Looking at the hand extended toward him, Lou Guanshan asked a question.
"Then why did you imprison the Rebel Army's leader?"
He was very curious about that.
"To preserve the stability you mentioned, you struck at every enemy who might destabilize things, including us, who had only just entered this world?"
Merkel made no attempt to deny it and admitted it frankly.
"Yes. I won't say I had no choice. Perhaps it was because I wasn't capable enough, or perhaps because I was truly afraid-afraid of every outside factor that might lead to the worst possible outcome.
"So I chose the simplest approach, and the one that blinded me the most: a blanket crackdown, wiping out every outside factor incapable of shaking my position to maintain the current situation.
"Until, one day, a greater power appears and breaks all of this."
Kou Ying frowned and walked up to the dead tree.
"Relying on others instead of yourself?"
Merkel nodded.
Lou Guanshan strode over in two or three steps, reached in, and pulled out the Divine Status, tossing it up and down in his hand.
Merkel's scalp prickled, and he screamed as though his soul had left his body.
"What are you doing?!"
Lou Guanshan grimaced and covered his right ear. That voice made his eardrum hurt.
"Don't shout. Didn't you ask us to help? How can we help without taking it out to study it?"
Merkel's feet stayed rooted to the spot. He wanted to reach out but didn't dare, trembling all over as though he had Parkinson's.
Kou Ying took the Divine Status from Lou Guanshan and rubbed his fingers over it.
"The weight's not quite right. It's lighter than a Fourteenth Tier Calamity's Divine Status. Half as heavy?"
Both glanced at Merkel out of the corners of their