CH 62.1

August 16, 2023 by Wyrd

“Speaking of which, I don’t know how Fang Qi is doing.”

As the time approached sunset, Zhu Shuangshuang and Su Wangsheng waited in the pavilion for others who were on their way to the Dark Swamp.

They had just inquired outside about news regarding the god. Even the common folk of Furen County had much to share, but none of it seemed to be of useful insider information.

It was understandable; the prominent families responsible for tending to the flowers should hold the true method of meeting the god. If the ordinary people knew about it, they might not remain ordinary anymore.

Yenan Wang had granted them considerable freedom. He rarely interfered with them, and the number of times he showed up was scarce. They found it hard to gather any information from him.

He hadn’t even told them the specifics of how to tend to the flowers. As a result, the two found themselves idle and frustrated, turning to idle chatter about other players.

Su Wangsheng said, “I don’t know either. If you’re worried, we can go visit Boss Qi tomorrow. It’s a good opportunity to see if we can glean something from him.”

Zhu Shuangshuang asked, “By the way, what kind of skill weapon does Fang Qi have?”

Su Wangsheng replied, “His skill weapon is a ‘Ming Stone’. It should be hanging near his heart. I don’t know the details, but I do know that at certain times, his body becomes exceptionally tough, almost like petrification.”

Zhu Shuangshuang mused, “Similar to Chen Tian’s ‘Bronze Wall and Iron Wall’?”

“Not quite,” Su Wangsheng explained. “I speculate that Chen Tian’s ‘Bronze Wall and Iron Wall,’ as the name suggests, protects the exterior. His skin acts like the wall, shielding the interior. Fang Qi’s skill is more like an internal hardening.”

Zhu Shuangshuang responded with a “Hmm.” Suddenly, she noticed movement at the window of Ning Su’s room.

A tuft of messy hair peeked out from the opening.

“Gui Sheng?” Zhu Shuangshuang looked and saw it was Gui Sheng, standing on a chair to reach the window.

The child’s head emerged. “Huh?”

Zhu Shuangshuang smiled and asked, “Where’s Su Su?”

Gui Sheng replied innocently, “Went to worship the Flower God.”

“...”

She would have never imagined that even Ning Su went to worship the Flower God.

Another small head popped out from the window. Manman said, “Sister Shuangshuang, if Mom doesn’t come back, will you take us to the Dark Swamp to collect points?”

“...”

Zhu Shuangshuang replied, “Okay.”

On their way to the Dark Swamp , they encountered Ning Su and Ning Changfeng returning from the Flower God’s Temple, and Ning Su joined them on their journey.

Zhu Shuangshuang asked him, “How does it feel to worship the Flower God?”

“Ah,” Ning Su looked up, his eyes shining with joyful light, making his eyes look exceptionally beautiful. “It’s very good, especially good.”

Zhu Shuangshuang was taken aback.

Ning Changfeng, as usual, didn’t join them. He headed back to the courtyard on his own.

Several flower attendants from different families on this street were all getting ready to go to the Dark Swamp. They all saw Ning Changfeng’s figure returning.

Ning Changfeng was a lone ranger, rarely participating with them, but as the top-ranked player in the game base, he garnered quite a bit of attention.

Players closely watched his actions, trying to speculate on something.

“Ning Changfeng has been participating in the worship for several days. Why?”

“What’s so good about that worship? Is he stupid?”

“You’re the one who’s stupid. Do you think players who can make it to the top three only rely on strength?”

Zhu Shuangshuang and Su Wangsheng were also pondering this question.

Su Wangsheng knew that poking Ning Su would elicit a response, so he asked directly, “Why participate in the worship event?”

Ning Su replied, “Of course, I should participate to respect the customs and beliefs of Furen County.”

The two were stunned.

This was part of the system prompt.

They realized that once again; they had overlooked the system prompts.

It wouldn’t exactly be called negligence, as they had never openly engaged in inappropriate behavior or actions regarding the customs and beliefs of Furen County.

It’s just that they still underestimated the situation and didn’t delve deeper.

The preceding two instances had already profoundly shown them the significance of the system prompts.

Sometimes, the system would provide prompts very directly, and at other times, it might be just a short sentence, possibly carrying more than surface meaning, often holding deeper implications.

Just like the “equality for all living beings” in “Ghost Animals,” as well as the prompt in this instance.

[Please respect the customs and beliefs of Furen County.]

The most distinctive customs of Furen County are related to the Flower God.

The entire populace of Furen County believed in the Flower God.

How should one show respect?

What truly constituted the greatest respect?

Su Wangsheng’s heart skipped a beat, and he said to Zhu Shuangshuang, “Have you ever heard a saying: to believe is to have, and to not believe is to have nothing.”

Zhu Shuangshuang suddenly widened her eyes. “The most profound respect for a belief is... to believe?”

This was what the system truly wanted to prompt them about.

To believe was to have, and to not believe was to have nothing. They didn’t believe, and without belief, they couldn’t see the god.

If they didn’t believe, how could they even talk about seeing the true god?

Currently, they were in a state of not believing in the Flower God.

If they continued like they are now, completely dismissive of the evil spirits related to the faith of Furen County, treating the Land of the Sleeping God as a repulsive and filthy place, viewing the flowers that grow there as monstrous, then they were heading down a path that would take them farther and farther away from the god.

They would never see the god.

It’s a dead end.

Becoming aware of this, Zhu Shuangshuang broke out in a cold sweat.

If they didn’t realize this, based on the current situation, they would come to dislike the Dark Swamp more and more, grow more disgusted with the flowers there, and become increasingly resistant to this malevolent god.

It was like walking into death.

Even if they understood, the system prompts later on, by then, the notion that the Flower God was an evil god had already taken deep root. It would be too late to reverse it.

The early stages of this instance seemed easy, perhaps even less dangerous than the early stages of the Level 3 instance “Manman”. However, in reality, the system was using a soft knife to kill, gradually pushing them onto a path of death.

The more they thought, the more fear they felt.

Even if they had realized it now, they were unsure if they could truly believe in the Flower God.

Indeed, they had always felt that the Flower God, accompanied by human sacrifices, the decaying corpses in the swamp, and the monster flowers, was not the god they had imagined. They were very distrustful and resistant to this malevolent god.

“We need to tell them quickly!”

“No wonder Senior Ning didn’t come with us. He must have laughed at our foolishness. He’s probably afraid that we’ll influence his faith.”

Immediately, Zhu Shuangshuang conveyed their speculation to the players in the Dark Swamp.

Other players were skeptical, feeling bewildered and agitated.

Most players were the same, not saying much on the surface, but inwardly looking down upon the faith in Furen County. They found it amusing and frightening that the people here believed in a terrifying god.

How could they believe in a malevolent god they resisted?

It was like asking them to fall in love with the person they hated the most.

Twisting their emotions of love and hate and their independent consciousness.

No one knew.

Therefore, this speculation left them anxious, and many players found it laughable and were unwilling to believe.

The evening in the Dark Swamp was dark and deep, weighing heavily on people’s hearts.

Zhu Shuangshuang deeply sensed the difficulty of this instance. The more she thought about it, the more worried she became. She quietly asked Ning Su, “Su Su, can you truly believe in the Flower God?”

Ning Su blinked. “I am now a devout follower of the Flower God.”

Zhu Shuangshuang: “...”

“How did you manage that?” She was genuinely curious.

Ning Su made a sound. “Because I took a closer look at Him in the crowd.”

Zhu Shuangshuang: “...”

Under a nearby tree, a little girl in a white dress said lightly, “No bargaining. Remember, if you manage to leave this instance, you can at least get 400,000 points. If you can’t leave this instance, then even your points won’t help you.”

The little boy nodded, “Yes!”

Beside them, a teenager rested his chin on his hand, gazing at the boundless Dark Swamp. The evening wind ruffled his hair, and a watery gleam shimmered in his eyes. He suddenly smiled.

Zhu Shuangshuang exclaimed, “Why is this so strange?”

Su Wangsheng remained calm. “Their family has always been strange.”

“No, I still find it a bit odd.” She was referring to Ning Su. No matter how she looked at it, he seemed strange. “He’s acting as if he’s possessed.”

That night, they earned 300,000 points and returned contentedly.

As the number of people seeking flowers dwindled, the points they harvested also decreased. However, for them, they had already accumulated a huge sum.

That night, as the players returned to their rooms to sleep, Dai Dong’s mood had stabilized considerably. The injuries on Hua Feng’s arms were also properly bandaged. Besides the newly speculated information, everything seemed to have improved significantly.

After the two children fell asleep, Ning Su carried his flower to the pavilion and watched as the night grew deeper.

Creatures within the Dark Swamp became more active in the late hours, including the flower before him.

Ning Su asked, “Are you going to attack me again tonight?”

There was no response.

Ning Su asked again, “Why did you stop attacking me last night?”

Still no response.

Ning Su paused for a moment. “Have you recognized me?”

This time he didn’t wait for a response, but said directly, “I’ve recognized you too.”

He stared at the four-petal blood flower for a while, suddenly feeling itchy and hungry.

“What you did, attacking me yesterday, was wrong, for the sake of fairness...” His hand reached out towards the petal. Just as he was about to touch it again, he was interrupted by a scream.

The doors of several houses all opened.

Ning Su sighed and resigned himself to get up and do tasks.

This time, the scream came from Dai Dong’s room.

Today, Jia Chensheng specially came to comfort and console him. His mood seemed stable during the day, and in the evening, he even went to the Dark Swamp with them, with the help of his friends, and found a flower.

Everyone thought that he was slowly coming out of the state of pain and madness from last night.

They were all mistaken.

Dai Dong screamed hysterically in the room, “Don’t come over, don’t come over, ahhh!”

As he screamed, he retreated in terror onto the wooden couch.

His eyes were fixed on the flower he had brought in today.

The flower that showed signs of contamination this morning was his, but he didn’t pay any attention at that time. His focus wasn’t on the flower back then.

In the evening, Jia Chensheng and the others helped him find a flower, and at that time, Jia Chensheng said to him, “This one shouldn’t be contaminated this time.”

Unexpectedly, it turned out to be a contaminated flower.

An arm grew from the flower, stretching towards Dai Dong more and more, about to grab his foot.

For some reason, he didn’t draw his long knife, but just retreated in panic.

Zhu Shuangshuang pulled out the red cover and wanted to help him, but he angrily stopped her. “Get away! Don’t hurt her!”

“She’s Jiang Ying!”

Dai Dong said, then collapsed, “It’s Ying Ying, it’s her.”

Several players were puzzled.

They looked at the arm again.

The arm was indeed not thick; it looked like the arm of a woman, very white, but there were already multiple areas of decay, and one could see several deep scratch marks with pus.