Sacred Souls: Genesis-Chapter 198 - 197: The Voice of the Island (1st Update)

Chapter 198 -197: The Voice of the Island (1st Update)

Save me? What the heck?

Jiang Qiao continuously tried to capture that elusive voice, which kept repeating the phrase “save me” over and over, alternating from initially a woman’s voice to later a man’s voice, and then voices of children, teenagers, and the elderly.

It felt as if millions of people were repeating these three words inside his own head.

Jiang Qiao focused his attention, trying to converse with the voice, but the next thing that popped into his head was… “I really want to eat roast whole lamb, the one from that restaurant with the brushed-on sauce must be delicious.”

Stop it right now! You useless goddess, is there anything in your head other than roast whole lamb?

Jiang Qiao truly wanted to flick Hai Lan on the forehead with his finger, but he couldn’t do that now; one flick and the connection would break. Then, Hai Lan used her strength to prove that she wasn’t only thinking about roast whole lamb.

There were also chips, fried chicken, cola, and… three coordinates.

Coordinates?

Turns out Hai Lan was capable of doing some real work. Jiang Qiao quickly noted down the three coordinates Hai Lan had found. When Jiang Qiao opened his eyes again, the calling voice gradually disappeared from his mind.

The source of this c𝓸ntent is freewebnøvel.coɱ.

“Should we help that side?” Hai Lan opened her eyes, and the first thing she said wasn’t about roast whole lamb.

Jiang Qiao opened up a portal and pulled Hai Lan back to the Astral Tower in the base plane of the spirit entity before they started their conversation.

“We help both sides; I’ve said it before, I want everything on this island.”

Jiang Qiao opened his Book of Systems and the projection of Biland Island materialized before his eyes.

What Hai Lan referred to as ‘help that side’ was actually about making a choice between the Earth Mother Goddess and Biland Island.

The Earth Mother Goddess’s initial request was for Jiang Qiao to purify the Crystal Plague from this island, which was also the main quest Jiang Qiao disclosed to the players at this stage.

But just before, after Hai Lan devoured the core crystal of the Heavenly Frost Dragon, she heard a… cry for help from Biland Island.

This cry for help wasn’t from any creature on Biland Island but the island itself!

The island was calling out for Jiang Qiao’s help, and it had also issued a main quest to Jiang Qiao, those three coordinates.

The three coordinates Hai Lan marked for Jiang Qiao were located in Spiritual Vein Forest, the Crystal Land in the center of Biland Island, and an area Jiang Qiao named Black Soil Swamp.

The coordinates of these three regions formed a line… As for the meaning of these three coordinates, they were places where Biland Island’s consciousness could barely maintain its sanity.

That’s right… maintain sanity. Biland Island had its own thoughts, but it had entered a state of rampage, manifesting as the crystal-infected monsters on the island attacking all living beings indiscriminately.

The Spiritual Vein Forest, Crystal Land in the center of Biland Island, and Black Soil Swamp were areas where the thoughts of Biland Island were still preserved.

That’s why the core crystal of the Spiritual Vein Forest wasn’t inside a monster but was held by the Magic Thieves, and the city established by the Magic Thieves was in the Crystal Land at the heart of Biland Island.

If Biland Island were a god, it would likely resemble a slime monster, with immense learning abilities and uncontrollably absorbing power from this world.

Jiang Qiao wasn’t sure if this was the source of the Crystal Disease, but the Magic Thieves and all those Crystal Disease Infected could be considered followers of Biland Island.

But the consciousness of Biland Island itself was harmless, or more accurately, the idea of ‘wanting to harm others’ was not present in its thoughts at all, just like a newborn baby whose immense power led to an uncontrollable rampage.

Not only its power went rampant, but also its learning ability, as evidenced by the capabilities the Magic Thieves had.

The Magic Thieves endlessly mimicked others’ powers, and sometimes this mimicry harmed the Thieves themselves. Biland Island was currently suffering in this pain…

“So how do we help this… island?” Hai Lan was still unclear about what Jiang Qiao was talking about after his long explanation.

“Just make it fully transform into your follower,” said Jiang Qiao as he flipped through the pages of his Book of Systems. Data lines for the Spiritual Vein Forest, Crystal Land, and Black Soil Swamp on Biland Island appeared one after another.

Assimilation Value 15.1%, Assimilation Value 41.1%, Assimilation Value 0%.

These figures were the Assimilation Values for the Spiritual Vein Forest, Crystal Land, and Black Soil Swamp, respectively.

“Should I be asking what this assimilation value attribute means now?” Hai Lan asked.

“The meaning of this property is… the progress of controlling Biland Island,” Jiang Qiao pondered for a moment before saying.

“You can think of Biland Island as an infant. This baby currently has three stepfathers. The first stepfather is me, the Devouring God, along with the players. The second stepfather is the Magic Thieves. The third stepfather… hasn’t appeared yet. All these stepfathers want the baby, Biland Island, to grow up and become like themselves so they can get their hands on the tens of millions in assets left to the baby by its biological father.”

“What about the gods of this world? They’re more like the nannies, fed up with Biland Island, aren’t we more like assassins hired to kill this baby?” Hai Lan asked.

“We are hired as assassins to kill the baby’s bodyguards, not the baby itself. The gods of this world plan to directly snatch the wealth left by the baby’s biological father! Unlike the Magic Thieves who intend to take the property after taking good care of the baby. But…the bodyguards, that is, the Crystal Disease, won’t allow the gods to do so. Even getting close to the baby could result in the bodyguards killing them,” Jiang Qiao said.

Jiang Qiao didn’t know if Hai Lan had really understood his analogy, but to put it simply… lurking inside Biland Island is a presence that does not belong to this world. However, it is still very weak, so weak it cannot control its own power, to the extent that it is tortured by its mighty force.

The gods of this world want this power, but merely getting close to it could result in being infected by the Crystal Disease. Hence, they send the spiritual beings to weaken the Crystal Disease first, then figure out how to seize the power buried under this island.

Jiang Qiao speculated that sacrificing to the Heavenly Frost Dragon was one of these methods. The Heavenly Frost Dragon is essentially the physical manifestation of Biland Island’s chaotic consciousness. If a shadowy chosen one could control the Heavenly Frost Dragon by some means… it would be tantamount to stealing one-seventh of Biland Island’s power.

“So are we about to… snatch the baby’s property next?” Hai Lan guessed what Jiang Qiao was hinting at.

“Are you dumb? Biland Island itself is a very important resource. The power it holds comes secondary. What we need to do is to become the designated stepfather of the baby! Make it willingly follow us, and then its property will rightfully belong to us!” Jiang Qiao said.

“But the specific method of operation…” Hai Lan pondered as he looked at the three assimilation values.

“Teach Biland Island our view of life and morals, that’s what its cry for help means… Players just need to expand their territories in the Spiritual Vein Forest, recruit new Crystal Disease Infected, or domesticate the island’s creatures as pets, all of which can increase the regional assimilation value. That way, Biland Island will learn the players’ ways of life… no, their ways of existence,” said Jiang Qiao.

Jiang Qiao couldn’t think of Biland Island’s learning as normal learning. The island’s learning is a concept like a natural law, just like the Magic Thieves can imitate the players’ skills without any reason.

Biland Island is also learning the abilities of the Devouring God.

“To put it bluntly, we’re teaching this island how to properly serve as a server. Once it learns, we can directly transfer it to our real world or our inner world,” Jiang Qiao said.

“Will it really go that smoothly? Do the Magic Thieves and other gods know about this?” Hai Lan asked again.

“The Magic Thieves definitely know and they want to dominate the consciousness of Biland Island. The gods, at this stage, simply want to steal the power of Biland Island. It’s just unclear if they will continue to play the role of the cruel stepfather later on,” Jiang Qiao said.

Jiang Qiao glanced at the Black Soil Swamp area on the map. This area was currently undeveloped. As soon as any deity led their people to this area, Biland Island would start to gradually learn from this group of people.

“But we must admit… at the current stage, Biland Island leans more towards the Magic Thieves. I still need to explore the specific ways to improve the assimilation value, but what we need to do next is to greatly encourage players to build strongholds! That much is certainly correct!” Jiang Qiao turned his gaze back to the Spiritual Vein Forest area.

Players have already established thirty-four strongholds in the Spiritual Vein Forest. The assimilation value contributed by these strongholds was visible to Jiang Qiao in the projection.

A stronghold of Cola Fanatic brought great joy to the baby Biland Island, with a significant 5.1% assimilation value, followed by the stronghold of the Dancing Nuclear Guild, at 4.1%.

“The more people infected with the Crystal Disease, the higher the buffs from the various buildings in the stronghold?” Jiang Qiao speculated on the means of increasing the assimilation value.

Jiang Qiao closed the system book in his hands, opened the Sacred Forum, and started browsing a series of messages and intelligence related to Biland Island.

One post caught Jiang Qiao’s attention.

“Built the stronghold but there’s no leaderboard or grading system, incursion events are only triggered once or twice, begging the game designer to spawn some monsters at my stronghold’s gate please, my newly built cannon is going to rust,” poster: Can Xin.

‘Be careful, if they spawn a bunch of lord monsters, they’ll destroy your stronghold.’ respondent: Cruel Moonlight.

‘Never saw such a strange request, a thousand people wrote books to the game designers, asking to spawn monsters to destroy the Abyss Temple’s stronghold.’ respondent: Unappetising Dog Meat

‘Most players build strongholds just to make beautiful houses; personally, I think there should be a stronghold leaderboard system. I want to see what the properties of the strongholds built by the big shots are like.’ respondent: Haskabi.

Jiang Qiao thought about this post. If the monsters on Biland Island were also manifestations of the island’s consciousness, would fighting these monsters and spirits also increase the assimilation value?

“But let’s get the leaderboard up first. We’ll think about the monster sieges later.” Jiang Qiao knew it’s truly dull to play a game without excitement, though there are also plenty of players who enjoy farming.

One thing at a time.