The Holy Sword’s Curse and a Troublesome Task

No matter how she looked at it, the scar was undoubtedly left by her own “Holy Sword.” The very weapon that had pierced her chest still lay upon her bedroom bed, a stark reminder of its power. Moreover, that Holy Sword had been obtained at the cost of her ‘bull-bull’ (TL Note: A Chinese slang term, ‘niu niu,’ referring to male genitalia, implying a gender swap or loss of masculinity).

Li Longkang turned her gaze towards the ultimate culprit.

“Hey, Goddess, what’s the deal with this wound?”

However, the Goddess leaned back nonchalantly on the sofa, a smile still gracing her features.

She explained, “The Demon Lord is troublesome because she possesses immortality. Only by piercing her heart with the Holy Sword I bestowed upon you can she truly embrace permanent death…”

As Mo Linyu rebuttoned the collar of her shirt, her brows furrowed in a frown.

“Permanent… Even after reincarnation, am I to be killed by a wound from my previous life?”

The Goddess, the very fount of all evil, showed no remorse whatsoever; instead, she spoke with a playful grin:

“That’s right! Even if you reincarnate again, your memories will revive after a certain age, a wound will reappear on your chest, and you will ultimately meet a tragic end!”

This was nothing short of a curse! A curse of the Holy Sword!

No matter how grave the Demon Lord’s sins, such a punishment seemed excessively cruel!

“…Is there no way to heal it?” Mo Linyu inquired.

“No way~ You needn’t bother with a hospital. The medical arts of this world cannot save you, as it’s not a physical injury. The only way to avert this fate is to ‘register’ in this world. Once you are no longer the Demon Lord, the wound will naturally vanish.”

Mo Linyu drew a deep breath, then countered:

“Then, how am I to ‘register’?”

“I’ve already told you the method, haven’t I? You must gather all the souls from other worlds and complete the registration in one go. Otherwise, with lingering connections between them, your wound will still not heal…”

The Goddess, still leaning against the sofa, raised three fingers and brought them close to Mo Linyu’s face.

“Within three months, find ten souls from other worlds within the confines of Tianyuan City… Hmm, that shouldn’t be difficult, right?”

She called that not difficult?

Just hearing it sounded utterly troublesome.

The upcoming summer vacation made it somewhat manageable, but how would they find people once the vacation was over?

Mo Linyu raised an eyebrow, asking, “If you can confirm the number, why can’t you find these individuals yourself?”

“I can’t. My interference in this world is extremely limited.”

“Then, are there any gadgets or similar items?”

The Goddess merely spread her hands, adding, “None! You wish! If such convenient things existed, why wouldn’t I find them myself?”

Mo Linyu reached out and pressed down on Han Xiaoyu’s head.

“Are you telling me that without any clues, I’m supposed to search for ten people of unknown appearance, gender, or age in a metropolis of ten million? Tell me, how can that possibly be done?”

“No, no, no, only nine! After all, you are one of them! How about that? Don’t you feel like it just got ten percent easier… Ow, ow, ow!”

Mo Linyu’s hand clamped onto Han Xiaoyu’s head like a vice, maintaining her grip.

“Are you trying to crush this child’s head?!”

“At least give us some hints, otherwise the difficulty remains largely unchanged.”

The Goddess responded with a near wail, “It’s only because the Holy Sword’s aura lingers on your chest that I was able to find you! But for the other souls, you’ll simply have to rely on your own efforts!”

Only then did Mo Linyu release her grip.

“Huh? Hold on a minute!!”

Li Longkang, who had remained indifferent until this point, now voiced her protest.

“What do you mean ‘rely on our own efforts’? And why, pray tell, are we even discussing this in my house?”

“Oh dear—?”

The Goddess, using Han Xiaoyu’s body, let out an exaggerated gasp.

“Are you truly planning to just watch her die in three months? Is my Hero really such a cruel person? That wound on her was left by you, you know? It’s like you’d be killing her again! Surely not?”

She gazed at Li Longkang with a look of utter disdain, as if she were trash.

Though feigned, the expression was enough to make a vein throb on Li Longkang’s forehead.

“You think you can use that wound to morally blackmail me? Don’t be ridiculous! I only went to vanquish the Demon Lord because you demanded it! And now you come to me with this?!”

“You’re truly impossible~”

The Goddess sighed, her tone suggesting Li Longkang was nothing more than a petulant child.

“Alright, then, the reward for this task will be your mother’s whereabouts. How about that? If you gather those souls within three months, I’ll pull some strings and ask around for you… I can’t just help you unconditionally, can I?”

“So calculating.”

“Are you in or out? Be decisive; aren’t you a man?” The Goddess’s expression made one’s fists itch.

However, that was someone else’s body, after all. Even if she actually landed a punch, it wouldn’t matter to the Goddess herself.

Mo Linyu, however, cast a peculiar glance at Li Longkang.

“Give me some time, I need to think about it.”

Li Longkang plucked a strand of golden hair and brought it close to the Goddess.

“But first, you must explain why I’ve reverted to this body. Weren’t my powers reclaimed by you?”

Upon Li Longkang’s return to Earth, her Heroic power had indeed been reclaimed by the Goddess.

“Why, it’s because of the Holy Sword, of course~”

The Goddess explained with an innocent expression.

“That was a divine artifact prepared specifically to kill the Demon Lord. When the Demon Lord appears in your vicinity, the Holy Sword automatically activates… Your body’s transformation is merely a side effect of summoning the Holy Sword.”

To reiterate, the Hero’s Holy Sword had been exchanged at the cost of her ‘bull-bull.’

“Vicinity? How large is this range?” Li Longkang asked.

“I’m not sure myself. When did you transform?”

“About ten minutes before you came to ring the doorbell. Where were you then?”

At that time, the Goddess had not yet borrowed Han Xiaoyu’s body, so she merely looked at Mo Linyu.

Twirling a strand of dark purple hair around her fingertip, Mo Linyu paused to recall.

“We wandered around the residential complex for a while before finding your house number… From the complex entrance to here, the range is about half a kilometer. The scar had been faintly aching on the way here, and then I opened the door to see a face I utterly detested…”

So she just punched her?

Li Longkang felt a reluctance to help this person.

As for the range, the straight-line distance was half a kilometer…

Which meant a diameter of one kilometer, right?

While perhaps not large for an entire city, it was a considerable area for Li Longkang personally.

“So, conversely, if she leaves my side by one kilometer, I can change back?”

“Yes, but there might be a delay, waiting for the Holy Sword to fall dormant again… Oh, perhaps dousing yourself with cold water would also work. You should know more about that than I do, shouldn’t you?”

The Goddess’s gaze held a hint of lewdness.

Why would the Holy Sword possess such ‘bull-bull’-like characteristics?!

The Goddess continued, “Besides that, making her ‘Demon Lord’ identity disappear is also a solution… Are you truly so unwilling to help?”

“Being with her turns me into a woman! It’s utterly troublesome! I have my own life! What am I supposed to do looking like this?”

“Your own life… is it?”

The Goddess pointedly glanced at the takeout food on the coffee table.

“Are you referring to staying home every day, live-streaming games, and having all three meals delivered?”

“…What does that have to do with you?”

“I couldn’t help it. I had originally intended to let you discover this yourself, but since you’ve brought it up, I’ll tell you one more thing.”

The Goddess stood, walking over to the display cabinet in the living room, which housed mementos of fallen comrades. She then turned back, looking over her shoulder at a forty-five-degree angle.

“Say, Hero, you value them greatly, don’t you?”

“Are you implying…”

Li Longkang vaguely understood the Goddess’s implication.

“Admittedly, my oversight at the time bears some responsibility…”

“It was the primary responsibility,” Li Longkang corrected.

“*Cough*…”

The Goddess gestured towards the mementos within the cabinet.

“How do you suppose they came to this world?”