Empty Valley
Rainbow light flows in the empty valley.
At the foot of the tower, some guild players half-activated their weapon skills, drawing elemental energy from the rainbow to replenish the energy they'd expended fighting the ghouls last night, and then hurried to the viewing island.
"Good morning, goddess." When they passed by, they stopped to greet her respectfully.
"Good morning." An Rou smiled and nodded.
At the majestic and magnificent gate of the floating castle, Yintian waited while observing from afar.
An Rou could imagine the torment he'd endured the previous night. His reluctance to act rashly indicated that Yin Tian had chosen to continue the partnership.
"There are too few potions!" Yin Tian complained immediately after they met. "There are 20,000 players participating in the Duozhu competition, and there are less than 4,000 potions of all four types combined!"
"How much do you think I can give?"
"Of course we have everything!"
An Rou smiled: "Yin Tian, could it be that you hope that I am the real Goddess of Good Luck, that I can provide you with unlimited potions and that you can really rest assured?"
Yin Tian frowned.
An Rou said, "I have some skills that others don't have, but I'm just an NPC. Four thousand potions is all I can offer. Compared to the number of participants, it's a bit small, but if you include the potions you've stockpiled, it should be of some use, right?"
"How do you know we're stockpiling medicine?" Yin Tian was surprised.
"The potions sold in the Sky Shop are always out of stock. Is that hard to guess?"
An Rou said firmly, "The high cost of defending against the ghouls is one thing, and hoarding potions to gain an advantage in the Celestial God Competition is another. Isn't that right?"
Duozhu and Xiangyang each manage half of the empty valley. The upper and lower cities have the same number of floating islands and the same number of sky shops. The two families send out members to fight against the ghouls every day in equal numbers, and the amount of potions they consume is also about the same.
The amount of potions secretly stockpiled by the two guilds would not differ much.
The total amount of medicines provided by Anrou is not significant, but it can undoubtedly give Duozhu a first-line advantage.
Yin Tian was just taking advantage of the situation, but when he saw that An Rou wasn't buying it at all, he stopped talking and led her into the castle in silence.
It is still the hall in the center of the castle.
The hall today had been stripped of many of its luxurious furnishings, but it wasn't empty at all. The entire floor was covered in holographic images of the floating island.
——The floating island No. 339 in Shangcheng was magnified, like a huge sand table, and even the trees and green spaces on the island were clearly visible.
The city lord, Hai Crocodile, came over across half the sand table, exchanged a few customary greetings, and invited An Rou to take a seat.
The seats were located against the walls of the hall. At the base of each wall stood a five-meter-high platform, in a trapezoidal shape, with stone steps on either side. On the platform sat a long, pure gold table and gilded leather chairs, laden with fine wine and delicious food.
Yintian, Aoyusi, Hai'esi, and she each occupied a high platform, overlooking the floating island sandbox below, becoming the supreme spectators of the competition among the gods.
The people in the audience were fighting for their lives, while the people on the stage were accompanying themselves with fine wine.
But there were more than just four of them on the platform.
At the edge of each platform, there was an NPC. According to Hai Crocodile, they were responsible for counting the number and level of ghouls strangled by the two guilds in the competition.
NPCs couldn't identify ghoul levels, so Yintian and Aoyusi each brought a trusted subordinate. Players shared the same screen throughout the match, which remained in the competition channel.
Before strangling a ghoul, the contestants will forward the ghoul level identification results to the channel, and two players will inform the NPC responsible for counting.
City Lord Hai Crocodile naturally had no players under his command, but he did have two NPCs with him. One was a count, while the other was responsible for calculating and updating the number of surviving ghouls and writing it on the whiteboard on the wall.
In order to ensure the fairness of the competition, all NPCs come from the floating castle and are not residents of the upper or lower city.
The two people behind An Rou, the one a little further to the left is the counting NPC, and the one to the right is the "God's Servant" Paopao.
She and Paopao each observed the situation in the hall and exchanged glances without saying a word.
The competition starts at eight o'clock in the morning.
At both ends of Floating Island No. 339, players from the two major guilds entered one after another on the stairs connecting to other floating islands.
The Duozhu Guild has a belief in the main god, white, and all players wear pure white clothes, as if they are considering themselves as sacrifices to the main god.
The Xiangyang Guild adopted the colors of the national flag, and the players' clothes were all dark blue. When they entered, it seemed as if low pressure was hovering above their heads.
The God Competition was huge in scale, with each guild sending out 20,000 participants, and the levels were structured in a pyramid shape.
Each team sent out 1 super god, 10 great gods, 1,000 golds, 5,000 silvers, and the rest were all bronze.
With so many players competing to kill more than two thousand ghouls, it can be seen how fierce the fighting between players is.
There were so many contestants that it took nearly half an hour just to get in.
Crocodile Si was rubbing his hands together, looking like he was waiting to see the show.
Yin Tian and Ao Yusi suppressed their excitement while exchanging glances. From time to time, they glanced at An Rou, only to see the goddess Ri An, wrapped in a white robe, covering her mouth with her slender white hands and yawning in boredom.
The two presidents sneered at the same time.
Like the farm, the floating castle sits on the edge of the square, backed by a "cliff".
Thick rivets were hammered into the base of the back wall, with ropes tied to the rivets. On each rope were dozens of players hanging on the edge of the cliff, each holding their breath.
A rough count revealed that there were as many as two hundred people.
They were all members carefully selected by Yintian. They had not been online for two days due to various reasons. They had only heard of Anrou's miracles but had not seen the goddess Ri'an with their own eyes.
Of course, Yintian told them that the miracles were all fake. It was the bold pagans who were using the name of the Lord God to shake the faith of the people of Zhu.
Their mission is to surround the floating city and strangle the heretics as the God Competition draws to a close.
-
Holographic command center.
The guild leaders had been listless for days, hardly in high spirits. That was because the Dragon Flame Guild's spies, who had been hiding in the Duozhu and Xiangyang Guilds, had finally brought back accurate intelligence.
"An Rou, under the name of the Sun Goddess, seems to have secretly reached a cooperation with the Duozhu Guild. Today is the Sky Valley God Competition, and An Rou has been invited to the Floating City to watch the game."
"No more?"
“No more…”
The guild leaders were all dispirited again. I thought it was some big news.
Er Hui was getting angry and tapped the table twice with his fingers. "Instead of sighing, why not analyze Yongan's purpose in entering the Valley?"
In terms of analytical ability, President Yatan was somewhat similar to Shi Xizheng. Upon hearing this, he said, "I stick to my opinion. Yong'an entered Ghost Island, cut off the No. 7 Black Market Island pillar, entered the Spirit Realm, and stole the four major potion ingredients and the pharmacy. Now he's going to the Valley, naturally, he's going to the Valley Rainbow."
Guild Master Ouli also insisted on his own opinion: "I've said it before, if we really want to seize the Hollow Valley Rainbow, we can do it the night Yong'an enters the Hollow Valley. The Hollow Valley Rainbow's energy is extinguished at night and rekindled at sunrise. If you were An Rou, when would you choose to act?"
President Yatan frowned.
Although the other party's tone was unpleasant, what he said was the truth.
The Valley Rainbow appears to be a rainbow, but it actually breeds endless elemental power. This elemental power is dormant at night and emerges during the day. During the day, the Valley Rainbow appears harmless, but in reality, its inner energy and temperature are extremely high, like a small sun enveloping the valley.
If An Rou really wanted to rob, with Yong'an Ghoul's strength, she could have chosen to launch a surprise attack on the night she entered the Valley.
However, the farm chose to stay in the floating city for two days, which had already aroused the vigilance of the Xiangyang Guild. After missing the opportunity, it would only become more difficult to take action against the Rainbow of the Valley.
If the reason cannot be analyzed, the judgment that the farm target is Konggu Zhihong will not be able to convince everyone, let alone the two major guilds in Konggu.
In silence, Yu Fengqiu, who brought the news, quietly looked towards the second meeting.
A cold light flashed in Erhui's slightly cloudy eyes.
Of course, the undercover intelligence was not limited to this. It also included An Rou publicly contradicting Yin Tian, disrupting the celebration of the God's birthday, and preventing the sacrifice to the God.
The Longyan Guild has already vaguely sensed An Rou's purpose.
However, the Second Council had explained that no one should be informed of the fact that Duozhu had privately sent a visit application.
Even though Yu Fengqiu disagreed with his indifferent attitude, he had to shut up.
Erhui nodded his cane. "Alright. Today is the Konggu Celestial God Festival, and it's also the time when Duozhu and Xiangyang are most distracted. Whatever Yongan's purpose is, it should be revealed today. Let the United Army be prepared to respond."
-
Outside No. 399 Shangcheng, on the floating island for watching the game, cheers and shouts of encouragement from Xiangyang players rang out alternately.
On the other hand, many players chanted "Thanks to the Lord God" in unison when they saw their players successfully strangle the ghoul, and "Lord God bless you" when they saw their players temporarily fail.
If someone dies at the hands of an opponent, or is killed by a ghoul and is completely offline, a ten-second prayer will be held.
The competition is in full swing.
Every time the contestants found a moment to breathe, they activated half of their skills to summon elemental power. Rays of colorful light drifted down from the sky, enveloping the entire battlefield like an endless rainbow rain falling in the empty valley.
The two major guilds are each led by a super god, with the same number of players and level structure, so they are naturally evenly matched at the beginning.
The casualties on both sides were not great, and the cumulative number of ghouls strangled remained the same.
As time went on, the potion provided by An Rou began to show its power.
Needless to say, the Duozhu Guild distributed the extra potions to their higher-level players.
Health, energy, spirit, and stamina, if the recovery time of each attribute is a little faster, it will be enough to make the tiny advantage snowball.
By noon, the total number of strangled ghouls killed by Duozhu players had reached an advantage of 100. Moreover, the overall level of the strangled ghouls was higher than Xiangyang's.
Ousi finally became nervous.
Duozhu had the medicine provided by Anrou as external aid, and so did he. It could even be said that the external aid he hired couldn't compare even with unlimited medicine.
Second on the Destiny List, Princess Half Moon.
If a real fight breaks out, one person is enough to wipe out more than half of the contestants.
Even if she cannot reveal her identity, with her ability, it should be easy for her to secretly take out some of the Duozhu players, right?
Ke Duozhu crushed the competition without any hindrance.
Ao Yusi gritted his teeth and searched for "Qian Er" in the holographic sandbox for a long time, but still couldn't find it.
He could no longer sit still, so he turned on the light screen and sent a message to Princess Banyue.
[Oyushi: What are you waiting for?!]
[Oyus: If we don't take action now, we will lose! ]
[Ao Yusi: Princess Banyue, I've already told you that if the Xiangyang Guild loses the Celestial God Competition, not only will the advance payment be reclaimed, but you'll also have to pay 5 million gold in compensation!]
…
However, the other party never replied a single word.
Ou Yusi was about to continue when an idea suddenly flashed through his mind. He was startled and turned to look at An Rou.
The goddess Ri'an caused quite a stir during the God's Birthday celebration. Now, most of the valley knows that she issued a divine decree to release the NPC sacrifice...
Could it be that not only did the assassination attempt fail last night, but she also learned of Princess Ban Yue's existence, thus clearing away obstacles for Yin Tian?!
That’s Princess Ban Yue, ranked second in the server!
If this is true, An Rou... must not be allowed to stay!
Ousi withdrew his gaze and switched the light screen.
The team channel that came into view was just formed last night, with a total of 500 people, and the name is - [God Killer].
【Oyus: Get started.】
On the Upper City No. 1 floating island, which is closest to the floating city, a large number of Xiangyang players suddenly poured out of various buildings.
The few people who stayed on the island were shocked when they saw it.
They were stern and swift, deliberately avoiding the staircase closest to Yong'an Farm and climbing up the floating city from the other side.
The moment they stepped onto the floating city square, everyone inadvertently slowed down their steps.
The team formed a half-moon formation and surrounded the castle.
Ever since the "Temple" fell from the sky, Oyusi has been holding his breath.
After sending the message, he was angry but couldn't contain his excitement and glanced at An Rou.
Unexpectedly, the other party was looking at him intently, his dark yet deep eyes seemed to know all the secrets.
Ousi shuddered for no reason, quickly put away the screen and shifted his gaze.
When I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye again, I saw An Rou smiling, with a hint of gloating in her smile.
"Oyus, the Xiangyang Guild is already behind over 100 ghouls. Do you still want to use your ignorance and arrogance to blind your eyes and try to fight against the Lord God?"
Ousi was instantly angry.
I accept that your collaboration with Duozhu has put Xiangyang at a disadvantage. Who are you trying to impress by acting so high and mighty, even now?
I would like to ask, is there anyone in this hall who truly believes in Duozhuism?!
Ousi forgot his fleeting fear and sneered, "As a newcomer, you naturally don't know the rules of the Heavenly God Competition. The number of ghouls strangled is only one aspect; the ghoul's level is the key to calculating the final score."
An Rou knew the rules.
C, B, A, S: Different levels of ghouls are strangled and receive different points. S-level ghouls are worth up to 1000 points. Judging from the current strangle records of both teams, as long as the Xiangyang Guild holds steady and stops falling behind, and strangles the S-level ghouls, they can use their slight advantage to turn defeat into victory.
Of course, the number of players at the competition site is more than ten times that of ghouls, and low-level players account for the majority of them. If an S-level ghoul devours too many low-level players' souls and is promoted to SS level, the score can be increased tenfold.
10,000 points is enough to reverse any decline.
An Rou's gaze fell on the center of the sand table, and she smiled and said, "Then it depends on the goddess or the white dove, who will send the S-level to see the Lord God first."
In the center of the sandbox, where the God's Birthday celebration had taken place yesterday, there lay a massive, wildly transformed ghoul. An Rou knew it was the highest-ranked S-class prey of all.
Before the game started, An Rou's eyes dimmed when she saw it crawl out of the metal box.
Because even though this ghoul's body was deformed due to its crazy transformation, it still looked too much like a baby from a distance.
Because An Rou was looking at a sand table, she could see the whole picture at a glance.
Its head was half the size of its body, its limbs were short, and it crawled on the ground. Its skin was a strange deep red.
The skin on his face had the wrinkled texture of a newborn baby, his eyelids were swollen like blisters, and his eyes were wide open to the extreme, revealing only a line of red pupils.
There is no doubt that its size is overwhelming. If a low-level player is accidentally pinched by it, he will be crushed to pieces with just a light squeeze.
During the half-day of the game, many players had died at its hands and shattered into points of light.
However, it is still a long way to go before it can be upgraded to SS.
What An Rou cares about is naturally not its level, but its origin.
It was a ghoul raised by the Konggu Guild, but which ghoul would choose to parasitize a baby? And which player would mold themselves into a baby?
So there is only one reason why it turned into a ghoul: the Konggu Guild forced the ghoul to parasitize the NPC's newborn baby.
Why pick babies?
The answer is also obvious: babies have low IQs, so there is no need to worry about ghouls posing a threat during the breeding process.
Wait until the IQ increases with the level, then kill the parasite and eventually turn into the crazy ghoul that has lost its mind now.
An Rou even suspected that the ghouls released into the competition showed strong aggressiveness towards the players from the beginning because they had never tasted the players' souls during the process of being raised.
In other words, those feeds are NPCs.
How many NPCs are needed to raise a ghoul's level to S-level?
No wonder the number of residents on the floating island in Konggu is far less than imagined, while the number of children is far beyond imagination.
An Rou smiled and said, "Have you given this ghoul a name?"
Ousi thought about it subconsciously.
Yin Tianze answered immediately: "There's a nickname, Reptile. Isn't it appropriate?"
He knew that An Rou had figured out the ghoul's origins, so he put on a smile on purpose to disgust her.
After all, Goddess Ri'an risked a falling out with Duozhu last night and saved so many NPCs.
An Rou pretended not to hear and nodded, "Its magic can cause people to lose their minds for a short period of time. If Mia and Bai Ge don't take action now, I'm afraid more contestants will be sent to serve the Lord God."
Is this considered reaping what one sows?
Ousi frowned.
Yin Tian didn't care.
It is said that in previous years, the competition of the gods could last until sunset. This time, because the NPC residents on site were cleared out, the progress was much faster.
In just half a day, the low-level ghouls were almost wiped out, with only A. and S-level ones remaining.
It was a tacit agreement between the two families to leave S-rank ghouls alone. Only by strangling the most ghouls in the shortest possible time could they change the scattered and independent situation among the contestants and form small teams to fight against high-level ghouls.
This strategy can minimize the death rate of contestants and ensure their eligibility for the game.
The game has entered the second half, and the top players from the two guilds have all turned their attention to the S-level ghouls and reptiles.
Seeing Mia and Bai Ge each using their skills to rush towards the reptile, the expressions of the two presidents became solemn.
It can be seen that neither side is careless and neither side has an absolute chance of winning.
From this we can see that although Bai Ge fell out of the Destiny List, his level and strength are not inferior to Mia.
According to the old posts that Paopao dug out in the forum, Baige's ranking had been higher than Mia for a long time.
I just don't know what happened in last year's God Competition that caused Baige to fail the exam but win the competition. Mia became the top player in Konggu but lost the competition.
An Rou smiled and said, "White Dove has been rising for five or six years now, and I used to rank higher than the Goddess. Even though I failed last year, I still helped the Xiangyang Guild win. I'm afraid I won't be so lucky this year. After all, the Lord God sent me down to favor the devout people of Duozhu."
Halfway through her words, she saw Crocodile winking at her secretly.
An Rou naturally didn't care. She said these words just to provoke the other two.
Sure enough, Ao Yusi said angrily: "Luck?! Do you think we Xiangyang lost because of luck? You are wrong, we lost because of Baige's selfishness!
"If Bai Ge hadn't let her off before, would that woman have been able to strangle S-rank ghouls every time? Would she have been able to sit on the position of the goddess of their Duozhu sect? It's hilarious!"
Yin Tian was afraid of An Rou and was wondering what her intention was in bringing up the topic, but when he heard what his mortal enemy said, he couldn't help himself.
Over the past year, Duozhu has been held in the lower city by the Xiangyang Guild, and he has long reached the limit of his patience.
Yin Tian sneered, "Think carefully, Ao Yusi, who is giving whom a hand?! Your guild's Bai Ge is a shameless gigolo. He knew he couldn't win against Mia, so he resorted to a self-torture tactic! One self-torture tactic wasn't enough, he used it twice!"
"You are distorting the facts!" Ousi pointed at his nose.
"Is it true that Mia gave up the competition?!" Yin Tian slammed the table.
They are indeed sworn enemies. When they start arguing, they keep arguing with each other and neither of them is willing to back down.
This helped An Rou figure out what happened in last year's competition.
When the two super gods were competing for the S-level ghoul, Bai Ge was accidentally in danger. In order to save him, Mia chose to fight quickly and used the skills with the highest damage to attack the ghoul, forcing the ghoul to give up attacking Bai Ge.
Unexpectedly, when the skill was about to hit the ghoul, Bai Ge moved his position and happened to stand in front of the ghoul. He was pierced through the heart by Mia's arrow and was immediately killed.
Before Mia could react, White Pigeon immediately came online, pretending nothing had happened and continued to attack the ghoul. Unexpectedly, due to negligence, she was once again in danger.
Mia shot another arrow to drive away the ghoul, and a white dove inexplicably appeared in front of the arrow...
Bai Ge died twice, and this time, he did not come back online.
None of the Xiangyang players on the field were strong enough to compete with Mia. Logically, Duozhu's reelection as champion was a foregone conclusion.
Unexpectedly, Mia froze in her tracks and didn't continue to strangle the ghoul, allowing the decisive S-rank monster to be snatched away by a master player from the Xiangyang Guild.
Mia and Baige's relationship was unknown to the others, but the two guild leaders knew. Duozhu and Xiangyang had been enemies for twenty years, and no one wanted to see them together, let alone Mia, who was a goddess of the Duozhu Cult.
How could a goddess marry a pagan?
According to the doctrine, the goddess should remain chaste until death and offer herself completely to the Lord God.
So in public, Yin Tian had to swallow his anger and could only privately accuse Ao Yusi of using the white pigeon as a self-torture tactic.
Ao Yusi felt wronged, but he also firmly believed that if Bai Ge had not let them win, the Xiangyang Guild would have won the competition among the gods long ago.
So as soon as this matter was mentioned, the two of them started arguing fiercely.
Although An Rou figured out the twists and turns for the first time, she also learned a secret that neither of the two presidents knew.
Paopao and Baige's friendship was fruitful. Baige didn't elaborate on the situation at the time, but he did tell us about his plans before he set foot on the track last year.
Paopao repeated Baige's words: "Why would I steal something she needs? I'll give her whatever she wants. The reason I gave it to her this way...don't laugh at me. I wanted to make her feel guilty, and then use this guilt to make her agree to come with me...I was too naive."
It wasn't that Bai Ge was too naive. An Rou thought, it was that his love for Mia wasn't enough to get her out of this dead end.
No matter whether people are loved or not, they must first love themselves before they can walk out of the abyss of pain and have the ability to love others.
Mia knew this very well, but she couldn't do it.
Today, this pair of lovers once again stand on the field, facing the dilemma that has been repeated countless times.
What awaits them: will history repeat itself, or will the clouds clear and the moon appear?
As the figures on the sand table stopped at the same time, the quarreling in the hall also quieted down.
Player Duozhu has the advantage, but facing an S-level ghoul that is capable of overturning the situation, Yintian is nervous after all.
He quickly turned to Sea Crocodile and said, "Sound, release their sound!"
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