Chapter 100 Chapter 100
A blinding red light suddenly shone from the eyes of the giant stone dragon statue. The hourglass, which served as a key, also appeared after completing its mission and floated quietly in the air.
Under the despairing gazes of the crowd, the statue's tremors gradually grew from mild to intense, the being sealed within finally awakening. With another violent tremor, the statue's outer shell completely shattered, revealing the dragon's true form.
It was a massive, pure black dragon. Its once brilliant golden eyes, after a brief moment of clarity, were replaced by a chaotic crimson. It opened its mouth and roared. Under the powerful sound waves, the already severely injured psychics fell to the ground one after another, blood gushing from their mouths.
The supposedly fragile puppeteer stood there perfectly still. Under his control, the hourglass unleashed a massive surge of energy, forcibly shattering the seal on the stone pillar. Freed from the restraints of the seal, the dragon swung its body lightly, and the six thick chains were torn apart by the immense force, plunging into the pool.
"It's over." Even a fool could see from the scene before them that the situation was headed in a direction of no return. Dragon Lord was inherently powerful; no matter which side he landed on, he would be a formidable foe.
"Phoenix...Phoenix—Phoenix!" The dragon, its irrational crimson eyes wide open, kept muttering the Phoenix's name. It hadn't spoken in a long time, and its voice was horribly hoarse.
It repeated the name of the Phoenix over and over again. Each time it repeated it, its voice became louder and louder, and finally turned into a roar, as if it was filled with endless hatred for the owner of the name.
"Phoenix, it's time to settle the grudge between you and me!"
After regaining its freedom, the inky dragon circled above the Dragon Locking Pond, then soared into the sky with a dragon roar, and left without caring about the lives of the allies who were diligently working to break the seal below.
Watching the psychics recover and resume their offensive stances, the puppeteer suddenly doubted his move. But when he saw the hourglass functioning normally, he felt reassured. No one could escape that person's control, not even Dragon Lord.
However, he had truly underestimated the bond between them. Whether it was love or hate, after breaking free from the seal, he was actually determined to find Phoenix for a duel to the death. Dragon Lord's unconventional move abruptly interrupted his subsequent plans.
After the dragon left, the space began to shake violently without any warning. It was like a dying person who was holding on for a breath and finally got relief after completing his mission.
"Captain, the cave is about to collapse."
Now that the seal is gone, there is no need to defend this place any longer.
"Everyone listen up, evacuate within one minute."
"Want to leave? How can it be so easy?" A huge puppet suddenly appeared, blocking everyone's way. The puppeteer clapped his hands behind him, paying no attention to the falling rocks around him.
He looked at the hourglass in his hand and suddenly revealed a cruel smile. "What a great opportunity! You will be the opening act of this blood sacrifice. It will be your honor to sacrifice your lives for our God."
In order to quickly unlock the seal of the gate, in addition to relying on the power of the artifact, there is also the most troublesome and worst option, which is blood sacrifice - by killing the creatures of this world to extract the purest soul energy, and using the same energy to completely dissolve the seal.
The puppeteer felt it was a pity. He didn't want to waste these soul energies. After all, after they assimilated the core of this world, these energies could be used to give birth to new members of the tribe.
But on second thought, it doesn't seem to matter. It is their mission to offer everything they have to the Lord God, and these future tribesmen are just pledging allegiance to the Lord God in advance.
Thinking of this, the puppeteer no longer held back.
…
A giant dragon swam through the sky, its inky black body standing out against the purple night sky. Controlling clouds and rain was a dragon's innate ability, so after its appearance, the sky gradually filled with thick, dark clouds, so oppressive that it was almost breathtaking.
Amidst the lightning and thunder, the dragon, like a madman without any reason, clamored for the phoenix to appear, saying that he would settle the vengeance of the seal and continue the unfinished duel three thousand years ago. However, a long time passed and the phoenix did not appear.
The giant dragon seemed to have finally grown impatient, and laughed in anger: "Very good, Phoenix, don't you usually care about these creatures the most? If you don't come out, I will kill you. From now on, if you don't show up within an hour, I will kill every living creature in the city. Let's see if you can't sit still first or I kill them all first!"
The sudden appearance of a mythical dragon, clamoring for revenge against the phoenix, was so unexpected that everyone's first reaction wasn't to run away. Instead, they wondered: Could this be some government-sponsored Lunar New Year event? After all, with today's technology, it's easy to create a giant projection in the sky, and bringing a dragon out for a stroll during the Year of the Dragon makes perfect sense.
"But why call it Phoenix?"
"Auspicious sign of a dragon and a phoenix. Don't they usually appear in pairs?"
"That's true. The planning team is really attentive."
Just as people were still marveling at the magic of today's virtual projection technology, the dragon's speech about slaughtering the city reached everyone's ears with incredible clarity.
Someone finally couldn't help but start complaining, even making the same expression as a certain pink mole: "The planning team must have seen too many Mary Sue dramas in ancient idol dramas. Which goddess or demon king story is this based on? And if you don't show up, they'll massacre the city~ Ugh, I'm so sad..."
Before he could utter the last note, a thunderbolt struck precisely at the man's feet. The sudden change stunned him, and he looked up with the same expression as before, only to see those crimson eyes staring back at him.
The man looked up and collapsed on the ground in fear.
Why was there a lightning strike? The weather forecast clearly said it would be sunny today. Was that really just a false projection? The moment he met those eyes, he felt as if his entire soul was being shattered into pieces.
Another thunderclap struck, and with the word "outrageous" it abruptly split an entire building. At this point, people finally reacted, and screams of terror began to erupt from the crowd, struggling to flee in all directions.
The dragon listened calmly to the cries and screams below. It didn't care how many people escaped or died in the chaos. It only cared about the phoenix.
Why, why haven't you appeared yet? Do I have to do something more extreme before you will look at me?
Meanwhile, in the meeting room at the Ability Bureau headquarters, everyone's face was pale. The large screen before them showed the dragon's form and the conditions of the people below. Aside from the sound from the video, everyone was completely silent.
Zhu He sighed: "After all, we have come to this point."
"Ground rescue forces have arrived at the target location." The emotionless mechanical voice of the Nuwa system echoed, causing everyone to secretly breathe a sigh of relief. Their only hope now was to minimize casualties. They would rescue wherever the dragon went. As for engaging in combat with the Dragon Lord, at least for now, no one dared to think about it.
Initially, they held onto a glimmer of hope, thinking that since Dragon Lord was the strongest warrior three thousand years ago, what if he had a strong will and could remain sober? However, the image transmitted by Nuwa gave them a harsh slap in the face.
There are not so many what-ifs. All the miracles in this world come at a huge price.
When Dragon Lord was sealed, he was already infected with the symptoms of the Weirdness. Although the disease has long since disappeared, historical records still show its former ferocity. It can completely assimilate the infected body into a being that is indistinguishable from the Weirdness, and it will also subtly distort the infected person's mind.
No matter how much they hated the weirdness before infection, after the complete transformation, they would become its loyal supporters, even actively turning their weapons against their former comrades. Even more devastating, the weirdness even strengthened the infected to a certain extent. If they insisted on fighting, they would only be asking for trouble.
Moreover, emotionally speaking, Long Zun was a hero who once sacrificed his life to protect them. No matter what, they could not wield a knife against their benefactor without any grudges.
"A Martial God from three thousand years ago, can we really deal with him..."
"The phoenix he wanted died a long time ago, and after what he did, it's impossible to hide it from ordinary people. We can't even determine how many people have been affected. Even if we want to eliminate them, there will inevitably be some that slip through the net."
"The video about this incident has gone viral online. The information department has been trying to calm the situation, but it's still useless."
This can be said to be adding insult to injury. The powerful fighting force left by our ancestors has gone to the enemy's home, and the beautiful dream that dozens of generations have worked hard to weave has been shattered. If the Nuwa system has the function of detecting fear value, I am afraid that it would have been popular everywhere by now.
Zhu He quietly watched their discussion, then solemnly pulled a document from his storage bag. Someone with a sharp eye immediately recognized it and asked in surprise, "Isn't this the proposal that was rejected a while ago?"
The proposal advocates making the truth known to the general public.
The reason for opposition was simple: it was too risky and if one was not careful the entire civilization would be destroyed. Therefore, not many people dared to take the gamble at the time, and there were only a few votes in favor.
Zhu He nodded, then shook his head: "Yes and no. I improved the plan based on the original one." He glanced around and saw that everyone had different expressions.
"Entertainment." After a pause, he spoke again: "At this point, we have no choice but to save ourselves based on the worst-case scenario. The biggest problem plaguing us right now, besides Dragon Lord, is fear – the ordinary people's fear of the uncanny. Fear cannot be completely eliminated, so all we can do is mitigate it, and entertainment is the best way to do that."
"We can package people with special abilities. Today is an era of entertainment to death, but this also happens to give us a glimmer of hope. Whether it's a program or a live broadcast, our goal is to make the public have positive emotions towards our special abilities, let them know that we can protect them, and thus weaken their fear of the weird."
In fact, people are like this. At first, they will be frightened by terrifying appearances and rumors, but when they know that someone is protecting them and their own safety will not be affected, the fear of the enemy becomes insignificant.
"The specific implementation plan is in this document." Seeing that others were interested, Zhuge pushed the document to the center of the conference table, and soon the commissioners began to circulate it.
"Now that things have come to this, we can only give it a try. At least it won't get any worse." A commissioner smiled miserably.
"If I had known this would happen, I should have voted and implemented it sooner, so we wouldn't be in such a passive position now."
"It's not too late now. It's not completely irreversible yet." Zhu He said.
In the end, the proposal was passed unanimously and implemented immediately.
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