Transcendent Dawn

Deep into the night.

A squad composed of Goddess Church personnel arrived in Hua Nuo Town.

“It’s confirmed, the target is in the inn, three of them in total…”

The quiet desolate streets echoed only with the subtle sound of boot soles grazing against the stone pavement.

A local church member, who had been following the target, emerged from a corner, his whispered words lingering in the air.

“The church will commend your merits, now, go back and have a good sleep.”

The leader was a middle-aged man with a kindly smile.

“Thank you… Serving the Goddess is my duty.” The follower was taken aback, bowed again, and quickly disappeared.

“Archbishop sir?”

A priest beside him suddenly spoke up, with a questioning tone.

“This capture of the Black Death Society members must be done cleanly and beautifully…” The middle-aged bishop made a praying gesture: “The recent state of the Federation is unsettling… Charles City, Nia City, Boji City, and most recently, incidents in Lore City have put church members at grave risk. Though they were bestowed with the glory of the Goddess, ascending to her heavenly kingdom, for us, this is a disgrace!”

“But… there are inevitably accidents in any action.”

With accidents, there are casualties!

Under these circumstances, involving locals offers the advantage of familiarity with the terrain.

“Rest assured, this operation will certainly succeed. Before setting off, the Archbishop gave me a special artifact.”

The middle-aged bishop laughed and opened his briefcase.

Inside was a painting in a walnut frame, its face covered by a black cloth, making it impossible to make out the scene.

“So, it’s that!”

The priests nodded excitedly.

“Start preparing…”

The middle-aged bishop strode forward again, clearly able to see the inn not far away.

He smiled, held up the painting, pointing it towards the inn, and pulled away the black cloth.

A strange and invisible force field spread out, suddenly enveloping the inn across the street.

If one were standing directly in front, one could see that the oil painting held in the frame was originally blank.

But with the passage of time, traces began to appear on it, stroke by stroke, as if an invisible artist was spontaneously creating a masterpiece!

Time ticked by.

Within the silent surroundings, the oil painting was finally complete.

The subject was a dilapidated inn, surrounded by dense darkness.

Next, under the amazed and anticipatory gaze of everyone, the inn across the street suddenly disappeared.

It seemed as if the entire inn from reality had been sealed into the painting!

“All right, when we return, we will extract the people inside one by one for identification.”

The bishop in black packed the painting away, covered it with an oil cloth and casually said. If it weren’t for the fact that this painting needed time to ‘draw’, and the stronger the target, the longer the drawing time, and that it cannot leave a certain range during this period, else the operation will inevitably fail, it would absolutely be considered an extraordinarily powerful legendary artifact.

Even now, when it comes to immobile targets, it’s remarkably effective.

The church’s team quickly retreated.

Not far away on a rooftop, Su Lu was watching the ordeal with great interest: “Magical artifact? The effect really is… extraordinary!”

Unfortunately, it was too much, vanishing an entire inn, along with the people inside, the town would certainly be in uproar tomorrow.

“It feels like the Goddess Church has become a lot more cautious these days, even if it’s just a few minor characters…”

He couldn’t help but remark.

Apparently, having been taken advantage of a few times, the church was growing quickly.

Moreover, they are embedded with resources, they just have to accumulate magical artifacts and they’d be quite powerful.

“I hope they won’t be used against me one day in the future…”

Su Lu sighed, his figure slowly disappearing into the darkness.

“Phew… Another New Year is coming.”

The next morning, Su Lu basked in the pleasant sunshine, squinting in the sunlight.

He remembered that during the last New Year, there was an attack on Nia City, immediately followed by severe losses in the inner circle of Green Tree Castle.

As the Federation Calendar 280 was about to come, Nia City actually disappeared again!

What would the Federation spokespeople use to cover up this issue that must be addressed? Or would they just go ahead and roll out the Duke Act?

Su Lu loosened his body and looked at his status bar:

“Strength:[2.4], Agility:[6.0], Constitution:[4.3], Spirit:[10.0]…”

Having used his potion magic skill and arcane knowledge to inspect the two ‘Holy Blood Potions’, and confirming they were safe, Su Lu immediately consumed them.

They brought him an increase of 0.3 in constitution.

“Too bad… the effect gradually decreases. If it exceeds three, it probably only has the function of relieving fatigue and healing wounds…”

This was a common drawback of all potion study, at least until learning some specific knowledge at higher levels, it remained an unsolvable problem.

After breakfast, Su Lu picked up his suitcase, bid farewell to Rose and her husband, and prepared to rush to catch the steam train.

“Goddess!”

“What happened to Old Jack’s inn?”

“I still remember it being here yesterday!”

“The people inside, and the old man from the city, have they all disappeared?”

“This must be the curse of a demon!”

Passing the site of the inn, there was already a big crowd of people, staring at the vanished inn, their faces showing fear and speculation.

Su Lu curiously watched for a while then, noticing the time, quickly rushed towards the town’s train station.

Whoo-hoo!

Along with the sound of the steam whistle, the steam train, spewing a large amount of white smoke, left Hua Nuo Town.

He found a deserted corner and quietly waited.

Not long after, a burly man the size of a bear pushed his way over: “What’s the matter? Not ready to leave?”

It was obviously Rod, who had gotten on the train ahead of him.

“No… just suddenly feeling a bit sentimental, and also about the disappearance of the inn in town…”

Su Lu shook his head.

“I think I’ve heard the description of that magical artifact. It came from the sacrifice ritual of an unfortunate man… This man was originally a painter who was obsessed with abnormal things, seeking inspiration from them… until one day, he disappeared in his painting room, leaving only the blank painting.”

Rod seemed to have heard of this magical artifact, “After a few more disappearances occurred, the church finally took notice, and found that the disappeared people had entered the painting and would completely vanish after passing a certain point … You don’t have to worry about Old Jack and the others, the church will definitely release them after confirming their innocence, they might even return the house to him.”

“Interesting item, does it have a name?”

Su Lu inquired curiously.

“It’s called ‘Painting Without Content’! It works wonders against immobile enemies, haha…” Rod revealed a disdainful expression.