Scarlet Moon (Seeking Recommendations)

"The Lord... is not responding!?"

Although Olivia knew the Spirit of Void only responded to believers on rare occasions, could it really be so even in such a critical moment?

Her heart sank involuntarily: "Is this... what a god is?"

At this moment, the words a previous believer had used to describe the gods suddenly surfaced in her mind—'The gods have no desires or cravings, no love or hate; they look down upon the mortal world and care nothing for the rise and fall of ants...'

"We are all just ants. What does the life or death of an ant matter to such a great existence? Perhaps... the responses from before were merely a persona of that terrifying existence, just a virtual personality, a single facet..."

"My Lord... are you punishing me?"

Lin watched this scene, yet a smile remained on her face: "No matter how you treat me, I still believe in you..."

Countless masses of flesh wrapped around her like an embryo gestating life. Blood vessels spread rapidly across Lin's face, covering it like a mask, leaving only one eye exposed, which continued to shrink...

Just then, Olivia suddenly felt that some terrifying existence... had descended!

A single tear flowed from Lin's lone eye.

"I..."

Aaron Sothoth stared at this scene, not knowing what to say: "I just went offline to have a meal, and my fanatic is about to be finished?"

He stared at the flesh on Lin's body, knowing the situation had reached an extremely dangerous point.

"Fortunately, Olivia has already used the ritual..."

Aaron quickly connected to the ritual, his own mysterious energy pouring out like a tide and falling upon Lin.

"How did this Lin get so heavily contaminated?"

Once the connection was established, Aaron felt a chill in his heart.

The contamination and flesh mutation on Lin's body were truly shocking; it even seemed that every inch of her flesh was filled with another powerful and insane will!

"The Mother Tree of Flesh?"

Aaron's mysterious energy was constantly annihilating these wills, and one could see the flesh mask on Lin's face stop its spread.

But Aaron felt very grave, even sensing a trace of terror!

As the contamination was purged, he could feel that the insane will had begun to rage.

Outside the window, in the sky, the Crimson Moon turned even more scarlet, and even... vaguely transformed into a mad and evil eye, hanging high in the sky, looking down upon the mortal world...

"Scarlet Moon, Great Mother of Terror, the Mother Tree of Flesh that gestates the myriad!"

A string of honorifics appeared directly in Aaron's mind.

He even saw countless cysts forming on the surface of the meatball before him, appearing to contain countless embryos, and even attracting the spirits in the surroundings...

If I were to crawl inside, I wonder if it would give birth to me, allowing me to have a true physical body in this world? No, that's not right...

Aaron snapped back to his senses, his consciousness jolting: "I've been slightly affected by the contamination... even if it could give birth to me, I'd likely be controlled by the Scarlet Moon, suffering a fate worse than death, right?"

"Get out!"

He had only used one unit of mystery before, but now he roared, pouring out his reserves.

Two units of mystery...

Three units of mystery...

Ten units of mystery!

Finally, the massive meatball split open, revealing Lin's figure within, as the countless flesh masses shriveled.

Lin seemed to see a blurred human figure, with a warm, large hand stroking the top of her head: "Leave!"

Plop!

A clump of flesh detached from her body, crawling on the ground like a mollusk before finally devouring a chair, actively merging with it and beginning to reshape...

Branch after branch and root after root grew from the chair, as if bearing fruit, forming a crimson staff.

It was entirely crimson, as if woven from branches and tentacles, the head of the staff forked, with countless tiny branches forming a canopy, resembling the head of a ferocious wooden dragon.

"Do not look at the moon again."

Aaron said to Lin.

If ordinary evil cultists were merely radiated by the power of the source of their path, and the previous Lin had been contaminated by a bit of power due to her particularly suitable constitution, this time it was far more serious; she had directly entered the gaze of that terrifying existence!

She had been noticed by the source of her own path! If she were in a cult that worshipped the Scarlet Moon, she would have been immediately canonized as a saint.

However, her later behavior would likely be that of a standard double agent; if she were noticed again, the outcome would certainly not be pleasant.

"Thank you for your salvation!"

Lin's head throbbed with pain; Aaron had only purged the contamination from her body but had not sealed the dangerous knowledge.

She knelt on the ground and thanked him sincerely.

"Beware of the dangerous knowledge in your mind!"

Aaron offered one more reminder.

The existences at the end of the Path are the source of mystery, or perhaps mystery itself; they represent the most profound occult knowledge in their very being!

Ordinary cults merely piece together insignificant scraps of information from their whispers.

Yet Lin had essentially stared directly at the Scarlet Moon; she might even possess more high-level occult knowledge than the High Priest!

Aaron certainly would not let this opportunity to fleece some wool slip by.

He cast a glance at Olivia, incidentally purging the lingering traces of secret corruption left behind by the Scarlet Moon, before finally ending his response to the ritual.

"Whew..."

Only then did Olivia breathe heavily, glaring at Lin: "What kind of dangerous thing did you do? Lin?!"

Lin gave an embarrassed, sheepish smile, tugging on Olivia's hand: "Sister Olivia, I won't dare do it again."

"There won't be a next time. If our Lord hadn't happened to respond to the prayer, you, me, and everyone in this building would be dead!"

Olivia said crossly.

"I will never do it again."

Lin replied with lingering fear, realizing that her path of fleecing the divine had reached its end.

The Scarlet Moon had already marked her; perhaps the next time would be a direct descent of divine punishment!

"Sigh... this really was... how are you feeling?"

Olivia sighed.

"Aside from my head feeling a bit swollen, I'm otherwise fine..." Lin closed her eyes, and a wealth of forbidden and terrifying knowledge surfaced in her mind.

Information on how to advance beyond the Blood Overflowed was the most trivial of it all.

There was also knowledge on how to construct blood pools, how to extract spirituality using the blood of maidens, and even secrets to eternal youth...

Furthermore, there was knowledge on how to use flesh and bone, combined with rituals and sacrifices, to forge terrifying Artifacts.

And even... some even more cruel and bizarre sacrificial rituals...

Olivia's gaze swept over, landing on that blood-red cane, and she couldn't help but sigh again: "This is the first time I've ever witnessed the formation of an 'Artifact'..."

Lin opened her eyes: "Sister Olivia, you said... it is an 'Artifact'?"

"Not just an 'Artifact', but likely one of the most terrifying kind. After all... it came directly from... a True God!"

Olivia sighed. For some reason, her gaze was involuntarily drawn to the cane; the scarlet lines were as perfect as a work of art, and the curve of its branches was intoxicating to behold...