Chapter 3: Intelligence Exchange

Chapter 3: Intelligence Exchange

Xie Yunzhu couldn’t care less what others thought of him. If any of them had endured three years of non-stop dungeon crawling through 100 instances, their mental state would undoubtedly be far more "colorful" than his.

He yawned, strongly tempted to just lie back down and sleep.

"In the boundless dark night," the High Priest intoned slowly, "you have found your flame. Now—"

"Cast your fire into the fire."

Everyone complied, tossing the flames they had kindled into the larger bonfire. Fire merged with fire, converging into a towering wave of heat that cast a golden-red glow on each of their faces.

After a day of exhaustion and fright, gathered now beside this seemingly eternal flame, they instinctively felt a sense of safety and joy.

A warmth spread across everyone’s brow; the Divine Light, which had gradually dimmed over time, now shone clear once more.

Soon, it was midnight. The High Priest slowly announced the ritual item they needed to find on the second day.

It was a single, simple word. The moment they heard it clearly, everyone doubted their own ears—after all, they had searched the entire day, covering half the ruins, and had never seen any trace of such a thing.

A petite girl turned pale, clutching her boyfriend’s arm. "No way, how is this even possible? My feet are covered in blisters..."

Her boyfriend then shouted loudly, "We must have misheard! High Priest, could you say it again?"

This time, the High Priest mercifully repeated, "Go, find it and bring it back to me. Go and find—"

"Flowers."

/

This was a world devoid of all life.

After the exploration team confirmed the previous day that they had the protection of the Divine Light, they paired off and explored nearly the entire southern ruins. They hadn’t spotted a single flower—not even a blade of grass.

No matter how much the players pressed or cajoled, the High Priest revealed no further information. She insisted on obtaining many fresh flowers to decorate her altar. A Xi mentioned that in many ancient rituals, flowers and fragrant herbs were absolutely necessary for pleasing the gods—implying that finding flowers was non-negotiable.

This was simply an impossible task. Even the seasoned players grew uneasy, as they had never encountered a dungeon that hit a dead end as early as the second day.

"What do you think, *dàlǎo*?" While everyone was at a loss, A Xi once again made her way over to Xie Yunzhu. Unlike before, this time many hopeful glances were shot his way—everyone wanted to ask but felt too embarrassed.

"I don’t know. I haven’t found any flowers either." Xie Yunzhu wore sunglasses, hiding his eyes and revealing only his well-defined jawline and expressionless mouth, making him seem even more unapproachable. "Maybe there are some in the north."

Wasn’t that just stating the obvious? The exploration team had already divided up the tasks, planning to cover the remaining areas today. But the ruins were too far gone, and most held out little hope.

"However, I have a suggestion. If we really can’t find real flowers in the end, bring back anything flower-shaped." Xie Yunzhu took a small twig and drew a flower on the ground. "Fake flowers, pictures of flowers, flower-shaped decorations—something is better than nothing."

Everyone understood his meaning. After all, the High Priest hadn’t specified that the flowers had to be real ones grown from the soil. Perhaps anything even loosely flower-related might work? But this seemed like bending the rules, and no one felt entirely confident. Then Fu You clapped his hands cheerfully and said, "The expert is right. Don’t give up, everyone. No matter what, bring back something related to flowers. Let the High Priest, this primitive woman, broaden her horizons."

Truly, a freeloader—his attitude was just so positive.

Led by Song Ziming, the exploration team rested by the bonfire for six hours, sharing the food they had brought, comparing notes, and catching some sleep while they could.

Xie Yunzhu remained alone, setting up his olive-drab tent under a sunshade. He lay on a recliner, munching on compressed biscuits and sipping plain water. He seemed to carry an aura of aloof solitude—getting too close felt like a "Do Not Disturb" sign popping up.

Only A Xi, curiosity driving her, approached him with a pack of instant noodles. "Have something hot. They boiled water—perfect for making noodles."

Xie Yunzhu took the noodles and saw it was a bright green cilantro flavor. He couldn’t help but tut. "Is this flavor popular nowadays?"

"Haha, not really. It’s a personal preference," A Xi laughed. "You don’t like cilantro? I can get you a braised beef one instead."

"I’ll eat anything." Xie Yunzhu placed the cilantro noodles into his backpack and said with a smile, "Thank you."

It was the first time A Xi had seen him smile, and her eyes lit up. She thought, *This guy’s looks are truly exceptional. To make up for his punchable personality, his face really put in the effort to grow so well.*

"So, what have you discovered?" Xie Yunzhu lifted his lazy frame slightly with his arm, showing respect for the information.

"These ruins are full of heretics and cult rituals," A Xi said, sitting down beside him. "Interestingly, I found that many of these rituals are dedicated to deities of light, sun gods, and fire gods, and so on. It seems even the heretics here are desperately seeking light."

A Xi showed him her camera. "I also found a lotus-shaped sacred fire altar, surrounded by a large number of human-headed, eagle-bodied Zoroastrian priests. They seemed to be performing a ritual to summon fire. And in the conversations of those priests, I heard mentions of the sun’s disappearance and a long dark age!"

"So, the setting of this dungeon is actually 'Eternal Night.' But due to some unknown glitch in our round, the sun appeared without being summoned and is now stubbornly lingering in the sky." Xie Yunzhu lowered the sunglasses on his forehead and looked up at the bizarre sun for the ten-thousandth time. The more he looked, the more loathsome it appeared.

"But there’s a huge contradiction here. The High Priest worships the sun god. If the sun god has truly descended, wouldn’t she notice? Would she still ask us to gather materials for the summoning ritual?" A Xi tugged her hair fretfully. "It doesn’t make sense. There must be something wrong with one part of this!"

"Perhaps 'the sun' and 'the sun god' are two different concepts," Xie Yunzhu suggested. "Or maybe what’s above us isn’t the 'sun' at all."

A Xi shivered hearing that. "Can you show me the sun’s trajectory now?"

Xie Yunzhu finally handed her the paper. The moment A Xi saw the two diagrams, her brows furrowed deeply. It was clear that Xie Yunzhu had used a window as a fixed observation point, using the window frame as a coordinate axis to record the sun’s position every half hour.

The points were scattered across the axis like chaotic flickering, with no discernible pattern.

The second diagram, again using the window frame as coordinates, showed the sun’s outline recorded by Xie Yunzhu every two hours. The image displayed a series of nested concentric circles. Though the differences were subtle, they undoubtedly proved that the sun was indeed growing larger—in other words, moving closer to Earth.

The more A Xi looked, the more a chill ran down her spine. She couldn’t help but glance at the man who was always so calm and reliable. "Expert, what do you make of this?"

Xie Yunzhu nodded. A Xi’s eyes sparkled with anticipation as she pricked up her ears, only to hear the man say slowly, "I see... it’s *free*."

"..." *Is this really the time for jokes?!* A Xi’s fists clenched, but then Xie Yunzhu chuckled again, amused. "Also, I’m starting to think that maybe the sun isn’t moving closer to us but is itself expanding—like a living, chubby entity that’s been eating well lately and has grown a bit round. Isn’t that an interesting theory too?"

*No...* A Xi facepalmed. *I think both theories are equally terrifying.*

The two exchanged more information and conjectures but felt they were still far from the truth. With limited rest time, A Xi stretched and prepared to go back to sleep. Before leaving, she asked sincerely, "Are you sure you won’t team up with me? Working together, we could uncover more clues."

"No, I can’t go far."

"Why? Is it dangerous farther out? Or is there something here you need to guard?"

"No, I’m just lazy." Xie Yunzhu turned over on the recliner, presenting her with a back reminiscent of a drunken imperial concubine.

"..." A Xi felt like he had annoyed her into becoming rounder herself. But she didn’t give up. She circled around and crouched in front of the recliner, looking directly into his eyes. "Let me share one more piece of information—you’ll definitely be interested. During the day, I met a heretic with blue eyes just like yours. Normally, that color is very rare, but his eye color was exactly the same as yours. It startled me."

"But that heretic was an insane madman who couldn’t communicate. He just kept repeating a few phrases over and over—sometimes saying the world was about to end, other times saying he was cursed by these eyes. If you team up with me, I’ll tell you where he is."

"Really?" A Xi had expected him to be very interested, but the man across from her merely closed his eyes boredly. "I’ve met at least seven or eight people with eyes like mine."

"What?!" A Xi was shocked.

"Without exception, they were all madmen." Xie Yunzhu curled his lips into a smile. "Only I haven’t gone mad yet."

He didn’t know why he had such unique eyes. In the past, he had encountered others with blue eyes in different dungeons, but aside from being insane, they were no different from ordinary people. It seemed these eyes were just an ominous prophecy, foretelling his eventual fate.

"So stay away from me," he said, placing the book back over his face as a dismissal. "The next one to go mad might be me."

/

After six hours of rest, the main team set out again. This time, they planned their route and divided up the tasks more rationally, aiming to explore the remaining northern ruins in one go.

By now, even the most clueless newcomers had noticed the change in the Divine Light on their foreheads. Although it had been replenished when they completed the task, it was clearly not as bright as on the first day.

If it continued to dim day by day...

The veteran players tried to reassure the newcomers, but deep down, they were uncertain too. *Chaos Heavenly Path* had a well-balanced system. Only simple survival gear, personal clothing, food, and medicine could be brought into the game. Weapons of any kind were blocked by the system, so the veterans’ advantages were limited. The strongest weapon that could be exchanged from the shop was a three-inch dagger, officially named a "fruit knife."

Even if they used bounties to boost their physical stats to the max, they couldn't exceed human limits. For instance, even if they fully enhanced their running speed, they couldn't run as fast as a cheetah—at best, they could reach Bolt's level.

What they could rely on was only the experience accumulated through multiple runs, along with human strength and wisdom, perhaps supplemented by some intangibles like courage, faith, and teamwork.

In the end, the only ones capable of defying fate and confronting the instances head-on were the Godsworn, who were a cut above regular players. They had made pacts with deities, paying a corresponding price to gain invincible power.

Unfortunately, Godsworn were the top powerhouses in the game *Chaos Heavenly Path*, extremely rare and mysterious, and generally wouldn’t appear in such ordinary instances.

After a day of cooperation, everyone had gotten to know each other. Among the 12, A Xi's broad knowledge had helped the group avoid many dangers in advance. The leader, Song Ziming, and the guy who's always smiling, Fu You, both had decent combat skills. That unknown big shot was eccentric and mysterious but seemed genuinely capable.

Yet they were only human, after all—in the face of this bizarre and unknown instance world, they were as insignificant as ants. If the Divine Light on their foreheads vanished for even a second, they might instantly be torn to shreds by heretics.

"Hey, do you think, with so many 'evil gods' in this world, we might have a chance to form a pact with one?" Xin Lei said offhandedly. "If we had a Godsworn in the team, we’d steamroll through everywhere."

"Don’t even think about it," Song Ziming warned, glaring at him. "You only see the power of those Godsworn—why not consider that most who try to form pacts end up dead?"

"I was just saying, no need to get so worked up," Xin Lei muttered.

"Some thoughts are better off not even conceived," Song Ziming said sternly. "Don’t forget, our identity is that of followers of the Sun God."

As the group talked, they walked deeper into the ruins. No one noticed that various heretics, in twos and threes, were silently following behind them—closer than yesterday.

Meanwhile, Xie Yunzhu was busy drawing.

He had found a house and, after searching around to confirm it was safe, located some paper and crayons inside. He sat down and began to draw.

*Hmm, tender yellow stamens, bright red petals, fresh green stems...* After finishing, Xie Yunzhu held it up to admire and found that what he’d drawn looked like a plate of scrambled eggs with tomatoes, with a tragically deceased green onion hanging below.

And he still had to "cook" 11 more plates of such scrambled eggs with tomatoes.

Based on his speculation, it was pretty unlikely they’d find real flowers in the north. If the exploration team got lucky and found some real flowers, then, considering the value he had demonstrated, A Xi had no reason not to bring one back for him.

As he kept coloring, Xie Yunzhu grew increasingly frustrated with how ugly his drawing was turning out, thinking it would be nice to have a reference—his imitation skills were quite good, but it had been so long since he’d seen a flower that he had almost forgotten what one looked like.

Just as he was thinking this, he inadvertently looked up and saw the Madonna portrait hanging on the wall directly in front of him. The smiling Madonna held a bouquet of blooming flowers in her arms.

Wait... was the Madonna smiling at him like that when he first came in?

Had she always been holding flowers in her arms, not a child?

No... had such a huge Madonna portrait really been hanging here from the start?

His mind grew foggy, as if being polluted. Xie Yunzhu couldn’t look away as the portrait became more and more three-dimensional. The smiling Madonna’s features gradually bulged from the frame, followed by arms that grew longer and longer, offering the garishly colored bouquet right before his eyes.

"...Flowers."

Author's Note: