novelraw Chapter 257-1: Extreme Evil Corrosion, Hidden Storyline of the Tenmei Grand Shrine (1)
Chapter 257-1: Extreme Evil Corrosion, Hidden Storyline of the Tenmei Grand Shrine (1)
The sheer number of rewards inside the treasure chest made Lin Xun’s eyes blur.
His first reaction was that it absolutely couldn’t be real, if it wasn’t a bug, then it had to be a trap laid by the hellish game.
But as time passed with no strange developments, he opened the inventory, suspicious as ever, and found it packed full of newly acquired loot.
Most of the rewards were materials, all extremely valuable spellcasting components that could be used to craft ofuda or set up barriers.
If this really wasn’t a trap, he probably wouldn’t have to worry about running out of ofuda materials for a long time.
A rough estimate put the combined value of the materials from the chest at nearly one million Spirit Essence.
And that wasn’t even counting the other item rewards.
“Suddenly handing out charity, this hellish game is really unsettling…”
It wasn’t that Lin Xun was some kind of masochist. After suffering so long in the hellish game, having such thoughts was perfectly normal.
He continued to examine the rest of the item rewards.[Light Aya Pearls *2 (Item): Miraculous pearls infused with healing power, formed by the aggregation of countless tiny Light Aya crystals. Can be used to permanently enchant Epic and Legendary equipment, granting enhanced healing effects. Requires relevant forging skills to use.]
Lin Xun’s healer weapons were rather subpar. Using such high-grade enchantment gems on them would be a waste.
Later, he could go to the library to dig up a high-quality healer weapon, then enchant it with the Light Aya Pearls to boost healing output.
[Crimson Blood Coral *2 (Item): Precious red coral produced in the eastern seas, branch-like in shape, solid in texture. Blessed by the divine arts of the Vermilion Empire’s Fire-Worshipping Divine Sect, it possesses wondrous properties. Using this item allows devout followers of the Ancient Heavenly Enma to recover some fatigue.]
Fatigue recovery items were extremely rare in the hellish game, and ninety-nine percent of them had restrictions, requiring a specific shell to use.
This Crimson Blood Coral was no exception, only shells with the ‘Fire-Worshipping’ prefix could use it.
He had two healer shells in his shell slots, both notorious mana hogs, so these two ‘small blue pots’ were a much-needed relief.
[Painting of the Frontier Riders Playing the Flute (Treasure): An elegant, archaic painting passed down from the Vermilion Empire, depicting a foreign rider blowing a flute beneath ancient pines in the desert. Selling this item to merchants will yield a large amount of Spirit Essence. Alternatively, gifting it to a story character in this volume can greatly increase their favorability.]
“Treasure…”
This was Lin Xun’s first time obtaining a treasure-class item.
He still had a piece of junk in his inventory called Twin Dragons Playing with a Pearl Painting, which merely stated that it could be sold for some Spirit Essence.
Treasures, however, not only sold for money but also came with the bonus function of gifting to improve favorability.
“If you max out favorability, does that unlock marriage and childbearing systems?”
Lin Xun silently ridiculed, then turned to the final item.
[Celestial Demon Nurarihyon’s Soul Pearl (Special Item): An ancestral artifact of the Nurarihyon clan, held by the clan chief. It records all kinds of yokai arts and combat experience. Whenever a generation’s clan chief dies, this artifact is passed to the next chief. Only those bearing the Nurarihyon bloodline can safely use it to learn the yokai arts and combat experience within.]
Lin Xun frowned deeply. This item seemed completely useless to him… Wait!
He suddenly remembered that there was still a juvenile Nurarihyon locked up in the Dharma-Aspect Temple.
“This is a Pokemon delivered straight to my door!”
Lin Xun’s thoughts raced, and he immediately had a plan.
Even though he had killed its grandfather, that probably wouldn’t stop him from enslaving the juvenile Nurarihyon as a shikigami…
[While you are absorbed in inspecting the spoils, you suddenly hear an immense rumbling of some mechanism turning outside the stone chamber…]
[You rush out of the chamber and see rubble crumbling from both sides of the mountain wall, clouds of dust billowing.]
[You think the mountain is collapsing and hastily try to flee, but unexpectedly, the deafening noise ceases all at once. The rock walls fall silent.]
[When the dust settles, two colossal figures stand revealed on either side of the mountain interior.]
[You look up and see that they are two enormous statues, male on the left, female on the right, identical to Takami-Musubi-no-Mikoto and Kami-Musubi-no-Mikoto you saw in the Main Hall of the shrine.]
[The only difference was their posture: no longer standing in solemn authority, but stretching their arms to the heavens in desperate struggle…]
[Even with their faces obscured, you can clearly feel an endless despair and agony radiating from them.]
[As you gaze at the two towering statues of the gods, you unconsciously raise your hand, mimicking their gesture…]
[Dark thoughts sprout and spread within you, and profound despair and dread engulf you…]
[You have been afflicted by a mysterious power!]
[You are now tainted by the ‘Extreme Evil Corrosion’ state!]
[While in this state, all of your shell’s attributes are reduced by 50%.]
[You currently cannot remove this debuff. The ‘Extreme Evil Corrosion’ state will persist until this chapter is fully deciphered!]
???
“Damn it! I knew that when this hellish game suddenly handed out a massive reward, there had to be a catch!”
Veins throbbed on Lin Xun’s forehead as he clenched his fists, ready to fight the hellish game to the death.
All attributes reduced by half, this wasn’t as simple as losing half his power.
Although the hellish game’s panel didn’t display specific attribute numbers, according to countless apostles’ tests on the Apostle Forum, a shell’s attributes included Strength, Constitution, Endurance, Agility, Intelligence, Stamina, Charisma, Luck, and many more.
Reducing all attributes by half caused negative effects so severe, it was like his combat power plummeting several times over.
Even before this, the game difficulty at this point in the chapter was already extremely high.
Bosses he could have easily steamrolled now required help from story characters to defeat, and even then only barely.
Now, with all attributes halved, he could consider this a death sentence for progression.
To be fair, the hellish game granting a million Spirit Essence bundle and then immediately scaring apostles off… If it had been an ordinary apostle, they might have actually been delighted and quit the chapter on the spot, satisfied.
But who was Lin Xun? He had never once tried restarting a chapter after getting stuck.
What’s more, the further you got toward the end of each chapter, the harder it became, but the rewards also grew accordingly.
Just like the Beastmen’s mountain in the Blood Sun World or the Hidden Canyon in the World of Omniscience, those only appeared near the final stretch of a chapter.
Now, halfway through the chapter, the hellish game was pulling this trick to force him to give up. It was like chasing the goddess of your dreams for years and finally about to become official, when suddenly, a balding middle-aged man jumped out, threw a wad of hundred-yuan bills in your face, and told you to go lick someone else, that you weren’t worthy of his daughter…
Having finally made it past the newbie period and just hit his stride, how could he possibly give up now?!
“Why didn’t Old Dragon pop out to save me… Never mind, the old guy can’t even protect himself right now.”
Lin Xun opened the shell panel to check, and froze awkwardly as soon as he looked.
At the top of the Palace Master’s panel was a big label for the ‘Extreme Evil Corrosion’ debuff, and all the attribute labels were faintly wreathed in black mist.
But when he switched to the other shells, whether the Earth Giant, the Direct Vision Association President, or the Little Dragonkin, none of them showed the ‘Extreme Evil Corrosion’ state. Only the Palace Master he was currently inhabiting was contaminated.
He swapped to other shells and tried using skills, everything functioned as usual, the shells’ strength unchanged.
A surge of euphoria rushed into his chest. He immediately understood. “The hellish game tried to force apostles to quit, but since I have more than one shell, I just bypassed the forced-retreat restriction!”
Ordinary apostles had no shell slots and could only use a single main shell, so encountering something like this would be an unavoidable dead end.
But Lin Xun wasn’t an ordinary apostle. Even if the Palace Master shell was crippled, he could still fight with the others.
Besides, the Palace Master was an onmyoji who relied primarily on shikigami to fight. Even with the Extreme Evil Corrosion debuff, it only weakened his personal power, it didn’t affect the shikigami at all.
This so-called forced-retreat trap from the hellish game, in truth, barely affected Lin Xun at all. At most it slightly reduced the effectiveness of some ofuda and barrier skills.
Understanding this, Lin Xun grinned from ear to ear, thoroughly searched the mountain interior one last time to ensure nothing was left behind, then summoned the Valkyrie to fly him back to the Offerings Hall.
Just thinking about how the hellish game had tried to ‘outsmart’ him, only to hand over a million Spirit Essence windfall for nothing, put him in a wonderful mood.
It felt like silently pocketing that balding man’s stack of money, then sneaking the goddess into a hotel that night anyway, flawlessly scoring a home run.
And then nailing the perfect hit, throwing a positive pregnancy test in that middle-aged man’s face, watching him grimace like he’d swallowed a green-headed fly, so satisfying.