Chapter 291: The Unlucky Lin Lingling

"The Blasphemer is the public enemy of all major cults. Many are helpless against him because his abilities are mysterious and he never lingers in a fight. He only attacks branch organizations, making him incredibly difficult to catch. This only fueled his arrogance, and he grew increasingly rampant until he provoked the Primal Divine Cult. In the end, the Pope locked onto the Blasphemer's location and took action personally."

"The Primal Pope killed him?"

Hongye shook his head. "No. He fled with critical injuries and ultimately fell into the Abyss."

"The Abyss?"

"The Abyss is a forbidden zone within the Middle Prison. Legend says it is the origin of nightmares, and many evil gods are sealed within. From ancient times to the present, not a single person who entered has ever come out alive. Now that the Blasphemer is in the Abyss, even with his immense capabilities, his death is certain."

Hearing this, Su Qing's heart suddenly tightened. To think Supreme Heaven had been lost in such a dangerous place! She knew the First Red King's strength better than anyone. With Supreme Heaven in his hands, he had been absolutely at the pinnacle of his era!

Yet even so, he had been critically injured by the Primal Pope, forced to flee, and had ultimately fallen into the Abyss—a place not even the Pope dared to enter.

How was she supposed to retrieve Supreme Heaven now?

Father, oh Father, she thought. Why did you have to cause such a mess in the Nightmare World? You just had to offend so many people. Did you really think you were still in the Chiyan Empire? Now look at this. If we can't retrieve Supreme Heaven, the Chiyan Empire is in grave danger.

Right at that moment—crack!

A massive boom thundered through the sky as a colossal fissure suddenly appeared. It spread outward at terrifying speed, and in the blink of an eye, fractures webbed across both the heavens and the earth.

With the annihilation of the Twisted Divine Cult and the shattering of the divine statue, this dream realm could no longer hold itself together.

Hongye's expression changed. "Lord Divine Envoy, this nightmare is about to collapse. Please leave with your servant and head to the Primal Divine Cult."

Su Mu shook his head. "I will go to the Primal Divine Cult, but not right now."

"Lord Divine Envoy, why is that?" Hongye asked in confusion.

Su Mu cast a cold, detached glance at him. "Everything is the will of the Primal Angel."

He had no intention of heading to the Primal Divine Cult like this. He had exhausted all his trump cards in this battle and suffered massive depletion. Furthermore, his teammates were either dead or critically injured. If he went now and the Pope saw through him, their entire group would be wiped out.

Moreover, based on what Hongye had said, the Pope's strength was unfathomable. To actually defeat the First Red King while he wielded Supreme Heaven—the Pope's tier had likely surpassed Gold long ago.

Hongye's expression turned solemn, and he immediately stopped asking questions.

When dealing with zealots, nothing worked better than bringing up a god. With a single sentence stating that everything was the deity's will, no matter how unreasonable the situation seemed, zealots would rack their brains to justify it.

"You may return."

"We respectfully send off the Lord Divine Envoy."

Hongye led the remaining few hundred cultists in a respectful kowtow before turning to depart.

Soon after, Su Mu and his group vanished along with the collapsing world.

...

...

Inside a room paneled in silver-white metal, Su Mu and the others appeared out of thin air. They pulled the metal tentacles off their heads, their faces filled with the joy of surviving a disaster.

However, as they looked around at their companions, some faces turned somber.

Places that should have held people were now completely empty.

Ten people had gone in, but only five returned.

The only ones to come back were Su Mu, Su Qing, Yan Wu, Lin Nanxing, and Zhou Hui.

Wen Xuan, Lan He, and the others were dead. Facing a siege from a hundred thousand Twisted Ones and seven Temple Knights, losing only five people was already considered a miracle. This was primarily thanks to Su Mu holding off the bishop and hypnotizing ten thousand Twisted Ones to cause a riot. Otherwise, even more would have died.

While Su Mu had fought the bishop, the others' battles hadn't stopped for a single moment either.

Out of the five survivors, everyone other than Su Mu was drenched in blood and critically injured.

Shortly after their return, the room's door was roughly thrown open. Sikong Zhen rushed in, leading several high-ranking officials from the General Law Enforcement Bureau.

Upon seeing Su Mu's group, their eyes instantly went wide with shock.

"Five! Five of you actually survived!"

Su Mu stepped forward and asked, "What about the other teams?"

Sikong Zhen froze. He looked at the impeccably dressed, completely unharmed Su Mu, and then at Su Qing and the others, who were covered in blood and missing limbs. He felt it was absolutely absurd. He even wanted to ask: Did you all really go to the same place?

At that moment, a Law Enforcement Bureau executive spoke up. "One."

Lin Nanxing's eyes bulged in disbelief. "What? Other than our team, there's only one team left? Did all the others get completely wiped out?"

The executive shook his head. "No, there's only one person left."

Everyone was stunned. The other teams comprised ninety people in total, all elites among the Silver-tier Nightmare Apostles. And in the end, only one person survived!?

"Who survived?" Lin Nanxing couldn't help but ask. He wasn't the only curious one; everyone else felt the same. Out of all those people, only one had lived. Who was it?

Su Mu shook his head helplessly. He wasn't curious at all, because he had already guessed the answer.

"Lin Lingling," Sikong Zhen said slowly.

"What? Zero Zero Zero?" Lin Nanxing paused, failing to catch Sikong Zhen's accent for a moment.

"It's Lin! Ling! Ling!" an alternative girl stomped into the room, her rosy lips pouting.

"What do you mean 'Zero Zero Zero'? Don't give a girl such an ugly nickname!"

Lin Nanxing offered an awkward smile and subconsciously reached up to scratch his head. However, the moment he raised his arm, his mouth twitched, and he sucked in a sharp breath. He glanced down at his palm. It was a mangled mess of blood and flesh, the result of drawing his bow at high intensity for extended periods.

"Medics! Where are the medics? Get in here and treat them!" Following the shouts of the Law Enforcement Bureau executives, a professional medical team quickly rushed in. They loaded Su Qing and the others onto stretchers one by one and carried them out for treatment.

However, things got a bit awkward when they reached Su Mu. A medic looked him up and down several times. "Where are you injured?"

"I'm not," Su Mu replied with a smile.

The medic shot him an odd look but didn't say anything more before turning to leave.

"Su Mu, did your team discover anything?" Sikong Zhen asked with a sense of urgency.

Su Mu nodded.

Sikong Zhen and the others immediately looked delighted. The near-total wipeout of their forces had plunged them into despair. Even though Lin Lingling had made it back alive, she hadn't brought back any useful intelligence.

According to Lin Lingling, her luck had been somewhat poor this time. She had spawned in the wrong location upon entering the Nightmare World. While everyone else landed on flat ground, she had fallen straight into a mountain crevice. Later, for some unknown reason, a battle seemingly broke out, and the mountain collapsed. Fortunately, two massive boulders had wedged together, leaving a small gap for her to hide in.

She had stayed curled up in that gap for several days. After eating almost all the food she had brought and playing on her game console until the battery died, she eventually woke from the dream and returned.

"What did you find?"