Chapter 142: The Commission Begins

Wu Chang stared at the blood-red, almost black last words before him; combined with the scenes he had just witnessed in the resentment, he was certain that the Miracle Stone had not merely coincidentally sent him to the Midnight Cemetery instance.

While fulfilling his wish, the Miracle Stone was also fulfilling the Moon's wish within the Midnight Cemetery instance.

To end everything in the Midnight Cemetery instance, he must clear all obstacles and defeat every opponent standing in his way.

Will he win?

He will win!

Given the depth of this resentment, he could not possibly lose.

Recalling the scenes he saw in the resentment, the ultimate culprit, the greatest villain of the instance dimension, was unquestionably Mikael I.

His heart was black, his hands cruel, his plans meticulous, and he had eight hundred cunning eyes on his body.

He observed everything happening in the Mikael Kingdom from the Moon's perspective—in short, he occupied a god's viewpoint.

Many things the Moon could not understand, he, as a cautious player, could easily see through.

For instance, after fusing with the Sage and acquiring human thought patterns, the Miracle Moon believed Mikael I had launched the plague to maintain his rule.

But to Wu Chang, the matter was far more complex.

From Mikael I's wish to the Golden Wang Zuo—using the small miracle within the Golden Wang Zuo to resonate with the Miracle Moon—it was clear he had long discovered the Golden Wang Zuo's secret and knew it could fulfill his wishes.

All he needed to do, like the Hunguang Sect, was to publicly perform a miracle once in a while, and he would forever remain the chosen one in people's hearts, his status unshakable.

Clearly, Mikael I deliberately fostered the illusion of rare miracles and his abandonment by the gods, luring ambitious nobles into the open, then eliminating them all during the plague and seizing their wealth.

At the same time, the scarcity of miracles intensified every sect's pursuit of divine signs, making the triggering of a miracle their lifelong goal.

The Soul-Healing Sect's entire movement into the City of Suffering, despite the incurable plague, was proof of their willingness to sacrifice life for the sake of a divine sign.

Mikael I understood the Miracle Moon far better than anyone else—he launched the plague to purge ambitious nobles and gave birth to the first miracle.

Then he deliberately exposed the Golden Wang Zuo, drawing all scholars and high nobles of the kingdom into the scheme to jointly arrange Blood Moon Eternal Life.

Then, within Blood Moon Eternal Life, he secretly held back one final move—only he succeeded in gaining half-immortality, while Patos and other nobles, even if they remained conscious, possessed less than half of what he had.

Everyone involved in Blood Moon Eternal Life were merely pawns on his chessboard, completely calculated and trapped.

The only thing he miscalculated was that when erasing the Sage's consciousness from the first miracle, he also "killed" the Miracle Moon.

Had the Miracle Moon still lived, it could have understood Mikael I and others' wishes—but its consciousness was erased, and before deletion, influenced by the Sage, it harbored deep revulsion toward Mikael I and all who wished for immortality.

The complete disappearance of the Miracle Moon's consciousness caused Blood Moon Eternal Life to complete in a bizarre manner.

If he was to end everything completely, he had to eliminate Mikael I first.

Wu Chang tore his gaze away from the Miracle Tree and turned to other areas of the chamber.

The entity attracting the Mortal Poison in the chamber was not the resentment-filled Miracle Tree before him, but what lay buried beneath it.

He parted the blood-tangled roots of the Miracle Tree and saw a sphere the size of a fist, as if containing a black hole within.

Erosion Core.

It was an old acquaintance.

This Erosion Core far exceeded the one condensed in the Moonlight Containment instance, also a B-rank instance; its abnormal size was precisely what attracted the Mortal Poison.

Upon closer inspection, he noticed the roots of the Miracle Tree in contact with the Erosion Core were writhing like a sucking mouth—each absorption of energy from the Core caused the Miracle Tree to grow.

Wu Chang suddenly understood: the Miracle Tree before him was not the Miracle Moon brought down from the sky by the Tranquil Sect—it had been forcibly matured into this form by using the Erosion Core.

The Erosion Core could supply energy to the Mortal Poison to reverse-absorb Lyman's divine power, and also supply energy to the Miracle Walker race, accelerating their growth to achieve maturation.

This reminded him of the item description that popped up when he touched the Erosion Core—just four simple characters: Source of Power.

After experiencing the Erosion instance, Wu Chang had gained some understanding of Erosion instances.

There was abundant publicly accessible data on Erosion instances within the Administration, but information on the Erosion Core was vanishingly scarce.

This was certainly not because the Administration was unaware of the Erosion Core's existence, nor because they lacked intelligence—it was far more likely that access to Erosion Core information required a prohibitively high clearance level.

His current clearance level was insufficient to view it.

He had previously speculated that the Erosion Core was a vital resource, usable only in the Second or Third Layer of the Abyss.

The Tranquil Sect's use of the Erosion Core to mature the Miracle Tree now fully confirmed his hypothesis.

Called the Source of Power, the energy within the Erosion Core was indeed extractable—only his current level was too low, his energy tier too weak, to utilize it.

Facing the Erosion Core beneath the Miracle Tree, Wu Chang hesitated. Had this been a normal instance's Erosion Core formed after its resolution, he would not have hesitated—he would have let the Mortal Poison consume it.

But this was different—he could sense this Erosion Core belonged to the Midnight Cemetery instance.

He could not determine what effect destroying the instance's Erosion Core before its resolution would have.

Would it simply reset the instance's corruption to zero, or would it count as direct destruction, triggering immediate settlement?

For a normal instance, he might gamble—but not this one.

Whether it was fulfilling the wish that would eliminate his current hazards, or the blood-red, almost black resentment of the Miracle Moon, both were things he absolutely must obtain—no room for error.

Even if absorbing the Erosion Core wouldn't collapse the instance, overdoing it might provoke the Tranquil Sect into madness, causing them to destroy the Midnight Cemetery instance outright.

After weighing the pros and cons, he chose to exit the chamber.

He treated the Erosion Core as temporarily stored with the Tranquil Sect—he would retrieve it after resolving the instance.

After exiting the chamber, he did not continue exploring the Hunguangda Cathedral, nor did he follow his original plan to disperse the cathedral's power.

Tonight's gains were sufficient; the stimulation to Hearing Zhanghuo was enough. Grass must be cut in batches—not rushed.

Hearing Zhanghuo, citing a fire in the Hunguangda Cathedral requiring urgent repairs, sealed the cathedral for an entire day.

Within that day, all guards conducted a thorough, sweeping search, inspecting every inch of the cathedral.

Even a flying mosquito had to be intercepted, its gender determined, before being released.

Outsiders like Han Er, despite operating entirely under the Recyclers' watchful eyes, were thoroughly interrogated—even Hearing Zhanghuo personally inspected him.

Naturally, they found nothing.

The lockdown lasted until the second night, when it could no longer be maintained—for the Blood Moon Night had arrived. As a key participant, Han Er, cleared of suspicion, was released from the Hunguangda Cathedral and returned to the Gravekeeper's Hut in the evening aboard a Recycler's carriage.

Waving goodbye to the Recycler, Han Er turned to Wu Chang, who had stepped out of the wooden hut, and asked curiously: "What exactly did you do to make the Hunguang Sect fly into such a rage?"

Wu Chang shrugged and said, "With such a huge commotion that night, you must have heard wind of it."

Han Er looked left and right like a thief, then leaned in and whispered, "Did you really steal their holy relic?"

Wu Chang curled his lip in dissatisfaction and said, "How can matters between us believers be called stealing? We simply hold different faith positions; it was a fair contest for the holy relic, and in the end, the relic chose me."

Han Er waved his hand, unconcerned with Wu Chang's explanation, and urged eagerly, "Can you take it out and let me see?"

"Now is not the time; you will know when the time comes." Wu Chang kept them in suspense, returned to the gravedigger's cabin, fetched an oil lamp and an iron shovel, and set off with Erin to begin the night patrol.

The time Han Er had agreed upon with the client was in the latter half of the night; before then, he still had to complete one shift of night patrol.

It was not yet time for the dungeon to reach its climax; as long as he was a gravedigger for a day, he must patrol for a day, for if his completion rate were deducted due to absenteeism, it would not be worth it.

Having walked only five minutes into the graveyard, Wu Chang spotted a living corpse not far away, staggering toward him; he skillfully swung his iron shovel and knocked the living corpse down.

Thud!

The living corpse struck by the shovel ceased moving on the spot; it required no purification by the Soul-Cleansing Banner, nor did it rise again.

As the most senior gravedigger currently present, Han Er immediately spotted the anomaly and asked, "What happened in the great graveyard during the day I was sealed inside the Hunguangda Cathedral?"

Wu Chang shrugged, feigning nonchalance, and said, "Nothing much; a few gravediggers died a couple of days ago, and last night, the grave zones they were guarding simply went out of control."

While his true self had been hiding yesterday due to social anxiety, Wu Chang's main body had not been idle outside.

During the night patrol, he had discovered living corpses continuously emerging from Graveyard No. 43.

These living corpses possessed only a thin trace of Blood Moon power within their bodies—so thin that it could only make them stand once; once knocked down, the Blood Moon power would dissipate.

After the patrol ended, he activated Advanced Stealth and went over to take a look.

That look was shocking; Graveyards 40 through 43 had completely fallen, with no fewer than several hundred living corpses crawling out of the ground.

Although these living corpses were fragile, after being transformed by the Blood Moon power, their strength was immense, their attributes no inferior to the Heishan bandits in "Sui Sui Ping An."

The gravedigger guarding Graveyard No. 42 was a Berserker of half-orc bloodline, specializing in strength and close-quarters combat; he was the last person who had not had time to introduce himself that day.

His strength was the weakest among the eight players, and since he relied on close-quarters brawling and a life-for-life fighting style, he might have intimidated a dungeon boss with intelligence, allowing him to seize the rhythm of battle and achieve victory despite weakness.

But facing living corpses devoid of intelligence and vast in number, his Berserker life-for-life tactics quickly became a death-seeking strategy.

Surrounded by a sea of monsters, even if he could kill ten living corpses with a single strike, as long as he left an opening and was touched by a living corpse, over time his health pool would not hold out.

Just as Wu Chang had predicted, he watched with his own eyes as the man transformed into a green-skinned orc, charged into the horde of living corpses to unleash unparalleled slaughter in all directions, only to flee in panic without lasting five minutes.

The orc went to Graveyard No. 39 to fetch reinforcements, but Lei Hu merely took one look, left a single sentence, and then led the other players back to their respective graveyards.

The continuous loss of four graveyards caused the horde of living corpses to begin spreading outward.

However, as if fearing something, aside from a few stray living corpses, most spontaneously bypassed Graveyard No. 44 and advanced toward Graveyard No. 45 and those even further back.

Han Er swallowed, moistening his somewhat dry throat, and asked, "So, how many graveyards have gone out of control now?"

Wu Chang thought for a moment and said, "About fifteen."

Upon hearing these words, Han Er's expression changed instantly.

"You seem very anxious?" Wu Chang asked.

Han Er gave a bitter smile and said, "How can I not be anxious? Do you remember when I told you before that the existence of gravediggers is also part of the cycle of Blood Moon Immortality?"

Wu Chang nodded and said, "I remember."

Han Er said, "The existence of gravediggers is essentially equivalent to a barrier; although the original purpose of establishing them was to concentrate the power of immortality within the great graveyard so it would not be diluted by ordinary people outside, in terms of actual effect, the barrier formed by the gravediggers indeed blocked the power of Blood Moon Immortality, preventing it from leaking out."

"A graveyard falling means the gravedigger has either died or fled; either way, it causes damage to the barrier."

Han Er looked up at the full moon in the sky, his face filled with worry.

"This means that when the Blood Moon Immortality occurs tonight, the Blood Moon power will spread to areas beyond the great graveyard; let us hope it does not affect the Serina urban district."

Wu Chang opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but in the end, he did not speak.

What he wanted to say was that Han Er's hope was likely to be dashed.

Anyone who had seen the resentment of the Tree of Miracles would realize that creating a divine miracle inevitably requires intense emotions and wishes.

Mikael I was able to trigger the First Divine Miracle precisely by leveraging the despair brought about by the plague.

As for Hearing Zhanghuo, who controls the Hunguang Sect Sect, having long since mastered the Midnight Graveyard dungeon yet making no further moves while secretly hiding a Tree of Miracles, one needs no great insight to guess that their goal is also to trigger a divine miracle.

They intend to trigger a divine miracle no less significant than the First Divine Miracle and Blood Moon Immortality.

Hearing Zhanghuo, who plans to leave after pulling off this job, is absolutely more reckless and has lower limits than Mikael I; Wu Chang has reason to suspect that even without the appearance of living corpses, before Blood Moon Immortality, Hearing Zhanghuo would find a way to destroy the barrier, allowing the Blood Moon power to directly affect the Serina urban district.

However, for Han Er, not knowing all of this is actually a good thing for him.

The night patrol ended quickly; after the few of them returned to the gravedigger's cabin and had not even time to play a few rounds of Dou Dizhu, the sound of hoofbeats came from outside the cabin.

The three put away their cards and walked out of the cabin, seeing nine knights accompanied by two carriages stop outside the gravedigger's cabin.

Wu Chang took a brief glance and discovered that five of the nine knights possessed Blood Moon power within their bodies, clearly indicating they were resurrected nobles from the Immortal Tomb disguised as such.

However, the intensity of the Blood Moon power within their bodies was far inferior to that of the fellows sitting inside the carriages.

A bishop of the Hunguang Sect descended from one of the carriages, walked over to the two of them, exchanged greetings with Han Er, confirmed the details of the commission, and then led Han Er and Wu Chang to the carriage.

The bishop gently tapped on the carriage door; the curtain lowered, revealing the dignified face of a middle-aged man.

The bishop introduced him, saying, "This is Duke Lutz, the client for tonight's commission; you only need to follow us and open one tomb chamber, and the commission will be considered complete."

Saying this, the bishop revealed a smile so bright it seemed eerie.

"After this is done, not only will you receive rewards from Duke Lutz, but you will also be able to join the Hunguang Sect; a very simple commission, isn't it?"

(End of Chapter)