Chapter 1185

The sound echoed in the hollow hall.

As Ariel's words fell, everyone in the hall fell into silence.

This included Lin An.

For the Heaven Eye people, each time they saw that sun, they felt as if facing despair.

How could such insignificant beings resist such an existence?

While Lin An slightly loosened his grip on Cain's Blade, watching the Fifth Stage Mutant writhe wildly in the image, he felt as if he had crossed endless void, like an ant standing before it.

The planet burned, extreme light and heat occupying it together.

He heard boundless roars and saw the entire star system trembling.

A monster as huge as a planet, a near-immortal top-tier lifeform.

What is it?

Is it an embodiment of the rules?

In the silence, Lin An could no longer gauge the opponent's strength, even though he had once experienced Fifth Stage power—but it was only an experience, a motion made without thought, within a conglomerate of ten million thoughts.

Is this the power of the Fifth Stage?

Does it command the rule of devouring—devouring all energy, devouring all life?

In his slight daze, Lin An also felt a glimmer of enlightenment.

He had underestimated the Fifth Stage, or rather, he had not realized what such a rank truly meant.

No wonder..

No wonder the Corpse Emperor that day was so easily crushed...

If it truly was a Fifth Stage acting, tearing apart a planet would not be difficult.

Is this the power of truly mastering the rules? Worthy of being called a true deity?

Suppressing the complex emotions in his heart, Lin An did not forget his original intent. After a moment of silence, he spoke softly:

"So, you've stayed here all this time? Is it because the system restricts you from leaving this star system, or because you lack the ability?"

"If it's the former, what are you doing here?"

"What about the Heaven Eye people on the ground? And what is the true meaning of the Apocalypse?"

As Lin An's successive questions rang out again, Ariel slowly nodded and withdrew the projection.

"It's the system's restriction... Your Excellency, the Perfect One..."

"Of course, even if we left, we wouldn't fare much better."

"The nearest star system is 1.2 light-years away; even if we left, we would die en route. Although we have mastered controllable nuclear fusion and efficient solar sails, our energy is still insufficient."

"Unless we enter hibernation, retaining only a few hundred Chijiang people..."

"But... how is that different from the extinction of civilization?"

Ariel seemed to have aged ten years, helplessly bowing his head. Not knowing whether it was because Lin An had already heard their story and thus refrained from acting, several older Heaven Eye members on the committee hesitated, carrying something over, apparently wanting to bandage Ariel's wound.

Seeing this, Lin An had no intention to stop them.

But at this moment, Ariel merely waved a hand, revealing a bitter smile:

"Sir, I won't waste words on the rest; I know you want to know quickly."

"Thank you for your patience, you..."

"You are a good 'person'."

"I'll answer the questions one by one."

"First, what are we doing here?"

"Under the system's restriction, we cannot leave here. The planet beneath our feet was originally uninhabitable; merely through the system's ability, we slightly altered some ecology, turning it into an apocalypse battlefield, specially prepared for civilizations like yours to enter."

"And our original insect beasts were thrown onto this planet as trial targets."

"Thus, there are originally no Chijiang people on this planet. Our task is to clean the battlefield, removing the corpses of previous civilizations to avoid contaminating the next trial. As you know, some civilizations always bring in all sorts of junk..."

"Once, a civilization similar to elves even brought in a bunch of parasitic plants, nearly wiping out the insect beasts..."

"Of course, that seemed to be their desperate trump card; after using it, they too became fertilizer for the plants."

"To clean up that garbage, we had to mobilize a central mother ship and burn the entire planet once."

"Come to think of it, before that, this planet actually had flowers..."

Hearing this, Lin An raised his eyebrows.

"No Heaven Eye people on the ground? The system didn't require them to place their own people down? First, ruling out the two being different species, Lin An clearly felt that the Heaven Eye people on the ground and those before him were absolutely no different!"

As for using the central mother ship to burn the planet...

This actually reminded him of something a Heaven Eye person had once said to him.

("We once could control deities..")

The information matches.

"The ignorant Heaven Eye people on the ground likely regarded the mother ship as a god and saw the cleaning of garbage as the deity's wrath."

"So, the Chijiang people on the ground are your own arrangement?"

"What do you intend to do? Let incoming alien species actively devour your people, provoking stronger insect swarms? Do you want each civilization to leave more corpses on this battlefield?"

"Do you hope to regain power through the corpses of various civilizations?"

In doubt, Lin An quickly combined the information and thought of this possibility.

If that were the case, the logic would hold.

He had only misjudged one thing—that the survival trial wasn't that difficult; it was entirely the Heaven Eye people meddling. He could even imagine how the Heaven Eye people thought.

In the insect beasts' genes, although the gene that prevents them from attacking Heaven Eye people has gone out of control.

But it is obvious that deep in their genes there must still be information for attacking mutants.

The Awakened Ones' act of eating Tianmu people is actually infinitely equivalent to being Mutants. So those bugs will become even more frenzied! They will obey the commands deep in their genes, continuously attacking the Awakened Ones.

Even, Lin An suspects that inside this planet, there is still a preserved insect beast manufacturing machine.

Is it to sacrifice one's own clanspeople in exchange for a sliver of hope?

It seems that, within the system's restrictions on the Qi Xiang people, there should also be another restriction.

That is, they are not allowed to actively attack the various civilizations that enter the battlefield.

At least in the Apocalypse battlefield, this is the case.

Otherwise, even those of the Fourth Stage would face danger upon entering.

As expected, Ariel gave Lin An a somewhat surprised glance, evidently not expecting Lin An's thoughts to be so quick, instantly guessing their purpose.

But this is also normal. Perfect Ones should be like this.

「Perfect Ones, your guess is correct. 」

「Just, there is one difference.. 」