Chapter 2182: Knock Open Your Brain
A Hai didn't open his mouth, but his expression answered him—it was indeed the case.
"Then you're really something," the Yellow Hair said, giving a thumbs up. "All those outer zone players combined didn't react as strongly as you did."
They were now at the exit on the other side of the temple. Although some of the players who came out one after another had pale faces or grave expressions, no one else had blood flowing from their eyes and nose like Xu Huo. According to the Goddess Cult, this proved that Xu Huo was far more "evil" than other players—otherwise, why would he receive such severe punishment?
"Have you seen others who were punished?" Xu Huo ignored Yellow Hair's teasing and asked A Hai instead.
"I have." A Hai nodded. He had seen it on TV shows—people who entered the Inquisition Hall and came out crying and confessing endlessly. After admitting their wrongdoings, they would join the Goddess Cult and become its most loyal followers.
"Then do you think I'm bleeding because my sins are too deep, or because I refuse to repent?" Xu Huo asked again. "If it's because my sins are too deep, with the Goddess's vast powers, why can't she make me turn back like the other believers? If it's the latter, since the Goddess can see the evil in my heart, why doesn't she just kill me when I have no intention of repenting, instead of only making my eyes and nose bleed?"
"Is it that she can't do it, or is she planning to leave me a way out?"
"If she can't do it, that means she isn't omnipotent. So is her judgment of 'sinners' necessarily correct?" If she isn't omnipotent, of course she isn't omniscient either.
"But if she knows I'm evil and still lets me go, wouldn't that bring an even greater crisis to Purple Lake City? After all, I might kill someone out of humiliation once I get out. Wouldn't she be sitting by and letting me harm her followers?"
A Hai was stumped by this barrage of questions. He opened his mouth several times but couldn't say anything. After a long while, he whispered, "It could also be that the Goddess thinks you don't deserve death."
"But if you don't go in, you can't clear the instance," Xu Huo continued. "So either the player doesn't clear it, or to clear it, they have to convince themselves first—at least enter the temple calmly and pay respects."
"The Inquisition Hall," Xu Huo said flatly, "isn't necessarily questioning whether you're good or bad. It might also be knocking open your brain."
"So that's how it is." A Hai seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, then apologized to Xu Huo, "I misunderstood you earlier."
A Hai unconsciously lowered his head and added, "If the Goddess thinks... you don't deserve death, then you probably aren't too bad a person."
"But speaking of which, since the Inquisition Hall is a place to distinguish good from evil, why did I think about things from the past?" Yellow Hair was puzzled. "Although it was a bit thrilling and awkward, it didn't really involve good or evil. In the end, I survived only because I yelled loudly and a patrol army happened to pass by nearby. That cannibal woman also ran away, and I don't know where she went."
"Haha!" Yellow Hair suddenly walked over and slapped Xu Huo's shoulder hard. "Since the Goddess thinks that way, it means we aren't bad people. In the game, players have definitely killed people, and not all of those who were killed were necessarily bad—they might have just been poor souls struggling to survive."
"It's also a process of contradiction and compromise," Xu Huo said. "To clear the instance, you have to enter the temple. The first checkpoint is basic respect. People who don't even have basic respect have strong rebellious tendencies, which increases the difficulty of interference."
Xu Huo stared at him but didn't offer any opinion on his statement.
Mental interference requires a process. The harder the target is to interfere with, the longer the process takes. Entering the five satellite cities first and then the Holy Land Temple might be exactly such a process.
"Convincing yourself to voluntarily pay respects—doesn't that just deliver yourself right into their area of expertise?" Yellow Hair was troubled. "And this is only the first temple. What if by the time we reach the fifth one, we've been successfully brainwashed? By the time we get to the Holy Land Temple, we'll be lambs to the slaughter."
Thinking about that situation, he shuddered. "No way, can even advanced players be brainwashed to the point of total obedience?"
Xu Huo pointed to his own face. There were still traces of blood at the corners of his eyes.
Yellow Hair immediately leaned in and used a prop to conceal his voice. "Did you see the Goddess?"
"It's hard to say if it was the Goddess, but it should have been something concrete." Otherwise, it wouldn't have been frozen by time power or left burn marks. "But the other party might have really wanted to kill me."
If the Time Ring hadn't taken effect, whether he could have come out intact was questionable.
"As long as it's something concrete, that's fine." Yellow Hair breathed a sigh of relief. "If it were some invisible, untouchable 'god,' that would be really hard to clear. I don't want to stay here forever."
"Oh no," he suddenly remembered. "We didn't find the Divine Envoy. Who's going to stamp us?"
"This is the Divine Envoy's mark." A Hai quickly raised his hand, revealing a flower pattern that had appeared on the inside of his forearm.
Yellow Hair also hurriedly flipped his hand to look. His was an eye pattern. When he saw that Xu Huo's arms were empty, he slapped his thigh. "Damn! The first stop already brainwashed us!"
In fact, several players hadn't received a "stamp," but someone had already tried going directly to the Holy Land without passing through the satellite cities. The result, of course, was that they couldn't enter the temple. They had no choice but to obtain the Divine Envoy's mark from the satellite city temples.
"I'll go ask around what patterns others got." Yellow Hair looked around and walked off.
"You should wipe your eyes." A Hai handed over a handkerchief, but Xu Huo didn't take it. Instead, he said, "This blood won't wipe clean for a while."
He had suffered severe injuries before coming here, and his spiritual realm hadn't fully recovered. Just now, he had nearly been overwhelmed by the massive influx of information in the Inquisition Hall, causing his system to crash. His head was still splitting with pain, and until the influence of the spiritual power was completely eliminated, his eyes wouldn't return to normal.
In fact, everything he saw now was blurry, as if covered by a layer of fog.
A Hai mistakenly thought he was angry about being suspected. "I'm really sorry just now. You were injured and still willing to bring me to Purple Lake City, but I... I've only seen a few people who entered the temple on TV. I don't even know if everyone is like that. It's my fault. Please don't be angry."
"You're not the only one who thinks that way." Xu Huo looked toward the temple. "Did you see the looks from the other believers when we came out? That shows my situation is very rare even for them."
A Hai was at a loss for words. It seemed nothing he said would be appropriate, so he finally had to ask, "Then are you a good person or a bad person?"
"What do you think?" Xu Huo countered.
"In the days I've been with you, you haven't done anything bad. But I don't know about before." A Hai answered cautiously.
"Before, what does before have to do with you?" Xu Huo took a supplement potion, then said, "It's hard to say about others, but I think I'm a good person."
"Oh." A Hai responded softly. Just then, Yellow Hair returned, bringing two companions with him. One of them had been stamped, while the other, like Xu Huo, had made the trip for nothing.
"I'm going in again. Are you coming?" that player asked.