Chapter 61: Look at the Treasure!

After enduring an ordeal that almost forcefully stripped away his humanity, Xiao Yang’s greatest harvest was the unlocking of his mental attribute.

Although Xiao Yang did not yet fully understand the exact function of this mental attribute, he knew it was roughly tied to the flame of hope.

Following the ordeal, right up to the present moment, Xiao Yang's flame of hope had not yet recovered its vigor. It remained in a dim state, as if it could be extinguished at any moment, and this was tied to a massive deficit in Xiao Yang's mental attribute.

[Spirit: 3 (15)]

Unlike attributes like strength and agility, which remained fixed, this mental attribute fluctuated when encountering special circumstances.

Just like earlier, when he was gazed upon by the Evil God, Xiao Yang's spirit had almost plummeted below one, and the current four points of spirit had only slowly recovered just now.

Recalling everything he had just experienced, particularly the strange sensation of countless hands caressing his palms, Xiao Yang's expression turned peculiar.

"Why does this Evil God feel so perverted?"

Amidst this recollection, Xiao Yang's spirit dropped by another point, and his flame of hope dimmed by several shades once more. This scared Xiao Yang into behaving himself, and he began desperately to clear his mind, refusing to dwell on his recent experiences any further.

A short while later, amidst a daze and an empty head, Xiao Yang's spirit rose to five points, and his flame of hope gradually stabilized.

He let out a sigh of relief.

This time, the harvest extended far beyond the extra mental attribute. The updated God Game, the Evil God defense module, and the Dao Rhyme Store were all gains Xiao Yang secured from his near-loss of humanity.

Of course, there were losses too. The trusty old companion that had accompanied Xiao Yang back and forth through the dungeons was damaged. The dark-dispelling lantern had lost its luster, and that tiny, ever-burning flame had gone out—completely extinguished during the process of banishing the Evil God's influence and dragging Xiao Yang's sanity back.

[Dark-Dispelling Lantern
Quality: Inferior
Description: The flame of this lantern has gone out. It can no longer accompany adventurers on their journeys.]

This left Xiao Yang feeling quite distressed.

However, Xiao Yang had no intention of giving up on the dark-dispelling lantern. He intended to rescue his old companion and find a brand-new kindling for it.

Moreover, Xiao Yang felt he needed to rest for a while—at least until his spirit completely stabilized. Perhaps he should take a vacation for some time.

Standing up from the long table, Xiao Yang's gaze passed through the small window on the safe house's iron door to look at the greenish sewers outside. In a blur, the world's appearance constantly flickered between two styles: a normal sewer and a crimson path of flesh and blood.

Such a chaotic sight, flashing back and forth with frantic glitchiness, caused Xiao Yang's expression to gradually twist together.

Withdrawing his gaze, he sat back down in his chair. Venturing into the dungeons was probably out of the question for the time being; he simply had to rest.

Yet, how was one supposed to rest?

Trapped deep within the dungeon as he was, Xiao Yang couldn't even crawl his way out right now!

For the moment, he was reduced to huddling inside this small sewer safe house.

With nothing better to do, Xiao Yang first sent a message into the Justice Squad group chat to purchase some kindling, and then turned his attention to studying the newly expanded section of his God Game—the Dao Rhyme Store.

There were many wonderful things in the Dao Rhyme Store, and Xiao Yang even spotted quite a few familiar names.

Three-Thousand-Year Flat Peaches, Huangzhong Plum, Laurel Branches, Lesser Immortal-Slaying Sword, Lesser Pangu Axe. Though the names generally carried the prefix "Lesser," these items started at the legendary tier.

Xiao Yang couldn't afford them. Even the cheapest Three-Thousand-Year Flat Peaches required at least three thousand strands of Dao Rhyme Blessing, leaving him able to do nothing more than gaze at them with envy. He currently possessed only fifteen strands of Dao Rhyme Blessing.

Carefully browsing through the product catalog, Xiao Yang discovered that although his fifteen strands of Dao Rhyme Blessing were few, their purchasing power was actually not bad. While he couldn't afford the Lesser Immortal-Slaying Sword or the Lesser Pangu Axe, he could afford epic-tier items like the Mountain-Whipping Whip and the Ghost-Suppressing Axe.

He even spotted the kindling required to repair the dark-dispelling lantern within the Dao Rhyme Store—the kindling of a renowned and legendary flame: the Samadhi True Fire.

The asking price wasn't high, and it happened to be right within Xiao Yang's budget. Fifteen strands of Dao Rhyme Blessing could be exchanged for a bit of Samadhi True Fire kindling. However, a problem arose: while Xiao Yang indeed needed to relight the dark-dispelling lantern, did he really need a lantern that could spew out flames to incinerate enemies?

Xiao Yang pictured that scene in his mind.

Inside the dungeon, a fellow dressed as an adventurer raised the lantern at his waist, threw his head back, and let out a bold laugh at the monsters closing in around him.

"Good monsters! Come and taste my treasure!" With that, he raised the lantern at his waist and laughed heartily, "Behold my divine fire!" He took a deep breath and blew out a gust. Lo and behold, this divine fire possessed infinite might, instantly sweeping across the zombies, skeletons, and vampires before him, reducing them all to ashes.

Something about that felt a bit off, even if it was undeniably imposing.

Having just had his sanity cleansed, Xiao Yang found himself somewhat unable to control his increasingly wild and fanciful thoughts.

Ultimately, however, Xiao Yang abandoned this whimsical idea. It wasn't that the Samadhi True Fire wasn't good; rather, it simply didn't match his needs. Xiao Yang's requirements for the new dark-dispelling lantern consisted of just a few things:

Illumination, curse-dispelling, and mental recovery.

These were the functions Xiao Yang needed most right now. He didn't need an offensive weapon capable of blowing enemies into cinders with a single breath; instead, he needed a lantern that could save his life the next time he suffered the gaze of an Evil God.

Besides, even if he did exchange for the Samadhi True Fire kindling, he had no way to immediately forge such an intensely fierce offensive weapon. All he would get was a speck of kindling, and whether it could truly be nurtured into the mythological Samadhi True Fire later on depended entirely on his own investment.

How could someone like Xiao Yang, who barely had a copper coin to his name and had only just escaped poverty, afford to nurture a legendary divine flame of this caliber? It wasn't like he could just throw the Urn of Greed into the fire to feed it.

Better forget it. Better just forget it.

The treasures belonging to the ancestors of the Eastern pantheon were truly beyond reproach—they were undeniably good. But they were equally undeniably expensive, and absolute headaches to maintain. One could see that just from the myths and legends: top-tier treasures almost always fell into the hands of beings with extraordinary origins and backgrounds.

With no money and no resources, one simply shouldn't harbor such expectations.

Even if one wanted to cobble together a Human Sovereign Banner, didn't that require sacrificing millions of souls to raise the flag? There was never anything simple, crude, or easy to deal with about them.

Just as Xiao Yang slumped back into his chair, letting his mind wander, good news finally arrived in the Justice Squad group chat.