# 1261
Chapter 1262: The Pope
Outside the slaughterhouse was a narrow, old street.
The street整体接近西方中世纪的风格，但区别在于，这里的房屋非常破旧，两侧的房屋表面几乎挂满了蜘蛛网，腐朽发霉的房屋外墙散发着令人作呕的气息。
凹凸不平的碎石道路上，几个衣衫褴褛，骨瘦如柴的身影蹒跚行走，他们每个人的手臂上都悬挂着一只篮子，上面盖着一块白布，不知究竟装了什么。
当他们见到街道尽头，那个披着神圣教袍，缓步走来的身影，呆滞且恍惚的目光突然收缩！
Thud—!
They knelt on the ground without the slightest hesitation, facing Loki.
Their foreheads pressed hard against the uneven road, their knees struggling to move, shifting their prostrate bodies to the sides of the street, clearing the central path as if terrified that their bodies might block the other's advance.
Loki didn't even glance at these humans, striding through several streets amid countless people's worship, arriving before a towering cathedral.
Unlike the dense, old medieval buildings surrounding it, this cathedral stood at the city's center, yet within a one-kilometer radius, not a single other structure existed. The luxurious, tall cathedral walls sparkled under the sunlight, dazzling as gemstones.
Loki walked straight to the cathedral entrance, climbed the steps, and pushed open the doors.
Beyond the heavy doors lay a corridor paved with obsidian. A few men dressed in similar ecclesiastical robes stood at the corridor's edge, laughing loudly at something. When their peripheral vision caught Loki walking in from the entrance, their expressions simultaneously changed!
"Your Holiness!"
The several men bowed respectfully in unison,恨不得将头都埋到地里.
Loki glanced淡淡 at them. "Where is Bishop Lance?"
"He... he went to the east city to spread the gospel." One of the men replied.
Loki's brow furrowed slightly. "How many people are there in the city now?"
"Ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and sixty-two in total."
"Counting pregnant women?"
"What?" The man hesitated.
"Pregnant women and the child in their womb should count as two people." Loki spoke calmly.
The man hesitated briefly. "If we count it that way, there should be forty thousand people."
Forty thousand...
Loki's eyes narrowed slightly as he slowly spoke:
"I have a task to assign you..."
...
Outside the cathedral.
In a low building at the edge of the cathedral's vacuum zone, a man standing by the window slowly lowered the telescope in his hands.
"Loki has appeared in the Human Enclosure again... Has something happened in Asgard?"
Leng Xuan murmured to himself.
He paced in the room for a moment, then pushed the door open, wrapping himself in a cloak as he quickly walked in some direction.
As he progressed, the surrounding buildings grew sparser, weeds covering the desolate earth. Before he knew it, he had left the city's edge.
Climbing over two modest hills, an emerald-green lake appeared before him.
The lake wasn't large, shaped like a piece of green gemstone embedded in hard rock. One could easily see its edges at a glance.
Looking down through the emerald-green waters, bizarre, jagged rock layers extended downward endlessly, gradually fading into the deep, dark waters—like a bottomless abyss. No one knew where the other end of the lake connected to.
Leng Xuan reached behind his waist, and a dagger appeared in his palm.
He crouched beside a rock at the lake's edge, using the dagger to carve marks—some dots, some lines, intertwined in chaotic disorder. Their reflections in the lake's mirror-like surface made them impossible to decipher.
After carving these marks, Leng Xuan stood up from beside the rock, casually picking a red flower from the nearby forest and lightly tossing it onto the lake's surface.
The鲜红的花瓣散落在碧绿湖水表面，随着微风不断打转，却没有丝毫的下沉。
鲜红的花瓣散落在碧绿湖水表面，随着微风不断打转，却没有丝毫的下沉。
鲜红的花瓣散落在碧绿湖水表面，随着微风不断打转，却没有丝毫的下沉。
鲜红的花瓣散落在碧绿湖水表面，随着微风不断打转，却没有丝毫的下沉。
鲜红的花瓣散落在碧绿湖水表面，随着微风不断打转，却没有丝毫的下沉。
鲜红的花瓣散落在碧绿湖水表面，随着微风不断打转，却没有丝毫的下沉。
鲜红的花瓣散落在碧绿湖水表面，随着微风不断打转，却没有丝毫的下沉。
鲜红的花瓣散落在碧绿湖水表面，随着微风不断打转，却没有丝毫的下沉。
鲜红的花瓣散落在碧绿湖水表面，随着微风不断打转，却没有丝毫的下沉。
鲜红的花瓣散落在碧绿湖水表面，随着微风不断打转，却没有丝毫的下沉。
Leng Xuan glanced at the deep, dark lake bottom before turning to leave.
...
Asgard.
Tyr led Lin Qiye and the others, landing before a temple.
"Sif, go rest first. I'll have someone come to treat you." Tyr looked at the遍体鳞伤的Sif beside him, speaking gently.
Sif nodded, then Tyr turned to look at Lin Qiye and Subject 22, his voice stern:
"As for you two... return to the Dungeon."
"Why lock them back in the Dungeon?" Before Lin Qiye could speak, Sif asked疑惑地.
Tyr hesitated, speaking犹豫地: "Because their origins haven't been clarified yet, so..."
"Tyr大人." Lin Qiye suddenly interrupted Tyr, his expression有些阴沉. "To help Lord Thor rescue Sif, I didn't hesitate to use my lifespan as the cost for a second prophecy. If it weren't for me just now, you might not have been able to walk out of the underworld intact... Now that you've successfully rescued her, you still want to throw me back in the Dungeon?
In your eyes, are we just tools to be discarded at will?
Is this Lord Thor's magnanimity?"
Tyr's attitude was more cautious than Lin Qiye had anticipated. Even though he had helped them rescue Sif, he still hadn't fully gained their trust.
However, after Lin Qiye invoked Thor's name, Tyr became somewhat hesitant.
He knew Thor's temperament. Since Lin Qiye had helped rescue Sif, Thor would never kick someone when they were down. And it was undeniable that they had successfully rescued Sif because of Lin Qiye—his prophetic abilities could bring great benefits. If they continued to restrict Lin Qiye and the others indefinitely because of the stubborn Jinian in the Dungeon, it would also be a loss for Thor.
After much deliberation, Tyr decided to find a relatively balanced compromise between risk and caution.
Tyr's gaze sharpened. He raised his sword, slashing lightning-fast wounds the size of a fingernail on Lin Qiye and Subject 22's shoulders. Fine droplets of blood seeped out, then bizarrely solidified at the surface, sealing the后续血液.
The sword's speed was too fast. Lin Qiye下意识地想要化身夜色避开，但理性还是控制住了身体，没有暴露自己的本体.
He clutched his shoulder wound,猛地后退一步，看向Tyr的神情难看无比:
"Tyr大人, what does this mean?"
"My sword has memorized the taste of your blood. No matter where you run, I can find you... During this time, you may move freely within Asgard, but don't try any tricks." Tyr sheathed his sword, speaking淡淡地. "Also, don't provoke other gods... especially Loki."
After Tyr finished speaking, he took the [Scepter] from Subject 22's hand and vanished on the spot to find a god skilled in healing for Sif.
When Lin Qiye saw this, he breathed a sigh of relief...
No matter the process, the first step in Asgard had been taken.