32: Chapter 34 An Eternal Covenant: Am I Zhu Rong?!

"A prayer that complies with the hearts of the people?"

Su Xiu murmured inwardly.

As the author of sequence anomalies, he had nearly absolute control over such things.

The moment 005 returned to its place and was recorded into the document,

he was completely clear on all of 005's mutations.

That is right!

His drafting of 005 had always focused on the covenant; the so-called flame power was merely a gimmick to attract the attention of onlookers and harvest as many emotional points as possible,

to complete his subsequent plans,

and push 005 to truly manifest.

Flames!

They served more as a means of suppression within the covenant.

They possessed no independent aggressiveness.

Heating up to become a branding iron was an exploitation and development of choosing a master within the covenant.

Even the flame dragon cleansing the ground, which looked like a flame attack, was merely another usage of the covenant—invoking the flames within the suppression power as a self-preservation force to burst forth around the eligible person.

After all, one must stay alive to wield the sword and keep the covenant going; just a tiny bit of flame power was completely reasonable!

However, the flame dragon that Li Li had just unleashed...

able to traverse the skies, completely resolve all the iron-eating locusts, and burn them to ashes, was clearly beyond the scope of self-preservation.

In fact, the ancient sword should not even have such an ability at all.

Although it seemed to defy common sense, Su Xiu, who had all the data at a glance, knew the reason why.

It was a prayer from the hearts of the people!

Not only could the editor absorb stray emotional fluctuations and convert them into omnipotent emotional points,

but even the sequence anomalies he wrote...

could also expand their own capability tendencies by absorbing directional emotions and devouring this intangible power.

In a desperate situation where the military suffered repeated setbacks,

everyone who had witnessed the power of the ancient sword...

all firmly believed that the ancient sword could seal it, prevent the invasion of the Spacetime Worm, and use its terrifying high-temperature blazing flames to easily burn down these iron-chewing locusts.

And so, the ancient sword truly did it!

Absorbing the power of emotion, expanding new capability directions, and carrying out self-enhancement.

Of course, it was also because wiping out these locusts...

was not a very difficult task for the [High-Risk] grade 005; as long as it poured the flames of the suppression power slightly outward, it could burn them all to ashes.

If it were something divine like the Spacetime Worm, relying just on this few people would probably be utterly impossible no matter how hard they racked their brains.

Unless half the universe's living beings were gathered,

pooling the purest faith, there might perhaps be a glimmer of hope.

"Faith? Emotion? Self-evolution?"

Su Xiu whispered softly in his heart.

The changes produced after the deployment of 005 stirred his heart slightly, and his original plan for retrieval quietly changed at this moment.

Firelight flashed and vanished across the body of the ancient sword,

bursting forth with extraordinary brilliance.

Yet Su Xiu did not store it into the alien space corresponding to the document like he did with [004 Crystal Disaster].

Instead, he placed this ancient sword...

back onto Li Li, who was emerging from unconsciousness.

"This..."

"Is an attempt."

Regardless of whether the self-evolution of the sequence anomaly moved toward a good aspect or a bad aspect,

as long as variables occurred, that was a direction worth trying.

And just after the ancient sword returned to Li Li once more,

he, who had fallen into a coma,

suddenly felt as if he had arrived in a pitch-black world.

Six towering, boundless figures stood quietly in the void, surrounding a majestic existence. Countless indistinct phantoms stood in attendance nearby, flesh and blood intertwined, as if recounting the principles of life...

Even though it was clearly just a static two-dimensional picture scroll,

Li Li felt as though he were an ant that had strayed into a kingdom of giants; facing a high-dimensional creature, his heart felt an involuntary panic.

Holding his breath and concentrating, he did not even dare to breathe heavily.

Until one of the six figures slowly turned its head toward him, an intangible fluctuation spreading, and a thought entered his mind.

"Following the ancient covenant..."

"You may perhaps inherit my name of Zhurong..."

——

Li Li had invoked the power within the ancient sword, and his consciousness sank into the dark void.

And Su Xiu?

[Ding——]

[005 ancient sword covenant successfully retrieved]

[This compilation is concluded, recording document]

[Archiving complete]

[...]

After settling this sequence anomaly and arranging its destination, he unconstrainedly flicked his sleeves and left.

Having just harvested a huge handful from the leeks, Su Xiu, whose wallet was unprecedentedly affluent, naturally would not be stingy; he decisively redeemed a spacetime travel departure, leaving with as much flair as when he arrived.

Following his breezy departure,

the white mist dissipated, and the stagnant spacetime moved once again.

Time stop ended!

The world that had been pressed with a pause button began to operate in an orderly manner.

Everyone also continued the actions they were doing one second before the time stop, as if nothing had happened.

Completely unaware that they had just experienced a time stop,

time had been quietly and silently stolen away.

Only the Netizens in the live broadcast room,

aided by the vision projection of [001], saw scenes that those involved could not feel.

——

"Holy shit! Is this a time stop? This is definitely a time stop, right?!"

"Hiss, everyone was forcibly paused just like that? This is the power to manipulate time? When was it activated?!"

"Did they not say time is the fairest and will never stop for anyone? Why did it stop right in front of him? Can this world still get any better? Shaking with anger and trembling JPG."

"Why? Just because his fists are bigger! Did you not see that the ancient sword's backlash power did not manifest on this big shot at all? High temperature! Intense light! None of it appeared!"

"..."

A barrage comment swept across the live broadcast room,

instantly awakening countless Netizens!

The details in the screen were simply spine-chilling upon careful thought!

This existence, suspected to be a big shot of the Association,

when holding the ancient sword, unexpectedly did not burst forth with any intense light or high temperature. The unruly ancient sword was like a docile little lamb before him, directly ignoring the restrictions on eligible persons.

Moreover, what was even more jaw-dropping was that...

after picking up the ancient sword, this big shot actually put it the meow back down!!

Whether he looked down on the value of the ancient sword

or was unwilling to snatch it away,

both proved the same fact:

That is, this big shot's strength was definitely far beyond their imagination!

Time-stopping an area?

Heh...

Perhaps this was just deliberately controlled by him.

If he were to truly expand the range,

maybe stopping time for the entire world would also be a piece of cake.

Leaving blank space!

That was the best description!

As Su Xiu flicked his sleeves and left unconstrainedly without taking away a single cloud,

the surrounding crowds and the Netizens in the live broadcast room all fell into deep overthinking and headcanons.

His standing continued to rise in their hearts,

having even reached divinity, and among divinities, he was of an extremely extraordinary kind.

——

Regarding the brain expansion in the minds of the onlookers,

even if Su Xiu did not know mind reading, he could still see a few clues from their feedback.

There was no helping it; the points contributed by the leeks were simply too many!

[Ding——]

[Author triggered massive emotional fluctuations, emotional points + 38192]

[Emotional points + 76629]

[Emotional points + 28912]

[...]

Massive amounts of points crazily rose.

The speed of the ascent almost caught up with the peak of the ancient sword displaying its divine might.

But this time, Su Xiu unexpectedly did not look at his balance.

Instead, he directed his attention in front of him,

onto the document phantom that only he could see.

[...]