Nightmare Despair

Chapter 44 Burning
Following Zhou Kai's gaze, we looked down into the lowlands of the town.

A flame burned silently in the darkness, like the only source of light in the world besides thunder.

Dye that area dark red.

The flames roared, and the rising black smoke seemed to twist into the faces of wailing people.

Upon closer inspection, it was a rattan doll, about seven or eight meters tall, slowly walking down the street in Soraka town.

Half of its body was enveloped in this eerie flame. Rainwater hissed and evaporated into a black, foul odor whenever it touched the flame, making it impossible to extinguish.

It was this very thing that made Zhou Kai, who had just been full of fighting spirit, instantly decide to retreat back into his shell.

"What the hell is this?"

Zhou Kai immediately looked away, not daring to look again, the warning in Chenxing's notes still ringing in his ears.

The flames that the rain couldn't extinguish were truly bizarre...

He witnessed a chain-hammer armored warrior being instantly reduced to ashes the moment he got close.

This thing is beyond his current capabilities.

"The good news is that it doesn't seem to have any intention of attacking, and it hasn't noticed me either... I can only wait for it to leave on its own."

A hint of worry flashed in Zhou Kai's eyes.

But worrying won't solve the problem.

He had no choice but to go downstairs to the first floor and continue practicing his swordsmanship by the fireplace, honing his newly acquired strength.

However, for some reason, the burning vine doll began to circle around the area around house number 777, as if searching for something, and lingered there for a long time.

More than four hours passed in the blink of an eye, and the rattan doll still stood in the puddle in the low-lying area, like a silent, deep red statue.

Zhou Kai's unease grew stronger.

"I feel like I've forgotten something... Oh no!"

Zhou Kai suddenly remembered a hint the shelter had given him the night before when he was forcibly conscripted.

When you stand still, darkness will follow you like a shadow.

Then, recalling how that chain-hammer armored warrior inexplicably showed up after the blood tide ended...

Zhou Kai's lips twitched: "Fine, I get it now. This godforsaken place discriminates against otaku, huh? Dare to stay put, and they'll send in a forced demolition team?"

Otherwise, there's no way to explain the sudden visit of the chain-hammer armored warrior, or the inexplicable increase in monsters around the area at that time.

Of course, with Zhou Kai's current strength, most monsters who come to his door are just delivering takeout.

Even against a chain-hammer armored warrior, it could definitely be disassembled into parts.

But now... Zhou Kai is worried about the "demolition team leader" outside who has his own flames.

"What if a fight breaks out and it attracts it? What's the difference between that and just deleting the account and starting over?"

"Stay in the shelter? If it burns the house down, how many experience points will I have to spend to repair it?"

Zhou Kai composed himself.

"It's time to get back to reality."

There's no point in staying here any longer.

"Although I'll have to face this thing again when I get back tomorrow night, I have a whole day in reality, so I should be able to get even stronger."

Most importantly, it was the secret medicine from the boxing gym that he had always been thinking about.

Today marks the beginning of his journey into the true world of ancient martial arts!
"Detach!"

Zhou Kai stared at the flickering flames in the fireplace, his consciousness momentarily detached.

……

in the bathroom.

"Xiao Kai, are you performing performance art in the bathtub?"

Lu Yan held up her phone, the beam of her flashlight shining like a spotlight on a stage, precisely onto Zhou Kai, who was lying in the bathtub.

Zhou Kai was momentarily dazed, thinking he had fallen into a dream within a dream, and subconsciously wanted to "wake up" again.

Lu Yan also thought she was dreaming...

After all, what decent person would sleep in the bathtub fully clothed in the middle of the night?
A dozen seconds later, both of them confirmed that this was not a dream.

"I'm going back to sleep."

Zhou Kai stiffly climbed out of the bathtub and rushed into the bedroom without looking back.

The whole process was so smooth and quick that it didn't give any time for awkwardness to fester.

“Eh…” Lu Yan rubbed her forehead, watching his fleeing figure, and shook her head with a strange expression.

……

In the secondary bedroom where Zhou Qing originally lived, Zhou Kai was wide awake.

He drew the curtains, turned on the desk lamp, sat down at his desk, and took the Morning Star Journal out of his inventory.

The manuscript is exquisitely bound, like a fine work of art, but the paper is rough and yellowed, and there are many undecipherable pages inside.

Zhou Kai flipped directly to the page where he had been taught the skill of [mysticism].

It records a secret ritual of the ancient Church of Light.

They would fill willow-woven mannequins with their annual harvests of crops, fish, and hunts, and burn them to pray for a bountiful harvest in the coming year.

"So you're a Willow Man..."

"Harvest? To me, those vines clearly contain..."

Zhou Kai's eyes twitched. He could see clearly that within the deep red flames, there were countless struggling human figures, and the billowing black smoke had gathered into ghostly faces!

What is the connection between the Church of Light in the dream and the one in reality?

Zhou Kai's doubts deepened.

He had researched the information before, but no matter how he looked at it, the real Church of Light and the description in the Morning Star's Notebook were completely different.

And that hundred-meter-tall black church...

There is no such building near the real town of Soraka.

Not to mention anything about the "Helen Beckberg Parish".

After thinking it over on his own for a while, Zhou Kai decided to... ask for outside help.

He logged into the antiquities forum again.

In the friends list, the name "Flash Diram" is lit up.

"This enthusiastic foreign guy is still awake... That makes sense, he knows so much about Soraka's history, he must live nearby in real life."

"The other side of the earth."

"It's dawn here in Akahoshi, but it's daytime there."

It's good that he's awake; Zhou Kai just happened to have something to ask him.

"Brother, I have a question for you. Does the Church of Light have a tradition of growing flowers and performing fire rituals?"

The opponent responded almost instantly.

Flash Dillam: "Are you so interested in the history of the Soraka family?"

The other party did not answer directly, but this question instantly cleared up a certain hurdle in Zhou Kai's mind.

Zhou Kai replied smoothly, "Of course, I investigated all the way to the Church of Light."

Flash Diram: "Speaking of which, the translation of 'Cult of Light' isn't quite accurate. In ancient languages, the word's part of speech leans towards feminine... If we were to translate it using your Red Star's vocabulary..."

“It would be more appropriate to call it the ‘End Light Cult’ or the ‘Twilight Cult.’ Its original meaning is the light of the end times.”

Zhou Kai: "There's such a saying? I've learned something new."

The other party seemed very willing to share their expertise, not only answering questions but also proactively bringing up many topics.

We were just waiting for Zhou Kai to continue asking questions.

But Zhou Kai... couldn't get it.

An hour passed in the blink of an eye as the two went back and forth.

Some key information has finally come to light.

The key point lies with the ancient conqueror who bestowed the Soraka family name upon them.

Zhou Kai was so focused on investigating the Solaka family and swordsmanship last time that he neglected this most crucial figure.

Shining Diram: "The practices of teaching flowers and offering sacrifices are basically only found in a specific faction of the Twilight Church."

“Remember the ancient conqueror I mentioned last time? He is one of the saints venerated by the Limpenean sect of the Twilight Church.”

“His name is difficult to verify, but as far as I know, he was called…Arkana II.”

“The Soraka family is his Royal Guard, and also the Limpini’s patron saint… The name means ‘the voice of silence,’ and the family creed is silence.”

"Although the Limpini sect belongs to the Twilight Church, their beliefs... are quite different."

(End of this chapter)