Chapter 88: Spawn Camper! So You Were Behind the Mountain God Shrine Incident Too!

tln : spawn camper is like you kill the person right after they respawn/revive

“Instead of us endlessly scrambling for resources and fighting over cultivation opportunities in all the future story arcs…”

“Why don’t I just let you rest early? See? This way, you suffer less, get a good rebirth next time, and maybe you can even be the protagonist in a new game, in another world, huh?”

“Alright, alright, I’ve let you die with some dignity. Go to sleep now.”

As He Yimo finished his little monologue, a faint, almost gentle smile touched his lips. Under his strangely serene gaze, Chen Jianxin’s weakening consciousness finally flickered and dimmed. It seemed he had, at last, accepted his fate, his eyes slowly closing.

He Yimo watched the fall of a generation’s protagonist, an unprecedented mix of nervousness and exhilaration surging through him. But he didn’t dare celebrate prematurely. He waited, holding his breath, until Chen Jianxin’s corpse was completely consumed by the blood-red vines. Only then did an irrepressible, triumphant grin spread across his face.

“I can’t believe it… The protagonist of this world’s story… can actually be killed…” He Yimo let out a cold, satisfied scoff and stood up straight.

Not far away, beneath the dilapidated Buddha statue in the shrine, Gu Wanglan staggered back to his feet, his eyes burning with incandescent rage as he glared at the youth on the altar. He had painstakingly tricked, cajoled, and dragged Chen Jianxin all the way here for this sacrifice, only to have Chen Jianxin and all the credit in the Mother Goddess’s eyes stolen by He Yimo! “Frustrated” didn’t even begin to cover what Gu Wanglan was feeling right now. His eyes were bloodshot, filled with a savage, murderous hatred he’d never felt for anyone in his life. Not even for Mo Yuyan, who had publicly humiliated him countless times! He’d only been jealous of Mo Yuyan’s talent. But He Yimo… He Yimo was just a despicable, underhanded bastard!

“Spawn-camping… Fucking spawn-camping CHEATER!” Gu Wanglan internally seethed, a string of curses he didn’t dare voice aloud bubbling in his throat. But then, he felt even calling He Yimo a ‘cheater’ was an insult to actual cheaters. Cheaters, at least, weren’t as shameless as He Yimo, stealing someone else’s meticulously prepared offering to curry favor with the Mother Goddess! `Your mother must be so proud of your ‘filial piety’!`

But no matter how much he cursed internally, Gu Wanglan didn’t dare make a move. That earlier smackdown from the Mother Goddess’s vine had taught him a harsh lesson. He still didn’t understand why the Mother Goddess favored He Yimo, but the sacrifice wasn’t over yet. If Gu Wanglan foolishly disturbed Her dinner again, the next “plump virgin boy” to be devoured by the vines might very well be him! So, Gu Wanglan reined in his fury, biding his time.

The Mother Goddess could protect He Yimo for now, but not forever. Once Chen Jianxin was fully digested, the altar wouldn’t have enough nutrients to sustain Her manifested form. And then… He Yimo would be nothing but a tender, isolated piece of meat, ripe for the slaughter! Even if Gu Wanglan didn’t get the Sword Saint Physique, with his Nascent Soul cultivation and his swordsmanship second only to Mo Yuyan within their generation at Wuji Sect, killing a mere Foundation Establishment stage He Yimo would be child’s play!

`You cheating piece of shit… Let’s see how long you can keep that smug grin on your face!` Gu Wanglan fumed silently.

***

Northfall Snow Village, atop the highest peak, at the ruins of the Divine Deer Shrine.

The White-Robed Kensei stood on a remaining section of rooftop, arms crossed, her slender Frost-Humming Sword tucked within the crook of her arm. She appeared to be resting with her eyes closed, but in reality, every rustle of wind, every falling leaf within a vast radius, was perfectly clear to her heightened senses. Ever since receiving He Yimo’s letter, Mo Yuyan had flown back to Northfall Snow Village at her absolute top speed. This time, she wasn’t searching aimlessly. She was stationed here, at the shrine, ready to respond the instant He Yimo crushed the jade pendant and called for aid.

He Yimo had said in his letter that he’d triggered the trap on Northfall Mountain. Based on Mo Yuyan’s years of experience, she estimated the Waning Moon Cult’s nearby headquarters wouldn’t be more than fifty kilometers away. Any further, and the cost of maintaining a stable teleportation array would skyrocket. And judging by the strength of the cultists who had attacked Snow Village that night, their grassroots members clearly didn’t have the resources for a high-level, long-range array. So, Mo Yuyan had decided to simply wait at the mountain’s peak. Within a fifty-kilometer radius, if He Yimo crushed the pendant, she could reach him in less than the time it took for half an incense stick to burn!

—!!!

“Finally!” Mo Yuyan’s eyes snapped open, her gaze instantly locking onto the far distance, towards Wuji Sect. Almost instinctively, she launched herself into the air on her sword, streaking towards the signal’s origin. But as her mind caught up with her reflexes, she realized with a jolt… this signal… the direction was wrong. It wasn’t coming from anywhere near Northfall.

“…The back mountain of Wuji Sect…?” she whispered, a drop of cold sweat trickling down her temple despite the frigid mountain air whipping past her. “Why would the Waning Moon Cult’s main headquarters be on Wuji Sect’s BACK MOUNTAIN?!”

For a horrifying moment, genuine panic seized Mo Yuyan. She’d flown all the way from Wuji Sect to Northfall, and even at her top speed in a straight line, that one-way trip had taken at least half an hour! Now, it seemed she’d made a colossal blunder. Not only had she wasted precious time coming here, but the actual emergency was right back where she started, at Wuji Sect! Getting back there, even at her fastest, would take another half an hour!

“DAMN IT…!” Time was critical. Mo Yuyan didn’t have the luxury to ponder the ludicrous logistics of it all. She poured every ounce of her spiritual energy into accelerating, pushing her speed to unprecedented levels, leaving a shimmering arc of light, like a falling morning star, in her wake.

“He Yimo, you’d better hold on!” she silently urged, her heart pounding. “After making me run around like a headless chicken three or four times… if anything happens to you now… I really will—” Her thought trailed off, unspoken. The anger she’d felt earlier was now overshadowed by a gnawing worry, a profound helplessness. The image of his cheeky, infuriating, yet undeniably endearing smile kept flashing in her mind.

Ever since she’d learned to fly on her sword at the age of seven, Mo Yuyan had roamed the world freely… She had grown fast, her speed legendary, able to cross the entire Daxia Dynasty in a matter of hours. Over time, the simple thrill of speed had faded. But in all her decades of relentless sword cultivation, Mo Yuyan had never once felt that she wasn’t flying fast enough.

Tonight… tonight was the first time Mo Yuyan had ever doubted herself. A bitter regret gnawed at her. Why couldn’t she be smarter? Why couldn’t she fly faster…? Maybe then… maybe then she wouldn’t have repeatedly missed her chance to save that boy, the one who was clearly risking everything, getting himself into mortal danger, just to earn her approval!

“He Yimo…”

“Hold on… Senior Sister is coming.”

***

Wuji Peak, back mountain, within the Secret Realm.

He Yimo, still standing on the now-subsiding Life Altar, subtly crushed the White Ink Jade Pendant  Mo Yuyan had given him, then casually tossed the fragments into the mass of now-withering blood-red vines. Estimating the little time he had left, he wasted no further words. The instant the Mother Goddess finished… digesting… Chen Jianxin, He Yimo began his eerie lullaby once more.

According to the original game’s Waning Moon Cult mechanics, after the Mother Goddess devoured a high-tier sacrifice, She would absorb most of its life force. However, any special talents or unique abilities belonging to the sacrifice would be stripped out by the Mother Goddess and then bestowed upon Her most devout followers as a divine boon. This was the core of Gu Wanglan’s plan to obtain Chen Jianxin’s Innate Sword Saint Physique. And now, since He Yimo’s more… artistic… invocation had won the Mother Goddess’s absolute favor, once Chen Jianxin’s life force was consumed, his Innate Sword Saint Physique would naturally fall to He Yimo!

`[Gooood… chiiild…]` The Crimson Eyeball, though lacking a mouth, somehow simulated a raspy, unsettlingly maternal voice.

Hearing the Mother Goddess’s call, He Yimo immediately knelt before the Eyeball, bowing his head respectfully, though the corners of his lips curled upwards in a barely perceptible smirk. Several vines slowly descended before him.

`[Thiiis is…]`

`[Your… nine-lifetimes… destiny-bond’s…]`

He Yimo looked up, following the sound. At the tips of the descending vines, a blood-red, strangely alien-looking fruit had formed. He recognized it. In the game, this was called the Mother’s Womb Gift.

`[…deserved… rewaaard…]` The Mother Goddess’s raspy voice grew fainter, a sign that the altar’s nourishing power was fading.

He Yimo pressed his palms together, nodding his thanks. Then, without further ceremony, he snatched the bizarre fruit and, in three quick, decisive bites, devoured it whole. After all, that’s how the beautifully illustrated (and very well-endowed) Glass Holy Maiden in the original game’s cutscenes had done it. As the fruit’s juices were absorbed, He Yimo felt a warm, enveloping blessing from the Mother Goddess spread through him.

“Hiss…” Remembering the game’s description, He Yimo instinctively braced himself for excruciating pain.

But then, his eyes snapped open in surprise. “…It doesn’t hurt at all…?” He flexed his hands, moving his limbs. “…I thought it would be like those cultivation novels… bone-tempering, blood-refining… agonizingly painful…” Even after the warm blessing faded, He Yimo felt no discomfort whatsoever.

A flicker of doubt crossed his mind. `No way… Did I get a dud? I read in those novels, they’re always screaming in agony!`

Just as that thought popped into his head, the vines on the Life Altar began to wither and recede. And from the shadows of the dilapidated shrine nearby, a grey blur suddenly shot out. In the blink of an eye, Gu Wanglan, moving like a vengeful phantom, appeared in He Yimo’s blind spot behind him.

“Heh…” Gu Wanglan sneered. “Did you really think I’d wait for you to fully assimilate the Sword Saint Physique?!” He summoned his longsword and, with the overwhelming power of his Nascent Soul cultivation, swung it viciously at He Yimo’s head.

But in the exact instant the sword was about to connect, He Yimo reacted, almost unconsciously, throwing up an arm to defend.

CLANG—!!!

The blood-red scaled armguard intercepted the fatal blow, shielding the back of He Yimo’s neck. The speed of the exchange was so fast, it shocked both the instinctively reacting He Yimo and the ambushing Gu Wanglan.

However, despite He Yimo’s swift reaction, his cultivation was still vastly inferior. After a brief moment of resistance, Gu Wanglan’s raw power simply overwhelmed him.

BOOM! RUMBLE-RUMBLE!!!

He Yimo was sent flying, crashing through three or four crumbling walls before slamming hard into another large Buddha statue, much like Gu Wanglan had earlier, and collapsing to the ground.

“Cough… cough cough…” He Yimo spat out a mouthful of dark blood, groaning. “This isn’t right… Why do I still feel so weak…” His head was ringing. This was the first time he’d actually consumed the Mother’s Womb Gift in this world. He wasn’t even sure if he’d actually inherited the “Innate Sword Saint Physique” or not.

“Wait a minute!” A thought struck him. “Innate… Innate… Sword Saint Physique?” As the fog in his brain cleared, He Yimo thought he finally understood the source of his confusion. In his past life, playing the game, it was all just numbers and code. The system said you got a rare Saint Physique, and bam, it appeared in your title bar. But now, actually living in the world of “Fallen Immortal,” He Yimo realized things weren’t so simple. He’d expected a straightforward, brute-force replacement of his meridians and bones, accompanied by a massive surge in cultivation…

But in reality, the so-called “Innate Sword Saint Physique” was likely just an ethereal Destiny Title . After being processed by the Mother Goddess, this “Destiny Title,” which had originally belonged to Chen Jianxin, had essentially been… reformatted and transferred to him. So, while he’d instinctively reacted to defend himself after eating the fruit, he hadn’t felt any significant power increase. Because the “Innate” part was literal – it was tied to Destiny. He’d essentially gained a “Protagonist-exclusive” title. And since he’d only just acquired this “Destiny Title,” he was like a newborn Child of Destiny. He had the fancy title, sure, but without actual training, he wouldn’t feel the innate talent for swordsmanship yet!

“SON OF A—!” He Yimo cursed internally. “So, I’m still just a late-stage Foundation Establishment weakling?! I have to go back and train before I can even benefit from this ‘Destiny’ buff?!” The realization was incredibly frustrating.

Fortunately, while the Sword Saint Physique didn’t immediately boost his cultivation, it did seem to sharpen his senses and grant him an instinctive, almost genetic-level defense against lethal attacks!

“USELESS TRASH!” Gu Wanglan roared, his patience gone. “Giving you the Innate Sword Saint Physique would be a complete WASTE!”

“IF I CAN’T HAVE IT TODAY, THEN YOU WON’T LEAVE HERE ALIVE EITHER!” In a blur of motion, Gu Wanglan lunged again, his sword a streak of vengeful light.

He Yimo swore under his breath again and drew his own sword to meet the attack. He had the talent now, yes, he could even see the intricacies of Gu Wanglan’s sword techniques… but he was still completely outmatched in terms of raw power. Their swords clashed, and almost instantly, He Yimo’s Xuan Iron sword was shattered by Gu Wanglan’s blow. In the end, at the critical moment, He Yimo could only rely on the superior durability of the Scales of Life  on his left armguard to block.

CRASH-BOOM-BOOM!!!!

Once again, He Yimo was sent flying by Gu Wanglan’s brute force, slamming hard against another Buddha statue. Thankfully, the Saint Mark on his right hand pulsed with a gentle golden light, the Nine-Colored Deer’s nature energy soothing his fatigue and injuries.

“Damn it… Plan B! Forget Plan B, we’re on Plan C, D, or Z by now!”

“-Deer! I think it’s your turn to bail me out!” Seeing Gu Wanglan charging again, He Yimo finally felt a true sense of mortal danger. He chickened out. There was no way he could fight back like this. If he made one mistake, Gu Wanglan would skewer him. Rather than gamble on the Sword Saint Physique’s instinctive defense kicking in again, He Yimo decided to rely on his trusty, four-legged friend.

“WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU’RE GOING—!” From the rubble behind him, Gu Wanglan, now completely consumed by bloodlust, burst forth again. The burgeoning rage and his inner demons were starting to visibly distort his features. He was becoming less human, his face contorted in a terrifying snarl, the veins beneath his skin glowing with that same eerie blood-red light He Yimo himself had manifested earlier.

He Yimo glanced back at Gu Wanglan, completely unfazed by this transformation. This was just Gu Wanglan’s first stage, his human form. In the original game, when players pushed Gu Wanglan into his second stage, he’d clutch his head, screaming, on the altar. Then, with the Mother Goddess’s “blessing” (or what was left of it), two nine-colored deer antlers would sprout from his head, his body would swell, and his limbs would become encased in a bizarre exoskeleton, transforming him into a Western-style, black-flamed demon. But now… Gu Wanglan shouldn’t be able to transform. He’d lost the Mother Goddess’s favor, and the Nine-Colored Deer hadn’t become his nourishment. No deer antlers for him!

He Yimo gritted his teeth. Seeing Gu Wanglan about to pounce, he leaped into the air, spun around, and thrust the back of his right hand, the Saint Mark glowing brightly, towards the enraged Gu Wanglan.

“WANGXUE! IT’S ALL YOU, BUDDY!”

As He Yimo yelled, a brilliant golden light erupted from the Saint Mark. At the same moment, Gu Wanglan, on the ground, bent his knees and launched himself upwards, swinging his sword at the airborne youth.

“WH—?!?!” But as the golden light coalesced in He Yimo’s hand, forming into a pair of luminous, nine-colored deer antlers, Gu Wanglan, mid-air, froze. His eyes widened in horrified realization, a flood of long-forgotten details suddenly, terrifyingly, clicking into place!

“I’LL FUCK YOUR MOTHER! YOU SON OF A BITCH SPAWN-CAMPING PIECE OF SHIT!” Gu Wanglan’s rage reached a new, stratospheric level, a torrent of curses erupting from him. “SO THE NINE-COLORED DEER FROM MY MOUNTAIN GOD SHRINE… THAT WAS YOU TOO—?!”

But before he could finish his furious tirade, the Nine-Colored Deer, Wangxue, materialized from the golden light, closed her eyes, and, without a sound, slammed her head directly into Gu Wanglan’s face.

`[The Deer God’s head is NOT made of rice balls!]` Wangxue seemed to declare silently, her beautiful eyes blazing with unprecedented fury and determination. As a divine deer, not only did she possess naturally hard antlers, but she had also fully absorbed the nature energy from the shrine earlier. The force of her full-speed headbutt was devastating.

In an instant, Gu Wanglan vanished from mid-air, transforming into a screaming meteor that plummeted towards the ground.

BOOM-CRASH-RUMBLE—!!!!

A violent tremor shook the earth. He Yimo looked down. Under the force of the Nine-Colored Deer’s divine headbutt, the entire ground was shaking, a massive cloud of dust mushrooming into the air. Following the JRPG trope of `no smoke without something surviving (usually)`, when the dust finally settled, the hideously transformed Gu Wanglan slowly pushed himself up from the man-sized crater, momentarily dazed. Then, his eyes, now burning with an even more insane light, locked onto He Yimo’s figure in the sky.

But something was different. Seeing the Nine-Colored Deer in person, Gu Wanglan’s shattered psyche seemed to tip over the edge into complete, unadulterated madness. Not only were his claws and muscles visibly mutating further, but the raw anger in his eyes had passed its previous peak, no longer just mindless rage, but a chilling, focused insanity.

“Haha… HAHAHAHA!” Gu Wanglan began to laugh, a broken, unhinged sound. “I can’t believe it! The Nine-Colored Deer AND the Sword Saint Physique… all in one place!”

“Run! Run faster for me, little rats! I’m afraid I’ll lose the thrill of the hunt otherwise! HAHAHAHA!” He staggered to his feet, muttering and cackling to himself.

“Oh, crap. Just that little hit and he’s already going into phase two?” He Yimo thought, a sense of dread washing over him. In the original game, Gu Wanglan only transformed after being defeated. He hadn’t realized that pushing Gu Wanglan’s sanity past a certain breaking point could also trigger the transformation.

“This psycho is about to go Super Saiyan!”

“Dumb Roe Deer! Let’s get outta here! NOW!” The murderous intent radiating from below intensified, whipping into a frenzy. He Yimo didn’t dare linger. He quickly recalled the Nine-Colored Deer, leaped onto her back, and they bolted, flying towards the main sect peak as fast as the little deer could manage. Wangxue flew, while He Yimo looked back nervously at the cloud of blood-red smoke pursuing them.

CRASH! SMASH! BOOM!!! The smoke-wreathed monster below was like a demonic bulldozer, smashing through the forest, toppling trees in its wake. Yet, its speed was unhindered, increasing almost exponentially as it rapidly gained on them.

“Holy SHIT… He wasn’t this OP in the original game, was he?!” He Yimo cursed internally, panic rising.

Just as Gu Wanglan was about to catch them, He Yimo turned around to personally urge Wangxue to fly faster. But in that split second he took his eyes off their path, the airborne youth slammed headfirst into something soft, yet surprisingly firm, right in front of him—

“?”