“It seems I’ve underestimated you, Yun Yi” Meng Luo said as he looked at the giant snake behind Yun Yi, noting the difference between a Celestial’s and Desolate’s Totems.
The Desolates obtained their Totems through the Shaman taking them into the Ancestral Wild to observe the supernatural phenomena inside, then used what they had committed to memory to form a connection with the supernatural phenomenon, and finally used offerings to gradually turn it into their own Totems.
But the Celestials were different in that the Totems they manifested were not through observation of supernatural phenomena, but by jointly performing an offering to the Land of Eternal Peace before depicting their very own Land of Eternal Peace.
They did not use prey as offerings to the Land of Eternal Peace. Instead, whenever they overcome one of their shortcomings through their own will, thus breaking through their limits, they would dedicate the information of this process as an offering to the Land of Eternal Peace, which was equivalent to taking another step forward on the path of eternal peace.
Every offering would be rewarded by Negary, which could be used as ink and gradually depict their Totems.
Their methods were very different, the Desolates’ method was like hard labor, while the Celestials’ method was like a painting.
Those without talents would depict a Land of Eternal Peace as a complete mess with no abilities, while those who were talented would be able to gain more Cede than ordinary through depicting their Land of Eternal Peace.
Evidently, while Yun Yi had previously become a Warrior, he did not make any further offerings and instead chose the path of eternal peace, giving up his Totem to depict the giant snake behind himself.
“This isn’t a matter of underestimating or not. After I began walking on the path of eternal peace, I’ve continuously prepared to face that nightmare, and I should thank you for ‘helping’ me once again” Yun Yi glanced at the cannon that was thrown aside by the serpent’s maw and answered honestly.
Very few people understood the emotions of receiving someone else’s aid in a moment of despair, so most people didn’t understand just how much courage that serpent actually gave him when it appeared, which was why when Yun Yi depicted his Totem, he also depicted a giant snake.
However, Yun Yi was a lot calmer when he met Meng Luo again compared to what he had thought, he even had the mind to think about who the traitor was after regaining his senses.
“If you managed to infiltrate the research center without knowing about the double protocol system, then unless that mole wanted to deceive you, the only reason would be because even the mole didn’t understand the research center very well”
“There aren’t too many people like that, and I find it hard to believe that a Celestial who had walked the path of eternal peace would attempt something like betrayal, so the possible candidates can be narrowed down further” various names popped up in Yun Yi’s mind, which he quickly dismissed one by one through the process of elimination and arrived at an answer.
It was a certain Celestial who was born in a Desolate tribe who made quite a few friends during his time in the Desolate tribe. While he also knew about Negary and understood the path of eternal peace, he did not choose to enter the path of eternal peace when he became a Warrior, instead remembering some of the supernatural phenomena thanks to the influence of his Desolate tribe.
There had been other cases of this, which led to him being trusted by his tribe even more. This Celestial still ended up betraying his tribe and took a large amount of resources from them, using this contribution to become a frontline sergeant who was responsible for supplying experimental subjects for the research center.
Yun Yi had talked to him a few times and noticed that he felt a faint sense of guilt for taking the resources from the Desolate tribe when he defected, and it was very easy for such people to be taken advantage of if they couldn’t escape their guilt.
“How unfortunate, he became a traitor, huh?” Yun Yi said as he took out a sphere from inside his backpack.
Every Celestial knew the existence of the path of eternal peace, but not all of them were able to tread onto this path.
“Aren’t you also a traitor, Yun Yi? You are a Desolate!” Meng Luo’s gaze became focused and waved his hand to exude Cede, shooting a poisoned tooth forward as a streak of green light.
Yun Yi could feel a burning sensation in his hand, simply being targeted by the poisoned tooth was already enough to cause him to feel slightly delirious.
“Don’t tell me you still haven’t realized your own issues after all these years?” Yun Yi turned his hand to throw the sphere forward. While spinning on the ground, tiny holes appeared from the centrifugal force, from which white smoke began to seep out.
“My race is only my origin. That person and I are different, he had simply not been able to pass that obstacle, while I had” Yun Yi didn’t say anything else. If he had joined the Celestials due to greed or other reasons, that would truly have been a betrayal.
…
There were only two paths to eternal peace according to the path of eternal peace: Either treating anything and everything that stopped you from feeling peace as an enemy and defeating them; or to stop where you stood and being completely satisfied with what you had.
If the traitor Celestial had not betrayed them in order to defeat his guilt but was defeated by his guilt, today’s betrayal would only become another source of guilt for him, leading to him never being able to achieve peace.
Of course, this was only the truth to Yun Yi alone. To the other Desolates, he was indeed a traitor as Yun Yi had turned his back on his own race. It was merely a difference in perspectives.
…
“Then there’s nothing else to talk about, if you won’t surrender to the Desolate Republic, then I’ll courteously invite you to die!” Meng Luo narrowed his eyes.
Over these years, he had certainly discovered how different he was.
Originally, Meng Luo believed that his beast tooth was absorbing natural energy to modify him, but as he grew gradually more powerful, he discovered that it wasn’t modifying, but rather stimulating his latent potential.
The latent potential of an inferior Desolate was limited, so if he was truly an inferior Desolate, the beast tooth would have already fully stimulated his latent potential even before he ran away from the Meng tribe. But even today, the beast tooth had yet to be able to fully stimulate his potential, which suggested that he was far superior to those so-called superior Desolates.
But just as Yun Yi had said, it was only a difference in perspective. No matter how different his race was, his benefit lay with the Desolate.
Stepping into the smoke, Meng Luo’s Totem shrieked before entering his body. This was a technique that only Desolates who had reached the Converging Path would be able to use, by temporarily taking their Totem into their bodies, they would gain all of the Totem’s power.
Additionally, thanks to the beast tooth’s constant effect, his constitution had far surpassed other people; it was now at the point that a regular Totem wouldn’t even be a match for him, so by combining both of these factors, his body had become the strongest weapon he had.
As his eyes glowed red, Meng Luo appeared almost like a devil. Various scales began to faintly manifest around his skin to block the white smoke out of his body. While he didn’t know what the smoke did, it was impossible for something that the enemy released to benefit him.
The giant snake behind Yun Yi swiftly rushed straight towards Meng Luo while he picked up his cannon again. This time, Yun Yi wasn’t aiming at Meng Luo since the other party was too fast for him to accurately hit, even the giant snake could only rely on its large physique to barely block his way using wide-range attacks.
Because of that, Yun Yi aimed straight towards the ceiling, adjusting the power to its maximum and overclocked the weapon. The sharp blade of light shot through the ceiling and exposed a hole that led to the floor above.
After throwing the broken cannon to the side, Yun Yi activated a wrist-mounted rotary flying device while pulling out another sphere.
Standing right below the hole, he tossed the second sphere towards the smoking white sphere from before, which gave off a spark that immediately ignited the white smoke. The abrupt explosion fully enveloped the room and caused a huge shockwave that helped Yun Yi fly together with the heat.
The giant snake Totem behind his back showed up once again, but it had become a bit more transparent, having been destroyed in that explosion. A Totem created from Source Energy would not die, but it would weaken his connection to the Totem, returning a bit of Source Energy to the Ancestral Wild.
“Don’t you dare run!”
From within the thick smoke, a figure covered in soot and wounds leapt upwards, As he moved his body, the grime on his body was swiftly removed, even the wounds were rapidly healing.
The only thing that didn’t grow back was his hair.
Meng Luo was clearly angry. In his eyes, Yun Yi was nothing but a target of his goodwill, a target for him to take advantage of, so how could he not be angry by being turned into this state by someone like that?
A flash of light glittered on top of Meng Luo’s smooth chest, causing the surrounding natural energy to gather towards him. Meng Luo was now clad in a layer of red light similar to his glowing eyes, instantly turning into a blurry shadow and appearing behind Yun Yi, mercilessly throwing his punch forward.
A bright red blade perfectly blocked his punch, giving off enough hostility to completely numb Meng Luo’s scalp, but what caused him to almost lose his footing was the voice that followed.
“Child, being bald gives him extra crit chance, if I hadn’t arrived, you would have been as good as dead!”
