Dimensional Codex System: I'm really not a cultist!
Chapter 576 - 575: Blood and Fire (Part 1)

Chapter 576: Chapter 575: Blood and Fire (Part 1)

This place was nothing but a nightmare.

Wandering through buildings filled with death and blood, Fang Zheng finally discovered the darkest secret of the Healing Church.

Here, Fang Zheng found that besides Hunters, what were most numerous were a group of "patients." Their common feature was that each person’s head was wrapped in a sack, completely obscuring the contents. However, Fang Zheng could tell from the squirming of the sacks that what was contained inside was definitely not what he recognized as a "head."

As for what their heads actually looked like, Fang Zheng wisely chose to ignore it.

And from the data in the experiment building, Fang Zheng finally understood what the Healing Church was actually up to.

Although Lawrence and William had parted ways over ideological reasons, this didn’t mean that Lawrence disagreed with William’s methods; he just wasn’t willing to simply utter "fear the Blood of the Ancient God" and then give up everything. In fact, Lawrence’s thoughts were in agreement with William’s— he wished to elevate humanity to a higher plane by enhancing the "Inner Eye" inside the human brain.

That is to say, the core idea of Lawrence was still that of William’s.

For this, they injected some kind of liquid into some people’s brains.

Of course, these people weren’t randomly chosen; through long experiments, Lawrence found some individuals who showed good adaptability to the Blood of the Ancient God after it was introduced. Moreover, their blood seemed to blend very well with the Blood of the Ancient God, producing very unique and powerful healing effects.

Therefore, the Healing Church gathered these people, injected them with the Blood of the Ancient God, and drew blood from their bodies that had been "modified" after merging with the Blood of the Ancient God, using it as the main source for Blood Healing.

And seeing all this, Fang Zheng finally understood why the Healing Church had so much fresh blood available for Blood Healing...it turned out they had created an entire human blood bank!

This made sense, after all, as humans and Ancient Gods could not understand each other, and you never knew when, drawing and drawing, the Ancient God might not want to give you a smack, putting an end to you. But drawing blood from human bodies was clearly safer and more controllable.

However, for the Healing Church, those people were not just there to serve as a blood bank; their good adaptability to the Blood of the Ancient God also meant they could better perceive the knowledge and mysteries that the Blood of the Ancient God brought to them. They could listen to voices from the depths of the Blood of the Ancient God and perceive realms and levels beyond human understanding...

From one of the communicable big heads, Fang Zheng learned that these people had once been called "Blood Saintesses," and they were the source of the human blood bank, very confident that they could use these powers to become a higher existence.

According to the big head, they were initially named "Blood Saintesses" by the Healing Church after showing adaptability to the Blood of the Ancient God and served as human blood banks, donating blood for others without compensation. As a return, these Blood Saintesses could qualify for more injections of the Blood of the Ancient God; they could perceive the existences, voices, and images that others could not.

But as the introduction of the Blood of the Ancient God increased, these Blood Saintesses also began to change, their heads growing larger and becoming "indescribable." At that point, they could no longer continue to live and work outside. They would come here as "patients" then become the Healing Church’s experimental subjects.

According to the records Fang Zheng found, the heads of these Blood Saintesses would grow larger and larger, eventually detaching from the body to become an independent entity...of course, they also were unsuccessful failures.

Beyond that, Fang Zheng learned two more things.

The first was that there seemed to be a person named Madam Maria in charge here. Logically speaking, since these Blood Saintesses had become experimental subjects of the Healing Church, they should hate the Church. But that wasn’t the case; those big heads Fang Zheng met, whether they retained their sanity or not, all revered a person called Madam Maria. From what they said, Madam Maria seemed always to try to soothe their pain and calm their minds and souls...

Yes, just like a doctor in a mental hospital taking care of psychiatric patients.

And the second thing was... without exception, all those big heads mentioned things like "deep sea," "Abyssal Dark Place," and sounds of "tick-tock, tick-tock" from flowing water. They were attracted to this sound, completely engrossed in it, utterly unable to extricate themselves.

It seemed that to know all these secrets and truths, Fang Zheng would need to find that lady named Madam Maria.

And she was right in front of him.

"Bang."

A bloated, blue creature collapsed in front of Fang Zheng, having almost completely lost the shape of a human. Its head and body had merged into something that resembled a rectangular rice cake growing limbs.

Failures...

Watching the creature turn into pus and blood, Fang Zheng muttered to himself. He had already learned from the data that these four strange creatures were supposed to be the final messengers used by the Healing Church to contact the Ancient God, but unfortunately, they too had failed. In Transformation, losing their human form, their thoughts had also turned into an existence that humans could not comprehend.

And this Sunflower Field, located on the rooftop, was their final resting place.

After one last glance at the dead failures, Fang Zheng withdrew his gaze. Whether this was a nightmare or not, the monsters he had seen along this path were already enough. Although even now, Fang Zheng did not understand why he had come here when, according to William, he was supposed to head to the center of the lake to eliminate Rom, putting an end to the endless night of hunting.

But here, it is obviously a completely different world.

Perhaps this place harbors the greatest secret of the Healing Church, but what does that mean for Fang Zheng? He isn’t interested in the secrets of the Healing Church. In fact, any organization has its dark side; even the most noble ideals cannot escape being tainted with blood and darkness. It’s the same for Fang Zheng’s Heavenly Dao Palace; the dirty work is mostly left to the Zerg. In fact, what the Zerg has done in the Ironblood World is no more noble than what the Healing Church has done, nor will it be greater. Essentially, there is no difference between the two; it’s just that Fang Zheng did not choose his own kind as experimental subjects like the Healing Church did.

After all, all this had passed.

"Creak——"

Fang Zheng stretched out his hand, pushed open the Daimon in front of him, and walked into the room. In front of him was a spacious hall, with candles lit on both sides, and a huge metal clock embedded in the wall straight ahead. A woman with beautiful blond hair, dressed in Hunter’s attire, sat in the chair, quietly watching Fang Zheng.

"A visitor? That’s unexpected."

Her voice was calm and steady, as gentle as a warm spring breeze. Looking at the woman in front of him, Fang Zheng tentatively asked.

"You are... Madam Maria?"

"Yes."

The woman nodded slightly, then looked at Fang Zheng.

"Welcome to this nightmare, to see those patients with rampant beastliness and the filthy wards within the Church. What do you think? I know what you did to them; it’s not your fault. The nightmare controlled them, and now they have finally found relief. What do you think about it all?"

"Think about it...?"

Upon hearing Madam Maria’s inquiry, Fang Zheng pondered for a moment and shrugged.

"I think... it’s okay."

"...Okay?"

Faced with Fang Zheng’s unexpected answer, Madam Maria was dumbfounded. She had been prepared to hear an angry condemnation or an outburst about the dark and filthy secrets of the Church, but she never expected such an unanticipated response from this young man.

"Okay means... just okay."

Facing Madam Maria’s counter-question, Fang Zheng spread his hands.

"Every organization has its dark side; only naïve children would think everything is bright and beautiful. Aren’t we immersed in darkness to protect their beautiful expectations of the world? And honestly, I have seen experiments more cruel than anything at the Healing Church. Perhaps what the Healing Church has done is unacceptable to you, but in my view, this is all built on mutual consent. It might be insane, it might be ugly, but at least the decisions are made by adults with the ability to judge for themselves, aren’t they?"

"This..."

At this, the woman was struck speechless.

"It is true, but... the pain they endure..."

"The pain they endure is also a result of choices they made. In all honesty, at least it’s a choice they made themselves. Madam, the evil and darkness you speak of pale in comparison to what I have seen. Have you ever witnessed innocent children sent to the operating table under the malice of adults? To record their transformations into monsters, these adults would repeatedly harm their bodies, using various methods to torture them, just to record some data? Those children endure torment and suffering but receive no sympathy at all, not just from researchers, but even ordinary people can freely abuse and harm them without fear of any punishment. Their cries and pleas only result in more harm. Have you ever seen such things?"

"........."

Hearing this, Madam Maria was entirely dumbfounded, not knowing what to say.

Meanwhile, Fang Zheng just shrugged.

"So you see, compared to what I described, this really isn’t much."