Chapter 160: Making a Wish

After Caesar the Pig was slain, the Emperor's Scepter fell to the ground, rolling right to Qin Fei's feet.

The Ancient Herald seemed indifferent to the scepter lying on the earth.

Taking advantage of the gap while the Ancient Herald was busy executing others, Qin Fei had quietly stowed the Emperor's Scepter into his inventory.

Having killed Caesar the Pig, the entity reverted from the form of Queen Malafala back to its original shadowy silhouette.

The Ancient Herald drifted over to its nearest neighbor, Xie Nainai.

Slowly descending to the ground, the shadow forming its body underwent a strange distortion, gradually spreading over Xie Nainai.

These shadows began to contract continuously.

A few seconds later, agony flashed across Xie Nainai's eyes.

Seemingly unable to endure the excruciating pain, a look of resolute determination crossed her face. She drew an iron dagger from her inventory and slit her own throat...

Xie Nainai had perished.

Following her death, the Ancient Herald shifted its target to the plump bird standing beside her.

Seeing this, a trace of panic flickered in the silly bird's eyes.

Then, struck by some inexplicable impulse, the foolish bird earnestly tried to reason with the hovering Ancient Herald: "I am a dragon! You cannot—"

*Puff!*

Before the fat bird could finish its sentence, the Ancient Herald shredded its body with shadows, causing it to drop dead on the spot.

Observing the Ancient Herald's actions from afar, Qin Fei's eyes narrowed in deep thought.

When the Ancient Herald killed Caesar the Pig earlier, it had deliberately assumed the form of the Pig King—or rather, the Pig Queen—and decapitated it with a longsword.

Yet, when terminating Xie Nainai and that foolish bird, it reverted to its original shadowy state.

Even for a shadow creature, every action must follow a certain logic... The Ancient Herald going out of its way to do this must have a specific reason behind it.

Suddenly, Qin Fei recalled a previous detail.

When the Ancient Herald, disguised as Queen Malafala, swung its sword at Caesar the Pig, Caesar had been able to raise its scepter in resistance!

Moreover, throughout that confrontation, it had remained standing on the ground almost the entire time.

This action led Qin Fei to a crucial conclusion: whether it was the Ancient Herald or any of those shadow creatures, direct attacks launched by them against the pigs should be entirely ineffective!

If the shadow creatures wanted to kill a pig, they had no choice but to adopt the appearance of the Pig Queen, just as the Ancient Herald had done, and wield physical weapons to strike them down!

Alternatively, they had to resort to burning down the royal capital directly, as seen before, in order to slaughter the pig population in large numbers.

This was because all pigs possessed an innate immunity to those shadows!

Not only had the Ancient Herald's recent behavior proven this point, but it was also mirrored in the mechanics of the game *Don't Starve*: when night fell in the game, even if there was no campfire, the pigs would sleep out in the open without ever being attacked by shadow creatures!

This unique trait of the pigs perfectly explained why they could become the protagonists of this *Don't Starve* world and survive within it peacefully!

Because of this, the Ancient Herald had infiltrated the royal capital and disguised itself as Queen Malafala... with the ultimate objective of utilizing the power of the pig royalty to wipe out all the pigs!

In the world of *Don't Starve*, shadow creatures and pigs were natural adversaries, and the pigs possessed an innate counters to shadow monsters!

As Qin Fei realized all of this, the Ancient Herald in the sky drifted toward him.

At this sight, a resolute look appeared in Qin Fei's eyes. He swiftly drew a dagger from his inventory and plunged it without hesitation into his own heart.

[The effect of the Mana Flower has been triggered, the user is regenerating...]

Qin Fei felt as though he had been asleep for a very long time.

When he finally opened his eyes again, Xie Nainai, Caesar the Pig, and the others were already seated around him.

Having acquired the Spring of Mana earlier, Qin Fei's group had planted it directly near the entrance of the temple.

Consequently, their revival point was naturally located not far from the Rainforest Temple.

"What do we do now?"

Xie Nainai's voice carried a hint of desolation.

Although the effect of the Mana Flower had allowed her to be reborn after being slain by the Ancient Herald, facing such a formidable entity left her feeling utterly powerless.

That monster was practically invincible.

After putting on a fresh set of clothes retrieved from his inventory, Qin Fei shared his hypothesis regarding the pigs' natural advantage against shadow creatures with Xie Nainai.

"Then how... how did the Ancient Herald turn into the Queen?"

Xie Nainai asked, utterly perplexed.

Since pigs could ignore the attacks of shadow creatures, the Ancient Herald shouldn't have been able to harm Queen Malafala, who was a pig...

How on earth had it managed to usurp the Queen's body and replace her?

"How am I supposed to know that..."

Hearing Xie Nainai's confusion, Qin Fei's eyes also clouded with bewilderment.

He had no explanation for that anomaly either.

However, that was of secondary importance.

For Qin Fei, the paramount task right now was to find a method to eliminate the Ancient Herald as quickly as possible.

With that thought, Qin Fei shifted his gaze to Caesar the Pig.

This fellow was a pig. As long as it could acquire immense power and surpass the combat capability of the Ancient Herald in its Queen Malafala guise, this catastrophe could be brought to an end!

Noticing Qin Fei staring at it, Caesar the Pig patted its round belly and blurted out, "I'm hungry!"

"I'm hungry too!"

The foolish bird chimed in, suddenly waddling over.

Qin Fei was left speechless.

He pulled some jerky from his storage space and tossed it to Caesar the Pig and the silly bird.

Judging by Caesar the Pig's foolish demeanor, expecting it to defeat the Ancient Herald through its own strength and wisdom was practically a pipe dream.

Even intensive special training wouldn't help.

Since it was currently the days of the apocalypse, Qin Fei and his companions were subjected to attacks almost constantly, making even basic rest impossible.

Therefore, time was running out.

After deep deliberation, Qin Fei led the group into the nearby Rainforest Temple.

Deep within the underground temple chambers stood two wishing wells, though one of them had ceased to function for unknown reasons.

The other wishing well, however, remained usable.

Qin Fei intended to utilize the remaining wishing well to enhance Caesar the Pig's combat power through a wish.

Of course, he could also simply wish for the Ancient Herald to vanish.

Yet, Qin Fei suspected the probability of such a wish being granted was infinitesimally low.

Based on the mechanics of wishing wells, whenever a petitioner's wish exceeded the value of the offerings cast into the well, the well would use shadows to consume the petitioner's body as 'payment' for the excess portion.

Qin Fei estimated that if the excess value of a wish was too great—so massive that sacrificing one's own body still couldn't cover the cost—the wish simply wouldn't be fulfilled.

This was precisely why Qin Fei refrained from making wishes like 'I want to be invincible' or 'I want to become a god'...

However, if the wish was merely to make Caesar the Pig stronger, the wishing well should be able to accommodate it.

As for the price that would need to be paid afterward, Qin Fei was already mentally prepared.

Should the darkness within the well attempt to consume his body, he planned to immediately end his own life to break that state, at the cost of consuming a single resurrection opportunity.

Planting another Mana Flower and waiting for it to grow required too much time, which they no longer had... but he still had a Flesh Effigy stowed away in his inventory.

Trading an extra life to clear the entire quest was a worthwhile exchange.

Guided by the temple map he had previously drawn, the group navigated the underground tunnels for a brief while before arriving at the chamber housing the wishing well.

Qin Fei took out all the gold nuggets from his inventory and cast them into the wishing well.

Only currency and gold nuggets could be fed into the wishing well.

Maximizing the value of the offerings thrown into the well should theoretically increase the success rate of the wish.

Yet, just as he was about to voice his wish to enhance Caesar the Pig's combat prowess... a bizarre thought suddenly surfaced in Qin Fei's mind.

*If only pigs can conquer shadow creatures, why can't I just wish to become a pig?*