Why is my journey to the world of anime a strange tale of rules?

He had absolutely no way of knowing how far he was from the bottom of the lake, and he even had the feeling that he would never come out if he stayed here for the rest of his life.

If that's the case, then let's stay on the phone, Haijun. From now on, I will keep communicating with you, and you must also tell me any unusual things you sense.

Maki's voice rang out again, her speech rapid and her tone firm, as if she were trying to combat the loneliness that Takahashi was experiencing through conversation.

{Okay, I understand}

Gao Hai responded as he continued to descend, maintaining a steady pace as he slowly descended.

{So, let's start by talking about something. Do you remember that Western restaurant we went to last time, Haijun?}

{You mean that restaurant where the waiter stood there the whole time, making me feel like I wanted to kiss them but no one was watching? I can only say the food was alright.}

{That's the style of that restaurant; the waiters serve each table of customers separately. I didn't expect you, Haijun, to feel awkward. I thought you were the type who didn't care about onlookers and would just touch them if you wanted something.}

{That's definitely my personality, but you must feel really pressured if I touched you inappropriately in front of a stranger, right? Especially since your family and friends occasionally go to that restaurant. I don't care about the food itself, but I still have to consider your feelings.}

Hmm, I never knew you'd consider something like this...

Like chatting idly, Gao Hai and Zhen Fei talked casually about various topics.

The deep, dark lake remained still, and the corpses continued to float silently.

But gradually, Gao Hai's emotions calmed down, and he began to feel the lake's corrosive effect on his mind gradually diminish. The twisted power that had been clinging to him like a skin disease gradually faded away.

Why did the erosion power suddenly weaken?

Could it be that just because I can find someone to chat with, the power of the rules at the bottom of the lake has lost its prerequisite for taking effect and no longer works on people?

Gao Hai was momentarily confused, but after glancing down again, he noticed the changes below.

ground.

He finally saw the ground.

"call……"

The lake bottom has no aquatic plants and hardly any aquatic life.

For the past ten minutes or so, there had been no trace of it, but now it suddenly appeared as if it were the bottom of the lake.

Gao Hai landed gently on the ground, his feet sinking slightly before he regained his footing.

"Huh...huh..."

There were no more corpses around.

Upon reaching the bottom of the "Water Ghost Lake," Gao Hai couldn't see any floating corpses. All he could see was a flat, almost undulating lakebed made of silt, and nothing else.

I've reached the bottom. I'm not sure if this is the only way down, or if I need to overcome the loneliness I felt earlier to reach the bottom. Next, I'll move towards the designated coordinates.

After informing his teammates above of the situation via mental and temporary mental links, Gao Hai began to move forward into the muddy lakebed.

With just a slight movement of his foot, the mud at the bottom of the lake was stirred up, forming large, misty floating particles that quickly spread around Gao Hai.

In the deathly silence, Gao Hai's vision began to be affected. However, as he amplified the power of his crimson domain, all the dust particles were blown away, and the surroundings instantly became clean.

At the same time, Gao Hai also saw what was buried under the silt piled up on the ground.

Is this... a bone?

The human bones, now fragmented and intertwined, are almost unrecognizable, and lie buried silently in the mud.

These bones are strange.

While careful examination does reveal structural parts belonging to the human skeleton, the overall arrangement of these fragmented bones is unnatural and bizarre. In particular, some bones appear to have grown together and fused together, a phenomenon that looks highly abnormal.

It's like those people who were sunk to the bottom of the lake, who continued to live here for a while.

Despite the twisted and deformed body, and even though it was buried in the mud and gradually became fused with the flesh and blood of other offerings, it did indeed live for a period of time.

Not existing as a living person with thoughts and a self, but... continuing to live simply in the form of flesh...

Gao Hai didn't know why he had such thoughts, but he didn't do anything to the bones. He just continued to move forward, and even floated up to avoid actually stepping on them.

Nearly.

I can already sense the location indicated by the black watch. That thing, the one that required three slots of high-level save points to locate, and which must be helpful for clearing the game, is just ahead.

"call……"

With heavy breathing, Gao Hai swam forward a little further.

The silt particles floating all around were swept away by the crimson domain, leaving nothing behind.

The view ahead became clear at that moment.

Teacher, in your eyes, is this scene sinful?

The voice of the mountain god, imbued with Alice's personality, also rang out in Gao Hai's mind at that moment.

Chapter 93: The Divine Object Hidden at the Bottom of the Lake and the Core Obsession That Has Emerged

Stone.

Black stones with a blood-red sheen.

The stone, twisted and fused together with fragmented flesh, has taken on a grotesque and terrifying form.

Just like the statue that I once saw in the Shirakawa apartment that looked like a Guanyin statue that grants children, it imitates the holy posture of gods and Buddhas, but if you look closely, you will find that it is not a thing at all.

Corpses lay one after another beside them, forming a circle that stretched out in all directions in a dense mass.

The dead roared, howled, and cried out, frozen in the silent darkness. The statues, which had been present throughout, stood silently, offering no further response to the departed.

That's right.

Gao Hai silently looked at the Fox Queen's head with her eyes tightly closed.

So that's how it is.

Gao Hai looked at the black stone of the Little Black Mountain God, which was covered in cracks and twisted beyond recognition.

This is where their remains are, or at least a part of the material components of their remains, things that the gods left behind in the real world.

The death of gods does not seem to be the same concept as death for humans. For example, even after losing their individual selves, mountain gods can continue to maintain their abilities by creating different personality templates. Simple death is inaccurate for their kind. Even without consciousness, they may still be able to think under certain circumstances; even if they are fragmented, they can return to a whole state under special circumstances; even if they are shattered to pieces, they can still maintain a part of their power in the real and unreal worlds, continuing to leave behind something.

Gao Hai wasn't sure whether the fused stones and flesh had been at the bottom of the lake from the beginning, or whether they had ended up here due to some unforeseen event.

But he already knew what had happened here.

What exactly does "god" mean? Gao Hai still doesn't have a clear answer. Whether it's the mountain god or the fox goddess, he doesn't know if they are manifestations of some concept, embodiments of people's faith, or simply innate extraordinary beings. But he does know the commonality of these gods, or at least the commonality that the original gods of this planet are likely to possess: a selfless and simple love for life.

Or perhaps, God loves the world?

Without actually seeing the living mountain god and fox goddess, Gao Hai wasn't sure if his conjecture was correct. But at least judging from the deaths of these offerings, he believed the explanation was plausible.

These women and children, who were sacrificed, were not drowned, suffocated, or starved to death.

They died after their minds collapsed and their consciousness died, at which point their bodies lost their vitality.

It sounds absurd, but Gao Hai could only confirm it after arriving at this place and truly feeling the power emanating from the twisted, fused flesh and stone statue. Because at this moment, the statue was radiating a power capable of sustaining all life around it. Approaching the statue, Gao Hai didn't even need a diver's mask to breathe, and he could remain there without food or water without any problems. This miraculous statue granted Gao Hai, as a living being, an extremely powerful life force, enough for him to survive smoothly here, ignoring all the obstacles in the deep water.

He thought the reason this statue emanated such power was because... they had heard the cries for help from the sacrifices.

Even after death, the remnants of their existence continue to function. These almost instinctive responses cause the mountain god and the fox goddess to release a powerful life force to ensure the survival of the offerings once they sink to their sides. Therefore, even if these offerings are sewn with facial features, bound hand and foot, and unable to move while submerged at the bottom of deep water, they can still survive and continue to live regardless of any obstacles.

This vitality was so strong that not only did the victims, who were sacrificed, survive, but the surrounding land also received a radiating effect, making the soil more fertile and easier to harvest. At the same time, the vegetation in the surrounding woodlands grew more lush, and the animals had more abundant food, resulting in communities that exceeded normal sizes.

This finally explains why Xiao Ai discovered an excessive number of animals; this anomaly is essentially an effect of life force radiation.

For those victims who were sunk to the bottom of the lake, being able to continue to survive in such an extreme environment can perhaps be described as a miracle.

But that's all it took to keep them alive.

God could no longer clearly respond to the wishes of these victims; He merely felt the pain of the dying and responded instinctively.

Therefore, these victims eventually died.

Imprisoned day and night at the bottom of the deep water, in a cage of despair where they could see nothing, hear nothing, and feel nothing but the endless pressure of the deep water, the spirits of these sacrifices eventually collapsed completely. Even if their bodies remained active, their minds were as good as dead. And after these victims lost all thought and could no longer cry for help, the gods, no longer able to sense their plight, ceased supplying their power and stopped releasing that powerful life force.

Therefore, new offerings should be placed down.

"call……"

Gao Hai's breathing became slightly disordered at this moment.

After realizing what had happened here, and after understanding the tragedy that had been repeated here for countless years, accumulating to thousands of corpses, even he, who had witnessed many tragedies, couldn't help but feel a little unsettled.

He couldn't help but wonder, which villager first conceived of this sacrificial ritual and carried it out? He found it hard to believe that these villagers deep in the mountains could have come up with such a method of utilizing divine power without any guidance or outside instruction. However, he also had to consider: was it truly necessary to find a mastermind behind it all? Was it really possible to find a perfectly timed mastermind who could pin all the tragedies and misfortunes on him? What if it was truly just an accident? What if these ignorant, impoverished villagers had discovered this by chance?

After all, if someone is pushed into the lake, and as long as someone is alive and sinks into the lake, the crops will be bountiful for at least a year. Is it really impossible for such a thing to be discovered by accident or unintentionally?

Gao Hai was reluctant to imagine that possible opportunity.

But at this moment, facing the twisted statue of flesh and rock, looking at the corpses scattered on the ground, the bones accumulated year after year, he found that he had nothing to say except silence.

Regardless, what has already happened cannot be changed.

Even Takami, who successfully reversed time using the power of Eriko Asamoto, his teacher, and the fragments of the abyss, did so by "adjusting" the past. Only by doing so, without altering what had already happened, could he successfully reverse the tragedy and save many innocent people. What has already occurred cannot be changed; forcibly altering it would only lead to unpredictable and uncontrollable events. Although Takami hasn't tried it himself, he vaguely senses that it's a taboo that must never be attempted.

{Mr. Gao, have you reached the coordinates? Have you found anything?}

Perhaps because Gao Hai had been silent for too long, Tang Yuan's voice came through the temporary mental link.

{Mr. Gao, um... whatever you're doing there, I think you should come up as soon as possible. I just did the math, and there's a very high chance you'll die down there. And every second you stay at the bottom of the lake increases your chances of dying significantly. Right now, I've calculated that there's a 98% chance you're going to die down there.}

The Taoist's voice also rang out from the temporary mental link. Unlike Tangyuan's calm and collected voice, the Taoist seemed to have seen something and his voice trembled as if he had been frightened.

{Hey, what do you mean by "98% chance of dying"? You might as well say Haijun is definitely dead! What nonsense are you spouting?!}

Maki's somewhat angry voice echoed through the temporary mental link. Although she had initially been holding back, she had long harbored resentment towards this guy who constantly said to everyone, "If you die, I die, we all die together." Especially now that he was saying this to Takahashi, who was still exploring underwater, she was even more annoyed.

{I'm telling the truth, it's 98%—no, it's 99.8% now. Mr. Gao, you've been targeted by something very dangerous. You'd better come up quickly. Although I can't see how you died, I can tell you died in excruciating pain, to the point of unbearable agony…}

But since this Taoist priest had managed to stay in the "Slacking Off Gang" until now without being killed and his personality hadn't changed, he naturally wouldn't change his mind just because of a few words from his teammates. Not only that, he began to persuade him even more earnestly, his voice sounding less like Gao Hai was in danger and more like everyone was going to perish with him.

{Alright, alright, I got it. Now that I'm here, I'm prepared for danger. I've reached the coordinates and spotted the crucial item I need to take. If I can get this and figure out what it's for, our chances of clearing this dungeon will increase significantly. Whew… to be honest, I didn't expect it to be this big. It might be difficult to move. Anyway, I'll get started.}

Gao Hai casually replied with a couple of sentences in the mental link, and then swam to the statue.

The bloodstone statue, a fusion of the fox goddess and the mountain god, is approximately 2.3 meters tall, with a circular pedestal at its base resembling a lotus platform. However, this is only under the premise of careful observation; upon closer inspection, one would discover that it is a horrifying contraption composed of many twisted, deformed, skinless human hands and stones.

Gao Hai didn't seem to care about this. He calmly grabbed the base of the statue and slowly pulled it out of the silt at the bottom of the lake, lifting the thing that probably weighed several tons little by little.