I fabricated myths to guide the revival of spiritual energy.

Boom-!

When the enormous, illusory platinum bell struck its first note above the Seventh Blackstone Mine, the entire mine instantly fell into a deathly silence.

The instant the bell tolled, thousands of ragged miners in the mine simultaneously buckled at the knees, crashing heavily to the muddy ground, clutching their heads in agony.

This was no ordinary sound wave; it was a divine judgment hammer that struck directly into the depths of the soul!

The roar of the bell ignored the physical body, forcibly cutting into the prayer veins of every miner. It was like a cold steel brush, brutally scraping the minds of mortals, forcing them to recall, bit by bit, the most stringent praise prayers of the Radiant Diocese in the extreme pain of a blank mind.

It is cleansing away all impurities that do not belong to the Lord of Light, crushing and purifying the fear, despair, and the last remaining prayer in the hearts of these mine slaves, and then guiding them back to the divine kingdom in the heavens without reservation through the channel of faith offerings.

Beneath the enormous platinum bell, the Chief Judge of Judgments, draped in a greyish-white robe, hovered expressionlessly in mid-air. His pure white, pupil-less eyes coldly surveyed the mortals kneeling below, like straw bent by a storm.

"Sing 'Confessions'," the judge coldly ordered.

The several gaunt-faced penitent nuns standing behind him immediately closed their eyes and began to sing the ancient hymn of the Radiant Diocese in an extremely mournful tone. This hymn had no sense of holiness whatsoever; it was a key specifically used to awaken the instinct of fear deeply ingrained in the miners' childhood by the temple and the whip.

As the shrill melody of the hymn echoed through the mine, many miners began to uncontrollably kowtow until their heads bled, frantically chanting the name of the Lord of Radiance.

In the crowd, Eve, disguised as a miner, also knelt in the mud. She gritted her teeth, her left hand clenched into a fist, hiding the burning Dao Lord Divine Rune in her palm.

She dared not look up. Under the divine scrutiny of the Cleansing Bell, she could clearly sense that the dozen or so miners around her who had previously learned the "Dark Gold Reverse Prayer" from her were on the verge of collapse. Under that powerful cleansing, several extremely discordant dark gold sparks faintly appeared in the soul veins of these dozen or so people, threatening to explode on the spot and be completely exposed at any moment.

Ideas to break the deadlock flashed through Eve's mind.

The divine runes cannot be used to "sever" it! The Bell of Pure Faith is not a one-way chain that can be easily cut; it is a field of faith resonance that covers the entire mine. If she were to forcibly act, not only would she herself be instantly exposed, but the dozen or so mine slaves who had silently recited the reverse prayer would also be burned to ashes on the spot by the backlash of the bell's sound.

Despite a severe headache, Eve forced herself to calm down, her gaze fixed on the platinum bell in the sky that was constantly absorbing faith.

In order to purge heretics, Jingxinzhong had to infuse the sound of his bells into the prayers of every miner. This meant that Jingxinzhong himself was establishing a temporary theocratic pathway with these thousands of people!

The enemy is using the sound of bells to cleanse the miners; isn't the echo of those bells the best medium for communication?

However, the complete dark gold reverse prayer was too long and too conspicuous to be hidden in the sound of the bells.

Eve looked to her side. An old miner, his hair and beard white and covered in whip marks, was painfully digging at the mud on the ground. He didn't have the strength to recite the long, ornate hymns of radiance; all that came out of his throat was the heavy, animalistic panting and a primal yearning for pure survival after being squeezed to the limit.

"I don't want to die... I don't want to die..." The old miner sobbed desperately, his mouth full of mud.

This most primal survival instinct struck Eve's mind like a bolt of lightning.

She suddenly understood the essence of faith. It didn't need complex doctrines or flowery language. For these ants struggling in the mire, the truest faith was simply to survive.

"I don't seek forgiveness, I only seek a way to survive."

Eve's lips moved silently, clinging to this most genuine and resolute prayer from the blood and tears of the miners. Taking advantage of the moment when the nun's hymn created chaos, she struggled through the mud, gripping the arms of veteran Bart and Iron Rock, and whispered the eight words, along with the strategy of "Do not resist, recite it hidden in the echo of the bells."

……

At the same time, in the Kunlun Heavenly Palace outside the multidimensional universe.

Gu Qing sat upright on the throne of the secondary Heavenly Dao, his vast gaze piercing through endless dimensions, coldly watching the huge platinum bell shadow above the Seventh Black Stone Mine.

He clearly saw the eight words Eve had distilled from the mortal instinct for survival in that desperate situation.

Gu Qing did not personally descend to smash the bell. Instead, in his sea of ​​consciousness, with the supreme will of the Heavenly Dao, he casually refined the spark that Eve had found into a "Dark Gold Tail Sound Rule" that could perfectly resonate with the bell's sound.

"By purging heresy with the sound of bells, they have essentially rang the first bell for heresy."

A cold smile curved Gu Qing's lips. This exquisitely refined dark gold tone, following the dimensional anchor point, silently solidified deep within the souls of Eve and the dozen or so believers.

……

Thump—!

The second roar of the cleansing bell exploded over the mine. The hymns rose higher, and the terrifying cleansing storm swept over souls once more.

The miners were forced to kneel on the ground as usual, chanting the Prayer of Radiance in unison amidst excruciating pain.

But this time, as the aftershocks of the bells echoed through the air, poised to forcefully carry all faith back to the divine realm, those dozen or so miners who had received the final melody, deep within their souls, followed the receding tide of the bells, silently reciting the solidified, unspoken rule:

"I don't ask for forgiveness, I just want a way to survive!"

hum.

Within the faith of these dozen or so people, an extremely faint, dark gold node, like an invisible plague of faith, naturally blended into the resonant echo of the Pure Faith Bell.

As the sound of the bell reverberated throughout the area, a highly secretive heretical echo reverberated for the first time on a large scale within the mine.

In mid-air, the judge who had severed the letter suddenly frowned.

His pure white eyes were fixed on Jing Xinzhong. He discovered that, incredibly, more than a dozen tiny, dark gold tributaries had appeared within the torrent of faith that had been drawn up. What sent chills down his spine even further was that the echo that Jing Xinzhong had just emitted contained a chilling will that made him extremely uncomfortable.

"The flow of faith has not been purified!" the judge roared in fury, brandishing his staff of judgment. "Heretics are using the sound of the bell! Prepare for mass interrogation!"

As the judge roared, the penitent nuns' voices instantly turned mournful, like the wailing of ghosts.

The intense heat arrived without warning.

From the crowd, dozens of weak-willed miners suddenly let out heart-wrenching screams. Platinum-gold flames of judgment erupted from their seven orifices as they were ignited alive under this cruel divine interrogation!

Beside Eve, the old miner with white hair and beard was also engulfed by the platinum flames. He writhed in agony in the fire, his flesh emitting the smell of burning.

But he did not cry out for the Lord of Light's forgiveness as usual. In his final seconds, the old miner opened his burned-out eyes amidst the flames, and following the lingering echo of the heretical sound from the bell, he mustered his last strength to let out a broken, hoarse roar:

"I don't ask for forgiveness... I only ask for... a way to survive!"

The old miner turned into a pile of white ash washed away by the rain in the muddy water.

But this roar, delivered at the cost of his life, struck like a heavy hammer against the numb hearts of countless miners around him.

The third chime of the Bell of Purification was about to sound. The vast perception of the Holy Judgment System finally detected the approximate source of the dark gold echo. The Judge of Judgment's pure white eyes, like searchlights, were fixed on the area where Eve was located, and platinum-gold divine light of destruction began to gather frantically.

"Bart, take the men and retreat to Abandoned Mine Tunnel No. 7!"

In that life-or-death moment, Eve did not panic, but instead whispered her final command. She knew she could no longer hide; someone had to step forward and draw all the divine wrath.

Eve suddenly stood up from the mud!

In the deathly silent mine where thousands knelt, her thin, mud-covered yet upright figure was like a flame against the night, instantly drawing all of the judge's murderous intent upon her.

"Heretical." An extreme killing intent flashed in the eyes of the judge who had broken his letter.

Boom-! ! !

The third chime of the Pure Faith Bell, carrying the power to destroy everything, crashed down on Eve without reservation!

Come on!

Eve roared, activating the Dao Lord Divine Rune on the back of her hand to its limit. The dark golden light fiercely protected her heart meridian, forcefully meeting the terrifying bell wave.

ka ka ka-

As a mortal body withstood the cleansing of the sacred object, Eve's skin instantly cracked open with countless bloody lines, blood gushed out, her soul was almost shattered, and she instantly lost consciousness and fell backward.

But in those few short seconds when she stood up to withstand the sound of the bell, the unexpected happened!

The old miner's gruesome death and Eve's indomitable spirit became the most deadly catalyst for that plague of faith. In the lingering echo of the purifying bell, it wasn't just a few dozen people, but hundreds, even millions, of miners around, who, in extreme fear and shock, spontaneously and gradually echoed that blasphemous final syllable from the deepest recesses of their souls:

"I don't seek forgiveness, I only seek a way to survive."

"I don't ask for forgiveness, I just want a way to survive!"

Om-!

These hundreds of dark gold echoes, mixed with the will to survive and anger, followed the resonance of the Pure Faith Bell, like hundreds of poisonous thorns, and pierced the illusory bell body of the Pure Faith Bell.

In mid-air, the once pure and flawless giant platinum bell suddenly trembled.

On its "echo layer," which is responsible for radiating outward vibrations, a very thin yet incredibly deep dark gold crack was forcibly bitten out by this enormous dark gold tail sound!

The dark gold erosion, mediated by the sound of bells, is complete.

As the judge stared at the dark golden crack on the surface of the Pure Faith Bell that could not be wiped away no matter what, his face turned deathly pale, and an unprecedented chill shot from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head.

He finally realized what had happened.

The Pure Belief Bell is no longer a simple sacred object for purification; its echo chamber has been completely corrupted by heresy and has become a medium for spreading those wicked prayers!

"Stop! Seal the Pure Heart Bell!"

The judge screamed in terror and forcibly shut down the relic's operation.

He looked down at the chaotic crowd, at the thousands of miners whose eyes, though filled with fear, already harbored a kind of wildness. A ruthless glint flashed in his eyes.

This mine is no longer a mine, but a pool of faith permeated with the echoes of heresy. Anyone who leaves alive will be utterly corrupted by the prayers of the Radiant Diocese.

"Seal off all entrances and exits to the Seventh Blackstone Mine." The Chief Inquisitor, Broken Letter, issued the most ruthless order to the court behind him. "Burn this mine down. Leave no survivors."

……

Beneath the wasteland, in the deep and dark abandoned Mine Tunnel No. 7.

The one-armed veteran, Bart, struggled to carry Eve, who was covered in blood and in a deep coma, stumbling and staggering through the rugged cave. Iron Rock followed closely behind with dozens of miners who had escaped in the chaos.

Bart, panting heavily, turned around and glanced at the ground behind him through the mine's ventilation shaft.

Above the Seventh Blackstone Mine, towering platinum flames had already risen. Countless agonizing screams echoed in the sea of ​​fire. To cover up the fact that the path of faith had been corrupted, the Radiant Diocese had chosen the most cruel form of physical extermination.

Bart's eyes reddened. He gritted his teeth, his eyes no longer holding even a trace of awe for the Old Gods, only a deep-seated hatred and absolute belonging to the Dao Lord.

"Walk."

Bart withdrew his gaze, turned his back to Eve, and walked into the depths of darkness without looking back.

On the distant wilderness.

In that dilapidated dark gold temple, the first batch of dark gold believers, forged by the tolling of bells, the burning at the stake, and the betrayal of the old gods, are about to arrive.