Protecting Countless Lives Before the World, Treating a Maiden's Life as Experimental Material Behind It!

"He had never intended to be human." Huo Yuhao took over, a faint blue glow flickering in his Spiritual Eye. "To him, the identity of 'savior' was merely another ladder for climbing higher. The higher he stood, the fewer people in the world could question him. And the fewer people could touch that chessboard."

"But someone did touch it." Gu Yuena had remained silent until now. Her voice was like an icy bubble rising from the deep sea. "That 'Vera.' She touched it. So she died."

Tang Wulin nodded. "And when she died, Otto did not even frown. We already said before that she was merely a cost of time to him. Looking at it now, he truly was as Zhongli said—nothing but obsession, nothing but a chessboard."

"But I don't understand." Lei Xiang suddenly spoke, his voice like an unpolished iron sword, rough and straight. "What did all this—creating Valkyries, Stigmata, armor—actually have to do with 'reviving Kallen'? Was protecting humanity and driving back Honkai merely incidental?"

"Because Honkai would destroy the Divine Continent," Huo Yuhao said. "The Divine Continent was the board for his game of chess. If the board was overturned, the game could not continue. So he fought Honkai, protected humanity, and acted as a savior—not because he loved humanity, but because he needed that board to continue existing. To him, humanity's existence was the environment that allowed the chess pieces to survive, the guarantee that the board remained stable. Nothing more."

"So every city he saved was another chip thrown onto that chessboard." Rong Nianbing's voice was low and cold. "And the people knelt to thank him. That was his greatest shamelessness—not that he was evil, but that he mixed kindness and sin together until no one could distinguish them. He truly saved people, but