novelnext Chapter 354 -354-Egoless Judgment, A Momentary Radiance
Chapter 354 -354-Egoless Judgment, A Momentary Radiance
The corner of the little girl’s mouth curved upward slightly, and she began explaining while counting on her fingers.
"First, I sealed away all of his memories. Then I locked away part of his Strength as well. After that, I created a copy that was exactly identical to him. That copy possessed all his memories, all his Strength, and was even more like him than he himself was."
The more the little girl spoke, the more excited she became, her two small hands gesturing in the air.
"You see, the one who understands a person best will always be himself!"
"That copy would slowly deceive him and guide him, making that poor fellow foolishly believe that he was the reason he could not successfully pass the tribulation. In the end, he actually chose self-annihilation willingly!"
"Pfft—just like a candle blowing out its own flame! Hahaha, tell me, isn’t that the most interesting thing in the world?"
The little girl laughed until her eyes curved into crescents.
On that innocent little face hung a mischievous cruelty enough to send chills down the spine of even the bravest warrior.
She raised her head and blinked those bright, sparkling eyes, asking in a tone that seemed to be seeking praise,
"Sister, am I super amazing? Those adults all say I have a wicked sense of humor, but they don’t understand. Watching prey walk into a trap by themselves is ten thousand times more interesting than catching them with your own hands!"
After listening to this, Kelly froze where she stood.
It was as though an invisible bolt of lightning had split through the void and struck deep into her soul, exploding thunderously inside her mind.
That sound was like the whisper of fate, yet also like the tolling of a judgment bell, making her vision darken again and again.
In her once-determined eyes, only an empty confusion remained.
...
The Realm Beyond the Shore.
Daniel raised his hand to shield his eyes from the blinding light of the stone tablets.
He did not know why such an abnormal situation had appeared the moment he arrived here.
Especially when more than ten peak Divine-grade powerhouses stared at him at the same time, it felt like standing empty-handed under the gaze of a group of giant dragons. His whole body felt uncomfortable.
"But why are there so many peak Divine-grade powerhouses in the Astral Realm?"
Daniel could not quite understand.
Logically speaking, the strongest beings in the Astral Realm should only be at the peak of Divine-grade, and it should be extremely rare for a group of peak Divine-grade beings to gather in one place.
So why were so many gathered here?
Ridiculous!
Absolutely ridiculous!
He had already secretly prepared to flee at any moment.
But those peak Divine-grade powerhouses merely glanced at him once before their attention was once again drawn back to the stone tablets after the tablets returned to normal.
No one truly cared about him, this outsider.
"What exactly are these stone tablets?"
Daniel saw Vincent, who was painstakingly studying them.
But Vincent also treated Daniel as though he did not exist, focusing only on researching the stone tablet before him.
It was as though these stone tablets possessed a kind of MP that could make people forget everything else.
Seeing this, Daniel also developed a trace of curiosity toward the stone tablets.
He arrived before the stone tablet closest to him and looked up at its towering surface.
Boom—!
In an instant, a vast surge of information poured violently into his mind like a flood.
Daniel felt a sharp pain in his head, as though something were tearing his consciousness apart.
After the intense pain passed, however, what followed was a harvest that left him incomparably astonished!
He searched through the vast information in his mind and discovered that it was actually so clear, so incredibly easy to understand.
Even Daniel, who had always relied on the system to improve his strength and only had a vague understanding of the path of advancement, could understand it. It was as though this knowledge had been engraved into his soul from birth.
This information was the most fundamental information, the cornerstone of the path of the strong.
It described how the strong truly became strong.
Daniel involuntarily became immersed in it.
He also wanted to know how he should unleash the Strength he possessed to its utmost limit.
In the past, the opponents he encountered were either far weaker than him or far stronger than him. With the system assisting him from behind, he had never deeply explored these matters.
But now, this mysterious information allowed him to understand and allowed him to gain something!
Daniel absorbed the knowledge with the same hunger and thirst, as though nothing else in the world mattered anymore.
"What did you just... do to him?"
Kelly watched as the little girl sent specks of golden light drifting like fireflies into the mirror, then transmitted them onto Daniel.
"Hahaha..."
The little girl laughed. Her little face had gone a little pale, but her eyes had brightened.
"I gave that big brother a gift. It should be enough for him to use for a while."
Kelly sighed softly, her gaze filled with complexity.
"But you are the rule guardian, weaver, and judge of this plane. If you squander your Strength like this, one day you will be replaced by a new will. When that time comes, you will no longer exist..."
"Why don’t you walk the path that all plane wills walk?"
"Oh, Sister."
The little girl grinned and tilted her head as she asked,
"So what if I don’t walk the path I’m supposed to walk?"
"It’s just like ordinary living beings. Their elders arrange every step of their lives early on. If I refuse to walk the path that has already been paved for me, does that make me rebellious?"
"This..."
Kelly fell into thought.
"If it does, then I’ll be rebellious."
A mischievous smile rose at the corner of the little girl’s mouth.
"If the price of growing up is becoming a ’thing’ that even I don’t like, then how is that any different from dying?"
"If I become that kind of high and mighty, cold and emotionless will, then I will never be able to step out of this plane for the rest of my life..."
"Then I would never again be able to see the vastness of the Endless Starsea, never see those brilliant star rivers, those burning stars, nor the beauty and darkness deep within the starsea."
"Is possessing supreme Strength necessarily a good thing? I don’t like being bound by Strength. I yearn for freedom. I want to see the wonder of life and the magnificence of the starsea with my own eyes!"
After hearing this, Kelly suddenly smiled.
In that smile, there was relief, and also a trace of indescribable admiration.
"All living beings are guided by fate. Everything moves slowly along the trajectory of destiny, just as every person will eventually die. But people do not stop living simply because death waits at the end."
"On the contrary, it is precisely because the shadow of death looms at the end that the meaning of life becomes even clearer, and people cherish every step beneath their feet even more."
The corner of Kelly’s mouth curved slightly, and a gentle light shone in her eyes.
"Actually... I am the same. I also want to give this Endless Starsea one more choice. I want to live as the person I wish to become before the end of time arrives. So how could I not understand you?"
The little girl smiled as well, her brows and eyes curving.
"Eternity is far, far too distant. I only want that one moment of radiance. Although that light may be so brief as to be insignificant, I believe it will surely pierce through the darkness of this starry sky and allow those walking through the night to see a beam of light."
She paused, and a sly gleam flashed in her eyes.
"Sister, if that big brother really is a brave one worthy of this Strength, then I’ll give him an even greater gift."
"After all, who told Sister to care about him so much?"
Kelly’s cheeks turned slightly red, like clouds dyed by the evening glow.
She opened her mouth but said nothing. She only lowered her eyes gently.
...