Chapter 70

"damage!"

"damage!"

The steel head roared in a cold, mechanical voice, causing a stir in the ranks, like a drop of water falling into a frying pan.

"A human has infiltrated!"

"It's human!"

"Uncontaminated, fresh meat..."

The wolves instinctively tried to assimilate the young man. He struggled violently, like a lamb whose mouth was gagged and limbs were bound, before being taken away by the guards at the city gate.

Is this city gate only allowing pollutants to pass through, but not humans?

Xiao Shengyun watched the farce unfold from the very back of the line.

His shoulder blades twitched, and his beautiful wings unfolded from behind him.

The line surged forward at a relatively fast pace, and soon it was their turn.

"Who's in front?" Xiao Shengyun asked.

"Whatever." Zhou Zhi wasn't worried.

The snail first glanced at Xiao Shengyun's wings, symbolically scanned him a few times with its instrument, and then let him in directly.

When it was Zhou Zhi's turn, he examined everything carefully.

"This is another one trying to get away with it." The readings on the instrument met the standards, but perhaps because the person in front of him looked decent enough, he had some doubts.

The snail-man's companion, who had a pig's nose, came closer and sniffed Zhou Zhi, who frowned and took two steps back.

"Let him in," said Pig Nose.

Once inside the city walls, Xiao Shengyun noticed that the outer perimeter was not only a wall, but also a layer of barbed wire, with rows of guards standing on the wall, invisible from the outside.

There are layers upon layers of buildings here. What exactly is inside the city?

As far as the eye could see, towering buildings rose up, completely blocking out the distant sky and preventing any light from getting in.

They were first led to an open area, and once a certain number of people had arrived, a bus stopped in front of them.

Two rows of black uniforms stood next to the car, each person fully armed. It seemed that if they didn't attend class, they would be arrested on the spot like that young man.

"Where does this car go?" asked the "mountain of flesh" whose clothes were so stretched they were about to burst.

Xiao Shengyun glanced at him in surprise. He had thought that these polluters were very familiar with the city and that he was the outsider who had managed to slip through. Judging from the behavior of the people around him, they seemed to be newcomers as well.

If you're not familiar with this place, why are you queuing? And where did they get the opening hours from?

The men in black uniforms remained silent, their meaning clear: these outsiders were all to board the bus.

No one dared to object; these polluters were as docile as lambs at this moment.

Once in the car, Xiao Shengyun realized that the entire city seemed to be built on a huge mountain with a gentle slope. A highway winds its way from the foot of the mountain to the top, with tall buildings on both sides of the highway.

Continuing uphill, we passed through a commercial area. Through the car window, we could see rows of shops with goods displayed at the entrance or in the windows, just like outside.

Further ahead, the scenery suddenly becomes desolate. The buildings in the commercial area are very exquisite, with rows of two-story buildings standing neatly in place, their walls painted in blue and white, and their clean glass windows displaying a dazzling array of goods.

Everything here is gray and dusty, like a series of factories, with all sorts of steel machinery piled up outside.

This place is much larger than the commercial area. It took three or four minutes for the car to drive down that street, but it took them twenty minutes to pass through those dusty factory buildings. After a while, they finally reached the top of the mountain.

Everyone who got off the bus was awestruck. A colossal palace stood atop the mountain, exuding an ancient and mysterious aura. The dome soared into the clouds, and the exquisite carvings on it were so lifelike that they seemed to be telling ancient legends.

They seemed to have come from the human world to the world of gods. The patterns seemed to contain unknowable information, and just one glance was enough to make one tremble.

"ah-"

A scream rang out from the crowd. The person stared at the pattern, his pupils gradually dilated, and he fainted.

Xiao Shengyun looked at the patterns on the temple and found them strangely familiar. He recognized them and suddenly felt his arm being pulled.

Zhou Zhi's voice came from beside my ear: "Those patterns can cause mental pollution."

"I'm fine." He inexplicably understood what the man meant.

The heavy doors in the center of the hall suddenly opened, revealing a huge marble sculpture in the middle. It depicted a massive half-human, half-snake monster with its wings spread out behind it, bathed in the golden light of the hall.

Xiao Shengyun stared at the statue that bore a striking resemblance to his original self, and, like the statue itself, froze in place.

where is he from?

What species is his prototype?

Why would there be such a statue in this strange city?

The fear that had been hidden deep in his heart was stirred up, and he seemed to have become a weak, naked child who had come into this world again.

The temple was brightly lit, and he felt dizzy from the light.

For humans, the questions of "where we come from" and "where we are going" are age-old questions, but for monsters, it's different.

Their world is based solely on the instinct of survival of the fittest. They don't need education, they don't have much information, and the more food they eat, the stronger their bodies become, and the better they can survive.

However, Xiao Shengyun did not live in the jungle; he accepted information from human society and its rules.

It even absorbed those emotions and contemplations.

But this was clearly not a place for him to stand there in a daze. There were several people in white robes in the palace, and those in black uniforms called them messengers of the gods.

The divine messenger said, "Another batch of new people has arrived so quickly. The last batch only entered the city not long ago."

Black uniform: "The city lord said that he is short of people recently, so he opened the gate again."

The messenger asked, "Is this batch the same as before?"

Black uniform: "That's right."

The divine messenger said, "Alright, but the city won't be able to handle too many people."

The divine messenger led the newlyweds into the palace: "My friends, I do not know what you have experienced in the past, nor do I know why you have come here, but the moment you enter the city gate, you must abandon your past identities and become ordinary citizens here. Next, you will need to undergo the baptism of holy water to wash away the dust of the outside world and become a brand new you."

His voice was weathered and deep, yet possessed an undeniable authority.

They were led to a room in the palace, which contained a huge bath filled with a golden liquid that bubbled and boiled on the surface; this was the holy water the messenger had spoken of.

Xiao Shengyun glanced worriedly in Zhou Zhi's direction, only to find that the man had quietly walked to his side.

"Everyone, please enter the bath," the divine messenger commanded.

They had no other choice.

Upon entering the bath, Xiao Shengyun's first sensation was the coolness. The water seemed no different from ordinary water, soaking through his clothes and leaving them damp and clinging to his skin.

"The waves are coming down from the sky, and divine revelation is about to arrive."

"We shed our decaying bodies."

"Like a butterfly breaking free from its cocoon, it escapes its old cage."

"That skin born of dust."

"Like a withered leaf falling into a corner of time."

"When the power from beyond the heavens permeates every part of the body."

"The bones are no longer weighed down by the weight."

"The soul finds its lightness in the struggle."

...

The deep voice of the divine messenger echoed in the hall, and the water beneath him seemed to gradually warm up. The voice seemed to have some kind of magic, allowing Xiao Shengyun's tense body and mind to gradually relax.

It was as if an invisible hand was stroking every fold of his brain, and his nerves relaxed.

A crack suddenly appeared in my memory.

It was a sea of ​​flowers. He rolled around in the flowers, and his long snake tail swept across, cutting a large patch of flowers in half.

After he had finished splashing around, he gathered the flowers together and made a large bunch.

There was another person on the path by the flower sea. That person seemed to be writing something on the ground with a twig. When they heard the sound and looked up, they were immediately drenched in bellflower water.

The feathered serpent seemed startled by the "I'm giving this to you" gesture; it didn't know the flower needed to be tied up.

The man picked up the flowers scattered on the ground one by one, then took some soft grass and braided it into a rope to tie them together. His slender fingers moved back and forth, and in the blink of an eye, he had tidied up the messy grass neatly.

The feathered serpent watched in astonishment, its tail tip twitching.

The man tied the knot, and the animal tied its own knot—their tails were tangled together.

"Waaah—"

When it gets nervous, it can't speak anymore, but makes cries for help, and rolls around in a ball with its lower body curled up.

“Fool,” the man said, untying the tail and picking up the feathered serpent from behind, avoiding the wings, and examining it closely.

Then, run your fingertips across the back.

The feathers on the little snake's wings immediately bristled.

"You need to take a bath now, or you'll be in big trouble if you get any insect eggs on you." The man picked it up and put it in the river not far away, carefully brushed away the fine down on its wings, and washed it thoroughly from the inside out.

Don't touch the feathers on the wings!

The little snake exploded.

Xiao Shengyun opened his eyes. The dream was so real that when he woke up, he even felt a tingling sensation in his wings.

wrong!

There really seemed to be a hand on the wing. Before he could react, his mouth was covered by a hand. The hand was long and beautiful, but it had many small scars on it.

"Don't speak."

Zhou Zhi's beautiful golden eyes were faintly visible in the mist.

The water in the pool was boiling, and the steam shrouded everything in a hazy mist. Holy music resounded from all directions, and everyone seemed to be lost in a beautiful dream.

“What happened?” Xiao Shengyun wrote on the water-covered marble brick.

"They are altering people's memories."

Zhou Zhi was the first to open his eyes. This divine messenger's talent was also mental, so it was a perfect match for his profession. He first pulled people into a beautiful dream, and then erased some of their memories.

They are not powerful enough to alter memories.

He tried to wake Xiao Shengyun, but after a long time, he dared not make too much noise before placing his hand on the little feathered snake's wing.

"Don't make a move yet, play along and keep him in the act," he wrote.