Chapter 362

Effort can never match talent.

Though cruel, this is the truth.

So the Spirit codenamed "Nightmare," namely Kurumi Tokisaki, she who once held the title of the most vicious and evil Spirit...

Merely lost this honorable title within just a few short minutes.

Years of effort, painstakingly chasing performance, final kill count—none could compare to Ellen Mira Mathers' casual few strikes.

——Of course.

——This is actually perfectly understandable.

After all, Kurumi Tokisaki was merely small-scale, and she still consciously distinguished true sinners, choosing to strike only at genuine scum and trash.

Moreover, the frequency of entrapment law enforcement was not high, naturally limiting her performance growth.

After all, over so many years, she wasn't killing every day, spending each day in bloody slaughter.

Purpose is purpose, means are means—this still needs to be made clear.

By comparison, Ellen Mira Mathers' situation cannot be said to be completely different; it can only be described as worlds apart, and it was also the key reason her kill count grew massively in a short time...

No, it was the key to her massive growth!

Actually, strictly speaking, Ellen wasn't killing for the sake of killing; she simply displayed unprecedented decisiveness and ferocity when counterattacking in self-defense.

That was the essence that Tohka Yatogami, who initially pretended to be fierce, could never learn.

The greatest difference between the two lies in—

When Kurumi Tokisaki actively hunted, she was always bound by past concepts, subconsciously judging the moral status of her targets.

Whereas when Ellen counterattacked passively, she didn't care at all about the enemy's moral standards, nor their race, intelligence, gender, or even family ethics.

Whoever you are!

Whatever the situation!

In her eyes, there was only friend or foe—as long as you stood on my opposite side and became my enemy, then I would just ruthlessly strike hard!!

Probably that tempered combat instinct made this amnesiac newborn Spirit not at all confused when it came to fighting.

She simply acted on intuition, very purely.

Decisive, ferocious—facing crowds madly wanting to tear you apart, plunged into chaos and madness, retreat and weakness were absolutely not wise choices.

Only the most intuitive deterrence is the eternal truth.

She, whose life had become a blank sheet of paper, still understood this principle deeply.

So...

——————

——————

In an instant.

The already noisy and chaotic street seemed to be gripped ruthlessly by an invisible giant's hand, collapsing instantly into a complete hell on earth.

This Spirit's slender figure still stood in place, but countless Light Feathers floated around her.

They were like scattered stars, constantly connecting and intertwining.

Depicting countless dazzling and deadly Light Beam attacks.

The light beams casually pierced through the densely packed buildings on the ground, causing them to collapse in a flash, as if everything solid was as fragile as paper.

Trees fell, vehicles exploded, roads shattered—streets one after another, vast areas, as if trampled wantonly by an invisible Giant Beast.

Obviously—

Wood, steel, concrete—none could withstand this destructive power, so how could human flesh and blood possibly endure it?

However, this was not the most terrifying part.

The most deadly thing was that this place was too urbanized, with population density far too high.

Because of the wave opposing wizards, public sentiment surged during this period, growing like a Snowball Effect, with momentum becoming increasingly grand.

More and more people rushed over; by today, the number gathered had become a very large figure.

The dense crowds could fill street after street; looking from afar, one felt heads bobbing, densely packed, as if even the air was compressed to the point of suffocation.

Seeing such population density, anyone could imagine how satisfying a large-range AOE strike would be... cough cough, no, how bloody.

Every Light Beam was like the God of Death wielding a Sickle, mercilessly whipping up a bloody storm of slaughter!

In this hell on earth, wails, weeping, and cries for help intertwined.

In just one Second, one could rack up "Nightmare" several years' worth of performance data...

………………

"This is troublesome..."

Holding her forehead with a headache, Kurumi Tokisaki couldn't help but sigh.

She gazed at the tragic hellish scene outside the window; in just a few seconds, the situation changed in an Instant Change like flipping a book.

The crowd that had originally been aggressive, shouting about Witch Hunt, instantly turned to crying for parents and fleeing for their lives, triggering unprecedented chaos and a large-scale trampling incident.

The Air was filled with a pungent Blood Smell, mingling with the scorched smell of burnt flesh, nauseating.

Before the Distant crowd, even more terrifying things were unfolding with a Bombardment, like a Nightmare, chilling.

"Could it be that woman did it on purpose? Was the whole thing her Arrangement?" Honjou Kii saw this scene, instantly fell into a brainstorm, and directly started with a Conspiracy Theory Opening Move.

After all, regarding the First Spirit, though she wasn't as obsessed as Kurumi Tokisaki, she couldn't be said to have much goodwill either.

After all, she was also a victim, and she knew she and others were merely tools for the other side.

Given that both sides were obviously going to become Enemies—

She naturally didn't hold back in making the most malicious Speculate about that troublesome Enemy.

"This is to completely push the Spirits to the human side of opposition..."

"Let us become enemies of humanity completely?"

And at this moment.

Kurumi Tokisaki's Astral Dress swiftly appeared, a glamorous red-and-black gown exuding an elegant yet unrestrained aura.

She held one long and one short old-fashioned flintlock, took a deep breath:

"Who knows, the point is we must make a choice now."

She naturally understood how terrible the impact of such a nakedly public malicious incident would be.

Its consequences would not be limited to the parties involved, but would affect the entire Spirit Unit, which was only natural.

From this perspective, Mio Takamiya perhaps indeed had reason to do so.

The other side could directly kill spirits, and Kurumi Tokisaki did not think such a person would care about the spirits' overall reputation.

To achieve the goal, by any means...

Believing that woman would certainly be happy to cause trouble for herself and others, striking at her side's progress and plans.

——Under the influence of preconceptions, the girl indeed tended to think the problem lay with Mio Takamiya.

"Hao Le..."

Honoka Niya hesitated, finally nodding, her Astral Dress also beginning to appear, "I'll send them a signal, telling them to hurry over."

This new peer named Ailian seemed not easy to get along with.

Going to stop her at this time would easily also be seen as an enemy... that way, winning over the other side's strength would be out of the question.

But if nothing was done, just watching her go on a killing spree...

Things would probably only get more troublesome.

And just as the two were preparing to set out, a row of black dots appeared at the edge of the sky.

The spirit lady with countless Light Feathers floating around her, as if sensing something, raised her gaze toward it.

Toward the Spirit Unit...

No, now should be called "Wizards," the first Artificial Supernatural Beings to truly appear publicly before the world, appeared under everyone's eyes.

——————

——————

The impact of this matter was profound, and indeed extremely bad.

Just as Kurumi Tokisaki and the others thought, news spread like the wind, quickly sweeping the globe, several major powers stirred at the news, immediately raising the threat assessment level for spirits.

It would presumably also affect relevant contact strategies.

Zhiyou, this was more reflected on the level of national attitudes.

As for the level of ordinary citizens, it instead dealt a huge blow to the concept of "Wizards."

Probably on that land where conspiracy theories prevailed, many people had no confidence in the government's credibility at all, and moreover, the existence of spirits had previously been kept too classified.

Many people simply did not believe it at all.

Especially at this Critical Juncture, suddenly throwing out such news, however you looked at it, seemed like finding an excuse.

Most people even believed that the essence of this whole matter was simply a direct conflict between "Wizards" and ordinary people!

It was that those Artificial Supernatural Beings, seeing the wave of opposition growing larger, seeing they could not suppress the sharp voices, so chose to use iron-fisted means to violently slaughter and suppress the people.

Then afterward, they tried to push everything onto nonexistent spirits...

Who were they trying to fool!!

Basically it was like this, the whole incident had taken a rather Subtle direction.

Even the parties involved at the Scene that day, as long as they were not Evaporated on the spot, but managed to survive by luck...

They also followed the crowd, feeling it might indeed be so.

After all, those who could survive at the Scene were undoubtedly people positioned very far back, on the outskirts, naturally unable to truly understand what had happened.

Hearts were unsettled, the ship of trust was on the verge of capsizing.

A great rift on the social level also seemed about to arrive at any moment.

——However...

——A certain mysterious Existence, however, had not paid much attention to things on the Ground.

——Just like the Sun quietly hanging at the apex of the firmament, indifferent to the development and changes of all things in the world.

Mors However, behind this composure, a deep calculation was hidden.

Because the standards for Spiritual Energy Revival had to be formulated cautiously, and the relevant parameters had to be accurately and precisely assigned values.

Bijiao, this World as the first field for practice, its success or failure also concerned whether the corresponding experience could be promoted in other Worlds — the great undertaking of becoming Spiritual Energy Sources in multiple Worlds and opening chain stores depended on this point.

Therefore, Xia Zhi was more concerned about this aspect.

He released energy that he had specially Mana Refined, which could be directly used by Lifeforms, like a gentle stream nourishing this World, while exerting subtle and clever influences on Earth and the Moon.

It was an influence almost impossible to Perceive.

Because it occurred in the symbolic domain of Mystery.

This influence would make the planet's orbit and mutual restraint relationships more conform to the standard model in the calculation.

And after his careful layout, Earth and the Moon gradually formed a Celestial Body-level Xian Shen Dao Ti.

In this Reaction Furnace, the Moon would become a Mirror—

In the process of reflecting the energy Radiation from the Sun, constantly Mana Refining Pangea, transforming it into "Spiritual Energy."

Because Xia Zhi understood that he could not always be responsible for such things.

Every trial field needed an Avatar stationed there; such efficiency would be too low. Even though he was now incomparably powerful, he could not manifest as ten million, at least not while keeping each Avatar strong enough.

So in terms of Spiritual Energy Revival, achieving self-sufficiency and forming its own cycle was undoubtedly a hard Requirement.

He could only spare a tiny amount of strength during the initial activation to build an oil well platform dedicated to Mana Refining and conversion for that solidified vast sea of crude oil.

But the current situation does fit the classical definition of spiritual energy quite well.

The creation of heaven and earth.

The essence of the sun and moon.

The energy from the fire of the Sun, harmonized by moonlight, ultimately giving birth to the existence of spiritual energy—all of this seemed so reasonable.

Wah-la-la—

While pondering, a sudden illusory sound of pages turning rang out.

A volume that seemed mottled and yellowed by the ages appeared beside Xia Zhi's hand, sketching out a faint outline, turning pages automatically without cease.

"Hmm?"

The Golden Core Cultivator merely glanced and understood.

This was the Highest Permission of the Book of Ages being triggered, downloading Reversible Boundary Crossing Information from the Time Connection Plane Band...

This was a permission that this book would only be allowed to possess when he himself wielded it.

"Indeed, someone in the future has begun to doubt the Spiritual Energy Source and wants to trace the secret..."

"Tsk tsk..."

"But spiritual energy is mine, and the Book of Ages is mine; how could you not trigger the firewall?"

(Chapter End)