TOMWDET Chapter 190.2

Judgment → Punishment (part 2)

 

“Those with weak strength have no qualification to meet the King,” said that Beast Tribe monster beast, his attitude extremely natural.

 

“We all lack the qualification, but this doesn’t prevent our respect and admiration for the King. Whether it’s a statue image built from imagination or something else, as long as we believe from the bottom of our hearts that the King can bring us a beautiful future, then whether the statue’s image is specific or not becomes irrelevant.”

 

There were no lies whatsoever.

 

Su Li could tell at a glance that the Beast Tribe member who showed fearful attitude toward him, whose expression displayed complete humility, was speaking entirely the truth.

 

But it was precisely because it was all truth that made it feel most incredible.

 

Faith…

 

Honestly speaking, what was a normal person’s first thought when seeing the word “faith”?

 

Removing those frequently seen online videos about faith between lovers, what was most easily imaginable was probably just worshipping gods and Buddha.

 

Su Li hadn’t discovered much of Buddha’s presence in this world, but gods…

 

Had always existed.

 

Whether it was the Church of Light or the Dark Church, both human factions had clear faiths.

 

In a situation where it had been confirmed that gods were equivalent to monster beast beasts, what would a Beast King widely believed in by the Beast Tribe be?

 

Su Li suddenly felt annoyed that he hadn’t found the mermaid to borrow some historical books about monster beast society.

 

His current speculation was even more absurd than his previous nonsense claim – when trying to make Leia pay attention to humans’ shared abnormal senses – that the more monster beasts died, the stronger Clemens would become.

 

Just thinking about the concept that Clemens was equivalent to the God of Darkness made Su Li’s scalp tingle.

 

He urgently needed other humans to help deny this speculation.

 

Otherwise, what this speculation represented subsequently would be too terrifying.

 

Darkness spread.

 

On that black statue whose figure couldn’t be seen clearly, the concentration of dark elements visibly increased once more.

 

Su Li had originally just wanted to look around this monster beast city by himself.

 

Ten consecutive days of combat, directly conquering all the Beast Tribe cities – even though many times, because everyone had directly compared him to Clemens and hadn’t let Su Li take much action, the mental pressure still made him somewhat breathless.

 

Now adding the fear caused by this realization…

 

Su Li’s face instantly turned pale.

 

But the next second, light elements appearing from nowhere, like needles, with an attitude both gentle and filled with severity, pierced Su Li’s fingertips.

 

Ten fingers connected to the heart – red blood drops spread from his fingertips, and Su Li realized that he too had just been affected.

 

Mind manipulation, this ability that had been confirmed before, had even affected Su Li at this moment.

 

After silently thanking the sudden light element in his heart, Su Li ignored the joyful feeling that came from deep within his heart that didn’t belong to him.

 

It had been since the mermaid’s sudden madness phase that he last felt the [Spirit].

 

Experiencing it again this time, Su Li indirectly confirmed that his speculation was correct.

 

Fear?

 

That wasn’t necessary.

 

Without his thinking being influenced, even if the enemy he faced was a god, once Su Li determined to be enemies with them, he couldn’t possibly choose to retreat just because the opponent was a god.

 

Clemens being equivalent to the God of Darkness – this equation could now be confirmed.

 

The value brought by faith, the meaning represented by rules, had all become completely clear at this moment.

 

Su Li walked with steady steps, ignoring that Beast Tribe monster beast whose eyes flashed with disappointment, and instead went to find Egbert.

 

The most trusted subordinate was extremely busy.

 

Egbert was busy improving his strength.

 

No one knew what the unicorn was thinking. After confirming that all Beast Tribe territories had been conquered by Su Li and the others, Bartholomew directly proposed wanting to train Egbert to make him stronger.

 

Initially, no one believed he was serious, until Bartholomew told his own story.

 

Ido.

 

This monster beast who had greatly influenced Bartholomew was only remembered by Bartholomew himself in the river of time.

 

After the unicorn finished telling his past related to this, he said with calm demeanor and unrippling eyes: “If I die one day, I hope you humans can help me remember this name. The time doesn’t need to be long, just until the day your lives are exhausted.”

 

That was what Bartholomew had said.

 

When other humans still dared not be certain, and Leia even made mocking sounds, Su Li said: “We can trust him.”

 

Leia immediately shut his mouth, and Egbert also pulled in Lan Zhe.

 

The Dark Holy Son’s pockets contained too many strange and odd items.

 

Of course, most importantly, Lan Zhe was a healer!

 

Egbert was very clear that he was about to be beaten again.

 

After all, the unified attitude of monster beasts toward improving strength was: get beaten more, and you’ll know how to avoid being beaten. Dodge more, and you’ll know how to counterattack.

 

Lan Zhe’s attitude toward this was delighted.

 

He had even said then: “As long as I see Eg getting beaten, my mood becomes very good.”

 

Roy had quietly muttered: “Actually, me too.”

 

At this moment.

 

When Su Li went looking for him, Egbert was wearing tattered clothes. His body seemed fine, but those clothes…

 

“Is this some new fashion I can’t understand?” Su Li blinked.

 

When Egbert noticed Su Li, his entire body froze.

 

Then the next second, Bartholomew directly kicked him flying.

 

The observing Lan Zhe placed his left palm above his eyes, looking toward the direction Egbert flew, and made a strange sound, “Oh ho.”

 

Then a mysterious smile appeared on his face. “I bet when Eg returns here, he’ll definitely change into clean clothes, and the first thing he says will be, ‘Letting Lord Su Li see me in such a miserable state is truly my fault, I’m so ashamed I want to die.'”

 

Roy didn’t say whether he agreed or not, but he stroked his chin and said, “I think what’s most likely is actually, ‘Letting Lord Su Li see my body in such an ugly state is truly inappropriate. If Lord truly wants to see, then please allow me to wash my body clean first before coming.'”

 

Su Li: “…………”

 

Seeing the speechless expression on the young man’s face, Lan Zhe coughed, as if he hadn’t just learned to read Egbert’s inner thoughts.

 

“Did Su Li suddenly come here for something?”

 

When the human youth had said he wanted to tour this city, everyone else had thought he would tour for at least a day.

 

“Nothing particularly urgent, just suddenly confirmed that a new discovery wasn’t speculation, but fact.”

 

Mind manipulation was indeed terrifying, but as long as it didn’t harm life, the [Spirit] wouldn’t actively help Su Li.

 

After all, this kind of cognitive fear, Su Li could quickly discover what was wrong by himself.

 

What would modern people fear?

 

Whether Su Li thought for three days and nights or three seconds, the conclusion was the same.

 

——Fear of poverty.

 

Besides that, he feared neither heaven nor earth.

 

Since this was so, the [Spirit] actively helping Su Li escape that state indicated that if he remained fearful for slightly longer, irreversible accidents would occur.

 

When Su Li had been touring this city earlier, he had no clear goal.

 

But that monster beast had actively approached him.

 

All people inside the city were prisoners, but the mermaid hadn’t forcibly interfered with the Beast Tribe’s life.

 

After killing several troublemakers, Tasahe City, which was the second Beast Tribe support-type city, made the monster beasts here voluntarily become well-behaved.

 

“Only by deducing backward from the present, after knowing the conclusion, would one shockingly discover that traces had existed all along,” Su Li said with an attitude so gentle it was as if he were discussing some fairy tale.

 

“So what exactly is it?” Roy also wanted to prevent the impression of him speculating about Egbert’s inner thoughts from remaining in the young man’s mind, so he actively asked.

 

“Let’s wait until Eg returns to talk about it together,” Su Li said. The youth then shifted his gaze to the unicorn, “As for Bartholomew…”

 

“In my personal opinion, you can also listen to what I’m about to say, because it’s not particularly confidential information,” Su Li said, then added somewhat hesitantly, “Probably…?”

 

Bartholomew said helplessly, “Information that you yourself can’t determine whether it’s critical – shouldn’t you uniformly choose to avoid me, this prisoner?”

 

“Perhaps because I still need you to help me find Matilda and Leia, and if possible, I hope you can bring Elvi along as well,” Su Li looked at Bartholomew with calm expression.

 

The unicorn couldn’t refuse.

 

He could only say: “I understand, I’ll go.”

 

As he turned to leave, Egbert’s figure in neat, clean clothes happened to brush past him.

 

Egbert’s calm voice quickly rang out: “Letting Lord Su Li see me in such a miserable state was truly my mistake.”

 

“Merit should be rewarded, and for punishment, I also hope Lord Su Li, you could choose to… personally… take… action.”

 

Roy and Lan Zhe suddenly felt they were still too young.

 

Bartholomew’s forward movement also uncontrollably staggered, nearly falling to the ground.

 

The other party involved, Su Li: “……”

 

Just pretend he didn’t hear it.

 

Su Li showed a smile where his eyes had no curve change whatsoever – commonly known as a professional fake smile.

 

Until the mermaid, the Winged Tribe queen, and the giant dragon arrived together…

 

Only then did Su Li escape Egbert’s rambling.

 

This person had actually repeated all the inner thoughts that the Dark Holy Son and two-star mercenary had speculated about.

 

Of course, the core point was that if he didn’t want to punish him, then please definitely let him clean himself up first, then actively present himself before Su Li for inspection.

 

Su Li: Mind full of censored content.jpg

 

To avoid uncontrollably actually taking action against Egbert, Su Li very difficultly pretended to be deaf and mute for a full three minutes.

 

After everyone had arrived, Su Li’s first words went straight to the point.

 

“I suspect Clemens is the God of Darkness in human concepts.”

 

These words made Roy and Lan Zhe, who were about to lose control of their urge to complain, withdraw their thoughts as they each frowned.

 

The first to break the calm of contemplation was Bartholomew.

 

“Suspicion can’t be the reason for gathering everyone together to listen to you speak,” Bartholomew wasn’t targeting Su Li – this was giving the youth space to actively speak, to prevent the very unfriendly mermaid.

 

Bartholomew firmly didn’t believe that the mermaid was only unfriendly to him, but was actually quite friendly to Su Li.

 

“You’re right,” Su Li nodded in acknowledgment.

 

“The [Spirit], which is what Leia previously called the collective consciousness of humanity, appeared when I was just touring the city center.”

 

While others showed various shocked expressions, Su Li breathed calmly with natural attitude, continuing, “The city center has a human-shaped statue of Clemens, and the concentration of dark elements around that statue is much higher than the concentration of dark elements in other areas of the air.”

 

“When touring earlier, I encountered a monster beast on the road who actively led me there.”

 

“Initially, when facing that statue and thinking about various problems, I hadn’t noticed anything wrong, until after I thought of the possibility that Clemens was equivalent to the God of Darkness, fear suddenly arose in my heart.”

 

“Fear from unknown origins, like fog that obscured the connection pathway between my brain and heart. I was very certain that in that instant, my thinking wasn’t under my control. In other words, I had been influenced.”

 

After saying this, Su Li gave everyone sufficient reaction time.

 

Until he confirmed that others had no questions, Su Li felt a little happy inside.

 

Because if it were in the past, when Egbert’s rationality wasn’t sufficient to overcome his emotions, the Egbert of the past who didn’t seem as deeply ill as now would most likely have directly interrupted Su Li’s words.

 

Then he would have started inquiring about Su Li’s physical condition.

 

Not speaking now was because Egbert was very certain that the current Su Li showed no signs of being influenced anywhere.

 

Repeating useless words that needed Su Li’s explanation was a very wasteful thing to do.

 

Egbert had already understood that some concerns would only be superfluous.

 

Su Li continued: “The [Spirit]’s appearance allowed me to escape that situation of being disturbed by dark elements. And where I determined that my suddenly emerging thought was equivalent to fact lay in the fact that, having escaped the fearful state, I saw the dark elements that actively gathered toward the statue when my fear hadn’t completely receded from my rationality.”

 

“Element concentration in a certain range exceeding other ranges could also be explained as environmental influence, but if dark elements actively gather toward one place without the pull of acting force, there are far too many reasons to consider.”

 

“I’m certain that fear made the dark elements gather. Fear isn’t what pulls dark elements – fear is the cognition toward the statue, causing the statue to develop acting force that pulls dark elements, making the statue absorb dark elements.”

 

“Castor’s element absorption device works much the same way.”

 

Su Li pointed out, “This is only a small part of the reasoning. Another part is the Beast Tribe cities.”

 

“Beast Tribe monster beasts cannot harbor obvious fear toward Clemens.”

 

“All monster beasts, under rule restrictions, are following Clemens’s orders, yet won’t feel fear toward him. The reason is also simple – no subject would feel only fear toward their king.”

 

“Impure fear cannot make that statue form acting force for dark elements.” After rationality returned, Su Li realized that statue had quickly lost the attraction force for surrounding dark elements that had suddenly emerged due to his fearful heart.

 

“Third, after Beast Tribe cities are broken, those Beast Tribe members who followed beside Clemens will regain their fearful hearts. This emotional change, with just slight guidance, will transform into awe toward Clemens…”