Chapter 154: False Miracle

Perhaps because the resentment of the Moon of Miracles ran deep, the attribute rewards for fulfilling the Blood Testament of the Moon of Miracles exceeded those of any previous occasion.

Three points of Life, two points of Energy, two points of Inspiration, one point of Will—eight attribute points total.

Eight full attribute points—double the red resentment—this is the true value of resentment so red it turns black.

In addition to the attribute rewards, the resentment of the Moon of Miracles granted Wu Chang one item.

The item resembled a miniature version of the Moon of Miracles—a towering, solemn tree like those in myth, utterly unlike the Great Miracle or the Tree of Miracles cultivated by Hearing Zhanghuo from its broken branches, which were formed of twisted flesh.

"Item Name: False Miracle"

"Item Rank: A"

"Item Description: The spiritual crystallization of a Miracle Walker, proof that a certain Miracle Walker achieved consciousness and began thinking like a sentient being, and proof that it could not escape the fate of death upon awakening."

"Note: While dormant, it is often used to fabricate miracles. When it realized that fabricated miracles were no less meaningful to petitioners than true ones, its ability began to transform."

"Item Skill: False Miracle"

"Skill Description: Making a wish before the False Miracle grants a time-limited, degraded version of a miracle. To some extent, the degraded miracle resembles a true miracle, but carries certain unpredictable negative effects. The strength of these negative effects depends on the difficulty of fulfilling the wish; the upper limit of wish difficulty depends on the user's Energy and Inspiration attributes. Cooldown: 15 days."

As an A-rank item, the False Miracle's effect is simple and brutal: make a wish.

But the Tree of Miracles, having spent too long with Hearing Zhanghuo, had picked up his bad habits.

When Wu Chang read the note in the item description, he perceived, through the lingering intent within the False Miracle, the Tree of Miracles' inner transformation.

During the three years of Hunguang Sect Sect's expansion, Hearing Zhanghuo annually used the power of the Tree of Miracles, combined with temporary personnel and resources dispatched by the Quiet Sect, to fabricate illusions of miracles.

Believers could not distinguish truth from falsehood, and came to believe the illusions were real miracles; as more people believed, their prayers flowed into the Tree of Miracles, which continuously amplified the illusions.

Over time, the counterfeit began to resemble the real thing.

Hearing Zhanghuo fabricated illusions to make believers believe.

Believers, convinced a miracle had occurred, offered vast amounts of prayer energy.

The Tree of Miracles absorbed this prayer energy and continuously modified the illusions, turning falsehood into truth.

Thus a closed loop formed: Hearing Zhanghuo needed only to deceive the believers at the outset, then let the prayer energy snowball, sustaining a False Miracle, while also channeling the circulating prayer energy to fuel the Tree of Miracles.

One arrow, multiple targets.

If no one interfered, he could repeat the same tactic—send Lu Zi and others to sabotage Mikael I's plans, preventing Mikael I from monopolizing the Blood Moon's power.

Then, by attacking the Gravekeepers, he would cause the Blood Moon's power to spill beyond the Kingdom's Grand Mausoleum; deliberately breach the city walls to let the undead flood in, creating the illusion of impending apocalypse.

Finally, using the Hunguangda Church's ability to block the undead, combined with the reputation and influence he had built through the False Miracle, he would tell the surviving believers that only the Hunguang Sect could save them, and only the Hunguang Sect could summon a miracle, compelling them to willingly offer their prayer energy.

Unlike previous False Miracles, if this succeeded, Hearing Zhanghuo would gather enough prayer energy by fabricating a false apocalypse to trigger a true miracle.

On the Night of the Blood Moon, this would complete a grand cycle with the Hunguang Sect's three-year operations—transforming a false miracle into a genuine one.

Thus, falsehood would become truth.

Unfortunately, he ultimately encountered Wu Chang, causing everything to collapse at the last moment.

No, more accurately, Hearing Zhanghuo succeeded—he did trigger a true miracle. It's just that the beneficiary was not him.

In a sense, this might be precisely the "unpredictable negative effect" mentioned in the False Miracle skill.

When Wu Chang saw the False Miracle, he knew the solution for registering with the Bureau's core members had appeared.

As an A-rank item, the False Miracle should have no trouble disguising a player's attribute panel; the only question was what the unpredictable negative effect might be.

But for a wish of this scale, the negative effect should not be severe.

Beyond the item's effect, another piece of information caught Wu Chang's attention.

It was the note in the item description mentioning the fate of the Miracle Walker.

Awakening leads to death.

This phrase carried immense information, corroborating the visions he had seen in the Moon of Miracles' resentment.

In the Moon of Miracles' resentment, it had begun to develop human-like thought after fusing with the Great Sage, shifting from an absolutely neutral observer's perspective to developing its own preferences, its own standards of good and evil and morality.

This change corresponded to the "consciousness awakening" mentioned in the item description.

It was precisely because of this awakening that, after its consciousness died, the Blood Moon's method of granting immortality became strange and twisted.

The Moon of Miracles' resentment also aligned with the fate of "awakening leads to death"—only the dead can凝聚 resentment, and only the dead would beg in their resentment to be laid to rest.

Yet a question arose: the Miracle Walker who spoke with Wu Chang in the spiritual space revealed a detached, rational demeanor during their conversation—unlike the image of the Moon of Miracles.

Was it possible that resurrection reset the Miracle Walker's memories, or that the Moon of Miracles he had encountered was in fact a brand-new consciousness born from the flesh?

Before Wu Chang could further ponder the Miracle Walker's information, several prompts flashed before his eyes.

"Due to the early completion of the scenario's breakthrough, the main quest 'Survive thirty days in the Kingdom's Grand Mausoleum' is automatically marked as completed."

"Player has completed main quest two: Witness at least one miracle's birth."

"All main quests completed. All players will be forcibly exiled from the scenario dimension."

That's it?

Wu Chang was stunned—he hadn't even finished playing, and it was already over.

Then again, he had shattered the Moon of Miracles; there seemed little left to explore.

With a flash of light, he appeared in the familiar settlement space, the TV wall playing back his performance in the scenario.

"Player ID 4444444, successfully completed scenario Midnight Mausoleum. Settlement based on player performance in scenario."

"Player completed main quest one: As a Gravekeeper, survived thirty days in the Kingdom's Grand Mausoleum."

"Player completed main quest two: Witnessed at least one miracle's birth."

"As a Gravekeeper, the player fulfilled all duties: Graveyard No. 44 remained peaceful and received high praise from property owners."

"The player investigated and uncovered the secret of Blood Moon Immortality, and personally witnessed the miracle—Blood Moon Immortality."

"The player discovered Mikael I's Immortality Tomb and prevented Mikael I from achieving immortality."

"The player personally orchestrated the降临 of the miracle—Night of the Falling Moon."

"Player completed hidden side quest: Opened the True Immortality Tomb for Duke Luzi in Graveyard No. 44."

"Dungeon completion: 100%!"

"The title Perfectionist has activated, dungeon completion +5%."

"Congratulations to the player for placing first in dungeon completion in the side competitive quest, gaining an additional 20% dungeon completion. Since the player's dungeon completion exceeded 90%, the overflow portion has been converted into dungeon rewards."

"The overflow dungeon completion totals 25%, and the base dungeon reward has increased by 125%."

"Dungeon rating: Perfect!" "Experience and Tarnish Silver Coin settlement correction: 300%!"

"Player gains experience: 13500 (2000×2.25×3)."

"Player gains Tarnish Silver Coins: 33750 (5000×2.25×3)."

Looking at the dungeon settlement, Wu Chang had only one thought in his mind — he really loved side competitive quests.

The overflow dungeon completion being convertible into base rewards was simply the most player-friendly setting imaginable.

While marveling at the rich haul, Wu Chang also noticed that none of the dungeon settlement information mentioned any storyline about the Hunguang Sect Sect.

In other words, the Hunguang Sect Sect's existence was not within the original dungeon's storyline, so no matter what was done in the related parts, it would not trigger a dungeon completion judgment.

But any player who had entered the Midnight Graveyard knew that the Hunguang Sect Sect's influence on the dungeon's storyline was by no means small.

From the ghoul retrieval to the final Blood Moon Night crisis, it was all orchestrated by the Hunguang Sect Sect.

Having taken up so much screen time and caused so much trouble, yet bringing no benefit at settlement — no wonder the reputation of evil god cultists was so poor among ordinary players.

For the two unlucky fellows, Lei Hu and the Ronin, if the Hunguang Sect had never appeared, they might not only have avoided death, but could have given Wu Chang some trouble.

!

But for Wu Chang, without Hearing Zhanghuo, his gains in the Midnight Graveyard might have dropped by two-thirds.

"The player's dungeon rating has reached S-rank. You may designate one item from the current dungeon world as a special drop reward. The selected item must be a prop for which usage rights have already been obtained. Please make your selection."

Because of the Hunguang Sect's added drama, Wu Chang's arrangements over these past days had been very full, leaving little chance to come into contact with dungeon props.

Higher-tier props, like the Golden Throne and the Ascension Crown, he had already burst out. Hearing Zhanghuo's Eternal Night Torch was indeed a good item, but it was a player's personal prop and not on the selection list.

In the end, he could only redeem out the "Resounding Horn" that he had used twice.

"The player's dungeon rating has reached Perfect rank. You may select one rare prop from the current dungeon plane as a reward."

"Eternal Tomb Design Blueprint"

"Research Report on Miracles and Faith Power"

"Biography of the Golden King, Michel I"

Perhaps because the Midnight Graveyard involved relatively few techniques and classes, the rare props on the selection list were somewhat abstract — judging their exact function from the names alone was difficult.

Faced with the difficulty of choosing, Wu Chang began by ruling out the least reliable option first.

The first to be eliminated was the Eternal Tomb Design Blueprint.

The Eternal Tomb, designed for the Blood Moon Eternal Life, was created by Michel I who gathered multiple alchemy masters and occult masters. The fact that it could be placed alongside the other two rewards showed it was no simple thing.

Combined with the backstage world's scene editing function, replicating the Eternal Tomb was not difficult; taking it on its own, there was no problem.

But its effects were too vague — choosing it would be pure blind-box gambling, far too risky.

If he had a few more days to find the dungeon plane's alchemy masters and learn the full function of the Eternal Tomb, he might have considered it.

The "Research Report on Miracles and Faith Power" gave Wu Chang some hesitation. From the literal meaning, it was a reward about how to trigger miracles and how to absorb faith power.

Triggering miracles required knowledge related to miracles; Ailin's recovery and enhancement of divine power required faith power.

These two attributes happened to be exactly what Wu Chang needed.

But the problem lay with the third option — the Biography of Michel I.

Combined with the other two parallel rewards, this biography should also record a technique of some kind.

Judging by Michel I's narcissistic style, any technique worthy of inclusion in his biography would not be low in value — very likely related to the Golden Throne, or the prop skill — Kingdom of Gold.

Simply put, the two options corresponded to False Miracle and the Golden Throne respectively, both A-rank props, and both were solid in strength, making it hard for him to decide on the spot.

It was only when the system entered the selection countdown that he made his decision, choosing the "Research Report on Miracles and Faith Power."

Although False Miracle and the Golden Throne were hard to choose between, option two had the added benefit of faith power, which Ailin could also use.

If Ailin's combat power could be enhanced, the returns far exceeded those of a single A-rank prop.

"Prop Name: Research Report on Miracles and Faith Power"

"Prop Type: consumable (readable 3/3 times)"

"Prop Grade: B"

"Prop Description: When the player reads the Research Report on Miracles and Faith Power, faith power collection efficiency increases by 15%, and cross-plane loss of belief power is reduced by 30%. When faith power accumulates to a certain degree, one minor miracle can be triggered; the miracle's effect cannot exceed the upper limit of a B-rank dungeon."

Wu Chang looked at the research report in his hand, took a deep breath, and threw a fierce punch.

It was actually a noble consumable-type prop!

In the Abyss Game, consumable-type props, due to their limited uses, often far exceeded same-grade props in strength.

For example, the C-rank consumable Wu Chang obtained in the Moonlight Sanatorium — the Whisper of the Nameless — which, once used, would keep one's will from dropping to zero for one minute, even allowing one to gaze directly at Leimann's true form without a will collapse.

The value of the Research Report on Miracles and Faith Power was no less than that of the Whisper of the Nameless.

Setting aside how much extra faith power the 15% collection efficiency and the 30% reduction in cross-plane belief power loss could bring Ailin.

The miracle-triggering effect alone could turn a player who had read the research report into a minor Miracle Walker.

If, like Hearing Zhanghuo, one could deeply cultivate in a certain plane and secure a stable source of faith power, it would be equivalent to obtaining a Miracle Stone every so often!

If this report were thrown into the circle of believers in Hearing Zhanghuo's mouth, it would absolutely fetch an astronomical price — the value of a single use alone could exceed an A-rank prop.

Moreover, Wu Chang's intuition told him this research report could synergize with his False Miracle, bringing additional effects.

Although he very much wanted to read the research report right away and see what effects it would have, now was not the time.

What was floating before his eyes now was the true highlight of this dungeon settlement.

"The player has achieved a perfect clear in a失控 dungeon (dungeon pollution value > 85) at or above the character's level, and obtains one random Title Chest."

"The player will only draw titles that meet the prerequisites."

The pollution value of the Quiet Town instance was too low, so the conditions for obtaining a title were not met at settlement.

The Mind-Realization instance had enough pollution value, but the Eroded instance had broken free of the Abyss Game—there wasn't even a settlement space, let alone a random title.

Wu Chang nervously rubbed his hands together; it had been so long, he was actually a little nervous.

He closed his eyes and slammed his palm down hard on the draw button.

The wheel spun rapidly, then slowly came to a stop after a while.

A treasure chest dropped in front of Wu Chang. Seeing the familiar color of the chest, Wu Chang let out a sigh of relief.

He just knew that, given his instance completion rating, the system wouldn't let him down.

As the chest opened, dazzling light gushed out.

Wow! A-a-again, a Golden Legend!

(End of chapter)