Chapter 294: Green Light, Yellow Light, Blue Men

The basement of Wayne Manor looked old and dim, making the conversation between Shi Ler, Batman, and Sinestro feel more like a medieval interrogation.

Although Sinestro had no idea why the yellow light's energy no longer obeyed him but answered to the black-suited stranger before him, nor why he couldn't summon the yellow lantern's power, he knew one thing: without the ring's energy, he had nowhere to run.

"Can you tell us about your origins? Or how exactly you became the leader of the Yellow Lantern Corps?"

Sinestro narrowed his eyes; he hadn't expected Shi Ler's first question to be this. He said: "It seems you already know something about the Lantern Corps, but as far as I know, the Corps has made no real progress in the sector containing Earth—there's only one Green Lantern on the entire planet…"

"Correct. But what we know is likely more than you imagine."

"For example?"

"You'd better answer my question first."

"If you won't tell me what you know, then what exactly do you want me to say?"

"Don't change the subject. I know what you're thinking. Don't try to fool us with the same lies you tell backwater planet natives. Don't bring up that 'Lanterns Above All' nonsense. I only want to know: how did the greatest Green Lantern become a Yellow Lantern?"

"Looks like you know quite a bit." Sinestro took a breath; he seemed uninterested in hiding it. "Because I uncovered the dirty conspiracy behind the Green Lantern Corps—or behind all the Lantern Corps."

"Oh?" Shi Ler leaned forward, clearly intrigued. "What was it?"

"You know the origin of the Lantern Corps, right?" Sinestro sighed, then proceeded to tell the story of the lanterns and the Corps himself.

It all begins with the oldest and most advanced civilization in the universe—now known as the Guardians of the Universe, though most comic readers prefer calling them "the Blue Men."

An ancient, advanced race, when their civilization reached its peak, they conceived the idea of guarding the universe. So they harnessed the emotional spectrum to forge the Power Rings and established the Lantern Corps.

"When I first joined the Green Lantern Corps, I believed the Guardians' will was supreme—that they were a race of great wisdom and noble character, devoted to protecting the universe."

"But one day, I was chosen by another great being. In the depths of my mind, I heard her voice. She told me another story…"

"Those who call themselves Guardians of the Universe are merely selfish, arrogant aliens. They've never protected this universe—not once."

As Sinestro spoke these words, Shi Ler touched his temple, locked eyes with him, and asked: "You mean someone told you the truth? Who was it?"

"I don't know. But he showed me proof. At the time, I was the strongest Green Lantern, so I had access to the Corps' central power source. There, I found it—the Parallax."

"That voice told me the Guardians had embedded Parallax into the Green Lanterns' central power source, making it the Green Lanterns' weakness—just so they could better control the Corps."

"Green Lanterns have always been their tools to control the universe. All that talk about justice and peace? Pure lies."

"So you betrayed the Green Lantern Corps?"

Sinestro sighed. "After I discovered this, I hadn't decided what to do. I knew the one who told me this was also trying to use me for his own ends—he might be no better than the Guardians."

"But my investigation into the central power source was discovered. The Guardians grew suspicious. I couldn't stay in the Corps any longer, so I seized an opportunity, released Parallax, and left with it."

"Did that voice contact you again after that?"

Sinestro shook his head. "I suspect this person may have a grudge against the Guardians, but I can't be sure. The Guardians' civilization is highly advanced, their life form elevated—someone capable of opposing them wouldn't need to use me…"

"Perhaps that person simply couldn't act yet…"

As Sinestro spoke, Shi Ler already had a guess. The Guardians' greatest enemy was the "First Lantern."

Their feud still traces back to the origin of the Blue Men.

The race was indeed advanced—but perhaps too advanced. Their logic and behavior were incomprehensible to carbon-based life, even to any intelligent species.

If one had to summarize their comic portrayal, it would be: their schemes always fail, their thinking is chaotic, their decisions are wrong, and their outcomes are disastrous.

These blue-skinned aliens are the universe's chaos agents. They always make catastrophic mistakes at the worst times and places, then leave other beings to clean up their messes—in short: they cause trouble, they mess up, they run away, they blame others.

The key point is their blame-shifting—it runs through their entire history.

When the Blue Men first conceived the idea of guarding the universe—meaning they first conceived of causing trouble—the First Lantern, from another universe, came here seeking emotional spectrum energy to save his destroyed homeworld. They met, struck a deal, and began studying the emotional spectrum.

At first, things went smoothly. But as the research progressed, the Blue Men realized the emotional spectrum's power was too great.

So what did they do?

They decided to eliminate their own emotions.

To carbon-based logic, this makes no causal sense. But this so-called advanced race thought it, and did it.

Then, during experiments, the Blue Men discovered that when the emotional spectrum's power was applied to the First Lantern, he became too powerful.

So they thought: let's eliminate the First Lantern too.

But the First Lantern was already too strong. The Blue Men could only imprison him.

From their feud with the First Lantern, it's clear their reputation is entirely deserved.

Discovering the emotional spectrum was immensely powerful, they blamed their own emotions and decided to eliminate them. Finding the First Lantern too powerful, they blamed him and decided to eliminate him.

But if they were truly ruthless enough to carry it out, that would be one thing. Instead, their internal decisions were a mess: some wanted to destroy emotion, others didn't; some wanted to harness the spectrum, others feared its danger.

In the end, they devised a compromise: they created the Green Lantern Corps, then stuffed an ancient creature of fear—the Parallax—into the central lantern, making fear the Green Lanterns' weakness. Then they painted their entire home yellow, believing this would prevent Green Lanterns from attacking them.

To humans, this way of thinking is simply incomprehensible.

According to Sinestro, it must have been the First Lantern who contacted him, revealed the Blue Men's secrets, instructed him to examine the Green Lanterns' central power source, released Parallax, and founded the Yellow Lantern Corps. But this still doesn't explain why all of this happened earlier than it should have.

The only change is that Shi Ler remembered the original story had no scene where the First Lantern contacted Sinestro. So what was the First Lantern doing? Was he about to break free? Or had he already broken free? If the latter, that was dangerous.

The First Lantern was an immensely powerful being—once nearly restarted the universe. When he contacted Sinestro, it meant he intended to act.

Shi Ler's thoughts stretched far. Recent events had exceeded his expectations: first, he'd believed the Joker could never emerge in this universe, yet deep within Bruce's dreams, he'd uncovered an unhatched Joker egg—this was abnormal.

Second, the First Lantern had acted early, forging the Yellow Lantern Corps—this might mean his conflict with the Guardians would erupt sooner than expected.

Could these two anomalies be connected?

Shi Ler thought deeply, but he didn't tell Batman. Otherwise, Batman wouldn't sleep for a year.

Batman, still barely out of the Xinshoucun, lacked the capacity to handle cosmic-scale events. Yet these escalating changes could bring crises beyond his endurance, potentially dragging the entire universe into danger.

To prevent this, a plan began forming in Shi Ler's mind.

After emerging from Wayne Manor's basement, Shi Ler said to Batman: "You'd better find a secure way to lock this guy up—he might be useful later."

"Also…" Shi Ler pulled a keychain from his coat pocket. Alongside a cluster of keys hung a string of rings.

He opened the keychain, removed the rings, and handed them to Batman. "These are Power Rings I previously attracted. Their energy has all entered the dream realm, so the physical rings can no longer return to the Corps. Try to uncover their secrets."

Demon Warrior God

Batman stared at the pile of rings with his usual skepticism. The conversation with Sinestro had made him aware of the vastness and danger beyond Earth's universe.

"Are you feeling nervous? Planning to intensify your training? Actually, I have a better method…"

Batman turned to Shi Ler, but Shi Ler didn't continue—he turned his head away.

"Batman…" Shi Ler's voice dropped low, just as it had the first time they met in the alley. He said:

"... ave a good dream."