this infinite world

lost.

Utter defeat.

Time seemed to stand still at that moment. When Chu Hao's Rising Dragon Fist hit the bullseye and sent Ling Xin flying into the air, he realized his defeat. When he fell to the ground from a height of 100 meters, crashing into the ground like a bird with broken wings and creating a large crater, Ling Xin, who had lost all his strength to resist, adjusted his mindset and calmly accepted the fact that he had lost to Chu Hao.

"Cough, I didn't expect you to be able to analyze my spiritual pressure and precisely interrupt my intangibility process..."

As Ling Xin lay in the crater, severely injured, watching Chu Hao approach step by step, he was still barely able to move his body, thanks to his powerful regenerative abilities: "You won, and you did it... Chu Hao."

But Chu Hao didn't answer, he just stared intently at Ling Xin. After a moment, he slowly raised his right hand and pointed it at his disheveled brother.

Seeing this, Ling Xin showed no fear whatsoever. Instead, he smiled and said, "You want to kill me? That's right. After all, I've been deceiving you and Li Ganglei for so long, keeping you in the dark. You must hate your brother very much, right?"

Chu Hao's face remained as still as ice, completely unmoved by Ling Xin's words. Ling Xin, seeing this, didn't seem to care and continued speaking: "Fine, you're currently in 'God Mode,' a state of absolute rationality. Emotions and morals, those mundane constraints, are completely stripped away, leaving only a cold, calculating balance of interests."

"Since that's the case, then kill me. Since you can't convince me, and I can't convince you, from a purely rational perspective, eliminating dissidents is the optimal solution. Just like when two people's opinions and paths are diametrically opposed, destroying the other's body—sometimes ending the disagreement with death—is the simplest and clearest solution..."

"Snapped!"

Suddenly, Chu Hao made a surprising move—he slapped Ling Xin across the face.

The young man used such force that Ling Xin's already cracked metal mask shattered, half of it flying off. The powerful impact instantly caused his left cheek to swell and turn red, with a trickle of blood even seeping from the corner of his mouth.

But what was even more surprising was Ling Xin's reaction. He neither flew into a rage nor cried out in pain; instead, he froze on the spot, staring intently at Chu Hao with an incredulous look. His gaze was a mixture of astonishment, confusion, and a glimmer of inexplicable hope, like a traveler trekking through endless darkness suddenly catching a glimpse of dawn…

"Why are you looking at me like that? Do you want to die that badly, Ling Xin?" Chu Hao said coldly, staring at Ling Xin's incredibly complicated and incredulous gaze.

But unlike before, if Chu Hao's tone was as lifeless as ancient ice, completely devoid of any "emotion," then now, although his tone was still cold, one could clearly feel a kind of suppressed anger... a anger clearly directed at Ling Xin!

"In your eyes, am I a cold-blooded monster who would kill his own brother simply because of differing choices and conflicting ideologies?"

Chu Hao's voice boomed through the air like muffled thunder.

Even though his glasses were still on his nose, perfectly in his cold and ruthless "God mode," Chu Hao seemed to ignore the side effects at this moment. Not only was his tone no longer mechanical and monotonous, but every word was filled with intense emotional fluctuations, and even the anger in his words was becoming increasingly undisguised, as if Ling Xin's words had just been a great insult to him: "Answer me, Ling Xin! What do you take me for?"

"I……"

Ling Xin's lips trembled slightly. Faced with Chu Hao's questioning, he originally wanted to ask Chu Hao why he could express his emotions in God Mode, but he could only squeeze out a broken syllable and could not continue... Yes, what exactly did he take Chu Hao for?
Of all the O6 members, Chu Hao was clearly the most emotional and valued friendship and bonds the most. But now, was he going to force him to his death, pushing him toward a dead end, toward the terrifying abyss of utter oblivion?
Realizing this, Ling Xin suddenly understood that he was about to personally extinguish the most precious glimmer of humanity in Chu Hao. This realization plunged him into an icy abyss, making it difficult to even breathe. He couldn't believe he could utter such words. A powerful wave of self-loathing washed over him, making even breathing difficult…

"I'm sorry, Chu Hao, I..."

Before Ling Xin could apologize again, Chu Hao punched him hard on the exposed half of his face. The force of the punch was so great that the ground where his head was lying sank a distance... If Ling Xin hadn't unlocked the fourth-stage gene lock and undergone several gene optimizations, making his body quite tough, he would probably have suffered at least a moderate concussion.

You shouldn't have apologized to me!

After punching Ling Xin again, Chu Hao said coldly, "The people you should apologize to are not me, but your teammates, the people behind you, the members of the Rebel Organization you lead, and the millions of people in our world that you protect... You still have so many responsibilities on your shoulders, yet you want to seek death on your own initiative?"

"Cough, cough...you're right."

After being punched twice more by Chu Hao, Ling Xin coughed for several seconds, but contrary to his condition, the young man's eyes seemed to clear up a lot.

After spitting out the blood that had accumulated in his throat, Ling Xin said somewhat incoherently, "You're right, Chu Hao, I really shouldn't have apologized to you... but what exactly is wrong with you right now?"

Ling Xin could naturally enter the God Mode, or Assimilation Mode, as well as this state. However, the reason he didn't enter it was because this state essentially used emotions to exchange for thinking speed and strategic planning ability. Each time he entered it, the loss of emotion would become more and more obvious, and this transformation was irreversible... And now, Chu Hao actually revealed such intense emotions in God Mode?
Is this normal? This is absolutely not normal! But it's not a bad thing, because neither Ling Xin nor Li Ganglei want to see Chu Hao become an extremely cold-blooded, heartless person who would choose to abandon human lives without any psychological burden. It's just that the emotions he's displaying now seem completely different from his usual self...

"Because I hate it!"

Under Ling Xin's questioning gaze, "Are you really my brother?", Chu Hao, with an icy expression, suddenly opened his arms wide, making a gesture of embracing the world. His tone was passionate and impassioned, completely devoid of the indifferent detachment he usually displayed: "I hate all the suffering I've endured, I hate that we've been born into a hopeless hell, I hate that our world is constantly being attacked by memes... But what I hate most are those who manipulate me like a pawn behind my back!"

"You understand, right, Ling Xin?" As he spoke, Chu Hao roared as if to vent all the resentment he had endured: "Our birth was due to a pointed experiment, due to someone else's scheme and plan. And even now, we are still in the middle of it all, while the person who created us is still hiding behind the scenes, only pushing Organization C and Organization X to the forefront to deal with us... In other words, only when we defeat Organization C and Organization X will we have the right to stand before him!"

"Do you really think that by bringing me into the Celestial Team, we can defeat Organization C and Organization X, which are already capable of invading worlds under the control of the Main God Space? Do you really think that doing these things can save our world?"

"I have no choice!"

At this moment, Ling Xin finally couldn't hold back any longer and shouted out the thoughts buried deep in his heart: "No one knows better than me how terrifying the C Organization and the X Organization are, and no one knows better than me the 'invisible hand' you speak of. Perhaps in his eyes, everything we are doing now is still within his plan, even entering the Main God Space is a scheme he has set up to achieve some purpose that we do not yet know..."

"But... I have no choice! We don't have much time left, really not much time left. If we don't bring you into the Celestial Team, then many things will..."

For a moment, neither of them spoke, and only the sound of each other's breathing could be heard. It wasn't until several dozen seconds later that Chu Hao spoke again.

“…You’re scared, Ling Xin, you’ve become weak.”

Suddenly, Chu Hao uttered a sentence: "You and I are the same, just tired... tired of the feeling of constantly running around since the beginning, tired of being arranged by others, tired of having to make painful choices, tired of having to choose between 'bad' and 'worse'."

"Even though I've come to this God's Space with its infinite possibilities, I still feel countless unseen eyes watching me all the time, trying to mold me into what they want me to be... But, Ling Xin!"

Chu Hao's voice suddenly rose another notch: "You actually intend to atone for your past mistakes with your own death? Are you planning to solve problems by running away? Don't you really know what the consequences will be?"

Answer me, Lingxin!

"I……"

Ling Xin's lips trembled slightly, but he ultimately couldn't utter a word of rebuttal. Chu Hao's words were like a sharp blade, precisely piercing the most vulnerable crevice in his heart... Yes, the Bankai of his Zanpakuto was his belief, and since he had been defeated by Chu Hao's "overload state," that wavering had already taken deep root in his heart.

Are my own beliefs wrong?
Is my own idea that "if good and evil go unpunished, then the universe must be biased" and the Bankai and the prototype of the awakened spiritual light named after it wrong?

"I'm here to wake you up!"

Faced with Ling Xin's obvious wavering, Chu Hao raised his right fist for the third time. As the victor, he said without any hesitation, "I have always hated the concept of 'fate,' but now, with the help of others, I have finally obtained the power to challenge fate."

"Although I don't know how much further we can go, at this moment, the power I possess is enough to break the shackles on you, Ling Xin, so that the burden on your shoulders won't be so heavy, so..."

"Get some sleep, brother!"

The last punch, and the heaviest one, was a punch from which Chu Hao unleashed all his confusion, pain, and frustration!
"boom!!!"

With a deafening explosion, Ling Xin's head was blasted into the ground like a meteorite. Spiderweb-like cracks spread wildly from the point of impact, his lower body twitched slightly in the air, while his upper body was completely submerged in the cracked earth's crust... and unsurprisingly, the captain of the Celestial Team fell unconscious.

After doing all this, Chu Hao sat quietly for a few seconds, then used his right hand, stained with Ling Xin's blood, to remove his non-prescription glasses, trembling as he tucked them into his pocket. Having completely exited "God Mode" and "Overload State," Chu Hao instantly aged considerably. He simply looked up at the sky and murmured to himself, "I've done what I needed to do. Thank you, Yang Yun..."

At the same time, the azure light deep within Chu Hao's pupils magnified, magnified, and magnified again, filling his entire field of vision. Even though he couldn't see anything from his angle, at this moment Chu Hao's gaze seemed to pierce through the layers of rock walls of the goblin kingdom, revealing the scene of Yang Yun's battle with Jieyin on the outer perimeter…

"Go... help Yang Yun achieve victory."

The instant Chu Hao finished speaking, a thin, yet dazzling, azure light suddenly pierced the sky, like the first rays of dawn, heading straight towards Yang Yun. Exhausted, Chu Hao's body slumped backward like a puppet with its strings cut. The last thing he saw in his eyes was the receding azure light and the suddenly clear world—

Ling Xin, you once told all of us in the Rebel Organization that you wanted to save the world; that was your dream. And that is also my dream…

I'm sorry, Ling Xin, this time I've stood against you, but I won't regret it. Because I know very well that unlike those past choices that forced someone to sacrifice someone, this time the choice I've made won't result in anyone dying, and no one will be sacrificed... I guess this can be considered a kind of growth?

So, Lingxin, my growth and what I'm doing now... could make you proud?
In the deep pit, Chu Hao lay quietly on the cold earth, in a deep coma. His face was unusually peaceful, as if he had only fallen into a brief sleep. Not far away, Ling Xin had also lost consciousness. The two were only a few meters apart, yet it felt as if an entire world separated them.

Beside them, the dazzling sword light finally completely suppressed the crimson blood light. Zhang Heng, charred black all over, collapsed to the ground like a burnt-out candle. Tom and Ochi frantically tended to his injuries, and when they saw Zhang Heng's lips move slightly, they both breathed a sigh of relief. This guy who always loved to crack jokes was definitely about to say something inappropriate again…

Chu Hao and Ling Xin, lying sprawled out on their backs, were fast asleep. Despite their severe injuries, smiles lingered on their faces… (End of Chapter)