Chapter 162: Mysterious Backlash

Wu Chang's expression turned strange. Revelation.

What a coincidence — just said he hadn't been in contact before, and now they've come knocking on his door.

But thinking it over carefully, it made sense.

The prerequisite for setting up an Earthly Kingdom wasn't having a master of mysticism, but first having a deity who could use the Kingdom.

Tang Renquan and the others must belong to some evil god cult.

Able to cause trouble right under the Bureau's nose, the evil god cult they belonged to couldn't be too weak — at the very least, it wouldn't be much weaker than the three major evil god cults.

The Earthly Kingdom ritual was about to be completed, and the erosion instance located in Wanming City suddenly lowered its signal isolation, allowing the survivors inside the instance to release a large number of videos, and these videos spread in an organized manner, influencing more people, to the point of forcing the Wanghai City Countermeasures Bureau to go provide support.

Having previously seen Revelation's symbol in the thick fog, Wu Chang had already guessed that Revelation was involved in the Earthly Kingdom. Such a perfectly fitting coincidence meant that even if the mastermind wasn't Revelation, they must certainly be cooperating with Revelation.

He remembered Hearing Zhanghuo once saying that among various evil god believers, there existed something called a believer circle. When there was no conflict between them, the forces within the believer circle would actively help each other.

Seeing now the unhidden markings on the bar staff, his guess was thoroughly confirmed.

Revelation truly played a brilliant hand. Taking advantage of Wanghai City's rear being empty, Revelation activated the Earthly Kingdom and gained the power of an evil god.

By the time the experts from the Wanghai City Bureau returned, they would have either already fled, or slunk back into hiding, acting as if nothing had happened.

If not for him, and with Ailin — who knew about the Earthly Kingdom — by his side, these bastards might really have stolen the win.

The people attending the gathering soon arrived in full. The number was even greater than in the Night Song group, nearly a thousand people.

Isolation tape was set up around Haiyang Square. Bar staff stood at the square's entrances and exits, saying there was a special event inside and outsiders were temporarily prohibited from entering.

Time reached eleven o'clock, and the party began on schedule.

The party opened with a performance by the Aviator band.

Performing on the open-air square, the atmosphere was completely different from the cramped underground bar. Without needing the control of a mystical ritual, the people attending the gathering spontaneously went wild.

People bounced, jumped, and roared along with the lead singer.

They didn't transform in the music into monsters with tentacles covering their faces, but Wu Chang could see large swathes of mystical energy pouring into their bodies.

Under the lights, the shadows cast on the ground by the people twisted and deformed into something indescribable.

As the open-air concert ended, the temporarily erected big screen suddenly went black. After a moment of darkness, a Gate of Heaven appeared on the screen.

At some unknown point, the members of the Aviator band had changed from studded leather jackets into formal attire embroidered with Revelation's emblem.

Music sounded again, but this time it wasn't vigorous metal — it was solemn religious music. The rough metal vocals, like a choir singing hymns, fit surprisingly well.

The lead singer of the Aviator band now transformed into a priest, saying to the audience below:

"In the dreams you slumber in at midnight, in the half-dreaming, half-awake haze after drinking, have you ever seen this Gate of Heaven?"

The audience, who had originally only been curious about the Aviator band's new style, upon hearing this question, as if triggered by a keyword of hypnosis, instantly became blank-eyed.

They gazed at the Gate of Heaven on the screen, the more they looked, the more familiar it seemed.

The brand the Gate of Heaven had once seared into the audience's hearts now erupted — they felt as if they truly had seen this gate before.

Wu Chang, mixed in the crowd, couldn't help but purse his lips. Every time you go to a concert, you get hypnotized by this gate — how could you not have seen it?

Seeing the effect take hold, the lead singer on stage spoke in an evangelizing tone:

"The Gate of Heaven is the portal to escape worldly troubles, the path of survival from apocalyptic disaster, and also the necessary road for falling from Heaven to the mortal world."

"My new album, and the series of gatherings held in Night Song, are not simply about pleasure — they are about finding companions who can resonate with us, awaken past-life memories, and fall together through the Gate of Heaven!"

The audience listened with half-understanding. Those who could sit here were either young and successful, or minor rich second-generation, or at the very least internet celebrity level.

If anyone else had said such things to them, they would have just thought the person was crazy and turned to leave.

But the Gate of Heaven on the screen, as if possessing magic, made them unconsciously want to keep listening to the lead singer.

Saying more isn't as good as a personal demonstration.

The lead singer waved at the audience below, signaling the bar manager to come up on stage.

The lead singer pressed a button on his guitar. On the chainsaw-shaped electric guitar, the chainsaw serving as decoration on the edge actually started spinning.

Immediately after, the lead singer swung the guitar chainsaw and sawed directly at the bar manager's collarbone, intending to slice the bar manager diagonally in half while still alive.

The screaming of the chainsaw, the shrill screams, the spurting blood, and the hymns chanted by the other members of the Aviator band composed an extremely impactful scene.

Contrary to the commotion on stage, the audience below was utterly silent — not a sound.

Duan Kaiming, located in the special VIP area only two meters from the stage, was dumbfounded. He stared wide-eyed, mouth agape, looking at the scene before him in disbelief.

As a rich second-generation born in Rome, he had understood since coming of age that pursuing thrills and pleasure was the meaning of his life. To carry out his life philosophy, he had attended plenty of legal and illegal activities, and there were few extreme acts he hadn't seen.

But he had to admit, the extreme act before his eyes, he truly had never seen.

The lead singer executed the bar manager right in front of him. The bar manager's splashing blood sprayed onto his face, and quite a few bone fragments even fell into his mouth.

He closed his mouth, his lips wriggled a few times, then with a stiff neck, not afraid of cutting his esophagus, he swallowed the bone fragments mixed with blood into his stomach.

Thump.

Thump.

What was that sound?

It was his heartbeat.

Tasting the lingering flavor in his mouth, never had he felt so clearly that he was still alive.

The performance on stage quickly reached its finale. The bar manager was sawed diagonally from his left collarbone to his right thigh, split in two.

The bar manager hadn't died. The upper half of his body that had fallen to the ground was still struggling, letting out weak wails.

Duan Kaiming drew out the handkerchief on his chest, wiped the blood from his face, then gripping the blood-soaked handkerchief, raised his fist and shouted:

"Another one!"

Duan Kaiming's voice roused the other audience from their shock. They followed Duan Kaiming's voice and raised their arms to shout together.

"Another one!"

"Another one!"

……

The lead singer on stage froze. Today's show had all been planned in advance — the chainsaw killing of the bar manager was just an illusion, meant to demonstrate the divine power of the Gates of Heaven.

They had assumed that such a sensational public murder would throw the audience into panic and send them scattering in all directions.

So they had rehearsed many times — how to control a panicked crowd, and how to quickly resurrect the bar manager.

But they never in their wildest dreams expected that, upon seeing the scene before them, the animals below would actually shout "Encore!"

Even he, a heretic believer who had presided over more than ten sacrifices, felt the crowd below were perverts.

The audience's enthusiasm was too overwhelming. With no other choice, he could only call up three bar servers and chainsaw them one by one to entertain the crowd.

Only after all three servers had been chainsawed did the audience finally get their fill and burst into cheers.

But the next moment, the Gates of Heaven on the screen emitted a glow, and the four corpses lined up on stage, within that light, actually fused back together and crawled to their feet.

Another act of brutality never seen before.

The lead singer said, "The end of the world is coming. To save the world, the gods are transmitting their divine power to the earth through the Gates of Heaven." "In the old era, those blessed by the gods could only be resurrected three days after death. But now, as long as believers receive the gods' protection, they can be resurrected on the spot after death!"

"The fact that you can recall the Gates of Heaven proves that you and I are both divine messengers sent by the Lord from the other side of the gate to the earth. Now is the time to remember everything, and to fully open the Gates of Heaven for the Lord."

Most of those present had no faith, and suddenly being turned into divine messengers left them feeling baffled.

But the intensely shocking images from the stage still echoed in their minds.

Severed limbs healing, the dead returning to life — having witnessed such feats with their own eyes, it was hard for them to doubt the lead singer's words.

Many began replaying their own smooth-sailing lives, feeling that there truly was divine protection in the unseen, and that perhaps they really were divine messengers.

Wu Chang, mixed in among the crowd, saw clearly that the moment the lead singer resurrected the bar manager and others, and the audience below believed it, the entire occult ritual activated.

The occult in the real world likewise conformed to the First Law of Occult in the Moonlight Sanatorium plane.

"Human cognition is one of the sources of occult's existence. The more people believe in its existence, the more powerful it becomes."

The moment people believed in resurrection from death and in the Gates of Heaven possessing divine power, the cognition of everyone present had already been warped by the occult.

!

Their hesitation now was merely a process of self-persuasion; before long, they would fully accept this premise.

Just as Wu Chang had anticipated, before long, people began to believe the lead singer's words and were willing to join him and the others, contributing their share to opening the Gates of Heaven and welcoming the Lord's arrival.

The instant they made their decision, writhing tentacles sprouted from their faces. The servers beside them would seize the moment before they noticed and promptly hand them a mask to put on.

Wu Chang watched and shook his head. Anyone whose flesh naturally grew tentacles without being influenced by the occult ritual was already done for.

The charm of the First Law of Occult lay in its snowball-like, ever-expanding growth.

Once one begins to believe in the occult, one is influenced by it; that influence deepens belief, which in turn strengthens the occult's power, deepening the influence further.

Once it begins, escape is impossible.

Ten minutes later, everyone had put on a mask, including Wu Chang.

He didn't need to fake tentacles growing on his face — he only had to activate his social anxiety disorder and take a mask directly from a server's hand and put it on.

With everyone having joined the Revelation, seeing the moment ripe, the lead singer and the others struck while the iron was hot and immediately launched the next — and final — gathering.

The phones of everyone present rang with a notification tone at the same time. A pinned announcement had been updated in the Night Song group.

The announcement was still a location pin: Wanghai No. 1 High School Grand Auditorium.

No one needed to organize them. The masked crowd spontaneously headed toward Wanghai No. 1 High School.

Wanghai No. 1 High School sits in the central district of Wanghai City and is the highest-achieving high school in the city. Any family in Wanghai with even a little means would fight tooth and nail to get in.

Thanks to its powerful teaching capabilities, Wanghai No. 1 High School receives enormous sponsorship fees every year. Both its software and hardware are first-rate — no worse than any private school.

This grand auditorium, used every week, had been closed for two consecutive months due to renovation.

During those two months, work went on inside the auditorium every day — but it wasn't renovation. Instead, the place was being transformed into a massive cathedral.

The original stage in the auditorium had been completely torn down, replaced by a physical Gates of Heaven.

The colossal stone gate, over ten meters tall, now emitted a faint glow as Wu Chang and the others entered.

The core node of the Earthly Kingdom of God had finally begun to activate at this moment.

To activate the Earthly Kingdom of God ritual, the occult grandmaster had to be present in person.

The moment Wu Chang entered the auditorium, his gaze swept toward the area thickest with occult, searching for traces of the occult grandmaster.

Soon, he locked onto a target.

Wherever the target went, the concentration of occult visibly increased, and the occult barrier surrounding the auditorium grew correspondingly thicker.

Moreover, judging from the target's height and build, as well as the unconscious habit of picking at his fingers, the locked-on target was none other than Tang Renquan.

Found you.

He couldn't let Tang Renquan activate the ritual so smoothly — he had to cause him some trouble and draw out every occult practitioner on site.

He had to both stop the target and avoid leaving any obvious trace that could be detected.

Taking advantage of the ritual not yet being fully activated, he condensed a spirit body, gave Tang Renquan a light tap, and activated Hex.

"The sum of the target's Inspiration and Will attributes is less than 20% of the user's combined two attributes. Effects triggered: 'Plague-Bearing,' 'Summoning Calamity,' 'Descending Hex.'"

"Due to the target's Inspiration and Will attributes being excessively low, a special status is triggered: Occult Backlash."

"Special Status: Occult Backlash"

"Status Description: Long-term exposure to the occult has thoroughly contaminated the target's body and soul. Now that an external stimulus has been applied, the hidden dangers within erupt completely. Any occult-related ability the target attempts will be judged a failure and inflict backlash. Any occult ritual the target has set up will fall into an uncontrolled state."

Oh-ho, hit the jackpot.

After the bishop in the Quiet Town, this was the second time Wu Chang triggered a special status when using Hex.

The special status triggered on Tang Renquan was entirely different from the bishop's. From the status description, it seemed special statuses were not fixed, but rather massively amplified the target's existing weaknesses.

The bishop felt guilt over judging Eileen, so he triggered Mind Echo.

Tang Renquan, on the other hand, had overused the occult, and the contamination had long since seeped into his very bones. Combined with his lack of the Esoteric Knight class change, this led to Occult Backlash.

The effects of Occult Backlash were extremely obvious. Tang Renquan, whose ritual had been proceeding smoothly, arrived at a ritual node and reached out to connect it — but the moment he moved, he dropped to the ground as if electrocuted, his whole body convulsing uncontrollably.

Several Revelation members nearby hurried over and helped him to his feet.

Wu Chang activated his social anxiety disorder and leaned over, and could hear several people addressing Tang Renquan as "Archbishop."

Tang Renquan quickly recovered, shook off the support of the others, and staggered toward another node. He tried to activate the node, but was sent flying by it, smashing into a large swath of tables and chairs.

What's going on?

Tang Renquan stared at his dislocated arm, his face blank with confusion.

It made no sense—he was a master of occultism, activating a pre-arranged occult ritual, so how could he fail twice in a row?

Was he in bad shape?

While the healer-type players nearby treated his dislocated arm, he beckoned over a Night Song server and ordered them to call two bishops over.

Following the departing server, Wu Chang left the great hall and arrived at an activity room not far from the hall.

Inside sat seven or eight members of Apocalypse, who were responsible for the daily maintenance of the occult ritual and for emergency intervention when accidents occurred.

After hearing the order relayed by the server, two of them followed the server to the great hall, while the rest stayed behind on standby.

Wu Chang left his main body outside the activity room, activated his social anxiety disorder and elite stealth, and injected snake venom into the room.

At the same time, he had his true self follow the server and the two bishops back to the great hall, and temporarily suppressed the occult backlash within Tang Renquan's body.

Since it had already been confirmed effective, there was no rush.

Tang Renquan was still useful for now—let them activate the Earthly Kingdom ritual first, and once the ritual was activated, it wouldn't be too late to deal with them.

(End of this chapter)