76: Cognitive nuclear explosion! The Queen chuckled: "This happiness is a curse! This world is a prison!"

Facing Le Blanc’s full-power, fatal strike, the entire space trembled.

That was no ordinary power, but an attack that touched upon the level of laws, capable of breaking the very foundation of reality!

Everyone in the Joint Squad fell into despair.

Every single person in the Joint Squad felt that suffocating despair.

In their pupils, the increasingly brilliant, rainbow-colored whip, streaking across the sky, was reflected.

It carried a shriek that could destroy everything, becoming the only existence in their vision, mercilessly devouring all hope.

Yet, Gu Yanci, the target of the attack, made a move that no one could comprehend.

He did not attempt to condense any form of defensive barrier, nor did he make any move to evade.

Not even a trace of energy symbolizing resistance emerged.

He just stood there quietly, as if he had given up all struggle, frankly exposing his flesh and blood body to that law-level attack capable of annihilating everything.

He closed his eyes.

No defense, no evasion, not even a decent resistance.

He seemed to have given up on life, completely exposing his body to that destructive law-level attack.

‘He’s crazy! He’s gone mad!’

This thought simultaneously arose in the hearts of Le Blanc and the Joint Squad.

However, just as the light whip was about to touch his forehead, the unceasing “Humanity’s Grand Chapter” divine power within Gu Yanci erupted in a decisive manner, in the completely opposite direction!

“Boom—!”

An indescribable torrent burst forth from Gu Yanci’s body.

That was not mere light or energy, but a living epic!

Within it were countless phantoms of human civilizations, from birth to destruction; the machinations of emperors and generals, the joys and sorrows of peddlers, the first cry of a newborn, the last sigh of a white-haired elder… countless cries, laughs, roars, love words, battle songs, laments.

They converged into a symphony of souls transcending time and space.

That power contained “birth, old age, sickness, death, love, hate, anger, delusion”… it was the most complete and authentic source of humanity’s joys and sorrows in the mortal world!

That power transcended the barrier of space.

The target of this torrent was not Le Blanc, nor any enemy, but the Joy Empress, Xi Xi, who was within arm’s reach, with Ye Liuli’s dagger pressed against her throat, the center of the world!

“Buzz—!”

That endless, formless, intangible torrent of humanity transcended physical barriers and poured unreservedly into Xi Xi’s forehead.

Her body trembled violently.

Her pure, glass-like eyes lost focus.

Her consciousness was forcibly dragged by this crude power, plunging into the deepest sea of memory, sealed personally by the God of Calamity Su Ke Ke… [Xi Xi’s Memory · Act One]

In a cozy room filled with warm sunlight, a little girl with cute pigtails was crying loudly, her small face pale with fright, looking at the scattered fragments of a broken ceramic vase on the floor.

Tears rolled down like broken pearls.

A gentle figure ran over and held her tightly in her arms.

That was Su Ke Ke in her “youth.”

Her face showed no coldness of a deity, only the loving kindness of a mother.

“Don’t be scared, Mommy’s little darling,” she gently patted the girl’s back and softly comforted her, “If the vase breaks, we’ll buy another one, but if my Xi Xi cries, Mommy will feel heartache. It’s okay, just cry it out, cry away all the unhappiness.”

In her mother’s embrace, the little girl’s crying gradually stopped, and she sobbed herself to sleep… The scene shifted, still the same room.

The little girl held a small cat tightly in her arms, its body already cold and stiff, its fur dull.

Her tears flowed like a bursting dam, rolling down her cheeks in large drops, overcome with sorrow.

But this time, Su Ke Ke, who rushed over, had a face filled with unprecedented terror and resistance.

“No crying! Xi Xi! Mommy forbids you to cry!”

She no longer embraced the girl, but instead covered her mouth tightly with trembling hands, as if the tears flowing were not tears but deadly poison.

“Tears are bad things! They bring misfortune, they make you sick, they make you suffer! Mommy forbids you to shed another tear!”

From that day on, the world changed.

All flowers that would wither were replaced with artificial silk flowers that never faded.

All pets that would experience birth, old age, sickness, and death were forbidden from Xi Xi’s sight.

All sad fairy tales and histories were rewritten into happy endings.

Su Ke Ke built her an absolutely safe candy house, devoid of any negative emotions.

The last time Xi Xi tried to cry was because she felt so blocked and uncomfortable inside, and she didn’t understand why.

But just as the first tear was about to fall, a warm and overbearing divine power surged from her mother, instantly evaporating her tears, soothing the sadness in her heart, and forcibly injecting a hollow and cloying “happiness.”

She wanted to cry, but found that she could no longer cry.

The end of the memory was fixated on Su Ke Ke holding an expressionless Xi Xi, her face displaying a twisted smile mixed with endless pity, mad obsession, and a sense of relief.

“See, my darling,” she whispered, “From now on, you will never suffer again. Mommy will create a Perfect World for you, where there is only happiness.”

…In reality, on the high platform.

Xi Xi’s body began to tremble violently.

The eternal, perfect smile on her face showed cracks for the first time.

A deep pain and struggle emerged in her hollow eyes.

And at the same moment,

“Pfft—!”

Le Blanc’s unstoppable rainbow-colored whip, with the shriek of collapsing laws, pierced through Gu Yanci’s chest without any hindrance.

Gu Yanci’s body was pierced by the law-light whip, blood splattering.

But on his face, a relieved smile appeared.

He used himself as bait, successfully planting the seed named “Truth” into Xi Xi’s sea of memory.

And now, this seed was frantically taking root and sprouting, dragging her into deeper, wider corridors of memory.

[Xi Xi’s Memory · Act Two]

The scene before her eyes changed rapidly.

She was no longer the girl deprived of the right to cry, but had become the nominal supreme Empress of this “World of Joy.”

Her mother, Su Ke Ke, constantly told her that her sole duty and highest glory was to spread this “eternal happiness,” bestowed by her mother, as a supreme grace and blessing to every corner of the kingdom’s territory, benefiting every citizen.

So, she began to “inspect” her Perfect World.

She once visited the kingdom’s most renowned painter.

His studio was filled with brightly colored, radiant works.

Every figure in every painting wore the most brilliant, happiest smile.

He was known as the “Saintly Hand of Spreading Joy.”

But Xi Xi, in an unnoticed corner, saw the painter himself.

He was facing a blank canvas, a standard smile on his face.

His brush trembled in his hand, drawing the same golden, smiling sun again and again.

There was no sparkle in his eyes, only a dead, empty void.

A crystal-clear drop of liquid slid from the corner of his eye, but the moment it left his skin, with a “puff,” it was instantly evaporated by an invisible Happiness Field, unable to leave even a tear stain.

Her mother, Su Ke Ke, appeared behind her at some point and gently explained:

“See, my child. I ‘cured’ this master’s ‘melancholy.’ In the past, he always wanted to paint dark, sad things to express pain, which was a misguided path for art.”

“Now, I have purified his soul, and from now on, what he creates will always be pure, unadulterated beauty.”

…She also personally presented the “Medal of Supreme Happiness” to a “gloriously sacrificed” Smile Guard captain.

At the grand celebration, the captain’s widow and young son were brought before her.

The young mother wore the most vibrant and dazzling gown, her face etched with the most appropriate, exemplary perfect smile.

However, upon closer inspection, the muscles around her eyes twitched uncontrollably, violently, and at a high frequency.

It was a physiological spasm that could not be completely suppressed, even with all her will.

Her child, a boy of only five or six, innocently looked up and asked her:

“Your Majesty, the teacher said Daddy went to a happier place, and we should be proud and happy for him.”

“But… why does my heart hurt so much here?”

Xi Xi could not answer.

And her mother, Su Ke Ke, squatted down.

She lovingly stroked the boy’s head and said in the gentlest voice in the world:

“That’s not pain, child. That’s happiness overflowing, and your body is trying to adapt to this glorious feeling. You must learn to enjoy it.”

…The more “happiness” she witnessed, the deeper her confusion became.

She had seen a scientist, who couldn’t help but frown and sigh after a series of failed crucial experiments, arrested on the spot by the patrolling Smile Guard for “spreading negative emotions and emotional pollution,” and escorted for “happiness perspective reshaping and correction.”

She had seen a newlywed couple, who had just completed their wedding, cry tears of joy, overcome with emotion, while exchanging vows.

As a result, they were deemed “emotionally unstable with potential risks” by the Guard maintaining “happiness order” on site, and required immediate “one-week observation and emotional stabilization treatment.”

She had seen countless people, day in and day out, gather punctually in the square, letting out uniform, loud, yet soulless collective laughter at the “Daily Happiness Index” and “Ode to Joy” broadcast over the loudspeakers.

These fragments of memory, under the impact of Gu Yanci’s “torrent of humanity,” were forcibly pieced together.

The painter’s emptiness, the widow’s twitching, the child’s confusion, the scientist’s fear… all these distorted images ultimately overlapped with the small, silenced, forbidden-to-cry self deep within her memory.

A terrifying thought that overturned her entire world exploded.

‘What Mother gave me… was not love.’

‘This eternal happiness… is a curse.’

‘This Perfect World… is a prison for me and everyone!’

The moment this realization clearly emerged in her consciousness, Xi Xi’s soul let out its first, and most desolate, yet silent, cry in her life!

Boom—!!!

In the World of Joy, on the high platform, everyone staggered.

They all felt an indescribable, terrifying tremor originating from the very core of the world!

Xi Xi suddenly opened her eyes!

In those eyes, what burned was no longer childish innocence and obedience, but endless, bottomless sorrow, and a towering rage capable of incinerating the entire false paradise!

Centered on her petite body, the “Happiness Field” law, which maintained the operation of the entire “World of Joy,” began to run amok in an unprecedented and completely uncontrolled, frenzied, and destructive manner!