The King Made a Choice

Chen Guan completely ignored the comments rapidly scrolling across his retinas. At this moment, his mind was stuffed with countless fragmented images and noisy sounds, these messy pieces of information intertwining into a chaotic, clamorous land.

He felt as though he were standing beneath a sky engulfed in raging flames, watching helplessly as many kings with similar faces led thousands upon thousands of their subjects, kneeling in prayer with the utmost reverence toward the majestic figure above the clouds.

In the very next second, the grand scene before his eyes underwent an earth-shattering change.

Those whispering prayers completely transformed into shrill, furious roars, and the faces originally filled with devotion were all twisted by deep-seated hatred.

He clearly saw the last generation's king, his face full of absolute resolve, raise the golden scepter symbolizing royal authority and point it straight at the deity who had sheltered them for long ages.

The subsequent events did not show any specific scenes of slaughter. All that remained was a sense of humiliated deception originating from the depths of the soul, along with monstrous fury and endless sorrow born from being utterly abandoned.

"Betrayal."

Chen Guan squeezed these two words out of his throat with great difficulty.

"Betrayal?"

Su Yuehe sharply caught this sudden keyword. A light flashed in her eyes as if she had found a breakthrough, and she quickly leaned forward to ask loudly.

"Chen Guan, can you hear us? What exactly did you feel? Was it betrayal?"

"Who exactly betrayed whom?"

An Changqing immediately followed up with this core question. His fingers tightened around his sword hilt, constantly on guard against any threats that might dart out from the surrounding darkness.

Chen Guan slowly lifted his heavy head, his eyes churning with intense emotional fluctuations the others had never seen before.

He completely ignored the concerned gazes of his teammates beside him, merely letting his gaze rest for a long time on the deity's face on the stone wall, which was covered by countless scratches.

The area of the stone wall originally covered in destruction marks from sharp weapons faded its messy scratches in Chen Guan's eyes, reflecting a figure with distinct outlines yet a face that was hard to see clearly.

"Who betrayed whom?"

An Changqing repeated once more. His voice carried a slight tremble; he noticed that the sorrowful emotions surging in Chen Guan's eyes surpassed ordinary pain—it was a sorrow passed down across eons of time.

Chen Guan's gaze slowly moved away from the cold stone wall. He did not look at An Changqing or any of his companions. His line of sight pierced through everyone present, landing in the boundless darkness deep within the passage.

"They offered everything."

His lips parted slightly, the voice he produced carrying a long sigh squeezed from deep within his chest, revealing an indescribable exhaustion.

"And then they took it all back with their own hands."

These airy words immediately stirred up a storm in everyone's minds, plunging those present into shock over this contradictory statement.

"Offered everything and took it all back?"

"What does that mean?"

Hong Yuan furrowed her brows, carrying her axe on her shoulder. She completely failed to understand this contradictory phrasing, the confusion on her face growing heavier.

"Isn't that just a pointless effort?"

"Shut up."

Yin Chen rebuked Hong Yuan in a low voice. The expression on his face was more serious than ever before. He carefully savored Chen Guan's words, the inquisitive look in his eyes growing even thicker.

"This sentence itself contains two completely different stances."

"Offering is the posture of a believer, while taking back is the act of a betrayer."

"Which one did you exactly experience just now?"

The question Yin Chen threw out pointed straight to the core. Yin Chen's mind was still very sharp, and he quickly analyzed the situation.

Assuming Chen Guan was a descendant of that king, the emotion he resonated with ought to be the resolve and anger of the king leading his people in rebellion—that is, the stance of taking everything back.

But what Chen Guan exuded was an immense sorrow of being abandoned and forsaken, closer to the core subject who had offered everything only to be ruthlessly betrayed.

Su Yuehe also thought of this point.

"No, it feels completely wrong."

She muttered softly, turning to look at her companion beside her.

"An Changqing, do you remember?"

"In the mural, the king leading the people to destroy the deity—that was a proactive act."

"If Chen Guan's bloodline comes from the king, what he should be feeling right now is the gratification of revenge or the heavy burden of responsibility."

"But his current state completely deviates from these emotions."

She turned to look at Chen Guan. In his eyes, there was no longer any anger or hatred, only a silent ocean and endless sorrow left behind.

"The emotion you felt does not belong to a king."

Su Yuehe's trembling voice carried poorly concealed shock, and an assumption that even she found absurd was wildly sprouting in her mind.

Chen Guan finally spoke again. He slowly raised his hand past the wall's support point, reaching straight toward that defaced face of the deity.

His fingertips hovered in midair, only an inch away from the cold stone wall, yet between them lay an impassable, distant expanse of time and space.

"The king."

He softly uttered this title.

"He made a choice, for them."

This sentence immediately pierced through all of Su Yuehe's thoughts, allowing the messy, disorganized clues in her mind to instantly piece together the complete truth.

The king made a choice.

For the people under his rule.

The fragmented clues originally scattered in everyone's minds were forcibly pieced together and reorganized at this moment, ultimately pointing to a conclusion that terrified them yet was entirely logical.

"To protect his subjects?"

"So the king of the Black Wind civilization chose to lead everyone to betray the god they once believed in, all for the sake of his people?"

Su Yuehe quickly drew a conclusion from these few words.

This deduction completely overturned the cognitive boundaries of common sense, to the point that An Changqing stood in place for a long while without finding suitable words to respond.

His fingers gripping the sword hilt tightened forcefully before slowly loosening again.

"Betraying a god?"

Hong Yuan hoisted her heavy giant axe back onto her shoulder, her eyebrows knitted together, her face written with disbelief.

"How is that even possible?"

"That is a high and mighty deity, not some bandit leader claiming a mountain as king."

"How could mortals possibly oppose a deity, and even scrape the portrait on the stone wall beyond recognition? Aren't they afraid of divine retribution?"

The questions she threw out were quite direct, yet they perfectly hit the lingering confusion swirling in the minds of most people present.

In the cognitive systems of ancient civilizations, deities were supreme incarnations of rules that tolerated no desecration.

For a mortal to show even the slightest disrespect towards them was already an unforgivable felony, let alone plotting a war of destruction.

Even in modern times, it was the same. If a deity's statue was destroyed, aside from capricious existences like Baal, most other gods and demons would automatically send down divine punishment.

"Deities are not always omniscient and omnipotent."

Yin Chen's calm voice sounded at the right moment. He casually put away his rune-carved staff, but the ice-blue magical shield around him continued to emit a soft halo outward.