Hello, Li Ruonan

For veteran reincarnators, there is a fundamental consensus shared among them.

That is, reward points can always be farmed through easy opportunities, but when it comes to side quests—even the lowest D-rank ones—one must ultimately use fire and sword to reap the rewards.

It has always been this way, and it shall always be so.

Naturally, once one confirms they are caught in a triggered group side quest, they must remain hyper-vigilant of their surroundings, no matter where they are. Unless, of course, they can be certain they have already overcome enough hardships and contributed enough effort in this challenge.

However, no one can ever gauge that threshold—never.

The only way to break this is to face everything until the very end...

Outside the main hall, Yu Zhiwei stood quietly, clutching her staff. Behind her, the ritual hall had already begun to emit vast swathes of pure white radiance under the chanting of Jacob. As for the young lady serving as the core of the god-inviting ritual—or rather, the medium—she had been sitting obediently on the prayer mat in the center of the formation for over ten hours without causing a single disturbance.

The young lady would not have any issues.

As a professional, Jacob should not make any amateur mistakes either.

So...

The ones most likely to have problems are that Ms. Chen, and myself.

Yu Zhiwei rested her chin on her hand, listening to Jacob recite the Lotus Sutra over and over again. The incense within the hall had long since overflowed, pouring out through the gaps in the doors and windows, coating the exterior in a misty filter. Everything before her eyes became blurred and ambiguous; within the fog and the chanting, faint shadows and whispers seemed to flow.

She tilted her head slightly. Through the mist, she saw Ms. Chen, the ritual assistant who had been busy all afternoon, now drifting into a drowsy state amidst the incense. Fragments of memory became clear in her mind.

Not long ago, she had accompanied Ms. Chen to the rear hall to retrieve the oldest copy of the Lotus Sutra. The moment Ms. Chen successfully obtained the scripture, an accident occurred, as was to be expected.

Inside that old book, a small insect had been nesting. As Ms. Chen pulled the book out, the insect lunged at her palm.

The insect failed, because Yu Zhiwei was there—her telekinesis easily captured the creature, and before Ms. Chen could notice anything amiss, she transferred it into a container in her hand.

She had contained the insect.

She was not surprised that an insect would appear there—the temple was full of them.

Moreover, the insect was a symbol of the Great Black Buddha Mother, for whenever it exerted its power or acted in areas where the evil curse had not yet been explicitly activated, it always left behind various insects. Whether it was in Li Ruonan's new home or inside the main hall of the Zhou King Temple. The dwelling of an Orthodox God could not prevent the interference of evil powers, provided it did not act in violation of the Orthodox God's rules.

The Orthodox God could not stop it, nor could holy water or talismans. But the power of the evil entity required a vessel. And its messengers had tried their best but failed to break through the reincarnators' outer defenses.

So...

"I've found you."

Yu Zhiwei picked up the small vial, staring at the insect inside.

"And you surely don't think you have the qualifications to influence me, do you?"

The vial shattered between her fingertips, and the insect trapped within crumbled into dust along with it. The evil power, having lost this weak vessel, could only surge within the temple in angry, futile waves.

The external defenses had not yet been breached, so it could not directly use physical means to hinder the ritual inside the temple. Since physical means were ineffective, the entity, provoked by Yu Zhiwei, could only unleash its weakened power on a spiritual level.

It could have attacked all three, but it had no other path left. The three-fold power converged into one, surging directly toward Yu Zhiwei!

The surrounding mist began to churn.

Everything nearby suddenly became even more blurred.

In the blink of an eye, the architecture of the Guanyin temple around Yu Zhiwei vanished. In its place was a vast, expansive, dark void.

Black, silent, and empty.

The heartbeat within her chest became increasingly distinct, and the rushing of fluid in her veins turned into a sound audible to her ears. Every second felt as long as a year. Every breath seemed to stretch into eternity.

An ordinary person would become anxious and irritable within seconds; the darkness covering all sides would press against the heart of the weak living creature like a wall. Even those with courage would be unable to stop themselves from muttering, shouting, reciting poems, or doing something meaningful to resist this boundless silence and nothingness.

But Yu Zhiwei was no ordinary person; she did nothing at all.

She simply watched quietly, a faint, enigmatic smile on her face, perhaps even enjoying it.

One second, two seconds.

One day, two days.

One month, two months.

Time flowed in silent stillness, yet the time the evil entity could maintain this was, after all, not infinite.

Amidst the silence, the massive Eight-Armed Bronze Statue appeared directly in front of Yu Zhiwei. The silent void was suddenly filled with cursed Zen chanting, and the head of the Buddha Mother, covered by a red cloth, tilted toward the woman holding the staff, lowering its gaze.

A solemn voice rang out, booming like a temple bell beneath that bright red curtain.

[Foolish creature, why do you not yet submit!]

The voice was filled with unparalleled persuasive power, enough to make the most steadfast mortal kneel in surrender. Yet, Yu Zhiwei, standing before it, merely tilted her head slightly.

"Thank you for the hospitality; I've enjoyed this time quite a bit." She lifted her skirt slightly and offered a small bow. "And..."

"You may get lost now."

Get lost.

Lost.

Lost.

The giant bronze statue shattered with a roar, as did the boundless void covering the surroundings. She returned once more to the temple, where the god-inviting ritual was still in progress in the distance. The next moment, Ms. Chen, who clearly shared some connection with the Chen family, suddenly bolted upright from the ritual, letting out a hysterical, blood-curdling scream.

"You dare ignore me!"

A knife suddenly appeared in her hand, and she stabbed the little girl on the prayer mat straight through on the spot. The next moment, the out-of-control ritual exploded violently, and scorching light and fire swept out in all directions.

'Jacob' collapsed to the ground, the backlash tearing horrific gashes across his body. He raised his head toward Yu Zhiwei, his face full of unwillingness, his tone brimming with confusion and resentment.

"W-why?" He reached out a blood-stained hand toward the woman, trembling. "You only needed a single thought..."

Yu Zhiwei walked over unhurriedly and grabbed that outstretched hand.

"First," she leaned down slightly, staring at the dying man before her, "I don't really care."

"And second..." She yanked the hand upward, forcing that familiar face to collide with her forehead. "Compared to what I've been through, your little tricks aren't even enough to serve as a lullaby for me!"

As their minds collided, everything was suddenly stained with a viscous crimson, revealing a tiny, hidden corner of Yu Zhiwei's inner self.

"Li Ruonan!"

She screamed, her will transmitted like an imperial decree.

At that very moment, the face of 'Jacob' suddenly shifted into that of a pale-faced woman. Her features were filled with incomparable terror and panic.

The guess was correct; the connection between Li Ruonan and the Great Black Buddha Mother was unusually deep. The curse had backfired, allowing this weak link to be exposed before Yu Zhiwei!

Found it!

The death point on Li Ruonan's face reflected in Yu Zhiwei's eyes. The next moment, her psychokinesis transformed into an invisible blade, stabbing fiercely into that very point!

Li Ruonan suddenly shifted back into Jacob, but she didn't care. The moment the psychic blade struck, the entire space shattered into powder once again, like a broken mirror.

A silent scream echoed through the temple, and an evil will abruptly retreated from the front of the main hall. Inside the ritual grounds behind her, the chanting of the Lotus Sutra continued, while outside the temple, a series of massive tremors erupted.

Yu Zhiwei raised her hand, her face feeling damp. With a casual wipe, she cleared away the large amount of necrotic blood flowing from her eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

"Tch." She let out a soft hum and ceased her movements.

Meanwhile... no, the instant that evil will retreated, Si Ming raised his hand in the central area of the composite defense line.

"It is time."

Two Aggregate Centipedes had already been beaten into pulp, and the dark power was gathering in the distance. The next moment, the Rock Giants—which had been disguised as small hills after finishing their trench-digging work at the four corners of the defense line—simultaneously raised their heads and hands.

They moved, performing an act that defied all reason.

These four rock giants, each weighing hundreds or even thousands of tons, lunged toward the gathering darkness in a catapult-like motion!

They collided, shattering into powder. A chain reaction of Evil Explosion Techniques turned the area where the darkness resided into a vast expanse of boiling fire.

The commander of the opposing army came into view: an Eight-Armed Flesh Colossus structured from the remains of a thousand Evil Cultists. It steered and controlled the darkness, yet as that evil will suffered, seventy percent of the thousand faces composing the colossus fell into a daze.

Not enough. It had to be all of them.

In the next instant, a winged behemoth—neither bird nor insect, colored a dim yellow, its entire body covered in twisted, grotesque structures—appeared before the eyes of those temporarily leaderless Evil Cultists.

Byakhee, a mythical monster, a servant of Hastur, an alien!

The indescribable distortion could not harm the well-prepared reincarnators, but it was enough to drag those Evil Cultists, whose spirits were already fractured and weak, into a state of madness and mental corruption!

They became sluggish, frantic, and unable to act.

The next moment, the Steel Colossus on the battlefield, along with a second one that had suddenly appeared, firmly gripped the eight-armed aggregate. Si Ming, relying on the Byakhee for short-range teleportation, pressed his palm against the chest of the aggregate.

"Awaken," he said.

Necrotic Aura surged in madly. The Evil Cultists before him were clearly still living beings—he knew and understood this fact, for he intended to forcibly exercise necromancy using the bodies of these living creatures!

Terrifying howls erupted; even as vessels for evil, they could not bear the immense pain of having their living souls sacrificed. They screamed and struggled as dark flames burst from their eye sockets, and the next moment, the bones within them twisted, forcing their way out of their living flesh, only to be blasted into powder by the Evil Explosion Technique.

Destruction was instantaneous.

Yet the pain was eternal.

The evil consciousness repelled by Yu Zhiwei reconnected, but all that awaited it was the sudden destruction of this avatar and the abrupt, overwhelming reflux of endless agony!

Hundreds of miles away, deep in the mountains.

A woman in red, sitting cross-legged inside a sealed cave, suddenly let out a hysterical shriek. Her eyes exploded, and her entire body began to burst and reform repeatedly. She had been forcibly summoned online by Yu Zhiwei and was now forced to bear the torrent of pain that the Great Black Buddha Mother should have endured herself. In a mere instant, she was reduced to a shattered skeleton with a jaw that kept snapping open and shut amidst a series of explosions.

"Buddha Mother have mercy! Buddha Mother have mercy!"

She called out to her god, and her ruptured flesh stopped falling away. Yet even so, that vast, infinite pain continued to collide, tear, and torture her nerves and flesh from within her shell.

She could not help but scream again.

And a faint, thin, twilight-colored hue etched itself into her shell along with the returning torrent of the shattered cultist's soul. And...

Deep within the soul of this filth known as Li Ruonan.