Infinite Gods Reign Supreme

Chapter 41 The True God... and His Descent
"To be precise, this should be a mythological and folk horror film."

Si Ming reviewed the memories in his mind and exchanged for detailed information from the main god.

"Hmm, a movie from 2022. The plot is..."

The plot synopsis was displayed on a makeshift public screen. There was also a giant projection screen capable of simultaneously playing various details, Easter eggs, and behind-the-scenes footage. The five reincarnators sat in a row, watching the movie, of course with popcorn and orange soda.

It didn't take long.

Watching the entire movie and repeatedly examining the details only took about two hours.

The story is actually quite simple—several hundred years ago, in the Yunnan region, a malevolent entity known as the 'Great Black Buddha Mother' was discovered by local monks, who cautiously worshipped it as an evil deity. This entity possessed a unique ability: it could unconditionally curse someone to death after the latter voluntarily offered their true name. Furthermore, it had no power to protect others; it was the kind of evil spirit that would only cause trouble if offered sacrifices.

Of course, what makes an evil spirit evil is that it will not stop or be satisfied even if offered sacrifices. Thus, amidst a series of unrecorded events, a family surnamed Chen took the evil spirit's true form from Yunnan and hid it in a deep mountain on an overseas island. They trapped this evil entity deep within a cave using a series of intricate mazes. From then on, the Chen family used themselves as sacrifices every year to restrict the evil spirit's sacrificial rules, preventing it from leaving this small mountain village for hundreds of years.

Until six years before the main storyline began—

Two young men, unaware of the evil spirits or perhaps protected by their clan elders, were sent to a big city and brought back a woman. This woman, named Li Ruonan, was pregnant with one of their children and worked in social media. And from that moment, everything crumbled.

They discovered the secret that the Chen family had kept for hundreds of years, and peeked into the tunnel that was "absolutely forbidden to enter." The Great Black Buddha Mother, who had been trapped for hundreds of years, also found an opportunity, using the disguised cry of a baby to lure a young man surnamed Chen who was about to become a father, thus breaking the seal that the Chen family had created over hundreds of years.

The evil spirit broke free and took the lives of all members of the Chen family. Only Li Ruonan escaped, but was later sent to a mental hospital due to her insane symptoms.

Six years later, she was discharged from the hospital and managed to regain custody of her daughter, Chen Duoduo. But the evil spirit remained and continued to haunt her and her daughter. Soon, her daughter showed clear signs of possession. After seeking medical help without success, she took her daughter to the local temple keeper and shaman for assistance…

However, she ultimately let them down again. When the temple keeper clearly stated that he would perform a ritual for seven days, and Chen Duoduo was unable to eat, he fed her a can of pineapple. As a result, the temple keeper's family failed in their ritual and died. Even the statues in the temple rejected her and left her to fend for herself.

But the evil spirit continued its relentless pursuit. Duoduo's adoptive father managed to travel to Yunnan and, through footage from six years prior, obtained the details of the evil spirit from a local high monk—he was thus cursed to death by the evil spirit from thousands of miles away. Li Ruonan, however, had a flash of inspiration. She disguised the hand seals and incantations meant to share the curse as a ritual to bless her possessed daughter, edited it into a mockumentary, and broadcast it online. In the end, she covered her entire body with incantations representing sacrifice before disappearing into the pit that sealed the evil spirit.

"Hmm..." Valentina stared at the huge projection screen in front of her, which was displaying the credits for the production company. She fell into thought.

"It feels like a very simple movie... There are righteous gods, and the social order is very stable under normal circumstances. The most powerful villain is just a statue sealed deep in a cave. Moreover, the prerequisite for casting a curse is watching a video, performing a ritual to share the curse, or offering one's true name... Even if the main god directly gives us a state of being cursed from the start, we can just go to a local temple and seek help from that god... Zhou Cang?"

“It’s Guan Yu,” Song Tian replied in a deep voice. “Zhou Cang is Guan Yu’s subordinate, but he is also a powerful folk deity. It is a common practice in the area to pray to him and borrow the power of Guan Sheng Di Jun to descend to earth.”

"Lord Guan Sheng?" Valentina tilted her head, looking bewildered.

“The God of Loyalty and Justice of the East,” Jacob explained to her. “Many people in the East believe in Him; it is a widely spread faith.”

“Loyalty and justice…” Valentina glanced at the information she had just checked, a look of sudden realization crossing her face. “But if that’s the case, why didn’t this powerful righteous god just execute that Great Black Buddha Mother? Hmm… the part about the temple keeper and the sorceress dying is basically the evil spirit killing the righteous god’s priests right in front of the righteous god in the righteous god’s temple, right? And he just turned his back and ignored her, so good-natured… Could it be that he couldn’t beat her?”

"That's possible, but I think the bigger reason is that they are righteous gods. And the difference between righteous gods and evil gods in this world is that righteous gods act according to rules rather than their likes and dislikes, while evil gods do whatever they want."

Si Ming raised his hand and retrieved a temple fair Easter egg that wasn't included in the main story. Here, Duo Duo, who clearly showed signs of being possessed, was a white crane attendant at the temple fair. When General Zeng Sun noticed her, he was unable to move until Chen Ruonan screamed and carried her away from the temple fair.

“The true gods have duties, and they only perform those duties. People must first pray and offer sincere offerings before the gods will respond to matters within their jurisdiction. Beyond that, even if the entire land is reduced to scorched earth or turned into a buffet of evil spirits, the true gods will not take any action.”

“If Heaven had feelings, it too would grow old.” Yu Zhiwei revealed an approving look. “A procedure that cannot yield effective results without following the correct steps. Like the laws of nature, there is no room for confusion or negotiation. Such a god is indeed an unquestionable righteous god. It couldn’t be more righteous.”

“Does God cease to distinguish between good and evil once He intervenes in the mortal world?” Jacob nodded slightly. “Indeed, Losanda, the Lord of Dawn, acted entirely out of good intentions, causing the Dawn Calamity, which had a far worse impact than most evil gods. To mortals, clay and wooden statues that strictly follow the rules are indeed 'righteous' enough deities.”

It is positive, but it has nothing to do with good or evil. It is a mechanism, a celestial phenomenon, a force that can be utilized.

“Then I will take some time to study the rules of the Eastern pantheon and the corresponding customs,” Jacob said, glancing at Si Ming and Yu Zhiwei, whose Eastern blood was exceptionally pure. “However, as far as I know, Eastern gods generally value skin color and bloodline. If it really comes down to needing to leverage their power, we may need you to carry it out.”

"I don't mind at all," Yu Zhiwei waved her hand casually.

Si Ming looked at his palm, at the dark battle aura that had appeared there, imbued with a few divine particles. God unseen.

But the god of the cursed world is probably not the same type of god as the death divinity he possesses.

“I will intervene if necessary. However, I don’t think things will escalate to that point.” Si Ming clenched his fists, his gaze sweeping over the others. “Because we are the Celestial Team, and the Celestial Team currently only has five members. This means that the difficulty of the next world will only be at the level of five people. Basically, there won’t be too many unexpected elements or a divine intervention-style increase in difficulty.”

"Can we break this by attacking?" Yu Zhiwei became interested.

“Perhaps we don’t need to ‘go to war’.” Valentina carefully examined many details. “At the beginning of the movie, Li Ruonan hadn’t had a chance to meet her daughter yet. Duoduo wasn’t cursed either. If we contacted her at this time, we should be able to persuade her to take another path. As for that Great Black Buddha Mother, we can go directly to the still-living temple keeper, or we can take matters into our own hands and fill in that mountain, or move it away to solve the problem.”

"It sounds simple, Vana, but how do you convince a cultist?" Yu Zhiwei rested her chin on her hand, revealing a hidden Easter egg. "Look, this proves that Li Ruonan knew about this curse ritual six years ago. Judging from her actions in the show, she initially wanted to sacrifice her daughter, Duoduo. The temple keeper's family were actually sacrifices she offered to the evil spirits. She might have finally developed a bit of maternal instinct, which is why she spread the curse ritual to save her daughter. But who knows how much of that maternal love was genuine?"

“You’re thinking too badly of people, Miss Yu,” Valentina frowned. “Also, please don’t use such strange terms of address.”

"Thinking negatively won't hurt you. But if you think too positively... you might lose more than just a piece of flesh."

Si Ming tapped the table, interrupting any possibility of the conversation going any further. He carefully examined the content on the projection screen, discerning and calculating some key details.

“We might not arrive when Li Ruonan meets Chen Duoduo. Didn’t you notice? This is a mockumentary with artistic flair. It records events that have already occurred in the ‘movie world.’ If we were to arrive directly at the point in time when the story begins, as is customary, we might find that all the screens are already playing that handprint disguised as a blessing or curse.”

A unique conclusion.

This conclusion was met with a long silence from the Celestial Team. They immediately began to examine the details in the peripheral parts again, and the more they looked, the more their brows furrowed.

“In that case, it’s unlikely that we’ll be facing a world with a 5-player difficulty level,” Jacob objected.

But this objection can be easily refuted.

"What determines the difficulty is the main quest, not the inherent danger of the world itself," Siming said, shrugging. "Perhaps our main quest is simply to survive in such a world for a few hours or days. In that case, we just need to find a completely deserted deep forest, or perhaps take a boat out to sea."

"A victory through mere survival? Not bad at all." But Yu Zhiwei simply rested her chin on her hand, observing Si Ming and the other people present.

"But would you choose to do that? As a member of the Celestial Team, which only the captain can join?"

The group exchanged glances.

The next moment, even Valentina, who seemed the most serious, and perhaps actually was, had a smile on her face.

"of course not."

This is the second item that the Celestial Team has unanimously approved since the afternoon meeting.

The meeting concluded, with three days remaining. This time was ample opportunity for everyone to make thorough preparations. From folk customs and geographical structures to exorcising and blessing items, everyone prepared a multitude of things according to their own plans.

until--

The teleportation beam touched the pure white earth.

—【World Curse, teleportation initiation.】

— [In progress...]

(End of this chapter)