Chapter 84 The Truth
"Where is Xiangfuzi?"
West of the town, near the sea beach.
The sea was calm, its waves surging endlessly, lifting and melting the pearly illusions. Qi Su, with her back to the shore, was drawing a formation on the sand with her short staff. Behind her lay the centipede's legs, fox fur, and the armor of a shadow giant—the complete materials for the teleportation array.
"Who knows? You're probably reading somewhere again." Qi Su didn't care. "Rather than that, you'd better get ready quickly. The teleportation array is almost complete. It's time to go."
Chu Hengkong stared at her silently, while Fan De remained silent. Qi Su, absorbed in his formation, happened to avoid their gazes. "This beach used to be a 'port' for tidal currents, so the speed of constructing formations is incredibly fast. Those of you who haven't seen the world would guess this, right? This is a masterful technique unique to our Divine Kingdom..."
Qi Su boasted complacently as usual, but received no response. She looked up, and saw Chu Hengkong still standing in the distance, his expressionless face revealing no emotion. She glanced slightly to avoid his gaze, then said with a smile, "What are you doing? Are you still thinking about the secret bead? I really don't have time to do it this time. Wait until you meet a skilled craftsman and—"
"Where is Xiangfuzi?"
Qi Su was silent for a moment, then slowly raised her head. The killer's gaze pierced her eyes like a pair of sharp swords.
"Xiang Fuzi is responsible for organizing town activities. He's the first one to arrive at the square every morning and the last to leave after his poetry lecture. He's responsible for caring for the dragon statue and looking after the wooden board. As one of the few scholars in town, he's responsible for writing commissions for the illiterate townspeople. He doesn't have many hobbies. Besides reading at home, he tends to the garden. So, outside of activities, he rarely leaves the house. The only time he's there is to write commissions or come to see me at church."
His descriptions are plain but accurate, born of meticulous observation. It's like a killer lurking in the crowd, quietly observing his target's every move, capturing a vivid human life in a few words on a notebook. Only in this way can he grasp his target's mindset, infer their thoughts, and detect their movements before anyone else.
"Someone like that wouldn't just disappear. In this small town where no one can leave, it's impossible for him to go out," Chu Hengkong emphasized for the third time. "Tell me, where did Xiang Fuzi go?"
The short stick stuck into the yellow sand, like a crutch supporting the little girl. Qi Su avoided his gaze with a sidelong glance, a hint of sadness in her smile.
"Xiang Fuzi is satisfied and has gone to where he should go." The girl said softly, "We are all very grateful to you... So don't ask any more questions and get ready to go. If you are any later..."
"What if it's later?!"
Qi Su took a step back, startled by the sudden roar. She had braced herself for the killer's furious rebuke, but the furious roar came from the Eye Demon. Finder's body trembled slightly. This shameless fellow was now truly furious, like a savage monster baring its fangs and claws.
"You don't say anything, you don't explain anything, you just use vague words to fool us. Do you think we are fools?!" Fander shouted angrily, "We just dragged the centipede back yesterday, and Xiangfuzi disappeared today. Even a fool can see the connection! Don't think I don't know about the strange things you are hiding. That mountain is your old cave, and that fox is using your Qisu's secret technique. Those machines are all controlled by the red eyes... You are trapped in this town! Like dogs in a cage!"
The smile on the girl's face disappeared. She clenched her short staff and said in a cold voice, "Yingshi Town does not welcome rude guests like you. Leave immediately!"
"Where to?" Chu Hengkong took a step forward. "You told me to leave, but you never promised to help me return to the city."
He spoke the key point, and Qi Su was immediately speechless. Chu Hengkong asked, "Are you unwilling? Or are you unable to do it?"
"Anywhere is better than here..."
It was that same expression again, like every difficult child, self-righteous and self-pitying, so arrogant it made you want to clench your fists. Chu Hengkong's patience was exhausted, and he suddenly raised his voice: "What on earth happened in the Netherworld Kingdom? If you don't say anything, how can we help you?!"
Qi Su stared at him angrily, tears falling from her eyes, but they failed to wet the dust. She wiped her eyes vigorously and pushed Chu Hengkong hard.
"In this dead place where everything is over, there's nothing more that can be done to help!" She screamed hysterically, "Go away! If you don't leave now, you'll die too!"
She cried so hard, her glistening tears dissipating before they could even touch the ground. Her reddened eyes betrayed no grievance, but instead concealed a deep despair, a mourning ache. Chu Hengkong was speechless. He wasn't good with women or children, and he couldn't press a sobbing child. In the end, he could only turn away in silence, letting the unresolved anger linger in his heart.
They walked back to Yingshi Town, where the townspeople had all emerged from their doors, waiting as if they had expected something. They all stood straight, their eyes filled with proud silence. Chu Hengkong was so angry that he wanted to laugh. He felt like these people were tombstones with legs, determined to die here.
"This place is full of psychos! They don't know what's good for them!" Vander cursed in his pocket, "Do you think I can't figure it out? Isn't it just dead? I don't understand, what's so shameful about becoming a ghost?!"
He naturally understood what Fan De said. He had seen creatures that could walk without food or water, unable to leave a certain area. They were nothing more than wandering ghosts, nothing more than the spirits of the dead. But in this chaotic Senluo Secret Realm, what was there to hide?
How proud are these people from God's country that they can't even speak after becoming ghosts?
He paused. He remembered Xiang Fuzi's laughter last night, the scholar singing ecstatically by the campfire. What could possibly have made a long-dead ghost so happy? The insect wasn't his enemy, not his adversary, so what was he so happy about? What were the others so happy about?
In his memory, Xiang Fuzi danced wildly by the fire, his tall, thin shadow swaying in the flames like a long, curled worm. Chu Hengkong's anger suddenly faded, and he felt a chill on his back. He told himself that this association was baseless and illogical, but then he remembered another commission. It was the man who hunted spiders. The man with the turban. He realized that he hadn't seen that townsman since that day. Fishermen along the coast often wore turbans.
——Does a fisherman catching fish with a net look like a spider?
The beasts outside the town. The undead within. The incomprehensible appraisal document. The intermittent longing. All the experiences since arriving in the Kingdom of God flashed through his mind, and an unspeakable revulsion surged in his chest. Chu Hengkong ran quickly through the town. He reached the church and pushed open the door with force. The noise of the iron gate splitting echoed in the empty church.
Brother Bernfa stood in the darkness, silent and expressionless.
"So, you're here." The monk said in a gentle tone, "Mr. Chu, you still failed to keep your promise."
"You were the one who attacked me last night." Chu Hengkong said coldly, "Tell me, Bernfa. Why did you come to this town?"
Only this man. In this town filled with the dead, only this pagan monk stood out from the crowd. Bernfa must have known the truth, must have understood the reality. Otherwise, he wouldn't have tried to conceal Xiang Fuzi's whereabouts last night.
"The truth you seek to know, the secrets you aspire to uncover, are now meaningless. However, killing this useless time is precisely my mission. Therefore, I am happy to serve, I am happy to explain. Please follow me, stranger from a foreign land!"
Bernfa smiled, clasped his hands together, and took a step forward. Chu Hengkong suddenly felt dizzy. When he landed, they had already arrived at the foot of Yingluo Mountain from the chapel. Bernfa took out the scriptures he carried with him and flipped through the yellowed pages one by one. The mist on the mountain began to thicken, and a long staircase suddenly appeared on the smooth jade-like mountainside, leading from the foot of the mountain to the top like a ladder to heaven.
Chu Hengkong had never seen such a method before. He felt that this was a creation, but he also felt that it was not right. But he knew that someone knew the truth. The Vander in his pocket was trembling. At this point, he simply followed Bernfa. The monk flipped through the book as he walked, and his chanting voice floated in the room.
"Long, long ago, a wise dragon became a god. He established a kingdom on earth and taught his people the mysteries of life and the world. Thus, the people of the kingdom became knowledgeable and courteous, and under his protection, a magnificent civilization developed."
The mist swirled with the chanting, colors and sounds emerging from the mist, unfolding stories from the past. Chu Hengkong saw a cherry tree in full bloom, atop which a purple dragon sang melodiously. The branches of the sacred tree stretched across the land, granting knowledge and power to the people. Priests stood beneath a jade dragon statue, expounding scriptures to the guests who arrived from all directions and entertaining them with abundant food, demonstrating the spirit of the divine kingdom.
Among those priests was a young, yet brilliant, girl with green hair. She was a genius admired by many elders, and her advancement brought honor to her remote hometown.
"However, prosperity is but a fleeting dream; what flourishes must decline. This is the common sense of the world. The vanity of the world vanishes in a moment..." Bernfar turned the page, "in a moment."
Zooming out, he saw a fisherman gazing out at the ocean. Fish fled, illusions wept, and a chilling, icy shadow rose from the ocean, far from the Kingdom of God. Amidst a wailing wind, the sea of illusions suddenly split apart, countless oceans vanishing into a void. A drastic change affecting the entire world had arrived without warning.
From that day on, there were no more fish to be caught on the beach.
From that day on, the utopian demons attacked the country frantically.
From that day on, no one could rely on the air route to visit the Netherworld.
Soon after the Great Void appeared, the battle situation on the front collapsed and the Iron Outcasts descended from the sky.
Then, the sacred tree burned in the fire. Then, the dragon god withered in the light. A cold giant advanced in the flames, slaughtering all living things. The desperate people tried to rely on the remaining light of the gods, but the polluted way of the gods brought about great disaster.
"The dead cannot rest in peace, their souls bound to this dead land. And the bodies that have long suffered..." The monk closed his eyes, "have, in despair, turned into mindless corpses."
The perspective returns once again to a remote fishing village, already ravaged by war. The once-delicate town, sealed within the mountains by machinery, a once-thriving civilization destroyed by the flames of war. Pure white steel crushes priests, destroys temples, and strangles innocent lives without discrimination. The still-cold corpses, warped and swollen by contamination, carry with them the power of life, transforming into hideous and brutal monsters.
The warrior who fought against steel became a silent giant.
The scholar who died under the iron hoof turned into an ugly centipede.
The priest who single-handedly protected the townspeople writhes in agony amidst the flames of war, his corpse transforming into a jade-white fox, prostrating itself before the machine.
Their corpses, manipulated by machines, transformed into ruthless weapons. The beasts howled, lashing out at more innocents. Their pupils flashed crimson. The young priestess's spirit clung to her staff. She arrived before the Sakura Dragon statue and, using her last remaining resources, created a magic circle to protect the townspeople's souls.
Then the monks arrived and the fog appeared. The souls hid behind the mountain, in the fog, not daring to go beyond the boundaries, waiting for their eventual demise.
"God's kingdom on earth is hell on earth."
The story was over, and they stood on the top of the mountain. Brother Bernfar closed the book, and the surrounding mist dissipated, shrinking into the yellowed pages.
He had created this mist to conceal the small stone town in the wasteland. Chu Hengkong stared into the distance in silence. For the first time, he penetrated the mist and looked out at the world on the other side of the mountain.
He saw nothing.
There is nothing on the other side of the mountain.
A void. An abyss. A dead, empty place. The earth had been hollowed out, a bottomless hole stretching in all directions, almost reaching the horizon. There was no air in the sky, and the moment the mist lifted, it felt suffocating, even the air being consumed. Amidst the endless blackness, a single streak of pure white shone.
It was a pure white cauldron, an ancient sacrificial vessel floating in the air. In its center, a blood-red eye opened, casting a cold, emotionless, murderous gaze upon him.
"Now, you have your satisfaction. Now, you know the truth."
Brother Bernfar turned around, his smile a mixture of mockery and mourning.
"This is the beginning and end of the Kingdom of God's destruction, the source of all the tragedies here. The 'culprit' you are trying to challenge is the most powerful heretic who single-handedly destroyed the Kingdom of God.
"It is called the Invincible Ultimate True Machine, the Empire of Truth that ravages all worlds!"
(End of this chapter)
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