The Herrscher of Sentience, who once caused trouble all over Blue Earth under the name Lee, was the one who made a mess of this world.
Her name, appearance, power—everything about her screamed that she belonged to the Honkai world.
But she was indeed a Blue Earth local, because she was born after Elysian Realm arrived on Blue Earth… Although she had the bloodline of the Honkai world, in terms of birthplace, she was undoubtedly a qualified Blue Earthling.
A beneficiary of the multiverse version of birthright citizenship!
"Idiots, do you really think that thing can accomplish anything?! I can suppress this situation in an instant—"
Li Bei's enraged voice suddenly stopped, not for any other reason, but for the figure still blocking his path.
"You can't," Twilight said calmly.
Yes, Twilight couldn't defeat Li Bei. In terms of overall strength, there was still an undeniable gap between the two. But when Twilight's goal in battle shifted from winning to mutual destruction, the situation changed.
Twilight indeed couldn't defeat Li Bei, but she could completely stall him until the nuclear bombs bloomed all over Blue Earth, taking the entire civilization with them.
And this was also why Shoko, knowing that Twilight couldn't act for long, was still willing to use her own life to give her a buff of free movement—because a minimum level of strength was the basis for negotiation.
"You scumbags… using an entire planet of ordinary people as a threat, is this what you call righteous protagonists?!"
Although he himself was the protagonist, it didn't stop Li Bei from cursing these lunatics at this moment.
Seriously, he had wanted to do this for a long time—these people, every single one of them, acted as if they had never been loved in their entire lives. Give them a little gentleness and a kind face, and they would cling to you, unwilling to let go, even sniffing their way from other worlds all the way to Blue Earth… Their emotions were too heavy!
What had he done wrong?! He just wanted a peaceful life for his dream, and let his clones play with their emotions a little. He hadn't even hurt them. And looking at the outcome, overall, he had actually made their lives much more positive. How did he end up with this bunch of emotionally heavy lunatics…
But thankfully, he had already performed the sacred severance. After today's events, let the free clones deal with their own headaches!
The crowd naturally didn't know what Li Bei was thinking. Even psionic-specialized MANTISes like Su and Aponia were far from being able to touch Li Bei's consciousness.
However, this didn't prevent everyone from hearing the feeling of a mental breakdown in Li Bei's voice—after all, considering the series of messes he had to deal with at this time, he really was a bit broken.
"Great Blue Earth Consciousness, this is your aggrieved choice!" Otto's smile carried a hint of madness. For him, if this didn't achieve the goal of complete victory for his self-taught dragon-braking technique, then as long as he had a choice, he would immediately choose to blow up with Blue Earth.
If Otto had a deterrence level system above his head, it would probably have already exceeded 1000% by now, enough to make the Trisolarans turn tail and run.
Good news: the decision of whether or not to blow up with Blue Earth was not in his hands.
Bad news: there was more than one lunatic with an explosive deterrence level.
"Are you going to personally push all life in the entire Blue Earth civilization to a dead end, or will you return them to us, and then we'll never see each other again from now on?!"
"Friend or enemy, choose." Kevin, who had always remained calm even in fierce battles, silently added the words he wanted to say at this moment.
Li Bei's eyes narrowed, his tone icy. "You're threatening me? Do you know—"
"Stop stalling for time! We won't wait until Twilight's power is exhausted!" Caelus, unhesitatingly exposing the entity's plan to stall for time, said angrily, "Decide quickly, right now, immediately!"
"…Tsk, you guys are like termites, unreasonably barging into someone else's home, gnawing all the furniture rotten, and then daring to shout threats at the owner."
Li Bei raised his head, no longer looking at the crowd, but his killing intent had unknowingly ceased. Although the oppressive aura still enveloped the surroundings, the crowd understood that the entity before them seemed to be starting to back down.
Of course, he had to back down. After all, if he continued to be stubborn, this play of his wouldn't be able to conclude!
Can't laugh yet.
The plan was mostly complete. Next was the final step. As long as he could find a way to trick all these guys out of Blue Earth, everything would be a great success!
Resisting joy was more difficult than enduring pain, but thankfully, Li Bei had rich experience in this—a considerable part of which was gained from dealing with these very people before him.
"Everyone, I have a dream, that Blue Earth can develop peacefully and stably, instead of being turned upside down by all sorts of trash from other worlds."
With a snap of his fingers, all the clones who had been playing dead, except for Twilight, floated in front of Li Bei.
"Therefore, all of you who come from the outside world will destroy my wish for peace. Simply put, you are enemies. Now that you already know of my existence and my identity in this world, the safest method would be to exterminate all of you… However, I am a benevolent person, so I'll give you one last chance."
Benevolent my ass. You were clearly forced to yield because your weakness was grasped…
Although everyone was cursing inwardly, no one was foolish enough to actually say it out loud. Even someone as irascible as Kalpas remained silent. It was already a great fortune that the situation had progressed to this point. Every step from now on was like walking on thin ice. If anything went wrong, everything would be over.
"All you want are these few puppets—ah, apologies, I should say, your beloved ones, right? See, I'm a very kind person, right? To consider your feelings, I even show respect to these creations of my own." Li Bei smiled sarcastically. "So let's make a deal. Their lives in exchange for your departure and guarantee."
"They may be important to you, but to me, they are completely worthless, at best used for some miscellaneous chores on Blue Earth. I can materialize them into completely independent individuals, who can exist normally as if they were alive, even without my energy support from now on. I can also set them free, no longer under anyone's control or influence."
Silently raising a finger, Li Bei's voice grew cold. "I have only one request, a very simple request… You guys, take them and get the hell back to your own worlds, and never dare to come to Blue Earth and act presumptuously again!"
"…What about them? Are they to stay here?" Caelus couldn't help but ask, looking at Twilight beside him.
"I don't need puppets that backstab their creator. You'd better take them back with you."
Although they were being expelled from Blue Earth, not only could they resurrect their loved ones, but they could even take them back to their original worlds… For them, who originally came from other worlds, this was practically a perfect proposal with no cost! After all, if it weren't for resurrecting their loved ones, they would have had no reason to come here in the first place.
Just moments ago, they were fighting to the death. In the blink of an eye, not only had the fighting stopped, but he had even presented a proposal that was almost too perfect to be true…
"That does sound good, but what's the price?"
"I just said it! The price is that you all get the hell out of Blue Earth forever and never dare to set foot in this world again!"
Li Bei's voice carried a hint of anger, seemingly at these people who couldn't understand plain language. "Since you already know of my existence, and things have progressed to this point, I might as well be direct with you—after the deal is made, if you dare to appear in this world again for even a moment, or use your abilities and schemes to influence Blue Earth from another world, then no matter the cost, even if I have to tear through the world barrier and chase you to another world, I will crush you into powder!"
In that instant, Li Bei's gaze seemed to penetrate space, staring not only at the people before him but also at Makima and the others far away on the other side of the city.
"Hmph, whatever. Anyway, Lee's memories are also on Earth…"
The Herrscher of Sentience pouted. Although she was a Herrscher born and raised on Blue Earth, in her heart, from the moment of her birth, she had been a spiritual Earthling. If Blue Earth didn't want her, at worst, she would return to her never-before-seen homeland.
They wouldn't reject her over there, would they? At least she was a Herrscher. If that didn't work, she could only go to the other two worlds and ask if they accepted immigrants…
"Great existence, your generosity shames us." Otto bowed slightly and respectfully.
Dignity and etiquette were the least important things to him. As long as he could achieve his goal and save that person, let alone showing the highest level of respect to this powerful existence, even if he had to kneel down and kowtow to Li Bei a few times, Otto wouldn't hesitate. "But how can we be sure that your promise is guaranteed? After all, your strength is far greater than ours."
Without speaking, Li Bei just snorted coldly. Immediately, Twilight's expression suddenly changed.
"The oppressive feeling hanging over my head… is gone?" Twilight moved her hands, somewhat dazed. Her voice trembled slightly at this moment. "This feeling…"
"Twilight, are you okay?! What did he just do!"
Facing the Astral Express crew's worry and concern, Twilight gently shook her head. "It's okay. He seems to have released his control over me… We don't need to worry about the duration of the negotiations anymore. I've now returned to being an independent individual, no longer needing extra energy to sustain myself. If needed, I should be able to fight him for a few hundred more years."
"This is my sincerity. Now it's your turn to show yours."
The next moment, several space-time rifts suddenly appeared. Li Bei impatiently pointed the people below towards them. "All of you, get back, right now—and those few lost on Mars!"
Casually grabbing a certain purple-haired, directionally challenged woman who looked just like Raiden Mei back to Blue Earth, Li Bei directly threw the three clones who could float in the air into the arms of their respective companions.
"Remember your promise, ants. You can only go this far. Next time you dare to cross the edge of the world by even a step, it will be a world-shattering upheaval!"