Sacred Souls: Genesis

Chapter 182: Chapter 181 Please Be a Little Aware Like an NPC (2nd Update)

“Have I been appearing too infrequently lately?”

Hai Lan’s figure suddenly emerged in front of Jiang Qiao.

“It’s not that you’ve appeared less frequently lately, Hai Lan… you’ve always lacked a significant presence, haven’t you?”

Jiang Qiao was still seated inside the Cola Fanatic Guild’s headquarters, occupying a little gaming stump all by himself, now twirling a game piece in his hand.

Normally, as the mastermind behind the scenes, one should be holding a chess piece to look more formidable, but Jiang Qiao was different. He was playing with a piece from Ludo.

“Do I really lack that much presence?” Hai Lan puffed her cheeks and sat opposite Jiang Qiao, joining the Ludo game as a Spiritual Body.

“You, when there’s nothing to be done, are always lounging on the sofa at my place, snacking and watching TV. You only show up when I call you for work.”

“I… I do fulfil my duties as a goddess! Also… are you really not planning to interfere with those Crystal Hunters’ actions?”

Hai Lan tossed her dice onto the Ludo board, but the moment the dice landed, the board transformed into a map of Biland Island.

On the island, the only green area was the Spiritual Vein Forest; the other six regions were all marked in crimson.

The Magic Thieves’ camp was facing the center of Biland Island, while another power… the Crystal Hunters from the War God Wuerde were marked by Hai Lan with golden game pieces.

The Crystal Hunters’ base was located on an ironclad warship along the coast of Biland Island. From a slight distance, players at the starting point could vaguely make out the outline of the warship.

“There are forty-seven Crystal Hunters, among them ten seem… to be representatives of the gods of this world, the Divine Chosen. It’s not a small number. They are the ones who’ve shared the Divine Fragments. How should I describe it… Each of their combat strengths is comparable to that of an axe-wielding man.” Hai Lan had come to remind Jiang Qiao that they might already be facing a formidable enemy.

In the Divine Battle instance, the axe-wielding man and the red-clad Knight were ranked by the players as the second and first weakest BOSSes, respectively. The red-clad Knight, being unattackable, had nothing to be said about it, but the axe-wielding man’s combat strength wasn’t outstanding compared to the other five Knights.

The strongest of the five, Knight Lion Heart, could take on two axe-wielding men in combat.

Still, the axe-wielding man was a true Divine Chosen of Hai Lan, one who had drunk the blood of Queen Mei and shared in Hai Lan’s Divine Fragment. His level was that of a lord-class creature above level fifty.

If those ten Divine Chosen truly possessed strength comparable to the axe-wielding man, and should they start rampaging through the players’ instance, the result would be… a mountain of tombstones.

“What are you thinking, Hai Lan? The Crystal Hunters are our allies… Don’t tell me you think we are siding with the Magic Thieves now?”

Jiang Qiao threw a dice, rolled a six, and then moved one of his game pieces onto the map of Biland Island.

“Ah… could it be… not?” Hai Lan said as she turned her head to glance at a spot not far behind, where the sisters Weiser and Yomi were being warmly received by the Holy Spirits.

In reality, the warm reception was merely a bunch of players pulling sister Weiser to learn how to play Fight the Landlord, while Yomi was gearing up to gather a group of players for a find-and-fight quest with more milk and no extra charge.

“No, not all members of the Magic Thieves are good people, and not all Crystal Hunters are bad; it’s just a matter of differing stances,” Jiang Qiao said while spinning the game piece in his hand. “The Crystal Hunters’ mission is to eliminate all the Magic Thieves on this island, but they need the assistance of the Holy Spirits, because the Crystal Disease is fatal to them as well. Without successful purification of the Spiritual Vein Forest, they wouldn’t even be able to set foot on this island.”

“I… somehow feel… that you have designs on those Crystal Hunters?” Hai Lan sensed a certain tone in Jiang Qiao’s voice when he mentioned the Crystal Hunters; it was similar to when he spoke about the five Knights during the War God era.

It wasn’t the tone of discussing potential enemies but rather like discussing a maxed-out SSR-ranked general who was both a formidable fighter and defender.

“Of course, I have ideas… Lord-class NPCs with an average level between fifty and sixty, and with Divine Fragments of other gods inside of them. If we could really bring one back home, they would likely be quite useful,” Jiang Qiao paused before continuing, “But from the quests triggered by players on these Crystal Hunters, it seems they are also trying to cooperate with the players.”

However, the cooperation wasn’t very pleasant, Jiang Qiao glanced at the tasks related to the Crystal Hunters, and found that the completion rate of all tasks related to the Crystal Hunters was zero at this stage.

“Shall we ask Miss Cat to teach them a lesson?” Hai Lan looked over the rewards given to players by the Crystal Hunters.

The task rewards included only a small portion of what players needed, but most of them were… dispensable junk. Some tasks even offered ‘National Honor Titles’, which were essentially titles without attributes. Players might have taken on these peculiar tasks thinking there would be additional rewards later on.

As for completing them… Just looking at them sapped Hai Lan of any motivation to do the tasks, as they all seemed to be side quests with hardly worthwhile rewards.

“Miss Cat herself hasn’t fully grasped it yet, and I’m curious to see which of these Divine Chosen will catch on first,” Jiang Qiao said.

……

“What on earth do those saints want!”

Crystal Hunter Finn slammed his fist down on the Biland Island map in the meeting room, visibly angry.

Ever since he became the Divine Chosen of the War God Urd, he was welcomed with open arms wherever he went, but when he visited the stronghold of the Cola Fanatic Guild, he was kicked out by a group of saints.

“Finn, did you not give them enough money?” quipped the Divine Chosen of the Shadow Goddess from a corner of the meeting room, “Isn’t your War God Sect supposed to be rich? As a Saint Heir… shouldn’t a large part of it end up in your pocket?”

“Shary, say that again?”

“Stop it, now is not the time for arguing. Only by cooperating with those saints can we completely purify the Crystal Curse. Shary, how did your negotiations go with the Holy Spirit Guild known as Night Sprinters?”

An elder with white hair inquired about the situation in the meeting room, assuming the role of the Crystal Hunters’ leader.

Before they set off for Biland Island, they made one thing clear: the saints on the island were not independent adventurers or scattered fighters; most belonged to guilds, with the island hosting nine major guilds.

Thus, before they formally proceeded to the island, they sent envoys to the headquarters of the nine major guilds on Biland Island… to propose a collaboration to clean up the Crystal Plague on the island.

“The guild leader of Night Sprinters is called Cruel Moonlight. He seems to control some power related to commanding the undead. Surprisingly, he was very approachable. I didn’t have to ask much, and he immediately agreed to assist us in capturing the Magic Thief, a very reasonable person,” said the Divine Chosen of the Shadow Goddess.

“When I went to the Dancing Nuclear Guild, I couldn’t find their leader. According to the saints, they seemed to be ‘offline’, which I presume means their Spiritual Bodies have returned to the original world. However, their acting guild leader, Fluffy Rabbit, is a kind and sociable woman whose charm also…” The speaker was the Divine Chosen of the Flowing Water God… a young man. The elder coughed lightly as the conversation seemed to be drifting off-topic.

“The Dancing Nuclear Guild is also willing to help us track down the Crystal Disease Infected. In fact, they see the Magic Thief as their greatest enemy, even more so than the dragon-like monsters on the island. Our collaboration with them will likely be very pleasant. The only issue is that there is an unreformed infected female in their camp. Following your instructions, I didn’t take action,” continued the Divine Chosen of the Flowing Water God.

“You did right not to intervene,” the elder said, glancing at Finn.

“I didn’t intervene either! But sir… even though the two infected sisters of the Cola Fanatic Guild are not highly dangerous, it sets a bad precedent. What if… more and more infected are sheltered by those saints? Would not all we have done be in vain?” Finn shouted.

“Be patient, we will deal with these issues ‘afterwards’,” the elder said, sweeping a glance around the meeting room, noticing a missing member. “Where is the kid Sheela?”

“It seems she hasn’t come back,” someone in the meeting room said.

“Hasn’t come back? Which guild did she go to visit?” The elder remembered that it was already past the scheduled time, and as long as they didn’t provoke the saints intentionally, the saints wouldn’t regard them as enemies.

“Black Wind Village’s Sleepy Bride… She hasn’t returned since her visit to Black Wind Village,” the person replied.