Chapter 28 of the character encyclopedia unlocks: A new evil god has appeared! ...
While Cat Beard and his group were discussing tactics, Du Yu was squatting in the Divine Kingdom studying the trash... no, the spoils of war that Divine Fire had collected.
This time, after the purple flame burned the other side, it didn't bring back energy like before. Instead, it returned with a strange flame that was palm-width wide, purplish-black, and looked more like a sponge soaked with water than a flame.
As if sensing something, Du Yu took out a stone bowl to catch it. The strange flame began to curl inward from the bottom, and wisps of black gas spilled out, falling into the bowl and condensing into liquid. By the time the purple flame returned to its original color, the black liquid had just covered the bottom of the bowl.
After being burned by the purple fire, the black water was no longer as evil and filthy as it had been "seen" before; it was now a very pure black.
If I had to use a metaphor, it would be that the multicolored black has turned into pure black.
"What's the use of this?"
Having completed its mission, Zi Huo returned to the center of the altar. Du Yu picked up the bowl, sniffed it, and then showed disgust.
Although she wasn't a picky eater, the fact that this thing had the words "corpse oil" in its name made Du Yu lose all appetite, which was quite unusual.
[Ding-dong~ Congratulations, player has unlocked the [Illustrated Guide] feature]
As a legitimate money-grabbing game, how can it be without a collection of items, a feature that both tricks players into grinding and spending money?
Seeing the new "Encyclopedia" icon on the right side of the desktop, Du Yu suddenly had a bad feeling. The moment she clicked on it, her premonition came true—
The game's encyclopedia is designed like an open book, with nine icons arranged vertically on the left side like a table of contents. There are three icons of the same color, in black, silver, and purple respectively. Clicking an icon will take you to a different screen. It looks very simple, but the content inside—
【Element Compendium - Collection Progress (0.5/9)】
Black icon:
【? (Unlocked)】
【? ? (Unlocking in progress, progress: 0.00001/1)】
[Unlocking in progress, progress: 0.5/1]
Silver icon:
【Destiny (Unlocking in progress, progress: 0.01/1)】
【? (Unlocked)】
[Unlocking in progress: 0.00002/1]
Purple icon:
[Unlocking in progress, progress: 1/6]
[? (Sleeping)]
[Unlocking in progress, progress: 0.4/1]
Du Yu was almost driven mad by this lousy system. There were nine icons in total, and apart from "Fate," they were all question marks! He might as well rename this system the Question Mark System.
In the encyclopedia, there's a red dot on the second black icon. Du Yu clicks on it, maximizing his speechless frustration.
After clicking the icon, many gray squares appeared on the right side of the encyclopedia. Only the first square was half lit up. The pixelated image looked a bit like a stone bowl filled with black water.
Du Yu tried clicking on the stone bowl, and a pop-up window appeared saying "Insufficient sample size, unable to parse", leaving him speechless.
What kind of encyclopedia is this? This is clearly a pay-to-win scheme from another world! Want information? Want to unlock the encyclopedia? Then spend money.
[Hey, there's a super deluxe gift pack for every 1/9 of the illustrations you unlock!]
Seeing Du Yu staring at him with a half-smile, 166 was so frightened that the hairs on its neck stood on end. It flew to Du Yu's shoulder and tapped him on the shoulder like a pounding fist.
Trust me, rewards will be what players crave most.
166's statement is as good as saying nothing at all. The screen full of question marks is just a screen full of empty promises. It's annoying to look at, but you can't help but look at it.
These nine icons should represent the nine superior elements of the extraordinary realm; all superhuman abilities are inseparable from these elements. But what do the colors on the icons mean?
Black, silver... Du Yu looked at the purple that was exactly the same color as his hair. This could not be a coincidence, but why were these three colors?
With too little information to analyze, Du Yu suppressed his doubts, shook the thin layer of black liquid in the bowl, and spent a little faith points to send a message to Cat Whiskers: "You don't need elemental cores to solve the Black Corpse Oil problem; just use the items on the list."
Catwhisker perked up after receiving the divine message. She had already briefly exchanged information with the three people who remained behind, and there were two reasons why they were in such a sorry state.
First, there was a traitor within the group who launched a sneak attack while their main pirate force was away. Second, they somehow obtained a large amount of black corpse oil.
Black corpse oil, if even a tiny bit gets on a person, can irreversibly turn them into a monster. Fortunately, while there's no cure for it, it's extremely rare, only appearing in the mist outside the Fifth Ring Road. Ordinary mist hunters might never even know about this sinister substance in their entire lives.
However, the Bald Gang somehow managed to obtain a large quantity of black corpse oil, catching them off guard and causing them a great loss.
Even though they have returned now, they must be extremely careful when dealing with the Bald Heads Society, and make sure they don't get even a speck of corpse oil on themselves.
With this divine decree from the Lord of Hearing, they could finally feel a little more at ease during battles. Besides that comical list, they also finally learned what that great being was interested in.
A rumor circulates among long-lived Mist Hunters: even evil gods can devour each other.
If the purpose of that being in developing followers is to devour other evil gods, then this is good news for them.
Suppressing his distracting thoughts, Cat Beard passed the divine oracle to the others. With the god's promise, their tactics could be even more aggressive.
...
"That is divine oil bestowed by the great [Coffin Tomb], you are not allowed to desecrate it like this!"
Hu Tiankui, who didn't even flinch when a gun was pointed at his head, sneered upon hearing the words "corpse oil." Ignoring those behind him, he looked at the person appearing in front of him with a sarcastic smile: "Sick cat, you're still alive? You've almost plucked all your whiskers, haven't you?"
"As expected, you guys were involved in that mission too."
The child had a gloomy face. She had already checked the timeline with Le Feiyou and the others. Even if there was a traitor who tipped them off, the Bald Head Gang members arrived too quickly, as if they had prepared everything in advance and were just waiting for them to set off.
"Ha, if you have someone to blame, blame yourself for offending the wrong person."
Hu Tiankui sneered, "Actually, dying in a dream is a good thing for you."
"When did Baldy become Quark's dog? What benefits can they offer you?"
Catwhisker truly didn't understand. While most Mist Hunters in the lower ranks were just trying to make a living, those at their level of strength would have joined a conglomerate long ago if they truly wanted to. Why suffer in the lower city?
"How dare mortals presume to know the will of God?"
Hu Tiankui smiled and raised his hand, then grabbed Aliya's gun barrel with his other hand. With a "bang," the bullet pierced through his forehead, but instead of red blood, black pus splattered out!
In the wound between Hu Tiankui's eyebrows, grayish-brown flesh wriggled, not only failing to heal but tearing the wound even larger, with streams of black pus constantly gushing out, filling the air with a stench like that of a rotting corpse.
"Let's do it!"
The two commands were spoken almost simultaneously.
Alia threw down the KE-231, whose muzzle was already deformed, and reached out to grab a dark red submachine gun out of thin air. Without even looking, she put her finger on the trigger, sparks flew, and a circle of bald men around her screamed and fell down!
However, in the instant they fell, they had also completed their actions. Several red lasers tore through the air from different directions and shot towards Alia!
Meanwhile, the blood hole on Hu Tiankui's forehead had expanded to the size of two fists, making him look even more eerie with his stiff smile.
Black pus had accumulated into a small pool at his feet. His lips moved a few times, and his whole body, like a melting wax figure, gradually twisted, continuously seeping black liquid downwards.
In just a few seconds, Hu Tiankui had completely lost his human form, resembling a strange black slime, and indiscriminately sprayed water arrows at everyone with a few "whoosh" sounds!
Old Cai strode forward, grabbed the cat whiskers in the form of a little girl with one hand, and clenched his fist in the air and swung it violently. Black and gray sand flew down everywhere, and as space distorted, the group of people suddenly disappeared!
A black water arrow grazed his hair and struck the wall. Cat Whiskers was held in someone's arms, his expression cold. The child's already large eyes were now strangely large, the pupils contracted to "needle" shapes, faintly gleaming silver. Two silver triangles emerged from the top of his head, like ears or horns.
Those inhuman vertical pupils coldly looked at the Gentlemen's Club. A huge black dial, invisible to anyone, appeared beneath their feet, its silver hands trembling wildly as it spun seven times counterclockwise.
The sharp, hoarse voice still echoed in her ears. Cat Whiskers curled one corner of her mouth, and the black tattoo-like lines on her face trembled like whiskers. She stared at Hu Tiankui, who was no different from a monster, and said in an icy voice: "'Wait for me in hell'? You're the one who should go to hell!"
"Ahhh!"
Just as several laser beams were about to hit Aliya, the girl vanished into thin air. The laser beams hissed as they struck the ground. One laser beam, slightly off-angled, hit the surface of the alloy shelf and bounced off, piercing straight through the forehead of a bald man!
This was just the tip of the iceberg. In the next seven minutes, as if the goddess of fate had cast a mocking glance at the group of bald men, it was fine that their attacks missed, but the strangest thing was that their attacks always landed on their own comrades!
A machine gun exploded, a bomb landed at the feet of his own men, and a bizarre death occurred when a man tripped over his own feet and broke his neck. In those seven minutes, more than twenty well-equipped and well-trained bald men died in all sorts of ridiculous ways!
However, no one present could laugh. Even Shen Xijing, who was healing her teammates in the back, couldn't help but shrink back and mutter, "Why does the team leader's personality seem more and more frightening?"
The unseen and intangible force of fate is most deadly. In a sense, traits containing elements of fate are more suitable for dealing with humanity than those of the Fallen!
Even Du Yu, who was secretly watching the battle, was taken aback by the comical yet dramatic scene of carnage. His gaze involuntarily fell on the metal triangle protruding from the cat's whiskers, which seemed to resemble a cat's ear...
"A sick cat can be quite scary when it gets angry."
A crack suddenly appeared in the middle of the black semi-solid mass, and a human voice with a tone very similar to Hu Tiankui's came out from it. However, when recalling it, all that could be found in his mind was a "rustling" sound of flowing water.
"How do we make this?"
Old Cai put down his cat whiskers, scratched the goosebumps on his arm, and frowned as he stared at the thing that he wasn't sure if it still belonged to Hu Tiankui.
Besides Cat Whiskers, they also took action, taking the opportunity to kill a group of Bald Head Gang henchmen, but they were helpless against this black semi-solid lump.
After being penetrated by physical attacks such as firearms, the pus quickly regenerated on its own; when attacked with supernatural abilities, it not only did not shrink, but instead seemed to absorb energy from it and grew slightly taller.
Wenren Qiu adjusted his glasses, picked up the vacuum cleaner-like device carried by the bald men, and a hint of interest flashed in his eyes. "I wonder what kind of material this device is made of, that it can hold the black corpse oil without being corroded."
"Sister Qiuqiu, the battle isn't over yet, let's stop studying it for now."
Everyone in the group knows that Wenren Qiu has a gentle personality and rarely gets angry. However, when she encounters a field that interests her, she becomes a completely different person, her eyes only focused on the subject of her research.
Wenren Qiu patiently put down the instrument, looked at Le Feiyou, and explained, "Hu Tiankui's clone seems to have merged with the corpse oil. Perhaps we can find a way to contain the corpse oil from this instrument."
"Giving you some time is indeed possible, but unfortunately, you don't have time."
After shooting out several water arrows, the black, semi-solid object shrank by half. Now, facing the encirclement of the crowd, it stopped attacking and instead chuckled sinisterly, "The concentration of the divine oil here is so high that it can be transmitted through respiration. None of you will escape!"
"Heh, if you hadn't wasted time killing my subordinates, a few of you might have escaped. Too bad, it's too late now!"
Its words carried resentment towards Cat Whiskers for killing its subordinates, but the black solid extended tentacles, rolled up the surrounding bald corpses, and began to eat them with a "crunch crunch".
As it ate, pairs of astonished, pained, and angry eyes grew from its sides, staring at the crowd with a sinister gaze, but it couldn't see the expression it wanted to see on their faces.
Even the most impulsive and easy-going Le Feiyou didn't show anger or impatience on his face, but rather a strange expression. It seemed like he wanted to laugh, but was forcibly suppressing it?
The strange feeling in Hu Tiankui's monster form continued to grow, reaching its peak when he discovered that Cat Whiskers was bowing to the air—why did they seem not to be afraid of it at all?
"Thank you for your help."
Cat Whiskers straightened his disheveled clothes, bowed to the air, and silently recited a prayer. When his gaze returned to the monster, a cluster of purple flame appeared in the center of his pupils!
The moment it saw the purple flames, the flames engulfed it. A vast, cold, eerie, and indescribable aura surrounded it, inescapable and irresistible; everything that passed through the purple flames vanished into nothingness.
No, it shouldn't be like this...
The frantic screams in his heart were also burned away by the purple flames. Within the monster's body, in Hu Tiankui's consciousness, he could clearly sense that the connection with the mother was becoming weaker and weaker, until—like a thread hanging by a thousand-pound weight, it finally snapped with a sigh of relief.
The purple flames retreated regretfully, scattering with a roar, burning every single drop of the writhing black liquid like a locust swarm sweeping across the land. In its final moment before severing ties with the mother body, it sensed a profound sense of relief—
The mother body is actually afraid of this purple flame? No, this doesn't make sense...
As the purple flames burned, the black monster shrank, revealing a head that was mostly corroded. Hu Tiankui's only remaining eye stared intently at Cat Whiskers, his complex emotions—a mixture of realization, shock, anger, and fear—swallowed up in the black water and burned away by the purple flames, leaving only an utterly incredulous scream:
"You actually made a deal with an evil god?!"
Cat Whiskers carefully dodged, watching with strange expressions as the monster's avatar was burned to ashes. A single thought simultaneously surfaced in everyone's minds:
What, you're allowed to make deals with evil gods, but we're not?
After confirming that the vast consciousness within him had departed, Cat Beard and his subordinates cleaned up the traces and followed Le Feiyou to the temporary encampment.
With everyone gone, the remote warehouse finally regained its tranquility.
Half an hour later.
"Huh."
Black pointed leather shoes crunched over clumps of mud in the ditch. The woman in the trench coat, one hand in her pocket, glanced down at the ditch for a moment, a hint of surprise appearing in her cold eyes:
"I just went to eat a bowl of spicy hot pot, and you guys are dead? How did you die?"
Corpses don't normally speak, let alone here where there aren't even any corpses.
The woman pondered for a moment, then murmured to herself:
"They died so cleanly, I don't need to clean up the mess... Those who were able to do it probably don't even have a chance to make a move right now..."
As the woman spoke, she squatted down, the hem of her trench coat fluttering in front of her as it touched the ground. She took out a bowl of spicy hot pot from the inside pocket of her coat and, while looking at the pit left by Hu Tiankui's body, she buried her head in her food and pondered.
Halfway through her meal, she looked up as if suddenly realizing something, her lips completely free of any grease: "Is it the newly emerged evil god that crazy woman You Shi mentioned?"
After the woman finished speaking, she shook her head uninterestedly and continued to eat her spicy hot pot. "False gods are alright, but evil gods are too hard to eat. Let You Shi handle the tough stuff."
...
"Praise be to you, great Lord who hears. Praise be to you for your generosity and mercy."
The purple flames burned away the last trace of pus, gathering together to form a ring of fire. Catwhisker, his eyes filled with complex emotions, placed the collected supplies into the ring, and for the first time, his prayer carried a hint of sincerity.
The basement of this underground clinic had been converted into a makeshift ward, with all twenty beds occupied. Along with a few people bustling around, these were the only remaining members of the Catbeard Pirates, one of the three major exploration teams in the Lower City.
The group could reach a maximum of 150 people... Cat Whiskers closed his eyes in pain, feeling his heart bleeding, but remembering the sacrifice that was taking place, he forced himself to open his eyes.
The purple flames circled the supplies once, then suddenly contracted, taking all the supplies with them and disappearing.
Cat Whiskers breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that the gods hadn't noticed her distraction, or perhaps they didn't care.
...
"Wuhu! We're rich!"
Du Yu watched excitedly as the supplies were transmitted one by one by the purple flames: mattresses, tables and chairs... and finally, a delicate little box the size of a palm.
She eagerly took it, her smile widening: "I have the materials to upgrade the altar!"
-----------------------
Author's Note: Purple Fire (Rolling in Corpse Oil Version): Mommy, I'll pick up trash to support you!
Dudu: This kind of devout act of standing outside the circle of fire and burning things for me looks so familiar...
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I want to change the title and description of my article, but I'm terrible at coming up with names and don't know where to start. Any suggestions? (orz)
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