The sounds of fierce fighting resounded across the land.
Beneath the City Platform, the laborers, sallow-faced and thin as sticks, looked lost and helpless. Battles raged on all sides; they couldn’t even find a way out.
But on the City Platform, a Priest wearing a Faceless Mask shouted to those below, “Those chosen by Heaven, regardless of status, any of you can beco the Divine Child…”
These words reached the laborers’ ears.
“Can I… Can I really…?”
“Can we beco the Divine Child too?”
The Priest raised his head, spread his arms wide, and declared in a loud voice, “Climb up! Climb onto the platform! Climb up!”
The Priest’s voice chard the crowd below the City Platform, stirring the deepest desires within their hearts.
“Climb up…”
“Climb up…”
One after another, bodies began crawling toward the City Platform. So climbed by struggling and stepping on others.
“Only I get to climb up! Move!”
Amid the frantic screams, chaos erupted completely beneath the City Platform.
“You don’t deserve this! I am the Divine Child!”
Dust plud from the City Platform base; shouts and roars echoed everywhere.
So were dazed, so confused. Then, sudden chaos followed. A scuffle started among a few dozen people and quickly spread to hundreds, then thousands.
They charged the City Platform like madn. One who climbed up got dragged down by the next. Before long, so were trampled to death under stampeding feet. Others slamd against the platform stones and fell back, stiffening monts later.
“Mine! It’s mine!”
“Get off!”
Fighting, greed, killing, conflict…
These emotions spread over the City Platform. The roars and battle screams rged into a terrifying roar.
Gou’er looked around dazedly.
He took a step and rushed toward the base of the City Platform.
“Stop fighting!”
“Stop!”
He yelled and tried pulling people apart.
He was kicked down by soone. “Get lost!”
Gou’er fell to the ground. When he looked up, he saw a seemingly endless crush of people.
For every step gained up the platform, dozens of corpses served as stepping stones trampled upon.
Gou’er slumped to the ground, his eyes filled with despair and helplessness.
It was all destroyed…
Everything…
“Why did it beco like this? Why…” Gou’er mumbled. The feeling of utter powerlessness devoured him inside.
He had endured all hardship, changed people’s hearts. Yet it all shattered into nothing with just a few words.
Chen Changsheng walked slowly over and stood behind Gou’er.
He lifted his head and looked at the Priest on the City Platform.
The Priest sensed that gaze. His eyes t those of the man standing below.
The Priest paid it no mind. Instead, he gazed into the distance where tens of thousands gathered amid sounds of carnage. Through the Faceless Mask, his eyes seed… hopeful. Hopeful for more deaths.
Utterly defeated, Gou’er turned to Chen Changsheng. “Can you save them? Please… Please save them!”
Chen Changsheng looked down at him and said, “The fighting below this City Platform and beyond is born from human desire. It has nothing to do with you, or with . They chose life or death themselves. Those who won’t save themselves cannot be saved by anyone.”
In that sa instant, the light vanished from Gou’er’s eyes. His spirit shattered completely.
…
The great battle below and above the City Platform raged for two days.
Countless corpses piled up at its base, forming mounds soaked in the thick stench of blood.
No sound remained. Not even beasts or birds dared approach this place.
Layered corpses covered the City Platform’s steps. So died showing not regret, only resentnt for their fate.
Death Qi saturated the air. Vultures circled above, dropping to tear chunks of rotting flesh away with each pass.
The Priest sat on the City Platform, looking silently at the scene below.
“It’s over…”
A flicker of pity touched the Priest’s eyes, but a faint trace of ruthlessness soon replaced it.
He lowered his gaze, scanning the base of the City Platform.
“Hmm?”
The Priest froze. He had spotted that one figure again — the man wearing the Blue Robe.
Beside that man stood the boy who hadn’t been much younger than a child — Gou’er.
“Stay put,” Chen Changsheng told Gou’er.
He then stepped toward the City Platform and climbed its stairs.
The Priest stood up, frowning as he saw the stranger cross ten steps in the blink of an eye.
In monts, Chen Changsheng was directly in front of him. Up close, the Priest finally saw his face clearly.
“Might I ask who you are…?” the Priest began.
“A man outside the ordinary world.” Chen Changsheng replied.
The Priest contemplated this. He chose not to push for more answers.
Chen Changsheng turned to gaze toward the horizon. His vision was captured entirely by a sea of densely packed corpses.
“Anyone left alive?” Chen Changsheng asked.
“Yes,” the Priest replied. “Perhaps very soon, soone will crawl out from those piles of the dead.”
Chen Changsheng nodded. “I have so questions. Would you enlighten ?”
“Ask away,” the Priest offered. He felt wary of this man, unable to see through him and thus unwilling to act recklessly.
“This was a sche, right?” Chen Changsheng stated.
The Priest didn’t hide it. “Yes.”
“Such heavy Karmic Retribution,” Chen Changsheng observed. “After this, your existence will surely crumble away.”
The Priest remained silent for a mont. “It is my Destiny,” he answered at last. “As it is for anyone who ever ascends this City Platform.”
The Priest reached up and slowly removed his Faceless Mask.
Chen Changsheng saw an aged face beneath it. Across the man’s neck stretched a painstakingly clear scar.
“ng Qiuliang,” the Priest announced his na.
“A fine na,” Chen Changsheng said. He then asked, “But I am curious. What did you an by Destiny?”
ng Qiuliang’s voice sounded old. He explained further, “This Heaven and Earth hold far more complexity than surface appearances suggest. Calamities — natural and man-made — are but flickers upon an iceberg. To preserve the Mortal World — the world still inhabited — This is the Divine Child’s Destiny.”
A case for the truth of the sword.
Chen Changsheng grasped pieces of it now. He understood.
“But haven’t too many died?” he questioned.
“Not at all.”
In ng Qiuliang’s judgnt, if this patch of Heaven and Earth truly collapsed? That would an hope had died completely. So what if over ten thousand died? Or even tens of thousands? It was a small price.
While they talked, movent finally rustled among a distant pile of dead bodies.
A person missing an arm dragged himself free of the corpses. Braced by a heavy Spear, he fixed his gaze onto the far City Platform. Step by painstaking step, he pulled himself toward it.
“Soone ca,” Chen Changsheng noted.
ng Qiuliang observed the man critically. “Good potential,” he assessed.
Chen Changsheng watched him inch closer, leaning hard on his Spear. He fell several tis pulling up onto the City Platform stairs. Each ti, he fought back to his feet.
ng Qiuliang turned to look at Chen Changsheng. “My death is approaching. Could you possibly deliver one unfinished ssage for ?”
“To whom?” asked Chen Changsheng.
“To an old lady nad Ning Yuan,” ng Qiuliang answered quietly. He paused heavily. “Just tell her… Just tell…”
He closed his eyes. “Forget it,” he abandoned his words abruptly. “Don’t say anything.”
“Why?”
“Just… forget it.”
ng Qiuliang sighed deeply. He looked back at Chen Changsheng. “You should leave quickly. Once the City Platform’s barrier activates,” he warned, “life itself will be extinguished for miles in every direction. You will perish.”
Chen Changsheng shook his head. “I,” he said calmly, “shall stand right here and watch.”
ng Qiuliang paused. He offered no further persuasion.
“As you wish.”
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