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Gu Zhan said without turning his head, "Isn't becoming the Holy Court's Holy Son the task you assigned to me? Of course, I have to go back."

Mo Tuo frowned.

He didn’t know that humans had a saying, "lifting a rock only to drop it on one’s own foot," but he felt gloomy and wished Gu Zhan wouldn’t return.

"They’ve already seen your fallen state with their own eyes. No matter what, they won’t accept you."

Mo Tuo thought for a moment before continuing, "If you go back, not only will the Holy Court reject you, but you’ll also face punishment."

Gu Zhan stopped in his tracks and turned to look at Mo Tuo.

He was smiling—looking surprisingly happy. "Isn't that exactly what you want? If I get killed by the Holy Court’s elders, I’ll turn into a monster in this dungeon, becoming your eternal believer and follower."

Mo Tuo heard this but didn’t feel any joy.

An eternal follower?

Why would his believer need to be killed by an NPC in the dungeon?

Mo Tuo’s figure dissolved, replaced by tendrils of black mist that wrapped around Gu Zhan’s body.

In the mist, Mo Tuo’s ethereal voice sounded, "Come with me. I can make you a monster too. Stop playing with them."

"No." Gu Zhan pushed away the mist near his head. "I’m still a rule-abiding good person for now. What if—just maybe—they accept me?"

Mo Tuo was silent for a moment before saying sullenly, "You’re doing this on purpose—deliberately going against me."

Gu Zhan smiled.

Yes.

Deliberately.

So what?

As Gu Zhan prepared to leave, the pegasus that had flown away earlier returned.

It stood next to the carriage and refused to leave. After thinking for a moment, Gu Zhan approached it and asked, "Are you here to take me away from this place?"

The pegasus neighed, as if responding to him.

Gu Zhan searched the carriage and found reins and a saddle. After equipping the pegasus, he mounted it.

The clinging black mist emerged again, whispering by Gu Zhan’s ear, "Where do you want to go? I can take you there too."

Gu Zhan tightened the reins and said, "Wherever this horse can take me, I won’t trouble you."

Hearing this, Mo Tuo sulked and fell silent, refusing to say another word.

Gu Zhan nudged the pegasus’s flank. The horse seemed to understand, spread its wings, and soared into the sky.

It flew toward an unknown destination, and within half a day, they arrived at a small town.

Like the town where the Holy Court resided, this place also predominantly featured white buildings. People in white robes bustled about, all believers of the Goddess of Light.

Dismounting the pegasus, Gu Zhan, dressed entirely in black, immediately drew attention.

The dark aura surrounding him was so strong that it was impossible to miss, even if he did nothing.

The crowd pointed at him, shouting, "He’s a traitor to the Light! Don’t let him step foot on our land!"

With that, a group of people grabbed whatever they could find—brooms, mops, dustpans—and charged at Gu Zhan.

The black necklace around Gu Zhan’s neck stirred, ready to enlarge and skew the attackers into a string of shish kebabs.

Even though the dungeon’s NPCs would respawn, they still bled when killed.

Gu Zhan didn’t want to see a bloodbath, so he stepped back and pressed down on the necklace.

The small tentacles wriggled pitifully but couldn’t break free from his grip.

But this wasn’t a solution. The mob was closing in. Gu Zhan cast a light defensive spell, forming a luminous shield in front of him to block the brooms and mops.

Seeing the shield, the crowd became even angrier. "He dares to use the Goddess of Light’s magic!"

Gu Zhan raised an eyebrow. So even magic had ownership rights in this world?

The freely floating light elements in the air didn’t repel darkness. Even with Mo Tuo’s dark tendrils wrapped around his neck, they didn’t stop him from summoning the light.

Everything was simply a restriction imposed by the Goddess of Light to strengthen her faith.

Blocking the crowd outside the shield, Gu Zhan warned, "Don’t come any closer, or you’ll only hurt yourselves."

The people didn’t listen. Perhaps, in their minds, the Goddess of Light’s will was more important than their own lives.

Gu Zhan frowned. Gods were like farsighted individuals who could see the distant path but were blind to the road beneath their feet.

Seeing that his presence had caused chaos in the town, Gu Zhan abandoned the hope of resolving the situation peacefully.

He released the necklace in his hand and called out, "Mo Tuo."

The black mist, which had been following Gu Zhan all along, instantly coalesced upon hearing his call.

A vaguely human figure materialized behind him, ambiguously embracing him. It whispered near his ear, "In the end, it still has to be me, doesn’t it?"

Gu Zhan could hardly understand the monster’s strange competitive streak. Competing with the Goddess of Light was one thing, but why with a horse? Was being his mode of transportation really such a point of pride?

In a calm tone, Gu Zhan said, "Yes, I can’t do it without you. Hurry and help me."

Mo Tuo smiled contentedly, like a child who had just been handed a piece of candy, thoroughly pleased with Gu Zhan’s few words.

He then raised his gaze to the town’s residents.

The moment their eyes met, it was as if the townspeople recognized who their true "god" was. Their movements momentarily faltered.

But soon, the brainwashing by the Goddess of Light suppressed everything, and the people charged forward again.

Mo Tuo narrowed his eyes, and the black mist around him suddenly shifted. The distance between them and the townspeople abruptly widened. The sun in the sky was shrouded by dark clouds, and as the residents were cut off from the sunlight, a fleeting clarity flickered in their eyes.

For a moment, they found it strange—why were they fighting for a "god" they had never even met?

As the clouds above grew heavier, the brief clarity in their eyes vanished, replaced by a different kind of confusion and worship.

Suddenly, they knelt on the ground, bowing toward Gu Zhan and Mo Tuo, chanting loudly, "This is our God! Our Holy Son!"

Well, then.

Even though this was his goal all along, witnessing it firsthand still felt absurd to Gu Zhan.

"Is it because you’re the creator of this dungeon that they obey your will so completely?" Gu Zhan asked.

Mo Tuo chuckled. "These people are inherently like this—prone to blind obedience. What they follow doesn’t matter; what’s important is their loss of self, isn’t it? I didn’t tamper with anything. I simply created individuals with such traits and placed them in this world."

He leaned closer to Gu Zhan, lightly sniffing near his ear. "While some dungeon monsters heavily manipulate their worlds, I’m not interested in such things. What you see here is their doing. Oh, and of course, you’ve only seen a small part of this world—it’s much bigger than you think."

"But you won’t have the chance to see the rest. For now, solve the problem at hand. These people are your believers now, my Holy Son. What do you plan to do?"

"What will I do?" Gu Zhan laughed. "Naturally, I’ll become their Pope. Isn’t that the task you assigned me?"

Mo Tuo released Gu Zhan and once again disappeared into the black mist, leaving only his voice lingering in the air.

"Go forth, my Holy Son. I grant you authority equal to mine."

Soon, only Gu Zhan remained.

The town before him seemed unchanged, but Gu Zhan knew everything was completely different now.

The brooms and dustpans they had used to attack him earlier still lay scattered on the ground, but the people were now kneeling before him as his believers.

After a moment of silence, Gu Zhan said to the people on the ground, "Get up."

The first order of business was finding a place to stay. The townspeople were enthusiastic and immediately vacated a house for him to live in.

These residents seemed to live simple lives, working at sunrise and resting at sunset.

It was as if they were genuinely living a normal existence.

Mo Tuo had once said that meticulous monsters wouldn’t let their worlds fall into complete chaos.

Even among monsters, there were differences in rationality. Some could live like humans and even enter other monsters’ worlds, playing roles within them. Others, however, had devolved into true "monsters," devoid of reason, thought, or anything beyond instinct and desire.

Take the previous dungeon, where a supposedly harmonious family lived together—that monster had clearly descended into chaos.

The NPCs in the dungeon, apart from respawning at fixed points, seemed indistinguishable from real humans.

Even the dungeon’s creator couldn’t fully control their actions, which was why so many interesting things happened within dungeons.

Gu Zhan stayed in the small town for a while. The residents were devout and insisted on rebuilding the "Holy Court" for him. Despite a few attempts to stop them, the residents ignored him, and Gu Zhan had no choice but to let them proceed.

A few days later, they even selected people to serve him.

The NPCs’ initiative went a bit too far. Sitting in the simple "Holy Court," Gu Zhan frowned as he looked out at the flowerbeds still under construction.

Behind him, black mist gradually coalesced into Mo Tuo.

"What’s troubling you?" Mo Tuo asked.

Gu Zhan said, "These NPCs have too many of their own ideas. They’re completely disobedient."

"Don’t see them as NPCs. When you’re in the dungeon, they are as real as anyone to you."

Mo Tuo stood behind him, his overly enchanting face unusually serious.

Gu Zhan glanced back at him, sensing a hidden meaning in his words. After a moment, he asked, "Are you teaching me how to construct a dungeon?"

"Hmm." Mo Tuo let out a noncommittal hum.

Gu Zhan said, "If I became a monster, I suppose I wouldn’t have to worry about such things."

Mo Tuo had previously mentioned that not all monsters were the same.

Some, like him, could roam freely between dungeons, while others, like Xiao Xiu and Sun Jingqiu, remained trapped in their fates, unable to escape even after becoming monsters.

Gu Zhan was certain that when Mo Tuo said he wanted to turn him into a monster, it wasn’t to make him a free-roaming one like himself.

No, Mo Tuo intended to transform his dungeon into a cage, turning Gu Zhan into a toy to be stored and admired.

But recently, Mo Tuo's thoughts seemed to have undergone some subtle changes.

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