Chapter Twenty-Five: The Curse

  Is it that the whole time was actually in one's own consciousness? But this is also normal, as people in the world say that consciousness operates at the speed of light, and maybe I just fell into that state...

  So that means the time when my internal energy was boiling, and the Bone Sword transformed into a strange armguard, only lasted for an instant? I rushed up and gave that True God's shadow a hit, and then the state disappeared, and neither Ban nor Beiku saw it?

  As for what happened to himself, Ji Ran was more and more bewildered.

  "I don't know either... At that time, it was just a rush of hot blood to the head, my brain was dizzy, and I only knew I had to get rid of that true god avatar. As for what happened afterwards, I don't know either."

  This thing, Ji Ran couldn't explain it, so he could only muddle through. Anyway, in this strange world where there's both martial arts and magic, and human potential suddenly erupts, that's also a reasonable thing, right?

  "...It's not like it hasn't happened before, a Bronze Warrior suddenly bursting out with power comparable to that of a Silver Warrior, but it only lasts for an instant. Once the burst is over, if you haven't taken down your enemy, you're basically at their mercy. Even if you survive, it's hard to recover without resting for a year or two. I'd say, Jiran, you're quite lucky." Laissez turned his head and gave Jiran a meaningful glance.

  Ji Ran naturally knew that his words were hard to convince himself, at most it was just to make others unable to find any loopholes, and directly believing him was unlikely. But he also had a bitter tale to tell, after all the changes happening within his body, even he himself wasn't clear about them, how could he explain it to others?

  What's more, this involves his biggest secret, the two game systems. The cooking and alchemy techniques can be slightly revealed, which can slightly increase his importance, but as for the game system, he will probably take it to his grave.

  Anyway, I really fainted, and Lais and others didn't dare to disbelieve it completely, at most they were half-believing and half-doubting.

  However, Lais and the others aren't fools either. They naturally know that since Ji Ran appeared, there have been countless mysteries surrounding him. But everyone has their own secrets, can they really force him to reveal them?

  Anyway, up until now, Ji Ran has no ill intentions towards them, but rather a lifesaving favor. If he wants to cover something up, let him go ahead and do so.

  "Oh, so you didn't know yourself! At that time, you were really cool, directly taking down the true god's avatar! However, that guy still counterattacked in the end, otherwise, you probably wouldn't have been injured this badly. By the way, eat some beef jerky to help your injuries recover a bit faster!" Beike didn't think much after hearing Jiran's explanation.

  Lydia had already handed over the dried beef to feed Ji Ran. Although Ji Ran could move slightly now, his strength was still very small and he couldn't help but accept Lydia's care... He could only smile apologetically at Lydia.

  "Oh... right, I remember... someone knocked me down and saved me... was it you, Beck?" Ji Ran suddenly recalled that before he fainted, someone had pushed him away and blocked the last blast of energy released by the True God's avatar. Otherwise, who knows if he would still be standing here unscathed?

  “……It's me, haha, didn't expect that guy to be quite fierce in the end. But my injury is much lighter than yours, look, I can move now!” Beck heard Ji Ran's words and his face suddenly changed slightly, but immediately returned to normal, laughing and covering it up.

  However, Ji Yan's sensitive intuition picked up on something being off.

  "What are you hiding from me? Uncle Lees, what's going on?" He didn't pursue Beck but instead sought a breakthrough from Uncle Lees.

  "...That was a curse." Sure enough, Uncle Lays fell silent for a moment before speaking out.

  "Uncle Lees! Don't say that to Ji Ran anymore. It's just a minor injury, he'll recover soon. Look, Ji Ran saved all of our lives, and now he's injured like this - shouldn't we take good care of him?" Beike interrupted Lees' words, trying to shift the topic to Ji Ran.

  "Baker, covering up won't solve the problem. Do you think it will just pass by if you gloss over it? It's better to be honest and get it off your chest." Irene glanced at Baker from the side.

  Beck and Ban exchanged a look, then Beck let out a sigh and handed the unfinished meat skewer to Ban: "Alright alright, I'll say it. The truth is that last energy sphere was a curse, a curse released by the True God's avatar. It doesn't have much power, it just locked up the source of my fighting spirit inside me..."

  "What is the source of Dou Qi?" Ji Ran's eyes widened. During his interactions with others, he had already learned about the general situation of Dou Qi, and he had also heard of the term "source of Dou Qi". According to his understanding, this thing was like the "Dantian" in ancient internal martial arts, which was a place to store Dou Qi and also the source of Dou Qi. A warrior who wanted to increase their strength had to constantly train the source of Dou Qi, allowing it to produce more Dou Qi, and then through quantitative changes, produce qualitative changes, that is, advance to the next level...

  The source of Dou Qi has been sealed... Doesn't that mean there's no hope for future upgrades and advancements?

  Ji Ran stared tightly at Beck, making Beck feel a bit uneasy.

  "That true god avatar' curse power is still quite strong, I've tried it out and indeed can't increase my fighting spirit anymore. But it's alright, my current fighting spirit can still be used, at least leaving this forest won't be a problem. Once outside, finding a priest from the Holy Light Church or something should be able to lift it, not a big deal!" Beike is still laughing and chatting away.

  Ji Ran also wanted to believe his words, but seeing Lais's solemn expression, he felt that things shouldn't be so simple. However, he couldn't ask Lais about this now, if the result was bad, it would be a bit too much of a blow to Beck.

  "It was you who saved me, and this curse is also something you endured for me. Beike, rest assured, I'll take responsibility for the curse from now on." Ji Ran didn't have anything else to say, he just felt a burning sensation stuck in his chest.

  "Hey, who wants you to be responsible? My future belongs to a beautiful and charming girl with a voluptuous figure! You'd better just focus on your studies, if you have the ability, go cultivate a Golden Rank and come back, best if you can become a Sword Saint or something, that way even if I'm still at level three, I'll be able to live a life of luxury and pleasure, hahaha..." Beike looked at Jiran with disdain, then began to wildly fantasize about his future.

  Ji Ranming knew that Beike was joking around, but he didn't know what to say. After a while, he could only let out a sigh.

  "Lydia, beef jerky again, let me recover quickly." He thought about it, since he can't do anything now, just wait until he can do something, and then solve the problem of Beck... Maybe, he should ask Uncle Lais what's going on?

  But now everyone is here, it's not very good to go ask Uncle Leis, can only find another opportunity later.

  This is the first time Ji Ran didn't cook since everyone got to know each other. Of course, everyone has become a skilled adventurer by now, and among other things, their barbecue skills are not bad either. Moreover, influenced by Ji Ran, everyone likes to slice the meat thinly before grilling it, and they also add some wild seasonings similar to cumin and chili peppers, which makes the flavor quite good.

  It can be said that this is the only dish that Lays and Irene learned from Ji Ran that they can bring out... After all, Chinese cuisine is vast and profound, and it's not possible to learn it in a short period of time, even for a clever spirit.

  After eating and drinking enough, the group of people all gathered around the fire to rest. Each person had eaten a certain amount of dried beef, after all, everyone was injured at this time.

  "This time it's my fault, I was too impulsive. I shouldn't have brought you all to that valley, resulting in such a huge loss. Fortunately, everyone returned safely, otherwise, I really don't know how I would make amends." After a moment of silence, Uncle Les suddenly spoke up.

  "It's not interesting to say these things now, Lays. Even if you didn't bring us here, we can't be certain that we won't run into them in future adventures. When the true god avatar descends completely, we may not be able to lose as little as we do now. You don't have to blame yourself, besides, there's no use in blaming yourself now."

  Aileen threw a few words at Lays without hesitation, although piercing to the ear, but not lacking in reason. Beck heard it and immediately picked up the conversation.

  "It's all worth it! Although we got hurt a bit, but we're not just having beef for nothing! This time we got quite a lot of stuff from those True God followers, and these things alone are already worth our investment!"

  That's right, this time, everyone searched those true god believers and found quite a few things.

  The cult's own ritual tools, of course, are useless to Lais and the others, and in fact can't be sold to other adventurers - but they can be taken to the Holy Light Church in exchange for holy water or similar items. The True God Cult is also a kind of religious organization, although it's an evil cult, it has some commonalities with the Holy Light Church. Ritual tools that have been processed by the Holy Light Church can still exert some effect, and are also somewhat helpful in researching the True God Cult.

  And those true god believers not only brought with them ritual instruments, but also a considerable amount of equipment and weapons... even two pieces of magical artifacts!

  It's obvious that most of these things were stripped from the bodies of dead adventurers, and they even got two magical pouches. Unfortunately, there are no spatial items, it seems that even a fifth-level bishop can't get their hands on this kind of thing...

  In fact, a fifth-level divine officer is not considered poor, as he has four or five magical instruments on him. However, these four or five magical instruments are basically all amplifying the power of his divine techniques and do not have any defensive capabilities. Otherwise, he would not have been so easily cut down by Ji Ran with just one slash.

  Two magical pouches, one of which was used by that fifth-level divine officer, and it's considered to be a high-end product, can hold more things than Lais' uncle's. Unfortunately, inside are some True God Cult's items, not very useful for most people. But the other one is not ordinary, it's another adventure team's material storage pouch!

  And the truth is, the True God's cult didn't just kill an adventure team, but another team that was poorer and didn't have a magic pouch. So, inside that magic pouch were the spoils of two or three adventure teams!

  In a certain sense, they did make money... if you don't count the curse in Beike.