Chapter 56: Carnivore (28) River of Blood

After throwing herself into the dry well with A-Xi in her arms, Granny Su saw the deity for the third time.

The deity in red remained soul-stirringly beautiful, their attire neat and free from even a speck of dust, untouched by the erosion of time.

Granny Su kowtowed before the deity, begging them to save A-Xi just as they had saved her.

The deity sighed deeply. “I myself am trapped here, with only a single breath of obsession remaining. How could I possibly save anyone?”

Granny Su did not believe it. She held A-Xi with one hand and grabbed the deity’s hem with the other, chanting prayers under her breath.

She felt a texture of decay; the deity’s seamless divine garment crumbled into rags in her hands, as if breaking the barrier between illusion and reality.

She thought of the long sixty years, the change of dynasties, and the fires of war; she thought that perhaps even a deity could rot.

Once delusions and dark thoughts arose, they could not be suppressed. Granny Su smelled the stench of a rotting corpse and looked up to see ulcer-like moss growing on the deity’s bloated, wrinkled body, while snakes and insects swam freely using their chest as a nest.

She instinctively patted her own chest but felt no heartbeat. The arm she raised was a skeleton stripped of flesh, reflecting a cold, sinister light.

A-Xi in her arms had also turned into white bone, her small white skull topped with two massive eye sockets.

—If the deity who fell here was a corpse, then she should have died sixty years ago… To the west of Su Clan Village, gray-white mist tinged the deepening twilight, blending into a surreal grayish-purple.

Darkness slowly invaded the gaps between heaven, earth, and houses, driving out the already fading mist and shrouding the land in its place.

The night wind howled; there was no moon in the sky. The road beneath his feet seemed to merge with the night, an identical pitch black.

With a crucifix wrapped around his left hand and the Pocket Watch of Fate in his grip, Qi Si held a green lantern he had swiped from a villager in his right, strolling forward as if in a garden.

The further he went, the dimmer the light became. Even the lantern’s glow seemed swallowed by something invisible, failing to illuminate the path ahead.

Gradually, the sound of the wind and human voices fell silent, leaving only a stagnant dead silence, as if this moment had been forcibly gouged out from the river of time, no longer flowing with the turning of the stars.

After an unknown amount of time and distance, without warning, light suddenly appeared in the pitch-black darkness.

The light was not intense, merely golden specks floating and swaying in the air, flickering to extend into a path of light.

Qi Si chased the light forward and saw stairs paved with shattered white bones, as if all the skeletons used as sacrificial offerings throughout history had gathered here.

Luminous spots sank into his body and then drifted away. His consciousness ebbed and flowed in the ocean of thought, momentarily communicating with a deeper, more distant existence, before being dragged down by his heavy physical body, sparking a dull echo from the earth.

Golden spots of light, fragments, and silks suspended in the air, wandering and floating slowly and freely, like being immersed in an ocean vortex.

Qi Si found himself standing under a giant golden tree at some unknown point. Golden vines hung from the branches, swaying without any wind.

Beneath the tree was a golden river, twisted and coiled into the shape of a Mobius strip, with a piercing blood-red embedded at the visual intersection.

It was a figure in a red robe, reclining on the riverbank. Their half-closed eyes revealed a crimson hue—the same gaze that had looked at him from afar in the illusion woven by the Identity Card, only to scatter like a rain of blood when he looked back.

They were covered in wounds, their chest and abdomen reduced to stark white bones, looking very much like a fish stranded on the shore waiting to rot.

Yet they were so sacred and solemn, brooking no mockery, no interference, and no desecration.

The moment they came into view, a realization appeared in Qi Si’s mind: This is a deity.

The evil spirit on the Identity Card opened its crimson eyes, and the half-intact face split into an eerie smile. Clusters of gray mist condensed into pitch-black tentacles, rising and falling with the surge of thoughts.

【Warning! god-tier npc (data deleted) has appeared. The direction of the instance has undergone unknown changes… Data error…】

【The authority of a god-tier npc is second only to the World Rules. They can appear in multiple instances simultaneously and share memories. Players, please respond with caution and choose carefully!】

【The last player who looked directly at their true form fell into madness. Committing suicide before encountering them would be a good choice… No, you are already mad…】

Descriptive knowledge bypassed the cognitive process and was directly captured, absorbed, and known by his consciousness.

Their blood flows into a river… Their influence continues… They can still respond… It was as if tens of thousands of people were whispering in his ear. Extreme sadness, ecstasy, anger, indifference… Contradictory emotions that did not belong to the subject washed over his consciousness, flowing past without leaving a trace.

Qi Si’s vision blurred and then settled. Colored fragments spread out before his eyes like a brilliant kaleidoscope, sparking chaotic thoughts in his mind.

Mad ideas grew more intense, only to be fished out from the ocean of thought by his reason and carefully woven into a clear, logical plan.

“If the underlying logic is consistent with games on the market, an existence like an NPC should be something I can try to kill…”

Qi Si felt that with the minimum death count mechanism in place, even if he did something excessive, he probably wouldn’t die easily.

Besides, according to the setting, this deity in front of him seemed to have been dead for a long time. Delivering a finishing blow to a corpse shouldn’t be a big deal, right?

A bizarre curiosity sprouted from his heart. Qi Si stepped on the withered leaves on the ground, listening to the “rustle” of crushed leaves as he walked toward the corpse in the river.

He crouched down on the bank just inches away from the corpse, then set down the lantern. He switched the Pocket Watch of Fate to his right hand and gripped the crucifix in his left, stabbing it into the corpse’s chest.

One second, two seconds, three seconds… 【A deity cannot be killed】

Silver-white text refreshed on the system interface. Qi Si saw the black crucifix melt at the deity’s heart as if touching lava. In a daze, he seemed to hear the deity’s voice—

“A deity does not die; they only fade away.”

“A corpse is but a physical body discarded by a deity. A deity’s soul and shadow exist forever in infinite time and space.”

Qi Si nodded solemnly. “I see. I understand. Thank you for telling me.”

He stood up and retreated in a second, immediately activating the effect of the Pocket Watch of Fate.

【”Rewind time by one minute” effect activated. This effect cannot be used again in this instance】

The cold electronic voice rang out, but there was no follow-up. The crucifix did not return to its original state, and Qi Si was still inches away from the divine corpse.

The deity in front of him suddenly opened their eyes completely, as startling as seeing an intact corpse after opening a coffin in an ancient tomb.

The Identity Card in the upper right corner of his vision flashed frantically. Tentacles and gray mist surged like a tide, as if witnessing the most terrifying beast in the jungle; instinct screamed frantically to flee.

Screeches and static rang in his ears, and the writing on the system interface turned blood-red:

【Warning! An unknown error occurred! Effect activation failed…】

The Pocket Watch of Fate in his hand was as hot as a burnt-out appliance. Information poured into his mind, letting Qi Si know: Items are ineffective against existences at the level of a deity.

Qi Si knew that under the protection of the minimum death count mechanism, he might not necessarily die. He simply smiled and gave a greeting. “We meet again. The deity behind the ‘Rose Manor’ instance should also be you, right?”

The deity gave an affirmative answer, seemingly not angered by Qi Si’s previous stab to their heart.

Conversing through a direct connection of consciousness was truly an interesting experience. Qi Si leaned closer again and said, “Though I’m curious why you’ve made yourself look like this, I have to say, we’re quite fated. “Would it be convenient for you to clear up some confusion for me? Is your true body here or at the bottom of the well? What exactly is the situation down there?”

The deity said, “Evil ghosts are sealed beneath the well; deities are enshrined in the main hall. Of course—I can be anywhere, I can be anyone, I can even be… you.”

The last sentence was laced with perceptible malice. In an instant, Qi Si thought of countless stories of soul possession and body-snatching, and he narrowed his eyes slightly.

The deity seemed to see through his thoughts and revealed fine, blood-streaked fangs. “You don’t need to be so afraid. I don’t eat people, nor do I like to eat people.”

This was clearly a lie. Qi Si, who had personally witnessed Lu Keliang’s bones being spat out by the well, laughed. “You might be disappointed. I’m not afraid; instead, I find it quite interesting. “Scaring me is a very low-yield endeavor. I grew up reading many ghost stories and am not easily frightened by old-fashioned methods.”

The deity spoke no more. The crucifix turned into black smoke at their heart, seemingly pulling on something in the dark. The vines on the giant golden tree began to tremble violently.

Qi Si thought of the black smoke he had once seen on himself, his expression unreadable. “The deity who disguised themselves as the Black-robed Taoist said you need human flesh and blood to complete your physical body, yet suggested the villagers of Su Clan Village give your meat to the tourists. “Since we players have eaten your meat, our bodies will naturally undergo mutations like the villagers. How can our flesh and blood still be of use? And if you need the players’ flesh and blood, why impose such strict restrictions on the villagers? “I suspect you deceived the villagers and intended to trigger conflict and harm among players through various mechanisms that aren’t immediately fatal. After all, only when one turns their blade against their own kind does it constitute ‘sin’ in the general sense.”

This was a long-held suspicion. One only needed to clarify the motives of each party to easily find the contradictions; this instance had no prior prompt stating that NPCs would not deceive players.

Qi Si looked down at the corpse resting on the bank and sighed performatively.

“Actually, the Black-robed Taoist who is suspected to be the main god has already given the answer. ‘They harbor an identical malice toward all living beings; what they love most is inducing humans to commit crimes and watching them struggle due to original sin.’ “God Meat is just bait to lure people into the trap. What you have always needed is not flesh and blood, but ‘sin’—the ‘sin’ committed by Ghosts and players around the core mechanism of this instance.”

The world was silent. The deity closed their eyes, and information was presented in Qi Si’s mind in the form of images.

—The former deity was exiled to ancient time and space, becoming a hidden existence sealed at the bottom of a well, using their last breath of obsession to set a trap.

—The ignorant villagers took out their corpse and fell into the snare due to their own greed, becoming tools to help them collect sin and accumulate power… In some ways, deities and humans seemed to have little difference, both having desires, both being calculating, and both struggling to survive.

A deity is just a human with more power.

Qi Si tilted his head and once again crouched beside the exquisitely featured corpse, the smile at the corners of his lips becoming a bit more genuine.

Under the giant golden tree, the black-haired youth grasped the skeletal hand resting on the background of red and gold, his eyes curving like crescent moons.

“So, Your Excellency Evil God, do you think the sin on me is enough?”-