Chapter 511: Exploring the Divine Temple

After quietly observing these increasingly twisted and mad dolls for a moment, Leiketon found that the light he had created, which carried the purifying power of the solar domain, had no effect on them at all.

Immune to purification? Or immune to the power of the solar domain? As his thoughts turned, Leiketon rubbed his fingers together again, producing slowly floating stars that scattered clear starlight, enveloping all the dolls crawling on the floor.

Starlight showered onto these dolls; the paint on their bodies seemed to melt, continuously flowing down and dripping, increasing in amount and gradually turning into a black, viscous liquid, while the dolls' expressions grew ever more ferocious.

In a sheet of sticky black liquid, the dolls slowly rose to their feet, standing at the front, closest to the inverted deity statue; the doll wearing a faded bishop's robe had its black eyes jerking as it stared at Leiketon.

Its voice was especially hoarse, like a cat's claws scraping glass—harsh and grating: "Conservative? What are you doing here? The Lord's temple does not welcome you."

"The Lord's temple does not welcome you."

"Not welcome you."

The surrounding dolls echoed the bishop-robed doll's words syllable by syllable, while droplets of black liquid oozed from their opening and closing mouths, eye sockets, and ears.

Leiketon slowly stepped back two paces, looked at the doll whose eyes were jerking as it stared at him, and spoke calmly:

"Who is the lord you speak of?"

The dolls in front of him simultaneously opened and closed their mouths to answer Leiketon's question, both noisy and strange,

"Of course it is the lord who created everything, the omniscient and omnipotent god."

"No, we worship the lord who destroys everything, the embodiment of endless calamities and the apocalypse."

"It is the lord who created everything. No. It is the lord who destroys everything."

The dolls' voices grew increasingly chaotic; even their own statements contradicted themselves—sometimes they believed in the 'lord who created everything,' sometimes in the 'lord who destroys everything.'

Boom! A doll's body suddenly exploded, scattering parts covered in black, sticky grime all over the ground.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Dolls began exploding one after another, the ground littered with broken wood, iron sheets, gears... uh... after turning into dolls, their heads aren't enough; a little thought and they blow up?

While muttering to himself, Leiketon reached into the void and pulled out an illusory hat, placing it on his head.

His figure then vanished, erasing all traces.

At the instant his figure disappeared, the parts and black liquid scattered throughout the prayer hall writhed to life, and twisted, eerie dolls crawled up from the dark floor.

Some grew white feathers, some grew fish scales, their bodies secreted a slimy liquid, some sprouted eyes, others grew fleshly organs; their gazes all turned toward the figure standing at the rear side of the prayer hall, radiating blatant malice.

"As expected."

He let out a low sigh, and his figure appeared amidst the gaze of the many strange dolls—could this be the anomaly brought by the extraordinary materials used to make the dolls? Here, the varieties of extraordinary beings are quite complete!

He slightly lowered his head and softly chanted in Ancient Hermetic:

"The Fool who does not belong to this era, the mystic sovereign above the gray fog, the king of yellow and black who commands fortune."

"The Fool who does not belong to this era."

After chanting it twice in a row, a bolt of silver-white lightning suddenly struck down, piercing straight through Leiketon's body and hitting the wall behind him adorned with colorful murals, leaving a scorched black mark.

Then followed thin, sharp wind blades and blazing white-with-red fire spears that tore through the air, shooting toward Leiketon.

All the attacks, when they struck Leiketon, passed straight through him as if he were nonexistent.

Before the next attack arrived, his figure suddenly twisted, vanished instantly from the spot, and then reappeared at the entrance of the prayer hall.

"Banish!"

As the incantation was chanted, faint starlight appeared among the group of strange, twisted dolls and quickly collapsed inward, tearing open a dim blue rift of unknown destination with a powerful pulling force.

It dragged the surrounding dolls and the attacks they had released into it, banishing them to an unknown region.

Having done all that, Leiketon's figure instantly turned transparent, becoming sparkling motes of starlight that surged toward the rear of the divine temple.

In the garden filled with fake flowers and trees made of paper and tin, pale blue starlight quickly flowed in, fragments of starlight reconverged inside, revealing Leiketon's figure.

As he appeared, the doll wielding large shears for trimming branches swiftly moved toward him, its speed so great it was nearly instantaneous.

"Imprison!"

While Leiketon softly chanted the incantation, he raised his hand to produce specks of starlight, which swiftly coalesced into beams of brilliant starlight that flew off and descended upon the doll appearing before him.

The starlight instantly condensed into a huge transparent amber, encasing it completely and holding it in place. In the next instant, the doll wrapped in the transparent amber vanished abruptly, leaving only a colorful paper-made dry flower at its original spot, while the doll itself appeared behind Leiketon.

Being able to swap places with the garden's plants—what kind of ability is this? As his thoughts scattered in his mind, his body instantly turned transparent, becoming a statue formed from countless gathered sparkles of starlight.

This statue was instantly cut into several segments, scattering into countless sparkling motes of starlight that re-coalesced behind the shears-wielding doll into Leiketon's figure.

The moment his figure appeared, Leiketon condensed a black-jade-like token and threw it forward; upon touching the shears doll, it merged into it, slowing the doll's time almost to a halt.

Leiketon stepped back, spread his arms, and countless stars appeared around him, dense and dazzling.

These stars quickly converged, forming spear after spear of gleaming starlight, the shafts covered in many interlocking strange runes, making them feel extremely heavy and powerful.

Under his control, these spears shot forth without hesitation, instantly piercing the doll holding the shears and pinning it firmly to the ground.

Leiketon's figure flickered, and he instantly appeared beside it.

In his eyes, a deep blue‑near‑purple radiance continually flowed, tracing out one mysterious symbol after another, with threads of light flickering between them like lightning from the depths of consciousness.

A flash of his gaze, and a powerful mental strike instantly hit the shears doll's mental essence.

The bird‑skull mask on its head emitted a crack, and several fissures split open from its eye sockets and forehead.

The strong mental assault greatly reduced its madness, and Leiketon felt as if he could see a hint of reason and struggle in the azure flames flickering within the eye sockets of its bird‑skull mask.

Somewhat surprised, he raised an eyebrow; the radiance flowing in his eyes deepened, outlining gray‑white three‑dimensional symbols that could influence and alter consciousness.

He locked his gaze with the doll firmly nailed to the ground and spoke in a voice laden with allure:

"Who are you? Well, or rather, what is your identity?"

The doll nailed to the floor looked somewhat dazed; it hesitated a while before hoarsely speaking, its voice broken and intermittent, as if after a long silence it had forgotten how to talk.

What it spoke was not the giant tongue of Silver City, but rather resembled Ancient Futhark, though with many differences in detail:

"I am... the gardener of the Celestial Cathedral? No, I am not, I am the gardener."

"What's the difference?" Leiketon muttered speechlessly to himself, paused, then went on: "What happened here? Why has so much time passed, yet things in this divine temple still remain as they were?"

Gradually becoming accustomed to speaking, the doll's voice grew clear and continuous:

"I don't know; my job is to construct plants in the garden."

"The Celestial Cathedral is the most successful magical item of Saisseptin; it can help us endure the long apocalypse, waiting in endless darkness for the Lord's salvation."

"Pruning plants?"

Lei Kedun tilted his head and glanced at the plants made of colored paper, iron sheets, and wood shavings around him; it was truly unimaginable that they needed any construction here—working as a florist was practically every slacker's dream.

Just as a thought rose in his mind, Lei Kedun suddenly saw a thick gray mist surge before his eyes; deep within the mist, crimson light welled up like a tide, and a tall angel clad entirely in black armor, bearing twelve pairs of jet‑black wings, flew out from the crimson light.

It landed before Lei Kedun, wrapping him layer upon layer with its twelve pairs of black wings.

It lasted only a moment; the gray mist, light, and angel before Lei Kedun vanished completely, and at the same time he felt a wondrous and stable connection established between himself and some existence in the boundless heights.

After receiving the blessing of the Paper Angel, Lei Kedun felt the feeling of decay and sluggishness like an old machine on his body instantly removed; both his body and spirit felt light at that moment.

Ke Lai En's voice echoed in his mind at the same time:

Where are you? This place is a bit strange; it feels as if a dark curtain has been draped over everything, and I can't see clearly.

A city seemingly called Sai Xiting; its people, to escape the apocalypse, made themselves into dolls, though it never seemed fully successful—their doll bodies are closer to monsters than ordinary beings.

Flesh is weak, mechanical ascension?

Pretty much, but it's a severely low‑end mechanical ascension, involving the realm of life and soul; human research in this area before the great cataclysm was very limited, and it cannot be made up by mysticism alone.

I sense from you an eager, restless emotion.

With the help of the Earth Church and the Spirit Sect, this idea is not entirely impossible.

(End of chapter)