Chapter 67: Five Mushrooms, Two Fungi

Chapter 67: Five Mushrooms, Two Fungi

Moon City.

From one sturdy building after another—each marked by mottled traces of age—many humans walked out. Some were clearly deformed. Others had already begun to show signs of mutation.

They exchanged glances and saw the same confusion on one another’s faces:

There are still two or three months before the Sun Ceremony. Why has the High Priest suddenly summoned everyone to the square?

Did something major happen? Carrying worry, fear, and puzzlement, Moon City’s residents moved through one street after another and entered the city-state’s only square.

At that moment, the high platform was empty. The one who had summoned them seemed not yet to have arrived.

Moon City’s residents gathered in an orderly manner according to the districts they belonged to and began speaking in low voices.

“Why hasn’t the High Priest arrived yet?”

“Doesn’t he like waiting, and hate making others wait?”

“What exactly happened? Why summon every resident in the city except the guards so suddenly?”

…

Amid voice after voice, atop a tower near the square, behind crystal glass, High Priest Nim leaned against a wall and stared at the square while enduring something with a twisted expression.

His gray-white hair rose by itself. Tufts of short black fur grew upon his face. The flesh between his ribs and around his waist wriggled and condensed into swollen lumps.

These abnormal changes vanished and appeared in turn, as though Nim were suffering one seizure after another. He looked both uncanny and frightening.

More than a minute later, Nim finally calmed down. He exhaled a long breath and raised a hand to wipe away the cold sweat on his forehead.

Just now, he had been resisting the madness accumulated inside his body.

In truth, no matter which Beyonder pathway it was, the higher the Sequence, the stronger the tendency toward madness and inhumanity. This gradually exceeded one’s own humanity, and external anchors were required to help maintain sufficient balance.

Normally, at Sequence 4 and Sequence 3, this situation was not especially obvious. Once one reached the level of angels, however, even with enough anchors to “fix” them in place, they would still from time to time sink into dark, negative, and mutated states, and would have to endure and resist alone until things eased.

It was like a sacred, solemn existence who, at ordinary times, seemed entirely normal—able to answer your prayers, converse with you calmly, and even crack a few jokes—yet at certain moments could only hide in a dark room, concealed among shadows, tearing away the surface skin to reveal a sinister side and all kinds of signs of madness.

As for Nim, because he had frequently eaten the flesh of monsters and accumulated no small amount of toxins, pollution, and madness, he had to endure similar suffering even at Sequence 4.

Of course, Sequence 4 and Sequence 3 Beyonders who did not understand acting and advanced through time or luck alone could also end up this way.

After adjusting his condition, Nim left the room. With the help of an illusory Door, he appeared directly on the high platform at the center of the square.

All discussion immediately subsided. Moon City’s residents turned gazes full of confusion and unease toward the High Priest.

Nim swept his gaze around the crowd and spoke straightforwardly.

“The hunting team led by Adal encountered an outsider.”

An outsider! Moon City’s residents’ eyes abruptly widened. It was as if thunder from high in the sky had descended directly into the city.

In more than two thousand years, Moon City had encountered an outsider for the first time! Of course, this referred to a rational human capable of communication, not monsters.

Nim inhaled silently, then continued, “He calls himself a missionary who spreads divine radiance. He caused that stretch of grayish-white fog to show obvious changes. He removed the pollution and toxins accumulated inside Adal and the others, and treated…