Chapter 376: Holy City (II) Heretics

The God no longer spoke, and the fanatical priest wrote down the prophecy of the Day of Judgment on yellowed parchment:

“When the end comes, God will judge the world and rebuild a new doctrine upon the ruins.”

The few recorded strokes were buried deep in the dust of history, and the unpassed down myths perished in the snowstorm of the dark night.

Afterward, the God witnessed by only one person slumbered in the temple… Qi Si was the first to enter the Holy City dungeon.

Or rather, it was precisely because of his entry that this dungeon had to be put into use, gathering a group of players with suitable strength to meet the required number, opening for the first time after many years of construction.

One day before the dungeon started, Qi Si opened his eyes in the Holy City in the state of a god. The moment he descended upon the plaza outside the temple, he controlled the soul fragments of almost all NPCs, except for a small number of NPCs related to the dungeon mechanism who were still under the jurisdiction of the rules—such as Father La Qi.

The residual rules struggled for a while, frantically issuing a warning: 【Attacking others is forbidden in the Holy City!】

The meaning was clear: even if his power was enough to turn the entire Holy City into a sea of blood and corpses, he could not personally kill the NPCs he did not control.

Although the power of the rules had weakened to a certain extent, and the Evil God attempting to seize ultimate authority was destined to defy the rules, the final dungeon had not yet begun. Since it wasn’t time to show his hand, it was better to bypass some underlying rules if possible rather than violate them.

Of course, Qi Si never intended to cleanse this dungeon directly using force anyway.

Mass violence was the way that simple-minded fellow, Li, handled things. He, comparatively, preferred achieving his goals by playing tricks on the rules.

Qi Si slightly curled his lips, his gaze piercing the colorful walls of the temple and landing on Father La Qi beneath the statue: “Don’t worry, I’ll leave after I take what I need. I’m not interested in harming your NPCs. If you don’t want to see me, just give me what I want directly, and we can part ways amicably, how about that?”

Rules: 【…】

The rules naturally wouldn’t compromise, and Qi Si hadn’t expected to make them compromise through words. He wandered around the Holy City for a day, familiarizing himself with the terrain and mechanisms, and understanding the city’s background worldview.

This was a city built single-handedly by Li in the past. All NPCs were Li’s devout followers, and Father La Qi was an even greater zealot, the kind willing to sacrifice his life for God.

Qi Si always despised irrational emotions like fanaticism. He was already reserved toward the Balance Church that worshiped him, and now he was walking on the edge of parting ways with them, unsure when he would face betrayal.

But he had to admit that Li’s followers were quite pure and hadn’t had their brains fried by religion. Yesterday, he patiently chatted with Father La Qi for half a day, yet still couldn’t trick him into revealing how to obtain Li’s residual authority.

Thinking about it carefully, Li, as a god, was sometimes incredibly naive and innocent. He didn’t resemble the creations who shared the Ancestral God under the World Tree at all, but instead strongly resembled the Ancestral God who was jointly pushed into death by the other gods.

This guy descended upon this world originally tasked with creating a dungeon, but for some unknown reason, he suddenly wanted to save the people here.

Evil Spirits ran rampant across the desolate land, and the twisted space had no daytime. So, He delivered an Oracle to the Prophets, allowing the humans who believed in Him to gather in this unclaimed land and build the Holy City, which could block the Evil Spirits.

He drove out the Evil Spirits that devoured human flesh and blood, shielding the believers from the disturbance of fear; He tore open the sealed sky curtain, allowing light to envelop the Holy City; He left behind fragments of authority, ensuring the city had orderly days and nights… This was simply a cliché legend of a god saving the world, a mere copy of the religious scripture story in reality where “God said, ‘Let there be light.'”

Qi Si shook his head helplessly, mocking with a hint of malice: “Did he destroy too many worlds and now wants to do a good deed to accumulate some merit? Or did his role-playing fetish kick in, making him steal the Ancestral God’s script and play a game of ‘God loves the world’?”

Li wasn’t here, couldn’t hear his evaluation, and naturally couldn’t refute it.

Qi Si returned to the temple and casually found a piece of cloth to blindfold the eyes of Li’s statue.

Once the color of the pupils could not be seen, his face instantly became similar to the statue’s, as if he were the God of the Holy City itself.

To be precise, all gods were carved in the image of the Ancestral God, and except for those born after His death, they were basically similar to Him in some way, though this was usually not obvious due to the differentiation of authority.

After a day passed like this, perhaps due to the rejection of the rules and the dungeon world’s own immune response, Qi Si felt a long-lost sense of drowsiness.

Gods do not need sleep; rest is merely a form of meditation. He sat down on the main seat, casually carved out a vacuum zone around himself, closed his eyes, and sank into his Thought Palace.

Against the deep black background, faint phantoms from hundreds of millions of years ago appeared before the World Tree.

Boys and girls sat beneath the gigantic, leafy tree, lowering their eyes to look down upon the myriad living beings, like curious children observing ants; golden fruits hung from the branches, overflowing with sweet juice, while the intact ones incubated worlds, giving birth to new World Trees and new gods within; a pair of silver-white eyes opened and closed in the sky, casting a detached yet peaceful gaze… those were the Ancestral God’s eyes.

The temple doors were pushed open from the outside. The ‘creak’ and the disorganized footsteps of the players sounded intermittently.

Qi Si was successfully startled awake. He propped up his upper body with his elbow, rested his chin on his hand, and listlessly looked toward the bronze door adorned with colorful agate directly ahead, and the twelve people in various attire standing before it.

These people looked startled, as if they had seen a ghost. Only Fu Jue reacted after a brief moment of shock, nodding to him: “Si Qi, long time no see.”

…In Asakura Yuko’s live stream room, the screen flickered twice before going completely black, showing two lines of silver-white text:

【This live stream content involves contamination. For your safety, the stream has been closed.】

【Based on your viewing preferences, the following live streams are recommended for you:…】

None of the viewers left, and the bullet screen comments started to scroll rapidly:

“What’s going on? What happened that they won’t let us watch? I think I just saw Si Qi, was that an illusion?”

“You weren’t wrong, it was Si Qi. Si Qi and Fu Jue are in the same dungeon. I was just thinking we’d get some entertainment, and they shut down the stream. Are they sick?”

“What is it that we can’t see? What the heck is ‘contamination’? If we can be contaminated through the screen, what about those inside the dungeon?”

…After the players stepped into the temple and received the warning prompt 【God-tier NPC sighted】, they immediately brought out various life-saving items.

Then, a rule refreshed on the system interface: 【Attacking others is forbidden in the Holy City!】

Immediately after, all items categorized as 【Weapons】 in the item bar were grayed out, unable to be selected or used.

Well, in that case, it’s fine. It seems this dungeon doesn’t require high combat power and is unlikely to feature an ‘instant death upon entry’ scenario. Surely, they wouldn’t be so tasteless as to deliberately seal their weapons and hand them over to some divine being to kill for fun, right?

Slightly relieved, they cautiously observed Qi Si, who was seated on the main throne.

As top-ranked players, their information gathering capabilities couldn’t be too poor, so they were not unfamiliar with Qi Si.

But before today, their understanding of Qi Si was merely: Number one on the Newcomer Leaderboard, Vice President of the Unnamed Guild, holder of the 【Scarlet High Priest】 and 【Humanoid Evil Spirit】 identity cards, and an unpredictable puzzle-solving player.

Yet at this moment, the young man leaned against the high-backed chair, his posture lazy and his expression calm, adding a layer of mystery to his pale complexion, giving the illusion of profound inscrutability.

Combining the information that Father La Qi mentioned about the Holy Lord sleeping in the temple, and the alarming warning from the game system, a terrifying speculation arose in everyone’s minds.

Could it be that Qi Si had somehow acquired the divine rank and authority ahead of time, becoming the so-called Holy Lord in this dungeon?

Yes, in the *Beware the Rabbit* dungeon he streamed through recently, there was a Rabbit God; he turned off the stream in the latter half, and no one knows what he did…

No wonder they had never heard of the title “Holy Lord” before. So this one is a new god who was just promoted from among the players… A chess piece on the board took the position of a judge. Players who didn’t understand Qi Si’s actions didn’t have many special feelings, but the faces of the few people from the Department of Anomalies were not looking good.

They had just issued a secret arrest warrant for Qi Si before entering the instance. Who knew if they would bring trouble upon themselves?

The louder they shouted the slogan of containing gods on weekdays, the clearer they understood what gods meant.

They were beings who could crush them with a casual flick of a hand. If they weren’t careful, they might actually die in this instance!

Several people secretly made up their minds to temporarily distance themselves no matter what, and preferably use Fu Jue as a shield to attract the NPCs’ hatred.

Fortunately, Fu Jue indeed fulfilled their wishes and was the first to speak.

Qi Si slightly raised his eyes, seeing the players’ discomfort, but curved his lips at Fu Jue: “Hello, Fu Jue. What a coincidence, I didn’t expect to meet you here.”

After inheriting Qi’s memories, his hostility towards the identity of Fu Jue quickly faded. All overly intense emotions were diluted by billions of years of information, leaving behind a pure, instinctive malice, like a mischievous child catching a grasshopper, pulling off its limbs, simply because it was fun.

Malice is equal, directed at all existences, all living beings, rather than a specific, concrete person. All beings are but ants and mayflies to a god. Harm, in many cases, is not out of dislike, but perhaps curiosity, or even inadvertence.

All emotions towards living beings are spread out on the same plane, neither hatred nor tolerance. Occasionally, a casual flick of a hand to brush away ants attempting to stain the divine body, manifests as hurricanes and floods in the mortal world.

Qi Si surveyed the other players and said with a smile, “What are you standing around for? Feel free to sit.”

His tone was as natural as a host inviting guests, further confirming everyone’s speculation about Qi Si’s identity.

The players exchanged glances and took their seats, fearing that a slow movement would incur the wrath of this god-level NPC and result in a tricky death point being thrown at them.

It wasn’t until they sat down at the long table that they noticed a notebook made of parchment placed on each seat, which appeared to be an item from the instance.

Having nothing else to do, they conscientiously lowered their heads and flipped through the pages, even though they were completely blank—at least it was better than staring at Qi Si.

In the stagnant atmosphere, Asakura Yuko started, and the players began to introduce themselves one by one.

These players were all highly ranked. Summarizing them as “top-ranked players” was too general; accurately speaking, their average ranking was within the top two hundred, and considering their true strength, they could probably rank even higher.

With so many powerful players gathered in one instance, the difficulty of this instance was imaginable.

“Children, most of you are the most devout believers, and only with the trait of devoutness can you enter this temple and have the opportunity to face the great Holy Lord.”

Father Rachi spread his arms and announced in a kind but unquestionable voice, “But the Lord tells me that there are heretics mixed among you, and each of them can kill a believer at night.”

The faction division became apparent at this moment. The two major factions were undoubtedly “Believers” and “Heretics.”

At the same time, the notebooks in front of the players silently floated up, and silver-white prompt text appeared in the void.

【Name: Infinite Pages of History】

【Type: Item】

【Effect: Automatically records everything that has happened with text and images, and has a chance to form corresponding skills (of course, you can also use it for drafts)】

【Remark: History can be tampered with or buried, but some things… always objectively exist】

The notebook, called “Pages of History,” opened by itself, with the four large characters “Learn from History” written on the title page.

On the back was a map—belonging to the Holy City, with three locations circled in red: 【Cemetery】, 【East District】, and 【Temple】, which seemed to be the places players needed to explore next.

Lines of notetaking-style text refreshed on the pages:

【1. There will be danger in the dark, the temple is not safe】

【2. Heretics have infiltrated the Holy City, the Lord will be angry】

【3. When the apocalypse arrives, the Holy City will be destroyed】

After reading the three rules, several players couldn’t help but glance at Qi Si, who was seated at the head of the table.

“The Lord will be angry.” Does that mean “Qi Si will be angry”? It’s a bit hard to imagine… Qi Si, as if unaware, curved a faint smile on his lips, dutifully playing the role of a benevolent yet majestic “Lord.”

The “Lord” in this text naturally had nothing to do with him, but was the original Holy Lord of the instance, which was Li.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought of usurping the position, even tampering with history to directly replace Li from the root, but… the rules wouldn’t allow it. Its resolute stance made Qi Si suspect that Li had made some deal with the rules behind his back—why hadn’t he noticed the rules protecting Li so much before?

Fortunately, after a day of friendly communication, Qi Si and Father Rachi had reached a certain understanding. The priest turned a blind eye to his actions, allowing the players to misunderstand in the wrong direction.

Qi Si casually flipped through the notebook in front of him, and a card depicting an inverted cross entwined with chains appeared on the page.

【Identity Card: Heretic】

【Ability: Designate and kill one person at night (only one chance per game)】

【Remark: You walk on the dark side of the Holy City, a frequent visitor to the cross, the object of judgment for believers, and the original sin that tempts people to fall】

The card appeared as a phantom, visible only to the player themselves. Its style and design were similar to the twenty-two Identity Cards, but it was clearly unrelated to them.

Hmm, Li shamelessly plagiarized the design of the Identity Cards.

Other players also saw their factions, but no clues could be discerned from their expressions. Players who could make it to the overall ranking board all had some tricks up their sleeves, so distinguishing friend from foe based on micro-expressions was not realistic.

Asakura Yuko’s gaze lingered on the two lines of scribbled text before the faction card:

【I do not believe in doctrine, nor do I revere gods; I only believe in the truth I see, and my innate heart】

【Deception or coercion, I fear nothing; whether I am sent to the judgment seat or nailed to the cross, I do not admit guilt】

She liked these two lines very much; in her opinion, they perfectly expressed her inner thoughts, even enough to be engraved on her tombstone as an epitaph after her death.

She indeed did not believe in gods. Even when encountering god-like beings in the anomalous game, she only regarded them as oversized, harder-to-kill NPCs.

In her view, the only things worth believing in were the truth that humans are born equal, and her own innate heart to do good and not evil, even if it meant perishing on the path of seeking truth.

“This game is getting interesting.” Asakura Yuko silently put away her 【Heretic】 card and turned her head to look at Qi Si, who was sitting at the head of the table.

Unlike the other players who were somewhat wary, she was very interested in this newborn god, feeling that there was a story and information behind him, worthy of careful observation, research, and a report.

How should this game be recorded? Let’s start with “Si Qi opened his eyes as a god in the Holy City”… At this moment, all players had digested their faction information, and new text began to refresh on the system interface in the upper left corner of their vision.

Asakura Yuko looked at her system interface and saw three lines of system prompts slowly appearing:

【Faction Quest Triggered】

【Faction Quest: Kill believers so that the number of heretics among players exceeds the number of believers after three days】

【Hint: Hide your identity】