The sound of the white-robed man’s heavy breaths echoed in the silent space of the hall.
Despite the deep wounds covering his entire body, he still stared at Lian and Kain with that same hate-filled gaze.
No fear could be seen in his eyes, only hatred, unlike the mage who was clearly a coward, this one seemed to have no fear of death.
His fanaticism and faith in his goddess had reached a level that made the concept of death meaningless to him.
"What is your name?"
"Heretic." The man said with hatred.
"Where did you come from?" Lian did not frown, in interrogation and asking questions, one of the most important factors is patience, and he was a relatively patient person.
"Unclean."
"Where did you come from? Where is your land?"
"Death to you."
A few seconds of silence followed.
"I don’t think he will talk..." Kain whispered quietly under his breath, anyone could tell that this one was not the type to talk, and they were just wasting time.
"Then you chose the hard way." Lian let out a long sigh, his patience had run out.
The next moment...
His fist landed directly on the man’s face, the sound of breaking nasal bones echoed throughout the hall.
Before the man even had a chance to groan, the second fist hit his jaw.
Then the third.
Fourth.
The fifth strike dragged him several meters on the ground, Lian had not even used Thunder Calamity.
All these strikes were delivered with pure physical strength alone, each strike was like being hit by a steel hammer.
The man’s face quickly swelled, his lips were torn, one of his teeth fell to the ground, and his right eye was almost closed.
But Lian still did not stop, another strike hit his stomach, the air inside the man’s lungs was expelled all at once, and his body curled up like a shrimp on the ground.
Kain even unconsciously turned his gaze away from the scene, he had seen his friend fight just a moment ago, and had seen how ruthless he could be.
But this was the first time he saw his friend deliberately beat someone this badly to get information.
This was on a different level of cruelty.
A few minutes later...
It was hard to even recognize the man’s face anymore, his face was so swollen that he really looked like a pig that had fallen into the hands of a group of hunters.
Lian bent down, grabbed the collar of his white and gold armor, his voice remained calm.
"Now... let’s try again."
This time...
The man did not stay silent, no one would dare to stay silent after all that beating.
"...We..." He coughed several times, blood came out from the corner of his lips.
"We came from the third region..."
"Third region?" Lian raised an eyebrow, the man nodded with difficulty.
"One... of the seven human regions..."
Kain looked at Lian in surprise, but Lian’s own face was calm.
Seven regions, so Dreadmaw’s words were true, the native humans of this world were still alive, at least a significant number of them.
Not just alive, but they had civilization, they had government, and they had maintained their own territories.
"Are all those seven regions still standing?" Lian asked quietly.
"Yeah... each region... is under the protection of a Divine..."
Lian was silent for a moment, the same old mystery appeared before his eyes again, in the previous nine Ruined Realms, these same names existed.
The Divines, or the gods.
But no one knew what those beings really were.
The man continued.
"We... are followers of the Divine of Light..."
A kind of pride suddenly appeared in his wounded eyes, as if for him, his goddess was above any pain and suffering, above his life and death.
"Light... is the beginning of everything, she is our way, she protects us."
Lian calmly looked around the hall, the massive statues, the magnificent pillars, the symbols of light, and everything suddenly found new meaning.
"So this was the temple of the Divine of Light?"
The man nodded with pride.
"The first and most sacred, all the later temples were built based on this one."
"If it was this sacred, then why did you abandon it?" Lian asked again.
This time the man almost shouted.
"We did not abandon it!" His voice was full of anger, "The tears of the Divine were not yet complete... for hundreds of years... it had to gather energy..."
"We were just waiting." His gaze suddenly fixed on Kain, deep hatred surged in his eyes, if a look could kill, Kain would have died thousands of times by now.
"When we arrived... everything was gone, the spring was destroyed, it is all this heretic’s fault."
No sign of guilt or remorse could be seen on Kain’s face, why should he feel such feelings? He was just lucky enough to get this opportunity first.
If it was really that important to them, they could have just come here sooner.
"What should we do with him now?" After a few minutes of silence, Kain asked quietly.
Lian thought for a few moments.
"I don’t know for now, but his information is very valuable, it is better to hand him over to the government or the federation, killing him now has no benefit."
Kain came a little closer and lowered his voice.
"But... what if my secret gets out?"
Lian gave a faint smile.
"Relax, he doesn’t even understand what a class is, it is unlikely he knows anything about class upgrades or your race, and if the government asks you... just say that spring made your stats multiply several times."
"That’s it, you don’t need to say anything about the rest."
"Okay..." Kain breathed a sigh of relief, even though he trusted Lian enough to tell him the truth, he had no plan to tell the federation the truth.
But suddenly he frowned... could he hide this truth forever? The gap between a three-star and four-star class was large.
Sooner or later, everyone would find out.
He sighed and decided to think about it later.
Before leaving the ruin, Lian took out the book of treasure again.
The golden points were still shining on the map, this time he was in no hurry, the first point was behind one of the massive statues.
After moving a few stones, a metal box appeared.
Inside it were several crystals.
The second point was under the stone floor of one of the rooms, a few sealed scrolls, and the third point was inside a hidden wall, a black metal cube.
Then a few other objects, he put them all into his storage space without examining them.
Now was not the time for curiosity, first they had to get out of here and return to the base as soon as possible.
When they reached the exit gate... the door was still closed.
"Why is it closed?" Lian looked at the prisoner, when he had come, this door was completely open, so it being closed could only mean one thing.
"We closed it, we did not want two barbarian heretics to escape." The man answered with the same hatred.
"I understand heretic, but barbarian?" Lian paused on one word.
The man spat a bloody tooth from his mouth with difficulty.
"You are those outsiders... who fell from the sky a few weeks ago, the ones who killed our people, only barbarians do that."
Lian was silent for a moment, twenty-five thousand victims, on the first day this realm opened, they were summoned here.
If even a small percentage of them encountered the native people... conflict would have definitely occurred.
And probably some of the natives had been killed, and from these people’s perspective... the awakened ones from Earth were invaders who had suddenly descended from the sky and massacred their people.
Lian looked at the man again.
"Open the gate."
"Never." The man laughed.
Lian stepped forward, his eyes completely calm.
"Either you open it yourself, or we start the interrogation all over again."
The color drained from the man’s face, he resisted for a few seconds, but in the end he broke, with a trembling hand, he touched several ancient symbols on the wall.
The entire ruin began to shake, the sound of massive stones colliding echoed through the corridors, and the gate slowly opened.
Sunlight shone into the temple again after several days.
Lian looked at the sky for a moment and took a deep breath.
"We have to get back as soon as possible, the base is still under siege, and they might need our help now more than ever."
Kain also nodded, he had heard the situation from Lian and knew what was happening.
They just hoped the base had not fallen during this time...