Chapter 212

"Naughty little brats, do you really think you can escape from the palm of my hand?"

From the pink glow, a feminized version of Fang Hui slowly stepped forward.

Wu Chang didn't retort—he was too busy taking photos, snapping away while muttering, "Feminization really does require a solid foundation."

Fang Hui came from a wealthy family; he never lacked meat, eggs, or milk since childhood. He stood 1.85 meters tall, with broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and long limbs. After college, he trained with his third senior, Gao Xuezhong, making him the classic type: slim in clothes, muscular when undressed.

After feminization, Fang Hui's height shrank by about ten centimeters, but his legs grew even longer—so long it seemed his neck was directly attached to his thighs.

Besides those impossibly long legs, his pectoral muscles became wildly exaggerated. His originally loose-fitting casual T-shirt now clung tightly to his shrunken frame, fitting like a custom-made one.

Worse still, in terms of facial beauty, the feminized Fang Hui was flawless.

As Wanghai University's number one heartthrob, a human trap for seductive women, and a natural-born charm demon saint body endowed with Source Light, his looks were naturally top-tier.

Even Wu Chang had to admit: "This kid isn't inferior to me."

The feminized Fang Hui possessed not just beauty, but an androgynous charm—even Meng Yawen, the archetype of a police beauty, would look dull beside him.

In simple terms, if Fang Hui's overall rating as a man was around 8 out of 10, as a woman he could score 9.5, even 10.

As Wu Chang filmed, he thought inwardly: "You're lucky it was me—not He Wei. If He Wei had shown up, he might've just 'let you die.'"

Must keep this footage. When Fang Hui gets married someday, I'll find a way to project it at his wedding.

Just as Wu Chang was enjoying his filming, a soft voice came from behind him.

"You're having so much fun taking these pictures—do you really like this kind of thing?"

Wu Chang shuddered. He recognized the hostile tone and immediately turned off the camera, speaking seriously:

"Impossible. You know as well as I do—he was a man before the Mother Goddess possessed him. Mindset can slip, but sexual orientation can't. That kind of slip leads to total collapse."

The Mother Goddess, seeing Wu Chang and He Wei chatting merrily and no one paying attention to Her, grew furious.

She waved her hands, and the calamity mist, previously scattered by the Four-Sided Flame Lanterns, now responded to Her command and surged toward the main hall.

Under the pink glow, countless monsters emerged from the calamity mist—each one born from someone who had once written a wish upon the Desire Stele.

Facing the flood of monsters, He Yun struck first. She clasped her hands together; her mechanical gauntlets, fingers interlocked, transformed into a massive cannon barrel. With a blinding flash, a powerful energy column shot straight at the Mother Goddess.

Since Wu Chang began taking photos, He Yun had already been charging her energy gauge. Now, seeing the Mother Goddess move, she fired without hesitation.

This shot concentrated ninety percent of He Yun's mech energy—no testing, no preliminaries, just a killing blow. The energy beam shattered wave after wave of mist monsters, racing straight for the Mother Goddess.

Even Wu Chang, feeling the immense energy beside him, couldn't help but draw a sharp breath.

Because He Yun's attack had zero startup delay, by the time he realized what was happening, the energy was already blasting from the cannon.

He had only two choices: block the blast for Fang Hui, or pray for Fang Hui's survival.

Wu Chang chose the latter—he had no high-grade defensive items, and if he tried to tank it with his body, a direct hit to a vital point could kill him.

He couldn't withstand it—but someone else could.

Suddenly, a figure dashed forward, tossing a talisman into the air. The talisman grew with the wind, transforming into a colossal golden bell that blocked the energy beam.

The energy beam struck the golden bell. The two energy forms collided with a thunderous, physical-sounding crash.

A talisman capable of summoning a golden bell was no ordinary item—conservatively estimated, it was at least a B-class consumable, and it had just blocked He Yun's energy blast.

But this blast had concentrated ninety percent of He Yun's energy. The bell barely held. Wu Chang saw countless fine cracks spreading across its surface. When the bell reverted to its talisman form, it was nearly half its original length.

The one who sacrificed so much to save Fang Hui was none other than Meng Yawen.

Meng Yawen didn't care about the lost golden bell talisman. She shouted at Wu Chang and He Yun: "I'll help you fight the Mother Goddess—but you must not harm his body. They're fused now. If you do this, you'll kill him!"

He Yun, who was replacing her backup power source and preparing to fire again, heard Meng Yawen's cry and instinctively recalled He Yi's fate.

She paused, turned to Wu Chang, and whispered: "Should we help her?"

Wu Chang whispered back: "Leave it to me."

He turned to Meng Yawen and said: "We understand. Step away from the Mother Goddess first."

Meng Yawen had met Wu Chang once before. All the information about Fang Hui had come from Wu Chang.

Though neither was human, they had a certain rapport. Meng Yawen knew Wu Chang was using her—but since she gained nothing, being used meant she had value. And if she had value, she could negotiate.

She hoped Wu Chang would remember how she and the Helmeted Man had held off the Bliss Cult, and help her this once.

Just as Wu Chang was about to speak to Meng Yawen, the Mother Goddess spoke first from afar.

"Do you really think so little of me?"

The Mother Goddess slowly floated upward, waving her arms as the pink light gradually solidified.

Under the glow, Meng Yawen and He Yun froze, their expressions filled with longing—as if something beautiful had been laid before them.

Not just the two flesh-and-blood beings—even He Yi, as a drone, began to fly erratically, his voice crackling with interference:

"Be careful—She's using her ability."

It wasn't just them who couldn't resist. Even Wu Chang, with an willpower of 138, struggled to withstand the Mother Goddess's power.

Forcing the Wasteland Realm's primordial energy to mimic a divine authority—this was the true worth of the Divine Descent Ritual?

Wu Chang shook his head hard, dispelling the feminized Fang Hui doing a pole dance in front of his eyes. High-tier deities were never easy. Luckily, he had a backup plan.

He activated the "Qi and Blood Deficiency" status within Fang Hui's body—and maxed it out.

The effect of "Qi and Blood Deficiency" was immediate. As soon as it activated, the hovering Mother Goddess wobbled and collapsed to the ground.

The Mother Goddess, who had just been strutting with arrogance, now had weak legs, a trembling voice, flickering pink aura behind her, and sweat beading on her forehead.

Worse still, the weakened Mother Goddess could no longer suppress the pain in her physical form. Sitting on the floor, she turned pale, clutching her stomach, trembling like a leaf in a storm.

She looked at Wu Chang approaching, her voice filled with rare divine panic:

"What did you do to me?"

Wu Chang, who had planned to eliminate the Desire Mother Goddess, suddenly lost his urgency upon seeing this scene. He wanted to play a little "idle game."

But then he remembered—the Desire Mother Goddess's true body was his brother Fang Hui. His fleeting desire vanished instantly. One couldn't—or shouldn't—do this. If his sexual preferences slipped any further, he'd be beyond saving.

He sighed and said to the Desire Mother Goddess: "It's just a minor negative status from the Wasteland Realm. Great Desire Mother Goddess, surely you can handle a little Wasteland Realm debuff?"

The Mother Goddess's face turned even paler. She curled her legs tightly, struggling to suppress one of humanity's most primal desires.

"So what? I have plenty of time. Once I fully merge with this body, your little tricks will naturally lose their effect."

Wu Chang shook his head and said:

"How about we make a deal? You come out of this body obediently, and I'll let your projection leave this plane, as if nothing ever happened. If you don't agree, I'll record what happens to you next and send the video to Lehmann and Christine."

"Young Mother Goddess, you don't want your old rivals to find out you stripped in public inside your own temple, do you?"

The Mother Goddess's face turned exceptionally ugly. The filthy souls of humans were indeed more terrifying than evil gods.

But She would not submit!

"Go ahead and record. Excretion is humanity's most basic desire, and I am the god who governs desire. There's nothing I don't dare face."

Wu Chang rubbed his chin. Looking at the Desire Mother Goddess on the ground, he wondered if She had awakened some strange fetish.

But never mind that—it's easy to invite a god in, but hard to send one away. Since the god doesn't want to leave, then don't leave.

He unleashed the Authority of Chaos upon the weakened Mother Goddess on the ground. Unlike the helmeted man, the Desire Mother Goddess saw at a glance the Authority projection condensing behind Wu Chang, and even discerned the origin of the Authority.

"The Authority of Chaos! You're one of Lehmann's people!"

Wu Chang said nothing, only urging the Authority of Chaos forward, hurrying to push the Desire Mother Goddess into the kill line.

The terrifying thing about Authority was that beneath it, all beings were equal.

Unless one possessed a stronger Authority, facing Authority—whether an ordinary person, a demigod, a lesser deity, or the projection of a high-ranking god—there was no escape.

The Desire Mother Goddess hiding inside Fang Hui's body could not be touched by ordinary people, but Authority could easily lock onto Her and erase Her.

The Desire Mother Goddess panicked, shouting loudly: "Damn you, Lehmann! You can't do this! I chose this plane first. Doing this—are you trying to start a war?!"

The Authority of Chaos Wu Chang wielded was pure and immensely powerful. Without Lehmann's instruction and the elaborate blessing ceremony of the earthly divine kingdom, an ordinary believer simply could not possess it.

Clearly, the Mother Goddess assumed Wu Chang's actions were on Lehmann's orders.

It seemed Lehmann had not spread the word about having an eye gouged out by a mortal. Since Lehmann didn't mention it, Wu Chang naturally had no intention of mentioning it either.

!

He merely let out a contemptuous cold laugh, then increased the output of the Authority of Chaos.

Under the influence of "Qi and Blood Double Deficiency," the Desire Mother Goddess's projection struggled to resist the Authority of Chaos. Before long, She fell completely into chaos. Affected by the Desire Mother Goddess, one could see Fang Hui's body repeatedly flipping back and forth between a man's form and a feminized one.

As the Desire Mother Goddess entered the kill line, Wu Chang snapped his fingers and activated the Authority.

Through his high Inspiration, Wu Chang could see that beneath the ripples of the Authority of Chaos, the Desire Mother Goddess's projection separated from Fang Hui's soul and was blasted out of Fang Hui's body by the Authority's ripples.

The Desire Mother Goddess, having left Fang Hui's body, had no time to struggle or resist before turning to ash beneath the light of the Authority of Chaos, leaving behind only:

"Lehmann! This isn't over!"

Having driven away the Desire Mother Goddess, Wu Chang glanced at Fang Hui on the ground and found that Fang Hui had already shed his feminization, his original body restored.

What a pity.

Fang Hui's ordeal had been extremely perilous, but it was not without gain. After being possessed by the Desire Mother Goddess, the Origin Light latent within Fang Hui had been thoroughly awakened.

At this moment, with the Desire Mother Goddess's influence gone, Wu Chang could still see a clear pink glow on Fang Hui.

If Fang Hui could develop this power, he would absolutely qualify as one of the most core members of the Management Bureau. His talent even surpassed that of Jian Xing, who had completed his Sword Cultivator class transition back in the Wasteland Realm.

However, whether using this power would have side effects—that was hard to say.

While the Mother Goddess was in chaos, causing Fang Hui to flip back and forth between his original form and his feminized form, Wu Chang noticed that the degree of Fang Hui's feminization seemed to change according to the depth of the pink glow.

He had no idea whether this problem would persist after the Mother Goddess left.

While Wu Chang was thinking, Meng Yawen carefully walked up to him and asked: "Can I take the person away?"

Meng Yawen was not a polite person by nature, but the strength Wu Chang had displayed left her no choice but to be polite.

The Mother Goddess's words had not been a private chat—Meng Yawen had heard them clearly from the side. What Wu Chang used to take down the Mother Goddess was Authority!

Although she didn't know how Wu Chang had done it, there was no doubt that facing a powerful figure who possessed Authority, even a god would not dare raise their voice.

Wu Chang waved his hand, gesturing for Meng Yawen to take him away.

Meng Yawen hoisted Fang Hui onto her shoulder, then turned back and said softly: "The fact that you possess Authority—I won't tell anyone else."

After saying that, she took Fang Hui and left the stone temple.

Having resolved the danger to Fang Hui, Wu Chang returned to He Yun's side and said:

"Everyone in the way is gone. Now, it's time to settle all of this."

He Yun nodded and led Wu Chang and He Yi to the Desire Stele.

The Desire Stele was the concrete embodiment of the Mother Goddess's divine power. It had not dissipated along with the Mother Goddess's projection being erased.

Because the power on the Desire Stele came not only from the Mother Goddess, but also from those wish-makers who had left their marks upon it.

In myths, devils make deals with humans—devils fulfill human desires, but take the deal-maker's soul as payment.

The Desire Mother Goddess didn't need such trouble. She didn't need to strike a bargain—She only needed to keep fulfilling Her believers' desires.

When believers immersed themselves in desire and became slaves to it, their souls would naturally fall into Her hands.

Everyone who had ever written their desire upon the stele had, from the moment the brush touched stone, already become Her possession. After death, their souls would merge into the stele.

Originally, this stele was all divine power hoarded by the Desire Mother Goddess. If She had completed the divine descent ritual and fully merged with Fang Hui, She could have absorbed this Desire Stele.

When that time came, the fully smuggled-in Desire Mother Goddess—Her projection would have been unprecedentedly powerful, and might truly have allowed Her to wield Authority even in the Wasteland Realm.

But there are no 'ifs.'

Before the Mother Goddess could merge with the Desire Stele, She ran into Wu Chang and was erased by Authority.

Now, all the divine power hoarded within the stele had become a windfall for the underground shelter.

This was the immense divine power the Desire Mother Goddess had accumulated drop by drop over hundreds of years, witnessing the rise of an entire civilization. Its strength was such that it could even seal Her own projection.

Using it to power Shelter No. 88 underground, the energy would be enough to last them over a thousand years.

If the mastermind behind everything was the Desire Mother Goddess, then the story would have ended here to everyone's satisfaction.

But things were not that simple.

He Yun looked at the Desire Stele and said to Wu Chang and He Yi:

"I said earlier that when I resolved to face everything, I recalled what happened back then, why the underground shelter fell into a time loop, and why I lost my memory."

"The root of all this is the guy Peace mentioned — Mercury."

Hearing that name, "Warning, warning" prompts sounded again from He Yi's drone.

Compared to the Mother God who had imprisoned his soul, trapping him on that day of failure, the traitor Mercury was undoubtedly what made him see red.

He Yi pressed, "What did he do?"

He Yun's brows furrowed slightly, a look of struggle on her face, as though recalling that memory would cause her pain.

"Back then, following the plan, I went to the Desire Stone Tablet, ready to modify the rules I'd gotten wrong and try to salvage everything. But the squad members' deaths, and you, Brother, being entangled by the Calamity Mist and falling into crisis, threw me off balance for a moment."

"Everything was different from our plan. A voice began to whisper in my ear, telling me it was all my fault — my arrogance, my attempt to use the Desire Primal Stone to write rules and manipulate the Desire Stone Tablet's power, which led the underground shelter into crisis."

"Because of my mistake, the squad members had to risk entering the Stone Temple, were affected by the Calamity Mist, and died horribly inside."

"And to protect me, your protective shield shattered, Brother, forcing you to sacrifice yourself to buy me time."

"I am the source of every disaster. Everything I do only brings misfortune."

Recalling what had happened that day, even knowing Mercury had been scheming in the shadows, He Yun still could not forgive herself.

She drew a deep breath, preparing to steady her emotions, when suddenly her hand was grasped, and a warmth that made her feel at ease traveled from his palm into hers.

She turned to look at Wu Chang, and the fear and unease in her heart dissolved for the most part. A thought rose in her mind — as long as the person before her was there, she could do anything.

She exhaled the stale air from her body and continued:

"In the whispers in my ear, I began to lose my judgment and my confidence. I didn't dare to gamble, and I didn't dare to take any action."

"At that moment, Mercury appeared. He had me sign an agreement."

(End of Chapter)