Chapter 143

Chapter 143

When the light bands suddenly grew stronger, Lin Gang brought Duanwei, who had just finished her exams and returned home, back from the Sublevel Branch Office behind the dormitory.

He first thanked them for saving his family, then took out the note.

While I am very grateful, it’s quite another matter that you left this note at my house!

The little mouse girl, whose height barely reached Lin’s waist, sobbed as she apologized. Behind her, the black-haired ritualist, who had been reading papers all day and had taken off the blindfold around her eyes due to soreness, glanced at them.

The combat team that came to the Lin residence that day accepted the gratitude with a clear conscience but dared not accept Duanwei's apology.

As they apologized to Duanwei and explained to Lin, during the curfew, they not only went to the Lin residence but also to other places.

Although they found the note missing after the curfew ended, they didn’t know where it had fallen. They had been racking their brains over finding the note these past few days.

Unexpectedly, today a concerned citizen voluntarily turned it in, which was a great help. "Lin, do you think we should contact your sister’s school principal and give her a small commendation?"

Their words implied that they wanted to downplay the incident.

In underground cities like Spire City, there are actually ordinary police and military forces responsible for general crimes not involving followers of evil gods. Matters handled by the Sublevel Branch Office are confirmed to involve followers of evil gods.

However, even so, the Sublevel Branch Office still has to tangle with ordinary citizens on some matters, eventually developing a habit of smoothing things over and treating non-issues as if nothing happened.

It’s not that the judges of the Sublevel Branch Office wouldn’t fight bravely against the threats posed by followers of evil gods, but the atmosphere of the Sublevel Branch Office is indeed different from the main office, and the enforcement of rules is more lax.

But looking at the main office, when Director Shuye managed to get Chixia admitted... each organization has its own makeshift setup; humans cannot completely eliminate favoritism and nepotism, and the same goes for the beast people in the other world.

Lin, who had interned and worked officially at the Sublevel Branch Office for over ten weeks, could understand this. In a sense, now that he carefully recalled the various events he encountered after starting work at the main office, he couldn’t deny that he hadn’t received any special treatment—attention from his direct superior is also a form of special treatment. Therefore, he didn’t bother breaking this unwritten rule. Seeing the captain of the combat team waive the purification room fee for Duanwei, he let the matter go.

When Duanwei came out of the purification room, she was holding a basket of eggs given by the captain.

They went home together, and Luo An had also returned.

He chased Lin out of the kitchen and skillfully started kneading dough with starch. Lin sat at the dining table chatting with him. And at that moment—

At that moment, in a deeper realm, Lin was suddenly pulled off balance.

This description might not be quite right. To put it simply, since he became aware of the pollution, whether his consciousness was in his body or in the divine realm, he was always tightly connected to the pollution.

But at the same time, he found it hard to specify which part of him was tightly connected, and where exactly this deeper realm was.

His brain processed the pollution, faith, and the close connection between deities and practitioners into forms he could understand, and the method to prevent the spread of pollution into tightening the light bands.

However, fundamentally, whether the pollution was actually a vibration, or if he had split himself to soak in the pollution, he couldn’t be certain.

So, this stumble in the deeper realm didn’t mean Lin really fell.

But in reality, Lin, who was rocking his chair, indeed fell to the ground along with the chair.

"Lin???"

Blue Phosphorus Gray, sitting on the other side of the table, instinctively tried to stand up but pulled the needle on his hand and gasped.

Luo An, with his hands full of starch, ran over and extended his hand to help Lin up, only to realize he hadn’t washed his hands.

The White Mouseman hesitated, quickly calculating how much starch would be wasted if he went to wash his hands, but upon hearing Lin curled up on the ground, groaning softly, he immediately forgot about it and first flipped Lin over.

He called out anxiously, "Lin? Where did you fall?!"

Lin couldn’t respond.

He had no time to pay attention to what was happening in reality. The beams of light that held him and the light bands that pulled him were forced to seek a new balance under the sudden surge of new power.

To prevent the pollution from passing through the light bands, Lin, who had already adapted to the original tension, had to exert all his strength.

What... What... happened?

He shouldn’t have... used his identity as Mirror Eye to rashly make any promises to anyone, right?

Lin’s heart rate had already accelerated to 150, and he had to nervously spare a bit of energy to ponder what had gone wrong.

It was then that he heard Tadansa’s voice, transmitted through the light bands.

—That’s not just my Lord’s demand, but also my true inner desire.

—I returned to destroy the Dark Sea Cave!

The bald birdman spoke with fervor, and simultaneously, a voice from long ago, seemingly ages ago, when Lin and Tadansa were infiltrating the Dark Sea Cave on a submarine belonging to the followers of an evil god, echoed:

—I really want to smash this place to pieces.

And at that time, Tadansa had already replied:

—I understand.

This expectation and response suddenly strengthened the light bands today.

Lin felt like spitting blood and even wanted to find Tadansa in reality, shake him by the shoulders, and tell him that he had only said it casually at the time.

Although Mirror Eye had recently initiated cooperation with Sapphire City and the courts of various cities along the western coast of the continent, preparing to launch an attack on the Dark Sea Cave...

And Tadansa, beyond saying “I understand,” had for the first time explicitly stated that his recent efforts and preaching were to prepare for the destruction of the Dark Sea Cave...

In a sense, both the deity and the believer had made corresponding actions toward the goal of “destroying the Dark Sea Cave,” completing the cycle of expectation and response?

So, Tadansa became a practitioner based on this expectation, without needing the actual destruction of the Dark Sea Cave?

Wait, heavens, isn’t the standard for expectation and response too vague?!

Or perhaps this was the retribution for him colliding with believers? Could believers also collide with him and become professionals?

At this thought, Lin took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing the question marks and exclamation points in his mind, tightening the light band even more forcefully.

At this moment, he fully understood that the evil god was like a nuclear power plant that had already had an accident, always ready to spread nuclear contamination. However, compared to worrying about how to guard against believers suddenly colliding to become professionals... guarding against believers suddenly growing into professionals, what was most important now was—

Lin closed his eyes and whispered, "Tadansa."

Leaving behind words that shocked everyone present, Tadansa took a deep breath, wanting to say something, but then suddenly heard that voice.

He was not surprised, for since he had sincerely believed, he had been prepared at all times, ready to receive the Lord's command.

So he immediately responded in his heart, "Lord, I am here. What do you command?"

But the Eye of the Mirror did not speak.

The god’s silver eyes, like mirrors, reflected the thickened light band, watching as the vibrations traveled, only to be directly resisted by the almost stable Tadansa.

Only the magic fell into Tadansa’s body, like seeds sprouting within him.

At the same time, scenes from Tadansa’s past life were reflected in the god’s eyes.

It was hard to imagine that this weathered, bald birdman had actually come from a prosperous big city around the Ruby Lake Belt, with diligent clerk parents, and had graduated from a local university with excellent grades.

But in the year he graduated, despite his excellent grades, he couldn’t find a job. Just as he was planning to start a business, his father died in an attack by a believer of the evil god.

Receiving only compensation as consolation, he and his mother somehow got involved in a dispute, were judged to owe money, and the compensation was gone within a week. In the following weeks, they lost their previous savings as well.

One committed suicide, the other fell into depravity, joining a gang.

Learning theft, learning fraud, and then, upon discovering that the gang leader was involved in the dispute case, learning murder, escaping the city, and falling into the hands of the evil god cult’s slave-catching team.

The high-mindedness he had cultivated in school was finally ground down by life, leaving only a rebellious heart.

"This is wrong," after a moment without the Lord’s next words, the pragmatic Tadansa did not simply ignore those around him but returned to his senses and said to Jipeng, "Jipeng, you don’t understand. Everything in the Cave of the Dark Sea is wrong."

Tadansa wanted to explain to Jipeng that if they were in the civilized lands under the protection of the Six Pillars of God, they would not need to live in constant fear, waiting for the guillotine to fall on their heads at any moment.

But Jipeng had already come to his senses from Tadansa’s declaration, feeling mocked.

"What a joke! Are you crazy! Or are you lying again! The Cave of the Dark Sea can’t be destroyed!"

"Why not?" Tadansa countered, "The Cave of the Dark Sea exists because it is too far from the civilized continent to be found. But once a way is found for the Inquisition and the Six Pillars of God Church to reach the Cave of the Dark Sea, they will certainly make an effort to exterminate it!"

Not to mention, there were now believers of the Eye of the Mirror acting as informants in the Cave of the Dark Sea.

The bald birdman truly felt that freedom was within reach, but when he looked at Jipeng, he saw that the hunchbacked man could not understand his words at all.

Jipeng could not understand; he knew nothing of the Inquisition and only knew the distorted rumors about the Six Pillars of God Church.

There was no proof. If the angry female horsewoman and the frowning male oxman, due to their origins as outsider slaves, could understand what Tadansa was saying now, then to Jipeng, who had never left, the Inquisition and the Six Pillars of God were nothing but baseless claims.

The hunchbacked man shouted loudly, "Are you dreaming!"

How could he make him understand… How could he prove it to him… Lord—

Tadansa prayed in his heart, grabbing Jipeng’s hand, hearing his heart beat in his chest as he spoke.

"Even if it is a dream," tears almost fell from his eyes as he asked, "why can’t dreams come true?"

After Tadansa finished speaking, he suddenly froze.

A surge of knowledge flooded his brain.

"Dreamer"—

You have received the blessing of the Eye of the Mirror, who has stabilized your talent.

Dream Declaration—When you declare your dream to a sentient being and look them in the eye, the sentient being can see through your eyes what your dream sees, hear what your dream hears, and smell what your dream smells.

Dream Connection—Sentient beings moved by you and sharing the same dream will be connected to you by an invisible sacred dream link.

Dream Web—Sentient beings connected by Dream Connection can communicate with each other through mirrors, ignoring distance, and can easily distinguish between those in the Dream Web and those outside it.

What is this?

…Professional talent?!

As Tadansa was stunned, those around him were also shocked to see Tadansa’s entire body enveloped in a sudden burst of silvery light!