Salted Fish Zombie

Chapter 63.1: Flower Servant (11)

August 20, 2023 by Wyrd

The statue stood in deep and silent darkness, towering within the temple.

When Zhu Shuanshuang wrote dramas, she often immersed herself in the characters, empathizing with them. At this moment, she thought about the tall and mysterious god, imagining the feelings of the Flower God in her mind.

How long had the statue been cast? And how long had the god existed?

The walls were a deep black, the ridges of the temple were gray-green, and tens of thousands of worshippers knelt in reverence.

They fervently worshipped Him, though they never dared to look at Him directly. Their gazes were fixed on the ground, or they glanced askew at the temple, or focused on others.

If His divine consciousness resided within the statue, was He accustomed to it, indifferent, or just observing with a cold eye?

After an unknown span of time, suddenly, among the multitude, a person straightened their back, gazing at Him with clear and intense eyes.

What did He feel in that moment?

As the prayers rose and fell, the devotees once again bowed, facing the temple.

As Zhu Shuanshuang rose, her heart raced. She clenched her teeth and tightened her grip, lifting her eyes to the statue.

Even before seeing the face of the statue, she felt something rush into her body. Her heart and blood vessels swelling abruptly.

“What’s wrong?” Su Wangsheng saw Zhu Shuanshuang fall and anxiously helped her up.

Zhu Shuanshuang’s head hit the ground, one hand pressed to her head, the other clutching tightly at her chest.

As Su Wangsheng helped her up, he saw a stream of blood flowing from her nose and mouth.

“Have you gone mad?” Su Wangsheng wiped the blood with his sleeve, angrily whispering, “Don’t look at the statue. I’ll say it again, don’t look. We can’t endure it.”

His voice was low, but the surrounding people couldn’t possibly have not heard it.

However, not a single person looked their way. It seemed like this had happened many times before.

They continued to fervently worship, their eyes radiating intense fervor, never glancing at the statue’s face.

Zhu Shuanshuang curled up in pain, easing the burst of agony.

She finally realized—they truly couldn’t see the face of the god.

The sunlight was dyed with a rosy halo, and the day’s worship ceremony came to an end.

One by one, the believers started to leave, while the players remained on their cushions a little longer, easing their pounding hearts.

Exhausted in body and mind, they stood up with a desolate expression.

Zhu Shuangshuang had recovered somewhat, but her face remained terrifyingly pale, with bloodstains that hadn’t been wiped off.

Ning Su asked her, “What happened to you?”

Zhu Shuangshuang wearily slumped and replied, “Just because I glanced at Him amidst the crowd.”

Ning Su: “...”

Su Wangsheng was genuinely curious and asked, “What did you feel when you looked at the statue?”

Ning Su: “A sensation of an accelerated heartbeat.”

Su Wangsheng: “…”

Indeed, that was the right sensation – their hearts were all pounding intensely.

However, he felt that Ning Su’s accelerated heartbeat was different from what they experienced.

The other players felt the same. They couldn’t look at the god’s statue, and when they came here, they carried a trace of hope, which almost turned into despair when the day’s worship ended.

“We can’t even look at it. How can we have faith like this?”

“This god…”

The words weren’t said out loud, but the other players understood the implications.

This god seemed increasingly frightening, not like traditional celestial beings in the heavens, but a terrifying presence that one couldn’t directly face. Like someone deep in the abyss of hell.

Jia Chensheng said, “Don’t worry, I’ve noticed that even the people from Furen County can’t directly look at the god’s statue. Yet, they fanatically believe in the Flower God. This shows that fear doesn’t necessarily affect faith.”

His words effectively reassured most of the players.

He continued, “We should be happy about this. It might be an additional path. Perhaps extreme fear can also lead to profound faith.”

“President Jia is right. I felt that the Flower God had a touch of evil and dirtiness, and there was resistance deep in my heart. I thought it was impossible to believe in Him. Now, all that’s left in my heart is fear.”

“Yes, just the thought of Him makes me want to kneel.”

“Fear can indeed give birth to belief. Otherwise, do people who believed in a god only fond of them?”

As they chatted, the players became much more relaxed.

Jia Chensheng: “So, in addition to investigating the major families, we’ll also participate in the worship ceremony every noon.”

“Besides figuring out how to see the god, we also need to look into the four players who were taken to the Flower God’s temple and understand the conditions for serving the flowers there.”

“I think we might not find much in the courtyard. In the end, we still need to find a way to the Flower God’s temple.”

With a clear plan, they felt more at ease.

The players responded one after another, and Ning Su also nodded in agreement.

That evening, the people from their courtyard no longer needed to go to the Dark Swamp to find flowers. Yenan Wang, who rarely appeared, arrived.

“Now every flower attendant has a flower to nurture. After you receive it, you should drink water, soak, and transform your body. Once your body transformation is nearly complete, you can go to the Flower God’s temple to cultivate the flowers.”

Yenan Wang looked at them, his gaze finally stopping in the tearoom of Ning Su and Ning Changfeng. “I believe you will definitely become excellent flower attendants, definitely...”

At this point, he seemed to tremble with excitement, “You will meet the god.”

His words not only arranged their upcoming tasks, but also revealed a piece of information.

Just a while ago, Jia Chensheng mentioned finding the conditions to enter the Flower God’s temple.

They hadn’t figured out the specific reasons the first four players went in, but Yenan Wang told them a method.

Entering the Flower God’s temple required a qualified body transformation.

Given this, if they weren’t urgently trying to enter the Flower God’s temple, they could enter by means of body transformation.

The Flower God’s temple might hold the secret of the god, but it was clearly not as free as the outside. They could take advantage of this time to search for more clues outside.

Moreover, according to Yenan Wang’s words before, humans were tiny and fragile, and they would be destroyed if they got close to the body of the god. This point was confirmed when they saw the statue of the god today.

If they didn’t modify their bodies well, entering the Flower God’s temple recklessly could be very dangerous.

The players were counting in their hearts, each closing their doors.

Before midnight, Ning Su changed into fresh clothes. With the flower and the children, they went to Hua Feng’s place.

Inside the Hua Feng’s room, there was only him. He opened the door for Ning Su, and they both sat down in the tearoom. Their flowers were placed on the tea table.

Hua Feng’s complexion was even paler than yesterday. He picked up a bowl of holy water and drank from it.

The old woman who took care of them had said that the holy water was used for various aspects of body modification, including its blood-boosting effects.

He was continuously using the holy water to maintain his precarious body.

Ning Su could tell that the other might even faint if he stood up at this moment. Considering his body as a normal human being, he was on the brink of collapse.

Ning Su poured a bowl of holy water for him. “How long do you intend to hold on?”

Hua Feng replied, “Let’s see how long I can hold on.”

Ning Su made a sound of acknowledgment. This meant the other intended to hold on until death.

The tea room was very quiet. Ning Su looked at the flowers, and the children looked quietly at Hua Feng.

This kind of quietness was low and deep, but it wasn’t sad. It inexplicably brought a sense of tranquility.

“Ning Su.” After a while, Hua Feng called him, saying, “I love my brother so much.”

Ning Su nodded.

“If it weren’t for my brother, I would have died long ago. He led me out from there and brought me to the beautiful Furen County.”

“My brother, he’s the finest flower attendant in Furen County.”

“My brother, his character and appearance are top-notch. No one is better than him.”

“So, I must persist.” He drank another bowl of holy water.

Ning Su nodded once again.

Because his older brother was so kind, he wanted to persevere and take care of his older brother, allowing his brother, who had an obsession with blood, to always feel the presence of blood.

Ning Su looked at the flower hand again.

It wasn’t yet deep into the night, and the flower hand was very quiet.

The hand’s finger bones were long and purplish-gray, with several places that were rotten.

The appearance of the elegant and graceful young master was long gone. He was left with a rotting hand, only knowing how to grasp the fleeting blood.

A pale gray little hand was placed on top of Hua Feng’s pale hand.

Gui Sheng tilted his little head and said to Hua Feng, “You’re doing well too.”

The chilly little hand could feel the protruding veins on the back of the emaciated hand, and he said, “Cute.”

Hua Feng suddenly bit his lip and lowered his head.

After a while, he said to Ning Su, “Is there anything else you want to know?”

Since his older brother disappeared, Hua Feng had been trying to understand the Flower Attendants and the Flower God, gaining five more years of experience than them.

Saying this, Ning Su only wanted to ask, “Do you understand the Flower God? Was the statue truly cast in the image of the god?”

Hua Feng said, “I’m not sure. I can only confirm the divine marks on the statue, and it probably wasn’t made by humans.”

Ning Su was slightly taken aback.

Hua Feng continued, “You’ve noticed, haven’t you? Humans can’t look directly at the god. I’ve only seen the statue once. If humans can’t look directly at it, how could we have cast it?”

It was this point.

Hua Feng said, “In Furen County, there are two places that are most taboo to mention: the Dark Swamp and the Flower God’s temple.”

“The Dark Swamp is known as the Land of the Sleeping God. I suspect that the statue was found in the Dark Swamp. Perhaps originally, the god didn’t look like it does now.”

Ning Su asked, “Are you saying that in the Dark Swamp, the god wasn’t like this, but after being dug out with the divine marks, it gradually took on the current general appearance of the god?”

Hua Feng nodded. “That’s a possibility.”

The tea room fell quiet again.

Hua Feng drank another bowl of holy water and asked him, “Why did you inquire about the god?”

Ning Su made a sound, then said, “I wanted to know if this is what He looks like. I wanted...”

He looked towards the four-petal blood flower and said, “I want to see Him.”

When Ning Su moved the little hand of Gui Sheng away from Hua Feng’s hand, it brushed against the blood vessels on Hua Feng’s hand.

His blood vessels were harder than those of any other player in the courtyard.

Ning Su left a trace of energy within his body and left with the children.

That night, after seeing the god, many players had the deepest and most terrifying nightmares.

In the dream, an indistinct black strip slowly crawled out from the abyss, carrying boundless darkness.

The strip was in the shape of blood vessels, the shape of nerves, the shape of everything.

Everything within their bodies turned black, and the black spread, corroding their bones, blood vessels, and flesh.

They couldn’t resist, couldn’t wake up, and could only let the black corrosion devour them.

However, Ning Su and Hua Feng slept peacefully, with their flowers accompanying them.

Since then, every morning after eating breakfast and drinking holy water, Ning Su would head to the Flower God’s temple and he would stay there for a day.

Kneeling in front of the Flower God’s temple, Ning Su gazed at the Flower God with clear eyes that didn’t blink, his gaze fixed for a long time, and more and more people noticed.

Yenan Wang also noticed.

He was so excited that his whole body trembled, and a strong desire gleamed in his eyes.

He said to the Holy Maiden, “Did you see? He must be able to see the god! I knew it the moment I saw him at the auction!”

“He might be a Holy Son!”

The Holy Maiden looked at Ning Su’s eyes fixed on the god, her expression unfathomable. She said, “Then let him enter the Flower God’s temple and give it a try. It’s also time.”

Yenan Wang, however, was extremely cautious about him. He said, “Wait a little longer, wait for another day.”

He couldn’t take any risks when it came to this treasure.