August 04, 2023 by Wyrd
“Realm of the Gods?”
Zhu Shuangshuang and Su Wangsheng were startled upon hearing this.
If the boundless Dark Swamp that existed only within the Furen County was considered boundless, then what the white-haired flower attendant mentioned as the pathway to the Realm of the Gods could be thought of as a connection to another mysterious and unknown space.
Possibly, what existed there was what the system referred to as ‘god’.
Zhu Shuangshuang asked, “Is the Land of the Sleeping God the place where god would awaken during the Flower God Festival?”
The white-haired flower attendant wasn’t entirely sure; he only said, “God is boundless, and the Dark Swamp is the place where god slumbers. The flowers that grow in the Dark Swamp carry the aura and imprint of god, making them sacred flowers.”
Though it might be somewhat plausible when stated like this, the two of them still couldn’t understand how flowers with such oppressive colors and deformed appearances could be considered sacred flowers.
As evening approached, other flower attendants in the courtyard also came out one after another, preparing to go to the Dark Swamp to select flowers again.
The bizarre flowers that grew human body parts last night were all taken away by the Holy Maiden and her people. At that time, they only felt relieved, but now they felt troubled.
With the polluted flowers taken away, they had to venture into deeper parts of the swamp to search again.
What was even more distressing was that even if they brought back a flower safely tonight, they couldn’t be sure if it had been infected or not.
If it was infected, they would have to search again, which meant they had to go deeper into the swamp each time, facing even more danger.
Meanwhile, if they couldn’t find a flower that wasn’t polluted, they couldn’t learn to serve the flowers, understand how to meet the god, and might even be unable to participate in the Flower God Sacrificial Ritual, thus failing both main quests.
The players felt quite frustrated.
As they set out this time, the journey was silent all the way.
There were four sets of players’ rooms in their courtyard.
One of the rooms belonging to Ning Su and Ning Changfeng had one player who didn’t participate, and the other was just being lazy and following along.
There were two people in a room whose details were unknown, and they remained silent all the time.
Leading the group of players were Dai Dong and Jiang Ying, but last night, Jiang Ying passed away, and today, Dai Dong hadn’t said a word.
Only Zhu Shuangshuang and Su Wangsheng were still able to speak normally.
They felt regretful about what happened last night, but they did whatever they could to help. Nevertheless, they had to continue with the missions as usual.
Zhu Shuangshuang whispered to Su Wangsheng, “I always thought Hua Feng was different, but I didn’t expect him to be so devoted to the Flower God.”
Hua Feng was the name of the white-haired flower attendant.
Su Wangsheng said, “Everyone here believes in the Flower God. There must have been some real encounters with the Flower God, or this god has brought benefits to the people here.”
Zhu Shuangshuang replied with an “Mm,” and then said, “Have you noticed that Huafeng looked unusually pale and weak today?”
Su Wangsheng nodded, “That rotted hand flower he took back to raise didn’t cause any trouble overnight, and the hole in it caused by the Holy Maiden’s staff is gone.”
They all thought that the hand might attack someone again, just as it did with Jiang Ying, or after being seriously injured by the Holy Maiden, it would be difficult for it to recover overnight.
But neither of those scenarios happened.
Zhu Shuangshuang was curious, “How did he raise it?”
As they spoke in hushed voices, the group of them walked out of the courtyard onto the street, and just as they were about to turn towards the Dark Swamp, they saw Ning Changfeng leisurely walking back.
Zhu Shuangshuang asked, “Senior Ning, where did you go?”
“Oh,” Ning Changfeng crossed his hands and raised his palms upward, as if lifting something, “I went to participate in the Flower God’s worshiping event.”
“...”
During the welcoming period before the Flower God Festival, various welcoming activities were held every day. The one that was absolutely fixed and never missed was the afternoon worshiping event at the Flower God Temple. Every afternoon, a group of people would kneel and worship the Flower God, listening to the praises for the Flower God being chanted.
Unexpectedly, the player ranked first on the Game Base would participate in such an event.
Watching his skilled movements, it seemed like he had done this before.
Zhu Shuangshuang felt a bit dazed and muttered, “Oh,” before continuing to follow the flower attendants ahead.
***
The orange sunset, the fiery red evening glow, and the warm light spread across the boundless dark swamp.
Ning Su seemed to sense that heartbeat once again.
Deep and powerful, though not loud, it resonated through the entire world.
Ning Su ventured deep into the undead corpse swamp and grabbed a ‘heart’.
The beating of that ‘heart’ was the only response from this silent and desolate world.
At that moment, he regained all his strength, and the radiant smile broke through the muck on his face, shining brightly.
He pulled the ‘heart’ out from the depths of the swamp.
The round, yellow sun next to his head disappeared and turned back into the usual orange-red sunset.
When the pulsating ‘heart’ was pulled out from the swamp, it appeared as a thick vine and slowly bloomed into a four-petaled blood flower under the orange-red sunset and under the gaze of the young man.
The young man looked at it, a big smile on his face, his eyes bright and moist.
He placed the vine and flower together on his heart, covered them with both hands, and felt the heartbeat inside, synchronizing his own heartbeat with that rhythm.
“Bang! -“
“I found it!”
He waved to two kids in the distance, shouting loudly with the sunset in the background.
Around him, one after another, dark flowers sprouted, and life was born anew.
A group of skeletons slowly appeared in the distance, with two kids sitting on the shoulders of the two skeletons at the front.
They also waved to him.
“I found Mom.”
“Ah!”
Ning Su repeated, this time in a very low and soft voice, “I found it.”
He showed the flower pinned to his chest to the two children who had just arrived by his side.
The two children stared blankly at the flower in his hand, unable to find the words to express their feelings.
They couldn’t articulate their emotions and could only stare with bright, shiny eyes.
***
As the sunset, the flower attendants passed through the woods and arrived at the Dark Swamp.
At this moment, they saw a group of skeletons carrying a young man covered in rotting mud, walking out from the depths of the marsh.
“...”
The young man seemed to have heard their voices and turned to wave at them.
Zhu Shuangshuang was momentarily stunned. “He looks so happy.”
She had never seen the other this happy before, not even when he was eating chicken legs.
Su Wangsheng nodded. “Indeed.”
Ning Su climbed down from the skeleton and showed them the flower, saying, “Look, I found it.”
In his hand was a vine-like plant, about 20 cm long, with a deep and indistinct color, somewhere between dark green and black, with something flowing inside.
At the very top was a four-petaled blood-red flower.
No one knew how much blood had condensed into these four red petals. The red was so intense that it made people’s hearts tremble, as if they could see the blood pulsing in the veins of the petals, causing their own hearts to beat unconsciously.
Zhu Shuangshuang said, “This flower is so unique.”
She only glanced at it once and couldn’t bear to look anymore, as if her heart would burst into violent palpitations if she continued to gaze at it.
Su Wangsheng also felt anxious. “Indeed, it’s quite extraordinary.”
In this dark swamp, all the flowers that grew were deformed. This particular one was relatively ordinary, but what made it special was the overwhelming feeling of anxiety it gave people.
Ning Su held it happily and unconsciously made a gesture as if supporting it against his chest, “Of course, it’s special.”
Apart from Zhu Shuangshuang and Su Wangsheng, the others didn’t really care about what kind of flower he had found.
They only gazed with envy at those skeletons.
This time they had to go much farther than last time to find the flower, and the danger was self-evident. It was possible that they wouldn’t make it back before dark and would be dragged down by whatever monsters were deep in the swamp.
The pretty little girl noticed their gaze and kindly asked, “Need some help?”
As soon as she spoke, the skeletons behind her stood upright one by one.
The players were a bit incredulous. “Really?”
The little girl pulled her hair to the side and estimated the points they could get after completing this instance. She said, “One flower is worth 100,000 points.”
“...”
This number wasn’t as outrageous as Ning Su’s one billion, but it still felt too high, yet not impossible to give.
After the sunset, the sky darkened rapidly. The dark swamp was so vast that they couldn’t see the end or even a flower, only a strong stench of decay coming their way.
The army of skeletons marched forward through the dark swamp, earning Manman 300,000 points in five minutes.
Including one for Su Wangsheng.
There were players from other families also heading their way.
Gui Sheng admired, “Ah~”
His little brain worked slowly, and he knew one flower should be worth 200 points, but his sister was selling it for 100,000. He couldn’t quite figure out the math.
Even Ning Su was pleasantly surprised as he looked at Manman.
The little girl could only sigh.
When she lived in the castle, she knew very well what kind of person her mother was.
Even during their time at the villa, she had said that she would not make him work hard and that he could lie down how much he wanted.
The heavy burden of providing for the family still fell on her young shoulders.
The efficiency of the skeleton army was remarkably high. Before this, the two kids had taken the skeletons to find Ning Su and had already traveled a long way in the dark swamp, knowing well where the flowers were.
When they handed the flowers to the players, the little girl would always say, “There’s also a package of 300,000 points, promising an unlimited number of times until you find an unpolluted flower.”
“...”
This was the earliest time the players returned, relaxed and unharmed, not knowing whether to be happy or not.
Having found the flowers, the next worry was whether human body parts would grow on them during the night.
Many players didn’t plan to sleep properly, but Ning Su and the kids happily brought the flowers back to their room.
After freshening up, Ning Su and the two kids changed into their pajamas and sat together, looking at their flowers.
Five minutes passed.
Ten minutes passed.
Half an hour passed.
They were still looking.
“...”
“So beautiful.”
“Beautiful.”
“Mhmm!”
Ning Su found a black porcelain flowerpot and kept the flower inside. After looking at it for half an hour, he poured some water into the pot.
“Let’s go to sleep.”
The three of them lay on the wooden couch.
Ten minutes later, Gui Sheng sneakily turned around. For some reason, he still really wanted to take another look.
Ning Su told them to sleep, and though he pretended to do so, he didn’t actually sleep. He felt a bit guilty, thinking that he would just take one more glance.
As he turned, the other two also lay on their sides on each side of the wooden couch, gazing at the flower.
