After reporting her safety to Yin Chen and the others, Lan Yu Heng naturally settled down at the tavern.
She could not leave just yet. Although Gina was full of guilt toward her and had even given her a key to the storeroom,
that storeroom held large quantities of gold bars, priceless crystals and gemstones, specially processed dried herbs, and all kinds of strange liquids bottled in every color imaginable…
But Gina had not said a single word about the Saint Roland Cross Society or the secret treasure hidden by the cardinal. Every time, she managed to change the subject without leaving a trace, using intense emotion to cover up the truly crucial information.
She kept marveling at how high Lan Yu Heng’s 【spirituality】 was, saying that she truly deserved to be the descendant of such a powerful witch. Since that was the case, Lan Yu Heng certainly would not let the opportunity pass. Without hesitation, she agreed to learn about witches from Gina.
After all, spirituality was currently the only clue they had that was connected to the Saint Roland Cross Society.
The two “hit it off immediately.” Fueled by copious amounts of alcohol, they stayed up the entire night and began by learning how to distinguish gemstones.
According to Gina, every different crystal and mineral in the world contained a different elemental energy. The oxblood ring Lan Yu Heng had worn earlier was a special piece of jewelry specifically used to test bloodline and spirituality.
When an ordinary person with no connection to divinely bestowed spirituality wore it, nothing unusual would happen.
Lan Yu Heng had some private doubts. Why did spirituality have to be described as something bestowed by a god?
Gina was already a witch, one of the most feared and ostracized super-heretics among Catholics. If outsiders discovered her in this world, she would definitely be tied to a stake and burned… Yet she still believed gods existed?
Perhaps the Saint Roland Cross Society was still a religious organization in some sense. What they opposed might only be Catholicism, not Jesus Christ Himself.
Countless guesses passed through Lan Yu Heng’s mind, but she revealed none of them on her face and continued clinging to Gina while frantically absorbing knowledge.
She learned quickly. She carved herself a Braille astrolabe from a wooden board and mastered many divination methods, such as shaking a brass bell to distinguish danger, or predicting the next few minutes through purple lightning that appeared from nowhere inside a crystal ball.
Since she could not identify herbs with her eyes, she felt their leaves, stems, and roots one by one with her hands. Since she could not see a gemstone’s color, she memorized the subtle textures of different minerals by touch. Disabled but indomitable, and absurdly gifted on top of it.
Gina’s expression grew increasingly complicated. Her guilt and pity gradually turned into genuine fondness and amazement, until she even lamented that Lan Yu Heng had arrived far too late.
“Oh, darling, you absolutely mustn’t die easily. That would be a tremendous loss to this world. Come with me quickly. I’ll teach you how to ward off evil spirits.”
Gina led her behind the tavern and into the residential district submerged in darkness, where ordinary townspeople had built rows of simple single-story houses.
Tall brick walls cut off the neighbors’ spaces from one another and also blocked drunken violence from the tavern. Everyone liked going to the tavern. Everyone hated living beside one.
And precisely because of that, no one could easily pry into Gina’s secrets.
Beside Gina’s little brick house, a broad stretch of flat ground lay covered with thatch. It contained her private pigsty, sheep pen, and cattle shed.
The fat, sturdy livestock were drowsy with sleep, occasionally letting out a few low grunts and cries from their shelters. Yet strangely, Lan Yu Heng detected none of the rank animal odor or smell of manure.
All she smelled were fresh herbal sachets, delicate flowers damp with dew, and wheat straw and hay carrying the warmth of sunlight.
Amazing. She absolutely had to find a way to learn this miraculous deodorizing technique!
Lan Yu Heng was brimming with enthusiasm, but in the very next instant, a powerful stench of blood burst into the air…
A tidal volume of ox blood poured out, accompanied by the bull’s agonized bellows as it scraped the ground, an explosive spray of manure released when the pain made it lose control of its bowels, muddy kidneys and coils of intestine falling to the ground with wet splats, and a huge, fresh, steaming heart.
Gak, gak, croak!
Immediately afterward, a toad’s sharp, brief scream sounded beside her ear.
“Careful, darling. Don’t prick your hand. These are thorny branches I dried especially. Wrap them tightly around the ox heart, drive an iron nail straight through it, then pin the toad dead at the end. Be ruthless. You need to kill it in a single strike.”
Lan Yu Heng paused, then groped for and accepted the wet, steaming ox heart and the dried thorn branches covered in spikes. Following Gina’s instructions, she worked with a blank expression and bound the still-beating heart tightly.
Clang!
The toad hung from the end of the iron nail, its legs twitching from time to time, utterly lifeless.
“Very good! Hang it above your chimney from now on, and evil spirits will never be able to sneak through your window again.”
…
In the dead of night, both women were covered in blood and busily working with tremendous enthusiasm.
Meanwhile, Song Zang was lying in Yin Chen’s arms, dreaming.
He dreamed that Yin Chen gave birth to a fair, chubby little boy who curled in Song Zang’s arms and wailed at the top of his lungs.
Immediately afterward, the handsome, middle-aged, blue-eyed priest with no physical body limped into view before the three of them.
Not only did he refrain from attacking Yin Chen, he even took it upon himself to arrange the newborn’s sacred baptism. Declaring himself the godfather, he shamelessly bestowed the child with the name “Jesus Christ”…
Song Zang suspected the priest was trying to latch onto God’s coattails. Rather speechlessly, he let the man do as he pleased and did not stop him.
Because the one with the real problem was the baby named Jesus himself.
He seemed to genuinely hate Yin Chen.
Whenever Yin Chen came even a little closer, the baby’s expression would instantly distort. He would throw back his head and cry without restraint, crying and crying as though his tears could flood Jinshan Temple.
Elio’s Note: “Flood Jinshan Temple” refers to a famous episode in The Legend of the White Snake, where Bai Suzhen floods Jinshan Temple while trying to reclaim Xu Xian. Here it is spectacularly dramatic shorthand for a baby crying enough to cause a natural disaster.
Unfortunately, the thing Yin Chen hated most was noise.
Listening to the infant’s endless wailing made Yin Chen more and more irritable, until even Song Zang could no longer stop him.
With a dark expression, he drew his blade without hesitation and insisted on chopping his own “flesh and blood” to death on the spot.
At the critical moment when the two were locked in confrontation, a gigantic hand suddenly descended from the sky. It tore through layer after layer of dark clouds, snatched Yin Chen’s long blade away, then picked up the wailing Jesus and accurately tossed both things into Song Zang’s arms.
It was an extraordinarily strange hand because it was far too perfect. Its smooth skin flowed like silk, without a single wrinkle or line that human skin should possess. It did not even have fingernails. The ends of its fingers looked like smooth, delicate white sausages…
It resembled a perfectly drawn animated limb that had forcibly broken through the shackles of a virtual world and intruded into reality with a forceful, condescending posture.
Song Zang knew he was dreaming, but he did not dare lower his guard.
Instinctively, he stood in front of Yin Chen and stared expressionlessly at the bizarre entity, one hand gripping the saber hilt while the other protected the baby. Every muscle in his body tightened, ready to strike.
Yin Chen’s blade really was interesting. The instant the thought of cutting someone arose in his mind, the snow-white saber began faintly heating up. It trembled and breathed with excitement in time with his heartbeat, continuously drawing away his vitality and forcing his body into battle readiness… This feels kind of good. I really want to chop this hand into minced meat…
Song Zang bit hard on his lower lip, adjusted his breathing, and tried to suppress the inexplicable rush of pleasure. No wonder. No wonder Yin Chen always wanted to chop something whenever he was in a bad mood. This blade had to be incredibly satisfying to use.
Just then, however, a distant sigh carrying its own ethereal reverberation drifted from the horizon.
“Good child.”
The voice was neither male nor female, neither old nor young. It sounded nothing like a living person, yet Song Zang’s restless urge to slaughter vanished without a trace in an instant.
It forcibly drew the violent, dark thoughts out of Song Zang and made him abruptly relax beyond his control, bathing him in a warm and gentle sacred current. Even the loudly crying baby stopped sobbing and stared blankly at the sky.
Most infuriatingly, Song Zang did not dislike the feeling.
He kept a tight grip on the long saber, stopped Yin Chen from speaking, and asked softly, “Who are you?”
“That child’s father.”
“…You’re God?”
“I am now trapped in confinement, entangled with another mad child, and unable to descend into the world. Take good care of Jesus for me. Your kindness will be richly rewarded.”
What reward could He possibly give him? Song Zang lacked nothing.
Song Zang looked thoughtful. His voice became even softer, yet the words were a gentle threat. “Hello, God. I want my reward right now. Otherwise, I’ll stab your child to death.”
“Greed is the foremost of the Seven Deadly Sins. You must never…”
“I want your supreme knowledge. Hurry up and give it to me, okay?” Song Zang wore an innocent expression as the corner of his lips quietly lifted. “Let’s make a fair trade. As long as you give me enough knowledge right now, I can guarantee Jesus will be raised fair and chubby.”
The other party fell silent and did not answer for a long time, seemingly weighing the advantages and disadvantages.
Yin Chen, standing behind Song Zang under his protection, was silent too. He said nothing throughout the entire exchange and did not interfere with a single thing Song Zang did. He merely stared dazedly at Song Zang’s exquisite profile and its faint, ambiguous smile, inexplicably losing himself in thought.
Song Zang grew uncomfortable under his stare and decided to speed things up. Smiling brightly, he raised the saber.
The cold, sharp edge rested against the side of the baby’s tender neck. The child blankly reached out a tiny hand to pat the hilt and made two fragmented, meaningless murmurs.
Coldness surged through the black eyes hidden beneath dense lashes, yet Song Zang tilted his head with feigned innocence. “I would never casually hurt anyone, but I really do need your knowledge. Any kind will do. Give me a little. It won’t cost you anything.”
As he spoke, his wrist moved lightly. Bright red blood seeped from the gap in the flesh and dripped one drop at a time onto the snow-white blade.
Waaaaah! Boohoo…
The baby’s loud crying once again shook the heavens.
“See? I really will chop your child to death.”
God: …
After a long stalemate, another helpless, gentle sigh drifted from the sky.
“Song Zang, I love you.
“I love every one of my children, and I will love you forever.”
“Love, my ass…”
The final heated rebuttal came from Yin Chen, who had suddenly reached the end of his patience. Yes, he was irritable again, but he did not have time to finish cursing.
The instant his words were cut off, Song Zang abruptly woke up.
He sat up in bed and gulped down breath after breath. Then he felt repeated trails of wetness carrying the taste of rust slide down his cheeks.
After feeling around for a moment, Song Zang discovered that he was bleeding from all seven orifices. An abnormal burning, stabbing pain spread through his chest.
His muddled head buzzed as well. His temples throbbed on their own, sending out a neuralgic pain ordinary people could hardly endure, as though a rusty steel needle had quietly pierced through his skull while he slept.
Song Zang breathed rapidly. Every exhale brought up more blood that he could not suppress. He did not dare use his brain to think about anything profound, nor did he dare move carelessly.
He knew he was not in mortal danger. He was simply being injured in a bizarre, repetitive process, with the primary damage centered in his brain. At the same time, those utterly uncanny injuries were being rapidly healed by another strange force.
Two powers that did not belong to him rampaged through his body without restraint, like invisible hands tearing him toward opposite ends before forcefully piecing together the scraps and fragments created by the collision.
It hurt so badly he kept feeling as though he truly was about to die, only for him to recover completely again immediately afterward…
Yin Chen had awakened as soon as Song Zang stirred. At a loss, he grabbed Song Zang’s wrist and tried to do something to help, but Song Zang pinned him down firmly and absolutely refused to let him move.
“I’m fine. I’ll be okay after I finish coughing up blood. Do not make me use that leech egg-sac juice. Absolutely not!” Song Zang’s attitude was resolute.
Having leech egg sacs hatch inside his wound was, to him, even more terrifying than experiencing bone-eroding agony.
“…Okay. We won’t use it. Will you let me hold you?”
Yin Chen could not bear to watch Song Zang spit blood. A faint plea entered his coaxing tone.
Song Zang nodded with difficulty. The next second, Yin Chen’s warm body pressed tightly against him, carefully gathering him into an embrace.
The oil lamp sat far away, and neither of them had the attention to light it. The bedroom was pitch-dark, pale moonlight stretching inward along the window ledge.
Yin Chen held the person in his arms tightly. The side of his face disappeared into boundless darkness. His thin lips pressed together involuntarily, and his expression looked unusually pale and dazed.
Song Zang was drained of strength by the pain. His limp body slowly slid downward until he rested his head against the side of Yin Chen’s taut waist and abdomen, as though seeking comfort.
Yin Chen did not stop him. Scorching body heat passed through the fabric and mingled with the blood gradually cooling between them.
“The thing in my belly… moved.” Yin Chen looked even more at a loss.
“Mm. The baby’s worried about me.”
Song Zang was weak, but his tone lifted. He nuzzled against Yin Chen’s abs again and again, then suddenly heard the person beside him begin breathing heavily.
“…I’m a little sensitive right now, Song Zang. Don’t touch me carelessly.” Yin Chen’s voice was hoarse, but honest.
Although his body was still suffering incomprehensible pain, Song Zang’s mood bizarrely soared when he saw Yin Chen looking uncomfortable.
“I’m going to touch you anyway.”
Taking advantage of his injury, he shamelessly helped himself.
And Yin Chen was very easy to bully right now. He did not voice another refusal. Pressing his lips together, he turned his head away and closed his eyes… obediently endured it without moving at all.
No one knew how long passed before the bloody tears trailing from the corners of Song Zang’s eyes gradually began to clot and finally stopped pouring out uncontrollably.
At last, the intense pain faded. Every taut muscle in his body relaxed, and immediately afterward, his vision went black and he fainted outright.
His chaotic brain finally began to function again, and the dormancy mechanism meant to protect him restarted after a long delay.
Even before losing consciousness, a faint teasing smile still lingered at the corner of Song Zang’s lips.
Yin Chen silently wiped his face. Expressionless, he peeled off Song Zang’s shirt and cleaned every trace of blood from his body.
Unable to deal with the inexplicable mix of embarrassment and irritation in his heart, Yin Chen pinched Song Zang’s smooth, newly restored face and tugged it back and forth.
“Bad person.”
“Song Zang, you’re the worst person I’ve ever met in my life.”
“You even call me a pervert, but who’s more perverted than you, hm? Damn you. Guess how badly I want to chop you to death.”
…
As he continued muttering abuse, the system screen suddenly lit up in front of his eyes.
【Clearance Requirement: Obtain the gift of His supreme knowledge (1/3)】
Yin Chen was silent for a moment, then gritted his teeth and added, “Reckless pervert with no sense of self-preservation.”
＊
Meanwhile, the asylum was even livelier than the two of them in the middle of the night.
It was a freezing winter night more than ten degrees below zero, with fine snow still drifting from the sky, yet fires had suddenly broken out without warning.
The ignition points were scattered and appeared completely random. In reality… every one of them came from a room where a player was staying, including the library where Zhang Ming Shen lived alone.
For some unknown reason, every heraldic emblem of the Holy Lance Empire personally drawn by Song Zang had started burning at the same time, dazzling flames swaying amid the wind and snow.
The rich, intense fragrance of roses suddenly erupted from the fire and spread to every corner of the vast asylum.
Everyone woke from their dreams in alarm and hurriedly evacuated the fires.
They did not dare directly disturb Yin Chen behind his tightly shut door. Instead, they called orderlies over to deal with the smaller fires and left the butler to keep watch. Everyone else rushed off without delay to help Zhang Ming Shen extinguish the blaze.
The library was burning most fiercely. Flammable material was everywhere, and many unique copies of ancient books were stored inside.
If the fire were truly allowed to rage unchecked, not only would it hurt the players, this world’s historical and cultural record would suffer enormous losses as well.
The players moved quickly, making several trips to carry water and haul piles of snow. After considerable effort, they finally extinguished the raging flames before they could grow out of control.
Everyone was blackened with smoke and soot. Sitting in a circle before Zhang Ming Shen’s charred bedroom, they exchanged silent, bewildered looks.
What exactly had happened? Why had the main mission advanced by one step? Who had done it?
No one knew. Every face wore the exact same blank confusion.
Lin Xing had a nosebleed. He casually tore off two strips of cloth and stuffed them into his nostrils, then rubbed his temples and said hoarsely, “My head hurts so damn much. It feels like someone’s stirring my brain with a stick… This definitely isn’t from breathing smoke. Any of you feel anything similar?”
Li Ming shook her head and pulled down the black gauze wrapped around her head. With a miserable expression, she said, “No headache, but a huge clump of my hair fell out. My temple suddenly went bald for no reason at all.”
“What?! Baby, come here and let me see.” Xu Wei Ran lit an oil lamp and frowned as he examined her. Puzzled, he said, “You really are a little bald, but I don’t seem to feel any discomf…”
Before he could finish, three of his teeth fell out in front of everyone’s eyes.
One canine, one front tooth, and the last was even a wisdom tooth that had been hidden inside his gums.
The instant they fell out, all three rapidly blackened and began to stink as though being corroded. They rolled several times across the floor, picked up charred ash carrying leftover sparks, smoldered with a strange odor, and finally dissolved into foul black sludge that merged with the dirt.
Xu Wei Ran stood frozen in place and watched the entire process of his teeth decaying. Only after a long time did he mutter, “What the fuck!”
Even the words “what the fuck” whistled through the gaps in his teeth, which was rather embarrassing.
Only Zhang Ming Shen was completely fine. His Resistance was high enough. He grinned foolishly, scratched his head, and indicated that he felt perfectly healthy.
“Something is definitely targeting us. Good thing we had those magic paintings from Song Zang. Otherwise, if we’d slept straight through until morning… that would’ve been awkward.” Xu Wei Ran looked ready to cry as he spoke darkly.
Lin Xing sprawled on the floor without any concern for appearances and rubbed his head. “Did any of you experience anything weird in the middle of the night? Tell us.”
“Yes. I had an especially wonderful dream.” Li Ming’s eyes lit up.
“Me too!”
Zhang Ming Shen nodded along in agreement.
Everyone took turns describing their dreams. When they finally compared notes, they discovered that all of them had coincidentally experienced incredibly vivid, wonderful dreams that night.
For example, successfully escaping the Infinite Game. Getting married and having a daughter, the whole package. Transmigrating and becoming an absurdly overpowered protagonist…
Every one of them was a dream buried deep inside the players’ hearts, something desperately desired yet impossibly out of reach.
“Fuck, my head’s going to split open! Who the hell is hurting us?”
Just then, Zhang Ming Shen opened the group chat and rapidly typed.
【Zhang Ming Shen: Maybe it isn’t deliberately trying to hurt us. Any entity capable of making all of us dream at once must have an extremely high rank. When I woke up, I had a very familiar sensation of suffocating and nearly dying. My consciousness was unclear, and I almost slipped into a state where I lost my reason and went mad for no cause.】
After reading the message, Lin Xing suddenly understood. His already ashen face became even uglier. “Fuck, a false-god-level entity has appeared!
“Yin Chen and the others must have received knowledge gifted by the false god, but we… all we got was a beautiful illusion that nearly drove us insane.”
If that was the case, then they had even more reason not to disturb Yin Chen.
If Yin Chen was currently receiving knowledge from a higher-ranked entity, his mind would inevitably be in chaos too. Going to find him would be equivalent to delivering themselves straight to their deaths.
Speaking awkwardly through his newly gapped teeth, Xu Wei Ran said, “I have experience surviving an indirect encounter with a false god. At times like this, we have to go to sleep immediately and minimize physical activity. Most importantly, don’t listen, don’t look, don’t think. Especially don’t use your brain.”
Li Ming nodded and added gravely, “Let’s spread bedding on the library floor and supervise each other. If anyone shows signs of going crazy, knock them unconscious immediately. Absolutely don’t hold back.”
The proposal passed unanimously.
Zhang Ming Shen opened the wardrobe that had luckily survived and took out spare bedding to distribute among everyone.
Lin Xing felt genuinely awful and was the first to lie down.
To preserve their sanity, everyone rushed to put their heads down and sleep.
But Lin Xing was in too much pain to fall asleep. The ache spread from his head through his body, and an unreal phantom pain rose across his skin. Silently, he took out the murky potion tucked inside his clothes and applied it to the ribs that still ached faintly.
A miraculous cooling relief and a faint itch appeared at the same time. The lingering pain and bruised blood in his chest were sucked away by tiny, barely perceptible wriggling creatures.
Curled up in the makeshift bedding on the floor, Lin Xing closed his eyes, breathed deeply, and struggled to suppress the urge to keep thinking.
But to his horror, he discovered that he simply could not stop.
He could not control the frantic operation of his brain.
His attention had originally been focused on the leech larvae, but then it abruptly accelerated without warning.
For no apparent reason, he began recalling the stink of Sister Pudu’s saliva when she went mad, imagining the tender infant brutally drowned in an icy basin, and Charlie, the lame red-haired man with a face full of freckles.
What a spectacular death that had been. The brain matter that exploded like fireworks when Charlie died seemed to carry a bizarre rank, bloody smell. One of his eyeballs had flown onto the bedsheet, bald and naked, trailing a few mangled blood vessels and nerves. It looked especially ridiculous…
Lin Xing took a deep breath. This could not continue. He felt as though he was about to go insane.
“Someone knock me out!”
His voice echoed repeatedly, but no one answered.
A chill suddenly entered his heart. He did not dare open his eyes and reached out to touch Xu Wei Ran, who had been lying beside him.
…His hand met empty air.
No people. No bedding. No choking black ash.
The brick floor was freezing cold, and the dark room was silent and empty. He was the only person there.