Samsara Paradise: Dream Weaver of Connections.

Hru City, Wizarding Guild Headquarters.

Compared to Camp Eisenla, the Wizarding Guild headquarters building appears to be more dilapidated.

After Lin Yi followed Su Xiao and Caesar through the headquarters gates, the violators who had followed him spontaneously dispersed into the neighborhoods surrounding the Wizarding Guild.

These rule-breakers may be unruly, but driven by shared interests, they have temporarily come together.

Lin Yi's reputation among rule-breakers is now at its peak, far surpassing that of Sphinx.

Roughly estimated, 70% of the violators who originally gathered in Aisenla have followed Lin Yi to Heru City.

The rest are either lone wolves who have special channels or are strong enough to wait and see, or pitiful creatures who have already signed an inviolable soul contract with the Sphinx and cannot leave even if they want to.

Inside a relatively quiet stone chamber within the Wizarding Guild, Lin Yi finished counting the soul coins and various supplies he had obtained from the transaction, and without hesitation, pushed 60% of them in front of Su Xiao and Caesar.

"Caesar gets 20%, White Night gets 40%." Lin Yi said calmly. This was a pre-arranged distribution, and he wasn't stingy.

Without Su Xiao's deterrence and Caesar's "channels," his plan could not have gone so smoothly.

Upon seeing the pile of soul coins and rare materials and equipment shimmering with various colors before him, Caesar's small eyes instantly lit up with an alarming gleam. He let out a sly laugh and deftly stuffed his share into his seemingly infinitely large crotch, his movements so fluid that it was almost unbearable to watch.

Although Caesar loved money more than anything, he also knew when to advance and when to retreat.

It was clear to it that some money could be embezzled, while some money had to be distributed according to the rules, especially in front of Su Xiao and Lin Yi.

Maintaining a good cooperative relationship is essential for a longer-term financial future.

After the spoils were divided, the atmosphere relaxed a bit.

Su Xiao put away his share, looked at Lin Yi, and said, "I've maxed out my reputation with the Wizarding Guild and gained the permission to contact immortal wizards. Do you want to come up with me and take a look? Those three old guys are key to this world's fight against the ancient gods, but they might also be... a hidden danger."

Upon hearing this, Lin Yi pondered for a moment and nodded: "It's good to go and take a look. We must find out their stance. If they have also sided with the Ancient God, or are no longer able to resist, then Heru City is no longer safe for us, and we need to make plans as soon as possible."

Their ultimate enemy is the Sphinx and the ancient god behind him.

If even the strongest resistance force on the homeland is unreliable, then staying here is tantamount to courting death.

Moreover, Xia's whereabouts and safety had always been on Lin Yi's mind, and he didn't want to waste time on the wrong path.

The three left the stone chamber and ascended the ancient and wide staircase inside the wizarding guild.

The candlelight flickered on the walls, illuminating the mottled stone walls and the occasional eerie reliefs, while the air was filled with a mixture of decay and magic.

Upon reaching the tenth floor, the staircase was completely blocked by an object that resembled thick, intertwined tree roots.

These "roots" are a deep brown color with a rough surface, and they faintly exude a tough and ancient energy fluctuation.

Lin Yi squatted down and carefully examined the blockages, his brows furrowing slightly: "This thing... is very similar to the substance that parasitizes Hughes Archid."

Su Xiao didn't speak, but his hand was already on the hilt of the Dragon Slayer Blade.

He always prefers to remove obstacles in the most direct way.

Just as Su Xiao was about to draw his sword, the entrenched tree roots seemed to have a life of their own, as if they sensed something, and they retreated rapidly like a tide, disappearing into the gaps in the walls and stairs, cleanly clearing the way to the next floor.

At the same time, a figure appeared at the corner of the stairs.

It was a woman with skin as rough as old tree bark, wearing a gray wizard's robe stained with dirt, and carrying a simple-looking spear with a dark wooden handle.

She sat casually on the steps, and what was most striking was her eyes—their eye sockets were deeply sunken and empty, clearly indicating that her eyeballs had been gouged out while she was still alive.

But when she "looked" in the direction of Lin Yi and Su Xiao, it gave people the illusion that she was being clearly watched.

“Don’t go any higher.” Her voice was hoarse, carrying a numbness born of hardship. “In this cursed world, the more you know, the more sinful it becomes. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.”

Lin Yi and Su Xiao exchanged a glance, neither of them stopping.

In any world where ancient gods exist, they have seen far too many people who have become mystical from witnessing too much truth or being corrupted.

These people's words are often mixed with madness and fragmented truths, but it's good if half of them are credible; most of them are just delirious ramblings after a mental breakdown.

The three walked straight past the witch, ignoring her warning.

Just as they were passing by, the blind witch spoke again, her empty eye sockets "staring" at their backs: "Those three up there... are nothing but a bunch of cowards hiding in their cages."

Without stopping, Su Xiao tossed out a sentence without turning her head: "They are cowards, so what are you?"

The witch's body trembled slightly, then her shoulders shrugged, emitting a chilling, half-crying, half-laughing sound: "Me? Hmm... a pathetic wretch who struggled, not even as good as a coward."

Her laughter echoed in the empty stairwell, carrying with it endless desolation and self-mockery.

Caesar, walking at the back of the group, shrank back and subconsciously moved away from the woman who looked very strange.

As they continued upwards, the staircase became unusually quiet, with only the sound of their three footsteps echoing.

From the tenth to the thirtieth floor, no other wizards were encountered, but the staircases and corridors were kept unusually clean, and the candlesticks on the walls were clearly maintained regularly.

Clearly, the blind witch had lived here for a long time and was responsible for managing these areas.

Despite her apparent madness, Lin Yi and Su Xiao could clearly sense that she possessed an extremely powerful force within her, a force like a dormant volcano that, once erupted, would be absolutely formidable.

If a fight were to break out, even if one could win, it would certainly be a hard-fought battle.

Upon reaching the thirtieth floor, the stairs came to an end, and a long, dark corridor appeared before us.

The corridor is about five meters wide, with thick gray candles embedded in the walls on both sides. The candles burn steadily, and the wax is piled up like mountains along the walls, a testament to the passage of time.

As I walked deeper into the corridor, the surroundings were eerily silent.

After walking for more than twenty meters, a huge stone gate blocked their way.

The stone gate is made of yellowish-brown stone with an uneven surface covered with mottled dark red marks, some resembling dried blood handprints, and others twisted like painful human faces.

Su Xiao took out the iron plaque that he had obtained from Caesar, which was originally issued by the Wizarding Council but had been "processed" by Caesar.

“My generous friend, don’t rush, let the professional handle it!” Caesar quickly stepped forward, gesturing for Su Xiao to hand over the iron plate to him.

Su Xiao glanced at him and casually tossed the iron plate over.

Caesar took the iron plate, then did something that made Lin Yi's eyes twitch slightly—he reached into his mysterious trouser pocket and rummaged around for a while.

Seeing this, Lin Yi took two steps back without making a sound, and at the same time began to seriously consider whether or not to throw away the tattered cloth that Caesar had given him earlier.

Su Xiao silently decided that it would be best to stay away from that dog tag that had been "blessed" by Caesar in the future.

Caesar finally pulled a sticky, light green, gelatinous substance with a slightly acidic smell from his pocket.

He pressed the metal plate firmly into the gel-like substance, then carefully attached the lump of material to an inconspicuous recess in the stone door.

zizi...

A faint corroding sound rang out, and the iron plate rusted rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye, eventually turning into a small clump of ash and dissolving into the gelatinous substance.

Immediately afterwards, a series of rough, heavy "click-clack" sounds came from inside the stone door, as if long-dormant gears were starting to turn again. Caesar pressed his ear to the stone door, listened carefully, and tapped a few spots with his hand. Then he turned around, gave Lin Yi and Su Xiao a "done" gesture, and quickly took small steps to the back of the group, fully demonstrating his "safety first" principle.

Dust pattered down from the cracks in the door. The stone door, which had been sealed for who knows how long, slowly opened inwards with a low, grinding sound.

[Hint: You have entered the Church of the Old Gods.]

A musty smell mixed with dust hit me.

The scene behind the door came into view—a circular space of about 300 square meters, styled like a church, but showing signs of decay and age everywhere.

The church's center is recessed, forming a circular, stepped stone staircase several meters deep. At the very bottom stands a rough stone sculpture.

The stone carving does not depict any specific features; one can only judge from the vague outline of the figure that it is a young woman.

Turning our gaze to the edge of the church, we see three enormous stone chairs set side by side, each over two meters wide, seamlessly integrated with the wall.

The stone chairs are arranged diagonally, two of them are empty, and large patches of blackened, dried blood can be seen on their surfaces. A figure sits on the last stone chair.

"Another one coming to die." A hoarse voice, like sandpaper scraping, came from inside the church.

Su Xiao and Lin Yi turned their heads at the same time and saw a figure hanging upside down about two meters above the ground in a relatively open area inside the church, with thick chains piercing through his ankles.

Ragged strips of burlap were wrapped around his feet, legs, and most of his torso, all the way up to his neck. Through the gaps in the burlap, large, shocking burn scars could be seen.

Su Xiao gestured to Lin Yi to stay alert, then stepped forward.

Although the church was dilapidated, it was not dimly lit. He could see the face of the upside-down figure clearly—it was a man whose age was impossible to determine, with deep wrinkles on his face, skin clinging to his bones, and sunken eyes, like a mummified corpse that was still breathing.

"Dawn?" Su Xiao asked directly, not surprised by any miserable state the immortal wizard might be in.

In this kind of world, being able to stay clear-headed is already considered lucky.

“I am not.” The old man’s voice was broken and weak. “The one over there… the paranoid one is. I am…” He paused, as if it took him a lot of effort to remember his own name, and after nearly half a minute he continued, “I am Gus, a… loser who is barely clinging to life.”

The upside-down old man who called himself Gus spoke with utter numbness and despair, as if he had lost interest in everything in the world.

"The Immortal Wizard Gus?" Caesar whispered to Su Xiao from behind, "'Holy Silver,' he was the one who first provided it. Of course, that's just a rumor, its credibility is questionable..."

"Holy Silver!"

The previously lifeless Gus suddenly opened his half-closed eyes wide upon hearing those two words, staring intently at Caesar. Caesar was so startled that he took several steps back, almost bumping into Lin Yi.

"How long... how long has it been since anyone mentioned this thing..." Gus's voice suddenly rose, filled with a hysterical regret, "I was so stupid back then! So stupid!! To actually be willing to burn myself to temper that damned holy silver! If... if I were still an Old God, how could I have ended up in this wretched state! I shouldn't have believed in the Dawn! Nor should I have believed in the Light of Hope, Nia! In the end... their goodness, their laughable good intentions, were simply not enough to fight against that boundless evil!!"

“Don’t look at me like that,” Gus seemed to sense the scrutiny in Su Xiao and Lin Yi’s eyes, his pale eyes shifting slightly. “The Old Gods are nothing special… In front of the true ‘gods,’ they are utterly vulnerable. We’ve lost… We’ve lost… We’ve lost completely, we’ve even lost the last ray of sunlight… Hahaha…” He let out another maniacal and desolate laugh.

Lin Yi didn't want to listen to this nonsensical rambling filled with negative emotions anymore. He was pressed for time, so he interrupted Gus's laughter and asked directly, "Where is the 'Dominator' of Heru City hiding?"

“You’re still young.” Gus closed his eyes, his voice becoming low again. “There’s no sign of you being completely corrupted by darkness… Why go looking for death?” He clearly knew where the Dominator was, but his attitude was negative, and he was unwilling to reveal it.

“Cherish the present moment… You don’t even… belong to this world,” Gus’s voice carried a barely perceptible fluctuation, “So, don’t go to the Dominator to die.”

Lin Yi looked speechlessly at the Old God who had completely lost his fighting spirit, his tone tinged with impatience: "So what if he's an Ancient God? It's not like we haven't killed him before. Enough nonsense, just tell us where the Ruler is hiding, don't waste everyone's time."

He was preoccupied with Xia's safety and had no desire to waste time with an old man who had given up hope.

As Lin Yi finished speaking these powerful words, two other places inside the church reacted simultaneously.

Three pairs of eyes instantly focused on Lin Yi.

On a stone chair, the gaunt figure that had been sitting still stirred slightly.

Her once golden hair was now dry and split, like withered autumn grass, and she was covered with a brown, equally ancient-looking blanket.

This is the immortal wizard, Dawn.

Even more chilling was the sight of thick, black iron chains extending from the inside of the stone chair she was sitting on, cruelly piercing her joints and vital parts as if they were living creatures, binding her firmly to the chair.

The scene was extremely bloody, clearly showing the inhuman torture that Dawn had suffered; her body was already badly mutilated.

The other empty stone chair belongs to an immortal wizard named Laurent.

And below that stone chair, on the ground, lay a tangled, indescribable object.

The thing still vaguely resembled a human figure, but most of its body had been twisted and mutated, turning into a mixture of charred tree roots and lava. Dark red sparks flickered on its surface from time to time, emitting a burnt smell.

This is Laurent, who can no longer maintain his human form and has paid an even more terrible price in his fight against the power of the ancient gods.

The three immortal wizards were once gods of this world—the Old Gods.

"Have you decided to confront it? It's in Bone Harbor, in a room on the third block. You can find it there, or rather, it will actively pull you 'over there,' specifically... once you get there, you'll understand."

As dawn broke, his withered, tree-like hand trembled as he raised it, revealing a small bottle that had appeared in his hand without him noticing.

“Take it with you… Our hope is dead. Keeping it is useless. This was originally prepared to deal with the ‘White Goat’.”

She handed the small silver bottle to Su Xiao.

Su Xiao stepped forward and took the small bottle.

It feels slightly cool to the touch, and you can sense a pure, sacred power within it, which is completely out of place with the darkness that permeates this world.

[Hint: You have obtained 'Diluted Holy Silver Solution'.]

【Diluted Saint Silver Solution】

Origin: The Wizarding World

Quality: Epic
Type: Props

Effects: This solution can be applied to melee weapons. Within 10 minutes, when fighting the Ancient Gods, each attack will deal 129-350 points of Holy Silver true damage (the damage intensity will depend on the user's Intelligence attribute).

Rating: 700++
Introduction: The expectations it carries are far greater than imagined. It is a meager ember left by the ancient gods at the cost of their own fall, for future fighters.

Selling price: 400000 Paradise Coins
……

Upon seeing this thing, Lin Yi suddenly turned to look at the three immortal wizards.

After being stared at by Lin Yi, the three of them inexplicably felt a chill in their hearts, as if they were being watched by some terrifying creature.

"You refined the holy silver, right?"

Gus looked at Lin Yi, wondering what Lin Yi was planning to do.

Ten minutes later, a bunch of limbs appeared around Lin Yi. Caesar helped throw all of these limbs into the furnace to burn and extract holy silver.

As for where these limbs came from, we have to thank the three immortal wizards for their sacrifice.

Under Lin Yi's healing techniques, these limbs became renewable resources. Lin Yi severed over three hundred limbs in a short period, intending to further improve the quality of the holy silver. (End of Chapter)