absurd deduction game.

The air became as thick as solidified oil due to the dramatic changes in pollution.

During the battle, with each breath the priests took, their lungs felt a tangible resistance, carrying the sweet, metallic smell of rust and rotting flesh.

The mechanical umbrella array hummed overhead, and the pale blue energy halo barely shielded the direct gaze of the Ancient God's Eye, but everyone knew that this shield wouldn't last long.

“There are four minutes and seventeen seconds left on the umbrella.” His voice was flat and emotionless, but the slight tightening of his fingertips betrayed his inner tension. “Our energy is being depleted 12% faster than expected, and the pollution concentration is still rising.”

Herbert wiped the blood and grime from his face and slammed his warhammer heavily into the ground.

"A little over four minutes... is that enough time to get to the top floor?"

No one answered.

Ahead, the staircase leading to the third floor was blocked by a semi-transparent, starlight-shimmering barrier. Countless tiny vortices swirled on the surface of the barrier, each vortex shimmering with a dark red dot of light at its center, like a miniature starry sky.

"What is this?"

"Anything related to the starry sky must be filthy—don't look directly at it!" someone warned.

Yu Xing recognized that it was a defense personally set up by Aiven. Currently, only he, a fanatical believer, could combine the corrupting power bestowed by the ancient gods with the esoteric runes to form a domain.

"A full-scale assault?" a combat priest asked breathlessly.

“No, this place gives me a bad feeling.” Herbert shook his head. “We need someone to go up and test the waters first.”

His gaze swept across the line.

The investigators were in relatively good condition, but the battle had taken a toll on them. The members of the Mechanical Church were focused on maintaining the umbrella formation and controlling the mechanical units, while Celine of the Silk Goddess Church was pale, as maintaining "Pulse Perception" was a great strain on her.

Then, everyone's eyes fell on Yu Xing.

From the breakthrough at the second level until now, this investigator's performance has been too conspicuous—no, not just conspicuous, but abnormal.

He appears and disappears unpredictably, his dark brown tentacles stretching around him, each swing precisely striking down any monsters or cultists that pounce on him, sending them crashing into the priests' weapons.

That's ridiculously strong.

"Everyone's looking at me?" Yu Xing tilted her head. "Looks like they're tacitly agreeing to let me go?"

Herbert: "No...you can refuse..."

Before she finished speaking, Yu Xing had already walked towards the starlight barrier.

Ripples spread across the surface of the barrier, and the swirling nebula vortexes accelerated slightly, but did not attack him. Yu Xing raised his hand, his fingertips gently touching the surface of the barrier—the barrier parted to the sides like water ripples, revealing a gap just wide enough for one person to pass through.

This was the key that Evan left for his "comrades," but the priests didn't know it and stared at him in shock.

“See? I can fool this thing.” Yu Xing said, turning his head. “Wait for me to see.”

After saying that, he stepped into the crevice.

The barrier closed behind him again.

The three-story corridor... was very quiet.

It was quite strange that, although the entire manor had become distorted after the ceremony began, the first to third floors returned to their original state, with clean walls, completely unaffected by Funel's lair.

Deep in the corridor, Evan was busy.

He knelt on the ground, holding a ritual dagger pieced together from fragments of starlight and tainted gems, and was carving intricate runes into the ground.

With each stroke of the dagger, dark red starlight seeped from its tip into the ground, forming a new, ever-swirling vortex of pollution.

Hearing footsteps, Evan looked up.

Upon seeing that it was Yu Xing, a twisted smile appeared on his face.

"How was it?" Evan stood up, brushing non-existent dust off his hands. "How did it feel to hurt a former comrade with your own hands?"

His tone was maliciously sarcastic, as if he were enjoying an amusing performance.

Yu Xing stopped in her tracks, her face displaying a perfectly timed expression that seemed to have been hit where it hurt.

He frowned, avoiding Evan's gaze, and said in a strained voice, "They... are almost here."

"Oh?" Evan raised an eyebrow. "Then you'll have to guide them properly."

“Let them push forward a little further,” Yu Xing said softly, as if convincing herself, “Betrayal born of despair…is the most delicious, isn’t it?”

Evan smiled.

That was genuine, heartfelt laughter.

He walked up to Yu Xing, reached out and patted Yu Xing's shoulder heavily, with a sense of superiority.

“That’s right.” Evan’s eyes gleamed with fanaticism. “Pain, despair, being stabbed in the back by the most trusted person… that chaotic feeling, my Lord will surely appreciate.”

He turned around, opened his arms, and showed Yu Xing the area at the end of the corridor where the starlight was most intense.

“I prepared a ‘grand gift’ for those hypocritical righteous people there,” Evan said in a low voice, tinged with a morbid excitement. “It’s a fusion of the star pollution bestowed by the Lord, and the resentment I extracted from thirty-seven corpses. When they step into that area—”

He made an explosion gesture.

"The spirit will collapse first, then the body; they will turn into puddles of rotting flesh that can only wail, becoming the background noise when our Lord comes."

Yu Xing looked at that area.

Starlight swirls in the air, forming countless tiny, nebula-like vortices.

Deep within the vortex, one can vaguely see distorted human faces struggling and screaming, but no sound comes out—all the pain is imprisoned in that area, constantly fermenting and purifying, becoming part of the pollution.

A very meticulous arrangement.

"What do you need me to do?" Yu Xing asked.

“No need.” Evan waved his hand. “Just continue playing your role. When they’re in a tough fight, you strike from behind—kill that Herbert, or that silk-clad church woman in the white dress, whatever. Create the biggest chaos.”

He paused, then added, "Fennell had previously discussed the stages of the ritual with me, and judging from the current situation, the ritual is almost complete. In five minutes at most, my Lord will fully descend. At that time... all these people, this town, will become offerings to the Lord."

Yu Xing nodded.

He turned around, ready to leave.

Evan's voice sounded behind him: "When everything is over, I will personally preside over your 'Ascension Ceremony,' and you will become a true 'fellow'."

The condescending tone in his voice was so blatant it was nauseating.

……

When I returned to the stairwell, the battle outside the barrier had reached a fever pitch.

They had no time to waste. Herbert was directing the assault, the golden light of the warhammer slamming into the starlight barrier again and again. Each impact caused the barrier to tremble violently, and the nebula vortex on its surface spun wildly, but the barrier itself remained steadfast.

The technicians of the Mechanical Church attempted to crack the rune structure with an energy cutter, but progress was slow. Celine of the Silk Goddess Church knelt on the ground, pressing her hands against the surface of the barrier, trying to penetrate it with silk threads to find a weakness, cold sweat constantly seeping from her forehead.

“No… the structure is constantly remodeling itself…” Celine gasped. “I need more time…”

Butler Murphy glanced at the metal pages.

"Two minutes and three seconds."

Herbert gritted his teeth, raised his warhammer, and prepared to smash it down again—

"Step aside."

Yu Xing's voice came from inside the barrier.

Everyone was taken aback. The crack in the barrier opened again. Yu Xing stood inside, gesturing for them to come in.

"Hurry up," he said. "I've got it done."

Herbert did not hesitate.

"Enter!"

The procession filed in.

The moment they passed through the barrier, everyone felt a nauseating sense of oppression.

The walls were clean, the floor was flat, yet shimmering starlight began to appear at the edge of my vision, and I heard faint murmurs, like countless people whispering in the distance.

"Stay close to me," Yu Xing said, walking in front. "Don't look at those stars."

His tentacles spread out around him, scanning the area in front of him like detectors. Whenever the tentacles passed over certain locations, the starlight there would dim temporarily, revealing hidden traps or rune nodes.

But Evan's setup was more elaborate than expected.

Every ten meters along the corridor, there is a small pollution node—some are filthy gems suspended in mid-air, some are distorted human faces embedded in the walls, and some are nebula arrays slowly rotating on the ground.

Each node is continuously releasing mental pollution and energy shocks.

“Purify the nodes!” Herbert roared.

The battle priests immediately took action, their golden holy light scepters smashing into the tainted gem, the mechanical church's energy blasts bombarding the nebula array, and threads wrapping around and twisting human faces in an attempt to peel them away. But with each node destroyed, the surrounding nodes would immediately strengthen, as if there were some kind of shared energy network.

Worse still, Butler Murphy's voice rang out, unusually urgent:

"No, the pollution here is too high. The umbrella array's energy is about to run out. Countdown... fifty-seven seconds."

Everyone's heart sank.

Fifty-seven seconds later, they will lose their last refuge and be directly exposed to the gaze of the Ancient God's Eye. Here, the star pollution zone set up by Evan is amplifying that pollution.

"We must break through the third floor as soon as possible and find the way to the attic!" Herbert should have asked Celine, but instead looked at Yu Xing, "Is there a shortcut?"

Yu Xing stopped in her tracks.

He looked up at the area deep in the corridor where the starlight was most intense—the place where Evan had mentioned the "grand gift."

Evan wanted the priests to make a choice in this situation and step into the trap.

“Yes,” he said, “but it’s dangerous.”

How dangerous?

“We’ll go straight through the core of the pollution,” Yu Xing said. “The pollution concentration there is more than five times that of the outer perimeter. Once the umbrella array fails, an ordinary person won’t last more than ten seconds.”

There was a brief silence.

“Lead the way,” Herbert said, his voice hoarse. “It’s better than waiting here to die.”

Yu Xing nodded.

He turned around, his tentacles reaching forward, piercing the thick starlight like a pioneer clearing a path.

Fine wood-like textures emerge on the surface of the tentacles, and when starlight pollution comes into contact with these textures, some of it is subtly absorbed.

The group followed behind him, stepping into the deepest part of the starlight.

My field of vision was instantly filled with dark red nebulae.

The air was as thick as glue, and every step felt like wading through a quagmire. Starlight crawled across the skin, bringing a burning sting. The whispers in my ears turned into clear roars, and the desperate souls imprisoned in the realm began to frantically assault the consciousness of the living.

"Don't listen, concentrate!" Herbert roared, but veins were bulging on his forehead.

Several lower-ranking guards were already kneeling on the ground, their hands covering their heads, and pale golden light began to seep from their seven orifices—a sign that their faith was being polluted and eroded, and was beginning to dissipate.

"Keep going!" Yu Xing's voice pierced through the chaos. "The core is just ahead!"

The team pulled and dragged themselves forward another twenty meters.

The starlight suddenly contracted towards the center, forming a vortex about five meters in diameter. At the center of the vortex, a fist-sized dark red gem was suspended. The surface of the gem had countless tiny cracks, and starlight liquid flowing through the cracks was like lava. It was the energy core of the entire polluted area.

Below the gem, Evan stood there.

He looked at Herbert and his men, a smile spreading across his gloomy face, and then, in front of them, transformed into a monster.

In a mere second, before anyone could even stop him, Evan was no longer fully human.

His body was covered by a translucent, nebula-like substance, within which galaxies could be seen slowly rotating. Tentacles formed from condensed starlight extended from his arms, their ends splitting into tiny, nerve-like structures that connected to the surrounding contaminated nodes. Only his head remained intact, but his eyes had become two miniature stars, rotating within their sockets.

A maniacal grin spread across Evan's face: "Welcome to...my domain."

His voice echoed, like countless voices superimposed together.

Without a word, Herbert swung his warhammer, which flashed with golden light, and smashed it directly at Evan.

But the hammer stopped half a meter away from Evan.

It wasn't blocked, but rather entangled by countless starlight tentacles. Those tentacles, extending from Evan's body, wrapped around the warhammer as if they were alive. The starlight on the surface of the tentacles collided fiercely with the golden light of the hammerhead, emitting a "sizzling" corrosive sound.

“It’s no use.” Evan chuckled. “I’ve been fed up with you for a long time. The Harvest Mother Goddess and her followers, here, I am the master.”

The arrival of the ancient god granted this fanatical believer unprecedented power, enough to make him no longer afraid of the holy light. He raised one hand, his five fingers spread wide.

The surrounding pollution nodes lit up simultaneously, and starlight cascaded down like a waterfall, crashing onto the team.

Instantly, defensive measures such as the Holy Light Shield, Energy Barrier, and Silk Thread Barrier were deployed simultaneously, but the pollution from the stars was too intense, and cracks quickly appeared on the surface of the shield.

Butler Murphy glanced at the metal pages, his pupils contracting.

"The umbrella formation has failed!"

The moment the words were spoken, a crisp "crack" sound came from above.

The pale blue glow of the umbrella array flickered a few times before going out completely, and the mechanical umbrellas crashed onto the smooth ground.

The next second—

The gaze of the ancient gods has descended.

The gaze of the ancient god's eye, which stretched forward along its tentacles, pierced through the building structure and layers of barriers, landing directly on this area. The people, who were already corrupted and eroded by starlight, were now as if they had been thrown into a boiling oil pot.

Screams rang out.

The three guards immediately knelt down, dark red blood flowing from their eyes, noses, and ears. The blood evaporated quickly after it flowed out. One of the combat priests dropped his scepter and scratched his face with both hands, something wriggling under his skin.

Celine couldn't maintain that eye-like connection; she swayed and was supported by her ally.

Even Herbert grunted, his body swayed, and the golden light on his warhammer dimmed by seven-tenths.

Only Yu Xing stood still, motionless, without even frowning.

Evan noticed this.

“You…” Aiven stared at Yu Xing, a hint of doubt flashing in his eyes.

Yu Xing ignored him.

He looked up at the dark red gem floating in the center of the vortex.

“The core is there,” Yu Xing said calmly. “Destroy it, and the domain will collapse.” (End of Chapter)