Chapter 152

Inside the Golden Kingdom, Hearing Zhanghuo stared blankly around him, utterly confused as to what had happened.

After taking over the Wang Zuo, Wu Chang completely renovated the Golden Kingdom.

The arena originally arranged by Mikael I was merely his personal hobby—flashy but impractical.

Wu Chang, by contrast, was far more pragmatic, valuing only functionality and avoiding all those flashy backdrops.

Under his control, the Golden Kingdom was a vast ocean under torrential rain, waves churning violently, black as ink above, with storm clouds pouring down deluges; only when lightning flashed could you glimpse the pitch-black clouds.

If you ask where the gold in the Golden Kingdom is?

Just sink a thousand meters down, and you'll see the entire seabed is made of gold.

Wu Chang admitted that this environment was indeed slightly unfavorable for a fire-user like Hearing Zhanghuo, but to ensure fair combat, he had granted Hearing Zhanghuo corresponding compensation.

At the very least, Hearing Zhanghuo still had a dilapidated wooden boat beneath his feet—not forcing him to drown entirely in the sea.

While Hearing Zhanghuo tried to dispel the illusion, he took out a potion, then used two or three items in succession; when none worked, he finally confirmed that what he saw was no hallucination, but reality.

During the time Hearing Zhanghuo attempted to dispel the illusion, Wu Chang Zhenwo sat upon the Wang Zuo, holding the Four Seasons Fire Lantern, watching Hearing Zhanghuo with an unusually kind smile.

He was delighted to see this prodigal son of wealth.

These days, clearing dungeons was exhausting, rewards were meager, and you had to worry that a single misstep might expose your identity, letting demons and monsters from the Wasteland Realm track you down through the network to the real world.

Hearing Zhanghuo was different.

The two were strangers at best, not even paired as teammates in the same dungeon—meeting was fate.

Though they had no real connection, Hearing Zhanghuo had gone out of his way to prepare all sorts of rewards for him.

Not to mention how he used his world's influence to gather hundreds or thousands of Corpse Bricks for Wu Chang, aiding him in guiding souls and strengthening the Purifying Soul Banner.

Not to mention how he coordinated with Lu Zi and others to provide Wu Chang with hidden side quests, delivering the Hidden Side Quest Reward: the Ascended Crown, enabling Ailin to fully restore her divine form.

Just the local specialties Hearing Zhanghuo personally delivered—the two massive Corrosion Cores worth three energy each beneath the Miracle Tree, and the wick of the Four Seasons Fire Lantern—were top-tier goods.

When he thought of how Hearing Zhanghuo had painstakingly cultivated the remnants of the Miracle Moon into a tree, granting him a colossal Blood Testament and a miracle that had succeeded with 99% certainty, he nearly felt tears welling up.

Things like helping him kill Lei Hu, delivering cultivation techniques, and recharging the Four Seasons Fire Lantern with Soul-Burning Flame—these minor deeds had become too trivial to mention.

This wasn't a villain from the Abyss Game—this was clearly his adoptive father!

Honestly, when it came to actually fighting, he was reluctant to kill Hearing Zhanghuo.

Farming Hearing Zhanghuo yielded far more rewards than clearing dungeons.

Hearing Zhanghuo felt goosebumps rise at Wu Chang's stare; had he not been dragged into this mysterious space and still not understood its rules, he would have already punched this bastard.

Now that Wu Chang hadn't moved first, Hearing Zhanghuo assumed the other was stalling for time—but he couldn't afford to stall.

The miracle above the Hunguangda Sect was forming, needing guidance—he had no time to waste on this bastard.

Since the other wouldn't act, he would act instead.

The Eternal Night Torch appeared in Hearing Zhanghuo's hand; as he swung it, pale red flames ignited against the rain, the downpour steaming off the Soul-Burning Flame, causing his fire to shrink by a full circle.

Though Soul-Burning Flame targeted souls, it still had physical form; using it in the rain drained Hearing Zhanghuo's energy disproportionately.

With neither heaven nor earth on his side, Hearing Zhanghuo could only rely on human skill.

He was the fourth-ranked Holy Son candidate of the Quiet Church, a level 30 veteran player—nothing like the cannon fodder eliminated by Jian Xing.

A low-level player still stuck in B-rank dungeons—even someone as strong as Lei Hu—couldn't survive more than a few strikes against him.

The ocean, the gales, the rain—none of it affected him!

Hearing Zhanghuo snorted, and the Soul-Burning Flame transformed into a giant flaming hand reaching for Wu Chang.

Targeted skill: Soul-Burning Grasp. Kid, no matter how good your technique or how flashy your moves, how do you dodge a targeted skill?

Facing the grasping flame hand, Wu Chang swung the Four Seasons Fire Lantern, hoping to absorb Hearing Zhanghuo's flame as he had done atop the Hunguangda Sect's rooftop.

But unlike before, this time the Soul-Burning Flame was under Hearing Zhanghuo's control; the Four Seasons Fire Lantern could only momentarily freeze the Soul-Burning Grasp in midair, unable to subdue it easily.

But that was enough.

While the Four Seasons Fire Lantern blocked the Soul-Burning Grasp, he maneuvered the Wang Zuo back several meters and fired a Palm Thunder directly at Hearing Zhanghuo.

Hearing Zhanghuo swung his torch, turning flame into a barrier—just as he had against Lei Huo—and firmly blocked the Palm Thunder.

Feeling the damage from the Palm Thunder, Hearing Zhanghuo frowned; this kid's thunder affinity was weaker than Lei Huo's, but still a skilled thunder user, and his aura matched more closely with those he had previously collected.

Acquiring Thunder Arts was extremely difficult—a powerful, niche ability—and he hadn't expected two players wielding Thunder Arts to appear in an eight-person dungeon.

Thinking of this, Hearing Zhanghuo grew even more furious at Lei Hu.

You brat ruined me! If you hadn't stolen my lantern, why didn't you explain clearly? You wasted my time, letting this bastard slip through my fingers again!

Hearing Zhanghuo increased his energy input; the Soul-Burning Grasp broke free from the Four Seasons Fire Lantern's influence and continued toward Wu Chang.

He was an energy-specialized player; under his class boost, cultivation techniques, and item enhancements, his energy stat had long surpassed one hundred—nothing like Wu Chang's balanced stat distribution.

Wu Chang had absorbed the Undying Soul Flame with the Four Seasons Fire Lantern, accumulating considerable energy within—but he had no intention of wasting it on Hearing Zhanghuo.

He sat motionless on the Wang Zuo, watching the Soul-Burning Grasp charge—then it grasped empty air, plunging into the sea. The targeted position had been where he originally stood.

His ability to break free from targeted skill locks came from his Inspiration.

Inspiration and Will, as non-combat attributes, possessed unique mechanics.

Once Inspiration exceeded 100, reaching the theoretical limit of the Wasteland Realm, it brushed against the Wasteland Realm's barrier, turning vague spiritual glimmers into clear insights—this was merely a bonus of breakthrough.

The true enhancement was Spiritual Pressure.

Inspiration was humanity's perception and understanding of the world's origin; absolute dominance in perception and understanding disrupted the opponent's cognition of him.

In simple terms, when facing targets whose Inspiration differed greatly from his own, Spiritual Pressure caused them to fail to accurately perceive his presence; if they couldn't perceive him accurately, targeted and judgment skills would almost certainly miss.

If Spiritual Pressure advanced further, it could approach the effect of Leyman's True Form—unobservable, indescribable, undefinable, ineffable.

Merely gazing upon his existence would shatter Inspiration.

Hearing Zhanghuo sensed something strange about Wu Chang Zhenwo, but he didn't know about Spiritual Pressure, nor did he believe this player could exert it upon him.

He assumed Wu Chang simply possessed some special item capable of breaking free from targeted skill constraints.

Annoying, but not beyond Hearing Zhanghuo's capabilities.

Facing a mechanism monster with such ultimate skills, there are only two ways to defeat them: break their mechanism, or overwhelm it with raw numerical power.

Hearing Zhanghuo chose the latter.

You like to dodge, don't you?

If I don't use ranged attacks but close in for melee, unleashing wide-area damage skills at point-blank range with pure numerical brute force—how exactly do you plan to counter that?

Hearing Zhanghuo's temperament, like the flames he controls, was impatient; once he settled on a battle plan, he acted immediately.

He adjusted his flames into a jet propulsion state, powering the wooden boat beneath his feet, riding the wind and waves straight toward Wu Chang's true self.

Seeing Hearing Zhanghuo so fired up, Wu Chang was happy to oblige him in a fight, just to test his true strength at this moment.

He did not use the Golden Throne's spatial abilities, merely manipulating the Golden Throne to maintain a moderate distance from Hearing Zhanghuo, while continuously striking with Palm Thunder and Dawn's Weight Hammer.

By the end, he even unleashed Thousand Thunder Summoning, and at the cost of exhausting his temporary willcap, he used the Fourth Thunder.

He ultimately concluded that in open, fair combat, he still had a vast gap between himself and proper high-level players.

Palm Thunder and Age Fire, as conventional attacks, were like scratching at Hearing Zhanghuo—he didn't even need extra defense, simply blocking them effortlessly with his flame shield.

Dawn's Weight Hammer, with its extended mode paired with American Iaijutsu, could cause some trouble for Hearing Zhanghuo—but only some trouble.

A cold-shot ambush with a fully charged Dawn's Weight Hammer could kill an unprepared Mikael I, but against a prepared Hearing Zhanghuo, even a fully charged Iaijutsu-enhanced shot inflicted no more damage than Lei Hu's full-power strike.

The bullet had barely pierced Hearing Zhanghuo's flame shield when he immediately formed a second one, halting the exhausted charged shot.

The only thing that gave Hearing Zhanghuo any real trouble was the Fourth Heavenly Thunder, naturally enhanced.

The Fourth Heavenly Thunder shattered three of Hearing Zhanghuo's flame shields, forced him to summon a small red hand-shield to block it, and only then did it pass.

But while the man survived the thunder, the boat did not.

The small boat beneath Hearing Zhanghuo was shattered by the thunder's residual wave, sending him plunging into the sea; he did not surface for five or six seconds.

Wu Chang wondered if this guy might be a non-swimmer, drowned right there.

The battle with Hearing Zhanghuo made Wu Chang reassess his own position.

As a player, his abilities held great advantages over players of his own level, or even those five levels higher.

But if he faced someone even higher—like a core player from a major organization such as Jianxin—he would need powerful items to win, and in direct combat, one misstep could get him instantly killed.

He still vividly remembered Jianxin's slaughter of Lu Dan; in life-or-death combat, players wouldn't wait for him to release Thousand Thunder Summoning one by one.

Above Jianxin, if he encountered a max-level player like Hearing Zhanghuo—especially one from a major organization with deep roots—he had zero chance of victory using conventional combat methods.

After all, Hearing Zhanghuo possessed a hidden class, powerful cultivation techniques, and had climbed to level 30, completing no fewer than seventy or eighty dungeons.

Although he'd used a few minor plugins, trying to catch up to someone who'd completed seventy or eighty dungeons with only four or five dungeon rewards was still a stretch.

Keep in mind, seventy or eighty dungeons were achieved precisely because Hearing Zhanghuo had a hidden class and was a genius on par with Jianxin.

Forum data posts had calculated that, excluding time spent at level 30, the average number of dungeons a player must complete to reach level 30 was 120, with a median of 145.

Especially note this: surviving to level 30 already made one an elite player in the Abyss Game—ninety percent of players never reached level 30 before dying.

Right now, he was still too weak. If you're weak, you must train more.

Wu Chang sighed. At his current pace, he'd need to clear at least four or five more dungeons before he could openly fight a player like Hearing Zhanghuo. Game Administrator, are you watching? Ten dungeons to match seventy or eighty? How could you possibly call that cheating?

Perhaps sensing Wu Chang's thoughts, Hearing Zhanghuo beneath the sea could no longer hold back.

Where Hearing Zhanghuo had sunk, the sea boiled with countless bubbles; then, the water evaporated into a hollow, and Hearing Zhanghuo, shrouded in fire-clouds, shot up from the opening.

"Few have ever forced me to use Saint Form."

Just as Lei Hu could transform into Thunder Warrior through his class change, Hearing Zhanghuo's class change granted him a transformation skill: Saint Form.

Hearing Zhanghuo shook his cloak-like fire-clouds; flames surged skyward, shattering the overcast clouds above and instantly clearing the weather—temporarily disabling Wu Chang's piece inner world scene-editing ability.

As Wu Chang's attention turned skyward, Hearing Zhanghuo rode the red clouds, appearing before him in an instant; he shook his fire-clouds again, and they spread like crimson auroras, engulfing Wu Chang.

The fire-cloud's area was enormous; Wu Chang, caught at its center due to Hearing Zhanghuo's close approach, could not escape its range with a single space blink.

Helpless, he transformed the Golden Throne into golden armor and dove into the sea like a fish.

"Trying to run?" Hearing Zhanghuo sneered, and the fire-cloud pressed downward, slamming onto the sea surface.

!

Beneath the fire-cloud, the sea where Wu Chang had been boiled as if scalded; the sea level within the Golden Kingdom visibly dropped.

The piece inner world scene-editing function issued another alarm: if this continued, in four or five seconds at most, the sea surface's scene module would collapse, potentially triggering the entire piece inner world's destruction.

Underwater, Wu Chang watched the burning sea above and again marveled at the vast gap between himself and top-tier players—conventional combat truly offered zero chance of victory.

Fortunately, he never used conventional combat methods.

Floating in the air, Hearing Zhanghuo wore a smug grin of vengeance, feeling the piece inner world trembling beneath his flames.

Once he burned through the piece inner world, he would burn this dog, along with those damned undead and faithless fools, before all his followers!

Then he would reclaim full control of the miracle.

As he fantasized about torturing this dog and forcing him to surrender the Four Directions Age Fire Lamp, he suddenly saw a massive shadow beneath the sea.

Before he could react, a colossal fist burst from the water, hurtling toward him.

Just the fist was nearly four meters wide—how enormous must its owner be?

Hearing Zhanghuo had no time to think; he recalled his fire-clouds before him, forming a shield, hoping to block the punch.

But the power within that punch far exceeded his imagination—the fire-cloud shattered instantly; the residual force smashed through five layers of his flame shields, cracked his B-class hand-shield beyond repair, and only then did the force cease.

Hearing Zhanghuo was violently launched skyward by the rising punch, his mind going blank as he ascended.

What kind of punch was this? Even a level-matched Holy Son candidate specializing in strength couldn't land such a heavy blow.

The punch held no technique—only raw numerical power.

His body reached its peak height and began falling; as he descended, he saw the monster emerging from the sea.

It was a giant, over twenty meters tall, whale-sized, wearing a swimsuit.

The sheer size made Hearing Zhanghuo feel his macrophobia flare up.

More terrifying than its massive body was the sea giant leaping from the water, raising its elbow, and bellowing at him:

"Man!"

On the high-level observation deck of the Hunguangda Sect.

Wu Chang watched the undead horde, now gradually losing control after Hearing Zhanghuo's departure, and nodded to Ailin.

Ailin, who had long been holding back, immediately entered her Divine Form.

Her entire body rose into the air, and behind her, golden wings over ten meters long unfolded, their flapping lifting the hood covering her head and revealing a face more flawless than any divine statue.

Even Brother Han Er had never seen Ailin's face before.

At that moment, Brother Han Er was utterly convinced that Wu Chang had kidnapped a goddess to accompany him.

Ailin pressed her palms together, extended them forward, then split her arms outward—a barrier of holy light appeared along the boundary previously created by the Hunguangda Sect.

The intense aura of holy light caused the undead to instinctively feel fear and retreat.

Those undead who had crossed the boundary and failed to withdraw were instantly purified upon touching the holy barrier, dissolving into ash.

Having separated the undead, Ailin clasped her hands together before her chest in a prayerful posture.

Warm light radiated from the halo above her head, soothing the believers out of fear and despair.

The believers gazed at Ailin and slowly knelt, chanting the Hunguang Sect's prayer in loud voices.

Wu Chang wouldn't make such a losing deal—letting his own hard work benefit that evil god, Leyman.

Ailin slowly spoke, her voice carrying natural reverb: "I am not from the Hunguang Sect Sect."

At these words, the believers froze—worshiping the wrong god, angering a deity—what should they do? Online, waiting urgently.

The believers looked at each other, scanning the crowd, but no church stepped forward to claim this wild deity; without verified identity, they didn't know which prayer to recite.

The priests had never taught them how to handle this—suddenly, the believers were paralyzed in place.

Yet Ailin acted as if she hadn't noticed their distress, flapping her wings to fly onto the observation deck and hover behind Wu Chang.

Concealing the goddess's true name was Wu Chang's deliberate choice.

What kind of god announces his own name? That would lower his prestige.

Would a god, when founding a sect, really stand before ordinary people and say: "I am the newly ascended god XXX, currently chasing performance metrics, competing for faith—please follow, like, share, and join my fan club to become a loyal devotee and help this new god grow"?

Obviously impossible.

Want to know the god's true name? Want to know the religion he represents?

If you want to know, guess—or no, feel it!

Serina has over a hundred religions; each claims divine revelation from a fictional god—now is the perfect time to test their professional skills.

Let them invent the god's name, the religion's name, the prayers, and the scriptures themselves—as long as the subsequent faith energy reaches Ailin's hands.

Wu Chang pulled out the Loud Horn and blew hard—the massive blast instantly snapped the believers out of their daze; forgetting to ponder Ailin's identity, all eyes turned to Wu Chang.

Wu Chang nodded in satisfaction, tucked away the Loud Horn, and shouted downward:

"Believers, my goddess and I come from a distant foreign land, passing through here by chance when tonight's disaster struck. The goddess, moved by compassion for humanity, has descended a divine miracle to help Serina overcome the Blood Moon calamity."

"Now, join me in making a vow—that all things tied to the Blood Moon shall end, and Serina shall return to peace!"

With the goddess's endorsement, even though no one knew who Wu Chang was, the people obediently chanted their wishes along with him.

As fellow members of the Miracle Walker race, the mechanism of the Miracle Moon mirrored the Grand Miracle— as the chanting grew louder and the believers' faith deepened, the collective wish-energy in the air gradually took on Wu Chang's shape.

Feeling the immense wish-energy above, Wu Chang felt a pang of regret.

He had indeed considered seizing this wish-energy for himself under the guise of a divine miracle.

These Serina folk, who could be driven mad by a single miracle, would gladly offer their souls upon seeing Ailin's Divine Form.

With their faith, he could easily wish for Ailin's power to surge, for her to ascend again, or for enhanced attributes and items for himself—effortlessly.

Under the blessing of wish-energy capable of triggering a miracle, such wishes might even come true.

The idea was beautiful—but implementing it carried too great a risk.

Wu Chang had seen the resentment of the Miracle Moon; he knew its consciousness had died with Mikael I's plan, leaving only a primal, malevolent instinct.

Making wishes to such a state of the Miracle Moon would twist the wishes—those turned into monsters during the Blood Moon's eternal reign were living proof.

Letting this energy reshape him or Ailin was no different from soaking in nuclear waste hoping to mutate into a superhero.

Another possibility: through Hearing Zhanghuo's care and cultivation, using the Miracle Tree and miracles to revive the Miracle Moon and awaken its consciousness.

In that case, making wishes would be even more dangerous—the draining of Yifu City's Grand Miracle was a clear example.

Unless he obtained a relic—sacred relics from dead Miracle Walkers, the Miracle Stones—he had no intention of further contact with this power.

Rather than tainting himself with such strange abilities and inviting endless trouble, he would bestow this blessing upon the believers present.

This was precisely what they had spent their lives seeking—a miracle—and the miracle itself was meant to lift the crisis from their realm; they would surely not be dissatisfied.

As the believers chanted their wishes again and again, the miracle answered their plea.

The crimson Blood Moon in the sky began receding in visible waves—the blood-red moonlight scattered across the ground, radiating death and ill omen, reversed like a film rewinding, drawn back into the moon.

Within a few breaths, Serina returned to its normal state.

With the Blood Moon's disappearance, the undead lost their power source and reverted to decaying corpses, littering the ground.

The deadly crisis, moments ago, vanished in an instant under the miracle's power.

The people gazed at the bright, serene full moon, feeling unreal—as if everything that happened tonight had been a dream.

Wait.

Everyone's eyes widened as they stared at the sky—why was the moon growing larger?

Soon, they realized—it wasn't the moon growing, but the moon falling toward the earth!

(End of Chapter)