Sacred Souls: Genesis-Chapter 168 - 167: Oh No (2nd Update)

Chapter 168: Chapter 167: Oh No (2nd Update)

Queen Mei was now kneeling beside a small stream, cleaning her tricolor cat headgear.

The equipment of the spirit had a durability attribute common among players, but in addition to this attribute that could lead to the equipment’s damage, there was another hidden attribute: cleanliness.

This hidden attribute was a relatively minor measure of the equipment’s condition, which is why Jiang Qiao did not display it.

If a sword were too dirty, its attack power might decrease by three to ten points, which players would not notice if they were not paying close attention.

But during the slaying of the Molten Core Dragon, Queen Mei got seriously dirty; her entire body was stained with the dragon’s blood, including her tricolor cat headgear soaked in blood.

Originally, Queen Mei could have asked Jiang Qiao for a new headgear and clothes, or let the miraculous Jiang Qiao the Genie use some divine arts to remove those bloodstains.

However, the former was because Queen Mei regarded the tricolor cat headgear as a gift from Jiang Qiao, and she really liked this gift… It was just like how a little girl cherished a teddy bear given by someone she liked; no matter how old it was, it was better than a new one.

So without notifying Jiang Qiao, Queen Mei came to the stream by herself and started to wash her clothes and headgear.

The current time was seven in the morning, a time when fewer Holy Spirit players were online compared to the early hours, plus, Mei would be the first to sense if anyone approached.

However, she was so alert to her surroundings that she had forgotten that yesterday, Jiang Qiao had opened up Holy Spirit live broadcasting for her.

“Placing it here should be fine.” Queen Mei set the Heavenly Palace broadcasting gadget in a corner of a tree, where the audience in the live broadcast could only see the azure sky and tree trunks, with no views of the side of the stream.

She took off the tricolor cat headgear she was wearing on her head and put it in the stream to start washing away the bloodstains.

“Alu, you’re here, Donna the old man has been looking for you for a long time.”

A voice suddenly rang out behind her, causing Queen Mei’s hands to almost tremble, and the tricolor cat headgear slipped from her grasp, floating down the stream towards the other side.

Queen Mei immediately jumped into the stream to catch the tricolor cat headgear drifting down the river, and when she turned back again, she found Jiang Qiao standing behind her.

In this world, the only person who could approach Queen Mei without making a sound… was Jiang Qiao.

“Cartographer, is there something you need?” Queen Mei, seeing Jiang Qiao’s disguise, quickly changed her address for him.

Jiang Qiao was now dressed as an NPC, and fully in character—even when no players were around, Queen Mei always treated Jiang Qiao as one of the NPCs from Biland Island.

Jiang Qiao was playing a hidden NPC on Biland Island and had previously appeared before the players alongside Lyla. The role and backstory of this NPC, as played by Jiang Qiao, was to investigate the truth of Biland Island and to map out a detailed chart of it.

The backstory of the NPC was fictional, but the mission of investigating the true essence of Biland Island had always been carried out by Jiang Qiao as the Cartographer.

After the Dancing Nuclear Guild and the Abyss Temple had completed their raid in the lair of the Molten Core Dragon, the map of the Spiritual Vein Forest was fully revealed to Hai Lan.

Jiang Qiao’s current task was to inform the players of the next steps to take. According to the information obtained from Hai Lan absorbing the crimson crystals, there were five more similar crystals on Biland Island.

Based on Jiang Qiao’s deduction, if Hai Lan consumed all five crystals, it should be possible to cleanse the crystal curse from the island.

Jiang Qiao planned to convey this information to the players in the form of a plot-based CG, especially since the outbreak of red light from the lair of the Molten Core Dragon the night before was visible to nearly every player on Biland Island.

This definitely seemed like the emergence of some deity or divine artifact, and Jiang Qiao had to step forward to explain.

When Queen Mei came ashore holding the headgear, she seemed to sense something and immediately put on the water-soaked tricolor cat headgear first thing.

At that moment, Jiang Qiao also hurriedly ran up to Queen Mei, who had just reached the shore, because two more unfamiliar figures appeared next to the stream—not so much strangers, though.

One of them was an incarnation of the Earth Mother Goddess, whom Jiang Qiao recognized, and the other also appeared to be an incarnation of a deity?

The spread of the crystal disease in the Spiritual Vein Forest was gradually receding, so the Earth Mother Goddess finally dared to show herself on Biland Island.

“Thank you, great descendant of the Devouring God, although it’s just a small part, you have still given us hope,” began the Earth Mother Goddess, bowing to Jiang Qiao upon her arrival.

“Is there something amiss? The quest to purify this island is far from complete.”

Jiang Qiao, while speaking, summoned his celestial gadget to start recording the conversation and positioned the device next to the tree to properly capture Queen Mei.

This was also one of the methods to let players understand the plot, akin to an impromptu game CG filming.

“We’ve come to bother you once more because we have a small additional request.” The Earth Mother Goddess expressed immense respect, which was more akin to fear. In contrast, the golden-haired, golden-eyed youth standing by the Earth Mother Goddess showed no sign of fear on his face.

“An additional request?” Queen Mei took a step forward, understanding that Jiang Qiao’s proximity was meant to be protective, yet she needed no one’s protection.

Furthermore, as the key NPC of Biland Island, all quests had to be related to Queen Mei, making Jiang Qiao nothing but a follower.

“Magic Thief.” the youth beside the Earth Mother Goddess suddenly spoke, “That’s what they call themselves, but in fact, they are only spreading the source of the Crystal Curse in the world, descendants of the Devouring God… My name is Urd, known to the people of this world as the War God, and I shall send a dedicated individual among my followers to hunt those Magic Thieves. I hope that in the meantime you and your allies will not treat my followers as enemies.”

“You’re going to send people to hunt the Magic Thieves?” Queen Mei felt there was something off about this matter. The Magic Thieves were indeed at odds with the holy spirits at this stage.

The willingness of this world’s War God to send reinforcements to assist the holy spirits was indeed a good thing, but… Queen Mei’s gaze shifted to Jiang Qiao beside her.

“Yes, my followers have landed on Biland Island from another side. They are a band of experienced Hunters and will not cause you any trouble,” he continued in a sincere tone.

If Jiang Qiao were acting in the capacity of the Devouring God’s agent, he certainly would have said ‘okay, no problem’—this would simply involve changing the role of ‘the War God’s Hunters’ to an allied faction.

But now Jiang Qiao was playing the role of Miss Cat’s lackey, and the players were watching all this unfold live.

Queen Mei was pondering how to respond when suddenly, the sound of air being torn apart erupted from deep within the forest. An arrow!

An arrow with formidable penetrative power sliced through several branches, flying straight towards… the Earth Mother Goddess.

In an instant, the War God beside the Earth Mother Goddess conjured golden light in his hands to block the arrow. Yet, it wasn’t over; another thirteen arrows were shot directly at the Earth Mother Goddess.

“Bai Yu! What madness is this? Can’t you see that’s an ally NPC?”

The roar of Shenmeng transmitted from the other side of the forest, but the shout didn’t stop Bai Yu from continuing to draw his bow.

He leapt from his chocobo, landing on the trunk of a tree, and once again nocked three arrows onto his bow. The arrows, charged with powerful magic power, were aimed at the Earth Mother Goddess, then shot out with a tearing sound through the air.

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Bai Yu?

How had Jiang Qiao forgotten this matter? This elf was the second SR-level NPC transformed by Jiang Qiao, unlike Yelena with her immense potential, Bai Yu was a complete character.

From the moment he was recruited, his level was fifty-one. And about this character’s backstory…

Jiang Qiao looked at the raging fury in Bai Yu’s eyes when looking at the Earth Mother Goddess and felt the situation was starting to become rather tricky.

The elf clan of Bai Yu’s lineage worshipped the Earth Mother Goddess, but the problem was… his clan was slaughtered by the Earth Mother Goddess herself—or, more precisely, by the chosen ones of the Earth Mother Goddess.

As for the reason… it was because the Crystal Curse had spread among Bai Yu’s clan. The Earth Mother Goddess chose an elf from the clan who was not afflicted with the curse as the chosen one, then that elf proceeded to kill their own clan.

Ironically… the chosen elf that became the Earth Mother Goddess’s elect was his sister.

Tsk, trouble.

Jiang Qiao’s gaze turned to the Earth Mother Goddess on the other side. She didn’t appear as gentle as she seemed on the surface. With a slight lift of her hand, numerous vines grew from the ground and thoroughly bound Bai Yu.

“Bro Meng, that NPC is attacking our village’s second lady!”

“But that NPC’s name above is still green, should we switch to PK mode?”

As Jiang Qiao was deep in thought, the holy spirits from Black Wind Village had already encircled the area completely, just short of Bro Meng stepping forward and declaring, ‘This path I’ve laid, this tree I’ve planted!’