Red Cord Snake Knot

The scrawny old man said with a smile, "People undergo reincarnation, and so do heaven and earth."

"The Day of Heaven's Death marks the beginning of their collapse."

"Reincarnation has already dissipated. The dead have nowhere to go and can only linger in the mortal world, becoming entangled in the karmic ties of all beings and turning into Evil Spirits and Weird Beings."

"In time, the sun and moon will also dissipate, and everything in this world will vanish. All beings will struggle in this terrifying, collapsing mortal world."

"The only path to deliverance is faith in the Great Void Snake Mother!"

"She has not yet been born, because she exists in the future."

"When the mortal world is utterly destroyed, it will return to nothingness and nurture new life once more."

"The Great Void Snake Mother is that new life!"

Lu Mian listened with rapt attention, blinking as though he were digesting the man's words.

These words already came close to forming a complete doctrine.

Noticing Lu Mian's expression, the old man nodded inwardly and continued, "The Land of All Beings is the form the Great Void Snake Mother takes before her birth. She has already appeared since the Day of Heaven's Death; we simply cannot perceive her yet."

"As long as we are sufficiently devoted to the Great Void Snake Mother, our souls will enter the Land of All Beings after death, attain ultimate enlightenment, and become part of her."

"Once the Land of All Beings has fully formed, the Great Void Snake Mother will be born."

After hearing him out, Lu Mian finally understood the concepts of the Great Void Snake Mother and the Land of All Beings.

They sounded abstract, but put another way, they were quite simple.

The Land of All Beings was essentially an egg.

The souls of these believers served as nutrients, allowing that egg to develop and grow until it finally broke out of its shell as the Great Void Snake Mother.

"Young man."

"Join us, and return to the Land of All Beings together."

"On the day the Great Void Snake Mother is born, we too will become gods."

"From then on, we will be free of all calamities and live forever. None of the world's troubles will have anything to do with us."

The scrawny old man's voice grew increasingly sincere, as though he truly had Lu Mian's best interests at heart.

"Who... are you?"

Lu Mian couldn't help asking.

"We are believers in the Great Void Snake Mother. You may also call us the Void Cult."

The scrawny old man spoke solemnly.

"The Void Cult..."

Lu Mian nodded slightly.

The scrawny old man took a dagger from inside his clothes and handed it to Lu Mian.

"This is..."

Lu Mian's eyes showed his confusion.

"This is our initiation ritual for the Void Cult."

"You must cut a piece of skin from the back of your hand, throw it into the fire, and recite the Great Void Scripture. Then you will officially be one of us."

The scrawny old man spoke solemnly.

"That's right. Once you've completed the ritual, we'll be family."

"We all work and strive to return to the Land of All Beings!"

The others chimed in from the side.

They were putting invisible pressure on Lu Mian, trying to rob him of his ability to think for himself and make him perform the ritual as they wished.

After taking the dagger, Lu Mian didn't hesitate.

He suddenly seized the scrawny old man's head and plunged the dagger through the top of his skull!

Squelch!

The scrawny old man had never expected Lu Mian, who seemed completely taken in, to suddenly turn murderous!

He stared at Lu Mian with wide eyes. "Why... why?"

"I'm sending you back to the Land of All Beings, aren't I?"

"If you meet the Great Void Snake Mother, remember to say hello for me."

Lu Mian grinned and pulled the dagger straight out.

"Fiend!"

"He's a fiend trying to stop the Great Void Snake Mother's advent!"

A woman with thin lips and narrow eyes finally reacted, pointing at Lu Mian as she shouted furiously.

At her words, the others' expressions twisted with savagery, and they charged at Lu Mian without a thought for their own lives!

Facing these people, Lu Mian couldn't even be bothered to use the Great Cleaver. He clenched his right hand and unleashed a terrifying punch!

There was no technique to this punch, only an eruption of raw, savage strength.

Bam!

A Void Cult believer took the heavy punch to the head.

His entire face caved in, bursting like a crushed watermelon!

Lu Mian formed his left hand into a snake's head and drove it bloodily into another believer's throat.

Another Void Cult believer lunged at him from the front.

Lu Mian swiftly raised his right leg and shot it out like a spring.

Bam!

Lu Mian's kick burst the Void Cult believer's internal organs, sending him flying out of the reception hall with a scream.

In an instant, Lu Mian had killed three people.

Whoosh!

The thin-lipped woman, however, had already slipped soundlessly behind Lu Mian.

Her movements were bizarre. Her entire body clung to Lu Mian, her spine bent at an extreme, distorted angle as she exerted a python-like constricting force.

This method of applying force was very similar to the Snake Fist Lu Mian had learned.

But his technique was nowhere near as extreme as hers; she used her entire body to constrict her opponent to death!

Yet, very soon...

The thin-lipped woman's expression changed.

She discovered that her strength couldn't constrict Lu Mian at all.

His muscles were as hard as steel bars.

"You think you can strangle me with that little strength..."

Lu Mian turned to glance at the thin-lipped woman and grabbed her hair.

Crack!

She strained with all her might, still trying to coil around Lu Mian.

She knew that the moment she let go, she would die.

But Lu Mian's strength also far exceeded her imagination.

"You want to cling to me that badly?"

"Too bad I don't like you."

When Lu Mian realized she intended to keep clinging to him, his arm swelled violently, adding even more strength!

Squelch!

Lu Mian tore her head clean off her body.

The sight was brutally bloody!

Lu Mian casually tossed the head into the bonfire.

The old man hadn't been the key figure in this group. This woman had been their leader.

Sizzle...

The woman's head sizzled in the flames, yet her eyes still stared fixedly at Lu Mian.

"I've sent you to meet the Great Void Snake Mother. Why are you still staring at me?"

"Honestly."

Lu Mian shook his head helplessly.

He added more firewood to the bonfire, making the flames burn even higher.

Lu Mian searched the others' corpses as well.

Looting corpses was a good habit, one he must never forget, no matter what.

But these people really were penniless. Between them, they had only a few scraps of silver.

Still, Lu Mian made another unusual discovery.

Each of them carried a red cord knot.

The red cord knot was intricate, resembling a snake coiling endlessly around itself.

"The Great Void Snake Mother... this must be some special token of the Void Cult."

"Wait... the Ritual Banner I found on Han Can earlier also had something to do with snakes."

"Could Han Can have obtained his sacrificial ritual from the Void Cult?"

Lu Mian looked thoughtfully at the red cord Snake Knot in his hand.

He also recalled encountering two people in the Refugee District who had been inexplicably friendly toward him.

One had been a gang member.

The other had been a neighbor who had just moved in.

"Those people... might all be connected to the Void Cult."

"Large numbers of Void Cult believers may have already infiltrated the city!"

The more Lu Mian thought about it, the more alarmed he became.

He certainly wasn't overthinking this.

If he hadn't encountered these Void Cult believers tonight, they would probably have reached Thousand Chimes Commandery City tomorrow and entered the Shed Quarantine Zone.

They would only have needed to wait a while before being assigned to the three main compounds of the Refugee District.