Chapter 276: Twisted Divine Cult

"Is it the Statue's influence?" Su Mu murmured to himself, an imperceptible crystalline blue light flashing in his eyes.

"It seems we've already entered the Nightmare World. We just fell into an illusion the moment we arrived because we saw the Statue. Interesting!"

A smile played on Su Mu's lips. Such an intriguing nightmare filled his heart with irrepressible excitement. He guessed that this Statue was very likely a divine idol.

Just a single glance had plunged everyone into an illusion of Twisted Thoughts. Such power was something even a Gold expert could not achieve.

After all, this team included him, an illusion master, alongside King Chi's avatar.

Now that he had broken free, it was time to help the others escape.

Su Mu studied the blank-eyed group. How should he break it?

The method he had just used was to brainwash himself. The problem was that the minds of Su Qing and the others were completely immersed in the illusion; they couldn't receive any outside information at all, rendering hypnotic brainwashing impossible.

"Huh," Su Mu suddenly let out a soft exclamation. He had discovered something interesting: just now, the facial features of one of his teammates had slightly shifted!

It was Zhou Hui. Although her appearance couldn't be called beautiful, she at least had regular features. Yet right now, her eyes were slowly shifting out of alignment. Her right eye had moved up two centimeters, while her left eye had dropped two centimeters. As time passed, this displacement continued to widen.

"It seems the distortion of thoughts also affects the physical body. Since the root of the distortion is the Statue, would simply not looking at it work?"

Su Mu looked up at the Statue. Sure enough, he could feel an invisible distortion slowly twisting his own thoughts, but when he looked away, the influence vanished.

He hadn't fallen into the twisted illusion this time, likely because he was mentally prepared.

Now understanding the principle, Su Mu immediately turned everyone around so their backs were to the Statue. A moment later, Su Qing let out a sudden cry and regained her senses.

"Is this... an Illusion Technique?"

"That's right, an Illusion Technique of Twisted Thoughts," Su Mu's voice sounded from behind her.

Hearing his voice, Su Qing was just about to turn her head when Su Mu stopped her.

"Don't look back. The source of the Illusion Technique is right behind you," Su Mu said, slowly walking around to face her.

"What exactly is behind us?" Although Su Qing was King Chi's avatar, this was her first time in the Nightmare World. She wasn't originally a Nightmare Apostle; she had arrived by soul-binding with another one.

Her first visit left her secretly alarmed. She had long heard that the Nightmare World was exceptionally dangerous, but she never expected it to be this extreme. She had fallen into a trap the moment she entered.

If Su Mu hadn't awakened her, this avatar of hers likely would have been ruined.

Once an avatar's thoughts were completely twisted, it would sever itself from the main body's control and exist as an independent entity.

What shocked her even more was her own status. As King Chi's esteemed avatar, even with her strength restricted to the Silver Stage, she was still the number one figure in the Silver tier. She felt that absolutely no one at the Silver Grade could possibly be her match.

Yet now, she had fallen for a trap, while Su Mu had broken the illusion ahead of her...

Thinking of Su Mu's various mysterious methods from earlier, she grew increasingly curious about his true strength.

With Su Qing's awakening, the others also slowly broke free from the Statue's influence and regained their senses.

"Zhou Hui, your... your face!" someone cried out.

Zhou Hui's expression shifted. She could feel that her vision had become very strange, as if it were no longer level, but offset, one high and one low. She hurriedly took out a pocket mirror and looked at herself, her face instantly turning deathly pale.

"What... what exactly is going on!? My face!"

"The distortion of thoughts eventually reflects on the physical body. The weaker a person's will, the easier their minds are subjected to Twisted Thoughts," Su Mu explained.

Zhou Hui's face looked increasingly awful, but her negative emotions only lasted a moment before she let them go. A forced smile hung on her face as she consoled herself, "It's just disfigurement. That's still better than having my thoughts completely twisted until I turn into someone else. At least I'm still alive."

Su Mu smiled faintly. She was a Silver Grade Nightmare Apostle after all, someone who had weathered great storms, and her mindset shifted remarkably fast. Indeed, for a Nightmare Apostle, disfigurement could only be considered a minor matter. Staying alive was better than anything.

"Captain, what do we do now? Are we going to keep our backs to the Statue forever?" Lin Nanxing asked, his bow and arrows slung across his back.

"If you feel your will is firm enough, you can turn your heads to move forward like me. If not, walk with your heads down and don't look at the Statue."

Ultimately, out of caution, everyone chose to walk with their heads down, completely not daring to look up at the Statue at the mountain peak.

Su Mu briefly scanned their surroundings. The terrain of this nightmare was very simple: just a ten-thousand-zhang tall mountain. Although it sounded simple, this mountain was exceptionally vast, large enough to rival a major city.

And their current location was right at the foot of the mountain. Just a bit further away lay the boundary of the nightmare, the Black Fog.

"Lin Nanxing, avoid the Statue and activate the Eye of the Sky to scout the mountain for intelligence," Su Mu suddenly ordered.

Lin Nanxing nodded. He immediately wiped a hand over his right eye, which vanished in an instant, leaving only a dark, empty socket.

Immediately after, from an angle invisible to the others, a rift slowly split open in the empty space beside the mountain. The rift grew larger and larger, eventually revealing a giant eye.

It was exactly Lin Nanxing's Silver Law, the Eye of the Sky!

The Eye of the Sky was a scouting ability that could be placed in the sky. It possessed a certain degree of illusion-breaking and omniscient vision, equivalent to turning on a map hack.

Aside from Lin Nanxing, no one else could see the Eye of the Sky.

As Lin Nanxing continuously used the Eye of the Sky to observe, a look of shock appeared on his face.

"Captain, there are many towns and villages on the mountain, and I saw people! At least a hundred thousand of them!"

"What!? A hundred thousand people? Are you sure you didn't see wrong?" someone asked in shock.

Lin Nanxing nodded solemnly. "I absolutely didn't see wrong. But they can hardly be called human anymore. All of their facial features are dislocated, and some even have dislocated limbs. Furthermore, many of them are wearing the same attire. It's a multi-colored robe where all the colors mix together, twisting into the shape of a vortex."

Su Mu's eyes flickered. This instantly made him think of the Primal Divine Cult!

Earlier, he had learned from Wan that in the Middle Hell, which was the center of the Nightmare World, humans lived within a large number of nightmares. Various cults existed among them, each worshiping different gods.

During their idle chat back then, he had also subtly asked about the more famous cults. Now, seeing these people's clothing and twisted facial features, he immediately thought of one in particular.

The Twisted Divine Cult!