Chapter 102 Carving the Seven Apertures, Volume One - End
The words "goodbye" still echoed in his ears. Du Yu subconsciously clenched the crystal in his hand. Before he could find an outlet for his anger and other complex emotions, he was pulled back to reason by the reality of his situation.
"Buzz—"
The ground trembled, and the surging water, having failed to grasp the crystals, crashed back down in a fit of rage. A massive sonic boom tore through the air, and a shrill scream echoed continuously within the cave.
The crystal in his hand radiated heat, and in Du Yu's perception, the darkness deep within the cave began to stir again. Without Icaria leading the way, the familiar feeling of being rejected and coveted returned.
But Du Yu gripped the slightly trembling crystal tightly, as if holding some kind of access permit. A chilling aura swept back and forth in the darkness, brushing against Du Yu's skin several times. But in the end, the thing that emerged from the depths of darkness, like countless tentacles, waved in the air in a fit of frustration for a while before reluctantly withdrawing.
Du Yu breathed a slight sigh of relief, but she knew that an even greater challenge awaited her.
The tremors on the ground became more pronounced, but the pool of water remained unusually calm, shrinking as if it had dried up. Without the silvery light of the lake, the golden crystal in my hand became almost the only source of light.
Du Yu rubbed the irregular protrusions on the surface of the crystal with his thumb. Faint music drifted from the distant sky. Du Yu tilted his head and listened for a moment, then suddenly smiled, his purple eyes as bright as ever, brimming with a fierce fire that seemed capable of burning everything.
"Actually, the Gentlemen's Society is your follower, isn't it, [New Sun]?"
The distorted air remained silent.
The skin behind his ears itched as if a million fire-eating ants were crawling around, but Yu was oblivious. He tilted his head and listened for a while, then chuckled. Purple flames shot out and burned around the crystal. He pinched it between his thumb and forefinger and brought it to his lips.
'...What do you want?'
Du Yugang looked up, but before he could even open his mouth, a cluster of dark red flames burst into flame, twisting and elongating, writhing in mid-air to form a line of fire characters, emanating a chilling aura.
Du Yu paused slightly, and Hei Huo keenly caught her hesitation. A new line of fire characters replaced the old one: 'You're bluffing me.'
Du Yu was obviously bluffing him.
From beginning to end, apart from helping [MiMiYin] break into Quark's laboratory and shatter the Holy Grail at the beginning, the evil god [New Sun] was nowhere to be seen in the whole affair.
But evil gods aren't philanthropists; they have no vested interests. So why would [New Sun] risk offending Quark to help [Mimi Yin]?
Not to mention that the Gentlemen's Club has a completely different style from the Pleasure Band. The fact that [MiMiYin] can stand with the Gentlemen's Club members suggests that someone might be secretly pulling strings.
As for the reason why [New Japan] got involved in this matter... the crystal in Du Yu's hand is the answer.
The music in the void suddenly amplified, then abruptly stopped in the next instant. Only by concentrating all one's attention could one barely catch a few fragmented notes.
"【MiMiYin】is almost killed by the incarnation of 【JingHaiLingZhu】." Du Yu commented objectively.
"It could walk before." Blackfire seemed utterly unconcerned about his former ally, offering a completely emotionless assessment of [Mimi Yin's] greed before seamlessly changing the subject, "You don't know its use. Give it to me, and I can give you a satisfactory reward."
"If you want me to give you this, you have to tell me what this crystal is for first, right?"
The black flames dissipated, as did the chilling aura of someone secretly watching. [New Sun] seemed to be a grumpy evil god who turned and left after the cooperation negotiations broke down.
But would someone so meticulously planning something give up so easily? Du Yu knew He was still here; the system surface, visible only to her, lit up, emitting a faint blue light within the dim cave.
[Congratulations to the player for triggering the quest series: [The Evil Sacrifice - Part Two]]
[Mission Description: On the outskirts of a city abandoned by civilization, the rolling gray fog carries the scent of conspiracy. You 'hear' countless groans of pain, resentful wishes, and angry shouts. As the [Lord of Listening], how will you deal with the voices you hear?]
[Mission Requirements: Your actions reveal your choices; you have decided your path—start by utterly destroying this evil sacrifice.]
[Crush the evil god's conspiracy (2/3), devour the divine power crystal under the watchful eye of at least one evil god, and ascend to godhood (2/1), unlock the elemental trait [Listener] (Completed)]
While strolling through the cave with Icaria, Du Yu, out of boredom, started reviewing the whole incident and actually discovered two things that weren't quite right.
First, there's the evil god "New Sun," who conspired with "Mimi-yin" to initiate the Holy Grail theft incident, but then disappeared in the subsequent events.
Secondly, the side quest "Evil Sacrifice - Part 1," which should have been easily triggered before, has been dragged out in the mine for so long, yet the follow-up quests still haven't appeared. From any perspective, what's happening in the mine is far more evil than the Pleasure Trove's harvesting of spiritual energy.
Just as these two thoughts surfaced in his mind almost simultaneously, the system panel popped up on its own, and Du Yu finally understood why the side quest "Evil Sacrifice II" that he had triggered had been slow to appear.
Because in the theft of the Holy Grail, besides the calm and collected Lord of the Sea and the desperate Mimi Yin, there was also the shadow of a third evil god!
Only when Du Yu realizes this can he trigger the second follow-up quest of the side quest.
'You can't use this divine crystal. Give it back to me, and I will forgive your offense.'
Perhaps sensing some unease in Du Yu's long silence, the vanished black fire reappeared, but its dark flames could not illuminate those purple eyes.
It's time.
A thought flashed through her mind like lightning. Ignoring the black fire that lingered in mid-air, as if waiting for her answer, Du Yu grabbed the crystal with one hand and pressed it against her chest. With the other hand, her fingers spread wide and her palm facing down, a torrent of purple fire burst forth, illuminating the cave with a loud "boom".
'Who taught you this ritual? You are no match for the [Purifying Sea]...'
The surging flames filled the entire cave, intricate patterns intertwined in the air, invisible waves tore through the air, and the dark red flames shone brightly, as if they were urgently writing something, but Du Yu didn't even glance at them.
On the system panel, the side quest section was shining brightly as if it were burning. The anger of [New Sun] was the best fuel for the flames. Du Yu was helpless against [New Sun], who had no chance of winning. He could only call Him out to speed up the ritual and let Him also experience the feeling of losing something precious.
The next instant, a tearing pain came from behind his ears. With a "whoosh," three pairs of ear feathers that had grown during his travels in the spirit world also grew in reality. The feathers floated and grew in the air. The joy of new life and the unparalleled pain swept over Du Yu's brain at the same time.
"Hiss... Heh..."
Du Yu suddenly bent over, one hand on her knee, panting heavily. Veins bulged on her forehead, and her eyes stung as if countless reptiles were crowding and biting her. In a wave of dizziness, she unexpectedly recalled the conversation she had overheard while hiding in the underground laboratory.
"Everyone has seven orifices for seeing, hearing, eating and breathing, but this one alone has none. So I tried to carve them out—and so I carved one orifice each day. After seven days, Chaos died."
Du Yu felt as if countless chisels were constantly striking the most vulnerable and delicate areas of her brain. In a daze, she seemed to hear the breath of death on her back.
The next instant, a sigh seemed to come from the depths of her brain, and the crystal in her palm instantly turned into powder and merged into Du Yu's body. In a place she couldn't see, the system panel was flashing wildly as if it had been infected with a virus, the pixels were jumping around and the screen was flickering erratically.
"Thanks."
A whisper, lower than a feather, rang in my ears, and my muddled mind regained a sliver of clarity. The voice was strangely familiar—it was Dong Shi Wu!
The tiny sound vanished in an instant, but it was like the last straw that broke the camel's back, an inconspicuous little hole in a magnificent dam. Countless sounds followed closely behind, bustling and noisy, like a flood that came at the end of the world, and swallowed up the city with a roar.
Joy, pain, disgust, sorrow, suffering...
His voice was filled with countless emotions, enough to make anyone feel suffocated. Yet, strangely, Du Yu managed to hold onto his reason amidst this pressure and straighten his back by gritting his teeth.
The black flames of [New Sun] disappeared, and the music in the distance became increasingly fragmented. Du Yu brought up the panel that had returned to normal. Looking at the number after the brackets [Devouring divine power crystals under the gaze of at least one evil god and ascending to godhood (3/1)], he struggled to tug at his facial muscles and revealed a smile.
"Come on, I'll take you home."
Du Yu spoke slowly and deliberately, each word trembling at the end, as if carrying immense pressure. Her increasingly acute perception broke through the barrier of darkness, and she saw clearly—outside the cave, deep within the spirit realm, and in the distant void so close at hand, three pairs of empty, vacant eyes were watching this place.
But so what?
As Icaria said, when Du Yu was bathed in purple fire, with feathers growing behind his ears, and stood here crushing the divine power crystal, she automatically knew what this cave was.
How exactly does a mortal go to become a god?
Why does the City of the Sun suppress those who transcend?
Why is the last element "Promotion"? Why did she awaken this element?
All the questions became clear when the firelight blazed brightly; the beginning of becoming a god is transcendence!
Transcending the mortal body, transcending the seven emotions and six desires, transcending all obstacles, standing atop the mountains, awaiting the day when the gates of heaven open!
The excruciating pain continued, but it was no longer unbearable. Every inch of skin, every muscle, and every bone in the body was being reorganized and deformed. The silver pool deep in the cave had long since evaporated, and the body was stretching out in the firelight. The ear feathers fluttered gently, and when the eyes opened again, a gray moth was trembling its wings in the amethyst in the eye socket.
This cave is the starting point for mortals to transform, embark on a journey of transcendence, and embark on a journey of blasphemy!
The moment it realized this, the darkness deep within the cave surged, like a apex predator finally spotting its prey, but the prey was no longer the weak creature it once was.
Du Yu smiled slightly, the gray moth in her eye socket trembled its antennae, and the surrounding cave instantly became illusory. She had left the cave and entered the spirit world.
After achieving transcendence with the help of divine power crystals, the gates to the spirit world opened to Du Yu, and the situation of being blocked in the mine and unable to leave would no longer occur.
Du Yu felt a stirring in her heart—although not completely, she was now able to reach certain places deep within the spirit world.
The next instant, two attacks of different attributes suddenly descended without warning, but both missed their target, leaving only a light, lingering voice echoing in the air:
"No need to be so enthusiastic. I will pay you a visit soon."
Deep within the gray fog, in an ancient-style building, Du Yu, who had been asleep for too long, suddenly opened his eyes, his gaze fixed on the gray moths fluttering incessantly.
[Volume 1: The Seven Orifices - End]
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Author's Note: I've finally finished this long volume. I was thinking of writing something more, but I have to get up at 7 am tomorrow and be out all day, so I'll just go to sleep now. orz
Thank you to all my dear readers who have made it this far. Without your encouragement, I wouldn't have been able to persevere through such a long journey. Thank you all (bows). The pace will pick up in the next two volumes. I don't know when I'll get home tomorrow, so I might not be able to squeeze in an update. The second volume, which I've been compiling, will begin the day after tomorrow. Goodnight everyone.
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