novelraw Chapter 344: Pilgrimage Snow Mountain
Chapter 344: Pilgrimage Snow Mountain
[Flanda was just about to say something when she saw the firefly idol’s tail light up, its wing-cases vibrating as it revived.]
[The man’s deep, powerful voice echoes over the lake…]
[Firefly Favored Servant, I didn’t expect you to come back to find it so quickly. How did your negotiations with Flanda go?]
[Belatu suddenly sees the girl standing before it clearly, and it cannot help screaming in terror…]
[Damn it, why did you bring Flanda here?!]
[The light in the firefly’s eyes rapidly fades. Its wing-cases stop vibrating as it tries to fall back onto the idol base.]
[Belatu seems to think you sold it out and betrayed the firefly, and without the slightest hesitation it is about to withdraw the descending consciousness.]
[Flanda grabs the firefly’s wing-cases in one hand, lifts it up entirely, meets its eyes, and softly smiles. Older brother, we meet again.]
[Belatu screams in despair. It knew it. You, this Firefly Favored Servant, were unreliable. It should never have trusted you!]
Belatu had originally told him to obtain control authority over the Pilgrimage Angel Mother Body from Flanda’s hands. Who would have thought he would directly bring the enemy boss back to his side’s home base.Such a result was indeed absurd. No wonder Belatu’s first reaction was that he failed to persuade her and was instead persuaded by Flanda.
[Belatu still tries to struggle, but Flanda throws it to the ground and pins it under her foot. It uselessly vibrates its wing-cases, yet cannot move.]
[Flanda suddenly turns her head to look at you and slowly speaks…]
[It was you who pulled her up from the mire of despair. She owes you a life.]
[Since your identity is Firefly Favored Servant, you likely hate mother as much as she does. No, now she should call Her the Desire Wet Nurse.]
[She is willing to fight the Desire Wet Nurse together with you, until she kills that vicious woman!]
[Belatu is stunned. It even forgets to keep vibrating its wing-cases, staring blankly at Flanda, as if it does not recognize this cloned younger sister who was loyal to the Wet Nurse.]
[It finally comes back to its senses and cannot help exclaiming in amazement that originally it still did not understand why the firefly chose you as a favored servant, but now it finally understands!]
[Since you successfully persuaded his younger sister, and his younger sister also used crushing the Wet Nurse’s idol as proof of oathbreaking, then hurry and throw yourself into the firefly’s embrace…]
[Flanda glances at the firefly and lightly laughs, saying that she did become an Oathbreaker and also promised to help the Firefly Favored Servant, but she never said she would join the firefly oath.]
[As she speaks, she puts force into her foot. The firefly idol shatters into four pieces, turning into a ground of broken stones.]
[Belatu lets out a miserable scream, and then there is no further movement…]
Lin Xun’s mouth twitched, feeling like laughing and crying at the same time.
“No, you two siblings can have family conflict all you want, but don’t drag me into it.”
“I haven’t even collected my quest reward yet, and you went and killed the NPC?”
[Flanda seems to see what you are thinking. She shakes her head and explains that older brother is not dead yet. After the idol restores, you will be able to see him again.]
[Now speak. What is older brother’s plan? How should she help you?]
[Do you want to tell Belatu’s plan in full?]
[You tell the plan details truthfully and ask Flanda to go with you to Pilgrimage Snow Mountain.]
[Flanda readily nods in agreement, hooks your arm, and pulls you onto the Courier Mole Cricket…]
[…]
[In the dim abdominal cavity, the girl, who has already recovered her thin white gauze dress appearance, sits at your side, staring at you with burning eyes.]
[Flanda suddenly speaks. How did you perfectly fuse the external factor?]
Lin Xun freezes.
He is currently using the Greedy Wolf Star Lord’s Shell. How does Flanda know he is related to the Extreme Evil factor?
[Flanda sees your confusion and slowly explains. She knows she is not the real Flanda, but a substitute, a substitute who must play the role of a good daughter.]
[So she has always strictly demanded that she play her role well, whether toward those older brothers and sisters who have long lost their human shape, or toward the Wet Nurse.]
[Yet the Wet Nurse’s loving kindness has, time and again, made her forget her identity as a copy, letting her sink into false maternal love…]
[Until you offered the external factor to the Wet Nurse as a sacrifice.]
[At that time, the Wet Nurse was creating a new divine body, attempting to fuse the firefly’s life factor into that divine body.]
[Because she, the perfect test subject, existed as a precedent, the Wet Nurse’s progress in creating the divine body was extremely smooth…]
[However, your sacrifice disrupted the Wet Nurse’s plan.]
[The first time the Wet Nurse saw the external factor, She was ecstatic. Even before deciphering the external factor, She could tell this factor was in no way inferior to the firefly factor!]
[If She could fuse the external factor into the new divine body, then the Wet Nurse would become incomparably powerful, and even the transcendence She was obsessed with would no longer be a fantasy.]
[Because the external factor was too complex and powerful, the Wet Nurse only deciphered a tiny portion before being unable to continue.]
[Based on the deciphering progress calculation, even if the Wet Nurse completed the new divine body and used the method She used against the firefly, burning the divine body again, She still would not be able to fully decipher the external factor.]
[But how could the Wet Nurse be willing to give up the possibility of obtaining transcendence?]
[In the end, the Wet Nurse decided that even if She lacked the power to decipher it, She would still forcibly fuse the external factor.]
[She, Flanda, as a copy that had already perfectly fused with the firefly factor, was undoubtedly the best experimental material.]
[As she sank into false maternal love, she had long forgotten her original role, until the Wet Nurse wanted to use her for experiments.]
[At that time, she still held a sliver of fantasy, believing that proactively accepting the experiment as a pleasing act could keep the false mother-daughter relationship intact.]
[She agreed to let the Wet Nurse use her body to test the external factor. According to her agreement with the Wet Nurse, the experiment should have ended as soon as the external factor was about to seize dominance.]
[That way, although her body would be damaged and she would lose much power, it would not reach the worst outcome.]
[But after obtaining precious data, the Wet Nurse did not want the experiment to end…]
[Ignoring her resistance, the Wet Nurse used the massive web of consciousness to forcibly descend Her consciousness, seize control of her body, and continue the experiment.]
[And the result of continuing the experiment was that she, who believed herself the most favored daughter, almost became a corpse!]
[It is very laughable, isn’t it? She tried to please the Wet Nurse, even to the point of using her own body to test the external factor… yet what she got in return was an outcome like this.]
[She could feel that the consciousness occupying her body was cold and ruthless. Only then did she realize she was no different from those older brothers and sisters who were no longer human. All of them were test subjects.]
[At most, she was only a slightly more valuable test subject.]
[A copy should not treat herself as the real Flanda… moreover, even if it were the real Flanda, her fate was not much better than hers.]
[She could only watch helplessly as she continued recording experimental information and continued carrying out a death experiment.]
[She desperately hoped someone would come to interrupt the experiment, drive out the Wet Nurse’s consciousness occupying her body.]
[But there was no one else in the laboratory. Even if there were, no one would dare defy the Wet Nurse’s will.]
[She gradually fell into despair, yet could do nothing, letting the cold, cruel will control her body, letting the external factor be injected into her without end.]
[At the moment you entered the laboratory in stealth, she sensed your arrival.]
[In that moment, she swore that if you could save her, she would be willing to pay any price!]
[Flanda tightens the arm hooked around you. Gritting her teeth, she continues…]
[If she could escape the laboratory alive, she would definitely make the Desire Wet Nurse regret it!]
[…You did not let her keep despairing.]
[When you attacked the sac the first time, she felt a familiar power, a power identical to the external factor that was constantly being injected into her body.]
[She suddenly understood. So you are the outsider, and the external factor came from your sacrifice.]
Lin Xun remembered that the first time he attacked the sac, he used the Ninja Master’s Shell.
Shells with the Fire-Worshipping prefix, when attacking and using skills, would all receive the boost of the Calamitous Fallen Karmic Fire attribute.
Karmic Fire came from the Ancient Heavenly Enma, and Calamitous Fallen was naturally caused by erosion from the Extreme Delusion Fruit.
[After escaping the laboratory and regaining clarity, the first thing she did was break her oath.]
[Consciousness descent can only be done through the web of consciousness of the Hive Consciousness. When you break your oath and no longer join any oath, you can drift on the edge of the web of consciousness, beyond the control of higher consciousness.]
[She no longer wanted to experience that feeling of being forced into a suicide experiment, being toyed with. You have not experienced it, and you do not understand how terrifying and despairing it is…]
Lin Xun himself had joined the firefly oath, and the firefly granted him the unique ability to drift on the edge of the web of consciousness.
The benefit was that he could not be controlled by anyone and did not need to fear higher consciousness.
The downside was that likewise, he could not control consciousness lower-ranked than himself.
“So Hive Consciousness has a function like that…”
[As you speak, the abdominal cavity stops vibrating. The semi-transparent flesh membrane beside you lets through a bright, snowy light…]
[The flesh membrane opens. A bone-chilling wind howls through, carrying drifting white snow.]
[You look outward. All you see is white…]
[Outside, swirling snowflakes fill the air. In the distance stands a towering, magnificent snow mountain.]
[A raging blizzard sweeps across the snow mountain. Dense snowflakes block most of your view, making it hard for you to see clearly…]
[You faintly feel that the snow mountain seems to be… moving?]
[You gather true essence at your eyes and focus your gaze, finally seeing the scene on the snow mountain clearly.]
[Amid the rolling ridgelines lie countless Pilgrimage Angels that flap their scaled wings and whip up the wind and snow. It is their nonstop wingbeats that give you the illusion the snow mountain is moving.]
[Flanda releases your arm and jumps down from the abdominal cavity. She knows you are an outsider and are not afraid of the White-Fleece Snow Season.]
[You see her raise a hand and point to the sky. The wind and snow seem to be split apart. Not a single snowflake can touch her body.]
[You cannot help feeling puzzled. Flanda has strength nearing godhood. Even though the constant injection of the Extreme Evil factor has caused most of her power to drain away, she still remains at a transcendent realm. Why would she need to avoid the scale-powder fleece of the Pilgrimage Angel?]
[Flanda gives you a sideways glance and does not avoid the matter. She directly lifts her thin gauze collar, letting you see the lush, pitch-black branch-and-leaf tattoo on her chest, and explains…]
[The external factor within her has already reached a critical value. If she gets contaminated with more, she will lose control.]
[Pilgrimage Angel are factor weapons made by the Wet Nurse, and some external factor was injected into them. Only, because the external factor has not been fully deciphered, the wind and snow they spread can only obtain a very small amount of research samples.]
[Not a single one of those samples can perfectly fuse with the external factor.]
[A few days ago, her subordinate obtained an Ascended one with a slightly larger coexistence amount, hid it from her, and secretly offered it to the Wet Nurse as a sacrifice…]
[Flanda mentions this point, and that unfathomable smile appears in her eyes again as she looks at you.]
[She leads you onward toward Pilgrimage Snow Mountain, changes the topic, and continues…]
[The external factor you sacrificed should come from an extremely powerful main god.]
[From the current factor deciphering degree, that main god is completely different from the Wet Nurse and the firefly. The manifestation of Its divine power is at the mental and soul level.]
[She once heard the Wet Nurse mention that a main god like this is itself a manifestation of a supreme rule…]
[To put it more simply, she can feel intense malice from the external factor, and thus judge that the main god is a supreme will or rule manifestation born from the most essential evil…]
[Flanda suddenly takes your hand, carries you through the endless wind and snow, rises into the air, and flies straight toward the snow mountain peak…]
[She turns her head back, staring at you with burning eyes, continuing…]
[From the moment she escaped the laboratory, she has been constantly thinking about how to defeat the Wet Nurse…]
[The chasm between mortals and transcendent beings is like an unbridgeable natural divide, just like the gap between demigods and true gods.]
[After perfectly fusing the firefly factor, she was always just a bit short of the realm of godhood, not even reaching god-level strength. How could she oppose the Wet Nurse, who is a main god?]
[Moreover, now that she has forcibly coexisted with the external factor, she has already lost most of her power, making it even more impossible to threaten the Wet Nurse.]
[Thinking and thinking, she could never find any possibility…]
[As she speaks, Flanda has already brought you to the peak of the snow mountain.]
[The blizzard calms here. On the snow mountain peak stands a massive shadow…]
[It is a gigantic caterpillar, snow-white all over and incomparably bloated. Its coloration is the same as the snow, almost blending into the snow mountain background. From afar, it is impossible to distinguish…]
[On the ridge below your feet, over a hundred Pilgrimage Angels flap their scaled wings. Their lowered heads all face the snow mountain peak, in a posture of bowing in audience.]
[You have discovered the Ascended Pilgrimage Angel Mother Body!]
[You and Flanda stand beside the mother body, looking down at the countless Pilgrimage Angel below…]
[Flanda continues, that with her power alone, no, even if she united the power of all the Wet Nurse’s offspring, she still could not threaten Her.]
[Even the firefly cannot defeat the Wet Nurse…]
[She thought this was an unsolvable experimental question.]
[But now, she already has an answer!]
[You are the one who saved her, and you are also the key to killing the Wet Nurse!]
[The girl suddenly buries herself into your arms, hugging you tightly, and whispers softly by your ear…]
[Do you… want to create a god?]