At last, the time arrived. With the clear chime of a bell, the entire venue immediately fell silent.
Zhao Cheng appeared at that moment. A snowflake drifted down onto his hair, only to melt away in an instant.
With his appearance, the gazes of over a hundred thousand people converged on him at once. Yet when his eyes swept across them, everyone instinctively lowered their heads.
"I'll skip the formal platitudes. Let's get straight to the point."
"I summoned you all here for only one reason: to face the disaster of the evil gods!"
"You all know about the collective dream from a few days ago. Let me state this clearly: evil gods from beyond the cosmos truly do seek to descend upon our world."
"Here, I need to correct a few things. First, the evil gods' claim that offering faith will let you live is a lie. They have come for the origin of the Sword Seed—the source of our extraordinary talent for the sword."
"In the earliest ages, there was no such thing as swordsmanship—or rather, no extraordinary swordsmanship. There were only mortal arts, until the Sword Seed appeared and the way of the sword became extraordinary."
"And the method of obtaining the Sword Seed is simple: shatter this universe."
"To the evil gods, humanity is no more than ants. Do not expect them to honor their word. They need human faith only because they are being kept outside the universe, and their ability to interfere with our world is limited. Thus, they need faith to construct coordinates through which to wield their power."
"Offering faith to the evil gods will only hasten their descent and speed up humanity's destruction!"
"Second, the matter of me being beaten to death. That is complete fabrication. Anyone who doubts it can