Chapter 640: The Hearts of Ten Million People

Given Wangliang's appearance, for it to call someone else a monster is truly an unprecedented event.

Compared to Wangliang, who was completely blurred into a mass, Dazai was at least still a person, with all five facial features present.

However, his facial features were not ordinary; they could not be described by any adjective, only that they were... changing.

This change was not becoming fat, old, or haggard—various states that might naturally appear on a person's face—but rather male turning to female, old to young, ugly to handsome, to the point where a high nose became a flat nose, single eyelids became double eyelids, thin lips became thick lips...

In short, it was the transformation from one face into another random, completely unrelated face.

If this change were completed in an instant, it would at most seem a bit novel, like the face-changing on a theatrical stage, and passersby might even applaud the stunt. But this change was a slow, constant process, like the flowing of asphalt; if you stared at that face, it was as if you were witnessing the shifting of seas into mulberry fields and valleys into hills. If you turned your head slightly, you would see a completely different face the moment you looked back.

Yet, staring directly at this flow without turning away was terrifying, eerie, and even disgusting, and the longer one looked, the more disgusting it felt. Even Wangliang, after a few glances, could not help but feel repulsed, saying: "What kind of thing are you? An old demon eating a young girl and recovering its youth?"

The black-robed figure smiled faintly: "I do not change by myself, but gather the bodies of ten million people into one, experiencing the hearts of the ten million at every moment. I am the ten million, and the ten million are me. How could a mindless, foolish creature understand this?"

His voice began as that of a middle-aged man, but it changed almost every moment, and by the end, it had become the voice of an old woman; every word seemed indistinguishable from the last, but by the end, it was entirely different.

Wangliang laughed in spite of itself, saying: "Judging by your tone, I thought you were the current Emperor of the Human World, needing to experience the hearts of the ten million. What is wrong with the world today? Everyone wants to mock me? That madman Destruction mocks me, and now you, a mortal ant, also mock me? Do you know what a Sword Immortal is?"

Dazai said in a voice that was weary yet gradually becoming clear: "I do not know what is immortal or mortal; I only know victory and defeat. The winner is the king, and the loser is the bandit!"

Wangliang's humanoid form had escaped, but its Shadow Trend did not stop its Broken Trend as the Sword Casting concluded; the Broken Trend of that broken stele was like wave after wave, reaching everywhere, and the shadow was like straw thrown into a propeller, shredded and flying everywhere, and those fragments were shattered again and dissipated while still in mid-air.

Rather than calling it shattering, it was more like withering. At the end of the shattering, there was a sense of despondency and despair, as if it could not be tolerated by the world and could only wither. But because the fragments were already too fine by then, the sorrow of shattering into nothingness and falling like dust could no longer be seen.

In the battle between the Trends, the broken stele was actually superior.

Not only that, the Broken Force still had the strength to suppress others; the Golden Destruction Sword Trend nearby spun around within the Broken Trend, using the inertia of its rotation to resist the tendency of internal and external shattering, yet even so, the shattering still scraped layer after layer of golden debris off it, flying about in the air like shaking glutinous rice balls—but rice balls get bigger as they are shaken, while its sword trend got smaller and smaller.

As for the Ruyi Sword, after the thousands of silver threads were pulverized, the sword trend suddenly retracted, pulling both the sword trend and the Sword Image back into Yinglang. Its true body was not here, so retreating was naturally easier. And although Yinglang was also affected, Yinglang was too vast, towering over the entire Wangliang Mountain, and that broken stele could not cover it all; there were naturally safe zones.

Seeing that the situation was bad, the Ruyi Sword slipped away, and Wangliang could not count on anything; it was in the center of the Broken Force, and although it maintained a calm and indifferent appearance, it was actually not that relaxed, and it was certainly not as easy as usual to crush this ant who was still outside the threshold of a Sword Immortal.

Its current top priority was to maintain a relaxed state.

Do not show weakness, or all the enemies would swarm it...

It did not need Destruction to remind it of this; it could not possibly not understand.

The second priority was to find a chance for victory from the sidelines.

So it used telepathy: "Destruction, stop watching the show. Come over and kill him."

The two sword deities had been entangled for many years and naturally had ways to communicate; Destruction soon replied: "I am overwhelmed myself; you are right in front of him, you don't kill him, and you tell me to?"

"You also know you are overwhelmed? I am here attracting attention, you go and kill him. If you don't kill him and seize that Mountain and River stele, this Broken Force will never end. We are entangled with this external sword trend, and he is taking advantage of our weakness to kill two birds with one stone. Never mind the result of our dispute, do you want to let this little thief benefit?"

"You have times when you need me too; very well, I don't like the look of this monster anyway. Wait... Mountain and River stele? Sounds like a great treasure of the Trend. Borrowing the Mountain and River Trend to form one's own, is he from the Imperial Court? We generally don't oppose the Human World's Imperial Court..."

"Damn the Imperial Court, he's just a remnant of the previous dynasty! I just remembered their roots; they were barely considered old acquaintances back then, and now they've turned hostile and come to the door. Look, hasn't its Mountain and River Trend already broken? I don't know how he reverse-cultivated the Trend, turning the Protecting Country and Peace Trend into the Broken Mountain and River Trend, specifically using their family's bad luck to bully others. But no matter how great his reliance is, his true body is only a mortal, and it is not hard to hurt; the flaw is in the center. You kill him, and I will slaughter his descendants; whatever grand cause of restoring the country, today I will make him end his line!"

At the same time, Dazai suddenly said: "Wangliang, although I have some misunderstandings with you, I am mainly here for Destruction today; I want to use it to do a great thing. If you send Destruction to me, I will not make things difficult for you, and I will even sign a friendly contract with you to help you rebuild Wangliang Mountain, and in the future, you will have a day to come out and start anew. How about we both withdraw?"

A single sentence made Destruction, who had just intended to reach a temporary agreement with Wangliang, stiffen.

It also made Wangliang stiffen.

A single sentence broke the stalemate.

This was an open scheme.

Regardless of whether Wangliang believed these words, Destruction probably dared not come over. If Wangliang believed it and did so, it might have a certain chance of safety, but it would have already lost a helper, and whether it could escape unscathed would depend entirely on whether the other party kept the promise. But if Wangliang did not believe it, and with Destruction not daring to intervene, the stalemate would be hard to resolve; the Broken Mountain and River Trend held the initiative, backed by the disaster of the turtle-bandit losing the country for a hundred years, its power endless, and Wangliang could not say it would win.

Sowing discord and stirring up trouble were the basic skills of a politician; Dazai had reached this position and originally did not need to rack his brains for intrigue every day, so his skills had degraded slightly, but he still retained some of his old abilities, enough to control these two non-humans who stayed behind closed doors.

Wangliang sent a telepathic message to Destruction: "Do not worry, you and I are now one, living and dying together; how could I sell you out..."

Then Dazai said: "You don't need to worry that you cannot be separated. Since I came for Destruction today, I naturally intend to take it away; I have a method to undo the entanglement between you and return your freedom. You just need to..."

This sentence had a miraculous effect!

Boom—

Destruction, which had been spinning like a top in place, erupted with intense light, turning into a fierce radiance that burned the sky and boiled the sea, pressing down on Dazai.

At the same time, a pair of crimson eyes seemed to open on Wangliang's blurred face, and regardless of its own shadow still crumbling in the Heavenly Maiden Scatters Flowers trend, it lunged over; with that movement, behind it were thousands of phantom images, each with endless killing intent.

For a moment, Dazai, who had been somewhat sitting securely on the fishing platform, was besieged by the two great sword deities, and the Broken Trend could not suppress the full explosion of the black and gold colors!

Dazai was momentarily stunned: What did I say wrong?

—

When the Broken Trend swept across the altar, the aftermath affected the innocent, and the net woven of silver threads below split into hundreds of pieces in an instant.

Everyone standing on it fell down almost at the same time.

It stood to reason that those who remained until now were not weak, and after falling, they would have had a chance to adjust and use Sword Art to fly away, but the moment that broken aftermath swept by, everyone felt a shock as if they were about to be smashed to pieces, all dizzy, and immediately some fell into the black fluid like a swamp. Some gasped and screamed when they had just fallen halfway in, but the moment their whole bodies were submerged, they suddenly went silent.

It was as if they had disappeared from the world.

Although Wei Se was good at fighting, his strength was insufficient; swept by the aftermath, his insides churned, and in an instant, his vision went black, and he almost lost consciousness, falling downward with the others.

Just when the momentum of the fall became irreversible, a white shadow suddenly rushed over and caught him.

Wei Se regained his senses slightly and saw a furry face in front of him.

It was a cat's face.

So it was Fu Inspector who saved him...

That's not right?

Wei Se immediately reacted; he was still floating in the air, and the savior who grabbed him was still behind him, so it was impossible to see it from the front...

In that case...

"I say, can you contact the others?" a familiar voice asked from behind.

Perhaps it was the excitement of having just escaped death, or perhaps this voice had not been heard for too long, but Wei Se said with a hoarse throat: "Miss Ling, you're back?"

The one who had rescued Wei Se ahead of the cat was naturally Ling Baoyu, who had been missing for a long time. Her return was as abrupt as her disappearance; she did not appear in the Sword Immortal's great Chess Game, nor did she appear when the people below were fighting for their lives, but she appeared at the very last moment, just in time to save Wei Se's life.

Wei Se hurriedly said: "I just gave away my earpiece, so it's not very convenient to contact others now. However, I can find someone who can contact others; I recognize many of our own people here, and I can coordinate."

Ling Baoyu said: "That's good, let's gather our own people. Now that Wangliang is being held back over there, it's a good opportunity to act. His Highness is still a bit weak and can only help from the sidelines; let's gather our strength and act."

Wei Se asked, "How do we do it? By helping to eliminate the Wangliang?"

Ling Baoyu said, "Forget about the Wangliang; it hasn't even used its full strength yet. We are going to open up the passage to Yingyuan."