Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 111
“Zhou Qian, I know you all must think my eyes are small… but do you know? In reality, I am actually blind.”
Looking up at the dark red sky, Wu Ren said, “Entering this game was the first time I experienced color. So, I’m actually quite addicted to this game. I don’t even want to return to reality. Because once I go back, all I will see is darkness. There’s something interesting though—”
“When I first entered the game, all the instances I went to were specifically for training eyesight. Because I needed to use hidden weapons, it required that my eyes keep up and that my eyesight be good.”
“The more I played… I started feeling that this game is a living entity. It’s a God in itself. It can hear our hearts…”
Turning his head to look at Zhou Qian, Wu Ren said, “Sorry, I wasn’t doubting you just now. I just wanted to see… what kind of method a person like you would think of to persuade me. You did quite well. You really are a character. Let me tell you about myself—”
“I have a younger sister, and we’re very close. She’s getting married in a few months. Our father passed away early, so by right, I should be the one to walk her down the aisle and hand her over to the groom.”
“But I’m blind, which is inconvenient. I’m also afraid her colleagues and friends might laugh at her because of it. Besides that, I really want to see her get married with my own eyes, so…”
“I really want to recover my sight before her wedding, so that I can hand her over at the wedding to…”
Wu Ren chuckled and cursed, “Hand her over to that bastard who’s after our family’s cabbage!”
Zhou Qian casually sat on a corpse, patting the small dragon beside him with one hand and clutching the Rib of God with the other. Then he looked at Wu Ren and smiled. “Wu Ge, remember to send me an invitation.”
Wu Ren was silent for a moment, then looked at Zhou Qian with a suddenly serious gaze. “I only have one request for you.”
Zhou Qian asked, “What kind of request?”
Wu Ren took out an item.
[Item: Oath Box]
[Function: Allows two people to make promises to each other; if someone breaks the promise, the Oath Box will claim their soul.]
[Warning: Use with caution; oaths should not be made lightly.]
Wu Ren said, “Zhou Qian, I’m not using this item to threaten you. It’s just a request. Through this ordeal, I’ve realized I might die in this game at any moment. But I think you will live much longer. You’re smart enough and have the courage.”
“So I will make a promise to the Oath Box: if I die, all my gold and items will be transferred to Zhou Qian through the power of the Oath Box.”
“Zhou Qian, promise me, after I die, occasionally look after my sister. I don’t really understand the kind of person she’s marrying. I just hope she won’t get hurt.”
“Wu Ge—” Zhou Qian narrowed his eyes. “Your request is not a simple one. No one can fully take responsibility for another person’s life. Even between lovers, it’s hard to protect each other for a lifetime.”
“I’m not asking you to protect her for a lifetime. Just occasionally check on her and help her out if she’s in trouble.”
Wu Ren became somewhat anxious. “I have a lot of gold and items. I think it’s a fair deal.”
Zhou Qian looked at Wu Ren for a long while, then his eyes curved slightly. “Okay, if I can’t see her, I can’t do anything. But if I happen to see her being bullied right in front of me, I won’t ignore it. However, I think—”
“You won’t die. Playing this kind of game requires belief. As long as you believe you won’t die, you won’t. Trust me.”
……
A few moments later, only 48 corpses remained in the crucible.
Wu Ren, having thrown two corpses out of the crucible, was ready to face death.
Zhou Qian noticed that Wu Ren was indeed a decisive person. After agreeing with him, there was no hesitation. During this time, both of them worked on their tasks without even exchanging glances. This showed that Wu Ren truly trusted him.
Zhou Qian whispered some instructions to the small dragon, checked its condition, and then relaxedly closed his eyes to rest, waiting for the “god” next arrival.
Minutes later, the dark red sky slowly turned blood red, indicating the temporary opening of the passage from the real world to the Crucible World. The familiar red rain fell, and the golden light of the crucible lit up again, ushering in another “resurrection” for the soldiers.
They might not know they were dead or realize they were in the Crucible World. They had only one thought—to sacrifice themselves to protect their general. Thus, the soldiers were about to form a human wall again to withstand the red rain. But this time, Wu Ren stopped them.
Wu Ren hurriedly raised his hand to gather energy, sending countless silver needles to strike the soldiers’ hands and feet, almost depleting his last bit of mana. The injured soldiers couldn’t leave the crucible to form a wall and fell to the bottom.
Afterwards, Wu Ren, using a flying item, quickly dashed out of the crucible towards the sky, ready to meet the myriad red raindrops with his flesh and blood!
The moment the red rain fell, to avoid arousing the god’s suspicion, Wu Ren used many items as if he was struggling for his life.
The defense cloak was burned to ashes by a drop of red rain. The high-level armor shattered before touching the rain, and the bracelets, peeping items, cloaks… everything turned to ashes in an instant.
Lastly, Wu Ren’s own body collided with the red rain!
In this story, Wu Ren was undoubtedly a special existence.
In the real world, he was a general the emperor could rely on and the “god’s” most feared opponent. In this world between life and death, other soldiers lost their memory and consciousness. Only General Wu Ren had the chance to awaken and lead everyone back—
The other soldiers once used their bodies to form a wall to shield him from the red rain. Now, the roles were reversed, with Wu Ren sacrificing himself to protect them!
Wu Ren alone couldn’t withstand the red rain for three minutes. After just one minute, Zhou Qian, disguised in black and hidden behind two injured soldiers, watched as Wu Ren’s body turned to char. At that moment, some soldiers couldn’t hold back.
After a brief rest, they forced themselves from the bottom of the crucible to the top to catch Wu Ren’s charred corpse. They couldn’t speak, but some instinct made them feel immense grief.
In the next instant, their bodies touched the red rain and turned to char alongside Wu Ren.
Soon, more soldiers recovered and wanted to head to the top of the crucible. Seeing this, Zhou Qian promptly commanded the small dragon. The dragon swiftly rose into the air, and on its first swipe with its tail, it struck the soldiers, driven by instinct to meet their general.
On its second sweep in the opposite direction—as it flew to the top of the crucible—its tail swept across, lining up the burning corpses to partially block the red rain from hitting Zhou Qian and the remaining alive soldiers.
With the little dragon’s help, no one else was injured in those three minutes. After that, the god was due to arrive. Before his arrival, the small dragon quickly leaped out of the crucible’s opening, and with a third tail swipe, it threw Wu Ren and the charred bodies back into the bottom of the crucible, avoiding the fate of being scattered by the god later.
Seconds later, the god arrived as promised, immediately firing a strong beam from the front end of his scepter.
On Zhou Qian’s command, the small dragon quickly used its tail to toss an injured soldier into the air, letting him bear the unavoidable first beam. The soldier died again, but this time his body landed steadily at the bottom of the crucible.
Several more beams then fell into the crucible. After estimating that these beams wouldn’t hit him, Zhou Qian didn’t even dodge, only calling the small dragon back to his side, letting it return to its normal small size, and hiding it under his black cloak so the god wouldn’t see it.
No more beams came after that.
Seemingly realizing he hadn’t encountered the feared general’s counterattack, the god stopped, cautiously standing at the top of the crucible, looking down.
His most feared general… must be dead by now. The god was somewhat ecstatic upon this discovery, dancing at the edge of the crucible. Then, without any hesitation, he jumped to the bottom of the crucible, probably intending to find the general’s body.
“You all laugh at my short stature. How about now? Not only did I kill your general, but now I’m going to possess his body! You all praised him for his tall and strong stature, a true man…”
“So I want to take his place!”
So that’s it.
Zhou Qian realized that all the information in this small instance was useful—
This “god” wasn’t some monster, but just an ugly dwarf.
Unwilling to be ridiculed, after the general’s body was pulled into the otherworld, he not only wanted to kill him but also wanted his body to become a tall and imposing man.
Inside the crucible, seeing the god enter, several soldiers suddenly stood up and attacked him directly. The god only feared the general, so he didn’t even bother to look at these small fries, swinging his scepter to kill them all with beams.
“Don’t waste my time!” he said viciously.
The soldiers rushing towards the god became more numerous, and out of desperation, he had to throw his scepter into the air.
Previously, when he stood at the top of the crucible, he had thrown the scepter to release a beam of light, intending to kill the people inside the crucible.
This time, his method of killing was exactly the same—the scepter left his right hand and hovered in mid-air, emitting a lethal beam of light.
While remotely controlling the scepter to deal with the soldiers, the god began to personally turn over one charred corpse after another, trying to quickly find Wu Ren. He could only be in this world for one minute and didn’t want to waste any more time.
The scepter hovered inside the crucible near the mouth, continuously firing beams of light, killing one soldier after another. Hearing the sounds of the soldiers falling, the god smiled relaxedly, searching through the bodies without any guard.
At the moment when he turned his back to the scepter, Zhou Qian directly used his mind to make the small dragon grow larger again!
Just as another beam was about to hit a soldier, the rapidly enlarging small dragon silently swayed its tail and wrapped around the other end of the scepter.
Instantly, the direction of the lethal beam from the scepter was reversed, and the bright red light shot straight towards the god. He never expected such a sudden turn of events.
His eyes widened in shock, but it was too late. The moment he was hit by the beam, he was instantly turned into charred ashes!
“Nicely done!” Zhou Qian said to the small dragon with a smile.
The small dragon, encouraged, seemed very happy and quickly swam to Zhou Qian’s side, rubbing against his face.
Zhou Qian then said, “Throw him out!”
“Yip!” With a flick of its tail, the small dragon immediately wrapped around the god and forcefully threw him out of the crucible.
With the god dead, the uncontrolled scepter no longer emitted lethal beams. Zhou Qian sat back on the small dragon’s back, letting it take him near the mouth of the crucible without completely leaving it.
Zhou Qian held the Rib of God in his right hand and ordered the small dragon to emit purple mist, trying to materialize the spirit within the Rib of God, while his left hand raised the scepter.
The way the wizard in the leather painting controlled the scepter was very clear. Zhou Qian aimed the other end of the scepter at the bottom of the crucible and mimicked the motion.
One end of the scepter could kill, the other could bring life.
At this moment, Zhou Qian seemed like a god with power over life and death. With a wave of his hand, he could resurrect anyone he wished. He was like the ruler of this world!
A golden-white light suddenly shot from the tip of the scepter, autonomously aiming at the dual god with a bull’s horns and serpent’s body on the inner wall of the crucible.
Immediately, the god emitted white light and transformed into a moving spirit, walking along the inner wall. Quickly, the entire interior of the crucible no longer emitted a faint golden light but turned pure white, symbolizing the imminent arrival of true light!
Under the guidance of the dual god, the 51 soldiers carved on the wall also emitted white light and followed the spirit, walking forward along the inner wall.
As the soldiers walked in circles, 51 white beams of light were cast, 48 of them aimed at the 48 soldiers, the 49th at Wu Ren’s body, the 50th at Zhou Qian, and the 51st at the white smoke materializing from Zhou Qian’s Rib of God!
The white smoke turned out to be a living spirit! It was recognized by the scepter as a subject for resurrection!
The 51 beams of light intertwined, growing stronger, and finally converging into a massive beam. It shot out from the inside of the crucible, soaring towards the dark red dome, almost lighting up the entire apocalyptic world.
This powerful light truly opened a channel connecting two worlds. The moment the channel opened, it rose into the air, flying out of the crucible, into the sky, and through the entrance, sending all 51 life forms back to the human world!
In the human world, on an ancient battlefield under the scorching sun, two sides were fiercely engaged in battle. The small dragon had already flown into the bag, and Zhou Qian saw himself in black iron armor, holding a spear, riding a white horse, rising from the crucible. Along with him appeared 49 other cavalrymen, one of whom was surprisingly Gao Shan!
However, at that moment, neither of them could speak. They were undead zombies summoned from another world by the emperor using the crucible, unable to speak.
Leading the 50 cavalrymen into battle was Wu Ren, clad in black iron armor. After his resurrection, he became the mightiest warrior in the human world. His white horse leaped into the air, flying over countless people and plunging deep into the enemy camp.
With the “god” military strategist dead and the main general isolated, Wu Ren raised his sword high, shining like moonlight. But in an instant, this moonlight turned red—stained with the blood of the main general.
In the next moment, Wu Ren threw the sword towards the enemy camp’s flag. With a “crack,” the flag fell to the ground under everyone’s gaze. Behind Wu Ren, his own camp erupted in triumphant cheers.
—”Victory! We have won!!!”
The player-immersive ending animation ended here. Zhou Qian withdrew his gaze and saw the system panel—
[Player Zhou Qian helped player Wu Ren clear the instance: “Magic Crucible”.]
[Player Zhou Qian activated the instance item “Bone Spirit” ahead of time.]
[You can choose to retain the memory of “Bone Spirit” or erase it. Please make your decision within one minute.]
Without spending a minute, Zhou Qian immediately clicked the “Retain Memory” button, then turned his head to look at the cavalryman beside him—
The horse under the person next to him had disappeared, and like a spirit, he floated in the air, unable to land yet.
But his figure and facial features were clearly visible, unmistakably Gao Shan.
Gao Shan looked at Zhou Qian, his eyes showing obvious joy. He immediately opened his mouth as if to say something, but he couldn’t make any sound.
Zhou Qian guessed that this was an effect of the rebirth crucible; probably, Gao Shan couldn’t speak for now.
But the fact that he could come back, continue to exist as a Bone Spirit, was already fortunate.
The game continued. The issue of Gao Shan not being able to speak and finding a way to turn him from a Bone Spirit back into a human would eventually be resolved later.
The ancient battlefield, wrapped in horsehide and flowing with blood, was slowly fading.
Clouds blown by the wind gradually obscured the scorching sun.
The air still smelled of blood, but everyone’s mood was relaxed—the war had finally ended, they had preserved their emperor, and long-awaited peace had arrived!
Standing in such a backdrop, Zhou Qian smiled faintly at Gao Shan. “Shan Ge, long time no see.”
“I’ve always said I hate owing a life to someone. Now, I’ve finally brought part of you back.”
……
Outside the instance. Blue Harbor City.
The climate here was completely different from reality, almost without any pattern.
Suddenly, it began to snow. Bai Zhou, through the spiritual domain’s connection between the Rank God player and Shepherd, tried to locate Zhou Qian, finally finding a lead. He raised an umbrella and went to wait for him at the entrance of the instance.
By this time, Blood Demon had already left.
Turtle Fairy, however, came over using her unique skills.
Holding a small pink umbrella in her left hand, Turtle Fairy drew on the shell of the turtle beneath her with her right hand.
After a long while, she mustered the courage to speak to Bai Zhou. “Big Boss White Dragon, I’ve figured out what’s happening with Zhou Qian. Do you want to know?”
Bai Zhou stood silently in the snow, holding the umbrella with one hand. Its tip and his right elbow were covered with snow, but he seemed not to mind.
Turtle Fairy blinked and added, “Zhou Qian has already cleared the instance. Once the ending animation is over, he’ll be able to come out. Oh, and—”
“He’s bringing two men out with him.”
The author has something to say:
Zhou Ge: “………………”
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