The dazzling golden light almost blinded Chen Bugu and the others.
“It’s over, we’re all finished.”
Amidst the golden-white light, Chen Bugu could only hear the Long-haired Treant beside him continuously speaking in self-despair. He unconsciously tightened his grip on the wooden bow in his hand.
In Chen Bugu’s estimation, that Star Weapon must be the key to dealing with the Divine, so now was not the time to face the Divine.
However, the situation changed too quickly, and he could no longer control it.
The golden light gradually dimmed. After a brief period of blindness, Chen Bugu and Bai Ting’s vision slowly returned.
They opened their eyes and saw a huge ball of light standing on the ground outside the cave. However, the condensed golden light was still dazzling, making it impossible for Bai Ting and the others to clearly see its true form.
Thanks to the Breaking of his eye gene lock, Chen Bugu’s vision was enhanced. He could vaguely make out a silhouette within the enormous ball of light.
That silhouette resembled a human figure.
A human figure with proportions that could almost be described as perfect.
A well-proportioned body, tight lines—that perfect physique seemed to contain infinite energy.
Unlike what the Long-haired Treant had said, it was not the image of a Muka people at all; it was clearly a human outline.
“Kneel, or die.”
An emotionless, neutral voice came from within the ball of light. The voice was cold, yet it carried an underlying majesty that made it impossible to resist.
“Divine…”
Han Badou was about to speak when suddenly a golden flash appeared before his eyes. He lowered his head and saw a large hole had appeared in his chest, its edges still burning with golden flames.
Before Han Badou could feel the intense pain, green blood gushed from his mouth. He simply stared with wide eyes and fell straight to the ground, the spark of his life rapidly extinguishing.
No one saw what happened, including Chen Bugu.
He had fully activated Breaking, but Inference hadn’t captured any traces either.
In everyone’s eyes, Han Badou had collapsed the moment he uttered the word “Divine.”
Chen Bugu turned his head to look at Han Badou. Not far behind him, the ground had cracked open, and a light spear burning with golden flames was deeply embedded in the fractured earth.
That cold voice once again entered his ears.
“Kneel, or die.”
The Divine was indifferent and required no other answer.
Lin Lin, realizing what had happened, quickly walked over to Han Badou. She saw that Han Badou’s eyes were open, green blood still oozing from his mouth, but his body now seemed lifeless, lying cold on the ground.
What happened?
Chen Bugu was in a daze, looking at Han Badou’s corpse.
Those calls of “Chen Dage” still seemed to echo in his ears.
The moment Lin Xiaoxiao saw Lin Lin rush towards Han Badou, her hands quickly transformed into two large wooden throwing stars. She spun her body and angrily flung the two throwing stars.
The throwing stars spun at high speed, creating a whooshing sound, but before they could even approach the golden light, they were ignited by golden flames and instantly vanished before everyone’s eyes.
The moment Chen Bugu raised his bow, he saw the figure in the ball of light raise its hand.
Subsequently, the lower halves of Bai Ting, Yan Kuan, Lin Xiaoxiao, and Lin Lin suddenly reverted to normal legs, just like Chen Bugu’s, but they were in extreme pain, wailing as they knelt on the ground.
Chen Bugu didn’t have time to check on their condition. He hurriedly drew his bowstring taut, and an arrow shot through the air.
At the same time, his eyes were surrounded by purple light, and Mental Shock was fully unleashed.
Chen Bugu had witnessed Lin Xiaoxiao’s attack.
The effect the Divine had just imposed on Bai Ting and the others was likely a powerful mental ability, and perhaps even the golden light around it was some kind of top-tier domain skill.
Chen Bugu had to first use Mental Shock to interrupt both skills, otherwise, the subsequent arrow might not even get close.
Shooting a Divine with a wooden arrow was laughable, but Chen Bugu couldn’t do nothing.
However, the moment Mental Shock was activated, Chen Bugu felt as if he had been dragged into an endless abyss. He screamed and collapsed backward onto the ground, unconsciously clutching his head, while blood and tears streamed from both his eyes.
Mental Shock had backfired. The golden flames seemed to be scorching Chen Bugu’s soul. His head throbbed with excruciating pain, feeling as if countless sharp blades were slowly scraping away at the surface of his brain, slice after slice.
Chen Bugu didn’t know how long it had been—perhaps ten seconds, perhaps a minute. When his headache gradually subsided, he opened his eyes, and what met his gaze was a desperate “hell.”
Yan Kuan’s body was split in two. His thick tree trunk was riddled with holes, and countless tiny golden flames spread outwards from those holes in his corpse, slowly devouring it.
Bai Ting stood in place, but everything above his neck had vanished. The white cloth that had originally been draped over his back fluttered down precisely the moment Chen Bugu opened his eyes, but before it could reach the ground, it was completely consumed by golden flames.
Lin Xiaoxiao was impaled on the stone wall deep within the cave. Her body was pierced with golden throwing stars, and the golden flames on those throwing stars alternately surged, brilliant and dazzling, yet full of death.
Chen Bugu trembled, and finally looked straight ahead.
Just three or four meters in front of him, Lin Lin’s back filled his entire vision.
That figure stood silently with outstretched arms, but her body was also riddled with holes, pierced by more than a dozen golden energy spears.
They’re all dead, all dead…
Only the Long-haired Treant was still alive, trembling in the corner from the very beginning.
Chen Bugu’s mind was blank. He tried to reach out his left hand to grab Lin Lin, but found that his entire left arm had long since disappeared, and the golden flames burning on his left shoulder seemed to tell him what had happened.
He lowered his head, trembling uncontrollably. He began to understand the Long-haired Treant’s words.
“The Divine is unconquerable.”
Yes, he should have known earlier. He should have realized the moment he activated Weakness Detection that the Divine was flawless.
“Kefuke, I’ve given you one chance. Now answer me, kneel, or die!”
It was the first time Chen Bugu had heard the Divine before him speak so many words.
He staggered to his feet, but then his knees suddenly buckled, and he unconsciously knelt on the ground.
Chen Bugu’s whole body stopped trembling. He pressed his head close to the ground.
Perhaps feeling that he was about to die, Chen Bugu suddenly began to see some scenes from his previous life.
In the Starting Forest, after an argument with a ruffian from Liang Hong’s team, the man grinningly held a dagger to his throat and told him to kneel.
To survive, that time, Chen Bugu knelt.
In Obsidian Town, Chen Bugu got into trouble with the scion of a powerful family for helping a human girl being harassed by an alien on the street. Later, the other party came to his door with people, and the alien young master told Chen Bugu to kneel in public. No one spoke up for him, even the human girl he had rescued stood by silently.
To survive, that time, Chen Bugu also knelt.
Chen Bugu didn’t know how many times he had knelt, but each time, he smiled and comforted himself, at least he survived.
The sorrow of a small person had always been like this; for survival, what dignity was there to speak of?
Chen Bugu had always comforted himself this way, until more than a year after he entered this world.
At that time, all humans on Earth began to experience the Great Disaster, and the surviving Awakeneds began to flock to the Initial Forest.
Chen Bugu was neither strong enough nor had enough resources to obtain a teleportation crystal.
He begged everyone, hoping someone could protect his parents, willing to kneel to them repeatedly for it, but no one was willing to help him.
At the exit connecting the Initial Forest to the outside world, Chen Bugu waited for half a month, but his parents never arrived.
He remembered the illusion he had fallen into at Tiancheng City First Hospital, standing in the pouring bloody rain, his parents’ corpses casually discarded nearby.
Chen Bugu also thought of Han Badou, and Bai Ting, Yan Kuan, Lin Xiaoxiao, and Lin Lin. In the spherical space, they had unhesitatingly chosen to enter this secret realm with him, but never expected to lose their lives.
As he thought, his eyes became bloodshot, and his lips were bitten until they bled.
He pressed his head tightly against the ground, biting the fletching of an arrow with his mouth.
The next instant, Chen Bugu suddenly stood up, holding his longbow horizontally at head height with his right hand, his mouth biting the arrow nocked on the bowstring, pulling back with all his might.
The moment his right hand pushed forward, Chen Bugu drew the bowstring to its fullest.
Crimson blood dripped into his eyes. He gritted his teeth and squeezed out a few words.
“I’ll kneel your mother!”
The wooden arrow shot through the air, and Chen Bugu saw countless green and blue light spots converging from the forest outside, then forming two swirling ribbons of light that wrapped around the arrow shaft.
The light arrow, imbued with blue and green, struck the outer perimeter of the golden light mass. This time, the golden flames and the blue-green energy around the arrow shaft consumed each other, locked in a stalemate.
However, the arrow’s momentum remained undiminished, heading straight for the Divine’s face.
Chen Bugu’s bow had also transformed at some point. The original wooden bow was completely new, its wood bright and clear, with a newly sprouted branch wrapped around the bow limb. The tips of the bow limbs and the center were inlaid with jade-green crystals.
The bark that served as the bowstring had also disappeared, replaced by a fine, silken stream of water, emitting a faint blue glow.
But Chen Bugu had no time to admire his new bow, as he found his arrow had stopped right in front of the Divine.
The Divine merely raised its hand, and the arrow could not advance another inch; the blue and green energy light bands shattered instantly.
Chen Bugu didn’t know why, but he suddenly had a feeling.
He felt that in that instant, the Divine seemed to have looked at him for the first time.
Immediately after, Chen Bugu discovered that there was no cave ceiling above him anymore; everything was shattered, and a giant golden hand, wreathed in flames, descended from the sky.
This palm obscured the sun and moon, obscured the forest.
It still seemed far from the ground, but Chen Bugu could already feel his skin cracking, carbonizing, the blood on his face rapidly evaporating…
Chen Bugu bent down, biting another arrow with his mouth.
Even though he knew this arrow would be useless.
“Hahahahaha, Chen Bugu, I acknowledge you.”
A crazed laugh came from behind him—it was the Long-haired Treant’s voice.
Chen Bugu now understood the Long-haired Treant’s despair from before, but with death imminent, nothing else mattered.
Behind Chen Bugu, the dense foliage on the Long-haired Treant’s head suddenly lit up completely, emitting a powerful aura of life with a green glow.
A crown appeared on the Long-haired Treant’s head.
He stood in place, his body becoming translucent green, like a beautiful jade.
Noticing the commotion behind him, Chen Bugu turned back in surprise, discovering that the Long-haired Treant’s body was rapidly expanding. He transformed into a giant.
Five meters, ten meters, fifteen meters…
His legs plunged into the earth, transforming into colossal tree trunks, roots surging from the ground, and countless green sap also gushed from the earth, instantly submerging everything around them.
Chen Bugu struggled to float upwards. He watched as the Long-haired Treant grew to be fifty or sixty meters tall.
It had transformed into a towering giant tree, and in the next instant, it crashed head-on with the golden giant palm descending from the sky!
The world was silent for a moment.
Then came the powerful hurricane unleashed by the collision!
Chen Bugu floated on the green water, his entire body struck by the strong wind. Before losing consciousness, he heard the Long-haired Treant’s last words.
“Chen Bugu, you want to know my name?”
“I am Muka King, Kefuke!”