Su Ming’an picked up so equipnt.
Eni dropped a bracelet that added fla attack, while Flora didn’t lose anything. Su Ming’an was genuinely worried she’d drop another skirt and achieve a "grand slam"; the barrage was already laughing like crazy.
After witnessing the scene of him killing Eni as if slaughtering a dog, Old Te beca utterly submissive, obediently handing over the stone fragnt to him.
As for Fire Control Hettos, he just left, and he, about to lose his sanity, did not kneel and beg for rcy like Kael Nashe did before. He had his dignity, even in the face of losing his sanity, he preferred to wait for death sowhere out of sight.
Latter, while inspecting the farm, Su Ming’an passed by a slaughterhouse.
Through the window, he saw his final target, Myatu, standing inside the house, slaughtering slaves. These slaves were ruthlessly dissected and placed on the sacrifice field inside the house, a scene that looked both brutal and bloody.
Su Ming’an opened the door, took control of Myatu, and forced him to explain everything about the farm.
Struggling in vain, Myatu had no choice but to spill everything. He said there were three managers on the farm: himself, the farm owner Old Te, and Bo’er. All of them possessed a slight Black Sheep power and were all eager to make it their own. However, due to different ideologies, their actions were not the sa.
Myatu was a devout Bai Shen believer, choosing to use human blood as an offering and bathing in incense every night, chanting the prayer words from the myths in an attempt to awaken Bai Shen.
Bo’er, on the other hand, was a freak without any faith. He often uttered things like "Deities should not exist, gods originate from human faith", deliberately slaughtering the auspicious Black Sheep, demonstrating his power in front of so ignorant tribespeople, hoping to gain their faith and ascend to godhood himself.
As for Old Te, he pinned his hopes on the players and the Guide, hoping that after all the altars were carved, he, as the farm owner, could gain the power of the Black Sheep.
Listening to Myatu’s trembling voice, Su Ming’an realized that the tribespeople of Qiongdi had their own thoughts, and various seemingly feasible thods had been adopted by them, truly a hundred schools of thought contending.
Humans are indeed rich and diverse.
"I, I trust you, adventurer." Unexpectedly, Myatu also started with this rhetoric:
"I think you are a good person, you probably won’t kill , may I ask you... to collect so things for ?"
...
"Ding Dong!"
[You’ve obtained a C-level temporary quest: Human Blood.]
[Quest description: Bo’er hopes you can bring him so Human Blood. In exchange, he will give you a Bai Shen Stone infused with spirit.]
[Quest reward: Bai Shen Stone·Three]
...
"Heh." Su Ming’an chuckled.
These three NPCs, left here, should have been for the interaction of those Black Sheep Players, once they got the three stone fragnts, they would try their luck at the central sacrifice field.
Only, these NPCs happened to bump into him, a wandering Ghost of Jiu Shen, due to the Rulers’ foundational goodwill, these NPCs were especially quick to trust and hand over things.
This ant that all three stone tablets would fall into his hands alone.
"I won’t do the quest, hand over your Bai Shen Stone," Su Ming’an said.
Myatu’s face changed, "Adventurer, we have a good relationship, I just taught you the Pursuer’s skill. I think you are not the kind to force others with violence... I, I also have a daughter, she is about your age this year, maybe you two could get to know each other..."
He was at this point suddenly kicked by Xiber.
She kicked him very hard, and even though her physical strength limited the force of the blow, it still sent the bound Myatu tumbling backward to the ground.
"Su Ming’an, you go outside. I’ll deal with him and help you retrieve the stone," Xiber said.
She pulled out a small knife from her bosom, its blade very sharp, seemingly designed for slicing flesh.
Su Ming’an was curious about how she would proceed, so he stood by the door.
Xiber gripped the handle of the knife, tossed it in the air, and ran her fingers over the blade, as if familiarizing herself with its feel.
She stepped forward, grabbed the fallen yatu’s hair, and placed a foot on his abdon.
Su Ming’an watched as she held yatu with one hand, tied up, and with the other hand wielding the knife, the blade slowly touching yatu’s facial skin.
...The scene that followed was too grueso to watch.
Su Ming’an found it hard to describe what Xiber did in the ten minutes that followed. In any case, once the ten minutes were up, his live broadcast room was filled with pleas for rcy in the form of bullet comnts.
[Sister Xiber, Sister Xiber! Spare my life, please. I was blind before, mocking you...]
[What’s the use of shouting here? She can’t see it.]
[Ming’an bro, maintain a green ecological live broadcast room. Please ask Sister Xiber to stop creating such bloody scenes, it scared my baby!]
[Damn, yatu’s blood exploded...]
[Poor yatu... he begged for rcy, gave up the stone, and Xiber still carves him, not a spot on his body was left untouched...]
[She’s really torturing him without changing her expression... It’s giving goosebumps. Is she really just a teenage girl?]
[I think I understand how she killed Kael Nashe that day. Although Xiber’s strength is indeed not strong, her thods are ruthless. She has all the qualities of a Slaughter, Kael Nashe probably underestimated her.]
[Xiber is too cruel. Killing without blinking an eye, this contrast... I find her really scary. One mont she’s as humble as if abandoned by the whole world, the next mont she’s slaughtering like a butcher. I think she’s scarier than any other Guide, really like a Madman.]
"Swoosh."
After tossing the knife in her hand a half-circle, Xiber precisely caught the blade between two fingers. The dark red blood slowly dripped down the blade edge, the silvery surface now stained with a crimson hue.
On the ground, yatu convulsed, his skin peeling away from flesh, his face a bloody indistinct ss. It was impossible to tell where his nose and eyes were, as Xiber had ground them into a pulp.
In those brief ten minutes, she exhibited outstanding butchering skills, reducing yatu to prey akin to a pig or dog. With each slice of the knife, the separation of muscle from bone was like an artful execution.
"Your slate." Turning around, she extended her bloodied hand, offering Su Ming’an the Bai Shen Stone, now speckled with drops of blood.
Her gaze was calm, a faint flush on her face, as if unaware of the horrors she had just committed. Yet, across the screen, a billion viewers were thoroughly frightened.
Su Ming’an accepted the stone.
Since entering this Sacrifice Field, the previously ek Xiber seed to suddenly unleash her true self. Not only did she decisively kill Bo’er, but she also tortured yatu in a brutal, prolonged manner. Now, with her face sared with blood, she looked like a Madman. Her white hair disheveled, her eyes dark, her hands bloodstained, she complented the eerie darkness of the slaughterhouse as if a Ghost lurking in the night, waiting to kill.
The suspended pig carcasses on hooks above gently swayed in the night breeze, while the red-robed murderer stood among the red and black decay, a silvery knife in her hand gleaming with an icy light.
She wore a red mantle, like the beautiful fur of a trapped beast, inexplicably exuding a sense of morbidity and despair.
Suddenly, the flas in the nearby fireplace flickered, emitting a soft "pop." She moved slightly, sliding the dagger back into the sheath at her waist.
At that mont, Su Ming’an profoundly realized the abnormality of this Guide.
He found it difficult to guess whether she was always like this, and had been pretending to survive, or if she had purposefully acted timid and weak to accompany him, or whether her spirit had been affected to beco so cruel.
"You..." he began to speak.
Xiber interrupted his speech:
"iyatu, the actual Ruler of the Trenmisu Farm, disguised as a farm laborer, lured foreigners to the farm. He set traps to capture mbers of small Tribes, trafficked in slaves, and perpetrated blood sacrifices with extre brutality, ripping them open and dismbering them. To date, there have been three digits’ worth of victims around Trenmisu Farm.
—And he did all this just to awaken the legendary Bai Shen. He wanted to rouse the Bai Shen that could Bless Qiongdi with the lives of these ’lowly ones,’ believing it to be utterly righteous—He felt that he, who bore the sin of slaughter, was a most ’devout’ Believer."
Xiber cleaned her fingers one by one, fingers with frostbite and thick calluses, her movents slow and gentle:
"...Human faith in Deities is a kind of freedom. But all freedom, when unrestricted, leads to exploitation by the strong over the weak. Even so, they cloak it with a veil of righteousness, waving the banner of so-called devout faith, beautifying their ’noble’ actions."
As she spoke, she lifted her hand to wipe away the blood spots on her face:
"—But what is noble, what is devout? No one asked them to bear such sins.
The selfish disguise themselves as selfless, the vile wave the flag of nobility. Big Tribes oppress small Tribes, small Tribes oppress Exiles, using the na of ’faith’ to oppress and rule.
In this land of Qiongdi, such hypocrisy is common.
...Just now, I rely gave them a taste of their own dicine. Did I scare you?"
She set down the bloodied cloth, her three fingers relaxing their grip.
The red and white checkered cloth slowly fell, gradually covering the face of iyatu, who died with eyes wide open in unwillingness and greed.
—Did he feel content with this "noble" act of blood sacrifice to the great Bai Shen in his final ten minutes?
And, did he ever regret the ritual that was forcefully carried out on others?
Xiber no longer looked at the ghastly body on the ground. She picked up her hunting shotgun that was leaning to the side and walked towards Su Ming’an standing at the door.
The night breeze lifted her rcury-like flowing white hair, which seed to rge with the fluff of the night. Her eyes took on a sticky honey hue in the light of the fireplace’s flas.
"I know your confusion, my goal is to beco divine. Just like Po." she said.
"Why do you want to beco divine?" Su Ming’an asked, "Can you tell now?"
"If I obtain the power of a Deity, I can change so things." She said, her eyes shining brightly:
"I want... to break that Black Wall, eliminate the generational Curse, and let the people of Qiongdi attain light and freedom."
As she spoke, there was a prairie-like calm in her eyes.
—No one is destined to be born bearing a Curse.
She wanted them, each one, to live under the sunshine.
...
"You’re having a hard enough ti staying alive, and now you’re thinking of becoming divine." Su Ming’an said.
"Aren’t you a top-ranked adventurer?" Xiber said, "Having observed your actions these past few days, don’t I deserve a bit of ambition?"
She said this with a firm voice: "I’m not like Po, who wants to masquerade as a Bai Shen. I want to beco a new God, so I won’t need to collect the three Authorities of the Black Sheep, Raven, and Black Python. Just owning my unique Authority will suffice—I already have my own Authority, Prophecy, just lacking Faith and Energy. As for Energy, if I win in the end, I can obtain the Energy left behind by the original Bai Shen. But Faith is a tricky matter... "
She fell silent at that.
She blinked slightly, her eyelashes quivering with the motion of her eyes.
"—Because you are a Believer of Jiu Shen, you, with the aura of Jiu Shen, can’t gain the devout Faith of others, can you?" Su Ming’an asked.
"...Yes." Xiber replied.
"Why don’t you abandon your faith in Jiu Shen?" Su Ming’an asked.
Su Ming’an had already considered that he had the ability to lead her to ultimate victory, as long as Xiber chose to give up her faith in Jiu Shen. He could create montum for her, using his Ruler status to increase favorability, causing those ignorant Tribesn to [believe] in her. In doing this, she could acquire [Energy] in the end and beco a new deity.
Of course, he could also try to beco divine himself. After all, he already had the folllowing of Raven, who had once referred to him as "Lord Bai Shen."
It was a matter of choice, then.
...
[—Should he let Xiber beco a new God, or should he choose to resurrect Bai Shen himself?]
These seed to be two completely different ending paths.
Unsure which ending would fulfill her vision of overturning the Black Wall and dispelling the Curse.
She would hope for a perfect HE. A conclusion to bring joy to the people of this land. The people living in this World had suffered too much misfortune. It was this cruel World and ignorant Faith that had driven a fifteen-year-old girl to this point.
They lived lives even more agonizing and difficult than the residents of Pulaya.
"But I can’t give up on my faith in Jiu Shen." Xiber shook her head: "Sorry, I cannot do that one thing."
"...Is that so." Su Ming’an could not understand this kind of zealous faith.
Despite being an unacceptable Evil God, despite making her suffer so much hardship, why would she rather be continuously ostracized than give up her faith in Jiu Shen?
If she continued to believe in Jiu Shen, she, perated with the aura of Jiu Shen, simply couldn’t gain the devout faith of others, simply couldn’t beco divine.
In that case... it might as well be him who tried to resurrect Bai Shen.
Su Ming’an smiled: "Anyway, let’s postpone the issue of acquiring ’Faith.’ For now, let’s just keep winning until the end."
Xiber glanced at him.
"Alright." She curled her lips.
...
...
[The drear, she said, she wants to ’beco divine.’]
[But no one would believe soone full of Jiu Shen’s aura, nor can anyone offer her enough ’Faith’ to beco divine, right?]
[Her initial Faith has beco her ultimate shackle.]
[That day, in front of the Sacrifice Field, the drear inscribed the Pattern Mark of Jiu Shen.]
[She said.]
[Let’s begin.]
[— "Jiu Shen·Reincarnation Journal"]
...
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