90: You're judging me? What right do you have to judge me?!

Behind the door was not a hall.

It was a corridor saturated with darkness and the stench of decay.

On the walls, dark red stains seeped through the peeling paint, resembling dried blood.

The children's innocent graffiti had been twisted by time and resentment into hideous ghoulish faces.

"Screeeech—"

From the depths of the corridor came the grating sound of metal friction.

Twelve tall figures stepped out of the shadows.

They looked like scarecrows crudely pieced together from abandoned iron pipes, hospital bed frames, and children's toys.

Their joints were haphazardly bound with rusty wire.

Embedded in their chests were slowly pulsating crystals that emitted an eerie green glow.

"sin abyss Guards."

Chen Mo's voice was flat.

"Gao Fan created them using the resentment of those twelve children... killing machines."

Nightingale did not speak.

She simply gave a cold hand signal to the four team members behind her.

"Kill."

The next second!

Five black phantoms moved!

The sin abyss Guards moved too!

Their speed was faster than imaginable!

One guard swung an arm—modified from a swing set chain—which slammed toward the rushing Nightingale with a tearing howl through the air!

Nightingale's body twisted at an unbelievable angle mid-air!

She slid past the whistling chain like a weightless feather!

The blue dagger in her hand, like a viper's fang, accurately plunged into the pulsating green crystal!

"Crack!"

The crystal shattered!

The massive steel monster instantly disintegrated, as if all its energy had been drained.

Scattered across the floor were cold scrap metal and a child's broken teddy bear.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Zhao Dahai and the special police under his command fired frantically at the monsters!

But the bullets only sparked weakly against the steel bodies!

"It's useless!"

Nightingale's voice was like the biting wind of Siberia!

"Attack the core!"

Her four team members were like four precise scalpels, performing a dance of death within the jungle of steel!

Chen Mo did not watch the battle.

He simply held Su Qingxue's hand and walked, step by step, toward the depths of the corridor.

The frenzied monsters seemed to ignore their presence.

"Their target is not us."

Su Qingxue looked at the monsters, which were only attacking Nightingale's team, and felt confused.

"Because Nightingale is also one of the sacrifices."

Chen Mo's voice unveiled the cruel truth.

"This is the final 'purification' Gao Fan prepared for her."

"Either she is torn apart by these monsters composed of her comrades' resentment."

"Or, she personally eradicates the last vestiges of those comrades."

Su Qingxue's heart sank abruptly.

She glanced back.

In Nightingale's eyes, there was no confusion, no pain.

Only towering rage from fifteen years of deception!

The blade in her hand moved faster, and more viciously!

"Gao Fan..."

Every time she shattered a core, she let out a beast-like growl.

Chen Mo led Su Qingxue to the end of the corridor.

It was a heavy iron door leading underground.

On the door was the emblem of the Ouroboros, drawn in blood.

"Welcome."

Gao Fan's voice came from behind the door.

"Welcome to... the place of my birth."

The iron door opened silently.

Behind the door was a huge underground space constructed of rock and soil.

In the center of the space was a massive altar composed of twelve stone pillars.

Engraved on the floor of the altar was a vast, dried, dark red magic array.

Gao Fan sat in the center of the array.

He sat on a crude and bizarre throne, haphazardly stacked from old children's desks and chairs.

He no longer showed the shock and fury from before.

The elegant smile, as if everything was under his control, had returned to his face.

"You have come."

He looked at Chen Mo as if he were an old friend who was running late.

"A little faster than I anticipated."

Chen Mo did not speak.

His gaze swept across the basement, which was filled with the stench of evil and decay.

His "Eye of Judgment" saw it.

He saw how, fifteen years ago, that skinny boy had used a fruit knife to strike down his comrades, one by one, onto this magic array.

He saw how he had used their blood to draw this rune leading to hell.

"Are you surprised?"

Gao Fan followed his gaze and smiled like an innocent child.

"This is my true home."

"Did you think you won just by purifying my Gate of Hell?"

He shook his head, a look of pity on his face.

"Chen Mo, you still don't understand."

"I wasn't building hell."

"I was just... cleaning the room."

"It needs to be clean to welcome the true master, doesn't it?"

"Master?" Su Qingxue's pupils contracted sharply.

"Of course."

Gao Fan stood up and spread his arms, like an artist introducing his great work.

"Did you think a mere mortal like me could leverage the power of the sin abyss?"

"No, no, no."

"I have only ever been... a humble messenger."

"A forerunner, clearing the obstacles for the arrival of my Lord."

His face revealed a look of fanatical, pathological worship!

"And you..."

He looked toward Chen Mo, his eyes filled with excitement.

"You are the best gift I can offer my Lord!"

"A perfect sacrifice, one who also wields the power of the Law!"

"Is that so?"

Chen Mo finally spoke.

His voice was as calm as stagnant water.

"Do you think you will be able to wait for your 'Lord' to arrive?"

He took one step forward.

An invisible pressure, like that of a deity, instantly enveloped the entire basement!

The smile on Gao Fan's face froze.

He felt the sin abyss energy slowly gathering around his body instantly retreat frantically, like startled rabbits, the moment it touched Chen Mo's aura!

"This... What kind of power is this?"

For the first time, his voice carried an emotion called "horror"!

"The Power of Judgment."

Chen Mo's voice was like an imperial decree from the highest heavens.

"Gao Fan, I am not here to debate with you."

"Nor am I here to listen to your story."

"I am here to..."

He slowly raised his right hand.

"Send you on your way."

"Judge me?"

Gao Fan laughed wildly, as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world!

"Hahahaha!"

"Chen Mo! What do you have to judge me with?!"

"With your ridiculous 'justice' that protects the weak?!"

He abruptly stopped laughing, and his handsome face became incredibly ferocious!

"Did you think you won?"

"No!"

"You merely made me realize how hopelessly incorrigible the human species is!"

"I gave them fifteen years!"

"I gave them power enough to overturn the world!"

"But what did they do?!"

"They only used that power to satisfy their pathetic, filthy desires!"

"This world is rotten to the core!"

"It doesn't need salvation!"

"It needs... destruction!"

"And I! Will be the God... of the new world!"

He let out a roar that did not sound human!

Suddenly, he plunged his right hand into his own chest!

Under the horrified gaze of Chen Mo and Su Qingxue, he forcibly pulled out of his body... a wildly beating, wicked heart composed of countless black runes!

"I can't wait for my Lord anymore."

Gao Fan's face showed a crazy, liberated smile.

His body was shriveling and decaying at a visible speed.

"But..."

"I can become... the door for his arrival!"

He suddenly crushed the heart!

Boom—!!!

A pure, dark energy from the sin abyss, a hundred times stronger than the Gate of Hell just moments ago, violently erupted!

The entire basement began to tremble violently!

Gao Fan's body was completely engulfed by the black energy!

His bones were shattering and reforming!

His flesh was evaporating and regenerating!

"Chen Mo!"

His final distorted voice came from within the black mist.

"Welcome to..."

"The Birth... of God!"