98: Chapter 98 Jade Hands

The evening breeze by the river gradually died down.

The warm, orange-red setting sun flickered twice in Zhou An's vision, like a faulty, old holographic projection, then shattered piece by piece like peeling wall paint.

Monstrous black fog surged out from the cracks, instantly devouring the glistening river surface, the bustling pedestrian street, and the "home" behind him that he hadn't yet had the chance to say goodbye to.

Zhou An did not look back.

He let the bone-chilling black fog completely submerge him.

He strode forward, walking aimlessly through this absolute darkness with no reference points.

One step, two steps.

It was so deathly silent all around that he could only hear his own heavy breathing.

He didn't know how long he had been walking when the black fog ahead was suddenly torn apart from the middle as if by a pair of invisible giant hands.

What greeted Zhou An's eyes was a vast starry sky so beautiful it made one forget to breathe.

Countless brilliant nebulae intertwined here, and comets with long tails glided silently beneath his feet.

The moment Zhou An stepped into this starry sky, the system panel, which had originally crashed, suddenly flickered frantically like a madman with the highest level of crimson warnings!

[Warning! Warning!!!]

[Detected an unparseable biological life magnetic field!]

[SAN value monitoring module overloaded...＆*...%￥#@!]

A string of glaring garbled code jumped wildly before Zhou An's eyes, accompanied by an extremely sharp screeching sound, as if its neck had been casually snapped by some entity, falling into complete silence.

The system had crashed.

Zhou An stopped and slowly raised his head.

He did not see any terrifying behemoths blotting out the sky, nor did he see any indescribable deities.

Because with the limits of his vision, he couldn't even glimpse a billionth of the entity's true form.

He only saw a hand reaching out from above the celestial dome.

It was a female hand that seemed to be carved from the purest white jade, emitting a soft halo of light.

This hand was so large it could not be measured by any standard; she hung lightly in the depths of the universe, her fingertips idly toying with the massive galaxies composed of billions of stars.

Beneath her fingertips, those nebulae capable of nurturing countless civilizations were like paint on a palette, or marbles on a canvas, being casually kneaded, arranged, and scattered.

"Zhou An."

A voice resonated in the deepest part of Zhou An's mind.

The voice was indescribable—lazy, ethereal, and laced with a hint of amused laughter.

The moment the name was called out.

[System offline warning: SAN value is collapsing! -1000...-5000...-100000!]

Even though the system was paralyzed, the terrifying amount of information from staring directly at a god was still frantically destroying Zhou An's sanity.

Just as his sanity was about to collapse.

"Hum!"

A beam of intensely brilliant, pure white light erupted from the depths of Zhou An's soul!

That was the [Last Stand] after the second awakening!

This power of rules, born from Zhou An's ultimate unyielding will, transformed into an unbreakable chain. In the abyss of his SAN value plummeting to negative hundreds of thousands, it forcibly pinned his last shred of sanity to the mark of "1"!

Let the stars reverse, let the divine might be like an ocean; this last point of sanity remained unshakable!

Deep in the starry sky, the jade hand playing with the stars paused slightly.

"Oh?"

The ethereal voice held a hint of obvious surprise and appreciation: "To actually be able to remain conscious while staring directly... that glimmer born from obsession is indeed very interesting."

Zhou An gritted his teeth, enduring the fear that made every cell in his body tremble, looked up, and asked with a hoarse voice: "Where... is this? And who are you?"

The voice did not answer his question.

"Who I am is not important. For a mayfly that lives in the morning and dies in the evening, knowing my name has no meaning other than adding to despair."

The jade hand flicked gently, and a dim planet turned into dust.

"I was simply a little curious about your previous actions."

"A worm actually trying to use 'self-destruction,' the most illogical bargaining chip, to trade with the balance to contaminate causality..."

The voice carried a hint of playfulness.

"A very exciting performance. I am satisfied, so I exercised great mercy and pressed that balance for you."

Hearing that the other party was the entity who had pressed the balance in the sky just now, Zhou An's tense nerves, on the contrary, strangely relaxed.

He glanced at the deep starry sky around him, and then at the jade hand hanging above his head.

Then, he bent his knees and sat down on the void, just like that, in a carefree manner.

"Phew..."

Zhou An let out a long breath, and even reached up to rub his sore neck, which had been extremely tense.

He raised his head, his bloodshot eyes staring straight at the starry sky. There was no awe, only the composure of someone with nothing to lose.

"Since you think my performance was excellent, let's get straight to the point."

Zhou An sat cross-legged, his hands resting casually on his knees, and asked bluntly: "An entity of your level couldn't possibly be bored enough to act as a Good Samaritan for a worm like me. Speak, what do you want?"

He pulled the corner of his mouth in self-mockery and spread his hands: "After all, my level, my assets, and even my soul have already been staked on that balance. I am now, in the true sense of the word, 'destitute.'"