Chapter 712: vs 29999

Amidst the grinding sound of the guillotine sliding down its track, thirty thousand gleaming blades descended in sequence from valley to peak, each one slicing toward the Goddess of Wealth's neck.

The blade at the very bottom of the valley had merely severed her hair, leaving only a faint indentation on her skin, causing little to no damage.

The blades slightly higher barely pierced her skin before halting; but those mounted on the mountain's mid-slope had truly cut into flesh, drawn blood, and shattered bone!

Valley, foothills, mid-slope, ridge… the higher the guillotine's position, the deeper it sank into flesh and bone.

When the final guillotine at the mountain's peak descended, cleanly severing the "condemned" with wide-eyed terror in two, the remaining twenty-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine blades, as if spurred by some unseen force, all plunged downward in unison!

"Crack!"

……

"Rattle-rattle-rattle-rattle!"

Watching over twenty thousand severed heads—like crimson footballs—rolling down the slope with unblinking eyes, Leon, half-crouched near the peak, sucked in a sharp breath, feeling a chilling sensation along his exposed nape… or perhaps it wasn't just a feeling.

Stiffly turning his head, he saw the massive guillotine above his neck, teetering but ultimately not falling; despite his grievous injuries leaving him barely able to speak, Leon somehow mustered strength, trembling as he rose from the half-formed guillotine platform beneath him.

Fortunately… fortunately Emma's 【Bloodthirsty Execution Platform】 had a maximum capture limit of thirty thousand.

After using the 【Law of Collective Punishment】 to execute the Goddess of Wealth exactly thirty thousand times, the Bloodthirsty Execution Platform could no longer capture additional targets—otherwise, Leon feared he too would have been dragged up and beheaded.

"Don't… just stand there frozen…"

As Leon descended from the platform, trembling as he touched his neck, the lazy youth on the ground groaned weakly:

"I'm… I'm about to bleed out… you… you've got to save me…"

"Coming."

With one last glance at the valley littered with rolling heads, Leon grabbed the 【Infected Blood Band】 beside him, treated his lung and throat injuries, then stood despite lingering agony and staggered toward the lazy youth dangling upside-down from the emerald tree.

"That's so low!"

After Leon pulled him down from the emerald tree, the lazy youth, whose bones had been mostly drained away, grimaced and complained:

"A true god, and yet you shamelessly ambush me!

Damn it! If I hadn't anticipated a god's arrival and prepared accordingly—and if you hadn't absorbed my injuries and forcibly pulled me into this—I bet we'd have been finished before even striking!"

「……」

Though we were on the same side, logically speaking, when she ambushed you, weren't you also plotting to ambush her? In terms of morality, you're both equally despicable.

"It was indeed dangerous, but thankfully the outcome wasn't bad."

After offering a half-hearted agreement, Leon bandaged the lazy youth while murmuring with relief:

"The Goddess of Wealth has been slain by Emma—once she finishes processing the body, I'll find a way to resolve the lingering issues. Then we'll be…"

"It's not that simple."

Interrupting Leon, the slumped youth sighed heavily:

"She's a true god. My ritual was rushed, Emma has been imprisoned too long and isn't at her peak—we may have destroyed her physical form, but we're far from eliminating her completely!"

As if to prove the lazy youth's words, at the very moment he finished speaking, a piercing scream erupted from the emerald valley littered with heads… and gods.

"You… you're all going to die!"

As the blood net surrounding her was severed by the guillotines, the Goddess of Wealth regained mobility; not only did the rolling heads shriek hysterically, but the thirty thousand corpses lying beside the execution racks slowly, shakily rose to their feet!

"Lie down!"

As if anticipating this, Emma—her body riddled with emerald wounds, half her left arm turned to jade—pulled out a slender silver stiletto and plunged it into the heart of the nearest corpse, pinning her firmly to the ground.

Then, the bizarre stiletto split open; chains coiled around the hilt clattered downward, and the two half-moon guards at the tail detached and fell, becoming two small trays bound by chains, clinking against the blade—transforming into a strange set of scales.

Instantly, the corpse's chest caved inward, revealing a golden heart, pulsing violently and dripping blood, placed on the left tray, causing the right tray to lift high; a massive crocodile phantom slowly emerged from the valley's depths, greedily fixated on the golden heart.

"The Crocodile God waits beneath the Scale of Judgment; your heart rests upon the left."

Stepping firmly on the writhing corpse, Emma, pale-faced, pulled out a white goose feather with fine down and tossed it onto the right tray, then chanted in an arcane, obscure tone:

"The swan's feather falls upon the right, to weigh the weight of sin!"

"If your good deeds outweigh the feather, your heart shall be lighter than down—you shall ascend to heaven and know bliss."

"But if your sins are unforgivable, and your heart heavier than the feather, the Crocodile God's maw shall be your final rest!"

As Emma finished speaking, the swan's feather, drifting slowly toward the right tray, suddenly plummeted under invisible gravity, clanging into the tray and forcing the left tray upward sharply.

Yet as the feather "landed," the bloody heart on the left was activated—its crimson blood vanished, replaced by alternating streams of gold and black liquid, dripping steadily onto the tray.

Each time the light, translucent gold liquid flowed, the tray lifted slightly; when the thick, heavy black liquid gushed forth, the tray plunged downward.

After roughly a minute and a half, the Goddess of Wealth's heart had shriveled completely; the tray was now filled with murky black liquid streaked with faint gold, lifting the right tray—still holding the feather—high into the air.

"Sssss… gurgle-gurgle…"

Before Emma could pronounce judgment, the crocodile phantom at the valley's base lifted its head, emitting a low, guttural roar; the ground beneath the thirty thousand corpses transformed into murky mud, and one after another, crocodile phantoms emerged…

……

"GET OUT!!!"

As countless crocodile phantoms surfaced, ready to devour the "sinner's" body, the piled heads in the valley all jerked simultaneously, shaking off their thorny crowns, glaring at the gaping crocodile mouths and bellowing: "What are you? How dare you covet my flesh? Get out! Return to the Realm of the Dead! This is not your place!"

Having momentarily silenced the restless Crocodile God, the corpse pinned beneath Emma suddenly writhed again, gripping the stiletto piercing its chest, ignoring its bleeding palms, and using brute strength to pull upward.

Meanwhile, the countless heads in the valley turned in unison, glaring at pale-faced Emma from all directions, veins bulging, eyes filled with malice, roaring:

"I am a true god! A true god! And you are merely a mortal!"

"Listen well! No matter what I've done, you have no right to judge me!"

"Your only duty is to kneel before me, offer all your value—even your soul! Surrender everything to me!"

As the Goddess of Wealth struggled, the long blade piercing her chest was slowly, steadily pulled out; the countless crocodile phantoms hovering around the valley hesitated, their mouths closing timidly, retreating slightly—though not fully departing, they seemed ready to flee at any moment.

"We're done. We won't even be able to destroy her body now."

Watching Emma's jade-tinged hand, the lazy youth atop the peak sighed in despair:

"Emma's condition is worse than I thought. I assumed she could only fail to activate the 【Coffin of the Dead】 and couldn't kill the Goddess's soul—but I never imagined she couldn't even hold the 【Scale of the Heart】."

"Senior Tom!"

Seeing the situation in the emerald valley deteriorate rapidly, Leon cried out anxiously:

"Don't just stand there talking—think of a solution! Maybe another ritual, or…"

"How? With what?"

With a weak lift of his right hand, showing Leon his withered veins, the lazy youth snapped irritably:

"I've bled nearly dry just to trap her. Your pathetic bandages barely keep me from organ failure—there's not a drop of blood restored.

And mystical rituals are fundamentally about borrowing power—whether from the world, other gods, or past and future—they require something tangible to draw from.

But this place isn't our world—it's a fragment of the God of Agriculture's 【Elysium】, a special space. I can't borrow any power from our original world.

Worse, this place belongs to the Goddess of Wealth. Other gods' power can't enter without her permission—I couldn't even set up a ritual to borrow anything! Frankly, we should take advantage of Emma still holding out and…" — "Wait… what are you doing?"

Watching Leon pull out bottle after bottle from the Mirror World and chug them down furiously, the lazy youth blinked in utter bewilderment:

"What the hell are you doing? Why are you drinking now instead of running?"

"After I drink… gurgle-gurgle… maybe… gurgle-gurgle… I can help!"

Seeing the stiletto nearly fully pulled from Emma's grasp, Leon ripped the bandages off Tom, fully healing his throat, then gulped down liquor as he staggered toward the valley's depths.

"Huh?"

Shocked by Leon's reckless charge, the helpless lazy youth on the ground wanted to leap up and beat himself for ever agreeing to help rescue anyone!

What the hell are you going down there for? Even if you'll become a god someday, you're only level three now—what the hell can you possibly do down there?!

……

"Leon?"

Seeing Leon climbing down the execution rack toward the valley floor, Emma gasped in alarm, wanting to shout for him to retreat while she still held out—to take Tom and escape, save whoever could.

But the Goddess of Wealth, with thirty thousand eyes, noticed this far sooner than Emma.

Seeing the culprit who had somehow activated the 【Emerald Dream】 and, with Emma's help, severed her own head, the Goddess of Wealth's fury ignited; she split part of her consciousness to control a severed head lodged on the guillotine frame, sneering:

"Since you came down, you won't leave! You—"

"Fuck you!"

Hearing the Goddess's words, Leon—having just finished a bottle of rum—took an extra half-step sideways, swung the half-inch-thick bottle, and smashed it directly onto the Goddess's forehead, silencing her mid-sentence.

"You—?!"

Unprepared for such an assault, the Goddess of Wealth, now covered in glass shards, flew into a rage; her body, locked in struggle with Emma, trembled slightly, allowing Emma to shove the stiletto deeper.

Simultaneously, the remaining twenty-nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine headless corpses rose, leaning on the guillotines that had severed their heads, then surged forward in waves toward the descending Leon.

"Don't come closer! Run!"

Seeing Leon in danger, Emma clenched her teeth, pouring all her strength into the hilt, trying to force the Goddess to withdraw her diverted power.

But the Goddess of Wealth, now truly enraged by the bottle to the head, refused to retract her power—even at the cost of letting the stiletto sink deeper into her own chest—instead directing her twenty thousand-plus headless selves to swarm toward Leon.

Shit! Too much aggro!

Facing the tidal wave of headless corpses, Leon—having drunk only seventeen or eighteen bottles, still far from activating 【Drunken Immortal】—felt his scalp tighten; he spun around, desperate to retreat and return once properly fueled.

But he was already halfway down the mountain; the only path back was completely blocked by a dense wall of headless corpses!

「……」

No choice but to fight!

A complete god is unbeatable, but this one—her power split into thirty thousand fragments, her soul pinned to the valley floor, her head severed—surely I can still put up a fight?

Pulling out the spiked club from Emma's office, Leon did not activate the 【Executioner Set】's abnormal abilities; instead, he swung it like a normal weapon, charging headlong into the horde of gods.

Then, faintly visible, the phantom of a goat-headed demon appeared behind Leon; glowing embers and thick, lung-burning smoke once again swirled around him.

"I declare this a war!"

(End of Chapter)