Operator8: Deep in the Mountain Valley

Divine wine, divine tea, and divine cakes were served to the travelers one after another, and the children immediately began to eat and drink, their eyes soon becoming dull and lifeless.

Xue Ming didn't touch the food. Mr. Xiong walked up to him and, seeing that he refused to eat, kindly offered some advice.

"If you don't eat these things, you'll suffer excruciating pain when you're put on the scale later—kid?"

Xue Ming answered frankly, "Mr. Xiong Tai, I came here to find Hei Mu Qianshou —I want to ask her how to get out of Extreme Bliss Space."

Like everyone else, Xiong Tai was puzzled by Xue Ming's words. "Go out? Why do we need to go out?"

This divine servant's mindset lacks the concept of "going out"; his mission is to serve the Hei Mu Qianshou and perform anesthesia procedures for these travelers.

Xue Ming shrugged and replied, "See? You're just like Grandfather White Ape; you don't even know what '[go out]' means—we can't see eye to eye."

"If you refuse to eat this food, then it's my fault." Miyamoto Kumata couldn't care less about that; he started to panic. "If Black-Eyed Goddess blames me, all my merits will be forfeited!"

At that time, Xue Ming thought to herself, "Your despicable behavior of being unable to distinguish right from wrong has little merit left. You still like to bully the weak and use your 228-centimeter-tall body to scare children and bewitch these dead ghosts."

Without thinking much or asking any questions, he showed the teru teru bozu (a Japanese doll shaped like <Sunny Day>).

"You know I've been very well-behaved. I promise you—if I go to see Black-Eyed Goddess clean and healthy, she definitely won't be angry; on the contrary, she'll be even happier."

Mr. Xiong was usually easy to fool, but at this moment he became dull and stubborn, seemingly unwilling to say anything and insisting that Xue Ming drink tea, wine, and eat pastries.

These foods should contain control commands specifically designed for soft prosthetic bodies, which will gradually strip the soft prosthetic body of its five senses— Xue Ming could see it clearly. Taro, who had been beaten half to death by Xueming's fists, had completely quieted down, lost his sense of pain and vision, and his pupils were dilated. Just like Kanjuro, the drug addict he had met in Zero Community, his consciousness had left his body.

If he had obediently followed Xiong Tai's instructions and rashly swallowed those drinks and snacks, he probably wouldn't even know how he died.

Seeing that Xiong Tai was about to get angry, he compared the size difference between the two again, and mentally considered the battle environment and the general outcome. He couldn't think of a way to defeat the opponent head-on, so he finally put away his murderous intent and continued to persuade him earnestly.

"How about this, Brother Xiong, don't rush."

Xiong Tai growled angrily, "Eat! Why won't you eat! Give me some!"

Xue Ming said kindly, "Take my advice and do me a favor."

Bear persisted, "Eat! I'm going to feed you myself!"

Xue Ming finally grabbed the cup, her eyes turning icy cold.

--At that moment, Miyamoto Kumata felt a chilling killing intent. The spiritual pressure burst forth from the child, as cold and piercing as ice flowers and snow water. For a moment, he froze and could not move.

Seeing the teacup slam into the corner of the table with a fierce Xue Ming, he grabbed the sharp ceramic shard, reached out and pulled Taro into his arms. His movements were swift and ruthless, and he slashed a deep, bone-revealing wound along the fleshy growth on the traveler's body.

Thick, black blood gushed from the tumor, spilling onto the bamboo strips and cotton wadding of the tatami mats, soaking half the tea room with its foul-smelling liquid.

The innocent and helpless Taro's body went limp, but he did not die. The soft prosthetic body in Extreme Bliss Space could never truly face death. As the contents of the soft body gradually disappeared, the memories he had painstakingly collected were exposed to the air, becoming reflections in the blood plasma, emitting all sorts of strange noises.

Xiong Tai turned pale with fright. He never imagined that this cute little child could have such a cruel and ruthless heart.

Xue Ming dragged the pottery shard in his hand down the grotesque face within the tumor, revealing half of the growth's skeleton and the skull's head through the wound.

"Mr. Xiong Tai, can you please listen to me properly?"

Xiong Tai nodded hastily, momentarily trembling with fear; he couldn't believe it either.

--As the attendant of the Black-Eyed Goddess, she is a bear-like spirit from the Fushan Forest, strong and powerful, yet she was frightened by such a small child and subdued by such an obedient baby.

In terms of sheer presence and courage, he was completely overwhelmed.

Xue Ming: "I'm so sorry to have caused you so much trouble."

Cold sweat trickled down Xiong Tai's forehead. "No trouble at all, no trouble at all."

"I've told you everything, Mr. Kumata—but you keep insisting I eat and drink these mind-altering potions, regardless of whether I can handle it or not. It's really confusing." Xue Ming hugged Taro more and more intimately, the embrace growing tighter and tighter, and the blood flowing more freely. "Mr. Kumata, can't you understand what I'm saying? I'm clearly speaking Japanese!"

Xiong Tai dared not make a move. "I can understand! I can understand! My mind is very sharp!"

Xue Ming: "I said the same thing to the monkey outside the door—I want to leave this place."

Xiong Tai: "Hmm"

Xue Ming: "It doesn't matter if you don't know the method—I'll go ask Hei Mu Qianshou."

Xiong Tai: "Hmm"

Xue Ming: "I was thinking that if I obediently listened to you, I would probably lose some memories and wouldn't be able to leave this place intact."

Xiong Tai: "Hmm"

Xue Ming: "So I politely asked you if you could do me a favor, and you said no—so I used this ceramic shard to ask you again, could you do me a favor? Just take me to Hei Mu Qianshou, don't do anything unnecessary."

Before Xiong Tai could answer--

" —Xue Ming continued."

"Although I am only eight years old in terms of strength, Mr. Xiong Tai, although you look tall and strong, the facts are right in front of you: I can still hurt these travelers."

"You didn't even raise your hand, and I'd already ripped this kid open."

"If we really start fighting, I won't just sit here and wait to die, nor will I be stupid enough to play a grappling game with you."

"There are still about ten children to be sent to Hei Mu Qianshou. If I were to cut them all open, as you said, Mr. Xiong Tai—how much merit would you ruin? How much good karma would you have to rebuild?"

Upon hearing this, Xiong Tai's face turned extremely ugly, as if Xue Ming had found a sore spot.

"Then what you say?"

Xue Ming then asked, "What ceremony will be held next?"

Xiong Tai pulled a razor from his tattered cassock.

Upon seeing the knife, Xue Ming immediately became alert, and her movements became more aggressive.

"No, no, no! No! Little Yama!" Mr. Xiong immediately shouted, "No! I'm going to ordain these children!"

Xue Ming moved to the side step by step, threw Taro aside, and grabbed another traveler with a intact tumor as a hostage.

"Please go ahead."

Miyamoto Kumata breathed a sigh of relief, but he was indignant inside and couldn't show it, silently considering his options.

--How did this strange little child end up at Fukuyama Reitai Temple? He carries no burdens, nor does he seem to be a typical reincarnation. The VENOM's core, however, is milky white. Could it be that the gods have created another new statue to toy with, this servant of the gods?

He gripped the razor and began to shave the traveler's head.

Xue Ming stared wide-eyed, scrutinizing the scene closely.

This burly man was quick and efficient at cutting hair. The gray hair of these travelers with dazed faces fell off in clumps. Before, they had some subtle conditioned reflexes, but after their hair was shaved, all natural reactions disappeared.

He had seen this feature in Yezhong and Yoguang. The hair of these two types of bionic cyborgs was a universal interface used to receive commands from the Hayabusa and connect to terminals in various locations. This fiber optic hair was needed to transmit large amounts of information.

The reason why Hayabusa has no hair is also because he is in charge of both day and Night Wanderer, but he is not subject to the command of the security center. He can eliminate interference when facing ordinary criminal cases and has wartime decision-making authority.

These travelers' hair is a more sophisticated sensor than their facial features. Razors shave away their troubles, and only when they grow back their youthful hair can they truly be considered to have been reborn.

After Mr. Xiong Tai completed the tonsure ceremony, he had Xue Ming hand over the hostages he was holding—and the atmosphere in the room eased.

"Now we can go see Black-Eyed Goddess." Xiong Tai put away his razor, his eyes darting away, still shaken, not daring to meet the gaze of this little devil. He helped the dazed travelers up, steadied them, and then tied them together with a straw rope around their waists, leading them to the door—he walked at the very front, leading this group of walking corpses.

Xue Ming nodded and followed at the back, pointing to the bloodied and mangled Taro.

What do we do with this guy?

Xiong Tai thought for a moment, then suddenly whistled.

A large, obese man with dark skin rushed out from the direction of the main temple. He was not wearing a monk's robe, but only linen trousers and straw sandals. His hair was like wild boar bristles, and his eyes gleamed with ferocity.

"Kumata! What's wrong?!"

Mr. Xiong and the chubby man discussed the matter in a humble tone.

"A traveler has gone mad and scattered the offerings he brought all over the ground. You need to clean it up."

The chubby older brother strode forward, seemingly impatient. He grabbed Taro, pulled him over his head, glanced at him, and immediately opened his mouth wide, swallowing the tattered tumor whole in a few bites.

Xue Ming remained silent to the side.

He had seen plenty of cannibalism, but this was the first time he had ever tasted the flesh of a cybernetic human.

After the fat brother left, Xiong Tai whistled again, this time much softer, and then a beautiful young girl ran out of the guest room in the west wing.

The girl's appearance was somewhat similar to that of Shihara Momo; both had rabbit teeth, slightly protruding upper lips, and a perpetually wide-open mouth, giving the impression of always secretly smiling.

A pair of blood-red eyes darted around, seemingly quick-witted. He was wearing a snow-white fleece coat and rolled around in the tea room without Xiong Tai saying anything.

The bloodstains on the ground remained on the cold clothes, but the tatami mat and floor became clean, as the blood had been absorbed by the girl's clothes.

The white rabbit turned into a pink rabbit. She didn't say anything and immediately went back to her room.

These divine attendants each had their own duties, much like employees in different departments of an office.

--The old white ape led people in and explained the reincarnation process. Miyamoto Kumata was in charge of processing the raw materials, taming the disobedient travelers, and removing their five senses and universal interfaces.

The wild boar brother wants to eat the disobedient offerings and get rid of the traveler's trashy, soft-bodied artificial body.

White Rabbit Girl was responsible for cleaning up redundant data and tidying up the house.

Finally, this little rabbit girl aroused Xue Ming's strong curiosity.

He had seen images of Zhong Kui and Shihara Momo before, whether in posters for Little Kanto City or during battles; he had met these two ladies once.

The girl with the buck teeth who was tidying up the room just now looks almost exactly like Shihara Momo's genetic prototype. Is it possible that these divine servants are actually clones created after Shihara Momo underwent a personality split and was re-compiled through an ascension process?

However, now was not the time to investigate these secrets. He quickly caught up with Xiong Tai's group, and in the blink of an eye, they arrived at the temple's incense hall.

The Hei Mu Qianshou deity statue lies here. Counting from the shoulder in contact with the ground to the other shoulder, the reclining deities in the temple alone are over thirty meters tall.

The white ape knelt before the statue, waiting for travelers to come in and offer sacrifices. On either side of the altar were scales and hooks. The old man held a copper basin, dipped a tender cedar branch in clean water, and washed it until it was spotless.

Mr. Xiong handed the straw ropes binding the travelers to the white ape, knelt and kowtowed to Black-Eyed Goddess, and immediately retreated to the bell pavilion in the west wing.

Xue Ming observed the objects in the environment, looking at them for a long time. The ritual sword and the demon-slaying wolf-tooth club on the altar were both excellent weapons. If he couldn't get along with this black-eyed woman, he would prepare to try to persuade her.

The white ape hung the first offering on an iron hook, took the ceremonial sword, cut off the fleshy tumor on the traveler's back, and sent it to the other side of the scales—once the scales tipped, the Hei Mu Qianshou would recite the good and evil deeds of this person in his life, all in the form of haiku enka lyrics.

Xue Ming didn't understand these things, but he knew that on the other side of the iron scale, if the tumor was heavier than the traveler, then he could get a sum of start-up capital, and the traveler could be reincarnated with considerable wealth. Money, which one can neither take with them when born nor when they die, seemed to have transcended the boundaries of life and death.

The Hei Mu Qianshou stretched out its enormous fleshy palm and gently crushed the tumor, which was equivalent to absorbing the data packets. These diverse and rich experiences became treasures in a bank vault, which would then be re-filtered and rearranged. Valuable items would become commodities on the market, packaged as modules and sold.

She gently blew on the traveler on the iron hook, as if scanning a code on a laser machine, and a barcode appeared on the traveler's forehead. It was like a new stamp, and the tool could be put back into production.

The old white ape then raised his ghost-beating stick and lashed it fiercely at the traveler's soft, artificial body. The unfortunate child tumbled off the iron hook, fell headfirst into the incense burner, and vanished instantly.

After watching the ceremony, Xue Ming gradually gained confidence.

The corpse hook is an indexing tool used to retrieve anchor data from a target.

The ritual sword is an electronic ritual implement used for partitioning and segmenting data.

The merit scale is an algorithmic tool for evaluating the value of goods.

The Demon-Slaying Stick is a backdoor for the reincarnation of a soft-bodied prosthetic body.

Once you get the Ghost-Slaying Staff, you can leave this place.

"Then we can leave here once we get the Ghost-Slaying Stick."

Hei Mu Qianshou said this to Jiang Xueming.

"You were thinking about this just now, weren't you?"

The atmosphere suddenly became awkward. The old white ape was still performing the reincarnation ritual, ignoring Xue Ming and the Heavenly God, as if he hadn't heard anything and needed to complete the procedure before regaining his sanity.

Xue Ming did not reply; he looked up at the enormous statue.

Hei Mu Qianshou continued—

"--This woman seems to be able to read my mind and read my thoughts."

"That's what's on your mind."

Xue Ming still didn't reply. Instead, he crossed his arms with great interest, tilted his head slightly, squinted his eyes, and stared directly into the eyes of the god.

Hei Mu Qianshou continued—

"--How did this guy come up with these assumptions about my thoughts?"

"Is it pheromones? Or is it observing the brain's neural networks? Perhaps the judgment is made from facial expressions and conditioned reflexes?"

"Changes in electrical activity in the language area of the brain? Anyway, it seems like nothing in her mind can escape her notice."

The god's tone changed, returning to its kind and benevolent manner.

"Jiang Xueming, put away your audacious ideas."

"Do you really intend to wage war against my divine servants on my territory?"

Do you think you have the ability right now?

"In the [Extreme Bliss Space], your soul power is not by your side."

"If."

Before the words had even finished --

" -Xue Ming shouted loudly."

"[Fragrant Dream]!"

Unfortunately, the Steel Cat didn't arrive at Xue Ming's side immediately; it seems this infallible guardian spirit is unable to reach this place.

"Hehehehehehehehe." The Hei Mu Qianshou skull cracked open a huge, bright red mouth. "Struggling is futile. I know what you're thinking. I've witnessed countless brains—the pulse activity of thought models, the logical circuits of language. In my eyes, your thoughts are transparent."

"With your frail body, without the aid of your soul power, you are no match for me at all."

Open your heart to me! Pleasing me! Try to please me!

Just then, as if reacting a beat too late, a slender arm emerged from young Xue Ming's arm. The steel Little Kitty struggled greatly, squeezing the spirit out little by little.

It was completely bewildered and had no idea what was happening. One second it was chatting with its second brother, and the next second it felt a strong suction force, and the whole cat crawled into the arm of the gunsmith's physical body and into the core of VENOM.

It was still screaming in fright before it left, but it finally finished screaming when it got to Xue Ming's side.

"I'm going to be sucked in!"

Xue Ming gently slapped Hunwei on the hand and said calmly, "Wake up!"

Fragrant Dream was about the same height as Little Xue Ming, and it didn't recognize her for a moment, so it asked arrogantly.

Who do you think you are, you little brat?!

Xue Ming: "I am your father."

Fragrant Dream: "Bullshit!"

Xue Ming slapped it again, just like the way Xue Ming usually disciplined the naughty spirit with fatherly love when SD took live fish out of the fish tank to play with.

Fragrant Dream's helmet was knocked askew to one side. It straightened the helmet, covered its face, and cried out in surprise.

"That's right! It's you!"

When the man and the cat came to their senses, the Hei Mu Qianshou had just uttered those harsh words, remained motionless.

She seemed terrified. One moment she was still shouting to please, please—the next moment, upon seeing the Fragrant Dream, her expression changed drastically, and her Dharma body slowly began to fade away, like a projection technology of virtual reality. The waveform of the sound waves disappeared, and the huge form could no longer be maintained, turning into a cloud of dust.

Xue Ming pointed at the Black-Eyed Goddess: "This woman's trying to slip away! SD!"

"Understood!" Fragrant Dream swiftly lunged forward—

--Steel fists and iron claws left several afterimages in mid-air, scratching marks on the face of Hei Mu Qianshou.

Xue Ming then realized that the Bodhisattva statue had no physical form at all; it was a projection!

Fragrant Dream rushed out of its sixteen-meter maximum range, kicking and punching in mid-air. Not quite used to this body, it collapsed headfirst onto the altar. In a disheveled state, it crawled and crawled in and out of the huge projection image, breaking through several pits.

At this moment, the old white ape grabbed the ritual sword and the large club, and with a few leaps and bounds, as if he had seen the King of Hell, he fled towards the door as fast as he could. The Black-Eyed Goddess had sent a message to the white ape, fearing the power of Fragrant Dream —telling him to quickly pack his valuables and run away, and under no circumstances should Jiang Xueming be allowed to find the magical artifacts of Reidai Fukuyama Temple. Such a vicious and cruel demon, if released back into the realms of Shinto City, would surely cause widespread devastation and bloodshed.

"These demons are playing tricks here! Wake up and get to work!" Xue Ming rushed out the door, trying to catch up with the white ape. He called to Fragrant Dream to hurry up and follow. He ran a few steps forward, and due to the limited range, the soft-bodied prosthetic body dragged the steel Little Kitty all the way out the door.

The pagoda outside the gate seemed like snow exposed to the sun, quickly melting into a pile of dust.

The wild boar that had just devoured the traveler gripped a rusty, bloodstained iron staff, its face contorted with malice as it stood guard. In the distance, the agile white ape had already climbed a giant cedar tree and was running and leaping through the woods, disappearing from sight in the blink of an eye.

"My name is Zhu Shan Hao! The evil spirit who destroyed the Reidai Fukuyama Temple!"

"Your evil deeds end here!"