Chapter 676: Untitled -
Chapter 676: Untitled Chapter
"Hello?"
"Is the Death God there?"
"God of Light, or any other god, can anyone hear me?"
...
[Spirituality of Virtue: Gain the privilege to communicate with the Seat of Navigation]
Unlike wrath, spirituality is not greyed out on Lin Jun’s panel.
It seems these sins and virtues need activation determination after being obtained.
However, spirituality relates to faith, and Lin Jun doesn’t believe in any gods, so it’s unclear why it’s activated.
The girl from Hand of Death can use [Spirituality] for divine descent, so theoretically Lin Jun should be able to chat with gods.
Unfortunately, after clamoring for so long, there’s no response.
It feels... so useless.
Is the effect of virtues not that great?
Vera’s [Sacrifice] doesn’t look particularly powerful either.
To be honest, if possible, Lin Jun would like to discard both [Spirituality] and [Wrath].
The origin of these two things is questionable, as if they were forcibly given to him.
It gives Lin Jun the feeling that he’s prepared like a dish with these seasonings, and the mastermind can start feasting.
Lin Jun isn’t inclined to see the Death God as a patron just because he summoned Lin Jun and showed no hostility last time.
Mysterious, cryptic individuals are not worth trusting!
Moreover, the name "Seat of Navigation" slightly reminds Lin Jun of the "Ark."
Are all deities on the Ark?
Or is the entire world an Ark?
Divine Wood once said the true Ark Plan had already failed.
And Lin Jun has found information in the Abyss’s junk data stating [Ark Plan Progress: 245%].
Failure is understandable, but progress exceeding 100% is puzzling.
Lin Jun wants to ask Divine Wood for clarification.
However, Old Deng’s resolve to slack off is firm; he refuses to disclose anything.
According to him, "I’m too lazy to struggle, but neither should I add chaos for those still striving. Don’t waste your efforts asking me."
The "those still striving" likely refers to the Death God, possibly including entities like the Sun God.
However, Divine Wood’s words seem to imply that knowing too much would cause trouble for the gods.
So... are they scheming against him?
Although Divine Wood is an annoying riddler, it’s clearly not stupid. If it truly were a trap, it wouldn’t have mentioned even this.
Damn, they’ve put the task of salvation on his shoulders; couldn’t they properly outline it as a clear mission for him to fulfill?
These enigmatic individuals, better not give him a chance to climb over them...
Though sometimes he considers blowing everything up together with them.
But ultimately, Lin Jun cherishes life; saving the world still requires salvation, and what could be more important than his own little life?
These minor emotions can only be temporarily tolerated.
Additionally, Lin Jun noticed new, fluctuating data on the panel when he first acquired [Wrath], and after prolonged comparison, he’s roughly conjectured part of its meaning.
The initial three lines of data were:
[153345]
[546433875]
[9453412779]
And now they’ve become:
[297451]
[543562903]
[9456139645]
The total sum of the three sets of numbers has always been 9999999999.
When Lin Jun dissects corpses with souls, the second line decreases, the first line increases.
Due to Lin Jun’s efforts over the year, the first line has increased significantly.
Apart from Lin Jun’s influence, the first and second lines increment and decrement occasionally but are overall decreasing.
Only the largest number on the third line increases without end.
Assuming these numbers represent souls, the first line likely stands for souls cleansed by him, the second line for normal souls.
And the third line?
Another destination for souls?
They’re all conjectures, but souls are evidently crucial in this world.
If the flow of souls behind the world could be understood, perhaps the mystery could be solved.
Speaking of which, the Demon King mentioned saving the world and said there’s only one Savior, clearly aware of something.
Later, he’ll beat that Slime until it submits and ask before finishing it.
Meanwhile, Lin Jun has another idea.
The Hand of Death’s sacrifice isn’t solely for contacting the Death God.
Since they often perform smaller sacrificial rituals, it’s completely part of their routine task.
The Death God’s efforts to gather souls might be to save them, or souls themselves might be a form of resource.
Though Lin Jun is still uncertain how such soul resources could be used, starting to stockpile them early is presumably wise.
Transforming subordinates from Fungus Castle and believers of the Mushroom Worship Sect into Mushroom Race partially binds souls to himself, albeit the binding isn’t particularly stable, it’s still an effective means.
And the souls of deceased enemies... perhaps some can be fed to the Yellow-covered Book?
However, the Yellow-covered Book isn’t very reliable either; it’s worth considering the possibility of it defecting to the Demon King with its thick pages, though it currently seems unlikely.
Having another means of storing souls would be ideal.
Why does it feel like the style is leaning towards a necromancer?
While making plans for the future, the Blackened Sword Saint finally rolled back from the Underground City.
The pitch-black Puki slid into the entrance of Pujie Dungeon under the cover of night, unnoticed by the guards.
The reason for not teleporting the Sword Saint Puki back is mainly due to unfamiliarity and fear of mishaps with the Death God’s gadget, like being split in two.
Upon returning, the Sword Saint tossed the black stone to the nearby cannon fodder Puki.
The black mist on his fungus body detached and adhered to the cannon fodder Puki.
The Sword Saint dislikes the feeling of concealment; the black mist obstructs external detection of the user and also prevents the user’s own perception skills.
To the Sword Saint, while it is useful under specific circumstances, in ordinary situations, it’s more of a constraint.
However, Lin Jun doesn’t have such issues; as information is shared, the task of detection can be left to other Pukis.
"By the way, what do you think of the Death God?" Lin Jun suddenly asked.
One reason the Sword Saint agreed to assist Lin Jun is because of salvation; regarding discussions about the Death God, Lin Jun shared all except the parts related to himself with the Sword Saint.
"What do I think? Its tentacles are tough, I couldn’t cut through them even with those two skill weapons. Do you have better weapons?"
"You know what I’m asking. Perhaps the actions of the Hand of Death are genuinely assisting the Death God in saving the world; does your previous action count as mistakenly killing good people?"
"Good people?" Sword Saint Puki snorted within the Fungal Network without any hesitance, "The Hand of Death existed long before I was born. If their actions could save the world, it wouldn’t fall upon us to worry about it."
"As for souls? If only souls can be saved, not the life encompassing memory itself, then to me, it doesn’t count as salvation."
The black cannon fodder Puki beside him nodded its mushroom cap, its understanding of "salvation" according to the Sword Saint.
Souls, memory, life...?
There’s some logic; without the memory that identifies one’s self, would the entity living still be considered the same?
Lin Jun couldn’t help but think of Vera, whose [Sacrifice] involves offering up memory.
Wondering what kind of development would follow after a complete sacrifice...
...
Turning, Lin Jun handed the black stone over to Werewolf Karen for safekeeping.