Dai Mubai was dumbstruck by the sight.
Blood splattered across his face, hot to the touch.
He turned and ran.
He fled blindly.
Just as he was about to break through the encirclement, a Heaven Dou Empire Soul Master blocked his way.
He was a Soul Elder.
He gripped a spear, his face filled with murderous intent.
"Trying to run?"
The spear thrust forward, its tip glinting with a chilling light.
Dai Mubai was so terrified that he could barely muster three-tenths of his Soul Power.
The spear was about to pierce his throat.
"Your Highness, look out!"
The old soldier from earlier rushed over from who knew where.
He was covered in blood and tried to take the spear thrust for Dai Mubai.
However.
He was too far away.
The old soldier was still a step away from Dai Mubai.
In that split second.
Dai Mubai did something no one could have expected.
He didn't stand shoulder to shoulder with the old soldier.
Nor did he use his Soul Skill to block the attack.
He reached out.
He grabbed the old soldier who had rushed to save him by the shoulder.
Then.
He shoved him with all his strength.
"Thud!"
The spear pierced the old soldier's chest.
Blood gushed out, splattering all over Dai Mubai's face.
The old soldier's eyes widened.
He stared at the prince he had risked his life to protect, unable to believe what he'd seen.
His mouth opened and closed, as though he wanted to say something, but only blood bubbled out.
And Dai Mubai.
Using the moment when the old soldier's body caught on the spear.
He didn't even look at the man he'd used as a human shield.
Soul Power erupted beneath his feet.
Like a stray dog, he plunged into the dark curtain of rain without looking back.
All that remained was the old soldier's corpse, hanging from the spear and swaying in the wind and rain.
Dead silence.
In the real world of the Black World.
For a moment, even the air seemed to freeze.
Then.
The crowd erupted.
More furiously than ever before.
"Beast!!!"
"That soldier was trying to save him!"
"He shoved his savior in front of the spear and ran?"
"Is that something a human would do?"
"A deserter! A traitor who saves his own skin! How does someone like that deserve to live?"
The crowd in Star Luo Square went completely berserk.
Countless people glared red-eyed at Dai Mubai and cursed him.
Some even summoned their Martial Souls, itching to rush over and tear the wretch to pieces.
Over at Shrek Academy.
Yu Xiaogang's face had turned green.
He might have believed in putting self-interest first, but betraying his comrades on the battlefield and murdering a loyal soldier had crossed the line of basic human decency.
Even he couldn't find a single word to defend him.
"So this is the exemplary student from Shrek Academy?"
"This is one of your monsters?"
"I'd say he's a monster with no humanity!"
The accusations surged toward them like a tide.
Tang San stood there, his face ashen.
He looked at Dai Mubai, disappointment and a chill flashing in his eyes.
In the Tang Sect, this sort of deed would earn the perpetrator a sentence of death by a thousand arrows.
Dai Mubai was trembling all over.
He could feel it.
The malice of the entire world.
Everyone wanted him dead.
Everyone looked down on him.
"No... That's not what happened..."
"It was instinct... I wanted to live too..."
Dai Mubai stammered out his defense, retreating without meaning to.
He wanted to run.
Just as he had that rainy night.
To escape this place that was suffocating him.
The instant he turned around.
A hand pressed down on his shoulder.
It was Tang San.
"Mu Bai."
Tang San's voice was low, giving nothing away.
"Where are you going?"
"If you leave now, you'll prove that you're a coward."
"We're the Shrek Seven Devils."
"We stand together."
"Even if you were wrong, you have to face it now."
Tang San's words sounded like he was trying to help him.
But to Dai Mubai, that hand felt as heavy as a thousand jun, pinning him in place.
All he could do was stand there stiffly.
Like a clown stripped bare, facing judgment from two worlds.
Above them, on the Sky Screen.
The images slowly faded.
The Black World's dark chapter had come to a temporary end.
Light appeared.
It was the chapter belonging to the White World.
The image on the Sky Screen paused for the moment.
Black World.
The curses in Star Luo Square had gradually died down, but the fire in the crowd's eyes refused to go out.
"He's beyond saving."
Someone in the crowd spat.
"Rotten to the core."
"I bet the Dai Mubai from the White World is cut from the same cloth."
"Crows are black all over. They've got the same father—how could they turn out so differently?"
Most people had no hope that things would be any different.
After all, the image of him shoving someone in front of a spear had been so shocking that it shattered the last of their illusions about the imperial family.
Dai Mubai huddled behind the others from Shrek Academy.
As he listened to the crowd, an unnatural flush rose across his deathly pale face.
He refused to accept it.
Why?
Why did everyone assume that the version of him in that world would be better?
"Just wait..."
Dai Mubai gritted his teeth, forcing the words out through them.
"That version of me has had things go so smoothly. He's obviously never faced a true life-or-death crisis."
"When it comes down to life and death, who wouldn't want to survive?"
"I refuse to believe he's any more noble than me!"
Tang San stood nearby. He frowned slightly at those words, but in the end, said nothing.
He wanted to see it too.
How that so-called "White Emperor of Heaven" would act when faced with the same situation, or the difficulties a young man his age ought to face.
White World.
On Sea God Island, Bo Saixi gazed at the Sky Screen, staff in hand, her eyes alight with interest.
"This little fellow's about to steal the show again."
At Spirit Hall.
The Pope, Bibi Dong, sat high on her throne, her long legs crossed.
She watched the chaos in the Black World and curled her lips in disdain.
"The Star Luo Imperial Family in that world certainly knows how to astonish people."
"Still..."
Her gaze turned toward the image about to appear on the Sky Screen, and softened.
"This version is something to look forward to."
Star Luo Empire.
At that very moment, the entire country was caught in an extremely strange mood.
On the one hand, people were cursing the "deserter" in the Black World, wishing they could cross between worlds to bring him to justice.
On the other, they were craning their necks toward the Sky Screen, waiting to see their own emperor's heroic image.
"His Majesty was famous for protecting his own."
"Exactly. Anyone who dared lay a hand on one of His Majesty's people was practically asking to die."
Inside the Imperial Garden.
The mood was pleasant.
Dai Mubai of the White World was still lying on his rocking chair, though he'd shifted into a more comfortable position.
He casually picked up a grape and tossed it into his mouth.
"I mean..."
He looked at the ring of lovely young women around him, amused.
"Do you really have to be this nervous?"
"It's just some old story, isn't it?"
Qian Renxue closed the memorial in her hands and glanced at him with golden eyes.
"Nervous?"
"We just want to see how our wise and mighty emperor used to trick young women."
Xiao Wu nodded vigorously beside her, the rabbit ears on her head bobbing along.
"Exactly!"
Before you continue