Wasteland: My items are infinitely upgraded.

Chapter 353 Reading Scripture, The Gaze from the Temple
The Holy Spring Book, as the most important historical record of the Vatican, has undergone more than 6,000 years of evolution. Compared with the first edition, the current version has been revised countless times.

Especially after the Lord of the Holy Spring fell into slumber, the Holy Spring Church was jointly managed by the Immortal Saint and other archbishops of the Holy City, and many secrets about the contents of the first edition of the Holy Spring Book were completely concealed.

All that remains are records of praising the Lord and the Papacy, and various glorious deeds.

The truth behind it remains only in the memories of the older generation of bishops.

According to the bishop, the Lord of the Holy Spring chose to enter into eternal slumber in the fourth millennium of the new calendar.

Then came the Death Agent, who possessed the Gun King's power, was awakened by the Lord from the core of the Power Furnace and succeeded Him as the de facto ruler of the Holy See.

But these original arrangements soon changed abruptly.

As one of the eight sages who first followed the Lord in the old era, the immortal saint of that time, after surviving for thousands of years, has become the strongest being, reaching level thirty-nine, the peak of the third tier...

The restrictions and weakening of the Holy Spring Church by the Lord of the Holy Spring before his slumber naturally aroused dissatisfaction within the Holy Spring Church.

Neither the high-ranking third-order bishops nor the numerous first-order deacons or combat priests at the grassroots level wanted to see the Holy See decline continuously after the Lord of the Holy Spring fell into slumber.

Thus began a long-planned reform that removed the Death Agent who carried out the will of the Lord of the Holy Spring from power and placed him under the control of the Supreme Privy Council.

This gradually evolved into the current situation where there are eight top holy cities and eight saints who govern themselves.

And in order to erase this shameful past...

Subsequently, under the guidance of the Immortal Saint, the General Academy deleted and modified the second to fourth editions of the Holy Spring, erasing some hidden content.

The fifth to seventh editions consisted entirely of new content, with only brief descriptions of the past events, and no longer included a chronological calendar of major events.

The reason why the first edition of the Holy Spring Book was not touched was entirely due to the reasoned arguments of the Primitive Church within the Vatican.

Because the original manuscripts recording events of the old calendar have been lost and incomplete, the only true and complete record of the past and the history of the Papacy is the first edition of the Primordial Book.

If even this is deleted or altered, then all that will be left for the world and future generations is a fabricated, meaningless history.

Considering the future Lord of the Holy Spring and the day of his awakening, many bishops of the Supreme Privy Council feared being purged as a result. Therefore, they sided with the Primordialists and preserved the first edition of the Holy Spring Book.

However, after reading through the old book, Lin Feng realized that the reason why those late-stage third-order saints agreed to preserve the first edition of the Holy Spring Scripture was entirely because its writing time happened to fall at the end of the old calendar year...

This is the first year of the new calendar, when all the gods attained enlightenment and returned to their rightful places.

The era of ancient gods' chaotic battles came to an end, and the beginning of a new world began.

The events that occurred over the next few thousand years were not recorded in the first edition.

The second to seventh editions record events that occurred over the next six thousand years. If any changes are to be made, all of them must be deleted to ensure consistency and logical coherence.

This is how the first edition was saved from destruction and preserved.

Although no deletions or alterations were made, the Holy Scripture faction continued to suppress the Primordial Faction, destroying large quantities of the first edition of the Holy Spring Book and prohibiting later church monks from reading or understanding it.

The Holy Spring Book that Bishop Zhang Hui presented to us is now almost a unique, lost treasure...

However, Lin Feng was not interested in the chaotic battle of the gods that occurred before the Lunar New Year.

Because at that time, most of those peak third-tier beings who had taken the step towards godhood died in the chaotic battle.

Only two of the strongest beings remain: the Lord of the Holy Spring, who founded the Holy Spring Cult, and the Progenitor, who controls the giant corporation.

Given the scale of the remaining human civilization at that time, it could only support two gods.

After humanity was severely weakened by war, the two gods chose to temporarily suspend the conflict, signed a ceasefire agreement, and welcomed the arrival of the new era of gods.

As for the desolate and barren lands further north, the Night Emperor of the Eternal Night Empire probably hadn't taken that step yet at that time.

Therefore, they were not taken seriously by the Lord of the Holy Spring and the End of Life.

Only after the two deities fell into slumber did the rising star, the Night Emperor, dare to take this step.

Below the Holy Spring Church, the southernmost King's Alliance, near the planet's equator, remains in chaos, a loose alliance composed of numerous first-rate royal cities of varying sizes.

Normally, they barely maintain their own development by absorbing the forces of fugitives and wanderers from all over the world. If they want to obtain additional resources, they have to snatch food from the mouth of the Holy See.

Because they cannot work together, they remain a disorganized mess. Even with three late-stage Tier 3 Heavenly Kings holding sway over their respective regions, they are unable to take that step and truly possess the qualifications to confront top-tier large-scale forces.

The first edition of the Holy Spring Sutra records this day as the first year of the new calendar; however, the events that occurred after the book was completed.

At this moment, in the center of the advancing convoy, on the rooftop of the headquarters building, Lin Feng turned to the last page of the Holy Spring Scripture, his brows slightly furrowed.

The dramatic events at the end of the lunar year had little to do with what happened later.

After all, conquering the world and ruling the world are two completely different things, and even somewhat hostile ones.

Because at the beginning of starting a business, there is only one goal.

That is to eliminate the previous ruling power, then eliminate the other competitors, stand out from the crowd, and become the ultimate winner.

But once unification is achieved and one becomes the new ruler, the next thing to face is ubiquitous rebellion and power struggles.

Even in the age of evolution, when an individual's power rivals that of a god and they are nearly omnipotent, they still need the constant "support" from their subordinate forces to maintain their peak condition.

And stability thus became the primary goal.

Therefore, during that period, opposing forces such as the Sun God Cult emerged one after another, causing the Vatican even more headaches.

Unfortunately, we need to find later versions of the Holy Spring Book to understand that early history of its development.

Fortunately, on the last title page of this first edition of the Holy Spring Book, there are some important matters personally recorded by His Excellency the Bishop.

For example, in the first thousand years, there were two upheavals, mainly caused by the original eight sages, two of whom colluded with other first-rate forces.

They caused chaos and calamity in the border regions, and even the Lord of the Holy Spring had to personally intervene to finally end these disturbances.

In the following few thousand years, almost every few hundred years, a disaster or upheaval of city-destroying magnitude would occur.

For example, in the fourth millennium, within the forbidden zone of the blazing sun, a yang evil erupted, leaving behind many yang stones in the safe zone, which caused serious damage when large groups from later settlements passed by.

One holy city even suffered a direct loss of more than half its population.

The late-stage third-tier archbishop who was guarding that place also sacrificed his life to suppress the evil spirits, and his soul returned to the divine kingdom.

But none of these things mattered to Lin Feng.

What is truly connected to him is the matter of the succession of the agent at the end of the fourth millennium.

The Death Agent inherited part of the essence of the Gun King, the strongest Tier 3 King from the old Earth era, and possesses super destructive power.

And the essence within it is precisely the evolutionary resource that Lin Feng needs.

Although Lin Feng awakened his true superpower, the power of the brand.

However, with the system at his side, he can actually activate all the superpower genes in his body by consuming life points, thereby achieving an all-around upgrade.

In the future, when facing encirclement and suppression by top-tier forces, the best way to deal with it is to master absolute lethality.

If one can acquire strength comparable to a third-tier king before advancing to the third tier, then breaking through will naturally be effortless.

Lin Feng originally planned to take advantage of the catastrophe instigated by Zong Shiyue and the assistance of the divine dog to fish in troubled waters and complete his transformation. Now, after learning about the existence of the Death Agent, he has a more prudent plan.

That is to use the power of the third-tier gun king's origin to perform cross-tier modification and upgrade on the two branded weapons in hand, and obtain the third-tier rating of powerful weapons in the second stage.

And thus, they truly gained a foothold in the wasteland.

The origins of the Death Agent, which was once the energy source for the base's operation and is now the core of the land-based warship's power furnace, are also the foundation for Lin Feng's creation of the royal city.

Only by acquiring this controlled nuclear fusion technology can we provide a continuous source of power for the steel behemoths weighing tens of thousands of tons.

It is also one of the fundamental conditions for future space travel and solving the problem of three suns in the sky.

Lin Feng wasn't particularly interested in what happened back then. He only wanted to know the whereabouts of the Death Agent: whether it had been stuffed back into the Power Furnace by the later-rising Undying Saint to be sealed once again, or whether it had escaped or been exiled somewhere...

As long as you can find the other party's trail, you can obtain the Gun King's Essence you need.

Unfortunately, Bishop Zhang Hui's understanding of this matter was not detailed; he only made a rough record of the Immortal Saint and the power grab by other high-ranking members of the Vatican.

The whereabouts of the death agent were not mentioned again.

Even among the Primordial Faction, who steadfastly follow the Lord of the Holy Spring, the Death Agent is unqualified as a custodian.

Because he did not receive the Lord's baptism and gifts, and was not a faithful believer on the path to the holy spring.

It's more like a weapon without a self.

If he had remained neutral from the beginning, forming a three-way balance of power with the Undying Saint and the Primordial Faction, the situation would have been more stable and long-lasting.

However, the former lacked self-control, did not know how to win over or restrain others, and was also too inexperienced, ultimately falling into the trap set by the Vatican's high command.

During this period, members of the Chuyuan faction also helped to accomplish this task.

Faced with collective opposition from the Vatican's high command, even if the Death Agent had a divine oracle, he could only accept his fate once the Lord of the Holy Spring fell into slumber.

After all, even with the enhancements, his strength is only at the late stage of the third tier. He's good enough to govern a holy city, but far from being the sole person in charge of the Holy See.

Unless one has one foot in the realm of gods, like the immortal saints of today, one cannot command all the heroes under heaven and become a true agent of the gods.

After finishing reading the first edition of the Holy Spring Sutra, Lin Feng put it in the cabinet and locked it, then walked to the window.

Looking out at the vast wilderness.

The team had already traveled 100 kilometers in just five hours.

The average speed reaches 20 kilometers per hour.

It is more than twenty times the size of the old Oasis Town.

This speed is still limited by the harsh terrain of the Gobi Desert. If we return to the flat oasis road, the speed can be doubled, reaching 40 to 50 kilometers per hour.

In just half a day, or twelve hours, it can travel 600 kilometers.

Even if they only rest for half a day before setting off, they can reach the Storm Holy City in five or six days.

However, Lin Feng wasn't in a hurry this time, because besides the mission of delivering the message assigned by Father Su An, he also had to complete something more important.

That was to release the dangerous time bombs carried by the team into the wasteland, allowing Zong Shiyue to rely on the refugees to return to the surface and carry out his revenge plan.

Therefore, Lin Feng had to be careful to avoid the support forces of the Holy City Bishopric during his journey that day, so as not to let them notice anything unusual about the group.

Meanwhile, to the left of the convoy's direction of travel, a hundred kilometers away, lies the sacred site of the Holy Spring Scripture, the final resting place of the Lord of the Holy Spring...

The area known as the Zhuma Temple.

Not only does it contain a true deity above the third rank, but also a large number of divine servants who serve the Lord of the Holy Spring.

The most powerful guard force is the legendary Temple Knights, a unique force of the Zhuma Temple.

Compared to the Knights Templar, the Templar Knights are truly comparable to third-tier beings, and can even easily kill ordinary third-tier kings within the range of divine power.

Only with such strength could one withstand the invasion of the Sun Curse and the Yang Evil within the Sun Forbidden Zone, while ensuring the safety of the temple.

At first, Lin Feng thought he could see the magnificent temple, but then he encountered Zong Shiyue, the fallen evil god...

So he gave up on that idea.

After all, if they were to accidentally incur divine punishment, even without the Lord of the Holy Spring taking action, the Temple Knights alone could easily wipe out Lin Feng and his group.

However, this trip was very fruitful, so even if we couldn't pay homage to the Lord of the Holy Spring from afar, we have no regrets.

The only pity is that Bishop Zhang Hui, who truly devoted himself to the Church, died before the Oasis Town was brought into the temple, and finally died at the feet of the Lord...

Just as Lin Feng was feeling quite emotional...

Suddenly, he felt a strange gaze coming from behind him.

Lin Feng felt a chill run down his spine, and the hairs on his body stood on end.

But Lin Feng did not turn around.
Because he knew very well that this gaze was not a gaze cast upon him in reality, but rather a gaze from the level of spiritual energy.

Like a high and mighty king, looking down upon his kingdom and his subjects.

In the eyes of the other party, I am nothing more than a special one among thousands of ants.

Lin Feng held his breath.

He sensed the frequency of the attribute from the energy fluctuations of this gaze, just like the high-level holy spring water he had touched.

This is the power from the Temple of Zhuma, which is exploring the human settlements it passes by.

Even ordinary evolved beings, or even second-tier evolved beings, would find it difficult to detect this existence.

For example, Ding Yi, who had just been promoted to level two, and Chen Shanshan, who had become a level twenty-three evolver, did not show any abnormalities.

Only Lin Feng felt something.

The biggest difference between him and the two women is obviously the extra abilities brought about by his perfect body after all three of his attributes have reached their maximum.

This gave him an ability to perceive subtle energy fluctuations around him that far exceeded his own evolutionary level.

However, Lin Feng did not show any unusual behavior.

Instead, he forcefully suppressed his inner astonishment.

Until the energy of that gaze slowly faded away...

He finally let out a long sigh and leaned back in his seat.

Before Lin Feng could recover, a familiar, trembling voice rang in his ears again.

All that could be heard was Zong Shiyue muttering curses:

"Damn it, there's a traitor in the team!"

(End of this chapter)