Yun Shu raised her right hand and tapped lightly in the void.
【Premium Outfit Preview for the Permanent Gacha: Floating Dream Set, Heavenly Balance Set, Mystic Sound of the Nine Heavens Set, Sword Sovereign of the Nine Heavens Set, Peerless National Beauty Set...】
In a space invisible to others, a translucent pink wheel spun rapidly before slowly coming to a halt.
【Congratulations, Host, for obtaining the Floating Dream Set - Handheld Component (1/6): Orchid of the Blue Void.】
【Component Description: An orchid born in the blue void, a vessel for spiritual essence. Can heal all wounds (48-hour cooldown).】
【Set Skill: Collect all components to unlock the Medical Encyclopedia and Dream Entry skills.】
Yun Shu looked at the description on the system panel.
“What a perfect tool for playing god!” she thought.
With this, she could pull off an even grander performance to solidify her status as a goddess and continue harvesting Shock Value.
The refugees were still fleeing, but at the edge of the chaotic crowd, a little girl suddenly stopped.
She was too thin, like a piece of withered firewood, her ribs clearly visible beneath her tattered clothes.
She couldn't run anymore.
Or rather, she no longer had the strength to run because of the hunger.
She looked at the yellow earth beneath her feet.
There lay a fish—one that had just been trampled by the fleeing refugees. Its belly was upturned, its gills crushed, and it was gasping its final breath.
The little girl lunged at it.
Without hesitation, her small, thin hands grabbed the fish. Not even caring about the mud and sand clinging to it, she brought it to her mouth and bit down hard.
Fish blood, thick with a briny scent, flowed from the corner of her mouth, dripping down her cracked chin.
She devoured the raw fish meat ravenously, a muffled swallowing sound echoing in her throat.
On the other side, Shen Yu watched this scene. His grip on the reins tightened, his eyes filled with a complex emotion.
His brother was right.
This world of man-eating cruelty was sick to its core.
The refugees saw the little girl’s actions and wanted to grab the fish on the ground as well, but no one dared to move.
Those were the followers of the Mountain Goddess!
A woman stumbled toward the little girl.
Seeing her daughter looking like neither human nor ghost, she suddenly covered her face and crouched down. Her shoulders shook violently, yet she made no sound and shed no tears.
Her tears had long since run dry.
Her husband had been conscripted to repair a river embankment last year and never returned.
The villagers said that section of the embankment collapsed, burying over a hundred people. She hadn't even seen her husband’s bones.
This year’s fields were first hit by drought, then by floods, and finally, a swarm of locusts picked them clean.
The imperial taxes grew heavier with each passing year.
The county bailiffs had come last month and seized the last half-bag of coarse grain from her home, claiming she owed the “Equalization Tax.”
She had knelt on the ground and begged, only to be kicked aside. Her forehead had slammed against the threshold, and blood had covered her face.
With no other choice, she could only flee the famine with her children.
Her eldest son had starved to death on the road. She and her second son had dug the pit and buried him with their own hands.
Did it hurt? Yes.
But eventually, the pain faded into nothingness.
It was like a rope cutting into flesh; if it stayed there long enough, the flesh would rot, and the pain would no longer be felt.
“Mother, this fish can be eaten,” the little girl said, handing the dying carp to the woman.
“Let’s take it back and cook it for Second Brother. Maybe if he eats the fish, his illness will get better.”
The woman pulled the little girl back. “San Ya, if your brother can’t make it, then that is his fate.”
“We absolutely cannot eat this carp. They are the followers of the Mountain Goddess. If we eat them, we will be struck by divine punishment!”
She made a move to snatch the fish away, but the little girl held onto it tightly, refusing to let go. “Mother, then let me be struck by divine punishment! I don’t want Second Brother to die!”
While the mother and daughter were arguing, Yun Shu suddenly stood up from the blue stone.
Seeing her approach, the woman’s face turned deathly pale.
Without a second thought, she shielded the little girl, pressing her entire body to the ground with her forehead touching the mud.
“Mountain Goddess, have mercy! The child is young and doesn't know better. If you must kill someone, kill me, but please spare her...”
The woman’s body shook like a leaf, yet she still desperately protected the little girl behind her.
Yun Shu stopped, her skirts fluttering gracefully.
She looked down at the mother and daughter, at the woman’s hunched back, at the girl’s skeletal arms, and at the mangled fish.
Appearing as a deity devoid of human emotion, her expression remained unchanged.
Her eyes were as cold as water, the corners of her lips were level, and even the rhythm of her breathing was perfectly steady.
The twilight draped her in a layer of thin gold, her sleeves hanging like still clouds—untouched by dust, unmoved by thought.
But only she knew.
Beneath her long sleeves, her nails were digging into her palms.
It hurt.
This pain.
It reminded her of a river in her memories.
White foam floated on the murky river surface, and the banks were covered in dense, impenetrable jungle. She had crouched in the grass by the river, a leech biting her neck, but she hadn't dared to move.
Ten meters away, a child was tied to a wooden stake.
That child’s eyes were exactly like the little girl’s before her—filled with terror, despair, and a desperate will to live.
She knew the child was bait.
She also knew that if she rushed out to save the child, not only would she and her teammates die without a trace, but the efforts and sacrifices of everyone involved would also go to waste.
At that time, she had held her gun and didn't move, watching as that child went from a living human to a heap of mangled flesh.
That was her first mission, and the event had caused her immense psychological trauma. It took her two years before her hands stopped shaking and she could hold a gun again.
Later, she went to the Golden Triangle.
The more she experienced, the harder her heart became.
Even her mentor said her methods were too extreme, but how could someone walking in the abyss remain unaffected?
“Mountain Goddess, please show mercy...”
The woman kowtowed to Yun Shu over and over. Her skin was already broken and bleeding, but she didn't dare stop.
Yun Shu looked at the fearful faces around her, knowing her goal had been achieved.
The refugees were completely cowed by what had just happened. Currently, they were filled with terror and awe toward her.
It was time to give them a carrot.
Taming the human heart always required the blade before the sugar.
“We can’t survive anymore... Great and Merciful Divine Lady, please, save us...”
“Divine Lady, please, save my son...”
“Please, show us a way to live...”
No one knew who spoke first, but soon, cries and pleas rose like a tide.
The ragged refugees knelt in a massive crowd, bowing incessantly to the woman in white.
Some kowtowed until their foreheads bled, while others held up their skeletal children as high as they could...
Praying to receive Her pity.
“All living beings suffer.”
“This mortal world is an endless sea of suffering,” the Divine Lady sighed softly, a trace of compassion appearing in her eyes.
“Very well. Seeing as you are not wicked people, I shall make an exception this once.”
She slowly raised her right hand, palm upward, and a stalk of orchid that looked otherworldly manifested out of thin air in her palm.
The orchid was entirely jade-green, its leaves curling like clouds, and at its tip bloomed a snow-white flower. It shimmered with light, as if it had gathered all the pure essence of heaven and earth.
Then, she gently waved the orchid.
The radiance on the petals suddenly flared, transforming into points of golden light rain that drifted down from the sky.
It fell upon the dying carp.
It fell upon the mother and daughter.
It fell upon the surrounding refugees.
The golden light entered their bodies.
The carp’s wounds healed at a pace visible to the naked eye. Its scales became glossy again, and with a flick of its tail, it actually broke free from the little girl’s arms, jumped into the stream, and swam away.
The other carp on the ground also leaped back into the stream one after another.
“An immortal... she really is an immortal...”
Shen Da and Shen Er’s gasps of shock rang in his ears, but Shen Yu didn't hear a single word.
He had read the books of sages since childhood and never believed in ghosts or gods.
However, the incredible miracle before him completely shattered twenty years of his beliefs.
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