Chapter 417
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Chapter 417: An Unfinished Game
The Broken Paradise.
After saying goodbye to Michelle, everything around became quiet, and in that silence, the sound of Crouching Tiger yawning could be heard.
It watched from the side, then lazily lifted its hind leg, scratching its ear, and gave a human-like glance.
Bai Wei glared at it and said, "If you keep looking at me like that, do you believe I’ll smack you with a slipper?"
Crouching Tiger made a little sound and withdrew its subtle gaze.
Bai Wei gave the big orange a gentle pat and said, "Everyone who should come has arrived. Let’s go and welcome them."
When Crouching Tiger heard this, he became energetic and no longer lazy. In an instant, he transformed from a tired cat into the king of all animals, unstoppable in battle.
There are some people approaching.
The direction Bai Wei was looking at before was exactly where this group of people came from.
He didn’t stay in the broken paradise because he thought the scenery was nice or because he wanted to have fun. He stayed because there were still many troubles that hadn’t been resolved.
In fact, many troubles have not been solved yet.
The whole situation is not simple.
This sudden surge of gray tide brought a large crowd into the broken paradise, including the intruding Europa people and Bai Wei… The majority of the people are intruders, innocent victims caught up in it.
There are two groups who truly want to retrieve the fragments of the broken paradise.
The first group of people is undoubtedly the Sacred Religion. The saintess and templars have been sent here to collect pieces of heaven and further complete the heavenly scroll.
The second group of people have predicted the ebb and flow of the gray tide in advance, and have arranged themselves in advance, waiting to enter the Broken Paradise and hide.
In other words, they are followers of the evil god.
A large crowd has appeared ahead, numbering at least three figures.
They have gathered in groups, wearing different clothes and coming from different places, but they have all received the same instruction.
Only one group can remain unaffected by the gray tide and synchronize information to various parts of the world… the followers of the evil god.
All of the people here are followers of the evil god.
They accepted the instructions from the evil god, entered Broken Paradise, broke free from the heavenly illusion, and then gathered together.
The gray tide surged, pulling many people into Broken Paradise. Once they enter here, the mystical is suppressed indiscriminately. The original group leaders are absent, and Broken Paradise becomes a battleground where everyone fights to become the administrator, like a chicken fight for dominance over the plain.
Besides the leftover bits, there were a lot of scary followers of the evil god. They gathered together in groups, and even the leftover bits, who usually fought by themselves, were terrified when they saw them. It was like an elephant not daring to provoke an ant army.
They marched towards the center in an orderly manner, converging from four different directions. Their movements were a bit slow at the beginning, but when they gathered in large numbers, they formed a crushing force. Their speed kept increasing, and they reached the foot of the mountain after nine hours.
There were thousands of these dark and overwhelming people, coming from all over the world as followers of the evil god. Their numbers were astonishingly high.
Among them, there were seven leaders, and the one at the front held a gospel book that Bai Wei had seen before. The book had one eye slightly open.
After obtaining a piece of heaven’s fragment, Bai Wei immediately noticed something unusual within heaven. The creatures entering here seemed to be on a list.
The presence of the followers of the evil god was as conspicuous as the red-named monsters on the list.
Excluding everyone else, Bai Wei singled out these people.
He wanted to figure out which evil god it was this time, and what they were planning.
The most likely possibility was that they were after the heaven’s fragment. With thousands of followers of the evil god, even four templars couldn’t possibly stop them. Facing a second-grade heroic spirit, they might not even have the ability to handle the situation. The evil god must have left something behind as a last resort.
At first it seems reasonable, but upon closer thought, the evil god’s plans are not just limited to this.
The evil god’s plan should also include the northern region of Yingzhou, known as Hokkaido. According to their calculations, when the Gray Tide devours Hokkaido, they can release their followers there, achieving two goals with one stone.
But why Hokkaido? What does the evil god want from there?
Bai Wei had a guess.
Once they enter the Broken Paradise, outside forces cannot interfere, not even powerful heroic spirits. The shogun of Yingzhou cannot cut through space and the Gray Tide, and the protection of the Heroic Spirit Principle makes it impossible for him to enter this place. It is a natural hunting ground.
Looking at it from this perspective, the large number of cultists and their systematic advancement also becomes logical.
First of all, the progress of the evil god’s followers is not fast. It took them nine hours to reach the foot of Heaven’s Mountain, and the Blind Saintess is the fastest among them. With this speed, they cannot catch up to the Sacred Religion’s retrieval speed, so they can only hope someone else competes for it.
But this possibility is also slim. In fact, apart from Alena, no one voluntarily came to the central position. Most people are confused, only Bai Wei has reached the central area.
Even if Alena luckily arrived here, she cannot win against the Sacred Religion’s saintess. Instead, she would just be giving herself away.
There are two possibilities that come out from here.
First, the evil god predicted that Bai Wei would defeat the saintess and take the fragments of heaven.
Second, the evil god didn’t anticipate this change and didn’t care that the Sacred Religion got the fragments of heaven.
If it is the first possibility, it doesn’t make much sense.
Since the evil god saw Bai Wei as a threat, the hunting he went through was likely a feint. After weighing the pros and cons, the evil god gave up decades of work on the mainland and trapped him, preventing him from going to Hokkaido.
By staying on the mainland, the whirlpool would be isolated by the shogun, and he would not deliberately enter the whirlpool. It’s highly likely that he wouldn’t know either.
The evil god made significant sacrifices and concessions, but failed to achieve the desired results. If he had intentionally allowed Bai Wei to enter the Broken Paradise from the beginning, he wouldn’t have had to go through so much trouble and would have avoided losing decades of his hard work.
The former bishop in the yellow robe was furious and knew he was already abandoned, thinking about risking his life.
So the first possibility doesn’t make much sense. The evil god is probably unwilling for Bai Wei to enter the Broken Paradise, as it would disrupt its plans. Even if adjustments are made later, it would never want Bai Wei to control the fragments of heaven.
Here, let’s go back to the second possibility.
That means, the evil god actually doesn’t care who gets the fragments of heaven. Even if the Sacred Religion retrieves them, it doesn’t affect its plan.
The evil god’s goal is not the fragments of paradise, or rather, its top priority is not to seize Broken Paradise.
At the same time, it doesn’t want Bai Wei to enter the Broken Paradise. Once the emperor breaks in and takes the fragments of paradise, there is a high possibility that it will disrupt the evil god’s original plan.
What is the specific difference?
It lies in how they handle the fragments of heaven after obtaining them.
After Bai Wei obtains the fragments of heaven, he will immediately clear the area and evacuate everyone, ensuring everyone’s chance of survival.
But the Sacred Religion won’t. After they obtain the fragments of heaven, they will exterminate all non-human races and detain the remaining people.
This is not an instantaneous process, it needs more time, at least one or two days are far from enough to complete it.
And what the cult of the evil god needed to strive for was this difference in time.
You must know, the cult of the evil god could never convert to the Sacred Religion. In the eyes of the Sacred Religion, these people were also seen as a poison and destined to be cleansed.
Death was almost certain for them in the end. They were thrown in here as pawns. If they wanted to survive, they had to seize the fragments of heaven.
However, they leisurely walked, taking a full nine hours. What were they doing all along the way? Gathering supplies maybe?
However, Broken Paradise was separate from the world. Even the touch of the evil god couldn’t reach it. It was originally an extraterrestrial being, with limited interference in the material realm. It was extremely faint even from a distance, let alone see it behind a thicker layer, not to mention touching it.
The evil god couldn’t interfere, and the followers advanced slowly. They knew they would die, but what kind of instructions did the evil god write in the gospel?
Bai Wei had already guessed the general idea.
— Murder.
In Hokkaido, there was a person who the evil god would spare no expense, even if a thousand warriors died, to kill.
For this, it made a series of preparations, waiting for the rise of the gray tide, spreading chess pieces all over the world, setting up a trap for Bai Wei or even personally going to severely harm him, and also using the external policy strategy of the Sacred Religion.
These steps were all calculated by the otherworldly malevolent god, like a chess player carefully preparing traps, not hesitating to sacrifice two pawns to lure the opponent into the trap, to devour this person.
Who exactly is the planner that the evil god went to such great lengths for?
It should not be as simple as just a horse, chariot, or elephant… Could it be a general? Which general could it be?
Even though Bai Wei could deduce up to this point, he still didn’t reach the final answer. He wanted to find the answer from this group of evil god cult followers.
Perhaps it will be written in the Gospel.
But in the next moment, Bai Wei’s pupils suddenly contracted.
In front of him, a grand collective sacrifice began unfolding.
When thousands of evil god cult followers approached the sanctuary of heaven, they looked up, not at the gateway behind Bai Wei leading to the outside world, but at the endless abyss in front of them. Then, the first person in the front row stepped forward, and they jumped down, falling into the abyss, sinking into the deep sea, disappearing into nothingness!
Bai Wei suddenly became silent, realizing that he couldn’t find the answer.
The evil god didn’t care about this loss at all, and naturally didn’t leave any flaws.
The followers of the evil god were unaware of whether their mission was successful or a failure. On their way here, they killed everyone they could see and stopped at the base of the mountain. By reaching this point, all the preliminary tasks had already been completed.
The final step was the simplest and craziest thing… death.
Even though the door to life was within reach, not many followers looked over. These people were the most fanatical among the fanatics, abandoning the opportunity to escape behind Bai Wei and resolutely choosing self-destruction to prove their belief in the existence of the supernatural.
Bai Wei had been waiting for so long that he couldn’t help feeling frustrated by underestimating the enemy’s limits. The next moment, all his frustration transformed into a surge of anger and resentment.
Regardless of whether they win or lose, the act of destroying their own pieces is very evil god-like, making it the most detestable method in this disaster.
Bai Wei no longer watched the ongoing death ritual, and walked towards the portal. Coldness spread in his eyes, as he won this round, yet it wasn’t satisfying.
"This round isn’t over yet…!"