Chapter 631: Taint Its Faith

“No, hold on. I scored huge all by myself this round. Why did you even come out? The classic claim-the-credit move? Trying to steal my kill?”

Lu Yibei tilted her head at the PL girl and voiced her confusion.

“If I wanted to steal your kill, would I have needed to wait until now?” The PL girl crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. “Back when people were beating you senseless, you called me your darling. Now you’ve grown independent and don’t need me anymore, you accuse me of stealing your kill. How cruel, how—”

“All right, all right, stop acting!” Lu Yibei waved a hand and cut her off. “Just get to the point!”

Like I don’t know you? You really don’t need to bother!

“Tch!” Disappointed, the PL girl spat to the side and pouted. “I didn’t exactly pop out on my own. I sensed an aura and wanted to warn you.”

It was a familiar, nauseating odor like burning garbage.

“Warn me? About what?” Lu Yibei asked in confusion.

“The man who just died barely affected Pink Fluffy Bunny, but what he did left behind an enormous disaster,” the PL girl said.

“A disaster? What do you mean?”

“…” After several seconds of thought, the PL girl’s expression abruptly turned grave. In a heavy voice, she said, “Pink Fluffy Bunny has been startled awake…”

That night, inside the bamboo-slip illusion.

Beneath the night sky, rolling mountains formed pitch-black silhouettes. Wisps of gray-white fog drifted between them, while giant mushrooms glowing pale blue or ghostly green blanketed the earth and illuminated the forests.

Peals of silvery laughter intermittently drifted through the woods, making the place sound haunted.

The little fish shaped like a monkfish, black and ugly, lay curled atop a jutting boulder and looked up into the air. For once, it wore a relaxed expression.

After nearly a month of the system’s tireless work, development of the Six-Winged Chicken-Wing Pig had finally succeeded!

Looking up, one could see more than a dozen plump, round, adorably foolish fat pigs surrounded by towering trees. They flapped three pairs of black wings, each with a span of more than three meters, and circled swiftly between the trees’ dark branches.

Gu Qianqian rode on the back of the spotted pig at their head, seemingly the leader of the herd, and laughed merrily.

Fine, these really couldn’t be called Chicken-Wing Pigs anymore. But who had asked Gu Qianqian to make such ridiculous demands? the system thought privately.

In fact, its development of the Chicken-Wing Pig had stalled half a month ago.

Only a few days earlier had Gu Qianqian spent a small fortune to acquire half the remains of a special haunting. The system extracted the faint power within, supplied it to the Beast of Inheritance flesh in its possession for replication, then made a few adjustments. Only then had it finally succeeded.

The haunting had been born from French folklore: a wild boar covered from head to toe in black feathers. Gu Qianqian had asked throughout Hua City’s ghost market before buying the long-hoarded item from an inconspicuous little shop. Not even the shopkeeper knew the haunting’s actual name.

A short while later, Gu Qianqian guided the six-winged spotted pig down beside the system. Pouting, she said, “System, I think I’ve changed my mind. Can we not eat them?”

As she spoke, she turned toward the six-winged spotted pig at her side. At the sight of all that succulent pork belly, however, she still could not resist slurping and swallowing.

Heh. Her mouth says no, but her body is as honest as ever… The system sneered inwardly, then said calmly, “No. Your willpower is absurdly poor. You’ll only change your mind again every few days.”

“I say we slaughter them early and let the villagers taste the meat.”

The spotted pig beside her widened its eyes in fright and retreated repeatedly.

Clearly, it understood what those words meant.

“I won’t, I won’t!” Gu Qianqian swept the pig into her arms, anxiety on her face. “This time is different. I’ll take good care of them!”

Heh-heh, she took the bait! the system thought in delight, then said casually, “All right. We’ll see how you behave!”

In truth, the instant these six-winged pigs were born, the system had discovered their extraordinary potential. Once fully grown, they could reach at least the level of D+ to C- hauntings. Rather than becoming ingredients, they were far better suited as transportation.

“…”

It had failed to provide the familiars in the illusion with a sufficient supply of meat. But just as taming horses had been a great step in the advancement of civilization, providing them with efficient transportation could likewise strengthen Gu Qianqian’s Spirit Pattern.

By now, they had accumulated almost enough power of belief. Once the system gathered sufficient materials and a special opportunity arose, it could help Gu Qianqian advance…

If Gu Qianqian advanced to catastrophe-class one day and her strength fed back into her familiars, perhaps these six-winged pigs could form a cavalry force of considerable fighting strength! the system thought, its blood surging with excitement.

Calamity had obtained so many familiars through the Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts. Gu Qianqian also needed a force capable of opposing them.

Saving the world on pigback might be a little strange, but who said a savior had to be maximally stylish?

“Ahhh! System, this is bad! Something huge happened!”

The system was immersed in its beautiful vision of the future when Gu Qianqian suddenly cried out and interrupted its thoughts.

“What is it now? Stop making a fuss over everything!”

“O-one of the Legendary Quests turned red!” Gu Qianqian said.

“Hm?” The system paused, hurriedly checked the quest list, then cried out despite itself, “What the fuck! Calamitous Corruption?!”

[Legendary Quest III: Awakening from the Dream, Calamity and Woe

Quest Description: Neither alive nor dead.

It knows all, for it covets and peers.

Material desire swallows humanity like a mire.

It awakens from that muddy, bottomless abyss.

Quest Objective: An unknown force has stimulated the Calamitous Corruption and sent it into a half-awake state. Find a way to return it to slumber as quickly as possible.

Time Remaining: 46:58:23]

The timer ticked down second by second, and the system burned with anxiety.

When it learned earlier that Calamity had appeared near the Great Pure Palace, it had already felt vaguely uneasy and feared she might make some major move.

But it had never imagined Calamity would awaken the Calamitous Corruption ahead of time.

It might only be half awake, and the state might last less than two days, but Class S beings were also called natural disasters precisely because each wielded power equal to a natural disaster—or something even more terrifying.

In fact, the reason the Calamitous Corruption could cause such immense devastation the moment it fully awakened was that before waking completely, it had entered a half-awake state many times, each lasting from several seconds to several minutes.

While half asleep and half awake, it scattered its “spores” from its Divine Land across the entire world like mushrooms reproducing. Those who sensed its “spores” would become beings like the members of the Esoteric Society, or even Hu Chuan, exercising its power on its behalf.

The system dared not imagine how much destruction more than forty hours of that power running rampant would cause, or how many devotees of the Calamitous Corruption would be born.

The Calamitous Corruption was terrifying when it woke on the wrong side of the bed!

“…”

This shouldn’t have happened! Why did it turn out like this?

Calamity’s current strength was nowhere near enough to oppose the Calamitous Corruption. Why would she act so rashly? This wasn’t her style at all!

And the Dark Emperor? What was he doing? Had he not noticed Calamity’s actions?

Unable to make sense of it, the system pondered for a while, then looked at Gu Qianqian. A complicated look gradually appeared in its mung-bean-sized eyes.

Even if the Calamitous Corruption awakened completely, there would not be absolutely no chance of turning things around. But being stimulated into a temporary half-awake state now would undoubtedly grant it even more devotees.

That would send the difficulty of Gu Qianqian’s quest soaring. In other words, she would be more likely to die!

Yet looking at Gu Qianqian’s face, which seemed always to be smiling, the system could not bear to tell her this cruel truth…

“Gu Qianqian…”

“What is it?”

“Nothing. Are you hungry?”

“I am… Wait!” Gu Qianqian’s expression abruptly turned wary, and she swept the spotted pig into her arms. “Are you testing me? Hmph! Don’t worry, I will never eat Jinhua!”

Indeed, Gu Qianqian had already given the six-winged spotted pig a name: Gu Jinhua, Jinhua as in Jinhua ham.

Jinhua… The system was left speechless. It deposited a steaming plate of Roasted Pig Trotters where it had been, then silently floated away.

It needed some quiet to think about how it could make Gu Qianqian stronger even faster.

The situation was dire. Unless absolutely necessary…

And so, after the system floated away, Gu Qianqian picked up a pig trotter in front of Jinhua and began devouring it with gusto.

Jinhua: “!!!”

“What the fuck! What kind of mess is that? What are we supposed to do? Don’t tell me you want me to stop it!”

After hearing the PL girl explain what had happened, Lu Yibei released a string of cries.

She had already seen during the Night Parade of a Hundred Ghosts what happened when Plague Taisui’s avatar was allowed to wreak havoc for several hours. Now that destruction would be multiplied several times over!

Just a few minutes of half-waking had been enough to produce a menace like Hu Chuan. If this condition persisted for more than forty hours, wouldn’t the ground be covered with people exercising the Calamitous Corruption’s power on its behalf?

The mere thought made Lu Yibei’s head ache.

“Don’t think so highly of yourself, little bro!” The PL girl rolled her eyes at Lu Yibei. “That’s a genuine catastrophe-class entity. Of course we leave it to catastrophe-class fighters!”

“That’s right. I mean the Dark Emperor and the helpers he found…”

“Then what does any of this have to do with me?” Lu Yibei asked in confusion.

Having me interfere in their battle would be like letting a three-year-old run wild in the ring during a seventy-kilogram MMA bout.

One careless step and someone would pound me into paste!

“They’re the main carries this time, but judging by the current situation, what they have isn’t enough!” The PL girl shrugged. “So you’ll have to help them…”

“Help them do what? Cheer them on?” Lu Yibei blurted out.

“If it would really help… It might be embarrassing, but I could reluctantly put on a cheerleader uniform and dance for them.”

“If necessary, you can do that too. But…” The PL girl’s tone shifted. “What I want you to do is temporarily sever the source of its strength and create an opportunity for the Dark Emperor and the others.”

“What? How could I possibly do that?” Lu Yibei shook her head like a pellet drum.

What kind of joke was that? It was like asking someone in wartime to blow up the enemy’s oil refinery and power plant to cut off their energy supply. It sounded simple, but it was the deadliest assignment of all.

“It’s easy, easy!” the PL girl said, soothing Lu Yibei while making it sound like nothing. “When have I ever lied to you?”

“If it’s easy, you do it!”

“Sure!” The PL girl smiled, a cunning glint passing through her eyes.

Lu Yibei: “???”

She agreed that readily? She isn’t even charging a power-leveling fee? There must be some huge scheme behind this!

Compared to the invisible, intangible Pink Fluffy Bunny, Lu Yibei was more afraid of the PL girl pulling some outrageous maneuver to torment her.

At that thought, Lu Yibei hurriedly changed her answer. “Forget it. Now that I’ve thought about it, I should go myself! Youth is all about having a few hot-blooded moments engraved in your memory. A passionate youngster like me would never retreat.”

“Tell me. What do I need to do?”

“Ordinarily, tainting that creature’s belief would be somewhat difficult. But the situation is different now—if you can persuade the man you just fought to lend a hand,” the PL girl said, reciting the lines she had prepared long ago.

She understood Lu Yibei far too well. If she agreed readily, Lu Yibei would become suspicious and take action of her own accord instead.

The PL girl had never intended to act in Lu Yibei’s place. This task required Qing Ji’s sword strike that could briefly stop time. At the instant time stopped and the connection between the Calamitous Corruption and its devotees was severed, they would spread the ideological stamp.

Like transmitting a virus.

But apart from once stabbing the remnant soul of Qing Ji inside the Broken Sword and hearing a story from the remnant soul of Qing Ji inside the ferule, she had barely interacted with him.

In fact, the Qing Ji remnant soul inside the ferule had only been willing to tell her that story because he mistook her for Lu Yibei.

When she obtained the Pure Lotus Sword and sensed a remnant soul hidden inside, the first thing she had done was erase its consciousness…

Drawing back her thoughts, the PL girl looked at Lu Yibei. “Do you remember how that strike that knocked you unconscious felt?”

“That strike…” Lu Yibei carefully recalled it and frowned.

How it felt? Did the PL girl mean the feeling that Ancestor’s slash had cut straight through the river of time?

“Remember now?” Seeing Lu Yibei remain silent for so long, the PL girl pouted. “It doesn’t matter if you can’t. You only need to know that if you can please him and get him to make one slash with his full strength, then transmit the ideological stamp I left you to everyone who has been corrupted, that will be enough.”

The simplest way to taint belief was to introduce a deviation into the object of the devotees’ worship.

Once the deviation grew large enough, it might even damage the haunting’s original power.

It was no different from the countless transformations, falls, and corruptions that haunting powers had undergone over thousands of years.

“How hard could that be?” Lu Yibei said confidently.

That was her own Ancestor!

Hu Chuan, who had been controlling him, was already dead. How could asking him for a small favor be difficult? Lu Yibei thought.

“…”

You’ll understand once you try.

Having him unleash a full-strength slash meant exhausting his psychic energy. It also meant he might lose that portion of his memories.

That was the truly difficult part…

With that thought, the PL girl said expressionlessly, “Good luck…”

“See you later, then?” Lu Yibei said.

“Mm. See you later.”

As the words fell, Lu Yibei felt her body suddenly plummet. Then her vision went black.