Chapter 2743 - 1855: Evolution?

Chapter 2743: Chapter 1855: Evolution?

Undoubtedly, at this moment, the atmosphere throughout the church reached its peak. Everyone stared wide-eyed at the souls of the fallen soldiers, who seemed surprised by their current predicament, looking around in confusion as if unable to come to their senses.

"Dad?"

The young man who had just confronted Duanmu Huai saw an elderly man among them and hurriedly took a step forward, trying to grasp his hand, but his hands passed through the old man’s arm, catching nothing. This made the young man turn around in surprise, once again looking at Duanmu Huai.

"Great Judge, what, what’s going on here?"

"It’s quite simple. Doesn’t the religion in your world have similar legends? Souls of those who believe in the deity, after showing their loyalty, are sent to the deity’s world upon death... Isn’t this very normal?"

Duanmu Huai spread his hands, looking at the young man with an "Are you unaware that the sun rises in the east?" kind of expression, while the latter trembled all over, unable to speak.

"Yes, that’s correct. But, but all the priests say that the souls of the dead cannot return to this world!"

"Tch."

Duanmu Huai rolled his eyes.

"Have you considered that they say this because they can’t achieve it?"

Undoubtedly, upon hearing Duanmu Huai’s words, the others were immediately confused. Indeed, in this world, there are many legends about this aspect, and fundamentally, these legends claim that the souls of mortals cannot return to this world, capable of such a feat are the devils... However, Duanmu Huai tore away these fellows’ bare-faced masks.

Ultimately, they just can’t do it.

The Tribunal can do it, they can’t, so who is the true deity? Isn’t it obvious?

In the game, players have a joke about The Emperor and the National Religion, believing that during the 40K period, the National Religion prevailed throughout the empire, not because the Imperial populace was ignorant and a bunch of brainwashed fools, but because — calling on The Emperor’s blessing really works!

There was once intelligence in the game that recorded the emergence of a Corrupted Foil virus on a certain planet, similar to the viruses in this world that cause death and transform into zombies. At the time, the Mechanical Religion also conducted extensive analysis and created a vaccine against the virus, but it was ineffective.

So how was this issue resolved?

Quite simple, someone had a bright idea and got the National Religion’s archbishop on that planet to bless the vaccines!

And then the vaccines worked!

With things like this, how can you ask everyone not to believe in the National Religion, isn’t that nonsense?

If you have the skill, don’t reveal your divine presence!

If you don’t reveal your divine presence, then naturally people won’t believe in it!

But you keep showing divine presence with living saints, yet expect people not to believe in the National Religion?

Is it possible?

"Regardless, confronting the Judge is against the rules; return to the Punishment Hall later to receive ten lashes."

Duanmu Huai explained briefly, then calmly issued a command, and the young man’s expression changed, he then bowed his head.

"Yes, My Lord."

This time, he was willing.

After this, Duanmu Huai also commended the fallen soldiers and gave them two choices: either possess these mechas (Alchemy Creations crafted via magic by Medea and Alice Phil), to become Soul Guards defending Humans, or return to the Divine Realm to do logistical work.

Or jump directly into the core of the Divine Realm and burn oneself to ashes.

About half of them chose to become Soul Guards, while the rest wished to live in the Divine Realm. After this, the ritual ended, and apart from a certain unlucky fellow who needed to go to the Punishment Hall to receive lashes, everyone else disbanded.

However, the aftermath of this ritual has only just begun.

Almost every survivor who witnessed this scene developed an indescribable reverence and worship towards the Tribunal. Or rather, for the first time, they truly and tangibly felt what it’s like to have the deity with them, not the kind of useless religion that only scams money, but a religion truly led by the deity.

Incidentally, there were still a few priests among these survivors, primarily responsible for comforting others and doing sermon-like activities. But after this night, all the doctrines they promoted were abandoned like garbage, even those priests themselves became the most devout followers of the Tribunal...

After all, it was the first time people had truly witnessed souls and learned where souls go after death. Of course, Duanmu Huai also told them, those who believe in the Tribunal after death will definitely go to the Tribunal’s Divine Realm, but he didn’t know where the souls of those who don’t believe would go.

As for whether they go to Hell or ascend to Heaven, Duanmu Huai doesn’t care, nor does he mind.

But for the survivors, this is very important!

At least, it’s a definite option. As long as you believe in the Tribunal, then after you die, you can truly go to its Divine Realm. If you perform well, you might even return to the human world as a Soul Guard!

If the Tribunal were a religion that required reciting scriptures or offering everything to prove one’s loyalty, then everyone would be scrambling to queue up and demonstrate their faith by now. But unfortunately, the Tribunal’s way of demonstrating loyalty is very simple and hardcore—protecting humanity at all costs and eliminating all threats to humanity.

This means that only through battle can one’s faith be best expressed!

Of course, what they will do... that’s their problem.

But at least after this, the morale of these survivors has greatly increased, even reaching a fervent level. Even some who previously considered themselves rational are now feeling a strong sense of worship towards the Tribunal.

For Duanmu Huai, this is enough.

After all, we’re all local foxes here, if you can play, why shouldn’t I? There’s no saying otherwise, right?

After this, the Tribunal’s Floating Island continued to advance, passing through several cities. Fortunately, these cities didn’t have those twisted Obsessive Sin Demons, so everyone was happily purifying them and, as usual, took away other survivors.

However, amidst these survivors, some strange intelligence was reported.

"Are you saying, a city of zombies?"

Duanmu Huai sat on the throne, looking at the ragged man below. According to him, he was a businessman, mainly running around this area, gaining profits through exchanging resources from the shelter. After all, it has been quite some time since the outbreak of the plague, and humans were gradually adapting to living in this environment.

And the man’s approach was quite novel; he had a hot air balloon—according to himself, before the apocalypse, he was a staff member at a tourist attraction, mainly responsible for driving a hot air balloon to take tourists to play in the sky. When the zombie chaos erupted, he happened to be up in the air, thus escaping the calamity. Later, the man used this hot air balloon to float between cities, doing business.

Nice idea, but encountering the Tribunal, he couldn’t escape.

After all, the Tribunal flies even more.

"Yes, yes, my lord..."

Kneeling on the ground, the man looked at Duanmu Huai tremblingly, but still mustered up the courage to continue speaking.

"It’s just to the south... strictly speaking, it’s a city jointly ruled by zombies and humans."

"Jointly ruled?"

"Yes... I happened to go to that city before. At that time, I got in touch with the people over there by radio, wanting to see if they had any resources to exchange. But when I arrived at the destination, I found that those meeting me were a group of zombies!"

Talking about this, the man shivered.

"Their bodies were rotting, but they could still move and talk... my god, it was simply a nightmare. I was completely terrified at the time, because I had never seen talking zombies before. But they expressed a desire for peaceful living and not clashing with others. Moreover, there were a group of humans by their side. Or rather, most of that city might be humans... in short, they were ruled by zombies... no, no, I should say they were jointly ruled by zombies. Sorry, I can’t explain clearly, you can’t imagine, when I saw humans and zombies walking side by side on the streets, I even wondered if I was dreaming. How could such an absurd thing be possible, but it was indeed true..."

The man’s words were somewhat incoherent, but Duanmu Huai understood his meaning.

"When did you ask those zombies, why did they regain their sanity?"

"These zombies are insane!"

Talking about this topic, the man couldn’t help but exclaim.

"They believe that zombies are the next evolutionary form of humans, they are the new humans! In fact, they strictly prohibit zombies from attacking humans, not because they are kind to humans, but only those recognized by them are eligible to receive the honor of becoming zombies... my god, I once watched a conversion ritual. That person, facing a zombie rushing towards him, didn’t run away, but actively welcomed the bite... and then, he was even delighted to become a zombie!"

The man shook his head vigorously as he spoke. Obviously, this bizarre occurrence was completely unexpected to him, utterly incomprehensible.

"This is really interesting."

After listening to the man’s narration, Duanmu Huai squinted his eyes, revealing a cold smile. The zombies they encountered before were merely beasts driven by instinct, not such beings. Now it seems, in that city, the situation is different?

It must be purified as soon as possible.

"Take us to see that city, then."