Stasis Temple.

It was still silent and empty, old dust falling from the darkness above, spreading evenly in every corner, like a dead world.

No one else could be seen except the new pope, but you could hear the tiny sounds of breathing and heartbeat in the silence, as if there was an unknown being in an invisible place.

Beneath the mask of steel, his gaze stared coldly at the handwriting on the paper.

After so many days of data collation, past records were reviewed, and people involved in the past were tortured...... After countless violent tactics, the new pope finally got this, which, if not the whole picture, was a highly credible speculation, and now he needed someone to confirm it.

Thinking like this, the blazing fireworks rose from his hand, burning the paper to the ground, and the gray-black remnants fell at will, but suddenly an inexplicable suction pulled it, and it was swept into an invisible vortex, falling into the huge void in front of him.

Seni Lothair stared coldly at what was in front of him, it was a pitch-black well, pure darkness, and below it seemed to be an endless abyss, and even the light would be swallowed up completely.

The Well of Sublimation.

While the alchemists were still alive, there was a ritual altar here, and in a way unknown to the new pope, they extracted the mysterious secret blood from this well.

If the Sanctuary of Stasis is the source of the witchers, then this is the source of the Secret Blood, even though it has been abandoned for many years, but standing on the edge of the Well of Ascension, the new Pope can still smell the strong stench in the darkness, as if there are countless corpses piled up in the depths of the darkness.

"Remove the impurities, make the matter more pure, the beautiful rises up, and the dirty falls down......"

The new pope whispered, this is an explanation of the "sublimation" at the heart of alchemy.

That's the miracle that all alchemists are pursuing, believing that by constantly sublimating a substance, it can be transformed into the "soul" of that substance, and a large number of "souls" can be gathered together to crystallize into something called "miracle".

"The Philosopher's Stone, the Philosopher's Stone, the Elixir ......"

The new pope recalled the names of those "miracles", which were the products of alchemical sublimation, but in fact, the sublimation through different substances obtained different things were also different, such as the sublimation from the demons, and the miracles obtained were called the miracles of the secret blood.

The Well of Sublimation is a place where great alchemy is carried out, from which beautiful things pour out, and dirty things fall into the dark well, the Evangelical Church has been refining secret blood for thousands of years, and there are countless filthy things that have been eliminated in this well of sublimation, but after so many years, they still can't fill this deep well.

It seems to be a bottomless pit, and if you fall down, you will only starve to death in the process of falling, and you will never be able to reach the bottom.

But this was only a legend, and the new Pope knew very well what it was, so as he waited, the sound of the machine turning, the decaying structure once again triggered the dust to fly, and in the harsh grinding sound, many steps-like protrusions stretched along the walls of the well, and they spiraled downward, until they fell to the end of the darkness, bottomless.

He didn't stop long, picked up the bright lantern, and walked straight up the ancient staircase, heading into the darkness below.

The new pope didn't know how long he had been gone, and after being completely submerged in darkness, it seemed as if all his senses had been stripped away, and he wasn't sure how long he had been gone, maybe only a few minutes, or maybe a dozen or so minutes, a few hours.

He stopped, raised his head, the new pope had gone too deep, into the deep well, the point of light above his head had been blurred and almost invisible, except for the lantern in his hand, there was absolute darkness all around, and this darkness seemed to be alive, slowly wriggling, no matter how the candle flame in the lantern burned, it could only illuminate the distance of three steps.

The new pope walked cautiously, there were no guardrails, no one maintained it after it was built, or the original builders did not expect anyone to try to get there.

The road under our feet was also built in later times, and each step that was trampled on has a history of nearly 1,000 years, and why people at that time built this road to reach the bottom of the deep well has long since died out in time.

The new pope walked and stopped, stretched out his hand to wipe the wall of the well, wiped away the solidified dust, and under the light of the lantern, he would find that the well of sublimation was built by a strange metal, silver and white.

Ordinary people may not recognize this substance, but the new pope is well aware that it is holy silver.

The lantern continued to shine, and the surface of the holy silver was carved with strange symbols and patterns, which were considered symbols of alchemy, and there were such things in the observable well, and they were constructed together as if they were a huge picture.

But what is even more frightening is yet to come, the new pope descends at least a few hundred meters deep, stopping regularly to observe the walls of the well along the way.

The walls of the well are all solid, cast from pure holy silver, which is an unimaginably huge amount, and the holy silver stored in the church is simply the difference between the lake and the ocean compared to the holy silver stored in the whole well of sublimation, and through the observation of the new pope, there is no trace of splicing in the entire well wall along the way, and it seems that except for these extended steps, the rest of the structure is combined.

This is a building beyond what is currently possible with human technology, and the new pope finds it hard to imagine who actually built it, and even said that it is most likely something that exists naturally, and that humans are merely changing on its basis.

He continued downward, and then discomfort rose from his heart, and the long darkness tested his mind, and countless negative emotions grew in the shadows, disturbing the new pope little by little, until there was a strange whimper in the darkness.

Below them, in the deep darkness, there was a muffled sound from some creature, and this one was more and more loud, and they smelled the breath of the living, and they all awoke from their long sleep, and pleaded with thirst for blood.

The new pope could hear it like a strange symphony, with broken organs rattling with maggots and scavenging creatures sucking blood.

At the end, the staircase came to an end, and there was no further staircase going down, and on the last staircase was a mottled blood-stained chain, which the new pope took hold of with one hand, and looked downward.

There was only a darkness that could not be illuminated by a lantern, an unknown that no one knew.

"Every time I come, it's a test......"

The new Pope couldn't help but whisper, and even he became hesitant at this moment, until he mustered up the courage to leap into the darkness.

The process of falling is not very long, only a short moment, and the drop is only about three or four meters, but it is such a distance that the new pope is afraid.

In the Gospels, it is said that there is an overlapping gray between the world of life and death, which is the edge of life and death, and this long march is the march on the edge of hell, and with the leap of the new pope, he crosses this short distance and comes to "hell".

The surroundings were still in the unsightly darkness, the air had a strong fishy smell, the temperature was cold, it was like the polar region of the north, and the breath was covered with crystal fog.

The earth under his feet was soft and viscous, and then he seemed to step on the water, the temperature was so low, but the liquid could not freeze, and under the light of the lantern, he realized that it was scarlet blood, looking towards the end of the darkness, the blood spread all the vision, as if tens of thousands of people had died here, and their blood had not dried up yet.

The new pope didn't seem surprised by all this, he had been here before, and he shouted loudly.

"I'm coming!"

No one responded to him, but the trivial evil voices in the darkness became more dense.

The new pope understood that he had just slept too deeply, too deep to wake up, and a blinding white light shone under the steel mask, and then he pulled out the nail sword he carried at his waist, and gently sliced his wrist, allowing the blood to pour into the pool of blood under his feet, and the pure flame also burned with the blood pouring into the new pope's side.

The miserable white light reflected the filthy world, the scarlet blood was soaked in disgusting flesh and blood organs, some of them were still emitting a slight heat, slowly twitching, as if there was still life, and there were many such things, strange and deformed bodies, severed heads, from the blurred darkness could barely discern something larger, but it was too big, not even the firelight could fully reflect it.

This is the bottom of the Well of Ascension, and there is no specific name for the evangelical church here, perhaps it once had a name, but it was deliberately forgotten.

The beautiful upwards and the filthy downwards are the filth of the Evangelical Church for nearly a thousand years, which have been forgotten here, but after so long, they are still not completely dead.

With the arrival of the living, more and more strange things woke up, something was moving under the blood, they slowly got up, they could barely distinguish one human form after another, they seemed to be human, they tried to stand up, but the flesh and blood of the body had been glued to the ground...... No, it wasn't the ground, it was flesh too, and the entire bottom of the well seemed to be filled with some kind of giant flesh creature, and the new Pope was in a position like his digested intestines.

They struggled, long dead, but their flesh was still alive, and countless hands were waving like some abominable ritual of terror, but the new Pope didn't care about it at all, and moved on.

He was the only light in the darkness, and countless eyes were staring at him, and perhaps the moment the flames were extinguished, the strange things would rush up.

Countless voices rang out, and the new Pope couldn't understand the whimpering sounds, but he could understand what they meant.

[It's a living person...... Living ......】

[Fresh blood, bloody flesh ......]

[How long has it been, how long has it been since you eat......]

[It's light!light!]

[It's too dazzling, it's too charming......]

The new Pope took a deep breath, the intensity of the erosion at the bottom of the well had reached an unbearable level at this moment, maybe he would lose his mind in the next second, but he was still gritting his teeth and holding on.

He gripped the chains hard, and in the dimly lit darkness, it was a sign of his return to the surface.

"You're here......"

Suddenly, a voice sounded from the darkness ahead, it was a real human voice.

The new pope knew who the other party was, and strode directly, the wound on his wrist continued to bleed, and the secret blood ignited a pure flame, burning the darkness little by little.

The darkness was banished, and the man's appearance was revealed...... It was hardly a man, he was naked, his flesh was dry, his skin was cracked like tree bark, clinging to his bones, and his hands were as slender as branches, and his bones had been petrified and joined together over the years by the death of flesh and blood.

The new pope was not surprised that he had become like this, looking at the chilling head, which looked like a craggy skull covered with human skin, and the eyes were deeply sunken, and there was darkness underneath.

"How have all these years been?"

The new pope asked him like an old friend, and the man replied very calmly.

"What else can I do? I can't die, and I can't really live......

He seemed to be laughing, hoarse and staccato laughter.

"That makes me so happy. ”

Hearing these new popes seemed so overjoyed that he raised his hand and let his blood fall to the ground, fresh blood, powerful blood.

The peace was shattered in an instant, and the man immediately knelt down and greedily sucked the blood of the new pope, as if it were a delicacy.

Looking at his ridiculous appearance, the new pope shook his head, stopped the bleeding, and took off his mask.

"Truth be told, I can only take off this mask without fear when I face you. ”

He lit a cigarette and illuminated the face that had been hidden behind the curtain.

It was a nightmare face that only the devil would have, the flesh of his nose and lips was completely dried and shriveled, but the hideous scarlet flesh slowly wriggled under the dryness, the gums and teeth were completely exposed, and down the neck, this strange life and death spread all the way to his chest, and the war drum-like heart beat in the rotten wood.

But in the midst of such abhorrence, a pair of clear eyes were embedded in the distorted flesh and blood, and there was a faint white light in them, and no emotion could be seen.

A cigarette was quickly smoked, and the blood on the ground had already been licked and eaten, and the two remained eerily silent until the man looked up at the hateful face and asked softly.

"What are you going to do?"

"Intelligence, information from Lorenzo Medici. ”

The new pope dropped his cigarette butt and looked down at the man.

"He's dead, isn't he? He said.

"But what if he hadn't died? The new pope said.

Hearing the word "crown", the man's body suddenly froze, and then trembled violently, he seemed to become crazy, and the humble and subservient appearance just now was gone, he cried and laughed, and roared under his shriveled body.

"How dare you!"

But he was greeted by a falling spike, and the new pope stabbed the blade down his withered chest and nailed it to the ground, forcing him to bow down to the new pope.

"It's so sad......"

The new pope laughed as he spoke, he enjoyed the torture, having lived at the bottom of the well for so long, the pain could no longer disturb the man, but it was good that the mental humiliation could make him angry.

"I'm in a hurry, so what the hell is Lorenzo Medici going to do?"

The new pope looked at the former pope, the old one who had done nothing on the night of Arrival, and he was now crying and laughing like a madman in the face of Seny Lothair's questioning.

"I don't know ......"

The old Pope muttered to himself, no matter how much pain Neo-Seni Lothair writhed his sword, he just repeated it.

"I don't know. ”

He repeated it over and over again, as Seny Lothair had confronted him many years earlier.

"I don't know. ”