The corrupted black ground formed a circle, not far within sight, one could still see lush plants and farmland, but only here seemed cursed with nothing but black soil.
Amidst the rubble, desolation, and the bloody scent, a solitary cross stood on land still dark under the sun. That pitiful tombstone was already dilapidated, crookedly facing the trio.
"This is it, the Blood Field, Judas' burial ground."
Su Ming casually spoke to the two beside him, holding a cigarette in one hand and liquor in the other. If depravity were a sin, his appearance alone seemed deeply steeped in guilt.
Oliver bent down and touched the ground, these black soils were as hard as rock, dry, with a special chilling sensation.
"I don't know what exactly happened here, but I have a feeling, if I had to describe this land with a word, it's... guilty."
"Hic..."
Su Ming raised the bottle, took a few swigs, and chuckled while shaking his head slightly. How could land be guilty? It's nothing but the remains of a traitor buried here.
And Judas' sin was actually offending God.
This land was merely blamed, Judas resurrected after death, slaving away for God for thousands of years, this sin seemed beyond redemption.
If he were strong enough, he wouldn't have to suffer this, in another view, it was all because he was too weak and pissed off the big boss, ending up in a tragic fate.
God, like the Eternal Clan, played mortal on Earth to experience life, and Judas let him taste the greed and betrayal of mortals, isn't that splendid?
Back then, thirty Large Silver Yuans were quite a fortune, a pretty female slave was worth merely one Small Silver Yuan. The Jewish priests spared no expense to win over Judas.
Human nature has never been able to withstand tests, that was something Joker knew best. Judas simply made a choice any mortal might make.
Consequently, Jesus met his end, and God couldn't take it anymore, he returned to the Supreme Heaven and turned Judas into the Stranger, tormenting him for countless years.
The Stranger, Inquirer, and Pandora known as the Three Original Sins, their original sin was merely being too feeble.
Their paper strength was actually not bad, yet they couldn't perform well. Su Ming had read comics of the Stranger, his battle reaction was dazzlingly absurd.
Like when he was strangled by magic, normally anyone would try to break free, but not him.
His mind staged a little drama, beginning with a wave of nostalgic thoughts, recalling the texture of the rope when he hanged himself, then the gaze of the goat whose reins he stole, and finally the bloodstain on the silver coin.
Moments passed, he struggled a bit, realizing he couldn't break free, then his mind again wandered to his sins, analyzing dialectically whether he deserved death.
By the time his internal play was over, typically a teammate would have rescued him by then, because he died hanging back then, his aftermath was to daydream when strangled.
In battle, he used a set of Magic Martial Arts, gathering magic energy to the fist, releasing about a meter outward, but he lacked martial arts skills, his close combat techniques were far inferior to the mages at Kama Taiji.
He had a best buddy called 'Demon Hunter' Serting, who was the father of Little Bartender Teresa at the Forgotten Bar, hence when coming to his grave for negotiation, Su Ming didn't intend to bring Bo Bo.
Su Ming wiped his mouth, took a deep drag on the cigarette, seeing through worldly affairs said to Green Arrow: "In electronic sports, being weak is the original sin."
"???" Green Arrow, confused, couldn't grasp the meaning of the words.
Su Ming waved his hand, threw the bottle away indicating Green Arrow not to mind these details: "Alright, let's prepare the ritual to summon the Stranger."
Diana felt something bad might happen, she pulled her hood to cover her shoulders and hair, whispered like a thief: "Do you know the magic ceremony? Summoning others isn't like summoning demons, it requires the other party's consent."
"No problem, let him find us, won't he?"
Su Ming calmly replied to her, appearing very confident.
Summoning the Stranger, a creature of Heaven, is like dialing his phone number. Without knowing the number, one cannot contact him directly.
Constantine was quite familiar with the Stranger, if it were him, all one needed was to set up the Pentagram Array, add incense candles, and slaughter a goat as a sacrificial drive for the array.
Yes, that was the method to summon demons. Zha Kang intentionally performed such a routine, making the Stranger appear in a rage, like wanting to swallow Zha Kang's family whole.
But Su Ming as a Supreme Mage, ahem, had to use some other tricks.
He rummaged in his bag, pulled out a large green chunk, fitted a small liquid crystal screen on it, and pressed a string of digits.
Beep beep beep.....
Green Arrow's gaze gradually sharpened, he seemingly saw the truth.
"Wait, isn't this C4?"
"Yes," Su Ming nodded.
"You mean you're gonna..." Green Arrow utterly baffled.
"Exactly," Su Ming gently tossed the timed explosives towards the grave.
The green plastic explosive spun in the air, its red liquid crystal digits seemingly shifting in slow motion.
Diana sighed. It's definitely problematic to do this, but Deathstroke must have his reasons, so she chose to trust him. Right now, she just wanted to quickly deal with the Mad Laugh and make him pay for destroying the Hall of Justice.
Boom!!!
The three of them slightly turned their heads to dodge the wind pressure caused by the explosion. Debris was flying, dust enveloped the area, and Su Ming turned around, lightly waving his hand in front of his face, looking towards the site of the explosion.
The originally broken cross was gone, replaced by a large pit. Naturally, there was no coffin or the like in the pit. When Judas was buried back then, they only wrapped him briefly with a rag.
Now that piece of Shroud was his uniform, transformed into a contemporary new style – a blue coat.
Su Ming tilted his head and felt around a bit. There was no sensation of being watched, and the cloak hadn't found any traces of magic.
"He's keeping quite a low profile. Now that Earth is so unstable, he seems to be hiding again." Zorro crouched beside the pit, speaking with a slightly helpless tone.
Diana sighed again, watching the black smoke rise from the earth pit: "Should we find Zatanna? Stranger seems to have a pretty good relationship with her for some reason."
"No need, anyone who has a good relationship with Stranger shouldn't appear when doing these things. Do you need to avoid it?"
"No, I'm with you." Diana responded firmly, indicating for Su Ming to continue, seeing him start to dig into his pouch again.
Su Ming smiled at her, taking out three cigarettes from his pouch, lighting them, and inserting them into the black soil in front of the grave with a reverse hand motion.
Then he signaled the two to step back, closed his eyes himself, and clasped his hands together. An aura of transcendence from the mundane world emanated from him.
Diana and Green Arrow exchanged glances, not quite understanding what Su Ming was doing, then they heard Deathstroke begin to recite in Sanskrit.
"Namo Amitabhaya, datha gadaya, dathya tatha..."
Yes, Deathstroke was reciting the Rebirth Spell at Stranger's grave, transcending him to the Western Paradise at a Christian's grave — an act akin to dancing on the grave.
Before he even finished two sentences, a figure in a blue coat appeared in front of the three, angrily shouting: "Stop! Heretics!"
"Lei? Brother Lei?" Su Ming let his hands down, smiling pleasantly at Stranger: "I thought you could hide in your Illusion Realm for a while. How's your self-imagined wife and kids lately?"
Diana turned her head away, looking into the distance at the flying birds, while Green Arrow squeezed out an awkward smile, nodding at Stranger.
"Who are you?!" Stranger looked at Diana, then at Green Arrow, but he didn't recognize when such a new figure appeared in the Justice League.
"Diego Dela Vega. You can call me Zorro, I'm a friend of Batman." Su Ming took off his large-brimmed hat, bowing like a European court swordsman.
Stranger looked down at his grave, blue lights in his eyes like Thunder about to shoot out, but considering the other was a friend of Batman, he held back.
"Leave here, Blood Field isn't a place for you."
"Don't rush to drive us away." Su Ming drew the Godslayer thin sword from his belt: "I'm here to negotiate terms."
Stranger raised a hand, restoring his grave with a burst of Magic Radiance — a testament to his sins, something he had repaired countless times: "I have nothing to discuss with you."
He turned his back, ready to leave, not wanting to deal with ordinary people.
Mortal matters always brought him mental and physical exhaustion, as his journey of redemption seemed endless, all caused by his sins from when he was human.
"Cloak!"
Just as Stranger had yet to react, the self-proclaimed Zorro's black cloak suddenly flew over, wrapping him tightly.
He attempted to teleport away, but the cloak not only had great strength but seemed to isolate all his magic power, leaving him momentarily bewildered — he had never encountered such a situation.
And while he was still dumbstruck, Zorro threw out a whip. The black whip seemed to infinitely lengthen, automatically seeking a target, extending to wrap around a dry tree branch several meters away before returning to coil around Stranger's neck.
Zorro pulled hard, causing Stranger's feet to leave the ground, rapidly flying towards the tree, swaying like bacon hung beneath the tree with the wind.
That familiar feeling of suffocation rushed in, instantly freezing Stranger — involuntarily recalling his lost youth swinging beneath the tree back then.
Feet off the ground, feeling gravity, finding it increasingly difficult to breathe...
Even though he no longer needed to breathe now, able to move freely in any cosmic space, this remained his psychological weakness, maintaining a mortal's emotions, naturally unavoidably susceptible to such a weakness.
Su Ming walked directly to the tree, gazing upwards with a contemptuous smile, his little mustache quivering slightly.
He reached out, tearing off Stranger's necklace, feeling as if merely holding it was indebted to the world — even X Metal couldn't isolate this emotional influence, an undeniably top-tier Divine Artifact.
He tossed the necklace to Green Arrow, watching him put it on, then Su Ming transformed the Godslayer into a frying pan, repeatedly smacking Stranger on the back of the head.
"I said I'd negotiate! You still want to leave?! Ora Ora Ora Ora..."
Diana's mouth twitched continuously, squinting her eyes as if afraid of blood splattering on her face, appearing so reluctant.
After all, Stranger couldn't die, and Su Ming showed no restraint, smacking until Stranger's head became flatten like a pizza, then released the Strangulation, leaving him sprawled motionless on the ground.
"Whew, let's go, next step."