Chapter 284: The Bishop

Upon reaching the mountain peak, Su Mu discovered the Twisted Divine Statue had shrunk to the size of a normal person. Carved entirely from white jade, it radiated a solemn, sacred aura.

That was right—he had entered the twisted perspective once again.

He had no other choice. Gathering intelligence on the Twisted Divine Cult from a normal perspective was virtually impossible; without becoming like them, he wouldn't even be able to understand what they were saying.

Observing the Twisted Divine Statue up close this time, Su Mu noticed something different: the statue was incomplete. It was missing a palm.

Its right hand looked as though it had been severed clean off by a sharp weapon, leaving a perfectly smooth stump.

Recalling the Twisted Divine Cult's bounty on the First Red King, Su Mu suspected it was very likely the First Red King's doing.

The Twisted Divine Statue sat atop the Holy Temple. Su Mu had no idea what the building looked like from a normal perspective, but right now, the temple certainly looked the part.

The palace as a whole was solemn and sacred. Its walls were neatly built from fired red brick, exuding a heavy sense of history, though some sections were clearly recent additions—as if the structure had once been damaged.

Brilliant golden glazed tiles covered the roof, carved with complex, mysterious symbols.

Su Mu stepped inside. A spacious front hall opened up before him, its high ceiling painted with a celestial map where every star was inlaid with diamonds. Exquisite murals lined the walls, depicting tales of the Twisted God's benevolence toward the world.

From the twisted perspective, the Twisted Divine Cult looked like the most normal religion imaginable. Teachings preaching kindness, benevolence, and universal love were carved into the walls and stone pillars.

It felt as though merely stepping into the Holy Temple brought on a spiritual baptism.

However, if he were to switch back to a normal perspective, the scene would probably be twisted beyond imagination.

He wound his way through the Holy Temple until he finally found its master: the bishop of the Twisted Divine Cult.

The bishop was an elderly man nearing sixty. Though he was not tall, he radiated an unshakable presence standing among his followers.

His graying hair was combed without a single strand out of place. He wore a noble crown crafted of gold and a deep red robe, and he held a Crystal Scepter.

“Lord Bishop, those heretics have gone into hiding. I have dispatched a large number of men to search for them, and I believe we will find them soon.”

The bishop nodded calmly, his gaze benevolent yet imposing. “You have done well. You must find and eradicate these heretics as quickly as possible. We absolutely cannot let the previous Blasphemer incident happen again!”

“Yes, Lord Bishop!”

“I have prayed to God to warp the space in this realm, so they can no longer open the Gate of the Void. Once you pinpoint their location, do not act rashly. Someone among those heretics wields the power of God and used it to sever the gaze of the divine statue. When the time comes, I will strike personally.”

After a few brief instructions, the followers bowed respectfully and withdrew. The bishop returned to his room alone, began to piously study the teachings, and prayed to the Twisted God.

Su Mu waited for a full hour before the bishop finally lay down on his bed and fell asleep.

He took the opportunity to invade the bishop's dream, hoping to find intelligence about the Blasphemer—the First Red King.

But the moment he entered the bishop's dream, he couldn't help but frown.

The Dream World was like a massive, overturned palette. Various colors mixed within it, forming countless large and small vortexes that spun either slowly or rapidly.

These vortexes were also filled with countless densely packed, translucent figures. They overlapped one another, performing all kinds of chaotic, disorderly actions.

Su Mu tried to manipulate the dream and change it into what he wanted, but aside from making the dream even more chaotic, it had absolutely no effect.

“It seems the bishop's level of distortion is even more severe. Even his soul must be twisted. Unless I fall into a deeper layer of the twisted perspective, I won't be able to understand his dream at all.”

Although his dream-invasion method wasn't infallible, he had never encountered a situation like this before.

Normally, he was either discovered or he succeeded—there were only those two options. But today, a third had appeared.

He had succeeded, but he couldn't understand it.

It felt like having the correct answer placed right in front of him, only for him to not even understand it well enough to copy it.

After a moment of thought, Su Mu could only give up. To understand the bishop's dream, he would need to deepen his level of distortion down to the soul. But once it reached his soul, he would never be able to come back.

The physical body could be formatted, but the soul could not.

For now, his only option was to find a way to get the intelligence directly from the bishop's mouth. Simply asking was out of the question, as they had already been branded heretics. The best approach would be to beat the bishop to the brink of death, then enter the twisted perspective to hypnotize and interrogate him.

However, judging by the stability of his dream and his claim that he would strike personally, the bishop's strength had probably reached the Gold Level. Su Mu would need to plan this carefully.

After conducting a bit more reconnaissance of the Holy Temple, Su Mu returned to their hideout.

“How was it? Did you find anything?” Su Qing asked impatiently. No one wanted intelligence on the First Red King more than she did.

“The Holy Temple's high-level combat power is formidable. The bishop should be at the Gold Tier, and there are ten Silver Grade Temple Knights, plus a hundred thousand twisted cultists. The only good news is that we've already killed one of the Temple Knights.” Su Mu's intelligence made everyone's hearts sink.

The disparity in strength was simply too vast. Even without those high-level combatants, a hundred thousand cultists alone would be difficult to handle. These cultists had absolutely no fear of death; they wouldn't retreat just because a few thousand of their numbers were killed.

Facing a hundred thousand fearless cultists, the enemy could drag them down and exhaust them to death through sheer numbers alone. That was to say nothing of a Gold bishop and nine Silver Grade Temple Knights.

“Then we stick to what I said before and execute a decapitation strike,” Su Qing said, still as full of drive as ever. “We'll use the Gate of the Void to infiltrate the Holy Temple and take out the bishop first! Even within Gold, there are differences in strength. If we strike first with a sneak attack, we might actually succeed.”

“It's no use. The space here has already been warped; the Gate of the Void temporarily cannot be opened,” Su Mu said calmly. “Besides, like I said before, the real trouble isn't the bishop, but the Twisted Divine Statue. The closer you get to the statue, the deeper the twisting influence becomes. If we actually infiltrated the Holy Temple and came into close contact with the statue, it's completely unknown how much of your combat strength you'd still be able to exert.”

Su Qing wrinkled her small face. Feeling somewhat frustrated, she began to bite her fingernails.

“It seems we can only find a way to lure them out and defeat them one by one,” Wen Xuan suddenly said. “If we can eliminate the remaining nine Temple Knights first, our odds of victory will increase significantly.”

Su Mu smiled and nodded, agreeing with his view. Although Wen Xuan had a low presence and was a man of few words, there was a reason he had survived the Nightmare World so many times.