Fang Zheng once again came to the sacrificial site in his dream. In front of him, the fire-transmitting girl was still standing quietly beside the fire, staring at the burning flames. Seeing Fang Zheng appear, she turned around and lowered her head slightly towards Fang Zheng.

"You are here, Lord Ashes."

"Well, here I come."

As Fang Zheng spoke, he walked in front of the Fire Girl and stretched out his right hand. The Fire Keeper also stretched out both hands and gently held them. Soon, Fang Zheng felt the power in his body being drawn out again, and a small flame formed in the Fire Keeper's hand.

Then, the fire keeper raised her hands, and Fang Zheng saw that the flame seemed to be attracted by something and suddenly flew to the side. It landed on a small altar not far in front of it, and then with a "boom" it turned into a burning flame, illuminating the originally dark space in the distance.

As the flames shone, Fang Zheng saw the black mud-like thing wrapped around the altar was instantly devoured by the flames like some kind of flammable material, burning, and a large area disappeared in the blink of an eye. The nearby black mud seemed to feel the power of the flames, and they let out a wail similar to countless people screaming and crying, and instinctively moved away from the burning flames.

At the same time, Fang Zheng also felt a slight "click" sound coming from his body, as if something had broken through an obstacle. Soon, a force that was quite familiar to Fang Zheng flowed through his body again.

The power of existence.

"Are you finally recovering a little?"

Fang Zheng raised his hand, and the flame formed by the power of existence appeared in his hand. He could vaguely feel the connection between himself and the Zero Hour Lost Child, which gave Fang Zheng a little more confidence. Because the Zero Hour Lost Child was placed in his inventory as a treasure, Fang Zheng could not feel their existence before. But now, he can already vaguely feel the existence of the Zero Hour Lost Child, but this connection is very weak... Its traffic is only at the level of 2G network.

Fang Zheng opened the system panel, and saw that it still displayed [System offline repair - progress 10%].

At least the progress bar moved forward a little bit.

"The power contained in these flames is not complete, Master Cinder."

At this moment, the Fire Keeper who had been standing quietly nearby also spoke.

"This is only part of the flame..."

"At least even this is better than nothing."

Fang Zheng didn't care about it. Being able to recover was the best news. He wasn't greedy enough to think that he could recover everything at once. To be honest, Fang Zheng was quite surprised at first that his system was knocked offline. Because he still didn't understand how the game system he made in reality appeared on him, and what rules and power it operated through.

However, because the system had been running well before, Fang Zheng did not think much about it. On the contrary, the sudden offline of the system gave Fang Zheng an opportunity. You know, he has no way to unpack and analyze the entire system, so through this system repair, Fang Zheng may be able to find the rules and principles of the Dimension Codex and make some targeted improvements.

"But then again, my luck is really bad this time..."

Fang Zheng sat down on the steps of the sacrificial field and started to complain to the Fire Keeper.

"That archbishop, couldn't she hold on a little longer? She went berserk when I arrived and was about to ask her some questions. I told her to hold on for another ten minutes. Could it be that she did this on purpose because she didn't like me?"

Facing Fang Zheng's complaints, the Fire Keeper just stood by and smiled without saying anything. Fang Zheng was already used to this. When he was in the Dark Souls world, every time he was sent back to the sacrificial ground, he would chat and complain to the Fire Keeper to vent his frustration. After all, who wouldn't be depressed after dying so many times!

"But then again, the Archbishop turning into a monster is much cuter than her original appearance, but the monster is a little too big, like..."

Having said this, Fang Zheng was stunned for a moment. He raised his head and stared at the flames burning in front of him.

At this moment, he seemed to have returned to Lothric, an era filled with ashes, embers of heritage, and a time when darkness and the abyss danced together.

"…It's like…being infected by the abyss…"

The more Fang Zheng spoke, the tighter his brows furrowed. He had felt that the archbishop looked familiar after he turned into a monster, and the aura he brought also made Fang Zheng feel very familiar. Now that he thought about it, the aura emitted by the archbishop after he was infected was actually quite similar to those monsters infected by the abyss, but the concentration of the aura was different. If the aura of the abyss infected people Fang Zheng encountered in Lothric was at the level of "rotten strawberries", then the aura of this archbishop was at the level of "unripe strawberries". Maybe you could smell a little bit of it, but if you didn't smell it carefully, you would definitely not smell it.

That’s why Fang Zheng only thought that the Archbishop looked a little familiar after he turned into a monster at first, but now that he thinks about it… is there any difference between this guy and those guys who were transformed after being infected by the abyss?

The difference seems to be that there is no black water and red eyes!

In Lothric, Fang Zheng learned that the human nature of that world would turn into an abyss after settling, and that there was darkness in everyone's heart, because the reason why humans have souls is because of the dark soul. But it is precisely because of the darkness of the soul that humans yearn for light. Once the light is gone, darkness will erode everything.

Fang Zheng can understand this. Human beings have a civilized side as well as an instinctive side. Nobility, kindness, a spirit of sacrifice, and compassion are all qualities that deserve praise.

But beyond that, humans also have a cruel dark side in order to survive.

In order to survive, they need to plunder resources, gather food, and kill.

In order to ensure the continuation of their race, they need to have sex and give birth to ensure the inheritance of their family bloodline. Many people attach great importance to free love itself, and believe that spiritual love does not need to be guaranteed by childbirth. But the cruel thing is that this has nothing to do with "superior" spiritual love. Sex and reproduction are the instincts of every creature to leave offspring and ensure the continuation of the species. Whether this sex is out of love, animality or simple desire, as long as it can leave offspring, it may be painful for the childbearer, but for the entire tribe, it is a success.

Similarly, greedy desire is the origin of human existence. Without desire, human beings have no goals and no future. These various desires from the soul, spirit, and body are intertwined to create the current human beings.

In order to survive, reproduce and expand their population, humans have retained the instincts of killing, violence and desire, and then built the tower of civilization on this foundation. Human nature and animal nature, darkness and light are intertwined and none of them can be missing.

So in this world, what is the so-called beast transformation?

"...Fire girl."

Thinking of this, Fang Zheng raised his head and looked at the fire keeper girl beside him.

"It's not a coincidence that you appear here."

"…Just as Master Ashes said."

Hearing Fang Zheng's question, the Fire Keeper nodded slightly.

"It is because of this world that I was able to meet you, Master Ashes..."

I see……

Hearing the Fire Keeper's answer, Fang Zheng nodded, then he closed his eyes.

When Fang Zheng opened his eyes again, he was already back in the chapel. Fang Zheng stood up, looked around, and then walked into the room of the chapel, where Dr. Yusefka was sitting quietly on a chair, reading a book in her hand. Noticing Fang Zheng coming in, she also stood up quickly and bowed to Fang Zheng.

"Hello, stranger, how can I help you?"

"I want to know one thing."

Fang Zheng stared at the woman in front of him and then asked.

"...What exactly is the so-called beast transformation?"