Nightmare Light

Chapter 285 Past Events of Red City

The priest's words surprised Lin Wang.

"You actually know about the Federation?"

Hearing Lin Wang's words, the man gave a bitter smile: "So... what I experienced before wasn't a dream... the imperial power has really ended."

Lin Wang simply sat cross-legged in front of the man: "Tell me your story."

“My surname is Lu… My given name doesn’t matter, just call me Lu.” He looked at Lin Wang calmly, “But why should I tell you my story? I don’t know you.”

"I'm the one who pulled you out of that state." Lin Wang deliberately avoided using the word "rescue."

“Oh, then I should thank you.” Lu nodded. “What do you want to hear? I can tell you anything except what is detrimental to my lord.”

"Who is your master? Why did you become like that? Who built that purification facility in Red City?"

Although Lin Wang appeared calm, he was filled with anticipation for the conversation—this priest named Lu was the first conscious, intelligent, and communicative being he had found in the dream world!

"Ah...you really are a very curious big guy. I'm a little curious about you." Lu raised his head and glanced at Lin Wang. "Who are you? A mortal? Or some kind of immortal...no, to be able to wake me up, immortals aren't powerful enough. Are you a priest of some deity?"

Lin Wang noticed that there were no tattoos or markings on Lu's face.

"Just think of me as a priest of some god," Lin Wang said. After all, whether it was the tree fern or the white fire, it did indeed originate from the power of the Great Lord.

"Don't want to talk about it? It doesn't matter." Lu remained calm. He raised his hand, and a blood-red crystal condensed at his fingertips. He stared intently at the crystal. "My story... begins in the era of imperial power."

The next second, what the mysterious priest said surprised Lin Wang greatly.

"I am from the Jin Dynasty, and I became a priest in the sixteenth year of Emperor Wu's reign."

"Wait! The Jin Dynasty? Not the Three Sovereigns period?!" Lin Wang looked at the priest with a surprised expression.

“The Three Sovereigns? What’s that… Oh, my lord told me about that history… The Three Sovereigns… The Federation, right?” Lu Rang’s blood-red crystal spun in his fingertip. “I’m not even from that world.”

Lin Wang slapped his forehead, realizing that he had made a common-sense mistake—Lu was a priest of the dream world, and naturally followed the history of the dream world.

The history of the Three Sovereigns and the Federation is the history of the Chu world.

What exactly is the relationship between these two worlds...? Lin Wang was almost certain that the other side was also a real world.

He pondered for a moment, then gestured for the priest to continue.

Then, the priest told another story that surprised Lin Wang.

Lu said, "When Yuansheng rebelled, our lord was not corrupted, but He was powerless to defeat Yuansheng and his Mad God Legion, so He went into hiding and later hid in the Chu World."

"You mean, your master... wasn't corrupted during the Primal War?!" Lin Wang asked him. This strange priest had brought him far too many surprises.

“Of course not.” Lu asked back, somewhat puzzled. “Otherwise, how could he have completed all the subsequent arrangements?”

After a moment's thought, Lin Wang understood what Lu meant—his master had hidden himself during the Primal War, and only then was he able to create the "purification" system in Red City.

That makes sense. Lin Wang nodded, indicating that he understood.

Lu said, “Our Lord saw the corruption that the primordial beings had inflicted on the immortals and gods during the Primordial War, and since then He has been trying to find a way to resolve the corruption.”

"The initial experiments failed—at first, we were completely helpless against such contamination."

"Later, our Lord discovered that although the pollution was everywhere in the host's body, a portion of it could be extracted through a blood transfusion."

Lin Wang's heart stirred as he recalled the blood cakes he had seen in Red City and the strange purification ritual.

"Our Lord led us to build a large-scale blood purification facility... but it still failed," Lu said.

"why?"

"Because our test subjects are mortals." Lu flicked the crystal at his fingertip, and the blood-red crystal cracked into four or five tiny blood crystal fragments, which swirled in the air like snowflakes. "Mortals are at the end of the pollution chain—pollution flows directly into the host's spiritual world along with faith and takes effect on the body."

“No matter how many times we successfully purify mortals, they will be corrupted again the next time they pray, the next time they look directly at someone, or even the next time they hear a certain name—of course, the name of the Mad God.” Lu made a pinching motion with his fingers, and the blood crystal in front of him shattered with a bang. “The spiritual world of mortals is too fragile. Even if they see a corrupted person who is also human, they will be corrupted.”

Lin Wang sorted through the information he had received, trying to piece together the intelligence in his mind. He asked for directions: "So, your master designed that purification ritual—the one I saw in Red City..."

“No, that was many years later.” Lu shook his head, and a new blood crystal condensed at his fingertips. “My lord knew that to completely complete the purification, we had to start from the source, but at that time there were two difficulties facing Him.”

"First, the Origin and His Great King are omnipresent, and our Lord is no match for them; they are the true source of corruption."

"Secondly, the pollution originates from faith, and from Our Lord Himself..."

Lin Wang continued, "It's also part of faith."

Lu was silent for a few seconds, then nodded: "Faith cannot explain other faiths, so our Lord's research has come to a standstill."

"And then?" Lin Wang asked.

"Our Lord has commanded His priests to transform on the spot into the monsters you saw before—the Blood Rock Demon appearance can resist the erosion of time, and the monster appearance can also evade the search of the Primal Legion."

"We wandered aimlessly in Red City and the surrounding land in that state, whispering to our Lord in our hearts—listening to Him in a place where no one cared, listening to Him tell us about a magical little world called 'Chu'—a place that was simultaneously controlled by three emperors... Later, the era of the three emperors ended, and the Federation era began."

“We told our Lord that the war outside was over, and that the Primordial One and His Legion were gone, but our Lord still said to us—it is not the time yet.”

At this point, Lu suddenly fell silent.

Lin Wang had a vague idea of ​​what was going to happen next. He didn't urge the poor man, but just waited in silence.

"Then one day, our Lord suddenly said to us—the opportunity to complete the experiment has come."

Lu raised his head and smiled with a complicated expression—a smile that carried anger, resentment, and other emotions.

“Our Lord says that He has been corrupted.”

(End of this chapter)