absurd deduction game.

The hard teeth pierced through the container's fragile skin without warning.

Yu Xing's teeth became embedded, and the moment he bit through the neck of the container, the young man's own blood gushed out.

Warm, viscous liquid flowed into his mouth through his teeth, its scarlet color wetting his lips. Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth, slid down his chin, and dripped onto his collar.

At that moment, you could hear a pin drop.

Everyone stared wide-eyed at this barbaric scene. The clergy were speechless with shock, their minds reeling, unable to form coherent sentences.

A hint of fear appeared in their eyes.

Yu Xing, who was being watched by everyone, did not care about those gazes, because the taste he was experiencing at this moment made his scalp tingle.

It was indeed delicious, because the roots of the Ghostly Sinking Tree loved this kind of filthy nutrients. But nutrients can be mild or mild, and the "nutrients" formed by the ancient god were too much of a shock for Yu Xing.

His blood-red eyes gleamed in the blood, and he tasted a bittersweet flavor, mixed with tiny, buzzing whispers, like countless insects burrowing into his brain.

Yu Xing swallowed the mouthful of blood.

The warm fluid slid down his esophagus, causing a strange burning sensation. The whispers echoed in his mind, trying to take root in his consciousness.

This is a concrete manifestation of pollution.

But that feeling only lasted for a moment.

Deep within his body, a cold, rotten power surged forth, ecstatically tasting the belated food, rushing towards him like gastric juices.

Black mist seeped from his body, entangling the burning liquid. The sweetness and bitterness were diluted, and the whispers were shattered by the energy, becoming meaningless.

Yu Xing could only vaguely make out a few syllables.

■■Offering■■Souls■Food■……

The container he was biting remained still for a second.

The nebula's eyes were still fixed on the empty space ahead, seemingly oblivious to the pain. But soon, having absorbed the container's memories and learned human behavior, it became aware of the malice in Yu Xing's actions.

Those indescribable eyes moved away from the empty space in front of them and slowly turned to Yu Xing's profile, which was very close to his.

"Is your wish to eat me?"

His tone was flat and monotone, which made it sound particularly eerie.

He raised a hand and pushed against Yu Xing's chest, applying slight force, trying to remove Yu Xing's mouth from his neck.

But no success.

How could Yu Xing possibly let go of the food? He held the container tightly, embracing the god who had descended halfway, and greedily devoured everything he wanted from this body.

"..." He realized it.

The humans before him were not eating their fellow human beings because they were hungry; rather, they had come for Him from the very beginning.

Despite the vast difference in their status, which made it impossible for people to even look directly at Him, this person before them was extremely strange. He possessed an inexplicable power that was enough to absorb a portion of Him.

This ant can actually take something from Him.

This realization displeased the ancient god within the container.

Humans have always been the ones offering sacrifices to Him. When did humans become able to take things away from Him?

Disrespect for the gods will be punished.

■Concept■■Revision.

The thief is obstructing the process.

The perceptions of gods and humans are merging, and Yu Xing's face, so close to his, is reflected in those nebula-like eyes.

There was no anger, no fear, no intense emotion that humans could understand in those eyes, only a cold, condescending indifference.

Then, the muscles on the container's pale, stiff face, which belonged to a young man, began to twitch.

He seemed to be trying to make an expression.

The eyebrows seemed to want to raise, and the corners of the mouth seemed to want to twitch, but the combination was strangely odd, like a puppet being clumsily manipulated, mixed with doubt, scrutiny, and a very subtle, almost inquisitive, sense of inquiry.

But clearly, He cannot use the suit freely yet, so the expression He wanted to show failed.

He made an indescribable gurgling sound from his throat.

Immediately afterwards, He stopped pushing Yu Xing away and instead imitated Yu Xing's behavior, wrapping his arms around Yu Xing's waist and back.

"Is that so?" He asked.

Yu Xing paused, seemingly surprised by the sudden "hug," but instead of letting go, he bit deeper and sucked harder.

What flowed from the wound was no longer blood, but a nearly solid gel-like substance that emitted a terrifying, cosmic odor.

He said, "It is impossible for humans to eat a star."

He held Yu Xing in his arms, slowly raising his head over Yu Xing's shoulder to look beyond the broken dome of the pavilion, at the sky occupied by the crimson giant eyes and filthy tentacles.

His true form was in the sky, but only half of it descended.

That entity did not merge with humans, so it was a completely different concept. Under the rules it understood, it was absolutely impossible for insignificant humans to devour a planet. Therefore, such a cause and effect would not occur.

Without any emotion, He reminded Yu Xing: "There are many humans on your land."

"But even all of humanity cannot occupy the star beneath your feet. Humanity is too insignificant; a small star at the edge of a galaxy is your entire world."

"But I am the star itself."

“Countless stars make up my body. I am much larger than you. My mere existence can drive you into endless madness. I can create and accommodate countless groups of creatures like humans.”

Even so, you still dare to try to eat me?

His human language became more and more fluent, and after a few sentences, his tone was no different from that of a real human.

He can sense the harm He is suffering from Yu Xing, so He punishes this human, but that doesn't mean He cares about it.

As He said, humanity is too insignificant. Even if billions of humans each took a bite of Him, His true form would not shrink by the slightest.

It's both pitiful and laughable.

Before today, humanity's only uniqueness was that, through faith, it connected with several beings whom humans called gods. These gods, for the power of faith, bestowed blessings upon humanity, forming a set of rules that protected this planet like a barrier.

The rules forbade His entry.

But today, a traitor among humanity has opened a passage to the surface for Him.

He opened his mouth and resonated directly with the giant eye in the sky and the tentacles flowing with starlight.

He is calling upon His own essence.

The crimson giant eye in the sky suddenly contracted, its surface covered with twisted, bulging, blood vessel-like patterns, and its enormous tentacle straightened, stretching straight down.

Immediately afterwards, the dome behind the giant eye was torn open by the desecrated deep darkness.

A massive, dark red sphere, so large it seemed to lose all sense of distance, slowly "emerged" from the torn darkness.

At first, it was just a blurry arc, like a swollen tumor rising on the horizon.

But the arc rapidly expanded, spreading upwards and engulfing the sky, outlining a nearly complete, uneven circular shape. Dark red, murky light, like congealed blood, emanated from that shape, quickly overpowering the light of the giant eye itself, staining the entire sky a vast ocean of filthy blood.

moon.

That's the moon.

A huge, blood-red moon, so large it obscured almost the entire field of vision, was "sinking" towards the ground.

Its surface details become grotesque as you get closer.

The structures known as craters now resemble countless open, festering mouths or huge, dried-up eye sockets, with thick, dark substances flowing in the shadows, like festering sores that never heal.

It was so close, so close that it seemed it would crush the church spire at any moment, so close that it created the illusion that you could smell the cold, filthy dust emanating from its surface.

It completely occupied the sky; as far as the eye could see, there was only this giant, blood-red moon slowly descending, and the heavens shrank back into a pitiful background before it.

That pure, physical oppression from immense mass, mixed with blasphemy and madness ten or a hundred times stronger than before, crashed down heavily, as if to crush the entire town of Yolikev into a filthy abyss.

Inside the Church of the Mother of Harvest.

The church was packed with people, including townspeople who knew nothing about it before today, as well as all the lower-ranking clergy and clerical staff.

On benches and in aisles, people stood or sat, their bodies trembling. The air was filled with the suppressed sobs of children, the heavy breathing of adults, and countless whispered prayers mingled with fear.

At that very moment, everyone looked out of the church's stained-glass windows.

That filthy, blood-red giant moon filled the view from every window, casting a suffocating dark red glow that stained the interior of the church with an ominous hue. A terrifying sense of oppression penetrated the walls, directly affecting the souls of everyone present.

Several elderly people with weaker constitutions fainted immediately, while many others experienced chest tightness, tinnitus, blurred vision, double vision, and faint dark red spots appearing under their skin.

"It's the moon..."

"The moon has fallen down..."

"A blood moon, the same blood moon as thirty years ago!"

"No, it's different. That night, the moon was just hanging in the sky, but now, the moon is crashing down on us! The world is going to end! Everyone will die!!"

Despair, like an icy tide, engulfed this last refuge.

Fortunately, just as the chaos and collapse were about to reach their peak—

Behind the altar, a small door leading to the inner courtyard opened silently.

A figure stepped out.

He was wearing a neat red bishop's robe, the hem of which was slightly torn, but he still looked holy.

His full head of white hair was neatly combed, his face was thin and wrinkled, and his eyes were as calm as an ancient well. In his hand he held a simple wooden staff, the head of which was inlaid with an amber gem that had lost most of its luster but was still warm and lustrous.

He walked steadily, his steps were not fast, but each step seemed to be treading on some kind of solid faith.

The whispers and sobs immediately subsided.

Countless pairs of desperate eyes looked at him, recognizing the face that belonged to the town of Yolikef and to the highest leader of the Church of the Mother of Harvest.

"what?"

"archbishop!?"

"Archbishop, why are you back?" a priest asked, puzzled.

The archbishop did not look at anyone.

He walked straight to the pulpit, turned his back to the limp and terrified crowd, and faced the tall statue of the Mother Goddess of Harvest against the wall.

The face of the statue appeared blurred and pitiful in the blood-stained moonlight shining through the window.

“Your most faithful follower seeks your guidance.” He raised his wooden staff and tapped it lightly on the ground.

thump.

A soft sound, not loud, yet strangely pierced through the noise and chaos inside and outside the church, clearly reaching everyone's ears, even overpowering the blasphemous whispers echoing from the depths of their souls.

The archbishop closed his eyes.

He didn't make any exaggerated prayer gestures; he simply stood there, tilted his head slightly, opened and closed his lips, and began to chant.

The voice was initially low and steady, like a stream flowing deep in a valley, carrying the hoarseness of years.

"...Life originates from fertile soil, and a bountiful harvest begins with cultivation..."

As he chanted, his old, dark red bishop's robe seemed to flutter slightly in an invisible breeze.

The dull amber gem at the top of the staff radiated a faint, warm golden light from its very core.

"...The wheat stalks bow their heads in gratitude for the sweat; the ripe fruit is a reward for the devotion..."

His voice gradually amplified, carrying an indescribable weight, bearing and supporting, as solid as roots deeply embedded in the earth.

On the church floor, between the stone slabs that have been laid for hundreds of years, extremely subtle, almost invisible pale golden light seeps out, as if dormant veins are being awakened.

Outside the window, the light of the blood-stained giant moon seemed to encounter some invisible barrier, slowing its penetration into the church.

The maddening sense of oppression that weighed on everyone's heart, though it hadn't disappeared, seemed to have been separated by a thin, yet real, barrier.

The archbishop opened his eyes.

Those eyes were now crystal clear, reflecting the ever-brightening golden light from the staff's tip.

He took a deep breath, raised the wooden staff high, and with all his strength and lifelong faith, recited the last line of his prayer.

"May the Mother Goddess have mercy on me and grant me peace—"

The instant the last syllable falls.

hum-

A deep, resonant rumble, as if from the depths of the earth, reverberated from the center of the church!

The tall statue of the Mother of Harvest suddenly emitted a pure and warm golden light from its eyes, which poured down like a tide and instantly filled the entire interior of the church!

It illuminated every terrified face, dispelling the bone-chilling cold and mad whispers.

The walls, dome, pillars, and all the stone surfaces of the church are covered with pale gold, intricate and ancient runes. These runes flash by, yet they transform the entire church building into an indestructible fortress of faith.

Inside the church, the symptoms of alienation that were appearing on all the townspeople and lower-ranking priests quickly subsided.

They are safe for now.

The cardinal put down his staff, his body swayed slightly, fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and his face was much paler than before.

His mission was accomplished; he had protected the lambs.

Tantric practitioners can summon evil gods, so how could a righteous god who protects humanity remain inactive?

Mother Goddess...

You should go to the battlefield. (End of Chapter)