Chapter 427: Are You Playing Word Games? (22)

Grey City district.

Although the battle has ended, the entire district remains shrouded in a source‑less phantom light that penetrates all things.

A blinding white expanse, all life is rendered blind.

The city's residents are in extreme terror, yet they dare not move and can only stay put, waiting.

Beilu Dandi was naturally affected as well, so she failed to kill the two unlucky fools Bei Lu Te and Sa Wo Si.

Within a radius of a hundred kilometers, only two people retain the ability to act.

One is naturally the creator of the phantom light, Luosen.

The other is the annihilation goddess Fei Li Qi Si.

The two stand face‑to‑face on an unnamed street in Grey City, less than three meters apart.

"What, do you intend to break your oath?"

Fei Li Qi Si did not expect Luosen to say that, her face a mix of surprise and anger.

For a True God, a divine oath is the most binding pledge, and the higher the deity's rank, the stronger its restraint.

In her world, no god dares to violate a divine oath.

However, Luosen is a novice, and novices often act recklessly.

At the same time, she greatly underestimated her opponent, causing this incarnation to fall into a genuine dead end.

Thus, if the other breaks the oath, she has no way to counter.

On the other side, Luosen smiled and shook his head.

"No, Great One, I have no intention of breaking the oath."

"But if you had listened to my oath just now, you would notice that while I promised to grant you freedom, I never said I would do so immediately, right?"

Fei Li Qi Si understood instantly, feeling a surge of anger explode from her heart, her eyebrows snapping up.

"Are you playing word games with me?!"

Luosen shrugged: "An oath is, after all, a contract of words."

"Since it's a contract of words, every term must be precise."

"Thus, I'm not playing word games; I'm merely seeking legitimate benefit for myself within the bounds of the contract."

Fei Li Qi Si inhaled deeply, suppressing the fury within, her expression barely returning to indifference.

"You are right. Then, how will you be willing to grant me freedom immediately?"

That attitude caused a slight stir in Luosen's heart.

"It seems the annihilation goddess paid a huge price to send this incarnation into this world."

Because the price was great, she cherishes it even more.

At the same time, one can sense that after the massive expenditure of power, the opponent's willpower has been greatly weakened, making it hard to control emotions.

This gave Luosen a chance.

He glanced left and right, spotted a nearby inn, and pointed toward its second floor.

"Grey City streets are covered in filth; shall we go to a clean place to talk?"

The annihilation goddess also found the street filthy and nodded in agreement.

Soon, the two moved to a VIP room on the inn's third floor.

Although the décor was very modest, it was kept fairly clean and even had a tea lounge dedicated to conversations.

After settling into the sturdy fur‑upholstered chairs, Luosen retrieved fine wine and snacks from his time vault, poured each a cup, and said, "To be frank, I have already ignited the Divine Flame."

"I know."

The annihilation goddess pulled the fur covering the chair, trying to hide the exposed view of her body.

"Your ability exceeds my expectations; I thought you would need at least a year to ignite the Divine Flame."

In her world, souls with less than 21 rings of strength have ignited the Divine Flame early before, so it's not unheard of.

But those cases were due to receiving the spark from a True God, and she is certain that no one in this world can grant Luosen such a spark.

In other words, he ignited the Divine Flame through his own ability and, in a short time, mastered the Primordial Essence divine art.

Although these divine arts aren't particularly strong, their speed is astonishing.

This filled the annihilation goddess with deep apprehension, and her sense of a destined foe grew stronger.

Luosen vaguely sensed the shift in her emotions and continued, "My Divine Flame's intensity is low; I have tried to improve it, but the difficulty is extraordinarily high—raising its strength by one tier would require hundreds to thousands of years of refinement."

Practice has shown him that enhancing the Divine Flame is several orders of magnitude harder than refining Primordial Essence spells.

Even with Laifu's assistance, breaking through a tier in Divine Flame intensity would still take nearly a hundred years.

That duration cannot be shortened with Time Torrent spells, as time magic cannot affect Primordial Essence.

The annihilation goddess raised a faint eyebrow and said, "This is the time required; every god goes through it."

Seeing her skirt the issue, Luosen bluntly said, "I need knowledge about the Divine Flame, as much as possible."

The annihilation goddess shook her head decisively: "First, this incarnation contains no knowledge of the Divine Flame."

"Second, even if I knew, I would never tell you, even if I die!"

Her words were absolute, leaving no room for negotiation.

Luosen, half‑believing, half‑doubting, and not one to give up easily, immediately threatened.

"Great One, according to the oath, I will of course grant you freedom, but I can also delay its restoration and torment your soul and body during that time."

The annihilation goddess leaned back against the chair and said, "As long as I can ultimately live and gain freedom, I don't care about the process."

"Regardless, you cannot obtain any Divine Flame knowledge from me."

Since that's the case, Luosen must give it a proper try.

He thought of a move, unleashed his divine power, and cleanly stripped the covering from Fei Li Qi Si's body.

In an instant, a True God's body manifested in the air.

It was the mortal incarnation of the Supreme God of the Five Rings, its form honed over countless years, each detail astonishingly perfect.

The moment it appeared, Luosen felt the whole room seemed considerably brighter.

"What are you trying to do?" Feili Qisi's eyes flickered slightly.

She tried to resist, but in the recent fierce battle her power had been almost completely drained. And the newly ascended new god before her was backed by billions of followers, its power endless.

She knew clearly that in her current condition there was no room for any resistance.

Since she ascended to the Five Rings divine power, this was her first experience of such helplessness.

In her weakened state, her will was far less firm than normal, and her mind once again began to tremble uncontrollably.

Luosen said nothing; he used divine power to activate a force‑field spell, suspending Feili Qisi in the air and binding them tightly in a large‑character formation.

To prevent accidents, he covered himself with a layer that seemed extremely thin but was actually a dense defensive barrier composed of seventy layers of Sovereign Walls.

A barrier of this strength could directly withstand a strike formed from the full energy of a 100‑gram solar essence eruption, or remain unharmed standing a hundred meters from the core of a multi‑million‑ton fusion bomb.

He slowly stepped forward, his fingers drifting over the empty space above Feili Qisi's body, finally resting at a junction of the limbs:

"Great One, as the emperor of the mortal empire, I have conducted extensive research into tortures."

Feili Qisi took a deep breath and closed their eyes.

"Luosen, what you did to me today, I will repay you tenfold in the future."

Luosen was not the least bit flustered, for panic would be useless.

"Great One, we are destined enemies; perhaps you were still confused before, but now you certainly are not."

"Thus, your threats have no effect on me, because whatever I do, you will always find a way to eliminate me, won't you?"

"Exactly."

Feili Qisi calmly acknowledged this.

At the level of a True God, unless one has deliberately forged a deity of lies and conspiracies, many falsehoods become unnecessary.

An enemy is an enemy, an ally is an ally; one glance makes it clear.

After a while, Feili Qisi suddenly felt their body's orientation shift, and the sensation was extremely strange.

Opening their eyes, they realized they were back on a fur‑upholstered seat, Luosen hovering above them, harshly humiliating them.

She clenched her teeth in hatred, unable to retaliate, and could only sneer sarcastically.

"At a moment like this, you are still wrapped in a primordial essence barrier from head to toe—what a coward!"

Luosen was unfazed by the verbal provocation; he laughed heartily, "Great One, you are not wrong—I truly am a coward."

"But I must tell you, although I do have a primordial essence barrier, through certain techniques I can reflect everything the barrier contacts clearly onto my own body."

The technique is certainly difficult, but with Laifu handling it, the overall effect is roughly comparable to placing a thin, insensate umbrella over me.

Luosen had to admit, the feeling of subjugating an enemy is truly delightful.

Especially since this enemy is a Supreme True God, his sense of accomplishment grew even stronger.

Spurred by this feeling, he applied torture to the otherworldly Supreme True God with increasing ferocity.

Under normal circumstances, Feili Qisi would be completely indifferent.

But she was in a weakened state, her soul's defense thin; at first she could barely resist, yet gradually she could not endure.

It's unclear how long passed, but eventually she could no longer resist, her mental guard shattered.

In an instant, her entire soul was drowned by the torrent of tactile sensations.

"Ah~~~~"

Feili Qisi let out a mournful, harrowing scream.

Luosen chuckled, "Great One, give me the knowledge of divine fire, or your soul will never find peace; I will torment you again and again until your will collapses."

"You—you don't dare!"

"Hmm~~ Not denying the existence of divine fire knowledge indicates you actually know it, just won't tell me, right?"

"No, I don't know. Ah~~~ Wait for it, I will definitely take revenge!"

"You know, you can't hide it from me; your eyes betray you."

Normally Luosen could not see it, but now the situation was different; Feili Qisi's mind had already faltered.

"Speak quickly, or I will make your life worse than death!"

"No~~~ No~~~ you disgraceful demon~~~~ I will definitely revenge, definitely!"

Luosen chuckled coldly, burying his head in focused execution of the torture.

In no time, Feili Qisi completely collapsed.

"Each god's primordial essence is different; the knowledge I possess will not greatly enhance you."

"Better than nothing, speak quickly."

Feili Qisi said.

Luosen listened attentively, and after hearing, felt a slight disappointment.

"As expected, the boost is negligible—probably less than ten percent."

He could also sense that this time Feili Qisi was not lying; she most likely truly told him everything she knew.

But Luosen still felt a bit unwilling to accept it.

Thus he continued to apply fierce torture, making Feili Qisi's existence worse than death.

But at this point, no matter how he varied his methods, he could not extract any more knowledge.

Seeing that continued torture would kill the opponent alive, Luosen could only give up.

"I will keep my oath and set you free."

"But not now, because once you regain your power I cannot be sure to counter your surprise attack."

Feiliqisi was extremely weak; she replied in a soft voice: "I can swear a divine oath; this avatar of mine will absolutely not cause you trouble again."

That's actually a good idea.

Luosen chuckled: "Why don't you swear that your true form will never cause me trouble?"

"Keep dreaming, I'd rather die!"

Luosen was just testing; he immediately changed his tone.

"Then swear, but do it my way, so you can't find any loopholes in the oath."

He won't step into the same pit that Feiliqisi just stepped into.

(End of chapter)