Border of the Pure Land

"The more I indulged in this aberration, the more I realized that the false god who is full of lies had deceived us! The Divine Tree had turned the world into such an ugly form with the Sacred Rhythm, yet subjected me, so beautiful, to violence! It is not worthy of being called a god, it is a false god!"

"We planned an escape, broke out of that prison collectively, and came to this abandoned city. The dimension of this city has gone awry, reverting to its most primal ecological state; it's so beautifully serene. Over the years, many have come here to explore and train, but few know its true secret..."

The diary stopped abruptly here, the yellowed pages smeared with fresh blood.

It always feels like the owner of the diary went mad at the end.

Literally speaking, a person who had returned from studying abroad, after some event known as evolution, became sick and deformed and even entered prison. Until one day, they met their own kind, and then became obsessed with their deformed selves, like mad.

"An anomaly in the dimension, an abandoned city."

Lu Bu'er whispered softly, "In other words, this city has some kind of problem, which led to its abandonment by the outside world. Why are we still here?"

"Pah, no offense intended, the dead should be respected!"

Boss Zhang was startled and led everyone to pay their respects to the skeleton.

"Look, there's more than one corpse here." Officer An continued to search in the corner of the Church. The place was littered with deformed skeletons; some skulls were only half there, some had over twenty more vertebrae, and others sprouted a third arm, quite bizarre.

There were about twenty or more corpses, and it was impossible to determine the cause of death.

Lu Bu'er went to check and found that each person wore a golden tree-shaped badge.

But those badges were all scratched beyond recognition.

It was clear how much these people hated what the badge represented.

"There's an idol here too!"

Boss Zhang pointed into the dark depths and said, "What the hell is this?"

As the flashlight beam shone over, a rustic and incomplete stone sculpture appeared in the light, a large figure with six wings like an Archangel, but with branches and roots growing like a tree, its body surface still smooth, engraved with mysterious symbols.

Of course, what was most striking was the writing smeared on the stone statue.

"Liar!"

"The false god who betrayed us!"

"Monster defiling the faith, it should be deformed like us; deformity is true beauty!"

Utter madness.

Behind the statue was a dark passage, probably the Church's back door.

The doorknob had congealed blood on it, and there were leftover footprints on the ground.

"It looks like these were heretics, while the mainstream church here should be called... Akasha Holy Church. They came here for their mad obsession. Some died in this church, and others left from here." Lu Bu'er could only analyze so much for now, as he had only cleared a novice village instance back then.

As for the rest of the content, he was clueless.

"Really damn bizarre," Boss Zhang said.

"Anyway, we can also get out from here," Officer An suggested. "But what do we do next?"

Everyone looked at each other, all feeling hopeless.

Yet, Lu Bu'er said, "Don't worry, it's not the end of the world, just our city's problem. As long as we can get out, we'll be rescued. These bodies are good proof that they haven't been dead for very long."

"Even though it's cold in the city, if we follow the light, we'll stay warm."

He emphasized, "But there are definitely dangers ahead."

Everyone was startled, it was indeed a very logical conjecture. They couldn't be sure of what changes had occurred in the world just based on the bodies here.

But Lu Bu'er was certain.

Because according to the setting of "Pure Land," they were born in a high-difficulty instance.

Once they left the instance, they could return to normal life.

"Then let's decide on that, continue moving forward."

Seeing the tense mood of the people, Officer An called out, "Let's stick to the old rules. I'll lead the way at the front, men follow by my side, and Old Zhang takes the rear. Seniors, students, and girls in the middle of the team, staying alert at all times."

No one objected, even the middle-aged tycoon followed the team.

Before leaving, Officer An looked to Lu Bu'er, "Are you coming with us?"

Lu Bu'er hesitated. Following the team was the best solution for now, as he didn't have the cheats like during the initial test. But considering his previous experience clearing levels, he still warned, "This city is very dangerous, not just because of those mutated animals but also more terrifying beings. Everyone, be careful, especially in some particular areas, extremely dangerous..."

Someone in the team voiced their suspicion, "How do you know that?"

People turned their attention to him.

Lu Bu'er was well-prepared with an excuse; he pointed to the bodies on the ground and explained, "Clearly, it's not just us who have been here; others have been active in this area. They left some clues. If we search carefully, we can find them."

It was a reasonable explanation.

"I understand," Officer An nodded. "Let's move on."

They pushed open the back door of the Church and cautiously proceeded along the deserted streets. As expected, they avoided the mad packs of dogs and kept going for over six hours.

Lu Bu'er noticed that everyone was mostly quiet, only the middle-aged tycoon often tried to buy his food, sometimes bringing a few companions over, nearly causing conflicts several times.