Foolish play of the gods

Chapter 8: S-level talent: Sharing divine grace · To be honest, any normal person would have frozen for three seconds upon hearing Cheng Shi’s words. · A human male claiming he was going to give a swarm of asexual Terror Demons a child—no matter the context, the statement was absolutely explosive. · Terror Demons did not reproduce sexually; they were born from the Mother Tree of Fear in the underworld. · The Mother Tree of Fear absorbed fear from various planes and grew new branches. After a time, these branches would fall and transform into new Terror Demon individuals. · Amidst the collective shock, Cao Sansui was the first to snap out of it. He asked, his voice laced with uncertainty: · "You're planning to... heal the Terror Demons?" · Cheng Shi snapped his fingers. · "Bingo. I’m going to release a healing spell that blankets the entire ruin. Every Terror Demon will fall under the gaze of my Lord and embrace procreation." · "Impossible... No Priest's healing range could ever be that massive..." · Nangong’s face was ashen. She began to conclude that under the intense pressure of survival, Cheng Shi had finally snapped. · It was a pity; the guy was kind and handsome, but he’d gone mad far too quickly. · Cheng Shi didn't offer much of an explanation. He simply smiled. · "Nothing is impossible. When you think something is impossible, it’s only because your understanding is insufficient." · Hearing Cheng Shi’s jab, Nangong pursed her lips, unable to argue. She might have been privy to secrets outsiders didn't know, but as her fellow practitioner said, her understanding of this game was still far from enough. · "You—" · Cheng Shi ignored her. He extended his right hand, assuming a plain, unadorned starting stance for a healing spell. · "How much longer for the Holy Light Rampart?" · Chen Chong’s expression soured. Finally, the man remembered that the shield’s duration was running out. He didn't know whether to trust Cheng Shi or not, but seeing the man’s sheer confidence, he replied with a tone of grim resignation: · "Enough for you to keep showboating for ten more seconds!" · "Nine seconds..." · "Eight!" · "..." · "Three!" · "Two!" · "Now!" · Cheng Shi let out a shout as the healing light in his hand began to surge violently. · Simultaneously, Xia Wan didn't hesitate to swallow a handful of Creation Grass Seeds. She conjured six spore arrows in her right hand, notched them, and aimed at the sky. · With a sharp whoosh, the six arrows exploded above the group, raining down a dense, concentrated power of reproduction. · "One!" · The Holy Light Rampart shattered like a mirror, its glow vanishing instantly. The Terror Demons piled against the barrier suddenly lost their support and began to plummet. · The demons on the periphery saw the shield break and rushed in with guttural roars. · Spore filaments grew wildly within the confined space. The Terror Demons were packed so tightly that there was virtually no gap between them; a single filament could thread through the flesh of countless demons. · Whether it was the demons’ frantic scramble causing a bottleneck or the extra spore arrow doing its job, the time it took for the enemy to reach them was significantly longer than a second. · Just as everyone’s faces contorted in terror and they prepared to fight their way out, Cheng Shi’s ultimate move was finally ready. · "Let me show you all what real healing looks like! · Across the four corners of the world... · Communal Divine Grace!" · As the last word left his lips, a massive surge of holy light struck the Terror Demon closest to him. Then, the light refracted through it, bolting toward its kin in every direction with incredible speed. · It didn't look like a simple healing spell; it looked like a healing chain capable of mending many. · The problem was that healing chains suffered from decay—the more people it hit, the faster the effect diminished. · Given the sheer magnitude of enemies before them, this level of healing would likely do nothing more than soothe their peach fuzz. · In previous trials, people had tried healing enemies. Though Faith Game was a game, it functioned more like an alternate reality. · There were no mechanics like "friendly fire immunity" or "healing enemies is ineffective." If you healed an enemy, they really would recover and then proceed to pummel you even harder. · So, when Cao Sansui saw that Cheng Shi had only cast a healing chain, his fear broke through the ceiling. · What use could this possibly be? · But even if he didn't believe him, it was too late. Driven by the resolve to fight to the death, he followed the plan. The moment Cheng Shi acted, he released an "overload" level Area Acceleration on the entire ruins, excluding the small area surrounding their group. · "Area... Acceleration!" · Time in the outer zone shifted into fast-forward. The Terror Demons accelerated abruptly. · Time around the group fell into a standstill, freezing everyone instantly. · Within their limited consciousness, they saw the healing chain spread faster and faster, refracting more and more. In the blink of an eye, it transformed into countless torrents of holy light, violently sweeping across the entire ruin! · A tidal wave of healing, swallowing everything! · Everyone was stunned. · Cao Sansui watched as the surrounding Terror Demons approached, only to fall into the time-stasis zone, forming a wall of flesh that "protected" them within. He couldn't help but wonder: was this part of the plan too? · His vision of the periphery gradually faded, but his last glimpse left him reeling—why was Cheng Shi’s healing chain not decaying, but amplifying? · The chain grew more powerful with every heal, until it finally enveloped the entire ruins! · How was this possible? · Nothing is impossible. · As Cheng Shi’s nearly frozen mind saw the demons around them stall in time and form a new "rampart," he knew his plan had succeeded. · The reason he could blanket the entire ruins in a healing chain was because of his unique S-rank career talent: Communal Divine Grace! · This talent allowed him to create a chain effect when healing similar lifeforms. For every additional target of the same kind, the healing effect and range would expand. · Normally, with a team of at most six people, this effect was merely the icing on the cake. · But now, if every Terror Demon was counted as a target, even a true god might not be able to count them all. · Even if each individual provided only a 1% boost, after 1,000 iterations, the power would increase over 20,000 times. · And there were far more than 1,000 Terror Demons here! · Today, in this place, every single Terror Demon was bathed in Cheng Shi’s healing chain! · And it happened in an instant! · Healing an enemy was usually ill-advised, but it depended on the situation. · For instance, not everyone could handle healing imbued with the divine power of Nurturing. · The moment the terrifying healing light slammed into them, bolstered by the Area Acceleration, countless Terror Demons found their bellies swelling exponentially before they could even react. · At this moment, Nurturing gazed upon them. · The madness began immediately. · Terror Demons were asexual entities. When new life suddenly began to gestate in various parts of their bodies, these creatures, who had never known fear, began to panic. · They extended sharp claws to cut away the protrusions, gnawing at their own flesh in an attempt to kill the newborns. · But the powerful healing light instantly mended their wounds. · A profound sense of helplessness rose in their hearts. · They saw their futures: every single one of them was to be a "mother." · Some were carrying more than one. · Furthermore, the will of Nurturing began to spread like wildfire. The Terror Demons, whose sanity thresholds were already low, gradually succumbed, transforming into freaks obsessed with procreation. · If it seemed fast, the reality was even faster! · Under the influence of Area Acceleration, the scene became uncontrollable in just a dozen seconds. · Every Terror Demon became a slave to reproduction. Even without genders, they mechanically and unconsciously mimicked the most primitive actions of the natural world. · Mating. · Procreation. · The right wing of an entire bone army, in a ruin where no human could be seen, completely cut loose... · The imagery was beyond control; the words were indescribable. · Time continued to accelerate, and the indescribable became even more so. · Countless Terror Demons were drowned in the atrocities of procreation, unable to extricate themselves, as the "children" in their bellies grew larger and larger. · By the time the healing chain reached the last Terror Demon, completing its mission to heal the masses, the site had turned into a paradise of Nurturing. · The bellies of the first affected demons began to burst. The Newborns were born in haste, throwing themselves into the embrace of Nurturing, then began to feast on the flesh of their "mothers," attempting to grow into new "mothers" themselves. · And these newborns all shared the same face... · A pair of large, cute eyes, and a tentacle for a body. · Cheng Shi hadn't wanted it this way, but his Nurturing power originated from the pregnant woman in yesterday’s food dungeon; he couldn't control the outcome. · This was why he had needed the Death Assassin to prepare a Death Funeral. · When the Area Acceleration ended and the tentacle newborns had finished devouring all the Terror Demons, they would become another army—perhaps one far more terrifying than the demons. · However, a ruin where so many Terror Demons had just died served as the perfect domain of death. · Song Yawen’s final strike would completely annihilate these freaks, saving the six of them. · That was Cheng Shi’s entire plan. · It was just a shame that his teammates, trapped within the wall of demon flesh, likely wouldn't get to appreciate such a mad, magnificent sight. · [END]