Chapter 95: Fragment

A vast desert, sand everywhere, the surface air warping in the scorching heat. Above, a single star burned extremely bright and huge, roasting this world like a furnace.

Deep in the desert, several figures strangely wore long black robes, covering them from head to toe, standing on sand hot enough to cook a person, as if feeling no heat from the blazing Xiong Xiong fire.

Before them stood a circular altar made of green-black stones, covered in intricate patterns; in the center of the altar lay a mass of energy, soaking into the patterns and emitting a blood-red hue.

Above the altar, a projection identical to the green-black altar below floated, slowly taking shape.

"Lord Argos," Vede suppressed his excitement and said to the person at the front of the group, "I wonder if the life source of these sixty-seven million humans will satisfy the Lord?"

Argos's hoarse voice was very cold: "This life source is merely a blade of grass in the Lord's countless pastures; what more do you expect?"

Disappointment flickered in Vede's eyes, but he quickly concealed it.

"I will continue to offer more life source to the Lord, hoping to receive a shred of His mercy..." he whispered.

Argos moved slightly, turning to glance at him. "If you do enough, the Lord will know. The Lord allows those lambs willing to submit to live in His pastures, continuing to breed and multiply. Earth will ultimately still belong to humanity, and very likely—it will be yours..."

Vede's body trembled, his voice shaking uncontrollably: "Yes, Lord Argos, I will do my utmost..."

"Enough," Argos waved his hand calmly, cutting off his loyalty. "Go to Earth and carry out the next plan; you are no longer needed here..."

Vede bowed, his figure slowly vanishing into the air...

After a while, Argos waved to summon a subordinate. "Go to the Land of the Blood Moon, extract the soul of that human, and investigate what truly happened that day; why did something call out the Lord's name!"

The subordinate's figure vanished. He murmured, "Vede said that person is the Lord's favorite... If this time we can escape, perhaps I will believe she truly has something special..."

The heat wave was oppressive; the planet's surface was almost entirely desert. A glance revealed monotone yellow everywhere, and staring too long caused visual fatigue.

The altar projection glowed with a blood-red hue; the outline lines had connected to the final small section, waiting only for full activation—to absorb the life of the entire British Isles.

"Are you looking for me?" a cold voice said.

A crack tore open the air out of nowhere, like a door suddenly appearing in the void. The target Argos had just sent a subordinate to deal with strolled out from within the door.

Yang Yi's figure suddenly appeared before him. Argos was startled. "Who exactly are you? How did you know the coordinates here..."

"Yang Yi" expression was cold, seemingly disdainful of saying much. He lightly waved a hand, freezing everything around them; a group of black-robed figures seemed solidified in the air, even their expressions of surprise held in place.

Yang Yi naturally saw this scene. Although she could not control her body, sharing the same vessel, His actions and deeds were almost synchronously transmitted into her consciousness.

Similarly using the mental power of this body, her own use of the "Absolute Domain" was a struggle, yet He wielded it effortlessly, without the slightest obstruction.

Yang Yi was somewhat shocked, yet deep down felt it was only natural.

Suddenly, a wisp of black smoke escaped like lightning from within Argos's black robe. The space nearby fluctuated, quickly tearing open a rift. That black smoke rushed toward the spatial rift recklessly.

"Yang Yi" sneered, reached out a hand, and the black smoke was sucked into His palm.

"You... who exactly are you?" This time, Argos no longer spoke Earth's language, but a form of communication similar to infrasound.

"Yang Yi" seemed too lazy to answer. His figure twisted, and the frozen black-robed figures quickly withered into dried husks. Several streams of strong life source flew from them, merging into Yang Yi's body.

Yang Yi felt the power within her body suddenly surge, like a reservoir long dried up suddenly meeting the rainy season, the water level rising at once.

The black smoke trembled violently, seeming both excited and thrilled, yet also filled with boundless fear; even the sound waves it emitted became unstable, producing a hissing, grating static:

"Lord! The Supreme Lord! I am your loyal follower Argos... I am searching for life source in the universe for you, preparing for your awakening...... No! No! You are not the Lord!"

"Yang Yi" seemed somewhat impatient. He clenched His palm, and life source continuously poured out from Argos.

Argos's black smoke-like body boiled and steamed incessantly, flashing with bursting Bai Guang inside, seemingly terrified to the extreme. Before his life source was completely drained, he suddenly screamed loudly, the sound piercingly harsh:

"You are a fragment of the Lord! You have even developed self-awareness..." Before he could finish speaking, the black smoke rapidly dissipated, and a thick stream of life source merged into Yang Yi's body.

Yang Yi felt that surge of abundant energy again, but at this moment she cared for nothing else; Argos's words had shocked her.

A fragment of the Lord? Developed self-awareness?

No wonder all the intelligent alien creatures she had encountered treated her as an evil god; no wonder He dared not let them speak the evil god's full name; no wonder He feared Yang Yi would release His true form and attract the evil god's gaze—so that was it! So that was it!

Yang Yi suddenly understood.

Any existence that has developed self-awareness and possesses a "self" is an independent individual, a distinct life form. This life has its own pursuits and its own thoughts; any attempt to destroy, reclaim, or merge this "self" is killing it.

Just like the other personality within her body; she tried every means to make it disappear, which was actually killing it, so it constantly hoped she would die quickly.

Then a fact made her soul tremble with excitement: she was a human! Not some damn evil god! The four thousand-plus people in Misty Town did not die because of her! The many people Vede sacrificed, the ninety thousand-plus spectators at Wembley Stadium, did not die because of her!

They were not sacrificing to her! She was not the mastermind behind it; she was not the culprit who killed so many people!

The descent of dark matter was not her will; the rampant aliens were not under her command; the calamity befalling all of humanity was certainly not her order.

This fact instantly dispelled the shadow that had weighed on her heart for so long. Through countless sleepless nights, whenever she thought of bearing the burden of so many lives, of possibly being the cause of these living people dying, she could not rest day or night, tossing and turning.

Wasn't her hard work secretly to atone for her sins? Wasn't her hunting aliens everywhere to ease her conscience?

She was never any kind of hero; she was not a fanatic believer in ideals, nor a practitioner of doctrines, and certainly not an evil god who viewed human lives as sacrificial offerings. She was just an ordinary—human!

But another question arose: why was this fragment of the evil god inside her body?