Chapter 184
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Chapter 184: Chu Yuanqing Takes Action, the Power of Calamity God, "King of Salt"
On the stage, the melody of "Wannabe" swirled around.
The virtual scene ran according to a fixed program, and the bright neon lights shone like blossoming fireworks, with colorful lights appearing to light up the sky. The mist from the dry ice rose gently, blending with the changing images on the projection screen, creating a hazy yet lively atmosphere that enveloped the entire venue.
This is the greatness of "Dazzling Stage." Even if we set aside the highly skilled performers, such advanced stage technology alone is enough to give the audience the most immersive stage experience.
Xu Ling sat in the middle of the audience. From this distance, she couldn’t see the little idols’ faces clearly. The only way to see her beloved Little Sakura and the increasingly enchanting Pure White Witch was through the three giant broadcast screens floating in the air.
"So beautiful! The little sisters are all dressed so nicely today."
"Miyuki, don’t cry. You’ve come such a long way. Isn’t it to smile while standing on this stage?"
"And Honey Qing, why does she seem to be smiling so gently today? It feels like she is being spoiled, almost like she is being hugged and protected by her mother."
The girl’s heart was filled with rich emotions. Countless thoughts flashed through her mind, ultimately transforming into excitement for the stage. She looked at the distant, unreachable person, showing an excited smile, taking out her phone to record, while her other hand was ready to wave her support stick.
And similar things were happening among all the audience members.
The reason is simple. The five contestants on stage are very popular. Just being on stage itself can create a lot of excitement and anticipation. Since there are fans for them in the audience, the cheers calling out their names are like waves crashing together, surrounding the stage in the center.
At the same time, the notes of the music rise and fall.
Chu Yuanqing looked at the audience, glowing in the colors of the glow sticks, shining like stars in the night sky. The gold in her eyes slowly blended together, matching her instinctive awareness and the extrasensory perception of the Pure White Witch, as if clearing away the morning fog and revealing the truth of the world.
Threads.
Countless threads.
The five thousand audience members were tangled in transparent threads, the ends stretching out like branches of a tree, reaching up to the dome of the venue, like a thousand-armed Buddha supporting the nest-shaped hall, even extending beyond it, creating a realm of unknown powers.
Chu Yuanqing understood the truth.
It’s understandable that Dazzling Stage can’t compete against this disaster beast.
This is a rare regulation-type Disaster. It not only treats these audience members as containers but also hides its true nature, power, and presence within the souls of humans. It cunningly uses this to create a domain, amplifying its power and turning the away game into a home game.
Now, the venue for the performance is no longer under official control.
It can be said that unless there is a special blessing or technology aimed at this, no one can find its trace, even if time were to repeat itself.
At that moment, the hidden disaster aura began to rise and fall with the music notes, as if it had found a target, unable to hold back its instinct to kill, writhing and twisting in a chaotic manner.
"I found you…"
"I found you…"
"I found you!!!"
These five thousand threads intertwined and mixed together, like a messy sketch from an animation, forced to escape from various containers, trying to recreate the monster that devoured Xie Qing Yu.
Chu Yuanqing could even see that within it, a half-snarl of a beast was struggling to break free, looking at her with blood-red eyes.
And sadly,
The Pure White Witch did not pay any attention to this. She adorned her pure white lashes beautifully and her expression did not change at all. As the music started, she moved like a dedicated girl group member, skillfully dancing with her teammates and changing positions.
The young girl’s lovely calves curved enticingly, tensing or trembling with her movements, making her body’s graceful outline particularly tempting, while her skirt fluttered, revealing a charming allure.
Chu Yuanqing seemed completely unafraid that the other might take action; she was focused on the performance on stage, occasionally glancing at the audience and smiling at fans who called her name.
The many threads in the air stopped weaving, like a black mist that surged like waves suddenly halting. The terrifying beast’s face, which seemed ready to break free, appeared as if frozen, like a special audience member watching the stage.
This was a very strange and disjointed scene, one side represented the beauty and peace of the idol stage, while the other side was a terrifying disaster that could swallow nearly a hundred million people in Sea City at any moment; the two should never coexist in the same space.
But that was the reality.
If Xie Qing Yu saw this scene, it would probably shock her for a whole year.
After all, even though the gradually emerging "Heart Flow" by Kirimi Miyuki, Xie Qingxuan, Tang Liuli, and Chu Wang Shu could be considered a prototype of Shining Magic and could have some destructive effect on Disaster, it was not nearly enough to threaten a high-level disaster beast at this stage.
Yet this monster unexpectedly stopped its attack, and when it shifted to the part centered around Chu Yuanqing, it let out a large amount of disaster aura along the threads, flowing back into the bodies of the audience, even retreating into the subconscious of those present, creating a magical moment.
But if viewed from the perspective of a nightmare, it is completely different.
From different angles, the beautiful girl shown through the audience’s eyes has a necklace that rises and falls with her movements, shining with a delicate glow, resembling the essence of… [pure white].
It is well known that disaster beasts have no emotions and do not understand fear.
However, they can imitate.
Nightmares are among them; as a high-risk disaster, it only needs to consume the dreams of a few people to gain almost equal intelligence and mimic their thought patterns.
To fulfill the mission given by the divine, this disaster beast has been lurking in Sea City, continuously developing, and has grown to the extent of constructing a mirrored Sea City and controlling a captain-level witch, learning every human strength and weakness meticulously.
For example: cunning schemes.
The words the nightmare says to Xie Qing Yu are its imitation of humans; it learned the concept of speech, thus mimicking this action in a very sly way, using the interrupted speech of a low-level disaster beast to reveal explosive information.
In other words—found the essence of [pure white].
In fact, this action was very successful; otherwise, Xie Qing Yu would not have had such a terrible start with her eyes being taken.
With advantages, there are naturally also disadvantages.
Humans are afraid of dying and also afraid of being unfree.
The nightmares that imitate humans also reflect this bad trait.
What if? What if we touch the aura of pure white and cause the high wall to suppress us, forcing us to go back to being an egg, once again becoming a Calamity Seed at the mercy of humans?
We will die, we will be unfree.
So, we must stay away.
If we see nightmares as a program, then the "bad trait" is like an information virus, forcing it to crash, stopping its actions, and even choosing to retreat.
But a disaster beast is still a disaster beast.
When the nightmare realized that imitating others would not bring benefits, it began to independently hunt down the virus, forgetting human thought patterns.
In the next moment, the audience was like a sea of light in the galaxy, rising with countless threads, engulfed by writhing shadows, and a loud buzzing filled everyone’s ears, replacing Tang Liuli’s singing on stage.
The disaster beast no longer hid itself, making its first appearance in the material world!
Meanwhile, the Dream Weaver, high above, caught a glimpse of the nightmare’s true form.
The eyes of this super AI drooped as its core code wove its body, mixed with the magic of the mind, beginning to create flesh that seemed real and unreal, as if shedding a skin, trying to reignite true humanity and unleash its final means.
Below the stage, all the spectators became the sacrifices of the nightmare shedding its skin.
After the disaster beast stopped imitating human thought, it abandoned the cunning idea of taking the audience as hostages, directly interrupting the live stage, using disaster aura pollution to force everyone to mutate and fall into a terrifying disaster.
Within just a few breaths, five thousand spectators would explode like fireworks, resulting in a massive transformation and becoming a new Disaster.
Xu Ling’s gaze faded, her soul tainted by disaster aura, as her blood and genes began to experience intense dull pain, and her consciousness felt a great bewilderment.
The sharp edge that changed my life for the past ten years squeezed into my easy daily life of editing, managing the fan support group, going crazy during live streams, studying for exams, teasing my cousin, hugging my dinosaur pillow, and drinking milk tea, bringing with it despair named fear and death in the happiest moments.
The girl didn’t understand what was happening; she only knew it felt like she was going to die suddenly. When she looked up, she no longer saw the distant stage or the giant screen showing her little idol’s dance but a terrifying creature that twisted like dark clouds, as if it were a Chimaera that was hard to describe.
How strange, is this an illusion?
It was just an ordinary day, why is it like this?
And oddly, at that moment, the image frozen in her mind was of Chu Yuanqing’s gentle smile as she looked down.
If only…
It would be great if Honey Qing was okay.
Xu Ling thought this, then felt how silly this idea was—if Honey Tong knew she was thinking this before she died, she would definitely get scolded!
And yet, this thought would not go away.
The smile of the Pure White Witch was so bright, so bright that when thoughts were about to fade away, it was like a mirage, coloring her eyes with lovely gold.
At this moment, on the stage.
Tang Liuli caught a glimpse of this magical yet terrifying scene. She continued to sing by instinct, her dance steps still perfect, but her mind was overwhelmed with frightening thoughts, making her doubt everything.
Huh? Does that woman’s family illness still exist?
Or maybe, because she has imagined Honey Qing too many times recently, her imagination has become so strong that it can affect reality?
Something is not right, something is not right, something is not right.
Is this fake? Is this fake? Is this fake?
The green-eyed cat was confused. If it weren’t for the different sense of time in [Heart Flow] and the Perfect Sphere blessed by Little Sakura, she should have been standing still, crashing into the other little idols.
With her incredible wisdom, she quickly figured out the most reasonable answer.
This must be the villain here to trouble the magical girl! Maybe it’s the bad thing that hurt Honey Qing badly!
Xie Qingxuan did not stop dancing; instead, she returned to a meditative view. She thought of similar possibilities, but more images burst into her mind uncontrollably, spreading a feeling of extreme unease in her chest.
Kirimi Miyuki felt confused. She could keep dancing, driven by her idol duty of the Perfect Interpretation Method, almost forcing down all the unnecessary emotions from the stage, continuing to dance by inertia.
Chu Wang Shu was the most frightened of them all. The other three had at least heard about the existence of the magical girl from Chu Yuanqing, but she knew nothing about supernatural things, and her worldview shattered in an instant, leaving her unsure of what to do.
Almost instinctively, all four of them looked toward the heart of the team after realizing what was happening.
Chu Yuanqing’s expression remained calm. Her eyes, dark and deep, sparkled like gemstones with a golden hue. Her hair, tied with a ribbon, returned to its original appearance, pure and flawless like the snow on Tianshan. She had revealed her true self, shedding her disguise.
At that moment, even as if facing a global crisis, the beauty of the Pure White Witch left everyone in awe.
The corners of Chu Yuanqing’s eyes lifted slightly as she gave her daughter and the little idols a reassuring smile. The Lantern Gem, disguised like a Möbius ring, also took on corresponding colors, radiating warmth that embraced all negative emotions and touched everyone’s hearts.
Then, her firm yet gentle voice, through the intertwining of their emotions, reached the ears of the four.
"Don’t be afraid, everyone just needs to keep jumping like we practiced before. I will protect you."
It’s just a simple sentence.
Tang Liuli overcame her fear, steadied her emotions, and continued to sing.
Xie Qingxuan decided to step away from meditation, awkwardly continuing to bring her feelings into this wonderful stage.
Kirimi Miyuki smiled and fully immersed herself in this stage she had longed for seven years.
Chu Wang Shu lost herself in this wonderful feeling of safety, ignoring the huge wriggling thing, allowing the Phosphorescent Tide to surge further away.
Thus, the four-way Heart Flow, which had been on the brink of breaking, began to intertwine again, continuing to climb with extreme focus.
Chu Yuanqing glanced down at her nightmare, plucking the strings deep within her soul, as the pure white flowers quietly bloomed. The patterns of Patronus Magic became warm, creating a sacred yet lonely melody that resonated through the world, blending into Tang Liuli’s song, and finally weaving a gentle white light like a sigh into the four-way heart flow.
—Pure White Ode.
At this moment, like a fire boiling cold water, the stage atmosphere created by the entire team is covered by a vast expanse of pure white. The rest of the emotions turn into firewood to fuel the flames, all shaped by Chu Yuanqing’s will, creating a dreamlike epic scene.
In that instant, the disaster beast called Nightmare was swallowed by the past forged on the stage.
It was a giant tree with roots deep in the ground, burying everything at the bottom, its branches touching the clouds. It was so huge that it seemed able to hold an entire world, with magnificent palaces built on its leaves, where giants a hundred meters tall could live.
Under Yggdrasil, rotting snakes flowed, symbolizing death, while the black dragon gnawed at the poison beneath the bark. Its flesh crumbled like torn paper, and its scaled wings piled high with human corpses, each tremor echoing with the sorrowful cries of lost souls.
In the Hall of Heroes, many examples of the blessed are displayed.
In the Temple of the Gods, there are piles of divine embryos and giant eggs.
The disaster giant, like a torrent, continues to crawl from the depths, moving toward life only to trample it on its journey.
Everything freezes for a moment, as the deepest roots at the bottom are swallowed by the pale light, followed by billions of unhatched embryos and eggs, and then hundreds of millions of hectares of branches and trunks turned into crumbling salt blocks like spilled ink.
A thunderous roar from the ocean depths stretches to the clouds, like an exciting symphony, dedicated to Youmir at the center of the World Tree.
The boy’s skin was full of cracks, and his eyes sparkled like broken glass. His body continued to twist in the fiery heat and salty air, as if he might die at any moment.
This is the price of using the power of the "King of Salt," carrying endless salt until the end of life.
This forgotten, lonely hero listened to the funeral song, looked up at the scene, and whispered softly:
"Laevateinn."
Thus, his unending will once again paid the price to bear the consequences of myths, unleashing a sea of red and black flames that swallowed the towering salt pillars and officially began the attack on this "Calamity God," causing the whole ocean and the broken, ruined land to be drenched in a heavy rain of salt and ashes.
In a daze, the whisper of the edelweiss floated through the air.
In the real world, nightmares had no physical form, turning into solid blocks of salt, which burned away in the flames.
This process was terrifying.
The salt spread through the threads of fate, as flames climbed and tangled with destiny.
Nightmares hidden in Sea City, Daxia, Donghong Federation, and even in countless other countries, are being pulled back through threads to fill their original forms, continuously cycling in a death of salting and burning.
This is the change of [Pure White Ode] after it officially became Patronus Magic. It uses a stage as a ritual, with emotions, magic, and brilliance as fuel, bringing past experiences to life and reflecting them onto any target.
This ability, when used by other witches, is completely tasteless and too valuable to waste.
But when used by Chu Yuanqing, who has defeated thirteen [Calamity Gods], it becomes an ultimate Shining Magic beyond all global standards.
Although it cannot recreate even a millionth of the kill of [Youmir], both the authority of the [King of Salt] and the full destructive power of Levatin are so high that even the complete Supreme Disaster Beast would retreat, let alone the nightmares that are a few ranks lower.
"It can’t continue like this."
Chu Yuanqing feels her depleted magic and realizes she no longer has the strength to pull all the nightmare’s fragments over to defeat them. She must save some energy to activate the remaining functions of [Pure White Ode] to protect the thousands of audience members watching the performance.
Thus, the fragments of the nightmare being pulled stopped salting and burning. Taking advantage of this gap, it turned into countless threads, slipping out beyond the stage and audience area, racing toward the outside of the venue.
The Pure White Witch glanced in the direction of the escaping nightmare, pouring all her remaining magic into the Flower of the Soul, allowing the pure white light to rise like a great sun, shining over the entire audience area, filling everyone’s consciousness with unparalleled warmth.
At this point, the disaster aura in the soul melted away like snow and ice.
The crisis is over.
