Chapter 82

Chapter 82

Thick fog shrouded everything. The bishop stood alone within it, endless whiteness stretching ahead and behind him.

An overwhelming sense of solitude enveloped him as he felt his way forward, trying to find a way out.

They were a pair of enormous eyes—even from a great distance, it was clear they did not belong to any ordinary creature.

A gaze devoid of emotion fixed upon him.

Further away in the mist, something seemed to be stirring.

The bishop’s eyes glazed over for a moment before he snapped awake.

Staring at the familiar canopy above his bed, he clutched his chest, trying to calm his pounding heart.

It wasn’t a dream.

He knew very well that what had just happened was no ordinary dream.

The divine reveals the mortal world through dreams; he had received a new divine revelation in his sleep.

The Divine Sacrifice Ceremony had been moved forward.

"First it was postponed, and now suddenly it’s moved forward. How can a major institution like the Holy Snake Cult be so haphazard?" Deng Wenruo couldn’t help but complain upon hearing the news.

After all, for the people of this world, it was an important ceremony—can they really postpone or move it forward so casually?

"There must be some unavoidable reason forcing them to advance the ceremony," Lin Juan replied distractedly, toying with a tentacle dangling from his wrist.

The tentacle, which had nearly been removed earlier due to its large size, clung tightly to the young man, refusing to separate even slightly, much like a dog with separation anxiety.

Deng Wenruo couldn’t stand to look.

Ping Yunhan nodded. "The Young Master guessed correctly. There are rumors circulating within the Holy Snake Cult that the bishop and several priests received a divine revelation simultaneously, which is why the ceremony was moved forward."

"A real divine revelation?" Lin Juan straightened up, slightly intrigued.

"They all had the same dream; the revelation came to them in their sleep," Ping Yunhan explained. Knowing that this was already the realm of powerful supernatural entities, he didn’t find the idea of receiving a divine revelation in a dream strange.

In a world where supernatural beings existed, nothing was too surprising.

The postponement and subsequent advancement of the Divine Sacrifice Ceremony were undoubtedly related to the supernatural elements in this realm. Perhaps the breakthrough they were looking for lay here as well.

Ping Yunhan and Deng Wenruo exchanged a glance, both wearing serious expressions.

"The Holy Snake Cult might use the ceremony to carry out something. You must be careful, Young Master."

Lin Juan gave a soft chuckle. "I know."

He, too, was waiting for the Divine Sacrifice Ceremony.

Once suspicion took root, some things couldn’t withstand scrutiny. A haze of unanswered questions clouded Lin Juan’s mind, and every time he tried to delve deeper, something blocked his thoughts.

This ceremony might just resolve some of his doubts.

After seeing Deng Wenruo and Ping Yunhan off, Lin Juan absentmindedly scratched the back of the tentacle.

Take those two, for example. Lin Juan had no memory of them, yet from their words and actions, it was clear they knew him and were aware of his true power.

Even his previous controller hadn’t known such secrets; Lin Juan doubted he would have casually shared them with others.

And Yan... They seemed to recognize him as well.

No matter.

Lin Juan lowered his gaze.

Soon, the truth would come to light.

After leaving Lin Juan’s place, Deng Wenruo murmured, "We’ve been trapped here for so long. I wonder what’s happening outside."

"Don’t overthink it," Ping Yunhan patted his shoulder. "We need to figure out the true purpose of the Divine Sacrifice Ceremony."

Deng Wenruo perked up. "Right!"

They split up to search, searching every corner for clues.

Outside.

Director Liu stared at the pollution level data on the screen, his frown deep enough to crush a mosquito.

This was their first encounter with a supernatural entity that had created a realm, and their lack of experience was glaring. Even with Zhuang Yufeng, a supernatural operative who had returned from the future apocalyptic period, they still felt overwhelmed.

"Still no contact with Mr. Lin and the others?"

The chief of the Chengdu division of the Paranormal Special Affairs Office looked grim. "No contact."

Their messages had gone unanswered; no matter how they tried, there was no response.

Unwilling to accept the possibility that they might have been harmed, the division chief took a deep breath. "We’ll keep trying to reach them."

"This data fluctuation..." Zhuang Yufeng stared at the fluctuating readings on the screen. "The sudden spike in pollution levels—could it be related to Mr. Lin?"

The pollution levels in this area had been gradually rising, but not long ago, they had suddenly spiked before quickly dropping again.

"How many people have gone missing?" Director Liu asked another critical question.

Shortly after arriving in Chengdu, they discovered that many people in the surrounding areas had gone missing. However, their friends and relatives had been placed under mental influence, unaware that anyone was missing.

The agent assigned to track missing persons called up the data. "As of now, the count is 327 people."

Three hundred and twenty-seven people.

If they hadn’t come here and used their supernatural abilities to investigate, these disappearances would have been wiped away without notice.

"The pollution levels are still climbing. We can’t wait any longer. Spearhead Team, prepare to forcibly breach the realm!"

"Yes!"

Led by Sheng Tianzong, the squad slowly advanced into the realm.

The Divine Sacrifice Ceremony had been moved forward to the following day. Lin Juan woke up early and was dressed in ornate, elaborate ceremonial garments. The tentacle, concealed from view, coiled silently around his arm.

It was unusually bustling outside today.

As Lin Juan walked along, he saw subjects in various beast-like forms. They were moving forward in a state of feverish excitement; as they drew closer to the square where the Divine Sacrifice Ceremony was being held, their bestial features became increasingly pronounced.

Due to the massive number of participants, the Holy Snake Cult, after consulting their god, had cleared a square outside the royal palace to serve as the venue for the ceremony.

Looking through the teeming masses, Lin Juan spotted a massive white snake sculpture surrounded by people at the center.

Whether it was his imagination or not, the sculpture looked significantly more lackluster than when he had first seen it.

The tentacle wrapped around his wrist seemed to sense something and became somewhat restless.

Lin Juan patted it through his voluminous sleeves, and the tentacle quieted down.

The Divine Sacrifice Ceremony was a sacred event involving the entire populace. Deng Wenruo, Ping Yunhan, and another Awakened who had recovered part of his memory were all mingled with the crowd.

Lin Juan saw them, and naturally, they saw Lin Juan.

As the recognized lord of this land, Lin Juan possessed the grandest of processions; it was no exaggeration to say he was the center of attention. Moreover, to remain conspicuous, Lin Juan had chosen the highest ceremonial honors for his journey.

Standing high above the rest, the young man dressed in intricate, ornate robes—looking like a descending deity—nonchalantly averted his eyes. The demi-humans surrounding him somehow snapped out of their religious frenzy and began staring at him instinctively.

Their gazes gradually turned obsessive.

It was a shift from one form of fanaticism to another, only this time, the object of their fervor had changed.

The bishop stood before the giant snake sculpture. An arcane tongue spilled from his mouth like a gust of wind; wherever the sound passed, the demi-humans began to mutate one after another.

—Devolving from humans into total beasts.

The most common creatures on the square were snakes.

As the bishop uttered the final syllable, the ground became covered in snakes of all lengths and colors.

These snakes coiled around and devoured one another. Viewed from above, one could see that their writhing bodies formed a massive, eerie pattern.

Only at the very center of the pattern, where the core should be, stood a single person.

No, to be precise, it was a snake-hybrid.

Lin Juan stood amidst the swarm of snakes, surrounded by Ping Yunhan and the other two, who were using their powers to resist the mutation.

"Is this the so-called Divine Sacrifice?" Deng Wenruo’s skin crawled as he looked at the mounds of serpents. "The real sacrifices are all of us?"

"No wonder," Ping Yunhan murmured. "No wonder we searched for so long and couldn't find where they were keeping the sacrifices."

With a name as obvious as "Divine Sacrifice Ceremony," Ping Yunhan had previously been puzzled. Given the Holy Snake Cult's extreme devotion to their god, hosting such a grand ceremony should have required sufficiently precious sacrifices.

He had considered many possibilities, including some dark ones, but he never imagined that the sacrifices would be every single person living on this land.

In the air, the stench of corruption surged.

Ping Yunhan activated his power to carefully sense the fluctuating pollution. The more he sensed, the grimmer his expression became.

"What's wrong?" Noticing the emotional shift in those beside him, Lin Juan turned his head and asked.

"These snakes have formed a massive sacrificial formation. Including us, if my analysis is correct, the life force of everyone here is nourishment for this array, used to sustain something lurking behind this. I can feel my life force draining..."

"Eh?"

Halfway through his sentence, Ping Yunhan stopped abruptly.

Sensing carefully, his life force had indeed drained a little, but it had already stopped. The small amount lost had a negligible impact on him.

Though he didn't know the reason, Ping Yunhan didn't dare be careless and warned strictly: "We must find a way to destroy this grand formation. Whatever is being nourished by such a vast amount of life force is definitely not something easy to deal with."

Perhaps the entity behind this was the Master of this Realm.

"Everyone, be extremely careful."

Deng Wenruo's expression turned solemn: "Understood, Ping."

The other Awakened, affected by the pollution, turned into a massive hound with a "bang." He lunged toward Lin Juan, wanting to lick his hand, but was slapped away by the tentacle wrapped around Lin Juan's arm.

Deng Wenruo scrambled to catch the dog.

Among the sea of snakes, the four standing figures stood out like sore thumbs. When the bishop and his followers saw them, their expressions changed slightly.

The incantation he had just recited was a spell taught to him by God. Why were these few people unaffected?

Feeling a steady stream of power being extracted and injected into his own body, the bishop suppressed the slight unease in his heart and quickened his pace.

The three men and one dog in the center remained unaffected.

The sacrificial formation was easily destroyed.

The tentacle had already grown to the size of a small mountain. Ignoring whatever the annoying people were saying, it cleared away the obstacles on the ground and extended its cleanest limb, fawningly prostrating itself at the young man's feet, signaling for Lin Juan to sit on it.

The bishop suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood. Seeing the scaled, thrashing tentacle, his face turned ashen: "It's you..."

The tentacle waved mockingly. In a direction Lin Juan couldn't see, it suddenly struck out, smashing toward the giant snake statue behind the bishop.

"Stop it!!" Watching the approaching tentacle, the bishop's pupils constricted as he barked orders.

Several priests rushed forward, attempting to block the tentacle, only to be easily swatted away.

At the same time, Lin Juan rode the "Tentacle Express" and arrived before the bishop.

He didn't spare the bishop a single glance, looking instead directly at the giant snake statue behind him.

Under his gaze, the massive stone snake slowly shifted its coiled body.

The harsh sound of stone grinding against stone rang out as the giant stone snake raised its head high, its cold, predatory gaze falling upon Lin Juan.

"God-eater, die!"

The thunderous voice crashed down. Lin Juan raised an eyebrow, feigning indifference: "God? You mean a hunk of stone?"

***

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Author's Note: My family and my dog have been sick lately, and I've been busy running to the hospital. I'm so sorry for the lack of updates. Don't worry, I won't drop this story. I posted a leave of absence note earlier, but it disappeared for some reason.