Free Web NovelLiu Huai was dead.
But before dying, he had managed to restrain Miao Gaojiang—that rampaging monster—for one minute.
Bai Liu stared at Liu Huai’s corpse, dazed for only an instant before quickly regaining his composure. He stepped forward, grabbed the motionless Liu Jiayi, and began dragging her toward the church.
Miao Feichi wanted to run as well, but what pushed him even closer to collapse was the fact that his children’s blood was still on Liu Jiayi.
But Liu Jiayi lay right beside the zombie monster Miao Gaojiang had turned into. He simply didn’t dare rush over and snatch the blood away.
Miao Feichi gritted his teeth. After a moment of hesitation, he turned without a word and ran into the church.
He was going to catch Xiao Miao Gaojiang.
That child shared his bloodline too, so his blood would work as well.
He was still missing the blood of one child.
Miao Feichi looked toward Big and Little Mu Ke behind the baptismal pool, his bloodshot eyes twitching faintly.
Liu Jiayi gave no reaction as Bai Liu dragged her away.
The little girl simply knelt there, soul-stricken with grief, cradling Liu Huai’s corpse. Beside her, the zombie stared at her with bulging eyes and had already begun to twitch weakly.
But Liu Jiayi acted as though she hadn’t seen it.
She held Liu Huai’s head in a daze, murmuring to herself, “Right... I can resurrect Ge. I can. As long as I have enough points, I can...”
“You can’t resurrect Liu Huai,” Bai Liu interrupted flatly. “His soul is with me.”
Liu Jiayi froze.
Then, with a speed invisible to the naked eye, she lunged up and grabbed Bai Liu by the throat. Her hands twisted violently as she slammed him to the ground with brutal force.
This Nightmare Rising Star finally revealed her danger.
Tear tracks streaked across Liu Jiayi’s face, making her look almost demonic. With her thin limbs, she locked both hands around Bai Liu’s neck and screamed at the top of her lungs:
“Give me Liu Huai’s soul!! Or I’ll kill you!!”
Bai Liu coughed from the pressure on his throat, but his expression remained calm. His voice was slightly hoarse as he said, “...Even if you resurrect him like this, would he really want to live?”
“He chose to die for you.”
“In the plan I arranged, he could have survived.”
Liu Jiayi’s breath caught.
She remembered Liu Huai’s exhausted yet relieved tone before his death, the way he had entrusted everything to Bai Liu.
Her grip on Bai Liu’s neck loosened involuntarily.
Bai Liu immediately seized her wrist and dragged her toward the church without looking back.
Liu Jiayi stumbled after him in a daze. She had drained her stamina through her skills and had no strength left. After only a few steps, she collapsed to her knees.
Bai Liu turned and hoisted her over his shoulder.
As he ran, he coughed and glanced at Liu Jiayi, who still seemed unable to process the fact that Bai Liu was saving her. His tone remained indifferent.
“Liu Huai told me to get you out of this game no matter what.”
“Not just this welfare home. The entire game.”
“Perhaps by then, he’ll be willing to let you resurrect him.”
Liu Jiayi’s eyes stung, but she quickly refuted him. “There’s no way I can survive. The monster Miao Gaojiang mutated into is an S-rank monster from a Level 3 dungeon. Its defense is over ten thousand.”
“When I raided with the King’s Guild as healing support, it took more than a dozen highly coordinated A+ players to defeat one while I controlled their health lines.”
“How are we supposed to fight it?”
Bai Liu’s tone was very calm.
“I have a way.”
The moment Bai Liu said this, the zombie that Liu Huai’s suicide attack had paralyzed for one minute and fifteen seconds finally moved again.
It opened its black lips, revealing long fangs, and began hopping toward Liu Jiayi.
It did not hop quickly, but each leap covered an extremely wide distance. In only a few bounds, it landed in front of the church doors.
However, it did not attack Bai Liu or Liu Jiayi, who were running ahead.
Instead, it jumped straight over their heads and headed toward the side door.
Miao Feichi, who had been pressed against the church’s side door and was preparing to circle around and ambush Mu Ke and the others, saw the zombie hopping toward him and couldn’t help cursing.
He hurriedly swung his blades and dodged.
The Crescent Moon Twin Blades, which possessed extremely high damage, struck the zombie’s outer skin as if hitting an impossibly thick layer of leather. They didn’t leave even a single mark.
Miao Feichi activated his movement speed, trying to escape.
But the zombie Miao Gaojiang had become seemed terrifyingly familiar with Miao Feichi’s attack patterns and escape habits. Miao Feichi tried to break away several times, but each attempt failed. Instead, the zombie pinned him down in front of the church.
Sweat gathered on Miao Feichi’s forehead as he swung his twin blades nonstop.
At last, forced into a dead end, he used his ultimate skill—the Wraith Twin Blades burst skill.
But because of his physical limitations, Miao Feichi could only maintain this skill for one minute.
Wraiths rose from the twin blades in Miao Feichi’s hands, and the smell of blood filled the space before the church.
His blades pushed, pulled, and slashed horizontally. In the night, continuous sheets of snow-white blade light flashed and intertwined.
This skill could indeed injure Miao Gaojiang.
But Miao Feichi’s face grew paler and paler.
Because Miao Gaojiang could injure him too.
[System Notification: Carrion Zombie has bitten player Miao Feichi’s shoulder. Player Miao Feichi HP -2.]
[System Notification: Player Miao Feichi used personal skill (Wraith Twin Blades) and landed a critical hit, dealing 3 HP damage to Carrion Zombie.]
[System Notification: ...]
Miao Feichi bared his teeth, trying to force his way through.
But his one-minute critical-hit skill was about to end.
Driven to desperation, Miao Feichi used his final critical strike. But just as his blade rose halfway, a deformed child monster suddenly pounced onto his back.
No one knew where this little monster had sprung from. It clung to Miao Feichi’s neck from behind, babbling noisily.
Miao Feichi cursed, calling it a “damn little ghost,” and was about to turn and stab it to death.
Then his pupils suddenly shrank as he saw the little monster’s face.
He recognized that face.
This was a child he had kidnapped before entering the game.
The child whose fingers he had cut off and eaten.
If Mu Ke had been here, he would have discovered in shock that this child was the same deformed child in the elevator who had warned him not to go upstairs.
The little monster giggled and shouted, clapping its hands as it hugged Miao Feichi’s neck.
“Fingers! Fingers! Uncle likes eating my fingers!”
Its hands had no fingers.
The word “fingers” made the fully zombified Miao Gaojiang freeze for an instant.
This had once been the secret code Miao Feichi and Miao Gaojiang used to identify each other in this game, where all Investor players looked the same.
The zombie rolled its clouded eyes and leaned closer to look at Miao Feichi, hissing hoarsely:
“...Feichi likes eating... fingers.”
It seemed to recognize the person before it as Miao Feichi.
Miao Feichi was just about to breathe a sigh of relief, thinking Miao Gaojiang had regained some trace of sanity, when Miao Gaojiang suddenly grabbed him by the neck.
The zombie stared wide-eyed at Miao Feichi, whom it had lifted into the air with one hand.
“...One day, you’ll eat my fingers too.”
Miao Feichi was suspended by the throat, both feet kicking in midair like a frog’s. He slashed desperately at Miao Gaojiang with his twin blades, but Miao Gaojiang showed no reaction at all.
The thumb crushing his throat sank deeper.
Soon, Miao Feichi’s eyes turned bloodshot. He could no longer breathe.
Looking into the soulless eyes of the zombie Miao Gaojiang had become, he finally understood why Miao Gaojiang had attacked him first.
He understood his father’s subconscious fear—
Miao Gaojiang was afraid that Feichi would eat him.
That was why his skill identity was an “undying zombie” whose flesh rotted away.
Miao Gaojiang’s palm tightened.
Miao Feichi’s body twitched once.
The twin blades slowly slipped from his hands, struck the ground, and dissolved into data light.
His pupils dilated. His mouth hung open. His head tilted against Miao Gaojiang’s hand.
He looked just like a child acting spoiled with his father.
[System Notification (To All Players): Player Miao Feichi’s HP has reached 0. Death confirmed. Exiting game.]
“Damn it!”
Mu Ke watched as Miao Feichi—who had been cutting through this dungeon like slicing melons—was killed by Miao Gaojiang in a single minute.
Cold sweat broke out across Mu Ke’s back as he shoved desperately at the tunnel entrance.
“Why won’t the tunnel open?!”
Bai Liu glanced at the crack in the door.
“Someone is bracing it from the inside.”
Inside the tunnel, Xiao Miao Gaojiang was drenched in sweat as he used all his strength to hold the door shut. He had even dragged over wooden blocks he found in the church and wedged them against it.
He was doing everything possible to keep the people outside from coming in.
He swallowed nervously.
That Investor really had turned into a monster!
Earlier, he had used the baptismal pool basin and several chairs to weigh down the tunnel exit beneath the divine statue where the monster children were. But the basin had just been pushed aside by Mu Ke.
He hadn’t expected there to be another obstruction from inside.
After killing Miao Feichi, Miao Gaojiang turned his head.
His gaze landed on Mu Ke and Bai Liu’s group.
Mu Ke’s scalp went numb as he stood in front of Bai Liu, Xiao Mu Ke, and Liu Jiayi.
He glanced at his system panel, took a deep breath, and looked toward this S-rank monster—the Carrion Zombie.
[System Notification: Congratulations to player Mu Ke for obtaining skill identity (Glory-bound Brave Assassin). You have obtained the skill-derived weapon (Dagger of Light and Shadow).]
[System Notification: Does player Mu Ke wish to use the skill-derived weapon?]
Mu Ke exhaled.
[Yes.]
Liu Jiayi’s face was covered in tears. She looked expressionlessly at Bai Liu, who was still struggling with the door.
“Give up. There’s no way. We’re all going to die...”
Before she could finish, Mu Ke suddenly stepped forward and blocked her.
He flicked both hands downward.
A pair of daggers appeared in his grip.
It was a movement Liu Jiayi found hauntingly familiar.
Her breath caught, and every word she had been about to say stopped in her throat.
“Liu Huai gave his own skill to someone else just to protect you,” Bai Liu said while still struggling against Xiao Miao Gaojiang inside the door. He did not look back, his voice strained from the effort of pushing. “He didn’t do that so you could throw your life away, Liu Jiayi.”
“Are you going to waste your Gege’s final wish like this?”
[System Notification: Does player Mu Ke wish to activate critical-hit skill (Flicker Strike)? Because player Mu Ke has never used this skill before, activation will severely deplete your stamina bar. After use, symptoms such as physical collapse and inability to escape may occur. Do you wish to use it?]
Mu Ke looked back at Bai Liu behind him.
At the dazed Liu Jiayi.
At Xiao Mu Ke.
He tightened his grip around the twin daggers.
An unprecedented emotion made his heart pound wildly. Tears welled in his eyes. He bit his lip in fear.
But an even stronger emotion, an even stronger desire, pushed him one step forward.
[Use!]
Mu Ke sprang off the ground.
In Liu Jiayi’s thermal vision, he looked like a flame catching fire.
At that moment, the dead assassin seemed to have come back to life.
And this time, he was no longer a coward.
He was a brave assassin.
The instant Mu Ke charged forward, Liu Jiayi suddenly turned toward Bai Liu.
She lowered her head. Her expression could not be seen, but her tone was extremely cold.
“Move.”
Bai Liu raised an eyebrow and stepped aside.
Liu Jiayi reached out and pressed her hand against the tunnel door, then raised her eyes.
Although her eyes were red, her face was devoid of emotion.
[System, use item (Shackles). Target position: Xiao Miao Gaojiang inside the tunnel.]
[System Notification: Deploying (Shackles)... Deployment complete. Player Xiao Miao Gaojiang inside the tunnel has been restrained.]
Xiao Miao Gaojiang stared in horror at the shackles that had appeared out of thin air, locking his wrists and ankles so tightly he could not break free.
Mu Ke was swatted away by Miao Gaojiang and rolled several times across the ground.
He coughed up great mouthfuls of blood. The pain was already so severe that he could barely stand.
No matter how hard he tried, he could not pierce the skin of the zombie Miao Gaojiang had become, and therefore could not trigger the stun effect. The daggers felt blunt in his hands.
[System Warning: Player Mu Ke’s HP has dropped by 5 points. Current HP: 1! Warning! Please flee the dangerous area immediately!]
Mu Ke sprawled on the ground, struggling to crawl back up.
The world before his eyes seemed to sway.
He saw the zombie he had stalled for less than ten seconds hopping toward Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi.
No.
He couldn’t allow it.
If Liu Jiayi entered the church, it would be a safe zone for her.
But not for Bai Liu.
The moment that zombie touched Bai Liu, he would die.
Was there any way—
Any way at all—
To make this zombie stop?
To make it die?
To make it stop hurting people?
Mu Ke bared his teeth and fought to push himself up.
Then his gaze landed on the severely injured Liu Huai outside the church.
Looking at the wound in Liu Huai’s chest, Mu Ke suddenly froze.
That wound...
That was the wound Liu Huai had inflicted on himself to force a mental-value burst.
Bai Liu turned and drew his whip, calmly facing the approaching zombie.
But the zombie moved beyond Bai Liu’s expectations.
It jumped straight over him and attacked Liu Jiayi behind him.
At that moment, Liu Jiayi was gripping the shackles and pulling outward with all her strength.
Xiao Miao Gaojiang was still desperately pushing against her from inside, trying to stop himself from being dragged out, and had not yet entered the church.
Hearing the sound of the zombie leaping closer, Liu Jiayi turned her head.
The zombie’s black nails were already close enough to touch her forehead.
With just a little more distance, they would pierce straight through her.
Seeing this, Bai Liu’s pupils contracted.
The church did not permit the killing of children.
But the existence of a penalty for killing a child did not mean a child could not die.
Liu Jiayi was their only hope of clearing the game.
She absolutely could not die.
Bai Liu lashed out with his whip.
The whip wrapped around Liu Jiayi’s waist and pulled her into his arms at the last possible second.
Before Liu Jiayi could react to being dragged into Bai Liu’s embrace, Miao Gaojiang leaped toward Bai Liu again.
The zombie’s claw speed was terrifyingly fast. Its claws extended while it was still midair.
Bai Liu swung his whip to block, but the zombie caught it in one hand.
Its other hand lunged fiercely toward Liu Jiayi in Bai Liu’s arms.
Liu Jiayi smelled the thick metallic reek of blood on the zombie’s claws.
Mixed within it was Liu Huai’s blood.
And the signal of approaching death.
She closed her eyes in a daze, waiting for the same death as her Gege.
...I really did my best to live, Gege.
If you see me coming to find you...
Please don’t blame me.
Bai Liu turned without hesitation and pressed Liu Jiayi’s head against his chest.
He released his whip and switched to the Monkey’s Paw, his expression grave as he faced the zombie’s descending claws and shielded Liu Jiayi completely in his arms.
The zombie roared and swiped down at Bai Liu.
Liu Jiayi remained frozen in Bai Liu’s embrace, surrounded by the scent of blood and earth.
Bai Liu’s chest was thin.
His heartbeat was very steady.
There was a reassuring strength and warmth to it that made Liu Jiayi’s eyes widen involuntarily.
She remembered what Liu Huai had once told her.
“My meimei deserves a gege ten thousand times better than me,” Liu Huai had said to Liu Jiayi with a smile. “You’ll have a better gege than me, Jiayi.”
So don’t give up on yourself.
There is a brighter future waiting for you.
Psyche must endure countless hardships before she can bring Cupid, who has flown toward heaven, back to the mortal world.
Bai Liu braced himself and clashed with the zombie using the Monkey’s Paw.
The zombie’s falling claws struck him, forcing him to slide backward on his knees for a long distance. Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.
The zombie let out a hideous roar and attacked Bai Liu again.
Bai Liu used one hand to protect Liu Jiayi’s face from being scratched, his gaze focused. With his other hand, he seemed prepared to clash with the zombie once more.
The zombie threw its head back and roared, claws crashing down.
It was rare for Bai Liu to take an opponent seriously, but by his assessment—
If those claws landed, he would die.
[System Notification: Player Mu Ke has stabbed himself with (Dagger of Light and Shadow). Mental value decreasing... Mental value has dropped to 11. Berserk Panel activated!]
[System Notification: Player Mu Ke has used critical-hit skill (Flicker Strike)!]
Mu Ke shot forward from the distance like a bolt of lightning.
The daggers in his hands flashed with blinding light, illuminating this endless night that seemed as though dawn would never come.
He dropped to one knee before Liu Jiayi and Bai Liu. His body was covered in crude wounds he had clumsily inflicted on himself with his daggers.
This was Mu Ke’s first time experiencing a mental value drop.
His eyes were clouded and unfocused.
Even so, his hands gripped the daggers with extraordinary force, holding them up to block the zombie’s falling claws with his life.
He was like a solid protective umbrella.
With a fierce expression, he crossed his daggers in front of Bai Liu and Liu Jiayi.
This young shàoyé, who had trembled at the mere mention of S-rank players in the beginning, now stood unshaken before an S-rank monster.
Mu Ke clutched the daggers tightly.
His heart was racing so fast it began to ache, so fast his entire body started going numb.
He felt like he was about to die.
His knees were shaking.
His hands were shaking.
Mu Ke felt as though he would either die in the next second or lose all strength and collapse to his knees.
But he didn’t.
He looked back at Liu Jiayi and Bai Liu behind him.
Something he had never felt before suppressed the tears that were about to spill from pain and supported his knees, which were on the verge of buckling.
It hurt too much.
Mu Ke had always believed that the pain in his heart during an episode was the worst pain in the world.
He had never expected anything could hurt this much.
This shàoyé, pampered all his life, afraid of pain and quick to tears, lifted his head with tears streaming down his face and let out a hysterical, undignified roar:
“GET AWAY!!! YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO TOUCH THEM!!!!!”
The glowing daggers were driven viciously into the zombie’s impossibly tough skin by Mu Ke’s distorted hands.
The zombie threw its head back and roared in fury, its claws pressing down on Mu Ke with even greater force.
[System Notification: Player Mu Ke used (Flicker Strike), causing Carrion Zombie to enter paralysis for one minute. Carrion Zombie HP reduced to 5!]
Mu Ke was slammed to the ground by the zombie’s heavy claw.
He knelt there, his face deathly pale.
The ground beneath his knees had even shattered from the force of the zombie’s strike.
The pressure from above finally stopped.
Mu Ke blinked slowly.
After confirming that the zombie was no longer moving, he smiled foolishly and whispered:
“I did it.”
Then blood began flowing from his mouth, eyes, and nose.
Mu Ke released the daggers and slowly collapsed to the ground, vomiting blood without end.
His unfocused eyes were still turned toward Liu Jiayi and Bai Liu, whom he had protected.
It was a gaze Bai Liu found very familiar.
Like a child who had done well looking at his parents with proud eyes, waiting to be praised.
But on Mu Ke’s face, that gaze was weak and faint, as though it might disappear at any moment. His eyelids drooped uncontrollably.
Still, he was very happy.
Because this time, just like Liu Huai and Mu Shicheng, he had perfectly completed the offensive mission Bai Liu had entrusted to him.
“...You did well, Mu Ke,” Bai Liu said.
Mu Ke’s mouth was full of blood.
Because of Bai Liu’s praise, he smiled from the bottom of his heart. The corners of his mouth lifted with a trace of pride, though his eyelids kept sinking.
He struggled to speak, his tone careful and his voice weak.
“...I don’t think I can make it.”
“This time... I really did my best.”
“I gave it everything I had.”
“Cough, cough... I didn’t... ruin your plan, did I... Bai Liu?”
“I know, Mu Ke,” Bai Liu said, looking down at him. “You did great.”
“This time, I allow you to die.”
Mu Ke smiled as though he had finally breathed a sigh of relief.
He slowly exhaled, his mouth full of blood and foam.
His fingers gradually loosened around the daggers.
At some unknown point, the engraving on the daggers had changed from [BLOOD] to [HEART]. The letters had been pressed into his palm from how tightly he had gripped them.
The light on the daggers dimmed, then turned into data and vanished from the ground.
[System Notification: Player Mu Ke’s main identity line HP has reached 0. Death confirmed.]
Less than a second after Mu Ke’s death was confirmed, Bai Liu did not linger.
He picked up Liu Jiayi and rushed toward the tunnel entrance.
Liu Jiayi was slung over Bai Liu’s shoulder as he ran, bouncing up and down.
A very strange expression appeared on her face.
Complete incomprehension.
She stared blankly at the cluster of fire that had charged in front of her, only to be extinguished on the ground.
That was Mu Ke.
The new player who had supposedly inherited Liu Huai’s skill.
That was a cluster of fire and a weapon just like her Gege.
He had died and fallen to the ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) ground just for her.
Liu Jiayi’s thin fingers slowly tightened around Bai Liu’s shoulder.
Tears gradually filled her eyes.
“Why...”
She was only a little wretch nobody wanted.
The heavens had allowed her to be born only so she could spend her long, gray life proving, again and again, that she was a wretch.
Her existence had no meaning.
She was only a small fish struggling in the mud, surviving for reasons even she did not understand, gasping for breath in the stagnant pond that had drowned her mother and sister.
The only place she could breathe had been Liu Huai’s palm.
Liu Jiayi did not deserve to be saved.
And nobody would save her.
Mu Ke lay silently on the ground to protect Liu Jiayi, his eyes not even having had time to close.
Bai Liu held her tightly as he sprinted toward the tunnel entrance.
She leaned against Bai Liu’s shoulder, bouncing with his steps, staring blankly ahead.
She felt as if she were about to fly.
Time became very strange.
She looked up in a daze at the zombie monster that had regained its mobility and was leaping toward her.
That hideous monster face seemed to shift in her thermal vision, transforming into a human face in slow motion.
The zombie’s face became the distorted, drunken, raging face of the man who had fathered her.
He roared at Liu Jiayi:
“You little wretch! Who told you to be born?!”
Then it changed into Liu Huai’s face, covered in tears as he broke down and sobbed:
“I’m sorry, Jiayi. Gege didn’t mean it. For Gege’s sake, just one last time. Just one last time, okay?”
Bai Liu pressed Liu Jiayi’s face against his chest.
Those distorted, twisted faces moved far away from her in an instant.
Small Liu Jiayi curled up against his chest like an ungrown kitten.
She gently gripped the fabric on both sides of Bai Liu’s collar.
Bai Liu was breathing very quickly, but his voice remained slow and steady.
“If you were asking me just now why I’m saving you...”
“It’s because I made a deal.”
“Someone sold his soul to me and said that as long as I’m alive, I must take you out of here.”
“I am still alive,” Bai Liu said. “So I am saving you.”
Liu Jiayi stared with sightless eyes.
Her tears fell dully and scaldingly, soaking Bai Liu’s clothes.
The two children, who had never believed in God since childhood, stumbled forward and finally entered the safe zone beneath the protection of the divine statue.
Behind them, the monster attacked with its mouth wide open.
Bai Liu tore the shackles away from the tunnel entrance, dragged Xiao Miao Gaojiang out of the tunnel, and threw him toward the pursuing zombie monster amid the child’s screams.
Then Bai Liu’s brow furrowed.
Blood slowly seeped from between his pressed lips.
He coughed and sank to his knees, setting Liu Jiayi down from his shoulder.
[System Warning: Player Bai Liu’s protective item (Cynic’s Wristband) will expire in fifteen minutes! During this process, all damage previously received by the player will be cumulatively applied to player Bai Liu! Player Bai Liu’s main identity line HP is about to reach 0!]
Liu Jiayi looked in panic at the fire before her that was about to go out.
Her tears fell in large drops.
“Bai Liu! Hey! Bai Liu!”
Bai Liu slowly collapsed to the ground.
His grip on the whip loosened.
More and more blood surged from his mouth, as though every injury he had suppressed until now was rebounding all at once.
With great difficulty, Bai Liu spoke to Liu Jiayi one word at a time:
“Run... the passage...”
“Don’t die!”
Like a panicked, ordinary eight-year-old girl, Liu Jiayi reached out and touched Bai Liu’s face.
She crouched down in terror, pressing her face against Bai Liu’s head as she felt his breathing grow weaker and weaker.
She cried helplessly.
“I’m begging you, don’t die!”
“Aren’t you going to save me?! Didn’t you promise to take me out of this game?!”
“Don’t just die like this!”
“Don’t lie to me...”
“Don’t leave me alone, okay...”
The dirty little girl raised her head.
Her dull gray eyes were wide.
Kneeling before the pure divine statue, she let out a heart-wrenching, piercing cry as blood seeped from her mouth and nose.
“Don’t make me hide alone again!”
Hiding forever in the dark.
She was like a deep-sea fish that could not see the light, born with strange blood, a strange appearance, and a pair of sightless eyes.
She lived coldly at the bottom of the earth.
She grew up in betrayal.
She survived through suspicion.
She relied on a cursed power to live inside a game she could tell no one about.
Who will stay with me?
The sightless little fish asked softly.
I can save you.
I can poison you.
But if you come close to me with love, I will give you the warmest part of my belly.
So long as you stay with me forever.
So long as you don’t catch me, then fear my monster-like appearance and cowardly throw me back into the mud.
Xiao Miao Gaojiang screamed as he was grabbed by his adult monster self.
Just as the zombie was about to bite into Xiao Miao Gaojiang’s neck, the eyelids of the divine statue on the cross moved.
[System Warning: Monster detected attacking a child within the safe zone!]
[System Warning: Divine punishment has descended!]
Dense thorns spread from the foot of the divine statue, wrapping around the Carrion Zombie that had stepped into the church.
The zombie was bound so tightly by the black thorns that not even air could pass through.
It attacked in all directions, but the barbed thorns easily pierced its thick, leather-like purple skin, coiling around its massive neck layer by layer.
The zombie roared, trying to break through the cocoon of thorns.
But more and more thorns wrapped around it.
Layer after layer.
Until the zombie was completely sealed inside a cocoon made of thorns.
The thorns tightened deeper and deeper.
The zombie’s roars went from loud to soft, then gradually faded until they could no longer be heard.
The thorns constricted and undulated, as though swallowing the monster trapped within.
Xiao Miao Gaojiang stared at the lush pile of thorns, now as tall as a small hill inside the church and still moving.
He was so frightened that he took two steps back.
Only then did he discover that the entire church floor was covered in spreading thorns, all flowing toward the central cocoon.
Under Xiao Miao Gaojiang’s horrified gaze, the thicket of thorns slowly contracted, then stilled.
Black, foul-smelling liquid carrying the stench of blood dripped from the dark thorns.
[System Warning: God-tier NPC is attacking Carrion Zombie (Player Mutation)... Carrion Zombie HP reduced to 0.]
[System Notification: Player Miao Gaojiang’s main identity line HP has reached 0. Death confirmed.]
Liu Jiayi smelled an intense stench of rot.
She heard the hissing sound of thorns withdrawing across the floor, followed by the dull noise of something falling in chunks, and then her own rapid breathing.
But none of those sounds drew her attention as much as the colored masses on Bai Liu’s body, which were gradually dimming in her vision.
She didn’t care at all about the dead Miao Gaojiang.
She was frantically operating her system panel.
[System Notification: Regretfully, your personal skill (Antidote) still has one hour and thirty minutes remaining on cooldown. It cannot be used at this time.]
Liu Jiayi closed her eyes and exhaled.
Calm down, Liu Jiayi.
Calm down.
There must be a way to save Bai Liu.
Her healing skill couldn’t be used.
But she still had something that could directly save Bai Liu—
Her blood.
Her blood could directly nourish a Blood Lingzhi capable of saving anyone.
It could cure Bai Liu, this Investor, of his terminal illness.
But she still needed a straw bed to cultivate the Blood Lingzhi.
Bai Liu couldn’t wait until they returned to the hospital to use that straw bed.
And if she wanted one now, she would have to seize it from the other Investor monsters.
Even if she had the ability to seize it, Bai Liu did not have the time to wait.
Liu Jiayi’s gaze slowly shifted toward the place where she had heard the thorns contracting.
It was the divine statue wrapped in thorns.
The Divine Being opened its eyes and looked at Liu Jiayi.
But because its body temperature was too cold, in her vision, it appeared as nothing more than a dead mass.
Tawil had not even had time to speak when he saw the blind little girl stumble fiercely toward his statue and begin plucking the thorns from him as if she were shearing a sheep.
The just-awakened and somewhat confused Tawil: “...?”
Humans who saw him awaken usually went mad.
Bai Liu was an exception.
He had not expected this little girl to remain sane as well, even while plucking his thorns.
But the moment Tawil saw Liu Jiayi’s face, he understood why she was fine.
It was because this little girl could not see.
Liu Jiayi triggered the God-tier NPC the moment she touched Tawil.
But this was her safe zone, so she wasn’t afraid at all. She pulled and tore at the thorns frantically, with an aura that suggested she might strip Tawil bare.
Tawil silently watched Liu Jiayi peel the thorns from his body.
“...”
He glanced at Bai Liu, who lay motionless on the ground.
Slowly, Tawil extended his thorns and gently wrapped them around Bai Liu.
Those thorns, capable of crushing a monster with over ten thousand defense points, did not deal even a single point of damage to the weakly breathing Bai Liu. They steadily carried him into the baptismal pool behind the statue.
Hearing the movement, Liu Jiayi looked toward Tawil in alarm, prepared to snatch Bai Liu back from the thorns.
But Tawil silently placed the thorns into her hand.
Liu Jiayi froze.
“Are you trying to use my thorns to build a place to grow Blood Lingzhi?” Tawil asked peacefully. “I’ll pile them up for you.”
The thorns obediently stacked and wove themselves together at the bottom of the baptismal pool, forming a sturdy bed of black thorn vines.
Bai Liu lay upon it with his eyes closed, his face pale and bloodless.
Liu Jiayi stood before the baptismal pool, looking down at this player who had, for some reason, been saving her since the very beginning of the game.
This player she had once disliked so much.
“How did you know?” Tawil looked down at Liu Jiayi. “How did you know my thorns could grow Blood Lingzhi?”
“Or rather, how did you know Blood Lingzhi is produced from my thorns?”
Liu Jiayi lowered her head, as though looking at Bai Liu.
Then, without hesitation, she lowered her head and slit her wrist with a knife.
Blood surged from her arm, dripping into the water of the baptismal pool and onto the thorns.
In that clear water, where children washed away their sins, the taboo, turbid blood flowing from her body bloomed like flower patterns.
The thorns submerged beneath the water began to unfurl their leaves.
At the points where the leaves crossed, red specks of light flickered like fireflies, rising from the thorns like mushroom spores.
Bright red blood dripped from Liu Jiayi’s pale, slender wrist.
Her trembling lashes lowered as she spoke in a voice devoid of emotion.
“Every monster in this dungeon sucks blood. You’re a monster too. How could you not suck blood?”
“Judging by the structure of the safe zone, you seem to be a Divine Being who protects children,” Liu Jiayi said. “But if you were truly so kind to children, why would those Investors worship you so fanatically? Why would they be obsessed with baptizing us in front of you?”
“Every dungeon has a core evil god. These evil things descend to the mortal world and mingle with humanity’s disgusting desires to form a game dungeon.”
“And the core evil of this dungeon is the Blood Lingzhi.”
“Everything began with the appearance of the Blood Lingzhi.”
“You are the most important monster among all the monsters in this dungeon. Your existence must be connected to its core evil.”
Liu Jiayi raised her gray eyes, blood dripping from her hands.
“You’re not some benevolent Divine Being at all.”
“You are an evil Divine Being.”
“The Investors worship you because the secret formula and birth of the Blood Lingzhi began with you, didn’t they?”
“You were the Divine Being who bestowed these things upon them. That’s why they worship you so fanatically.”
Tawil, bound to the cross, slowly blinked.
He looked at Liu Jiayi, who was staring directly at him without the slightest ripple in her gaze.
“What you say is not entirely correct.”
“The Blood Lingzhi did indeed begin with me.”
“But I am only a fallen, undying evil god. I am no longer truly a Divine Being.”
As he spoke flatly, thorns crawled rapidly over Tawil’s body.
“I am simply the first nutrient for the Blood Lingzhi.”
“I was the first child discovered by the Investors whose blood could be used to grow Blood Lingzhi.”
“After discovering that I would not die, they bound me to the cross with thorns and prayed that every child they baptized would become like me—that their blood would also grow Blood Lingzhi.”
“If that kind of prayer can make me a Divine Being, then I am indeed an evil god.”
Liu Jiayi looked at Tawil, her breath catching.
In her vision, the thorns that had originally shown no signs of life suddenly became red and hot, like pulsing blood vessels crawling across the surface of the statue, twitching and writhing.
The thorns pierced into every blood vessel of the divine statue. Their sharp barbs pricked Tawil’s vessel walls as they greedily sucked blood and nutrients from the statue’s body.
They tunneled along the vessels into the statue’s heart, writhing and coiling inside it, relentlessly extracting nutrients from his body like living things.
Then, at the intersections of the vines, they secreted spore-like substances.
These blood-red vines were fungal hyphae that fed on blood.
And the barbs were wrapped in spores that had not yet grown.
Tawil lowered his eyelashes.
“I am the eternal nutrient of the Blood Lingzhi mother body.”
“Every sub-fungal body in the straw beds of the Investors’ hospital was grown from the thorns on my body and nourished by my blood.”
“I am a symbiote of the Blood Lingzhi.”
After Tawil had driven the vines to strangle the monster, those vines—or rather, those hyphae—had become even more swollen from sucking the blood from his body. They coiled around him tighter and tighter.
The barbed thorns tunneled and pulled through Tawil’s blood vessels and heart.
Tawil’s face became visibly more exhausted.
This was also why he always wanted to sleep after using the vines to save Bai Liu.
After he drove the hyphae on his body to save Bai Liu, those hyphae would redouble their extraction of his blood and nutrients.
Tawil slowly lowered his eyelids, looking intently at the still-unconscious Bai Liu lying in the baptismal pool before him.
The first time he saw Bai Liu, he had been a rotting merman hauled from the water by humans, placed in a display window as an exhibit to lure tourists to slaughter, and had ultimately turned an entire town’s residents into ghost-like fishmen monsters.
The second time he saw Bai Liu, he had been a ghost mirror stolen by thieves from a collector’s home, harboring all the fears that humans in this world dared not face. The thieves feared day and night that it would break, feared that someone would steal it, and planted bombs on its body, finally sending an entire carriage of passengers into a sea of fire.
The third time he saw Bai Liu—
Tawil lowered his gaze.
He had been a child who met the criteria for cultivating the Blood Lingzhi mother body, a child who would not die, whose blood would not stop secreting, and who would only sleep.
His special blood had driven all those terminally ill Investors mad.
In the end, the hospital and welfare home—places that should have existed for charity—had become an earthly hell like a breeding farm.
So he had been exiled and cast out by the gods.
[Tawil, you are a natural evil god. You may only sleep at the bottom of the sea, at the center of the earth, within the shards of a mirror people fear to touch, in the darkness of the universe 13.7 billion light-years away.]
[When human desires touch you, they will brew boundless bitter fruit and hell. You are a Divine Being. You receive the faith of humans, and you should bear responsibility for the human tragedies born from your own evil.]
The high and mighty gods had pronounced it so.
They said:
Tawil, there is no human who can see your true face and still maintain their sanity.
Because you are too evil.
From your appearance to your soul, you are filled with an aura that lures people toward the abyss, toward ultimate evil.
You can make the purest, most innocent child in any dimension of time and space fall.
If a human can see you and remain sane, then they are destined to become—
The next demon.
The next demon, sleeping in the pure baptismal pool after it had been defiled by the forbidden little witch’s blood, was awakened by the Divine Being from a dream filled with blood-red fireflies.
Bai Liu slowly opened his eyes.
His face was pale, his neck tilted back.
His slender limbs were tightly bound by deep red vines, being pulled upward inch by inch.
The plant vines that saved terminally ill patients trembled and unfurled across the dying man’s body.
It was an extraordinarily fragile posture.
Almost like that of a sacrifice.
The sacrifice.
The demon.
The face of the dying patient was hidden beneath the vines, hidden beneath evil flowers nourished by human desire, as he calmly looked at the fallen evil god who had likewise been bound by derivatives of human desire.
And the awakened evil god looked back at him with equal calm.
“Will you go mad because you see me?”
Its voice hummed, echoing from every direction within the church swallowed by thorns, as though a thousand people were judging the believer who had walked into the trap at the same time.
“Never.”
And the demon-like believer answered it with a smile.
All the barbs on the vines spreading from the divine statue burst open.
Blood-red spores floated through the church like fragments of glowing planets.
The light of the crimson candles drifted and scattered through the air, dancing madly.
The barbs splitting open at their tips were like flowers of strange color, like red clematis blooming into petals. They wrapped and coiled tightly around Tawil’s face, so tightly that not even the wind could pass through, leaving only a pair of sculpture-like eyes devoid of any emotional ripple.
The air was filled with Blood Lingzhi spores that gave off a strange metallic fragrance.
The moment the spores bloomed, Liu Jiayi collapsed beside the baptismal pool from her mental value drop and excessive blood loss.
One of her wrists rested over the edge of the pool, blood winding steadily and continuously into the water.
There were several fresh knife wounds on it, along with an old wound that had already clotted slightly.
“Draining all her blood still wouldn’t be enough to grow a single Blood Lingzhi,” Tawil whispered, his face hidden. “The Blood Lingzhi mother body needs more blood.”
This was also the reason those Investors did not use the mother body to grow Blood Lingzhi directly.
The mother body required far more blood to produce one mature Blood Lingzhi.
Tawil’s blood regeneration speed was only enough to sustain the sub-fungal bodies, so they harvested those sub-fungal bodies from him and cultivated them separately for greater efficiency.
“How much more is needed?”
A weak voice came from the church entrance.
Xiao Mu Ke braced himself against the church door with one hand. His other hand hung clenched at his side as he stared fixedly at the divine statue.
“With my blood, Xiao Bai Liu’s blood, and the blood bags from Miao Feichi and Liu Jiayi that I just found on Liu Huai, will it be enough to grow a Blood Lingzhi and save him?”
“Perhaps it still won’t be enough.”
Tawil looked calmly at Xiao Miao Gaojiang, who lay unconscious on the ground.
“But with this child, plus all of my remaining blood, it will be enough.”
Xiao Mu Ke knelt beside the pool.
He rolled up his sleeves and used the knife Liu Jiayi had dropped to cut several wounds into his thin arm.
Then he took out Xiao Bai Liu’s blood bags.
The blood had already clotted and separated somewhat. It was completely cold. freēwēbnovel.com
The moment Xiao Mu Ke saw that blood, his eyes reddened.
He tore open the packaging of all three blood bags and soaked them in the baptismal pool where the incapacitated Bai Liu lay.
Then he cut his other arm too and submerged both hands in the water.
Xiao Miao Gaojiang was dragged over by Tawil’s vines.
Xiao Mu Ke slit his skin with gritted teeth and let his blood flow.
If not for this brat, so many of them would not have died!
“Cough, cough.”
Bai Liu coughed twice and glanced sideways at Mu Ke, whose hands were both soaked in the water.
Suddenly, he smiled.
He seemed not particularly concerned about his own life or death and casually teased Xiao Mu Ke:
“Didn’t you hate me very much? Why are you saving me?”
Xiao Mu Ke lowered his head, his voice very soft.
“...Xiao Bai Liu wanted to save you.”
“And you saved me.”
“So I have to save you too.”
One of Liu Jiayi’s hands was submerged in the icy baptismal water through the gaps between the vines.
Her sleeping face rested against the edge of the pool.
Her other hand gently tugged at the corner of Bai Liu’s clothes.
Her fragile face was covered in tear tracks, and her thin, delicate arms were covered with shocking knife wounds.
This little girl had been ruthless when cutting herself.
She seemed to have known that her mental value and consciousness would not last much longer. Afraid that she would pass out, she had cut very deep to prevent the blood from clotting.
Bai Liu turned his head back.
He looked at the ceiling of the church, as though responding to Xiao Mu Ke’s answer, and yet also as though he was not.
His tone was very light.
“What truly childish logic.”
Children’s logic seemed to be that simple.
Simple and easy to deceive.
You saved me, so I have to save you.
You sacrificed for me, so I have to sacrifice for you.
Liu Jiayi was like this.
Mu Ke was like this.
Xiao Bai Liu was the same.
Although he didn’t want to admit it, Bai Liu had to say that he had not changed much since he was a child.
Even now, he still followed this same logic.
A very pure logic of transaction.
“Then what reason do you have for saving me, Tawil?” Bai Liu asked softly. “I don’t recall making any deal with you that would require you to give me all the blood in your body.”
Tawil’s face had been completely swallowed by thorns, but his voice had not.
“Your existence itself is worth everything I can give.”
“Bai Liu.”
Tawil’s voice was steady, like a cold yet solemn vow made once in a lifetime inside a church.
“You are my only believer.”
[Tawil, if such a human exists, then you have a believer once more.]
[A demon-like believer of an evil god.]
“A Divine Being must unconditionally fulfill every request of their believer,” Tawil said.
Xiao Mu Ke, drained of blood, looked toward the statue’s face.
He also felt an indescribable fear and dizziness.
Then he fainted.
The vines on Tawil’s body began to writhe at high speed.
They tunneled through his body at a speed that made one’s flesh ache just to see, spreading rapidly like blood spilling into water, crawling over every corner of the church.
The holy church was instantly transformed into a habitat for deep red, pulsing vines.
The red spores on the barbs, like the stamens of tiny flowers—or rather, like sub-fungal bodies—began to pulse rhythmically, like heartbeats.
As though they had consumed some extraordinary nutrient, they grew rapidly, instantly sprouting into heart-shaped mushrooms.
Tawil’s heart was also beating.
Thump-thump-thump.
He shared the same heartbeat with them.
Thump-thump-thump.
Thump-thump-thump.
It was as though Tawil’s heartbeat had been magnified a hundredfold through these vines, echoing throughout the entire church.
Bai Liu looked at the vines covering the sky above him and at those pulsing “hearts.”
Finally, his gaze slowly fell upon the divine statue, whose face had been so tightly wrapped that it could no longer be seen beneath layer after layer of deep red vines.
“If I really am your only believer,” Bai Liu said, his tone casual, almost joking, “then please save me, Tawil.”
“My God.”
Millions of pulsing “hearts” paused for one second.
Then they began beating even more violently, even more madly.
The vines began to wither.
From the base of each vine, a Blood Lingzhi as vivid as a rose and as large as a heart began to grow.
Millions of shimmering, pulsing red Blood Lingzhi sprouted from the withered black vines.
Like a field of evening roses at their fullest bloom, decadent and wild before their inevitable withering.
The vines on the divine statue decayed, blackened, and slipped away.
Tawil leaned down from the statue, bracing himself on both sides of the baptismal pool.
This god, who had always been ice-cold, lowered his eyelids.
At this moment, his lips held a warmth close to blood.
He lightly kissed Bai Liu’s forehead and whispered:
“The Divine Being baptizes you for your rebirth, my only believer.”
[System Notification: Player Bai Liu has obtained hidden identity (The Evil God’s Only Believer).]
[System Notification: Congratulations to player Bai Liu for obtaining clearance item (Blood Lingzhi). Main story quest “Cure Terminal Illness” completed. Clearance successful. You may exit the game.]
[System Warning: Player Bai Liu’s HP has recovered to 3 due to the cure of the terminal illness. HP is low. Do you choose to remain in the game after clearance?]
[System Warning: Player Bai Liu has chosen to remain in the game. During the stay, player Bai Liu is responsible for all consequences of his actions. The system will provide no warnings or notifications.]
(Note: During the stay, the small television may be voluntarily turned off. Small television data has already entered settlement. Data during the stay will not be included. During the stay, the player may choose to exit the game at any time.)
