Since all these rules and superstitions are outdated, what's wrong with me indulging in some me

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And then there are those rules. Although they are called "God's rules," they are full of restrictions. In particular, the requirement to respond to prayers, take communion, and break hair... they seem more like rules for sacrifices than rules for God.

Blackwater Town, the underground temple where Lu Changsheng resides.

The fine sand in the hourglass is about to run out.

Lu Changsheng sat cross-legged on the stone bed, trying to stay awake.

Is setting a bedtime of 11 PM a protective mechanism or a mandatory protective mechanism?

Lu Changsheng decided to try it himself tonight.

However, at the very moment the last grain of sand in the hourglass fell—at exactly 11 p.m.—an irresistible, deep, and overwhelming weariness swept over his consciousness without warning.

It wasn't normal drowsiness, but rather a kind of compulsive force acting directly on his mind. His thinking ability quickly became sluggish, and his eyelids felt as heavy as a thousand pounds.

"No...it's forced..." Lu Changsheng's will lasted for less than three seconds before it completely dissipated.

His body fell backward uncontrollably, sinking into the dark red fabric of the stone bed. In the instant before his consciousness completely sank into darkness, he vaguely felt his heart beating strongly.

Immediately afterwards, he felt as if he had fallen into an endless abyss.

In the darkness, faint murmurs rose and fell, as if from countless throats, speaking in a language he could not understand but which reached the depths of his soul, telling of ancient secrets, frantic prayers, and greedy expectations.

Outside the room where he had completely lost consciousness, a faint light suddenly shone through the heavy stone door, before returning to silence a few seconds later.

The night is long.

The countdown to the seventh day has quietly turned another page.

-

【Day 2】

Lu Changsheng woke up groggily and felt unbearable soreness all over his body.

A very slight tingling sensation spread through my entire body, but it was gone in an instant.

Before they could examine it closely, three rhythmic knocks came from the stone door, like a precise timekeeping.

Lu Changsheng looked at the hourglass beside him and realized it was already eight o'clock.

"My God, the time has come. A servant will help you change your clothes," came Cass's deep, steady voice from outside the door.

"Come in."

Three servants bowed and entered one after another to help him wash and change his clothes, putting him back into the magnificent and heavy white-gold divine robe.

Judge Cass stood solemnly outside the door, and Sister Ilya was also there. She had changed into a more formal nun's habit, her hood still hanging low, and she was holding a silver tray covered with a white cloth, on which one could vaguely see what was placed.

"Good day, my God." Seeing that Lu Changsheng had finished changing, Cass bowed. "Please follow us to the sanctuary. Thirty chosen believers are already waiting in the outer sanctuary."

Lu Changsheng nodded slightly, his gaze sweeping over Ilya. She remained meek and obedient.

The group silently walked through the dark and winding underground corridors back to the main church above ground. Unlike yesterday's empty and dim atmosphere, the church was brightly lit today, with sunlight streaming through the twelve towering stained-glass windows.

A choir of about twenty boys and girls, dressed in faded holy robes, stood under a pillar on one side, chanting hymns in an ethereal and monotonous melody. The lyrics were ancient and obscure, but in essence, they praised God's power and prayed for purification and redemption.

In the center of the open space below the platform, thirty villagers from Blackwater Town knelt silently on the ground. Most of them wore patched clothes, were emaciated, and their faces bore the numb marks left by long-term pain and despair.

Many people have gray spots on their skin that haven't fully healed.

Archbishop Oliver stood in the shadowiest spot behind the platform, just as he had been yesterday, seemingly blending into the darkness, with only his withered hand holding a strangely shaped, bone-white scepter.

Knight Commander Rex stood ramrod straight at the entrance to the grand ceremony.

Guided by Cass, Lu Changsheng slowly ascended the platform. His gaze calmly swept over the dark mass of people below, and an invisible pressure emanated from him.

"The Day of Purification begins—" Cass stood at the edge of the platform and announced in a loud voice.

The choir's singing suddenly rose in pitch.

The elders chanted a long prayer in unison, the syllables strange and with a kind of hypnotic rhythm.

The kneeling believers began to touch their heads to the ground.

"May my God bless and cleanse my sins!" The archbishop turned and bowed slightly to Lu Changsheng.

Immediately, a low-level cultivator stepped forward carrying a silver pot and a silver bowl. The silver pot contained so-called "holy water," which was colorless and transparent, but a faint herbal scent could be smelled when brought close.

Ilya lifted the cover of the tray in her hand, revealing dozens of items wrapped in some kind of dark green foliage, emitting a bitter smell.

"Step forward in order and receive the blessing of our God," Archbishop Oliver said in a hoarse voice to the believers below.

Following the procedure that Cass had whispered to him beforehand, Lu Changsheng dipped his fingertips in the "holy water" and applied it to the foreheads of each believer. After bestowing the blessing, Ilya would scoop out a piece of green liquid and give it to the believers, indicating that they should apply it to the areas with the most severe gray spots.

About halfway through the blessing ceremony, a woman with red, swollen eyes, unlike the others who numbly accepted the forehead tapping, suddenly collapsed forward, her forehead hitting the cold ground with a dull thud, crying out:

"My God! I beg you! Please save my child! My little Ella! She's only three months old, and she disappeared three nights ago during the new moon! The doors and windows were all fine, she just vanished! I beg you, all-powerful God, please bring her back!"

Her cries of despair and despair instantly drowned out the choir's singing and prayers, echoing throughout the entire church.

Cass frowned slightly and stepped forward, as if to stop him.

Lu Changsheng raised his hand to stop Cass.

What a joke! Rule 2 is that you can't refuse to pray. If Cass really blocks it, I don't know if that counts as refusing to pray.

Lu Changsheng looked at the woman below the stage, who was on the verge of collapse, his voice carrying an ethereal compassion that echoed throughout the now silent sanctuary:

"Lost lamb, I have heard your sorrow."

The woman suddenly raised her head, a glimmer of hope igniting in her eyes.

Tell me the time of Ella's birth.

The woman choked back tears and said, "I was born on the second Wednesday of the Frost Month in 120 years ago, just as the sun was rising!"

Lu Changsheng closed his eyes slightly, his mind racing.

This birth chart...

A moment later, Lu Changsheng opened his eyes and looked at the woman. A faint trace of solemnity flashed deep in his eyes.

"Your daughter Ella has left this world of suffering and gone to the peaceful land on the other shore."

After he finished speaking, the sanctuary fell into a deathly silence.

The woman stood frozen, her hope shattering like fragile glass, leaving only utter ashen white and lifeless silence. She stopped crying out, simply clutching the empty swaddling clothes, her body swaying slightly.

Then he fell straight backward and fainted on the ground.

A low gasp escaped the believers nearby. Immediately, monks rushed forward and carried the woman away.

"God! Have the other dozen or so missing babies from Blackwater Town also gone to the Land of Peace?"

At this moment, a gaunt man suddenly stepped out from among the believers and knelt down in front of Lu Changsheng, trembling all over.

There are still a dozen or so left?

Lu Changsheng was stunned. He had initially thought it was an isolated incident, but now it seemed that most of the babies in Blackwater Town had been murdered...

"When did this happen?"

"Three new moon nights".

It turns out that all of this happened three months ago.

This time, Lu Changsheng didn't ask for the babies' birth dates. Instead, he directly used the spiritual energy of the jade pendant to cast a divination out of thin air.

After a long pause, he remained silent for a moment.

"Their souls have already found peace."

The divination indicates that the children's life force has been cut off, their bodies are buried in a dark place, and it is not a simple case of them getting lost or having an accident.

The middle-aged man swayed, but finally took a few deep breaths and silently kowtowed to Lu Changsheng.

Lu Changsheng silently raised his eyes and suddenly noticed that the knight Rex, who was guarding the entrance to the Holy Scripture, was trembling uncontrollably and kept glancing at Lu Changsheng.

There was a glint of tears in his eyes.

Lu Changsheng was taken aback, but the ceremony continued, so he could only remember this detail.

The remaining believers became even more silent and compliant.

But Lu Changsheng knew that beneath the surface calm, the undercurrents were even more turbulent.

His gaze involuntarily fell upon Archbishop Oliver, who was shrouded in shadow. The archbishop's gaunt face was blurred in the flickering candlelight, with only the ruby ​​on his scepter reflecting a faint light.

As the last believer was helped aside by the monks, Cass was about to announce the end of the blessing ceremony—

The choir's ethereal and monotonous hymn melody suddenly changed without warning.

It was a distorted, slippery melody, as if countless tiny insects were crawling on bones. The originally clear children's voices also became eerie, as if they were forcibly stretched and squeezed, syllables that did not belong to this world were forcibly squeezed out from the depths of the throat.

They were no longer singing hymns, but a ballad with ancient, obscure words and unclear meaning:

"

The moon hangs in the swaddling clothes, its body branded with gray spots, amidst the clamor of the stone valley.

Silence reigns, the shepherd cracks his whip, the lambs graze from dawn till dusk.

Beyond the depths of space, stars twinkle.

Two rabbits lie side by side on the ground, while a hunter holds a gun.

Arsenic and honey, yet they taste good.

A stranger in a foreign land pushes a huge boulder.

Wings flap, tail stops feeding.

'

As the lyrics ended, all the boys and girls in the choir seemed to have been grabbed by the neck at the same time, and their singing came to an abrupt halt. They remained in the posture of singing with their mouths open, but their eyes instantly lost their luster, becoming empty and blank, as if the eerie chanting just now had exhausted all their energy.

The church was deathly silent. Only the candlelight crackled.

The kneeling believers had clearly heard the eerie song as well, and an uneasy commotion spread through the crowd.

Lu Changsheng's pupils contracted slightly. These lyrics…

It's almost a retelling of the Blackwater disaster! The disappearance of babies, the strange noises of Echo Valley, and gray spot disease.

Cass stepped forward, seemingly wanting to forcibly stop the out-of-control situation.

But the archbishop in the shadows moved.

Oliver slowly raised the bone-white scepter in his hand. The dark red gem at the top of the scepter suddenly lit up and spread out silently like ripples, instantly enveloping the thirty kneeling believers.

But the archbishop in the shadows moved.

Oliver slowly raised the bone-white scepter in his hand. The dark red gem at the top of the scepter suddenly lit up and spread out silently like ripples, instantly enveloping the thirty kneeling believers.

A halo of light swept by, as if the deepest night had descended.

The believers' expressions froze instantly, then their eyelids drooped heavily, their bodies went limp, and one by one they silently collapsed to the ground, falling into a deep, almost comatose sleep.

In just a few breaths, the center of the church was filled with sleeping believers lying haphazardly, with only the even, low breathing replacing the previous sobbing and commotion.

The boys and girls in the choir swayed and fell to the ground, fast asleep.

Lu Changsheng was shocked; the archbishop actually had such methods.

The dark red aura receded, retreating into the gem at the top of the scepter. Lu Changsheng noticed that Oliver's withered figure seemed to sway slightly in the shadows, but quickly regained his balance.

Inside the sanctuary, only the sound of burning candles remained.

Archbishop Oliver turned to face Lu Changsheng, his usual cold and stern expression tense, but he still explained in as calm a tone as possible:

"My God, forgive us. These lost sheep are spiritually clouded and unable to purely perceive Your radiance."

He paused for a moment, then added, "Let them follow the custom of sleeping on the Day of Purification."

Convention?

Lu Changsheng sneered inwardly.

"Archbishop," Lu Changsheng's voice was devoid of emotion, only displaying a condescending indifference, "does my causing my followers to fall into a deep sleep have any other negative consequences?"

Oliver slowly stepped out of the shadows, the candlelight illuminating his withered face, as dry as tree bark. The two dim lights in his sunken eye sockets seemed even more murky than yesterday.

“Report to my God,” his voice was hoarse and low, like a worn-out grinding wheel, “this staff is called the Soul-Soothing Staff. It was forged from the bones of the saints of the past, and its sole purpose is to calm restlessness.”

"Once the purification ritual is completed, your believers will awaken on their own."

Oliver spoke, his gaze sweeping over the unconscious believers on the ground, his eyes devoid of any emotion.

Lu Changsheng stopped asking questions. He knew he wouldn't get any more information. The other party's explanation seemed reasonable, yet it was strange in every way.

"In that case, let's continue."

Lu Changsheng leaned back on his stone seat, his gaze calmly sweeping across the entire room.

"I have bestowed blessings and guidance; now, is it time to cleanse ourselves of our sins?"

"Indeed." Judge Cass, who was standing to the side, breathed a sigh of relief and quickly said, "Please, my god, move to the central altar to perform the final and most crucial ritual of 'burning hair to cleanse sins'!"

Lu Changsheng stood up, his white-gold robe sleeves brushing against the cold stone armrests.

He walked down the platform step by step, heading towards the entrance deep within the sanctuary leading to the underground altar.

The choir's unfinished lyrics lingered in his mind like a leech.

The corridor leading to the underground altar was even more secluded and silent than yesterday. The air was thick with the pungent smell of sulfur and stale sweetness, almost solidifying into a tangible substance. Lu Changsheng felt as if he were swallowing a viscous liquid with every breath he took.

Lu Changsheng walked at the front, with Judge Cass and Sister Ilya following half a step behind on either side.

Sister Ilya kept her head down, her hands clasped in front of her, and moved with light steps.

Finally, a huge circular altar appeared in front of them.

The pale flames atop the twelve tormented humanoid stone pillars burned exceptionally fiercely, their tongues licking the dense darkness above, illuminating the entire space in a ghastly white light, which only made the distorted shadows of the relief sculptures appear even more grotesque and terrifying.