Villain? No, I'll catch up with the protagonist after passing the civil service exam.

"Buzz—"

A low-frequency resonance, extremely suppressed, suddenly rang out in the huge venue without warning.

The sound seemed not to come from a speaker, but rather exploded directly in the depths of everyone's mind, causing their eardrums to ring and their souls to feel like they were about to be torn apart.

On the podium, the giant LED screen, tens of meters wide, was instantly filled with a dazzling gold.

All signals were forcibly cut off, and in their place appeared a blurry and distorted golden figure.

The image flickered a few times before finally stabilizing.

That was a man.

He sat quietly on a throne made of bones, with an endless dark starry sky behind him.

He was wearing an elaborate and ancient black priest's robe, embroidered with strange star totems in gold thread.

On his face, he wore a mask made of pure gold.

The mask had no facial features, only a smooth, mirror-like reflection that showed the countless terrified faces below the stage.

He was like a god from another dimension, cold and majestic, devoid of any human emotion.

"It's him!"

"Lord of the Heavenly Temple!"

An uncontrollable gasp and gasps of surprise erupted from the crowd.

Some of the more timid ones even collapsed to the ground, their legs giving way.

The atmosphere froze at that moment.

On the screen, the golden-masked man slowly raised his hand, which was covered in a black glove.

A simple action, yet it seemed to possess some kind of irresistible magic.

An invisible, immense mental pressure, like a tsunami, surged out from the cold screen and instantly swept across the entire venue!

"Well……"

"My head... my head hurts so much..."

"I...I can't breathe!"

Below the stage, thousands of elites, dignitaries, and even battle-hardened soldiers from all walks of life looked like drowning people with their throats being choked.

They clutched their heads in agony, their faces deathly pale, their clothes instantly soaked with cold sweat.

The feeling was as if an invisible hand was squeezing their souls, trying to crush their will completely.

"mortal."

The man with the golden mask finally spoke.

His voice wasn't loud, but it carried a strange resonance, as if countless voices were superimposed, resonating directly deep within everyone's soul:

"What are you afraid of?"

"Is it fear of death, or fear... of the impending new life?"

He slowly stood up, opened his arms, and made a gesture of embracing the world.

Those eyes hidden behind the mask seemed to pierce through time and space, looking down at the mortals below the stage who were like ants in his eyes, his tone filled with divine compassion and arrogance.

"Look at the land beneath your feet."

"Look at this world filled with desire and greed."

"The air is polluted by industrial waste gas, rivers are filled with endless garbage, and people's hearts, corrupted by money and power, have become dirtier than the sludge in the sewers."

His voice carried a bewitching magic, each word like a heavy hammer, striking the fragile defenses of everyone's hearts.

"What you call law is nothing more than the rules of the game that the strong set for themselves, a shackle used to bind the weak."

"Your so-called order is nothing but a mirage built on a dirty wasteland."

"This world is sick."

"It's rotten to the core."

As his voice rose, the mental pressure became increasingly terrifying.

In the front row of the venue, several delicate socialites could not withstand the pressure and fainted.

Many others, however, had their knees buckle and collapsed to their knees with a thud, their bodies trembling violently, unable to even lift their heads.

As they stared at the golden figure on the screen, their eyes gradually shifted from fear to confusion, and even... a hint of fanatical worship.

Yes.

He was right.

This world is too bitter, too tiring, and too dirty.

If a god were to descend and purify all of this, perhaps... it wouldn't be such a bad thing?

"And I am the Lord of the Heavenly Temple."

The golden-masked man slowly raised his hand, palm facing upward, and a golden, visible ball of energy slowly condensed and rotated in his palm.

"I will give you new life."

"I will use the purest spiritual energy to wash away all the filth in this world."

"I will use my supreme divine authority to reshape this broken order."

"The greedy will be purified by fire; the cowardly will be frozen by ice."

"Only the most devout believers can obtain eternal life in my God's Kingdom!"

The golden sphere of light grew brighter and brighter, becoming more and more dazzling, like a miniature sun, radiating an awe-inspiring majesty that made people dare not look directly at it.

Just when everyone was suffocating under the weight of this sacred and terrifying power, unable even to muster the thought of resistance.

The golden-masked man's gaze suddenly pierced through the layers of people.

It precisely locked onto the corner of the podium.

There was a man there.

He did not kneel down.

He didn't even bend over.

In that mental storm powerful enough to warp even steel, he stood straight, like a spear piercing the sky.

Lu Jingyan.

He was dressed in a simple black casual outfit, his hands casually in his pockets, his face expressionless.

There was no fear, no confusion, not even anger.

There was only a bottomless calm, and a trace of...

Hidden deep inside, impatient.

"Lu Jingyan".

For the first time, the voice of the Lord of the Heavenly Temple carried a hint of emotion, a playful glint as if he had discovered an interesting toy.

"I admit, you are the only one among these ants who surprised me."

"You are very strong; you have even touched that threshold."

"But you are ultimately just a mortal. Your power comes from this dirty land, and you are destined to carry original sin."

He stretched out the hand that was radiating a golden orb, pointing it at Lu Jingyan, and issued a divine pronouncement:

"Give up your ridiculous resistance."

"Submit to me."

"Submit to the true God."

"I will bestow upon you the glory of being second only to the emperor, making you my vanguard in purifying this world."

The golden light surged!

That mental pressure reached its peak at this moment, transforming into an invisible shockwave that slammed into Lu Jingyan!

"Bang--!"

Spiderweb-like cracks suddenly appeared on the wall behind Lu Jingyan!

He himself didn't even twitch the hem of his clothes.

He simply stood there quietly, letting the violent mental energy wash over his body, the impatience in his eyes finally turning into undisguised mockery.

"Are you done talking?"

Lu Jingyan made a move.

He strode forward, ignoring the crowd of people slumped on the ground and incoherent, and walked step by step onto the empty platform.

Each step felt like stepping on some invisible node.

"Thump."

The psychological pressure in the entire venue weakened slightly.

"Thump."

Those kneeling on the ground felt the pressure on their bodies ease and were finally able to catch their breath.

"Thump."

The golden ball of light in the palm of the Heavenly God Temple Master flickered uncontrollably for a moment.

Lu Jingyan walked to the very center of the stage.

He picked up the abandoned microphone on the table, weighed it in his hand, and tested the sound.

"Feed? Feed?"

A clear and steady voice resounded throughout the venue through the speakers, like a thunderclap, instantly dispelling the oppressive atmosphere and waking those who had been brainwashed from their daze.

He raised his head and calmly gazed at the golden "god" on the screen.

A slight, disdainful smile slowly curved the corners of his lips.

He cleared his throat, spoke into the microphone, and gave an extremely hardcore, and extremely punchable, assessment:

"First of all, thank you to this friend wearing a gold mask for giving us a ten-minute, disastrous, pyramid scheme-style brainwashing speech."

"However, it might be a cultural difference."

Lu Jingyan's gaze turned amused, as if he were looking at a clown trying to attract attention:

"When you select people, do you not even look at their brains?"

"With your terminal chuunibyou symptoms, you think you can purify the world?"

"I think you should go see a psychiatrist first."