Chapter 624: Bearing the Burden
“Tie Xin Mie Jue Zhe, give us a number. How much more time do you need to repair the All-Embracing Gravity Device?”
At the scene where numerous councilor projections were ganging up on Liu Wu, a dozen or so robots flew about, navigating the dangerous ruins.
Around them, sand and stones flew constantly, yet they narrowly missed the robots by mere millimeters, as if these machines possessed some form of precognition.
The individual known as 'Tie Xin Mie Jue Zhe' was the head of the Federation's supreme research institute and one of the designers of the All-Embracing Gravity System. He held another identity as well—a councilor on the Federation's Presiding Council.
The robots present were precisely his special avatars.
“Barring unforeseen circumstances, twenty-two hours and twelve minutes.” After a thorough assessment, one of the robots reported a time accurate down to the minute via their internal communication network.
“But we only have five minutes left.
In five minutes, the Moon and Mars will collide at a speed exceeding six thousand kilometers per hour.”
After the Mind Mage Mo Li finished speaking, she silently watched the crowd whose expressions were a mix of complicated emotions.
Yes, not a single one of them felt despair.
Because every single one of them could survive this apocalyptic catastrophe.
Some, who had backup plans, could even bring their core relatives and subordinates with them, escaping into space before the grand collision of the celestial bodies.
However, to save the Moon, one of them would need to completely burn themselves out, temporarily acquiring seven-stage power to prevent the collision and buy Tie Xin Mie Jue Zhe enough time to repair the device.
After overloading, what awaited that individual would be an undeniable death.
This was quite troublesome.
Among the six-stage councilors, the only truly saintly figure, Gang Duo, had already sacrificed himself during the establishment of the Luminous Holy Covenant. Among those who remained, there was no longer anyone so virtuous.
If they didn't save the world, the Moon would be destroyed, but they and their core personnel wouldn't die; if they saved the world, the Moon would be saved, but they would perish, and their subordinates and relatives would quickly lose power due to the collapse of their 'pillar of support'.
The example of Yun Jie was still fresh in their minds. After he chose to abandon the Yun family and undergo the Reincarnation Tribulation in the Manghuang Realm, the Yun family, having lost its backbone, inevitably declined amidst internal feuds and external infiltration, withdrawing from the circle of first-rate families.
And that was merely for undergoing a tribulation, not for truly perishing. If he had genuinely fallen, the fate of those he left behind might have been even more dismal.
...
“How can there be a seven-stage aura on the Moon?”
The power erupting from somewhere on the Moon invigorated the councilors, who had been exchanging helpless glances.
None of them wanted to die, yet they were deeply reluctant to see the Moon destroyed.
That was Xu Xuan Ling’s effort to slow down the Moon. Having just broken through, she was dragging her heavily injured and over-exerted body, attempting to reverse the Moon’s destined path toward destruction.
Having just awakened from her true self in the Reincarnation Tribulation, she didn't yet know that she could actually escape into space with Su Ming, avoiding this calamity.
She believed everything would be destroyed in the collision.
Therefore, Xu Xuan Ling would rather overdraw her life force than fail to protect her beloved.
She had already inadvertently killed someone she loved once before.
This lifetime's beloved, she didn't want to miss him again.
...
“Could it be him?” Mentioning a seven-stage entity, everyone’s first reaction was still Bai Mo. After all, his lingering presence was well-known, and it was said that Edward Teach had projected the power of the Blazing Sun to Mars precisely to get him to help save the Moon.
However, they weren’t very confident about Bai Mo’s willingness to help, as Edward Teach had deliberately concealed the outcome of their negotiations.
“No, it doesn’t seem like it. This is an unfamiliar power.”
“But... all the councilors are here. Could there really be another seven-stage hermit on the Moon?”
“That power feels like it just completed a breakthrough; it’s extremely unstable.”
“...”
“Boom!”
Under the circumstances of over a dozen six-stage projections ganging up on a pseudo-six-stage Liu Wu, he was undeniably suppressed, barely able to maintain a tiny defensive domain ten meters by ten meters by ten meters.
If it weren't for the councilors still harboring the thought of capturing him alive, not striking lethal blows but opting to seal him instead, Liu Wu, with his meager borrowed power, would have been crushed to dust long ago.
“Have you found the source of this person’s purple power?” Long Tianxiang asked, his expression quite displeased.
He had suffered an unprovoked disaster himself, inexplicably saddled with an enemy like Liu Wu because of his son, and now entangled in the crisis of the Moon’s impending destruction.
Of course, Liu Wu himself was not someone he bothered to take seriously; he was nothing more than an insignificant clown.
What truly merited Long Tianxiang’s attention was the purple entity that had bestowed power upon Liu Wu.
From his experience during their recent exchange, he knew that the opponent’s true form was definitely stronger than his own, belonging to the absolute pinnacle of six-stage powerhouses.
“The target’s aura doesn’t match anyone in the special person records. We suspect... he isn’t from the Moon.”
“If the opponent is a Martian, then its desire to destroy the Moon makes sense.”
“Combining this with the feeling of a perfected six-stage entity, I believe the opponent is precisely the strongest power on Mars mentioned in our intelligence reports—the Spirit of Nature.”
“But if the Moon and Mars collide and are destroyed, wouldn’t it be in trouble too?”
“That is indeed the biggest mystery...”
“For the other monsters, if Mars is destroyed, they can still survive in space. But for the Spirit of Nature, who walks the demigod path, losing Mars is equivalent to voluntarily abandoning most of its power.”
...
“That’s... Xu Xuan Ling’s power? She actually awoke from the Reincarnation Tribulation so quickly?”
As Mars and the Moon drew closer, the seven-stage power fluctuations erupting from Xu Xuan Ling on the Moon were clearly captured by Bai Mo.
He had originally thought she would need at least ten years, if not more, to have a chance of awakening.
Yet, unexpectedly, in just over two years, she had constructed her own True Spirit Barrier and stepped into the seven-stage realm.
“Such an overexertion and burst of power will require at least thirty years of recuperation afterward.”
“Who is that on the Moon?” Edward Teach also noticed the uniqueness of the fluctuation. “Trying to reverse the Moon’s course right after completing a breakthrough—truly, 'a mantis trying to stop a chariot'.”
“An old acquaintance.”
Before Bai Mo could even finish the word 'acquaintance', he felt the Daoization force pressing down on his true body abruptly intensify by several degrees.
The inexplicably appearing Daoization force was roughly half the total power Bai Mo possessed when he first broke through all those years ago.
Combining this with the information about Yuan Wu Chu from the Manghuang Realm, he pondered briefly and arrived at the most probable answer—
“Since this universe deems strength a cardinal sin, then let me be the one to bear all burdens, the true master.”
P.S.: Recommending a book, 'Pushing Through Three Thousand Worlds', currently on the Three Rivers List.
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