Chapter 1746: Collapsing Heart (Part 2)
The images in these three projections were not long, far from all the memories of those who had experienced them—clearly, many unnecessary scenes had been edited out.
But they were enough to present the complete truth of the Demon Emperor's return with vengeance and her decision to leave, laid bare before the world.
Countless star realms and countless Xuan practitioners in the Eastern Divine Region felt as if they had woken from an illusory, profound dream.
They had never imagined that behind the Crimson Calamity lay such a terrifying truth... the legendary Jie Tian Mo Di from ancient times was still alive, and had even appeared in the present era.
With a single finger, with a single thought, she could destroy the heavens and bury the world. Divine Lords and Divine Emperors were beneath her like dust and ants.
Yet, during the months of her return, no disaster had befallen the Divine Realm—no one even knew of her arrival.
All of this was because of Yun Che.
And because of Yun Che, she chose to leave...
So that was it—those short months, the entire Eastern Divine Region, the entire Divine Realm, had been teetering on the edge of the infernal abyss.
It was Yun Che who saved them, saved the entire Divine Realm, saved all living beings from the brink of that abyss... Otherwise, if the Demon Emperor bore hatred, if the Demon God returned, with their resentment toward the descendants of the gods, the Eastern Divine Region might no longer exist by now. Even if they survived, they would live forever in fear and enslaved hell.
In the projections, they saw many Divine Emperors of the Eastern, Western, and Southern Divine Regions, and saw powerful Realm Kings and Upper Realm Kings whose prestige shook the world... Yet not a single one of them had revealed the truth to the world.
Before the Demon Emperor left, perhaps it could be attributed to her decree, understandable to avoid causing panic across the realms.
But after the Demon Emperor left and the calamity was completely eliminated, why...
Why was the "truth" they were told that these Divine Emperors and Divine Lords, trembling and begging on their knees before the Demon Emperor, desperately clinging to Yun Che as their lifeline, had jointly sealed the Crimson Rift!?
And that they had even struck the Evil Infant out of the Chaos!?
The ridiculous part was... in the first projection, the process and result of the divine lords' joint attack on the Crimson Rift were clearly shown. Their combined power, so overwhelmingly exaggerated, was like an ant trying to shake a tree before the Crimson Rift—utterly useless!
How could it possibly have been them who finally sealed the Crimson Rift!
Yet there was not a single word about Yun Che's world-saving deed! No one had ever heard the four words "Savior Divine Son"!
Everyone remembered with absolute clarity: the very day the Crimson Rift disappeared, what followed was the pursuit order issued by all the Realm Kings against Yun Che!
Especially Zhou Tian Shen Di, who had repeatedly bowed to Yun Che in the projections and honored him as "Savior Divine Son," had publicly offered an irresistible bounty, inciting the entire realm to hunt down Yun Che across the Eastern Divine Region and even the lower realms.
What happened after that, everyone knew... To force Yun Che out, countless Realm Kings and Upper Star Realm Mystic Vessels charged into the lower realms, approaching the lower-level planet of Yun Che's birth... Then that planet was reduced to ashes, and Yun Che escaped under the desperate rescue of the Yinxue Realm King, fleeing into the Northern Divine Region.
No matter how they described the turmoil in their hearts, they felt their souls and perceptions churning and overturning under something icy. They felt like a swarm of ignorant, foolish, pitiful insects, being deceived, manipulated, and toyed with by the very people they looked up to...
The projections were not over yet; a fourth projection soon unfurled.
And this time, it was a scene none of them had ever seen.
In the image, Jie Tian Mo Di stood proud and aloof, surrounded by dimness. Dark mists were faintly visible, drifting endlessly.
Both Eastern Divine Region practitioners and Northern Divine Region demonfolk could see at a glance that this was clearly the dark space of the Northern Divine Region.
The Demon Emperor's gaze fixed on the distant darkness, her face etched with bleakness. She spoke slowly: "Back then, I sincerely sought to meet that Mo E of the divine race, but was ambushed by him. With such despicable means, yet the records of that time only praise him... Hah, how ridiculous."
"If not for Yun Che... if not for the sake of not tarnishing Ni Xuan's Evil God name because of me, I truly would have... erased Mo E, Xi Ke... and all inheritors of the divine race's power and will from the world forever!"
She slowly raised her hand, pointing into the endless darkness: "Look at these dark descendants. They have been sealed like livestock in a dark cage for eternity. If they dare take a single step out, they will be hunted by all inheritors of the divine will."
"If brutality is a crime, murder is a crime, oppression is a crime... then who is truly guilty? And those who commit these crimes, evils, and tyrannies still claim to uphold the name of righteousness and the Heavenly Dao!"
"Those foolish, ignorant beings have never truly thought about what evil the demons represent. Is the evil the demons have inflicted on them even one-thousandth... one ten-thousandth of the evil they have inflicted upon the demonfolk!"
"If 'demon' means evil, then who... is the true 'demon'!"
She spoke to herself, she questioned, and every word struck the hearts and pierced the souls of the Eastern Domain cultivators.
Where was the evil of the demons? What disasters had they actually caused?
Under this "question," they suddenly became stunned...
These days, the Eastern Divine Region was suffering a terrifying demonic calamity.
But in the history of the Divine Realm, such a calamity had never occurred, nor was there any record of it.
Yet from birth, they had been instilled with the belief that demons were heretics incompatible with the world, beings of extreme negativity, sin, and brutality. Killing a demon was killing evil, and seeing a demon meant it must be slain—this was the duty of every Xuan practitioner.
This was the most basic understanding, like the difference between male and female, like water and fire.
No one questioned it... because questioning was a ridiculous ignorance, even a sin.
Where were the demons truly evil? What unforgivable sins had they left behind? What catastrophes had they caused that were too numerous to record? They simply couldn't recall.
Because that was the universal cognition and belief of the Realm Kings and countless Upper Star Realms—no reason needed.
On the other hand, the Northern Divine Region, for a full million years, generation after generation, had been forced to shrink into their cage under the relentless oppression and slaughter of the three Divine Regions.
As the dark yin energy dwindled and the "cage" gradually contracted, they had to wage endless conflicts and self-destruction to compete for fewer and fewer territories and resources. Every year, countless demonfolk perished as a result.
Faced with such a Northern Domain, the world responded with cold mockery and schadenfreude, believing this was how it should be, that this was the achievement of the Realm Kings and all their efforts.
On reflection, the number of demonfolk who had perished from this oppression over those million years was an unimaginably vast figure.
If killing is evil, and oppression is evil, then the evil the three Divine Regions had inflicted upon the Northern Divine Region was beyond redemption for ten thousand generations.
"And I, as the Demon Emperor of the demon race, have to sacrifice myself and my last clansmen for a group of such base mortals who treat future demons this way... Hah, how ridiculous, how ridiculous!"
Her cold laugh was especially bitter and ironic.
Thinking of the "truth" they had been told earlier and the truth they saw today... yes, how ridiculous.
Jie Tian Mo Di slowly turned her gaze, meeting all eyes head-on, as if piercing every pupil and soul.
This gaze proved she knew her every move was being recorded by a Mysterious Shadow Stone, but she did not stop it.
"Three days from now is my departure. I just visited the Tai Chu Divine Realm to see the Evil Infant, telling her to hide by Yun Che's side in three days."
"Now, they all call Yun Che the Savior Divine Son and swore to me that they would eternally remember Yun Che's world-saving grace. Hmph, but I know the filth of human nature too well. Especially for these upper echelons, how could they be willing to have someone with a higher prestige than themselves and a future that will inevitably surpass theirs?"
"I fear that after I leave, they will suddenly turn hostile, not only hiding his world-saving deeds from the public but even persecuting him... What grace, what righteousness, what goodness! To them, status, interests, and prestige are everything! For the sake of these, they are capable of the most despicable and filthy deeds."
"I hope all of this is just pessimistic delusion."
"I hope the existence of the Evil Infant will make them afraid to reveal their filthiest side. That is also the reason I can leave with some peace of mind."
"But..." The Demon Emperor's gaze grew strange, her voice slowing: "If everything truly takes the worst turn... even worse and more dire than I imagined, you will still protect and save him, won't you?"
No voice answered her, and at that moment, the projection completely closed.
The Eastern Divine Region fell into a terrible silence.
Everyone felt as if they had suddenly woken from a great dream... and after waking, the whole world seemed transformed, with cold sweat streaming down their bodies.
The Crimson Calamity had vanished because of Yun Che—he had saved the entire Divine Realm from a doom that was utterly unsolvable, against which there was not even the slightest resistance.
Not those Divine Emperors and Divine Lords!
Jie Tian Mo Di, the emperor of demons—whom they had believed to be the embodiment of pure evil, intolerable to heaven and earth—had willingly left the Chaos with her clansmen for the sake of the mortal beings of this era.
No word of Yun Che's world-saving fame had been spread. Those who knew the truth hunted him, destroyed the planet of his birth, drove him in despair into the Northern Divine Region... and finally, they took all the credit for themselves.
And they, the Xuan practitioners of the Eastern Divine Region, were like a flock of kept clowns, still gazing upward with the most fervent eyes, cheering and praising them, responding to their orders to kill and despise Yun Che, the savior of the world's myriad beings...
Irony?
Anger?
Sorrow?
Confusion?
No...
When the impact on the soul is too violent, when cognition is completely overturned, the mind is left blank... and in that blankness, beliefs collapse and shatter.
The Yun Che of the Feng Shen Battle, the Yun Che who stood alone before Jie Tian Mo Di in the projection, how dazzling he was! The divine light in his eyes was truly like stars.
And the Yun Che who returned, how terrifying he was—slaughtering the Zhou Tian realm without mercy, bringing catastrophe to all realms of the Eastern Domain without any quarter.
In that moment, they suddenly understood with profound sorrow.
He had accomplished the greatest holy deed in the world, and without exaggeration, everyone alive—especially those in the Divine Realm who inherited the power of the gods—owed him a life.
Yet he immediately suffered the most despicable, most brutal "repayment."
And they, all saved by him, had all become accomplices in driving him into the abyss.
The faces and eyes of the Eastern Domain cultivators were deeply dazed. They would rather believe this was an absurd, utterly ridiculous dream... Their beliefs were collapsing, their cognition crumbling, and the images of those they revered and trusted were turned upside down.
As for the dark Xuan practitioners of the Northern Divine Region, their killing intent and malice were dissipating, their emotions also on the verge of collapse. A moment ago, their faces were filled with endless ferocity; now, tears flowed like a spring, unstoppable.
The Demon Emperor had sacrificed herself for the sake of all living beings.
The Demon Lord, single-handedly, had saved the world.
The peace of the Divine Realm today was all because of demons!
And those words of Jie Tian Mo Di caused the grief and bitterness accumulated over countless years and generations in their hearts to burst forth in a torrent...