Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 129

The starlight fell on Zhou Qian’s fingertips as he removed his mask, as well as on the corners of Bai Zhou’s eyes and eyebrows.

Smiling, Zhou Qian finished speaking only to find Bai Zhou’s expression cold, and his gaze seemed to carry a hint of disapproval.

Before Bai Zhou could speak, Zhou Qian quickly grabbed his hand, laughing in his usual tone. “My God has arrived. Let’s escape quickly.”

Bai Zhou: “……”

After a deep look at him, Bai Zhou didn’t say anything. He grabbed Zhou Qian’s hand with his left and pulled him behind him, holding the Breaking Dawn in his right hand, and then looked at the crowd.

The player closest to Zhou Qian and Bai Zhou was He Xiaowei.

He Xiaowei was in a dire situation, showing signs of defeat under the attack of three people. Just as their daggers were about to stab into him, he closed his eyes in despair.

Unexpectedly, death didn’t come. When He Xiaowei opened his eyes, he saw the daggers in their hands had turned around and were instead plunged into their own chests!

Overjoyed, He Xiaowei guessed what had happened and turned his head to see Zhou Qian. “Qian’er! Was that your doing? [Bone Nightmare]? Eh—”

After saying this, he looked at Bai Zhou. “Holy shit. Boss, when did you get back?”

Zhou Qian shook his head without speaking but seriously looked behind him.

Realizing something might be happening behind him, He Xiaowei quickly turned around and saw that the three men on the ground had quickly stood up again, and the blood on their chests had disappeared.

In an instant, they picked up their weapons and charged at He Xiaowei again, more ferocious than before.

While defending himself with his qin, He Xiaowei glanced around and saw that the situation was equally grim for the other players!

Not far away, Qi Liuxing and Ke Yuxiao were bloodied amidst a sea of corpses.

These corpses were rising from the ground again. After a large amount of mana consumption by Qi and Ke, these people revived with full health and charged at them again, becoming several times more ferocious!

The situation was similar for Hidden Blade.

He had just cut down ten people. Now, after these ten people revived, they charged at him regardless of how many cuts they received, as if they weren’t afraid of death at all.

The situation was also extremely dangerous for the two girls.

They grouped together to fend off enemies. Yin Jiujiu continuously tanked the villagers while Yun Xiangrong controlled a flute, commanding countless catkins to kill the attackers.

As the revived villagers charged at them in waves, each wave would fall to the catkins, only for the next wave to immediately follow, recklessly.

Yin Jiujiu was running low on mana and health. When another wave charged at Yun Xiangrong, she tried to pour out more alcohol from her gourd, but there was hardly any left.

Unable to tank anymore, the aggro immediately shifted back to the DPS, and the mass of people directly bypassed Yin Jiujiu and charged at Yun Xiangrong!

The villagers’ behavior was naturally related to what they had witnessed.

Initially cautious, seeing their companions die and then revive gave them boundless courage—since they could revive, why fear death?!

Thus, after several rounds of revival, all villagers became tougher to deal with, effectively forming a death squad of several hundred people!

“Everyone, come behind me.”

It was Bai Zhou who spoke.

Releasing Zhou Qian’s hand, Bai Zhou stepped forward, holding the blade with both hands towards the crowd.

Hearing Bai Zhou’s words, the other players fought while retreating towards Zhou Qian, inevitably leading all the enemies to him.

Bai Zhou held his long sword horizontally, the blade shining snow-white under the moonlight. Leaping into the air, he faced hundreds of villagers. After a brief moment of gathering strength, a mist emerged from the blade, astonishingly condensing into a huge, semi-transparent white dragon in the air!

Seeing this, Hidden Blade couldn’t help but exclaim excitedly, “Holy shit, this is the Boss’ signature move [White Dragon Slash] from when he ascended to godhood! When I saw it back then, I felt like my swordsmanship was nothing!”

“Is that why you call him White Dragon?”

Zhou Qian said, squinting at the air. Where the sword qi condensed, the white dragon had almost taken a physical form, its beauty surpassing the color of snow and moonlight.

This sword qi condensed white dragon, almost a hundred people long, briefly circled in the air. Its long tail swept out, and a powerful murderous intent descended from the sky, sweeping towards the hundreds of villagers.

Wherever the sword qi passed, the ground was upheaved, plants were blown away, and all the villagers were ground to dust! All the sounds of combat disappeared at that moment.

After a moment, the white dragon vanished into thin air.

Bai Zhou, with the sword in hand, landed without a drop of sweat on his forehead.

The players were almost breathless, probably stunned by the scene before them.

Glancing at everyone’s expressions, Hidden Blade couldn’t help but boast about his idol. “See, I told you the Boss is awesome! And that’s even when his power is heavily suppressed. Zhou Qian, I still can’t figure out—”

Hidden Blade looked at Zhou Qian incredulously. “I still can’t figure out why you refused to be his apprentice!”

At this moment, He Xiaowei winked at Hidden Blade and said, “Master, that’s not right. They don’t want to be master and apprentice. They want to be lovers. No wonder—”

He patted Zhou Qian’s shoulder. “I was wondering what kind of person could catch Qian’er’s eye. Now I see! Wait…”

Realizing something, He Xiaowei suddenly widened his eyes at Bai Zhou. “This scene seems familiar… Ah, the dragon from ‘Last Wish’—it was you? Holy shit! Then I…”

Did I just spill the beans about that dragon kissing Zhou Qian?

Fuck. Am I going to get retaliated against!

Zhou Qian tapped He Xiaowei’s head and then told everyone, “These villagers are just meant to deplete our mana. The real danger in this instance is still ahead. Everyone, be very careful later.”

“Now that the villagers have turned to dust, their revival will be much slower. Let’s take this opportunity to head to the village entrance!”

Turning around, grabbing Bai Zhou’s arm, Zhou Qian walked with him at the forefront.

Along the way, they quickly shared their experiences through private chat.

Zhou Qian briefly told Bai Zhou about his side of things, and Bai Zhou did the same. In the end, he said, “Besides that bird, I also found out about a story.”

“What story?” Zhou Qian asked.

“It’s related to the queen of the Kingdom of Words. She’s also a Red God, but her rebellion wasn’t here. It was in the royal city,” Bai Zhou said.

Zhou Qian pondered. “The queen became a Red God, causing disaster in the royal city; Amei became a Red God, causing disaster in Nameless Village. These two stories are very similar. Amei did this because Nameless Village wronged her. On the queen’s side… did the king betray her?”

“Yes,” Bai Zhou said. “According to the story I learned at the Red God Inn, the king of the Kingdom of Words fell in love with another woman and was so infatuated that he wanted to demote the queen to a commoner. This happened a long time ago when the Sun, Moon, Star, and Cloud families were the king’s guards.”

Zhou Qian felt he had guessed something and asked for the key detail. “What’s that woman’s name?”

Bai Zhou said, “Tartar.”

Zhou Qian immediately responded, “I knew it… She didn’t even change her name.”

Bai Zhou continued, “After being abandoned by her husband, the queen went to the Temple of the Goddess of Prayers. She cursed three things: first, that her husband would suffer from an incurable disease; second, that the Kingdom of Words would face war, and the Sun, Moon, Star, and Cloud families, who helped the king hide the truth, would all be severely injured and never serve as guards again; third, that she herself would become a Red God after death.”

“To fulfill these three curses, she was willing to sacrifice her life to the Goddess Difu.”

“In the other world, ordinary ghosts have a chance to return to the human realm. But once one becomes a Red God, they can only remain a ghost forever. The queen made such a resolute choice probably for the same reason as Amei; they both wanted to retain their memories of this life and see the downfall of those who betrayed them with their own eyes. It’s quite ironic—”

Zhou Qian said, “The queen’s husband found a mistress, so she went to the temple to curse her husband, but she wouldn’t know that the god she pleaded with… was actually that ‘mistress’.”

In Zhou Qian’s perspective, he had only heard the villagers’ version of the past story: Amei, the ugly woman, sacrificed her parents’ lives for beauty, using magic to obtain her looks; afterwards, she married the king of the Land of Silence but had an affair with a man named Beilan from the four major families.

Beilan was taken to another realm by a Red God, and in her eagerness to see him, Amei stole the golden feathers, forcibly opened the space between two realms, leading to the Land of Silence crusade, putting numerous people of the Kingdom of Words in danger, bringing shame to the four major families, who were expelled from the royal city and lived by farming in the borderlands.

From Bai Zhou, Zhou Qian learned the other side of the story.

Amei married the king of the Land of Silence because, during a war between the two countries, the Kingdom of Words lost, and all the skilled warriors from the four families were injured and, for some reason, their wounds couldn’t heal. At the same time, the king also contracted an incurable disease, putting the Kingdom of Words in a dire situation.

Under these circumstances, they coerced Amei to use her beauty to seduce the king of the Land of Silence, in hopes of stealing the golden feathers with healing powers from him, to save the kingdom from its doomed fate.

Amei successfully stole the golden feathers and healed everyone but was then accused of “stealing the national treasure of the Land of Silence to save her lover that she had an affair with.”

The ones who betrayed her were her homeland and the Kingdom of Words that raised her.

Walking side by side in the night, Zhou Qian said, “So, in the real story, the man named Beilan was actually Amei’s childhood sweetheart. At that time, the four major families were still in the royal city. And you said that after the queen became a Red God, she caused trouble in the royal city…”

“So, Beilan might also have been sacrificed for the greater good for the Kingdom of Words. Yet, he and Amei became the targets of everyone’s curses.”

A pair of lovers, in order to save the Kingdom of Words, one married into the Land of Silence to steal the national treasure, while the other died in the fight against the Red God.

However, to clear their own names and eliminate unfavorable rumors, the king of the Kingdom of Words and the four major families blamed everything on this couple, creating a lie that their affair led to all the tragedies.

Thinking of this, Zhou Qian looked towards the pyramid-shaped temple near the graves, saying, “The story stops here, but it’s still not clear enough. Until you found the hidden story of Tartar.”

With the hidden story Bai Zhou found, the missing piece of the whole story was finally filled.

Why the Land of Silence suddenly attacked the Kingdom of Words, why the king fell ill, why the royal city and the families of Sun, Moon, Star, and Cloud were harassed by the Red God, leading to the subsequent story of Amei stealing the golden feathers from the Land of Silence, now finally had a clearer answer—because of Tartar.

The Goddess Difu, disguised as the beautiful woman Tartar, seduced the king of the Kingdom of Words, forcing him to demote the queen to a commoner. In her anguish, the queen went to the temple to curse the king and the four families protecting him, and after her death, she became a Red God, returning to the royal city every Samhain, bringing various disturbances.

In order to protect the royal city and the four major families, the young man Beilan died at the hands of the Red God the queen became.

Amei, in her quest to heal everyone, went to the Land of Silence and took the golden feathers with magical healing abilities…

The Goddess Difu was the real cause of the trouble.

Continuing to stare at the temple, Zhou Qian’s gaze became sharp. “Red God Amei was grateful to Difu because the goddess fulfilled her curse. Amei wanted the entire village to die. To achieve her wish, she would continue to worship the goddess in the other world. So, the golden bird statue is—”

Bai Zhou took over, “Yes, I agree with you. Difu’s true form is a bird.”

“So, the golden feather…” Zhou Qian said, “is likely given to the king of the Land of Silence by her. With this, the story becomes more complete.”

Difu gave the healing feather to the Land of Silence, then seduced the king of the Kingdom of Words, leading to his wife’s curse and the series of events like Amei stealing the feathers…

What exactly did she want to achieve?

Zhou Qian pondered, “Behind her orchestrating these events, one of the purposes is easy to guess. It was because of the theft of the golden feathers that the king of the Land of Silence prayed for her to cast a curse. In return, the king helped her break her shackles.”

“Actually, before this point in time, she had already been capable of transforming into Tartar to seduce the King of the Kingdom of Words. So… we all misunderstood the meaning of ‘freedom’ before.”

“The locked statue of the goddess in the temple is just a metaphor, misleading us about the meaning of ‘freedom’. The true meaning of moving the temple doesn’t refer to whether the goddess can move freely, but to the constraints related to time and space. Her previous lack of freedom merely meant she couldn’t travel through time at will.”

“Indeed, I agree.” Bai Zhou nodded. “Because of the key sent by the King of the Land of Silence, Difu gained freedom. Since then, she has been able to move freely across different times and spaces. Such ability greatly enhanced her power, allowing her to cause even greater chaos.”

“This is also why she was able to send us ‘deserters’ from the future to here.”

“Exactly. The truth of the matter is just as I had guessed,” Zhou Qian said. “Especially what you just mentioned—that Amei had explicitly mentioned to you—history cannot be changed. We must have been sent back from the ‘future’.”

“The channel that brought us here should be the statue with three heads. It must be the goddess’ magical instrument. So, if we want to return to the normal timeline, it’s mostly likely through that statue. The decision to go to the village entrance was correct. We need to find if there’s any mechanism on that statue.”

On the real timeline, everything that was supposed to happen had already occurred, including Red God Amei achieving her ultimate wish—all the people in Nameless Village died.

The people of Nameless Village died. The deserters from the Land of Silence were brought over by Difu, told they could find ways to subsist here, like farming, mining, and so on.

But when they actually arrived, they didn’t live peaceful lives. Instead, they were sent into “history” by the statue.

Which villagers would die during the Samhain festival had already happened in history; it was all predetermined.

The actions of these “future” deserters wouldn’t change any villager’s fate. As for their own fates, they didn’t belong to the history related to Nameless Village. So, once they broke the prohibitions, they would still die.

After a while, all the players arrived in front of the statue.

Zhou Qian circled the statue, focusing on its eyeballs. Seeing him get very close to the statue, even reaching out to touch it, He Xiaowei couldn’t help but warn, “Qian’er, be careful of any traps.”

“The only trap and risk is that it will take us to different times and spaces, spreading us apart,” Zhou Qian said. “However, this isn’t a risk that can be avoided by not getting close to it. The range its eyes can illuminate is very wide, covering the entire instance map, and even its eyes might rotate.”

“That makes sense. Wait, look over there—”

He Xiaowei raised his voice, pointing in the direction of the graveyard.

Zhou Qian’s gaze left the statue and followed the direction pointed by He Xiaowei, only to see the pyramid-shaped temple flicker once and then suddenly disappear.

But then it suddenly appeared very close to the players. The players all looked over, seeing its doors open on their own.

A woman walked out of the deep corridor with the door open. Tartar had previously disguised herself as an inconspicuous middle-aged woman in front of the players.

But the woman who walked out this time had flawless beauty—quite different from the middle-aged woman before—but her face still retained a few familiar expressions, allowing people to recognize her as Tartar without a doubt.

This was indeed the true form of Goddess Difu.

Difu smiled at the players. “You came here supposedly to help the villagers, yet they deceived you into being sacrificed. You did nothing, yet the villagers slandered you as murderers… How does it feel, to be wrapped in lies and betrayal? Isn’t it awful?”

“You can punish them. Just go into the temple and curse them. Your hatred is sufficient. The power needed for the curse is also sufficient. They will die.”

Zhou Qian stepped forward, lazily looking at Difu. “They will die, but not because of our curse, but because of Amei’s curse. And that was your plan, wasn’t it?”

Beside him, He Xiaowei couldn’t help but ask in a low voice, “What do you mean? She-she’s the mastermind, isn’t she?”

“Everything started with the betrayal of the King of the Kingdom of Words towards his wife, all orchestrated by Difu. The golden feathers were just a huge lure she gave. Healing powers?” Zhou Qian’s gaze was coldly fixed on Difu. “It’s the root of all evil. It’s clearly meant to kill everyone.”

He Xiaowei asked, “What’s her purpose…?”

Zhou Qian replied, “She has already told us her purpose. I guess the Prayer Temple moves automatically. It smells the scent of evil emotions like hatred, betrayal, lies, and then it moves towards that scent, appearing there, waiting for people to go in and curse.”

“With the key brought by the King of the Land of Silence, Difu obtained complete freedom, henceforth, the Prayer Temple could move between different places and even travel through time freely.”

“Difu, I’m afraid, feeds on negative factors like lies and betrayal, becoming increasingly powerful.”

“But what if there are no lies or betrayals?” He Xiaowei asked.

“If there are no lies, she creates lies. If there’s no betrayal, she creates betrayal.”

Zhou Qian coldly said to Difu, “When we deserters arrived at Nameless Village, the people here were already killed. You had no new food to use. You could only forcibly create food.”

“But what conflicts could we have just by farming and mining? How could strong negative emotions for you to devour be born?”

“You could only bring us to the past—the past filled with killing and betrayal in Nameless Village.”

“You let us participate in the Samhain festival, let us be betrayed by the villagers, let us be treated as murderers… just to make us produce negative emotions, and then devour these emotions. Even now, you come with the Prayer Temple, wanting to see us kill each other, right?”

With a slight sigh, Difu softly began, “I have wandered the world for thousands of years, listening to all sins, absorbing all sins. But I actually did it for your sake. The more evil I eat, the less evil remains in this world.”

At this point, Difu smiled again, her smile tinged with bitterness and undisguised mockery.

She continued, “Along the way, I’ve tasted the utmost evil of humanity. You’ll never understand how heavy my burden is. You only need to know one thing… The evil thoughts of humans lie within your hearts. For instance—”

“I indeed appeared before the King of the Kingdom of Words. But him falling in love with me and betraying his wife were his choices. The evil within his bones led him to make those choices.”

“And another example. I indeed sent the feathers to the King of the Land of Silence and showed its healing powers… but what happened later was far beyond my expectations. Turning the heroic figure Amei into a sinner for eternity, even making her a horse for ten years… those weren’t my deeds. When I sent the feathers, I only wanted to deceive him to unlock my constraints. I never imagined humans could be so evil. Of course, thanks to this… I’ve become more and more powerful.”

“I was born from lies and betrayal, entirely forged from the evil thoughts of you humans. So, instead of seeing me as evil, it’s more accurate to say that humans themselves are evil.”

At this point, Difu suddenly smiled, raising her hand towards the direction of the statue, her gaze becoming profound.

She continued in a bewitching tone, “Humans will never disappoint me. I just do something… and you start killing each other. Now let’s see. What surprise can you few deserters give me— the negative elements related to evil thoughts on you are already sufficient to truly open the temple. No matter where you go, the temple will be with you.”

“Please, enter the temple… As long as you curse your teammate inside, the curse will certainly come true.”

Hearing this, Zhou Qian immediately turned back to look at the statue.

The statue quickly started rotating! At the same time, the three pairs of pupils on the three heads began to display red, yellow, and blue colors. Then the pupils also started rotating, directly shooting small beams of light at the players.

Thus, no matter how close the players stood, they could be observed by the different colored pupils!

“I was right. We’ll be separated.” Zhou Qian hurriedly told everyone, “First, do not randomly kill Difu—she is a bird. If we kill her, we’ll die directly for violating the prohibition!”

“Second, she feeds on betrayal and lies. All these negative factors will only make her stronger. So, no matter what you see, hold on to your heart. Otherwise, she’ll only become harder to defeat.”

“Third, whoever dares to curse a teammate in the temple, even if you survive, the first thing I’ll do after leaving the instance is to get rid of you!”

Beside him, Qi Liuxing felt his eyes struck by a red light. The moment the red light flashed, it stimulated him to instinctively close his eyes. He quickly reopened them within half a second and found his surroundings had completely changed.

Difu was gone, and so were most of his teammates.

He turned back, only to see the Prayer Temple and Ke Yuxiao standing beside the temple.

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