Samsara Paradise: Dream Weaver of Connections.

As the prompt about the Paradise of Reincarnation appeared at the edge of Lin Yi's vision, he was standing at the exit of the arched passage. The iron gate was half open, and the rust on the hinges brushed against his sleeve.

He glanced at the notification and turned it off. He'd seen this kind of neutrality assessment many times before. In layman's terms, it meant that the people inside wouldn't pull out a knife to stab you for the time being, but if you said or did something wrong, there was no guarantee.

The dean walked at the very back. He paused as he stepped over the iron gate and glanced back at Karen, the decaying man curled up in a corner deep in the passage.

Karen's one exposed eye was half-closed, and her wooden foot rested on the cold stone floor like an abandoned tree stump.

The dean stroked the neatly trimmed white beard on his chin, then suddenly waved to Lin Yi and Su Xiao. The gesture was casual, but the meaning was clear: You go first, I'll catch up later.

Su Xiao glanced back at the dean, nodded without saying anything, and followed Dorothea further inside.

Lin Yi glanced at the dean for a couple more seconds, wondering what the old man was up to, but he didn't stop him. The dean always acted with discretion, and it was understandable that he was interested in the decaying man. After all, the dean was the only real veteran in the team, and he couldn't resist the sight of live intelligence.

The dean turned around and walked a few steps back along the arched passageway to the corner of the wall below the steps.

Karen didn't look up at him, but her cloudy eyes flickered, and she made a muffled gurgling sound, probably saying, "Why are you back again?"

The dean knelt down in front of Karen, the hem of his white robe spread out on the dusty ground. He didn't seem to mind the dirt. He reached out and gently tapped Karen's petrified foot twice. The tapping sound was particularly clear in the quiet corridor.

"Where exactly was the assassination attempt intercepted?" The dean asked, as if chatting about the weather in a teahouse. "In which direction of the Black Ridge Mountains? Or were you surrounded in the plains?"

Karen remained silent for a while, staring at the dean for a long time, probably feeling that this old man was different from the others who were hurrying ahead.

His chapped lips moved slightly: "I was stopped after passing three lines of defense. The first was the patrol line of the aliens, which I bypassed; the second was the area of ​​the splintered aliens' watchtowers, which I fought my way through; the third was the mountain pass guarded by the heavily armored troops, which I broke through. Then the commander came out, and I didn't go any further."

"How many troops did the commander bring with him at the time?"

"At least two squadrons. The fissioners were the vanguard, the heavy armored units flanked from both sides, and the parasites were covering from behind. I didn't count them all, but it took a long time."

Karen coughed a few times as she spoke, a gurgling sound coming from her chest, like a broken bellows leaking air: "I took down at least one squadron's main force to fight my way out, but I also got infected myself. At first, it was just hardening of the skin, but it slowly seeped in, and now the bone marrow in my entire leg has turned into wood fibers."

The dean nodded, took out a small leather notebook and a charcoal pencil from his pocket, and quickly wrote down a few lines.

After taking notes, he put the notebook away and asked a few more detailed questions, such as the equipment structure of the alien heavy armored forces, the deployment density of the fission species in the mountain pass area, and whether there were any alien guards around the commander transmitting any signals when he appeared.

Although Karen spoke haltingly, she answered every question with exceptional clarity, even remembering the exact shift changes at the alien watchtowers.

After listening, the dean stood up, dusted off his robe, and showed a satisfied expression, like an archaeologist digging out a complete inscribed stele from the ground.

He told Karen, "I'll have someone try to slow down the hardening of the toxins in your body, but I can't guarantee a complete reversal. I'll come back and examine your condition more closely after I finish my business here. Just hang in there and don't die."

Karen blinked, a barely perceptible smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, and hoarsely uttered a few words: "I've been a blockhead for two years, a few more days won't make a difference."

As the dean turned and quickly followed Lin Yi and the others, Dorothea had already led the two through the circular plaza behind the iron gate.

The square was paved with bluestone slabs, and in the center were several strangely shaped stone sculptures, some like crouching wild beasts, others like twisted human figures, all lying crookedly on the ground, their surfaces covered with a thick layer of dust and cobwebs.

Near the stone sculpture, there were some open books, their pages yellowed and curled, mostly buried in dust.

A ring of steps is embedded in the walls around the square, narrowing from bottom to top. Each step is lined with candles, the wax of which has flowed down and solidified into layers of grayish-white hard shells, making the surface of the steps uneven. The candles on the bottom steps are even completely covered by wax, turning into short, thick wax pillars, dark and black, looking like some kind of black fossil.

Dorothea walked ahead, her pace much slower than outside, her skirt sweeping across the ground and kicking up a small cloud of dust.

A woman dressed in a gray dress and wearing a bone helmet was squatting on the steps lighting candles and placing them against the wall. She was carrying a basket filled with candles.

The gray dress made her look delicate, and the bone helmet had a pair of elk antlers with many forks.

With her appearance, Dorothea in the white dress disappeared.

"Scared?" Dorothea put the transparent thing into her pocket, her voice changing slightly, becoming half a tone lower than before, losing its usual boisterousness. "The one running outside is my spiritual clone. My main body stays underground and doesn't dare to go out."

She pointed to the bone helmet on her head, from which a pair of elk antlers extended. The antlers were forked in many places, and the tips of each fork were polished smooth and shiny, as if they had been repeatedly rubbed.

"Wearing this sensory scanner that can block the perception of alien species, the last missionary of Muguang City left me these antlers, saying they were made from the skull of an ancient elk. Those alien species locate their prey by mental fluctuations, and the antlers can scatter signals. This thing works, but it can only protect myself, not others."

Su Xiao leaned against the nearest stone pillar and looked around. His gaze lingered on the crooked stone carvings for a moment before sweeping around the circular steps.

Although the candles on the steps were covered in ash, many of them had been lit recently, with charred embers still remaining at the ends of their wicks.

Several bundles of new candles were piled up in the corner, tied with hemp rope. Their white wax bodies contrasted sharply with the old, aged candles on the steps.

"How many people live here in total?" Lin Yi asked.

"Six of you, it's just lunchtime, you've made it in time for dinner."

She turned and walked towards the inner side of the square, where there was a doorway. Above the doorway, on the arched stone, was carved a deer pattern with simple, rustic lines, like a child's sketch.

Dorothea ducked and squeezed through the doorway. Inside was a short corridor, at the end of which was a small storage room with several bags of dry food and a small earthenware jar.

She picked up a round, pottery jar placed in the corner. The mouth of the jar was sealed with a layer of coarse cloth, and dark water stains seeped through the cloth.

She took the earthenware pot out and walked back to the center of the square. She lifted the cloth cover, and a smell mixed with wild vegetable roots and coarse salt wafted out. It was bland, but at least it didn't smell bad.

She pulled a long-handled wooden spoon from under a stone base, dipped it into the jar and stirred it. Inside was a mushy wild vegetable soup, grayish-green in color, with a few broken vegetable leaves and some unrecognizable root pieces floating on the surface.

Dorothea carried the jar to the circular steps, climbed a few steps up, and arrived at the first doorway.

Above the doorway was a circular pattern, resembling the sun, but with a corner missing from the edge.

The doorway was pitch black, and nothing could be seen, but as Dorothea approached, an arm slowly emerged from the darkness.

The arm was shockingly large, its length from elbow to wrist exceeding that of an average adult man, yet it was so thin that only a thin layer of skin covered the bones. The skin was a dark brownish-black, covered with crisscrossing cracks and old scars, like a piece of bark from an old tree that had been repeatedly felled and healed. The hand held a ceramic bowl, the rim of which was chipped, the broken edge worn smooth, clearly indicating it had been used for a long time.

Dorothea scooped a full spoonful of wild vegetable soup into the bowl with a wooden spoon. The soup was almost overflowing, but she poured it with a steady hand and didn't spill a drop.

As she fell, she asked softly, "Mr. Wu Zhong, how are you today? Is anything bothering you?"

A deep, muffled "hmm" came from the darkness. It was clear that the owner of that voice should have been a strong, powerful man, but now his edges had been dulled by injuries.

The arm holding the bowl retreated into the darkness. Dorothea waited a few seconds but heard no more sounds, so she continued up a few steps to the second doorway.

Above the second doorway is the outline of an animal, resembling both a wolf and a bear, with lines so distorted they are difficult to discern.

Dorothea had just dipped the wooden spoon into the soup pot and hadn't even spoken when a voice came from the darkness, gloomy and low, with a metallic scraping quality: "Get out of here."

Dorothea paused, the wooden spoon resting above the jar's opening. Her expression was obscured by the bone helmet, but her shoulders slumped slightly; the sense of loss needed no outward expression.

She silently took back the wooden spoon, scraped off the excess soup from the rim of the jar, and didn't pour any more into the doorway or say another word. She then turned and walked upstairs.

Lin Yi stood in the center of the square and saw the whole scene clearly. He raised an eyebrow, turned his head and whispered to Su Xiao, "It seems that the interpersonal relationships here are quite complicated."

Su Xiao didn't reply. Bubuwang squatted down at his feet, licked its paws, and turned its ears toward the second doorway. Clearly, even a dog could sense the dangerous aura contained in that gloomy voice.

Dorothea continued up a few steps until she reached the third doorway.

The pattern above the doorway is a stretched-out wing, carved in great detail, with the texture of the feathers still faintly discernible.

The doorway was eerily quiet, deathly still, without even a sound of breathing, like a tomb that had been empty for decades.

Dorothea stood at the door for about ten seconds, her fingers tightening and loosening as she held the soup pot. Finally, she spoke, her voice much softer than before, with a cautious probing tone: "Aren't you eating anything today? I made your portion, Lord Beast King."

There was no response from the darkness. Dorothea waited for a while, and just as she was about to turn and leave, a pair of brownish-yellow eyes suddenly lit up in the darkness, the pupils contracting into thin slits, like the gaze of a feline before locking onto its prey in the dark.

Those eyes didn't fall on Dorothea, but instead looked over her shoulder and shot straight at Su Xiao, who was standing next to a stone pillar in the center of the square.

Su Xiao felt that gaze and turned her head to meet those brown-yellow eyes.

The pair of brownish-yellow eyes closed, and the Beast King's voice came from the darkness: "Be careful."

Dorothea was stunned. She stood there blankly for several seconds, holding the soup pot, before she reacted. She quickly reached into the pot with a wooden spoon, scooped half a spoonful of soup, and handed it into the doorway: "You're willing to eat today? That's wonderful! I'll give you more—"

"It's okay, I can do it." The voice rang out again in the darkness, but this time it sounded more like a soliloquy.

Dorothea held the spoon and waited for a while, making sure the other party was no longer responding before putting the spoon back into the jar. Her movements were much more nimble than before, and even her steps were lighter.

She continued up a few more steps to the fourth doorway, which was near the top of the circular staircase; a few more steps and she would reach the wall.

The pattern above the doorway is very simple: a circle with a few radiating short lines inside, like a child's drawing of the sun.

There was a huge pile of candles on the steps at the entrance, several times more than elsewhere, neatly stacked, some of them still new and unopened.

Before Dorothea could speak, a small hand reached out from the darkness. The hand was small, about the size of a seven or eight-year-old child's palm, and it was clutching a metal helmet with a shiny edge.

The little hand pushed the helmet forward, shaking it twice, the urgency in its movements was all too clear.

Dorothea was clearly amused by this action. She let out a soft laugh, tilted the soup pot, and poured nearly half of the wild vegetable soup directly into the metal helmet.

The soup sloshed around inside the helmet a couple of times, almost spilling out. The little hand quickly steadied itself, carefully pulling back, then halfway back out, beckoning with its finger to indicate it wanted more.

Dorothea scooped another spoonful and poured it in, whispering, "Little beetle, drink slowly, don't burn yourself. There's meat broth base today, and I added a small piece of dried meat bone to it to make it. You should nourish yourself."

A series of giggles came from the darkness, crisp like shattered glass beads. Then the little hand withdrew, and the sound of slurping soup came from inside the doorway, interspersed with a few satisfied smacking sounds.

Dorothea carried the nearly empty soup pot down the steps, placed it back next to the stone base, and took off her gloves to rub her fingers, which were red from being pulled by the pot's handle.

Lin Yi went through all the information he had just observed in his mind: four doorways, four residents, Wu Zhong was a human, tall but extremely thin, and his aura was undoubtedly that of a human.

The guy in the second doorway who told Dorothea to get out of the way was of unknown origin, and his aura fluctuated extremely strangely, sometimes like a mutant, sometimes like a human, and occasionally even showing the fluctuations of an orc. His three-in-one physique was unheard of in the intelligence.

The Beast King Tilder, who was in the third doorway, was addressed as "Beast King" by Dorothea. His aura was no less powerful than that of Crimson Tasha, but he was severely injured. He had to consciously control his breathing to maintain a minimum level of energy expenditure, and he was probably being kept alive by some special means.

The fourth one is a little beetle, a little girl who is afraid of light. She is an ordinary person, and judging from the size of her little hand, she is no more than 1.2 meters tall.

Including Dorothea and the decaying man outside, that's all the people in the entire Sunbeam Missionary Ground.

Dorothea tapped the wooden spoon on the rim of the jar, looked up at Lin Yi and said, "You've seen the situation at the mission site. There are only a few people, and each of them has their own problems. Little Beetle was found in this area last winter. She hadn't eaten for three days and was hiding in the ruins crying. After I brought her back, I found that she was very afraid of light and couldn't stand the sun, but she was lively and energetic under candlelight."

She paused here, glanced at the direction of the second doorway, and lowered her voice: "That guy isn't actually a bad person. He goes out once a month, I don't know where he goes, and when he comes back he brings back some supplies, sometimes dried meat, sometimes medicine, sometimes a bundle of clean cloth. But he never lets us get close to him, and he doesn't eat what we give him. He feeds himself. You don't need to worry about him too much, just don't try to go into his doorway."

As she spoke, Dorothea raised the pot, indicating to everyone if they wanted some.
Lin Yi waved his hand, this thing was really hard to swallow, and Lin Yi had also figured out how to break the ice.

To deal with someone who is in despair, one should naturally start with their most basic desires.

So Lin Yi simply lifted a table out of his spatial storage. Su Xiao, who was standing nearby, immediately understood Lin Yi's idea and came over to help.

Five minutes later, the aroma of food filled the entire Muguang Mission Ground, and even the Sanhehe at the second entrance couldn't help but turn their gaze over.

Lin Yi tapped the table: "Everyone, stop hiding it and come out to meet us." (End of Chapter)