Chapter 663 - 657: Ma Ran and the [True Demon]
Upon hearing Ma Ran’s words, Lan Xi’s forehead veins bulged, her eyes filled with rage, wishing she could immediately perish together with him.
"Huff... huff..."
After taking two deep breaths, Lan Xi barely managed to calm her emotions.
She gritted her teeth, glaring fiercely at Ma Ran, ready to erupt into violence at the slightest provocation, her face full of resentment and unusual agitation.
Yet Ma Ran remained calm, his gaze indifferent, not reacting defensively.
"Well?"
Ma Ran met Lan Xi’s eyes fearlessly, speaking gently, "It’s time to make your choice."
Lan Xi felt as if a demonic sound was pouring into her ears, her Divine Soul trembling, her thoughts impossibly chaotic, her mind a muddle.
Her tangled thoughts formed an inextricable knot.
She was conflicted.
Extremely conflicted.
In terms of sheer strength, she was not weaker than Ma Ran at all.
In fact, considering the battle environment, if Lan Xi and Ma Ran fought to the death, she had a good chance of surviving.
But...
Ma Ran hadn’t defeated her with the Tang Blade, yet his words had her at a loss.
Lan Xi understood very well that everything Ma Ran said could very well happen.
After all, he had already somehow mastered a power comparable to the Upper Rank Gods, with the Power of Time at his side, making him very hard to kill.
Truly provoking Ma Ran into madness wasn’t an outcome Lan Xi wished to see.
Among the seven Upper Rank Gods of the Divine Court, one known as "Mo Xing" also mastered the Time Law, capable of thwarting Ma Ran’s revenge.
The problem is...
Mo Xing was different from Lan Xi.
That guy was distant toward the Divine Court, neither a hawk nor a dove, seemingly never feeling a sense of belonging.
To have Mo Xing face off against Ma Ran, always defending the Divine Court?
Pure fantasy!
In reality, apart from Cang Lian and Lan Xi, the other five Upper Rank Gods weren’t particularly concerned about the existence of the divine court, regardless of ideological inclination.
Upon this thought, Lan Xi wilted, lowering her previously proud head, no longer meeting Ma Ran’s eyes.
Thus, the battle concluded.
After pondering for a while, Lan Xi finally said in a deep voice, "Have you seen the Demon Nest List?"
"This information, you shouldn’t know about."
Ma Ran raised an eyebrow noncommittally, not following Lan Xi’s lead, but instead, while Lan Xi was distracted, he threw out three questions in a row: "What do you think, what’s the likelihood that the empty number one Demon Nest on the Jade Stele is the Divine Court?"
"The seven Controllers of the Divine Court themselves being True Demons—is this possibility there?"
"After exterminating the other Demon Nests, where will you go? With the loss of a common external enemy, internal strife within the Divine Court would naturally and reasonably develop..."
If not for Ma Ran displaying sufficient strength, Lan Xi wouldn’t have listened to him.
But now...
Lan Xi had no choice but to quiet her mind, patiently think, and ponder Ma Ran’s three piercing questions.
She could be one hundred percent sure that this time, Ma Ran didn’t use his Enchantment to manipulate her Divine Soul or twist her thoughts.
This guy just proposed three possibilities.
Ordinarily unwilling to think, Lan Xi had to rationally consider and calmly analyze at this moment.
After some contemplation, she sorrowfully came to the answers to the three questions.
1. The probability that the Divine Court itself is the number one Demon Nest is very high!
2. The possibility that the seven Upper Rank Gods are True Demons indeed exists!
3. Even without considering the first two questions, after completely eradicating the other Demon Nests, the seven Upper Rank Gods will have no common enemy and goal, leading to conflicts and contradictions, and possibly causing the Divine Court to fracture... Lan Xi thinks that is almost an inevitable conclusion!
Likewise, it is an outcome Lan Xi cannot accept.
She wants the Divine Court to exist forever, not wanting to see Cang Lian harmed in any way.
The three cruel answers made Lan Xi’s eyes flicker, her expression gradually turning ferocious.
"..."
Lan Xi’s teeth ground loudly.
Her voice squeezed out through gritted teeth, "Though I hate to admit it, you pointed the way. This is a fact."
"I owe you one."
"Because of different standings, I cannot directly help you."
"So..."
"I’ll give you some crucial intelligence."
"Information that can help Earth Civilization hold out longer."
Lan Xi was a proud deity; the path she took when advancing to Upper Rank God relied on power as the means to Dao.
She wasn’t good at thinking but greatly respected those who used intelligence to help her.
Regarding the extermination of Demon Nests, she wasn’t deeply committed, mainly cooperating with Cang Lian’s instructions to repay the grace of being saved from despair long ago.
The questions Ma Ran mentioned, she’d never pondered.
Yet when she thought about it now, she felt a bit eerie, her Divine Soul trembling incessantly.
If in the end, after all Demon Nests were destroyed, the gods would inevitably face these issues Ma Ran brought up, the Divine Court would surely fall into division and civil war.
This was a scenario Lan Xi didn’t want to see.
The Divine Court was the power Cang Lian had established with a lifetime of dedication.
In any case, Lan Xi absolutely didn’t want to see the Divine Court fall apart!
"..."
"Among the seven Upper Rank Gods of the Divine Court, the one who poses the greatest threat to you is a guy named Mo Xing."
"He’s not a hardliner, nor is he a moderate like me and the Golden Domain; he’s a neutral opportunist."
"Among the seven of us, Mo Xing might not be the strongest, but he’s the most troublesome."
"He is an Upper Rank God who proves his Dao through time."
"If you’re not careful, you’ll definitely suffer greatly at his hands."
"Moreover..."
"What you said earlier is very true."
"Upper Rank Gods represent the pinnacle of the Cosmos and also signify a schism and gap."
"In the distant past, Upper Rank Gods had another name—great divine power!"
"But that’s it."
"In those days, even life entities at the Upper Rank God level would fall in large numbers when besieged by many Middle Rank Gods."
"But..."
"Before and after the rise of the Divine Court, the gap between Upper Rank Gods and Middle Rank Gods suddenly widened to an incomprehensible degree for the deities."
"No matter how many Middle Rank Gods, in front of Upper Rank Gods they’re just cannon fodder, unable to inflict any harm."
"Not reaching Upper Rank, you’re ultimately an ant."
"Perhaps you haven’t heard it, but this saying once spread widely across the Cosmos."
Lan Xi held her head, as if browsing through some long-lost ambiguous memories.
"In my memory, in the former Cosmos, every few millennia, an Upper Rank God would be born."
"In the time before the rise of the Divine Court, the epochs’ Upper Rank Gods all fell bizarrely."
"At the same time, the difficulty of breaking through to Upper Rank God level increased by billions of times!"
"But..."
"Correspondingly, upon reaching this realm, the power we can control is billions of times that of before, or even more!"
"According to probability theory, 160,000 years ago, the being of the Chuanke Civilization possessing combat power surpassing that of middle ranked gods, though limited by longevity and considered an ’Inferior Upper-Rank God’, shouldn’t have appeared at all!"
"As for you... combat power matching Upper Rank Gods, without a lifespan restriction."
Lan Xi looked at Ma Ran with an expression as if seeing a ghost: "This ability to play with minds and control weaknesses and timing..."
"You are truly an anomaly in the Cosmos!"
"Meeting you face-to-face, I never imagined that the vast Cosmos could nurture an entity like you."
While she spoke, Lan Xi seemed to suddenly remember something.
She looked at Ma Ran with a peculiar expression, speaking meaningfully: "The False Demons drive fear, annihilate all, The True Demons guide with love, create the end."
"In my life journey, I’ve never seen anyone more like a True Demon than you."