I Saw God

Under the dim moonlight, Bull Terrier stood on a muddy road beside an abandoned construction site, his head wrapped in gauze as he cautiously looked behind him.

He certainly wasn't a good man. He had even offended plenty of players within the Chaos Faction, so he always lived somewhere remote and reasonably well concealed.

"Who's there?!"

Bull Terrier possessed all the cunning a criminal ought to have. Though he seemed careless, he was extremely cautious. He remained where he was as he called out, distinct star source fluctuations radiating from his body.

The night was dark and windy. To the left of the road stretched an endless expanse of muddy wasteland, its weeds swaying in the cool breeze.

A row of low sheet-metal walls stood to the right, extending seven or eight meters ahead to a bend in the road. Bull Terrier had already detected someone moving there.

Tap, tap!

Soft footsteps sounded, and a small head framed by long hair slowly peeked around the wall. "Hey, handsome. Fifty a person. Want some fun?" came the polite invitation.

Bull Terrier frowned and saw a beautiful woman with classical features. He froze for a moment, then goosebumps rose all over his body.

He was certainly a dirty old lecher, but his cunning mind was nothing like his rough appearance. Why would a woman suddenly turn up looking for customers in a place like this in the middle of the night?

Although she gave off no star source fluctuations, this definitely wasn't normal...

Whoosh!

Bull Terrier abruptly raised his arm, a pale, dusky yellow glow spreading over his body.

At the corner, Ren Ye, who had activated the Charm Skill in advance and transformed into a cross-dressing beauty again, suddenly unleashed an alluring purple glow from his eyes. "Stop!" he shouted.

Tap...!

Bull Terrier stopped in an instant. His eyes visibly clouded, and his expression stiffened.

"Fuck!"

Ren Ye let out a long breath, stepped out from behind the sheet-metal wall, and headed straight toward Bull Terrier.

The man was far more cautious than Ren Ye had expected. Before following Bull Terrier, Ren Ye had activated the Charm Skill ahead of time to avoid exposing himself. He had discovered that, at his current stage, he only emitted star source fluctuations when using items. If he "changed outfits" beforehand, he was no different from an ordinary person.

That might have been because he had yet to obtain a class inheritance, but even so, he had still been discovered.

The distance between them rapidly closed. Ren Ye called to him, "Kneel and call me master."

Bull Terrier stood ramrod straight on the muddy road. A series of complex emotions flashed through his eyes-confusion, lust, desire... but he never called Ren Ye master.

Shit!

At the sight, Ren Ye suddenly stiffened. He immediately sensed that the subtle connection between him and Bull Terrier was weak, as though it could break at any moment...

His willpower is too strong. Enchantment can barely control him. Is his consciousness fighting back?!

With that suspicion, Ren Ye stared into the man's eyes again and spoke rapidly. "Look up. Look into my eyes..."

Whoosh!

Just then, Bull Terrier abruptly raised his head, a faint smile appearing at the corner of his mouth. "What an interesting supernatural ability... you can be a man or a woman?! Heh. Too bad you're so weak. Your star source power isn't enough to bring out its strongest form."

Whoosh!

The Nation-Guarding Sword flashed into Ren Ye's right hand, gleaming as he slashed straight at Bull Terrier's neck.

"What a sharp sword." With a single glance, Bull Terrier pulled back. A brilliant dusky yellow light erupted from his body as he murmured, "Earth Sense-Wither!"

Humm!

Light burst from Bull Terrier's body and rapidly spread in every direction.

Wherever the dusky yellow glow passed, not a blade of grass survived.

In an instant, every weed, green plant, and even the wild saplings half a person's height within ten meters of him withered and turned yellow. As the cold wind blew, they crumbled into dust and drifted away.

The damp ground instantly dried out, splitting into a web of cracks as great quantities of yellow sand swirled upward.

"You think I'm a brainless moron like Old Yin and those other idiots? I'm a Fallen Player. I used to be a promising newcomer in the Free Faction." Bull Terrier raised his arm, aiming his palm at Ren Ye, a savage grin curling his lips. "I recognize your scent. You're the brat who cut off my ear. Heh. A lot of people are looking for you."

"Devouring Sandstorm!!!"

He was too fast. Before Ren Ye could react, a hurricane erupted beneath his feet, spinning wildly like an hourglass.

Whoosh!

His body was swept straight into the air, suspended like a kite at the center of the rising sandstorm.

Tiny grains of sand and stone sharper than blades filled the hurricane. In a single instant, countless thin cuts opened all over Ren Ye's body.

Spinning, overwhelming dizziness, consciousness slipping away...

Ren Ye felt warm blood flowing from every inch of his skin, including his cheeks, lips, and eyelids...

His whole body felt like a stone tossed into a sanding machine to be ground and polished...

Agony-agony that shook his very soul-pulled Ren Ye back a little from the brink of unconsciousness. He narrowed his eyes and looked out, dimly making out Bull Terrier walking toward him.

There's only one chance left. Hold on... hold on. Wait for him to get close.

He recognized me. I'm so important... he won't be able to resist.

Bull Terrier abruptly took two steps forward and clenched his raised hand into a fist. "Sand-Gathering Prison!"

Humm...!

The wildly spinning sandstorm suddenly began to slow. At the same time, countless grains of sand and stone rose around them again and shot toward Ren Ye's body, seemingly intent on burying him alive.

Whoosh!

Just then, a dazzling light suddenly appeared in the distant wasteland.

Bull Terrier whipped his head around to look across the fields.

He saw a speck of starlight slowly spread, eventually transforming into a warped, irregular gate.

The gate rapidly swelled and expanded. In just a few breaths, it stood as tall as heaven and earth, blocking out the entire landscape to the south.

Shining like the sun, the gate had appeared before Bull Terrier without warning.

"...Is that... a Startrace Gate? How could such an enormous Star Gate exist?!" Bull Terrier froze. He stared blankly at the motionless "sun" for a long time before exclaiming excitedly, "No... no, that's a Divine Gate! I've seen the legendary Divine God’s Gate!"

Whoosh!

As his words fell, a shadowy figure appeared within the Startrace Gate. It looked human yet not human, indistinct and hazy, towering between heaven and earth with its side turned toward Bull Terrier.

No god had ever appeared in the world. In every player's mind, God was vague and indistinct, nothing more than a symbol.

Watching that shadowy figure, Bull Terrier began trembling with excitement. Everything else in the world instantly slipped his mind, and he asked blankly, "Are you... are you God?!"

"Do you want to become a god?"

An ethereal reply came from within the gate, seemingly faint, yet seeming to echo across the entire earth.

"I do! Of course I do!!" Bull Terrier roared excitedly. "For one precious item and a sizable sum of star source, I killed five Order Faction players and caught over forty ordinary people up in it... that's how I became a Fallen Player."

"Who doesn't want to become a god? Who doesn't want to break free of those bullshit rules and do whatever they please?! I risk my life, I work hard, I do everything I can for the cripple, no matter the cost, all to get stronger!"

"Can you grant me a god's inheritance? I'll do anything for you!" The obsession buried in Bull Terrier's heart had been drawn out. Nearly insane now, he walked straight into the wasteland.

Silence. After a brief silence, God asked, "Anything, truly? Then can you help me kill the cripple? He's your boss, after all. He recognized your worth and gave you your chance."

"I will," Bull Terrier replied without hesitation, then honestly added, "But I can't beat him."

"I'll grant you an item. Go kill him."

"Yes, I will!"

"Then will you help me kill Mr. He?" God asked again.

"I will! However you tell me to kill him, I'll do it!"

"Mr. He is good at hiding. Can you find him?" God's questions were quite logical.

"...I can't find him, but I know two of his lackeys are secretly following a webnovel author named Li Feng," Bull Terrier blurted out.

God was dumbfounded by that. "Why are they following a webnovel author named Li Feng?"

Silence.

A puzzled expression appeared on Bull Terrier's face, and he kept muttering, "Why would God ask that? Why...?"

"Answer me!" An angry shout drifted over.

Bull Terrier shuddered, his face turning deathly pale as he instinctively replied, "Because they said Li Feng can find Ren Daguo."

"...!" God froze for a moment. "Come forward. I'll bestow the Sword of God upon you."

"Yes, yes!" Bull Terrier nodded excitedly, took several steps forward, and stood before the Star Gate that towered between heaven and earth.

"Kneel and worship the Sword of God."

Bull Terrier obeyed the summons. As he bent his knees and knelt, he kept shaking his head, his gaze conflicted. "...That familiar scent. So familiar... why ask me these questions? Why...?!"

Whoosh!

A cold flash swept out from within the Star Gate. Bull Terrier abruptly looked up. "The... Sword of God?"

"Your daddy's sword!"

Splat!

The sharp blade swept past, and a massive head flew into the air. Scalding blood sprayed half a meter high.

On the muddy path, Ren Ye held the Spring Breeze Wish-Fulfilling Painting in his left hand, his right still poised at the end of his sword swing. Bull Terrier knelt before him, now headless, blood pumping profusely from his severed neck.

A reversal with barely a sliver of life left-it was luck, but it was also calculation!

Back in the Tranquil Heart Hall, a single glance at the Spring Breeze Wish-Fulfilling Painting had plunged him into an illusion of obsession. This thing could draw out the obsessions buried deepest in a person's heart, and the stronger the obsession, the easier it was to become lost in the illusion.

The Daoist Talisman personally bestowed by the Princess Consort, who possessed a powerful Yin-Yang Art, had successfully rescued Er Leng from his enchanted state. Yet inside the illusion, it had crumbled into powder after just one use...

On the ground, Ren Ye panted in utter misery...

Bloody tears flowed from his right eye. His clothes were torn all over, and his exposed skin was a mangled mess of flesh and blood. He looked like a skinned rat... a truly wretched sight.

"...I'm going to clear Qingliang Prefecture! I swear I will!!"

Using the tip of his sword to prop up his trembling body, Ren Ye stared at Bull Terrier's corpse with his one good eye and swore viciously.

Whoosh!

Then he bent down and quickly began searching Bull Terrier's body.

A minute later, he found a pouch containing fifteen white crystals.

Over the past few days, Ren Ye had already learned the importance of these things from Xu Peng.

They were star source stones, a currency circulated among players. The higher their grade, the more useful they were.

Next, he pulled a pendant shaped like a Nine-Story Buddhist Pagoda from the man's neck. With a slight mental probe, the little pagoda instantly vanished.

This is an item. I'll check it later.

After searching the entire body, he found only those two things besides four thousand in cash.

Having stuffed everything into his pockets, Ren Ye laboriously dragged Bull Terrier's corpse over to an abandoned well and threw it straight in.

Bang, bang...!

He used the Nation-Guarding Sword to collapse the mouth of the well, roughly burying the corpse, then Ren Ye quickly left.

He hadn't buried it to destroy the evidence and escape criminal punishment. He simply didn't want news of Bull Terrier's death to reach the Roadside Dogs Organization and cut off the lead he had just obtained...

Leaving a bastard like that alive even one more day would have been irresponsible to society!

Under the moonlight, the bedraggled Prince Huai of Great Qian limped alone along the road to rescuing his father.

Shanghai, a certain hideout.

Mr. He stared blankly out the window. After holding it in for a long while, he suddenly began singing in an operatic voice. "Why~ is this affair strange at every turn? Like a tangled mess of threads...!"

"Come on, sir, stop singing. Listening to you seriously makes me constipated!" A burly player sat on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling, a glimmer of wisdom in his eyes. "We're just going after Ren Ye, who doesn't even qualify as a newbie. Why has that Hunter from the Fraud Merchants' Association gone completely crazy? Is it because we touched her prey?!"

Mr. He suddenly stiffened at those words.

He immediately pictured that Hunter's way of doing things, then turned around, his eyes lighting up as he sang, "You truly are~ exceptionally clever!"