Chapter 64: The Void King
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 64: The Void King
Hearing those words, Xie Bai felt a flicker of confusion.
"What do you mean? Is 'shadow' some kind of special metaphor?"
In response to her inquiry, the voice offered an explanation.
"In this space, shadows are the projection of all your suffering. Only by slaying these hardships and turning them into the power for your apotheosis can you fully inherit the Godhead of Void. But why is it that there isn't a single shadow behind you right now? Logically speaking, since you wear the Ring of Seven Curses, you should have endured countless tribulations to reach this point."
Hearing this, Xie Bai couldn't help but ask, "Um... is wearing the Ring of Seven Curses supposed to be that painful? I felt like it was actually quite easy."
The moment she said it, she felt a palpable beat of silence from the other side.
"What do you mean? I personally designed the Ring of Seven Curses. As long as you're wearing it, your early game should have been set to a 'Hell Mode' of maximum difficulty."
"Uh... could you be more specific?"
"Have you really not run into any trouble this whole time? Fine, let me explain it to you first."
After hearing a heavy sigh, Xie Bai was met with a long string of explanations.
"First of all, since you possess the Ring of Seven Curses, you are hated by the world itself. You should have started with no class, no talents, and no equipment—a completely blank slate. Not only that, your Luck stat should be negative. This dictates that you can only obtain weapons and equipment through guaranteed drops by killing bosses in high-difficulty dungeons. Until then, you should have been bare-handed, without any external buffs.
"Furthermore, your class slot should have been empty, leaving you unable to undergo a Class Change, which would have trapped you at Level 10 without any way to progress. And because of Pride's Curse, you wouldn't have been able to solve the equipment or class issues through any faction shops or Class Change Halls. You would only be able to overcome this by killing powerful bosses with guaranteed rewards. Under normal circumstances, you should have been stuck at Level 10 for a very long time.
"You were supposed to slowly accumulate attribute points through Gluttony's Blessing and use Lust's Blessing to charm isolated individuals to serve you, gradually clawing your way out of that early-game predicament. Even after that, life wouldn't be easy. Under the influence of Pride's Curse, you would essentially be an enemy of the entire world. You would have had to slowly build your forces while challenging countless high-difficulty dungeons just to reach this stage. This process is filled with unimaginable hardship; it’s impossible for it to be smooth sailing."
As the explanation ended, Xie Bai suddenly realized where the discrepancy lay.
"Um... regarding the class and weapons... doesn't the Ring of Seven Curses provide those itself?"
The entity was clearly stunned. "The Ring of Seven Curses provides them? What is that supposed to mean?"
"How do I put this... it's like this..."
After Xie Bai gave a brief summary, she felt the entity become even more bewildered.
"So, you're saying the Ring of Seven Curses sensed your predicament and took it upon itself to fish out a Divine Artifact and a class for you?"
"Yeah. Is there a problem with that?"
Xie Bai heard the sound of someone slapping their forehead.
"It's a huge problem! When I designed the Ring of Seven Curses, it didn't have any of those functions!"
The voice added, "But even so, it still doesn't make sense. Even if you had the help of Funeral Rites and Reaper early on, that would only make the start comfortable; it shouldn't have been 'smooth sailing.' Funeral Rites needs time to grow, and Reaper only provides the simple Soul Capture skill before it's supposed to change into Other Shore Walker to open a new skill tree. Even then, the subsequent skills should match the strength of your current stage. They shouldn't have given you the power to mindlessly slaughter everything in your path..."
Xie Bai interrupted. "I wasn't finished. Actually, my Reaper class never changed. After providing Soul Capture, the Ascension Affix just kept providing other skills."
Shock radiated from the entity. "What? You're saying Reaper never changed classes? Then how did you bypass the Class Change restriction and level all the way up to over a hundred?"
"Uh... actually, it wasn't just the weapon and class. Pride helped me break the Class Change restriction as well."
"That thing can be broken?"
"That thing... can't be broken?"
For a moment, the scene fell into a profound silence.
After an unknown amount of time, the voice spoke again.
"Alright, I think I understand what happened now. First, with the Class Change restriction broken, you continued to level up as a Reaper. However, the Reaper's original skill pool only contained Soul Capture. As you continued to level, the class had no choice but to pull much more powerful skills from the untouched Demigod skill pool for you to use. The set of skills you have now are things you weren't supposed to possess until after Level 100..."
The voice paused mid-sentence.
"Combined with the high base stats provided by Funeral Rites in the early game, you were able to largely bypass the troubles of the curses and directly enjoy the benefits of the blessings. But how does the Ring of Seven Curses even have these functions? I never noticed any issues before. Does this piece of equipment have some kind of 'lolicon' attribute...?"
After this explanation, Xie Bai finally understood the cause and effect of it all.
Essentially, the help from Pride, Greed, and Sloth at the very beginning had allowed Xie Bai to exploit a series of bugs, leading to her current situation. If she had lacked the help of even one of them back then, things wouldn't have gone nearly this smoothly.
"So, does that mean the progress bar for my Godhead is stuck?" Xie Bai asked.
The entity pondered for a moment. "Logically, yes. After all, your growth has been far too easy; you lack the suffering that can be transformed into the power of apotheosis. However, it's not entirely without a solution..."
"What solution?"
"Bring your hand a little closer."
Xie Bai felt her hand being lifted, and then she heard the so-called solution.
"A clever girl like you surely knows that inheriting the Godhead of Void means inheriting the associated karma as well. In that case, why not inherit a bit more? Take all the power I have left and turn it into the strength for your ascension. However, if you do this, you won't just be entangled in karma with that giant lightbulb; you'll be entangled with all the gods outside, and even the entire Supreme Court. Are you willing?"
Xie Bai thought about it for a moment.
"If it's just that, I don't think it's a problem. Since I'm destined to kill Gliese anyway, I might as well kill the other gods while I'm at it."
"Hmph~ Quite confident, aren't we? But I must warn you: if a True God of a branch timeline dies, their power flows back to the main timeline. Because of that, the True Gods you face in the future will likely be several times more terrifying than the ones here."
"So what? If I can beat them once, I'm not afraid to beat them a second time. The speed at which they grow stronger probably can't keep up with me anyway."
"Very well. I like your promise. In that case, I can rest easy leaving all my remaining power to you."
As the voice spoke, Xie Bai felt it beginning to fade.
"Wait, so soon? I still have a lot of questions for you—"
"Hmph~ Aside from my name, you will find the answers to all your current doubts in the future. It wouldn't be any fun to spoil everything so soon, would it?"
With that, the voice vanished completely.
In its place, a brand-new power surged within Xie Bai's body.
Before she could even fully process the sensation, a sudden brilliance flashed before her eyes. All the unperceivable darkness converged into her body at that moment.
Instantly, Xie Bai's vision became incredibly vast.
So vast that, in that final moment, she saw the full scope of the Void.
[Godhead of Void fusion successful!]
[Achievement Unlocked: The True Master of the Void]
[Gained: Legend 100, Achievement Points 100,000, Free Attribute Points 10,000,000, Skill Points 1,000,000]
[Congratulations on unlocking the exclusive title: Void King]