So that's how it is. It seemed the people in the City of Bliss really didn't know much about the grave sin of murder.
Following Kake's gaze, Fu Qian also noticed the changes in Brother Macho, knowing that death had finally arrived.
Unfortunately, although Kake was certain he would face karmic retribution, Fu Qian hadn't felt any changes in himself yet.
Moreover, between the commotion and the conversation inside the room, the listeners outside had undoubtedly deduced exactly what had happened.
And yet, no one had pushed the door open to physically deliver him to the afterlife and claim a bit of karmic merit for themselves.
It seemed the others' beliefs simply didn't condone opening a door without permission.
Therefore...
"Thank you."
Replying politely to Kake, Fu Qian casually plunged the wiped Candlestick into his own chest.
Murder combined with suicide—surely this sin couldn't get any heavier, right?
...
Darkness...
Hunger...
Crawling...
Feeding...
Delicious...
...
Darkness...
Continued hunger...
Continued crawling...
Continued feeding...
Truly delicious...
...
Darkness...
Continued hunger...
Continued crawling...
Continued feeding—will die.
Truly delicious...
...
Darkness...
Continued hunger...
Continued crawling—will die.
Continued feeding—danger of death.
Delicious...
...
Darkness...
Continued hunger—danger of death.
...What danger?
What danger...
What danger—SAN Value depleting.
...
The darkness—impossible to tell whether it had been agonizingly long or fleetingly short—finally came to an end.
Fu Qian's first reaction was to draw a long, deep breath. He savored the regained concept of vision and took in the elements composing the "picture" before him.
Low steps, a high altar, candles, a round window... everything remained brilliantly illuminated, a striking blend of gold and white.
It was a highly distinct architectural style. Before him appeared to be a small religious venue.
Yet, its hues and materials naturally made it profoundly clear that he had returned to the City of Extreme Evil—bah—the City of Bliss.
Did this place actually have a building resembling a Small Chapel?
He had assumed that after entering the Realm of Bliss, there wouldn't be any forms this secular.
What a pity it wasn't pure white... It wasn't the White-Headed Church after all.
Like a sun-dried fish tossed back into the water, Fu Qian felt his brain expanding and filling out, stirring up threads of lingering emotion.
Earlier, considering the possibility that he was being watched, he hadn't wanted to easily expose his knowledge of the White-Headed Church. Thus, he hadn't asked Kake about it directly; he had merely kept an eye out along the way, ultimately finding nothing.
Yet this time, upon returning from samsara, he had actually found a church in the City of Bliss. And white truly made up a significant portion of its color scheme...
Given this development, confirming it still wasn't the White-Headed Sanctuary naturally made him sigh in regret.
Exactly. Although he could feel the stiffness of his body, Fu Qian was fairly certain that the redemption for his double-murder felony was already complete.
The reason was simple: this body was obviously human.
It was even wearing an exquisitely gorgeous red-and-blue robe.
...
So there really is no way to just die and restart.
Fu Qian couldn't help but sigh.
Although it had been an incredibly bizarre experience, he didn't find it hard to sort through the details.
What had happened previously was simple. After ruthlessly slaughtering Brother Macho, he had borne a heavy weight of sin. Then, turning the blade on himself, he had committed what was likely an even graver crime.
What happened next proved exactly that.
First, the suffering of the Inhuman Samsara that Kake had mentioned truly did happen. It was just that compared to becoming a cart-pulling beast, the punishment aimed at him was significantly more severe.
Darkness, hunger, crawling, feeding... Those few lingering concepts were enough for Fu Qian to deduce that he had seemingly turned into an eyeless worm.
It wasn't as simple as his human will being trapped inside a frail body. In a circumstance so unimaginable without experiencing it firsthand, his human thoughts had immediately extinguished, leaving behind only the basest of instincts.
There was no stifling sensation of being trapped; in that moment, his very mind had practically become that of a worm.
To describe it specifically, it was as if twenty years of painstakingly memorized vocabulary had been ruthlessly yanked from his brain, leaving behind only a handful of letters for his instincts to blindly rearrange.
Everything the concept of a worm could not carry had been completely discarded.
...
Now this can truly be called the suffering of samsara.
What did merely losing a human body to pull a cart or plow a field amount to? Especially in this Land of Bliss, where a next life was absolutely guaranteed.
Recalling that bizarre sensation in the dark, Fu Qian sighed deeply, grasping just how perilous this journey truly was.
It really wasn't a game. It warranted being scrutinized with the deepest malice.
In fact, the only reason he had been able to break free from the path of the worm was precisely because of this pessimism.
Being forced by circumstances to make a risky move didn't mean he could just stop thinking and leave everything to luck.
Much earlier, when he had reverse-engineered the experiences of his predecessors and committed his monstrous sin, he had already considered potential countermeasures in case he truly reincarnated as an animal.
He hadn't been so optimistic as to expect only the common tropes of being unable to speak or having restricted movement. Instead, Fu Qian had even referenced a brainstorming session he'd had years ago during a literature class when reading a story called The Metamorphosis—
If a person really turned into an organism with an overly simplistic biological structure, how could they possibly retain the capacity to recognize themselves as human?
Precisely due to his pessimism regarding this question, the absolute last thing Fu Qian did before piercing his own heart was to frantically implant a single thought into his mind: Will die.
There is something I must do, and if I fail, I will die.
Even for the brain of a simple organism, the concept of death should be relatively easy to carry.
If anything could serve as an Anchor Point to awaken his human will, then "death" was certainly worth a try.
But somewhat surprisingly, this contingency plan—prepared for the absolute worst-case scenario—had actually worked.
Using the intense mark of death, he had managed to successfully insert some static into his biological instincts, which snowballed into more... until he finally found himself in a human body, sitting inside this Sanctuary.
It hadn't just allowed him to slowly recall who he was; it had directly allowed him to break free from the agonizing samsara brought upon by his monstrous sin.
Naturally, a question followed: Why?
Why had the painful samsara of becoming a worm ended just because he managed an alternative "awakening"—even if this wasn't his original body?
Exactly. Just by looking at his hands, Fu Qian could tell that this body was even younger than his original one.
[SAN Value -1]
Even as he questioned himself, new prompts unexpectedly chimed in his mind one after another.
[Current task updated: Slay the Ancient One of the Nine Heavens]
Hmm? Not bad at all.
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