Chapter 160
"Can't you see whether I'm here or not?" The blonde girl, known as the 'Old Heavenly Master,' casually waved her palm-leaf fan. "Stop with the nonsense. Is there anyone here who can understand human speech? Tell me!"
Although this Old Heavenly Master was born with the appearance of a young girl, she was already several hundred years old and had guarded the Heavenly Mechanism Pavilion for more than 370 years.
This Old Heavenly Master's achievements are countless; if one were to describe her in just one sentence:
The strongest fighting force of the Higashi, without exception.
If the twelve fragments were in a scattered state, the Old Heavenly Master could easily defeat them. Even when facing the resurrected Year Beast, the Old Heavenly Master would certainly have the strength to fight back.
Therefore, although the Old Heavenly Master acted so eccentrically and mischievously, no one dared to be negligent in the slightest. They explained the current situation clearly in just a few words.
"The eleventh son of the Sui family has already been swallowed up? No wonder Shu was in such a hurry."
"Could the power of 'will' really control a city? What about the safety of the city's residents?"
"More than a hundred people have already been sent out? How were they sent out?"
"What do you mean by those people stammering and refusing to give a reason? Is this the time to be coy!"
"Send someone to ask again! Find out exactly what the situation is like inside the city now!"
As the Old Heavenly Master issued this command, he also turned his head to look at the Year Beast perched on the mountain in the distance.
The distance was clearly visible, yet the Higashi army was unable to advance an inch.
What's really strange is that there's nothing that can fly in Terra.
Even Kristen's golden retriever used the "Dog Bowl Theory" theory to be forced into the air by the impact force.
The rest of the so-called 'aircraft' are actually things that fly close to the ground, or even just skimming the ground.
The winged Sarkaz, also known as the 'Angels', cannot fly.
Animal-eared girls modeled after birds cannot fly.
Therefore, under these circumstances, they can only march on the ground. However, if they want to advance, they must first World within a painting the painting. In the World within a painting, the Year Beast is holding the people of an entire city hostage. To avoid harming the innocent is a problem that would be difficult for anyone to solve.
After all, who dares to say, "It's worth it to defeat the Year Beast at the cost of losing a city"?
While the Old Heavenly Master waited with the others, hoping to glean some more useful information—
Click, click.
Suddenly, a sound like spiderwebs cracking on glass echoed across the sky.
Upon hearing this, everyone instinctively looked up at the sky.
The result was that the entire sky appeared to have been shattered, with countless fragments of transparent glass raining down from above.
Then, within that pitch-black hole, which radiated colors as vibrant as the universe, a huge eyeball suddenly appeared, as if observing what was inside, its eyes darting around.
It's as if their entire world is just an ecological culture bottle contained in a glass jar, and that eyeball is the owner who nurtures them.
This thought swept into everyone's hearts like a tidal wave.
It clanged and clattered.
Some people were stunned by this idea, while others were so overwhelmed by the reality that they broke down and dropped their belongings.
This reaction occurs in almost every corner of this land.
Even the Old Heavenly Master couldn't help but slightly open his mouth, swallow a mouthful of saliva, and subconsciously squeeze the palm-leaf fan in his hand, making it creak.
"What... what is this...?"
"What exactly is such a being...?"
"Could this be the truth about this land...?"
The reactions of the crowd—some collapsing, some terrified, some shouting, "Yay! It's finally going to be destroyed! Whoever loves this lousy class can have it!"—were quite varied.
The eyes above the sky paid no heed, searching for a moment before finally fixing their gaze on the mountain where the Year Beast resided.
Then his eyes disappeared, and just as everyone breathed a sigh of relief—
A giant hand emerged from the hole in the sky.
Its palm was so large that it could almost cover a mountain range stretching for thousands of kilometers.
To everyone, it wasn't just that it got dark; it felt like the sky had collapsed.
As everyone screamed and fled, even the Old Heavenly Master gritted his teeth and bent over in fear,
That enormous hand, however, slammed precisely into the World within a painting.
Then, when the hand retracted again, it was revealed that two of its fingertips were pinching a small human figure.
Although the contrast is too great and the distance too far, it will probably take some time to determine who the hand that grabbed was.
But for some people, it's immediately obvious:
"Little sister?!"
"Little Inkhead!"
"Sister Xi!"
The one that was grabbed by that hand was naturally Xi.
Furthermore, Xi's body doesn't appear to be solid; instead, it presents a semi-transparent color, giving the impression that:
'Ah... Xi is dead, and now her soul has been taken away?'
'Wait a minute, if our previous theory holds true, and this land is just an ecological incubator, and the owner of those eyes and hands is our owner, is it possible that the owner discovered Xi had died and wanted to take her out to see if she could survive?'
This idea swept through everyone once again.
It's a pity that those who were calling out "Little Sister" and "Xi Sister" wanted to chase after her, but were stopped again.
"Oh my, your older brothers and sisters are screaming so pitifully, it's like you're about to die, Little Watermelon."
The owner of those eyes and hands was naturally Chen Ran.
He slightly modified the way the 'gods appear' made their entrance, and so far it seems to be working quite well.
And what he grabbed with his fingertips was naturally Mayuu.
After all, they said they were going to switch the prince with a cat.
"So, Little Watermelon, aren't you going to respond?"
Chen Ran asked.
Upon hearing this, Xi, who had been pretending to be a soul with her eyes closed, bit her lip, half-closed her eyes, and secretly glared at Chen Ran.
Chen Ran was not angry at this. He simply grabbed Xi and then picked up an Ayao from the side and stuck it into the so-called 'hole'.
Therefore, in the eyes of everyone in this Worldline, it appeared as if that giant hand had snatched Xi's soul, carrying it all the way up to the sky until it disappeared.
Just when everyone thought that Na Xi was probably dead, they saw that giant hand once again reach out from the hole in the sky.
Until it reached the ground, the hand opened and gently placed a small Ayao on the ground.
The little Ayao, looked at the group in front of it with clear yet foolish eyes, its little mouth agape in bewilderment. "Gah?"
Everyone: "..."
Xi... Xi has regressed from Ultimate Digimon to Digi-Egg!
Chapter 244: Is that your child? You snatched him and ran away!
Confused?
The Terra were naturally bewildered.
They took away a completely dead Xi, but returned a lively and energetic Ayao.
Unaware of the truth, they would naturally subconsciously think in terms of 'resurrection' or 'rebirth'.
"So... this... this little thing... could it be what the eleventh son of the Sui family looks like after he's been resurrected...?"
The Old Heavenly Master looked up at the sky, which was beginning to heal.
Looking down again, I saw Ayao on the ground, its little legs flailing about as if it were searching for its mother.
The Old Heavenly Master had lived for hundreds of years, so of course she recognized Ayao, and knew that Ayao was actually just a creation of Xi's pen...
But the divine manifestation and divine appearance he had just witnessed made the Old Heavenly Master uncertain again.
The same uncertainty lay with the Year Beast.
Just now, when Jianxi was captured, that Year Beast was baring its teeth and claws, trying to snatch her back.
Now, upon seeing the lively little Ayao, the Year Beast revealed a rather human-like expression of confusion.
The Year Beast that had been perched on the mountain peak began to move, seemingly wanting to get a closer look to see if the little Ayao was indeed her offspring.
The Year Beast was simply too large; it couldn't even move, let alone raise a paw, and it was enough to attract everyone's attention.
The Old Heavenly Master was taken aback upon seeing this; she seemed to have been engaged in a mental struggle for a long time—
Without hesitation, the Old Heavenly Master rushed forward, bent down, reached out, grabbed the little Ayao, and then turned and ran.
As he ran, the Old Heavenly Master shouted, "Retreat! The entire army, retreat!"
Year Beast: "???"
The Year Beast was completely dumbfounded.
Adopt, don't shop. Robbery is never as quick and easy as it is, right?
Is that your kid? You can just take it!
With an angry dragon's roar, the Year Beast chased after the Old Heavenly Master.
The Old Heavenly Master knew that from the moment the deity appeared in the world, every country and every person on this land would begin to live in fear.
To explore the so-called 'truth of this land', 'whether humans are domesticated livestock', 'what kind of scenery lies beyond the sky', and so on.
The Higashi Dynasty was no exception; in the face of the gods' manifestation, the resurrection of the Year Beast was utterly insignificant.
But the Old Heavenly Master dared not gamble.
She dared not gamble on whether this Ayao was a gift from the gods.
They didn't dare gamble that if this little Ayao fell into the hands of the Year Beast, it would still be swallowed whole by it.
They dared not gamble that if the Year Beast devoured this Ayao, its strength would greatly increase, thus bringing annihilation to the Higashi.
But the Old Heavenly Master dared to gamble on another thing:
"Retreat! Hurry! Use this little guy to lure the Year Beast out of the World within a painting!"
"As soon as the Year Beast leaves the World within a painting, give it your all and beat it to a pulp!"
"It's okay if we can't win, we can just stall for time!"
If humans are truly livestock raised by that god—
Therefore, the fact that the deity personally intervened to heal Xi is enough to demonstrate how much that deity values Xi.
If that's the case, the god just revived Xi a second ago, only to find that Xi was about to be eaten again the next second?
That god will definitely take action again.
So the Old Heavenly Master was betting on this point, just like most humans would crush insects without considering them as small lives—
The Old Heavenly Master was betting that the god's view of humanity was no different from how humans view insects.
After all, the terms 'pests' and 'beneficial insects' only apply to humans.
Humans don't care about things like natural laws. If you're useless to me, then you're a 'pest,' and if you're a 'pest,' then you have to die.
The Year Beast was so enormous that it caught up with the Higashi army in just a few steps.
However, at the same time, the Year Beast also left the World within a painting.
Then the Old Heavenly Master turned around and waved his old palm-leaf fan. The blazing white flames seemed to materialize at that moment, cutting across the earth like a sharp blade, carving out a chasm that stretched for hundreds of kilometers right in front of the Year Beast.
With the Old Heavenly Master's intervention, the remaining Higashi army naturally unleashed all their martial arts skills upon the Sui Year Beast as if they were free.
But the Year Beast neither dodged nor flinched, its mind solely focused on taking back the Ayao.
"Don't act like a mother whose child has been stolen! It's like we're the bad guys!"
The Old Heavenly Master held Ayao in one arm, covered his mouth with the other, coughed lightly a few times, and then casually flicked away the blood from his hand.
Centuries of suppression and conquest had already left the Old Heavenly Master with countless hidden injuries, not to mention that even among Great Beast, his combat strength was among the top tier.