Chapter 141: End Everything, Let Me Rest!

"Permission contest concluded. You have obtained full ownership of the Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp."

Hand it over!

Without any suspense, Wu Chang easily seized ownership of the Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp.

The Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp, its wick and body fused, hovered in the air, absorbing energy from the surrounding magic array.

With the Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp at its center, an invisible vortex formed. In the ritual hall outside the secret chamber, the massive Year-Fire bonfire was drawn in; the great Year-Fire broke free from its brazier and surged directly into the lamp shade.

And this was only the beginning. Having absorbed a great deal of Year-Fire, the wick began to grow ever brighter, and its pull grew ever more ferocious.

Not only the Year-Fire, but every flame within the entire Hunguangda Cathedral was being drawn in and devoured by it.

The flames on the torches and oil lamps in the guards' hands surged wildly. Within a few breaths, the fire consumed all combustible matter, swelled into a massive unstable fireball, broke free of the torches and oil lamps, and flew deep into the corridor.

At the top of the Hunguangda Cathedral burned the Inextinguishable Soul Fire, worshipped by all the faithful. It was part of the miracle; it needed no fuel added, only the unceasing faith of the believers, and it could burn at all times, day and night without rest.

Because of the Inextinguishable Soul Fire's existence, whether day or night, there would always be devout believers in the plaza before the Hunguangda Cathedral praying to it, beseeching the never-extinguishing fire of souls to show their souls the way.

This morning, Hearing Zhanghuo had just demonstrated the resurrection ritual. Every time after witnessing a miracle, the believers gathered in the plaza were especially numerous, and today was no exception.

Under the believers' prayers, the Inextinguishable Soul Fire burned with exceptional vigor.

This proved the believers' devotion, and proved that the deity had heard their prayers.

Just as the believers were excited by it, the Inextinguishable Soul Fire suddenly surged—from a three-meter-tall flame, in the blink of an eye it swelled to seven or eight meters high.

Not only did it exceed the brazier containing the Inextinguishable Soul Fire, the flames leapt upward and instantly swallowed the cathedral's top floor that housed the Inextinguishable Soul Fire.

The believers stared dumbly at the burning cathedral, some unable to believe it.

"I never imagined I was this devout!"

The flames burned for over ten seconds. Only when the fire had spread across the entire top floor of the Hunguangda Cathedral did people come to their senses and shout: "Fire! Save the fire!"

Before the crowd could find something suitable to hold water and rush into the cathedral to fight the fire, the sea of flames engulfing the top floor of the Hunguangda Cathedral was sucked back into the Inextinguishable Soul Fire's brazier, and the flames vanished in an instant.

As if the sea of fire before had all been an illusion.

After their brief relief at the flames dying, the believers discovered a more serious problem: the Inextinguishable Soul Fire had gone out along with it.

All these flames that had suddenly surged and then vanished at once came streaming in from every direction, all pouring into the Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp.

After drawing in all the flames—particularly the Year-Fire bonfire in the ritual hall and the Inextinguishable Soul Fire atop the cathedral—even the crimson shade of the Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp began to show a faint Jin Guang.

As the strange phenomenon ended, the Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp slowly descended into Wu Chang's hand.

"Item Name: Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp (Complete Version)"

"Item Grade: B (Growable)"

"Item Skill: Illumination of the Void."

"Skill Description: The Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp can command flames of a lower grade than itself, and transform the flames it controls into Year-Fire, illuminating evil and driving away plague, causing demons and monsters to flee."

"Item Skill: Year-Fire"

"Skill Description: Consume 50 energy points or fire-attribute energy of equivalent value to ignite Year-Fire. Once Year-Fire is ignited, it will burn without going out. Duration: one instance plane. While Year-Fire burns, it reduces sustained damage taken by allied targets within its range. While burning, it can nullify one death. Death-nullification cooldown: one instance plane."

"Item Skill:???"

"Skill Status: Inactive"

"Skill Description:???"

Wu Chang stared at the attribute panel of the Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp in his hand and awkwardly swallowed.

Even as just the lamp body, the Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp's effects were extremely powerful. Even though it had been chosen as a reward and weakened once when brought out of the Suisuiping'an instance, among C-grade items it still stood head and shoulders above the rest.

When he discovered it actually had a wick, Wu Chang had a premonition that the Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp fused with its wick would bring him a pleasant surprise.

Originally he had thought the Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp's ceiling was an A-grade item; he hadn't expected it to directly become a growable B-grade item.

The Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp becoming its complete form could be said to have undergone an all-round strengthening.

Illumination of the Void originally could only control mortal flames; now, as long as a flame's grade is lower than Year-Fire, the Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp can control it and transform the flames it commands into Year-Fire.

The strengthening of the second skill, Year-Fire, was even more pronounced. With the wick, the Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp's burning was no longer limited by lamp oil; once ignited, it could keep burning.

At the same time, the death-nullifying effect, which could be called a divine skill, had actually truly appeared on the Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp.

Although triggering death-nullification would cause the Year-Fire to go out, and the corresponding energy had to be paid again to reignite the Year-Fire.

But one must understand, this is a death-nullifying effect. Staying alive is always the most important thing in the Abyss Game.

No matter how powerful an item is, once the user dies, it's all for nothing. Conversely, as long as the user isn't dead, no matter how much is lost, one can make a comeback.

For many players, the effect of nullifying even one death is worth more than an S-grade item.

Moreover, as a noble growable item, the Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp, like the Sage's Remnant Mask, still has one skill locked.

It can be said not only is the present promising, the future is even more promising.

Judging from the skills, growable items far surpass ordinary items of the same grade; even a B-grade growable item already surpasses most A-grade items.

Wu Chang commonly have expectations, wondering what effects the Sage's Remnant Mask and the Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp would have once they grew into S-grade items.

Speaking of which, having been in the Abyss Game for so long, even regarding S-grade items he had heard plenty of related rumors; only growable items, he had almost never heard anyone mention.

In the Abyss Game there is a rule: the rarer something is, the higher its value.

Growable items are this rare; their value will be no less than S-grade items.

Hearing Zhanghuo being so generous instead made him feel embarrassed.

He had originally only planned to purify the cathedral and cause some trouble, not intending to do anything else. Who would have thought Hearing Zhanghuo was so enthusiastic, insisting on stuffing a wick of the Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp into his hands—well, what a situation this is.

Just as he put away the Four Directions Year-Fire Lamp, he heard the sound of dense footsteps coming from outside.

It must be that Hearing Zhanghuo had noticed the item being taken and sent people to find him.

He entered a social-anxiety state, bypassed the arriving guards, arrived at the underground second-floor junction, and saw believers of the Hunguang Sect Sect sealing off every exit, preparing to catch a turtle in a jar.

He hid in a corner, shifted into spirit-form, and began observing Hearing Zhanghuo's movements.

His spirit-form traveled upward, arriving at the room where Hearing Zhanghuo had just prayed. He found that Hearing Zhanghuo had not followed the guards underground, but, as if injured, was being supported by guards toward the top floor of the cathedral.

It looked like the plan was to first have the guards conduct a carpet search to find his trail and wear down his stamina, then, once fully recovered, deal with him personally.

Since Hearing Zhanghuo didn't come, a group of guards posed no threat to him.

Wu Chang decided to go all in—he didn't rush to leave; instead, he took advantage of the elevator transporting guards and rode it down to the first underground level.

There was another secret chamber here.

The entrance to the secret chamber on the first underground level differed from the one with the Suihuo Lampwick; on the door was a sunken eye-shaped pattern, strikingly similar to the Soul Fire worshipped by the Hunguang Sect.

It likely required some relic belonging to Hearing Zhanghuo to open the door. When Wu Chang drew close enough, the Commoner's Poison in his personal space reacted—it seemed to crave whatever lay behind the door.

Craving isn't enough—you've got to act.

Wu Chang stared at the Commoner's Poison, and a bold idea formed in his mind.

The Soul Fire worshipped by the Hunguangda Sect was, in fact, a variant of the symbol of the Quietist Sect, and the eye symbol of the Quietist Sect represented the Eye of Lyman, the Demigod.

He currently held a real Eye of Lyman—could this genuine article pass as a fake?

He pulled out the Commoner's Poison and cautiously pressed the embedded Eye of Lyman against the sunken groove on the secret chamber's door.

Click.

The door actually opened.

It was too easy—it left Wu Chang momentarily stunned.

Had Hearing Zhanghuo gone to such great lengths to build this massive Hunguangda Sect temple… just for him?

After the chamber opened, Wu Chang saw inside a withered, dead tree.

Its strange fleshy texture was familiar—it was a dead Miracle Tree.

!

Through the Purifying Soul Banner, he could see that this supposedly dead Miracle Tree contained Blood Moon energy; under its influence, it now existed in a peculiar half-dead, half-alive state.

In this state, the Miracle Tree had lost all thought of its own, like a vegetative patient, mechanically absorbing votive energy and fulfilling wishes without agency.

He tucked away the Purifying Soul Banner—the Miracle Tree still appeared red in his eyes, but not the red of Blood Moon energy; it was the red of Blood Last Words.

To Wu Chang, it was nothing but a massive mass of blood-red resentment.

The depth of its resentful red was nearly black.

Gazing at this profound black, Wu Chang's eyes seemed to pierce through time, returning to the past.

When he came to his senses, his gaze had drifted high into the sky, looking down upon a flat but desolate land—he could see only this land; beyond it, nothing but endless black.

In a daze, Wu Chang realized—he had become the moon, the moon that brought miracles to the Mikael Kingdom.

As he had suspected, the entity upon the moon was also of the Miracle Walker lineage, bound to the heavens for some reason.

It was stronger than the Great Miracle, but its mind seemed dull; it remained mostly motionless and never actively sought out those who made wishes.

He—or rather, the moon within the resentment—stared down at the desolate continent, overwhelmed by immense hunger and loneliness.

He needed food.

After waiting an unknown length of time, a traveling bard wandered into this land, lost and with his food and fresh water exhausted; he prayed to the gods for sustenance and guidance to leave this place.

The moon answered him, granting him great wealth and a small miracle capable of fulfilling one wish.

In return, the bard had to use the small miracle bestowed by the moon to bring more humans to this land.

Soon, the bard fulfilled his promise, bringing many humans here.

It was a massive caravan; people, like pilgrims, surrounded a man seated upon a Golden Wang Zuo, chanting his name as the Chosen of the Gods.

Under his leadership, the Mikael Kingdom rose swiftly.

The people of the Mikael Kingdom, influenced by the miracles, made wishes day and night, replenishing the moon's depleted nourishment in no time.

As Wu Chang had sensed before, the moon's mind was not sharp—it converted nearly all votive energy offered, after sustaining its own life, into countless small miracles, randomly distributing them to humans on the ground.

With its aid, the Mikael Kingdom soon grew prosperous.

Human desires are endless.

The prolonged absence of miracles dimmed the halo of Mikael I, the Chosen One.

The enriched nobles began to undermine Mikael I's rule, so Mikael I made a wish upon the Golden Wang Zuo—he desired a catastrophe.

He wished for a disaster terrifying enough to make people fear again, to revere the gods and revere him, to solidify his rule.

Within the Golden Wang Zuo lay the small miracle once given to the bard by the moon; because of the Golden Wang Zuo, the moon granted Mikael I's request, and the disaster arrived as promised.

A terrible plague swept across the land; its symptoms, as Mikael I had envisioned, were long, agonizing, and incurable—only prayer brought fleeting peace.

As the plague spread, the afflicted gathered wherever prayer eased their suffering the most.

Mikael I built a city around this place, locking all patients inside, calling it the City of Suffering.

Suffering forced the patients to pray; with their prayers growing ever stronger, the moon accumulated enough energy to condense a small miracle far larger than the Golden Wang Zuo, and bestowed it upon the human with the purest wish in the city.

With this immense small miracle, that human ascended into the sky and merged with the moon.

The small miracle sent down had grown back onto the moon.

Perhaps because the small miracle had fused with that human, the moon began to gain consciousness, to understand human speech.

Ever since it could understand human wishes, everything became complicated.

Previously, the moon judged wishes solely by their purity—whether to grant them or not.

Now that it could understand human voices, it realized that not all pure wishes were good; many pure wishes made it feel sick.

Take Mikael I—his purity was unmatched; his greed for power and immortality made his wish's quality far surpass others'. Even though the moon despised him, it could not help but fulfill his wishes.

Under Mikael I's influence, scholars studied the Golden Wang Zuo and discovered the small miracle hidden within.

Facing the flesh that had summoned the great plague, the scholars began to speculate: perhaps the god had long since died, and what lingered upon the moon was merely the uncorrupted flesh of a deity.

The residual divine power within the flesh mechanically fulfilled human wishes according to some rule.

Based on this discovery, Mikael I and the scholars began their research—all of it watched by the moon, which could not and did not wish to stop them, only growing ever more disgusted with them and with all humans below.

After an unknown length of time, Mikael I, the kingdom's nobles, and the scholars confirmed their theory and prepared a grand scheme.

They planned to, before the deity's body fully decayed and its divine power vanished, exploit the rules of wishes to devour the deity's body and seize its divine power for eternal life.

This is Blood Moon Immortality.

To complete Blood Moon Immortality, a vast quantity of mad desires is required.

Yet the First Miracle, which brought people peace, became a stumbling block to their plan.

Thus, the first step of Blood Moon Immortality was to erase or corrupt the Sage who had merged with the moon.

Michael I's plan succeeded; their malicious desires drove the Sage's consciousness mad, causing self-destruction.

The moon itself went mad and destroyed itself along with him.

A vast flood of red surged forth, drowning Wu Chang's vision and pulling his consciousness back to reality.

He gazed at the corpse of the Miracle Tree; the blood-written last words covering its entire body coalesced into eight characters.

【End it all. Let me rest!】

(End of Chapter)