Chapter 73

Zhou Fangdong opened the [Evil God Disguise Interface], and he discovered that the pixel animation within the interface had changed.

The original animation featured a pixelated figure that looked much like him, sitting in a shrine with eyes closed, while many pixelated bald men knelt below in worship.

Now, the pixel figure inside the shrine had opened its eyes.

Not only that, but a large shadow covered the upper half of its face, its eyes glowed with an eerie red light, and its mouth was curved into a shape like a Nike swoosh, making it look somewhat sinister.

The group of pixelated bald men below seemed oblivious to the change in the shrine, continuing to bow blindly.

Below the small animation, next to [Ritual Tracking] and [Oracle Impersonation], the [Pseudo-Evil God Descent] option had also lit up. Currently, only one function remained grayed out.

Although the effect of [Pseudo-Evil God Descent] could be inferred literally, Zhou Fangdong checked the detailed description of the function just to be safe.

[Pseudo-Evil God Descent]: Enter a state of disguised Evil God and randomly descend upon a Sigu Society stronghold with a high concentration of Evil God aura. Once the descent ends, you may randomly choose offerings to bring back to the apartment based on your final growth state at the stronghold and your remaining sanity.

‘Final growth state at the stronghold’… In other words, during the process of the Pseudo-Evil God Descent mode, his strength would continuously increase?

That sounded great.

However, that last phrase about ‘remaining sanity’ felt a bit dangerous. Could it be that the stronger he became, the lower his sanity would drop?

…Then again, even if he lost his sanity, it didn’t seem like a major issue. After all, everyone he would be killing were those cultists from the Sigu Society.

Without further hesitation, Zhou Fangdong clicked directly on [Pseudo-Evil God Descent].

Using [Pseudo-Evil God Descent] was similar to using the Possession Feature. Zhou Fangdong felt a momentary blur, and the scenery before his eyes shifted.

As his vision gradually cleared, Zhou Fangdong found himself in an abandoned amusement park.

Before him was a carousel that had long since stopped moving. The paint on the wooden horses had peeled away, and the machinery was covered in rust.

Colored paper stuck to the ground and fragments of broken balloons were visible everywhere. Drink cans and snack bags were tossed haphazardly along the paths, and occasionally, a faded flyer would be swept up by the night wind, drifting toward the distant silhouette of a Ferris wheel hidden in the darkness.

…Is this a Sigu Society stronghold?

Because he frequently used the [Linjiang City Map] to check on his tenants’ activities, Zhou Fangdong quickly recalled the location of this abandoned amusement park.

This abandoned park was also near the Northern Suburbs, seemingly close to the abandoned hospital where He Yansheng had been imprisoned.

Zhou Fangdong originally wanted to wander around the park to see if he could find any cultists and perhaps scavenge some useful items.

However, upon trying to move, he discovered that he actually could not control his body.

Before he could even process his shock, he felt his vocal cords vibrate, and a strange, deep male voice came from his mouth: “Are the offerings the High Priest ordered us to prepare all processed?”

Another voice came from his side: “They’re mostly handled. They can be transported over at any time.”

Zhou Fangdong felt his head nod, and then he commanded: “Good. You take some men and start moving the offerings out of the haunted house first. I’ll take another walk around the perimeter… I don’t know why, but I feel a bit uneasy tonight.”

“Understood.”

Then, the body of the cultist Zhou Fangdong was attached to began to move, walking toward the distant Ferris wheel.

Zhou Fangdong was a bit disappointed.

What kind of Evil God descent is this…

He had thought the Pseudo-Evil God Descent function would be something incredibly flashy—a loud crash from the sky, him making a brilliant entrance with a bang, and then punching cultists and kicking Sealed Artifacts.

Instead, he didn’t even have his own body. He was stuck to a cultist and couldn’t even control the guy’s movements. It was incredibly frustrating.

If he had known it would be like this, he would have been better off using the Possession Feature to go to the Ghost Market.

Just as the thought occurred to him, Zhou Fangdong suddenly noticed the cultist’s footsteps falter. The man muttered to himself, “Strange, why do I suddenly have an urge to go check out the Ghost Market?”

“Sigh, I don’t know what the High Priest is thinking. We lost so many high-ranking members who had Human Skin Hats and lost four thousand Ghost Coins, yet he just let that Human Skin Actor go so easily… It would have been better to catch it again so we could peel more skin to make more Human Skin Hats.”

After saying this, he let out a heavy sigh.

Hearing this, Zhou Fangdong suddenly realized something—although he couldn’t control this cultist’s body, his thoughts seemed to be able to influence the cultist’s actions!

Having realized this, Zhou Fangdong began to frantically chant in the cultist’s mind: ‘Where are the stronghold’s supernatural items and Ghost Coins? Where are the stronghold’s supernatural items and Ghost Coins…’

After looping this a few times, he felt the cultist he was possessing scratch his head in confusion: “Strange, why am I suddenly thinking about the stronghold’s resources? This place is just for holding offerings; there aren’t any resources here…”

Zhou Fangdong was fuming.

He knew he was cursed with bad luck! He couldn’t pull anything useful from gacha, and even when he randomized a stronghold, he ended up in a place so impoverished—how was he supposed to grow? Was he really supposed to eat offerings like a real Evil God?

…Wait, that might actually work.

Although most of the offerings prepared by the Sigu Society were living humans, there should be other things besides people, right? Like supernatural items or vengeful ghosts.

With this in mind, Zhou Fangdong began to chant in the cultist’s head again: ‘Take me to see the offerings… Take me to see the offerings…’

This time, Zhou Fangdong successfully influenced the cultist. The man’s path veered as he turned in another direction, muttering to himself, “I’ll go see how the processing of the offerings is coming along.”

The cultist arrived in front of the amusement park’s haunted house.

Crowds of people were moving in and out of the entrance, constantly carrying things out from within the attraction.

The closer he got, the more pronounced the thick, cloying scent of blood became.

As Zhou Fangdong drew nearer, he realized that the sacrifices prepared by these cultists weren’t even living people, but rather rows of disemboweled, cleaned human corpses. The internal organs had been washed thoroughly and were arranged neatly by category on tables set up outside the haunted house.

The scene resembled nothing so much as a small-scale slaughterhouse.

Other cultists were busy mopping up bloodstains from the ground… Judging by the state of things, these sacrifices had only just been killed.

Zhou Fangdong’s blood pressure spiked instantly.

Damn them all, these cultists.

Because Zhou Fangdong’s emotional fluctuations were so intense, the cultist he was possessing became visibly irritable. “Where is the blood sacrifice? You bastards better not have slaughtered the most important blood sacrifice along with the rest.”

Hearing this, a bald man rushed over to greet him, speaking in a fawning tone, “No, please rest assured. The blood sacrifice is perfectly fine; she’s right over there.”

Following the direction of the man’s finger, Zhou Fangdong spotted an iron cage not far from the haunted house.

Inside the cage sat a thin girl with long hair. She looked as though she hadn’t seen sunlight in a long time; her face was pale, and her body showed signs of malnutrition. However, her gaze was incredibly firm. Though her hands and feet were shackled, the scars accumulated over years on her wrists and ankles suggested she had never stopped trying to save herself.

Even before the cultist looked over, she seemed to have been fiddling with the locks on her manacles.

Zhou Fangdong heard the cultist he possessed let out a cold snort. “Hmph. Keep a close eye on her. This blood sacrifice is the key to this ritual. We’ve raised her for so many years; we can’t let her escape or die halfway through.”

“Understood, understood,” the bald man replied, nodding repeatedly.

There was still a living person! He had to save her! Zhou Fangdong began trying to control the cultist he possessed, attempting to seize control of the body through sheer willpower.

The details on the functional interface had mentioned that he could develop after descending; he surely wouldn’t remain in this state of being attached to a cultist, unable to move, forever.

The Sigu Society Deacon in charge of this stronghold, having confirmed the blood sacrifice was intact, was just about to check the cleaning status of the other offerings when he suddenly felt a searing, stabbing pain in his skull.

It felt as if countless fine needles had been driven into his brain simultaneously. His head spun, and the world before him began to collapse and dissolve like a melting wax sculpture.

He tried to speak, but only a meaningless “gurgle” emerged from his throat, as if an invisible giant hand had clamped shut around his windpipe.

Every cultist present noticed the mutation occurring in him, their expressions turning to masks of extreme terror.

Someone screamed, “Oh no! The Deacon has been contaminated by the power of the Great God!”

As the words fell, the skin of the mutating Deacon suddenly burst open. A mass of viscous, sludge-like black matter forced its way out from beneath his skin, transforming into a giant mound of filth the height of a man.

That shapeless mass of giant sludge moved with a speed entirely inconsistent with its bulk. Like a streak of flowing shadow, it instantly lunged into the crowd of cultists.

It was a one-sided slaughter.

The sludge ignored the cleaned corpses and organs on the tables, instead greedily slaughtering and devouring every cultist on the scene.

Tentacles composed of black matter shot out from its body. With every flash of shadow, a cultist’s head would explode like a bursting water balloon, spraying red and white matter across the walls and ground like splattered paint.

The giant mass of sludge wove through the crowd with terrifying agility. As it killed more and more cultists, countless distorted human faces began to surface within its pitch-black form.

The faces appearing on the surface of the sludge shifted between blurry and clear, like bubbles constantly rising and popping. Their expressions were twisted and hideous, screaming silently in states of extreme terror… these faces belonged to the devoured cultists.

The cultists who hadn’t been consumed yet knelt helplessly, praying and crying out pleas like, “We are your servants!” and “Great God, devour the sacrifices, do not devour us!”

However, the sludge remained entirely indifferent. Just as a human does not care which colony an ant they crush comes from, it seemed to make no difference to the creature what the identity of the humans it devoured was.

In a mere instant, a deathly silence fell over the front of the haunted house.

All the cultists had vanished. All that remained were the disemboweled corpses on the tables and the massive, unspeakable mound of foul sludge standing in their midst.

The sludge writhed slowly, unwilling to leave, seemingly searching for something.

Yin Xi curled up inside the iron cage, trying her best to hold her breath.

As the blood sacrifice raised by the cultists, she had witnessed everything the “God” had done. She had seen with her own eyes how the cultists, who had intended to summon an Evil God to harm others, had instead died by that very god’s hand.

The mass of sludge treated all humans with equal disregard. To it, the cultists and the sacrifice were the same: lambs to be offered up.

However, no matter how hard Yin Xi tried to hold her breath or erase her presence, she could not escape the sludge’s scrutiny.

She watched helplessly as the black matter crawled slowly toward her. Then, a human face emerged from the surface of the sludge.

Unlike the other distorted and hideous faces on the surface, this face was that of a clean-cut, handsome young man.

He stared at her for a long time with vacant eyes before finally opening his mouth. His voice was somewhat hesitant as he spoke: “…By the way, what was it I wanted to do just now?”

Yin Xi didn’t dare make a sound. Yet even though she didn’t answer, the sludge surged toward her, and a boundless darkness instantly enveloped her.

In a warehouse far from the city center, a middle-aged man wearing a skullcap stood facing a wall, seemingly lost in thought.

Just then, a cultist walked in with his head bowed, speaking with utmost reverence. “High Priest, something has happened at the abandoned amusement park.”

The middle-aged man in a skullcap didn’t seem surprised. His voice was merely a bit weak as he asked, “As expected. Something was bound to happen there sooner or later. How many of our followers died?”

“All of them. The blood sacrifices have vanished as well. However, the Great God’s clone did not continue to spread outward; it disappeared within the amusement park.”

“Fine. It seems it isn’t too serious then.”

As the progress of their god’s consciousness awakening accelerated, the god’s dissipating power was also strengthening. When rituals were held frequently in a single location, it was common for the gathered divine aura to assimilate followers into uncontrollable clones. As long as sacrifices were prepared in advance and the range was controlled, it wasn’t an issue.

The middle-aged man in a skullcap continued, “Seal off the stronghold over there for a while. Ignore it and focus on preparing the souls I need.”

With that, he turned around… This middle-aged man in a skullcap originally had an ordinary face that was easily forgotten, but now, he actually had no face at all.

His facial features were nothing more than a mass of twisting black vortices. He no longer looked like a living human being.

The cultist before him didn’t notice this—or rather, he didn’t dare to notice. From the moment he entered until now, the cultist had remained in a humble, hunched posture, his body bent in a ninety-degree bow. He hadn’t looked up once.

“Yes, I will prepare them immediately.” After saying this, the cultist left with his head still lowered.

Once the cultist had departed, the middle-aged man in a skullcap sighed and muttered to himself, “I’ve lost contact with that wisp of a split soul. The mutation at the apartments is even more severe than imagined. The process of awakening the God’s consciousness must be accelerated.”

“Only when the God truly descends will this world be mine… truly becoming one man above ten thousand, second only to the God^[1].”

Inside Liwan Apartments, Zhou Fangdong sat on his bed, feeling as if his head were splitting open.

[Congratulations to the Host for obtaining a new tenant: Special Tenant · Sigu Society Blood Sacrifice]

[Detected that this tenant previously resided in Room 205. Automatically placing them in Room 205. Host, please sign a Tenant Contract with this tenant as soon as possible.]

Zhou Fangdong took a quick glance, closed the pop-up window, and opened his character attribute panel.

Good grief. No wonder his head hurt so much; his Spirit Bar had dropped by half… Fortunately, he didn’t have the Dementia Debuff.

He spent five hundred Ghost Coins to refill his Spirit Bar. As the headache vanished, Zhou Fangdong breathed a sigh of relief.

Using [Pseudo-Evil God Descent] once to snag a tenant and destroy a Sigu Society stronghold—this operation wasn’t a total loss.

Zhou Fangdong opened the rental interface to take a look.

Unlike the other rooms, the pixelated floor plan of Room 205 showed an exquisitely decorated and warm interior. A pale pixel character sat on a blue-and-white floral sofa, looking somewhat dazed. Beside her sat a silver-haired old woman who seemed to be comforting her, gently patting her shoulder.

Seeing that the tenant was still awake, Zhou Fangdong took the Room 205 Tenant Contract and teleported directly there.

It wasn’t dawn yet. The reason he was in such a hurry was that he feared if he arrived too late, something might happen to this girl who had already suffered so much.

Being kept as a blood sacrifice by the Sigu Society was definitely not a pleasant experience. The girl was likely at her lowest emotional point right now.

Ghost Granny in Room 205 was the type of ghost that absorbed positive emotions. If the girl broke down and committed suicide because of Ghost Granny’s contact, it would be a disaster.