Chapter 295

Thus, Sasa obediently shut her mouth, took the life force and warmth from the [Empress] and [Sun] silver coins, and went to save people.

Qi Xing did not wait long where he stood.

He had no intention of looking for anyone himself; he simply stood there in the freezing rain, emitting an unparalleled and terrifying fighting spirit. He released it without reservation, letting a torrent of pure will surge and blast toward the White House, ignoring all obstacles.

Sure enough, it wasn't long before a dazzling starlight tore through the gloomy sky, flying at high speed from the direction of the White House and crashing down onto the street a short distance from Qi Xing!

The starlight exploded, turning into star dust that glittered across the sky.

"Hehehehehe! [Rep-Man], after defeating [Duo Chenzi], you finally decided to come to me?"

Amidst a crisp, confident, and even slightly arrogant laugh, a figure emerged from the stardust particles that had yet to dissipate.

This was a woman whose entire being seemed to be "shining."

She had extremely exaggerated silver-white hair, meticulously tied into two magnificent, gigantic twin tails.

At the snow-white tips of her hair, there was a gradient of nebula-like pinkish-purple.

She looked completely out of place in this dark, decaying, and cold city.

Her clothes were even more exaggerated—a set of boldly tailored blue-and-white military ceremonial dress—or rather, it was more of a form-fitting combat suit with a high-cut design that accentuated her figure.

The golden epaulets on her shoulders highlighted her noble status.

She even wore a dark blue cape, and the lining of the cape was patterned with a universe flowing with billions of stars.

This was the President of America, Serena Cervantes.

She stood there gracefully, looking at Qi Xing with great interest using a pair of violet eyes filled with starlight. There was not the slightest fear in her gaze; instead, it was filled with the confidence and smugness of someone who had everything "under control."

Compared to the corpses frozen and starved to death in the rain in this city, or the homeless struggling to survive, she was truly quite different—she was like a shining star, arrogant and triumphant.

This was the [Strongest Woman on Earth].

Qi Xing had known her for several years, and their relationship had never been good.

"You don't think you can beat me just by holding a few more [silver coins], do you, [Rep-Man]?"

She sneered, "Back in the day, everyone called you the [Strongest Man on Earth], and I was already very unhappy about that. Come on, we both have [silver coins] now, let's settle who is better!"

Sasa was in the distance healing people, but hearing Serena's words, she couldn't help but shiver—if it could be said that Sasa's shadow existed in the thoughts of the humans in this world, and especially deeply in the silver coin Demon Kings, then Serena's personality was truly too similar to Sasa's; it was simply annoying to watch.

Qi Xing couldn't be bothered to provoke a second Sasa.

"I don't have time to mess around with you, Serena. Give me your [silver coin], and I'll give you…" He checked his watch, "…three minutes."

—Three minutes? What three minutes?

Serena was stunned for a moment before realizing this was [Venerable Leipu]'s declaration, much like Ultraman fighting monsters, and she was instantly enraged!

"Fuck YOU, [Rep-Man]! Let you taste my power!"

The [Strongest Woman on Earth], America's most powerful superhero, was certainly not weak.

Serena Cervantes' greatest strength lay in her incredibly powerful psychokinesis.

Never mind small things like catching bullets or throwing cars at people; her psychokinesis had reached a terrifying level where she could delve into matter, crush and reorganize atoms, and manipulate energy!

Both organic and inorganic matter could be turned into anything she wanted, and she could almost change reality, change the environment, and create or destroy any object at will!

Her combat power was definitely above that of the [Rep-Man] from a year ago; she was an extreme powerhouse that even the [Strongest Man on Earth] had to be wary of!

Even having reached the ultimate realm, could Qi Xing really, as he claimed, easily take her down within three minutes?

…

…

"Oh-ho-ho-ho-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!! I'm sorry!! Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh Rep-Man oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!!"

Five seconds later, Serena was pressed into the ground and rubbed by Qi Xing using a single finger, with only enough strength left to make loud noises.

No matter how powerful her psychokinesis was, even if it reached the final realm, it could not shake [Venerable Leipu], who now possessed the power to rotate the world with one hand and had infinite confidence and will.

Out of politeness, Qi Xing stood where he was and took a blast of her psychokinesis.

An attack capable of splitting a large city in two couldn't even dirty his clothes.

Then Qi Xing pressed her to the ground with his thumb.

Reaching into her bodysuit and pulling out the [silver coin], it was as expected: the [Star]—in Tarot cards, it is the Star, but among the silver coins, it represents [Hope].

It seems this Star doesn't bring hope in everyone's hands.

Sasa had already used the silver coin to raise the temperature in Washington, and seeing this scene, she couldn't help but feel a chill: "…Although it's not quite the same, there's always a feeling of 'the rabbit dies and the fox grieves'."

"That's good. Only with empathy will you not be so bad." Qi Xing answered nonchalantly, poking the woman's head with his hand, "Now tell me where [Simon Magus] is hiding."

"Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!! I won't, I won't confess! Gu-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!! Kill me!"

"Even for a defeated sow, have some regard for aesthetic beauty."

Qi Xing was already annoyed.

However, while poking Serena, he was still somewhat puzzled—why would [Simon Magus] specifically entrust such an important symbol as the [Star] to a subordinate?

[Star] is hope.

Hope—anyone who has watched Digimon knows it is the strongest power, especially when you have to overcome the strong with the weak.

"Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!! The Holy Master, the Holy Master, you cannot find the Holy Master!" Until Serena finally spat out something interesting amidst screaming, begging, and threatening, "Ah-oh-oh!! The Holy Master is in America's [Golden Age]!"

What? What is that?

You guys aren't trying to stir up some "Make America Great Again" thing, are you?

Volume 8: People of Freedom and the Free World: 274: Golden Age

Qi Xing tormented Serena for a while longer, finally managing to get some useful information out of her while she was in an Ahegao state.

Sure enough, [Simon Magus] hadn't come to the human world for a long time, hiding in his own [Inner Realm], with only a very few close subordinates knowing his whereabouts.

In the end, the foolish Sasa actually came in useful for once; the black thorn halo on her head spun and spun, finding the location of [Simon Magus]'s [Inner Realm].

"After all, I've already obtained fourteen [silver coins], so my detection ability has become a bit stronger, not to mention that the rest are all gathered together."

Sasa took Qi Xing toward the Washington Monument, using the [Death] silver coin to slice open the door to the [Inner Realm].

However, Qi Xing peeked inside first, only to find the scene inside very strange.

—First of all, logically speaking, [Simon Magus] was an ancient mage from the same era as Jesus Christ, a grandmaster of ancient mystery. His [Inner Realm] should have been some dark temple, or a mysterious void flowing with ether, or some indescribable ancient Rome city.

Why would the oldest Demon King place the entrance to his [Inner Realm] in America, the capital of such a fresh country?

[Simon Magus]'s age was even nine or ten times that of America.

As it turned out, when Qi Xing and Sasa entered this [Inner Realm], they found the scene before them to be completely incredible.

This was a scene… with high saturation, the texture of Kodak film, a picture that could only be seen in old pictorials.

There was no rain, no homeless people, and certainly no corpses.

In the sky, there was only a golden, perfectly—even slightly fake-looking—sun, hanging in the kind of azure sky that only appears on postcards.

The air was filled with the fresh scent of freshly mown lawns, mixed with the sweet, cloying aroma of baked apple pie, and the unique smell of gasoline from large-displacement fuel vehicles.

"Huh?"

Qi Xing stood in the middle of a wide, smooth asphalt road, looking at everything before him, surprised for a moment.

On both sides of the road, there were neatly arranged detached villas with front lawns, each house painted in dreamy cream or sky blue colors.

The front yard of every house was surrounded by that iconic, snow-white picket fence.

Every family's lawn was mowed as flat and green as a carpet, and automatic rotating sprinklers sprayed crystal-clear water mist under the sun.

A young newsboy in overalls rode a brand-new bicycle past Qi Xing, ignoring these two sudden intruders, just whistling happily as he threw a rolled-up newspaper precisely onto the porch of a house.

At the same time, the door of that house opened.

A housewife with exquisite curly hair, wearing a fluffy polka-dot dress and a white apron, walked out.

She had a bright, standard smile like that in an advertisement, bent down to pick up two bottles of fresh milk in glass containers just left by the milkman, and then elegantly waved to the neighbor lady next door who was bending over to trim roses.

"Good morning, Mary!" "Good morning, Susan! The sun is so nice today, isn't it?"

Even on the wide driveways, there were Cadillacs and Chevrolets with exaggerated lines, full of chrome decorations.

They shone in the sun, and the radios inside the cars played lively jazz and early rock and roll music on their own.

A male homeowner with a slicked-back hairstyle and a crisp suit was holding a suede cloth, wiping his convertible with a look of intoxication.

On the lawn behind him, two little boys in baseball uniforms were playing catch with a large, shiny-coated golden retriever, their laughter crisp and without any impurities.

Where is this?

This is the fucking American Dream!

This is the 1950s, the so-called "American Golden Age," the [Greatness] of "Make America Great Again!"

It is the utopia where people believed that as long as they worked hard, they could naturally become the middle class—owning a villa surrounded by a white picket fence, standard equipped with a perfect wife, a pair of cute children, an always-happy golden retriever, and a shining Cadillac in the garage!

"…I actually quite like old-school muscle cars." Even Qi Xing's eyes couldn't help but glance at the cars.

"Why?" Sasa was puzzled instead, "You walk faster than the cars."

"You wouldn't understand this feeling."

Even if one is immortal, even if one becomes an immortal or a god, it doesn't affect this kind of worldly aesthetic and hobby.

These are two different things.

Looking further into the distance, past those uniform community streets that looked like they were drawn with a ruler, gazing toward the distant horizon—there stood a breathtakingly magnificent metropolis.

That was not the crowded and dirty New York or Chicago in reality, but a perfect thing that only existed in Disney animations.

Countless skyscrapers pierced the clouds, their glass curtain walls shining brilliantly under the sunlight.

On the high-altitude walkways connecting the buildings, countless office workers gathered into orderly ant swarms, hurrying toward their respective jobs.

They were all elites striving in this great era, looking down at the city through the glass, their faces beaming with confident radiance.

There were no shadows here, no slums.

The whole city was like a newly manufactured product, running at full power with an engine called "Prosperity."

"These people…" Qi Xing looked into the distance, watching the figures around him busy running about for their lives, his brow slightly furrowed, "Did he bring them in from the outside?"

"…No." Sasa watched, but her expression grew increasingly ugly, "He made them himself."

The black halo on her head also spun rapidly, projecting her detection ability across the entire [Inner Realm]; the more she detected, the more shocked she became.

"This [Inner Realm]… this [Inner Realm] is so big!" "The total area… about five hundred million square kilometers… it's actually as big as the Earth in reality!"

—[Simon Magus] actually hand-crafted an Earth?

Sasa could use her complete divine power to replicate the entire universe, so it didn't seem strange that he used fifteen [silver coins] to replicate an Earth.

But what was up with these living human beings?

You have to know, even Sasa couldn't completely replicate a human soul; how exactly did [Simon Magus] do it?

Sasa casually grabbed a passing mailman, checked him with the [Wisdom] silver coin, and was suddenly enlightened, tossing the mailman back onto his bicycle like trash: "No soul."

—In this Golden Age, the thousands of "people" who were laughing, working, and worrying about trivial matters actually had no souls inside them.

But this obviously did not affect them, uh… they looked about the same as humans.

At least, enough to construct this perfect utopia.

"Because humans do not need a god-given 'soul' to have their own thoughts and activities."

A gentle, bland voice intervened at this moment without warning.

Fortunately, Qi Xing and Sasa had sensed the arrival of the ancient Demon King in advance, and immediately turned to look.

However, when this legendary oldest Demon King, who was from the same era as Jesus Christ and hailed as the progenitor of mages, truly appeared before them, his appearance was beyond Qi Xing's expectations.

Standing there, pushing up his glasses and observing them, was just a man who looked… as ordinary as could be.

He was not tall, slightly hunched, and his figure was so thin that it seemed a gust of wind could blow him over.

He was wearing a grey suit that was the most common and featureless of this era, and in his hand, he held a briefcase stuffed with documents.

On his slightly pale face, he wore a pair of black-rimmed glasses.

If you threw him into the subway at eight in the morning, or behind the most inconspicuous service window at the tax bureau, absolutely no one would look at him twice; he was just like an ordinary little civil servant.

"…[Simon Magus]?"

If not for being able to feel the fifteen [silver coins] inside him, even Qi Xing would have doubted if he had seen wrong.

"It is I." The little civil servant pushed up his glasses and answered with a smile, "Welcome to my world—how does it feel, Creator Samael, and [Venerable Leipu]?"

"Completely inexplicable." Qi Xing frowned, "What, do you particularly like 1950s America?"

"No, of course not! I just particularly like the 'modern' world. It's just that my standard for 'modern' is sometimes a bit rough."

The oldest Demon King, who had lived for over two thousand years, laughed dumbly, "People who want to turn back the clock to the past are all fools, and those who use an ethereal future to deceive people have ulterior motives."

"The world of 'today' is the most important. Don't you think so?"