PSW - Chapter 75
Chapter 75
After taking over driving duties, Yu Yinan sped away from the area as fast as she could. She had no desire to encounter that base.
Even if Zheng Yi made it rain, it wasn't a guarantee she could save those people. There was no telling when the heatwave would end. Once this group died, another would follow, and so on, until the base's ability users or leaders decided all the "worthless" people were dead and gone. If resources were still scarce by then, they would likely begin the next round of culling.
This heatwave… it was far more terrifying than the extreme cold.
But… but, Yu Yinan still wanted to ask Zheng Yi what she thought. She gripped the steering wheel tightly, and though she hesitated, she asked, "Do you want to go to that base?"
"Of course." Zheng Yi smiled. Zero One had given her such a generous gift, and she wasn't about to let thirty Saint Points go to waste. She had never been one to take a loss. "So many potential believers, just leaving them behind like this? I'm not willing to do that~"
[? That was a free sample unlocked with my performance points! It didn't cost you any Saint Points!]
'But I used it,' Zheng Yi replied. It was worth thirty Saint Points, and since she used it for the rain, it counted as spent whether she paid for it or not.
Yu Yinan was silent for a moment before turning the car around. She tried to guess Zheng Yi's intentions and asked thoughtfully, "Should we find the base leader first and see if we can negotiate? Like what you did… when we passed that camp before?"
"I can make it rain."
"…Then we can use the pretext of a religious sect. We could also say your ability is a transformation type, that you need to reach a certain level of piety from others to cast the corresponding spells…" Yu Yinan paused, then corrected herself, "Divine arts? A gift from the gods? No one knows your real ability anyway. The more complex and mysterious the explanation, the less likely people are to be suspicious."
Zheng Yi tilted her head and watched her, seeing Yu Yinan rack her brain to come up with a plan for her.
"Maybe it's better to think of some slogans? Hmm, for a Saint… it doesn't have to be understood in the sense of self-sacrifice for others. We can promote it in a more divine direction. Like the 'Most Holy,' or like the ancient shrines to holy mothers. A Saint can also be a supremely pure and good, great, and holy existence, the mother of all things."
A god? Zheng Yi tilted her head. This was originally just about acknowledging her saintly actions and her persona as the Saint, but Yu Yinan had elevated it to a devout faith in a deity.
Unfortunately, in this world, there were no so-called gods.
"In this apocalypse…" Yu Yinan was thinking very hard and earnestly. She looked at Zheng Yi, who was listening quietly without much expression, and continued with her thoughts. "The apocalypse is full of disasters; the Saint has come to save the world. She brings down sweet rain, punishes the wicked, offers salvation to all, and wanders the earth. What do you think of promoting it like that?"
"Jiejie, you're deifying me."
"…You don't like it? I'll think of something else, then." Yu Yinan's brow furrowed, but she wasn't discouraged by Zheng Yi's comment and immediately started brainstorming a new approach.
"But it's just to fool ordinary people, for mutual benefit." Zheng Yi's tone shifted, and she smiled. "There's nothing wrong with it." It wasn't like she could actually become a god in this apocalyptic world anyway. It was just… if this narrative really spread and her persona collapsed one day, the backlash in Saint Points would probably be devastating.
Yu Yinan's eyes lit up again. She thought for a moment and asked, "Zheng Yi, can you really sense other people's piety toward you?" When she was torturing Yu Yaozu, Zheng Yi had repeatedly said his "heart wasn't sincere."
"Yes, there are ten tiers. The sensation is very clear." Zheng Yi glanced at Yu Yinan. "You're at the tenth tier."
"…" Yu Yinan froze, her cheeks flushing bit by bit. She clearly hadn't expected her own acknowledgment of Zheng Yi as a Saint to be at the tenth tier. She did trust Zheng Yi completely, but to have it stated so bluntly… gradually, the tips of her ears turned bright red. Didn't this mean Zheng Yi had known all along? "When… did that happen?"
Zheng Yi gave her a deep, inscrutable look and chuckled softly. "The night I left to slaughter Yang Zhengming."
"You really have never wavered, have you?" Not a single persona-breaking warning.
If self-deception and escapism could be considered a skill, then Yu Yinan had reached the pinnacle of mastery.
It was that early? Yu Yinan lowered her eyes. Recalling her struggle and emotions from that night, the memory left a complex taste in her heart. She couldn't describe it, so she simply pushed the distracting thoughts aside and continued to help Zheng Yi craft her narrative. "Then how about this: All who believe in the Saint shall live. Piety is the path…"
How should the ten tiers be divided?
"The first three tiers are for the lost. Tiers four through six mark the breaking of barriers. The seventh tier is a return to the true path, the eighth a glimpse of the truth, and the ninth… the ninth is a clear mirror." Yu Yinan looked at Zheng Yi and was suddenly reminded of the phrase: "My heart and actions are as clear as a mirror; all that I do is for justice." Zheng Yi, zheng yi… it was quite fitting.
"As for the tenth tier…" Yu Yinan lowered her gaze and continued to ponder. Was she really a tenth-tier "believer" of Zheng Yi?
"The tenth tier allows one to ascend to the celestial Saintly Domain, receive the Saint's blessing, escape the sea of suffering that is the mortal coil, and achieve spiritual ascension." Zheng Yi tilted her head, repeating the words she had used during the last salvation ritual. Yu Yinan had been outside eating dumplings that time, so she hadn't heard it.
"That's too exaggerated…" Yu Yinan was a bit stunned. How did it escalate to celestial domains and blessings? And escaping the mortal coil to achieve spiritual ascension sounded an awful lot like… being personally saved by Zheng Yi's hand. But if she removed herself from the equation, the words seemed… acceptable?
"The apocalypse is full of disasters; the Saint has come to save the world. She brings down sweet rain, punishes the wicked, offers salvation to all, and wanders the earth. All who believe in the Saint shall live. Piety is the path: the first three tiers are for the lost, tiers four through six mark the breaking of barriers, the seventh tier is a return to the true path, the eighth a glimpse of the truth, the ninth a clear mirror, and the tenth allows one to ascend to the celestial Saintly Domain, receive the Saint's blessing, escape the sea of suffering that is the mortal coil, and achieve spiritual ascension." Yu Yinan recited it all in one breath, mulled it over a couple of times, and couldn't help but let out a wry smile. Before the apocalypse, such words would have been dismissed as an obvious lie. It had a strong "I, the Saint, will preach. You, pay up to ascend" vibe.
"…Maybe I should think of something else." This just didn't seem right, no matter how she looked at it.
"No need, this is perfect." Zheng Yi waved her hand. "As long as I can really make it rain and really save their lives, not that many people will care who they're believing in."
"The temperature is rising. If things go smoothly, we'll stay at that base for a while and wait out the heatwave before moving on."
"Okay," Yu Yinan agreed. She almost never said anything but "okay" to Zheng Yi's decisions.
With the temperature constantly climbing, Zheng Yi had already been planning to find a place to rest in a few days. Since the plan had changed, going directly to that base would work just as well. A Stamina Recovery Pill cost thirty Saint Points. As long as the base's output was stable, Zheng Yi could simply inflate the price of summoning the rain and should be able to turn a steady profit.
Besides, if the rain didn't need to be too frequent or long-lasting, Zheng Yi wouldn't even need Stamina Recovery Pills to replenish her energy.
Yu Yinan changed direction but didn't head back toward the alley. She recalled the map of Zhongshan she had seen earlier and figured the base wouldn't be too far from there, giving her a general idea of its location.
The base in Zhongshan was reasonably well-constructed. The outermost perimeter consisted of scattered car shells and other miscellaneous items piled up as obstacles. Just inside this barrier, in an area not used for foot traffic, was a high wall of packed earth, serving as a second layer of defense. This kind of defense obviously couldn't stop an ability user, but it was more than enough to hold back the ordinary zombies of the past.
Yu Yinan and Zheng Yi exchanged a glance and decided not to scale the wall. Zheng Yi got out of the car, casually tossed the modified vehicle into her inventory, and then walked forward with Yu Yinan to find the base's "outpost" gate.
"Who are you two?" The person guarding the gate was an ability user. At this point, only an ability user could stand guard for long periods in such high temperatures. Seeing two unfamiliar faces, he raised a hand to stop them. "Sorry, our base isn't accepting new ability users at the moment. If you're really desperate to join… I'll have to ask the base leader first."
"Could you please introduce us to the base leader?" Yu Yinan said directly. "We have something to discuss with them regarding the heatwave and the water shortage."
"You…?"
"We're from Pujie," Yu Yinan stated without elaborating. The guard clearly didn't understand the significance, but he hesitated because she had mentioned the heat and lack of water.
"Please wait a moment," he said in a low voice before quickly leaving. Two or three minutes later, he dragged another ability user back to take his post, then wiped the sweat from his brow and told Yu Yinan and Zheng Yi to follow him.
"We're short on water right now. If something happens while I'm on duty, the punishment is a deduction of my water ration. My whole family of three lives here, barely surviving on the water I earn… I wasn't trying to give you two a hard time," he explained quietly as he led the way, his expression tinged with numbness. As an ability user, he could at least protect his family to some extent, keeping them from dying of thirst, but that was all he could do—just keep them alive.
During this heatwave, almost no ordinary person would venture outside.
"The base leader is resting in the third-floor office. I just had someone send a message up. When you get upstairs, just knock and go in."
"Thank you," Yu Yinan said, and she and Zheng Yi started up the stairs. The man didn't linger, quickly returning to his post.
"This base leader isn't on guard at all, are they?" They were just letting them go up? A direct meeting? No search, no inspection? Yu Yinan found it a bit unsettling. Someone who could make such a ruthless decision shouldn't be a simple person. She had thought…
"We'll see soon enough." The first room around the corner on the third floor had a sign that read "Office." It didn't say "Base Leader's Office," just those three simple characters.
Yu Yinan knocked on the door, but there was no response from inside. She remembered the man telling them to just knock and enter. After thinking for a moment, she knocked twice more, waited a little longer, and then pushed the door open.
She had expected the room to be cool or at least well-appointed. But the moment she opened the door, she was hit by a wave of extreme, stuffy heat. The office was sparsely furnished. If there was anything special about it, it was the oversized desk and a large bookshelf.
The floor was littered with crumpled balls of paper and some discarded blueprints. Yu Yinan glanced at them briefly but couldn't make out what they were for.
The person at the massive desk looked up. The moment Yu Yinan saw her, she froze. The leader of this base was a woman who looked to be in her thirties or forties?
"If you have something to say or a suggestion to make, just say it." The base leader's voice was not gentle; it was sharp and raspy. There were several towels by her desk. Pausing her work, she picked up the nearest one and wiped the sweat from her face and hands, preventing it from dripping onto the paper.
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