The content of these murals is quite simple; in the early ones, it depicts a solitary figure traversing deserts, lakes, and mountains, seemingly in search of something.

In the background of these murals, there are vague lines, resembling a humanoid figure or some kind of special pattern.

In the later murals, followers appear, tracing behind the figure.

At this time, the dense lines in the background appear to exhibit some sort of ’activity’ trend.

Some lines stand up, forming ambiguous and simplistic humanoid shapes, as if they were some kind of ’person.’

He Ao looked back at the previous murals; indeed, these shapes were the earlier background lines.

In the previous murals, these lines lay there, resembling dead bodies one after another.

Yet, in the later murals, they ’came to life.’

Of course, perhaps they didn’t truly come to life; their state seemed somewhere between death and life, somewhat like the corpses controlled by Phantom Mushrooms that He Ao had encountered before.

At the center of the murals is the original figure, who seemingly in no conflict with these living dead but continues with his followers, avoiding them as he moves forward.

The scenes on the murals change, depicting wastelands, the Gobi Desert, and oceans, each infested densely with the same living dead.

These living dead move in some twisted manner, and even fighting scenes appear in the murals.

The mural scenes then jump further, even depicting ’Starry Sky.’

The figure and his followers traverse the Starry Sky, moving from one planet to another, yet living dead trace their paths wherever they go.

Ultimately, the figure seems to abandon migration, choosing instead to ignite flames with his followers to destroy the bodies of the living dead thoroughly.

Initially, this destruction proved effective, swiftly eradicating the living dead depicted across the mural panels.

But ultimately, the figure’s followers began to die one after another, transforming into living dead themselves.

The figure had no choice but to burn his own followers one by one, until eventually, he was alone once more.

Afterward, he did not attempt to burn the living dead, but continued crossing the Starry Sky universe, seemingly searching for something.

Eventually, he discovered a tall mountain, below which lay an expanse of living dead.

After enduring numerous trials and tribulations, the figure reaches the mountain peak and proceeds down a passage into the mountain’s depths.

The mural does not depict what the figure does inside the mountain, only illustrating his emergence, as he gazes at the multitude of living dead below, setting himself ablaze.

As he burns, the mural’s sky and earth appear to tear, his body turning to ashes and merging with the ground below.

The earth beneath the mountain sinks rapidly, gradually obscured by mist and darkness, as some invisible force envelops the area.

Subsequent strokes of the mural no longer mention the figure, but depict living dead falling to the ground, while in the dark world, an indistinct shadow emerges.

The final mural shows the towering mountain, inverted against the sky like an upside-down triangle, with an eye carved on the mountain, gazing downward at the misty world below.

In the instant He Ao gazed at the eye, an overwhelming and magnificent gaze seemed to pierce through thick ground and countless spaces, looking at him.

A terrifying pressure spread over the vast church, causing the flames on the white candles to flicker intensely.

Like humble servants, surrendering to their Divine Being.

He Ao quietly gazed at the eye, feeling his figure rapidly sinking, the bright hall around him dimming swiftly.

An empty, cold breath like the chill wind of a night quickly invaded his flesh.

In front of him, the majestic mural rapidly outlined the inverted mountain’s grand shape.

He Ao wanted to turn away, but found the surrounding cold breath like a giant hand firmly pressing against his skull, preventing him from moving an inch.

The surrounding spacetime seemed to distance itself at this moment, dense illusory images walked into view beside He Ao.

On the mountain above, the immense eye carved into the mountain slowly rotated, casting its gaze upon him.

Bang—

Purple-gray brilliance ignited instantaneously in He Ao’s pupils, surging power dominated his body and Soul, accompanied by splattering blood, he abruptly pulled his gaze away.

Crimson color filled his field of view in an instant, the illusory mountain and the vast church hall overlapped, and where they merged, a faintly purple flashing Illusion Badge appeared at the church’s deepest part.

In that moment, He Ao’s vision turned pitch black; he briefly lost his sight.

Together with Super Memory and Divine Sense, his perception seemed entirely obscured in that split second.

Boom—

Just then, some deafening sound resonated in his ears, as if a tall building was collapsing.

He raised his hand; the Illusion Badge in his fiery grip shot slender flame threads towards a point in the sky.

Simultaneously, He Ao felt his body slipping downward, as if the ground beneath him was plummeting.

He Ao raised his hand, tugging on the flame threads; at this moment, he couldn’t be sure if his flames had secured the target, so he followed his memory direction, retreating swiftly toward the door.

Boom—

The rumbling collapsing giant stones seemed to graze past him, flinging into the unknown depths below, his ground also crumbled at an accelerating speed.

The faint crimson reappeared in He Ao’s field of view, amidst it, he glimpsed blurred falling white bone fragments from the sky, cutting past his cheek with a boulder-like tempest.

That mural wall, originally painted with scenes, also rapidly crumbled, and behind all the murals, an enormous line of text began peeling away.

That text, somewhat similar to the stele text He Ao had seen on the road, carried a cold breath; in the first moment of sight, one could grasp its meaning.

’The God sacrificed itself, creating eternal Netherworld, thus granting the worldly deceased a resting place.’

Bang—

He Ao landed abruptly at the crumbling gate’s edge, jumped out and landed on the square outside the church.

He raised his head, gazing through the crimson vision at his surroundings.

Not only was the immense White Bone Throne Church collapsing, but the path he came from also started disintegrating swiftly.

Dense darkness began rapidly swallowing everything around.

He immediately took steps, rushing toward the incoming path, following the still intact paths, continuing to charge forth.

The surrounding darkness grew ever denser; within it, a clear and resonant song arose.

The singing grew increasingly bright.

He Ao traversed most of the path, arriving at the beginning of the fork, where the stele stood right in front of him, and the small path beneath the stele was already clearly visible.

But here, the road ahead had completely collapsed, leaving only a deep dark void.

The singing in the darkness had become increasingly clear and bright, while the path beneath his feet was rapidly collapsing.

At this moment, though he still stood in front of the stele, he seemed closer to the Netherworld than the stele’s position.

He Ao raised his hand, glanced at the broken road ahead, which appeared to be only about two meters long, seemingly jumpable, but the surroundings were already completely shrouded in darkness.

He Ao had a vague premonition in his heart that a direct jump would not succeed.

Then he lowered his head and took a look at his palm.

At this moment in his palm, besides that Illusion Badge, there was another badge.

This badge was different from the Illusion Badge; it was solid, roughly triangular, with a wooden texture and covered with a faint purple sheen, with an eye faintly outlined within the triangle.

A certain coldness constantly emerged from this badge, seemingly linked to death.

Dense fiery threads were winding around the triangular badge, carrying a hint of warm Qi.

This was the badge he had just seen in the collapsed church amidst the overlap of virtual and reality.

He had successfully wrapped this badge up and absorbed it into his hand.

Then he raised his head again, gazing at the pitch-black broken road ahead.

He lifted his hand, threw out the fiery thread, winding it forward to snare the stele.

But the fiery thread touched the stele and directly passed through it, arriving beyond the stele.

When He Ao pulled back, the fiery thread beyond the stele had vanished, completely severed, leaving only the part in front of the stele.

The fork beneath his feet further collapsed, the surrounding singing grew even brighter, accompanied by turbulent water sounds pressing urgently in He Ao’s ears.

He Ao glanced again at the triangular badge in his hand, wrapped it with fiery thread, and threw it forward.

The badge passed by the stele, entered behind it, then after a brief pause, wrapped around the stele, bringing with it a glowing fiery thread.

He Ao exhaled in relief; at this moment, the path beneath his feet had only one last stone left.

He stood on this stone, leapt forward, traversing the darkness ahead.

But in that instant, a huge force came from beneath him, dragging his soul, and consequently pulled his body along with it.

He never felt his soul so heavy, as if tied to a boulder, plummeting into the darkness below.

His body directly fell and completely descended into the darkness.

In that hazy darkness, a towering inverted mountain gradually emerged, with a giant eye embedded within, faintly visible.

Bang—

At that moment, the fiery thread in his hand suddenly snapped tight, snagging his body, suspending him at the edge of the path.

He grabbed the fiery thread, quickly climbed up, and flipped onto the path above.

He took a heavy breath, lowered his head, and glanced at the darkness below.

The dense darkness again filled the surrounding space, and on that inverted mountain, a giant eyeball slowly rotated upward, seeming to gaze at He Ao beside the path.

An icy cold emerged beside He Ao.

Finally, the mountain and eye vanished into the darkness, completely subsiding.

He Ao sat on the path, exhaled a long breath, looked down and noticed fresh blood seeping from his hand.

The crimson remained in his eyes, casting a haze over all his vision.

He shifted his gaze to the fiery thread and the triangular badge hanging on the stele.

He raised his hand, tried to pull, but found the fiery thread tightly wound around the stele.

He walked to the stele, glanced at the text on it, reached out, and took down the triangular badge.

The fiery thread entwined with the stele instantly was washed away by some invisible force and disappeared in the dim void.

He Ao lowered his head and looked at the triangular badge in his hand; the eye in the badge still maintained its original state.

He wasn’t sure what this badge was for, but it seemed to grant him the possibility to interact with objects in the Netherworld.

He turned back to look at the darkness behind, where the enormous White Bone Throne Church had completely collapsed, disappearing into the darkness.

Perhaps, this triangular badge relates to why this church can exist in the rift above the Netherworld.

He stored the triangular badge away, put it in his pocket, turned around, and looked at the path he came from.

During the collapse, he had roughly surveyed the church’s structure; the enormous White Bone Throne Church indeed was deserted, not even a lingering soul.

If this truly was the Church of the Grim Reaper’s headquarters, where had the cultists who should be here gone?

It seems the Church of the Grim Reaper is preparing for something big.

Retracting his gaze, He Ao stepped forward, slowly heading back along the path he came from.

Shortly after he left, the stele engraved with special text flickered, accompanied by the clear sound of flowing water from behind.

Faint darkness surged from the road behind, engulfing the stele and the road before it.

——

Bright lights illuminated the clean living room; a skinny man in a pristine white robe, his skin showing a sickly pallor, sat on the sofa, hands clasped to his forehead, head bowed.

His expression was reverent, pupils taut, body tense and uncontrollable.

"Your Excellency, what’s wrong?"

A shadow beside him watched the man’s movements and asked softly.

"I am listening," the man said with his head bowed, barely opening his mouth, a raspy, torn voice like a damaged vocal cord emerged from his throat, "to the Lord’s inquiry."