Hu—

The wild wind howled, striking Li Ang head-on. He swung his Overlord's Reach spear, holding it up in front of him. At the same time, he tapped his toes forward, stepping on the invisible steps formed by the Treading Cloud skill. Using the repelling force, his figure retreated explosively.

*Zheng!*

The sharp, ear-piercing sound of metal clashing echoed vibrantly through the corridor.

A heavy steel blade chopped into the middle of the Overlord's Reach spear, sparks flying.

The violent force that spread along the spear even accelerated Li Ang, who was suspended in mid-air, sending him flying toward the far end of the corridor.

*Tap.*

Li Ang landed on both feet, his toes scraping two narrow cracks on the dust-covered marble floor tiles.

"..."

Li Ang slowly straightened his body. The Overlord's Reach spear in his hand trembled non-stop, the spear shaft and blade vibrating with a buzzing sound.

He looked forward with a detached gaze, seeing a bizarre figure holding a heavy steel blade slowly stepping out of the dark door ahead.

The figure's appearance was quite similar to the mutated creature from before, with its upper body consisting of an aggregate of spherical arms.

The only difference was that the new mutated creature only had two exposed arms, each extremely thick and holding a broad, simple rusty steel blade.

It gave the feeling that the previous mutated creature was a "farmer" or "servant,"

While this one was a "soldier" or "guard."

"It even has a unique race?"

Li Ang nonchalantly shook his arm, which had been jolted. The [Secret Excavator] title skill could also take effect on the new mutated creature.

And the secret it was currently thinking was [Kill the intruder].

Did the farmer-type mutated creature deliberately lead me to the guard because their combat power is relatively low?

I don't know if the [intruder] in the secret refers specifically to someone who has broken into the area behind the dark door, or someone who has stepped onto Holy Mountain—the former is perhaps more likely.

If it's the latter, then the Holy Mountain guard looks a little too pathetic.

Li Ang pondered absentmindedly, while the new mutated creature wasn't so relaxed.

It didn't say a word, its sturdy arms gripping the hilt of the blade, causing the heavy steel blades to rub against each other, scattering sparks.

*Dong!*

The guard-type mutated creature took a heavy step,

The marble floor instantly cracked and shattered,

Scattering dust that had been scattered on the floor, briefly blocking Li Ang's vision.

Amidst the smoke and dust, the wind of killing intent howled again.

*Slash!*

The plain steel blade broke through the haze, chopping toward the top of Li Ang's head.

Li Ang slightly tilted his body to the left to avoid the steel blade, his right hand gripping the Overlord's Reach spear, heavily planting it on the ground to his right. He positioned the spear shaft diagonally,

Causing the trajectory of the steel blade's chop to be deflected by the angle of the spear shaft, falling to his lower right.

*Ripple.*

Li Ang pushed his right hand, which was holding the Overlord's Reach spear, to the right, pushing the steel blade toward the wall, forming an angle with the wall.

He firmly wedged the blade in the middle, unable to move.

At the same time, his left hand, holding the Colt revolver, fired three bullets into the smoke without hesitation, accurately hitting the mutated creature's knees.

Then, he instantly put away the pistol, his left hand forming a fist, suddenly punching out from bottom to top,

Hitting precisely on the mutated creature's right wrist, which was holding the steel blade.

Only the sound of bones cracking rang out incessantly.

The wrist of the mutated creature's sturdy arm was actually broken off, the entire hand drooping weakly, like a snake that had its bones removed, and the steel blade it was holding fell to the ground.

The entire process was smooth and seamless.

By the time the smoke cleared, the new guard mutated creature was already kneeling on the ground, both knees and right arm severely injured.

*Bang!*

Li Ang kicked out again, hitting the mutated creature's left wrist, which was wedged against the wall,

Shattering the wrist bones completely, completely losing the ability to move.

"Sufficient strength, insufficient agility."

Li Ang commented blandly, kicking the two steel blades on the ground far away, landing them by the wall—these two blades were made of ordinary materials, and their craftsmanship was crude. They could only be considered usable weapons, with no collection value.

But the mutated monster itself...

Li Ang lowered his head and carefully scanned the arm aggregate.

After having its wrist bones broken by brute force and its kneecaps pierced by bullets, it was still full of energy, as if it didn't feel any pain, struggling violently,

Trying to break free from the Overlord's Reach spear's restraint.

Li Ang casually released a [Paralysis Suggestion] toward the mutated creature, and the latter's limbs immediately stopped moving. With a bang, it fell backward,

The arm aggregate that served as its upper body also drooped weakly.

[Paralysis Suggestion] belongs to the enchanting type of level one mind power, the effect is to make the target mistakenly believe that they are paralyzed, it is particularly effective when facing some targets who are far weaker than Li Ang in strength,

Or who have immature or fragile minds.

If it were another time, Li Ang would have liked to stop and carefully study the physiological structure of this arm aggregate,

But there were more important things to do at the moment.

He stood up, retracted the Overlord's Reach spear, and reached out to push open the movable dark door embedded in the wall—the shape of the dark door was exactly the same as the wall, and the outside was covered with wall tiles of the same color and pattern,

It was impossible to tell the difference without looking closely.

Pushing open the dark door, the light behind the door was much brighter.

The place was roughly arranged into a bedroom structure. A large number of white candles were placed on the ground, and a small number of candles were burning.

There were ventilation openings decorated with sculptures in the corners of the ceiling, and below the ventilation openings was an extinguished fireplace. The stone bricks on the outside of the fireplace had turned black-gray due to long-term smoke and fire.

There was a wardrobe next to the fireplace.

Near the wall, there was a large wooden bed with pillars and a light golden mosquito net.

The farmer-type arm aggregate from before was standing in front of the wooden bed at this moment.

It had no weapons in its hand, and its whole body seemed to be shaking with fear and timidity,

But it still didn't know where it got an iron poker, like the kind used to adjust firewood in the fireplace, and blocked Li Ang and the wooden bed, blocking his view.

In the places that the arm aggregate's body couldn't block, Li Ang could see that,

A pile of plates was placed on the ground next to the wooden bed. The plates contained mashed potato-like food, the same as what the arm aggregate had eaten before, with no traces of having been eaten at all, emitting a musty stench.

The [Secret Excavator] title skill's refresh result showed that its secret was [Shouldn't have brought the enemy here].

Shouldn't have come?

Could it be that this farmer-type arm aggregate, and the one in the corridor,

Were both guarding a certain existence on the wooden bed in the castle?

Because it brought Li Ang to the dark door room, wanting the guard to kill Li Ang, but didn't expect Li Ang to easily counter-kill the guard, it was particularly regretful?

Li Ang's mind raced. He took a step forward casually,

The arm aggregate trembled all over, but still endured the intense fear and waved the iron poker at Li Ang.

[Paralysis Suggestion]

Li Ang didn't even slow down his pace at all, casually throwing out a mind power,

The arm aggregate, which was waving the iron poker, was immediately struck by lightning, softening and falling to the ground,

The iron poker also smashed to the ground with a "clang."

With nothing blocking him, Li Ang strode toward the princess bed with four wooden pillars.

The Overlord's Reach spear stabbed toward the mosquito net, lifting the mosquito net with a kick.

The enchanting scene that existed in the realm of possibilities did not appear.

Lying on the bed was not a living princess,

But a corpse that had been dried and withered for a long time.

The corpse was basically just the structure of a skeleton.

The scalp had long gray-white hair, and it was wearing old female clothing. Its upper body was lying against the head of the bed, and its lower body was covered with a silk quilt filled with velvet.

[Detect Thoughts], [Inflict Pain], [Mental Lock]

Li Ang didn't move, but first threw out a few mind powers toward the dried corpse, and only after confirming that it was completely dead did he take half a step forward and carefully examine the corpse.

Judging from the shape of the bones, the deceased was female and quite old. There were no obvious fatal injuries on her body. The cause of death may have been natural causes.

Li Ang extended plant fibers from a distance, piercing into the skeleton, and probed with divine power.

The corpse's organ structure was consistent with that of a normal person. It was not a ghoul at the foot of Holy Mountain.

The corpse had a necklace tied around its neck. The lower end of the necklace was connected to a small wooden cross, which looked much older than the corpse itself.

Wooden cross?

Li Ang raised his eyebrows. He seemed to have thought of something. He cut off the plant fibers and let them dissolve on their own. He left the bedside and searched the entire room.

There were not many furnishings in the room, and there were only a few places to put things.

Li Ang looked around and found a few pieces of women's clothing in the wardrobe.

In the crack of the fireplace, he found a few pieces of paper that had been almost completely burned black. He couldn't see the writing on them.

At the bedside table, he found three books.

The first book was a collection of prose, which recorded some poetic prose. The authors of the prose were different, and the back of the book was marked with a publishing house—proving that this world has a publishing industry, and it seems to be developing well.

The second book was a diary, and the title page of the diary had a beautifully written signature.

"Theresa?"

Li Ang glanced at the skeleton on the bed and frowned slightly, "Is this the deceased's diary..."

The third book was thicker, and the paper material used was obviously superior to the first two books.

After casually flipping through the contents, he found that it was a religious classic, which recorded some philosophical holy words and allegorical stories.

However, what was strange was that the cover of this classic had very obvious burn marks,

The edges were charred and cracked, as if someone had thrown it into a pile of fire.

Moreover, many pages of content in the classic were also torn out or blacked out, and there were many knife marks left on them.

Li Ang took out the few pieces of charred paper that he had found in the crack of the fireplace earlier, and after comparing the shapes,

He found that these pieces of paper were indeed the pages that had been torn out of the classic.

"What does this mean?"

Li Ang frowned, "The old wooden cross worn by the corpse has obvious traces of long-term stroking, proving that the deceased was quite pious during her lifetime.

But this religious classic was obviously tried to be burned—and it was burned halfway, not completely burned.

I don't know if it was rescued in time by another person, or if she suddenly felt remorse during the burning process..."

Li Ang's gaze turned to the dried corpse on the bed.

In this script mission, unlike the clear-cut dungeon segment, the village chief was vague about the trials on Holy Mountain and did not explain them in detail.

However, judging from the mission objectives and hints, players should be required to go to one room after another, solve puzzles, find the way, and complete the trial of climbing upwards—the previous teams of heroes most likely followed this process as well.

Then this female corpse on the bed,

Is she a member of a previous hero team,

Or an NPC that was refreshed in the Holy Mountain trial segment?

What is her relationship with the two deformed arm aggregate creatures?

Why did the latter guard a corpse, persevering, as if not knowing that she had already died, farming the fields and continuing to provide food?

The puzzle in front of him

Does not have a compulsory causal relationship with completing the trial.

But Li Ang's intuition told him that the corpse in front of him could answer a lot of questions about this script mission.

Then...

He lowered his head, looked again at the diary belonging to Theresa, and slowly flipped through it.

[Goddess Calendar 1021, January 1. Today is the festival commemorating the goddess's creation of the world, and it is also my, Theresa · Cassel's first day of baptism as a nun. The nuns of the Notre Dame gave me this diary, asking me to record my insights and experiences in serving the goddess from today onwards. I will definitely work hard.]

Theresa · Cassel?

Is this the name of the diary's owner? A nun?

Li Ang raised his eyebrows and continued reading.

[Goddess Calendar 1021, January 13. Life at Notre Dame is more... deserted than I imagined? The nuns and sisters need to cultivate the land themselves, watering and irrigating, planting crops. According to the scriptures, farming is the first skill that the goddess taught to mankind. Even clergy members must rely on their own labor to support themselves, rather than collecting money from believers in the name of being closer to the goddess. But... drawing water from the well is really tiring. The good news is that the nuns studying at Notre Dame can receive a small sum of money every week. The nuns will save the money, while the nuns will send the money to their families far away—like them, I also sent the money back home, so that my parents may not have to work so hard, and my younger siblings may be able to afford to go to school...]

Li Ang flipped through the pages quickly,

The first half of the diary is probably the life experiences of the nun Theresa · Cassel, from the age of 10 to 16.

During these six years, she had been studying religious classics and serving the goddess as a novice nun in a monastery in a small town called Nordhern.

Human civilization in this world universally believes in a goddess whose name and appearance are unknown. The goddess created the world and mankind and taught mankind civilization.

She is the main faith in this script world.

"Strange."

Li Ang frowned. According to the village chief of Guardian Village, human civilization in this world is distributed on isolated islands separated by the sea, and has developed kingdoms with completely different tech trees.

Under such circumstances, countries can still develop the same mainstream belief at the same time...

Could it be that there really is a creator god in this world?