In the mountain forest, a streak of dark golden flowing light fell. However, the pervasive fog made this streak of light rather inconspicuous.
"Why did it suddenly get so foggy out of nowhere?"
Relying on his experience, Fifth Brother Chen finally walked out of the foggy area. While muttering complaints, he arrived at the rock face. Looking up, he immediately began to climb.
However, the wind in the mountains was as cold as a knife dipped in freezing water, constantly scraping against Fifth Brother Chen's neck, which was exposed outside his torn padded jacket. Hunching his back, he moved with difficulty among the jagged rocks. During the mining process, the basket of collected rough stones on his shoulder was so heavy it felt like it would nail him into the rock face. Every heavy breath puffed out a small, fleeting cloud of white vapor, appearing so feeble in this mountain hollow.
Once he had enough suitable stones, Fifth Brother Chen carefully climbed down the rock face. He took out his rations wrapped in a tattered cloth from his bosom, paired it with water from his skin, taking a bite, a sip, and a swallow.
Little did he know...
At this moment, a dark golden light was flashing in the woods. Right at this moment, Fifth Brother Chen suddenly turned his head as if possessed. By sheer coincidence, he saw that radiance.
He instinctively put away his rations and stood up with a hunched back. Given his personality, he should have cautiously retreated, but he suddenly heard a faint groan, which stirred a trace of compassion in him. He picked up his tools and followed the sound.
Casually tearing off a long, thin branch to push aside the dense bushes, he saw an old man leaning against a boulder, his breath as thin as a gossamer thread. This old man had a withered face and closed eyes, his brows slightly furrowed, indicating he was in extreme pain. His body was covered in wounds and grass scraps, caked in dust, and his dry, cracked, purplish lips trembled slightly, only letting out vague, breathless sounds.
"...Water..."
Fifth Brother Chen's heart tightened. He hurried forward, poured clean water from the waterskin at his waist, and carefully fed it to the old man's lips.
After a few mouthfuls of water flowed in, the old man's turbid eyes struggled open a crack. His grayish eyeballs rolled unfocused for a moment before locking onto Fifth Brother Chen's face.
The old man was currently lying face down. One of his hands was deeply dug into the crevice of the gravel beneath him, the knuckles twisted and white from excessive force. Besides that, his other hand was desperately guarding his chest, tightly gripping a fist-sized object.
"...Jade..." Suddenly, a broken syllable rolled out of the old man's throat, sounding like sandpaper rubbing against rock. Using his last ounce of strength, he tremblingly raised the hand he was guarding against his chest. That withered-branch-like palm opened, revealing what he was holding tightly.
He recognized it; this was a piece of jade. This jade was as warm and smooth as fat, its inner brilliance restrained like the soft light of dawn. Even its texture was like a baby's skin, as delicate as condensed dew.
Inexplicably, an inconspicuous dark golden speck of light flashed and vanished on the jade. Fifth Brother Chen only felt his throat tighten. He rushed forward a few steps and carefully turned the withered body over.
"Jade—, my... precious jade... spiritual..." The old man's breathing suddenly became rapid; every word consumed what little life he had left. "Exchange... boundless wealth... can..." He suddenly choked and coughed violently. Dark red blood foam spilled from the corner of his mouth, staining his grayish-white beard. "Carve... carve the last cut..."
Before he could finish speaking, the glimmer of light in the old man's eyes suddenly extinguished. His head tilted, and he breathed no more. The hand tightly gripping the blood jade went limp, and the jade rolled to the ground with a dull thud. His turbid eyes were wide open, staring fixedly at Fifth Brother Chen, but there was no longer a trace of life in his gaze.
The mountain wind blew past, bringing a hint of chill...
Staring at the jade that had rolled to the side, the sound of Fifth Brother Chen's gulping became increasingly obvious. Finally, his hand reached out involuntarily, scooping up the jade that still held residual warmth, but he froze on the spot.
Though he was a commoner, he still recognized a treasure. This jade was a treasure! If exchanged for money, it would probably fetch a lot of copper coins.
At this thought, Fifth Brother Chen's grip tightened, and his expression became even more nervous. His gaze swept the surroundings, and while clutching the jade tightly, he kept pacing by the bushes. He was on guard, on high alert...
Only after ensuring that no one was around did he secretly let out a sigh of relief. But when he opened his palm and looked at the jade, there was still a dark golden radiance that flashed and vanished without Fifth Brother Chen noticing, causing his staring gaze to plunge into a burning fervor.
Yet, it was as if a trace of clarity remained in his heart, quickly pulling his thoughts back from the fervor as he glanced at the old man on the ground. Immediately after, Fifth Brother Chen turned to leave.
However, he didn't go down the mountain. Instead, he walked to the rock face, picked up his quarrying tools, and returned to the old man's corpse. Then, he actually started digging the ground.
And as he dug, he muttered, "Old man, I took your jade, and I can hardly repay your kindness. All I can do is bury you in this earth, giving you a peaceful resting place."
Finally, a small mound of earth took shape.
After doing all this, he grabbed his tools and almost fled the woods. But before leaving, he still didn't abandon that basket of stones. As for that piece of jade... It was messily wrapped in several layers of the tattered cloth that had held his rations, shoved deep into his bosom, pressed tightly against his wildly beating heart. With every step he took, he felt the stone echoing his pulse.
However, after he left, a wisp of dark golden smoke drifted out from the small mound, and then transformed into a human figure on the spot.
A man with a small stature but an abnormally large head was hiding in the forest, his eyes emitting a gloomy, cold light as he stared at Fifth Brother Chen.
And he was exactly the God of Greed's split avatar.
"The thought of greed has been aroused, and the nature of original sin has also risen. So next, let's see what choice you make?"
As the murmur fell, he transformed into a wisp of green smoke and dissipated. However, the direction it drifted was unmistakably toward the village.
...
"Mother, I'm back."
"Cough, cough, cough—"
By the time Fifth Brother Chen returned to the house he lived in, his mother's suppressed coughing barely managed to suppress the panic in his heart.
His mother was curled up under a thin, heavily patched quilt, so skinny that she was nothing but skin and bones. Every cough seemed to pull her entire body, as if it would shatter her internal organs and force them out.
Yet even so, there was no other reaction.
Fifth Brother Chen first went to his mother's side, then picked up a bowl of clear water and fed it to her lips with a spoon. But all of this seemed in vain; after a long time, not a single drop entered her mouth.
As if accustomed to all this, Fifth Brother Chen silently walked to the water vat in the corner, scooped up a ladle of icy mountain spring water, and fiercely splashed it onto his own face.
The sudden chill jolted him awake instantly!
Water droplets dripped down his chin, smashing onto the rammed earth floor and creating a small wet patch, which Fifth Brother Chen stared at intently.
A moment later, he wiped his face. Coming to the table, he pulled out the tightly wrapped bundle of tattered cloth from his bosom. His fingers trembled slightly. After hesitating repeatedly and ensuring no one else was peeking, he chose to slowly open it.
He only took a glance, then looked toward his mother by the bed. He no longer hesitated and immediately stood up!
He planned to take advantage of the daylight to make a trip to the town, exchange this jade for money, and then find a doctor to treat his mother. Otherwise, his mother wouldn't last many more days.
However, right at this moment, a sudden wave of drowsiness swept over him. "What... what's going on?" Fifth Brother Chen wanted to force himself to stay awake, but found it completely useless.
He didn't know how long had passed, but just as his consciousness was about to sink into the edge of chaos, a powerful suction suddenly seized him. What appeared before his eyes was no longer the darkness of the ruined house, but a vast and boundless world that suddenly unfurled, causing him to panic a little.
"Where... where is this?"
However, this place had no sky and no earth; there was only surging, rushing ink. Gray-black ink of varying shades flowed freely and smudged, then constructed a chaotic and grand void.
In the center of this ink illusion, a giant wolf floated. Its body was not a physical entity, but was outlined by the purest and deepest ink colors. The lines were smooth and full of primitive power, and the texture of its fur loomed faintly between the rich and dry strokes of the ink wash, as if it could dissipate and regroup at any time with the flow of the ink. This ink wolf had a lazy posture, exuding an aloof indifference.
They saw this ink wolf's pupils open! However, these so-called pupils were not the vertical slits of a wild beast, but two slowly rotating, bottomless dark vortexes. In the center of the vortexes were two clusters of coldly beating dark golden flames, like a gaze from the nether hell, firmly locking onto Fifth Brother Chen, who was as insignificant as dust in the illusion.
Just one glance caused Fifth Brother Chen's mind to violently shake! He instinctively stepped back, but stumbled and fell to the ground.
Yet right at this moment, a voice—neither male nor female, neither old nor young—carrying a strange metallic friction texture, yet also like countless whispers echoing and resonating in an abyss, directly vibrated in Fifth Brother Chen's mind. Its tone was beyond doubt, "Mortal, you gave me life; I shall bestow upon you boundless wealth."
Along with this voice, the vortexes in the ink wolf's opened eyes suddenly sped up their rotation, and the ink wash illusion shifted along with it.
He saw himself standing at the familiar village entrance, holding a warm, radiant piece of jade in his hand. However, at this moment, the jade's brilliance flowed, and with just a slight thought, a speck of golden light shot from his fingertips. When the golden light landed on the dusty, stubborn stone beneath his feet...
In an instant, the stone skin peeled off, revealing brilliant golden light. A heavy gold ingot abruptly appeared out of thin air!
Under Fifth Brother Chen's dumbfounded gaze, the illusion shifted, and more scenes arrived one after another: the centuries-dry old well in the village gurgled out clear, sweet spring water, the stream cheerfully rushing along the cracked irrigation ditches; the barren wasteland outside the village, where even wild grass was sparse, saw golden rice ears breaking through the soil, heading, and maturing at a visible speed, heavily bending the stalks, the rice waves rolling and emitting an intoxicating grain fragrance; his dilapidated, drafty shack was replaced by a magnificent mansion rising from the ground, with carved beams and painted rafters, extraordinary in its grandeur; his withered mother on the sickbed now had a rosy complexion and a hale and hearty spirit...
Such immense luck and wealth were constantly pressing down on him at this moment. Similarly, it made Fifth Brother Chen's heart burn with fervor.
The ink wolf's massive wash-painted head leaned forward slightly, the vortexes in its eyes flowing with an alluring halo. That strange voice, carrying a hint of disdainful amusement, rumbled in his heart once more.
"How about it? Carve it out, and I promise you a lifetime of glory and splendor."
In both eyes, the dark golden flames deep within the vortexes suddenly flared. All of this seemed like a silent urging.
"Ah!"
Fifth Brother Chen violently sat up from the earthen bed, his heart pounding so fiercely it nearly shattered his ribs. Cold sweat instantly soaked his thin linen clothes, sticking cold and clammy to his back. Outside the window, the sky was still bright. As for his mother, she was still like a candle in the wind.
"Huff, huff, huff— Was that... real?"
He gasped for breath, his gaze involuntarily falling on the jade in his hand. The gold-turning light from the dream, the rice ears that bent the stalks, his mother's recovered smile... everything was like a red-hot branding iron, scorching his soul until it trembled.
But was this possible? Even if it were true, he only needed to carve it well!
His remaining rationality kept Fifth Brother Chen's head clear.
But it was as if peering into Fifth Brother Chen's mind... Just as he was holding the jade, he suddenly felt it vibrate slightly, and a suction force came from his palm. The surrounding air seemed to be guided, merging into the jade strand by strand.
After a moment, he opened his palm and was shocked to find that on the surface of the jade had condensed several grain-sized golden particles. They were tiny but dazzling—it was exactly the fine gold he had seen in the dream illusion!
At this moment, Fifth Brother Chen's heart gave a violent thump! His eyes erupted with a light of ecstatic surprise, or rather, greed.
Wealth! Boundless wealth! It's real!
Under the stimulation, greedy thoughts grew wildly in his heart like weeds.
At the same time, in the Forest of Life in the Divine Realm.
"Sigh—"
The Goddess of Life suddenly let out a sigh, turning her gaze to the God of Greed's true form. "Greed, you've gone a bit too far."
As soon as these words came out, all the gods present looked over.
Because in just a single morning, the God of Greed had already cast three hints, using them to provoke and amplify the greedy thoughts of the persona formed from Chen Junting's mind.
Three times was more than enough. After all, greed was an original sin, one of the seven great evils of human nature. Who could withstand such a trial? Even gods couldn't!
As for the Goddess of Life's words, the God of Destruction remained silent, while the God of Greed smiled and defended himself, "Please rest assured, Lady, I naturally won't make things too difficult. But since he bears the great expectations of you two God Kings, it naturally can't be too simple; it must be intensified."
Hearing this, the Goddess of Life was about to speak again.
"Mind your limits."
The God of Destruction suddenly spoke, rendering the Goddess of Life speechless.
Then the Goddess of Life looked back, only to see the God of Destruction shaking his head slightly at her without speaking, and then turning his gaze back to the development of "Fifth Brother Chen." However, a sharp glint flashed through the God of Destruction's eyes, revealing a trace of anticipation without leaving a trace.
He wasn't asking for Chen Junting to make the choice of the Seven Heavenly Virtues in this Seven Deadly Sins trial, thereby becoming a perfect saint.
But exactly how it would turn out... the God of Destruction, for one, was looking forward to it.
And the actual development of the situation: Fifth Brother Chen didn't instantly erupt due to the greed in his heart; instead, he made a move that left people astonished.
He buried his entire head into the water vat, making himself quickly calm down.
Once the fervor in his heart subsided, he looked at the fine gold in his hand, gritted his teeth, found an old wooden box usually used to hold valuables, carefully placed the jade inside, and locked it with a click. As for the next two days, Fifth Brother Chen lived like a frightened bird, forcing himself not to look at that wooden box.
As for that fine gold... He didn't dare spend a single fraction of it, nor could he. Otherwise, how would he, a poor commoner, explain the origin of this gold? If something really happened, he'd probably lose his little life.
"This matter is still so troublesome." The God of Greed frowned slightly as he watched the trial scene "generated from the heart" by Chen Junting himself.
It was just some fine gold. But no matter what, the progress couldn't be stuck here.
"So be it."
Thus, the God of Greed made his move again. He had to ensure that there was no "external force" interference in his state of mind.
Even if the "external force" referred to Chen Junting himself.
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