Please control me, my divine being!

In the dimly lit room, various lines drawn with blood intertwined, forming a complex pattern.

In the center of this ritual image is a bronze wine vessel with rust on it.

The small bronze cup was only half the size of Li Qinghe's palm, and it was engraved with flowers, birds, insects, fish, pavilions and towers. The exquisite patterns made it look like a work of art.

Tick, tick.

Li Qinghe bit her finger, and the blood dripped into the cup, quickly forming a small puddle.

At this moment, after knocking on the door to no avail, Jiang Chuling had no choice but to push it open and enter, her expression extremely interesting.

Corpses, bloodstains, a strange girl...

Anyone who opens the door and sees this scene will be quite frightened.

If this appearance were reported to the authorities, he would inevitably be accused of being a perverted shrine or possessed by evil spirits, which would be an extremely serious crime in the Great Wu Dynasty.

She hurriedly closed the wooden door, then peeked out through the crack to make sure no one was watching before her gaze fell on Yitu.

Smooth, perfect, and completed in one go.

The entire ritual scene is like an exquisite work of art; even if it were drawn with a finger instead of a brush, there would be no mistakes.

The curves are graceful, the straight lines are straight, and the special symbols are full of charm.

When Li Qinghe first dealt with the matchmaker and the thugs, Jiang Chuling guessed that the other party might be a "cultivator".

The three thugs were strong and powerful; it would be difficult for a girl of that age to kill even one of them.

Now that she saw the other party had drawn such a perfect ritual diagram, she was even more certain of her guess. But these were not what surprised her. What truly surprised her was the process of Li Qinghe's sacrifice.

Jiang Chuling didn't understand the rituals, but she had been exposed to them since childhood and roughly knew the whole process.

Set up an altar and statues, bathe and calm the mind.

They performed the rituals of walking on the Big Dipper and chanting proclamations while burning talismans.

These are almost essential procedures in sacrificial rites.

But Li Qinghe didn't follow any of the steps, and didn't even chant the name or holy title of the deity. The offering was just a perfunctory placement of a pebble.

What is this?

Such a hasty sacrifice has a near-zero success rate, and even if it were to succeed by sheer luck, who knows what kind of strange thing it would communicate with.

Before today, if someone told Jiang Chuling that this was a way to perform rituals and invite gods, she would have thought that either the person was crazy or possessed by evil spirits.

But now the girl is standing here perfectly fine.

Furthermore, the offering at the very center of the ritual image has disappeared, and a bronze wine vessel has been added, indicating that the ritual was very successful.

The deity the girl worshipped not only heard her prayers, but also, after receiving the stones as offerings, did not simply crush the audacious believer to death. Instead, it gave a positive response.

What kind of saintly deity is this?

If the Jiang family had encountered this person...

Jiang Chuling interrupted her random thoughts and focused her gaze on the gift from the gods—a small bronze wine cup, which was clearly a common object.

After finishing the sacrificial ceremony, Li Qinghe came to her senses and noticed the girl behind her.

But at that moment, her heart was entirely focused on her mother, and she had no time to explain. She continued to use the wine cup to catch the blood dripping from her fingers.

Jiang Chuling, her face filled with worry, reminded her, "Sister Qinghe, the dead cannot be brought back to life. Even gods have never heard of anyone being able to resurrect the dead. I'm afraid that even if they do come back to life, it won't be what you think!"

There are countless examples of people who, in their attempts to achieve unrealistic goals through worshipping deities, ended up with tragic consequences.

Li Qinghe knew that the dead could not be brought back to life, but she was unwilling to accept it.

"No matter what happens, I'm going to try."

She gritted her teeth, raised the wine cup, and silently prayed to the gods.

In the darkness.

An unseen force descended and took control of her body once more.

Jiang Chuling's eyelids twitched. Looking at the scene before her, her small mouth slowly opened, and her expression froze.

...

"Is that really how it is?"

Zhou Qing was not surprised and began to control the girl, using vulgar tools.

【Mortal objects are ancient and special items that carry spirituality and are scattered on the earth. After being imbued with the power of the gods, they become extraordinary objects and often possess incredible power.

You have received a mortal vessel bestowed by the gods, which you nourish with blood.

It drank its fill of blood and grew as if it had come to life, transforming into a giant cauldron in the blink of an eye.

Inside, blood flowed freely and a chilling aura permeated the air.

Gurgle.

It swallowed your mother's body whole, then shrank rapidly, returning to its original size.

You hurriedly looked into the wine vessel.

A thin layer of blood-red liquid floated inside.

An ant-sized body lay dormant at the bottom of the wine glass; the erosion of the evil sores had finally been contained, and the festering, decaying body had stopped deteriorating.

However, to cure the sores and restore them to their original state, it may be necessary to trace their origin.

Because of your keen senses, you saw a blurry shadow on the rippling water.

That seemed to be the soul of my mother.

She looks at you kindly, smiling as always...

Zhou Qing breathed a sigh of relief.

The mother's body was placed in the wine vessel, but her soul did not dissipate, and the erosion of the evil sores stopped.

While resurrection is out of the question, there's still hope, so it shouldn't be considered a mission failure.

Without this mundane artifact, the main storyline of "saving the mother" would most likely have ended badly.

The hidden information between the lines of the game is clearly another challenge. If you don't discover it in time, it's easy to fall into a trap. I need to pay more attention in the future.

Having played this far, Zhou Qing finally understood that the most important thing in the game was information gathering.

As the text continued to appear, a unique prompt appeared below the character's status.

"Li Qinghe, your faith level has been increased!"

"Players can hear more of the character's inner thoughts, interact more, and when controlling the character to do irrational things, the character's resistance decreases!"

"As faith grows, even more features will become available!"

Explore this bizarre and wonderful world to your heart's content!

Game text is usually written from the character's perspective and is presented in the second person.

Zhou Qing recalled that this kind of straightforward third-person narration rarely appeared, only when describing the player's permissions in the game.

Upgrading your faith will unlock new features.

Zhou Qing wanted to try a new interaction, but found that Li Qinghe's name had become obscure, and he couldn't control her anymore.

Looking at the status bar, the sanity bar, which had just plummeted, was slowly recovering, but the hunger and health bars had fallen below the red line again.

[Hunger, blood loss, fatigue, coma, malnutrition...]

A series of negative states filled the field of vision.

Below is an estimated recovery time of six hours.

Fortunately, these negative buffs can be healed, as long as the person is alright.

It seemed there was no way to continue playing today. Zhou Qing stood up, recalling the vulgar weapon that had played a significant role in the game, and immediately walked out.

The bronze wine vessel came from an antique dealer in the north, who did not notice anything unusual about it.

The game text also describes that common artifacts are special old objects that have been imbued with the power of the gods, thus becoming extraordinary artifacts.

In other words, it must be sacrificed by oneself to become a game item before it can play a special role in the game.

In reality, these are just old things.

Since these items can become commonplace tools in the game, reducing its difficulty and serving as trump cards in crucial moments, I must find more of them.

Zhou Qing stepped out of the warm pavilion and hurried to the main hall.

The antique dealer probably hasn't left yet; we can try to find out more from him.

Moreover, he needed to find a breakthrough in reality to verify his various speculations about the game.