Everyone fell silent.
The cognitive impact of the City Lord's words was a bit too intense, hitting them like some kind of special Word Soul.
Inside Bai Feifei’s mind, Xu Mo couldn’t help but snark, “Is this guy really that eloquent? Maybe I should check if he was a failed art student in his youth?”
Meanwhile, Wan Qianhong was on the verge of a total breakdown. A massive sense of disillusionment flooded over her like a tidal wave.
Her former reverence for the City Lord, the reality of the situation, and the man's own words...
Her Sanity was about to plummet!
“You...”
She gritted her teeth, momentarily speechless. Upon learning that the City Lord was the one behind everything, she had intended to strike him down, but now her resolve was being shattered by his logic.
Just then, a hand reached out from beside her and steadily gripped her shoulder.
Wan Qianhong turned her head sharply.
Bai Feifei was standing beside her. When Wan Qianhong met those eyes, a strange, mysterious power seemed to flow into her, returning some of her strength.
Bai Feifei wasn’t feeling much better than Wan Qianhong; her heart was also in a state of chaos.
In fact, what she was experiencing was far more complex and chaotic than anyone else present.
After all, a Great Old One was living inside her mind!
In essence, she was constantly making deals with an Evil God, almost as if she were helping it revive.
If Liang Shuguang’s words were an attack on anyone’s worldview, they should have hit her the hardest.
Yet, for some reason, amidst these extremely chaotic thoughts, she found herself eerily calm.
Supporting Wan Qianhong, she gave her a nod before looking up calmly at Liang Shuguang.
“Your words are powerful. You’ve lived through the past disasters and served as City Lord for thirty years; perhaps you do see more than we do.”
“However, I believe that a disaster in the distance is a disaster, but a disaster close at hand is a disaster just the same.”
“To those people being tortured in the coal mines, whose lives are treated like vermin, being destroyed by the Old Ones' Awakening or being killed by you are both equally catastrophic fates.”
Her gaze did not flicker, and her voice grew steadier as she spoke, looking Liang Shuguang straight in the eye.
“You made the choice for them to be sacrificed.”
“So now, can I make the choice for those you’ve killed—and seek revenge against you!?”
While the entire room had been suppressed by the City Lord’s rhetoric, Bai Feifei’s words possessed a sharp, piercing power. They dragged everyone back from those grand, abstract concepts and forced them to focus on the reality before them.
Liang Shuguang, the man who had sat in his wheelchair with a look of complete composure from the beginning, actually sat up a bit straighter after hearing this.
His eyes, which had been as calm as still water, suddenly burst with a light of surprise and delight as he stared at Bai Feifei.
“Good!”
Liang Shuguang praised her loudly. The excitement and agitation in his voice suggested he didn't care at all that she wanted to kill him.
“That’s exactly how it should be!”
“Of course you can!”
He pushed himself up by the armrests of his wheelchair, leaning forward slightly. The way he looked at Bai Feifei was as if he were looking at a rare, priceless treasure.
“I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time.”
“I hoped that someone who chose a different path would appear—someone who could disagree with me, kill me, and prove that I am wrong.”
“But unfortunately, such a person never appeared.”
He shook his head with a smile, his voice filled with an irrepressible regret.
“Fate works in mysterious ways. After all these years, your Masked Hermit Society has finally appeared.”
“What... what took you so long...?”
His tone shifted, no longer polite, as he spoke directly.
“But if I may be blunt, what if you can’t do it?”
“Can you really contain all the corpses of the Great Old Ones and stop the Old Ones' Awakening directly!?”
He stared into Bai Feifei’s eyes, as if trying to see through her.
Inside her mind, Xu Mo felt strangely uncomfortable. He felt as if the man's gaze was meeting his own.
What if I can’t do it?
Buddy... I never planned on doing it in the first place!
Wasn't that just an ideal I made up on the spot? It’s starting to feel way too real now...
As a player, he didn't think that far ahead. As an Old-Timer, it was all about textbook strategies. He just wanted to push the storyline along this time, get some good parts, and assemble a decent body for himself.
Stop the Old Ones' Awakening?
Tsk, this is an open-world game. How I play depends on what I feel like doing.
Seeing that Bai Feifei remained silent, Liang Shuguang leaned back into his chair and spread his hands, his tone becoming relaxed:
“Regardless, Bai Feifei, meeting you and your organization in my current state is a stroke of luck.”
“Come then. Do as you think is right. Kill me!”
“If you don't kill me, how can you prove you're right?”
“Similarly, if I’m still alive, what right do you have to say I’m wrong!”
Hearing this, Wan Qianhong finally snapped.
“You’ve already failed over a hundred times! What right do you have to say you’re right!?”
She screamed at Liang Shuguang with uncontrollable fury.
“For over thirty years, countless people have died needlessly because of you. Do you still have no intention of repenting?”
“Dawn City wasn't destroyed by the Old Ones; you destroyed it!”
Liang Shuguang turned to look at her and gave a calm smile.
“A hundred failures doesn't mean this one will be. Maybe this time, I'll win?”
Wan Qianhong was stunned. She suddenly thought of a possibility that was difficult to comprehend.
She stared at Liang Shuguang with wide eyes. “What are you saying? What does that mean?”
“Don't tell me... even after everything, you still plan to continue!?”
Wan Qianhong couldn't understand. He had come out of hiding and exposed his own conspiracy, yet he still intended to push forward with his philosophy.
Wait... surely he didn't come out today just to persuade them to surrender?
“Of course I’ll continue,” Liang Shuguang said in a flat tone, as if stating the obvious. “I will keep going until I see the result with my own life.”
He paused, looked at Bai Feifei, then at Wan Qianhong, and smiled slightly.
“Unless... someone even more 'correct' kills me.”
Wan Qianhong froze for a split second before her eyes instantly turned blood-red with rage.
“Then I’ll kill you right now!”
A blood-red light suddenly erupted from her body. Wan Qianhong transformed into a streak of crimson light and charged directly at Liang Shuguang!
She had lost all reason.
But if things had to be this way, then so be it!
The blood light condensed, forming a crimson longsword in her hand as she lunged for Liang Shuguang’s throat.
But this time, she couldn't reach him.
Because the moment she moved, everyone present—except for Bai Feifei—moved at the same time.
Even Ye Hanshan, who had been helping them before, and even Xie Jin of Turing City!
At this moment, they all stood in front of Liang Shuguang!
Wan Qianhong was blocked in place, her blood sword suspended in mid-air, held back by a wisp of clear wind.
Ye Hanshan grabbed her wrist, his expression incredibly complex and helpless. Finally, he let out a long sigh.
“For causing all of this, he probably does deserve to die.”
“But Wan Qianhong... the City Lord cannot die right now.”
Rate on N.U.
