The Truth Behind the Awakened Game

"I understand," Bai Xiaowen replied in the Team Channel. "Just pretend for now, and let me know if you get any new hints."

At that moment, number 9, the one-eyed dragon Gote, came to make a wish.

"My wish is... for Camelot to perish."

Camelot Queen, number 11, glared at him angrily; if looks had heat, Gote would have been roasted alive.

"This wish is not simple; it has exceeded the bounds of propriety. However, you are a priest of the Guardian Faction, a higher rank than ordinary believers. I can help you fulfill this wish," the Mysterious Voice said after a pause.

Gote laughed heartily, "There's such a benefit? Thanks!"

"Place the Dragon's Fang into the Wishing Pool. Additionally, you yourself must also enter the Wishing Pool," the notification voice said again.

"Very good..." Gote took out a gleaming, sharp tooth from his pocket. "I never expected that something I found by chance on Devil Island would actually be a Dragon's Fang. How interesting."

The Dragon's Fang was thrown into the Wishing Pool, and then Gote stepped into the pool.

The rainbow light engulfed the one-eyed dragon, Gote. From the perspective of the other seven people besides Bai Xiaowen, the rainbow light of the Wishing Pool became much more intense, and faint, Pure Note could be heard, making people feel refreshed and happy.

From Bai Xiaowen's perspective, after the Dragon's Fang was injected, the "conversion progress" behind the Amotava's Remains quietly jumped to 70%.

"You can't do this!" Camelot Queen rushed over, even stepping onto the edge of the Wishing Pool.

"Halt!" the Mysterious Voice roared.

Camelot Queen stopped abruptly. Being a queen, she quickly regained her composure and said, "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to step on the Wishing Pool."

The Mysterious Voice hummed softly. "Considering you are a priest, I can forgive your offense this time, but there will be no next time! Now, state your wish and throw it into the Great Dragon Relics."

Camelot Queen showed signs of struggle.

Bai Xiaowen narrowed his eyes and analyzed that Camelot Queen should have had a wish. But Gote's wish put her in a dilemma. Should she save her country or continue to make her previous wish? If a Master Tier could be so conflicted, then her previous wish must have been very important.

However, Bai Xiaowen stepped forward and stopped Camelot Queen and Ahan, who was following behind her.

"Wait a minute, can I ask you a question?" Bai Xiaowen said.

"What's the problem?" the Mysterious Voice sounded somewhat impatient.

"Who exactly are you?" Bai Xiaowen asked. "What's your name? Where are you from?"

"Insolence, young priest! Are you challenging my authority?" the Mysterious Voice reprimanded sternly. "Remember your place; I can take your life at any time!"

"Don't stop me." Camelot Queen reached out and forcefully pushed Bai Xiaowen away.

Bai Xiaowen was somewhat surprised. He realized that Camelot Queen was very powerful; that push she had just made was definitely not the strength of an ordinary person.

Bai Xiaowen immediately used his Insight to observe Camelot Queen. Sure enough, Camelot Queen was a powerful Boss Tier, reaching level 8, which was no weaker than Ahan. Judging from her attributes, Camelot Queen was a Mental Specialty, and strength was only one of her lower attributes, but it was still significantly higher than Bai Xiaowen's 23 points of strength.

Bai Xiaowen then Insight the other ordinary believers and discovered that they were all high-level Elite Template.

"Ahan, myself, Camelot Queen, Gote... the four priests, all possess Great Dragon Relics, and all of them are Boss Template? Is this a coincidence, or is it inevitable?"

Unfortunately, after Bai Xiaowen's soul returned to his body, the four Profaner, including Ludwig, had already disappeared. He was unable to Insight these four people or use their templates as reference information.

Camelot Queen's expression turned serious. "Great being, if I wish for Camelot to never perish, is that possible?"

The Mysterious Voice paused for a moment. "Okay."

"You're lying!" Bai Xiaowen snorted. "Then how do you explain Gote's wish just now?"

The fact that the two priests' wishes conflicted, yet the Mysterious Voice granted both, is itself a sign of dishonesty.

Camelot Queen frowned, a slight look of confusion on her face.

"Mortal, do not presume to know my power with your own abilities. I disdain to explain myself to you," the Mysterious Voice boomed and echoed. "Witch Priestess, will you continue to make your wish and complete the Holy Ritual? If you withdraw, Camelot will obey the Hunter Priestess's wish and become dust of history."

"No!" Camelot Queen screamed, taking out a fist-sized crystal and throwing it into the Wishing Pool before entering it. The rainbow light completely engulfed her.

The rainbow light in the Wishing Pool grew even more brilliant, and the clear, murmuring Pure Note became increasingly distinct, even causing Bai Xiaowen to feel a tremor in his heart. He glanced at it; the conversion rate of Amotava's remains had reached 80%.

What Bai Xiaowen couldn't understand was why Camelot Queen would believe the Mysterious Voice. The other party's logic was clearly contradictory, yet Camelot Queen acted as if she had taken some kind of brain-dead drug and followed it without hesitation.

"Ahan, do you believe me?" Bai Xiaowen turned around, staring at Ahan. "If you believe me, don't make any wishes. Don't let this guy know your weaknesses."

Ahan glanced at Bai Xiaowen, pondered for a moment, and shook his head:

"If you don't want to make a wish, move aside, it's my turn."

Bai Xiaowen narrowed her eyes slightly, but did not stop Ahan; instead, she took a step aside.

Ahan stepped forward, took out a palm-sized scale from the Wishing Pool, and asked, "Is this Dragon's Scale?"

"Yes, Guardian Priest. Come, make your wish, and I will grant it." The mysterious voice was full of allure.

"I want to become the most powerful person on the continent," Ahan said.

"Alright, no problem. You will become a lord, even a king, and your strength will double. Once the Holy Ritual is completed, everything will be achieved!"

Ahan glanced at Bai Xiaowen sideways. "Aren't you going to try to convince me?"

Bai Xiaowen shook her head. "It seems unnecessary. You're very Clarity... Your deepest desire isn't to become the strongest person, is it?"

Ahan nodded slightly. "Yes, so it failed to bewitch me. I think I understand this guy's methods of bewitching people now. The wish is just bait to lure us into exposing our weaknesses. Just now, when I was facing the Wishing Pool, a voice kept whispering in my heart, telling me to throw out the Dragon's Scale and walk into the Wishing Pool, and I could become the most powerful person on the continent... Unfortunately, it didn't tempt me at all."

"Very clever, Your Excellency the Sheriff," Bai Xiaowen praised.

"I'm far inferior to you. I only figured out its method after receiving your hint and verifying it myself. You figured it out after Camelot Queen fell for it," Ahan sighed. "It seems there's a reason why you can solve missing persons cases."

Mysterious Voice: "You two arrogant fools, how dare you underestimate me! I will annihilate your souls!"

"You're no longer referring to yourself as 'I'?" Bai Xiaowen quipped. "It seems your ability only works on pure souls. You're not a physical entity, but rather a spiritual will, right? I'm curious, can you still forcibly Soul-Body Separation like you did on the Naglfar?"

The Mysterious Voice paused for a moment.

Bai Xiaowen nodded. "Indeed, to unleash such a powerful ability as Abyssal Gaze, there are prerequisites, namely the Naglfar, or rather, the key lies in that figurehead. Without it, you are nothing."

In Bai Xiaowen's view, the Awakened Game is actually a means for this so-called "God"—the Mysterious Voice —to establish its authority. Its purpose is to make the twelve people subconsciously feel that it holds the power of life and death and is inviolable.

In fact, the power of this Mysterious Voice should operate at the soul level. It is very strong for pure souls, capable of blinding a soul's entire perception, much like locking it in a dark room. It should be unable to affect beings with physical bodies.

The ultimate purpose of the Mysterious Voice is to complete Amotava's remains. If it has the power of life and death over physical beings, why bother with this Awakened Game? It could simply order everyone to hand over the so-called Great Dragon Relics and submit.

As for why the dead sailors weren't ordered to search for the Great Dragon Relics, it's even simpler. People of Camelot Queen's high status all have storage devices, and without their own consciousness, it's impossible to take anything from them. As for Bai Xiaowen, it's even more impossible; his Storage Space is even more secure than storage devices, and no external force can intrude upon it.

Therefore, to complete Amotava's remains, everyone's souls must return to their bodies, and then they must willingly and voluntarily take out their belongings and put them into the Wishing Pool.

When Bai Xiaowen's soul first returned to his body, he was still wary of the Mysterious Voice. His words and actions revealed that his provocation of the Mysterious Voice was escalating from a light tap to a heavy blow, which, to use China phrase, would be described as "taking advantage of someone's kindness."

After discovering that the Mysterious Voice was all bark and no bite, Bai Xiaowen naturally became even less polite.

Even if the Mysterious Voice could still unleash the "Abyssal Gaze" ability, Bai Xiaowen could still spend Psionic Points to activate the Eye of Evolution, causing the opponent to suffer a backlash.

"What... do you want? Gold? Jewelry? Beauty? Endless power?"

Each time the Mysterious Voice uttered a seductive word, a rainbow of light would transform into a mirror, displaying images of mountains of gold, piles of jewels, and groups of beautiful women, attempting to bewitch Bai Xiaowen and Ahan.

However, this kind of seduction requires Bai Xiaowen and Ahan to have even a basic level of trust in it. If they don't even have that much trust and are purely resistant, the Mysterious Voice can't defy fate and forcibly brainwash them. In the end, it's just a form of Mental Suggestion.

"Damn it, don't think you've won! I have plenty of ways to deal with you. Come out, my servants!"

A flash of black light appeared, and four slightly illusory figures emerged—the four soul entities of Ludwig, Mylo, Leona, and Gerold, the Blasphemer Faction!

The coffins behind the four people opened, and then the four souls quickly returned to their positions and walked out again.

However, the four people who emerged could no longer be described as "human." They had all transformed into half-human, half-snake monsters, covered in thick blue scales, with terrifying vertical pupils in their eyes, and forked tongues that resembled snake forks.

They are no different from real Snakefolk.

The four Snakefolk were all Leader Tier templates, exceptionally powerful.

"I'll ask you one last time, surrender or die?" the Mysterious Voice said ominously.

Bai Xiaowen squinted. "The consequence of submitting to you is to become a creature like them? I think the executioner Gote and Camelot Queen will definitely regret it."

"This is evolution!" the Mysterious Voice coldly. "This is supreme glory! When the mountains are reduced to reflections, only the apostles bathed in my glory will be qualified to survive in the chaotic world and achieve evolution!"

Bai Xiaowen slightly opened his eyes. "The mountains become reflections, schools of fish devour vultures. Gods descend from the Abyss, the earth bears glory. Shadows obscure the sky, the world returns to chaos... Did this doomsday prophecy originate from you?"

The Mysterious Voice sneered, "Not bad, you do have some knowledge."

Bai Xiaowen's heart skipped a beat. He realized once again that his "location" matching this time was probably a bit ahead of its time. This Black Tide Plane was a plane world that was close to "Grand Unification"! No wonder the characters here were all at such high levels. It turned out that it had already reached the later stage of plane evolution.

Of course, true Grand Unification is still some distance away. According to Bai Xiaowen's estimation, after this mysterious will takes over Amotava's remains, it should become a low-level lord, with a very high probability of surpassing the Lord Tier and becoming a powerful serpent demon force that will sweep across the Black Tide Continent.

Let's tentatively call this force the "World Destruction" faction.

At that time, the opposing factions formed by the creatures of the Black Tide Continent, such as the Kingdom of Camelot and the Camelot Resistance Army, will likely undergo a major reshuffle. Some will submit to the World-Destroyer Faction, while others will become the World-Saver Faction.

"You guys did a pretty good job in the previous Awakened Game," Bai Xiaowen said, looking at Ludwig and the others.

The four Snakefolk Boss Tier showed no shame; one of Snakewoman, Leona, even gently stroked her chest and gave Bai Xiaowen a seductive wink.

"Actually, we kept our eyes open the whole time. We had to pretend we didn't know where the prophet was, and then kill the false prophet. It was a tough job. On the third night, even if the guards aren't protecting you, you won't die because we won't attack you... After all, the Lord's plan can only continue if we ensure your victory."