177: Chapter 177: Bai Ye's Art of Degradation

Extreme North, Bone Castle.

Bai Ye strode out of the secret room and stretched with an exaggerated yawn.

His bones crackled, and Divine Power surged through his limbs and bones.

"Refreshing!"

He exhaled a long, turbid breath.

The complex power contained in several World Hearts had been mostly digested by him.

The remaining residual energy had all been converted into the foundation of his Divine Domain of the same attribute.

After another period of natural assimilation, or waiting for the next time acceleration, his Divine Fire would be able to complete a qualitative transformation.

The previous feeling of bloating and pain from absorbing too much was swept away.

He now felt full of inexhaustible strength throughout his body, still wanting more.

Bai Ye shifted his gaze.

In the center of the main hall, the eight-meter-long Bone Dragon was lying on the ground, scraping the floor tiles with its claws.

Hearing the movement, the Bone Dragon raised its head, its blue Soul fire flickering twice.

Bai Ye walked over.

The Bone Dragon consciously lowered its head.

Bai Ye pulled out the crumpled piece of parchment from between its ribs.

He unfolded it and took a look.

On the back, there was only a single blood-red character that pierced through the paper: "Approved."

Bai Ye grinned and snapped the parchment, making it pop.

"See that?" He patted the Bone Dragon's hard skull. "I told you Lin Yuan is a sensible kid. In critical moments, you still have to rely on a sworn brother like me."

The flames in the Bone Dragon's eye sockets flickered, looking slightly guilty.

Bai Ye didn't notice the Bone Dragon's anomaly; he pressed his right hand on the center of the Bone Dragon's brow.

As an undead creation he had made with Divine Art, the Bone Dragon's Soul fire was connected to his Origin.

"Let me see what the situation is like in the Central Plains right now."

Bai Ye closed his eyes, his Divine Power probing into the Bone Dragon's memory core.

Images flooded his mind.

Gray skies, a black army covering the mountains and plains.

Blood Slaughter infantry forming iron-walled phalanxes, mutated Magic Blade Bats releasing ultrasonic waves in the sky, Liquid Metal Crabs destroying foundations.

And the Six-Winged Insect King hanging high in the sky, controlling the overall situation with a mental network.

At the end of the vision was a dark red giant beast over five hundred meters tall.

That "Demon God" kicked a mountain thousands of meters high, tore through the Void Realm, and swallowed the entire fortress along with the treasury into a black hole.

The smile on Bai Ye's face froze.

The hand he had pressed on the Bone Dragon's brow trembled slightly.

"What the hell..."

Bai Ye stood dumbfounded on the spot, his head buzzing.

He had thought that since Lin Yuan got the "General" identity card, he would inevitably become a target for everyone.

He would definitely be besieged by surrounding indigenous powerhouses and face secret calculations from other classmates.

Even if Lin Yuan were strong, he could only rely on the city to hold on, struggling to support himself.

But what kind of defense was this?

Lin Yuan was walking sideways in the Central Plains, grinding every living thing that could breathe into the ground.

The speed and destructive power of that army were enough to make even the Abyss call it an ancestor.

Bai Ye withdrew his hand, his expression strange to the extreme.

He looked at the Bone Dragon lying on the ground, then at the parchment in his hand.

What did the letter say again?

"I heard that you are attracting too much attention and fear being plotted against by villains, so I have been unable to sleep at night."

Bai Ye covered his face.

This letter was too embarrassing. When Lin Yuan read this letter, he must have been laughing at him.

However, the embarrassment only lasted for a short three seconds.

Bai Ye lowered his hand, the strangeness on his face turning into unconcealable pride.

"Oh my, I really am a Genius!" Bai Ye slapped his thigh and paced back and forth in the hall.

"What is called having the Wisdom Eye? This is called having the Wisdom Eye!"

He talked to himself, his voice getting louder and louder, "Out of the twenty-eight people in the class, who can have my foresight, who can have my decisiveness?"

"Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao that blockhead must still be plotting how to deal with Lin Yuan."

"Cheng E that gloomy guy must be hiding in some corner brewing evil schemes."

"Only me! Only I, Bai Ye, have seen through the essential laws of this Rubiks Cube World."

"Clinging to Lin Yuan's thigh is the only password to clearing the game!"

The more Bai Ye thought about it, the more comfortable he felt.

He had long seen that Lin Yuan was an unreasonable pervert, and the facts now proved that his judgment was completely correct.

"Right, alliance is alliance, but I can't forget business." Bai Ye stopped, his expression turning serious.

He must keep an eye on the movements of other classmates, as one of the values of being Lin Yuan's ally.

At the same time, his own territory was facing a big problem.

During the few days he was in seclusion digesting the World Hearts, the Extreme North, because of its remote location, had not suffered any invasion from external enemies.

This allowed him to safely pass through his weakest period.

But his identity card was [Bone Lord].

There was a lack of Life Qi in his territory.

If he didn't plunder the surrounding flesh and blood resources regularly, the undead under him would riot.

Having not been fed for the past few days, the thousands of undead cannon fodder outside the city had already begun to be restless, their Soul fires frequently flickering with tyrannical light.

"Go." Bai Ye kicked the Bone Dragon's ribs. "Take the brothers outside the city and sweep the surroundings."

"As long as it's a living thing with flesh and blood, drag them all back for me."

The Bone Dragon received the order, flapped its wings, and flew out of the hall.

After arranging the trivial matters, Bai Ye leaned back in his chair, preparing to plan his next move.

Just then, a thought suddenly popped into his mind.

"Lin Yuan actually isn't anything special."

"He's just relying on his perverted dependents. Once I fully integrate the World Hearts and develop the Bone City..."

"Once the million-strong undead army comes out, his hundreds of thousands of Abyssal Blood Army are nothing."

"The number one in this Rubiks Cube World will be mine sooner or later. All of them will eventually kneel at my feet."

This thought appeared without warning, and naturally.

Bai Ye even couldn't help but sneer, his eyes revealing a contempt for the world.

The next second.

Bai Ye shuddered.

He sat up straight abruptly, cold sweat soaking his back.

"Something is wrong."

Bai Ye gritted his teeth, his eyes filled with suspicion.

He knew himself too well.

He was a shrewd and pragmatic person.

If he couldn't beat them, he would lay low; if he could, he would step on them.

How could he have such an arrogant thought of "I am the best in the world, and Lin Yuan is nothing"?

That five-hundred-meter-tall giant beast of Lin Yuan's could kick his Bone City into powder with one foot.

Why would he look down on Lin Yuan?

"It's arrogance."

Bai Ye closed his eyes and looked into his Sea of Consciousness.

He saw that the edges of his originally pure gray-white Divine Fire were dyed with a layer of dark black halo at some point.

This layer of halo was subtly affecting his logic of thinking.

It amplified his self-confidence and distorted his cognition.

It made him become omnipotent and arrogant.

"That was close."

Bai Ye opened his eyes and let out a long breath.

If it weren't for the fact that he had just come out of seclusion and his mental state was at its sharpest Peak.

If it weren't for the fact that he had seen the Bone Dragon's memories and had an intuitive, fearful understanding of Lin Yuan's strength.

He wouldn't have been able to detect this change in mentality at all.

"Interesting." Bai Ye whispered slowly.

As a direct descendant of a large Family, Bai Ye had seen more of the world than ordinary students.

Various mechanisms of the Rubiks Cube World flashed through his mind.

Identity cards, resource competition, power of life and death, and these negative emotions that seeped into the Soul unconsciously.

"So that's how it is."

Bai Ye laughed, easily seeing through the true intent of this high-level Divine Artifact.

"What lord hegemony, what resource grabbing, are all just appearances."

"This is a test of Heart-Nature for the Origin of the Divine Fire!"

Deities have long lifespans and control billions of living beings.

It is easiest to lose oneself in endless power and time, and become a slave to desire.

The Rubiks Cube World is using extreme environments to catalyze the dark side of their hearts.

Bliss, greed, arrogance, rage...

If they can't carry it, the Divine Fire is polluted, and no matter how strong they are, they will eventually become a madman.

If they carry it through, the Heart-Nature transforms, and they can go further on the road of future Deities.

"Want to scheme against me? No way."

Bai Ye calmed down, mobilized his Divine Power, and condensed gray-white blades.

He cut at that layer of dark black halo of arrogance in his Sea of Consciousness.

He kept chanting in his heart:

"I am just a piece of trash, I am garbage."

"Lin Yuan can crush me with one finger."

"I want to cling to his thigh, I want to keep a low profile."

He used self-deprecation to fight against that pervasive arrogance.

...

At the same time.

Golden Toad City, inside the City Lord's main hall.

On the ground, countless empty jade bottles and wooden boxes were scattered.

Residues of various high-level Medicinal Pills and withered roots of Spiritual Plants covered the entire jade steps.

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao was curled up on the City Lord's throne made of pure gold.

The entire hall was empty.

All the mechanical Deities had been driven out by her.

She was soaked in cold sweat, her hands gripping the armrests of the throne tightly.

Her fingernails broke due to excessive force, and blood dripped from the patterns of the pure gold.

"Get out... from my brain... get out!"

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao gritted her teeth and roared word by word.

She closed her eyes, experiencing a painful torture that ordinary people could not imagine.

In her Sea of Consciousness.

The data Divine Fire, which was like a brilliant galaxy, had already turned muddy in half.

The source of pollution representing "greed" was a mass of poisonous liquid with life, which was devouring her remaining sanity.

She had just swallowed all the heart-clearing Medicinal Pills in the treasury.

She chewed up more than a dozen high-level Spiritual Plants that could stabilize the Divine Fire.

The medicinal power rampaged in her body, tearing her Meridians.

It was useless.

The pollution of greed acted directly on the Origin, and drugs could not stop it at all.

"Not enough... I need more..."

"Golden Toad City is mine... The Central Plains is mine... The whole world should be mine!"

"Whoever dares to grab my things, I will kill them! Turn them into scrap iron!"

Greedy thoughts kept rising in her mind.

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao tried her best to mobilize the unpolluted half of her Divine Fire, building a data firewall, trying to isolate the poison.

The two forces clashed in the Sea of Consciousness, and the pain made her body go limp.

"I am Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao... I am a Genius of Starry Sky University..."

"I will never... become a madman who only knows how to rob!"

She used her remaining sanity to repeat her name over and over again, trying to anchor herself.

But the erosion of greed was too fast.

She had previously killed indigenous people, confiscated chambers of commerce, and even personally killed Zhou Yan.

Every act of obeying greed became nourishment for this mass of poison.

The poison had grown into an uncontrollable beast.

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao slowly opened her eyes.

Her appearance had completely changed.

The top student Vice Monitor who wore black-rimmed glasses, was calm and wise, and even had a trace of coldness, had disappeared.

At this moment, it was a face that was enchanting to the extreme and also evil to the extreme.

The previously clear eyes were covered with gray-black patterns.

Deep in the pupils, it was full of possessiveness for everything.

The corners of her mouth were raised high, outlining a neurotic smile.

Appearance comes from the heart.

When the Divine Fire was polluted by greed, her Physical Body also underwent mutation.

"Hehe... Hehehe..."

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao let out a low laugh.

She let go of the armrests, looking at her blood-stained fingernails.

"Why resist?"

"If you want something, just go grab it. This is what a Deity should do."

The line of defense of sanity was collapsing.

At this moment.

In the shadows of the corner of the hall, there were ripples.

"Ding—"

A silver coin was thrown into the air and landed steadily in a pale hand.

Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao turned her head and looked in the direction the sound came from.

Killing intent erupted!

"Who! Get out!"

The shadows dissipated.

Cheng E, wearing a black trench coat and messy short hair, walked out slowly with his hands in his pockets.

He ignored Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao's look that could eat people.

He raised his head, his lifeless dead fish eyes looking up and down at Vice Monitor Chu Xiaoxiao curled up on the throne.

Looking at the discarded Medicinal Pills on the ground.

Looking at her enchanting and sickly face.

Looking at the extremely chaotic fluctuations of Divine Power around her.

Cheng E stopped and stood at an absolutely safe distance.

"Tsk tsk tsk."

Cheng E played with the coin in his hand, making a series of emotionless exclamations.

"Vice Monitor, you look really ugly right now."

He pulled a mocking smile at the corner of his mouth.

"It seems that you are not having a very smooth time as the City Lord of Golden Toad City."