[I feel the investors’ gazes.]
Having unlocked financing spanning over ten-thousand-year tempos, the Modal Aura, now receiving investments from many, conveyed some slight, unusual sensations.
It was as if many people had placed their lives into his hands, hoping to change their future destinies.
What he held was the expectation of many toward the next temporal node.
[The investors seek to obtain new hope born from the existence of the Demon Hero Hall.]
The model clearly read the insights deep within his consciousness—insights that had not yet been fully formed into concrete thoughts by his brain. But when these heartvoices sounded so swiftly, they resonated perfectly with the depths of his inner feelings.
{Zicang, are you okay?}
{Pull yourself together. I think Morrie would want you to carry on, forging ahead with the future he helped change.}
Gray, white, and silvery-white threads flickered on the chest.
Yang Zicang let out a soft exhale, sweeping his gaze across the growing crowd and at the stone door, now cracked with even wider fissures.
Another umbilical cord extended from the crack in the door, and just as a monster’s figure began to emerge, a spear roared in from the spinning black hole, blasting it into dust—only a timing sequence exceeding ten thousand years could utterly destroy it.
[Li Xiuxiao has invested 1000N in me.]
[Robert Berg has invested 1320 in me.]
[Wei Xinxin has invested 200N in me.]
[Li Mingzhe has invested 166.2N in me.]
[Wang Xiuquan is investing in me…]
As soon as part of the timing sequence was used, these ever-ready investments surged in like a swarm. People across the city had been persistently trying to invest, and in just a millisecond’s reaction time, the fourth ten-thousand-year timing sequence was replenished.
“That’s insane.”
“What?”
“I couldn’t even squeeze in a minute.”
Not far outside the Demon Blade Hall, the crowd murmured noisily.
“I’ve been watching; just moments ago, a few small motes of light almost instantly poured into Yang Zicang’s chest. Ugh, if only investments in this world wouldn’t go to that new Fate Track…”
“With so many people waiting to invest, his timing sequence runs out of steam? Man, that’s nuts—no wonder the designer’s personally hitting the field!”
“I’d say just one of him could match an entire top-tier squad.”
“That kid getting locked up for five days is actually an understatement.”
People in cities everywhere were glued to this screen; they never expected that the Timing Sequence Manager in Yang Zicang’s team would die inside this Demon Blade Hall, at the hands of some nobody they’d never even heard of.
And that little-known youth, who couldn’t even defeat someone as renowned as Yang Zicang, had his shattered body fragments retract and reassemble right before everyone’s eyes, restoring itself! This scene shocked hundreds of thousands of people—truly, this broken, mysterious world still harbored abilities that made everyone covet even more.
While everyone was speculating and discussing, all the jagged stone pillars in the Demon Hero Hall suddenly shook as one, and dust fell in showers like rain beyond the eaves.
Countless surges of demonic energy rose up, soaring straight into the sky.
A dark red pair of eyes vaguely formed within the pillar of light in the sky. This stir could be seen even kilometers away outside the Demon Hero Hall. The gathered crowd immediately fled in all directions, shouting and scrambling to escape.
“Defender!”
“Indeed, we can’t underestimate the Defender at all!”
Only now did everyone truly recall the legend of how the Defender once destroyed several cities.
At that moment, those who had felt confident about the final duel began to doubt again:
Can that youth pull it off?
Can the team from just one city do it?
Such overwhelming demonic power—
In the demon-throat antechamber.
As an earthquake-like tremor spread, those of lower power instantly felt their skin convulse in the terrifying piercing shriek, on the verge of explosion.
Suddenly, several continuous waves of red energy swept over everyone there, easing their suffering considerably.
A member of the team exclaimed delightedly:
“This Ability Sphere is really handy.”
This ability seemed somewhat familiar, as if it belonged to a certain shed owner from the Lost Frequency Land… Yang Zicang had no time to think further; amidst the murmurs of the Eyeball Speaker, from the half-open doorway, a sinister red eye manifested into an eerie humanoid figure, a faint smile on its lips as it gazed outward.
Everyone inside the hall felt as if they were being watched by an utterly terrifying, monstrous creature.
It curled its slender finger toward the crowd outside, then turned and, with one hand on the balustrade, walked away into the deep darkness.
As the Defender left through the door, the eyes of some who had just entered the hall suddenly glazed over. They seemed enveloped by a tangible sonic wave, as their skin, internal organs, blood, even eyeballs and brains violently trembled in resonance.
A faint crimson, turbulent light twisted and emerged around the silhouettes of these individuals, like a boiling crimson sea.
“Watch out!” Yang Zicang warned loudly.
Over a dozen crimson wave force fields were quickly deployed, but some still failed to escape in time.
“Ahh!”
Thump! Thump!
Several screams rang out.
The final voices of countless deceased individuals echoed within the eyeball, as an eerie aura rippled through the hall, filled with flickering lights, human figures, and chaos.
{Sekber’s Stone Gate has absorbed three synchronized “Collective Gaze Entities.”}
The humanoid energy bodies rose from the corpses like a twisted army of phantoms, eerily crossing the hall and slipping through the gaps in the door, following the figure of this Defender.
“Such terrifying resonance power!”
“Those who aren’t strong enough, retreat quickly! People still entering from outside, be careful—better turn back! This Defender can’t be defeated by sheer numbers!”
Not only can you not rely on numbers, but the more people there are, the stronger it becomes!
“Is the Defender creating its own minions?!”
“What do we do!” Many people stared at the Ability Sphere in panic.
Soon, mental messages came from outside: the way back through the water passage is now impassable.
Either defeat it or die here…
Cheng Yunze looked up at the eyeball, which was pulsing and bulging overhead. As he stared back, the eyeball, tinged with a faint red glow, also met his gaze. This red glow seemed like the twisted energy outline enveloping the Eyeball Speaker.
[I am being watched by a mature Defender.]
“Such immense pressure.”
Wang Chun and others, covered in dirt, gathered around Cheng Yunze.
Others clustered around Yang Zicang, whose body exuded an air of solemn coldness.
“Yang Zicang, do you have a way to deal with that thing?” they asked expectantly.
Only near these two obvious strong figures did they feel a psychological sense of safety, which indeed made their minds more resilient in resisting the synchronization process.
Seeing this chaos, Cheng Yunze looked over and said, “Yang Zicang, let’s go in together.”
Whether inside or outside the hall, everyone who witnessed this scene fixed their gaze on Cheng Yunze’s words. There was no need to wait for Yang Zicang’s consent; they all unanimously agreed that this proposal was the best course of action under the current circumstances.
A contemplative expression appeared on Yang Zicang’s face.
“Let’s make a gentleman’s agreement, witnessed by these hundreds of thousands of people,” Cheng Yunze added. “During the upcoming battle, we won’t attack each other. As for victory or defeat, we’ll determine the ultimate winner by whoever contributes the most to defeating the Defender. How about it?”
A buzz of discussion erupted around them.
{Mr. Zicang, this proposal is great.}
{Captain Yang, our Red Eng Pounds Group will continue to support you. We’ve prepared a ten-thousand-year temporal principal for you!}
{The Monster Hunter Alliance board approves this proposal.}
{From the Zhao Anlong Old World Supporters Association, representative Wang Laoliu expresses approval! Bro, agree to it!}
All kinds of chaotic threads burst outward like a turbulent tide, surging and carrying countless strands of information with them.
Yang Zicang accurately connected to Luo Bin’s model, and the fat man inside the Mordo Fang Chamber at the other end quickly spoke:
{Based on the intelligence gathered so far, this Defender is a monster related to mental control and the loss of frequency in the deceased’s conscious intentions turning into energy. Zicang, you… maybe you should consider it.}
Yang Zicang nodded. He looked at Shao Min and said, “Let me borrow your weapon.”
“No need to say ‘borrow,’” Shao Min replied politely, solemnly handing out this sleeve-hiding sword. “It was originally a gentleman from your side who left it.”
A glimmer of light flashed through Yang Zicang’s eyes.
In the sensory image, Luo Bin, still within the Mordo Fang Chamber, sighed and propped his forehead with his hand in dismay.
{That sword was originally a gift from me to Li Mi, but that kid… sigh, I won’t dare sell him intelligence in the future.}
Yang Zicang suddenly felt a surge of warmth welling up in his stifled heart, rekindling a sense of drive within emotions that had been sealed off due to the shock of his close friend’s death—everyone was silently executing their own plans. Li Mi had no idea the Demon Hero Hall would appear, nor did he know he would acquire the Hollow Zero War Artifact, yet from the moment he witnessed the terror of the satellite, everything that happened today had already been brewing.
Even without these conditions, that man would still find other pivotal points in the torrent of time to land a fatal blow and turn the tide.
And as for himself, Hong Haocheng…
In Yang Zicang’s mind, the image of that man gazing back at him surfaced.
He, too, would undoubtedly find him at a certain point in the future, making that person pay the most severe price for what he had done today.
In the torrent of the future, he too might find a certain possible point — if this world was truly one of magic, and if one could truly achieve the state of that incarnate saint of the Sacred earth — perhaps he himself could also find the possibility to reverse someone’s destiny…
Grip p ing the short sword in his hand, he gazed at Cheng Yunze, who was engulfed by the Skeleton of Light.
The two universally recognized strongest individuals of the city locked eyes with each other.
“Then let victory be decided through our shared battle.”
In Pivot Town, under the gaze of over thirty cities and hundreds of thousands of people, countless temporal investors prepared their pooled extra lifespans and watched as they jointly pushed open that door.
[I, the Great Quadrilateral, as the one who opened the door to Sekberd, am entitled to know that the “Nameless Guardian of Sekberd” has taken control of two Type/Unit Detachments.]
[The “Nameless Guardian of Sekberd” will command his own private legion and shall attain the qualifications to become the Master of Mo Ying Hall.]
The two exchanged surprised glances. An army?
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