Chapter 3427

The name of the last one, 【Lord of the Cystic Plague】, is a bit of a mouthful. The reputation of this deity is actually not prominent because its believers were almost completely wiped out early in the Sixth Era. Xia De was only able to identify the holy emblem of this god by relying on those books from the 【Academy of Strange Trees】.

The believers of this god please their deity by spreading a mushroom plague that causes cysts and tumors to grow on people, and they enhance their own power by consuming those diseased bodies.

In short, compared to the believers of these three evil gods, the 【Society of Ten Thousand as One】 and the 【Doom Cult】 can actually be considered kind.

However, even evil gods do not welcome humanoid relics at all, let alone easily accept the faith of humanoid relics. Truly devout cultists would never share their faith with relics—if cultists really saw this scene before them, Xia De could probably very easily win them over as his temporary allies.

However, all three holy emblems are genuine divine items, though their power is very weak, and it is unknown where the pseudo-humans obtained them.

"They are all related to flesh and reproduction, after all."

Xia De thought to himself, hesitated for a moment, then took the three holy emblems from the altar and put them into his pocket, intending to hand them over to the Zhengshen Sect for processing after he got out.

With a "Bang~" sound, the chapel door was pushed open from the outside, and then a "person" wearing a black priest's robe walked in and shouted loudly:

"Blasphemer, what are you doing?"

Its appearance was that of an ordinary middle-aged priest, only it lacked human markings on its head, and it was unknown what was growing in the bulging area on its back.

"Addicted to acting, are you?"

Xia De slashed out another beam of moonlight, but the priest, who was holding a book in its left hand, raised its hand to block it, stopping Xia De's moonlight with just its slightly reddened right hand.

Xia De did not dare to be careless; he crossed his hands in front of his chest and rushed toward the "priest" as a large cross of moonlight.

The latter continued to shout loudly:

"Blasphemer, will you not repent yet?"

The book held in its left hand "came alive" at this moment and turned into a mass of flesh, which then transformed into a man-sized shield that the "priest" gripped in its hand, colliding head-on with the crossed cross of moonlight.

Amidst a thunderous boom, the priest and the shattered flesh shield were knocked back from the doorway into the corridor, and Xia De took this opportunity to enter a new corridor.

As soon as his feet touched the ground, he felt a soft, sinking sensation. Looking down, the walls of the entire corridor appeared in a hair-raising pink flesh color, and traces of blood vessels and meridians could even be seen within that flesh color.

In other words, not only did Xia De not find an exit, but he had instead come from the relatively outer area of the 【House of Pseudo-Humans】 to a location even deeper inside this relic.

"Believers of flesh, seize him! I want to offer him to the flesh and make him pay for his sins!"

The priest was knocked against the "wall," and the relatively soft flesh wall caused it to become embedded within it, but the flesh wall was also healing its injuries. As it shouted and stood on the ground again, dozens of third-tier pseudo-humans rushed out from the rooms on both sides of the corridor, their bizarre appearances perhaps more terrifying than their actual strength.

The corridor was narrow with nowhere to dodge. Xia De originally wanted to use moonlight to shatter them before finding a way out, but at this moment, the flesh corridor suddenly began to squirm. A large amount of blood fell from the sky onto these third-tier pseudo-humans, and thus a layer of blood-colored light appeared on the surface of each pseudo-human. Before Xia De's moonlight could be unleashed, their various long-range attack abilities flew toward Xia De first.

Xia De retreated and immediately returned to the chapel. He closed the room door behind him, scanned the room, and kicked away two kneeling cushions with his foot, revealing a trapdoor hidden underneath.

As the room door was blasted to pieces, Xia De jumped into the trapdoor. There was light beneath the trapdoor, and Xia De originally thought he would land instantly, but the fall lasted for a full three minutes before he finally entered a new room below.

After he fell into the room, the hole in the ceiling immediately closed. It seemed that those pseudo-humans had not followed him, but Xia De, having arrived in a brand-new room, could not relax.

Flesh, blood, bones—blood-red color drowned almost everything here.

After his shoes touched the soft "ground," red tentacles immediately grew out as if they had gained life. The clothes on his body were slowly turning red, and every breath felt like drinking blood. Xia De even covered his head; in the previous moment, he seemed to have seen a huge mass of flesh roaring at him.

This was not a normal room; the room constructed entirely of flesh felt like being inside some living creature. The squirming flesh walls contained the sound of gurgling blood, making Xia De feel that the red light before his eyes was becoming increasingly blinding.

On the wall was a room door cast from flesh. On the floor in the lower right corner of the door was a groove, allowing the blood overflowing drop by drop from the door crack to flow through the groove into the blood pool in the center of the room.

The blood pool was not of any standard shape, and the viscous blood within it was almost motionless. Xia De was forced to turn his gaze away after just one look; the powerful whisper elements made him feel a wave of dizziness, and a strange desire arose in his heart—

Enter the blood pool and become one with everyone.

He did not know how deep this blood pool was, nor did he know what else was inside it, but at this moment, he suddenly understood that this blood pool was the core of the 【House of Pseudo-Humans】, and he had arrived before the true secret of this Sage-level relic.

Ever since he entered the 【House of Pseudo-Humans】, all paths had actually only led here.

The area of the blood pool occupied two-thirds of the room's area. Besides the blood pool and that door constantly overflowing with blood, a pseudo-human dressed as a manservant stood in front of the flesh wall opposite the door.

Its back was against the wall, or rather, it had merged with this wall. It stood with its arms crossed over its chest, watching Xia De, who was covering his head and even standing unsteadily:

"Welcome, God-Caller."

It said in Delyrian:

"We exchanged for you with the secret of our flesh growth from the 【Blood Spirit School】. Welcome to the 【House of Pseudo-Humans】."

"What do you want to do?"

Xia De asked it, wondering in his heart whether moonfire could forcibly carve a hole in these flesh walls.

The pseudo-human in the guise of a manservant told Xia De the truth:

"We want to know if the most powerful flesh in the material world can allow us to evolve further."

It paused slightly:

"In the Vista Forest, one of our companions saw you from afar, and all of us were shocked by your form of existence. We cannot understand your composition. Although you look like a human, your way of existing in the body is absolutely different from any flesh-and-blood creature.

We saw brand-new possibilities in you. To us, you are the beacon pointing to the next era. We need you—not just your hair, flesh, or essence; we need all of you. That is why I had the 【Blood Spirit School】 invite you here today."

It praised Xia De to the skies, uncrossed its arms, and pointed to the blood pool in the center of the room:

"This is the core of the 【House of Pseudo-Humans】, the palace and cradle where we were all born. Please enter this place, then become one with us, and let your possibilities and our possibilities merge into one. From then on, the pseudo-humans will be you, and you will be all the pseudo-humans. We will evolve together and become a truly perfect life form."

Xia De asked, enduring the headache:

"Do you think I'm crazy enough to agree?"

"It doesn't matter. This core room has no exit. I know you are strong, but you will eventually realize that this is your only way out. You don't need to consider that door; that door cannot be opened."

It laughed, then its body slowly moved backward, letting the flesh wall swallow it:

"I will give you 24 hours to think, or rather, to try to leave here. God-Caller, this is an opportunity for you to be thoroughly sublimated, and unlike relying on the power of gods, this opportunity can allow you to evolve yourself."

It disappeared into the wall, and Xia De struggled to keep himself from kneeling on the ground. While covering his head, he made his shoes glow to prevent them from truly becoming flesh creations.

"Damn it."

He cursed, turned, and looked at that door. At this moment, he didn't even need to directly touch the squirming flesh on the door; he knew he hadn't guessed wrong, and Old John last night hadn't been wrong either—the legend was true:

"The door of the 【Creation Delivery Room】!"

This door was only opened a crack, allowing the blood behind it to overflow drop by drop; this was the source of the power of the 【House of Pseudo-Humans】.

And to truly open the door, one still needed spirit runes, artifacts, and incantations. Xia De had obtained 【Flesh】 when he was at the Seventh Tier, but he had no artifact, let alone the incantation to open the door. Therefore, a door that truly existed for a long time was right in front of him, yet he could not open it.

However, this was not the point now. The point was that even if this door were opened, it would not lead to the outside world. But Xia De was not completely without other methods. He was extremely glad right now that he had not used that time key in the morning.

"Thank goodness."

He rummaged through his pocket and found the metal door pendant. As it rapidly transformed into blood-red and became softer the more he touched it, Xia De stabbed the prepared key into the keyhole:

"May the World Tree protect the infinite..."

He stopped, sprinkled water to turn it into ice, and placed the things on his body that he could not take with him onto the huge block of ice. The ice block was also rapidly being corrupted by the flesh, but it should be no problem to hold on for three seconds.

"May the World Tree protect me in the infinite time and space!"

With a "Click~" sound, the pendant door opened, and the white mist that rushed out instantly swallowed Xia De. The pendant itself fell silently onto the soft ground, the metal completely transformed into flesh, and then it merged with the ground.