Livestreaming To Fame In An Infinite Flow World Chapter 80

Chapter 80: Folklore Horror (10)

The missing person notice had mentioned that Nong Lingling was wearing a red cotton jacket when she disappeared.

At this moment, that red jacket was discovered at the mountain summit.

Although Mother Goddess Village sat at the top of the mountain, it was still seven or eight kilometers from the very peak. The paths up the mountain were rough; the group had to follow the river and hike through cold, dense forest. The ground was slippery, and the trail constantly climbed uphill.

Many players slipped and fell multiple times along the way. By the time they finally reached the summit, they looked like muddy monkeys rolling out of the dirt—utterly unrecognizable as human.

Jian Yuntai was in even worse shape than them.

If Fuzhu hadn’t been keeping a close watch the whole way, Jian Yuntai might have already collapsed into a muddy heap. Even so, the journey had been excruciating for him.

Once they reached the summit, he found a clean patch of ground and collapsed onto it.

This time, no one needed to speak; the other players all slumped down in place, their faces blank from exhaustion.

Fuzhu’s eyes were full of confusion and helplessness. He carefully opened a bottle of mineral water and brought it to Jian Yuntai’s lips.

“Why are you so weak?”

“…” Of course, it was because of the light injury buff.

Jian Yuntai lowered his eyes and shook his head, his face pale, too weak to speak.

He sipped water from Fuzhu’s hand and immediately felt slightly better.

“Here, the red cotton jacket—” For the players who hadn’t reached side quest Step 2 yet, they became incredibly excited, quickly regaining energy after a few minutes of rest.

A few Sinister Monster Type players gathered in front of a dead tree.

The tree’s leaves had long since fallen, leaving skeletal branches spread out like white bony claws. The red jacket was hanging on the lowest branch. Judging by its position, it seemed that Nong Lingling had tried to escape down the mountain, but her jacket got caught on the branch.

Helplessly, she must have had to shed her jacket to continue running.

“Wasn’t Nong Lingling supposed to go down the mountain to buy daily necessities? How did her jacket end up at the summit? That’s the completely opposite direction!”

“And she ran in such a hurry. That branch isn’t easy to break. Either she was too exhausted to break it, or someone was chasing her, and she didn’t have time.”

“It’s probably not exhaustion. Nong Lingling is sixteen, raised in the village. She’s not so ignorant of basic knowledge. The temperature difference at the summit is huge. If she wanted to descend home, no matter how tired, she wouldn’t take off her jacket—otherwise, she’d risk hypothermia before even getting down the mountain.”

“Then someone must be chasing her, right?”

The players discussed this in front, while Jian Yuntai sat quietly behind, expression unreadable.

His thoughts were much the same as theirs.

Someone must have been pursuing Nong Lingling. As for who it was… the odds were heavily in favor of the Mother Goddess herself.

Logically, since the villagers had seen Nong Lingling descend, she must have been taken by the Mother Goddess somewhere along the descent trail, then brought to the summit.

What happened after that? Nong Lingling had apparently escaped from the Mother Goddess and was fleeing downward.

Had she made it out alive?

That was impossible. Otherwise, she wouldn’t still be missing without a trace.

Although only the jacket had been found and not Nong Lingling herself, the instance progress had already advanced significantly, giving everyone hope.

Among them were Sinister Monster Type players with canine mutations.

One of them approached the jacket, sniffed it, closed his eyes to sense for a moment, then suddenly raised his arm and pointed toward the summit temple.

“She’s near that temple—”

The players immediately readied themselves and rose to action.

“…” Jian Yuntai stood rooted to the spot, holding onto a tree, feeling his heart sink into despair.

He had often criticized others for their poor stamina, but now the tables had turned—he was the first to run out of energy.

Fuzhu watched worriedly beside him and finally spoke: “Do you want me to carry you up the mountain?”

“…No!” Jian Yuntai replied.

Fuzhu was puzzled. “Why not? You can’t walk anymore.”

“I can walk,” Jian Yuntai said stubbornly.

As if determined to prove his masculinity, he took two steps forward.

Slip! His foot slid.

Fuzhu’s expression changed instantly. Reacting quickly, he wrapped his arms around Jian Yuntai’s waist. They stared at each other for a few seconds, silent.

The livestream viewers were ruthless in their commentary:

“Hahahahaha, why does it feel like the servant is supporting a delicate, powerless spouse? Wife is so fragile hhhhhh”

“Fuzhu should be more forceful! Mommy supports you, just pick up Jian Dadan in a proper princess carry!”

“Fuzhu is probably thinking of a princess carry, but Jian Dadan would definitely die before letting someone carry him like that hahaha…”

“Jian Dadan was princess-carried by Cui Yu before, once leads to twice, twice leads to countless times haha.”

“Hahaha, wife, just accept it. Better to be a delicate Sister Lin character~”

Jian Yuntai refused to accept fate.

He gritted his teeth and followed the players up the mountain, climbing under Fuzhu’s worried gaze. Luckily, this stretch near the summit was easier, and he didn’t fall again.

As he walked, he kept watching Fatty with curiosity.

Fatty noticed and turned, sensitive: “Why do you keep looking at me?”

“Are you not tired?” Jian Yuntai asked.

Fatty twisted the corners of his mouth, hurriedly said, “Tired? I’m exhausted! If I weren’t so eager to find Nong Lingling, I would have turned back down the mountain already. Nothing anyone says could change that.”

“Oh.” Jian Yuntai withdrew his gaze. “You looked so calm, I thought you weren’t tired.”

Breathing heavily, Fatty replied, “Which eye saw me calm?”

“…Both of them,” Jian Yuntai admitted. But now he was too tired to argue with him.

……

……

The temple atop the summit looked close, but the actual distance was far.

It took a full half-hour of walking before the players reached within a few hundred meters of it.

The temple was grand and imposing, spiraling atop the summit. All one could see were red walls, white tiles, and the clouds of Mount Sumeru.

The villagers of Mother Goddess Village were indeed behind the times; though they had worshipped the Mother Goddess for generations, the area in front of this temple had only a few hundred meters of stone paving. Beyond that was just dirt. A player with a dog-like sense of smell crawled on the ground to sniff carefully, then stood up and said, “She disappeared right here.”

“What do you mean ‘right here’?”

“Where did she go?”

The dog-sense player snapped impatiently, “Can’t you understand human speech? Nong Lingling didn’t continue walking—her scent just vanished from the stone bricks. And it disappeared out of nowhere.”

Someone looked puzzled: “Disappeared into thin air? How is that possible… Could she have flown to the heavens or something?”

“The female player really did vanish into thin air.” Fatty leaned over and said to Jian Yuntai, “The method of abduction is probably the same each time—it’s some kind of demon’s ability.”

Before Jian Yuntai could reply, Fuzhu spoke up quietly, “No such demon exists.”

Fatty froze. “Huh?”

Fuzhu lifted his gaze to look at him. “We already talked about this the night before. Don’t you remember?”

“……”

Fatty scratched his head with a sheepish grin, mumbling repeatedly that he’d forgotten. Then, seemingly unwilling to linger near the two of them, he quickly turned and ran to join the circle of other players.

The livestream chat scrolled rapidly:

“Hahaha, every time this fake Fatty talks to Jian Dadan, he ends up showing all kinds of flaws.”

“At this rate he’s going to blow his cover. He knows it too, so now he avoids staying near Jian Dadan hhhhh.”

“Deng Ran is probably also a demon in disguise, but Fatty and Jian Dadan aren’t that familiar with her, so they didn’t notice anything for two whole days. Who would’ve thought the demon would impersonate Fatty too? Hahaha, I’m not even worried about Jian Dadan anymore.”

“Jian Dadan is smart; he’ll figure it out eventually.”

The group didn’t trust what the dog-sense Sinister Monster Type player said, so they searched the area thoroughly but found no clues.

They then entered the temple itself to continue the search, and Jian Yuntai went in with them.

From the outside, the temple appeared grand and imposing, but inside it was relatively small. It looked fierce on the exterior, but inside, it was like a paper tiger.

There wasn’t much inside—just a large golden statue of the Mother Goddess, firmly placed in the center.

This was the same statue that had been paraded through the streets that day.

Besides the statue, there were a few small tables. On one table sat a small incense burner, unlit. In front of it were about a hundred red candles, neatly arranged, also unlit.

Everything was visible at a glance; there was no hiding place for anyone.

Clearly, Nong Lingling couldn’t be inside the temple.

It was only then that the players began to believe the dog-sense Sinister Monster Type player—the girl really had vanished into thin air.

“How are we supposed to find her now…” many players whispered, exchanging helpless looks.

If there had been a trail, following it to find her would have been easier. But with no trace, they had no starting point at all.

Some players were more observant.

About a dozen players, including Jian Yuntai, gathered along the temple’s interior walls, examining the murals.

The murals were coated in dust.

One player broke off a branch outside and used its leaves to sweep away the dust, revealing the first mural.

On the left wall, the mural depicted the Goddess being offered sacrifices.

It showed a woman with a white veil over her face, placed in an open-top sedan chair. A group of people carried the chair toward an unknown destination.

There was also classical Chinese text along the edges.

Jian Yuntai read it and understood roughly: the goddess had been born into royalty. When she was born, the heavenly gates opened, a hundred phoenixes cried, and a long drought ended with a heavy rain. The people worshiped her as a goddess, performing daily rites. Her presence stabilized the royal authority.

When the goddess grew up, she was betrothed to a member of the royal clan. The marriage was sanctioned by the royal family. What should have been a happy event, however, coincided with another disastrous flood.

A long period of continuous rain caused serious damage, and people began to whisper that the goddess had angered the gods by being betrothed. To calm the populace, the royal family annulled the betrothal and intended to offer the goddess as a sacrifice to heaven—essentially, to burn her alive.

“When the empire needed her, she was the exalted goddess. When the empire didn’t need her, she was to be sacrificed.” Fatty studied the mural and laughed. “Looking at it now, people back then were really foolish.”

Jian Yuntai glanced at him. “There’s a book called The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind. You should read it.” It was a book Fatty had on his shelf; Jian Yuntai had flipped through it out of curiosity.

“What’s it about?” Fatty asked.

Jian Yuntai’s expression didn’t change. He said casually, “An individual’s mind is clear, but put him in a crowd, and he loses clarity.”

Fatty frowned. “What do you mean?”

Jian Yuntai explained, “A person’s thoughts are easily swayed by the collective, becoming part of the ‘crowd’. So it’s not just the people back then who were foolish; in every era, at any time, there will always be such a group of unthinking followers.”

“……,” Fatty said, thoughtfully pursing his lips. After a moment, he nodded and smiled. “You’re right. No wonder the villagers worshiped the Mother Goddess.”

While they spoke, the players scraped the dust off the right wall of the temple.

The second mural depicted the goddess being burned.

She was placed on a high altar, surrounded by towering flames. Beneath the altar, many ordinary people were depicted, raising their hands and cheering enthusiastically as she suffered.

“The goddess is becoming a true immortal!”

“The flood will end soon!”

This mural also had classical Chinese text.

Roughly, it described how the people viewed the goddess as a celestial being sent to relieve suffering. Burning her alive was considered sending her back to the heavens. People spread the word, hoping the flood would stop. More and more people gathered beneath the altar, their eyes burning as they watched the goddess struggle in the flames. The fire consumed her body, disfiguring her face, burning away her eyes, nose, and mouth.

Children cried in terror, tugging at their mothers’ clothes, shouting that the goddess was about to be burned alive.

Mothers covered the children’s mouths.

“Shh,” one said, “she is saving the world.”

The livestream viewers followed Jian Yuntai’s perspective, taking in both murals fully, their hearts shaken.

“The goddess… must be the Mother Goddess, right?”

“The golden statue! When the Mother Goddess statue was paraded through the streets, I noticed it had no facial features!”

“Then the Mother Goddess must have been burned alive, right? How is she still alive… Or did she become a demon after being burned? And because her face was disfigured, she grew jealous of other women and started abducting them all.”

The viewers debated this in the chat for a long time. In situations like this before, Jian Yuntai would usually exchange a few words with Fatty. But this time, Jian Yuntai said nothing. His eyes remained fixed on the base of the murals.

After the goddess was burned, storm clouds appeared in the sky. Mountains collapsed, the seas roared, and the gods seemed enraged. A massive catastrophe swept across the entire empire with startling speed. Rivers ran dry, buildings collapsed.

Soon after, the emperor passed away.

The dynasty fell.

At the bottom of the mural, a phrase was inscribed:

—“The spark must not be extinguished; if it is, retreat is certain.”

“What does ‘the spark must not be extinguished’ mean?” a player asked, puzzled. “Does it mean the fire that burned the goddess mustn’t go out? If it does, disaster will strike?”

“I feel like this mural is incomplete,” another said.

“Yeah… what happened to the goddess after that?”

The players exchanged confused glances, trying to make sense of the mural and its connection to the instance. None of them understood what “the spark must not be extinguished” meant.

Just as everyone was bewildered, the players who hadn’t been paying attention to the murals suddenly shouted in surprise.

Jian Yuntai immediately turned.

He saw a group of players gathered in front of the tables, their faces full of shock: “When were these candles lit?!”

“Did anyone bring a lighter or matches?”

“No! Who lights candles in broad daylight?”

“Then how did these candles…?”

Their chatter gradually died down as the cold mountain wind swept through the hall, flapping their clothes. They slowly realized one thing—

There was an invisible presence in the temple.

While everyone was absorbed in the murals or discussing Nong Lingling’s whereabouts, that unseen person had quietly lit the candles. The hundred red candles illuminated the temple in a deep crimson glow.

“It’s the Mother Goddess! It must be the Mother Goddess!” someone shouted in panic, scanning the room. “Why would she light the candles?!”

At that moment, the players who had been examining the murals turned pale.

The spark must not be extinguished.

Could it refer to these candles?

Now everyone was in a dilemma. The trail had already been broken, and if they wanted to continue investigating, they would have to extinguish the candles to see what happens next. But that phrase was clearly a warning!

If it was a death flag, triggering it themselves would be no different than walking straight to their doom.

The players didn’t hesitate long. One Sinister Monster Type player pushed past several others and stepped forward, taking a deep breath. Before anyone could react, he blew—

Most of the red candles went out instantly.

“!!!” The players seemed terrified.

“What are you doing?!”

Amid the chaos, Jian Yuntai quickly grabbed Fuzhu and moved to the doorway.

Fuzhu glanced at him in confusion. “What’s wrong?”

Jian Yuntai replied casually, “Better to stand here if we need to run.”

“What about your friend?” Fuzhu asked, looking toward Fatty.

Jian Yuntai’s tone didn’t change. “Don’t worry about him.”

He had imagined many possibilities: the temple collapsing, the statue coming to life… He was ready for anything. Yet inside the temple, nothing happened.

The cold wind howled through the hall. Everyone stared at one another.

The Sinister Monster Type who had blown out the candles chuckled. “Playing tricks, pretending to be ominous—what spark must not be extinguished? I think you’re just scaring yourselves. That line on the mural has nothing to do with these red candles. Good thing I blew them out; otherwise, you’d be wasting hours debating whether to blow them out or not.”

The players exchanged awkward glances. Though they wanted to argue, the Sinister Monster Type had a point. If he hadn’t blown them out, they might have spent the entire day stuck here, agonizing over the candles.

After almost two hours in the temple, they found nothing. Seeing that night was approaching, the players reluctantly started to leave, planning to return the next morning.

Jian Yuntai followed them. He wasn’t afraid of the dark—he was just hungry.

This instance was nothing like the previous one. Back then, with Cui Yu feeding him, Jian Yuntai never went hungry. This time, it was miserable. Except for the feast on the day of the Mother Goddess festival, Jian Yuntai hadn’t eaten enough in days. His stomach even hurt from hunger.

As they entered the forest, Fatty suddenly leaned in, lowering his voice: “I still think something’s weird.”

Jian Yuntai’s lips curved slightly. “What’s weird?”

Fatty gave him a puzzled look. “Why are you smiling?”

Jian Yuntai suppressed the smile. “Nothing.”

Fatty stared at him for a few more seconds, feeling as if those sharp, beautiful eyes could see right through him. He forced himself to say, “I think the temple murals are strange. I want to go back and take another look. Do you want to come? It’s only ten minutes’ walk there and back.”

“Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

“I just remembered now!”

Jian Yuntai studied Fatty for a long moment, then smiled. “Alright then. I’ll tell the other players up front. If they want to come, we’ll go together.”

Fatty’s face stiffened. He scratched his head awkwardly. “Don’t call everyone. I’m not even sure the murals are really strange. If we bring everyone and it turns out to be nothing, they’ll be annoyed.”

“Oh…” Jian Yuntai drew out his tone, his smile unwavering. “Fine. Let’s go.”

He turned and walked back.

Fatty hesitated for several seconds before following.

The livestream chat scrolled rapidly as viewers erupted:

“No, no, no! Jian Dadan, don’t be fooled by the fake Fatty! He’s definitely trying to harm you!”

“Luckily, there’s still Fuzhu…”

“When the real Fatty was attacked, weren’t the Cat Demon and Jinjin nearby too? There wasn’t even a fight back then—the livestream screen just went blank. I thought Jian Dadan was done for…”

“Eek—I feel like Jian Dadan’s expression was weird when he was talking to Fatty. Could he have realized that Fatty is fake?”

“No way… If he had noticed already, why would he go into the temple alone with Fatty?”

These comments scrolled rapidly in the livestream chat. In the real world, Young Master Xue was watching them too.

In his hospital room, he sat wrapped up like a mummy in bandages, the tablet propped in front of him by his little assistant.

He sat up suddenly, eyes filled with grief and despair, his slit-mouth wound still not healed. If he could speak, he probably would have screamed and cried aloud. Why was he so unlucky?!

After the Slit-Mouthed Woman had been killed, Jian Yuntai had obtained the scissors—scissors that could heal Young Master Xue’s facial injury. But… Jian Yuntai had entrusted the scissors to Fatty for safekeeping.

And now Fatty had been captured!

Young Master Xue had been hoping Jian Yuntai would rescue Fatty… but what rescue was there to speak of? Jian Yuntai himself was about to be tricked.

It was like the “Hulu Brothers saving Grandpa” scenario: one disaster after another.

“…” Young Master Xue felt so frustrated he didn’t want to watch the livestream anymore.

It was all his fault!

That day he had meant to tell Jian Yuntai, “Don’t get separated,” but he forgot. Afterwards, he tried several times to have his assistant relay the message, but the assistant couldn’t read his gaze. They thought he had epilepsy.

When he said “don’t get separated,” he didn’t mean being alone at night. Knowing Jian Yuntai, if he were alone at night, it wouldn’t be merely “separated”—it would be a tragedy among the demons.

What he meant was being separated during the day.

Young Master Xue had run through the instance and gained nothing, but one thought had taken root firmly in his mind—compared to wandering alone at night under the gaze of hundreds of demons, the real terror of this instance was being with familiar people during the day.

Because these “familiar people” might have already been swapped out without the players even realizing it.

Watching the livestream again, Young Master Xue felt like Jian Yuntai was Little Red Riding Hood in a fairy tale, cheerfully skipping toward the wolf-grandmother, being betrayed, and still counting coins with a smile.

—And indeed, the Jian Yuntai on the screen was smiling.

Bang! A loud noise rang out.

Young Master Xue recoiled in shock, collapsing back onto the hospital bed, his face full of helpless anguish: even Jian Yuntai was being dragged into danger—who was going to save him now?! Ahhhhh!

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