A gang beatdown?
That really was a good idea. Jörmungandr was itching to move, but the other two couldn’t help but take a big step back.
Chang Qing’s expression was complicated as he said, “I never thought you’d actually find your way here.”
Lin Xiaohe’s lips curved up slightly, and a rare hint of joy appeared on her face.
After being down on her luck for so long, had she finally gained the favor of the goddess of fortune once again?
“So this is the path to success you mentioned? What a coincidence. I thought it was the Holy Gate.”
Chang Qing said expressionlessly, “The Holy Gate collapsed.”
Chu Huaizhi glanced at Chang Qing oddly, wearing a half-smile. He now had a new understanding of the relationship between Chang Qing and Lin Xiaohe.
“You two chat. I’ll get busy first.”
Chu Huaizhi returned to the Dimension-Crossing Ship, found an area, and paused there temporarily.
Lin Xiaohe watched helplessly as ship after ship entered the area he had marked out, then vanished as if they had never existed—she could no longer observe them at all.
Jörmungandr clicked his tongue twice and did the same. “That area is mine. No trespassing, got it?”
Chang Qing was the last to leave. For some reason, he gave Lin Xiaohe a warning: “We have stealth domain shields provided by the Dimension-Crossing Ship. You don’t. Do you regret it?”
“If I said I regretted it, would you give me the Dimension-Crossing Ship?”
Chang Qing’s answer was his resolute back as he turned away: “Keep talking tough. I’m still short one subordinate race. I hope you’ll think it over carefully. The Great Cosmic Collapse will definitely come—it’s a nightmare for all our civilizations. Considering you once helped me, I can give you the last subordinate race slot. All you need to do is give me what I want.”
Lin Xiaohe smiled and declined.
What did Chang Qing want? Nothing more than half of her divinity and humanity’s life essence.
Unfortunately, neither of those things could possibly be handed over.
Chang Qing sighed softly and immediately entered his Dimension-Crossing Ship.
Lin Xiaohe’s expression turned grave as she returned to the Arbiter.
She had a feeling things wouldn’t be this simple.
Before she could figure anything out, she saw Father Lin walk over with an embarrassed look. “Xiaohe, you…”
“What is it, Dad?”
“Take a look at the girl in this photo. Does she look like Jörmungandr?”
Lin Xiaohe examined it carefully and nodded with certainty. “The bone structure and facial features are the same. It’s just that Jörmungandr’s human form is more mature, more weathered.”
Father Lin let out a long breath, a trace of sorrow appearing between his brows—a mix of joy and worry. “Then she must be the sister Mori has been searching for all this time.”
It was well known that Mori had a lost sister.
He had never given up looking for her. Every survivor in the Federation had received Mori’s missing person notice.
Unfortunately, there had never been any news.
“I’ll tell Mori that his sister is Jörmungandr.”
The relationship between those two was like that of Chu Huaizhi and Yanidamu.
She just didn’t know whether Mori would feel more joy or more sorrow upon learning this.
Lin Xiaohe watched Father Lin leave.
She felt she might be a bit too cold-hearted—after hearing that Mori’s sister was Jörmungandr, she felt nothing at all.
She couldn’t even empathize when she saw Father Lin feeling sad for Mori.
Reason told her she should give Father Lin a hug.
But in reality, her emotions felt like they had been stripped away. She watched others—sad or happy, laughing or crying—with indifference, feeling nothing, as if she were watching a boring TV drama that couldn’t stir her heartstrings at all.
Lin Xiaohe suddenly shuddered, her eyes full of vigilance.
Something was wrong with her current state!
Lin Xiaohe considered herself a fairly passionate person. She shouldn’t be like this.
Could it be the influence of the half-divinity?
Half a divinity was enough to turn her from a warm person into a cold one.
If she obtained a complete divinity, what would she become?
“Party Leader, some awakened ones from the ocean civilization want to defect to Jörmungandr. They opened the cabin doors without authorization and were suppressed by Brother Thunder and the Security Department.”
Wesley’s gaze was terrifying. His clear eyes gradually turned crimson, and his white sharp teeth were faintly visible, like a wild beast trying to tear apart anyone who betrayed the Party Leader!
Mother Lin followed behind him, full of regret. “Damn it! There are true ocean nobles on the Empire’s side. My identity was exposed.”
Brother Thunder sent a communication request to Lin Xiaohe: “Sovereign, how should we deal with these traitors?”
In that instant, Brother Thunder had already thought of 18 ways to torture them, determined to make these awakened ones wish they were dead.
“Let them go.”
Huh?!
The three of them were shocked, their pupils dilating.
Lin Xiaohe opened the display screen, where the flowing Domain River was clearly visible. “Let them go. Then announce to the entire Arbiter: within the next three hours, anyone who wants to leave can leave immediately.”
Brother Thunder didn’t understand, but he expressed firm obedience to Lin Xiaohe’s command.
A total of 762 awakened ones wanted to leave. They would defect to Jörmungandr and Yanidamu respectively.
Two small ships appeared as if out of thin air. After picking up these people, they once again disappeared into the black ripples.
In the Arbiter’s control room, there was dead silence.
After a long while, a Stardust human finally cursed under his breath: “Those not of our kind must have different hearts. These people really can’t be relied on! Cowards, traitors.”
Dense and varied ships floated in space.
They huddled together like travelers in a blizzard, crouching beside the only campfire. Every battered hull was engraved with despair and the faintest sliver of hope.
The Arbiter was one of them.
The curses inside the ark couldn’t reach the vastness of space.
Silence was the only language here—until the sudden change occurred.
The change began with the Domain River itself.
The originally relatively stable bands of energy light suddenly began to pulse violently, as if the heart of the universe had trembled.
Then, in the perception of everyone—or rather, every consciousness—the Domain River underwent an unbelievable contraction at a certain location.
The surging energy flow seemed to be gripped by the throat by an invisible giant hand. The width of the light bands squeezed narrower at a rate visible to the naked eye.
The dark riverbanks on both sides closed in toward the center with unprecedented momentum, emitting a low, soul-deep spacetime hum.
At the same time, the previously silent ships roared with violent engine rumbles.
The space ahead of them was like a giant black velvet curtain being forcibly slashed open, curling back to both sides and revealing what lay behind.
It was not the familiar starry sky, but a boiling dimensional space flowing with indescribable colors and geometric light streams.
Hummm!
The Holy Monument countdown: [Cosmic Collapse Progress: 70%]!
Lin Xiaohe’s heart skipped a beat.
It had jumped forward by nearly 20 percentage points all at once. Was it because of the sudden change before her eyes?
The next scene left the Arbiter completely unable to react.
Madness! All restraint, all order, completely collapsed in the face of the instinct to survive.
Countless ship engines overloaded and started at the same moment, erupting with blinding light, like a disturbed meteor swarm, transforming into a devastating torrent, desperately charging toward the dimensional space!
