Chapter 418: Pain Divine Cult

The heavy iron doors swung open to reveal a bloody figure locked inside. He was bound to a wooden cross, his hands and feet shackled by iron chains. Blood and grime completely obscured his face.

Su Mu frowned slightly. "Did you torture him?"

Nangong Mengli shook her head. "How could we torture him without your orders? You might not believe it, but he tortured himself. We tied him up because we were afraid he would kill himself."

Tortured himself?

Such a bizarre concept genuinely surprised Su Mu.

Snap!

Su Mu snapped his fingers, and the unconscious prisoner jolted awake. As if reacting to some violent stimulus, his bloodshot eyes bulged like a wild beast's.

"You damned heretics! The great God of Pain will never let you go!" the prisoner roared.

The next moment, he bit off half of his own tongue. The excruciating pain made his eyes bulge, but a twisted look of pleasure immediately washed over his face, mingling with the agony.

Suddenly, an intensely sinister black light swallowed his body. His muscles wildly expanded like tumors, snapping the heavy iron chains that bound him.

He had completely transformed into a humanoid monster.

Neither Su Mu nor Nangong Mengli paid him any mind. They just kept talking.

"This is a unique ability of the Pain Divine Cult," Nangong Mengli explained. "As long as they sacrifice their pain to the God of Pain, they can obtain power."

At that moment, the humanoid monster lunged at the two of them.

Bang!

An invisible wall materialized in front of it, sending the monster flying backward.

Su Mu studied the creature carefully. "An ordinary person mangled himself in exchange for power that roughly reaches the Bronze 3 level. Interesting."

The humanoid monster scrambled back to its feet, roaring as it frantically battered the invisible wall. But even as it hammered its own hands into a bloody pulp, the barrier did not budge an inch.

As its injuries worsened, the power it unleashed actually grew stronger.

"How many members does the Pain Divine Cult have right now?"

"Over ten thousand have surfaced within the borders of the Chiyan Empire. I investigated them and found one common trait: they all live in extreme suffering. Some have lost loved ones, while others are plagued by illness.

"I suspect this agony is exactly what draws the attention of the God of Pain."

Nangong Mengli frowned slightly at the crazed humanoid monster, a hint of worry in her voice. "Although the Pain Divine Cult only has over ten thousand believers right now, they are expanding too fast. Almost every day, people claim to have dreamed of the God of Pain, subsequently becoming followers.

"They preach that only the God of Pain can lead them out of their sea of suffering. I've even heard rumors that miracles have occurred in some places!"

"Miracles?" The corners of Su Mu's lips curled up. "What kind of miracles?"

"Resurrection of the dead," Nangong Mengli said grimly. "There was a father whose daughter suffered from a terminal illness. She was tortured by pain every day and eventually passed away. The heartbroken father constantly prayed to the gods. In the end, the God of Pain answered him and bestowed a miracle.

"His daughter really came back to life. This event spread far and wide, drawing a massive batch of potential followers to the Pain Divine Cult. The believers call it the [Miracle of Pain]!"

"Resurrection of the dead?" Su Mu simply didn't believe that an evil god from the Abyss would be kind enough to resurrect a human.

"Were there any abnormalities with his daughter after she was revived?"

"The anomalies were covered up by the Pain Divine Cult. But after investigating through various channels, I confirmed that his daughter had already turned into a monster—a monster that takes pleasure in slaughtering the living and inflicting pain."

Su Mu pushed up his Tinted Glasses, a flash of crystalline blue light flickering in his eyes. He roughly understood the situation. It seemed the daughter had simply become a tool for the God of Pain to harvest suffering.

"An autumn of many events."

Su Mu let out a slight sigh. Ever since Shangguan Chen sacrificed his life to summon the divine power of the Primal Angel and attack the Seven Kings Barrier, all sorts of bizarre incidents had begun erupting across the Divine Dream World.

The invading Nightmare Creatures were one thing, but the true trouble lay with the evil gods in the Abyss!

Countless fissures had appeared in the Seven Kings Barrier, allowing the evil gods to extend their tentacles deep into the Divine Dream World. The Pain Divine Cult was the perfect example. Those who suffered deeply would draw the attention of the God of Pain, and then their minds would be corrupted. They would be reduced to fanatics, frantically spreading agony throughout the world.

This influence was like a plague, endlessly spreading and worsening across the world.

The Nightmare Invasions had caused far too much suffering, becoming a breeding ground for the God of Pain to spread its faith.

Furthermore, the invading evil gods weren't limited to just one. Aside from the Pain Divine Cult, the Shadow Divine Cult, the Twisted Divine Cult, and the Destruction Divine Cult had successively emerged in the other empires...

They were all old acquaintances. Su Mu had basically encountered all of them back when he was in the Abyss. Although he hadn't gotten close enough to see their true forms, he had felt the auras of these evil gods.

It was as if the Nightmare Era had entered version 2.0: the evil god invasion.

This was supposed to be something that only happened after the Divine Dream World's authenticity drastically increased, but Shangguan Chen had forced it to occur early.

"How have the Seven Great Empires reacted to these cults?"

"The Seven Great Empires have already launched extermination operations against the major cults, but the effects are minimal. Every single day, more people dream of the evil gods and subsequently turn into believers. Unless the influence of the evil gods is completely isolated, humanity will eventually be reduced to their slaves."

Su Mu nodded. It was true. If the source of the corruption wasn't eliminated, blindly culling the infected would only treat the symptoms rather than the root cause.

He then shifted his gaze back to the humanoid monster in the dungeon and slightly lowered his glasses, revealing his eyes.

A crystalline blue light bloomed as majestic spiritual energy flooded into the humanoid monster's body, attempting to eradicate the influence of the God of Pain.

A moment later, he secured his glasses back in place.

His materialized spiritual energy instantly retracted. The humanoid monster acted as if it had suddenly been plunged into the depths of a ten-thousand-meter sea, invisible pressure crushing it from all directions.

Bang!

The humanoid monster exploded, detonating into a spray of bloody flesh.

Su Mu had failed. The influence of a god was ultimately too powerful. Even he couldn't completely eradicate it.

"What do we do next?" Nangong Mengli asked gravely.

She had long since realized how difficult these evil cults were to deal with. This silent corruption was far more severe than the Nightmare Invasions. At least the Nightmare Creatures could be fought with conventional warfare.

Su Mu pondered for a moment. "Gather the Artifacts of the Seven Kings. Since the power of the Seven Kings Barrier stems from the Land of Origin, perhaps the solution is hidden there."

He absolutely had to visit the Land of Origin. That special dream realm of his most likely originated from there, and it hid the secrets of the Divine Dream World. To open the Land of Origin, he needed to collect all the Artifacts of the Seven Kings.

Currently, he possessed [Supreme Heaven] and [Scarlet Moon], two Royal Power Artifacts. As long as he gathered the remaining five, he could open the way to the Land of Origin.

However, the Seven Kings treated the Artifacts of the Seven Kings as the very foundation of their nations. Taking them would require quite a bit of effort.

"The Artifacts of the Seven Kings?" Nangong Mengli nodded. "I understand."

"By the way, how is your strength progressing?"

"With the help of the Time Chamber, I've already reached Silver 3. I'm only half a step away from advancing to Gold. However, Gold isn't something that can be reached just through bitter cultivation. I'm still lacking a bit of an opportunity."

"You aren't lacking one anymore." Su Mu waved his hand, and a small mound of treasures materialized out of thin air.