Chapter 281: Speechless Su Mu

Su Mu asked the same question again, but this time, the answer was different.

The shop owner shook his head blankly. "I don't know."

Su Mu's gaze shifted as he pressed on, "Why did he appear in your home?"

The owner continued to shake his head. "He never came to my house."

"..." Su Mu was left speechless.

For a second, he even suspected his hypnosis had failed.

"His wanted poster is hanging in my house. The lord bishop issued it a few years ago, and I used it to patch my windows. I've never seen the actual person, just the poster."

"Why is the bishop after him?"

"The lord bishop said he's a Blasphemer. He broke into the Holy Temple and killed a lot of people, so he's a wanted man."

A Blasphemer? Broke into the Holy Temple?

Why would the First Red King break into the Holy Temple?

"Where is the Holy Temple?"

The owner pointed toward the mountain peak. "Right at the top. The Holy Temple is built as close to the Statue as possible, and the lord bishop lives inside."

Su Mu followed up with a few more questions, but the owner knew almost nothing else.

It seemed that if he wanted any clues about the First Red King, he would have to visit the Holy Temple and ask the bishop himself.

Su Mu left the shop and questioned a few others, but the answers were largely the same. The locals had only ever seen the First Red King's wanted poster and knew absolutely nothing else.

There aren't many clues, but it's enough, he thought. It's about time I changed back.

He had no interest in staying a Twisted One forever.

As for the method of recovery, it was incredibly simple and brutal.

Su Mu raised the Demonic Sword: Void Devourer, aimed it between his eyebrows, and plunged it in.

That's right, he killed himself.

Splash!

Su Mu dissolved into a puddle of seawater. Then, driven by the Sea God Divinity, his body began to reconstruct and resurrect.

When he opened his eyes again, the formerly clean and tidy village had reverted to its previous appearance.

The fruit farmer was back to romancing the crooked tree, and the blacksmith brothers had resumed fawning over each other. Everything had returned to its original 'beauty.'

This move was basically a forced hard reset.

...

...

In a dense forest beside the village.

Lin Nanxing and the others were quietly bandaging their wounds. The atmosphere was extremely heavy.

Su Qing chewed on her cigarette in frustration. "Can't all of you together come up with a single plan? Are we just going to let Su Mu stay crazy?"

She suddenly missed Gongsun Quan a little. Normally, she dumped all this brain-intensive stuff on him.

"Nobody expected the Captain to be this strong. With so many of us against him alone, we were almost completely wiped out. I originally thought we could restrain him first, then try to snap him out of it," Lin Nanxing said, dejected.

"If you ask me, this is all the fault of that Statue on the mountain. If it comes down to it, I'll just go up there and smash it!" Su Qing spat, tossing her cigarette away.

The group was horrified and hastily stopped her.

"Don't be reckless! That Statue affected even the Captain. If you charge up the mountain and face it directly, you'll probably get twisted too. Dealing with one crazy Captain is hard enough—if we add you to the mix, we're completely doomed."

Su Qing furrowed her delicate brows. She was just about to start cursing when she suddenly whipped her head toward an empty space nearby. The air rippled like water, and soon after, a Gate of the Void slowly opened.

Everyone's expressions drastically changed. They quickly scrambled to their feet and dropped into defensive stances.

"Quick! Prepare for battle! The Captain is here!"

Under their tense gazes, Su Mu slowly stepped out of the portal with a smile.

"No need to be nervous. I've recovered."

The group froze, blatant suspicion flickering in their eyes.

"Captain, are you really back to normal?"

Su Mu nodded. "Yes, I'm back."

"Captain, you want some canned food?" Lin Nanxing pulled out a Mithril pistol and waved it around.

"..." Su Mu was entirely speechless.

He faintly realized what must have happened and couldn't help but laugh helplessly. "Did I mistake a pistol for a can of food earlier?"

At his words, looks of pleasant surprise instantly flooded their faces.

"That's great, Captain! You really are cured!"

"Captain, do you have any idea how badly you scared me when you pulled out a gun and told me to eat it?" Lin Nanxing said, lingering fear in his voice.

"When did I start acting abnormal?"

"Right from the moment you entered the village, you started acting weird. When you were walking, you'd constantly make sharp turns on the spot. There was clearly nothing in front of you, but it was like you saw a wall and insisted on walking around it.

"Half the time we called out to you, you ignored us. When you questioned the shop owner, you were even holding the wanted poster backward. You showed him the blank back of the page!"

Su Mu felt a wave of speechlessness. He could already imagine the looks everyone must have given him at the time.

Seeing his dumbfounded expression, Su Qing burst into laughter, doubling over. "Hahaha... I never thought the great Captain Su would be left speechless! You have no idea what you told me when you walked up to me.

"You said... hahaha... you said Su Qing and Su Qing were both affected by the Statue! Hahaha..."

"..." Su Mu was utterly speechless.

"So that's why you guys attacked me later, to try and restrain me?"

"Yeah. You were getting more and more twisted, and you started showing clear signs of aggression, so we had no choice but to try that."

"There's more! There's more!" Su Qing eagerly darted over to Su Mu like a student scrambling to answer a question in class. She was just about to speak when her expression suddenly hardened, and she looked behind her.

"Someone's coming. Not just one—a lot of them!"

Su Mu sensed it too. The sounds of numerous footsteps were echoing from deep within the dense forest.

Soon, squads of people from the Twisted Divine Cult swarmed out of the woods. At a glance, there were no fewer than a hundred of them.

Judging from their attire, they were clearly different from the Twisted Ones in the village. They looked like the elites of the Twisted Divine Cult.

The moment they laid eyes on Su Mu's group, they launched a charge.

Everyone understood that these newcomers were hostile, and they immediately sprang into action.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A dense barrage of gunfire rang out as countless Mithril Bullets tore toward the front row of Twisted Ones.

But just as the bullets were about to hit, a bizarre scene occurred. As if influenced by some invisible force, the bullets actually changed direction, narrowly skimming right past the bodies of the Twisted Ones.

"Watch me!"

Lin Nanxing immediately drew his bow. Ten sharp arrows shot out simultaneously, hurtling toward the ten front-most Twisted Ones with the flawless precision of homing missiles.

Although these people's facial features had long since shifted out of place—some even had their heads growing out of their legs—they still technically had heads.

The ten arrows pierced straight toward their skulls. That invisible twisting force appeared once more, altering the arrows' trajectory. However, the arrows merely curved in midair before rocketing right back toward their targets' heads.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

The heads of the ten Twisted Ones were cleanly impaled, yet they didn't fall. What leaked out of their punctured skulls wasn't brains at all, but intestines.

Clearly, these people's brains had been twisted into other parts of their bodies.

By this time, Su Qing had already charged into the crowd. Like a human tyrannosaurus, her delicate little fists lightly struck her enemies, instantly reducing those Twisted Ones to a mess of pulverized flesh and shattered bone.

The twisting force affected her as well, attempting to redirect her punches. However, in the face of absolute strength, this meager distortion was nowhere near enough to stop her.