# Chapter 2016: The Smile I Want to Protect
At this moment, Lan Xing had also fallen into a state of spiritual energy depletion!
Almost all the spiritual energy existing in the world was absorbed by the World Tree to supply the consumption of Dawei Tianlong's continued existence in the three-dimensional world!
His consumption was simply too enormous. Even with Lan Xing's supply, Dawei Tianlong couldn't last much longer!
But that wasn't a problem. Jiangnan's goal had been completely achieved!
Under the sustained attacks of Dawei Tianlong and the human powerhouses, the Bose army had been reduced to around a hundred people!
Jing Lie and Lin Ya's consumption was immense, even though Dawei Tianlong was now going offline!
Jiangnan was confident he could eliminate all these remaining remnants!
Victory was certain, it was only a matter of time!
Jing Lie had already become extremely transparent, continuously blocking Dawei Tianlong's attacks with focused concentration!
When he looked around, the Bose army that had numbered less than ten thousand was now only a hundred, and still decreasing rapidly!
Damn it! How long had it been?
"Igor! What about the plan? We're out of time!"
Jing Lie had no confidence in lasting until Dawei Tianlong went offline!
Igor swallowed his saliva: "I've notified them already, they'll be here soon..."
Before he finished speaking, Igor was completely stunned. In a daze, he saw a tattered golden meteor breaking through Lan Xing's atmosphere, flying straight toward the Starry Sky battlefield!
It was Quinn!
Behind him, Jiang Ning and Wu Zang were pursuing!
In an instant, Igor's heart sank to the bottom!
It failed? How is that possible?
Wu Zang? Wasn't Wu Zang killed by Shen in Hongguo?
How could he still be alive?
And he had even achieved Transcendence?
Just then, with a "pfft" sound, Igor's chest was pierced through!
Countless jelly exploded!
Looking down, an arm bone knife made from Huan Yu Jing Yuan had penetrated his chest!
Igor spat out a mouthful of old jelly, his expression ferocious as he turned around!
"It's... you? You're not Shen?"
Kuopo was covered in death aura, his body rotting, the bone in his left arm not bone at all—it had been replaced by an arm bone knife that had been hidden inside his body for a long time!
All for this moment!
Kuopo's eyes were bloodshot, the arm bone knife continuously sawing through Igor's chest!
"How does it feel? Being stabbed in the back? I've wanted to do this for a long time! I held back until today!"
"This knife—it's for the humans who died by your hand, and for Quinn!"
"Son! Of! A! Bitch!"
Igor: !!!
The one in front of him was Kuopo, not Shen? He hadn't been possessed by Shen at all? Everything was an act?
All to infiltrate the Holy Star as a spy?
Fine! Fine, Kuopo! You hid this deep!
So that's why Quinn's plan was exposed—the humans were already prepared for the Star Core, even using two hidden Transcendents as support!
The plan failed! Damn it, he should never have brought Kuopo to see Quinn that day!
A plan he had hidden for over twenty years, ruined by Kuopo!
"You..."
He suddenly turned around, reaching for Kuopo's neck!
But Kuopo swiftly raised his knife and slashed upward, cutting half of Igor's body open!
Karl, seeing this, was furious! It wasn't Shen? It was Kuopo?
He charged at Kuopo with his Holy Judgment Sword!
But just then, Jiangnan's vanguard squad arrived instantly!
The Boundless Forbidden Zone enveloped them at once!
"You should die here too! From the moment you came to Lan Xing, you should have been prepared to die here!"
"For everything you've done to Lan Xing and human civilization over these twenty years, you should pay the price!"
Igor's gaze shifted, meeting Jiangnan's eyes filled with murderous intent!
In an instant, the blade's light bloomed. Before Igor could even ascend dimensions, his mutilated body was shredded by the Godslayer Blade!
A thousand cuts! Leaving nothing behind!
Karl, who had just rushed in to support, shrank his pupils, immediately retreating, raising his hand to open the Dimensional Gate!
But the next moment, he was met with the combined slashes of Baldr, Piers, and Jiangnan!
Blade after blade fell on Karl like minced meat, jelly splattering, broken arms flying everywhere!
Even the last remaining Glazed Horn on his head was cut off!
But in the end, Karl managed to escape into the Dimensional Gate by risking his life!
He refused to come out!
Kuopo's killing strike had stabbed Igor, catching everyone off guard!
It directly led to Igor's fall!
Freya slapped her thigh in excitement!
"Kuopo, you dead ghost, good job! I knew you weren't fooled!"
Freya was overjoyed!
But Kuopo couldn't be happy at all. After stabbing Igor to death, he also noticed the golden meteor charging into the Starry Sky battlefield!
Quinn rushed up with his last strength!
The first thing he saw was Kuopo's knife stabbing into Igor!
His expression froze, and their eyes met in the air!
In an instant, Quinn understood everything!
So... Kuopo hadn't been possessed by Shen? It was all a setup by Jiangnan and the others!
His identity was exposed, the plan failed, and it was Kuopo who had informed on him!
Compared to what he wanted to give them, they had ultimately chosen the majority...
It turned out that what he wanted to give them wasn't what they wanted!
The selfish one was always him...
Quinn looked up and laughed bitterly, feeling that the world was still mocking him even now!
He had racked his brains trying to protect the people he cared about, but in the end, Kuopo was fine!
Instead, he was betrayed by the one he cared about!
Was this his retribution?
In a daze, Quinn felt he was back in that room full of charred corpses, the place that was once called home...
It turned out that after all these years, he still hadn't changed anything. He was the one who was wrong...
Perhaps from that day on, Quinn had never truly had people he cared about. Maybe all he cared about was himself...
At this moment, Quinn's gaze fell on Jiangnan, and his voice sounded directly in Jiangnan's mind!
"I hope you'll win the bet. I couldn't give them what they wanted, but you can..."
"Since you've chosen, keep winning. Keep winning until the day no one in the Starry Sky can suppress you!"
Jiangnan was stunned, looking at Quinn in shock!
Quinn's life force was dissipating wildly, his expression growing more ferocious. He no longer looked in Kuopo or Freya's direction!
I don't need your sympathy or pity. When you remember me in the future, it shouldn't be with regret, sadness, or grief!
Freya doesn't need to know why I became a traitor!
They just need to know that I am an irredeemably bad person, a Holy Star dog driven by greed and ambition, wanting to be the king of men and the lord of the world!
A traitor condemned by thousands and spat upon by millions!
Since I chose this path, I'll walk it to the end. I'll keep making mistakes!
Repentance? Risking my life against the Holy Star's slave mark to help Kuopo and the others, dying tragically, with my friends mourning and regretting for me, unable to sleep at night thinking of me?
That's not how I die. It's too dreamlike. I don't deserve it from them!
My life! I decide it myself!
At this moment, Quinn completely went mad, roaring and charging toward Xiao Chuihuo and the others, murderous intent everywhere!
"You all deserve to die! You lowly humans, as insignificant as bugs, should kneel before the Holy Star and accept your fate!"
"Why do you keep ruining my plans! I've planned this for so long! Endured for over twenty years! All for today!"
"As long as I get the Star Core, I'll be the king of men, the master of this world! Why do people keep jumping out to stop me!"
"Even if I have to give up my life today, I'll send you all to the Yellow Springs! Blazing Sun • Swarm of Suns!"
Quinn gathered his last strength and launched an attack at Xiao Chuihuo, Odin, and the others, with immense momentum!
Yang Jian took a deep breath: "Attack!"
Xiao Chuihuo and Odin turned to look at the nearly insane Quinn, squinting!
"Meteor Volcano!"
"Aurora Supernova!"
Under the eruption of infinite flames and light, Quinn was instantly engulfed!
Wu Zang and the others who had caught up stared in shock at this scene!
Jiang Ning was stunned: "Quinn, how could..."
Lance smiled bitterly: "When grief exceeds despair, he saw it, and he understood. He was the one who was wrong."
"So he chose a death that suited him. Compared to being hated, he would rather his friends and brothers not mourn or regret for him..."
Wu Zang's expression was complicated, and he remained silent...
Freya stared at this scene in disbelief, fury rising in her heart!
"How is this possible! How could it be him? President Quinn? He... how could he be the Holy Star's mole? The deepest planted nail!"
"Everyone trusted him so much? He worked so hard for humanity! How, why!"
Freya stamped her feet in anger, gritting her teeth, unable to believe that Quinn would say such things, and take the opportunity to strike at the Star Core while guarding it!
Flames and light surged, Quinn saw Freya looking at him with hatred!
A faint smile curved at the corner of his mouth, and he closed his eyes in peace!
That's right, this is good enough...
I've been to this cruel world once, and I'm never coming back...
His life force faded away, his body completely burned to nothing by the flames, scattered into the Starry Sky.
Quinn had fallen!
Kuopo stared fixedly at this scene, his fists clenched tight. He walked to Freya's side and comfortingly patted her shoulder!
"Perhaps... everyone has something they want, their own choices. We can't control a person's will."
"Let him go. He paid the price for his actions, didn't he?"
Freya's eyes reddened, her teeth clenched, still muttering incessantly: "How could this be, how could it be him..."
Kuopo was silent. He would never tell Freya that on that night, Quinn was even willing to give up the chance to be the king of men!
To protect him. Quinn was guarding the people he cared about in his own way, but he chose the wrong path!
What he wanted to give wasn't what Kuopo and Freya wanted...
Quinn chose to die as a traitor. In the rest of Freya's life, she would gradually forget Quinn, her smiles light and not heavy!
Instead of dying a tragic death, like a thorn stuck in her heart, making her unable to forget until she died!
In that glance they shared, Kuopo understood!
Perhaps what he wanted to protect in the end was the light smile of his friends in their remaining years!
As for the truth, let it rot in his stomach forever...
Jiangnan looked at Quinn, who had dissipated, his expression complicated. Then he turned to Jing Lie and the others, flicking the Godslayer Blade!
"Then I'll win it for you! Keep winning! Until the day no one in the Starry Sky can suppress me!"
"It's time to end this battle!"