147

"Holy Son, it is time for morning readings. Please hurry."

The maid’s urging interrupted Gu Zhan’s thoughts. Finally, he turned away from the mirror and began walking.

The maid led him to the Confession Room, and Gu Zhan casually asked, “Don’t we eat breakfast first?”

After whatever had happened yesterday, he woke up starving.

The maid’s tone remained icy. “Your Holiness, you must approach the Goddess of Light with the utmost purity. During the morning readings, your heart must remain undistracted, and naturally, your stomach must not contain the impurities of food residue. This is something you have always been aware of.”

“...” Gu Zhan was at a loss for words. If he went to do his readings now, his only thought would be what breakfast would entail. Wouldn’t that count as undistracted focus?

However, dungeon rules were not to be violated. Reluctantly, he followed the maid to the Confession Room.

The Holy Court was vast, and the distance between the Holy Son’s residence and the Confession Room was considerable. Along the way, Gu Zhan saw various people passing with bowed heads. Most of them wore garments similar to his own, but a few donned silver armor, likely guards.

There were also individuals in robes wielding staffs.

Upon seeing them, Gu Zhan’s mind immediately identified their roles.

These were the elders of the Holy Court, second in power only to the Pope.

When the elders saw Gu Zhan, they lowered their heads respectfully, greeting him with reverence.

But Gu Zhan understood they weren’t respecting him. In the Holy Court, he represented the will of the Goddess of Light.

As far as he knew, the Goddess of Light only descended upon the young and beautiful Holy Sons. Once a Holy Son reached thirty or became the Pope, they would no longer receive the Goddess’s divine instructions.

As Gu Zhan passed the elders and turned a corner, he suddenly noticed a figure furtively following behind them.

He instinctively paused, and the person lifted their head, glancing at Gu Zhan.

In that instant, Gu Zhan sensed something was amiss. His body reacted before his mind, stepping back swiftly.

The figure roared and lunged at Gu Zhan.

“Careful! A dark envoy!”

Again with the dark something or other.

These gods and the Church couldn’t seem to move beyond the themes of light and darkness.

Gu Zhan stood motionless, his face blank, until a frightened maid shoved him aside. The attacker missed, tumbling to the ground as black flames erupted from their body.

The commotion startled the elders, who rushed back.

Chanting unfamiliar incantations, they summoned chaotic bursts of light and water to extinguish the flames.

Yet the spells failed to douse the fire. Instead, it burned even fiercer.

The person engulfed in black flames writhed in agony, their exposed skin revealed beneath tattered clothing, covered in intricate black patterns. The flames seemed to originate from those markings.

The elders shielded Gu Zhan behind them. One of them frowned and said, “He is too heavily corrupted.”

Shaking his head, another elder murmured a spell under his breath. A beam of light coalesced and shot toward the man’s forehead.

The light pierced through, leaving a blackened hole. The man twitched twice before falling silent.

When he died, the black flames vanished.

Gu Zhan noticed the flames seemed to have no temperature. They inflicted pain but didn’t scorch his clothing or flesh.

In contrast, the beam of light had claimed his life.

Gu Zhan couldn’t help but ask, “Elder, he wasn’t dead yet. Why did you kill him?”

The elder looked up, his gaze cold as he replied, “Holy Son, you should not ask such naive questions. Anyone tainted by darkness must be eliminated. This is the decree of the Goddess of Light.”

As he spoke these words, Gu Zhan felt a subtle heat spreading in his lower abdomen.

Pollution by darkness would cause black lines to appear.

When these black lines spread across the body, flames would ignite.

The Holy Light Sanctuary does not accept those tainted by darkness. Once discovered, they would be put to death.

Gu Zhan sighed inwardly. As expected, this task wasn’t as easy as it seemed.

Seeing that the situation had been resolved, the maid stepped forward and urged, “Holy Son, let's go. It’s time for morning class.”

When the elders heard that he was about to attend morning class, they quickly said, “Morning class cannot be delayed. Please hurry, Holy Son. We will handle the matters here.”

Gu Zhan was then taken away.

Soon, they arrived at the Confession Room.

The Confession Room was probably truly meant for confessions. Apart from the statue of the Goddess of Light, the altar holding the statue, and a cushion on the floor, there was nothing else in the room.

Gu Zhan really wanted to ask where the Holy Light Scripture was.

But he felt that asking this question would expose him just as much as revealing that he had thirty thousand things to hide.

In the end, he didn't speak, and the maid left him alone in the Confession Room.

The cushion was clearly meant for kneeling.

Kneeling beneath the high statue, facing the Goddess, was meant to purify the soul and wholly devote oneself to the Goddess of Light.

Gu Zhan approached the cushion, looking up at the statue of the Goddess of Light. To avoid desecrating the divine, the statue had no face. Her features were blurred as she gazed down at the world, watching her beloved Holy Son…

“Tsk tsk.”

Gu Zhan couldn’t help but think to himself, it must be nice to be a god.

If he could, he would also like to sit in such a lofty position, making those he cared about kneel and confess before him.

Gu Zhan sat down on the cushion, and as soon as he felt the weight, the beams of light above began to shift.

Two beams of light, one from the left and one from the right, shone on the ground, revealing some small characters.

Gu Zhan glanced at them and immediately felt dizzy.

These were not ordinary characters. They were imbued with the power of the Goddess of Light. The longer one looked at them, the deeper they would be cleansed!

This wasn’t a Confession Room at all; it was clearly a brainwashing room.

Gu Zhan quickly turned his gaze away, but perhaps due to the growing concentration of light elements in the room, his lower abdomen began to feel uncomfortable again.

First, there was a tight feeling, then the lines on his abdomen began to stir, as if something was wriggling beneath his skin.

Gu Zhan pressed his hand against his abdomen and whispered, “Mo Tuo, I know you’re here. Stop playing these tricks and come out to see me.”

In the past, whenever he called Mo Tuo like this, the impatient creature would always reveal itself. But this time, there was no response.

Only the lines continued to stir uneasily.

The light elements in the room continued to rise, and Gu Zhan felt as though he were sinking underwater, gradually finding it hard to breathe.

He stood up, trying to find a place with less concentrated elements.

However, as soon as he stood up, he suddenly felt dizzy.

Great, they wouldn’t let him have breakfast, and now he was getting hypoglycemic!

Everything spun around him, and Gu Zhan uncontrollably collapsed to the ground.

Coincidentally, he fell onto the Holy Light Scroll.

Gu Zhan quickly lost consciousness.

Yet, he didn’t completely lose his mind. In fact, his thoughts became clearer. He lay on the ground, unable to move.

The lines on his abdomen continued to stir, and something was crawling out from beneath his skin.

It seemed to dislike the dense light elements in the Confession Room, as it immediately began crawling all over his body. Gu Zhan was unbearably itchy but had no way to stop it.

It bit into his skin and began to suck his blood.

The light elements in the Confession Room clearly couldn’t tolerate the "Holy Son" being toyed with under their very eyes. They surged uncontrollably.

Gu Zhan felt his body being restrained by the creature, and at the same time, the temperature around him began to rise. The scorching sunlight hit his exposed face. In just a few seconds, he felt as though all the moisture in his body had been drained, and his lips began to crack and peel.

The creature on his body seemed to realize Gu Zhan’s discomfort. It started to climb up, past his neck and chin, eventually reaching his lips.

The touch was surprisingly soft, like a kiss.

But the creature was shameless. It quickly forced its way between his lips.

It teased Gu Zhan’s tongue, playing with it.

“Mmm…”

The man on the ground struggled desperately, finally gaining partial control over his body. He couldn’t lift his hands or feet but clenched his jaw, trying to keep part of the creature out.

He heard someone lightly laugh in the air. Soon, the soft flesh around his chin applied pressure, forcing his jaw open.

The creature moved freely.

Saliva uncontrollably dripped from the corners of his lips, and even his limbs were forced apart, twisted into a humiliating position.

This reckless behavior completely enraged the light elements in the room, and even the statue of the Goddess of Light seemed to stir.

Gu Zhan seemed to see anger in the featureless face.

But soon, the creature covered his eyes, and everything went dark.

He could only feel his body being squeezed from different angles. The light elements in the room continued to increase, like drowning him, suffocating him.

Even someone as slow as Gu Zhan realized this was a battle between the black lines on his body and the Goddess of Light.

He had become the battleground for their competition.

The question was, would they let him go? Could they have their fight without torturing him further?

He really couldn’t stand it anymore.

It seemed that the light elements could not overpower the unknown lines on his body. The creature’s actions grew bolder, and its focus shifted from Gu Zhan’s chest to his abdomen, then continued lower…

Just as his belt was being slowly undone, hurried footsteps suddenly approached the door.

As if startled, the grotesque, rotting creature, along with the dense light elements, retracted into itself in an instant, like a startled shellfish retreating into its shell.

It was as though nothing had happened, with only Gu Zhan lying on the ground, his clothes disheveled.

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