Chapter 92: If Veder Is Right

"The spatial rift on the way here has already been closed, and even the spatial fluctuations have dissipated. You can't forcibly tear open space and return to Earth like last time," Veder added with a smile.

Yang Yi's figure, which had been turning back the way she came, froze. She stared heavily at Veder.

Seeming pleased by Yang Yi's expression, Veder savored it. "Look, your expression is really cute," he said, almost tenderly.

He spread his arms, like an enthusiastic host on a stage, introducing to Yang Yi, his sole audience, the program he had carefully prepared:

"Behold, this dead-silent world! This silent world! This world abandoned by the gods! Once, it was as full of life as Earth. There were intelligent races here too—clever, wise, proud, with their own civilizations. So when they learned of the Lord's existence, they turned up their noses—and then,"

Veder waved his right hand elegantly, pointing at this desolate world. "This was their ending."

Yang Yi's hand trembled.

This planet was far larger than Earth. Her telekinesis had just now spread to its limit, yet she still hadn't covered a sixth of the planet's size. Wherever it reached, it was all dead land—desolate, silent, decayed, without a trace of life.

Occasionally she saw some ruins clearly left by intelligent races, but most had been erased by eternal time, reduced to rotten dust.

Veder had told her about the consequences some worlds suffered for defying the evil god, but this was the first time she had truly witnessed a world casually destroyed by the evil god.

If Earth disobeyed… would it…

Yang Yi quickly waved the thought away. If all ordinary people on Earth had to be sacrificed to the evil god, leaving only the Awakened to preserve humanity's continued reproduction… then out of the global 7.6 billion population, probably only a fraction would remain… no, this was too horrifying…

"I have already seen many worlds like this…" Veder sighed, infinitely sorrowful: "Under the leadership of the Lord's most faithful follower—Lord Agos, I have seen too many such dead-silent worlds—and even where my true body is now, is one of them…"

Veder gazed at her, his eyes calm yet disappointed: "A very simple calculation: pay a portion of the price to survive, or perish outright. Even a child could solve this, yet you gave the wrong answer."

He shook his head: "This all stems from your self-righteousness. You are bound by human ethics and morality, clinging to useless moral standards. You think my actions are too cruel, and you are arrogant enough to believe that human civilization and wisdom can solve every crisis.

"But on the scale of the entire universe's dimensions, Earth is as tiny as a speck of dust. Human civilization is not great either. There are countless intelligent races in the universe—some stronger than humans, some wiser, some billions of years more advanced…

"But they were all annihilated. The essence of the universe is the strong preying on the weak, is annihilation! In the laws of the universe, there is no order, no morality, no conscience. Your persistence is meaningless.

"Faced with a power beyond human comprehension, humanity's only chance of survival is to submit, to compromise—even to be servants, slaves, penned cattle and sheep, to let Earth become a rancher's pasture. As long as we can survive, what of it? Before true annihilation, what is civilization? What is pride?

"Perhaps you pity those ordinary people, pity their plight, and find it hard to choose because of their suffering. But right now you still have a chance to choose. If you anger the Lord, and He decides to destroy this pasture, what meaning does your kindness have then? What meaning does the suffering of those ordinary people have? We will be met with a void! An eternal void!

"At the moment of humanity's overall survival or destruction, only absolute rationality and the decisiveness to cut off a limb can preserve the spark of human civilization."

After saying all this, Veder seemed tired as well. He gave Yang Yi one last deep look, his face filled with the sorrow of being misunderstood.

"I hope this world can give you some enlightenment. It would be wonderful if you repented to the Lord… If you remain obstinately deluded, then we…" His words were left unfinished, but both Yang Yi and he knew what was left unsaid.

His projection gradually turned transparent; he was about to leave.

"Tell me, where is the altar!" Yang Yi shouted, her voice hoarse.

Veder smiled faintly. "What are ninety thousand lives? Not even enough for the great Lord to glance our way. The true sacrificial offering to the Lord is an entire nation! In the future there will be more… These ninety thousand lives are merely the power source to activate the altar…"

His figure vanished completely.

Veder's parting words made Yang Yi's heart pound, and a bad premonition rose in her mind.

Ninety thousand lives… the power source to activate the altar… the sacrificial offering to the Lord—an entire nation…

He actually wants to sacrifice an entire nation! The giant pit appeared in Britain—is it the nation of Britain?

What on earth is happening outside?

Yang Yi stared blankly at the two blood moons in the sky. Where on earth was this?

The atmosphere here was absolutely unsuitable for human survival. The air might even contain substances harmful to humans, and the surface gravity was several times that of Earth. Was this some planet in the universe? How far was it from Earth?

If she couldn't find a way back, if Veder didn't open a spatial rift to Earth for her, would she be stuck here forever?

Living alone, forever, in solitude, on a dead-silent planet?

She thought it over carefully and found that for her, this was hardly a punishment. She liked being alone far too much. It was right—she would rather stay with senseless animals than with people.

It giggled: "Aren't you longing to get away from people? This place is really a good spot for you, isn't it?"

No, no, no! If she really couldn't return… an entire nation as a sacrificial offering…

"But what does that have to do with you? Are you responsible for them? Haven't you already done your best? You worked hard, used your powers wholeheartedly to help them—isn't that enough? And have you forgotten? On countless dark nights, you secretly wished the world would be destroyed, wished the whole world would be buried with you! You hate humanity! You loathe them! Hehe…"

Yes, I loathe them… but at the same time I love them. I loathe their ugliness, and I love their beauty…

What was the population of Britain again? Sixty-seven million people…

Right, her colleagues were still waiting for her beside the Wembley Giant Pit, Chris was still waiting for her!

But, what if Veder was right?