I'll Take You to Find Lyra (5K)

Lyra City is the Divine Kingdom of the Lyra God.

Bai Wei had long suspected this... oh no, to be precise, the players had long suspected this, but it had never been confirmed.

But now, the evidence is right before our eyes: the very first sentence of the 《Lyra Revelation》 is...

This will solve a lot of problems.

For example, why is Lyra's technology so advanced, completely different from the control areas of other churches, and even seemingly from a different worldview? And why do Lyra's products become ineffective once they leave Lyra, such as the Gear Car, the Tower of Babel, and even various metal equipment, which also malfunction after being away from Lyra for too long?

Because those are all products of the Divine Kingdom.

As mentioned before, the Divine Kingdom is the domain and privilege of the Gods, independent of the mortal world, and possesses its own rules.

Generally speaking, mortals never have the opportunity to go to the Divine Kingdom in their lifetime, just as they never have the opportunity to see the gods they worship.

But Lyra is different. As this book of Revelation says, the Lyra God brought His Divine Kingdom to the mortal world.

In other words, all Lyra People live in the Divine Kingdom!

"Interesting," Bai Wei murmured. "This is really interesting."

In the memories of Visas that Bai Wei had last night, Lyra was killed by Visas a long time ago, and her Divine Kingdom collapsed along with it. The burning sky in that memory was the shattered Lyra Divine Kingdom.

Visas's memories cannot be faked, which means that the current Lyra City was rebuilt afterward.

That also means that the Lyra God did not die after that.

So how exactly has He survived to this day?

I hope to find answers to other questions in this book.

Thinking of this, Bai Wei couldn't help but urge Jie La Er, "Hurry up, hurry up, it's the next page."

Jie La Er was speechless.

He had naturally heard Bai Wei's words "interesting" earlier. He was originally thinking of waiting for Bai Wei to give an explanation, but Bai Wei had no intention of explaining at all. He just excitedly told him to hurry up, leaving him at a loss for words. He could only glance at the sentence on the title page, "Lyra brought the Divine Kingdom to the human world," and memorize it before turning the page.

The only sound in the quiet archives was the rustling of pages turning.

The 《Lyra Revelation》 and the 《Rhine Covenant》 are quite similar, or rather, all the books of God follow a similar template. They all begin by introducing how God came into this world and how He spread His power among mankind, much like the "Let there be light" in the previous life.

The 《Lyra Revelation》 records that the arrival of Lyra was inextricably linked to that Contaminated Land.

As described in the book, Lyra discovered the dangerous existence of the Contaminated Land when she inadvertently glanced at it. The Book of Revelation describes the Contaminated Land as "the graveyard of the world" and "a place that even the gods do not wish to linger." The Lyra God believed that if left unchecked, the Contaminated Land would inevitably spread endlessly, eventually turning the entire world into such a state.

Therefore, the Lyra God chose to descend to earth and moved his Divine Kingdom here, determined to use his divine power to suppress the Land of Corruption and prevent it from spreading further.

Soon, the Lyra God realized that suppression alone was not enough to truly Purification the land. So He used His divine power to transform the pollutants in the Land of Corruption into "source oil" and created various products that could be driven by the "source oil," turning the Land of Corruption from a "graveyard of the world" into a "treasure trove" that could provide energy.

This is the outline of Lyra's creation.

After reading it, Bai Wei fell into deep thought and remained silent for a long time, leaving Jie La Er unsure whether to continue scrolling or wait.

"Is there a problem?" After a long while, Jie La Er couldn't help but ask.

"Don't rush, I'm just thinking."

"What are you thinking about?"

"Think about how to find the truth from a story that has been painted over."

Jie La Er frowned slightly. "You think the Book of Revelation is fake?"

Bai Wei countered, "Do you really believe it?"

Jie La Er was at a loss for words.

"I know that for a fanatic like you, it's hard to imagine that the Book of Revelation could be false," Bai Wei said calmly. "But the truth is that the Book of Revelation never records the truth, but rather a story, or rather, the truth that believers want to believe. After all, every believer hopes that their god is great and full of mercy, but the god in reality is not like that. Don't worry, I have experience in this area."

Jie La Er sighed softly, "Is it experience gained from the previous host?"

"Ah no, it's because I've killed quite a few gods like that," Bai Wei said casually. "The more I kill, the more I see."

Jie La Er: "..."

If anyone else had said that, Jie La Er would have just thought they were crazy.

But it happens to be Bai Wei.

That's really... very convincing.

While giving Jie La Er a perfunctory reply, Bai Wei pondered the origin story.

Just as the most valuable part of the 《Rhine Covenant》 is the account of the Rhine God and His four originating disciples, the most valuable part of the 《Lyra Revelation》 is this very origin story. What follows is mostly about constraints on believers—those insignificant rules and precepts; reading even a single page of them is a waste of life.

So the focus is still on this story.

Such origin stories are definitely a mix of truth and fiction, with many fictional elements. For example, the idea that the Lyra God prevented the spread of Contaminated Land and harm to the world is obviously nonsense.

Why did He insist on staying next to the Contaminated Land?

Bai Wei frowned slightly at Jie La Er.

Since He survived Visas's attack, why didn't He return to His former Divine Kingdom and instead remained in the mortal realm?

If the reason for hiding before was to avoid Visas has been dead for who knows how many years now, and there isn't even a complete corpse left, so it's impossible for him to still be hiding, right?

So what exactly is the reason?

Bai Wei slowly closed Jie La Er's eyes again, recalling the Lyra as he knew it.

Then a picture suddenly flashed through his mind.

It was that Mechanic named Carol who spoke to Jie La Er in the sunset.

"Machinery is only an aid."

Bai Wei heard a "snap" sound.

He initially thought it was a voice generated in his mind by his own enlightenment, but he quickly realized that the voice was coming from outside. Soon, a light shone in, accompanied by an old man's low shout, "Who's in there? Come out now!"

Bai Wei then opened Jie La Er's eyes and saw the spotlight shining in from outside, illuminating the painting on the wall.

That was the Lyra God, a being woven from Holy Light and machinery.

At this moment, Bai Wei finally understood.

Then Jie La Er heard Bai Wei laugh in his mind, "I see."

"Lyra is a disabled goddess."

"Ah, are they from the Skeleton Corps?"

After carefully examining Jie La Er's documents, the elderly man who had just spoken muttered something as he returned them.

"If it was business, you could have just woken me up. Why did you have to barge in yourself? You made me think a thief had broken in."

As Jie La Er took the documents, he calmly replied, "I'm sorry, the situation is rather urgent. I didn't know where to find anyone, so I chose the more direct approach. But don't worry, I'll compensate you for the money."

"Then you should indeed pay for it, since you're the one who broke it." The old man waved his hand and said, "But it won't cost much... However, what I'm more interested in is, what kind of information do you need that makes you come all the way here? The Ministry of Ministry of Foreign Affairs' archives haven't been opened in years, and there's nothing special in there, is there?"

"Sorry," Jie La Er shrugged, trying to sound casual. "I can't say."

While talking to the old man, Jie La Er kept a close eye on the changes in the old man's expression.

Because he is currently wanted by the Lyra authorities, it's just unknown whether the warrant has been delivered to this forgotten department.

However, judging from the old man's behavior, he clearly didn't know much about Jie La Er.

It seems that even arrest warrants have forgotten about this department.

This relieved Jie La Er a little. As long as he didn't knock the old man unconscious, he was really worried that the old man might suffer some aftereffects.

He wasn't in the mood for small talk with the old man; he was more interested in knowing what Bai Wei meant by "Lyra is a disabled god." So, after paying the compensation to Suoqian, he prepared to leave.

Then he heard the old man ask, "Has something happened to Lyra?"

Why do you ask that?

"Because when my son came over a few days ago, he was also in a hurry and said he was looking for something," the old man replied. "He looked very unwell, but he wouldn't say anything. He just told me not to worry, and then, like you, he took a few books and left."

Jie La Er stopped and turned to look at the old man.

Even though he had already guessed the old man's identity, he still asked softly, "Who is your son?"

"Oh, he's also Knight of the Skeleton Corps, and a captain at that." The old man's face lit up when he mentioned his son. "I almost forgot, you should know him, since you two are colleagues. Hmm, his name is Ku De."

...really.

For a fleeting moment, Jie La Er's thoughts were drawn back to that night, which made his expression complicated once again.

"Do you know him?" the old man asked.

Jie La Er nodded. "I know him."

After a pause, he continued.

"He and I are very good friends."

"I see." The old man seemed very pleased. "That's good... I never knew how he was doing in the Skeleton Corps."

"That's good... no." Jie La Er shook his head, then answered very seriously, "Very good, he did a very good job."

"That would be wonderful!" The old man was even happier.

Jie La Er looked at the old man's weathered face, seemingly wanting to say something, but Bai Wei spoke softly in his mind.

"Alright, Jie La Er, time is running out. We have more important things to do."

Upon hearing Bai Wei's voice, Jie La Er could only swallow back what he wanted to say and instead said, "I should go."

"Alright, alright, you can go now." The old man also seemed a little regretful, as if he wanted to learn more about Ku De from Jie La Er, but since Jie La Er said he was leaving, he couldn't stop him. He just waved his hand and said, "Tell Ku De for me a message... well, it seems there's nothing much to give."

The old man smiled.

"Just let him do his job well and take good care of Lyra."

"It seems that Ku De was right, the Diplomatic Affairs Department really hasn't changed at all." On the way back to Lyra, Bai Wei's voice echoed in Jie La Er's mind, "Your lame excuse, which allowed you to get out with just an identity, didn't raise any suspicions at all."

Jie La Er seemed unwilling to discuss Ku De's father too much, so he went straight to Bai Wei and asked, "What did you mean when you said Lyra was a crippled god?"

"Huh? Did I say that?" Bai Wei feigned surprise. "Did you hear me correctly?"

Jie La Er remained expressionless.

"Hehe, alright, alright." Bai Wei stopped joking and said calmly, "Just as I said, Lyra is a disabled god, but she was not born disabled. Rather, she encountered some... well, changes."

Bai Wei thought about it and decided not to tell Jie La Er directly, "Your god was crippled by me," since saying that would be too offensive.

"That incident severely damaged His power and body, to the point that He couldn't even leave the mortal realm to return to His Divine Kingdom," Bai Wei said. "Therefore, He could only rebuild His Divine Kingdom in the mortal realm. It wasn't because He didn't want the Land of Corruption to spread, as you wrote in the Book of Revelation, that He decided to suppress it with divine power. Rather, He simply couldn't leave the mortal realm because... He was a flawed god."

As Jie La Er listened to Bai Wei's statement, his brows furrowed tightly, and his expression turned grim. "What evidence do you have?"

But Bai Wei could understand, after all, Jie La Er was a believer in Lyra, and believers in this world were often devout.

Even someone like Ulu, when Bai Wei told him the truth about Rhine and the Origin Follower, would hysterically shout "This is blasphemy!"

Jie La Er was still able to listen attentively without getting up to refute, but instead asked Bai Wei what evidence he had that proved Bai Wei's self-control was excellent.

"Of course we have the evidence," Bai Wei said with a smile, "And it's always been right in front of you."

"...What's the meaning?"

"I don't know if you've ever heard of this saying," Bai Wei said, "That God's will can influence the thinking of believers."

"I haven't heard of such a claim." Jie La Er for a moment, then said, "But I know it exists, because the Lyra People are the best example. I've also been to other churches and met people from other churches, such as the Rhine and the Holy Sound."

"Oh?" Bai Wei raised an eyebrow at him. "How does it feel?"

"They don't have our...honesty and adherence to rules," Jie La Er replied. "For us, following the rules is like a ingrained part of our being, but for them, rules are just words on their lips, they have no power. Simply put, in their view, following the rules is good character, and not following the rules is bad character, while in our view, regardless of whether one is good or bad character, one should follow the rules."

"That's all you feel?"

Is there a problem?

"No, I thought you could sense what the Rhine God had brought to His followers." Bai Wei was somewhat disappointed that Jie La Er hadn't gotten his quirky sense of humor. "But your feeling is right. Other places don't follow the rules as rigidly as you do, to the point of taking them for granted. This is what the Lyra God has brought you. Other gods will also bring other things to their followers. Of course, these things are all packaged as... virtues."

Jie La Er could hear the undisguised sarcasm in Bai Wei's tone.

"So what's the problem?" Jie La Er said. "You still haven't told me what the evidence is."

"Don't rush, let me finish."

Bai Wei continued to patiently guide Jie La Er, not wanting to give him the answer directly, but hoping that Jie La Er would deduce it himself.

It's as if only when believers speak the truth themselves does it become even more blasphemous.

"God influences believers. Based on this theory, can we work backward to deduce the state of the gods from the state of the believers?" Bai Wei said. "For example, the Lyra People are all rule-abiding, so can we deduce that the Lyra God is also such a being?"

Jie La Er nodded. "Of course, the Lyra God also has the title of God of Order and Machines."

"Yes, order and machinery... See, haven't you already given us the answer?"

Have you given the answer?

Jie La Er was taken aback at first, then, as if realizing something, his eyes widened. "You mean..."

"Yes, the Lyra God brought you more than just order; he also brought you machinery," Bai Wei said with a smile. "Look down at yourself, look at the equipment you're wearing, these metal bodies, these prosthetics, and then think back..."

Bai Wei paused.

"Why did you install these things? Then you'll understand why Lyra uses machinery."

Jie La Er abruptly lowered his head and looked at his metal parts.

Why would he use these things?

Naturally, it's because... those parts of his body are no longer there, so they can only be replaced with metal.

And what about the Lyra God?

Jie La Er's mind conjured up the image of the Lyra God, a majestic figure woven from Holy Light and machinery, now bearing a different... annotation.

"Have you figured it out?" Bai Wei said with a smile, "Why is the Lyra God Demigod who is also a machine?"

Bai Wei paused.

"Because He is also disabled."

Jie La Er stopped in front of the Lyra City.

Despite his composed nature, he couldn't hide the shock on his face.

... The Lyra God uses machines because he is disabled.

What blasphemous words!

Jie La Er clenched his fists instinctively, his breathing becoming heavy.

At this moment, the sun was about to rise, and the Lyra City, was gradually waking up. The figures of the Skeleton Corps could be seen again at the entrance to the city.

Although Jie La Er was in a state of confusion, he knew that he should hide for a while and find an opportunity to detour into the city later.

But at this moment, Bai Wei's voice rang out again. "I still feel that you don't quite believe it, so do you want me to take you to see more direct evidence?"

"More direct evidence?" Jie La Er asked instinctively. "What?"

"Give me your body."

Bai Wei gazed at the Lyra City, his pupils narrowing slightly, as if the stars, which had been still for a long time, had begun to rotate at this moment.

He said softly.

"I'll take you to find Lyra right now."