Chapter 44#

Temple of the Burning Lamp 15#

“I cannot answer you,” the nun said after a long silence.

Yu Feichen didn’t press further. From their previous interactions, he had already come to understand the lives of these nuns. Raised in the temple since childhood, they were illiterate and learned neither knowledge nor poetry; their entire existence revolved around praying for blessings and caring for the Saint. This environment had left them with an innocence and simplicity that stood in stark contrast to ordinary people.

Faced with a simple “yes or no” question, she hadn’t said “yes” or “no,” but rather “I cannot answer.” There was only one explanation for this: the nun had promised someone she would not speak of their visit—just as the white-haired nun had promised him and Luth that day.

To answer “yes” would be to break her word, but to answer “no” would be to lie to him. Caught in this dilemma, the nun could only offer that response. However, it was enough for Yu Feichen to guess the truth.

He didn’t interrogate her further, reaching out instead to check the Saint’s forehead. It was burning with a high fever, but in this world, there seemed to be no medical theory beyond human sacrifice.

“Wet a cloth with cold water or alcohol and apply it to his forehead, then wipe down his body,” he said. “It might make him more comfortable.”

The nun agreed. Yu Feichen searched the hall a bit more. Seeing the sun beginning to sink in the west, he bid the nun farewell and prepared to head back.

The nun saw him to the door and suddenly looked toward a spot down the mountain, saying, “There’s a fire.”

Yu Feichen looked over and saw thick black smoke rising from halfway down the mountain. It wasn’t just a fire; it was already burning itself out. His vision, enhanced in the previous world, was very keen, and he could make out the outlines of some buildings through the thick smoke. When he asked the nun what that place was, she shook her head.

Leaving the nun behind, he gradually approached the living quarters. The brief day was almost over, and the long night was approaching. By now, the sun was nearing the horizon, its light weak and scattered, unable to cast shadows behind objects. Near the main entrance, he paused, wondering if Luth had returned safely. Before he could finish the thought, he heard low voices coming from inside—female voices.

There were currently only three female members in the team: Quna, Jasmine, and the Empress.

Keeping his wits about him, he didn’t enter through the front door. He turned toward a side wall, used a stone carving at its base for leverage, and nimbly hopped up. The silhouette of the buildings inside the wall perfectly shielded his frame.

In the courtyard, the people talking were the Empress and Quna. The Empress had actually returned already. Quna had also woken from her lethargy and was washing her face with cold water she had drawn from the well.

“Today and yesterday, you are very different.” Empress Elisa stood behind Quna, her grey-clad male attendant still following at her side like a silent ghost.

“Women undergo great changes after losing their husbands. Some live better, some live worse. I am glad to see that you currently appear resolute and decisive—the former.”

Quna splashed cold water from the wooden bucket onto her face. The icy well water served to sharpen her mind.

Just this evening, she had woken up with a fever from her stupor only for the Empress to knock on her door. The Empress, dressed in deep red finery, had sat by her bed and held her hand, speaking with a gentle expression like a close sister, asking after her condition. However, Quna was no naive, defenseless girl. Although she couldn’t tell if the Empress was good or bad, she knew one should never converse with strangers while not fully lucid. So, she had gotten out of bed, saying she needed to go wash her face.

“What do you want to say to me?” she asked the Empress, her tone cool.

Her rational attitude actually earned the Empress’s appreciation. Since it was so, the Empress dropped the act.

“First time in a Shard World?”

“Shard World?” Quna coolly repeated the question to gather more information.

“Right now, this kind of place we are in—some call them ‘Shards,’ others call them ‘Dungeons’—you should be able to understand what I mean.”

Quna: “Are you saying there are many places like this?”

“Of course, you could say they are infinite.”

Quna: “Why am I here?”

“Before you came, was the order of the place you lived in still alright? Were there mysterious disappearances or frequent disasters?”

“There were news reports of rising temperatures, forest fires, and frequent earthquakes.”

“Those are the signs of a world beginning to shatter, no longer safe, my dear. In places you couldn’t see, cracks appeared in the world you lived in. Unfortunately, you fell through a crack into the boundless universe and were then forcibly captured by this Temple World. The game began.”

Quna asked, “What are the rules of the game?”

“Survive and escape. Over and over again,” the Empress said.

“Is there no end to it? What counts as victory?”

“When you exhaust your wits to escape this temple and leave this world, you will immediately be swept into the next unknown dungeon. It never stops.” The Empress smiled cruelly.

“Why escape? If I am swept into a world that isn’t too dangerous, or if I master some ways to survive, can’t I just live safely in that world?”

“You are very clever,” the Empress’s gaze shifted again as she appraised her. “Unfortunately, in the eyes of the Shard Worlds, outsiders are forever prey. Those who want to scrape by may not necessarily live longer than those who fight bravely. You seem to be a gamer; you should know this better than I do.”

Quna stared blankly at the clear surface of the water and said, “Then my hometown… that world, what is it like now?”

“Forget about it, girl. We are already homeless.” A look that could be called sorrowful flickered in the Empress’s eyes. “Once it starts to shatter, it will keep collapsing until it also disintegrates into many maddening Shard Worlds, just like this temple.”

In other words, she couldn’t go back.

For a split second, the will to live vanished from Quna’s heart, but the fear of death immediately reignited it.

“There is a very slim chance you could go back,” the Empress added. “Did you know? Although entering Shard Worlds is random, there is a weak attraction between a person and their world of origin. For example, my hometown was a beautiful magical empire; at least a third of the dungeons I enter also use magic.”

“As long as you live long enough, perhaps one day you will be captured by your former hometown. When that time comes, you will see what that place you miss has become—a literal hell on earth. Perhaps the NPC issuing you a death quest will be an old friend of yours. That taste probably won’t be pleasant, my dear.”

Quna’s hands were immersed in the cold water as she stared at her reflection for a long time without speaking.

Having heard these words, the shape of that initial mothership also appeared before Yu Feichen’s eyes.

So… the truth of these worlds was like this? These were things the Gatekeeper had never mentioned.

In the silence, Quna finally spoke: “So, are you telling me all this because you want to team up with me?”

“I like talking to smart people,” the Empress approached, her hand resting affectionately on Quna’s shoulder. “Don’t you want to know more about the game rules? We have many people, as well as plenty of experience and techniques for clearing levels. When you become a bit stronger, we can even teach you how to possess your own power.”

Yu Feichen watched the Empress expressionlessly.

After all that talk, she was just trying to poach his teammate.

And in this world, besides the Main God and the Main God’s Paradise, there were indeed other forms of organizations.

These things were within expectations, but the Empress’s last phrase—“how to possess your own power”—was different. It was the kind of information he cared about most. He held his breath, wanting to hear more.

Sure enough, Quna also noticed the term. She asked, “Power?”

However, right at that moment, regular footsteps sounded from the entrance. The silver-haired Pope, his expression indifferent, stepped through the door, followed by the young knight, Bai Song.

The Empress stopped talking. With the conversation interrupted, Yu Feichen naturally couldn’t hear the information he was interested in. Ludwig’s return was so ill-timed it felt almost intentional.

As Ludwig went back to his room, the Empress patted Quna’s shoulder and left as well. Yu Feichen climbed down from the wall and returned through the main entrance, acting as if he had just arrived. However, he felt that as His Majesty Ludwig entered the door, he had cast a subtle glance toward the spot where he had been hiding.

In this dungeon, his companions were, one by one, not simple at all.

He found it interesting. He walked naturally into the dining room. Everyone had already returned and was sitting in their respective places. However, the long table that used to be full of people was now sparse, with nearly half of them missing.

Two from the Empress’s team had died today—the Judge and King Schiller.

“I have never seen anyone as stupid as the Judge. He thought that because he had survived three dungeons, he could start playing petty tricks,” the Empress sneered. “He tried to kill an NPC and was eventually dragged into the woods by a monster, ending up in pieces.”

Ludwig didn’t respond.

Yu Feichen thought that the Pope had probably finished annoying him for the day and had reverted to automatic follow mode.

He picked up the conversation from the Empress: “Did you find the item?”

Today’s recipe was the “Eye of the Goddess of Destiny.”

The Empress said, “With a bit of luck.”

As she spoke, she pulled out from under her skirt—a white butterfly.

It was as large as a human head, but the most striking thing wasn’t its snowy wings, but a pair of fist-sized, living human eyes protruding from them. There were even tiny blood vessels visible in the whites of the eyes.

It was still alive; when the Empress brought it out, the eyeballs even rolled around, staring at everyone present.

The Empress began to recount the process of finding it.

After confirming their team would execute today’s search task, the Scholar had given them his character’s built-in biological encyclopedia. The clue for the second ingredient was indeed in that book.

This was a rare “Human-Eye Butterfly.” There were only a few recorded instances of its appearance—when large quantities of corpses were being burned and the ashes rose into the air, the Human-Eye Butterfly would occasionally be attracted to fly over, as if mourning the passing of the dead. Therefore, this butterfly was also known as the “Goddess of Destiny.”

To attract the Goddess of Destiny, one had to burn human corpses. Thus, the Judge had gotten the idea to slaughter NPCs. Unfortunately, he met a miserable end.

Bai Song asked, “Then… where did your corpses come from?”

“We found them,” the Empress said.

“There are corpses in this place?”

The Empress gave a cryptic smile and pointed to the candles on the walls. “What are the temple’s candles made of?”

“Fat… grease, probably.” Bai Song said blankly, “They’re tallow candles. I used to use them often.”

“But have you seen any cattle or sheep in the temple? Have you heard animal calls in the mountain forests? No. Yet they have so many candles. Where exactly do they come from?”

As her words fell, the faces of everyone present turned pale