This time I chose Paladin.

Chapter 275 Information
When Lin Shouheng asked that question, he considered countless possibilities. He might hear an alias, or perhaps the paladin before him was actually a lone wolf with little fame but great strength, or perhaps he was simply a passerby who did not wish to reveal his name.

But he never expected to hear such a famous name.

"I'm Nie Weiyang."

These five words struck Lin Shouheng's mind like a thunderbolt.

Nie Weiyang...?
Lin Shouheng's expression froze. His eyes widened suddenly, his pupils dilated sharply, and the white feathers on his temples even bristled uncontrollably.

"Nie...Nie Weiyang?!" His voice rose uncontrollably, incredulous: "Which Nie Weiyang? That Nie Weiyang?"

He felt his mind exploding. Everything he had ever seen from system announcements, all the awe-inspiring achievements, all the descriptions of its power, all surged forth at this moment, overlapping with the living figure before him.

This person had just saved a dying teenager.

"..." Nie Weiyang felt like he had seen this episode before. He smiled helplessly: "If nothing unexpected happens, it should be 'that' Nie Weiyang."

Lin Shouheng was completely stunned, his mind went blank, and only countless thoughts were frantically flashing through his mind:
Nie Weiyang?!

The strongest human in that new world?!

He...he's in front of me? And I was planning to use him?!

me?

I, a former high school teacher who's barely at level 20 and on the verge of death, am actually plotting against Nie Weiyang?!
Am I already dead, and am I hallucinating in this revolving world?!
Nie Weiyang: “…”

He looked at Lin Shouheng and could sense that the man was suffocating. "Let's not talk about that anymore," he said at the right moment, interrupting Lin Shouheng's almost concrete mental storm.

His gaze fell on Lin Shouheng. Although the middle-aged man was weak and tired, there was still a trace of the stubbornness of an intellectual deep in his eyes.

“I have some questions for you,” Nie Weiyang said.

His voice pulled Lin Shouheng out of his vortex of thoughts.

Lin Shouheng suddenly snapped out of his daze, swallowed hard, and forced himself to calm down quickly.

He knew that standing before him at this moment was not just that legendary name, but a key figure who could potentially change the fate of this land.

For the first time in a long time, he saw a turning point in things.

He must seize this opportunity.

"Please ask!" Lin Shouheng's voice was still trembling slightly, but he tried his best to remain calm.

Nie Weiyang asked the question: "How much do you know about the 'Manor'?"

He paused, then added, "And, as far as you know, how many people in those manors possess the bloodline of dark creatures?"
"Don't try to lie, you can't fool me."

Based on his judgment, there might be something completely corrupted by darkness in this epidemic area. And those things are most likely entrenched within the manor.

The color drained from Lin Shouheng's face.

He looked around warily to make sure no one was eavesdropping before lowering his voice and leading Nie Weiyang to a corner piled with miscellaneous items.

Lin Shouheng pondered for a long time, seemingly organizing his thoughts, or perhaps weighing which information he could reveal. Finally, he leaned closer to Nie Weiyang, his voice extremely low, almost a whisper: "I don't know how many dark creatures there are, but those three manors... are not simple." His eyes held a deep sense of apprehension. "They belong to three different sects."

The word came out of his mouth with a distinct heaviness.

“The Church of Life, the Church of Mother God, the Return to the Church… it is said that some of their elements already exist on Earth,” he said.

Nie Weiyang was aware of this. The Crossing-the-Sky Demon's schemes within humanity began on Earth. At least twenty years ago, Crossing-the-Sky Demon followers appeared among the humans still on Earth, such as 'Sun Lord'.

"Many people here actually believe in those things, just to varying degrees."

"When people are desperate, they always want to grab onto something, even if it means they will die, it is still better than doing nothing."

A bitter smile tugged at the corners of Lin Shouheng's mouth.

“That’s how those manors stood firm. Sometimes, faith spreads faster and is more… deadly than the plague.”

He paused, his gaze involuntarily drifting towards the outside of the shed, towards the direction where Aji's mother was. A barely perceptible tremor and sorrow crept into his voice:
“Like Aji’s family… The child you saved, his grandmother recently gave everything she could in the house—the only food she had left, the little clean drinking water they had secretly hidden, and even her own food rations—almost all of her resources to the nearest manor, the manor that belongs to the ‘Cult of Life’.”

“Then…” Lin Shouheng’s voice lowered, carrying the suppressed emotion of narrating a tragedy, “she committed suicide.”

Nie Weiyang's eyes remained completely unmoved.

He had witnessed too many things like this in the previous week, but the speed at which these sects were spreading was indeed a bit too fast.

Judging from their doctrines and beliefs, there are probably some secrets involved.

"Her last words said that in this way, the God she believed in would see her piety and would bless her daughter and grandson, giving them 'divine support' that transcends worldly economics."

“She said she had abandoned everything in this world to follow her God in the eternal land…” Lin Shouheng imitated that tone, which might have been filled with fanaticism or utter despair, but in the end, only a cold statement remained: “She also repeatedly told them that she would find eternal and supreme happiness in the Kingdom of God.”

A brief, deathly silence fell over the corner. Only the faint groans of pain coming from outside the shed mingled with the howling of the night wind.

Lin Shouheng looked up at Nie Weiyang's still sharp features in the dim light and added bitterly, "This is what 'religion' looks like here, Mr. Nie."

"It doesn't need swords to make people willingly give up everything, including their lives."

“That estate of the ‘Cult of Life’ is just one of them. The other two are respectively associated with forces called the ‘Cult of Mother Goddess’ and the ‘Return Sect’. Their methods are similar, and they are all using various means to extract the last bit of hope from this land.”

"..." Nie Weiyang tapped his fingers on the hilt of his sword. "There must be a reason why you've managed to hold out here until now without surrendering to the manor. Would you mind telling me?"

Lin Shouheng sighed and laughed: "You finally asked the question."

His gaze was fixed on the distance.

“There is an organization in the epidemic area called ‘Lights’. Its mission is to resist the encroachment of the manor and those sects, but in order not to be wiped out, it does not have an absolute leader, but is led by three different leaders. These people call themselves ‘Flame Bearers’, but we Chinese usually call them ‘Fire Leaders’.”

Lin Shouheng grinned, and a glint appeared in his eyes when he mentioned this: "I have some connection with one of the cooks. His name is Rotal Albert. He studied in China and we were classmates. Our alma mater was Senyun University."

"We became friends later. Before the accident, we were both unlucky guys in the same tour group."

(End of this chapter)