Beating Instances through Words Left by the Dead

Chapter 368: Chapter 207: Desire Stone and Human Stake (3)

”Then, we were trapped in this Divine Temple. We don’t know how long we were trapped, it felt like a week, or perhaps a month; time lost its meaning here, and just when we were barely holding on, we stumbled upon this room.”

He Yun pointed to the hieroglyphs on the wall near their room door, saying:

”This is the House of Sacrifice.”

”During the time we were trapped in the Divine Temple, I attempted to decipher these hieroglyphs and learned from the records in many corners of the rooms about the past of this Divine Temple.”

As He Yun narrated, Wu Chang came to understand the past of the Stone Divine Hall.

The god worshipped in the Stone Divine Hall is called the God of Desire, and initially, when He was discovered, His Divine Power was not strong, and He was quite easy-going.

As long as enough grains were offered to Him, He could use His Divine Power to summon herds of beasts for people to hunt.

If offered delicious fruit, He would grant His followers fragrant wine.

As long as the desires of the God were satisfied, He would bestow Divine Grace upon believers and fulfill the wishes of those who presented sacrificies.

This reward was often tenfold or a hundredfold the offering.

With material prosperity, humanity’s desire continuously bred, shifting from initially satisfying hunger to yearning for gold and gems, for more wisdom and martial prowess, and even for more land and power.

Human desires grew rapidly, yet the desires of the God of Desire grew faster.

From craving gold and gems, the God of Desire began yearning for human souls.

If unsatisfied, He would manipulate people’s desires, manifesting them into monsters that destroyed everything He had previously granted.

To appease the God and receive more divine gifts, people had to offer sufficient souls to the God during all significant events, whether they had wishes or not.

For self-consolation, people could only say that those chosen as sacrifices, after death, their soul would enter the God’s Divine Kingdom, transforming into a guardian deity to shelter others.

They referred to these sacrifices as Human Stakes.

But with time passing, the picky demands of the God of Desire for sacrifices had surpassed people’s understanding.

Requirements began straying from specific attributes like gender, age, complexion, hair color, and birth date, becoming abstract demands such as ”souls glowing with light” or ”naturally adored by others.”

If unsatisfied, the old rule applied, release the monster.

The believers, tormented a few times, in the clash between satisfying God’s desires and striving to maintain societal operation, chose to find ways to kill the God of Desire.

So, once again when the God of Desire made demands, the believers went through countless hardships, and finally managed to find two qualified Human Stakes.

As Human Stakes, before dying, they would receive the God of Desire’s grace. The God of Desire would give them the Desire Stones, letting them each write one wish on the Desire Stele.

Any wish inscribed on the Stele, the God of Desire would fulfill; this was a divine pact signed with believers when the God was still weak.

Hence, carrying their mission, the two Human Stakes wrote down their wishes.

Their wish was to seal the God of Desire and let the Divine Temple sink underground, never to see daylight again.

Bound by the divine pact, the God of Desire could only seal Himself in shock and anger.

Wu Chang questioned, ”These followers of the God of Desire even inscribed their plot to murder the God within the Divine Hall?”

He Yun shook his head, saying, ”They didn’t inscribe everything; I deduced the conclusion by piecing together scattered complaints, numerous disaster records inside the Divine Hall, and the last two wishes on the Desire Stele.”

Wu Chang exhaled, thinking, engraving the assassination plan after breaking it down inside the Divine Hall of the God, this move was ruthlessly strategic; if it were true, compared to Lv Bu and this group of believers, they would be considered respectful offspring.

Having listened to He Yun this much, Wu Chang had already sensed what He Yun wanted to convey.

He asked, ”So, you used the Desire Stones to escape from this Stone Divine Hall?”

He Yun took out a pendant, gazing at the Desire Stone inside, his expression complex.

”We took the Desire Stone, and before following the memory to find the Desire Stele, we found the vanished entrance of the Divine Temple reappeared in front of us. Thinking back, from being trapped in the Stone Divine Hall onwards, we had already fallen into the God of Desire’s trap.”

Wu Chang asked accordingly, ”What did you do with the Desire Stone after you went out?”

He Yun paused for a moment, his tone a bit bitter, ”I discovered it could manipulate the Energy inside the Energy Mine, and even somewhat control the Calamity Fog, so I choose to pour all my Power into researching it.”

Wu Chang inhaled sharply, thinking to himself, you really aren’t afraid, deciphering information so skillfully, but when put into action, why not heed the lessons learned?

It seems the only lesson humanity learns from history is that humanity is unable to learn any lessons from history.

Feeling Wu Chang’s gaze, He Yun knew what he intended to say, and defended:

”Our circumstances at the time didn’t allow us to choose. The Energy at the mine wasn’t infinite; perhaps researching the Desire Stone would mean repeating history, eventually leading to destruction, but without studying it, the Underground Shelter would collapse within months.”

He Yun sighed, bringing the topic back.

”My memories of the Stone Divine Hall are quite blurry, but I somewhat remember the memories regarding the Human Stake and the Desire Stone. Previously when I said I was acting with the worst-case scenario in mind, the so-called worst-case scenario is to become the Human Stake myself and use myself to seal this Divine Temple.”

He Yun seems to remember something, his voice trembling as he spoke:

”But I’m acutely aware that my brother and I initially each took a Desire Stone; after taking the Desire Stones, the Human Stake in the Stone Coffin turned to ashes, both Stone Coffins should be empty then, so why is there one more Human Stake now?”