94: You dare touch my things?

"Ah—!"

Nightingale's scream came to an abrupt halt.

Her face, contorted by extreme pain, froze instantly.

What she felt was not an attack.

But a kind of... order.

A cold, absolute, unreasonable order, like an insurmountable barrier, instantly cut off the dark will that was frantically eroding her soul.

"Let go! This is my vessel! How dare you contend with me?!"

That vast will let out an exasperated roar in Nightingale's mind!

It was like a thief who had broken into someone else's house, only to find that the owner of the house had been replaced by a demon god it absolutely could not afford to offend.

"Contend?"

Chen Mo's voice was soft, yet it carried a mockery that could make even gods tremble.

"A thief who can't even close his own door properly, dares to talk about 'contention' with me?"

His hand, pressed on top of Nightingale's head, fingers slightly tightened.

Buzz—!

An invisible force, like a grinding stone, slowly began to turn at the level of Nightingale's soul!

"No! Stop! What are you doing?!"

For the first time, that will carried the emotion called "fear"!

It felt like a block of butter caught between two millstones, being forcibly, bit by bit, ground out of Nightingale's soul by an irresistible force!

"Get... out..."

Nightingale squeezed out a few words through her clenched teeth.

Blood was still flowing from her seven orifices.

But in her eyes, which had lost their luster, hope was rekindled...

She looked at the man standing in front of her, shielding her from the malice of an entire universe.

Her heart, which had been frozen for fifteen years, felt warmth for the first time...

"Ant! Do you think he is saving you?!"

"He just wants to get my power! To become a new 'God'!"

"Surrender to me! I can give you everything! Power! Immortality! Even... resurrect your companions!"

That will began to tempt Nightingale with the most venomous words and the most enticing conditions.

It wanted to incite this vessel!

It wanted this mortal to dismantle Chen Mo's order from within!

"So noisy."

Chen Mo's brow furrowed slightly.

He glanced at Nightingale, who was kneeling on the ground, in unbearable pain from the violent tearing at the soul level.

"Lin Xue."

He called out her real name.

Nightingale's body trembled violently.

"Your soul is yours."

Chen Mo's voice, like a decree, was directly imprinted deep in her consciousness.

"You decide who comes in and who gets out."

"Now, I hand the power of judgment to you."

"How do you want him... to die?"

Nightingale suddenly looked up!

She looked into Chen Mo's bottomless eyes; there was no pity, no sympathy.

Only absolute trust.

"No! You can't!"

That will felt an unprecedented crisis!

It discovered that Chen Mo had actually created an absolutely fair "court" for its "enemy" on its "battlefield"!

"I..."

Nightingale's lips trembled.

Fifteen years of deception, fifteen years of pain, fifteen years of faith... at this moment, all transformed into towering, all-consuming rage!

"I want him..."

Word by word, she used all her strength to let out a roar from the deepest part of her soul!

"Soul! Scattered! Into! Dust!"

"As you wish."

Chen Mo's voice was calm, without a ripple.

His hand, pressed on top of Nightingale's head, suddenly clenched!

"Come out!"

Boom—!

Nightingale's body, like an overinflated balloon, suddenly burst outwards with a mass of black energy!

The shattered crown let out an unwilling wail, and was forcibly pulled out of Nightingale's glabella by an irresistible force!

It tried to escape!

But it was firmly confined in mid-air by Chen Mo's seemingly ordinary hand, unable to move!

"Let me go! Mortal! You will regret it!"

"Regret?"

Chen Mo looked at the crown, still struggling frantically, looking at the wailing will inside.

He shook his head.

"I never regret."

His other hand reached out.

Both hands, like two red-hot iron tongs, clamped the crown.

"Don't you like to devour?"

"Now, I'll let you taste what it's like to be devoured."

His hands suddenly closed!

"Refine!"

Sizzle—!

A pure white light, as if capable of purifying all filth in the world, burst forth from between his fingers!

"No—!!!"

That vast will let out its last desperate scream in this world!

Its consciousness, composed of pure concepts, rapidly melted and disintegrated under the scorching of Chen Mo's domineering "Order of the Human World" fire!

All its memories, all its power, all its laws... were brutally melted into a pot of the most primitive, chaotic energy by that white light!

The crown, made of unknown material, also let out an overwhelmed "crack" in the white light!

Its form was rapidly changing!

Melting, reorganizing, recreating!

The entire process lasted less than ten seconds.

When the white light dissipated.

Chen Mo slowly released his hands.

The shattered crown, symbolizing a cosmic catastrophe, had disappeared.

In its place was a thumb-sized, entirely black key, yet seemingly containing a starry sky...

The key floated quietly in Chen Mo's palm.

Above it, there was no longer the ominous aura from before.

Only an ancient, pure, neutral energy fluctuation remained.

"This..."

Su Qingxue looked at the key, her clear eyes filled with indescribable shock.

She witnessed it firsthand.

A god, being forcibly refined into a key by another, more powerful god.

"Thump."

Nightingale's body softly fell down.

She was not dead.

Just exhausted.

On her blood-stained face, an expression of "relief" appeared.

She looked at the man who collected the key and walked towards her, her lips moving.

"Thank you."

"Don't thank me."

Chen Mo's voice returned to calm.

"You yourself protected your soul."

He reached out and pulled her up from the ground.

"Cough cough..."

From the corner, a violent cough sounded.

Zhao Dahai shook his head, waking up from unconsciousness.

"Damn it... what... happened just now?"

He looked at the mess on the ground, at Gao Fan, who was completely dead, and at Chen Mo, whose aura was completely different, utterly bewildered.

"Is it over?"

Su Qingxue walked to Chen Mo's side and asked softly.

Her voice still carried a tremor of relief after the ordeal.

"No."

Chen Mo shook his head.

He glanced at the deep key in his palm.

Then he looked at Gao Fan, lying in a pool of blood with a strange smile on his face.

"Gao Fan is dead."

"The 'key' is also in hand."

"But..."

His gaze pierced through the collapsing basement, looking out at the city shrouded in night.

"The one who opened Pandora's Box hasn't paid the bill yet."

Su Qingxue's pupils suddenly contracted!

"You mean... that 'crime emperor'?"

"He might not be an 'Emperor'."

Chen Mo's lips curved into a cold arc.

"He's just another coward who found the 'key' but didn't dare to open the door himself."

"Now, I've dismantled the door and changed the lock."

"I think he must be very eager to know where his useless 'key' went."

He put away the black key.

He turned and walked back the way he came.

"Time to go home."

Friendly reminder: The website is about to be revised, which may result in the loss of reading progress. Please save your "Bookshelf" and "Reading History" in time (screenshot recommended). We apologize for any inconvenience caused!