Chapter 204: Poisoning

As the [Bodhi Seed] was crushed, the spiritual-energy traces of the Blood Bodhi collapsed at once—along with the last remaining spiritual structure of this underground heretical temple.

Crack—crack—

The sounds of shattering rang out one after another.

The gilded surfaces of the arhats and bodhisattva statues began to peel away in large chunks, gold paint flaking off together with the clay beneath.

Dust billowed through the air.

And beneath those golden shells, the figures finally revealed the “true faces” they had concealed all along.

They were corpses—long-rotted remains.

Some still wore suits.

Others had been reduced to nothing but yellowed skeletons.

Yet their postures were eerily uniform.

Hands pressed together in prayer, as if in the final instant before death, they had still been begging—

Begging for one last chance to turn things around.

Unfortunately…

That chance would never come.

“…So that’s how it is.”

Lin Yu stared at the corpses spilling out from the shattered statues.

“So the gamblers who lost their lives at the tables… all ended up like this?”

Sealed inside clay shells.

Fed with incense and worship.

Yet doomed to never be reborn.

This place called itself paradise—

But it was clearly Avīci Hell.

“Hahaha…”

Her legs gave out.

Lin Yu slid slowly down the wall and collapsed onto the floor.

Her vision blurred, the scene smearing like an ink painting soaked through with water.

“…Is the Nagar toxin… still taking effect?”

“Hey—can you still talk?”

A small, icy-cold hand gently lifted her chin.

Yano Hotaru crouched in front of her, worry flickering in those deep, dark-blue eyes.

“…Not dead yet.”

Lin Yu tugged weakly at the corner of her mouth.

“It’s just… my stomach still hurts a bit.”

“Hmph… idiot.”

Though her words were sharp, Hotaru’s movements were gentle as she helped Lin Yu sit upright and lean back securely.

“Stay here and don’t move. Chen Bing and I will go check what’s left of the Black Lotus ritual platform and analyze the toxin’s composition.”

Then she turned her head toward the pink-haired girl who was letting her sniper rifle cool down.

“Li Qing. Come watch these two injured ones. If anything looks wrong, give them a shot of [Spiritual Energy Suppressant].”

“Roger~ Leave it to me!”

Li Qing answered cheerfully, hugging a medical kit as she bounced over.

“Phew…”

Leaning against the icy wall, Lin Yu exhaled—her breath turning into white mist.

Her body felt completely drained.

She didn’t even have the strength to move a finger.

“Hey, hey, senior? How many fingers am I holding up?”

A fair hand waved in front of Lin Yu’s eyes.

“…Three.”

“Wrong~ It’s two~ Looks like you’re really not thinking straight, senior.”

“You clearly pulled one back at the last second…”

“Hehehe~”

Li Qing giggled and squatted down.

First, she dragged over the unconscious Luo Shaotian.

“Honestly, how does this guy get this badly hurt every single time?”

Grumbling, she pulled a syringe filled with gray-white liquid from her medical kit.

A flash of cold light—

The needle slid into Luo Shaotian’s vein.

“One shot like this, and whether it’s Terror Abuse or Nagar contamination, it’ll all go to sleep nice and obediently.”

After dealing with Luo Shaotian, Li Qing turned around and grasped Lin Yu’s slender wrist.

“Bear with it, senior. It might hurt a little.”

Lin Yu closed her eyes and turned her face away.

The needle pierced her skin.

“Mm…”

She frowned slightly and let out a muffled groan.

As the medication flowed in, the twisting pain in her abdomen began to ease.

But this was only suppression.

A temporary fix.

“By the way~”

As Li Qing packed away the syringe, she said teasingly,

“Senior, your infiltration mission this time can honestly be described as a total failure~”

“Shut it.”

“You were only supposed to gather intel, but you somehow turned it into a full-on frontal assault.”

Li Qing shook her head, looking like someone disappointed that iron hadn’t turned into steel.

“You almost exposed your identity and got yourself beaten half to death.

Looks like your acting and infiltration skills need a complete retraining.”

“Who would’ve known… something like that would be here…”

Lin Yu muttered weakly.

“Hehe, I’m just kidding.”

Li Qing patted her shoulder reassuringly.

“Honestly, you did great. If you hadn’t gone deep into enemy territory, we wouldn’t have locked onto the coordinates this fast.”

Her gaze swept over the surroundings, her tone turning serious.

“But… have you ever thought about this, senior?”

“Thought about what?”

“Why would the Akagi Gang and those lunatics from Abyss Gospel insist on building a Buddhist shrine underground like this?”

Lin Yu struggled to lift her eyelids.

“…Bad taste? Or… to hide things from view?”

“No. I don’t think it’s that simple.”

Li Qing shook her head and walked over to a shattered arhat statue, nudging the dirt mixed with bones using the tip of her boot.

“My gut tells me… this place is seriously messed up.”

“How so?”

“Intensity.”

Li Qing turned back, analyzing earnestly.

“You felt it too, right? That [Blood Bodhi]—its regeneration ability and mental contamination were way stronger than other pollutants of the same rank we’ve encountered before.”

“It’s like… it took some kind of super supplement.”

“Supplement?”

“This environment.”

Li Qing spread her arms, gesturing at the hall filled with gods and Buddhas.

“Think about it, senior—what kind of people came here to gamble?”

“People with nowhere left to go. Bankrupted lunatics…”

“At the moment they shoved all their chips onto the table—what do you think they were thinking?”

She clasped her hands together, mimicking a gambler, praying into empty space.

“They were praying.”

“Begging heaven to let them win just once. Begging the bodhisattvas to let them turn things around. Begging the Buddha to save them…”

“This kind of belief and desire—born from desperation, twisted to the extreme…”

“In this sealed underground space, there was nowhere for that polluted willpower to go.”

“So it was all absorbed by these statues.”

“And when that twisted prayer collided with Nagar elements…”

“What was born was this kind of creature—holy yet filthy, compassionate yet cruel.”

“Compared to simple malice…”

“Hope, warped by despair… is the most terrifying nourishment of all.”

Li Qing’s clear-headed analysis left Lin Yu completely stunned.

She stared blankly at the pink-haired girl who normally just giggled and goofed around—

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As if seeing her for the first time.

“When did your brain start working this well?”

“To come out with something this deep?”

“Hey! Watch your mouth!”

Li Qing puffed out her cheeks in protest.

“What do you mean ‘when’? I’ve always been the brains of the team, okay?!”

She puffed out her chest proudly—though the movement wasn’t particularly impressive.

“Did you forget? When we had to memorize all those complicated weapon parameters and maintenance manuals, who was the one teaching you step by step?”

“…Fair point.”

“Li Qing, stop chatting.”

At that moment, Yano Hotaru’s cool voice came from the distance.

“Bring Lin Yu and that man over here.”

“Got it~”

Li Qing replied and effortlessly hoisted the unconscious Luo Shaotian onto her back.

The monstrous strength of a magical girl was on full display.

Though weak, Lin Yu forced herself to follow.

They arrived at the completely collapsed Black Lotus ritual platform.

What had once been a towering dais was now nothing more than a charred pit—

The mark left by Li Qing’s sniper round.

The massive golden Buddha statue no longer held any trace of majesty.

Its gilding had fallen away, revealing gray-white clay beneath—like a desiccated corpse drained of all moisture, emitting a suffocating stench of decay.

Chen Bing stood at the edge of the pit, holding a lump of faintly twitching flesh.

It was the remains from the earlier jujube-water container.

Her expression was grave.

When she saw Lin Yu approach, she looked up, a complex glint flashing through her sharp eyes.

“Good news and bad news,”

Chen Bing said bluntly.

“Which do you want first?”

Lin Yu’s mouth twitched.

“Can’t they both be good news? In my condition, I really can’t handle bad news right now.”

“Sorry. That option doesn’t exist.”

“…Then bad news.”

Lin Yu sighed.

“Go on. Let’s see if my luck can sink any lower.”

“The bad news is…”

Chen Bing looked at the lump of rotten flesh in her hands, her voice low.

“The poison you were exposed to this time… doesn’t match any records in the company database.”

“What?!”

Lin Yu’s eyes widened.

“But—how is that possible?! The compendium clearly said it was [Blood Bodhi]! A B-rank contaminant! The strategy guide spelled everything out!”

“The compendium does list [Blood Bodhi], yes.”

Chen Bing shook her head, cutting off her hope.

“But the composition of this toxin doesn’t fit the characteristics of standard Nagar spectrums.”

She poked the flesh with her finger.

“Preliminary analysis shows that although the base material contains large amounts of human DNA…”

“It’s also mixed with many other components.”

“Components that even super-B-rank contaminants shouldn’t be able to produce.”

“…An unknown toxin.”

“T-then what does that mean?”

Lin Yu’s throat went dry.

She pointed at her unconscious best friend, her voice trembling.

“You’re saying… there’s no cure? I’m just waiting to die? And he is too—”

“Hey, senior, don’t be so pessimistic!”

Li Qing hurriedly patted Lin Yu’s shoulder from behind.

“There’s still good news! Ice Sis, hurry up and say it—don’t scare her!”

Chen Bing glanced at Lin Yu, her tone softening slightly.

“The good news is… this toxin appears to have an extremely strong spiritual-energy targeting bias.”

“In other words, it only affects individuals with spiritual circuits—magical girls.”

She pointed at Luo Shaotian.

“For ordinary humans like him, it’s basically just severe food poisoning.

The reaction looks intense right now, but once he leaves this environment and returns to the normal world for treatment, the toxin will gradually weaken without spiritual energy to sustain it, and will eventually be metabolized by his body.”

“Really?”

Lin Yu finally let out a breath, relief filling her gaze as she looked at her friend.

“That’s good… that’s really good…”

“But—”

Chen Bing’s tone shifted.

“If it’s you… things aren’t so optimistic.”

“This toxin has already infiltrated your spiritual circuit and become entangled with your internal energy.”

“To put it simply…”

“It’s now a part of your body.”

“Until a complete antidote is found…”

“Every transformation. Every use of spiritual energy…”

“Will be accompanied by pain like today’s—pain that cuts down to the bone.”

“And it might… be even worse than today.”

“……”

Lin Yu froze completely.

“What kind of good news is that supposed to be?!”

“Sure, my buddy being okay is a consolation prize…”

“But I don’t even get a consolation prize?!”

“Transforming means pain—how am I supposed to work like that?!”

“I still have to make a living! If I can’t transform…”

“My rent—”

She grabbed Chen Bing’s arm, desperation flooding her eyes.

“There has to be a way, right? There has to be!”

“You’re the experts—you can save me, right?”

The group exchanged glances, falling into brief silence.

This kind of unknown spiritual toxin was far beyond the knowledge of frontline combat personnel.

Finally, it was Yano Hotaru who spoke.

“If there has to be a way…”

“…That Dr. Mei—the one who’s always spouting nonsense—might have an answer.”

“O-Old Mei?”

Lin Yu blinked, the image of a female scientist in a white lab coat with a cigarette dangling from her lips flashing through her mind.

That seemed to be their only hope.

“Let’s go.”

Yano Hotaru turned and headed toward the exit.

“Don’t waste time here. The logistics team will arrive soon—we need to get this half-dead mess back to headquarters first.”

“O—okay!”

Lin Yu nodded rapidly.

Supported by Li Qing, she left the nightmare-like underground Buddhist hall, looking back again and again.

However—

After their figures completely vanished into the depths of the tunnel—

Crack.

The golden Buddha statue, long stripped of all divine presence, suddenly made another crisp sound.

It was splitting.

Collapsing.

And in the moment of its destruction—

The Buddha’s face…

Smiled.

What an utterly treacherous smile.