Chapter 592
She felt her body rapidly healing, the power within her gradually surging forth. The woman quickly shifted to a kneeling position before Xia Er and said, “Thank you, great Outer God... ruler of the Old Empire...”
Flattery was something anyone could utter, and she was no exception. A long string of honorifics was quickly modified and employed.
“What’s your name?” Xia Er interrupted her seemingly endless praise, asking directly, “Where is this place? What is your purpose in summoning me?”
Xia Er preferred straightforwardness; it saved time and effort.
---
PS1:
Today’s update is to make up for yesterday’s extended leave, so it doesn’t count as a regular update.
Tomorrow! Aiming for five, striving for six!
Good night!!!
---
Chapter 303: Let’s Go Eat Something Delicious (5204 words)
“...My name is Salas Yegersha, and this is the Silent Dungeon...”
The woman answered Xia Er’s questions in a daze, her gaze fixed on him as if she were unaware of how rude her behavior was.
It wasn’t until she answered the last question that her awareness seemed to snap back into focus.
The mental fog from her earlier fainting quickly dissipated. She switched to a kneeling position, pressed her forehead to the ground, and said, “I... your servant requests you... save my family...”
Those who had been corrupted by the system generally held some form of faith. Since arriving in the Old Days, Xia Er had rarely encountered ordinary people without beliefs.
The system’s corruption effectively wiped out their original faith but did not impose reverence for Xia Er. In this context, those who were corrupted still summoned him, indicating they had ulterior motives.
The same went for Hei Ni and now Salas.
Salas had a surname, but for now, the meaning of “Yegersha” in this context remained unclear.
At this moment, Xia Er was eager to learn more about the situation here.
So, following her request, he continued to inquire.
“What happened to your family?” Xia Er asked, looking down at Salas.
“My brother is about to undergo his coming-of-age ceremony, to receive the blessing of the God of Death... This blessing is a curse of the undead! I don’t want my brother to become one of the undead...”
Under Xia Er’s questioning, Salas revealed everything, providing information that allowed him to sketch a rough outline of his current predicament.
The territory where Xia Er found himself, translated into Ansu, was called the “Realm of Death.” Everyone here shared a common faith, worshiping the only deity of this land—the God of Death.
He claimed to wield the power of immortality, and every member of this realm received his blessing at the age of fourteen, gaining the power of “eternal life.”
Salas Yegersha was a native born and raised here, never questioning the blessing’s validity. Like others, she wholeheartedly believed in the God of Death, praying for the day she could enter his divine realm.
She could have continued living this way until she turned thirty, at which point she would qualify for entry into the Hall of Heroes, gaining immortality alongside her ancestors.
But all of that changed one day a few years ago when she inadvertently obtained a silver rune stone...
Her faith in the God of Death vanished the moment she touched the silver rune stone, a feeling that left her shocked and terrified.
What terrified her even more was that after losing her faith and reverence for the God of Death, everything around her began to appear strange and eerie...
For instance, no one had ever received a response from the Hall of Heroes, and no one had ever returned from the divine realm. The God of Death’s blessing first required killing the person...
Having lost her faith, Salas found herself increasingly at odds with everything around her. She began to try to understand the true meaning of these blessings and the reality of the Hall of Heroes.
During a death ritual, Salas followed a divine messenger and witnessed firsthand as they led a group of thirty-year-old zealots into the Hall of Heroes...
Like other believers, she had seen the beauty of the Hall of Heroes more than once.
Behind that grand door lay a golden palace set against a backdrop of pure blue skies, with solemn guards radiating a holy aura, clad in golden armor standing on either side of the entrance.
Beautiful music played inside, and the choir’s singing seemed never-ending. Occasionally, she could even see vague figures in white robes chasing and playing within...
However, after losing her faith in the God of Death, everything behind that door transformed dramatically in Salas’s eyes.
The beautiful music and the ceaseless choir were replaced by the sound of a giant hammer smashing flesh and the heart-wrenching screams of agony. Those figures that once chased and played morphed into terrified undead.
They desperately tried to run toward the door but were dragged back, thrown into a sinister palace engulfed in sickly green flames, and cast into a massive boiler. Then—
Boom—!
Flesh and blood splattered.
The essence of the transformed flesh was meticulously ground in the boiler, flowing into a dark chalice below to be collected.
This was no paradise; it was a hellish scene...
Salas fled from there, her mind in turmoil. She even stopped her daily pretense of prayer and began to think about how to escape the Realm of Death with her family...
But there’s no such thing as a secret that can’t be uncovered. Salas’s series of unusual behaviors led to her being suspected of heresy—after being reported, she was imprisoned in the Silent Dungeon.
Now, Salas was pleading with Xia Er to help her family escape this Realm of Death...
“Have you tried leaving this country?” Xia Er asked, pondering the credibility of Salas’s words.
“I’ve tried... but leaving the royal city requires very strict procedures and approvals. Even if you manage to get out, the surrounding fortresses will scrutinize your whereabouts...” Salas shook her head and replied, “I’ve never heard of anyone being able to leave here...”
This Realm of Death... sounded no better than the Abyss...
The so-called “Hall of Heroes” and “divine realm” that all the previous believers saw were likely illusions created by some kind of sealing object or extraordinary power, distorting the minds of the faithful to show them what they wanted to see.
And after Salas’s faith was stripped away by the silver rune stone, she saw the true picture...
However...
Xia Er found it hard to fully trust Salas based solely on her word.
While she indeed had a request of him, it was important to note that the information perceived by ordinary people differed greatly from that seen by extraordinary beings, and the gap between the extraordinary and the transcendent was even wider.
Just like Hei Ni before, she had developed hostility toward the God of the Death Star and the divine messengers due to information asymmetry, when in fact, the God of the Death Star only sought to ensure the village’s survival, harboring no ill intentions.
Now, what was this God of Death doing?
Crushing the undead who would become transformed? Extracting the magical residue seeping from their bodies? What would be done with these “second-hand potions”?
Although Xia Er hadn’t spent much time in the Old Days, having only traversed two regions, those two regions had already revealed a lot to him.
At least for now, Xia Er could be certain that in the Old Days, these so-called deities were doing everything they could to frantically seize faith.
The Eternal Silence’s mouthpiece, Moros, was one such example, and the God of Death was no different.
It was precisely because of this that the rituals harming their own believers left Xia Er feeling particularly perplexed.
However...
Xia Er didn’t necessarily have to get entangled with this God of Death here. The Realm of Death was relatively isolated, and he wanted to learn more about the Old Days to find ways to establish an organization.
Building his own organization in a realm with a unified faith was clearly not a wise choice. If possible, Xia Er would prefer to leave with the silver rune stone and find a better successor.
First, he needed to confirm whether this was truly an isolated place or something akin to the Abyss below ground.
While the undead’s recovery abilities bore a slight resemblance to the “Healer” in reality, Xia Er couldn’t be sure if this was the precursor to the “Healer” path.
Table of Contents
