Chapter 519: Is the Church m?
Until the first Divine Oracle stepped forward, as the oracle dictated, she offered a curse to the deity she served.
....... Nothing happened.
But that's not quite right; the deity simply gave no response.
Since then, the Divine Oracle led the Church members to retake lost ground, eradicating all the Aberrant Species then ravaging the area, and thereafter the Church enjoyed a period of stability.
It wasn't until the second Divine Oracle, following the oracle's command and completing his duty, that the entire world underwent a cataclysm.
Perhaps the Mutation had been brewing for a long time, perhaps the Divine Oracle deceived the world; either way it was an unprecedented tragedy.
The Church, which had seemed to have suppressed the Mutation and held the upper hand, now faced the Mutation's ultimate backlash.
They could no longer contact the deity, as if the deity had abandoned them; the land fell, and the few survivors could only retreat to Tianmian City, ultimately surviving only in the area surrounding Tianmian City.
The survivors pointed their blame at the Divine Oracles, deeming them the culprits for the deity's abandonment, accusing them of bringing divine punishment, and executed all the living Divine Oracles.
Thus, although the Mutation still lingered like a festering ulcer, it at least did not further transform into something even more terrifying.
This allowed the Church, which has redeveloped to the present, to regain some of its former lost territories, yet it still falls short of its golden age.
All these sins were blamed on the Traitor of the Gods.
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【Story Experience Quest: Infiltration of the Confidential Archive Completed, Bind Character Perspective Mu Lingxiao?】
【Reward Obtained: Experience +50%, Divine Oracle related data and Church history have been recorded】
Hmm, it's just a crudely made story CG.
But since it can be included in the dungeon, this piece of history should no longer be mixed with any later reinterpretations.
Even though some matters were clarified, things became even more bewildering.
The deity actively asked its followers to kill it? Yet the followers, doubting the oracle, fell into infighting, and those who followed the oracle instead invited divine punishment?
Yang Yixie has also investigated data linking this world to the Mutation, but explanations for why the Mutation descended upon the world are myriad—some say it was sent by the deity, others claim it was an external invasion.
So these people are guessing the Mutation was sent by the deity, yet they still worship that black sludge? Are they masochists?
In any case, the logical relationships here are very odd.
No wonder this game dungeon generously provides so much textual data, and no wonder "Yang Yixie" says these things are hard to explain.
It's likely that it's not only the saint's reason for invading their world that's hard to clarify, but also the game world's complex history.
So what does this series of tremors reveal? Someone is secretly conducting human experiments related to the Divine Oracle; the current batch of Church members firmly believe the Traitor of the Gods brought divine punishment, barely surviving in Tianmian City and daring not to go outside to the wasteland.
Thinking back, when Yang Yixie first saw this game's background, he thought the organization in the setting was extremely corrupt and incompetent, yet for such an absurd world to change dramatically within a decade or so, the later New Church must have worked hard.
Yes, the New Church.
Yang Yixie has completely separated the Church of this era from the later Church; in every aspect, the two are entirely opposite.
The current Church only behaves tyrannically within its own nest.
But this does not lessen Yang Yixie's opinion of Mu Lingxiao; although Mu Lingxiao's recent grand declarations were indeed well‑said, they were overly lofty, bordering on empty talk and too ethereal.
Diverting disaster elsewhere to protect their own world? Even if it's for their own world, they could only be enemies.
As for whether to bind Mu Lingxiao's perspective in this dungeon?
Yang Yixie probably skimmed the content; this roughly outlines the dungeon's gameplay, and because it's multiplayer, each person can bind only one character's perspective.
Subsequent perspective quests for this character can only be undertaken by the person who bound it.
He confirmed without hesitation.
To uncover the truth of all this, Mu Lingxiao's side should provide the most information.
His mission is over; Yang Yixie followed Mu Lingxiao back to her bedroom, where Mu Lingxiao sat at the desk by the window, apparently finally having time to peruse those documents in detail.
And inside the bedroom, she was alone.
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"Dong, dongdong, dong, dongdongdongdong."
The rhythmic knocking on the iron door suddenly echoed in the empty alley, Lao Bao and Hua Jian Lei both closed their mouths and perked up their ears to listen to the outside.
"Squeak—"
The rusted hinge let out a harsh scream as the iron‑sheet‑like gate was slowly opened.
Through the gap in the iron door, the person saw the outsider's features, especially the hair—just a few tufts of white hair sticking up under a duckbill cap.
White hair, male, not old.
The people inside immediately reached the same conclusion as Hua Jian Lei and showed delighted expressions.
"I didn't expect it to be you...!"
He immediately bowed and let the outsider in.
"Please come in; we've brought back a fine item this time! It'll satisfy you!"
Min Xingyao, disguised as a man, nodded slowly. She had brought a wig and used some props to change her lower body shape, making it hard to notice any discrepancy in the dim Slum.
If she came herself, there would be no need for these extra disguises.
The Mu siblings, taking advantage of their identical faces, swapped identities with ease; whenever Lingxiao had something to do, her brother would temporarily assume her identity.
But recently the Church's personnel changed, and they had to be cautious.
"Never mind that for now, what about the intel I asked you to investigate earlier?"
Min Xingyao spoke, but a male voice came out; the person didn't notice anything amiss, after all this was Undercurrent's territory, and as long as he got his due money, it was fine.
"This, you also understand the rules of the road......"
He deliberately rubbed his hands; Min Xingyao understood, placed a stack of cash on the table, and the man immediately snatched the money, roughly counted it, and kept it with satisfaction.
It matched the agreed amount, even a bit more.
"We've nearly finished our investigation; indeed, a few years ago someone took the black‑market route and sent a batch of unknown devices to the Black Stone Mountain Range, but that was many years ago, and the information we can uncover is limited."
"However, we did employ some methods and obtained the list of personnel who entered and left Tianmian City during that period."
He handed over the obviously damaged records in his hand, inside which the text of some places was blurred and unclear, to Min Xingyao.
It contains only name registrations; it is still the ground personnel responsible for receiving the teleportation array staff from Tianmian City, written according to rule, preserved poorly, and moreover not rigorous at all, with many obviously fake names.
End of Chapter