Chapter 187: The First Time Hearing This Kind of Wish

Wu Chang gathered the players from his faction and told them that the Star Leap had already left the shipwreck belt and arrived in the outside waters.

The first reaction of the few people upon hearing this was faces full of question marks.

Wu Chang spoke with such certainty, and combined with the anomalies felt aboard the Star Leap earlier, it wasn't hard to guess that the Star Leap leaving the shipwreck belt was definitely this boss's doing.

Based on their experience clearing instances, breaking free of the shipwreck belt was clearly a difficult point of the main quest — how did the boss resolve it without anyone noticing?

More importantly, they had just gone through a major battle, and the boss had nearly soloed the Xinyuzhou Sect's boss — if it were a player, they'd still be catching their breath right now, so how did the boss casually steer the Star Leap out of the shipwreck belt?

You're so good at doing quests, why don't you be the player?

Before Wu Chang gathered everyone, he had already had Great White Shark set the ship to cruise mode, so the others aboard wouldn't notice for now that the ship had left the shipwreck belt.

Wu Chang swept his gaze across the group and said:

"I called you all here not to tell you we're safe — on the contrary, what I want to say is that the real battle is about to begin."

Saying so, he told them about the warship he had observed.

"From the intel obtained from Zheng Chengxun, you all should already know — no matter how the final sacrifice turns out, the Gao Mu state will never let us survivors swagger off scot-free."

"To fight for a chance at life, we can only strike first and take out this warship. So, I plan to launch a surprise attack on them tonight."

The moment these words came out, the group's spirits instantly soared.

In the ears of this group of players, where was this a surprise attack on a warship — this was simply a satisfying grind of instance completion.

As long as a few of them got aboard, a mere warship wouldn't be nearly enough for them to wreck.

Wu Chang left his secretary and Qinglong and the others on the ship, to maintain order while pretending he was still aboard.

After a brief preparation, he lowered a lifeboat and had everyone row toward the warship's location.

After several battles, the players no longer pretended in front of Wu Chang, this "native," and following the example of the Apocalypse Cult and others, they all hung the label of exchange student on themselves.

I'm an exchange student who happened to learn the local supernatural powers abroad — perfectly reasonable, right?

During the battle on the fourth deck, the group had already displayed each nation's "local specialties," and now they were showing off even more.

Shadow used a veil of shadow to shroud the boat, ensuring they wouldn't be detected by naked eye or radar.

Great White Shark activated the captain trait, making the slow-moving lifeboat sail as fast as a speedboat.

Before long, the few of them arrived around the warship, and when they actually saw the warship, everyone was a bit dumbfounded.

Zheng Chengxun aboard had only said a warship was assigned to clean up; he didn't know the type or name of the warship dispatched.

Based on Zheng Chengxun's descriptions of previously dispatched warships, Wu Chang and the Negotiation Master inferred that a small-to-medium warship holding a few hundred sailors would already be the max.

Before the operation, the Negotiation Master shared the intel with the other players, which got everyone rubbing their fists in excitement.

But now that they were actually face to face with it, they realized reality had a small discrepancy from their expectations.

They could understand Gao Mu's navy sending a warship to silence people in order to keep the sacrifice secret.

But sending out an amphibious assault ship comparable to a small aircraft carrier was honestly a bit overkill.

The "Landao" amphibious assault ship before them was very famous in Gao Mu — it was the largest warship in Gao Mu.

Full-load displacement exceeded twenty-five thousand tons, carrying twenty helicopters, over thirteen hundred navy sailors, twenty armored vehicles, and three hovercraft landing craft.

Wu Chang could be sure — if Gao Mu had aircraft carriers, they would definitely have sent one out to silence them.

The instant they got a clear look at the warship, the enthusiasm of Sword Star and the others instantly died out — was this thing in front of them really a target that could be tackled?

They were veteran players of Abyss Game, and in reality they'd count as mini-supermen — logically, they shouldn't fear ordinary militaries, but the plane they were in right now wasn't the real world.

Silent Voyage was an A-rank instance on the verge of losing control — even the weakest navy sailors inside had stats equivalent to nearly level twenty players; against an army composed of such quality sailors, charging in would make no difference from suicide.

The few players were numb — did the out-of-control state of Silent Voyage manifest in the silencing part?

Sword Star swallowed some saliva and said quietly: "Boss, how about we go back and call more people?"

Saying "call more people" was actually giving Wu Chang a way out.

If it were when they had just boarded the Star Leap and no battles had occurred, with dozens of players all in one faction, with the Ritual Master, Ma Jia, and Blood Wolf as attack spearheads, maybe they could have put up a fight.

But that was only maybe — the Silent Voyage plane's rules gave an extreme boost to native technology, and the combat helicopters and armored vehicles used by the navy couldn't be judged by real-world standards.

Maybe if they brought Zheng Ruiyuan too, the Star Leap could fight the Landao to a mutual defeat.

But as for now, the players' high-end combatants were either dead or gone — relying on the remaining small fries, what was there to fight?

Better pack up their bags quickly, take advantage of having left the shipwreck belt, and drive the lifeboat to escape.

Sword Star and the others were scared seeing the Landao, but Wu Chang, upon seeing it, was actually also panicking like hell.

Facing a behemoth like the Landao, anyone would panic — but giving up now meant giving up on Cui Chengze's hidden side quest.

The instance had progressed to this point, and the hidden side quest was ninety percent complete — a duck already in hand flying away like this, he couldn't accept it.

After hesitating for a moment, he gritted his teeth and said: "Let's go up and take a look first, scout the situation — if it's not doable, we'll leave immediately."

Seeing the boss still had some sense, Sword Star and the others breathed a sigh of relief.

Before boarding, Wu Chang converted his Unlimited Portable Livestream into camera mode, circled the warship filming a full lap, thinking that if they couldn't overpower it, he'd release this intel and see if it could make Gao Mu's higher-ups and navy think twice and let the Star Leap go.

After filming every detail of the Landao, he led everyone aboard.

With Shadow's skill helping, the few of them moved like a patch of mobile shadow, moving freely across the Landao.

Perhaps because the opponent was a cruise liner, and the sacrifice date was still over twenty days away, the navy aboard the Landao were extremely relaxed and not in any combat state at all.

Although their state was lax, the sailors' quality hadn't dropped a bit — Wu Chang had no doubt that once combat started, these people could enter battle mode within one minute.

Seeing this scene, Wu Chang was already having second thoughts — even if his True Self's strength stacked over 200 points, boring through this Landao would be extremely difficult.

Moreover, True Self only had high strength but insufficient defense — facing the Landao's powerful firepower, before he bored the Landao full of holes, he'd be riddled with bullets himself.

Who would have thought that upon entering the cabin, the group quickly made a heavyweight discovery.

That was, the Landao had actually cleared out a large space inside the cabin and set up a cathedral!

From the cathedral's emblem, it was a cathedral of the Xinyuzhou Sect.

Clearly, everything aboard the Landao was prepared for this final sacrifice.

But thinking about it, it was very reasonable — to prevent survivors from appearing, Gao Mu's navy could dispatch a warship to silence them, which was enough to show how tight their secrecy was.

Survivors would leak the secret — wouldn't the navy soldiers who took part in the operation leak it too?

There are only two kinds of people who can keep a secret: the dead, and those who benefit from it.

What the Gao Mu navy did was the latter. Every sailor aboard the Landao was a fanatic believer of the Xinyuzhou Sect, fanatical enough that for the sake of the sect they would throw away anything, including morality and conscience.

At this moment, more than ninety percent of the sailors aboard had gathered in the great cathedral to pray. Many of them really couldn't hold out any longer, yet they didn't choose to leave — instead they dozed off leaning against the cathedral walls.

By eavesdropping on the sailors' prayers, one could discover that a small portion of them had not yet completely abandoned their human conscience; they used prayer to ease the guilt in their hearts.

Of course, these people were only a very small portion — as small as the gesture that could break a Gao Mu person's defenses.

What Wu Chang hadn't expected was that the prayers of the vast majority in the cathedral were actually expressions of loyalty to Leiman, hoping to win the gods' favor and be allowed onto the Star Leap as well.

As people in the know, they naturally knew that the passengers aboard the Star Leap were offerings chosen for the descent of the Lord.

But in the eyes of fanatical believers like them, becoming an offering and merging with the divine was simply the highest honor imaginable.

If their clans knew of their behavior, they'd have to open a separate page for them in the genealogy — if they had a genealogy, that is.

So the sailors aboard the Landao were all praying and vying for a chance to board the Star Leap; quite a few even prayed that the sacrifice would take the Landao along with it.

Wu Chang couldn't help shaking his head after hearing this — it was the first time he'd ever heard such a request.

But who could blame him? Old Man Li was kind-hearted. As the biggest backer of the Xinyuzhou Sect, of course he couldn't bear to see so many believers go unsatisfied.

He turned to look at Cui Chengze and asked, "Can you set up an Earthly Kingdom of God sacrifice ritual on the deck?"

Cui Chengze was dumbfounded, his face wearing the expression of a subway old man looking at his phone — how dare this bunch say it, and how dare the boss actually listen.

Cui Chengze said tactfully, "The Star Leap is too far from here. A standalone sacrifice ritual can't connect with the one on the Star Leap — it would be meaningless."

"As for improvising an Earthly Kingdom of God ritual covering the Landao on the fly, there's neither the time nor enough occult materials, and more importantly, they don't have time to be converted into qualified offerings either."

Wu Chang waved his hand — just like any other client who can't understand plain speech but has a head full of wild ideas — and said:

"Just set up the ritual. Leave the rest to me."

Cui Chengze had been about to use the excuse that he hadn't brought any occult materials, but who would have known that Wu Chang thought they might be needed and had True Me bring over all of Cui Chengze's luggage.

Seeing that Wu Chang didn't seem to be joking, Cui Chengze could only set up a standalone sacrifice ritual around the cathedral.

After finishing the setup, he didn't forget to remind him: "Boss, a standalone sacrifice ritual really won't work."

Wu Chang couldn't be bothered to explain, and only said, "Just wait. I have my own way."

For the remaining time, Wu Chang had everyone lie low outside the cathedral and made no further moves.

During this period, Xiang Jianxing and the others came to ask several times, but Wu Chang gave no answer, only telling them to wait.

And so this waiting lasted until the sun rose.

As the sky brightened, the players aboard the Star Leap began to notice that they seemed to have left the Shipwreck Belt.

People wanted to go find Wu Chang to ask what was going on, but discovered that the secretary, Qinglong, and the others were obstructing them every which way, insisting that the boss was still resting and it wasn't convenient to see people. Not only was Wu Chang not showing his face, but Xiang Jianxing and the others were nowhere to be seen either — at this point the Star Leap's players couldn't help but start having thoughts.

When word came that one of the lifeboats aboard was missing, many players began to guess that Wu Chang had taken his subordinate players and slipped away.

Setting aside why they would run when they held a huge advantage and had nearly cleared the instance, the fact that Wu Chang and his players were not aboard led some to start getting restless.

For instance, the Ritualist who had been hiding aboard all along.

He had been hiding on the ship and was one of the first players to notice that the Star Leap had left the Shipwreck Belt.

The exit of the Shipwreck Belt was a stretch of sea called the End Point. The Xinyuzhou Sect had made many preparations in this stretch of sea in advance.

Not long after the Star Leap left the Shipwreck Belt, he sensed the arrangements at the End Point sea area — the moment he had endured all those humiliations and been waiting for had finally arrived.

Now, with the final preparations at the End Point sea area in place, it was time to activate the Earthly Kingdom of God and bring down the Lord's projection to end all of this.

Taking advantage of the moment when everyone was still looking for Wu Chang, the Ritualist appeared alone on the fourth deck. A resplendent occult magic array materialized beside him, spinning as it fell into the Earthly Kingdom of God core set up on the fourth deck.

The Ritualist's magic array was like a key to opening the Earthly Kingdom of God. As the two fit together perfectly, the entire Star Leap began to shake.

!

Most of the passengers aboard, especially the believers of the Xinyuzhou Sect, felt a violent pain within their bodies, as if something were forcibly tearing their organs out from inside.

If Wu Chang had still been aboard, he would have been able to see the occult seeds originally planted in the passengers — those hair-raising eyes — now rising out of their hosts' bodies like balloons made of eyeballs.

These eyeball balloons rose up from every direction, finally converging on the occult ritual core on the fourth deck.

Seeing that only the occult seeds had arrived while the passengers had not been sacrificed, the Ritualist's face showed a look of bewilderment.

He soon realized that someone had tampered with the ritual!

This was bad. Once the ritual began, it couldn't be interrupted, but at this rate the Earthly Kingdom of God wouldn't be able to absorb enough energy, and the Lord wouldn't be able to descend in a complete projection form.

Cold sweat began to seep from his forehead. As the third candidate for Holy Son of the Tranquil Sect, he knew the Lord's temperament all too well.

Having already laid the groundwork in the earlier phase, he had botched a simple task like this — whether or not he could still become Holy Son aside, he might not even be able to bear the wrath of the Lord.

Just as he was wondering where to make up the missing energy, a tremendous force came from afar and poured into the Earthly Kingdom of God.

That force was both vast and pure — clearly converted from the voluntary sacrifice of life by pious and powerful individuals.

Judging by the number, there were no fewer than a thousand sacrificers. Not only did they make up for the portion from the Star Leap's passengers, the energy they provided exceeded the array's needs by thirty percent!

If the earlier preparations would have allowed the Lord to descend as a complete-body projection, then now the Lord could descend as a perfect projection.

The Ritualist looked in the direction the energy had come from. Could it be that members of the Xinyuzhou Sect in the instance plane had sensed his predicament and activated a contingency to help him out of the crisis?

Although he had always lorded his player identity over the plane's natives and looked down on them, receiving such help now pricked his conscience a little, and he said sincerely toward the source of the energy:

"Thank you."

If the sailors aboard the Landao could have heard, they would surely have replied, "You're welcome."

Because they really were willing.

Just as usual, they kept on praying to win the Lord's favor and become a part of the Lord.

Who could have known that as they prayed, their bodies began to glow, their whole bodies grew very light, their consciousness left their bodies, and they moved at a speed beyond their imagination.

In the blink of an eye, they saw the Star Leap and sensed the Lord's aura within it.

The Lord had actually heard their prayers!

In that instant, they felt incomparable happiness and peace, and a serene, blissful smile appeared on every face.

Of course, not everyone was so fanatical as to sacrifice their lives in exchange for a god's descent.

For example, those Navy higher-ups who still had some attachment to life, and who did not actually believe in the Xinyuzhou Sect, but had only come to grab a share of the spoils.

But with most of the Navy making their wish, the sacrificial ritual had already been established; even if they didn't want it, it was no longer up to them.

And so, in the light of the sacrificial ritual, the Landao became an empty ship.

Xiang Jianxing and the others, who had witnessed the whole thing, nearly had their jaws drop to the floor. Looking at Wu Chang, their suspicion had shifted from "is the boss the mastermind?" to "is the boss the incarnation of an evil god?"

Only Xiang Jianxing and the others, who didn't understand occultism, would make such a fuss.

Cui Chengze, who truly understood occultism, was nearly scared out of his wits.

He clutched his head with both hands, as if recreating Edvard Munch's *The Scream*.

He glanced at Wu Chang, then turned to look at the sacrificial array flashing with the light of an occult ritual, his head bobbing like a rattle-drum, and babbled incoherently:

"How is this— what did you do— this shouldn't— why did it succeed?"

The system of occult knowledge Cui Chengze had accumulated over many years, under Wu Chang's operation, collapsed in an instant, like a sandcastle being knocked over.

For an old occult practitioner like Cui Chengze, occultism was not only their faith, but also their way of understanding the world—one might even say it was the world they understood.

Anyone with a less resolute will would have had their spirit collapse on the spot from a cognitive collapse of this magnitude.

Standing on the deck of the Landao, True Self收起 the false miracle of "growing into a towering tree," returned to the others, and then made contact with social anxiety disorder.

Wu Chang's main body shrugged and said lightly, "I just helped them fulfill a wish."

Cui Chengze finally came to his senses a little, sorted out his thoughts, and said, "But this doesn't conform to occultism!"

"Because this isn't occultism."

Wu Chang looked at Xiang Jianxing and the others and said, "Like them, I also learned some special powers in places outside of Gao Mu country."

Without waiting for the others to press further, he said, "The sacrificial ritual has activated, which means the Earthly Kingdom of God on the Star Leap has been activated. We should head back."

He looked at Great White Shark and asked, "Can you pilot this ship?"

Great White Shark shook her head violently. What a joke—abilities have their limits too. If she could even handle this thing, wouldn't her captain talent have to be S-rank?

Wu Chang sighed. What a pity.

Great White Shark added, "Although I can't pilot this thing, I can drive the landing boats on board, and get us back at top speed."

"No need, that's still too slow." Wu Chang shook his head, walked to the middle of the group, and said:

"Get ready, we're heading back. You might feel a bit queasy on the way."

The group was baffled. Xiang Jianxing asked, "We're going to— ugh ugh ugh…"

Before Xiang Jianxing could finish speaking, the scenery around them blurred, and they went from the Landao to Wu Chang's room on the Star Leap.

In the center of the room, a magic circle completely different from the occult ritual had been laid out.

Long-range teleportation?

The group was first astonished that natives could master such magic within the Silent Route副本's plane. A moment later, an intense wave of motion sickness caught up with them, making them clutch the walls and dry-heave just like Xiang Jianxing.

Wu Chang had no time to spare for the others. Together with True Self, he jumped straight down from the balcony, landing in front of the Earthly Kingdom of God ritual on the fourth deck.

By now the Earthly Kingdom of God had absorbed enough energy, and light flickered within the ritual. The Ritual Master paid no heed to Wu Chang landing behind him; facing the Earthly Kingdom of God, a look of devotion appeared on his face.

From the Earthly Kingdom of God ritual, he sensed the presence of the Lord.

So long as the Lord's projection descended upon this plane, then whether it was the players, or the Apocalypse, or Wu Chang this overpowered hidden NPC, all would turn to ash beneath the true god's radiance.

"Despair, heretics."

The Ritual Master was about to declare victory, when suddenly a second light flickered out from within the Earthly Kingdom of God ritual.

The second light's presence was no less than the Lord's light, and he had sensed the aura within that light before.

As if realizing something, he glared viciously to his side, only to see Ma Jia had appeared on the fourth deck at some unknown point, smiling at him.

Ma Jia said in a flat tone, "The god you worship will only bring endless disaster and chaos. Only the true god we believe in can bring the dawn to the intelligent beings of every plane, and guide them toward the future."

"F*** your m***erf***ing—" The Ritual Master's choice of words was far from friendly.

"Far from friendly" was putting it mildly. During the melee on the deck last night, when the Fisherman attacked Zheng Ruiyuan and self-destructed, he had already sensed something was off.

The Fisherman's behavior during the self-detonation reminded him of one of the most hated presences in the Apocalypse—that guy's hidden class, the Flesh Invader, could produce exactly that effect.

He had worried at the time that the other side had tampered with more than just the Fisherman. He hadn't expected them to be truly so shameless as to not even spare the Earthly Kingdom of God.

These Apocalypse bastards truly didn't know the meaning of leaving a line for future meetings.

The Ritual Master took a fighting stance. Although the opponent's strength was a notch above his own, the Earthly Kingdom of God was, after all, the fruit of their labors over many years. Even if Ma Jia could snatch away some of the energy, how much could he take?

So long as the true god of the Apocalypse Sect couldn't claim more than forty percent, he would make sure Ma Jia stayed in this副本 today.

As the Ritual Master and Ma Jia were at daggers drawn, a third light emerged within the Earthly Kingdom of God.

The Ritual Master was completely dumbfounded. Again?

Ma Jia also showed a look of surprise, hesitated for a moment, and looked at Wu Chang with uncertainty.

The third god's light was more intense than the combined light of Leimann and the Apocalypse's true god. The moment the new god appeared, it immediately suppressed the radiance of its two predecessors.

With the three side by side, the two predecessors who had appeared first seemed like false gods paving the way for the boss; the last to take the stage was the true body possessing a genuine divine rank.

That intense divine aura had already exceeded the limits the Wasteland Realm could contain. Neither the Ritual Master nor Ma Jia had ever felt such powerful divine force.

If reporting were an option, they would have already worn out the hotline. They strongly suspected that some high-plane deity had smuggled themselves into the Wasteland Realm through improper means.

Wu Chang heard Ailin's voice in his ear and learned she had already gained the absolute upper hand in the contest. He cleared his throat lightly, looked at the two of them, and said:

"Have you two had enough?"

(End of chapter)