Chapter 78: Clash of Faiths
The girl’s eyelashes fluttered for a moment before she slowly, and with difficulty, opened her eyes.
When she realized the location around her had changed again, a trace of confusion appeared in her gaze. But when her eyes landed on Xu Zhi, her brows furrowed, and that confusion gave way to resistance.
She instinctively harbored hostility toward Xu Zhi, a natural malice that zealots bore toward transcendents. Yet deep within, she also felt a strange sense of closeness toward this pretty young woman in front of her. Even a faint belief that Xu Zhi was someone important—someone she should listen to.
But… that wasn’t right.
A violent sense of rejection surged up, so intense that her body reacted to it. She began to feel dizzy, nauseous, and emotionally unstable, overwhelmed with guilt for the perceived weakness in her faith.
Like… should she kill this person who was causing her to waver?
No, no, how could she think of killing her?
No—she should kill her!
Conflicting thoughts wrestled in her mind, giving her a splitting headache and overwhelming inner turmoil. Her body, already in constant pain since having her internal organs removed, was wracked by even more suffering.
She even had a fleeting thought: Maybe dying would be easier.
But right now, she didn’t even have the right to end her life.
Thanks to her transcendent abilities, her vitality was far more tenacious than an average zealot’s. Even with her organs nearly gone, she was still alive. Suicide by biting her tongue wasn’t even an option. In fact, she couldn’t even sit up—so what method could she possibly use to end it all?
Xu Zhi could clearly see Yu Shenwei’s pain, her wavering spirit, and her total lack of will to live.
She frowned. This state wouldn’t do. She needed to think of a solution.
After some thought, Xu Zhi came up with a rather lousy idea.
“You probably can’t die yet, but I can help ease your pain—like, say, get your internal organs back. How about that?”
If eyeballs could be reattached, why not organs?
Yu Shenwei was so lost in her pain that she didn’t hear a word Xu Zhi said. Xu Zhi had to gently slap her face to pull her out of her mental spiral, then repeated herself.
She then saw Yu Shenwei’s lips move, as if trying to speak—but no sound came out.
That’s when Xu Zhi belatedly realized: Oh, right. The girl lacked the vocal organs needed to produce sound—even if her tongue and throat were intact, she couldn’t speak.
Now you decide to be anatomically accurate?
“Ugh.”
“If you want to get better, blink twice.”
The girl obediently blinked twice. Seeing that, Xu Zhi laid out her condition: “Then you’ll have to listen to me from now on.”
She knew this sort of verbal agreement didn’t mean much. It was meant more as a psychological suggestion to deepen the girl’s subconscious reliance.
As expected, Yu Shenwei didn’t immediately agree. Instead, her face once again showed visible resistance.
She wanted to be free of her suffering—but she couldn’t betray her faith.
Then Xu Zhi leaned closer and whispered a line that, to the girl, sounded like pure blasphemy:
“Think about it—your faith only brings you pain. But I… I can save you.”
Yu Shenwei instinctively rejected this idea. Her faith wasn’t the cause of her pain—it was her kindred who inflicted it. Her pain had value. She could sacrifice for the cause.
Even if she was about to break from it all.
But until she completely shattered, she wouldn’t abandon her belief.
Xu Zhi saw the determination in her eyes. Though there were signs of wavering, the girl wouldn’t change her mind yet. But that determination… it looked fragile. Xu Zhi could tell: she was close to breaking.
After all, what once was only physical torment had now become spiritual as well. And if, at her most desperate moment, her faith still offered no comfort—what was left but collapse?
Then Xu Zhi could swoop in and help her rebuild a new belief system—one under her control.
Xu Zhi understood too well the mindset of someone drowning in numbness and pain, even longing for death as an escape. The choice was clear: either put them out of their misery—or pull them out of the mire.
She wasn’t going to sit back and watch this girl rot. No—she was taking over both the person, and the rotting heart inside her.
Xu Zhi didn’t sleep that night. She didn’t need to anymore.
The storage room was filled with books. After months of study, she had crammed a great deal of knowledge into her brain. Though still just a fraction of what a full library held, these past two months had given her more than a decade of life ever had.
Still… it wasn’t enough. She wouldn’t stop here.
The next day, Zhen got lucky and found a black fruit.
After checking her follower’s evolution points, Xu Zhi decided to feed it the fruit, hoping it could reach level 25 quickly.
She told Huo Ze they wouldn’t be going out today. With the saint still unconscious, she stayed in the room and fed the black fruit to the strange creature.
Xu Zhi carefully observed the changes after the second fruit. It still looked like a blackened tree branch, but faint, fragmented patterns had started to form along its surface—though they were too shallow and dark to see clearly.
Maybe as it evolves more, those patterns will become visible?
About two hours later, the creature awoke—still looking like a twig, but now with an extra branch sprouting from its head.
Xu Zhi couldn’t tell much from its appearance, so she pulled out her console to check its stats.
[Follower: Aberrant Species Lv. 26
Mind: 60
Body: 7200
Attribute: Cup
Traits: Bloodthirst Lv8; Stealth Lv6; Agility Lv7; Strength Lv7; Pain Tolerance Lv8; Restlessness Lv1; Evolution Lv3
Special Abilities: Seed of Parasite, Transformation]
Its evolution level hadn’t increased, but its body stat was nearly 10,000. Xu Zhi had a hunch—once it reached level 30, its body would break past that threshold.
Its mind stat, on the other hand, was still laughably low. Practically brain-dead. But under special abilities, a new one had appeared:
[Congratulations, your follower has gained a special ability: Transformation]
[Transformation: An unknown transformation has begun and cannot be reversed. Until it fully takes shape, no one can know what it will become. All you can do is wait.]
“…What the hell does that mean?”
Was that just a riddle?
[Congratulations. Due to certain circumstances, you’ve gained a chance to extract a follower trait.]
Xu Zhi thought about it. She decided not to extract from the aberrant species—it had that Restlessness trait, and what if she got that?
So she picked Yi instead—aside from the aberrant, Yi had the highest level. Unfortunately, the trait she extracted was a duplicate: Strength.
“Don’t I get anything for duplicates?”
[No.]
Perfect. Cold and heartless—just the way she liked it.
How did she stay up the night? Is she already awake during midnight?