Chapter 427: Chapter 413: Holy Spirit Challenge (Third Update, 4000 words!)

The appearance of the Eternal squad in Holy Spirit City was a surprise for Jiang Qiao.

Under normal circumstances, wild NPCs that accepted Thorne’s transportation beacon and submitted a transport request would be transferred to the lord’s lodging first.

There, Jiang Qiao would personally explain to them what they could or could not do in Holy Spirit City, just like the initial treatments and requests made for the plane pirates.

Some of the most basic taboos in the game’s rating system were not even allowed to be violated by the gods on the star chart.

However, possibly because the Eternal squad was part of the first batch to be teleported, or maybe they had some sort of privilege during beacon transmission, Jiang Qiao had not yet had the chance to review them and inform them of some… rules that must be followed before they appeared directly in front of the players.

The result was that Yin Hui now found himself bound and thrown into a cave, with the team captain Rosh holding a gun to his cheek for interrogation.

Yin Hui’s emotions were relatively stable, quite stable in fact, and Jiang Qiao had also activated stealth mode to follow behind Yin Hui, closely monitoring the conversation between Rosh and Yin Hui.

Although Yin Hui startled Rosh by saying out of the blue, ‘I see you have talent; why don’t you come play professionally for me?’

Yet in the following conversation, Yin Hui chose to be rather conservative… selecting options from the pre-set dialogue box provided by the game to interact with Rosh.

Yin Hui knew that as a player, his equipment that brought game attributes, along with all his combat and life skills, was his best weapon against the enemy.

The only equipment available to Yin Hui at the moment was the charm-enhancing gear borrowed from Pot-cooked Meat, while the charm-enhancing gear ‘Goddess Jade Hairpin’ borrowed from Bunny Fluff was too precious, so he had already returned it to Bunny Fluff.

For him, the charm-boosting equipment from Pot-cooked Meat was just a toy.

Now relying on his server’s second highest charm, Yin Hui indeed made an impression during his conversation with the six Eternals.

Upon seeing Yin Hui clearly… Rosh was obviously dazzled by his appearance.

This astonishment was not because Yin Hui’s appearance was so handsome, but rather the attribute of charm… After Jiang Qiao had absorbed the attributes of the Abyss of Black Tide Island, those players with high charm had gained characteristics similar to that of succubi.

Rosh realized that her finding Yin Hui attractive was a form of spiritual attack.

She knocked her own head with the butt of the gun as if to say, ‘Stop it! You damned man, stop spreading your charm!’

Rosh was accustomed to controlling her own spirit, but it did no good against Yin Hui’s relentless chatter.

“I guess you guys just got back from a mission, right? Creation Sanctuary seems like a shady enterprise, assigning new missions without even giving you time to wash or rest?”

The things Yin Hui said were all based on the dialogue options that popped up, and as the Eternals kept arriving, Jiang Qiao didn’t hide the existence of the Creation Sanctuary organization anymore.

The books related to Creation Sanctuary in the Holy Spirit Library had all been blackened out, but now, following the ‘version’ update, the organization was gradually being revealed to the players.

“Don’t try to use mental magic to influence my mind! Descendant of Devouring God, tell me where Thorne is.”

Rosh remained very calm, keeping her favorability towards Yin Hui cold, regardless of which options he chose. The woman with faint red short hair wasn’t willing to increase her favorability towards Yin Hui by the slightest bit, not even a tiny heart.

“I know where Thorne is, but don’t you know the rules of Holy Spirit City? Only the person who wins the upcoming competition… has the right to take Thorne away.”

Actually, Yin Hui didn’t really want to protect Thorne. Perhaps after Thorne assassinated Queen Mei, all the players on the server just wanted to take Thorne down, not protect him.

But Yin Hui knew that this event had to go on! Because Qi Pao had spent two hundred Divine Power Crystals to draw these wild NPCs, it wasn’t for letting these wild NPCs take Thorne away! It was to keep them in Holy Spirit City!

Yin Hui couldn’t guarantee that he could persuade these wild NPCs right away, not even the players with the highest eloquence and charm in Holy Spirit could do it!

But by having them stay in Holy Spirit City, the more time they stayed, the more opportunities there would be.

The NPC conquest system in Holy Spirit City was no joke.

So the Thorne supremacy contest was just a reason for them to stay in Holy Spirit City.

“We don’t care about your so-called rules!” Rosh’s teammate couldn’t hold back and exploded first.

They were hiding here at great risk. If more Holy Spirits came after them, they didn’t know if they could still escape.

“This won’t do, rules are rules… if you come to Holy Spirit City, you must follow the rules of Holy Spirit City,” Yin Hui replied, still following the script, and it was the line he agreed with the most.

But choosing this option risked a rapid decline in Rosh’s favorability. The favorability of Rosh’s teammates, however, plummeted to the point where one impatient teammate rashly shot Yin Hui and killed him on the spot.

“An Jie, you… made a mistake again,” Rosh said, looking at Yin Hui, whose chest now had a massive hole surrounded by deep purple light.

It was too late for Rosh to try to heal Yin Hui. Although Yin Hui’s Street Fighter class was heavy armor, the enemy had struck a critical hit, and the damage just happened to wipe out Yin Hui’s health.

“I know this type of person, he’s deliberately using irrelevant talk to waste time,” that teammate said.

“I wasn’t wasting time.”

All of a sudden, Yin Hui’s corpse popped out a reply, startling that teammate into firing another shot at Yin Hui’s body.

“I’m already dead; it’s no use shooting me anymore.” Yin Hui’s body turned into particles of light and became a tombstone emblazoned with the golden lettering “World Peace,” lying on the ground.

“These descendants of the Devouring God also have the ability to resurrect? That’s far too troublesome!”

Members of the Eternal squad had been carrying out missions on the star map for many years and had seen all kinds of monsters; they too had the ability to resurrect. Their consciousness was uploaded to the Sanctuary of Creation, and upon death, they just needed to print out a new body.

This was somewhat similar to the way the Magic Thieves’ abyssal bubbles worked.

“Engineer, what are you doing?”

Rosh didn’t bother with Yin Hui, who was still incessantly babbling even as a tombstone. She noticed the engineer in her team starting to build some device inside the cave.

“We… we need backup, Captain! We can’t deal with the descendants of the Devouring God who have the ability to resurrect,” said the engineer, anxious and uneasy.

This was another taboo mentioned by Jiang Qiao, which was to not reveal the coordinates of Biland Island, or to build portals on Biland Island.

Biland Island was located deep within the territory of the Alliance of Gods, but the Sanctuary of Creation could also construct portals to send their own troops there.

Thorne had warned Jiang Qiao to beware of the engineers from the Sanctuary of Creation… As Jiang Qiao was about to intervene, Rosh pointed her gun at the engineer’s head.

“Stop,” Rosh said with a near-threatening tone.

“Ca… Captain… What do you mean by this?” The engineer was totally confused this time, having followed Rosh through life and death. In his heart, Rosh could definitely be considered as someone who would lay down his life for others, but Rosh didn’t think so.

“Only I can capture Thorne alone, no reinforcements are needed,” Rosh’s voice softened a lot as he spoke.

Is it this kind of scene again? Jiang Qiao, watching from the side, always had a sense of deja vu; it seemed that Rosh’s relationship with Thorne was not simple.

But…

“But I just felt that your brother also arrived… at the city where the Devouring God resides,” whispered the engineer, “He was alone, but he seemed to be getting along quite happily with the descendants of the Devouring God.”

“That guy?” Rosh’s brows instantly furrowed, and the next second she walked up to the tombstone of Yin Hui, “Are you still there? Tell me… To meet Thorne, I must defeat those people!”

But the tombstone of Yin Hui had vanished, because time was up, and Yin Hui had not managed to rush back here from the cathedral in time. As the tombstone turned into a burst of starlight, the twinkling lights transformed into a blue flame that constructed a… phantom.

This was a phantom created by Jiang Qiao.

“I’m afraid that Holy Spirit can’t tell you anymore,” Jiang Qiao said to the Eternal squad present.

“Are you… the Devouring God?”

Rosh considered this chilling possibility.

“Just an agent of the gods, but I think if you want to meet Thorne, the opponents you need to defeat are not as simple as one or two Holy Spirits,” Jiang Qiao thought about the next event’s plan, named the Holy Spirit Challenge.

This event was designed to relax the players’ tense emotions while they were preparing for battle on Biland Island, to improve their skills, and at the same time to keep these outsider NPCs around, giving them something to do, meanwhile increasing the popularity and heat of the Holy Spirits, killing I don’t know how many birds with one stone.

“Please… tell me where he is, agent of the Devouring God,” Rosh calmed down in front of Jiang Qiao, eager to know Thorne’s location after learning that her brother had also visited the place.

Right in the portal that is over twelve hundred meters next to you.

Of course, Jiang Qiao wouldn’t say that…

“Offer up your most valuable possession,” Jiang Qiao said intently to Rosh, “This is the ticket to participate in the challenge.”

Jiang Qiao had no intention of letting these guys freeload on the qualification for Thorne’s challenge; the players even had to sacrifice a Challenge Voucher!

Why should they be allowed to take the good equipment and weapons and run away after defeating the players? These guys definitely had to pay some kind of price.

“Thorne is the highest-level fugitive in the Creation Sanctuary! We don’t need to ask anyone to take him away!” One of the team members was not intimidated by Jiang Qiao, but Jiang Qiao couldn’t do anything to him either.

The combat capability of the Devouring God entity was just too weak; it might only look like a fight if Creation Mode were activated.

But using Magic Power to fight in Creation Mode needed tons of Creation Energy… and right now, Creation Energy was being expended in the negative, so it was best to save wherever possible.

“This is Holy Spirit City, the territory of the Holy Spirits, governed by the rules set by the Holy Spirits, and it is for you to comply,” Jiang Qiao said while the flames constructed a virtual image of a level-60 teleportation revolver gun ‘The Death Bearer,’ which settled in Rosh’s hands.

Rosh reached out and touched the revolver, feeling the Power of the Devouring God within, which could tear apart all laws.

In terms of destruction of the flesh and materials, the power of this gun might not compare to the weapon imbued with Void Power in her hand, but it was akin to a key that could unlock all magic barriers, Holy Restriction, and other such limits, which were lethal to transcendental beings like gods.

It was also lethal to Eternals.

“This is just one of your rewards for winning the challenge,” Jiang Qiao knew that to attract those contestants on the star map… he had to put in a lot himself, so he made an interesting promise, “The Devouring God will grant a trivial wish to the victor.”

There was no law that bound this promise, and if that outsider won the contest, Jiang Qiao could simply renege on the promise or be vague about it.

“I’ll participate,” Rosh said these three words as a faint blue flame appeared before her.

“Captain!”

“Do you think we were assigned this task with any possibility of making it back alive?”

After she finished speaking, Rosh reached out and grasped the faint blue flame, with a mark of the Devouring God appearing on the back of her hand.

Jiang Qiao intended to use this opportunity to completely turn Rosh into an NPC of Holy Spirit City, but it didn’t work… she was resisting!

The Devouring God couldn’t make very precise modifications, especially at the soul level, and if Rosh resisted, Jiang Qiao could completely destroy her soul, but couldn’t collect her into the Book of the System and turn her into a resident deity of Holy Spirit like the Lake God.

He still needed Rosh to be truly convinced… or rather willingly become an ally of the Holy Spirits.

“I’m starting to envy the Abyss’s ability to corrupt people,”

Jiang Qiao looked at Rosh, who was covering the back of her hand. During the preparation for the challenge, this Eternal miss should be able to stay safely in Holy Spirit City for a few days.

However… since Jiang Qiao had decided to hold a grand challenge, it was time to officially write an event notification on the official website and refine the competition rules.

A challenge contest between the NPCs from all over Holy Spirit and players, or… a player-versus-player challenge.

This seems to be the first official contest of Holy Spirit? Although it also includes elements of PVE.

The first issue Jiang Qiao needed to address was that of hit points and attack power. The hit points of Eternals were between fifty and a hundred thousand, which was very generous and didn’t require adjustment by Jiang Qiao, but something must be done about NPCs with a million hit points who wished to register.

The faint blue flame disappeared in front of Rosh and her squad members.

Rosh then noticed some strange things appearing in her field of vision, namely her health points and some special options windows.

“Are you still in there? I’m the Holy Spirit you kidnapped before!”

Suddenly, Yin Hui’s voice came from outside the cave, and Rosh quickly ran out to see two words appear above Yin Hui’s head, an ID called ‘Yin Hui’.

“Holy Spirit… what did you mean by professional players previously?” Rosh didn’t hesitate to tie Yin Hui up again, but this time she inquired about his earlier suggestion.

At the very least, she needed to know who her enemies were! What level they were at.