A Lesson in Reason

The six of them surrounded Bai Xiaowen, staring at him intently, unafraid that he might sprout wings and fly away.

Bai Xiaowen smiled. "There are six of you, all top-tier Evolutionists, and each of you bears Divine Favor. Are you really that afraid of one array of mine?"

"You needn't try to provoke us," the Mantis People said.

"The more anxious you are, the more it proves our tactics are correct," the Turtlemen said.

Bai Xiaowen glanced at the Turtlemen. "You're one of the Turtle God's Chosen, aren't you? At the Prophecy Temple, I encountered three of your kin. Their ends weren't very pleasant... Don't you want to avenge them?"

The Turtlemen, as steady as a mountain, took a deep breath. "I'm waiting for a better opportunity. You will die."

"Well said, Charak! Lü Wang is extremely cunning. We can't fall for his tricks and give him an opening." The rough-featured Black-Haired Barbarian spoke in a low voice. "In any case, we'll maintain the current pressure. Given the special environment of the Land of Origin, Lü Wang cannot naturally recover his Spiritual Power. Once we see him absorb Spirit Crystals, we'll take turns casting long-range spells to interfere. He's alone. There's no way he can outlast the six of us."

These six had broad knowledge and abundant combat experience. Though they did not know much about the Eight Gates Golden Lock Immortal Array, they could still judge that it was a Confinement Array aimed at those within it. Its main purpose was to prevent entry and exit, but it could not effectively block long-range magical bombardment.

The Six Elects were of one mind. They would wait for the array to cease operating on its own before launching their attack.

As for the possibility that Bai Xiaowen might set up another array before this one stopped running in order to protect himself, the six of them did not care.

Ultimately, their goal was not necessarily to kill Bai Xiaowen, but to prevent him from becoming the Death God.

If Bai Xiaowen kept hiding behind arrays, the six of them could afford to keep wasting time here.

Besides, setting up arrays depended on talismans. No matter how thoroughly Bai Xiaowen had prepared, he could not keep it up indefinitely. Whether he ran out of talismans or Spirit Crystals, either outcome meant a dead end.

Bai Xiaowen frowned and pondered silently.

The six of them didn't directly try to break the array and attack together. They must also be wary of one another. After all, they don't serve the same Deity. There's competition between them, so they could never truly cooperate or trust others with their backs. It's only because my becoming the Death God would practically mean declaring victory in advance that the Chosen from hostile camps have joined forces to suppress me.

But the six had chosen the safest strategy of keeping Bai Xiaowen pinned down, which made things difficult for him.

With twelve eyes watching him, even if Bai Xiaowen wanted to make a move in secret, it would be hard to succeed. The reason he had been able to secretly set up the Four Symbols Formation while fighting Gaste was because Gaste had been engaged in fierce combat. The violent disturbances of Spiritual Power had concealed Bai Xiaowen's array-setting movements, as well as the spiritual energy fluctuations produced by the Array Talismans.

Those conditions clearly did not exist now.

Still, Bai Xiaowen was not flustered. Though the hostile camp had many powerful experts, he was not alone. He believed the Evolutionists from the allied camp would soon come to his aid.

At once, Bai Xiaowen sat cross-legged upon the Silver Throne and leisurely absorbed Spirit Crystals to recover, acting as though the six of them did not exist.

An ordinary person might have been enraged, but these six were all exceptionally steady. They showed no anger and merely watched Bai Xiaowen indifferently.

The daylight on the Star of Death Omen soon passed, and night fell.

"Fog is rising." The Turtlemen seemed to sense something and looked up.

"At night on the Star of Death Omen, the Nether Qi Vortex descends and the temperature drops sharply, so a light mist appears. It's nothing unusual," the Mantis People said.

"No! Someone's coming." The Black-Haired Barbarian suddenly rose to his feet, two beams of Red Light shooting from his scarlet eyes. "Who is it?"

A figure slowly emerged from the thin mist.

She was a tall, slender woman dressed in ancient crimson robes. Her eyes were long and narrow, their outer corners slightly lowered, shaped like Phoenix Eyes. Her face alone carried an intangible air of pride.

"Human woman, which Deity do you serve? State your identity at once, or do not come any closer!" the Black-Haired Barbarian shouted.

The Red-Clothed Woman smiled. "I am one of the God of Fire's Chosen. You may call me Queen Bee."

"The God of Fire..." The six looked at one another.

"She isn't from the same camp as Lü Wang."

"She seems to serve a neutral Deity." The six relaxed slightly.

Queen Bee smiled. "May I pass?"

"No." The Black-Haired Barbarian shouted, "Even if you are not from Lü Wang's camp, you may not pass. We cannot allow any unforeseen complications."

The Turtlemen, however, advised her in a mild tone, "Lady Queen Bee, twelve Divine Bloodline Grade Gargoyles guard the entrance to Death God Castle. Even if we let you pass, you alone would never be able to get through."

Suddenly, another voice came from within the mist.

"Heh heh, what if you add me?"

The voice carried a trace of age, but also a captivating magnetism that instinctively made people feel that its words were reasonable.

Everyone looked toward the sound and saw a middle-aged man standing there silently. The flickering mist cast shifting light across his face.

"And who are you?" the Mantis People asked shrilly.

"Qiao Liqun." The middle-aged man smiled. "I serve the God of Truth."

"The God of Truth!" The six Chosen instantly treated him as a great enemy, watching Qiao Liqun warily.

Clearly, all six knew that the God of Truth belonged to Lü Wang's camp.

Moreover, Qiao Liqun's aura gave the six an unfathomable feeling, as though they were not facing a mortal, but a vast ocean.

"He's alone... There's no need to worry. He wouldn't dare make a move," the Mantis People said quietly.

Qiao Liqun smiled. "I truly have no intention of fighting. I merely wish to reason with you all."

As he spoke, a paper book with a red cover appeared in Qiao Liqun's palm. He opened it to the first page and began reading aloud with great cadence.

"Who are our enemies? Who are our friends? This question is the foremost question..."

Although the contents of the book Qiao Liqun read seemed utterly unrelated, they carried a strange rhythm that drew the six people's attention for a moment. None of them interrupted him.

After listening for quite a while, when Qiao Liqun turned a page, the Mantis People was the first to snap out of it and shouted, "Stop!"

His voice was sharp, like metal scraping across glass, and the other five also came to their senses.

"What kind of magic is this?"

"A Spirit System spell?"

The six became even more vigilant.

Qiao Liqun was interrupted, yet he did not grow angry. He merely shook his head with a smile. "Alas, this is an irrefutable truth. Why are you unwilling to listen? Non-human Races truly cannot be taught."

One transparent character after another rose above Qiao Liqun's head. They were precisely the passage he had just read. Each character was as large as a basket, trembling in the air and producing strange resonances and harmonies.

For a moment, it seemed as if hundreds and thousands of people were chanting in the air. The layered vibrations filled the air with ripples.

Clearly, this was a large-scale Mental Spell of Disturbance!