The Righteous Player(s)

Chapter 533: Thief Saint Alfonso

Even among the Wise, the number of people who knew the sacred bone was quite little.

The secret of the sacred bone was not weighty knowledge.

The reason was that the saints never intended to “encrypt” this knowledge from the beginning. Instead, they obtained the power of the oath by announcing the curse.

The problem was that sacred bone’s secrets were not [practical] enough.

Even if someone acquired this knowledge, he could not use it to conduct rituals, let alone generate influence. After finding out about this knowledge, the curse binding force corresponding to the saint would get stronger. At the same time, the oath power would intensify. However, those benefits had nothing to do with the new learners.

This was just ordinary “knowledge”.

Nefertari knew the sacred bone topic well because of her teacher “Bone Healer: Seti”.

Seti, as the strongest Idol Wizard in the underground world, naturally would not have a weird profession name like “Bone Healer”.

Since this name replaced his profession and became his title, Seti must have done something rarer and more iconic than advancing to Gold Rank.

As the name suggested, besides being an outstanding Idol Wizard, an excellent healer, and a veteran ritualist, he was the best-known sacred bone scholar in the world.

He once successfully repaired the broken [Fearless Bone].

This was the sacred bone representing [Courage], and its bone part was the spine.

Embarking on the path of saint meant voluntarily choosing an absolutely irreversible destiny.

The sacred bone was not an empty energy body but an independent and living organ that existed somewhere in the world.

After completing the test of the sacred bone and getting the acknowledgment of the sacred bone, there was a dangerous and bloody [Wedge Ritual].

Roughly speaking, it was a transplant surgery.

To transplant the Heart of Justice, the host must first cut out his own heart.

Of course, the installation steps were simple. There was no need for nerve grafting [1] as long as the original parts of the body were removed first. It functioned as a plug-and-play system like Sharingan [2], and the healing divine art involved was not complicated.

What made this ritual difficult was its requirement to complete it under the eyes of at least twelve witnesses and in an awake state.

In other words, the host was forbidden to take anesthesia and pass out.

Places like “tongue”, “eyes”, and “right arm” were still alright.

However, positions involved “the Heart of Justice”, “the Skull of Honesty”, and “the Flesh of Sacrifice” were dangerous and complex for transplantation.

That was also why one could not turn back on the path of saint.

If a saint violated the established “covenant”, he would not lose all his holy light engravings like a pope or the authority in his realm like a deity. However, the consequences were equally severe.

It might get even worse.

If a saint betrayed his pathway, the sacred bone would leave him.

It was “leaving the person” in the physical sense.

Once there was a benevolent saint who betrayed his path, his tongue would “slip out”. There was also a righteous saint who had too much authority over life and death and finally fell into evil ways. He lost his heart, and his chest was hollow. The body was found in his bedroom.

However, if one were to devote to their path, they risked damaging their sacred bone.

The sacred bone was not indestructible and invulnerable.

Otherwise, the saint with [Sacrificial Flesh] would be invincible.

The owner of the previous generation [Fearless Bone] was a hero from Austere-Winter Dukedom who was once a legendary mercenary.

The covenant he held befitted Austere-Winter’s custom. He vowed to “never run from a fight”.

Before he became a saint, his identity as a mercenary had offended many people. In the end, he was conspired by others, pushing him to a battle with the “Deity of Sword and Duel”, Marquis Iris.

Marquis Iris was the Duel Deity.

He would never spare mercy in the middle of a duel and would never stop attacking until the opponent was dead or surrendered.

That said, the two heroes’ covenant just happened to conflict.

In the end, the mercenary sacrificed his life to achieve his path.

[Fearless Bone] provided him with robust strength, allowing him to have the qualifications to fight against the formidable Marquis Iris even without possessing the Book of Truth.

As a matter of fact, Marquis Iris was the subordinate deity of the Red Knight. He also possessed the attributes of Dueling Deity and War Deity. In a one-on-one duel, the power of Marquis Iris could be infinitely magnified.

In the first ten minutes, they were in a stalemate. However, after Marquis Iris successfully inflicted the first wound, the situation in the battle immediately took a one-sided turn.

In less than five minutes, the mercenary was covered with injuries.

He lost his right arm, four fingers of his left hand, nearly all of his ribs, and two-thirds of his internal organs. The throat had a third of it slit. The heart and lungs each had a translucent penetrating wound.

If this injury was inflicted on ordinary people, it was enough to kill them several folds, not to mention fighting back.

While the loser kept his courage and pressed on, the peak [Bone of Fearlessness] produced more immense power in a desperate situation.

He had remained near death, but his strength gradually became more robust. Also, he did not intend to back down, admit defeat and die.

His strength amplified tremendously every time he got up after falling to the floor.

He stalled an all-out Marquis Iris for an hour and even blinded Marquis Iris’s left eye.

It was not until all the bones in his body were broken into pieces, almost turning into minced meat, that he finally did not stand up again.

The spine was smashed into nearly a hundred pieces by the furious Marquis Iris, and it had completely lost its function as a sacred bone.

People thought that the “courage” in the bones had been lost at that time.

Unexpectedly, thirty years later, a wizard named Seti collected all the fragments of the “Fearless Bone”.

He transformed the surrounding cities into huge ritual areas named [Bone Eater Forest] and [Bone Farm].

Under the effect of the Bone Eater Forest on the outer ring and the ritual area of ​​the Bone Farm on the inner circle, he spent twelve years and successfully restored the “Bone of Fearlessness”.

Not only was the appearance restored, but the soul of [Courage] that had long been dormant was also reawakened. He had rejuvenated its function as a sacred bone.

As the world’s first Idol Wizard who could repair sacred bones, he even researched the “back door” of sacred bones.

He entrusted a friend with the extract of the bones of courage to make an Alteration Mixture and injected it into his student’s brain, successfully erasing his “fear”. Later, “Bone Healer” Seti presented the “Bone of Fearlessness” to the young student.

Sure enough, he bypassed the Bone of Fearlessness’s authentication system and got Bone of Fearlessness’s approval.

He was even just an [Spiritualist] of Silver Rank, and he was not a brave and fearless hero like the previous generations of heroes. Instead, he was a timid young man who did not like talking.

However, he had become the “brave hero” of this generation.

This honor could undoubtedly be regarded as [the Creation]—a feat only one person could achieve.

Now that Master Michelangelo had sublimated to “the Man in the Mirror”, he was already the number one Idol Wizard in the world.

This could also be regarded as the [Supreme Crown].

After the appearance of this “artificial saint”, the search for sacred bones started in the underground world.

This man-made saint who held the “stolen courage” and had not even advanced to Gold Rank was undoubtedly the best mobile billboard.

—If you follow the same method, you should be able to become a saint yourself.

Silver Rank was the most comfortable Rank — smart, robust, resistant to aging, mighty strength, and longevity. Many people were unwilling to take risks and advance to Gold Rank.

However, if it was possible to acquire Gold Rank power in the Silver Rank, who would not want that?

Thus, while trying their best to belittle this “unqualified” saint, the transcenders and ritualists were secretly looking for the sacred bone that had not yet found an owner. They would take them to “Bone Healer” Seti and spend a price to allow them to undergo this surgery.

Of course, most transcenders did not trust Seti.

They did not believe this method could stimulate the power of sacred bones. There were even some people who thought that this “artificial saint” itself was a scam.

The purpose was to get more sacred bones and information about sacred bones.

However, Nefertari knew it wasn’t a hoax.

It was real.

That was because Alfonso, who was scornfully called “the Thief Saint”, was not only Nefertari’s senior.

He was also Nefertari’s half-brother.