The Game Can't Be Messing with Us, Can It? The Saints' Theory: Building an Ark with Lives

Venerable Yuanshi gritted his teeth and charged a few more steps upward. The light of the Three Treasures Ruyi grew dimmer in the flood.

Cracks began to appear in Taishang Laojun's Taiji Diagram under the flood's relentless assault.

Law Fragments sliced through Nuwa's Red Embroidered Ball again and again in the water. Its Five-Colored Light had faded until it was almost invisible.

The Buddhist barrier around Jieyin and Zhunti thinned under the flood's erosion. Zhunti's mana ran out first. The Seven Treasures Wonderful Tree went dark in an instant, and floodwaters pressed in from every direction.

Zhunti neither screamed nor struggled as he was swept away. He merely cursed under his breath.

Then Jieyin was swept away too. His mana held out a little longer than Zhunti's, but only a little.

Before her mana ran dry, Nuwa took one last look toward the summit. It was still impossibly far away.

Taishang Laojun closed his eyes. The Taiji Diagram slowly stopped spinning above his head, and his expression remained calm as the flood carried him off.

Venerable Yuanshi was the last to be swept away. Gritting his teeth, he forced his way up a few more steps. The final glimmer of the Three Treasures Ruyi went out in the flood. He reached for the mountainside, but his fingertips were still some distance from the summit. Then the flood swallowed him.

The five Saints appeared in the Resurrection Space once more.

Zhunti opened his eyes and looked down at his hands. After a long silence, he said, "Dead again."

Jieyin said nothing. He only closed his eyes.

Venerable Yuanshi's face was livid. In all his boundless years, he had never felt so stifled. Last time, he could blame drowning on not understanding the game's mechanics. This time, they had raised their cultivation