Chapter 29: Grade A Yellow, Lotus Lake (18)

Underwater, Xu Yiliu held her breath and swam downward.

This direction had to be correct; the steward had been jumping around here last night, and the painting on his back had been dying to merge with its other half at the bottom of the water.

Thinking of this, Xu Yiliu felt a wave of relief that Ji Xianxing still possessed some intelligence. Otherwise, given her own temperament, she would have kicked the steward into the water the moment she laid eyes on him. If she had actually done that, the mission would likely have been a total failure.

Grade B missions were difficult because of the need to clean up pollutants; Grade A missions were not only about the difficulty of finding and killing the pollutants, but they also actively lowered her intelligence. One wrong step, and the mission would be lost.

Just as she reached the bottom of the lake, she heard two splashes above her and felt her scalp tingle. Ji Xianxing was truly devious. It wasn't just them who were inconvenienced by the lake water—those "things" were too. If both of them jumped in like that, wouldn't all the other things come raining down like dumplings?

Sure enough, splash after splash followed, and the sound of "thud, thud" made her swim even faster. The visibility at the bottom of the water was abysmal; she widened her eyes, searching everywhere.

Where is it... Where is it... The painting... the ink...

A flash of inspiration struck Xu Yiliu. She struggled to distinguish the mud beneath her and finally spotted a patch of exceptionally dark earth. Ignoring everything else, she started digging with her bare hands. Before long, she felt a slippery, leathery object.

In the water, Fang Xiaoyi was dragging a half-dead Ji Xianxing as they swam aimlessly. "How much longer do we have to swim?"

Ji Xianxing, who had almost drowned herself, was spitting out water with every gasp, unable to even speak. The creatures that had followed them in could only thrash about in the water; while they didn't sink, it could only be described as a doggy paddle. This allowed Teacher Fang, who had decent swimming skills, to hold her own even while dragging someone else.

However, if Xu Yiliu were any slower, she didn't know if Fang Xiaoyi would die, but she herself would certainly drown.

Fang Xiaoyi muttered, "Do as I say, tread water, don't stop treading..." She turned her head to find Ji Xianxing already rolling her eyes.

Fang Xiaoyi panicked. "Tread water, tread water!" She cried out, "Xu Yiliu, Xu Yiliu, when will you be done..."

In her panic, Fang Xiaoyi didn't even know what she was saying. She pushed Ji Xianxing up with all her might, terrified of letting her nose and mouth go under, all while keeping an eye out for anything chasing them. Seeing five or six of those things doggy-paddling quickly toward them, threatening to catch up to the two of them as their speed plummeted, Fang Xiaoyi was so desperate that tears streamed down her face. Were they going to die in the lake?

At the critical moment, the system finally broadcasted the sound she had been dying to hear:

System: [Mission Content: Locate and clean up pollutants 2/2 (Completed)]
System: [Mission data calculating, estimated time: three minutes...]

The people around them dissolved like burning candles. In an instant, the lake water receded, and Fang Xiaoyi, still clutching Ji Xianxing, suddenly landed on solid ground. She blinked, her vision blurred by tears.

Xu Yiliu was lying on her back not far away, turning her head to wave at them. "Hi~"

Fang Xiaoyi stared at her, stunned.

"Teacher Fang, you..." Xu Yiliu gave her a weary smile, assuming this kind-hearted person was about to reprimand her. After all, her methods must have seemed extreme to someone like Fang Xiaoyi.

Instead, Fang Xiaoyi stared blankly at her hands. "Does your hand hurt?"

Xu Yiliu paused, squinting as she raised her hands to her eyes. Only then did she notice that her ten fingers were a bloody mess. She must have used too much force while digging for that half of the painting; several of her fingernails were gone, and the sight was gruesome.

She turned her head away and said, "It's nothing." They would heal eventually, anyway.

Fang Xiaoyi snapped out of her daze and hurried to lay Ji Xianxing flat, performing CPR and chest compressions.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

Ji Xianxing slowly regained consciousness, looking dazed, and began to mindlessly swipe at her interface.

Xu Yiliu said lazily, "It's over. We cleared the mission."

Ji Xianxing shot her a glance. "You secured the highest contribution rating."

"You don't even know how to swim," Xu Yiliu ignored her sarcasm. "Shouldn't you be praising me?" Moreover, Fang Xiaoyi hadn't even reacted as quickly as she had in that situation. She admitted she had her own selfish reasons, but it had truly been the best way to handle that scenario.

Ji Xianxing remained silent.

Fang Xiaoyi was still a bit confused. "How did you know where the pollutants were? And Chen Diandian..." She paused. "Was it really necessary to kill Chen Diandian?"

When people relax, they tend to feel pity. Xu Yiliu wasn't impatient, saying, "Whether it was strictly necessary or not, in that situation, the most effective method I could think of was to kill Chen Diandian."

Ji Xianxing looked at Fang Xiaoyi, who had never given up on trying to save her, and rarely took the initiative to speak. "Mission areas are divided into different colors and styles. This is one of them—it looks like ancient times, but the logic is utter nonsense."

For instance, the furniture and decorations were Song Dynasty, the clothing was Ming Dynasty, yet the language was no different from the modern day.

"There is no dynasty background here at all," Ji Xianxing said. "It's just two paintings."

Xu Yiliu was waiting for the system to finish calculating, closing her eyes as she listened, looking as if she had fallen asleep.

Fang Xiaoyi asked, puzzled, "You mean the entire mission area consists of two paintings?"

"Yes. One painting's background is a silhouette of the entire manor and the lake, containing everyone we saw in the manor," Ji Xianxing explained. "The other painting is the Lotus Lake itself. The pollutants in these two paintings constructed the entire mission area, with the main body locked in that ancestral hall."

The troupe leader had wanted to tell them the source of all this, but he couldn't, because there was no origin—everything was constructed by the pollutants. The manor, the Lotus Lake, the people, the so-called past events—all of it.

The entire mission consisted of the troupe leader’s husband accidentally opening the ancestral hall, allowing the two pollutants to escape. They escaped in different ways, but both chose to split themselves in two. One had its background and characters separated; the background stayed with the painting frame on the altar, while the characters lacked physical form. The other was entirely paper-like; half was brought out by the troupe leader's husband, falling into the lake to form the Lotus Lake, while the other half attached itself to the back of the curious steward who had entered the hall, desperately trying to merge back into one.

Cleaning the pollution required four steps. The first was burning the painting frame. The second was to accelerate the mutation process before the pollutants could fully mutate Chen Diandian, pushing him into the lake to use the other pollutant's power to make him fully mutate—that is, "dyeing" him. At that moment, Xu Yiliu killing Chen Diandian was equivalent to cleaning the pollutant. The third step was to peel the painting off the steward's back and destroy it, which was what Ji Xianxing had done. The final step was to dig up the painting at the bottom of the lake.

Fang Xiaoyi asked Xu Yiliu curiously, "How did you destroy it?"

Xu Yiliu, who was dozing off, curled her lips. She didn't really want to recall it. "I bit it with my teeth."

Fang Xiaoyi looked at her mouth. *This child is really willing to go to such lengths...*

Xu Yiliu yawned, thinking that once she got back, she would have to get a good night's sleep. She had originally planned to take on a part-time job to continue her "worker spirit" at university, but after two missions in a row, she was physically and mentally exhausted. Now that she held a massive sum of system rewards, if she went back to slaving away at a job, she might die before she even finished spending the money.

She should just enjoy an easy college life. Though, perhaps some easy part-time jobs like attending classes for others wouldn't be bad...

The three survivors had different thoughts. Xu Yiliu and Ji Xianxing tacitly kept the secret of the "Word Spirit" from Fang Xiaoyi.

Thinking back now, the condition for the Word Spirit to take effect must have been contact with the lake water. Ruyi had touched the water when she came looking for her on the first day, and Kong Yueming and Ge Hua had likely touched the water, intentionally or not, while wandering around on the first day.

Therefore, Ruyi and Xu Yiliu had the largest areas of "dyeing." As for Kong Yueming and Ge Hua, it wasn't that they weren't dyed, but that the dyed areas were so small they hadn't been noticed.

Contact with the lake water was equivalent to participating in the painting. Anything said became part of the painting, effectively creating it. Naturally, it was a case of "speak it, and it comes true." Especially since these pollutants had self-awareness and were naturally opposed to cleaners like them, it formed a "Word Spirit" mode where good things didn't come true, but bad things did.

Three minutes passed, and the mission area, which had already dissolved into emptiness, disintegrated once more.

[Cleaners Xu Yiliu, Ji Xianxing, and Fang Xiaoyi have successfully cleared the Grade A mission. Mission area color: Yellow. All pollutants cleared.]
[Mission rule summary:]
[1. The false and the true reflect each other.]
[2. The creation of a painting requires ink.]
[3. Do not be afraid.]

Xu Yiliu couldn't be bothered to complain about these riddle-like rules. However, setting aside the first two, she had indeed noticed the third. Except for herself, who had fallen into the water at the start, Fang Xiaoyi and Ji Xianxing were completely unaffected by the pollutants because they didn't feel much fear. It seemed that in this mission area, fear and resistance to pollutants were inversely related.

[The highest contribution employee for this mission is Xu Yiliu.]
[The following are the settlement rewards for this mission: Free attribute points * 18, 1 million common currency.]
[Highest contribution reward: Random Title.]
[Note: Titles provide additional assistance to the cleaner's work.]

A random title...

Xu Yiliu’s mouth twitched. The previous one, "Crane Among Chickens," was indeed useful. In this dungeon, it was clear that she was not only the only one to fall into the water at the start but also the one who was tortured to death by the pollutants precisely because she wasn't afraid. She was certain that if she had had the energy to look at her body then, the ink would have reached her chin. Other things aside, the itching was truly unbearable.

System: [Does the host wish to draw a random title immediately?]
Xu Yiliu waved her hand: [Draw, draw!]
It would be a waste not to. Who knew, maybe she'd actually get a useful title this time?

[Random title drawing in progress... Drawing complete. Congratulations to host Xu Yiliu for obtaining the "Fiery Eyes" title.]

Xu Yiliu felt it sounded quite useful, so she asked: [What does it do?]

System: [In the mission world, the host can view the panel data of cleaners within the visible range at any time. Note: Does not include titles.]
[Outside the mission world, the host can independently identify the identity of human cleaners.]

[So, does that mean I still can't see Ji Xianxing and Teacher Fang's panels in the real world?]
System: [Correct.]

Xu Yiliu was a bit disappointed. Setting aside Ji Xianxing's polarized strength and intelligence, she was truly curious about Fang Xiaoyi's panel data. Teacher Fang looked gentle and warm, but she was truly ferocious when she fought. Still, she was satisfied; after all, it was an active skill, which was much more useful than "Crane Among Chickens."

Xu Yiliu cleared her mind and began allocating her free attribute points, using a plan similar to last time: 15 points to Strength, 3 points to Stamina.

[Panel updating...]

[Host: Xu Yiliu
Height: 173 (Tall, cannot be increased)
Strength: 77 (Powerful, can be increased)
Agility: 78 (Vigorous, can be increased)
Stamina: 90 (Strong, can be increased)
Explosive Power: 87 (Terrifying, cannot be increased)
Overall Combat Ability: 76 (Good fighter, affected by the four data points above)
Intelligence: 81 (Smart, cannot be increased)
Health: 65 (Sub-healthy, needs improvement)
Mood: 77 (Tired and relaxed, constantly fluctuating)
Other notes: Lacks sleep, malnourished; it is recommended to improve dietary structure and get more rest.]

After finishing, Xu Yiliu wanted to exit and rest immediately, clicking the exit button without hesitation. She was exhausted; she needed a huge meal and then a long sleep...

Wait. Where was she before she entered the mission?