Nothing of Any Meaning

"Obedience of Heavenly Voice" also did not appear in the main storyline of "Blasphemy", so this was the first time Bai Wei had heard of this thing.

While this idea sounded absurd, Bai Wei didn't doubt its authenticity; it certainly fit the nature of the churches in this world. It also explained why a meeting at the Contract Land took so long. They weren't just holding a meeting; they were also creating an "Execution Platform," and once a resolution was passed, it was highly likely to be carried out on the spot.

At that time, the first name they would enter would definitely be "Ulu".

But Ulu is already dead, and there isn't even a complete corpse left. "Obedience of Heavenly Voice" naturally can't kill Ulu, nor can it kill Bai Wei (of course, Bai Wei doubts whether this thing can work on him), but it will kill millions of "Ulu".

When they discover that Ulu is already dead, the next name will either be He Wei Ni Ya, Xi Ze, or even Jie La Er.

Of course, none of these names could kill the real person, because Xi Ze and Jie La Er were no longer alive, and He Wei Ni Ya was not her real name. Based on what Ring Finger had told Lai Er through the new messenger, Bai Wei roughly understood that this "Obedience of Heavenly Voice" was essentially about locking onto and erasing each person's perception of their own identity.

Take Ulu, for example. That's the name his mother gave him. So in his mind, he is Ulu, Ulu is him. Therefore, the Obedience of Heavenly Voice will be locked onto him.

But He Wei Ni Ya is different. From the beginning, she knew very well that this name did not belong to her. Her real name was Ni Ya. He Wei Ni Ya was just a mask she wore to fool the world. Therefore, the Obedience of Heavenly Voice might not necessarily be able to lock onto her.

Of course, this is just Bai Wei's guess. What if its locking conditions are more lenient?

This is why Bai Wei had Lai Er follow along, intending to find out more about how the device worked.

Besides that, there is another thing.

Bai Wei tapped her fingers lightly on the table, then her memory drifted back to the time in Isaiah's room when the new messenger, Ring Finger, brought the "message."

That Forbidden Scholar of the Church of Eternal Nightmare.

Bai Wei knew this person; his Ai De Wen, a character from the story. The thing he was researching was the "truth" that Bai Wei had told He Wei Ni Ya during the Holy Sound. He was also a very troublesome guy.

But according to the game's storyline, this guy should have stayed quiet for a few more months before "exploding the thunder," so why is he being hunted down by Eternal Nightmare now, and even getting involved here?

Was it because of a series of butterfly effects triggered by my own appearance?

This was the only one Bai Wei could think of.

In the game, the protagonist, a Knight of the Rhine, connects the storylines of the Eight Great Churches. However, in reality, the protagonist doesn't arrive; instead, it's Bai Wei, who has become the soul of Visas. Therefore, the discrepancy between the unfolding events and one's preconceived notions is not surprising.

After all, in the original storyline, Lyra was destroyed by the New God, and the once mechanical and orderly kingdom became a bloody slaughterhouse comparable to the Esoteric Sect, so there was no reconstruction and revival as we know it today.

He Wei Ni Ya died at Daphne's hands in that Small Church, and the final blasphemy did not occur. The Lord of Holy Sound was still leisurely listening to His favorite music. People gave everything for the Grand Ceremony and eventually died in the cold wind in a frenzy.

The same goes for Wildfire. The god who devoured Senluo and ascended to godhood began a frenzied suppression of his own people due to his inner distortion (using dogs to control people). In order to create more of his kind, he regarded the humans of Wildfire as domesticated livestock.

Yes, this is the original storyline. The overall style of the game "Blasphemy" is dark and oppressive, full of the sense of powerlessness that mortals cannot change the world no matter how hard they try.

But after Bai Wei arrived, the world changed, no matter what.

Thinking of this, Bai Wei slowly stopped tapping his fingers on the table, then chuckled softly, as if he were sighing or teasing, "I didn't expect to have done so much already."

Hmm... I seem to have gone off on a tangent.

The problem now is that the series of changes caused by his appearance have made it impossible for him to use the original plot as a reference. Ai De Wen's premature involvement is the best example.

So what exactly did that guy do to warrant Rhine and Eternal Nightmare joining forces to hunt him down?

Should he go and see what's going on?

The idea was immediately dismissed as soon as it popped into Bai Wei's mind.

Although the De La Town wasn't far from his current location, he could only get there using the mutilated body before him. However, the body was in extremely poor condition, and it would be unwise to drag it into the chaos of De La Town.

Of course, the main reason was that Ai De Wen didn't have what he wanted; he was well aware of that Forbidden Knowledge.

Moreover, Ai De Wen's appearance could make the situation even more chaotic, which is not necessarily a bad thing for Bai Wei.

The more chaotic the situation, the more important it is to be clear about what you really want, rather than just going along with the chaos.

With this in mind, Bai Wei made a decision.

Ignore the De La Town for now and focus on dealing with "Obedience of Heavenly Voice" and that troublesome old man Isaiah.

So Bai Wei closed his eyes again, and then began his "two-person trip to the No Man's Land" with Lai Er.

Lai Er never expected that despite all his precautions, he would still inevitably return here ahead of schedule.

Lai Er's hands trembled slightly as he was enveloped by the thick fog that had been absent for five years, but he dared not show it too obviously, for Visas-sama was watching him from inside his body.

There was nothing he could do; he really didn't want to come back, but he didn't dare refuse Visas-sama, so he could only bite the bullet and walk in, while his past memories continued to flood his mind.

"You're uneasy." Bai Wei's voice echoed in his mind, startling Lai Er and causing the envoy leading the way to instinctively glance back. "Can you tell me why?"

"I... I'm just a little uncomfortable with this thick fog," Lai Er blurted out unconsciously.

The envoy overheard this, and before Bai Wei could speak, the envoy said, "Don't worry, the fog here is harmless to your body in the short term, but if you can't even tolerate this..."

The messenger took a bottle of magic potion from his pocket and tossed it to Lai Er.

Lai Er took the potion but didn't drink it. Firstly, the packaging looked too much like the fake potions he sold everywhere, giving him some PTSD. Secondly, he was all too familiar with the fog here. For a long time, he had always thought the world was like this, with no sky and no land, just endless yellow sand, and his lungs would ache when he took a deep breath.

Bai Wei had long wanted to know what the No Man's Land was like, but he had always pretended not to know Lai Er's past and therefore couldn't bring himself to ask Lai Er directly. Now, however, he could use Lai Er's words to ask the guide, thus obtaining more comprehensive information. Lai Er was naturally quite willing, so he hurriedly relayed Bai Wei's questions to the guide ahead, the first being about the fog.

The guide looked somewhat surprised when he heard Lai Er's question. After all, in his opinion, Lai Er (in his eyes, the tongue) should be more concerned with "Obedience of Heavenly Voice," since that was the thing that could take his life. But Lai Er asked about the fog first, which was indeed a bit strange. Logically speaking, he should have known nothing about the No Man's Land after staying in the Nameless Town for so long.

However, since the other party had asked such a common-sense question, the envoy could simply answer directly, "This fog is not natural, but was specially created a thousand years ago to conceal the location of the Contract Land."

"It lasted for a thousand years?" Lai Er asked.

"Yes, it lasted for a thousand years."

"Is the fog like this in the Contract Land too?"

"No, the environment of the Contract Land itself is no different from the outside world; only this area is special," the envoy replied. "We call it the Isolation Zone."

"This Isolation Zone looks quite large."

"Of course, because we need to ensure that outsiders cannot find the exact location of the Contract Land," the envoy replied. "If outsiders rashly enter, they will only be lost forever in this thick fog."

After each of the messengers' answers, Lai Er would repeat it to Bai Wei in his mind. Although he knew it was redundant, as Bai Wei could hear the messengers perfectly well, he did it anyway, just to feel a sense of participation and to mask the surging fear and unease in his heart.

Lai Er didn't know the phrase "homesickness," but he felt it deeply at this moment. As he walked through the fog, his eyes kept darting around unconsciously, as if searching for something. But judging from his timid gaze, it seemed as if he was afraid of actually finding something.

Because Lai Er had forgotten the way back, he had only come out once and never returned. For the past five years, his only connection with his family was to occasionally ask Ha Luo to send things home. Only an old merchant like Ha Luo knew the way, while he, a local from the No Man's Land, did not. So much so that if he really wanted to go home in the future, he would have to Ha Luo to bring things back for him again.

Thinking of this, Lai Er couldn't help but sigh, and then he heard Bai Wei ask, "Are there any locals in the No Man's Land?"

Lai Er instinctively wanted to answer "yes," but the words caught in his throat as he suddenly realized that Bai Wei wasn't asking him, so he quickly passed the question to the messenger ahead.

The messenger's answer was naturally "yes".

Lai Er breathed a slight sigh of relief, and was about to warn himself not to get distracted again when he heard the messenger say something.

"They are our nourishment."

After a slight moment of surprise, he couldn't help but clench the hem of his clothes.

It was only then that Lai Er belatedly realized that the current conversation was not only about Bai Wei wanting to understand the No Man's Land, but also about him, a true local of the No Man's Land, asking the true master of the No Man's Land, the Contract Land, about the meaning of his own existence.

This was an extremely rare opportunity, because he hadn't had one in over twenty years in the No Man's Land. In fact, he hadn't even known about the existence of the Contract Land during those twenty years; he was only told about it by an outsider after leaving the No Man's Land.

And now, he has received the first answer—"nutrients".

Lai Er desperately wanted to ask why it was "nutrients," but he couldn't, because he was just a mouthpiece for Visas-sama, so he had to hold back.

Fortunately, Visas-sama asked the same question, so he couldn't wait to get the question out of his throat, "Why don't you make your point clearer?"

The envoy glanced back at Lai Er again. He could sense Lai Er's eagerness, but this only made him more confused. He couldn't understand why the other party cared so much about the locals, since even they themselves didn't seem to care much.

But since the other party had asked, he could answer, so he slowed down and pointed ahead.

"Since you are so eager to know, then go there," the messenger replied. "The answer you seek will be there."

Lai Er looked in the direction the messenger pointed, and then his heart and lungs stopped.

Because amidst the swirling yellow sand, a silhouette could be seen.

It was a village, a village born in the yellow sand.

At that moment, Lai Er's heart tightened, thinking he was finally home. Only when he got closer did he realize that this was not his village, and he immediately breathed a sigh of relief, but then a sense of melancholy washed over him.

The village is not big, with only about a hundred households.

Judging from the style of the houses and the villagers' clothing, it was similar to Lai Er's hometown, which is why he experienced hallucinations immediately.

But unlike others, he saw several acres of fields outside the village, planted with small trees he had never seen before. But as he got closer, he could see that the trees were covered with golden fruits that looked very familiar.

"The Seed of Covenant?" Lai Er realized. "That's the Seed of Covenant? You're letting the villagers here plant the Seed of Covenant?"

"Yes." The envoy nodded. "The Seed of Covenant has always been given to the residents of these Isolation Zone, who plant it for us."

The messenger paused.

"That's the meaning of their existence."

Lai Er was stunned.

Planting the Seed of Covenant in No Man's Land sounds reasonable, but the problem is... why was it never planted in his village? And why did he only learn about the existence of the Seed of Covenant after he left?

The question suddenly popped into Lai Er's mind, making him forget to ask Bai Wei and subconsciously ask, "Then why don't some villages have this?"

"Oh? You actually know about other villages?" The envoy looked at Lai Er with slight surprise, and then said, "Not all villages will be arranged by us to plant the Seed of Covenant. Some are growing grains, and some are raising livestock, but they are all for our benefit. That's why I say they are the nourishment of the Contract Land."

Seed of Covenant? Grain? Livestock?

Why didn't he know? Their village had never seen outsiders, nor had they ever heard of the Contract Land.

Lai Er asked again.

After a moment of contemplation, the envoy said calmly, "Oh, there are such villages."

Why is this happening?

"The Isolation Zone were too big; we forgot about them."

"Forgot?" Lai Er was stunned. "Then what is the meaning of their existence?"

"Then there is nothing," the envoy said calmly. "It is meaningless."