Chapter 483: Chapter 473: Sacrifices Won’t Work, But Freeloading Can
The transaction between Divine Spirits and humans is not absolutely fair.
First and foremost, only believers can engage in such transactions with Divine Spirits, and believers are generally fanatical and devout.
It’s like fans purchasing items from their idols, the two parties in the transaction are not equal.
It seems like a mutual exchange of needs, but in reality, the Divine Spirits subtly control the believers.
As written on this stele, by sacrificing a part of oneself, one could obtain some kind of formidable power. Although it’s not explicitly stated on the stele, it is still understood that even if one were to sacrifice something like their heart, the believer would not die.
To exchange an organ for tremendous power seems like a fair trade.
But in reality, once the transaction is made, the believer’s everything falls into the hands of the Divine Spirit.
Because the power they receive is not cultivated on their own, but a gift from the Divine Spirit. And by sacrificing a part of their organs, they essentially hand over their life’s weak point to the Divine Spirit to control. Thereafter, they serve the Divine Spirit devoutly for more rewards. In this way, the believer transforms from an independent individual into a pawn of the Divine Spirit.
This must be an evil god!
Everyone had their suspicions.
Which proper god would require a sacrifice!
All those who came here had not experienced the spiritual contamination of the Thousand Eyes; everyone still retained their independent thinking.
Yet, among them, someone was still tempted.
Baili Liuyun, after looking at the stele, silently noted down the small map below it.
It foretold the path ahead, leading to five different forks, each heading towards the heart, liver, spleen, lung, or kidney.
These were the only five paths, no other options, meaning one had to make a sacrifice.
Following Lin Yu and Fang Yu might offer a chance to break free from these restraints. After all, Fang Yu now wielded a sword of immense killing power, it’s origin unknown, but simply put, it was extraordinarily strong.
However, would he continue to lead a life of mediocrity?
When he first took the position of Sect Master, he was full of grand ambitions and valor. Later, he realized that besides wealth, he had nothing.
In terms of talent, he was lacking. Reaching the Celestial Knowing Realm, he knew he had reached his limit. That’s why he married hopelessly, hoping for his offspring to soar.
However, his son turned out to be a mediocrity too. It might not be too difficult for him to reach the Celestial Knowing Realm, but that would be all he could achieve.
To father another, the second son had slightly better talent, not by much, but at least there was some hope. Yet, he was killed by Lin Yun, and he couldn’t even seek revenge.
All because Lin Yu suddenly became an Enlightened Realm Cultivator, something he had never seen before. Rumors say Lin Yu is the reincarnation of the White Tiger Holy Spirit. When Lin Yu broke through his cultivation level, Purple Cloud Mountain witnessed the phantom of the White Tiger several times.
And Lin Yun’s talent was also strong. Just three years into his cultivation, he had become a prominent figure.
Every time he thought of this, Baili Liuyun felt as if his heart were being cut by knives.
The Sword Sect did produce geniuses, but the geniuses were always driven away.
And then he unfairly bore the brunt of the blame, as if the decline of the Sword Sect was solely his fault.
Baili Liuyun knew that, as the Sect Master, he certainly shouldered part of the blame, but he felt it was unfair to take it all upon himself alone.
Among the Seven Righteous Sects, it was his insufficient cultivation level that led others to look down on him. If only he were stronger, it would not have come to this.
Thinking about it, the phrase "Cut off all affections and love, possess all Divine Skills" seemed extraordinarily alluring.
To deal with an evil god, the consequences would be dire. Even if there were no precedents, with their experience, they could imagine the outcomes.
But what else did he have to lose?
He would never be able to break through to the Enlightened Realm in this lifetime. No matter how bad things got, it couldn’t be worse than now. It’s worth a shot; maybe there’s still a way out.
Besides, it’s better to submit to a Divine Spirit than to suffer humiliation from others.
While Baili Liuyun was quietly calculating, Lin Yu suddenly destroyed the stele with a single stroke of his sword.
This is the epitome of the strong and silent type; after the deed, Lin Yu directly pulled Lin Yun to the crossroads.
There were numerous paths ahead, each of a different color, which according to the theory of the Five Elements, corresponded to the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys respectively.
No matter which one you took, it led to a path of sacrifice; there seemed to be no other trials here, just sacrifice.
And at the entrance of each cave, a hand stretched out, signifying a demand for an offering.
Make your offering first, and then you could enter the cave.
Suddenly, Lin Yun had a stroke of inspiration. Since the offering came first, followed by the bestowal of divine skills, could he possibly freeload?
Offering a sacrifice, no way.
Freeloading, why not?
Lin Yun wielded Qiaobian, transforming it into a large hammer, and smashed it onto the closest giant hand. The hand shattered upon impact, and as the stone fragments fell to the ground, Lin Yun quickly set them ablaze, burning them to ashes.
Lin Yu discerned his intention and helped by chopping off the regrowing hands, while Lin Yun continued to incinerate the broken shards of stone.
The two worked together, efficiently severing ten giant hands in a brief span of time.
This time, the giant hands did not regenerate. It turned out there were only ten hands in this place.
"Let’s go in and have a look."
Once out of the throat passage, they could unblock their ears, meaning Lin Yu could naturally hear what Lin Yun was saying.
Lin Yu nodded and took the lead.
Lin Yun followed closely behind, with Fang Yu coming up next, sandwiching Lin Yun in the middle.
Just as Dongfang Hongyue was about to follow, Zhang Biyu suddenly held her back.
"Sister Hong Yue, be careful. If you go in alone and they bully you, what will you do? There are a few other chambers here, we can try going into those."
After witnessing the success of Lin Yun and Lin Yu, others also began to scheme.
Wasn’t it just about chopping off the hands and then burning them? That was easy! No need to offer anything of one’s own, and you could still gain mysterious powers. Why wouldn’t they do it?
Previously, the stele had stated that one must sacrifice something to enter a chamber and obtain certain powers, but now they could enter without sacrificing anything. What would the outcome be?
It might not be possible to freeload divine skills, but since they were here, trying it out would not take much time.
So, everyone started forming teams.
Dongfang Hongyue thought it over and agreed. There was no need to follow Lin Yun; Fang Yu and Lin Yu were protection enough for him. It was wiser for her to stay with Zhang Biyu and the others.
To maintain a united front, preparing for the unification of the world that Lin Yun was striving for.
You had to believe in Lin Yun. If he said it was fine, then it would definitely be fine.
"So which one should we tackle?"
From the previous description on the stele, the Heart Chamber was the strongest, offering enlightenment and all divine skills.
There were plenty of takers eyeing the Heart Chamber.
But after some thought, Zhang Biyu said, "Let’s go to the Liver Chamber instead!"
All divine skills and enlightenment did not sound like anything pleasant.
Moreover, given the unclear situation, it was fine to hope for the best but not too optimistically, so it was better to choose something less difficult.
And the all-seeing divine skill was actually very powerful. As for the other eight-legged attribute, the thought of the Spider Woman made Zhang Biyu inwardly reject the idea.
Such an ugly divine skill was not worth having; better dead than that.
After elimination, the divine skill of the Liver Chamber was the most suitable. Besides, if anything went wrong, the worst that could happen would be the loss of vision, which was not a big issue...
