Super Righteous Player
Chapter 677 - 218 The Greatest Betrayal_1

Chapter 677: Chapter 218 The Greatest Betrayal_1

The deep, echoing voice of the Bone Picker was long and far-reaching.

In a trance, Longjing Tea seemed to witness some kind of illusion...

His ancient and rusted armor fit so perfectly with the surrounding grave mounds, styled so consistently as though he inherently belonged here—in the burial grounds of an old dynasty that had vanished nearly a thousand years ago.

His voice did not seem to come from in front of those present.

Instead, it was as though he was standing in the lost past, solemnly whispering to the future generations.

——At this moment, Annan was observing all this through the eyes of Longjing Tea.

Unsurprisingly, he bore the marks of being influenced by a holy object—yet the players could not see it.

[You have received a new mark "Low-level Influence: Ancient Whisper"]

[If not removed promptly, you will fall into a random nightmare with the keyword "moth" in seven days (Difficulty: Hard)]

...[Ancient Whisper].

Annan furrowed his brows slightly.

It was an influence not high in rank, not commonly used in rituals, but somewhat precious for its rarity.

This influence could only be gained when an elderly person, "whose age has surpassed twice their natural lifespan," shares a secret "that happened before the listener was born and of which they were unaware."

In other words, it required an ancient Transcendent or Ritualist who had used life-prolonging rituals multiple times and had indeed, exhaustively used up twice their original lifespan.

This was not an influence under the domains of "Skeleton" and "Betrayal" mastered by the Bone Picker.

It was merely derived from His age...

Since Annan was also receptive to the influence, this indicated that the secret the Bone Picker was about to reveal was unknown to Annan as well.

He concentrated his attention, listening to the secret being told two thousand kilometers away underground——

The Bone Picker walked ahead alone, occasionally reaching out to gently touch a grave mound by the roadside. Even though these grave mounds did not reveal the names of the "residents" interred within, that did not prevent the Bone Picker from recognizing them.

Longjing Tea and his two companions walked side by side, holding bright lights, so tense that they glanced at each other from time to time to confirm the presence of one another, as if they would disappear the next second.

The faint light burned softly in the total darkness underground... And ahead, the Bone Picker’s cloak cast a shadow so deep as to be impenetrable.

At a glance, there were only giant stone pillars and stone grave mounds the size of garages in sight.

Besides that, there was nothing else.

The players were Transcendents, and one of them was even a Specter themselves—they certainly did not fear ghosts.

But the ancient history itself, long dead, formed an immense oppressive force.

So much so that the players did not dare to speak a word.

They did not even whisper in private messages on the friend page, nor did they remember to start live streaming... They just held their breaths, tiptoed as lightly as possible, quietly following behind the Bone Picker.

Suddenly, without warning——the Bone Picker stopped.

His towering figure was so tall that it completely obscured the path ahead. For a moment, Longjing Tea could not see what was in front of the Bone Picker.

But Defu saw it.

She reacted immediately, taking a screenshot to post on the forum and starting a live stream without delay.

For she realized in an instant that the situation before her eyes might be important enough to require documentation——

It was a grave mound that seemed no different from the surrounding "garages."

But what set it apart was... in front of it stood a stone statue.

This was the first and only item Defu saw that was "outside of a grave mound"——

The statue was not tall, and even with its half-meter base, it did not reach two meters. This was because the person sculpted in the statue was quite short and small.

It was an old, kindly-faced woman with a compassionate smile, thin and short in stature, slightly bowing, her eyes squinted with mirth. She looked very ordinary, her face wrinkled with age, resembling a good-natured grandmother who might hand out sweets to children.

Yet even the Bone Picker bowed his head in respect to her.

——Then her identity is self-evident.

This elderly lady, whose appearance and stature are most akin to that of an ordinary person, without any distinguishing features, is indeed the foremost among the twelve True Gods.

She is the deity worshipped by the Duchy of Mourning Songs, known as "Bone Picker," "The God Who Cannot Be Seen by the Living," "The Silent God," "The Mother of Ashes and Charcoal," the god of death and earth — commonly referred to as the Old Bone-Granny.

The Old Bone-Granny is the protector of all unburied souls... She gently buries deep into the earth and reinter all the corpses that met untimely deaths. Only those on the brink of death can see her figure.

At the same time, this granny is also the True God least fond of responding to high-level rituals... Apart from soul-consoling rituals and burial rites, it’s nearly impossible to get a response from any ritual related to the Old Bone-Granny.

Her silent nature is on par with Lady Silence.

Ritualists interpret this as due to "the stability of the earth" and "the irreversibility of death." For "both the earth and the deceased remain silent."

However, despite the granny’s silence, compared with the Red Knight, the Old Grandmother, and the Father of Firestones, granny’s temper is relatively mild — probably on the same level as the Goddess of the Cup and Miss Haoyun, as she is almost never seen to get angry.

Or rather, since the Third Era, the granny has indeed never shown anger. In the long history of two thousand years, she has not initiated an attack against any mortals or Transcendents... Even in the extremely rare cases of "transgression against the dead," she usually does not interfere.

Especially after the Bell Ringer came into being, she was even less concerned with those "resurrected from the dead."

As a result, when ritualists are preparing rituals, the components "to prevent the wrath of a particular deity" usually do not take the Old Bone-Granny into consideration.

——When people seek the powers of the domains of fire and light, war, and negation, they pay great attention to whether their rituals are properly set up and whether any ingredients in the rite offend any taboo.

For instance, the Father of Firestones detests water — whether it’s in cups, wells, swamps, or on the body.

Therefore, after summoning the power of the Father of Firestones, He typically dries off the ritualist’s body as a matter of course... But conversely, if the site of the ritual is too moist (such as holding a ritual in a swamp), then not only is it impossible to borrow the Father of Firestones’ power, but it may also provoke His attack.

Meanwhile, Mr. Radiance has requirements for the very nature of the ritualist. Since He is the god of purification, if the ritualist’s mind is chaotic, besieged by stray thoughts or wicked thoughts, His lingering influence upon departure will naturally purge them.

But conversely, if the ritualist is a truly evil person, unrepentant — then the power of light will burn him to death outright.

On the other hand, Old Bone-Granny’s rituals are very simple.

The burial rite previously used by Delicious Wind Goose with the help of the Wandering Child was, strictly speaking, not even properly set up with offerings, and the ritual site was straightforwardly excavated using Transcendent abilities, lacking any solemnity, let alone seriousness.

But they still borrowed that power, and without any discount.

Dragon Well Tea thought that if Old Bone-Granny didn’t have such a good temper.

Then just the blasphemous act of the Skeleton Lord worshipping before her statue would have been enough to make Old Bone-Granny manifest and start a fight with Him on the spot...

——Yes, the Skeleton Lord was worshipping in front of Old Bone-Granny’s statue.

And the process was quite formal.

The Skeleton Lord knelt on one knee before Old Bone-Granny.

His left hand hung straight down as a sign of respect for the earth; with his own right hand, he gently touched his forehead, both eyes, both ears, lips, and then placed it over his heart.

This gesture signified a vow not to think, look, listen, speak, or be alive — these are the five principles of the deceased.

If a dead person violated any one of these principles, they would be judged as abnormal.

And the Skeleton Lord, He was undoubtedly the anomaly among anomalies.

Look, the corpse is speaking...

"All will face death eventually,"

said the Skeleton Lord calmly in front of the statue of Old Bone-Granny.

Although he did not turn around, nor did he name names,

Dragon Well Tea still reacted immediately — He was speaking to him.

So he boldly asked, "Then you..."

"——Therefore,"

the Skeleton Lord emitted a deep, hoarse, and ancient voice.

"Resistance to death is the greatest betrayal a person can commit."