Chapter 242: The One Crying for Help

Chapter 242: The One Crying for Help

Inside the half-collapsed temple, only a few stone pillars remained relatively intact, together supporting a small part of the main hall.

At the very front of the hall was an altar covered in cracks. At the center of the altar stood a huge, pitch-black cross.

Upon the cross hung a naked man, suspended upside down. His ankles, thighs, and body had visible rusty iron nails protruding from them, accompanied by fresh crimson bloodstains.

Derrick clearly knew that this was an idol of the Fallen Creator, yet he could not help lowering his gaze to study the target’s face.

He saw that the idol’s face—its nose, mouth, ears, and the like—was rather blurry. Only the eyes had been carved with unusual clarity.

The Fallen Creator had His eyes tightly closed, as if bearing guilt and pain.

“Move your eyes away. Do not study the statue of an evil god!” Demon Hunter Colin reminded them in a low voice.

“Yes, Your Excellency Chief.” Several members of the exploration team hurriedly withdrew their gazes.

Before today, although the City of Silver had discovered many destroyed cities through past explorations and had found certain written records pointing toward evil gods, most residents had never seen a so-called evil god’s idol.

The portions of the temple remaining aboveground were not wide. The exploration team soon split into groups of two or three and completed their inspection, finding nothing abnormal.

Seeing this, Colin, Chief of the Six-Member Council, considered for a few seconds and said, “Proceed underground.”

As he spoke, he drew one of the two straight swords from his back with a swish and smeared a silver-gray ointment over its surface.

Immediately afterward, he took a small metal bottle from a hidden compartment of the belt at his waist, pulled out the stopper, and drank the medicine inside with a gulp.

In that instant, Derrick felt that the Chief’s pale-blue eyes seemed to brighten slightly.

The exploration team members made their most cautious preparations one after another. Under the light of four hide lanterns, they followed the stairway to the left of the idol, step by step descending into the underground region.

It was Derrick’s turn to hold a lantern. He walked at the left front, carefully entering deeper into the darkness.

He heard his and his companions’ footsteps ripple outward from the stone steps, producing long, hollow echoes.

Those echoes suffered no interference, proving the absolute silence below. But in the hearts of every member of the exploration team, they were like knocking sounds, trying to open a secret that had been buried for who knew how many years. This forced their nerves to become highly tense.

After an unknown length of time, Derrick finally saw the path ahead become level. He also saw the newly discovered murals described by the contaminated Dark Regins.

Large swathes of those murals existed on the walls on both sides. They had been simply colored, appearing ancient, weathered, and dim.

Derrick glanced casually once, only for his gaze to be drawn by one mural.

On the wall to the left front, a pure-white cross stood at the very center. Around it was blackness like seawater, drowning many humans who struggled to stretch out their arms.

Upon the cross was the Fallen Creator hanging upside down. The rusty iron nails and blood-colored stains were no different from those of the idol outside.

But in this mural, the Fallen Creator was enduring the corrosion of the blackness, to the point that even parts of the cross’s whiteness had turned pitch-black.

Beyond that, the cross supported a hazy stretch of land, and countless humans were kneeling in prayer toward the Fallen Creator.

Around the image, in the deepest parts of the darkness, six figures like evil gods were hidden.

In the upper left corner was a lady dressed in a black classical gown. Her clothing was layered without being elaborate, embedded with many star-like points of radiance. Her body was rather illusory, showing signs of rippling outward, and her face was blurred, as though she wore a mask without features.

Around her, the darkness surged, and strange eyes appeared and vanished indistinctly.

At the very top was a young man wearing pure-white robes. His face had been painted a pure golden color, and stalks like rays of light grew from it.

In his two hands, he held a rotten-green book and a spear condensed from radiance, while his chest and back had reversed positions.

In the upper right was a monster holding a trident. It had an octopus-like head, wide-open eyes, and lightning wrapped around its body.

Countless bird feathers formed its cloak, while the darkness became waves, supporting its feet.

In the lower right was a plump and soft-looking lady. Her chest bulged high, exposed outside her clothing. In her arms, she held a baby with a rotting face. Beneath her feet were black ears of wheat, springs crawling with flesh, herbs oozing pus, and animals mating in frenzy.

At the very bottom was an old man wearing a hood, exposing his mouth, wrinkles, and white beard.

The old man held an open book, above which was an eye symbolizing omniscience.

At first glance, this old man looked the most normal, yet the smile sketched at the corner of his mouth carried an indescribable evil.

In the lower left corner was a giant warrior dressed in ruined armor. He leaned on a greatsword and sat upon a throne, with bleak twilight as his background.

The meaning of this mural is that when the Cataclysm arrived, the evil gods crawled out of the Abyss, and the Fallen Creator, in order to save mankind, endured most of the guilt and pain. Because of that, symbols of corrosion appeared, and His image changed… But I believe He is the greatest evil god of all… Holding the hide lantern, Derrick walked while looking at the murals on the walls. He found that they basically matched Dark Regins’s description. Their central theme was that the region they were in had not been abandoned by god, but had instead received the Creator’s blessing and maintained civilization through the apocalypse.

Of course, Dark Regins had previously only mentioned it briefly. It was far less detailed than the murals themselves.

Throughout this process, Derrick did not relax his guard. Having learned from his earlier foolish daze, he remained constantly prepared for accidents and ready to respond at the first moment.

Within the dim yellow candlelight, the exploration team passed corridor after corridor, hall after hall, room after room, moving deeper into the temple’s underground region.

Suddenly, a half-open gray stone door appeared ahead.

Outside the door grew clusters of beautiful mushroom-shaped things. They were the size of palms, with snow-white stems and bright-red caps, and within their crystalline surfaces were dark-gold specks.

The moment the exploration team members saw those “mushrooms,” an intense appetite surged within them. They only wanted to rush over, pluck one, and stuff it into their mouths.

Gulp, gulp. Many people swallowed their saliva.

However, most who could enter an exploration team possessed rich experience and rather decent Sequences. Given that they had been warned beforehand, someone immediately stepped forward and said in a low voice, “Those are rotting flesh and hairy scalp.”

Derrick knew this teammate. His name was Joshua, and he possessed a mystical item he had obtained and successfully exchanged for during one of the explorations.

Joshua stretched out his left palm, wearing a crimson glove, and aimed it at the door.

Light flashed. A fiercely burning fireball swiftly formed and shot out, striking those abnormally tempting “mushrooms.”

Rumble! The ground trembled slightly, and a wave of flame spread two meters in every direction.

When the firelight subsided, the mushrooms had all vanished. Only scattered chunks of flesh and spots of blood remained, making the Beyonders who had nearly lost control of themselves feel nauseated.

Demon Hunter Colin did not interfere with the actions of the team members. He merely watched quietly from the side, nodding now and then.

“How could mushrooms formed from flesh and hair appear here? Where did the flesh and hair come from?” Joshua withdrew his left palm and muttered in puzzlement.

Another team member boldly guessed, “The original residents of this city?”

That is possible… Perhaps their deaths consisted of turning into pure flesh and hair… Derrick silently agreed.

After a brief discussion, the exploration team split into several groups again and cleared the rooms and halls outside the gray stone door.

Once all this was complete, they gathered again and slowly passed through the door, ready for battle at any moment.

Beyond the door was a place resembling an altar. The areas around them where light could not reach were deep and dark, hiding unknown things.

Above the altar, the same pitch-black cross stood with the Fallen Creator hanging upside down.

Derrick, who was carrying the hide lantern, stood closest and instinctively swept his eyes over it.

His gaze suddenly froze, because he realized that this statue of the Fallen Creator was different from the one outside.

Its eyes were open!

Blood-colored whites, black pupils. They seemed alive as they stared straight at the intruders ahead.

Tap-tap-tap. Derrick heard the sound of teeth chattering.

At first, he thought it came from one of his teammates, but he quickly understood that he was the one trembling!

Although he did not know enough about the dangers of evil gods, at that moment, his instincts made his teeth chatter.

Tap-tap-tap.

His teammates soon had similar reactions.

Just then, a speck of powder floated up, and Demon Hunter Colin clenched his fist.

Rumble!

The sound of thunder echoed, and Derrick and the others abruptly woke, escaping that nightmarish state.

Before they had time to inspect their surroundings, a drifting sob came from behind the altar.

“Wuu… wuu… wuu…”

“Wuu… wuu… wuu…”

In the tooth-aching silence, Demon Hunter Colin gave an unhurried order:

“Derrick. Joshua. Circle around and look.”

Derrick, body somewhat cold, carried the hide lantern and gripped the Hurricane Axe. Together with Joshua, he slowly circled to the back of the altar.

As the darkness was gradually driven away by light, they saw a black shadow curled up behind the altar.

Two more steps forward, and the black shadow revealed its original appearance.

It was a child of seven or eight, with smooth, obedient yellow hair.

He blinked, seemingly unaccustomed to the light, then cried excitedly, “Save me! Save me!”

Derrick’s pupils shrank. Thinking of the cry for help he had heard earlier in the pure darkness, he instinctively raised the Hurricane Axe.

At that moment, Demon Hunter Colin, who had already arrived beside them, stepped forward and asked gravely, “Who are you?”

The child stopped crying for help and said as if recalling, “My name… my name is Jack…”

…

After dinner, Klein put on his coat and hat, preparing to go out.

He was going to find Miss Sharron, resolve the matter of a certain baronet digging a tunnel, and, in passing, ask about clues regarding mermaids. He hoped to complete this matter before Detective Sherlock Moriarty headed south for his “vacation.”