Chapter 348 The Price of the Truth
While Huali was still stunned, Shen Yu had already strode forward and stretched out his hand in front of her.
"What I'm more concerned about is whether there will be military law consequences if the mission is not completed. Give me the card, I'll give it a try."
Huali blinked, and a tear "plop" fell to the ground.
She said so much...
Their first words were...
Why didn't the last star light up?
Will there be any punishment if I don't complete this task?
Why...?
How... how can there be such a gentle person in this world?
A huge, indescribable emotion surged into Karin's heart, and the tears she had been holding back suddenly burst forth and slid down her cheeks!
"I...I don't know why it didn't light up..." Huali stammered incoherently, "Maybe it's because I feel guilty..."
Wen Jin's usually cold voice now carried a power that could soothe everything: "No need to blame yourself, it was all done willingly, so how can there be any debt?"
"Recognize sincerity, and repay sincerity in return." Yan Xi looked earnestly at Hua Li with his deep blue eyes: "How can my little benefactor be so sure that we didn't know you were different?"
Huali suddenly looked up.
"Little Pear Blossom, do you really think that my age of over a thousand years is for nothing?" Luo Chuan's heterochromatic eyes gleamed with a world-weary wisdom. "If I hadn't seen through your true feelings early on and learned to distinguish between genuine and feigned emotions, would you really have been able to easily sway my mind, or even... theirs, with just your cards and rudimentary 'quests'?"
The Demon King's tone was languid, yet every word carried immense weight:
"Silly boy, the reason your card lit up from beginning to end was simply because of your sincerity."
"It's because I felt your sincerity first that I'm willing to give everything for you."
"Stars are merely the result, never the cause."
boom--!
All the fog was cleaved in that instant!
Hua Li looked around at Luo Chuan, Yan Xi, Wen Jin, Chen Yu, Lian Zhuo, Zhao Heng, Xiao Ta...
A clear answer has emerged...
yes!
Which one of them wasn't a person of extraordinary talent and unwavering determination?
Which one of them hasn't weathered storms and seen through people's hearts?
How could she be so naive as to think that a cold system and a few random cards could truly move these people's hearts?
This world has become riddled with holes from the endless plundering by the mission takers.
The will of Heaven is like a frail mother, helplessly watching her unborn child being targeted and deceived time and time again.
But it never stopped trying to save itself.
Every failure, every instance of being plundered, alters the laws governing this small world.
Each new generation of destiny is more difficult to plunder than the previous generation.
They possess stronger minds, more resilient wills, more independent judgment, and even a more acute insight into the authenticity of "emotions"!
Therefore, when it came to Luo Chuan and his group, they could no longer rely on a few commands from the cold system, some procedural "romantic" routines, or simply use "favorability" points to exchange for them to easily control them.
Huali suddenly realized—
Qi Ran, who had been listening to the whole thing, clenched her fists tightly.
No wonder—
No wonder that despite her extensive experience and the system's assistance, her task progress was still slow, and she even encountered repeated setbacks.
No wonder the favorability points she exchanged for had zero effect on Wen Jin and the Buddha.
No wonder she could only light up three stars despite her best efforts, and could not go any further.
Because the "targets" she was facing represented a breakthrough that the world's will had made after countless failures.
Qi Ran was trembling all over.
After the initial shock, Zhan Li turned to look at Qi Ran, revealing a smile that was more like a grimace: "Ranran... what does Hua Li mean?"
"What system? What mission?"
Qi Ran didn't look up to meet his gaze, nor did she look at anyone else.
She just murmured to herself, trembling:
"Do you think you're a hero?...Do you really think a headquarters that has existed for tens of millions of years is so easy to deal with?"
"Do you think it didn't consider fighting back when it realized the system had been implanted?"
"If it's truly severed, why aren't the stars shining?"
Qi Ran slowly raised her head, her eyes red: "They could have lived peacefully for hundreds or thousands of years, but because of your few casual words, you have destroyed everything."
"Wildfire cannot burn it all; the spring breeze brings it back to life."
"All I wanted was good fortune. But Karin... you're taking everyone's lives."
As if to prove her words—
Rumble! ...
A chilling aura, indescribable in words, suddenly descended upon the entire sky—no, the entire world!
Ao Bai's eyes widened: "Host! Be careful!"
Karin felt her strength plummet into a freezing hell in an instant!
Lian Zhuoluochuan and the other four exerted their strength simultaneously, soaring into the sky without hesitation, and fiercely blocking Huali's path.
Their combined strength formed an indestructible barrier, which collided violently with the beam of light shooting down from the sky!
At the same time, the traffic light next to Huali started flashing again.
The Brahma Tower and the Book of the Goddess of the Luo River have returned to their peak adult forms.
The mythical beast Dang Kang forms a triangle, firmly protecting the rosewood in the middle.
Boom!
The terrifying roar fell silent at that moment!
The barrier trembled violently! The light flickered wildly!
Without the slightest hesitation, Huali released a wood-type card, declaring, "The origin of all things, life!"
The emerald-like radiance of the card transformed into five gentle green rays, which surged toward the five people in front of them.
*
Just as Huali and the others were working together to fight against the light that was falling from the sky, outside this battlefield, in every corner of the cultivation world, changes were happening at an accelerated pace.
In the mountains and forests, the once lush and verdant plants, which contained a faint spiritual energy, are losing their luster at a visible speed. Their leaves are curling and turning yellow, as if the last bit of life has been drained away.
The stream became murky and stagnant, and the exposed riverbed was no longer moist mud, but an endless stream of black smoke.
At the edge of the Cangming Sea and the Boundary Abyss, there was no longer any azure sea surface to be seen; everywhere was thick, ink-like black gas that constantly twisted and writhed.
People were suddenly horrified to discover that the spiritual energy flowing in the air had become thin and mixed, making it not only difficult to absorb, but also bringing with it a disturbing and anxious feeling.
Everything begins to wither, and spirituality begins to decline.
Tang Wanwan and Mo Ziyan stood behind Tang Yu, watching all of this with utter shock in their eyes.
Geluo Tan, who had rushed all the way from the astrological observatory, took a deep breath and said in a solemn voice, "Rongxing, immediately follow me to calculate and find the most severely affected areas where the black energy is proliferating."
Wu Jin stood under the tree of cause and effect, looking at all his clansmen.
When the grass and trees wither, only the Tree of Cause and Effect remains lush and green. This is not because the heavens have taken pity on it, but because all the people of the Wu Clan have desperately protected it with their primal power.
Guanlan, Yuling, Shaosiming, Fengyi, Bingyue, Fenyu, Wuyu... all living beings, regardless of their cultivation level or where they were, felt a sudden tightness in their hearts at this moment.
The black gas that kept seeping out from the cracks expanded relentlessly!
The whole world seemed to have touched some kind of taboo, and its countdown to collapse was prematurely triggered.
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