Who Gave You the Nerve?

Xiao moved.

His body became an uncatchable afterimage, and the Mekong Jaw Blade in his hand carved dozens of black arcs through the air.

The black thorns rushing toward him were torn into the most basic fragments of information the moment they touched the blade light, dispersed by extreme Kinetic Energy.

Yet the severed thorns regrew from the ground at an even faster rate.

Endless.

"Resistance is futile."

Valak's will carried a lofty indifference.

"Your speed can sever tangible things. But it cannot sever my 'concept.'"

"In this world, I am the law."

Xiao's expression darkened.

He realized that every swing of his blade, every use of divinity, was being clearly captured and analyzed by that will.

The other party was like a scholar with an insatiable thirst for knowledge, studying the abilities of the siblings with great interest.

And they were specimens pinned to an operating table.

"Brother... it's... devouring my authority..."

Jing's voice had become so faint it was nearly inaudible.

Black patterns began to emerge across her translucent body. They were the power of Valak's authority, eroding her Divine Origin.

Xiao's heart sank.

He could cut through anything, but he could not fight an invisible, intangible "concept."

At this moment, even the fastest speed felt so powerless.

Xiao glanced back at his sister in his arms. Seeing the pain on her face, a brutal killing intent rose from the deepest depths of his heart.

But he forcibly suppressed it.

This was exactly what Valak wanted.

It craved to understand everything, to devour everything.

Anger would only become another set of data for it to analyze him.

He had to stay calm.

Xiao's mind raced wildly.

Where was the way out?

Valak's true body could not descend. It had merely projected a strand of will through the destroyed anchor point.

That strand of will was parasitizing Jing's world.

To destroy it, he first had to destroy this world.

But this world was Jing's very life.

It was a dead end.

"Give up."

Valak's voice carried a trace of temptation.

"Become part of my knowledge, and you will gain eternity."

The silver moon in the sky had been completely dyed black.

A massive, cold One-Eyed eye slowly opened upon the black moon, looking down at the two tiny ants on the ground.

The pressure of the world suddenly increased tenfold.

Jing let out a muffled groan and completely lost consciousness, her body going limp in Xiao's arms.

The black patterns spread across her body at an instantaneously accelerated pace.

He could not wait any longer!

Just as Xiao was about to detonate all his divinity at any cost and perish together with this corrupted world—

Something changed.

The barbs at the tip of a black thorn nearest to him suddenly stopped growing.

Then, as though it had lost all life, the thorn began turning into pure gray dust from its tip, falling away in soft showers.

Then came the second, the third...

Vast patches of black thorns rapidly withered and vanished, as if some invisible force had erased them at their source.

A tiny yet impossible-to-ignore gap appeared in the immense will that blanketed the entire world, seeking to devour and analyze everything.

Xiao paused, keenly sensing the change.

This was not Valak's power.

Nor was it his or Jing's.

The next second.

A calm voice came from no direction, yet rang clearly through every corner of the Mirror World.

The voice carried no Energy Fluctuation, yet it possessed an irrefutable, supreme authority.

The instant it descended, it overwhelmed Valak's noisy and chaotic will.

"Have you had enough fun?"

The massive One-Eyed eye on the black moon suddenly contracted.

For the first time, the will that had looked down upon them from above fluctuated violently. Its indifference was gone, replaced by shock and vigilance.

"Who!"

Valak's will became a piercing sonic shriek that struck at the foundation of the entire world.

It tried to locate the source of the voice, only to find that the other party was everywhere.

It was as though this world, which it was about to completely devour, already bore someone else's name.

"This is a world constructed by my subordinate."

Qin Chuan's voice held no emotion. He was simply stating a fact.

"Her will falls under my jurisdiction."

"So this place is my property."

"You touched my people on my turf."

"Who gave you the nerve?"

The moment his words fell.

Without warning, a crack split open at the very center of the pupil of the massive One-Eyed eye on the black moon, the eye that represented Valak's will.

Crack!

A crisp shattering sound resounded throughout the world.

"Impossible!"

Valak's will let out an incredulous roar.

"The laws of this world have already been corrupted by me! I am the god here! What are you, and what gives you the right to—"

Its roar abruptly stopped.

Because the crack was spreading at an incomprehensible speed.

This was not destruction on a physical level, nor a clash on an energy level.

It was a higher-dimensional "authority override."

"God?"

Qin Chuan's voice carried a barely perceptible hint of mockery.

"Before me, do you deserve to call yourself a god?"

Boom!

The massive black One-Eyed eye exploded completely.

It did not turn into energy. Instead, it broke down into countless chaotic, meaningless streams of junk information, forcibly rejected by the laws of this world itself.

At the same time, the black thorns covering the land turned to ash.

That heavy, twisted, malicious will was like something violently ripped from this world by an invisible hand, vanishing without a trace.

The world was quiet.

The pressure that could have suffocated even gods dissipated like smoke.

Holding Jing, Xiao stood blankly upon the plains that had returned to gray.

"You... you saw my essence! You read my information!"

Valak's final thought, filled with venomous resentment and alarm, came from the Space Rift into which it had been expelled.

"I will remember you! Within my 'cognition,' you will never be able to hide again!"

Qin Chuan did not respond to its clamor.

As Valak's will completely vanished, the Mirror World, having lost the external force supporting it, began to grow unstable as well.

The sky and earth both started to turn transparent, like phantoms about to melt away.

Xiao felt his body grow light, and the scene before him rapidly changed.

The next moment, he had returned to the quiet chamber deep within the council hall.

In his arms was Jing, who had fallen into a deep coma, though every black pattern on her body had already faded away.

Beside her, a silver Space Rift slowly closed and disappeared.

Qin Chuan stood before them, his expression calm, as if he had never moved an inch.

The hand he had extended was still held in the posture of tearing open space.

"President..."

Xiao opened his mouth, his throat somewhat dry.

"Take her to rest."

Qin Chuan lowered his hand, his tone even.

"She used up quite a bit of divinity, but fortunately, it did not damage her foundation. A good sleep will be enough."

"Yes."

Xiao carefully picked up his sister and turned to leave.

After taking two steps, he stopped again and looked back at Qin Chuan, a trace of worry on his face.

"That Valak said it remembered you..."

"Mm."

Qin Chuan nodded, seemingly unconcerned.

"I remembered it too."