Chapter 26: The Mastermind Behind the Scenes

Suddenly, the scene flashed, and most of the planets vanished from sight, leaving a few that magnified before their eyes. These planets had been completely altered in the apocalypse; most species had perished, yet some intelligent life still survived.

These lucky ones survived only because they did two things right: first, they proactively converted to the seat of the God, offering loyalty and faith, even sacrificing the life source of their own kind to the God; second, they demonstrated their value and earned the God's special regard.

"What I must seize is this sliver of hope." The faintly trembling voice of Weide echoed beside their ears. "Our great Lord is about to awaken from slumber. He is hungry. He needs countless life sources to sate His hunger. Unfortunately, Earth is on His menu."

"The only thing we can do is emulate those lucky ones, convert to the Lord, offer Him sacrificial offerings, and gain His favor."

"This is the divine revelation I saw when I was on the brink of death. This is the evidence you wished to see."

Silence reigned everywhere. A wind, blowing from an unknown place, howled through the Black Forest, leaving behind a desolate sound of trembling branches.

"No! No! No! This isn't true! This must be an illusion you fabricated!" Hamid suddenly collapsed, "You are deceiving us!"

Weide glanced around. "Do you truly believe that?" Then, as if remembering something, he looked at Jane York, who had remained silent. "I recall you are a Class B psychic. You have been using your ability to observe me. You should be able to distinguish whether I am lying and whether these images are real."

Hamid, Daniel, Helen, Silva, and even Yang Yi all turned their gaze to the silent red-haired girl.

Yang Yi remembered her; she was a Canadian psychic, the one who exposed Weide's conspiracy to control security guards at the UN headquarters.

The red-haired girl immediately felt pressure like a mountain. Her lips trembled slightly: "... He is not lying. These... are all his true thoughts... I... can feel that these images suddenly appeared in his consciousness, without any editing or modification..."

Everyone around understood her meaning. "Suddenly appeared" perfectly verified the divine revelation Weide claimed to have received on the brink of death, and "without any editing or modification" meant these were not fantasies conjured by Weide himself.

"Comrades, the time for choice has arrived! Shall all of humanity march together toward extinction, or proactively convert to the seat of the God to leave humanity a sliver of hope? Shall we break with the old humanity for the future of the new humanity, or continue with hypocritical kindness to drive all of humanity into hell?"

Weide smiled at the crowd. Hamid struggled, Daniel raged, Helen hesitated, Silva looked utterly bewildered, and Jane covered her head, crouching on the ground and weeping.

He looked at Yang Yi.

If every awakened one had received the God's favor, there was no doubt that Yang Yi was the most favored child of the God. The moment she appeared, she possessed immense power. No one knew where her limit lay. To exaggerate slightly, she was currently the only superhuman on Earth.

He felt some trepidation toward Yang Yi, which was why he had not come in person. If he could bring Yang Yi over to his side, it would benefit the development of the Divine Punishment Organization and the future of the new humanity.

Since orchestrating the UN bombing, he had investigated Yang Yi in detail: a bleak childhood filled with humiliation, and as a flower-blooming young girl, she had nearly been sold by her own relatives. Given her life experiences, if she had grown into an antisocial serial killer, or a despairing case of learned helplessness, becoming a low-level thug or a prostitute, he would not have found it strange in the slightest.

As a psychiatrist, Weide had seen countless mentally ill patients and criminals twisted by childhood trauma. Yet she had managed to grow into a normal person with psychological issues, which was enough to command respect.

If before awakening she lived an ordinary life due to a lack of superpowers, then after awakening, having obtained rare power in the world, she had not retaliated against the world, had not used her superpowers to seek personal convenience, had not frantically seized power and money, had not played with human nature in an extreme manner, and had not shown the slightest arrogance. She lived an ordinary life as usual, only occasionally using her superpowers to roam alone in Shenshan, the deep sea, the sky, or desolate wilderness.

Weide, as a former psychiatrist, naturally analyzed his opponent's psychology seriously. He believed Yang Yi had a strong tendency to detach herself from the human world. She had not retaliated or seized power and money because she was uninterested in everything in the human world. Her attitude toward humanity was cold, stemming from her childhood trauma and her distrust of human nature.

But strangely, when the otherworld invaded and humanity was threatened, she actually stepped forward to save humanity, which almost contradicted his previous judgment.

However, if her inner superego occupied the dominant position, placing righteousness first, then saving the future of humanity would become her primary goal. This coincided with his own goal.

Thinking of this, Weide spoke earnestly to Yang Yi: "Yang Yi, if you are willing to become our comrade, I will hand over the position of leader of the Divine Punishment Organization to you. You are the one truly favored by the God. If you lead the new humanity to convert to the Lord, I believe the future of humanity may be more secure."

——————

The tornado dissipated, and the mist covered the entire small town once again. The fog was much thinner than before; visibility had expanded from 1 meter to 3 meters, but it still did not change the fact that the town remained unclear.

"Yang Yi has been inside for two hours and five minutes!" Feng Liancheng said to Director Zhou.

Director Zhou held a cigarette pack, fiddling with it constantly. He frowned deeply at the distant mist, sometimes pulling one out to smell it at his nose, sometimes putting it back into the pack.

"With her abilities, she only took over forty minutes to deal with the Fire Demon last time," Feng Liancheng added.

Director Zhou grew more anxious, pacing in circles on the spot.

"The mist covers an area of about 10 kilometers. It looks huge, but two hours are enough for Yang Yi to circle it thousands of times. If she hasn't come out for so long, something must have happened inside..." Wei Chang'an also said.

Director Zhou sighed deeply, his eyebrows furrowed into a deep frown.

"I am anxious too! Several Class B awakened ones went in before and didn't come out. If you go in, you are just throwing yourselves away!" Director Zhou crushed the cigarette pack in his hand until it was deformed. "If Yang Yi gets trapped in there too, I'm afraid no one can solve this mist. We would have to fire a nuclear missile into it..."

The gray-white mist still swirled and writhed, breathing like a living thing, emitting an ominous aura.

——————

"What you say makes a lot of sense! I am almost convinced by you!" Yang Yi said.

Daniel stared at Yang Yi in shock. Helen was also somewhat surprised. Silva turned the spear of anger toward her. Hamid, hearing Yang Yi's words, actually sighed in relief, as if putting down a heavy burden. Jane looked at Yang Yi with furrowed brows, her face showing confusion.

Weide felt a sense of relief and smiled joyfully.

"But I still have some questions. I wonder if you can answer them for me." Yang Yi's expression was emotionless, her tone flat, and her gaze very calm.

"Please ask." Weide gestured with great elegance.

"You previously said the Lord granted you the ability to project, but according to your description, this God has not yet accepted humanity's conversion. How could He grant you abilities?"

Yang Yi raised an eyebrow, a hint of mockery on the corner of her lips:

"Just as you said, this God is still asleep. The one who truly made the decision to invade and consume Earth was probably someone else. And these people behind the scenes are the ones who truly granted you abilities! They are the ones who helped open the interdimensional channel, and the ones who taught you the method of sacrifice! Or perhaps the scenes of planetary destruction were also input into your mind by these people behind the scenes? Furthermore, your idea of saving the world, which you thought was the result of careful thought, was more likely guided by these people behind the scenes..."

Weide's gentle smile gradually vanished.

Yang Yi shrugged: "Even if you hand over the position of leader of the so-called Divine Punishment Organization to me, do you expect me to obey these people? Then what difference does it make whether I sit in that position or not?"