Chapter 158 The Voice of the Overlord

Hao Ren had once dealt with a group of cultists in the Dragon Spine Mountains. He had seen their religious texts back then, but at the time he did not know the complete structure of this "Return Sect" and thought that the black book was their canonical bible. Now it seemed that the Return Sect's organizational form was very different from normal religious organizations. What was wiped out in the Dragon Spine Mountains that day was just one of its peripheral cults, and the religious text he obtained was obviously not the "original text" used by those cultists' core members. According to Ofra, many things in the "original text" were unique.

Hao Ren opened the black leather manual. Just placing it on the table would reveal an unpleasant aura, as if some kind of evil, paranoid obsession was still attached to those soft, leather-like pages. The black manual was not a printed matter, but was handwritten throughout. The edges of the characters had a strange sense of trembling, as if the writer had copied these crazy characters in some kind of extremely excited and uncontrollable mental state. Hao Ren concentrated his mind to resist the mental fatigue brought to him by the pages, and with Ofra's guidance, found some marked paragraphs:

"...The voice of the Overlord lets us sing the true name of the goddess, but this true name cannot be spoken in human language. Only with devout faith can this name be recited in the heart... We offer the original pure flesh and blood, so as to be closer to that sacred original form, only in this way can sins be washed away..."

"...The voice of the Overlord descended before the prophet, and told the prophet in the voice of the soul that the Radiant Heresy was guilty. They stole the goddess's blood and allowed their sinful lives to be prolonged. You must go to the western mountains and break off a branch, and use this branch to carve a staff, which is the weapon and mark given by the goddess to her children. Then the judgment of the Radiant Heresy will descend. On the day when the Manu constellation shines again, the judgment will descend..."

"...The mountain people who offered flesh and blood walked barefoot beside the voice of the Overlord, and the wounds on their bodies healed again. They became clean, because they used a part of their flesh and blood to wash away the sins of their whole body. The voice of the Overlord told the prophet that he was acting on behalf of the goddess's will, so the prophet ordered the mountain people to salute the goddess's statue, not the voice of the Overlord, as it should be..."

The words on this strange book kept shaking. Hao Ren felt a little dizzy after reading a few paragraphs. He rubbed his eyebrows: "How did those heretics read this thing in one breath? This thing comes with screen shake."

"These blasphemous books contain a power that damages the spirit," the bearded man also leaned over to look at the book, and immediately frowned and stepped back, "The more devout thoughts towards the goddess, the more attacks will be received. Probably only heretics who completely deviate from the teachings of the goddess can read it."

"Speaking of which, those cultists also claim to respect the goddess, but the goddess they believe in is not quite the same as what you promote," Hao Ren closed the damned book, "What's the deal with the Voice of the Overlord?"

Lily's ears twitched: "Sounds like a radio station!"

Hao Ren coughed twice: "Ahem... definitely doesn't mean the same thing as the voice of the campus."

"This is the difference between the 'original text' and the peripheral religious texts that are circulated," Ofra did not understand what the voice of the campus was, but only answered Hao Ren's question, "The 'original text' has an extra 'Voice of the Overlord' of unknown origin. According to the information currently available, the Return Sect began to develop after receiving some kind of inspiration from this existence called the 'Voice of the Overlord'. All their actions, including the compilation of doctrines and blood rituals, were instructed by the Voice of the Overlord. But when facing peripheral cults, they concealed the existence of the Voice of the Overlord, and pretended that they were fully accepting the goddess's personal decree."

Hao Ren frowned: "Why hide this?"

"Perhaps it is also the will of the Overlord, because it does not want its existence to be known by too many people," Ofra shook her head, "We have only recently found these things. We don't even know whether that 'Voice of the Overlord' is a person or a monster. We can only roughly infer that 'it' should be a role similar to a divine envoy. The Return Sect regards it as the incarnation and mouthpiece of the goddess. Moreover, many of their supernatural abilities were also obtained from the Voice of the Overlord."

Hao Ren shuddered when he heard the words "divine envoy," thinking that he seemed to be doing this too. Then he suddenly remembered the giant brain he had faced in the cave in the Dragon Spine Mountains.

"Could the 'Voice of the Overlord' refer to that kind of giant brain?" Lily also thought of the same thing as Hao Ren, "It seems that that thing was also called a 'divine envoy' by the cultists."

Hao Ren recalled the situation at the time, and various guesses arose in his mind: "What the cultists in the Dragon Spine Mountains summoned at that time was not the true body of the giant brain. According to Lao Wang, that's called advent summoning... Could it be that the high-level members of the Return Sect have the ability to summon a real 'brain monster'?"

"They don't need to summon the true body," Vivian suddenly interjected from the side, "That kind of brain monster should have very strong mental abilities, and can even project its spirit across the universe to other planets. So it only needs to project its figure into the brains of some Hollettans, and it can 'appear' out of thin air on this planet—I think there should be this type of powerhouse among those brain monsters."

Hao Ren shook his head gently: "No, I am more inclined to believe that the high-level members of the Return Sect summoned the true body of that giant brain, or a giant brain accidentally came to this world—do you still remember the scroll that the assassin used to assassinate the Pope at the banquet today? I and the data terminal analyzed its ingredients, and that thing is not a product of this planet. If I'm right... there is a brain monster hiding on this planet."

Ofra's expression became serious in an instant: "This information is extremely important, I will immediately report it to the king and the Pope."

"Yeah," Hao Ren nodded, "We can't stay here to help you with this kind of thing, so we can only wish you good luck. According to my speculation, the activities of the giant brain will interfere with the mental state of ordinary people, so there should be group insomnia, nightmares, and madness near its hiding place, and the core members of the Return Sect are still mortals after all. They can't completely leave the crowd to live, and they will inevitably leave clues when they are with the giant brain. You can start with this clue."

Ofra nodded slightly, and the bearded man next to her stepped forward and looked at Hao Ren: "I want to stay and assist the church in handling this matter. The matter of the cultists is unusual, and as a child of the goddess, I can no longer sit idly by."

Hao Ren scratched his scalp: "Then do you need to notify the other three who are running around the world?"

Of the four ascetics at the beginning, only one remains by Hao Ren's side. The remaining three guys with crazy mobility have traveled around the earth. Some have gone to the African savannah to hunt, some have gone to Antarctica to dig ice, and some have gone to India to compete with the locals to challenge the limits of survival. Hao Ren doesn't know where to find these people.

The bearded man shook his head: "No need, it's too much trouble to find them. The four of us have different bodies but the same heart, so I can just do my duty here."

He is quite sensible, and also knows that the extent of the three people running around is a bit exaggerated...

Hao Ren flipped through the data files in the small box again. He hoped to get information on how to summon that kind of giant brain, but unfortunately this kind of thing was not among these materials. He asked about this, and Ofra could only shake her head: "Summoning the monster you said seems to be a very high secret of the Return Sect. Only their 'bishop' level figures know the method, and there is no written information circulating. It should be passed down by word of mouth. In the process of capture, all the bishop-level cultists committed suicide. Even if they occasionally caught a living one, they would die suddenly for inexplicable reasons before the interrogation. This sect must have some way to control life to strictly prevent members from betraying, which is the biggest problem so far."

Hao Ren frowned. If he couldn't catch that kind of giant brain, then his investigation of these cultists would be meaningless. In the end, what he wanted to know was the secret of the goddess of creation. He couldn't interfere with the sectarian war on the planet Holletta even if he wanted to—if he insisted on interfering, he would easily violate the employee code and have Ms. Raven add a blessing from the sky...

But he also knew that some things could not be rushed, so he could only nod: "That's it then, at least with these things... it's not like there's no gain. Let's go back and see if Izhaks is done with the interrogation."

(I received tons of damage in the past 520 and 521 days. Someone give me a monthly ticket reward or something to comfort me =.=)