51: Chapter 51 Tragic

Dead silence was the only lingering sound between heaven and earth after the sacrifice and the divine might.

The wind stopped, the clouds dispersed, and even the floating dust in the air seemed to have been paused by an invisible hand.

Upon the battlefield, only charred earth, molten iron, and those unyielding postures frozen in their final moments remained.

Lu Bei's spirit body hovered above the ruins of the ancestral hall. After that grand [Incense Merit Dharma Body] dissipated, it did not leave him weak again; instead, it left behind an unprecedented sense of fullness and weight.

The core of his spirit body, the memorial tablet that had turned into Glazed Divine Gold, was establishing a deep resonance with him, as if they shared the same bloodline.

His "divine sense" was no longer confined to the small area around the ancestral hall; it could now easily envelop the entire battlefield and even reach much further away.

A hundred miles to the east, in a market town that had just experienced a riot, a man named Chen Kang sat slumped in a chair, looking dejected. The water mirror in front of him had long since shattered, but the shock and upheaval in his eyes were clearer than any image in the mirror.

He repeatedly murmured those two words: "Madman..."

Further away, a remnant soul wrapped in a faint light was frantically tearing through space, escaping toward the unknown at the cost of burning its essence.

Within that remnant soul, besides the fear of life and death, there was an obsession deep in its bones, tightly guarding the cold moon soul stone in its arms as if it were the sole purpose of its existence.

Deep beneath this battlefield, the sleeping Energy of the Earth Veins, which had been disturbed by the blood sacrifice array set up by the Demon Sovereign, was now flowing slowly like a docile lamb, even showing a hint of closeness and awe.

All of this surged into Lu Bei's perception like a tide, clear and real, no longer separated by a hazy "system" interface.

But he had no heart to focus on these things.

His consciousness was immersed in the "Sea of Data Stars" left behind after the sacrifice.

It wasn't cold code, but... memories, emotions, and the echoes of will.

He saw it.

He saw Charge to the End grin and show a mouthful of white teeth before pressing the sacrifice button. Behind the wild words on the world channel was a message in the private chat channel that would never be sent, addressed to Immovable as a Mountain.

"Logged off? Waiting for you, the usual place, for a drink."

He saw Immovable as a Mountain looking at the sky for the last time amidst a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. Beneath that calm gaze was a silent mutter toward a certain direction.

"You reckless fool... next life, it's my turn to charge once."

He could even "hear" Keyboard Warrior Governing the Nation frantically conceptualizing a final masterpiece titled "On the Self-Cultivation of the fourth calamity and the Sustainable Exploitation of NPCs" before turning into specks of light;

He could "smell" the lingering fragrance of a young girl on the [Star Feather Rosy Garment] inside the bag sacrificed by Skillful Hands Mending—a garment with garbage stats but a beautiful appearance that she had stayed up countless nights to sew.

And Appearance is Justice's obsession with the golden coffin, so pure it contained not a single impurity.

These vivid, burning, messy, yet incredibly real fragments of emotion now became a part of Lu Bei.

His spirit body was no longer just a lonely soul from another world; it was injected with the "humanity" of thousands of players.

This gave him, for the first time, a completely different understanding of the title Filial Sons and Virtuous Grandchildren.

It was no longer just a faction label in the quest system, but a... heavy responsibility that needed to be answered with everything.

He slowly reached out and made a grasping motion in the air.

A wisp of golden Power Of Will, purer than incense, condensed in his palm.

This was the final gift left by the players, the proof of their existence.

"key of the divine prison... Old Day Evil God..."

Lu Bei murmured softly. In his mind, the grand picture of the dark prison intertwined with the desolation of Night Radiance's escape.

It turned out that from the very beginning, he wasn't after some great ambition, but was just a pitiful man who wanted to save his lover.

What he sought was the divine power behind the key, the hope that could reverse the dissipation of a soul.

Lu Bei suddenly found it somewhat ironic.

A so-called Giant of the Demonic Path, yet his actions were actually for redemption.

While he himself, the "ancestor" regarded by the players as their backing and faith, was using their "deaths" to trade for his own survival.

"However..."

Lu Bei's eyes suddenly became sharp, dispelling that fleeting moment of confusion.

"Your game isn't over yet."

He turned, his gaze falling on the divine gold memorial tablet floating in the center of the ruins, quietly emitting a seven-colored glazed radiance.

This was the new server core, the foundation for reshaping everything.

He could feel that those broken links had not completely disappeared; instead, they had turned into countless threads as thin as silk, their other ends extending into the endless void, waiting to be "activated" again.

But activation required energy.

An energy far more advanced than ordinary incense, capable of crossing world barriers.

Lu Bei took a deep breath, and his entire spirit body turned into a streak of light, plunging into the divine gold memorial tablet without hesitation.

*Buzz—*

His consciousness felt as if it had fallen into a vast galaxy.

Inside the tablet was an unimaginably grand space, where countless runes and chains of laws circled like stars, forming a set of "rules" precise to the extreme.

This was the true form of his "Golden Finger."

And now, the core area of these rules was dim, its energy nearly exhausted.

That world-shaking finger had nearly exhausted all the power obtained from the sacrifice.

Lu Bei did not hesitate.

He used his newborn spirit body, fused with the players' will, as the final fuel.

"In my name, I recast the path for your return!"

His divine soul began to burn.

It was a sharp pain originating from the very essence of his soul, as if his own existence were being crushed inch by inch and then decomposed into the most basic particles.

But along with the sharp pain came a joy of creation.

He saw that as his divine soul burned, the dim area at the core of the memorial tablet began to be lit up bit by bit.

Those silent chains of laws began to flow again, emitting a hum.

He extended his perception, following those countless faint threads into that cold and dead void.

He was calling out.

Using those familiar IDs, using those memories branded deep within his soul.

"I Love Exploiting Loopholes... didn't you want to know if the beams of this ancestral hall could be torn down for firewood? Come back, and I'll let you try."

"War God Number One... didn't you say that the feeling of dying once was quite novel? I'll give you another chance."

"Infrastructure Maniac... the Chen family's territory is still waiting for you to plan and construct."

"Demolition Office Director..."

"Charge to the End..."

"Immovable as a Mountain..."

One name after another, one thought after another, was given power by his burning soul, crossing the world barriers and being transmitted.

Time lost its meaning during this process.

It could have been an instant, or it could have been ten million years.

When Lu Bei felt his spirit body was about to burn out and sink into eternal silence.

Suddenly.

In that dead void, one of the thinnest and most inconspicuous threads... trembled slightly.

Immediately after, at the end of that thread, a spark so faint it could go out at any moment quietly lit up.

The light of that spark illuminated an ID.

[Gossip Reporter Little Trumpet]