The bloody heart of the Church of Pestilence's leader fell to the ground. All the other blind followers were about to follow suit and kill themselves, but Lin Jie sighed and took control of their thoughts.
"Where is Doris?" Lin Jie didn't bother with these cultists and instead asked the elves that had been released.
One elderly elf answered, "The door between the dream realm and the real world has been opened. Miss Doris has gone to see Lady Silver and you, Boss Lin."
Lin Jie nodded. Doris had indeed said that she would come to see him. But looking at the current state of things... She had probably just missed him.
"You all should leave," Lin Jie said. The elves hesitated to speak and ultimately kneeled to pay respects to Lin Jie before helping each other and heading along the path toward the Upper District.
At this time, many more miners attracted by the commotion had begun to appear in the tunnel, observing Lin Jie fearfully from the shadows.
The Church of Pestilence was an existence that couldn't be ignored in the underground. Even the Upper District accepted their presence, and thus many people here had heard of the Church of Pestilence's teachings.
When the god beneath the ground awakens, everything in the human world will be destroyed.
And having been heavily contaminated by the evil god, their connection with Lin Jie was even greater, and they had a sense of natural closeness and reverence for him.
Lin Jie lifted his hand and gently brushed aside Red's hair that was caked with blood. Invisible power gathered, healing her wounds and restoring life into her.
Even though the power of life and death were within Lin Jie's control and he was practically omnipotent, all of this power was like a monster that wrapped around Lin Jie and would change him.
Color returned to the girl's face and she coughed violently. Tears flowed freely from her tightly shut eyes, perhaps because they had been denied by her death. Then Red's eyes opened slowly, and Lin Jie's calm face came into view.
"...B-Boss, Lin?" Red said weakly.
From her memory, ever since the first time she had met Lin Jie, Lin Jie had always been expressionless as if the end of the world was upon them, or as if he had seen through it all, and was always observing everything with indifference.
But now, Lin Jie's gaze was gentle and concerned, like the way Red's own grandmother would look at her when she was sick, though it was not quite the same.
However, Lin Jie's arm tightly supporting her neck was no different from the warm, loving hands of her grandmother in her memories. The same gentle stroking of her forehead when she was delirious as if those hands full of love could cure all maladies.
At that moment, Red's warmest memories became that of both Lin Jie and her grandmother.
"Am I dead, Boss Lin?" Red asked hoarsely.
Lin Jie's slightly furrowed brows eased and he smiled. "No, I resurrected you."
"...So you can really bring people back to life, haa..." Red managed to force a weak smile.
"It's because I'm a god," said Lin Jie in full seriousness.
Red was taken aback for a moment, then shook her head. "You're just like Grandma, someone who loves me and treats me like a child."
"From now on, you are no longer a child," Lin Jie said gently, helping her up as the girl's stiff limbs nearly caused her to stumble.
Red looked at the crowd surrounding them, then staggered forward and stared at everyone in a daze.
Lin Jie caught hold of Red's hand and brought her before the Church of Pestilence's members. "Your leader is dead. From now on, Red will be the new leader of the Church of Pestilence."
Just as the Ash Chamber of Commerce was going to compete with the Rolle Resources, once the Upper and Lower Districts were connected, the Church of the Pestilence would have to coexist with the Sun's Faith. Otherwise, the Sun's Faith might one day become the next Church of the Dome.
Everyone exchanged looks of disbelief. The one lying on the ground was their leader, but before them was the true god.
"I..." Red opened her mouth, wanting to say something.
Lin Jie didn't wait for anyone to react, nor did he let Red speak as he pulled her along and headed to the well which they had used to head further underground. Now, the well opening was filled with gray fog.
Lin Jie turned to Red and said, "Even children will grow up some day and not all adults are bad people. It's also because there are so many bad adults so Red wants to become a good adult and help others become good."
Red stared wide-eyed at the smiling Lin Jie.
"People will always grow up. This is something inevitable, just like how I must return home."
"Does Boss Lin not want to return home?" Red realized something was off with Lin Jie and tugged his hand urgently.
Lin Jie smiled and answered truthfully, "I don't want to, even though I've spent much more time 'there' than 'here'... But the word 'home' really matters to a person's identity."
Earth to Norzin, just a short 30 years of human life... It's really a drop in the ocean, compared to endless time... Lin Jie mused as he stared at the well opening filled with gray fog. "You have made me understand a lot, such as the dreams of humans like you have."
Thinking that he probably wouldn't ever return, Lin Jie told Red everything about himself, including the fact that if he returned to that god body, he wouldn't be Lin Jie anymore.
"I am that god. I killed my parents in the other world, their friends... Because of my books and my blind instincts, I caused the sacrifice of countless. Because of the existence of my original body, the whole Lower District was contaminated.
"I don't like this, but these are all facts," sighed Lin Jie. "If I accept this my identity as a god, how should I bear the mistakes I have made?
"All of this causes my human self-reproach to press tightly on me, but they become another voice in my heart that tells me that I am a god; that I don't have to sympathize with anyone, that I can control life and death, that I can manipulate everything, and that I can have whatever I want...
"These voices helped me step out of my self-reproach, but they also gradually made me drift away from the self that I liked."
As Lin Jie spoke, he smiled bitterly, then squatted down to pat Red's head. "I'm sorry for telling you all this and not treating you as a child."
"...I'm no longer a child anymore, Boss Lin. You said so," Red suddenly interrupted, hands on hips. "But regardless of if I'm a child or not, I know one thing."
Red lifted her hands to hold Lin Jie's face, pressed her forehead against his, and gently closed her eyes. "Because I know—
"Boss Lin is a savior."
Lin Jie's dark abyss-like eyes suddenly lit up.
"You are the savior from the books that I've heard about. It's because of your sacrifice that I have the opportunity to realize my dream," Red said as tears streamed down her cheeks once again. "It's also because once you become that unconscious will of the evil god, 'He' will stop the contamination.
"You are Boss Lin. Not an evil god, but a savior."
Lin Jie gazed at Red, observing her rosy cheeks and sparkling eyes, and suddenly seemed to understand something.
"You're right. It's such a simple thing, yet I couldn't understand it," Lin Jie revealed a gentle smile and said, "Red, please remember... that there was once a Boss Lin who loved to sell books. Kind-hearted and always eager to help others, this was the sort of person he was... So, he was loved by many people."
Red nodded her head vigorously, at the same time feeling Lin Jie's touch gradually becoming corporeal. She anxiously reached out to hold him, but realized that Lin Jie had completely turned into fog.
"Boss Lin!" she shouted, but the gray fog filling the entire underground had started to gradually shrink, quickly converging and retracting through the hole beside Red.
The gray fog that had existed in the underground for thousands of years finally dissipated, like the clear after a storm, and the contamination ceased at this moment.
The scaly skin on Red's body gradually began to peel off, and the tentacles on her chin began to slowly retract back into her skin, revealing the appearance of a chubby little girl with fair and rosy skin.
Her red eyes witnessed that the contamination had started to stop for the people around her. They were jubilant, dancing and rejoicing at their rebirth.
But Red couldn't see herself, and she couldn't feel happy. With her vision blurred by tears, she just stared at the abyss that Lin Jie had entered.
There was hell where the savior that changed everything had stepped into.
——
Having arrived at the depths of the underground, Lin Jie emerged from the gray fog. His black cloak, like the robe of a pilgrim, spread out from the ground as the strong reeking stench of blood hit his nose. The nest of the evil god, constructed of flesh and blood, spread across the entire underground palace.
And right in the center of the palace of flesh and blood was a throne full of bloody vessels. This was the divine seat that had been prepared for him for several thousands of years.
"Boss Lin!!!"
A familiar voice rang out from above, and Red, who had already recovered from the gray fog's corruption and regained her appearance as a young girl, was calling his name—
"Boss Lin! You aren't an evil god. You are my and everyone's savior!!!"
She kept shouting nonstop, till her voice became hoarse and she could no longer speak.
Lin Jie listened to her voice as he slowly trudged toward the divine throne, like a prodigal son returning home after many years, and also like a martyr with the mindset of 'If I don't go to hell, who will?'
He sat down and sank into a peaceful, deep sleep.