WTNL Chapter 50

Antai Community
Chapter 50: The status of Mother of the World has been obtained

This Granny Wen, at first glance, was a crucial NPC in the entire instance, and the type that issued core quests at that.

After Granny Wen’s voice fell, the phones in the pockets of all the streamers vibrated.

As C-rank streamers, Chen Mo and Wang Hanyu immediately understood that a new quest had been issued.

Their spirits couldn’t help but lift.

This meant they had taken the correct route this time.

“Who stole the Soul-Locking Urns?” Chen Mo stood up and continued to press, “Where should we go to retrieve them?”

“The ones who stole the Soul-Locking Urns are the residents of this building.”

Granny Wen hobbled forward, leaning on her cane, and slowly lit the incense in the censer in front of the Bodhisattva statue.

She lowered her eyes, the corners of her wrinkled mouth trembling slightly: “By actively bringing evil things into their own homes, they not only harmed themselves but also their families.”

In other words, the residents where the family massacres occurred were the ones who stole the Soul-Locking Urns.

“Could it be 1304 and 1306?”

Wang Hanyu paused, subconsciously asking in return.

“…”

Granny Wen sighed, lowered her eyes, and muttered, “The Bodhisattva is merciful.”

Su Cheng thought for a moment and asked, “How many Soul-Locking Urns were lost in total?”

“Three urns.”

Granny Wen said slowly.

The three streamers were all startled.

This meant that there should be another family massacre in this building, only they hadn’t found the location where it happened yet.

“In other words, as long as we find the Soul-Locking Urns and put them back in their original places, all of this will end?”

Wang Hanyu confirmed.

Granny Wen raised her cloudy eyes covered in white cataracts and slowly nodded: “Naturally.”

Since that was the case, their next quest was very clear: find the three stolen Soul-Locking Urns, bring them back here, and let the Bodhisattva suppress the evil spirits once again.

Wang Hanyu and Chen Mo exchanged a glance and nodded.

Su Cheng subconsciously turned his head, searching for Wen Jianyan’s figure.

The young man stood alone at the boundary between light and dark, leaning relaxedly against the doorframe, his eyes slightly raised, gazing at the brass Bodhisattva statue in front of him.

The faint candlelight in front of the Bodhisattva statue fell into the amber depths of his eyes, like splashing flowing fire.

He spoke, breaking the silence:

“Since the Soul-Locking Urns are so dangerous, why would those residents steal them?”

Granny Wen stroked the beaded bracelet on her wrist, her cloudy eyes lowered, and said slowly, “In order to regain their freedom, the evil spirits will impose temptations upon those with weak wills.”

She shook her head, her voice hoarse and aged: “They actively distanced themselves from the Bodhisattva’s blessings and turned their backs on kind thoughts.”

Wang Hanyu spoke up to guarantee, “Granny Wen, believe us, we will bring the Soul-Locking Urns back and put an end to all of this.”

Granny Wen raised her eyes and slowly said:

“Since that is the case, I have something here that should be of use.”

She walked to the chest of drawers next to the Bodhisattva statue and took out a small mahogany box from inside. The lid was pulled open, emitting an ear-piercing sound of friction.

Granny Wen grabbed a handful of incense ash from the censer, muttered something under her breath, and then slowly sprinkled the incense ash into the box.

After doing all this, she took out a palm-sized Bagua mirror from the box.

“This is…?”

Wen Jianyan was startled.

Granny Wen: “You all should have noticed by now that after nightfall, the entire building has undergone changes.”

Indeed.

The original high-rise building with a full thirteen floors was now left with only one floor. The other twelve floors radiated out in all directions with the thirteenth floor as the main axis, changing from a three-dimensional structure to a flat, planar structure.

“Actually, this is the power of the evil spirits altering our world.”

Granny Wen carefully stroked the mirror’s surface with her palm covered in incense ash, making the already dusty mirror surface even dimmer, completely unable to reflect a person’s shadow: “Now, its power has expanded to a point where I can no longer suppress it. The boundary between the underworld and the world of the living has become blurred. In a few more hours, we will be permanently pulled into that world.”

“However… it hasn’t reached that stage just yet.”

Granny Wen looked at the streamers in front of her and slowly said, “The Soul-Locking Urns are no longer on our side right now but are deeply hidden in that world on the opposite side.”

“To retrieve the Soul-Locking Urns, you need to use this mirror to pass through the boundary between Yin and Yang and go to that world to search.”

“This journey is fraught with danger. Are you truly willing?”

“Of course.” The streamers nodded one after another.

Wen Jianyan: “………”

I’m not willing at all.

But do I have a choice!

Granny Wen swept her cloudy eyes around the entire room, then handed the mirror to Wang Hanyu:

“Your spirituality is the strongest, so I will leave this item in your care.”

“Understood.”

Wang Hanyu stepped forward and reached out to take the mirror from Granny Wen’s hands. The moment his fingers touched the mirror, his movements involuntarily paused for a fraction of a second.

Wen Jianyan acutely caught this brief pause from the other party.

…Hmm.

Since that was the case, this mirror must absolutely be a hidden item in this instance.

However, although its rarity was hard to say, it should be either Normal or Hard; the possibility of it being Epic-level wasn’t high.

After explaining how to use the mirror, the group left Granny Wen’s room.

After a brief discussion, they ultimately decided to return along the original path and go to Room 1304, which they had visited once before, to search for a Soul-Locking Urn.

Outside the door, that monster continuously emitting grinding sounds had disappeared. All that remained was an icy, deadly silent corridor. The rice on the floor had completely turned black, the three sticks of incense on it had burned out, and the fruits placed around it had shriveled and rotted.

An unsettling, eerie atmosphere floated in the air.

After leaving the room, Chen Mo tried to contact the other streamers who had scattered earlier.

No response.

This was not a good sign.

The group moved forward with redoubled caution, deeply afraid of running into some terrifying creature jumping out to cause chaos again. Their luck was fairly good; they didn’t encounter any further danger until they returned to the main corridor.

The thirteenth floor had arrived.

Compared to when they had left earlier, the changes to this floor were even greater. The walls on both sides had begun to widen, and the distance across the corridor had stretched out to nearly three times its original width. The doors facing each other, which were originally close at hand, now appeared exceptionally distant.

The lights overhead flickered dimly, faintly carrying an eerie red glow.

But at least the sequence of the house numbers hadn’t changed.

Soon, they arrived at the door of Room 1304.

Chen Mo took a deep breath, steadied his nerves, and slowly reached out to push the door open.

The door silently opened inward.

A strong, rotting stench surged in the air. The four terrifying paper dolls were nowhere to be found, leaving only an empty, pitch-black room.

The four walked inside.

“Are you ready?” Wang Hanyu looked around and said, “I’m starting.”

He pressed his palm against the cold, cloudy surface of the mirror and began to slowly chant the few incantations Granny Wen had taught him.

It didn’t sound like Chinese, nor was it Sanskrit.

The syllables were eerie and bizarre, only able to be memorized by rote. It sounded like some kind of spell, repeated over and over in a deliberately lowered voice, echoing in the dark, narrow room, making one’s spine inexplicably run cold.

Accompanied by the chanting, the temperature in the air plummeted sharply, cutting painfully against their skin like blades.

Distant, fragmented, and blurry sounds rang in their ears, as if the room were crowded with countless wandering ghosts, whispering softly right next to their ears.

The next second, the world spun.

A powerful attractive force emerged from deep within the mirror’s surface, pulling everyone inside!

Su Cheng felt dizzy, and his stomach churned, as if his entire person had been stuffed into a tumbling washing machine and spun several times. He staggered two steps and almost fell over.

His senses slowly returned.

He opened his eyes.

The scene around him didn’t seem any different from before; he was still standing in Room 1304. Yet, it felt as if some earth-shattering change had occurred.

After being stunned for two seconds, Su Cheng finally realized where this anomaly came from.

Everything around him was flipped left to right, as if he were inside a mirror world.

Everything was enveloped in a faint red hue, and a nauseating, eerie smell permeated the air.

Bloody, rotten, and stiffly cold.

“Only by using the mirror can we return to the real world.”

Wang Hanyu carefully tucked the Bagua mirror back into his pocket, turned his head to look at the other members of the squad, and urged, “From here on out, we must act together and absolutely cannot separate. You must stay close by my side. Once separated, we might be trapped here forever.”

Su Cheng felt a chill down his back.

He hurriedly and vigorously nodded his head.

“…”

Wang Hanyu paused, frowned, and scanned the room again before saying with great confusion, “Speaking of which… where is that NPC?”

Su Cheng was startled and quickly turned his head to look.

Only three people were left in the entire room: him, Wang Hanyu, and Chen Mo.

Wen Jianyan, who had been standing right next to him while Wang Hanyu was chanting the spell, had vanished without a trace at some unknown point, leaving not a single clue behind.

Su Cheng: “…”

???

Where did the dog scammer go?

The world spun, and dizziness washed over him.

This feeling was truly too familiar; it was almost exactly the same as every time he entered a hidden route.

However, there was one thing completely different.

Amidst the dizziness, Wen Jianyan could clearly feel that on his wrist, the patch of skin wrapped in bandages was astonishingly hot, like magma surging and flowing beneath the skin, as if it were about to burn from the inside out.

…So hot.

Wen Jianyan gritted his teeth and subconsciously reached out his other hand to grip his wrist, hoping to alleviate the terrifying heat radiating from the inside out.

Soon, the dizziness disappeared.

Thud!

Wen Jianyan fell heavily from top to bottom onto the floor.

The expected hardness and pain didn’t arrive as anticipated; on the contrary… the floor beneath his body seemed a bit strange.

Soft, sticky, and damp.

He blinked.

His blurry vision slowly cleared up bit by bit.

Upon seeing where he was, Wen Jianyan’s face went white for a moment, and his stomach immediately churned.

Everywhere he looked, there was an expanse of scarlet.

This space wasn’t large, just about the size of an apartment.

At some unknown point, the floor and walls had turned into bloody, soft walls of flesh. Wet, viscous, and squirming like living creatures, the bottom of the walls throbbed like a heart. It was like some kind of lifeform, slimy and instinctively evoking a strong sense of disgust.

In the distance, near the opposite wall, seven pitch-black, palm-sized black clay jars were neatly arranged on the ground. However, closer to the right side, there was clearly an empty space—visually, just enough to place three more black clay jars.

A strong smell of blood emanated from that direction.

In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:

[?]

[?????]

[What’s going on? Wasn’t he just in 1304?]

[And those jars look so familiar… Does this also seem like a place in this instance? But why can’t I remember it?]

[Fuck, those jars are the Soul-Locking Urns that weren’t stolen! That means… this is actually the inner world of 1316?!]

[Good heavens, up until now, there have been barely any streamers who entered the surface world of 1316, let alone its inner world.]

[Isn’t that obvious? The outside is covered in chains and talismans, looking extremely fierce at a glance. How could any streamer be willing to go in?]

The lids on top of the seven jars simultaneously started to click and flip up and down, as if something inside were trying to push the lids open.

Clack, clack.

The familiar, scalp-tingling sound of bone friction rang out from within.

Ghastly pale hands reached out from the bowl-sized openings, followed by emaciated, spindly arms.

“!!!”

Wen Jianyan gasped, uncontrollably backing away step by step.

This, isn’t this the exact same monster that had been chasing them ever since it crawled out of the mirror in the corridor just now?!

Back then, just one almost claimed their lives, but now he had seven in front of him!!

…Fuck me!

There were squirming scarlet-flesh walls everywhere here, no doors or windows, and nowhere to hide. All his skills were on cooldown. Even with the Medical License to save his life once, Wen Jianyan couldn’t guarantee he would find a way to escape within the next minute.

Wen Jianyan stared intently at the ghost hands reaching out from the jars in the distance, subconsciously lightening his breathing.

He still had the item [Holy Infant], which might give him a chance for a desperate struggle.

Suddenly, without any warning, Wen Jianyan felt something soft grab his ankle.

The next second, more soft and sticky things coiled around him from behind, and then violently yanked him backwards!

Wen Jianyan’s pupils shrank.

Countless scarlet tentacles extended from the squirming wall, firmly pinning him against it. They slowly contracted and pulsed, swallowing him bit by bit. The liquid secreted by the wall seemed corrosive; accompanied by a sizzling sound, the clothes on Wen Jianyan’s upper body began to melt.

The ghost hands grew longer and longer—

Clack, clack.

Clack, clack.

The ear-piercing sound of grinding bones echoed in the narrow space.

Motherfucker, if I don’t use it now, there won’t be another chance!

Wen Jianyan gritted his teeth fiercely.

[Holy Infant’s Remains: Awakened]

A tiny, entirely snow-white infant floated in mid-air. It opened its eyes and looked at Wen Jianyan with irises of the same color, its gaze full of admiration and attachment.

“Mommy.”

The infant reached out its chubby arms, revealing a joyful smile at him.

The next second, the wall that had been trying to devour Wen Jianyan suddenly stiffened. It stopped squirming, as if it had touched fire, and abruptly released the young man whose aura had changed.

[Identity of Mother of the World acquired, duration: 30s]

Wen Jianyan leaped up. His fair, lean upper body was left with only tattered rags, and his skin had been corroded to a pale red color. But he ignored the pain and charged fiercely toward a direction on the wall.

From the moment the item was activated, the young man’s eyes had turned a deep pitch black, like a bottomless abyss, releasing a chilling, ghastly aura outward.

Wen Jianyan could now “see” the door.

However, time was tight.

He raised his hand, pressed it against the wall, and gritted his teeth: “Get out of my way.”

The flesh wall squirmed unwillingly, parting to both sides under his command, struggling to bit by bit reveal a cold, heavy black iron door.

In his ears, the countdown silently ticked away.

[15, 14, 13…]

Only a dozen seconds left.

No, there’s not enough time.

Wen Jianyan gritted his teeth viciously.

He raised his other hand and pressed it firmly against the squirming wall.

The bandage wrapped around his wrist had been completely corroded away. On his slender, lean wrist, the pitch-black talisman writhed like a living creature baring its fangs and brandishing its claws, meandering beneath his fair skin.

The wall, which had been struggling and resisting under the influence of the [Mother of the World] identity, suddenly stopped moving.

“Who… are… you?”

A bizarre and stiff voice echoed throughout the space, speaking word by word as if it were not very proficient in speaking.

“Father God…”

Wen Jianyan was startled: “…?”

What?

“What is your… relationship…”

“…with him…”

The countdown in his ear continued.

[8, 7, 6…]

Five seconds.

Not enough to escape.

…I have to change my method.

At this instant, Wen Jianyan remembered.

In the last instance, even after the Mother of the World buff disappeared, that man still said—”The scent has changed.”

In other words, even if he lost the power after the countdown ended, the aura on his body should still remain for a period of time.

If that was the case…

There was a loophole to exploit.

Wen Jianyan made a prompt decision.

He withdrew his hand and slowly took a deep breath.

The young man’s slender upper body was bare; the pale red scars and pitch-black runes intertwined and spread across his fair skin, looking eerie yet harmonious, possessing an abused kind of aesthetic.

“I am the Mother of the World; he is the Father God.”

Wen Jianyan stood in place and lightly raised his eyes. Beneath his long eyelashes, his eyes were as black as ink, and a chilling ghostly aura tumbled within them. He looked as if he had completely detached from the realm of humans.

He slightly hooked the corners of his lips, lifting a casual arc, and asked back with a beaming smile:

“Take a guess at what our relationship is?”

__

Author’s Note:

Wen Jianyan: We’re actually in that kind of relationship (hint)

The gong who just got stabbed straight through the heart in the last instance:
Care to elaborate?