Catherine held the red wooden chest, and just by standing here, she had lost the ability to comprehend anything. This place was ten thousand times more terrifying than she had imagined.

If she hadn't been wearing the Duke Robe and the surrounding deity power hadn't been targeting her, she couldn't have lasted a ten-thousandth of a second here.

Human rationality was far too fragile. Even the firmest resolve meant nothing in the presence of a deity.

“…Can.”

But in this shattered world, a young girl's figure was fixed within her perception. The girl held her hand and led her forward in a certain direction.

Catherine didn't know if she had successfully answered the deity's question, nor if she was truly moving. In fact, she had already lost the ability to understand the meaning of answering and moving, but she still stared with all her might at the young girl's figure.

Lin Ye returned inside the chest. The cultists were maintaining the mental defense system on the periphery, Little Guardian was in charge of guiding the way outside, he was inside giving Little Guardian directions, and the movement had to be left to Catherine.

The problem now was that Lin Ye couldn't determine the correct direction either. He could only rely on the power of the Rule Fragments to discern the general situation around him, but he couldn't find the right path.

In fact, there might not even be a so-called correct path here. The condition of this corpse was extremely strange, and Lin Ye couldn't understand why it had become like this.

'Should I use the Special Ability?'

The Special Ability could only be used once. Such a skill was generally very powerful and should help him find a path close to the deity's corpse.

The problem was, if he used the Special Ability now, what would he do after getting close to the corpse?

A deity's corpse wasn't so easy to deal with. He would rather use the Special Ability after getting close to the corpse.

'Right, I still have that skill…'

Lin Ye suddenly thought of the skill he didn't really want to use. It seemed like it could be used in this situation after all.

'Is this fate…'

Lin Ye actually had two Fate Rule Fragments. One was a standard Fate Rule Fragment, and the other was a partially special Fate Rule Fragment.

That special Fate Rule Fragment had been obtained from Little Qi, and he generally didn't use the power of this partial special Fate Rule Fragment.

Because fate influenced each other. When he used this special Fate Rule Fragment, Little Qi would also be affected.

But now, Lin Ye had a feeling that a normal Fate Rule Fragment would struggle to work here, because deity power similar to rule power was everywhere.

However, that partial special Fate Rule Fragment was different; it should work here.

'It has to be this way.'

Lin Ye used the partial Fate Rule Fragment to create a Fate Crystal, and then used the Fate Crystal to cast the skill Fate's Guidance on Catherine.

This skill was a colorful crystalline ability Lin Ye had obtained through the Penguin Baby during the festival event.

Since using it required consuming a Fate Rule Crystal, this was his first time activating this skill.

A colorful glimmer enveloped Catherine. She was slightly stunned, then suddenly changed direction.

Little Guardian stayed by Catherine's side. Even if she had lost her guiding function, she could still accompany Catherine through this path.

Using the fragile mental defense system and mental network, Lin Ye sensed the various deity powers around him. He didn't know what had happened back then for this deity to die here in this manner, but it definitely contained some particularly dangerous information.

Otherwise, Little Red wouldn't have specifically come to persuade him to give up this mission.

During the movement, Lin Ye could feel the deity power changing. They were approaching the corpse.

After who knows how long, Catherine suddenly stopped. In a place like this, even the concept of time had become blurry.

Lin Ye sensed the surroundings from inside the chest. At first, he didn't notice anything different, but soon he realized that something was watching them.

This wasn't a problem of reaction speed, but rather that the master here had made him understand the fact that he was being watched.

The moment Lin Ye understood this, he suddenly found himself standing inside a box made of eyeballs, and it was his true body standing there.

The eyeballs turned, and the entire space shifted along with them, but Lin Ye didn't move because he wasn't part of the act of watching; he was defined as the object being watched.

“…Hello.”

The reason Lin Ye could still attempt to communicate with the other party was that he had already activated his Special Ability.

Mental Acceleration.

The effect of this skill wasn't actually that powerful. It only increased the user's thinking speed by tens of thousands of times. If an ordinary person used this skill, it would probably be meaningless, because even if a commoner with limited knowledge thought as hard as they could, the most they could achieve was to plan out every breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu for their entire life in advance.

That would indeed save a lot of time, but that was it.

Moreover, ordinary people couldn't adapt to this thinking speed. Too much meaningless thinking would only lead to nihilism.

But if this skill was given to Lin Ye to use, it was a completely different story.

By analyzing the surrounding deity power, Lin Ye gradually began to understand the constantly shifting situation around him and attempted to communicate with the existence watching him.

“I'm not good. Not good at all.”

The eyeball rotated slightly, and the surrounding deity power rippled, conveying its divine intent.

“What do you need? Perhaps we can talk.”

Lin Ye decided to try communicating with the other party first. If that didn't work, he would have to ask that true deity to come and help him.

Only after making contact with the deity's corpse did he realize how ridiculous his previous way of thinking had been. The gap between deities and humans wasn't a difference in power, but a difference in concept.

If this corpse had no consciousness, he might have been able to try solving the problem, but a conscious deity, even if it was just a corpse, was not something he could handle.

“I have no needs. At least, no needs from you.”

The eyeball watched Lin Ye from every level. It was not interested in Lin Ye. If Lin Ye hadn't been able to reach this place, it wouldn't have bothered to communicate with him.

This was a reward for mortals. There would always be mortals willing to lose everything to approach something they couldn't understand. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

“Don't you need those sacrificial offerings?”

Lin Ye didn't think a deity would lie to him, because that would be completely meaningless.

“That's just a natural reaction of the corpse. I won't stop it, and I don't have the ability to stop it.”

The divine intent rippling around conveyed this meaning.

“Aren't you the master of this corpse? Or are you a new consciousness born from this corpse?”

Lin Ye asked with some confusion.