59: Chapter 59 Are you crazy?! You want to hire a forbidden monster as a security guard?
"Protecting its food?"
Chen Jianguo repeated the two words in a murmur, his hand gripping the red communicator frozen in mid-air.
Su Yao collapsed into the pile of rubble, the corners of her mouth twitching in a bitter smile. "Human emotions are the breeding ground for low-level Strange Tales. Without humans reproducing and creating fear, the Abyss wouldn't produce new monsters. It stands at the very top of this food chain. If we all died out and this planet became a wasteland, what would it eat?"
She lifted her head, her bloodshot eyes sweeping over everyone present.
"Daxia has hundreds of safe zones and a population of hundreds of millions. In its eyes, it's just a fully enclosed ecological farm. It personally drove back the Abyss invaders just now, welded the passage shut, and even intercepted my command to detonate the nuclear bomb. It didn't do all this for some grand cause of saving the world; it was just afraid that the Half-step King Level giant wolf and humanity's own nuclear bombs would destroy its long-term meal ticket."
The underground pump room fell into an eerie silence.
Chen Jianguo's fingers slowly loosened from the red button.
He let his arms drop dejectedly, leaning his entire body against the ruined wall.
Even a battle-hardened soldier who had seen plenty of life and death could not digest this fact.
The bloody battles of the past century, sacrificing generations to resist the Abyss, had resulted in this truth: they were just a herd of farm livestock that didn't require wages and automatically produced feed.
"Insolent!"
Saintess Lin Xinglan shouted sternly. Her golden scepter slammed into the ground, and high-density Holy Light vaporized all the remaining black water on the floor.
The noble and cold Face of this current Saintess was somewhat twisted at this moment, her chest heaving violently.
"Nonsense! For thousands of years, the Saint Domain has used Holy Light to purify the Abyss and guide humanity. We are the true guardians of this land! A mere beast dares to view all of humanity as livestock kept in captivity? As an official commissioner, how dare you propagate such heretical nonsense here!"
Saintess Lin Xinglan simply could not accept it.
The doctrine of the Saint Domain was built on "Redemption."
If the meaning of human existence was merely to provide feed for higher Abyssal dimensions, then what was the Saint Domain? Insect repellent in a farm?
This logic shattered the Foundation of her faith, built over decades.
Ye Qingqiu stood in front of Su Qing, her Face pale, remaining silent. However, Su Qing poked her head out from behind Ye Qingqiu, her eyes beneath the mask rolling around twice, before she suddenly lowered her voice and muttered, "Since we're all protected feed, will it have to distribute spouse packages to us later? Otherwise, how will the leeks produce little leeks?"
Ye Qingqiu backhanded Su Qing on the back of the head, pressing her back into the shadows. How dared she talk nonsense at a time like this.
Lin Wanqing stood quietly, golden threads rapidly swirling in her eyes.
She ignored her daughter's babbling and did not join in on Saintess Lin Xinglan's anger.
As the Former Saintess, she considered far more than just Face.
Suppression of status, logical closed loops, and the monster's method of forcibly modifying Executive Jiang Xu. All evidence indicated that what Su Yao said was true.
Daxia, and indeed the entire world, had welcomed an absolute Dominator who played entirely by its own rules.
"This isn't entirely a bad thing."
A hoarse, low voice cut over Saintess Lin Xinglan's angry rebuke.
Executive Jiang Xu pulled up the dark gold spear planted in the ground and looked at everyone.
Everyone looked at him simultaneously.
Saintess Lin Xinglan sneered, "What? Has Executive Jiang Xu fused with a monster's power, and now his brain has been assimilated by the Abyss too? Willing to be a watchdog for a monster?"
"Correction," Executive Jiang Xu said, looking straight at Saintess Lin Xinglan, his dark gold left eye devoid of ripples. "It's an Advanced security guard for the farm."
When this was said, even Su Yao was stunned.
Executive Jiang Xu gripped the spear tightly, the Taiji vortex within him operating steadily.
Two completely different powers of Law intertwined, making his mental Sea of Consciousness clearer than ever before.
He had shed the burden of being humanity's strongest warrior and saw the true direction of this game.
"For a hundred years, enough of our people have died." Executive Jiang Xu's voice was filled with extreme coldness and rationality. "Once a King Level or Half-step King Level Strange Tales descends, we can only fill the gap with our lives and sacrifice cities with millions of people. This is an insurmountable gap in strength."
Executive Jiang Xu stepped forward, his gaze passing over the people from the Saint Domain and fixing on the purple-black giant web of flesh that had sealed the passage.
"Since it only cares about food, and since it is extremely picky, we will follow its logic." Executive Jiang Xu said, word by word, clearly throwing out a proposal that sent shivers down everyone's spines. "The desperate situation that Daxia has never been able to solve now has the best thug."
Chen Jianguo suddenly lifted his head, instantly understanding the meaning behind Executive Jiang Xu's words.
"You want to use it?" Ye Qingqiu said, shocked.
"Not use, but a win-win deal." Executive Jiang Xu turned his head to look at Chen Jianguo. "Chen Jianguo, ten years ago, Dahuang Prefecture on the northwestern border of Daxia completely lost contact. The military deployed three full armored divisions and four S-Class Executives, even using non-conventional weapons, but in the end, it didn't make a single ripple."
Mentioning this, Chen Jianguo's Face turned instantly pale.
It was the greatest taboo since the founding of Daxia.
Dahuang Prefecture, which contained several bustling cities with populations of ten million, was swallowed by eerie gray fog overnight.
The Strange Tales entrenched within, codenamed [Old Fengdu], was conservatively classified as King Level by the High Command.
Ten years had passed, and the gray fog was still expanding outward at a rate of three kilometers per year.
The upper echelons of Daxia dreamed of solving that tumor, but were helpless.
"You mean..."
Chen Jianguo swallowed hard.
Executive Jiang Xu twitched the corner of his mouth, his smile making people's hair stand on end.
"Let It continue to eat!"
"Use It to solve the Old Fengdu in Dahuang Prefecture?"
In the underground pump room, the air, which had fallen into dead silence due to the "captive leeks" comment, was completely ignited by Executive Jiang Xu's words.
Chen Jianguo's pupils trembled violently.
Ten years.
Thirty million people in the northwestern Dahuang Prefecture had turned into eerie gray fog, and the massive amount of lives Daxia sacrificed every year couldn't even buy back a complete topographical map. This was a guillotine hanging over the national gate.
Executive Jiang Xu was crazy.
This was everyone's first reaction.
"You call this a win-win deal?"
A cold, unquestionable voice cut in.
Lin Wanqing stepped forward slowly.
She didn't look at Chen Jianguo, her gaze fixed on Executive Jiang Xu's left hand, which was covered in dark gold bone spurs.
"Executive Jiang Xu, the Abyssal aura in your body has burned your brain." Lin Wanqing spat out the words coldly, sharp golden threads appearing at her fingertips. "The High Command knows better than anyone what level of Strange Tales is entrenched in Dahuang Prefecture. If you let this picky beast go over there, it might indeed cause them to fight like dogs."
Lin Wanqing stopped, only two steps away from Executive Jiang Xu.
"But have you calculated the consequences?"
"This monster physically devoured a Half-step King Level right here just now; its growth level is unknown, and its strength is bottomless. If you send it into Dahuang Prefecture and it loses, its rules will be swallowed by Old Fengdu, and Daxia's northwest will go out of control, leading to the destruction of the entire territory."
"What if it wins? It will eat up all the King Level heritage in Dahuang Prefecture! To what extent will it grow? It might even break out of its growth phase and ascend to become a True God!"
Creating a god.
These two words hit the cement floor of the pump room, making everyone's hearts tremble.
"The Daxia authorities are actually attempting to personally create a True God for all of humanity that stands above all rules, treats cities as cafeterias when hungry, and treats humans as leeks when full?" Lin Wanqing asked sternly, every word piercing the heart. "This is drinking poison to quench thirst! The Saint Domain will never allow such a Gu-raising act that blasphemes the world to happen!"
Executive Jiang Xu was expressionless. His dark gold left eye stared at the Former Saintess without a ripple.
"If we don't send it, the gray fog in the northwest will swallow the Chang'an defense line in three years. Daxia cannot afford to bleed anymore."
Executive Jiang Xu lifted the Spear of the Firmament with one hand, the tip of the spear drawing a string of blinding sparks on the ground. "Since it's a dead end either way, I choose the monster that is willing to leave us a way to survive."
He pointed to the flesh net above his head.
"It even locks the door on its way out after it's full. What else do those beasts in Dahuang Prefecture do besides eating people?"
Two extreme philosophies collided violently in the pump room.
"Enough!"
Su Yao stumbled out, clutching her head tightly with both hands.
The whites of her eyes were completely covered in bloodshot veins, and she appeared to be in a state of impending, frantic collapse.
She couldn't listen anymore.
Memories of her past life were frantically slicing through her nerves in her mind.
Lin Wanqing frowned, watching her daughter, who had fallen into such a strange state.
Chen Jianguo stepped forward to help, but was violently pushed away by Su Yao.
"A deal? Utilizing? You don't understand anything at all..."
Su Yao's chest heaved violently, and she looked at Executive Jiang Xu with the eyes of someone looking at a madman.
"You think we're surviving now because we have value to be used? No, it's just because It is still in its growth phase and still needs to eat bite by bite!"
"Executive Jiang Xu, you are too arrogant! Have you ever thought about what we, these so-called leeks, will count for in Its eyes on the day this monster you personally fed truly ascends to godhood?"
Su Yao laughed bitterly and shrilly: "Gods don't look down at the bacteria in a petri dish! When Its true form covers the firmament of this planet, even if It just stretches its body slightly, the sliver of divine energy that rains down will crush the entire human civilization back to the Stone Age, just like gravity crushing an egg!"