Chapter 292: Chapter 287: The Cuckoo Occupies the Magpie’s Nest
"Dr. Liu, can you save Lilia?" Wei Hao asked, turning his gaze to Liu Yaowu.
He saw Liu Yaowu with a long, mournful face and a wry smile. "Are you trying to get me killed?"
"If I don’t save her, the Boss will probably have my hide when he comes to his senses. If I *do* save her and he *doesn’t* come to his senses, I’m afraid I’ll die anyway! I feel like I’m doomed no matter what!"
Although Liu Yaowu was complaining, a change occurred in his exoskeleton armor. A metal grappling hook shot out from his shoulder, flying toward Lilia. It snagged her shoulder and pulled her out from the center of the giant sand hand.
Meanwhile, an intense battle raged within Chen Pingchuan’s mind.
"Give up!"
"Just look at yourself. You’ve been in this world for years and still haven’t accomplished anything. Why not just hand your body over to us?"
"After all, it can’t be fun always being a stray dog, can it?"
Chen Pingchuan’s original soul felt as if he had become a spectator once again. The only difference this time was that he could now converse with his emotional traits.
"Who are you?"
The question echoed within his soul, but for a long time, there was no answer. After a while, a voice finally replied, "Chen Pingchuan."
"You know that’s not what I’m asking!"
Another long, indeterminate period passed before the voice spoke again. "You can call me Chen Pingchuan’s God of Greed!"
"Alright, stop struggling. We are one. I won’t harm you."
"Heh..."
In the depths of his soul, their verbal sparring continued. In reality, beyond the deathly gray in Chen Pingchuan’s eyes, two glimmers of gold light thrashed about like trapped beasts. The golden light fiercely clashed with the deathly gray. The conflict produced tiny streaks of lightning that flickered around his eye sockets, illuminating a face distorted by pain.
Beneath his skin, veins bulged and pulsed like squirming earthworms, as if countless tiny snakes were writhing just below the surface. As the battle for control over his body reached a fever pitch, his clothes began to flutter and snap in a nonexistent wind, tugged by an immense, invisible force.
Suddenly, Chen Pingchuan’s body trembled violently and his legs gave way, forcing him to one knee. He gripped the ground, his nails digging so deeply into the cracks that the stone slabs shattered, sending shards flying. A low growl emanated from his throat, a sound filled with agony, seemingly squeezed from the very depths of his soul.
"Such a stubborn child. I wonder why he chose you!" a voice, completely different from Chen Pingchuan’s, escaped his lips, filled with rage and resentment.
"So, who won?" Lu Jiaojiao stared at Chen Pingchuan’s ice-cold eyes and swallowed hard. For some reason, she, who did not even fear death, found the pressure from Chen Pingchuan more terrifying than death itself.
Chen Pingchuan slowly lifted his head and looked at her. His cold gaze seemed to pierce straight through her soul, and a chill shot up from the soles of her feet to the top of her head. She instinctively took a step back.
"Win? There is no such thing as winning." Chen Pingchuan’s voice echoed through the Divine Hall. It carried a strange resonance, as if two voices were speaking at once. "But from now on, I’m in charge of this body."
With that, he slowly rose to his feet. A heart-stopping aura emanated from him, and the very air around him seemed to twist and warp under the pressure.
Just then, Liu Yaowu landed nearby with Lilia in tow. Seeing Chen Pingchuan’s state, Liu Yaowu’s expression changed instantly. He quickly pushed Lilia in front of him and looked at Chen Pingchuan with a fawning smile. "Boss, I... I don’t know what happened... my hand just moved on its own... Please forgive me this one time!" Liu Yaowu asked tentatively, though his heart was already devoid of hope.
I guess this is the end for me. No getting out of this one.
Chen Pingchuan’s lips curled into a cold smirk, but he didn’t answer. He slowly raised his hand.
Instantly, a sandstorm erupted inside the Divine Hall, sweeping up all the Golden Sacred Beetles in a whirlwind of sand before absorbing them directly into his armor.
Once the Golden Sacred Beetles had vanished without a trace, Chen Pingchuan teleported outside the Divine Hall without a single glance at the others. Gazing at the stone forest before him, he waved his right arm.
A torrent of sand billowed forward. As he moved, an invisible force radiated out from him. It was so powerful that cracks spread across the densely packed sand like a spiderweb.
Lilia and the others rushed out of the Divine Hall and stared at the incredible spectacle before them with astonishment. The stone forest, which had been peacefully rooted in the sand, was now slowly rising into the air, as if lifted by a mysterious and immense power. The towering stone pillars resembled the spines of colossal creatures, casting bizarre shadows under the sun. As the pillars rose, the surrounding air stirred, emitting a low howl, like the murmurs of a beast awakening from its deep slumber.
And that was exactly what was happening. The dense stone forest now revealed its true form—it was the back of a colossal beast.
"Holy crap! A prehistoric creature!"
"The Boss really is a Divine Envoy! No, no... the Boss must be a True God!" Liu Yaowu’s eyes went wide as he stared at the gigantic Sand Beast.
The Sand Beast’s body blotted out the sun, like a moving mountain range on the horizon. It was covered in coarse, hard, sandy-yellow scales, each the size of a house. Its head was like a giant fortress, and its two enormous eyes were like bottomless pools, hollow and devoid of light.
Just as everyone stood frozen by the awe-inspiring scene, a dazzling blue light suddenly streaked across the sky like a meteor. In the blink of an eye, a figure clad in sapphire-blue battle armor appeared before them.
The sapphire-blue Mechanical Battle Armor had sleek lines that exuded a sinister, icy aura. Its surface glowed with peculiar runes representing ancient power, while the energy core in its chest continuously emitted arcs of blue lightning. Though his face was obscured and his frame wasn’t particularly large, the powerful aura he exuded was no less formidable than that of the Sand Beast.
"Hyena?"
For the first time, a flicker of emotion appeared in Chen Pingchuan’s placid eyes. It was a communication from the depths of his soul—a powerful, seething hatred.
"What, did he cross you?"
Clearly, Chen Pingchuan-Greed didn’t understand what had happened in the simulator. So, despite some memory synchronization, he couldn’t comprehend the original soul’s profound hatred for this person.
"Forget it! It doesn’t matter! I have no interest in learning about the dead!"
Chen Pingchuan-Greed eyed Blue Demon avariciously. In turn, Blue Demon looked at him as if he were already a dead man.
"So, you’re the Third Princess’s foretold one? You don’t look like much."