Chapter 1522: Debate

Debate

Chen Ling didn't expect that this section of the River Styx that Xiaoji attracted actually included Yao Qing's soul.

It made sense. These Special Envoys loved to control Demigod Remnant Souls to enhance their own Combat Power. Yao Qing, as a Demigod of the Path of the Arts from modern times, was naturally on their "special attention" list.

Not just Yao Qing. As Chen Ling's gaze swept over the surrounding section of the River Styx, he also saw several very familiar figures within it.

Apart from a few other Hall Masters of the Floating Life Painting, there were some ordinary members, and even people from those chambers of commerce in the Red Dust Domain, all swept up in the torrent... If he looked further into the distance, there were also figures from other Realms.

This tributary was undoubtedly a very new tributary of the River Styx.

Perhaps there were too many ghosts causing Chen Ling's eyes to blur, but in a trance, he saw a beautiful figure wearing a long yellow dress flash past in the rushing torrent of ghosts.

Chen Ling couldn't care about that much anymore. He directly poured his Spiritual Power madly into the Red Paper Umbrella, and a powerful attractive force enveloped the tributary of the River Styx!

A massive number of ghosts deviated from this tributary. Apart from those ghosts that had already been entangled by Xiaoji's chains, the other ghosts in the tributary were actually forcefully sucked away by Chen Ling, pouring billowing into the spinning Red Paper Umbrella!

Dividing a tributary of a tributary sounded like there wouldn't be many ghosts left, but in reality, Chen Ling was absorbing nearly ten thousand ghosts per second. The River Styx itself was simply too massive; even an extremely small branch possessed an incredibly terrifying quantity.

Moreover, although Xiaoji was using ghost-controlling arts, his target was only those Divine Path Wielders who could provide him with Combat Power buffs. Therefore, he was truly only pinning down nearly a hundred ghosts. Aside from those Divine Path Wielders "filtered" out by Xiaoji, everything else in this tributary poured into Chen Ling's Red Paper Umbrella.

"Damn it..."

Chen Ling felt his Spiritual Power being consumed at an extremely exaggerated rate.

Although there was no upper limit to the number of souls the Red Paper Umbrella could contain, this process continuously consumed Chen Ling's Spiritual Power. At this rate, it would drain him dry in at most a dozen seconds, or even completely shatter his spirit. In a lighter case, he would be comatose for a dozen days; in a severe case, he would suffer direct brain death like Doctor Han had before.

But to make matters worse, he couldn't close the Red Paper Umbrella. Once he did so, the power pinning down Xiaoji's nearly hundred ghosts would disappear, and Xiaoji's Combat Power would reach a terrifying level.

Bang——Bang——Bang!!

While Chen Ling crazily restricted the River Styx, the duel between Jiang Xiaohua and Xiaoji had also reached a white-hot stage.

A small half of Xiaoji's body had already been cursed into bloody water, and his other arm was also cut with bloody gashes by the fluttering bandages. Even though Embroidery Threads continuously blocked Jiang Xiaohua for him, the current Jiang Xiaohua was fighting completely with no regard for his life. Allowing the sharp Embroidery Threads to pierce his body, he didn't even bat an eye, only blindly attacking!

The vast majority of the ghosts Xiaoji controlled were dragged down by Chen Ling, and the Combat Power he could exert himself was extremely limited. Under this situation, he almost had no way to parry Jiang Xiaohua's suicidal attacks.

"Lunatics! You are a bunch of lunatics!!"

Looking at Jiang Xiaohua attacking madly before him and Chen Ling who was intercepting the River Styx with his own strength above, the incredibly miserable Xiaoji couldn't help but speak,

"You are rebelling against the Ghost Path! Destroying the balance of life and death! You will suffer karmic retribution!!"

Jiang Xiaohua didn't intend to answer him at all, only burying his head in mad attacks.

Only Chen Ling's voice sounded from above:

"Ghost Path?"

"Is the Ghost Path definitely correct?"

"No... You don't care about any balance of life and death at all. All you care about is this world of the dead."

"You simply don't care how many people die in the world of the living. Otherwise, you wouldn't have sent out Kongwang, nor would you attempt to make the Human Domains obliterate their respective Nine Monarchs to stop the descent of the Red Star!"

"You clearly know that once the Nine Monarchs die, the Human Domains will also cease to exist. At that time, the world of the living will be almost completely wiped out, while your world of the dead will just have the River Styx flow a bit more rapidly... You only want to preserve the Ghost Path beneath the Red Star, and you don't care at all how many people die outside..."

"Is this the 'balance of life and death' you pursue??"

Chen Ling's questioning wasn't just aimed at Xiaoji... His gaze was always fixed on the nothingness above his head.

What he truly wanted to converse with was the Ghost Path itself.

Xiaoji froze, and then said angrily:

"Death is originally the destiny that all living beings cannot break free from!"

"From the moment the oldest life was born until now, how many species have gone extinct under natural disasters and earthly calamities? Dinosaurs, mammoths, trilobites, archaeopteryxes... So many life species that once prospered have already vanished from the world of the living, why can't humanity be the next?"

"The Nine Monarchs die, humanity goes extinct, and this world will not be destroyed beneath the Red Star. Perhaps thousands or millions of years later, new life will be born again, and life and death will restore balance once more. The world will still be that world with order..."

"The only thing changing is merely the form of life."

The Red Paper Umbrella intercepting the River Styx trembled continuously. Chen Ling's Spiritual Power was already overdrawn.

His face gradually paled. He subconsciously raised his hand and grabbed the handle of the umbrella... Almost simultaneously, a terrifying aura at the Demigod Tier wafted out from his palm!!

Xiaoji's expression instantly changed drastically!!

Demigod aura? Why did a Demigod aura suddenly appear in this guy's hands?!

This Rank 7 skill, the Red Paper Umbrella, not only could contain souls, but it could also burn the souls inside, erupting with a lethal power equivalent to the sum of the strength of all internal souls...

Currently, there were already over a hundred thousand souls in Chen Ling's umbrella. If he burned them all into Annihilated Souls to serve as nourishment for the red umbrella, the power erupted would absolutely be at the Demigod Tier!

A strike of a Demigod was already enough to instantly kill Xiaoji who was an arrow at the end of its flight, and it was also enough to shake the Dao Foundation of the Ghost Path!

But...

Those familiar faces that had just swept past his eyes and flown into the red umbrella surfaced in Chen Ling's mind.

The Demigod aura only brewed in Chen Ling's hands for an instant before gradually disappearing as his palm released the umbrella handle... Chen Ling chose not to unleash this strike.

"The cycle of life and death, the succession of species, is indeed the eternal and unchanging law of the world."

"But this doesn't mean that we must surrender without a fight and accept death... Life always finds a way."

"Everyone has the opportunity to pursue life. They want to survive, this is instinct. But the difference between humans and other life forms is that some among them are willing to overcome their instincts for a nobler conviction."

"The boss of the breakfast shop, the servant boy in the Theater House, the young lady in the chamber of commerce, the rats in the sewers..."

"Humanity is great because of their existence."

"Your Ghost Path claims to be the rules and believes itself to be justice. Then why actively intervene in the world of the living, wanting to exterminate humanity ahead of time before life and death are determined? When you sent Kongwang to the surface, where were your rules then?"

"Humanity has not yet admitted defeat, and there are still too many people fighting for this. On what basis... do you pass a death sentence on humanity?!"