Chapter 145 Annihilation Dream

The funeral march drifted out from the Freedom Hall, and someone stood on the tower, silently mourning.

"What a grand funeral..."

"However, this funeral buries you."

A faint echoing voice came from the roof of the hall not far away.

Xiao slowly turned his head.

Under the great moon, he saw an old man and a young man standing on the roof of the hall. The smile on the v-shaped mask seemed to be even more intense.

"Mr. Shu... you've finally arrived..."

Xiao slowly bowed, performing an ancient and elegant curtsy.

Gu Shen, standing beside his teacher, frowned.

He remembered... where had he seen this etiquette before?

He remembered!

A-009 had performed the exact same curtsy!

Gu Shen turned to look at his teacher... as expected, when Zhou Jinren saw Xiao's curtsy, his eyes turned icy and cold, and in an instant, the roof tiles of the hall shattered.

The next moment.

Zhou Jinren appeared in the tower.

One punch!

"Oof—"

It was truly a shocking sight. Zhou Jinren's seemingly frail body contained such immense power. With one punch, he directly struck Xiao's abdomen.

Xiao was sent flying with his limbs flailing, and he coughed up a large mouthful of blood.

The v-shaped mask that Song Ci had tried his best to break was directly shattered by the shockwave of this punch!

Zhou Jinren stood atop the tower, expressionlessly overlooking the scene below.

The inner and outer layers of red brick walls surrounding the Freedom Hall were shattered to pieces. After the smoke and dust cleared, a familiar, blood-stained face was slowly revealed.

This face... had been declared dead by the Deep Sea ten years ago and removed from the database.

Zhou Yu, holding the fragments of the mask on his cheek, spoke with regret. He looked at the mask falling to pieces in his hand. This time, the magical power did not reappear to repair it.

"Oh dear... it's completely unusable..."

He complained somewhat resentfully, looking up and chiding, "You really hit hard. This was a quasi-A-level sealed item."

Seeing this familiar face, Zhou Jinren and Gu Shen were not too surprised... The master and disciple exchanged glances, understanding the information they wanted to convey to each other.

Everything was consistent with their previous deductions.

But compared to Zhou Yu, they were more willing to call the man in front of them "Xiao."

The Judgment Office's genius adjudicator had already died in the great fire in Yinghai that year.

"Your ability is... to devour bodies and then seize their abilities?" Zhou Jinren said calmly, "I'm very curious. What exactly do you want to do tonight, making such a big show of it?"

Zhou Yu wiped the corner of his lips.

He leaned against the collapsing wall, slowly stood up, and smiled, "Actually, I'm not as bad as you imagine... Look, the capital is so quiet at this moment. There are no explosions, no clamor, only drifting music... How many years has it been since the capital city enjoyed such tranquility?"

From the moment skyscrapers rose from the ground.

From the moment artificial intelligence took over life.

This world... began to become more and more noisy, more and more clamorous.

"I just think... it's too noisy. I want to have some peace and quiet."

Zhou Yu shrugged and said, "That's all."

But no one would believe such a lie.

All the participants in the Freedom Ball tonight had fallen into the dream woven by Xiao... But this dream was far more extensive than that. The entire capital district was being affected, and people were falling asleep one after another, as if the mortal world had become a dream.

"Perhaps... I'm a little greedier than you think. I hope the capital is like this tonight, and every night."

Zhou Yu looked down at his hands and smiled, "This is why I seized this body..."

Just then.

Gu Shen's glasses interface displayed an unsealed data file.

The information about Zhou Yu that had been strictly kept secret from him was revealed by the Deep Sea without reservation after Mr. Shu coordinated the permissions... The reason why this genius adjudicator was able to obtain a quasi-S-level rating was because the transcendent ability he awakened was extremely special.

[Annihilation Dream.]

[An extremely strong special-type ability. After the domain is expanded, it can directly destroy real objects by pulling them into the dream.]

If the entire capital district was pulled into a dream.

Then, when the [Annihilation Dream] domain was activated... the things and lives destroyed in the dream would also shatter in reality.

Such a powerful transcendent ability, no wonder it was strictly kept secret by the Deep Sea.

But [Annihilation Dream] also had fatal limitations, which was the cost of activation. Such a powerful ability, each activation, was a great trampling on order, and as a transcendent carrying the power, one must have a sufficiently strong spirit.

In other words.

Not everyone who awakened [Annihilation Dream] could cause widespread destruction.

Some people's [Annihilation Dream] simply could not pull spiritual life forms into the dream. It could only shatter inanimate objects. It would be difficult to even kill a fly.

……

……

"I've seen the power of [Annihilation Dream]."

Mr. Shu said lightly, "I don't believe you can spread the domain to the entire capital... This is something even Shendu might not be able to do."

Zhou Yu smiled silently, not refuting anything.

"I also don't believe that you can fill the Freedom Hall with [Annihilation Dream]." The old man spoke again, "There are dozens of transcendents near this hall. Every expansion of the [Annihilation Dream] domain, every encounter with a life form, is a huge consumption of spiritual power... If you could, you would have crushed the heads of those powerful people in the hall long ago. Killing them would make the capital quiet too."

"Tsk... you really have keen eyes."

Zhou Yu smiled, "I agree with the latter point you made. However, what makes you so sure that the important figures of the capital are not in [Annihilation Dream]?"

"Because you used this waltz to spread the illusion, and tried to cover the capital." Zhou Jinren took out a cigar, lit it, puffed out a cloud of smoke, and said calmly, "It shows that you're guilty, afraid of being found out. When everyone falls into a dream, no one will know how many creatures [Annihilation Dream] has covered."

"Amazing, amazing..."

Zhou Yu clapped his hands, then asked with a smile, "So... you guessed it all right, so what?"

The old man smoking a cigar fell silent.

"You want to say that the biggest flaw of [Annihilation Dream] is the damage to oneself, right? But I don't care about the life and death of this body... Explosion is art. I'll do my best to expand the [Annihilation Dream] domain, detonate everything, and then... it's none of my business."

Zhou Yu casually tossed out this response.

He stopped looking at Zhou Jinren and instead turned his gaze to the young man on the roof of the hall.

Xiao said softly with a smile, "Gu Shen... are you interested in playing a game with me?"

The blood-colored compass was gifted by him.

It was for today... This compass could ensure that Gu Shen would not be hypnotized by the music and come to him for this conversation.

"I heard that you are a mental genius of the Judgment Office, one in a hundred years, and broke the fastest dream-solving record of the review team. So today's game... will use your strengths to determine the outcome."

"The rules are simple, I kill people, you save people... If you can save the people covered by my [Annihilation Dream] without any external help, then you win."

Xiao held out one finger, "The time limit is... this symphony. Before the song ends, I won't detonate [Annihilation Dream]."

As he said this, he glanced at Gu Zhi of "Frost River" who was preparing to approach behind him.

"This game is very fair, because after winning or losing, I will choose to 'sacrifice.' So from this moment on, I won't dodge, and I won't resist... If you want to kill me, you must be prepared for the possibility of [Annihilation Dream] being crushed."

Xiao raised his head and asked provocatively, "The famous Tree of Heaven, do you want to try? Let's see if you can move faster, or I can use my mental power to activate [Annihilation Dream] faster... If you lose, the deaths of those innocent people will all be on your head."

Zhou Jinren's face was hidden in the mist.

He expressionlessly overlooked Zhou Yu, and finally his gaze met Gu Zhi's... and did not act.

Everyone in the Freedom Hall was asleep.

He didn't know... how many people had been pulled into [Annihilation Dream].

Perhaps this was just Xiao bluffing, but now no one could bear the cost of activating [Annihilation Dream].

"You want to... compare dream-solving with me?"

Gu Shen clenched the Ruler of Truth tightly, his eyes narrowed.

"That's right."

"I've been waiting for this day to meet again... for a long time."

"I will drag you into the 'dream,' and you can try to find the people locked by [Annihilation Dream]." Xiao smiled, "How about it? Savior of the capital, do you want to try? The fate of these people is in your hands. Agree, or refuse?"

He slowly spread his arms.

He was actually not resisting at all.

If Gu Shen refused the game... he would directly detonate [Annihilation Dream], and as for what consequences this would cause...

Xiao didn't care.

Agree, or refuse?

Gu Shen looked at his teacher, and then at the other titled transcendent... He finally took a deep breath silently.

There was no choice in this matter.

"Okay."

"I agree."

……

……

(I was delayed by something, so the update will be later. Sorry.)