87: Chapter 67: Conjecture, Curse Crystal, Three Deceit Families () 87: Chapter 67: Conjecture, Curse Crystal, Three Deceit Families () “This…

can’t be, right?

It shouldn’t be…”

As Xu Shu stared at the golden glowing liquid burrowing into his crotch, he felt uncertain and shocked.

Over these past days, he had transformed from a newbie in the Wasteland to what could now be considered a little overlord of the Wasteland, having killed a significant number of monsters.

However, never had he seen, after killing a monster, this kind of liquid-like light being absorbed by the Promotion Drive from an Erosion Crystal.

There had been one time, the only time, when he killed the wanted criminal, Lu Bingwei.

But that stream of golden liquid back then must have been some kind of information, right?

Xu Shu still remembered that afterwards, when he activated the Promotion Drive, he saw several emails.

The golden light had jumped out from Lu Bingwei’s Promotion Drive.

But this one now…

“How could it be, killing higher-ranked monsters also allows corresponding achievements?”

Holding this suspicion, Xu Shu saw that no one was around, nudged his groin, and opened the Promotion network interface.

There, on the bottom left, indeed appeared several new lines of information.

[“You have defeated/killed another Transcendent.

You may choose freely whether to upload the achievement to the Promotion network; excellent achievements can enhance your ranking.”]

[“Your current ranking: 438th in the Qingyun List, nickname: Iron Armor Barbarian Bull, Gu Pan”]

[“You have picked up another Transcendent’s Promotion Drive…

Data error, no valid information…

Requesting Lie Zhenzi for correction…

Correction completed.”]

[“You have picked up another Transcendent’s Curse Crystal, the identity of the other party: blank, not a registered Transcendent in the Promotion network.”]

[“Information entry completed: Yang Manman, first-tier Unclean.”]

——

Huh?

Curse Crystal?

What’s that?

So, this thing isn’t just ordinary Erosion Crystal?

And an Unclean, what is that path?

Xu Shu had been lurking in the Promotion network for so long, yet this was the first time he had heard of this profession.

Thinking of this Yang Manman, who wasn’t a monster but a Transcendent with the profession of “Unclean,” Xu Shu couldn’t help but speculate.

“Ordinary Transcendents contain Curse Seals, like myself and Lu Bingwei, but when Lu Bingwei died, the Curse Seal didn’t appear, indicating that for normal Transcendents, the Curse Seal decays along with the body and can’t be extracted…”

“Only the Erosion Crystals inside monsters are independent entities, and killing them allows us to seize the Erosion Crystals.”

“So, could it be said that this Curse Crystal is something between Erosion Crystals and Curse Seals?”

Xu Shu toyed with the blue crystal in his hands, feeling a hissing burning sensation, which really resembled the Black Widow Curse Seal he had obtained before.

The feel was similar, both burning to the touch.

And he hadn’t felt anything like this when touching Erosion Crystals before.

Although Erosion Crystals also contain “curse power erosion elements” that can be devoured by Curse Seals for upgrades.

“Why was the Curse Crystal initially mistaken for a Promotion Drive?

A bug?”

“Strange, it seems there are many secrets in the path of the Transcendent that I’m not aware of… Damn riddles.”

Xu Shu pondered, but his previous doubts remained unresolved.

That is, why hadn’t Yang Manman been sacrificed?

Since Lie Zhenzi considered Yang Manman not a monster, and she was still human, why not accept my sacrifice?

Or is it that Lie Zhenzi shows special mercy to Transcendents, only accepting ordinary humans for sacrifice, and Transcendents cannot be sacrificed?

This explanation is also strange, because if life force is used to judge the quality of the sacrifice, then Transcendents naturally have much stronger life force than ordinary people.

Since Lie Zhenzi has accepted life sacrifices, there shouldn’t be such double standards in judgment.

As Xu Shu pondered, he scratched the ground with his foot, pushing the remaining bodies to the middle, and another thought occurred to him.

“Perhaps Transcendents like Yang Manman, who have already crystallized, are somewhere between monsters and humans.”

“Ah, right!”

Xu Shu remembered something and opened the pinned post [Newbie Must-See by the Human Transcendent Alliance], scrolling to the very last sentence.

It clearly stated:

*New people, if you see Transcendents of the following three professions, be extremely cautious: Species, Demons, Evil Spirits; remember, they are no longer human.

——

“So that’s how it is!

It seems Yang Manman is one of these three.”

“I originally thought what Dongxuan True Monarch Melanie said was just venting, similar to ‘you’re not human’, but it turns out to be a declarative sentence.”

“Regrettably, without the Tai Chu Scroll to assist me in my journey simulation, I cannot determine specifically which path she belongs to.”

Xu Shu suddenly realized.

Yang Manman’s display of madness, committing patricide, and even eating her own father’s albumen.

Those were her unborn siblings, and such behavior truly made her no different from a monster.

Yang Manman really wasn’t human.

“Neither human nor entirely a monster, heh, interesting.”

Xu Shu shook his head and then looked at two bundles of hemp rope scattered on the ground, sighing deeply.

He picked up a torch, pushing Yang Chong and Yang Manman’s bodies, and the two bundles of hemp rope on the ground, all into the fire, which blazed fiercely.

“It’s destiny to live and die; fortune is in the hands of heaven!

You two unlucky ones, don’t blame me for not saving you; it’s the monsters that are powerful.”

“If I weren’t this cautious, I would have probably met the same fate as you, dying without a complete corpse.”

“You can only blame yourselves for being too weak, and these monsters too cunning and sly.”

“We’re just passers-by who essentially don’t know each other; I burned Yang Chong and Yang Manman’s bodies as your tomb, which is all I can do, now you can rest in peace, hoping you’ll be reborn in the safe zone next life.”

“May Lie Zhenzi protect you—peace be to you all—Amen.”

Xu Shu used a variety of blessings, making a precise cross over his chest as he performed the rites for the two poor dead spirits.

After the bodies were completely burned to ashes, leaving only some white fragments of bone, Xu Shu finally felt relieved.

He entered the room from which Yang Chong had come out to see if there was anything valuable inside.

However, once inside, he found that the room was arranged like a young girl’s boudoir, with the sofa on one side covered in cute pink plush toys.

Aside from that, the room was filled with an unpleasant medicinal smell and, moreover, the smell of urine and feces, with a portable chamber pot under the bed.

A bizarre room where coziness and the stench of feces coexisted was thus born.

There was a thick, yellowed journal on the desk.

Xu Shu, covering his nose, casually flipped through it.

The opening line read:

“August 15, 2124, a calamitous star descended, the world was destroyed, many died, my wife included, succumbing to radiation infection; fortunately, Manman survived.

But ever since she saw that thing, it seems her brain was traumatized.

Dad will definitely save you, no matter the cost, Manman.”

This was probably written by Yang Chong, and the handwriting was very neat and orderly.

What followed were records of him caring for his paralyzed daughter over the years, nothing noteworthy.

As for how he had come into contact with the strange church and fallen from a highly respected old principal to a cultist who viewed human life as grass, there was no record of it here.

It seemed that even Yang Chong himself must have known long ago that what he believed in was not the righteous path.

“Heh, he’s a decent father, but not a good man.”

Xu Shu closed the journal, took it out, and tossed it into the fire, burning it together with their ashes.

*

Next, Xu Shu left the underground garage and maliciously damaged the entrance door.

Then, he returned to the room he was staying in and woke Gu Pan up.

“Hey, Gu Pan.”

“What?” Gu Pan woke up startled, curling defensively on the bed, her hands rustling under the blanket, fumbling for something.

“Get up; something big has happened!”

Xu Shu forcefully pried her door open, catching a glimpse of her turning over, her large white roundness momentarily visible—too bad it was too dark to see clearly.

By the time she crawled out of the bed covers, her chest had flattened out completely once again.

“How magical, could this binder be some sort of Curse Tool?

I wonder if she would give it to me?” Xu Shu thought curiously.

“What’s the matter?” Hearing there was a situation, Gu Pan didn’t bother to query his abruptness, immediately becoming alert.

Xu Shu paused and then said, “The leader of this shelter, that old man, Yang Chong, you remember him right?”

“I remember, what about him?”

“His daughter contracted a weird illness, and to save her, he conducted a cult ritual in the underground garage, summoning a strange Array, and his daughter even turned into a monster because of it,” Xu Shu explained briefly.

“Shit?!”

Gu Pan, hearing this, jumped up and exclaimed, “What?

A cult sacrifice?

And it was successful?

Quick, we need to leave, or we’ll all die here!”

“Hey, don’t rush; I haven’t finished explaining…” Xu Shu hurriedly held her back.

“What do you mean, don’t rush?

You don’t understand how dreadful cult sacrifices are.

Even a Third Rank Transcendent might die if they encounter something like this.

“Trust me, I won’t harm you, Big Brother, we need to run first.”

Gu Pan analyzed calmly, but she was actually terrified, her hair standing on end—how could this guy still act as if nothing major had happened?

But she couldn’t overpower Xu Shu and was forcibly pinned down on the bed by him.

“Don’t rush, don’t rush, they didn’t succeed, I’ve killed them all; the problem’s solved, but there might still be their accomplices around in the shelter, so let’s keep it quiet for now.”

“… Oh.”

Gu Pan stared at him blankly, her eyes a bit resentful.

Darn it, scaring someone half to death by only telling half the story!

Suddenly, her eyes widened slightly in confusion.

“You killed them all?

Didn’t you just say that someone’s daughter turned into a monster?”

“Right, Yang Chong’s daughter, I killed her too.

I woke you up because I wanted to ask you something.”

Xu Shu pulled out a blue Curse Crystal wrapped in cloth.

“Shit!

Curse Crystal?” Gu Pan’s eyes widened.

“You really recognize it?

That’s good to hear,” Xu Shu complimented her and then inquired: “After I killed her, the Promotion Drive judged her not as a monster, but as a Transcendent, known as ‘Unclean.’ Do you know what that implies?

“And this Curse Crystal, can it be used to upgrade me like the Erosion Crystal?”

“Hey, are you listening?

Why are you looking like someone who’s lost their parents?”

Seeing her unresponsive, Xu Shu couldn’t resist shaking her shoulders.

At that moment, Gu Pan was completely entranced.

Her gaze was drawn to the finely detailed, filament-like objects inside the Curse Crystal, and some flickering, eerie Spell writings.

“A Rank 15!

It’s really level 15…”

“He’s been a Transcendent for just three days?

No, maybe four days?”

“Four days, while other Transcendents are still feeding, he’s already soloing a Rank 15 enemy, and it’s from the three most challenging Deceit pathways…”

“Heh, heh, heh…”

Gu Pan suddenly took a long breath, closed her eyes, and her mouth corners turned downward, showing an utterly heartbroken expression.

“It can be upgraded; go use it, don’t disturb my sleep.”

Saying that, she turned over and burrowed into the covers, covering her head, with tears of despair tracing down her cheeks.

It’s all over.

I can’t compete with him anymore.

Quack.