Chapter 73
Shen Li was caught in a fierce battle between heaven and man.
His head was splitting with pain, yet his mind had never been clearer.
Who am I? What am I doing here?
Shen Li himself was a little curious. Why was he being so harsh toward Lu Chuan? After all, aside from coveting his money, causing him trouble, burdening the vice-guildmaster, and being a compulsive liar, Lu Chuan didn’t really have any other major flaws.
But inside his mind, there seemed to be a voice urging him to eliminate the most crucial figure in this dungeon.
And subconsciously, Shen Li’s hand had turned the blade toward Lu Chuan.
“Ah—” Shen Li clutched his head and curled into a ball.
On his body, strange mystical patterns were crawling upward, yet something was restraining them tightly, caught in a violent deadlock.
Starry Shasha wanted to step forward to help, but Lu Chuan stopped her. The others didn’t move either, only watching quietly as Shen Li fought his final battle.
[Detected: Player [Walking Alone for Ten Thousand Miles] is resisting foreign divine power, Sanity -2]
[Detected: Player [Walking Alone for Ten Thousand Miles] Sanity +1]
…
At that moment, Shen Li’s spiritual world was flooded with light.
Blue sky, green meadow, wooden cabin, white clouds.
He stood on a boundless plain, the breeze making waves through the grass. His whole body felt utterly relaxed.
If he wished, he could stay here forever.
“Shen Li, Shen Li, wake up.”
A voice came from nowhere, calling out to him.
Shen Li, lying in the grass, opened his eyes, curiously looking around, but saw no source.
“Shen Li, do you plan to stay here forever?”
This voice was so annoying.
Shen Li opened his eyes again, oddly scrutinizing his surroundings.
Why couldn’t he stay? This was his home.
Looking at his little wooden cabin, Shen Li smiled foolishly. This illusion was so perfect. The cabin he built with his own hands was a masterpiece—he could even invite friends over to stay.
“But who are your friends?”
Of course, my friends are… Right, who are my friends?
Why am I even here?
At that thought, Shen Li froze.
The voice—he realized it sounded familiar.
It was his own voice.
In that instant, all the memories he had forgotten rushed back.
The Star Guild, Lu Chuan, the Evil World game, Starry Shasha, and more.
How did I end up here? I can’t stay here any longer.
As soon as he realized that, the picturesque scenery around him cracked with a sharp crack—then another, then another—as the fractures spread like a spiderweb, devouring everything in moments.
[Do you really want to leave? You never liked fighting. Isn’t your dream just to be an ordinary teacher?]
[I can give you a better dream. Stay here, and you can have everything.]
[Your friends will become your companions. Here, you can have it all.]
…
Shen Li had to admit, for one brief moment, he was deeply tempted.
But false was false.
He couldn’t stay.
If he did, Starry Shasha would definitely be sold out by Lu Chuan for scraps.
And Lu Chuan—he cared more for money than life itself. If Shen Li stayed, he might just end up getting himself killed by that fool.
He had to get out, and fast.
The mysterious patterns on his body tried to invade his mind, but Shen Li’s willpower held them back.
Lu Chuan had been watching Shen Li closely, and could more or less guess the situation.
Shen Li was the true core of this Divine Challenge dungeon. The entire instance existed to test if he could rise to become a Master Player. Even though Lu Chuan had stolen some of the spotlight midway, the system’s process still had to run its course.
The trial now was whether Shen Li could overcome the god’s influence. If he failed, it meant he lacked the power to resist divine forces. If he succeeded, then he would rightfully earn his place among the Great Players.
That lingering divine power kept trying to climb into Shen Li’s mind, seeking to seize control.
That fool of an Omniscience God had tried the same method earlier, and ended up getting shot three times for his trouble.
These so-called gods—always trying to steal people’s bodies. Disgusting.
“Brother Lu, will Captain Shen wake up?” Starry Shasha wasn’t worried about whether Shen Li could win—she only cared about whether he would wake.
Perhaps knowing her ability couldn’t distinguish friend from foe, which would only make things worse for Shen Li, she deliberately stepped back.
“He’ll be fine.” Lu Chuan said without looking back. “I provoked him enough just now. If that’s not enough, then I’d have to break out my deadliest insults. But if I do that, the side effects would be huge.”
“What side effects?” Lilus finally caught on—Lu Chuan’s earlier actions were clearly meant to push Shen Li into finding himself, though in a rather twisted way.
“The side effect is… even if Shen Li wakes up, he’ll probably never speak to me again after I curse him that badly.”
…Better keep those curses for your next reincarnation. Don’t ever say them in this life.
Seeing the situation, none of them dared relax.
They couldn’t do anything else now. All they could do was pray Shen Li would wake.
Inside the pitch-dark void, Shen Li was desperately searching for a way out.
He was like a lost traveler, circling endlessly through branching paths.
Here, every second dragged on longer than an hour.
And in his ears, that voice kept tempting him to give up.
If he gave in, he could have a better life, anything he wanted. Not this endless, futile struggle to find an exit.
How could a god’s spiritual prison be broken so easily?
Shen Li took a deep breath, ignored the voice, and kept searching.
He had remembered most of what happened. Which meant he was trapped in some kind of psychic prison.
He had trained for this. After all, there were players with mental abilities, and someone of Shen Li’s rank had to be trained for it—otherwise, he might betray the guild under such influence.
A psychic prison wasn’t eternal. The flow of time here was just an illusion.
He could break it. He would break it.
He didn’t know how long he searched, but eventually, the tempting voice grew distant, and he began to see a faint glimmer of light.
[Congratulations, player [Walking Alone for Ten Thousand Miles] has shattered the divine prison. Sanity +5, rising to 90]
Lu Chuan stared unblinkingly at Shen Li, waiting for that power to be expelled so he could strike the god with everything they had.
At that moment, the force within Shen Li seemed to hit an unshakable barrier and was slowly pushed out.
The thing had no form, no color, no shape—hard to even detect.
“There!” Messiah felt that familiar energy and instantly pointed.
Cynthia’s eyes snapped open.
In her pupils, something unseen seemed to appear, granting it visibility.
Group Vision Amplification!
All at once, Lu Chuan and the others “saw” it.
Attack Amplification!
Power surged from Cynthia’s eyes, causing the force to stall for just a heartbeat as it left Shen Li’s body.
In that instant, Lilus charged forward like the wind, massive scythe raised high, bringing its sharpest edge down on the god’s form that Cynthia had pinned.
With her amplification, Lilus’ strength nearly doubled.
The scythe slashed down, carving a deep trench into the ground.
Boom—
Lilus felt as if the blade had struck something utterly indestructible. The shock made his hands go numb, tingling all the way to his scalp.
The other players nearby, although not as perfectly in sync as Cynthia and Lilus, still understood in that split-second what they needed to do.
Edith pulled out her attack item and hurled it toward the spot where Lilus’s scythe had just struck.
Starry Shasha put on a pair of special gloves, clenched her fists, leapt into the air, and—feeling the surging power coursing through her body—rained blow after blow on that mysterious cluster of energy.
[Cross of Godslayer] is on cooldown after use.
Messiah, meanwhile, took out something resembling a divine tablet from the system’s space, bit his fingertip, smeared some blood on it, and then snapped it violently in half.
The glow of that unknown energy cluster dimmed for an instant and let out another piercing shriek.
Lu Chuan and the others were all stunned by the powerful sound, blood spurting from their eyes.
Under this crushing divine pressure, they could hardly move a step.
The first to faint, of course, were the two filler “mob” players—they barely lasted five seconds.
Shen Li, already mentally exhausted from his earlier battle of wills, was on the verge of collapse as well. Still, he forced himself to use the [Creation] function to craft barriers around everyone, shielding them as much as possible from the sound.
Only once he was sure he had given them some protection did Shen Li’s strength finally give out, and he fainted.
The cluster of power seemed to be trying to flee.
Trying to run?
No way!
If it escaped, how would they ever track it down again?
“Cynthia, amplify my bullet!” Lu Chuan shouted at once.
By now, he had guessed at Cynthia’s ability.
Cynthia immediately withdrew her other enhancements and poured all her buffs into the bullet in Lu Chuan’s hand.
Lu Chuan drew his handgun, aimed at the energy mass.
Whoosh—
The bullet tore through the air, carrying with it the last scraps of his sanity and Cynthia’s enhancements, plunging deep into the cluster.
The bullet’s radiance burned away the divine force within, as though determined to cleanse it completely.
The surrounding air currents went wild, tearing apart everything in range.
[Player “Arrival of the God of Wealth” fired a pistol. Current sanity -5.]
The screaming lasted less than three minutes.
Shen Li went down first, then Edith.
Soon after, Starry Shasha fainted as well.
Lilus and Cynthia barely held on, but they too were wavering.
[Congratulations, players have successfully prevented the god’s resurrection. Current mission complete.]
[Players may return to the real world at any time.]
The system prompt chimed in at just the right moment, and for the first time, Lu Chuan thought its voice sounded pleasant.
[Humans, humans!]
[I will break free of my restraints! I will ascend to a High God!]
The remnants of the energy cluster began gathering nearby sparks of light, as though preparing to make a comeback.
What? Still not dead?
This god was even more resilient than a cockroach—a thousand times more!
Lu Chuan’s eyes bulged; he wanted to go report this to the Main God system.
The system had already declared their victory, yet this god refused to accept defeat.
“Senior, the Main God’s restriction is broken—we can go inside the barrier now!” Number 18 cheered and darted inside happily.
Lu Chuan was about to ask Lilus to lend him some sanity so he could fire another shot when suddenly, an immense pressure bore down on him.
Lilus and Cynthia, teetering on the edge, finally succumbed and collapsed.
Lu Chuan wanted to faint too.
This feeling… so familiar…
He lifted his head, clinging to his last shred of clarity. His eyes locked onto a many-winged birdman, but his gaze went past it—up to Number 9, floating above. He waved frantically.
“Number 9, Number 9, over here—we meet again!” Lu Chuan said joyfully.
#888, who was just about to activate a skill for Lu Chuan: … Host, are you insane?
You’re not even acquainted!
#888 nearly wept.
Number 9 snapped his fingers lightly, and the crushing pressure on Lu Chuan instantly lifted. His muddled mind cleared once more.
Beside him, Number 18 was happily kneading some unknown substance into a dumpling-sized ball, then popped it into his mouth with a crunch crunch of delight.
“Senior, this so-called ‘God of Desire’ actually dared claim that title? Disgusting. There’s barely a trace of authority over desire in it,” Number 18 said while chewing. “Its power is impure, flavorless. If it had managed to ascend as a High God, maybe it would’ve had some taste—but trying to break the Main God’s restrictions at this level? Truly pathetic.”
Still, for beings like them—the Burial Squads—gods made for the most delicious meals.
Burial Squads didn’t need to eat food. They were born to feed on gods.
The higher-ranked a Burial Squad, the more gods they had consumed.
But gods weren’t so easy to kill, and sometimes the devouring backfired—hence why most Burial Squads’ sanity hovered in the single digits. Number 9 was unusual: because he maintained a humanoid form long-term, his sanity was in the double digits, starting with a “1.”
Number 9 ignored Number 18’s culinary commentary and descended before Lu Chuan.
Only then did Lu Chuan realize that Number 9 was taller than most humans.
But since he wasn’t really human to begin with, that height felt natural.
“Mr. Executor, I think the mark you left on me last time was very useful. Could you give me another one?” Lu Chuan asked earnestly.
He admitted it—he had been ignorant before, even complaining that Number 9’s mark wasn’t good enough.
But this mark was excellent—it saved him tons of money.
