Ren Yi felt a wave of speechless exasperation wash over him.
His mouth twitched repeatedly as he mentally roasted Azure's train of thought a thousand times over... Was this guy some kind of delusional over-thinker?
Wait, didn't Azure say he had controlled Lu Zihan and questioned him?
Hadn't he asked about the internal situation of The Alliance?
Or was it that he actually asked, but selectively filtered out the key information, brainwashing himself and continuing to hallucinate all these ridiculous things?
Ren Yi couldn't help but imagine the scene.
Azure, putting on an air of profound mystery, would ask in a deep voice:
"Tell me, which faction do you belong to in your world? How many subordinates do you have? Who is your Anomaly Overlord? How do you usually divide territory and plunder resources?"
And Lu Zihan, whose soul was temporarily suppressed and who was still in a daze, would stammer out:
"Uh, faction? I... I'm in Class 1. As for the boss, that would be our class monitor, Zhang Qiuqiu. And her mom—we're all pretty scared of her."
Azure would nod solemnly.
"I see. A strict hierarchy indeed, where even the lowest-level Anomalies have clear affiliations."
"So, what were your orders for entering this world? What do you need to bring back? What is the punishment if you fail the mission?"
Lu Zihan would look completely bewildered.
"Huh? We just came to be Instance bosses. But I have to perform well; I can't let Stool outperform me again, or my mom will beat me."
Azure: "Mothers and sons turning on each other... what a brutal world. But who is this Stool?"
Ren Yi quickly cut off his imagination. If he kept thinking about it, he was afraid he would burst out laughing on the spot.
In any case, to take the first step toward "becoming a powerful Anomaly," Azure had used the Instance key he brought with him to trigger the descent of an Instance in the Three Cities World.
His goal was to open a path to The Alliance and take the opportunity to sneak into the world of Anomalies.
Everything that followed was clear.
Azure had gone to great lengths to fuse with a fragment of the world's will, but he never expected that he would also be tightly bound by the world's rules, leaving him with no way to initiate the next phase of his plan.
He could only watch as he and this crumbling Three Cities World were slowly eroded and killed by the Calamity.
It wasn't until the final Instance opened that the world's will finally took the initiative to intervene and contact a Participant.
Only then did Azure seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to deceive the Xin King—who had successfully cleared the Instance and was desperate to save his people—and take over his body.
After that, he successfully caught Lu Zihan while he was acting alone, forcibly controlled his soul, and obtained information about Ren Yi from his memories.
To this day, Ren Yi still didn't understand what exactly about him had attracted this madman, causing him to go to such lengths to kidnap him.
During this period, according to the rules, he also had to fulfill the Xin King's wish for a so-called "salvation."
The man was practically a master of time management.
However, he clearly had his own unique interpretation of "salvation," which resulted in the tragedy of Xin City before them.
So, the counterattack the Pope had spent his life planning, and the wish the Xin King had sacrificed himself for to save his people—had it all failed in the end?
Ren Yi slowly lowered his eyes, a trace of melancholy flickering in his gaze.
Even if they were enemies, he would rather see people like the Pope and the Xin King succeed than this disgusting thing before him.
On the other side, Azure didn't get angry at all when Ren Yi ruthlessly exposed his thoughts.
He didn't argue or explain; he just stared at him with a complex, unreadable gaze. After a few seconds of silence, he slowly muttered, "You don't understand."
After saying that, he fell silent. The pulsing of the flesh mountain beneath his feet slowed down slightly, as if he were recalling some distant and painful past.
Ren Yi waited for him patiently.
For some reason, this guy Azure was quite talkative.
He seemed very willing to explain his plans, his goals, his past, and those obsessions buried deep in his heart to Ren Yi.
He just kept rambling on and on.
Was it because he wanted to obtain Ren Yi's voluntary consent to facilitate a smoother soul fusion and reduce unnecessary resistance?
Or was he also stalling for time, waiting for a certain moment?
But Ren Yi liked his talkativeness.
He glanced intentionally or otherwise at the sky above, which was being eroded by the void.
Actually, stalling for time was fine. For him, time was on his side.
Rather, facing an enemy like Azure, who controlled part of the world's rules and possessed strength far exceeding his own, stalling for time was the only path he could take right now.
After thinking for a while, Azure seemed to have straightened out his thoughts and suddenly spoke.
"To explain, I will tell you about... the Azure World."
Ren Yi tilted his head. "The Azure World... Oh, you didn't name your previous world after yourself, did you?"
This Azure guy really had some thick skin.
Azure ignored him and continued his narration.
"Our world was far more powerful than this one—powerful beyond your imagination."
"We had starships that could traverse interstellar space, mecha that could destroy worlds, and a soul system that could awaken immense power..."
"Ah, you probably can't even comprehend what these words mean."
"In our world, the Empire and the Federation fought each other for thousands of years."
"Both sides were evenly matched. Neither could do anything to the other, nor could they completely conquer the other. It was a stalemate that lasted generation after generation."
"Until, in order to defeat the Federation, the scientists of the Empire summoned the descent of 'Him.'"
Rate on N.U.
