Chapter Forty-Five: The Gods' Revelry, Beyond Mortal Resistance

"I have some questions about this world. Tell me, what exactly are the gods? What is their true purpose?"

"That’s a secret known only to the Chosen Speakers. You don’t have the strength for it yet—you're not qualified to know."

"Say that again, I dare you?"

Xiao Zi’s expression turned cold in an instant, his voice dripping with menace. He unleashed the Wail of the Abyss. Having reached Level 3, this ability was now tremendously powerful; with just the first word, Si Liren’s eyes began to tremble.

Xiao Zi’s words echoed over and over in her mind. For a moment, she actually felt the presence of death.

When she regained her senses, she looked at the vengeful spirit before her with newfound respect. In her understanding, anomalous beings didn’t have the power to “level up” their abilities as if cheating the system—the only way to strengthen one’s skills was to grow more powerful oneself.

Which meant, under normal circumstances, the potency of an ability should be directly proportional to the user’s strength.

Yet the aura Xiao Zi emanated was only D-rank, but the sensation from his skill was nothing like that—it felt at least C-rank, maybe even B-rank.

This left Si Liren utterly perplexed.

Moreover, even if a D-rank anomalous being had extraordinary luck and talent, defeating an A-rank anomalous being was virtually impossible—especially not just any A-rank, but one possessing a powerful Forbidden Domain.

To still come out victorious in such a situation meant this vengeful spirit standing before her must possess some extraordinary trump card.

After much consideration, knowing that displeasing him today might spell her death, she finally spoke.

"You ask about the gods—are you curious about the truth of this world?"

Xiao Zi nodded. "So? What is the truth? Why do anomalous beings like me exist? And what is your purpose here?"

"Actually, this world is far more complicated than you might imagine. There are countless gods here.

"In fact, this is the continuation of a feud spanning three entire eras!"

"Oh? How so?"

Si Liren’s words completely overturned Xiao Zi’s previous conjectures, making his interest surge.

"The first two eras are long past; the world has been restarted each time. I don't know the full details, only that, ages ago, the world underwent a mysterious resurgence—anomalous beings appeared then as well.

"In the end, the most powerful anomalous being transformed into the Demon God of Fear and confronted the gods in the heavens. Somehow, that led to the world being restarted.

"You must have heard of the Demon God of Fear, right? The one who issues commands to anomalous beings at their birth."

Indeed, Xiao Zi had heard about the Demon God of Fear—from Killer Rabbit, in fact. Supposedly, when an anomalous being is born, it is this entity who imparts the laws of their kind.

He nodded. "Yes, and then?"

"These anomalous beings split into two factions: one playing humanity as their pawns, the other using anomalous beings as theirs, and so began a struggle spanning three eras.

"But the gods can't participate in this contest directly. The stronger gods select certain humans and set them trials, turning these chosen few into their Chosen Speakers.

"The gods assign specific missions to their Speakers, making them more powerful. My mission is to aid anomalous beings."

Hearing this, Xiao Zi had more or less pieced things together, but remained a little puzzled. "So your god stands against humanity, and yet you still serve as their Speaker?"

At his words, Si Liren’s face showed a clear trace of sorrow. After a long pause, she replied quietly.

"The gods revel while mortals… mortals are powerless to resist."

There was resignation in her voice, but Xiao Zi only laughed. "So you chose to betray your own kind?"

"I am neither ungrateful nor submissive. Each of us is nothing more than a beast trapped in a cage, having given up the struggle."

With that, she pointed at the door. "Are you going to let me go now?"

At the moment, there was no energy fluctuation within Si Liren’s body—an aftereffect of having overexerted herself the night before. Who knew how long it would take her to recover.

In other words, she was of no use to him right now.

But her duty was to assist anomalous beings.

After what happened with the Tainted One, he understood all too well that his enemies weren’t just humans and so-called gods, but also other anomalous beings.

Not every anomalous being would attack their own kind, but it was impossible to say that, in the future, some anomalous being aided by Si Liren wouldn’t become his enemy.

Yet, even so, Xiao Zi let her leave. For last night, while Si Liren was unconscious, he had planted a demonic seed within her.

This seed was a bomb, buried deep in her body, holding her life in his grasp.

If, one day, she turned against him, he could simply end her life.

After Si Liren left, Wang Hui prepared to go to school as well.

Upon arriving, he looked around and saw that Yuan Zhikong was already present, but Li Dongxu was still nowhere to be seen.

He walked up to Yuan Zhikong and asked, "So? Nothing happened after that, right?"

Yuan Zhikong’s expression was grim. "When I got home yesterday, I started researching these creatures. I spent the whole night digging and actually found some things."

"Oh? Tell me more," Wang Hui’s curiosity was piqued.

"These creatures grow stronger by absorbing human fear. That night, we must have provided plenty of terror, which is probably why it let us go.

"But since it didn't kill us then, it's clear it isn't especially bloodthirsty, so we should be fine."

He glanced over at Li Dongxu’s desk. "You think that wimp is too scared to come to school?"

Wang Hui thought back. He’d actually walked with Li Dongxu yesterday, and the poor guy had wet himself halfway home from fright. Fearing he’d give the kid a trauma, Xiao Zi had simply let them go.

If he were told Li Dongxu was too scared to come to school, he’d probably believe it.

But that would be a hassle—while at least they wouldn’t have to repeat the experience, the absence of that kid would seriously slow the spread of the story.

However, before long, Li Dongxu came shuffling into the classroom, face long and eyes brimming with tears, and headed straight for Wang Hui and Yuan Zhikong, looking utterly miserable.

"What’s wrong?" Wang Hui asked, puzzled.

"Don’t ask. I told my mom there was a ghost at school and I wasn’t going. She beat me up, then drove me here herself."

Wang Hui and Yuan Zhikong: "…"