited knowledge only provided the cultivation techniques, but Louis had repeatedly failed to make any progress, which naturally forced him to ponder where he had gone wrong.

One had to possess subjective initiative; this was also known as enlightenment.

During his contemplation, Louis had a sudden flash of inspiration, recalling the Unforgivable Curses from the Harry Potter works of his past life, where malice and hostility harbored within the heart were the keys to mastering them and determining their power.

Could this be a more directed form of intent?

And so, this experiment was born.

As for the female corpse before him, Louis naturally felt malice and even hatred toward her—are you kidding me, that axe swing of hers earlier had almost scared him to death!

As the malice gathered within Louis's heart, the incantation marks that had just been sketched in the air above the tender willow leaf began to appear out of nowhere, densely and intricately engraved upon it. The next second.

Swish!

The willow leaf spun and pierced through the air.

It embedded itself straight into the center of the female corpse's brow.

The knife-like tender willow leaf shattered inch by inch, turning into flying ash. In contrast, strange anomalies began to manifest on the female corpse.

She abruptly sat up, widening her blackened, jawless mouth, the interior as dark and bottomless as an abyss.

Crack-rattle, crack-rattle...

Her body, composed of bones wrapped in tendons and muscle, actually began to decay. One by one, the sinews snapped, the muscles loosened, and chunks of flesh fell away. It was like a long-neglected building, collapsing all at once from the rafters down to the foundation!

In the blink of an eye, a thoroughly stripped skeleton lay presented before him, while on the ground remained a heap of rapidly rotting flesh, sinews, and viscera...

Indeed.

Her essence remained that of an evil spirit, merely merging with a physical body to manipulate it. The willow leaf golden blade had injured her spiritual body.

Yet doubts still remained unresolved: why was she able to immunize herself against fire and lightning, and why was she so special?

Just as Louis was deep in thought, a sudden change occurred.

Wisps of black smoke began to emerge from the wide-open, jawless mouth, rapidly gathering.

Startled, Louis cautiously retreated to a corner and activated his concealment technique.

His body's scent vanished.

The sound of his breathing vanished.

His soul fluctuations vanished.

His entire person concealed himself in the corner like a piece of stone.

Simultaneously, the Citizen's Codex within Louis's soul trembled slightly, and the deity statue amulet resting against his chest began to grow hot once more, reaching a scorching temperature.

In the open space, the black mist attempted to coalesce several times, but failed each time.

"Aaaahhh!!!"

After uttering an enraged, piercing scream, it abruptly dissipated.

Another half-hour passed.

Only then did Louis cautiously extend a foot, surveying the area. Seeing no further abnormalities, he finally let out a sigh of relief.

It was a false alarm.

"What was that just now?"

With his sharp eyes, he noticed that the corpse on the ground had vanished, leaving behind only the golden arm. On the surface of that golden arm, a simple drawing was actually engraved.

A palace, a twin-headed bird, gold coins.

Clearly, this was a symbolic pattern of some sort.

Moreover, this trope felt intimately familiar to Louis. In America, apart from demons and evil gods, he could think of no other possibility for entities that could leave behind special symbols while influencing the abilities of evil spirits.

Just as Louis was thinking this, the tremor within his soul persisted. With a thought, he summoned the Citizen's Codex.

The broad, archaic book was currently trembling, emitting a fluctuation that Louis could not comprehend.

The next second.

The golden arm in the clearing turned into specks of flying ash, leaving behind only a wisp of black thread-like substance that was sucked into the Codex.

Flutter, flutter!

The pages of the Codex turned.

Nine glowing, brilliant pages materialized right behind the Blood Curse Arts.

Sensations washed over him as the Codex unlocked a new chapter—the Miao and Dai Sorcery Chapter.

Furthermore, it provided three distinct sorcery techniques.

"Being able to unlock a chapter of the Codex ahead of schedule..."

Unlocking the mystic arts chapter early before had been due to encountering Mary Shaw, a powerful evil spirit. Now, unlocking another one ahead of time could only mean he had encountered something even more terrifying.

Louis quickly strode out of the cave and issued a stern warning to the guards, "Seal off this place. No one is allowed to enter, and none of you are to go in either, or you will all die!"

The group of burly men in black instantly turned grave as if facing a formidable enemy, the guns in their hands failing to provide them with any sense of security at this moment.

Louis returned to his room, booted up his computer, opened a web browser, and began searching for that pattern.

The internet changed the world; although the information within could not be neatly separated into truth and falsehood, it was as vast as an ocean, containing everything imaginable.

Results were yielded swiftly.

That pattern most likely belonged to Mammon, one of the Seven Princes of Hell, who represented greed and wealth!

Legend had it that its forms varied, but its most commonly used form was that of a twin-headed bird. It possessed an extreme fondness for wealth, having established a resplendent, gold-adorned palace in Hell as its dwelling. Gold coins and jewels were its absolute favorites, embodying the greed of mortal souls.

Connecting this to the legend of the golden arm.

And the female corpse's greed for that golden arm.

This was nine-tenths likely to be a follower of Mammon, the Demon King of Hell, or something else related to him.

"Tch, how unlucky. It seems I've unwittingly offended a Great Demon."

Louis reached this conclusion.

His inner thoughts were somewhat speechless.

He never expected that a mere act of saving someone, stumbling upon a golden arm and wishing to study it, would somehow entangle him with a Demon King.
Were Demon Kings of Hell really this easy to run into? What kind of damned place was this!

However, Louis felt no regret.

Judging by the current situation, this fertile soil of America was truly a place of "outstanding people and spiritual treasures"!

If he didn't run into them today, he'd run into them tomorrow; accidents didn't discriminate between people.

He couldn't just cower and hide forever.

Besides, he had finally confirmed one thing.

"Hell... truly exists!"

So the soul descending to Hell was real as well?

That curse-like phrase—"go to Hell"—had actually become reality!

Evil spirits had already appeared, so the existence of Hell was actually quite normal; it was just that Louis had previously harbored a stroke of wishful thinking.

Now that it was confirmed, Louis didn't believe he could ascend to heaven. He was no follower of God, and judging by his own merciless, killing-without-blinking style, the probability of him going to hell was rather high.

Damn it!

This daddy does not want to go to Hell!

Sitting in his chair, Louis contemplated his path forward for the very first time.

Ascend to heaven? Not happening.

Go to hell? Even less possible.

Transition into a ghost cultivator? That was still feasible.

Yet, these were all matters for after death; what about while he was still alive?

Louis summoned the Citizen's Codex, stroked its archaic and heavy leather cover, glanced at the various peach wood artifacts and the Kitchen God statue in the room, and then looked at himself.

"The path has actually been destined from the very beginning: to attain immortality and become a primordial ancestor."

"Oh right, in America, becoming a god works too."

Louis established his future goal, or rather, his ambition, right then and there.

To avoid death, avoid going to hell, avoid suffering, and avoid bondage, he must strive in his cultivation, grow stronger, and achieve longevity.

Baseline goal: cultivate a Yin Spirit, allowing for a future transition into a ghost cultivator.

Ultimate goal: attain immortality or divinity.

Long-term goal: hunt ghosts and spirits to acquire materials and unlock new chapters, thereby growing stronger.

Short-term goal: practice newly acquired techniques, reinforce previous ones like the Blood Curse Arts, and gain the ability to defeat evil spirits.

Everything was clear and distinct.