CHAPTER 607: CHAPTER 529: THE CHURCH

"So, the content of two out of the three paintings on the Bronze Gate is already known."

Claudia paused, "But who left these paintings, and who are they meant to be seen by?"

"The most reasonable explanation I can think of is that they were meant to be seen by the ’aliens’ in the eyes of the builders."

Li Cheng smirked, "In 1977, NASA launched the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft into deep space, both carrying a golden copper laser disc named ’The Sounds of Earth.’

It stored various sounds including Earth’s natural sounds, animal calls, music from different civilizations and greetings. To make it easier for ’aliens’ to understand, they thoughtfully depicted the spin motion of hydrogen atoms in low-energy states on the surface of the golden disc to indicate the playback direction.

Additionally, it revealed the coordinates of the Solar System using the positions of 14 known pulsars in the Milky Way Galaxy.

This is akin to the Fibonacci sequence password and tritium half-life on the Bronze Gate, all conveying information using the universal language of mathematics, physics, and chemistry in the Milky Way Galaxy."

Wanli Sealed Blade and Claudia were still trying to make sense of it, but Mian Yue couldn’t help but interject, "Wait, are you saying that a country on your planet once sent crucial information like the Constant Star System’s location and the level of civilization, via spacecraft into deep space, hoping to be discovered by alien civilizations?

Are you sure this isn’t just traitorous spies hoping for alien civilizations to arrive?"

"Human civilization was undergoing rapid development during what was known as the ’Cold War,’ so a bit of optimism is normal."

Li Cheng shrugged, "Fortunately, those two spacecraft are incredibly slow by cosmic standards. They might not even fly out of the stellar cloud in hundreds or thousands of years.

If needed, we’ll just wait for human civilization to invent sub-light-speed spacecraft to retrieve the golden discs."

There’s a high probability that alien civilizations exist in the real-world Milky Way Galaxy. If they truly can manage wormhole star gates, Death Stars, Dyson Spheres, and other megastructures, then there’s nothing to worry about.

But if their technology is only a century or two ahead of Earth’s, still using mass-driven spacecraft, without Extraordinary Power, yet attempting to invade Earth...

Then Level 40 Transcendents could genuinely band together to reenact the story of "Grandma Michael taking down an alien civilization’s spacecraft with a stone" right there,

and then spit on the wreckage of the warship, "Where did you come from, space hillbillies?"

With such limited information at hand, there’s neither need nor time to meticulously ponder the connection between the Bronze Gate, the Astronauts, and the Alpha Python. The players crossed the street and saw that church.

The church, built of stone and wood, had a cross erected on the roof, with a lung-shaped wooden plaque attached to the front of the cross. At the bottom of the plaque was a line of scribbles with no clear meaning.

Corresponding to the wooden plaque was the church’s own damage—the exterior wall near the ground had been freshly repainted with white paint, yet through it, old graffiti and hacking marks were still visible.

It seemed an enraged crowd once besieged the church, carving words of anger into the outer wall,

The church door, slightly ajar, upon pushing it, revealed wooden chair fragments scattered everywhere, and at the deepest part, instead of an altar statue, stood an underground gas collection well resembling the Bell Tower.

The collection well looked like a banyan tree, or a large pipe organ, with numerous metal pipes cascading down the church wall, connecting to lung-shaped high-pressure gas tanks.

"Cough, cough,"

A hoarse voice stuttered out from inside the dusty confession booth, "Are you... friends of Will?"

"Yes. We were sent by Mr. Robinson to retrieve the new lungs he has reserved."

Wanli Sealed Blade’s gaze sharpened; the doorknob of the church’s wooden door bore new fracture marks. The distribution pattern of chair fragments didn’t match the layers of dust.

What’s most crucial is that through the confession booth’s gauze window, one can vaguely see the figure in priest’s robes standing awkwardly and painfully.

"Will is a good child, even if he is a bit scattered, constantly dreaming up whimsical inventions like manned spacecraft, crystal growth farms, and shield tunneling machines, creating chaos all over town, but I’ve always known he’s just trying to give everyone a better life,"

In the confession booth, the Priest appeared to be enduring enormous pain, his body continuously deforming, producing cracking noises of bones breaking, "The lungs Robinson reserved are right below the air supply station. You may as well take the other lungs too. I no longer need them..."

"Alright, we’ll go now."

Before Wanli Sealed Blade could finish speaking, Claudia acted immediately, unleashing a gust of demonic wind, lifting a total of six high-pressure gas bottles, about to bolt out of there.

Bang!

The Priest’s body suddenly expanded, stretching the narrow confession booth apart, causing wood splinters to explode everywhere.

His sparse hair and thick beard twisted his previously kindly and wise face into a monstrous scowl under excruciating pain, as his shoulders, spine, ribs, and abdomen were pierced through by a mechanical python, or should I say, a greatly miniaturized Alpha Python.

"Priest?" Wanli Sealed Blade tentatively asked.

The response he got was a terrifying roar, the Priest’s jaw split open, extending a black machine gun barrel from his mouth, which began shooting wildly.

Brother Xiao Dao’s body glimmered with Protective Gang Qi, deflecting the bullet chain, while the Dragon Slayer Sword in his hand automatically flew out, gracefully circled the Priest’s neck, and severed his head.

Yet, just as the Gundam’s legs are mere decoration, the Priest parasitized by the mechanical python didn’t care about the mere injury of a severed head,

A headless torso skin rolled and folded on the shoulder, revealing rows of mini-launch tubes, "Whir, whir, whir—"

Firing out countless miniature missiles with trailing flames toward the players.

What damage could thumb-sized missiles possibly wreak... Damn it!

Wanli Sealed Blade’s Protective Gang Qi, which could withstand direct cannon fire, tore apart like thin paper. Fortunately, he activated his Passive Skills, triggering Instant Body Technique, withdrawing urgently to avoid the explosion shockwave.

The Priest, parasitized by the mechanical python, launched missiles composed of metal hydrogen, honored as the "Holy Grail of High-Pressure Physics" in the real world.

(Not that kind of Holy Grail)

Its explosive power is 25-50 times that of TNT, with a theoretical explosion velocity of a terrifying fifteen thousand meters per second. Crucially, it’s not simply an explosion but like a shaped charge, able to eject faster, armor-piercing metal jets.

The Mechanical Priest stood rooted on the church’s stone, sprouting Three Heads and Six Arms; machine guns, machine cannons, missile silos, and close-in weapon systems turned every part of his body into instruments of warfare.

Escape was futile; the castle’s stone gargoyles patrol boundaries exist, but the Mechanical Priest parasitized by Alpha’s clone would chase the players to the ends of the earth.

Thus, the only path to survival is to eliminate him right here and now.

"Blood Magic·Thousand-Year Blood River!"

Claudia wasted no time unleashing a massive move. She used her nails to tear open a spatial rift.