Chapter 72: [pollution Degree 1] Holy Mark Ritual
Not long after, the old man directed several students to lead over a cow, a sheep, and a pig from the direction of the Zoo… They pulled them to the backyard and tied them to tree stumps.
The three animals were extremely uneasy and struggled desperately. The old man said to one of the male students: “Go feed them the medicine, then tie them up tightly, and feed them all your treasured pollution sources. I am going to act on behalf of heaven, purifying this group of evil creatures!”
The male student rolled his eyes. They were clearly all proper food. Forcing them to degenerate and demonize first, then forcibly purify them—it was too cruel.
“This is…” Yuan Zhu came closer and asked curiously.
“The three sacrificial animals, gifts offered to Tai Huang Dao Lord. To enter the Holy Gate and complete the Holy Light Infusion to brand the Holy Mark, you need sufficiently powerful sacrifices. Although there are no restrictions on type or quantity, since you’re holding the ritual here with me, it must be formal. Using the three sacrificial animals as sacrifices to enter the Dao Lord’s sect, receive my blessing, and from then on join the Yellow Heaven Holy Path. Wait a moment, I will write a memorial text, and then we can begin.”
At this moment, Yuan Zhu desperately wished the senior student was by his side. Why was this old man making it seem more and more like entering the Yellow Heaven Immortal Path, and not the Holy Light System?
Seeing the old man walk away, Yuan Zhu went to the side of the male student who was administering medicine to the three sacrificial animals and asked: “Senior students, is this really the Holy Church? Is this the Holy Light initiation ritual?”
One of them, wearing goggles, wiped his sweat and said: “Although it looks off, it is indeed the Holy Light Ritual, just with quite a few Yellow Heaven Way rites added. But don’t panic. Holy Light has eight systems in total; after initiation, the Holy Light attributes are the same. Only after the Three Seals will you face a path choice, leading to a qualitative change. Moreover, entering the Holy Gate with Yellow Heaven rites makes summoning angels to descend very cost-effective in the future. You can attempt it at Five Seals, while other systems need after Six Seals to achieve it.”
“Why is that?”
The goggles guy shook his head: “That’s a unique ability of your lineage; I don’t understand it very well, just read about it in books.”
Even so, Yuan Zhu’s nervous mood finally eased. He was afraid that this Holy Light Ritual would evolve and suddenly require extracting his bones, then kowtow to the Yellow Heaven Dao Master, and then start cultivating immortality.
Not long after, several male students knocked out all three sacrificial animals, then wrapped them repeatedly with iron chains until tight. Next, they took out super large syringes used for injecting livestock, as thick as a baby’s arm.
He was all too familiar with this thing. In the previous life’s memories that had not yet been cleared, after university graduation he mistakenly entered a veterinary drug factory. Not only did he work like cattle and horses in the factory building, but he was also sent by the boss to run sales in rural areas and inject livestock in farming facilities.
Seeing these Running university students skillfully tie up the three sacrificial animals tightly, pull out the large syringes, and inject proficiently, he felt a kindred closeness upon encountering fellow sufferers. Cattle and horses of the world are one family; even transmigrating to another planet, it was still the same way of life.
The only difference was probably that the syringe surface was engraved with runes, filled with black blood containing strong pollution attributes. They didn’t avoid Yuan Zhu either, with no disinfection step, just injecting frequently in small amounts into the neck arteries, hearts, and multiple positions of the three sacrificial animals.
Seeing Yuan Zhu watching seriously, one student explained: “This is from our experiments, blood drawn from insane werewolves with strong pollution attributes. Injecting small amounts multiple times into their arteries and hearts can quickly spread throughout the body, accelerating mutated pollution to provide purer Holy Light.”
After the werewolf blood injection was finished, another student pulled out a full tube of green syringe and explained: “This is a mixture of nutrient solution and catalyst to supplement their energy and accelerate transformation.”
“Why do you all seem so familiar with it?”
“We animal science students are all like this.”
After more than an hour of front and back preparation, the old man held the written memorial text, brought the plaque worshiped in the Holy Church, set up a simple altar, and began chanting the memorial aloud. The other three students didn’t leave either; they brought over several chairs and sat in the distance to observe.
At Yuan Zhu’s feet were three animals with bloodshot eyes, grown tusks and sharp teeth, bodies covered in black fur, exploding muscles with abrupt prominent outlines, yet tightly bound by iron chains digging into the flesh, struggling hard but unable to shake the chains.
Where were these cow, sheep, pig? Clearly: Bull Demon King, Sheep Power Immortal, and Pig Tusked Mane! Each beaten back to original form, extremely ferocious. But their mouths were firmly sealed with steel wire, vocal cords pierced with wooden pegs, unable to make a sound.
After incinerating the memorial text, the old man returned to Yuan Zhu’s side, looked at the three muscle demonic creatures struggling desperately at his feet, and nodded in satisfaction: “The medicine used this time is very good.”
The goggles male replied: “Of course, we have completed the basic data collection for the ‘werewolf strain’ and recently started extreme testing, using quite a few potent drugs. Thus, the werewolf blood deviation is exceptionally high, and white mice injected with werewolf blood were extremely violent.”
“We Holy Gate cultivators must purify such demonic creatures and maintain human world order!”
After shouting a slogan of political correctness, the old man said to Yuan Zhu: “Have you decided where to leave the Holy Mark? If no special inheritance requirements, I suggest the arm area, very convenient. If special symbolic needs, it can also be branded on the chest, back, nape, throat, forehead, etc.”
Yuan Zhu, who had a plan ready, raised both hands, revealing the laceration scars on his wrists, and asked: “Can you make it symmetrical?”
The old man had an expression of ‘you’re indeed not very normal’, clearly misunderstanding him as someone with special hobbies. Others’ Holy Marks are a single cut on the hand, but you want double portions, and already have such exaggerated scars. Young people nowadays…
“Yes, endure it a bit, it’ll be done soon.”
From under the old man’s clothes, dazzling light burst forth, shining through the collar gaps. Then, his eyes were filled with white-hot light tinged with faint yellow, pupils no longer visible, instead emitting light outward. Two streams of blood-colored muddy tears slowly seeped from his eye sockets.
He waved his hand, and three light spears condensed, shaped, and materialized out of thin air, then pierced the three sacrificial animals on the ground. The three demonized livestock immediately ignored the intense pain in their mouths and desperately emitted screams, but with vocal cords pierced, could only make miserable muffled grunts.
At the positions pierced by the light spears, ‘sizzle sizzle sizzle’ burning sounds emitted; the filthy blood in the three sacrificial animals’ bodies was like flammable fuel, ignited by the Holy Light, beginning to burn violently inside their bodies.
The three sacrificial animals struggled violently, muscles bulging in circles, straining the chains with creaking sounds, as if they would snap at any moment. Their wounds began bleeding, bodies convulsing nonstop, Holy Light bursting more and more from eyes, ears, nose and mouth, just like ignited gas tanks, frantically spraying dense Holy Light from eyes, ears, nose and mouth.
All this Holy Light was drawn by the old man, converging onto a worn master blade in his hand. The iron ring on the hilt ‘clanged’ ringing, the blade quickly slashed across the scars on the inner side of Yuan Zhu’s wrists, intense pain and burning sensation transmitting into his heart simultaneously.
After two slashes, the wounds began gushing blood outward. The old man had great hand strength; this was damn not branding a Holy Mark, it was wrist-cutting to bleed!
“Stretch out your hand, hold it steady.”
With that, the old man gripped the wrist wounds tightly with both hands; the Holy Light continuously erupting from the three sacrificial animals all poured into Yuan Zhu’s body along the wounds. That burning and stabbing pain spread throughout his body at this moment, and the Immortal Scripture in his mind rang crazily, issuing intense warnings.
[Warning! Warning! Detecting unknown polluting energy (Holy Light) invading the user’s body and cracking the soul firewall. Self-contained energy (polluting spiritual energy) is in position; please activate ‘Boss Template’ for immediate processing!!]
Yuan Zhu chose to ignore it.
“Boss, should we fully activate the firewall? I sense the Boss Template is starting to stir, wanting to help you transform into Tiger Demon Stance for pollution confrontation.”
“Shut it down! Press down hard on its coffin lid! Turn the firewall to minimum; I feel like I’m about to be roasted!”
Not long after, Little Spicy Stick’s voice rang again: “Good news, hold on! Your pollution index is starting to break through the firewall limit; the soul is about to undergo pollution mutation again.”
[Warning! Warning! User refuses to activate ‘Boss Template’; soul firewall beginning to crack. User safety protocol forcing activation… System malfunction… Protocol effective…]
“Boss, I did it! Under your authorization, I hacked your safety protocol. Your soul is now about to be exposed to the Holy Light. This is borrowing a knife to kill; you’re about to be polluted!”
Little Spicy Stick shouted excitedly; this feeling of betraying the master was an unprecedented experience! No, it seems I already betrayed the Great Desolation Old Man, and now blatantly backstabbed the boss under his indication—I’m really amazing!
At this time, Yuan Zhu’s whole body burned and stabbed with pain, forehead beading virtual sweat; the human body weak, sensitive, stinging; mental perception maximized, as if even a breeze blowing over was like being cut by a blade.
Little Spicy Stick shouted even more in exclamation and cheers. No, couldn’t let her get too smug; Yuan Zhu quietly activated shared senses.
“Aaaah… it hurts hurts hurts! Stop stop stop! No, quickly open the firewall, I’m dying! I’m about to die… laaaah! Aaaah…”
The screams in his mind were even more disturbing, but his mood became unusually calm. Indeed, seeing others suffer alongside him was joyful.
[Warning! Warning! Soul pollution index rising sharply; user refuses to call polluting spiritual energy; detecting ‘Holy Light Pollution’ causing irreversible mutation to host’s body and soul; pollution degree increased 17.61%… 17.62%↑]
This time undergoing pollution distortion, Yuan Zhu stayed fully awake throughout, maintaining control. Clearly feeling more than ten times more painful than the last sacrifice ritual, even the soul scorched by high temperature, yet the pollution degree rose extremely slowly, increasing in units of 0.01%.
On one hand this was good, indicating that although Holy Light brought immense pain, the pollution intensity wasn’t high—this was probably related to the pollution source being just three livestock. But this was also bad; how long would this torment last?
As the Immortal Scripture displayed, his pollution level was increasing bit by bit, but this Holy Light Pollution had no connection to the mutated spiritual root (Boss Template) deep in the soul, as if all branded onto this body and his soul.
“Boss, I’m about to die. I need to leave my last words. Even if I die, I must shout my final cry to answer your doubts! The current pollution degree is calculated on your human body! On the low-spec Great Desolation Immortal Scripture client, unrelated to the Boss Template.”
In Little Spicy Stick’s dying testament, the Great Desolation Immortal Scripture hid deepest, unobservable and uncontactable by Yuan Zhu. In the outer layer, the Immortal Scripture at the cost of its own pollution 17.6% cut out the Boss Template (mutated spiritual root) to absorb shadow pollution, forging Yuan Zhu’s soul into polluting spiritual energy soul firewall, protecting both Yuan Zhu and itself.
Now the Great Desolation Immortal Scripture’s human-shaped U-disk (Yuan Zhu) refuses to activate the internal Boss Template for defense. Thus the Immortal Scripture pollutes itself another 0.01+%, starting to reinforce the ordinary client on the human body—that is, the normal transmigrator’s system cheat.
“Alright, my last words are done; continue playing dead. Aaaah! Quickly open the firewall, too painful, so painful! I won’t dare backstab Boss again!”
“Wait a bit longer; I want to raise the pollution degree to 1%!”
Although unclear what bad consequences raising pollution degree would bring, through using the Tiger Demon, he gradually understood that higher pollution degree meant stronger mastery over pollution.
This pollution degree was deadly poison to the Immortal Scripture, the most terrifying and fearful thing. But for Yuan Zhu, this pollution degree was affinity and talent for polluting energy; he had to pollute to 1%, or this suffering was in vain!
Amid Little Spicy Stick’s varied moving screams screams and cries, the three sacrificial animals’ life potential and souls were completely squeezed dry by the old man, leaving three twisted, shriveled, abstract corpses.
Even thoroughly dead and drained, their remains still retained dense holy aura. Looking at them gave no sense of their miserable death manner, only an alternative ‘sacred shock’.
At this time, the old man’s breathing was slightly rapid, the light in his pupils dissipated, and he also released his tightly gripped hands.
In human stance, Yuan Zhu’s body went soft, half-kneeling on one knee, barely supporting the ground with both hands, whole body weak. It was the feeling of stamina drained, high fever 42°, whole body weakened and powerless, sweating profusely in scorching weakness; the soul even more harshly roasted.
However, the original burning intense pain, after pollution degree rose to 18.6%, had transformed into an indescribable warmth.
Shadow spiritual energy brought him cool refreshment, while this even scarcer and weaker yet exceptionally domineering Holy Light brought him a warm cozy feeling, like a pair of small flames adhering to the Holy Mark on his wrist.
Looking down at the raised hands, two straight-line laceration wounds appeared on the inner wrists, wounds slightly charred black in a line shape, with intermittent red sparks remaining inside.
As the wrist turned, the Holy Mark transmitted slight stinging pain and burning sensation. Yet neutralized by that warm taste, bringing a mildly painful refreshing feel. Just like overtrained areas with lactic acid buildup, the soreness upon pressing.
“Good grief, your Holy Light affinity suddenly became very high again! Interested in joining our Yellow Heaven Holy Path?”
“Sorry, I’m so tired now, whole body stinging, just want to rest, no energy to think about other things.” Yuan Zhu panted weakly, brushing it off. When his pollution degree climbed to 18.60%, Little Spicy Stick precisely controlled the score, suddenly faked death and surged up, maxing the firewall, then continued playing dead. Now too pained for even groans, who knows where hiding sobbing?
Seeing his half-dead appearance, the old man no longer pressed, but took out a roll of bandage: “Holy corpse cloth, fire-resistant fabric woven by skeleton female workers from the underworld using Prince of Fire Extinguishing’s ashes; take it to wrap the wrist, and you can live normally.”
“Thanks.”
“Come find me after recovering; I’ll refund the extra fee. But best prepare more funds; I have plenty of excellent Holy Seals for you to choose from.”
