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...Spirit City, Supreme Pontiff Palace.
When the battle report was presented by the trembling attendant, Bibi Dong, after reading every word on it, even with her Heart-Nature and prior expectations, her fingers clutching the scroll tightened uncontrollably, and her pupils in her purplish-golden eyes abruptly constricted.
She had thought Xuan Ming would use thunderous methods to intimidate, thought he might personally visit one or two main battlefields to crush the enemy's main force with unparalleled power... but she had never imagined it would be such a direct, cruel, and... utterly merciless slaughter!
Millions of people! In just a short moment, they were completely erased from the World, like wiping marks off a sandbox!
She took a deep breath, trying to calm the raging storm within her, but found that even her own breathing carried a subtle, almost imperceptible tremor.
Ultimately... she had still underestimated Xuan Ming's detached indifference, viewing all living beings as ants, and his unyielding, cruel methods when executing his will.
He was no longer the hesitant child of yesteryear.
He was... a God!
A living God!
A God who disregards Life and wields control over Life and death!
...Angel God Temple.
The golden divine light flowing around Qian Renxue's body suddenly solidified and dimmed after she finished reading the information transmitted by Divine Thought. The color drained from her exquisite face, and her brilliant golden eyes were filled with an unbelievable blankness and... a hint of stinging pain.
In her mind, she uncontrollably recalled a long, long time ago, in that dark alley, when the young Xuan Ming argued with her for a few abused cats and dogs, his eyes filled with pity and stubbornness for weak Life.
Was that youth, who once argued with her over insignificant lives... truly the same person as this figure who casually wiped out millions of people without even batting an eyelid?
Clearly... clearly there could have been other ways to deter, to capture, to defeat... why choose the most extreme, most cruel one?
"It was in an avoidable situation..." Qian Renxue murmured to herself, her voice so soft that only she could hear it, carrying a sense of loss and chill that even she couldn't comprehend.
She had always known Xuan Ming had changed, becoming powerful and indifferent.
But only at this moment did she so clearly realize that what separated them was no longer a gap in power or position, but an insurmountable chasm in their understanding of the essence of Life.
He was no longer the youth who cared about the lives of cats and dogs.
He was a God.
A God who holds sway over Life and death, whose rules are born from his will, and who views all things as mere straw dogs.
And the entire continent, under his cold Divine Might, trembled, forced to offer the Power Of Faith cultivated by fear... Spirit City, deep within the Spirit Tool Research Institute.
In stark contrast to the monstrous waves stirred by the "Heavenly Execution" outside, the laboratory remained filled only with the faint hum of spirit tool energy flow.
Xuan Ming stood before the nearly completed dark blue soul tool mecha, white divine force flowing at his fingertips as he performed the final adjustments, his expression focused and calm, as if the lives and deaths of millions outside were no different from the energy circuit he was adjusting.
The vast Power Of Faith, surging like a tsunami from the outside, mixed with fear, reverence, and pleas, converged across space to Spirit City, even subtly flowing towards him.
But he didn't even lift an eyelid; with a slight thought, he guided this power, which would move any God, like a stream, entirely into the new god pillar in the corner of the laboratory, whose main structure had just been completed and glowed with a soft, white-gold radiance.
Power Of Faith, for a God, is power, an extension of authority, and the cornerstone for building a divine kingdom and performing miracles.
It originates from "belief" and contains the potential to create "miracles."
But Xuan Ming had no interest in it.
He didn't need anyone's "belief" to prove himself, nor did he need to rely on "miracles" to achieve his goals.
In his eyes, the rules governing the World were clear and cold; where his will reached, that was reality.
The so-called "miracles" were merely a beautiful hope for uncertainty when power was insufficient.
And he possessed the power to turn his will into absolute reality.
Trust or not, miracle or not, to him, it was meaningless.
The laboratory door slid open silently.
Gu Yuena's figure quietly appeared at the doorway.
Her silver-purple long hair seemed to have lost its former luster, and her exquisite face bore an unresolvable complexity and heaviness.
She looked at Xuan Ming, who had his back to her and was still focused on the soul tool mecha, her eyes, which seemed to contain stars, filled with pain, guilt, and a hint of... blankness.
She stood there quietly, not stepping forward immediately.
The tranquility within the laboratory formed a sharp contrast with the storm outside, making her feel even more distressed.
She knew that Xuan Ming was not born so indifferent to Life.
He used to be moved by the plight of Spirit Beasts and would fall silent at the demise of the weak.
It was that heavy responsibility, the Ice Dragon King's dying wish, the pressure of the Spirit Beast Clan's continuation, her expectations... little by little, pushing him towards this cold and resolute path.
It was to resolve the almost insoluble conflict between humans and Spirit Beasts, to secure a future for her and the Spirit Beast Clan, that he had no choice but to use the most extreme, most effective, and most cruel method to forcibly reshape the order of the entire World.
It was she, and this cruel reality, that changed him.
"Xuan Ming..." Gu Yuena finally spoke, her voice carrying a subtle tremor and choke, "I'm sorry..."
She walked behind him, reached out, and gently hugged him from behind, burying her face against his broad yet cold back.
"If it weren't for me... if it weren't for the burden of the Spirit Beast Clan... you wouldn't have to... wouldn't have to become like this..." Her voice was muffled, filled with self-reproach and pain.
She would rather he was still that somewhat awkward youth who held reverence for Life, rather than the God he was now, who could slay millions with a wave of his hand, his eyes as cold as ten-thousand-year-old profound ice.
Xuan Ming's movements stopped.
He could clearly feel the warmth and slight trembling from behind him, and the heavy guilt and sadness in Gu Yuena's heart.
He didn't turn around immediately, just quietly let her hold him.
After a moment, he slowly put down the tool in his hand and covered her hands wrapped around his waist.
His hand was very cold, like jade.
"I haven't changed."
He gently turned around, embraced Gu Yuena, and looked down at her reddened eyes and face full of self-reproach.
"I just... no longer care."
No longer caring about the opinions of the World, no longer caring about moral judgments, no longer caring about the number of killings, no longer caring about the cruelty of the process.
He only cared about the outcome, only cared about the goal he wanted to achieve, only cared about the people he cared about.
For this "caring," he could bear everything, and he could also... erase everything.
The so-called change, perhaps, was merely condensing that once-scattered "caring" to the extreme, and relegating everything else to the category of "not caring."
Gu Yuena looked at him blankly, at the ultimate purity of indifference and focus in his eyes, her heart filled with mixed emotions.
She didn't know if this counted as a kind of liberation, or a deeper sadness.
But she knew, this was the current Xuan Ming.
To protect what he deemed "cared for," he was willing to become a divine demon who slaughtered millions, and regarded that Power Of Faith born from fear as nothing.
He embraced her, as if embracing the few warm things in his cold World that he needed to "care about."
And all the turmoil outside was merely irrelevant background noise.