Sacred Souls: Genesis

Chapter 108: Chapter 107 A Brand New Main Quest

Dragons! All freaking dragons, giant dragons, wyverns, tyrannosaurs, velociraptors, mini divine dragons…

When Jiang Qiao commanded the Wind Spirit to scout the island from above, nearly all the creatures in sight matched the physical traits of one kind—dragons.

“Did I cross over into the Jurassic world or the world of Monster Hunter?”

Jiang Qiao shared his vision with the Wind Spirit, which had already flown about eight hundred meters above the ground of the island.

The island was vast… so vast that if the Earth Mother Goddess hadn’t referred to it as an ‘island,’ Jiang Qiao might well have considered it a continent.

The center of the island had completely crystallized. Through the Wind Spirit’s vision, Jiang Qiao could see towering crystal pillars reaching into the skies in the far distance, which probably were some of the island’s most lush ancient trees half a year ago.

The island’s inhabitants were primarily dragon types – perhaps other beasts were too small to be spotted from the sky.

The dragons that fell within Jiang Qiao’s line of sight varied greatly, and their levels were exceptionally high. A flying dragon, ten meters in body length, soaring through the sky, had a level of 49.

The level system in the Holy Spirit couldn’t fully represent the combat power of creatures in the real world. It had to be taken into account whether the monster was a standard mob, an elite, or a lord.

For example, the gold-devouring rat Jiang Qiao had just killed was just a standard mob. This judgment was based on its physical endurance and lineage.

Standard mobs couldn’t have too high health points. At the same level, a player could handle one by himself.

Above that, there were elite and lord-level creatures.

When facing an elite mob, only top-notch skills and gear gave a player a chance to solo it. More often than not, players faced the elites in Holy Spirit by calling friends to team up for a beatdown.

The lord-level creatures were the bosses, requiring a team ranging from five to fifty players to defeat. Soloing was nearly impossible.

The creatures on this island included all three tiers, and the highest level dragon Jiang Qiao had seen so far was a lord-level giant dragon at level fifty-nine. And there were more than one of those on Dragon Island; they were wholesaled by the hundreds.

In this world, the strongest humans peaked at levels between thirty-five to fifty and were mostly elite mobs. Only a few reached the lord-level.

Moreover, leveling up for ordinary people wasn’t as simple as it was for players. That old mage from Flowing Water Country lived nearly a hundred years, exceptionally talented to spend a lifetime reaching level forty-five. It was questionable whether he could have reached forty-six before dying.

So it could change this world’s ecology whether creatures from the island escaped or if the natives from outside came in.

But what did that have to do with Jiang Qiao?

All Jiang Qiao needed to do was bring players in to grind, stack the bricks into the inner world of the real world, and then build a big house inside the inner world.

Anyone who dared to block the players from grinding… death!

“Can I start now?”

Hai Lan had also come to Jiang Qiao’s side through the teleport gate, stepping onto the island as if she’d entered a giant all-you-can-eat buffet, where everything in sight was edible.

“Go ahead, eat all you like if you’re not afraid of getting a bellyache,” Jiang Qiao said, picking up a handful of dirt from the ground and stuffing it into Hai Lan’s hands—this handful of earth was quite nutritious for her.

“Devouring God, would you be willing to accept this commission?”

The benevolent voice of the Earth Mother Goddess echoed at Jiang Qiao’s feet, and looking down, he saw a creature that looked like a ginseng come to life standing at his feet.

“Aren’t you afraid we’ll exterminate all the creatures on this island?” Jiang Qiao asked, squatting down to the ginseng-like Earth Mother Goddess.

“This is what I wish to see. This crystallization curse must be severed. If it continues to spread, the world… might fall into crisis,” said the Earth Mother Goddess.

“Another apocalyptic event, huh? Okay then, I’ll temporarily take on this commission, but we’ll need some time before we start working,” Jiang Qiao responded.

Jiang Qiao could feel that these crystals contained some… energy from beyond this world. He couldn’t clearly identify the exact source of that energy, but it definitely wasn’t from the deities of this world.

From this, we can tentatively infer that the Earth Mother Goddess might truly be afflicted with an incurable disease.

After confirming these details, Jiang Qiao led Hai Lan through the portal and returned to the plane of the Tower of Trial. The Earth Mother Goddess’s physical form handed Jiang Qiao a sheepskin scroll map.

“This is a map of Biland Island, and the map contains detailed records of the crystallized area,” the voice of the Earth Mother Goddess still filled with worry, “I will assist you as much as I can… and your chosen ones, please act quickly.”

“We will start working the day after tomorrow.”

Jiang Qiao opened the map for a brief look, and the imagery within it was dynamic. Biland Island was already three-quarters completely crystallized.

“We haven’t discussed the reward yet,” the Earth Mother Goddess reminded Jiang Qiao as he turned around, intending to leave.

“Reward? Let’s talk about that after we start working,” Jiang Qiao said, waving his hand without looking back at the Earth Mother Goddess, and left the plane of the Tower of Trial once again.

There are still eleven hours left until the end of the maintenance, and Jiang Qiao has a lot to do in these eleven hours.

……

In Lionheart City, at the Resurrection Cathedral.

Fureya’s first model stood quietly on the stairs, watching Jiang Qiao and Hai Lan.

Not long after the Divine Fragment War had concluded, the players handed over the ‘Divine Fragment’ they got from Queen Mei to the doll girl.

Although a small number of players who didn’t read the quest strategy handed their Divine Fragments to the old king, it didn’t affect the next steps of Jiang Qiao’s main quest narrative.

“What do you plan to do with Fureya next?” Hai Lan said, playing with her ash-grey hair, standing beside Fureya, “You’re not going to write her death again, are you?”

“It’s not very interesting to always write death, but after Fureya regains her memory and possesses her own personality, she definitely won’t stay in the Resurrection Cathedral and let the order manipulate her anymore,” Jiang Qiao said.

Jiang Qiao brushed Hai Lan’s little paw away and started to ponder what would happen in the next part of the main quest narrative.

In his descriptions of the main storyline of “Holy Spirit,” Jiang Qiao included a mix of truth and fabrications. Only a small part of the storyline set in the world of the Holy Spirit was concocted by Jiang Qiao himself, like the narratives where the order was the mastermind behind the scenes and the old king would definitely enter the instance.

But for the otherworldly instance, like Queen Mei’s storyline and the Tower of Trial narrative, those were real, and Jiang Qiao couldn’t fabricate them.

And the next part of the main storyline in “Holy Spirit” would inevitably involve teaching players how to build game mechanics, like constructing houses in the inner world, making camp bases on Biland Island, and gearing up to resist invasions from the abyss, the Oblivion Legion, chaos, and other evil entities.

“Let me think, the next main quest step will involve Fureya being hunted down by the order,” Jiang Qiao made a decision.

“Then she gets captured by the order?” Hai Lan already envisioned some scenarios that might infuriate the players to the point of having a heart attack.

“No, no, no, no, getting captured would be too boring. Fureya will manage to escape, but her motivation to run is very important,” Jiang Qiao said.

“Betray the order?” Hai Lan was still trying to follow Jiang Qiao’s train of thought.

“What does the life or death of the order have to do with the players! After receiving the Divine Fragment, Fureya is a puppet with her own ability to think. If she is set to like, to be infatuated with a player, there’s only one thing she’d do,” Jiang Qiao said with a smile, “Fureya wants to run into the real world to find the player.”

That might be one of Fureya’s most charming aspects, imagine the game wives traveling great distances to find their owners in the real world…

“And the order wants to stop her?”

“Yes, everything happens during the maintenance period. Then, the doll girl accidentally falls into the world of a remote island, an island filled with all sorts of monsters,” Jiang Qiao said, shaking the map the Earth Mother Goddess had given him.

Although Hai Lan didn’t quite understand the sequence of events, she already envisioned a group of players with faces screaming ‘Those who block me shall perish.’

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