Chapter 1268: 25. The Human Web

High above the city, Muen hovered in midair, quietly admiring the cruel yet strangely satisfying scene unfolding below.

Everything Yasa had just experienced was, of course, fake—an illusion Muen had woven using his divine kingdom. But because the divine kingdom possessed the ability to interfere with reality itself, calling it "real" would not exactly be wrong either.

After all, even that "great Love God" Yasa had prayed to had been recreated by Muen through the Black Book’s complete records, copied one-to-one. Aside from not actually being the Love God, it was practically the Love God itself.

"This method really does let me obtain far more information."

Rapidly scanning through the scenes before him and looking at the abundant results produced by his new trick, Muen could not help the faint curve that appeared at the corner of his mouth.

As an Evil God believer—and a fairly high-ranking one at that—Yasa’s soul would normally have special measures in place to prevent anyone from reading his soul or memories. ℯℯ𝘭.

If Muen had used his usual method and directly devoured Yasa’s soul with black flames, he definitely would not have obtained information this complete. Those memories would have collapsed together with Yasa’s soul before the black flames could consume them.

Muen had encountered plenty of cases like this before. So once the enemies he faced reached a certain level, trying to obtain information directly from their souls was basically useless.

But if the target whose soul he intended to read never realized they were in danger—and even willingly opened up their own soul—then those defensive measures would most likely fail.

Just like now.

Everything Yasa had experienced throughout his life was being perfectly replayed before Muen like a movie."

Heh. No one would dare impersonate the Love God?

What a joke. I just did. If you’ve got a problem with that, tell Him to come out and bite me.^

Let’s see whether He still has the guts.

However......as the scenes continued playing, Muen still noticed a few problems..

First, doing this consumed far too much energy. Making absolutely certain that the target never realized their surroundings were fabricated was actually extremely difficult. Even this time, if Yasa’s fanatical faith in the Love God had not prevented him from even entertaining the "blasphemous" thought of questioning whether the Love God was real, deceiving him would have been many times more troublesome.

At present, Muen’s divine kingdom could only manifest in the form of Tars. It was very difficult to transform it into any other appearance./

Second......even like this, there was no guarantee that the information obtained would be completely accurate.

"Looks like I’m not the only one who altered your perception."_

Muen glanced at the soul that was already on the verge of being completely burned away.

In the scenes read from Yasa’s soul, the origin of his faith in the Love God was his love for his own "goddess." He longed for the day when the Love God would bestow grace upon him and allow him to finally be united with her.^

But in reality, he had already been reunited with his goddess long ago......the rotten female head embedded in his chest earlier had undoubtedly belonged to the "goddess" he had been thinking about day and night.

So yeah......when a hopeless simp licks until the bitter end, sometimes he really does die horribly."

"Fortunately, I can still collect the rough outline of the intelligence."

Having seen enough, Muen waved his hand and dispersed the scenes, then began organizing the information in his mind./

First of all, the reason Yasa and his group had attacked this city was to sacrifice the ordinary people living here, offering all those innocent souls to their "great" Lord.

As for why they were doing that......

"They received a divine oracle directly from their 'Lord' not long ago. If He’s already desperate enough to personally order people to stir up trouble just so He can recover, looks like Little Love got beaten up pretty badly."

Muen smiled faintly.

The timing of the Love God’s oracle lined up perfectly with when Miss Dragon had previously beaten Him senseless. So this matter......was probably another consequence of that incident.

What an unbelievable coincidence.

"But......"

As he thought about it, Muen’s expression became strange again.

Judging from the information he had obtained from Yasa, their objective was not limited to that.

The ordinary people in the city were going to be sacrificed, but the adventurers in the city......would instead be captured and then......

Sent to mine.

That was right. The scenes revealed from Yasa’s soul had stated exactly that.

The adventurers would be captured and forced to mine ore. The ore they extracted would then be sold on black markets across various countries in exchange for large amounts of money. That money would then be used to purchase huge quantities of supplies, after which those Evil God believers would "sacrifice" all of those supplies to the Love God.

According to those memories, this entire chain—kidnapping people, selling their labor to mines, making money, buying supplies—had actually begun a long time ago. It was not just Yasa. Many followers of the Love God were working overtime to carry out the same operation.

It was simply that most of the Love God’s followers had inherited their god’s naturally underhanded nature, so they acted covertly. On top of that, kidnapping people and forcing them to work in mines was hardly the sort of thing that could create major waves across the continent, so it had not drawn much attention from the upper levels of the various powers.

And even if someone did notice, they would never think to connect it to an Evil God. After all......

"What the hell is the Love God doing? He’s an Evil God. Why does He need His followers to sacrifice material goods to Him?" Muen could not understand it. "What, is He planning to become some profiteering middleman and make money?"

That made absolutely no sense. Whether supplies or money, those things should have been completely meaningless to an Evil God. So the Love God’s purpose was......

"Wait......"

Muen suddenly thought of something.

The matter of New Tars.

There had actually always been one small unanswered question regarding New Tars.

Where exactly had all the supplies that kept that city "carefree" come from?

At first, Muen had assumed they came from an Evil God’s power. After all, judging from what happened later, the Love God had indeed stolen part of the Mother of Abundance’s power, so producing huge amounts of food should have been simple.

But thinking about it more carefully now, keeping an entire city functioning required far more than food. It needed countless other supplies as well......such as the magic stones that had illuminated the city back then.

If New Tars did not possess its own mines, then there was only one possible source for those materials......

"Those supplies were actually all earned through the Love God’s own hard work!"

Muen’s mouth twitched. For a moment, he felt that the absurdity of this world......no, more accurately, the sheer ridiculousness of Little Love......had exceeded his expectations.

Bro......sure, you really don’t have much dignity left anymore, but you’re still an Evil God! Working hard to earn money, working hard to support your family......that’s......that’s......

That’s way too humiliating.

It had already reached the point where it was almost painful to look at.

Think about the Withering King......the Crimson Sun hanging in the sky, illuminating ten thousand miles.

Think about the Mother of Abundance......life twisted, all things malformed.

Think about the Fallen Sacred Tree......mountains of corpses, cries engulfing the world.

Then think about the Love God......kidnapping people to mine ore and working hard to make money.

Was......was this really the same genre?

And yet, even with how absurd it was, Muen still somehow felt......if it was the Love God, then everything made perfect sense.

"After all, He’s the disgrace of Evil Gods. Nothing He does would be surprising......"

However......

After finishing his mockery, Muen’s expression gradually became serious.

Because he had realized something else.

The Love God’s operations—human trafficking, mining, making money, purchasing supplies......all of it involved money, and even the interests of various factions.

Which meant one thing......

The network laid down by the Love God was completely different from those of other Evil Gods.

He had not merely connected a group of Evil God believers.

His tentacles had already extended into certain organizations and powers.

—in a way that was extremely difficult to notice and did not resemble the methods of an Evil God at all.

"I don’t know when He started setting this up, but the supplies He purchased were already enough to sustain the operation of New Tars. That means this network......is already quite large."

Muen frowned deeply.

That was exactly what made the Love God troublesome.

As an Evil God, He truly had no dignity whatsoever.

But as an enemy specifically targeting "humanity," He was far too difficult to deal with.

Whether it was His Authority or the way He conducted Himself.

"Looks like......I really need to have a proper discussion about this with the highest-ranking people on every side."

Muen murmured to himself. Realizing how urgent the matter was, he immediately began planning the relevant steps in his mind......

First would obviously be the Church. Establishing channels through the Church would undoubtedly be far more convenient.

Then came the Empire. Yasa had chosen to act inside Imperial territory, which meant this network definitely had connections within the Empire as well. The purge back in Belrand......had only been Belrand, after all.

And then there was......

"Hiss."

In the middle of his thoughts, Muen suddenly sucked in a sharp breath.

His train of thought was interrupted by something happening outside, so he could only helplessly open his eyes.

In front of him, the blanket he had tucked so neatly around Ariel had already become a complete mess. A certain completely naked figure had crawled out from beneath it and was now pressing against him like a snake.

Her skin carried a faint rosy sheen beneath the candlelight. She opened her arms, wrapped them around his neck, and mischievously swept her fragrant little tongue around, wantonly tasting his scent.

"Stop messing around."

Muen deliberately put on a serious expression. "I’m thinking about something important!"

"Thinking about women?"

That little head tilted to one side, a dangerous glint flashing through her eyes.

"Of course not......"

Muen immediately wilted and gave a bitter smile. "I really am thinking about something serious."

"Then think about it later."

As she spoke, Ariel pressed herself even more tightly against him.

Months of separation, a reunion filled with resentment, and after waking up, a body that felt as though it had already been thoroughly teased and provoked......

With all those factors combined, she could no longer endure it. All she wanted was to fully enjoy the warmth and affection of her lover.

"I......I really can’t."

Muen was still resisting, but as Ariel continued provoking him, his breathing gradually grew heavier. "This really isn’t the time for this."

"If now isn’t the time, then when is?"

"After a while......"

"I don’t want to wait!"

Ariel wrinkled her delicate nose. "Who knows which woman you’ll end up tangled with again after a while?"

"I already told you that was a misunderstanding. You know me. My heart belongs entirely to you......"

"Then prove it!"

Ariel launched another attack.

This time, in a rare turn of events, she actually gained the upper hand. Since Muen had never wanted to fight back in the first place, she forced him into continuous retreat.

"I really can’t......"

Helpless, Muen could only bring out his ultimate move.

"Don’t forget......Miss Dragon might still be right outside."

"That dragon?"

Sure enough, Ariel froze.

The deterrence of a genuine calamity still carried considerable weight even for her.

But before Muen could breathe a sigh of relief, Ariel suddenly lunged at him even more aggressively.

"Perfect!"

Ariel snorted and sneered:

"Didn’t she say she was only your companion? Then let that companion stand outside and listen properly!"