There can't be a Harvest Moon in the RimWorld.

Gray stared at me in disbelief: "What...what happened? Boss, what did you do?!"

I finally stepped onto solid ground, forcefully kicked off the mud from the soles of my shoes, scooped up a handful of water and washed my face, letting the cold liquid flow down my face to soothe my still highly tense nerves.

"Don't ask too many questions. Knowing too much can put you under psychological pressure. If running into him this time was an accident, then I guess I just had bad luck and stepped in dog poop."

I said somewhat reluctantly, "But the possibility is too small. As a philosopher once said, you can't step in the same pile of dog poop twice!"

"...Boss, I'm sure philosophers don't study feces."

I said nonchalantly, "Oh, so it's what Lu Xun said? What I mean is, if this isn't a coincidence, then the 'God of a Thousand Faces' may already be watching me from the real world. I'm more worried that this kind of thing will affect Mineral Town..."

Gray was also startled by my words. "If such an apocalypse happened in our town..." He froze, gritted his teeth, then tightened the hem of his robe and caught up with me. "We have to go back immediately! Maybe we can't stop it, but without our warning, the town will surely face destruction!"

I really wanted to tell him that the destruction he mentioned almost happened decades ago, but we all signed confidentiality agreements and couldn't reveal what happened in 1999...

Oh no, it's about the old miners' affairs, which involve meme propagation. I can't disclose that information to the public, so I'll just let him worry about it himself.

It's always good to maintain a positive and optimistic attitude.

Gray lowered his head and pondered for a moment, then suddenly looked up and said, "Boss, if we had the same methods as that clown, could we stop the monster?"

Hearing this made me feel even heavier, because it reminded me of Mr. Rod from another world.

After making terrible sacrifices and exhausting all human means, we thought we had won and driven out this terrifying being. However, the souls of the victims are still imprisoned, and the whole world continues to be shrouded in the shadow of the "Thousand-Faced God".

This terrifying being is not only overwhelming in strength, but also possesses a strange and perverse pleasure: it enjoys watching humanity struggle in despair, and ultimately, in that struggle, despair.

Given the temperament of the "Man of a Thousand Faces," the terrifying "Pennyland" amusement park will not disappear simply because of the clown's actions.

That space may have been caught in a vortex of space and time the moment the summoning ritual began, banished to the void like a fragment, endlessly repeating the sacrifice of that day.

This hellish carnival ended with everyone unable to find an escape route in the crowded and bustling amusement park. Then, horrific and cruel things happened: the amusement park was covered in blood, and no one survived.

The next day, the amusement park will operate as usual, the equipment spotless, and the staff will warmly greet visitors, saying, "Welcome to the amusement park, this is your home!" as if nothing had happened yesterday.

After hearing my guess, Gray shuddered, seemingly enveloped by an apocalyptic despair, and couldn't help but ask, "But the summoned Joker has already shattered all of this, hasn't he?"

I shook my head. "He successfully prevented the terror from descending, but that doesn't mean he won. Faced with such terror, one person's strength cannot change the situation, even if he is Zhou Ke'er—this is a question I've been pondering..."

"I suspect that whether it was the original clown or something summoned through sacrifice, they were trapped in this terrifying space and joined this endless cacophony..."

Gray said dejectedly, "Even the God of Clowns can't do that...?"

I gazed at the swaying branches of the forest in the distance, gently stepped onto the gravel path, and took a deep breath of fresh air to dispel the melancholy in my heart.

A sliver of hope flickered in my mind: what if the clown I encountered truly possessed the power to reverse everything, bringing the fairness he spoke of through chaos? But the very next second, I immediately dismissed that possibility…

Because he answered Rorschach's line correctly.

…………

Before dawn, Gray and I had walked back to the Fir Tree Clan and could see the village’s wooden stake walls and simple tribal buildings from a distance.

Wisps of smoke rose from the wooden tents, ascending along the openings at the top of the tents and forming a unique blue cloud that enveloped the tribe.

Meanwhile, the young tribal warriors, armed with spears and bows, gathered in the central open space and began a fierce battle, engaging in one-on-one combat.

But these pastoral scenes were merely a facade of peace for the tribe. In the middle of the clan's territory, seven or eight camels were bound hand and foot, and an equal number of corpses lay on the ground, along with some goods scattered haphazardly.

In my experience, these are definitely not goods obtained by robbing caravans.

They must have raided an army.

Otherwise, why would the ground be covered with blood-stained wooden armor, totem masks, wooden spears, and marching rations and supplies? What caravan would try to do business with only weapons? The East India Company?

But Gray clearly didn't notice the problem. Upon seeing this scene, his face instantly darkened. He walked up to the tribal youths and reprimanded them, "Senbo! I've already forbidden you from going out to rob! Why did you still do this without permission!"

Senbo, who was standing at the front of the group wiping the blood off his spiked club, turned around and saw the chief appear. He immediately lowered his head and remained silent, with an honest expression that said, "I'll take whatever beatings and scoldings I want."

Another tribesman whispered, "Chief... we really didn't rob them, they brought them to us..."

Before Gray could react, Senbo's slap came whistling through the air, sending the guy flying two meters away.

Seeing this, Gray said helplessly, "You've disappointed me greatly! Did you act without informing the old shaman?!"

Mori hesitated for a moment, then whispered, "We...we told you..."

Gray asked, "What did the shaman say?"

Senbo pointed to the lone tent in the distance, "The old shaman told us to kill him quickly, and send the remaining leader to be tortured..."

Gray: "..."

Chapter 492 A Real Virgo

On the way to the shaman's tent, I found that I felt an extreme resistance to this tent, which could be called the supreme shaman's tent or the Eighth Heaven. I stopped decisively two or three hundred meters away and did not take another step forward.

"Well... I'm not going to that cesspool. I felt so nauseous yesterday that I couldn't eat. If I feel nauseous again today, it would be disgusting to the core!"

Gray's face darkened: "Boss, stop talking... I can hardly understand the word 'disgusting' anymore... and I don't want to go to that place either! You can't make me suffer alone!"

I shook my head and said, "Your tribe, your rules! Your territory, your suffering! I think that's perfectly reasonable! Let the tribe be great again, Gray!"

Gray immediately blocked my way, "No, no, no, we'll only go in for a little while, there won't be any problem!"

I took two steps back. "Brother, I'll just stroll around here for a bit and have a smoke. You should go in..." I faked Gray away and immediately shouted the slogan, "Kachi Totsutai!"

But without a word, Gray grabbed my left leg, pulled me upside down, and dragged me into the tent, leaving two deep scratch marks along the way...

The messy medicinal herbs, animal bones, and woven bark and grass inside the tent seemed to have returned to their original order from yesterday's chaos under the influence of a mysterious force—or perhaps they were just in a different form and continued to be a mess, with two negatives making a positive, making it seem as if they had been tidied up!

The emaciated old snow bull shaman was still hiding in the corner of the foul-smelling tent, chanting prayers we couldn't understand. But this time, there was a stranger lying unconscious on the ground in front of him.

I pinched my nose and mumbled, "Look! It stinks horribly here! Call an ambulance right now!"

The snow shaman suddenly sat up, ceasing his incantation, and said to the tent entrance, "White Falcon... you're back..."

I spoke first: "Yes, Skunk Shaman, we're back from the lake. You know what we're going to ask, right? Tell us now!"

Gray quickly covered my mouth, "Snow Cow Shaman, please forgive his rudeness."

The old shaman was silent for a moment, then said indistinctly, "Your matter... God has already told me..."

He reached out and touched a thick knot on a rope. "The crawling chaos has receded like the tide, flowing towards the next reef and beach... The nightmare of Wolf Fang Lake has finally been shattered..."

Why is this old guy ignoring me? Is there some kind of problem with talking to me? I already told you that we fourth graders are your best older brothers, you can ask us any questions you have, we can't hear you!

"Uchiha Skunk Shaman, could you please open your eyes and use your Mangekyou Sharingan to look at me? I'll admit I've been captured by Tsukuyomi, okay?" I clung to the door, trying to breathe in some fresh air, ready to rush out at any moment once I got an answer.

Gray, however, was in no mood for anything else and asked nervously, "Will my hometown be in danger? Has God given any instructions?"

The old shaman stroked the idol in his arms, then suddenly began to tremble, speaking in a jumbled, incoherent language: "No divine pronouncement... I am not the last... I will tell the listening space... never known to anyone, a twisted... crawling chaos beyond description... What I saw..."

Suddenly, a twisted, ugly smile spread across his face, and he laughed maniacally, "Hahaha...hahaha...why so serious...hahaha..."

I immediately tensed up: "Gray, control him! If the Laughing Shaman shows up, you're all done for! Even sacrificing the Flash won't help!"

Fortunately, after a while, the old shaman regained his composure and said weakly, "Thank God for keeping silent... Thank God for saving me from the edge of the chaotic vortex..."

Gray, realizing his mistake had nearly led to disaster, said apologetically, "Thank you for your help... By the way, what happened at the tribe this morning?"

The old shaman pointed to the people on the ground and said, "The tribal messenger has come to summon a holy war... demanding that the Cedar Clan send its bravest warriors to reclaim their ancestral lands..."

I quickly nudged Gray with my elbow and whispered, "What's going on? You kill every messenger who comes? Is this place Sparta too?"

Gray turned his head and whispered, "Boss, have you forgotten? The Cedar Clan was driven out of the Great Plains. Every single one of them is an enemy from back then. How could the Cedar Clan possibly listen to them?"

That made me even more confused: "That doesn't make sense at all. If we're already enemies, why would we just walk right into your hands and let you kill us?"

Gray was also taken aback for a moment, then turned his pleading gaze to the old shaman.

The Snow Cow Shaman said with a sacred expression, "Defending Mount Kolori is a blood oath of all tribes, an inviolable sacred vow. All the tribes made a pact that when Mount Kolori faces a crisis, even enemies would lay down their weapons and fight side by side..."

Gray, losing face upon hearing this, retorted, "So you still went on a killing spree?!"

For the first time, a wicked smile appeared on the old man's face, making me believe once again what Zhang Wuji's grandmother had said—the older the man, the more likely he is to lie.

“After we converted to the new god, we long ago broke our original vows! Protecting our ancestral land is the tribe's business, what does it have to do with the Cedar Clan?”

"..." Gray and I looked at each other, and suddenly felt that the reason this guy hadn't been pulled into the darkness earlier might be because he was already completely corrupted and had no value to be contaminated anymore.

Perhaps realizing he had overstepped his bounds, the Snow Cow Shaman quickly straightened up and said, "What I said was entirely reasonable, and I didn't mean to misinterpret the alliance... In fact, apart from the original thirteen tribes that made the agreement and their vassal tribes, other tribes are not restricted... However, any tribe that refuses to join them will be ruthlessly annexed, which is why everyone is on guard, fearing that this will give them an excuse..."

Gray asked curiously, "Which of the thirteen contracting tribes invaded the Holy Mountain this time?"

The Snow Cow Shaman shook his head: "No... it was a new tribe I joined back then. I met their chief, the 'Wise King,' once. Like you, he was an exceptionally wise leader..."

The old man seemed lost in thought. "Back then, this tribe had just been stranded in the wilderness, struggling to survive by a poisonous lake. The chieftain, the 'Wise King,' traveled among the tribes and finally secured a fertile land at the foot of the sacred mountain for them. I really don't know why their descendants were so unwise... to commit such a crime that led to attacks from all sides..."

I was startled by this and quickly asked, "Does this mean the Brown Pool tribe?!"

The Snow Cow Shaman continued to ignore my questions, and physically imitated the Virgo Gold Saint by shutting down his five senses.

But this cosplay is so bad! A true Virgo can't even stand things that are asymmetrical, and would never allow a room to be so dirty and smelly!

Suddenly, another commotion arose outside the house, as if people were shouting and yelling around the Cedar Clan village. Had the tribe discovered the assassination of the envoys and sent even more people to attack?

Gray and I exchanged a glance, then rushed out of the house and ran towards the front door.

But as soon as I stepped outside, I heard some shouting. At first, it was a war of words, like "Hand over Lord Seven" and "Release the Oasis messenger immediately."

After a while, it turned into threatening phrases like "Those who offend our trade zone will be punished no matter how far away they are" and "Don't say we didn't warn you"—phrases I often use.

After a while, it turned into a frantic shouting: "You dare to show off your petty skills before an expert!" and "I'll make sure you die a horrible death!"

...They keep spouting nonsense, they must be those idiots from the 460 Legion!

Chapter 493 The Journey to the West and Getting Lost

The Riegomi scrub desert became an isolated island far removed from civilization because of the Miam Desert, which spans the entire continent of the planet.

Undeniably, remnants of civilizations like the Aim Human Federation and the Tesienya faction still exist in the desert. They remain stationed in the heart of the Miam Desert, excavating lost technologies from ancient ruins in an attempt to restore their former glory. However, many other factions have wisely moved their bases away from the arid and barren desert, relocating to the more fertile and temperate mid- to high-latitude forests.

Therefore, over time, a vast void of civilization formed along the periphery of the Miam Desert. There are no traces of human activity or records of civilization; the vast desert is home to herds of animals struggling to survive, presenting the original appearance of the poorest region on the planet.

A group of forty or fifty people trekked across the desolate plains. There were no roads at all. The vast desert stretched endlessly to the horizon, like the dry, cracked skin of the laborers, connecting to the foot of a towering mountain range.

"Gray, is going this way really a shortcut? How long will our water supply last?"

I put on a dustproof coat and gazed into the distance.

It was never my intention to take this group on a long march, but I was quite surprised by how determined these guys were to come with me.

Gray surveyed the surroundings, confirmed that we had already crossed Wolf Fang Lake, and assured me that we were on the shortest route.