### Chapter 177: Godmother: Do You Have a Problem?
The temple was perched on a mountainside far from the village, and unlike most temples, it wasn’t a wooden structure but rather hewn from a cave inside the rock. There were no buildings or signs outside, just a dark, ominous cave entrance, a gaping void filled with terrifying unknowns.
Before even stepping inside, the power of curses surged in the air, making both ears feel like they were about to be drowned in chaos.
The faint voice in the back of their minds suddenly felt very real, and the horrifying part was that within that voice echoed the sounds of everyone they cared about, a complex cacophony that was impossible to decipher.
The impulse to listen more intently grew stronger; it could be just a moment of distraction, and before you knew it, your heart would be hijacked, controlled by the curse’s power and malevolent thoughts.
A winding path led directly to the temple entrance, and there stood Bai Shuang’er, the White-haired Fox, trembling outside on a barren patch of bl**d-soaked ground.
The ground, long stained by spilled bl**d, had faded to a deep red, betraying its ghastly history.
This was essentially a small sacrificial altar; every ritual day, some living creature would be killed outside the temple.
Sometimes it was wild animals, but most of the time, it was living people.
“This is it. I-I’m a bit scared to go in,” Bai Shuang’er stuttered, her earlier calmness completely vanished, her fox-like eyes filled with fear.
Here, the voices around her morphed again—from the familiar sounds of those she knew to a booming resonance that felt like the arrival of a mighty Buddha; it was both overwhelming and terrifying, stirring feelings of insignificance and dread.
To make matters worse, once under the sway of that voice, she would uncontrollably shout out her name, offering everything to the Godmother.
Bai Yu dismounted the fox with a flourish; as her feet touched the ground, a wave of bloody energy enveloped her, a mix of intense killing intent and the resentment carried by lifeblood—a cocktail so convoluted it seemed complex.
Yet, this bl**d energy was purely potent; when these elements reached their limit and combined, a qualitative change occurred.
Once released, Dragon Lady’s body relaxed immediately.
The talismans she wore had their limits; even before entering the temple, cracks had emerged as if threatening to shatter her.
“As expected, it’s still on you. My aura isn’t strong enough to cause this effect.”
The essence of Dragon Lady’s aura was quite different from that of Bai Yu; she had taken many lives, too, yet without Bai Yu’s specific aura, hers was primarily due to her constitution.
In simpler terms, her aura could be summed up in two words: Dragon Might.
The crimson aura began to ripple with strands of black, intensifying rapidly; if Bai Yu’s aura was a sea of corpses and bl**d, then the Dragon Lady’s was a towering tsunami. The combination was enough to leave Bai Shuang’er—who was trembling and nearly buckled at the knees—speechless, and even the rowdy female madmen nearby straightened up like obedient sheep.
Aura is essentially an enhanced version of one’s presence, designed to intimidate enemies, putting them under increasing psychological pressure and weakening their mental state, as well as serving as a defense against psychic attacks.
“Hmph, just a lowly Evil God,” the Dragon Lady sneered inwardly. Upon entering the Eternal Life Village, she had attempted to communicate with the Burning Heart Goddess.
“Burning Heart, you must feel where I am now.”
“Yes, that’s right. I’m in the Eternal Life Village. Surprise!”
“I’m giving you two choices: either leave my body now and return to your turf to take revenge on your two sisters, or stay huddled here. Since I’m here, I can find the thing that summoned you. Guess what? Once I have it, I can just yank you down and toss you in a pit of muck!”
“What do you want?” Burning Heart quickly replied, clearly sensing that the Dragon Lady had returned; however, she was too powerful for her to control.
“What do I want? Haven’t I made myself clear?” The Dragon Lady’s laughter was charming, a trademark smile that was once enchanting in her former body, now a chilly twisted madness.
But now, in her loli’s sweet tone, it was just bizarre—a little girl in fishnet stockings having a “don’t know me, yet pretends to” vibe.
However, the Burning Heart Goddess had little interest in pondering that at the moment.
“You can either trust me or your two sisters. Let’s be honest; I’m definitely offing your sisters today.”
“And you? If you hide away, I won’t find you, then once your sisters are dead, you can slowly plot your next move. Sounds fair, right?”
“This is your last chance. If you don’t take advantage of it, you’ll really miss out.”
“Once this village is gone, this shop won’t be around anymore.”
“You can’t genuinely think that staying in my body is going to give you a chance to bounce back, right? No way, right?”
“I’ll be straight with you: I’ve taken out more Evil Gods than I can count. Do you know why I’m so confident in confronting you? It’s because I genuinely don’t care whether you’re in my body or not; you’ll d*e one day regardless.”
The Dragon Lady said a lot, while the Burning Heart remained silent, not even firing back at being called garbage.
She pondered whether this plan was feasible.
She was exhausted; she had just awakened in Zhao Mingyue’s body and hadn’t fully recovered when that wretched Evil Ghost kept torturing her, eventually forcing her out of the body.
Just getting evicted was fine; after all, Zhao Yi’s body was pretty decent too—she had once been a Goddess.
Then she realized that Zhao Yi’s situation wasn’t quite what she had imagined.
This girl wasn’t the same whiny brat from before; she was strong and twisted in spirit.
Honestly, she had never seen someone with such an unwavering mental fortitude.
Strong to the point where she felt utterly powerless.
She thought the Dragon Lady’s strength came from her beliefs, which would typically be an easy target if one could pinpoint her mental weak spots.
But then she discovered that the Dragon Lady’s strength stemmed not from beliefs.
It was pure craziness, and she didn’t care about much at all—the one thing she did care about wasn’t a soft spot.
The strongest defense is the lack of defense; like an empty house, a thief wouldn’t even know where to start once they got inside.
“Think it over, or else you’ll miss out.”
As soon as the Dragon Lady finished, Bai Yu signaled Bai Shuang’er to retreat, then she brandished her sword and strode into the temple.
Upon entering, two imposing statues greeted her, carved from black stone. Their attire was neither Buddhist nor Daoist, belonging to no known religion, yet they exuded an unsettling, magnetic aura that suggested anything but benevolence.
The Godmother sat elegantly on a lotus platform, eight seductive arms behind her striking various poses, her upper body bare, etched with strange talismanic scripts.
On the left, one of the Godmother’s hands covered her mouth, while the other covered her ears on the right.
The two statues looked almost identical, save for the eight arms, each holding different sacrificial items.
From worms and weighing scales to severed heads and tongues, swords and scripture.
The surrounding walls were covered with murals and twisted texts, all packed so densely they sent shivers down one’s spine.
The offering table before the statues was piled high with grotesque and bizarre sacrifices, and kneeling beneath it were over a dozen small girls who had become desiccated corpses.
The girls, their hearts torn out, had mouths agape—half lacking tongues, half bound with red cloth blindfolds.
Their faces displayed little terror; what remained was a mix of devotion and hope.
They were chosen as Goddesses by the villagers, as if truly worshipping some savior.
Behind the two statues, Bai Yu vaguely saw two more figures.
Unsurprisingly, those must be Burning Heart and Qian Mu.
With their heads covered in red cloth, retreating to the back was proof enough of their standing.
Bai Yu drove her longsword into the ground, in a blink turning it into countless bl**d threads that wrapped around the talismans on the walls.
These talismanic writings were far too powerful; had she not entered the Dragon Lady’s body, her own might have crumbled under the pressure.
As it turned out, these two Godmothers were something else entirely.
Bai Yu reformed a longsword in her hand.
Before she could swing, all the Goddesses on the offering table simultaneously turned their heads 180 degrees to face her.
“@#￥%&*…”
The Goddesses, with their ears severed, could only use their remaining eyes and mouths, producing an eerie wave of sound that felt eerily related to the cave’s writings.
Curses and malevolence surged madly.
Bai Yu hesitated—a wave of malice from the Brahma Sound Goddess invaded her body, attempting to strike directly at the Dragon Lady’s soul.
But of course, she hadn’t considered that the one controlling the body was Bai Yu.
“!”
A startled cry erupted as the Goddess manipulated by Brahma Sound suddenly had her head explode; her malice was directly absorbed the moment it entered the Dragon Lady’s body.
Bai Yu, controlling the Dragon Lady’s body, suddenly opened her eyes wide, reversing her grip to stab down.
Splat!
A spherical blade of energy shot into the center of the Goddesses and promptly detonated, shredding the corpses with a flurry of precise strikes, and silence fell in the cave.
Debris flew as a dragon wing shielded her, moving so fast it was like a black arrow, crashing through the offering table, smashing into the statue.
The A She Godmother exploded in response, and after regaining her balance, the bl**d threads coiled around her tiny fists, punching a large chunk out of the Burning Heart Goddess.
Bai Yu shot a glance at the entrance at the base of the statue, sensing something lurking within.
Malice spilled forth; Brahma Sound’s influence was no longer subtle—it seemed to be flat out cursing at her.
Manipulation was utterly useless, and she couldn’t help but ask Bai Yu:
“Do you literally not care for anyone?”
With so much malice and curses swirling around, surely the statue you see in front of you represents the people you cherish the most?
If you don’t offer everything up, knocking out your kidneys wouldn’t even make a difference.
···
Two updates this afternoon, and then two more tonight.
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