【Cultivation database severely damaged, unable to load relevant modules, self-rescue failed.】
Got it! Everything is within expectation. 【Great Wilderness Immortal Scripture】, just trash.
Yuan Zhu, who had chosen to lie flat, was calm at this moment and not surprised by the poor performance shown by the 【Immortal Scripture】. Counting from when he woke up, this broken thing had been crying and wailing, getting beaten in various ways. He really wanted to find a mute option in his head and block this endless stream of discouraging mental attacks.
【Hidden database contaminated and tampered with, partially unsealed, data lost... data suffered unknown distortion. Contamination degree rapidly increased by 11.2%↑, irreversible. Unable to detect spiritual energy resources, please quickly... Contamination degree 13.8%↑...】
As expected! Just as expected.
【Hidden Boss Template underwent unknown aberration. Aberrant Spiritual Root resonated with unknown Soul contamination, forcibly intervened and absorbed and utilized it. Soul Firewall restarted, contamination degree 17.6%→(Constant), shielding successful, Soul erosion has stopped...】
Yuan Zhu was startled. What happened?
【Does the host want to load the Aberrant Spiritual Root, temporarily absorb contaminated energy to replace spiritual energy, and continue on the path of aberrant immortal cultivation? The situation is urgent, please make a choice quickly, self-destruct countdown 100 seconds... 99 seconds】
???！
At this moment, Yuan Zhu's mind was completely bewildered. This broken thing...
So, because it couldn't collect spiritual energy resources and couldn't defeat the local contamination, the 【Great Wilderness Immortal Scripture】 chose to join them? Go with the flow and cultivate immortals through contamination? Is the bottom line that flexible?
And what do these 'self-destruct' words mean? Does the System self-destruct and uninstall, returning my freedom? Or does it destroy my Soul and then possess the next host?
Seeing the countdown ticking down second by second, what else could the poor, weak, and helpless him do? So he could only concentrate all his attention and fiercely jab at that option: 【Confirm!】
【Customer confirms abnormal immortal cultivation mode, user agreement takes effect. Special welfare compensation is now provided, opening and loading the hidden Boss Template: Demon. Mountain Monarch (Aberrant Spiritual Root)】
【Aberrant Spiritual Root has been activated, starting to absorb and store special (contaminated) spiritual energy, awaiting naming.】
【Boss Template: Aberrant Tiger Demon. Loading complete, ability list (expandable).】
【Ding dong! Exclusive Game Sprite is online, do you want to start the guided tutorial?】
【Detecting host has exited the near-death state, detecting large amounts of special spiritual energy (awaiting naming) resources. Forcibly activating Boss Template for collection and storage. Automatic healing takes effect, Life Points +1, +1... Expected to recover health in 10 minutes.】
Another string of information flooded the screen. Yuan Zhu, lying flat, was already unfazed and indifferent, even a little bored. Because all of this was automatically refreshing, with no interactive participation. He was just a vegetable, enjoying a paralyzed life.
Physically, he still didn't feel much change, just that comfortable cool sensation, continuously seeping into his limbs and bones. As for things like 'Aberrant Spiritual Root' and 【Great Wilderness Immortal Scripture】, they seemed like hallucinations from a near-death state.
However, a new panel appeared before his eyes, helping him pass the time while lying flat:
【Mountain Monarch. Tiger Demon: Monster, Boss Template】
【Life: 3.7%↑ (Recovering)】
【Mana: ??↑ (Storing)】
【Ability 1: ??? Contamination repairing...】
【Ability 2: Chang Gui (伥鬼)】
【Ability 3: Claw ?? Contamination repairing...】
【Ability 4: Calling the Wind. Contamination repairing...】
【Ability (Mystery) 5: Belly Qiankun ??? Data disordered and abnormal, template mismatch!】
【Ability (Mystery) 6: Mountain Monarch Domain/Ghost Domain ?? Contamination repairing...】
Seeing the data representing 【Life Points】 recover faster and faster, Yuan Zhu suddenly opened his eyes, startlingly sitting up from his deathbed illness, returning to the human world in a daze.
He was alive again!
At this moment, Yuan Zhu felt a surging power within him, and in his ears, he heard faint, noisy, and vast whispers... full of greedy prayers with different contents and demands from men and women, as well as the frenzied inner voices of obsession.
These inner voices were connected to him like invisible threads, not only coming from the frenzied cultists in front of him but also from somewhere far beyond this space.
He was like an anchor point, connecting dozens or even hundreds of mental signal sources of varying sizes.
What exactly is going on? Is this the price of being a sacrifice? Has he become some kind of shared mental radio station?
His dark golden feline beast pupils opened, his gaze penetrating the blindfold before his eyes, and he saw everything around him clearly.
This was a closed, dim indoor hall, surrounded by blood-red candles and strange sacrificial offerings.
Under the eerie scarlet candlelight, headless frogs, deer heads with sewn-up eyes, crows with wings separated from their bodies, hearts of unknown creatures, bundles of colorful long feathers, large multicolored mushrooms that had grown hands and feet... were placed in order.
To his left and right, there were also sacrificial corpses with their chests cut open, heads severed, and limbs nailed through. The ground was covered in blood, submerging densely packed runes and magic circles.
Including himself, there were a total of seven sacrifices, each dying in a different way. Compared to the others, his death was the least severe, only having the arteries in his limbs cut and a dagger stuck in his chest. He wasn't in the center position either, but the second one on the right, playing a minor role, dying so ordinarily.
...
"It has descended! It has descended! My Lord, please bestow upon me a youthful body and abundant vitality!"
In front, outside the offerings, a hunched figure wearing a black cloak quickly lunged forward, extending a shriveled arm, anxiously grasping towards Yuan Zhu's position, demanding in an urgent tone.
Following closely, more believers wearing cloaks that hid their faces waved incomprehensible talismans and items in their hands, eagerly shouting out their respective demands.
Restoring youth, making the body stronger, demanding beauty and charm, curing incurable diseases, cursing one's father, seeking a child with heavy money... there was a wide variety of requests, each exuding an aura of greed.
The anxious and urgent attitude of these cultists lacked the humility of praying to gods and buddhas; it was more like an anxious command and coercion, fearing they wouldn't be able to grab discounted eggs at the supermarket. That attitude of commanding slaves made him very uncomfortable.
Are these people forcing him to fulfill those unrealistic wishes? Their reliance is on the 'talisman'-like objects in their hands. Can that thing really control him?
Yuan Zhu's mind was now clear and working rapidly. Everything in the dim light was vividly clear, and his brain instantly analyzed the current situation, while also conveniently blocking out the dense, noisy inner voices in his head.
First, he could confirm that he had no reaction to those 'talismans' and was not controlled by them, so he could completely ignore them. Next, in a vision imperceptible to ordinary human eyes, his pupils saw an even stranger scene.
The entire sacrifice hall was filled with strange and diverse forms of energy invisible to the naked eye, difficult to describe in words, more abstract than infrared vision or thermal vision, only describable by feeling.
Some energy matter was like a cluster of blue floating mist, some felt like a viscous flowing yellow-green three-dimensional vortex, and some were like tangled purple-red threads...
Each type of energy emitted unique properties, symbolizing a certain concept, such as 【Deer】, 【Frog】, 【Mist】. They slowly transformed and flowed, like conscious life forms, emitting a deadly dangerous aura, coldly observing this ritual from a higher-dimensional perspective.
These energy sources seemed to be the 'unknown Contamination Sources' described by the 【Great Wilderness Immortal Scripture】. There wasn't just one, but more than ten kinds.
None of them were particularly strong. They were using those offerings as mediums, like slightly opened faucets, accumulating and gathering their unique contaminated energy bit by bit within the headless frogs and broken-winged crows.
Some contaminated energy drilled into the lit blood-red candles, making the scarlet candlelight even more enchanting and brilliant. Wherever the red light enveloped, the space twisted along with it, but the believers enveloped by the candlelight were completely unaware.
Some unknown contamination hovered in the air, wandering back and forth; others simply occupied the other six corpses beside them, returning to life through them.
Besides the extremely dangerous premonition, Yuan Zhu also felt that they were all eyeing him covetously. While investing in the scene, they were also observing him. He felt like a piece of meat on a cutting board, being observed back and forth by more than ten customers, whispering and inquiring about the price.
Among this wide variety of unknown contamination, only one made him feel particularly close, accepted from the bottom of his heart, without the slightest rejection or aversion.
This energy source was hidden in the Shadow beneath him, forming a mysterious connection with this body and even the 【Great Wilderness Immortal Scripture】, continuously supplying 'special spiritual energy' to the 【Aberrant Spiritual Root】, allowing his 【Life Points】 to recover while his 【Mana Points】 slowly accumulated.
As the mana (demon energy?) in his body slowly increased, he was able to capture more and more information. Many unfamiliar sacrificial knowledge also seeped into his mind along with the cool spiritual energy, giving him vague revelations.
...
At this moment, Yuan Zhu felt like a super signal receiver. Not only was he connected to all the believers present, receiving their prayers and wishes; he could also inversely observe the higher-dimensional evil god signals (sources of contamination), and become a container for containing a certain source of contamination.
In fact, the 【Great Wilderness Immortal Scripture】 had already accepted the energy in the Shadow and forcibly named it 'special spiritual energy', using it to drive the so-called Soul Firewall and load the 【Boss Template】 into his body.
The various 'talismans' held by the believers also corresponded to other suspected evil god Contamination Sources.
Therefore, he boldly speculated that this was an extremely chaotic and random amateur sacrifice activity.
Perhaps because the success rate was too low, or the ritual cost was too high, this group of cultists simply turned it into a cheap group-buy sacrifice model. Using a small number of sacrifices (7 people), they simultaneously sacrificed to more than ten sacrificial targets (evil gods).
Translated into Earth terms, a very creative cultist maliciously bound (forcibly latched onto) a group of evil gods to collectively carve up this one sacrifice (seven people). As long as one responded, this ritual could continue.
Facing this meager offering, based on the basic principle of 'since we're here', the evil gods would more or less invest a small amount of power, paying attention to this sacrifice, taking a small gamble, hoping for a chance. What if they won the jackpot?
If one of them was truly hungry, they might even personally enter the scene, bidding against other evil gods, adding more power to contend for ownership of the sacrifice. Ultimately, this group of believers would always hook one target to satisfy their wishes and ensure the success of the sacrifice.
This rogue sacrificial play, sacrificing innocent people and latching onto a bunch of evil gods to take a chance, while having the suspicion of blasphemy and bound to cause trouble sooner or later, was indeed very creative. What a little Genius!
Are the believers in this world so brave? Not only are they not pious, but they are also mass-scale defrauding evil gods, freeloading in reverse.