Chapter 296 - 293: Suddenly Going All Out?

Real damage!

Bai Pu’s Spirit was invigorated; real damage ignores Armor, Resistance, and also damage reduction abilities—though the latter depends on prioritization.

For example, Golden Equipment reinforced to +5, Strong Strike Armor, has a 15% damage reduction, with a priority level of 3, after Bai Pu wears it, this damage reduction effect’s priority becomes 8.

Bai Pu’s Skill, Steel Skin, is a Three-star Skill with a priority level of 3. If Bai Pu chooses Thorn Skin’s effect, the priority of the reflected real damage is also 8.

According to the principle of prioritization restraint, real damage restrains damage reduction, so the 15% damage reduction of Strong Strike Armor +5 will be ignored by the real damage reflected by Thorn Skin.

Only damage reduction ability with an overall priority of 9 can reduce the real damage reflected by Bai Pu.

Level 4 Steel Skin provides 36 points of Natural Armor, with an 18-point fixed damage reduction, thus the reflected real damage is also 18 points.

Previously, Bai Pu was thick-skinned and robust, not afraid of being attacked by enemies.

Now Bai Pu has completed metamorphosis, with damage reflection capability, it’s rather that he fears enemies might not attack!

Bai Pu quickly confirmed the enhancement option of Thorn Skin.

At this moment, Bai Pu felt mentally exhausted; after all, constantly resetting oneself in the Spiritual World, though can restore Bai Pu’s status in the Spiritual World, the pain felt from each Life loss accumulates consistently.

Being able to use the Suffering Ceremony to upgrade Steel Skin to Level 4 (Limit Breaker +1), and even obtain the rare effect of Thorn Skin, Bai Pu is quite satisfied.

Next, he maintains his Spiritual World, idly procrastinating there, anyway Bishop Yajino lacks the ability to multitask monitoring.

Out of boredom, Bai Pu’s consciousness scanned others’ Spiritual Worlds through his Spiritual Power tendrils.

In reality, Thorn Believers have all sorts of reservations, but in the Spiritual World, after receiving assurance from Bishop Yajino, they completely release themselves, fully showcasing to Bai Pu what human species diversity means.

Some Thorn Recruits pull their intestines out from the navel, binding them around a wooden wheel, with a peculiar smile,

Some female recruits confine themselves in the Iron Maiden (a medieval European torture device), the closing of the Maiden forms a pool of blood beneath.

Others simply jump into a stinking cesspit, accompanying maggots and flies...

Bai Pu felt his eyes weren’t clean anymore.

He thought self-flagellating with thorns was already perverted enough, but compared to these Thorn Recruits, his perversity level was still far from enough!

Such perverted punishments, without acquiring so-called "God’s blessing," almost have no survivors.

The Spiritual World reflected reality.

The death screams of Thorn Recruits fill the entire chapel!

Bai Pu instinctively glanced sideways toward the one-armed girl named Bonnie.

Bonnie’s Spiritual World wasn’t as perverted; her chosen suffering wasn’t novel either, just binding herself to a wooden post, abstaining from food and drink.

This is one of the three paths for Divine Favorers, the Bound to receive divine favor.

The Spiritual World can change time flow.

Outside, just a few minutes passed, while in Bonnie’s consciousness, several days had slipped by.

She’s been fantasizing about the arrival of divine favor, but yet there hasn’t been a response.

The dual torment of mind and body finally eroded her patience.

Bonnie changed the form of suffering, in a bound state, imagined an Executioner wielding sharp hooks and small knives.

"Suddenly so desperate?"

Bai Pu was a bit surprised; Bonnie actually changed her Bonded suffering into flaying!

The Executioner shaved off a slender strip of flesh from Bonnie’s surface.

Bonnie quivered her lips, muttering praises to the Holy Mother, praises to suffering, evidently brainwashed deeply.

Until her skin is blood-soaked, the immense suffering almost drowning her consciousness, Bonnie finally screamed.

She couldn’t sustain anymore.

Once unable to sustain, the Spiritual World would reflect in reality.

In the chapel, Bonnie’s body already displayed the gruesome state of being flayed!

In her daze, Bonnie opened her eyes, this was her final view of the world before death.

Hellish scenes appeared before her, Thorn Recruits with various death states, blood and flesh littered everywhere!

Bonnie lowered her gaze, looking at herself, strips of flesh were torn away, her eyes filled with confusion.

"Why... return to reality... is it like this..."

Bonnie closed her eyes.

In her Spiritual World, she started the life retrospective, reviewing her past.

When young, she was the child of a Storm Church leader, her father repeatedly tweaked her nose, calling her "Sweetheart Bonnie."

Father’s figure seemed ever so grand...

Later, the church was annihilated, she was taken away by Thorn Church, donned in nun robes; henceforth, she was "Nun Bonnie."

Nun Bonnie recited suffering prayers in the pitch-dark dungeon, participating in "competitions" to embrace suffering with peers.

The competition was a rule set by Mr. Guard, the winner got an extra slice of moldy black bread. Of course, Mr. Guard was the sole judge.

Bonnie’s right arm was broken in one such competition.

But she didn’t get to eat that black bread, because she was unconscious for an entire day and night... by the next day, Mr. Guard had forgotten this minor affair.

Years of imprisonment, years of indoctrination, Nun Bonnie eventually grew to 14 years old, eligible to partake in the Suffering Ceremony.

By then, she was "New Recruit Bonnie."

"Lord Bishop deceived me. The entire world tricked me..."

This was Bonnie’s final thought before her consciousness dimmed.

Suddenly, a voice struck her mind, as if sounded from deep within her heart: "Do you want to survive?"

Yes.

Bonnie didn’t know where the voice came from, but her survival instincts made her grasp this straw tightly: "Great Master of Suffering, have you finally started to favor Bonnie?"

"Suffering is merely a lie. What I grant you now is not the divine blessing of embracing suffering, but power originating from evolution!

"The price you must pay is becoming my Slave!"

Not the divine blessing of the Master of Suffering?

Bonnie, shocked, quickly agreed to this cost, as she had no alternative.

Instantly, a warm power infused Bonnie’s Body! This power carried vitality sweeping away decay, upon entering her body, it reawakened Bonnie’s consciousness, gathering her dissipating figure in the Spiritual World once more!

Bonnie’s form was undergoing distortion, or rather evolution! Her originally separated flesh unexpectedly reattached, albeit with added scars.