Chapter 2029: That Glimpse of Light and Shadow
Jiangnan's lips were tightly pressed together, his lower eyelids slightly narrowed. This warm bear hug almost made Jiangnan lose his composure!
But he still forced himself to hold on!
"Everyone, let's take a rest first. I'm a bit tired and want to be alone for a while."
As he spoke, he teleported away from Xiao Chuihuo's embrace, disappearing without a trace!
Xia Yao's heart clenched painfully, her nose stinging with tears. "Xiao Nan, you..."
She was about to chase after him, but Mi Ye grabbed her arm and shook her head.
"Xiao Nan is barely holding up his facade anymore. He doesn't want everyone to see him vulnerable. Let him be alone for a bit..."
Xiao Chuihuo murmured, "This is the fate of an Era Lord..."
He was the backbone of everyone, the spiritual leader. He had to keep it together!
But now, Jiangnan had lost the goal he had struggled for all his life, only to end up with this outcome!
All his previous efforts had gone down the drain. Who could accept that in a short time?
He needed to get through it, figure things out, and then crawl back up from the mud!
Every time he fell in the mud, it was a growth for Jiangnan!
Xiao Chuihuo couldn't bear it. The Era Lord seemed glorious, but in the end, he was still a young man in his twenties!
He should have been enjoying the blooming of youth, infinite beauty!
But on his shoulders, he carried too much pressure, moving forward with all of humanity's burden!
Yang Jian took a deep breath. "At least he came back alive. That's a good thing."
"Let's head to the Star Palace meeting room first and discuss the next move."
...
In the Star Palace meeting room, all the elites of Blue Star were gathered, sitting around the conference table in silence!
Frustration and unwillingness were written on everyone's faces, the atmosphere heavy and oppressive.
The main seat belonging to Jiangnan was empty. No one sat there...
Yang Jian's expression was dark. "Everyone heard the Sacred Law Council's verdict. In half a month, they will execute the judgment on Blue Star!"
"That half month was something Jiangnan fought for with his life. As for what comes next..."
Before he could finish, Ba Di slammed his fist on the table, his face twisted. "Are we really just accepting this? I won't accept it! All our efforts have been for nothing? To end it here? On what grounds!"
"Did the ancestors who sacrificed for us die in vain? I'd rather die on the battlefield than grow old and die on Blue Star!"
Ba De Er gritted his teeth. "They want to take the Star-Devouring Giant Worm, Blue Moon, Jiang Jing, and the Creation Beast? Everything? How can we give them that!"
"Brother Jian! Let's fight them! This is too humiliating. If we can't win once, we'll try again. Even if we fight to the last drop of blood, I won't accept this outcome!"
At that moment, the meeting room erupted with anger, everyone suppressing their burning fury!
Yang Jian glared. "Calm down! All of you, calm down! Fight? I ask you, what will we fight with? The Starry Sky Races alone have no less than ten Star Devourers!"
"One of the Top Ten Sequences can destroy our Milky Way Galaxy a thousand times over. Fight? Take all of Blue Star's humans to die?"
"Do you think Jiangnan doesn't want to fight? He wants to more than anyone. But besides that, he has to consider the lives of billions on Blue Star. We aren't afraid to die, but the billions on Blue Star aren't just a number!"
"Impulse and recklessness will only lead to destruction! That's what they want to see!"
Odins fists clenched tightly. "But..."
Freya painfully grabbed her hair. "We've all seen Thousand Stars City and the Ten Thousand Races civilization. Compared to them, human civilization is far behind!"
"There's no hope of victory. We've done all we could to get here. Maybe... maybe it's best to let the world lose its spirit, restore the past, and erase everything!"
"We haven't achieved nothing. At least we brought temporary peace to this era and protected the lives of all humanity!"
As for why it was temporary, no one knew if history would repeat itself in a thousand years.
If Blue Star faced a fifth spiritual energy revival, the Jiangnan Era would become the past, and hope would be placed on future generations? That would be another endless cycle.
No one could guarantee that the Ten Thousand Races Accord would last forever. Human civilization without fangs and claws would just be lambs waiting to be slaughtered!
Bai Kou lay on the table, tears soaking her sleeves. At this moment, she felt the helplessness of Xiao Di and Yu Shen in the past!
Perhaps Jiang Fan had also faced such helplessness.
Now it was Jiangnan's turn...
No one spoke. What Freya said made some sense!
Two paths lay before them: fight a desperate battle without regard for consequences, staking the lives of all humanity and the future of human civilization.
Or accept fate peacefully, protect human civilization, pull out their fangs and claws, and become a sheep penned up in a wolf pack.
Odins eyes were bloodshot, his fists clenched tightly.
"Forget the future. Ask yourselves, deep down, are you really satisfied with this outcome?"
Everyone's heart trembled. How could they be satisfied!
On every face was reluctance and anger, eyes filled with the determination to gamble everything!
Xiao Chuihuo looked up at the ceiling, his voice hoarse. "Wait. Wait for Jiangnan to come back. Wait for his word..."
Human civilization stood at a crossroads. How to choose, which way to go—it was up to Jiangnan, the Era Lord, to decide.
The meeting room fell silent again. No one had ever felt time pass so slowly. Every second was torture.
...
In the Kyoto Square, before the Origin Stele, the vast square was empty. The stele was covered with flowers in front of it.
Jiangnan's figure suddenly appeared there. He looked up at the names on the stele, all warriors who died in the global spiritual calamity.
His gaze swept over each name, finally resting on Li Mingshan's name.
Jiangnan's eyes curved, his lips trembling. "Uncle Li... I've come to see you. I'm a bit embarrassed to show my face."
"I tried to collaborate with a tiger, and the tiger devoured me. I thought about this outcome, but in the end, I clung to hope..."
"Originally, I thought after winning this Star Ruins war and joining the Starry Sky Sequence, I would come and tell you the good news..."
"But now it seems I won the battle but lost completely. I'm sorry I couldn't fulfill your entrustment. I'm useless."
At this moment, Jiangnan finally couldn't hold back. The strength in his body seemed drained in an instant.
He collapsed weakly to his knees, supporting himself with his hands on the ground, sobbing. Tears fell in large drops, hitting the ground and soaking the marble slabs beneath the stele. He wept silently.
A gentle breeze brushed across Jiangnan's back, as if a comfort from Li Mingshan.
Jiangnan kept wiping his tears with the back of his hand. "Miu Ke and Kui En were right. I'm a complete gambler."
"Maybe I've kept winning all along, but there's always a day when I lose. This time, I won beautifully, but I also lost completely."
"But I had no choice. I really didn't want to gamble. I tried my best! Now they want to take everything from human civilization and pull out our fangs and claws!"
"I don't want to accept it! I really don't!"
Xing Cheng, Blue Moon, Jiang Jing, Celestial Azure Vine—everything. How could Jiangnan bear to lose them?
It was like cutting flesh from his heart.
Kneeling before the Origin Stele, Jiangnan's fists bled from clenching, his eyes bloodshot.
"I walked this path all the way to today, just to protect the ones I care about. But I couldn't protect a damn thing!"
"I have a backup plan. There's still a chance. But... do I really want to gamble again? Uncle Li, I don't want to be a gambler anymore!"
"Maybe accepting this outcome is a kind of relief..."
Jiangnan knew very well that if he chose to gamble again, this time he would be staking the lives of all humanity. The odds were slim, the risk enormous.
One mistake, and human civilization would disappear from the starry sky forever because of his decision.
This path was so difficult that just thinking about it made Jiangnan unwilling to walk it.
But if he accepted the verdict, the billions of humans would survive and live well.
Maybe in a thousand years, storms would rise again, crises would come. But that would be a matter for future generations.
Choosing to accept would at least allow the humans of this era to live happily and peacefully on Blue Star.
This was all Jiangnan could get after giving his everything.
Faced with the choice, Jiangnan hesitated for the first time. He didn't dare gamble again.
What if... what if he lost again? Humanity couldn't afford to lose!
But to accept? Jiangnan couldn't bear it.
At that moment, Jiangnan pressed his forehead against the Origin Stele, his eyes tightly shut.
"What should I do?"
But that question was destined to go unanswered.
Just then, time seemed to freeze for an instant. Behind Jiangnan, light and shadow twisted!
An extremely blurry humanoid figure of light and shadow appeared behind Jiangnan!
No one noticed this figure's appearance, not even Jiangnan. Everything seemed very hazy.
Its appearance and clothing were unclear, and its gender indistinguishable.
It looked around, its eyes finally landing on Jiangnan, filled with coldness.
It reached out, pressing its hand toward Jiangnan's crown!
As the light-shadow hand moved, time and space distorted. Everything around frantically rejected its existence!
But it couldn't stop the figure's movement.
Just as the hand was about to touch Jiangnan's crown,
Jiangnan lifted his forehead and slammed it heavily against the Origin Stele, his face twisted in struggle.
"Tell me! What should I do!"
His words carried endless oppression and confusion, tears falling uncontrollably to the ground.
The light-shadow figure's movement froze. It looked at Jiangnan with a complicated expression.
In the end, it withdrew its hand, stood upright, and looked up at the sky.
"Do what you want to do. As long as you want to, you can accomplish anything..."
Jiangnan was startled. His eyes snapped open, full of astonishment.