72: Welcome the Queen to her death!

The air in the garbage disposal center.

It was heavier and more suffocating than the sludge in the sewers.

When the words “on-site purification”

Came out of Chen Mo's mouth,

The last shred of hope vanished.

The dozens of remaining members of the Grief Front

Had expressions on their faces that were a mixture of numbness, grief, and madness.

Finally, a man with a broken left arm

And a face full of burn scars stood up.

He was the Hawk Faction Leader of the Grief Front.

In his only intact right eye, a gambler's flame burned.

“We have no retreat,”

His voice was hoarse, yet exceptionally firm.

“Hiding here, we will sooner or later be found one by one by those laughing madmen and turned into ‘artworks’ on the street! Rather than dying so ignominiously, let's go for a big one!”

He looked around at everyone and said, word by word:

“Kill that little Empress! Kill Xi Xi!”

“As long as she is killed, this damned ‘Happiness Field’ will collapse! Only then can we truly shed a tear for our deceased family members!”

These words were like a spark.

Instantly igniting the powder keg in everyone's hearts.

A vote on whether to execute a child.

Took place in this desperate den.

It began with the most primitive method of raising hands.

The five members of the Joint Squad

Stood silently in the corner of the shadows.

Gu Yanci's fists were clenched tightly.

His Humanity God Lord's heart

Made him instinctively resist this plan.

Xi Xi was the culprit, true.

But she was also a poor girl, manipulated by Su Ke Ke, with an incomplete mind.

However, in his mind,

The cold notification from the Multiverse Chat Group

Was like a poisonous thorn

Deeply piercing his soul:

“Warning: Remaining time in dungeon 9 days 2 hours 13 minutes. Task failed, all will be erased.”

Time was the guillotine hanging over their heads.

They had no right, and no time, to cling to such ridiculous morality.

Their silence was the cruelest form of acquiescence.

Everyone's gaze

Finally focused on their leader, Chen Mo.

However, he just sat there quietly, neither raising his hand nor objecting.

As if this vote, which concerned the future of the front, had nothing to do with him.

He slowly closed his eyes.

Allowing the long-sealed memories to consume him... The scene in his memory.

It was warm enough to be heartbreaking.

At that time, he was not yet the leader of the “Grief Front.”

He was just an ordinary office worker.

His life was ordinary, trivial, and full of sunshine.

He remembered his wife's gentle profile as she prepared dinner for him in the kitchen.

He remembered the sweet milky scent of his daughter as she rushed into his arms, laughing, with her small schoolbag on her back.

He remembered that every late night he worked overtime, there was always a light on for him when he returned home.

That day was his daughter's tenth birthday.

He left work early, carrying a beautifully wrapped gift, humming a song on his way home.

He imagined his daughter's surprised expression when she saw the gift.

He imagined his wife playfully scolding him for spending too much money, yet her eyes full of smiles.

However, what greeted him was a sky-high blaze.

No, that wasn't a blaze.

It was black flames, as dark as ink, devouring all light!

It had no temperature, yet it silently annihilated everything he knew.

His home, his neighbors, the entire street.

All were twisting and disintegrating in these eerie black flames.

He heard no screams, only the most extreme, most frantic “laughter”!

His neighbors danced wildly in the black flames.

With smiles on their faces that were twisted with happiness.

Then, at the climax of their laughter, they turned into wisps of smoke and completely evaporated.

Just as Chen Mo's sanity was about to be completely destroyed by this hellish scene,

A grand, cold, emotionless voice

Sounded directly in his soul.

“The ‘Joy’ of this realm is overloaded, imbalanced.”

“I, Zi Che, Guardian of the Silent Balance of the Sentient Multiverse.”

“Come in response to ‘imbalance,’ to perform the duty of ‘calibration.’”

The entity calling itself “Zi Che”

Its status transcended all gods and demons Chen Mo could comprehend.

It was not a life, but a cosmic axiom, an absolute law!

“Excessive joy is disaster. Excessive sorrow is also calamity.”

“Your sorrow, reaching to the heavens and penetrating the earth, is enough to weigh the overflowing joy of this realm.”

“You shall be My ‘beacon,’ using the deepest ‘sorrow’ of this realm to calibrate the wildest ‘joy’ of this realm. Until... all things return to silence.”

...Chen Mo opened his eyes.

In reality, the vote had ended.

The Hawk Faction won with an overwhelming majority.

He, as the apostle of the Demon God Zi Che,

His mission was to balance this world with sorrow.

And an assassination targeting the Joy Empress

Would undoubtedly be a “festival” capable of creating the most extreme, most magnificent sorrow

In this land of happiness.

His silence was obedience to his mission.

The Hawk Faction Leader walked up to the Joint Squad, he did not speak.

He just stared intently at Gu Yanci with his single eye.

Gu Yanci met his gaze for several seconds.

Finally, urged by the cold countdown in his mind,

He nodded with difficulty, almost imperceptibly.

A silent, blood-stained alliance was thus formed.

However, the plan encountered its biggest problem.

Empress Xi Xi was in the heavily guarded palace and never appeared in public.

Just as they were at a loss,

A front member responsible for reconnaissance came scrambling back.

With an incredible mixture of ecstasy and confusion on his face.

“An opportunity! An opportunity has come! ‘Daily Laughter Broadcast’ just announced that to celebrate the great victory of the ‘Purification Operation,’

“Three days later, Empress Xi Xi will personally preside over the opening ceremony of ‘National Celebration Day’ in Central Square!”

This news invigorated everyone!

Only Star Gazing Goddess Lingxi, when deducing this intelligence, frowned slightly.

She could feel a very faint, yet unignorable “crease” appearing in the threads of fate.

The emergence of this celebration was too coincidental, too perfect.

It was as if... as if an invisible chess player

Had, without any of them knowing,

Gently placed a most crucial piece in the center of the chessboard.

An assassination in the name of sorrow

Quietly began in the land of absolute joy... At the very center of the Kingdom of Joy.

In the candy castle floating in the clouds.

Joy Empress Xi Xi awoke from a colorful bed covered with soft stuffed animals.

She rubbed her eyes.

The first thing she did was run to the window.

Looking at the city below,

Which was always bathed in sunshine and rainbows.

Seeing every citizen on the streets with a brilliant smile,

She smiled contentedly.

Feeling that it was another day she worked hard to make the world a better place.

“Good morning, Your Most Esteemed Majesty.”

A gentle voice sounded behind her.

Chief Minister Le Blanc, already dressed in a proper white uniform, stood respectfully at the door.

Her face always wore an impeccable, most standard, sweetest smile.

“Sister Le Blanc!”

Xi Xi happily threw herself into her arms.

“Are there any fun news today? Have those disobedient, frown-faced baddies been caught?”

“Yes, Your Majesty,”

Le Blanc stroked Xi Xi's hair, her tone full of doting affection.

“Just last night, the valiant Happiness Guard successfully ‘purified’ thirty-seven more severely infected ‘sorrow virus’ carriers.”

“Now, they have all become eternally smiling artworks, adding more joyous scenery to our city.”

“That's wonderful!”

Xi Xi clapped her hands and asked innocently:

“They must be very happy now, right? Because they'll never be unhappy again!”

‘What a useful fool.’

Le Blanc sneered inwardly.

But her smile grew even gentler, “Of course, Your Majesty.”

“This is all because of your benevolence, which gave them the opportunity to achieve eternal happiness. You are the greatest blessing in this world.”

Under Le Blanc's service,

Xi Xi changed into a gorgeous, jewel-encrusted princess dress specially made for “National Celebration Day.”

And rode in a floating carriage pulled by a unicorn.

Towards Central Square.

Xi Xi leaned out the window.

Excitedly waving to the fanatically cheering citizens below.

While Le Blanc sat behind her.

The moment Xi Xi turned her head,

Her smile seamlessly switched to gentle and amiable.

But when Xi Xi turned her head back, the smile immediately vanished.

Replaced by

A deep-seated look in her eyes

Of intoxication with power and extreme contempt for these foolish people.

She remembered her predecessor.

That annoying old man, the former Minister of Finance.

He had merely, after an all-night session of formulating the “Happiness Budget,”

In an empty corridor,

Displayed a non-standard smile for three seconds, caused by fatigue.

Le Blanc immediately appeared before him with the Happiness Guard.

And personally put the “Eternal Smile Corrector” on him, on charges of “Class A Mental Pollution.”

And what about herself?

On the very night she brought down that old man,

In her own room,

She had displayed an ambitious and cold smile, due to having seized great power.

That kind of smile

Definitely did not belong to the “happiness” defined by the Happiness Field.

Yet the field had no reaction to her.

Because she was “sharing the Empress's worries,” she was “The Definitor of happiness,” not a “follower.”

This law had always just been a ladder for her to climb.

This celebration was also a brilliant move in her political career.

This opportunity was so good that she found it somewhat unbelievable.

It was as if, in the unseen, a deity was helping her, allowing her to use this opportunity

To completely purge the last batch of disobedient generals in the military.

‘Once the celebration is over, the entire Kingdom of Joy will belong to me, Le Blanc, alone.’

The floating carriage slowly descended.

Stopping behind the giant platform in Central Square.

Outside, there was a tumultuous roar of cheers.

Countless ribbons and balloons rose into the sky.

The deafening Ode to Joy echoed through the heavens.

“Go, my dearest Empress.”

Le Blanc straightened Xi Xi's skirt and whispered in her ear.

“Go and receive the love of your subjects, go and declare to the whole world that our kingdom will forever be free of sorrow!”

“Mm!”

Xi Xi nodded heavily.

She took a deep breath, with the purest, most brilliant smile.

Holding up her skirt, she walked step by step onto the platform.

The spotlight shone on her.

She was like an angel descended to earth, lovely, sacred, and flawless.

She waved her small hand.

The frenzied atmosphere of the entire square reached its peak.

And in different corners of the square,

In the densest parts of the crowd,

Dozens of people, also with “standard smiles” on their faces,

Their hands had quietly reached into their bosoms.

The Hawk Faction Leader stared intently at the girl on the stage, clenching the high-explosive talisman hidden in his sleeve.

Gu Yanci closed his eyes, unable to watch further.

Energy flowed continuously from his fingertips, already prepared for the plan.

Ye Liuli's figure merged with the deepest shadows beneath the platform.

On the rooftop of the commercial building opposite,

Ling Xi and Cang Xuan, drenched in sweat, completed the final arrangements for the eerie ritual.

Ye Qiong concealed all his aura, merging into the crowd, continuously approaching Empress Xi Xi...

And behind a most inconspicuous trash can,

Chen Mo raised his head.

In his eyes, which had seen hell,

There was no hatred, no anger.

Only the sorrow belonging to an apostle of the Demon God.

On the stage,

Xi Xi still wore a sweet smile.

She raised the golden microphone.

Her clear voice, amplified by the speakers, spread throughout the square:

“My dearest subjects! Today is a good day that deserves to be celebrated forever! I declare, National Celebration Day...”

Before her words finished,

The assassination began.