Did the Top-Ranked Girl Get Exposed Today? [HoloVerse] - Chapter 21

Upon hearing her words, the mountain villagers finally made up their minds. Exchanging glances, they stopped retreating and began closing in step by step toward Feng Xiaoxiao.

Oh no.

Feng Xiaoxiao’s expression remained unchanged, but inwardly she was calculating the odds of her single-handedly defeating over a dozen opponents.

In the split second her mind raced through countless thoughts, she suddenly shouted, “I will bring down divine punishment, replacing the mountain god to punish you god-slayers!”

Taking advantage of the villagers’ momentary daze, she turned and ran without looking back.

Just kidding, with her skills nerfed, her chances of winning were zero!

Escaping was the wisest move right now.

Feng Xiaoxiao silently gave herself a thumbs-up for being clever and knowing when to yield.

With the headless idol no longer under control, the headless stone statues returned to their original silent state, and the persistent feeling of being watched that had haunted Feng Xiaoxiao greatly diminished.

She darted and weaved nimbly among the nearly two-meter-tall stone statues, leaping and ducking around them.

Despite her best efforts to buy time and search for an escape route, she was no match for the coordinated, numerous, and terrain-familiar mountain villagers.

She was caught.

Feng Xiaoxiao calmly accepted this fact, then had her weapons confiscated and her hands and feet bound by the villagers, who tossed her onto the central altar.

The altar closely resembled the lotus pedestal where Feng Xiaoxiao had landed during the day, carved from ice and snow. The only difference was that the lotus here had been stained a dark red by something unknown, exuding a rampant, sinister aura.

Mist-like tendrils emerged, greedily clinging to Feng Xiaoxiao’s body, yearning to draw more from her but hindered by some force from advancing further.

She tilted her head in displeasure, disgusted by the things on her, and frantically tried clicking the logout button in her mind. Unsurprisingly, yet unexpectedly, the system rejected her again.

[System Notification] Player is currently in a special phase of a side quest! Unable to exit the game before completing the quest!

“I’m going to file a complaint against you.”

Feng Xiaoxiao’s eyes went vacant, her tone flat and emotionless.

“The ‘Tianxia’ development team, the game planners, and whatever thing designed this underworld side quest,” she repeated word by word, “I’m going to file a complaint against you.”

The surrounding villagers simply thought she was raving, and no one paid any attention to her “mad ramblings.”

After venting her grievances against the game developers, Feng Xiaoxiao expressed her heartfelt desire regarding her current predicament of being at others’ mercy,

“Give me back my main account, give me back Di Xiang.”

Sasha looked up at the sky and waved a hand. “It’s about time. To avoid complications, let’s start the ritual now!”

The villagers responded in unison.

They carefully placed the missing head back onto the headless statue, but Sasha still frowned in dissatisfaction.

“If only we had the true remains of the mountain god. These stone imitations are still just…”

She shook her head and sighed. “It’s a pity that place is guarded by the Snow Woman, and we can’t obtain the god’s remains.”

“Chieftain, since the Snow Woman doesn’t stop us, why won’t she hand over the mountain god to help us?”

“Doesn’t she want to see the mountain god resurrected and return?”

Sasha let out a meaningful, cryptic laugh. “Do you think, with our meager strength, even after accumulating three centuries of resentment and sacrifices, that it would be enough to resurrect a god? This price is still far from sufficient.”

The black and red tentacles that had been coiled around Feng Xiaoxiao’s lotus pedestal began to branch out under guidance, slowly extending toward the stone statue where the mountain god’s head was attached to the shrine.

The statue’s head automatically returned to its place, with eerie colors flowing at the neck. Its previously closed eyes gradually opened.

The stone statue grinned, flexed its body, and slowly approached Feng Xiaoxiao.

But soon, its smile froze, restrained by some force, it was immobilized about a meter in front of Feng Xiaoxiao.

Sasha stepped forward to examine the statue’s face, patting its cheek.

“Even with the mountain god’s remains, what we can create is nothing more than a shoddy imitation, neither god nor ghost, just a poor replica with the mountain god’s appearance.”

“The death of the mountain god is an unchangeable fact.”

“Excuse me.”

Feng Xiaoxiao glanced distractedly at the rapidly progressing side quest, shifting to a more comfortable position on the lotus pedestal as she curiously asked,

“Since the mountain god has been dead for centuries, why go through all this trouble, centuries of rituals to summon a new mountain god, and now all these strange experiments?”

“May I ask, what is your purpose and motivation?”

“Nothing wrong with telling you.”

Perhaps because her long-cherished wish was about to be fulfilled, Sasha was in a good mood and replied amiably, “They,” she pointed to the mountain villagers behind her, “have lived long enough and no longer wish to endure the curse of immortality.”

“But this curse can only be lifted by its originator. So, for centuries, we have performed daily rituals, hoping to summon a new mountain god just like before, and then end our prolonged lives.”

“As for me,” she smiled, “I want to rid myself of physical suffering, turning this ageless, deathless state from a curse into a true ‘blessing.'”

“That sounds really difficult. Maybe you should just give up now.”

Sasha shot her a cold glare. “What do you know, outsider? Since you were summoned by our rituals, it means you must possess something connected to the mountain god.”

“Right now, your only use is to increase the success rate of the ceremony.”

The long-worshipped statue head, the summoner with ties to the mountain god, the centuries-old lotus pedestal layered with offerings, the new human sacrifice…

This was everything they could gather based on the ancient summoning texts.

“Bring her forward.”

With a wave of Sasha’s hand, the woman carrying a child whom Feng Xiaoxiao had seen during the day was dragged by two villagers to the front of the pedestal.

Feng Xiaoxiao couldn’t help but frown. The woman’s face was ashen, but the infant in her arms, though unconscious, had a rosy complexion, its eyes curiously open and darting around, its small hand tentatively reaching for its mother’s loose hair.

Unaware of why its mother remained unresponsive with closed eyes, the child looked up innocently, giggling at her sleeping face.

Wen Li’s fingers were pried open one by one, and the swaddled infant fell into Sasha’s hands before she was knocked out and casually tossed aside.

“What are you trying to do now?”

Feng Xiaoxiao had run out of patience; what she was witnessing felt like a massive cult ritual.

Led by Sasha, the villagers used the lotus pedestal as the center, cutting their fingers to draw intricate patterns on the ground with their own blood. They continued relentlessly, even as their fingers wore down to the bone.

Feng Xiaoxiao winced at the sight.

[System Prompt] The mountain god side quest has reached its final stage! Trapped in eternal snow, the villagers, burdened with endless life and suffering, have decided under Sasha’s leadership to create a “new god” with human means to end the curse.

[System Prompt] Sasha has gathered all the items needed for god creation. Please note, players: once the god creation ritual begins, time in this area will reverse!

As the final drop of blood soaked into the earth, the mountain villagers gazed expectantly at the stone statue of the mountain god at the center of the ritual circle. Feng Xiaoxiao could feel her strength slowly draining away as the ritual progressed.

She looked up at the stone statue, whose restraints were loosening and the corners of its mouth curling upward.

It wasn’t just her strength, her health points and time, just like the mountain villagers, were gradually being transferred to this false deity, neither god nor ghost!

[System Prompt] Affected by the ritual, the player’s current health and experience will continuously decrease. Please interrupt the ritual before the health bar reaches zero!

Feng Xiaoxiao: “…”

“So you’re telling me, while I’m tied up, my skills are nerfed, and my teammates are missing, I’m supposed to 1vN, break the ritual, and defeat these villagers plus a fake god?”

Feng Xiaoxiao felt an indescribable frustration.

Stupid game designers, why don’t you take a look at my current situation?

It’s like expecting a skilled cook to make a meal without any ingredients.

She watched helplessly as her health dropped lower and her experience dwindled with each passing moment.

In just a few minutes, she had already fallen from level 32 to level 30 and was still dropping.

Who knows how long it’ll take to grind monsters in Di Xiang to level up again, Feng Xiaoxiao sighed.

The mountain villagers, who had once appeared young, were now rapidly aging. Their hair turned brittle and white, wrinkles like tree bark spreading across their faces, and their bodies hunched over until they were nearly touching the ground.

Without the power of the former mountain god, they were heading toward the end they should have met long ago.

Scattered like fallen petals, crushed into dust.

Feng Xiaoxiao tilted her head at a melancholic 45-degree angle, gazing at the sky. Was she aging like these villagers too?

Only Sasha showed no signs of aging. In fact, her appearance seemed to grow younger with time, as if she had returned to the prime of her life.

Nourished by the endless stream of life force, the stone statue slowly shed its outer layer of clay and stone, revealing a translucent golden form beneath.

With each step it took, patches of mottled stone crumbled away until it stood beside Sasha and took her hand.

“I wish to share my years, my power, my everything with you.”

It spoke haltingly, just as the mountain god had once taken Sasha’s hand, illuminating the sea of night-blooming flowers and making its vow word by word.

“Sasha.”

Stripped of its blood-stained, filthy exterior, the false mountain god before them was almost indistinguishable from the long-departed mountain god, save for the foul aura surrounding it.

Sasha smiled and clasped its hand in return. The two stood side by side amidst the corpses turning to dust on the ground.

“You’ve inherited her power and memories. You are her, a new god, created by me!”

She was ecstatic. Once the ritual was complete, she would share life and power with this new mountain god once more!

A god entirely under her control, this was the endless new life she had truly longed for!

Feng Xiaoxiao coughed twice. The fluffy white cat in her arms gently patted her cheek with its paw, meowing as if deeply concerned.

She spoke weakly, “Your meows are so unpleasant…”

“After I die, go find a good home, or hide somewhere. When I respawn, I’ll bring a whole team to sweep this place clean…”

If it weren’t for the plot restrictions, Feng Xiaoxiao wouldn’t be in such a sorry state.

Her health bar was almost empty. Soon, she’d be back at the beginner village respawn point, ready to go again.

Her once jet-black hair had turned snow-white, and her long, delicate lashes seemed ready to flutter like wings beneath her misty brows.

It began to snow again.

Just before slipping into unconsciousness, Feng Xiaoxiao mustered the last of her focus to summon a mirror and glance at her reflection. In her heart, she gave herself a thumbs-up.

A white-haired, battle-worn beauty in ancient style, damn, she looked cool.