Chapter 88

In Wu Chang's eyes, above the manor's main house stood a giant nun, her upper body alone nearly ten meters tall.

The nun had no face, resembling slightly the fake Madonna outside the cathedral; her fists were clenched against her chest, as if praying for something.

The nun's lower body resembled ancient tree roots, countless tendrils burrowing into the main house, seamlessly fused with it.

If, as Xiang Jianxing said, he opened his spiritual sense to perceive, he could feel the giant nun in the photo was merely an empty shell.

Inside the giant nun were seven empty slots.

Exactly matching the Seven Deadly Sins.

Count Jemaine's arrangements in the Inner World were all for the giant nun above the main house; when she was filled with various sins, no one knew what would happen.

Though the giant nun was merely an empty shell, her pressure remained overwhelming; merely glancing at her, Wu Chang felt an illusion—that she had sensed his gaze through the photo and was looking back at him.

He tore his gaze away from the giant nun, and the sensation of being tracked along his line of sight vanished.

Phew, thank goodness Xiang Jianxing's spiritual sense wasn't high enough.

Just seeing the two gargoyle statues at the entrance shattered his will's defense; if he'd seen the nun, he wouldn't have collapsed on the spot, but even after recovery, he'd drool forever.

He turned his gaze to the two players, preparing to lighten his mood.

The two players crushed into meaty lumps beneath the gargoyle pedestals were the former mailman and journalist's teammates.

Their time of death likely came after the journalist's.

In their resentment, Wu Chang saw the chaos of the Inner World—they were far luckier than the journalist, never separated from the main group, entering the count's manor together with three other companions.

What awaited them there was the final Inner World.

As Mo Leina said, on Briver Island, privately approaching Count Jemaine's manor was a grave crime.

The arrival of these players directly caused the Divine Messenger to appear.

The Divine Messenger could summon gargoyles endlessly, seven to ten per wave; their combat power surpassed the fishmen at the dock, bringing heavy pressure to the group.

Besides gargoyles, the Divine Messenger could summon rain-like falling rocks—immense in power, relentless; each impact lowered the players' will, making them want to abandon resistance from the depths of their souls.

To dodge the falling rocks, one had to enter the main house.

But inside the main house awaited the faceless nun.

In the resentment, the players first saw the nun—she wasn't this massive yet; she stood only three or four meters tall, possessed human legs, and was merely a giant version of the Eight-Foot Lady.

Her method of controlling the house wasn't by fusing with root-like tendrils, but merely by flicking her fingers to rearrange the room's layout at will.

Under the nun's control, the players felt trapped in an endless maze—hard to escape, and any misstep while crossing rooms could leave the last player locked inside, isolated.

Every time they entered a new room, isolation under the nun's attack was possible, yet they couldn't stay in any single room for long.

If they lingered too long in one room, a group of fully armed townsfolk would appear behind the door, waving weapons, eyes blazing red, their combat power surpassing the gargoyles.

Surviving terrain traps and townsfolk still required enduring the nun's whispered prayers.

The prayer words eroded the players' will, forcing them to see horrific hallucinations.

The two unlucky ones crushed into the pedestals were caught off-guard by a sudden attack just as they were about to enter a new room; by the time they crossed the threshold, they'd entered a completely different room, separated from the others.

Isolated victims became the nun's primary targets, falling into hallucinations amid endless whispers, their attributes weakened by the Divine Messenger's judgment, finally dying under the townsfolk's chaotic blades.

Wu Chang closed his eyes; the scenes in the resentment vanished.

He sighed, shaking his head at the players' handling of the situation.

Had they remained clear-headed, unaffected by the Inner World's chaos, they shouldn't have blindly entered the main house—they should've found a way to kill the Divine Messenger outdoors.

Unfortunately, like Xiang Jianxing, their spiritual sense was too low to notice the giant nun inside the main house.

Xiang Jianxing thought Wu Chang regretted not seeing the gargoyles and comforted him: "Your level's still low; it's normal not to have spare points allocated to spiritual sense—even I only saw the hidden patterns in the photos thanks to that camera."

Wu Chang agreed: "Yeah, still gotta train."

As for who exactly still needed training—that was hard to say.

After parting from Xiang Jianxing, Wu Chang returned to the post office and retrieved the Briver Island map each player had carried upon entering the instance dungeon.

Re-examining the map, he noticed it had deliberately divided the island into seven sections.

The coastal areas were split into four parts, the urban zone into two, and the mountain region into one.

The characteristics of these regions matched the Inner Worlds already uncovered.

Based on the information he'd gathered, the mountain region—the count's manor's Inner World—was Pride.

The city center, including the cathedral, was Envy.

The fishman dock and the golden flying fish's waters were Sloth and Gluttony respectively.

The only ones still unappeared were Wrath, Greed, and Lust.

Wrath and Greed were easy to understand—but how would Lust manifest? The Seven Deadly Sins in the Inner World corresponded directly to the townsfolk's behaviors in the real world.

For example, Sloth represented the townsfolk's past as pirates—looting others was easier than working hard to create wealth; that was Sloth.

Whether Wrath or Greed, both, like Sloth, were common, unbound emotions.

But Lust was different.

At least publicly, Briver Island still pretended to follow the Kingdom of Orgre's state religion; the island had no red-light district, and even hotel and inn attendants were all male.

How would Lust manifest?

"You say, what is Lust?"

"Huh?" Linghu was confused; though she didn't mind discussing this topic, starting the conversation with this first thing in the morning was still shockingly blunt.

Wu Chang seemed to realize the awkwardness and added: "I mean, from a religious perspective, how is Lust defined?"

"Oh." Linghu exhaled in relief, yet felt a faint pang of disappointment.

She thought for a moment and answered: "These past two days, praying with the nuns, they discussed doctrine in their free time—I actually heard a passage on this."

"The Orgre state religion defines Lust as a Deadly Sin—not merely rejecting Lust as a desire, but Lust is merely a symbol; behind it lies all desires that prioritize physical satisfaction over spiritual connection."

Wu Chang frowned, understanding dawning.

"So if one only uses another's body to satisfy one's own desire, ignoring the other's feelings—even if the desire isn't purely sexual—it still counts as committing the Sin of Lust?"

"This question is way beyond the syllabus. My understanding of the teachings in the instance hasn't reached that level yet, so I can't give you a correct answer, but from my perspective, I'd say it counts."

Spirit Fox nodded, her cheeks flushing slightly as she asked, "Why are you suddenly concerned about lust?"

"I'm asking on behalf of a friend of mine."

"That friend of yours..."

"Definitely not me."

Wu Chang wanted to ask more questions about wrath and greed, but an elderly nun walked out from inside the cathedral and called for Spirit Fox to prepare the props needed for the prayer ceremony.

"What day is it today? Why is there a prayer this early?" Wu Chang asked in confusion.

Yesterday had just passed the Divine Grace Day, so logically speaking, today should have returned to normal work.

Spirit Fox sped up her sweeping of the fallen leaves on the plaza and said softly to Wu Chang, "This morning I heard the townsfolk telling the nuns that the Earl's bronze statue at the dock had fallen over. I also vaguely heard them mention something about punishment and revenge. The townsfolk are terrified about the collapse of the Earl's bronze statue and have asked the bishop to hold a prayer to appease whatever caused all this."

Wu Chang raised an eyebrow and asked, "Is it the bishop with the sewn-shut eyes you once mentioned? Will he be presiding over this prayer?"

"The bishop will lead the prayer at dusk. Do you want to come watch?"

"Maybe."

Wu Chang watched Spirit Fox hurry away, lost in thought.

The Earl's bronze statue had collapsed, yet instead of seeking the reason for the statue's fall, the townsfolk wanted to hold a prayer.

They feared punishment and revenge—but whose punishment and revenge? A hypothesis surfaced in his mind. Regarding the events on the island, he had already gathered enough clues.

These clues piled together, a jumbled mess.

Now all that was missing was a protagonist—one who could string all the clues together—and the truth could be completely uncovered.

Woo— the steam whistle of a steamship sounded from the harbor.

This time the ship didn't dock at Bluff Port, but at a small port on the other side of the island, diagonal to Bluff Port.

New mail had arrived.

Perhaps having received complaints, the fellows on the cargo ship were much gentler in their delivery this time, and didn't just toss the wooden crate holding the mail straight off the ship.

Instead, they tied two inner tubes under the wooden crate and used ropes to slowly lower it onto the sea surface.

Once they confirmed the crate wasn't sinking, they immediately started up the cargo ship and turned to leave.

Some progress, but not much.

Wu Chang rowed his little wooden boat and fished the mail crate back from the sea surface.

Opening the mail crate, besides a few ordinary pieces of mail, there were also two bottles of wine.

The addressee was Sheriff Mo Leina.

Oh-ho, looks like there's work to do tonight.

Third update delivered. The three updates add up to 8,400 characters—who can still say I'm short? The fourth update will be a bit later, probably around seven or eight o'clock. Today's goal is ten thousand characters!

(End of chapter)