Chapter 341: Chapter 341

"My time is precious."

Jenkins stated the situation plainly, then added, "So I need to find a way to deal with you quickly."

As he spoke, vines shot out of thin air and pierced the man's temples. The guard had been so focused on Jenkins's hand reaching into his pocket that he never saw the danger looming above him.

"You were lying just now," Jenkins noted. "And a small patch of skin on your arm has a strong spiritual aura. You were planning to report me after I left, weren't you?"

He spoke rapidly to the now motionless man, then picked up his cat, settled it on his shoulder, and gave the body a hard kick.

"So you can die without any worries."

After explaining himself to the corpse, he dragged it aside and hid it before descending through the trapdoor to the next level.

He had to thank that high priest with the hard-to-remember name. To keep the life-saving escape route a secret, only three people in the entire Nolan organization knew of its existence. The passage had indeed saved their lives once, but unfortunately, that particular chapter of history no longer counted.

Considering that, time truly was the most potent weapon.

Having been here before, Jenkins shivered as he deftly gathered the scattered documents with practiced ease and stuffed them into his pockets. The last time had been a full-on evacuation, so very little was left behind. This time, however, it was a more cautious withdrawal, meaning a large amount of material remained.

Jenkins once again lamented his lack of a spatial item or anything of the sort. No matter how light the papers were, he couldn't possibly carry them all out.

He could only scan the contents quickly to determine which were valuable enough to take. But with so little time, the decisions he made were bound to be imperfect.

"A pity Chocolate can't read," he mused, "otherwise I'd have him help me sort through these."

He then chided himself for being too greedy. After all, his cat was already quite formidable as it was.

Not forgetting the purpose of his visit, Jenkins gathered the documents and glanced around. He saw that the valuables and precious materials had already been moved, so he headed straight for the far end of the basement.

There stood a lone iron cage, and inside it, a silver, statue-like humanoid figure. It would be easy to mistake it for a lifeless sculpture, but in reality, it was merely under a temporary seal.

Sure enough, the bars of the cage were inscribed with runes filled with spirit. They glowed a brilliant gold, which from a distance could be mistaken for rust. In truth, a skilled artisan had coated the engravings with pure gold to enhance the seal's power.

An organization so skilled in handling corpses would never lack experts proficient in detailed craftsmanship.

If he had enough time, Jenkins would have loved to scrape off that layer of gold; it would only take a few minutes with a dagger. But safety came first. Between gold pounds and his own life, he knew which was more important.

He first moved Chocolate from his right shoulder to his left, then took off his overcoat. As if preparing for an injection, he rolled up the sleeves of his sweater and shirt, revealing a pattern that spiraled around his right arm.

At first glance, the bluish-green pattern looked much like a vine, but a closer look revealed a slender brown branch amidst the green tendrils. All the green vines grew around this branch, which started near his heart and ended in the palm of his right hand. Though it was just a drawing Jenkins had hastily applied, it looked incredibly real.

This wasn't a tattoo; he had neither the time nor the desire to get one. After using his divinity for the first time, he had acquired a special ritual called the "Breath of Life," which could be used to transfer life force.

This ritual was perfect for dealing with this particular monster.

This rather unusual ritual didn't require strange symbols or significant emblems to be carved on the ground. Its foundational array had to manifest on the user's body, temporarily granting them the ability to graft life force.

The materials Miss Miller had helped him acquire were for this very ritual. Although it required very little pigment, the ingredients were extremely expensive. The damned ritual called for things like blue four-leaf clovers and hand-bone flowers—things Jenkins had never even heard of. It was truly remarkable that Miss Miller had managed to prepare everything in a single morning. Though they hadn't yet discussed the price, Jenkins wasn't the type to take advantage of a friend.

He swallowed hard, letting the spirit within his body flow slowly and steadily into his right arm. Instantly, the lifelike pattern came alive. The latest_epɪ_sodes are on_the novel·fire.net

That wasn't a figure of speech. The branch—rooted above Jenkins's heart, twined around his arm, and plunged into the palm of his right hand—had truly come to life.

It writhed slowly around his arm, golden runes faintly shimmering on the surface of its leaves and branches.

Amidst a surge of sharp pain, the branch pierced through his palm and emerged from the other side. It suddenly turned toward the motionless, silver humanoid in the cage. It swayed, straining to extend further, but under Jenkins's control, it could only reach as far as the cage bars.

Chocolate stood on Jenkins's other shoulder, watching as the snake-like branches and leaves enveloped the spot where he usually liked to perch. He narrowed his eyes, and within his amber pupils, golden runes were faintly visible.

The cat kneaded its paws on Jenkins's sweater and let out a threatening, low growl.

Jenkins was in too much pain to notice. His palm had been physically pierced through. But no blood seeped from the seam where branch met flesh; instead, Jenkins felt as if the bizarre branch was secretly sucking his blood.

He slapped his right hand warningly with his left, and the branch immediately ceased its action.

Clinging to the bars of the cage, he stepped one foot inside. Twisting his body, he strained to reach for the humanoid figure within. When his palm was less than an inch away, the branch, sheathed in green leaves, plunged into the surface of the silver body.

A low, hoarse roar escaped the monster's mouth.

It came to life, turning slowly in the cage like a sluggish old man. Its eyes, which looked as if they were covered in tin foil, stared at Jenkins's hand and the branch that extended from his pierced palm.

The branch pulsed like an artery. Even without activating his Eye of Reality, Jenkins could see a green radiance flowing within it.

The monster struggled to raise its hands, a process that took about half a minute. By then, the branch had absorbed enough life energy. But instead of transferring the dense spirit to him as Jenkins had expected, it used the energy to fuel its own desperate growth.