For Sasa, the truly terrifying thing was the mountain that had appeared out of thin air beneath their feet.

It was a mountain not built of earth and stone, but of countless bones, severed limbs, and remains.

Some skulls still wore crowns, and some skeletal hands still tightly gripped weapons. Their blood had long since dried, soaking into the land and staining all the soil red, as if the entire world were nourished by blood.

Standing here, Qi Xing and Sasa were treading upon the chests and souls of the dead.

— — Qi Xing didn't care about this in the slightest. Yet, strangely, when he turned his head, he noticed that Sasa's expression was actually showing signs of fear.

What was going on?

"Samael, you claim that you wish to admit your faults and repent, which is good."

"But I am not the one who needs you to prove yourself."

In the distance, at the peak of the mountain of corpses and sea of blood, sat a large white throne carved from ivory.

The King of Hell sat steadily on the throne, his right arm draped around his wife, his left hand casually resting on a great spear. He looked down upon everything with his burning golden eyes, smiling as he gazed at Sasa,

"Let them look to their hearts' content."

As soon as he finished speaking, the mountain of corpses beneath their feet began to shake.

A faint light seeped from the crevices of the bone-piled mountain. The once-scattered weapons and equipment flew up on their own, returning to their respective hands; spines straightened segment by segment, as if pouring time itself back into the remains, and flames ignited in the empty skeletal eye sockets—

The mountain of corpses collapsed with a roar.

Amidst the rumbling, thousands upon thousands of skeletons struggled to their feet. Decaying armor tightened once more, shattered helmets snapped shut with a click, and mottled spears solidified in the withered hands. Tattered flags fluttered in the wind, stitched with various emblems from countless eras.

Countless dead, bearing hatred and anger that spanned the ages, stood up once again.

This was not an army, for its composition was far too chaotic. It consisted of Spartan spirits wielding broken bronze swords; Mongol cavalry riding headless warhorses and clad in rusted iron armor; and WWII soldiers brandishing charred rifles, their eye sockets flashing with vengeful flames.

Every undead spirit looked up at Qi Xing—no, they looked past Qi Xing, staring fixedly at Sasa in his arms.

Deep within the eye sockets of every undead spirit burned a ball of ghostly green fire—the inextinguishable fire of hatred.

Every pair of hollow eyes was like a bill demanding a blood debt, pointed directly at their former creator.

The mere convergence of these gazes was enough to make Sasa break out in a cold sweat, her face turning deathly pale.

And these gazes also made Qi Xing instantly understand the King of Hell's intention.

— — Sasa and Elaine had both said that the King of Hell was the King of the Dead.

Why did the King of Hell's first move involve pulling out such a crowd of dead to watch Sasa?

…The answer was actually quite simple.

God might not need you to prove your repentance, as God knows everything anyway.

But people always need proof, and the spirits who died unjustly need it even more than the living.

If apologizing were enough, what would be the point of police? What would be the point of Christ?

If the souls who have suffered from ancient times to the present cannot personally make this foolish dark creator pay the price, then how can Samael's redemption even be spoken of?

These were all her former creations, the sacrifices under her grand plan. And now, they had all come to collect their debts from her.

"…Whoa."

However, although Sasa's face was a bit pale, her mouth was always tough, so she could still sneer at the undead beneath her feet,

"Bro, although I understand your line of thinking, these are just resurrected cannon fodder—how can they take revenge on me? They are just things without power."

"If you want to defeat my man, wouldn't it be better for you to do it yourself?"

Hey.

For a moment, Qi Xing was so speechless that he almost didn't want to deal with her anymore.

By common logic, Sasa was of course right. Venerable Leipu already possessed the power to blow up the moon with a single punch; even if all the armies in human history were brought out to deal with him, what could they do?

But they were, after all, facing the King of Hell.

Sasa's wild words didn't make him angry—at least, he didn't look angry. The smile on his face actually became even deeper.

"Well said, Sael. They are indeed just souls without power."

Casually placing the great spear in his hand beside the throne, the King of Hell slowly took out a silver coin.

The silver coin was engraved with the image of a maiden subduing a lion; it was the 'Strength' card from the Tarot Major Arcana.

'Strength'.

Instantly, the smile on Sasa's face froze.

Playing with the silver coin, the King of Hell finally couldn't help but laugh out loud:

"If they have no power, why not just give them some, Sael?"

— — Have you misunderstood something, Devil?

Such trivial matters as being strong or weak are not even worth mentioning to a god.

Sasa could use stolen omnipotent divine power to copy and paste the universe at will, and a god could certainly grant any warrior the power to blow up the universe in a single thought.

You think these failed souls are insignificant—then I will make them powerful enough that you cannot ignore them.

You think these pitiful souls are merely helpless weaklings—then I only need to make them powerful enough to put you to shame.

Before the words had even faded, infinite divine power had already been pumped madly into the army of millions of skeletons through that 'Strength' silver coin!

In an instant, the silver coin that carried this otherworldly power—one of the thirty portions of authority Sasa used to rule the world—was actually pressed with fine cracks by the King of Hell's fingers!

"Gwah?!"

"— — Aaaaaaaah!!!"

Sasa let out a shriek, but it was immediately drowned out by the simultaneous roar of millions of souls.

The pure anger, gathered over the ages, erupted like ten thousand volcanoes all at once!

The King of Hell had bestowed 'power' upon them, and their own 'will'—that boundless hatred for their creator, Samael—became the perfect core of this power.

The ghostly green fire was ignited by the divine power, instantly expanding into emerald-green flames that pierced the heavens and earth, burning fiercely in the eye sockets of every skeleton.

The broken bronze swords in the hands of the Spartan spirits now blazed with an edge capable of splitting the world; the headless warhorses beneath the Mongol cavalry trampled out the hellfire of karma with their hooves; and the charred rifles in the hands of the WWII soldiers had cold muzzles gathering heat comparable to a star, locking onto their only target.

They were no longer the weaklings and cannon fodder despised by Samael, but avengers, victims, and debt collectors wielding divine power.

Revenge needs no command. Anger is the best order.

Without the slightest hesitation, without even a moment's pause, the instant the power infusion was complete, the Spartan spirits had already transformed into thousands of afterimages, crossing distances beyond reason, ignoring Qi Xing's existence, and focusing solely on thrusting their divine-power-burning spears straight at Sasa's throat!

Following closely behind them, of course, were the second wave, the third wave—an army of thousands upon thousands charging in unison.

It was a true collapse of heaven and earth. The entire world wailed under the combined impact of this divine power and resentment.

The torrent of cavalry trampled through space as they arrived.

The 'rifles' of the soldiers in the rear fired in unison, thousands of beams of judgment tearing through the darkness.

Countless undead warriors leapt through the air, flanking from both sides.

From all directions, above and below, the spirits of resentment accumulated over thousands and tens of thousands of years were about to charge fiercely at Sasa!

With such grievances, such hatred, and a torrent of thousands of undead armies granted power by the God of the Dead, how could Sasa possibly resist?

Not to mention she currently had no power, even if she did, she couldn't resist. Because any single individual in this army of 'cannon fodder' now possessed power that she could not match. Because this was, in fact, the hardship Sasa deserved—it was the thing she should fear the most.

"Are you kidding me?!"

If left alone, Sasa would simply be trampled over by the army of millions of undead like a ragdoll.

— — So at this critical moment, although Qi Xing couldn't help but let out a 'tsk' of complaint, he did not hesitate in the slightest and struck out fiercely.

Flicking out the 'Sun' silver coin, he released the light of the solar wheel, forcibly holding back the tidal wave of divine power stirred up by these Eternal Wraiths.

Countless undead warriors, bearing sky-high resentment and anger, threw themselves wave after wave against this light. But soon, the ghostly green fire in their eye sockets trembled violently under the brilliance of the 'Sun', as if encountering a natural predator, and was rapidly weakened.

The army's charge, within the range of Qi Xing's vision, was completely cut off by this invisible yet overbearing power. It was like a boundary, firmly blocking the frantically roaring undead tsunami.

In an instant, the entire scene was like a frozen oil painting: on one side was endless darkness and rage, and on the other was the unmoving golden halo of light, the two clearly demarcated and not encroaching upon each other.

Although countless wraiths were still roaring and crashing, their offensive, in the face of the 'Sun''s great power, had turned into a powerless tide crashing against the shore. In the face of absolute light, no matter how surging the darkness, it would eventually be blocked.

Not bad—a black-and-white world.

This was not the first time Qi Xing had displayed this power, or shown his yearning for the world.

The King of Hell sat on his throne, gazing from afar at the flow of Qi Xing's Inner Realm, and smiled slightly.

"Black and white—a very good yearning, kid."

"But if a person has committed a pile of mistakes, screwed over a large group of innocent people, and then can escape punishment just because they are your friend or your lover… is that still black and white?"

The god asked indifferently, and Qi Xing also frowned slightly.

Sigh, that logic was indeed sound.

God might not need proof, but humans do. Otherwise, who would believe that you, Venerable Leipu, are here to improve the world, and not to collude with the devil?

Saying one wants to be overbearing… yet deep down, Qi Xing was ultimately a reasonable person. He couldn't be so overbearing as to be unreasonable—to say he wanted to protect Sasa, regardless of how many people she had killed.

So, regarding this question, Qi Xing had thought for a long time, and in the end, there was only one reasonable answer.

"What is there to say, brother Christ? Make your second move."

Holding Sasa tightly with his left hand, Qi Xing shrugged,

"I volunteer to bear this debt for her."

"Just as you volunteered to be nailed to the cross."

Volume 8: The Free People and the Free World: 264: Self-Judgment

Although Sasa was useless, Qi Xing was, after all, quite capable.

Despite the countless torrents of undead constantly surging forth, despite the millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions, and billions of dead spirits leaping out from the piles of bones,

he used the 'Sun' silver coin to divide the world into black and white. He wielded divine mandate to judge crimes, riding the wheel of light to illuminate the netherworld. The glorious sun transformed into an absolute wall of light, sweeping away all impurity. No matter how endless that netherworld resentment was, it was absolutely impossible to penetrate this boundary of light.

Having accumulated power until now, Qi Xing certainly had this capability. Even if countless Eternal Wraiths from time immemorial wanted to settle scores with Sasa, wanted to hate this dark creator and seek revenge on her, Qi Xing had the absolute power to block them outside the white circle.

It was merely all the Eternal Wraiths of a world since ancient times. A ruler who wanted to dominate and rule the world, how could he be overwhelmed by the dead souls of the "past"? Of course not; he couldn't afford to lose face like that.

But the King of Hell was not wrong either.

If a king who was to rule the future world could easily trample the resentment and wails of the dead of the past into the ground, what kind of thing would that be?

Clearly, such a result would only be tyranny. Being an overlord is one thing, but being a tyrant is another.

And deceiving oneself into thinking one is not a tyrant is yet another matter. If that were the case, where would fairness and justice be?

Qi Xing did not intend to deceive himself.

Overbearing power can indeed destroy heaven and earth.

But love and justice are what allow people to live with confidence. Isn't that so?

Therefore, he actively beckoned to those ancient spirits of grievance: "Come at me. I'll accompany you in venting."

Every grievance has its source, and every debt has its debtor.

Since the useless, idiot creator couldn't pay this debt, then of course it could only be paid by her "man."

The billions of undead did not stand on ceremony with Qi Xing, the torrent roaring as it charged toward him—and then once again collided with the wall of light of the solar wheel, crashing into pieces and scattering one after another.

…This didn't seem to count as letting them vent, did it?

However, Qi Xing glanced at the King of Hell, who was still watching from the throne; he was still smiling, appearing to have no objections.

— — How could he have objections? The strength of power is never the point for a god.

"First move well received, kid."

Only after seeing the undead torrent collide with Qi Xing's radiance and bounce off for the third time did the King of Hell speak again,

"Since you want to bear the debt for Samael, then next comes the second move."

— — The King of Hell, is he finally going to make a move himself?

The thought had just crossed Qi Xing's mind when he saw the King of Hell… not rise from that large white throne.

He merely, across an infinitely distant space, toward that sea of undead that had fallen into rage and chaos due to hitting the wall of light, lightly… opened his left hand.

Then, he clenched it.

In an instant, as if time and space had stopped, that raging tide of Eternal Wraiths, formed by billions of souls and ancient resentment, capable of killing all current life, began to collapse within the King of Hell's clenched palm.

Not catching them one by one, but all of them.

Spartan spirits, Mongol cavalry, WWII soldiers—it didn't matter. The hundreds of millions of avengers, along with the ghostly fire in their eyes and the hatred in their hearts, were all pressed together under this one clench by an irresistible, absolute divine power.