American comics: Praising the sun, starting from Gotham!

Xiu En thought for a moment and then continued to ask about Greed.

At this point, the Holy Walker chimed in.

"Greed Orange is the most perverse color in the entire spectrum."

"Its power comes from possession. The person who possesses it will be consumed by endless desires until his world is reduced to the thought that 'I want it'."

"The first thing Lafriz did after he got the Orange Lamp was to kill all his kin and competitors."

Ganser added from the side, his tone also full of apprehension.

"Then, he made a deal with the guardians at the time. As long as we didn't interfere with his rule in the Vega system, he promised he would never leave that region of the star system."

"A cosmic cancer that we ourselves have fostered."

Ganther looked very remorseful.

"So please be careful, child of the sun."

The Holy Walker gave his final instructions.

"No amount of reasoning or kindness will work on someone who only cares about themselves. They'll just treat you like things they want to collect."

Xiu En responded.

"Okay, okay. I'm not friendly to everyone."

"If he likes collecting so much, I'll let him collect himself in a bottle too."

As he spoke, without waiting for the other person to say anything more, he glanced at the approximate coordinates of the star map.

A golden portal was drawn.

On the other side of the door was a pitch-black star field.

"Well then, farewell, pastry master."

Shuen waved to the Holy Walker, then grabbed Hal, who was still bidding a reluctant farewell to Voss, and stepped into the portal.

They passed through the portal.

This is the Vega Galaxy.

A galaxy that was incredibly prosperous hundreds of millions of years ago, boasting hundreds of intelligent civilizations.

Now, all that can be seen are dead planets, long since extinguished, like tombstones.

Cosmic dust and fragmented meteorite belts envelop this vast interstellar graveyard.

The smile on Xiu En's face gradually disappeared when he saw the scene before him.

There's nothing here.

There was no life, no light, no sound, and even the flow of energy had almost stopped.

"According to the coordinates, Lafriz's treasure trove is located on Okaro, the core of this star system."

Ganser reminded Hugh.

Shuen opened another short portal to that planet.

On the other side of the door, the scene was even more shocking.

The surface of Okaro was covered by a layer of gray dust.

The sky was an ominous dark orange.

That was the greedy light emanating from the central battery of the orange lamp, which isolated this planet from everything outside.

But what troubled Xiu En the most were the countless figures standing on the wasteland.

They were once inhabitants of this galaxy, explorers, pirates, or any unfortunate soul who, for various reasons, trespassed into this forbidden land.

Now, they have all become orange lantern ghosts.

Their bodies, composed of translucent orange energy, retained the expressions of terror, anger, or resentment from their last moments before death.

Each of them has a hollow in their chest, where their heart once stood.

Their eyes burned with the flames of greed as they wandered numbly across this wasteland, day after day, year after year.

They guarded a treasure trove that they could never obtain.

They are living dead.

The pleasant mood I had on the planet Odim, which felt like a vacation, vanished when I saw this land of the living dead before me.

The smile on Xiu En's face vanished.

He looked at the orange-lit ghost, and his golden eyes, which always shone with sunlight, dimmed.

Xiu En remained silent.

In these soulless shells, he seemed to see the Lekians slaughtered by the mechanical hunters, the wronged souls who had sank in the sea of ​​blood for billions of years, and the lives that should have shone brightly.

Hal could clearly sense the aura of sadness emanating from Shuen.

The sunflower on Xiu En's shoulder also noticed the change in Xiu En's emotions.

Her outstretched leaves slowly drooped down. A soft leaf reached out and gently pressed against Xiu En's cheek to comfort him.

"mine……"

"……be mine……"

"Don't touch... mine..."

Amidst this sorrow, a voice filled with resentment echoed from the depths of the wasteland, from a massive hill formed by countless abandoned spaceships and treasures.

"Here we go again... a thief! It smells... sparkly! Mine! Mine! All mine!!!"

Accompanied by his hysterical screams.

The numb orange-lit ghosts across the wasteland seemed to be injected with commands in an instant.

Their orange eyes all turned to the outsider.

The next second, they rushed towards the two of them like an awakened zombie army!

Faced with this orange phantom tsunami composed of endless greed and emptiness.

Hal instinctively stepped in front of Shuen, the green light coalescing into a massive shield, ready to withstand the first wave of impact.

But Shuen simply put his hand on Hal's shoulder, which made him lower his guard.

Then, he slowly raised his hand.

Previously, when purifying the red light, the support of other Xiu'en was needed, but the current Xiu'en no longer needs it.

He gathered a golden flame, like a candle flame in the wind, and it burned in his palm.

The flame was so warm, even compassionate.

"Go to sleep."

Xiu En said softly.

Then, he let go.

That tiny golden flame transformed into billions of warm specks of light that drifted toward the roaring, orange ocean.

When the first wisp of golden light touched the first orange lantern ghost.

The ghost's orange body, composed of pure, greedy energy, began to dissipate.

From his empty chest, a wisp of white light belonging to his own soul was stripped away.

The white light condensed into a blurry human figure in mid-air.

A young man wearing an explorer's hat.

He smiled and waved towards the distant starry sky, as if saying goodbye to his family and friends back home.

Then, it turned into true nothingness and returned to the cycle of the universe.

Then came the second, the third, the ten thousandth…

Golden flames swept across the entire wasteland.

All the orange-lit ghosts that were touched by the flames stopped their charge.

Their souls, bound by greed, finally found belated liberation at this moment.

Hal looked at the golden cremation before him.

He saw the ghost of a former merchant; before he vanished, the last reflection in his empty eyes was of mountains of wealth and the regret of being separated from his wife and children.

He saw a ghost of a former soldier, who, before dissipating, gave a salute with all his might—a salute that no longer bore any country or unit designation.

He saw a ghost that had once been his mother, before it vanished, seemingly embracing a child she could no longer touch.

Countless fragments of memory

Countless ordinary lives, countless tragedies caused by greed...

Like a revolving lantern, the scenes unfolded one by one amidst the flickering golden flames, before finally fading into silence.

Ivy also began to emit a green glow.

Where the light reached, plants sprouted on the gray earth that had been eroded by greed for millions of years.

Surprisingly, tiny flowers, representing longing and homeland, sprouted from different worlds.

The white ones are edelweiss from the explorer's hometown.

The red one is the border rose that the soldier protected to the death.

The blue one is the "Forget-Me-Not" lullaby that the mother often sang to her child.

A funeral presided over by the sun god was ultimately attended by the god of nature, who offered sacrifices.

"No!!!!!"

That roar once again echoed through the sky from the Treasure Hill at the edge of the wasteland!

This time, the voice was filled with rage and panic because his most precious collection was being destroyed one by one!

"Mine! Mine! Those are my collectibles! What right do you have! What right do you have to destroy my things!!"

"Stop! Stop! Robbers! Thieves! You two damned, shiny thieves! I'll turn you into collectibles too! I'll skin you alive! I'll hang your bones on my walls! No! I'll display you forever! Forever in my treasury!!!"

However, no matter how much he roared and cursed,

The golden flames never stopped.

It simply continued its purification.

Until the last orange-lit ghost, too, closed its eyes amidst a patch of newly sprouted white flowers.

Tranquility returned to the wasteland.

But this time, the wind carried a faint fragrance of flowers.

The earth is covered with flowers from all over the world, flowers that express homesickness.

The ominous orange sky seemed to brighten a little from the lingering golden warmth.

The sadness on Xiu En's face had disappeared.

He looked up at the treasure hill, which was made up of countless treasures and garbage.

His eyes burned with the flames of judgment.

"Very good. Now it's your turn."

In the instant he was performing the ritual to deliver the souls of those billions of dead, he had already sensed the source of all the tragedies on this planet through those fragments of memory.

That greed, like a black hole, devoured all light and life.

At the heart of that aura, the beast named Lust Python, resided deep within the soul of the incessantly chattering garbage dump owner.

Therefore, Xiu En didn't want to ask anything anymore.

He just wanted to end it all.

Xiu En strode forward, walking across the carpet of countless flowers of homesickness toward the treasure hill.

Hal immediately followed, the green light condensing into a sharp spear in his hand as he warily scanned his surroundings.

"Stop! Don't come any closer! One more step and I'll make you all mine!"

A creature that looked as ugly as a goblin, with long ears and a mouthful of rotten teeth, leaped out of the treasure vault.

He was adorned with what he considered to be magnificent jewels and medals, which only made him look more comical. On his finger was a ring that emitted an ominous orange glow.

Behind him, a huge orange chain connected to an enormous lantern.

That's the central energy battery for the orange lamp.

He is Lafferties, the only holder of the Orange Light.

He opened his mouth and spat out an orange beam of light composed of pure greedy energy at Shuen and Hal!

"This is mine! And you are mine too!"

He shouted.

However, Shuen simply continued walking forward.

The orange beam of light was completely evaporated by the golden aura belonging to the sun god when it was still ten meters away from his body.

"Impossible! My power... my..."

He hadn't finished speaking.

Xiu En had already walked up to him.

That face, which always wore a smile, was now filled with indifference.

He raised his hand, and a tiny golden spark lit up at the tip of his index finger.

Then, it was applied to Lafferties' ugly face, which was contorted with extreme fear.

"puff."

Lafriz, the tyrant who plunged the entire Vega galaxy into billions of years of eternal night, the greedy king who claimed to possess an endless treasure trove, along with his ridiculous jewels and that orange ring, turned into a handful of black ashes.

It drifts away with the wind.

"Hmph, finally it's quiet."

Xiu En reached out and rummaged through the handful of black ashes.

As if searching for something.

Hal curiously leaned closer, puzzled.

Xiu En then picked something up from the pile of ashes.

It was an energy body composed entirely of orange light, shaped like a giant python, but only the size of an earthworm.

Its body was trembling, as if it were terrified by what had just happened.

It desperately tried to burrow back into the pile of ashes.

"Come out."

"Your host has logged off. Stop hiding, it's time to change the protagonist in this show."

As if it understood Xiu En's words, the small orange light snake raised its head!

Its light shone with the same greed as Lafferties!

Having resided within Lafferties' soul for billions of years, it had long since become one with him, and could even be described as the orange lantern beast that was the very source of his greed.

The serpent of lust has finally revealed its true colors!

Its body, the size of an earthworm, swelled in the wind!

In the blink of an eye, a giant python, thousands of meters long and composed entirely of boiling orange energy, appeared.

A giant python with ram-like, curved horns on its head coiled itself atop that enormous treasure hill!

"mine----!!!"

It roared with a power greater and a madness than Lafferties!

It opened its mouth and swallowed the central battery of the orange lamp whole!

Its body swelled several times over again!

Then, the entire hill, made of garbage and treasure, came to life!

Countless abandoned warships restarted their engines and aimed their dark cannons at Xiu En!

Countless magical weapons, buried for billions of years, burst forth from the earth, radiating a bloodthirsty light!

Countless golden statues stood up and transformed into fearless metal golems!

Lafriz's treasure trove, under the control of the Serpent of Lust, has been transformed into an army of the dead!

"interesting."

"That's more like it."

As Xiu En spoke, he opened his palm towards the roaring orange python and then yanked it sharply!

"Give it to me, come here!"

As he moved, a golden rift tore open in the space behind him!

On the other side of the crack lies a vibrant world full of life!

Xi Mu Realm!

Countless enormous vines, thicker than interstellar warships, surged out from the crack like thirsty tentacles!

They have only one goal.

That giant orange python that just swallowed the central battery!

"Little snake, welcome to my garden."