In the Holy Temple, the spiritual energy continued to fluctuate, and all the servants and attendants active in the palace felt the oppressive and terrifying atmosphere. The Great Sage's anger emanated from the long hall, triggering over a dozen small-scale spiritual energy discharges throughout the building—many attendants trembled as they crawled down, bowing and praying in the direction of the long hall, hoping this anger wouldn't befall them.
Yet the long hall remained sealed, the ti required for rebirth had long passed, but Colander had yet to make an appearance.
The heavy scent of blood and the pungent sll of air ionization filled the air, with heat surging around the rebirth device.
Body after body lay around the rebirth device, including one whose muscles were still twitching and convulsing. All the bodies shared the sa face, the sa state — they bore expressions of anger and horror, and their legs below the knees had been crushed by unspeakable curse forces.
No matter how many tis reborn, it was always the sa, even for the flawless blank shell that had just erged from the biological container. As soon as the soul was injected, the nightmare-like curse would imdiately take effect.
Another Colander erged from the last cultivation chamber, and behind him, the rebirth device issued a warning that the biomass reserves were temporarily depleted. This perfectly proportioned, robust body, akin to a demigod hero from myth, stood quietly on the platform. Amidst the distressing alarm sounds, he took a gentle breath and then sat directly on the ground.
The expected intense pain and the terrifying sounds of flesh being crushed arrived, and a strong sense of exhaustion and despair even overshadowed this round of agony.
A mont later, he reached out directly toward his own legs, and a scorching light surged in the palm of his hand.
Long pain is better than short pain; decisiveness trumps despondency.
With a flash of light, those twisted, shattered limbs were directly vaporized. Unlike before, the pain made Colander clench his teeth, yet he managed to squeeze out a nearly twisted smile, emitting strange "ha-ha" sounds from his throat, as if he wanted to mock sothing.
Now, he had personally "handled" the limbs below his knees, and no matter what, the terrible curse would no longer take effect.
A servant stood trembling, holding a robe, awaiting his master's orders.
Ignoring this foolish slave, Colander beckoned in another direction— a spherical drone silently flew over, hovered before him, and activated the data terminal function.
Colander quickly operated on it, issuing an urgent production order to the rapid processing center, then waved his hand to the side.
"Go, open the transport channel."
A mont later, an urgently produced "cargo" was delivered to the long hall. As Colander looked at the item in the servant's hands, his expression beca increasingly twisted and hideous.
It was a pair of chanical prosthetic limbs.
The shiny tal surfaces seed to silently mock all his ugly failures, reminding him that his supposedly perfect "Path of Sanctification" now had indelible cracks. His flesh and soul were no longer pure and had likely permanently lost any hope of restoration.
But suddenly, sparks flickered in Colander's heart— perhaps, perhaps killing that cursed puppet, and the desecrating alien form behind it, might just lift this bizarre curse?
Yes, that must be it; there is still hope... The Boundary Land is full of strange and dangerous things; this inescapable curse might just be a product of so unparsed black spirit ability, and that puppet seed to have sothing to do with Alice's Cottage and things tied to Ancient Saints are naturally tough to deal with, yet surely not unsolvable... it's not like Ancient Saints have descended...
The ethereal spark of hope ignited, and Colander didn't even realize the fear and weakness lurking in his heart at this mont; he was rely encouraged by this inexplicable "hope," finally finding so courage to go face the Holy, then reached for the prosthetics.
The living tal-made connection ends quickly adapted to the flesh body, the nerve docking process was fairly smooth, and the prosthetics soon gained mobility. Enduring the strong discomfort both physically and ntally, the "Great Sage" slowly stood up, his face dark as he stepped down the platform.
Then, he heard the sound of tal twisting and breaking.
Sensors sent a burning alert signal to his nerves, and the bulky body fell awkwardly to the ground as Colander turned around angrily to look at his legs, only to see the tal limbs getting crushed and twisted by an invisible force, turning into a bizarre pile of wreckage.
His spiritual intuition perceived a terrifying chill, as black lines spread like a poison clinging to his bones through his spiritual vision. He heard endless murmurs swirling around his ears, as so thoughts not belonging to him jostled within his mind.
In his stupor, he seed to suddenly "understand" sothing—
"You are guilty, the on has arrived."
...
Yu Sheng's consciousness drifted in chaos, as if sleeping in a tranquil and peaceful Dream Realm, yet constantly retaining a clear sense of "self-awareness."
Probably due to the forcibly prolonged dying process this ti, he felt this "drifting" was more relaxed and imrsive than ever before, akin to soone long deprived of sleep diving headfirst into a comfy mattress, a lazy sensation filled his organs, making him even sowhat... enjoy.
Fatigue is a good redy for rest, just as hunger is the best seasoning— Yu Sheng felt his psychological state after dying was sohow a bit twisted.
Amidst the drifting, he recapped today's events.
The combat itself held nothing worth summarizing. He was very satisfied with the blood needle launcher and the blood grenade's effects; the only regret was barely putting them into play before being hit by so unknown AOE from the Great Sage, resulting in instant death. Yet he was used to such processes, as these occurrences were frequent—
During fights with strong adversaries, casually dealing so damage before getting knocked out swiftly, leaving the rest to the mycelium and teammates. After all, he always carried the team posthumously, being a so-called graveyard hero...
This is how Yu Sheng understood it, anyway.
What truly warrants attention and caution is the way those Hidden Monastery Sect mbers appeared, and the self-detonation of that Great Sage at the last mont.
The skirmish took place at the edge of the old town in an underground parking lot—not in a Dark Alley, not even in an Exotic Realm.
This was different from Yu Sheng's initial judgnt. He originally thought those cultists could only open passageways from the Dark Alley, assuming it was due to so limitation of the "World Bridge" technology. Yet today's events proved that the Hidden Monastery Sect actually had the ability to open exits elsewhere, even forcibly "propping up" a space similar to an Exotic Realm directly from the real world.
Upon reflection, the environnt of that parking lot was obviously evolving towards sothing akin to an "artificial Exotic Realm," though the process was unstable.
Has the Hidden Monastery Sect made a breakthrough in their research on the "World Bridge"? Or was this a trick they had long kept hidden, unintentionally exposed today?
And that high-tier Priest's self-detonation in the final stage—it was an explosive burst of astonishing power. But in truth, Hu Li could have indeed withstood it. As a Body Cultivator capable of executing orbital strikes with her headbutt, who knows how high her defensive potential could be? Yet what no one expected was that most of the explosion's power was compressed near the Rift, not even released in Hu Li's direction...
In other words, that Priest used all his strength at the last mont to close that Rift.
This matter was of greater importance than his life, to the extent he was willing to abandon the last chance to perish with the enemy, just to ensure the Rift could be completely, entirely closed.
...So, what exactly is on the other side of that Rift?
Yu Sheng's thoughts descended into the darkness, many conjectures spread aimlessly in his consciousness. Free from the shackles of flesh and blood, even his thinking beca infinitely free, quickly jumping from one direction to another.
He recalled Erin's appearance at that ti.
A small puppet head subrged in his blood, after which the fully-ford "Blonde Erin" appeared—but more shocking than "Blonde Erin" was the enormous projection of the Spider Goddess.
An on form—clearly under Erin's control.
And the small puppet's mumblings of sacrifice..."Blood Sacrifice"?
Yu Sheng's thoughts drifted far away but were suddenly pulled back. Amidst the chaos, he finally glimpsed the border of the Soul Wilderness.
Gray-black clouds covered the plain, naless tall grass swayed in the wind, a Crystal Giant Tree stood in the center of the endless wilderness, and a solemn black cathedral towered beneath the Crystal Tree, bathed in the glow from the Inference Star Body.
Yu Sheng's Spiritual Body descended from the sky, forming at the cathedral entrance.
He saw a tall figure with blonde hair standing in the garden of the forecourt—Luna, not dressed in her usual knight's armor, without a longsword at her waist, wearing instead a gown similar in style to her nun's robes from the real world.
This attire lent a touch of serene atmosphere to the usually sowhat boisterous girl in the Soul World.
"You have returned." Seeing Yu Sheng appear, Luna smiled slightly, bowing lightly in respect.
Yu Sheng was briefly unaccustod—after all, in the Soul World, it was rare for this girl to say only one sentence when she spoke.
Yet he quickly thought of sothing, gently nodding as he looked at Luna's attire, then turned to glance towards the cathedral entrance.
After a while, he softly broke the silence: "...No visitors."
"Yes, I've waited for quite a while," Luna said softly, "Here's only the sound of the wind."
"Perhaps...still on their way," Yu Sheng added, "The road here is sotis not easy."
Luna pursed her lips but finally just shook her head.
Yu Sheng wanted to say sothing, yet many words failed to co out. After a few seconds of silence, he rummaged in his pocket.
He brought so items from the real world into this wilderness.
A few Ga Coins, and so colorful candies.
He handed these to Luna.
"There should be a cetery behind the cathedral—this is the Soul Wilderness, let it be a resting place for weary souls."
"Alright."
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