Just as Lin Xun was about to take out Kim, the Hellish game displayed text.

[Kim’s incessant rambling woke the sleeping maggot-person…]

[The Ascended Maggot-person slowly opened its eyes. Seeing Kim’s appearance, it screamed in terror, shouting ‘demon,’ and scrambled to crawl out of the spirit temple.]

[Kim spread his hands. With a flash, he grabbed the maggot-person who was about to reach the door and dragged it back before the divine idol.]

[The maggot-person struggled repeatedly, but how could it be a match for Kim? Its four limbs were quickly bound. The maggot-person could not suppress its trembling all over, and deep fear showed in its eyes.]

[It suddenly saw you, who were also a maggot-person, and hurriedly asked you for help.]

[Will you help the maggot-person escape Kim’s clutches?]

Lin Xun realized that this choice likely pertained to side quests of the two oath factions.

Helping the maggot-person should grant some rewards related to Ascension or to the side of the Desire Wet Nurse.

To be honest, Lin Xun had little favorable impression of either the Desire Wet Nurse or Kim.

One freeloaded the shell he sacrificed, and one snatched away the crops he was about to reap.

Although neither seemed to harbor subjective malice, the Desire Wet Nurse granted him the qualification for pilgrimage audience and Kim went to the hatchery to rescue him, yet objectively they did cause him losses.

He narrowed his eyes and decided to eat from both sides.

[…]

[Kim signaled the maggot-person to calm down, but the maggot remained screaming in terror. Unable to tolerate such noise before the idol of its Lord, he reached out and knocked it unconscious.]

[At once, the whole world fell silent…]

[Kim looked at the maggot-person, then at you, and sighed. “Now you know why it thought you were special, right?”]

[“Among maggot-people with unsound minds, you are truly a breath of fresh air.”]

[After sighing for a while, Kim asked how your consideration was going.]

[“Having witnessed the War Hatchery and the Fuzzy Feather Altar, you should clearly understand that in the eyes of the Despicable Ones, you so-called children are nothing but cannon fodder for war and livestock for live sacrifice.”]

[“Drawing near to the Despicable Ones, your final end is to be exploited to death. Even your corpse after death must be reclaimed for sacrifice, and your soul will become food for the Despicable Ones…”]

[The Aberrant Missionary Kim extends an oath invitation to you. Will you bow before the idol and swear the oath of the Primordial Firefly?]

[You slowly shook your head, refused Kim’s invitation, and sincerely explained that you needed to think again. Tentacle City is so vast, you want to go have a look…]

[Kim stared at you as if looking at an idiot for a long time, then shrugged, saying he took back what he just said. Among maggot-people with unsound minds, you are the most unsound of all.]

[Seeing your stubborn and resolute look, Kim sighed helplessly. “Foolish maggot-person, if you insist on courting death, even kindhearted Kim cannot stop you.”]

[He tossed you a membrane wing covered with many lines and markings.]

[You obtained the Incomplete Tentacle City Map (map)!]

[You unrolled the transparent membrane wing in your hand and saw that two locations were recorded on it…]

[You learned the exact location of the Border Prison.]

[You learned the exact location of the Crawler Tribe.]

[Kim watched your departing back, hesitated for a moment, and finally called out to you.]

[He took out a faintly glowing stone from beneath his black robe and tossed it to you.]

[You obtained Kim’s Firefly Stone (item)!]

[Kim’s Firefly Stone (item): A strange stone that glimmers with a faint light, somewhat similar in material to the gem set at the tail of the small idol of the Primordial Firefly.]

[Use this item and the Aberrant Missionary Kim will lock onto your current position and rush over to save you from peril. Remaining uses 3/3]

Lin Xun started, carefully reading the item description.

This missionary Kim, though foul-mouthed, did not seem to be a bad person.

Of course, the reason Kim did this was most likely because he was a ‘fellow believer’ worth cultivating.

[You left the Firefly Spirit Temple and blew the Courier Mole Cricket Summoning Short Flute…]

[Soon the Courier Mole Cricket burrowed up from the ground and appeared before you…]

[Please choose your destination.]

[1. Audience Ravine]

[2. Tentacle City Station]

[3. War Hatchery]

[4. Fuzzy Feather Altar]

[5. Border Prison]

[6. Crawler Tribe]

After a brief thought, Lin Xun pressed the first option, ‘Audience Ravine.’

[The Courier Mole Cricket burrowed into the ground and headed for the destination…]

[…]

The Audience Ravine was quite far from the underground divine kingdom, and it took about forty minutes of travel to reach the destination.

[The tremor subsided. You have arrived at the Audience Ravine…]

[The land was desolate and bleak, and no living creature could be seen within sight.]

[Gray bright light filtered through the layers of dark clouds, and it seemed the whole world was left with only this single hue.]

[…]

Lin Xun had originally planned to find an opportunity to contact the maggot-person while Kim was away from the spirit temple.

But now there was a better chance.

He opened the inventory and clicked an item.

[You took out a strange stone that glimmered with a faint light…]

[You used Kim’s Firefly Stone (item)!]

[The Aberrant Missionary Kim has locked onto your current position and is rushing here with all his might…]

He clicked the Courier Mole Cricket Summoning Short Flute again and boarded the Courier Mole Cricket.

This time the destination was the Firefly Spirit Temple!

The traveling speed of the Courier Mole Cricket was about the same. The missionary Kim would need at least forty minutes to reach this place.

By the time Kim arrived at the Audience Ravine, Lin Xun would already have reached the Firefly Spirit Temple.

He had ample time to gain benefits from that Ascended Maggot-person.

[…]

[You pushed open the old, broken door of the spirit temple and stepped inside.]

[The Missionary Kim was nowhere to be seen. Only a maggot-person bound tightly remained in the spirit temple.]

[The maggot-person had been placed by Kim upon a long bench and was still unconscious.]

[You patted the maggot-person’s face and roused it from sleep…]

[The Ascended Maggot-person slowly opened its eyes and glanced around. Seeing only you, it let out a sigh of relief.]

[It motioned for you to untie it quickly and flee the demon’s spirit temple as soon as possible, lest that demon return.]

[Will you untie it?]

[You untied the ropes on the maggot-person and took it out of the spirit temple…]

[The maggot-person told you that the great Desire Wet Nurse had given it the duty of going to the front lines of war to fight the demons.]

[But unfortunately, it had not inherited true Ascension power and had become a maggot-person of no use at all.]

[As a worthless maggot-person, the only outcome is to be expelled from the divine kingdom…]

[It does not want to leave the divine kingdom. It wants to stay in the divine kingdom…]

[Halfway through speaking, the Ascended Maggot-person suddenly stopped. It sized you up from head to toe, its gaze thoughtful…]

[The maggot-person told you it remembered a place where one could obtain true Ascension power. If it wanted to remain in the divine kingdom, it must go there to cast off the identity of a maggot-person.]

[You and it are both maggot-people and should help each other. It will take you there right now. When both you and it have become excellent children of the Desire Wet Nurse, you can go to the front lines together to fight the demons…]

[Will you travel with the Ascended Maggot-person?]

[You blew the Courier Mole Cricket Summoning Short Flute. Soon the Courier Mole Cricket appeared before you…]

[The maggot-person urged you to sit into its abdominal cavity…]

[The Courier Mole Cricket burrowed into the ground, and its abdominal cavity plunged into darkness…]

[…]

The place the maggot-person spoke of, ‘where one could obtain true Ascension power,’ was not far from the spirit temple.

After only a few minutes of travel, they reached the destination.

[The tremor subsided, and the abdominal flesh membrane opened…]

[Before your eyes was a very familiar underground space. The ground was covered with gray-white feathery scale powder, and in the distance stood a circular altar built of megaliths.]

[You have arrived at the Fuzzy Feather Altar!]

[The maggot-person quickly stepped out of the abdominal cavity and looked toward the altar. The colossal being that had originally been there, the Cocoon of Mourning, had exploded into a field of flesh and blood fragments…]

[The maggot-person stared blankly at the fresh bloodstains on the ground, then suddenly collapsed to the ground, wailing…]

[“How did it die? How could the Cocoon of Mourning be dead!”]

[“The bloodstains were still fresh. The Cocoon of Mourning had died only a short while ago…”]

[“Right, it must have been that demon. The demon had just left in a panic, so it came here to kill the Cocoon of Mourning…”]

[It turned its head, crying as it blamed you. It is all your fault! Why couldn’t you have come to save it earlier?]

[If you had saved it earlier, it could have traded with the Cocoon of Mourning for true Ascension power…]

[Now that the Cocoon of Mourning is dead, how is it supposed to cast off the identity of a maggot-person?!]

[The maggot-person cried loudly, seemingly having lost its reason. No matter how you tried to persuade it, it was of no use…]

[…]

Lin Xun narrowed his eyes.

This maggot-person had brought him to the Fuzzy Feather Altar, clearly intending to offer a sacrifice to the Cocoon of Mourning in exchange for Ascension power.

As for who would be sacrificed, aside from him, the savior of the maggot-person, there was no second candidate here.

“A farmer and a snake indeed…”

At present he had two choices.

One was to directly kill the maggot-person and end the event here. He might not receive a reward, at most obtaining a maggot-person shell.

The second was to continue the event until it concluded and the Hellish game granted rewards.

Naturally, Lin Xun chose the second option.

However, the maggot-person seemed to have lost its mind, whimpering incessantly and muttering about Ascension, Ascension…

Aside from appeasing it and leaving, the Hellish game offered no other options.

He frowned in thought and soon found a way to resolve the current situation.

He opened the inventory and clicked an item.

[You took out a glass bottle filled with blood, within which floated tiny egg-shaped objects.]

[Seeing the Ritual Blood in your hand, the maggot-person’s crying stopped abruptly.]

[Ritual Blood (Ruined-grade item): … By using this item, you will have a certain chance to enter the first stage of Ascension! Please note, Ascension can fail. Please use this item with caution!]

Lin Xun clicked another item in the inventory.

[You then took out a palm-sized small idol, whose form was the Desire Wet Nurse nursing her ‘child,’ cherished like a treasure.]

[Small Statue of the Desire Wet Nurse (item): … By using this item, you will devoutly pray to the Desire Wet Nurse, thereby slightly increasing the chance of successful Ascension.]

[The maggot-person fixed its greedy eyes on the two items in your hands.]

[It asked whether you could give it the Ritual Blood and the Small Idol.]

[You shook your head and told it that to obtain these two items for Ascension, it must pay the corresponding price.]

[The maggot-person seemed tempted and looked as if it wanted to snatch them, but after hesitating, it did not act.]

[Its eyes flickered, and only after a long time did it reluctantly speak…]

[As a newly born child of the hatchery, it was indeed an eliminated product of failed mutation.]

[Originally, every child at birth would obtain Ascension power from the Desire Wet Nurse, as well as many combat memories.]

[Having failed mutation, it did not receive innate power, but it did get something extra.]

[It was a coordinate position that had been forgotten by others. It did not know what was hidden there, only that the destination lay deep underground.]

[It could trade this unknown coordinate position for the two Ascension items with you.]

[Will you make a deal with the Ascended Maggot-person?]

“So the reward is a hidden map…”

Lin Xun pressed ‘Yes,’ agreeing to the deal.

[You traded the Ritual Blood and the Small Idol to the maggot-person. After taking the two items, it kept its word and told you the unknown coordinates hidden deep underground…]

[You learned the exact location of the Abandoned Ancient Nest.]

[After telling you the coordinates, the maggot-person ignored you and turned to study the Ritual Blood in its hand.]

[Will you leave this place?]

[Just as you were about to leave, the maggot-person quickly stood up and blocked your way.]

[It said you should not be in such a rush. Since you just completed a pleasant deal, how about another one?]

[It planned to begin Ascension immediately, but worried that during the Ascension process that so-called ‘Kim’ the demon would come here.]

[How about this: if the demon appears, you help hold him off for a while until its Ascension ends. As payment, it will tell you another coordinate position hidden deep underground…]

[Of course, if the demon does not appear, all the better. After its Ascension ends, it will still pay you.]

[Will you make a deal with the Ascended Maggot-person?]

Lin Xun let out a long sigh.

“I originally thought there were more event flags on you. Now it seems… there are probably none.”

He clicked ‘Yes,’ agreeing to the deal again.

[The maggot-person ignored you, opened the glass bottle filled with Ritual Blood, and poured the entire bottle of blood into its body.]

[It tossed aside the empty bottle, then carefully cupped the Small Statue of the Desire Wet Nurse and prayed devoutly, silently reciting a litany…]

[As the worship proceeded, its silent prayer slowly turned into muffled groans of pain, then gradually into shrill cries of agony.]

[The Ascended Maggot-person could no longer maintain the posture of worship. It pounded the ground incessantly as the skin of its body slowly molted away, replaced by a gray-white hardened carapace…]

[Its black-and-white eyes changed into pure-black compound eyes, filled with honeycomb-like hexagonal facets.]

[Its two lips began to transform as well, becoming a hideous chewing mouthpart.]

[The Ascended Maggot-person stood up. No, it should now be called the Ascended Scytheblade.]

[It stared at its right arm, which had transformed into a scythe blade, and burst into loud laughter. So this is Ascension power? It is truly wonderful!]

[The Ascended Scytheblade looked at you and offered an earnest thanks. Maggot-person, it is very grateful that you witnessed its Ascension rite.]

[But unfortunately, there is only one set of coordinates hidden underground, and it has already told you that one.]

[As payment, or rather compensation, it decided to give you another gift…]

[The Ascended Scytheblade suddenly lunged at you, its right-limb scythe flashing with a razor-cold gleam…]

[The gift is… death!]

[Your true essence surged through your whole body. With a slight sidestep you avoided its fatal strike.]

[As the Ascended Scytheblade slashed madly, it laughed wildly.]

[But before the laughter could escape, a fierce sword light pierced through its mouthpart and stuffed the rampant laughter back in.]

[The sword light crisscrossed, quickly turning it into a sieve.]

[The Ascended Scytheblade slowly collapsed, its four limbs twitching. It stared at you in disbelief and murmured that you, you were clearly just a lowly maggot-person.]

[And it had already mastered true Ascension power. How could this be, how could this be…]

[You defeated the Ascended Scytheblade. Experience increased slightly!]

[You obtained Weak Spirit Essence of Steadfast Will ×1]

[You looked at the corpse lying dead on the ground…]

[Ascended Scytheblade: This shell, once a ‘failed mutation’ maggot-person, actually succeeded in ascending into a Scytheblade after being infused with the lowest-grade Ritual Blood. One must say it was truly a lucky one. Yet what the maggot-person did not know was that its mutation in the hatchery had not failed at all, but had instead achieved unprecedented success. Compatibility 86% (+55%)]

[Will you possess this shell?]

“Eh?”

“Could it be that there is some secret hidden on this shell?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com