I, Lord of Prayer

On the ocean of collective subconsciousness, surging with blazing tides, Zhou Chen stared dumbfounded at the enormous creature slowly rising before him, his mouth agape.

Is it really necessary to go to such an extreme?

Five enormous bubbles rose from the illusory ocean. The largest of them was as tall as a seven-story building, a true behemoth. Three of the other four bubbles were nearly the same size, and even the smallest was two stories high.

Besides them, countless wish bubbles of all sizes rose up, so numerous that it was dazzling.

The size of the wish bubble corresponds to the intensity of the wish. The larger the bubble, the more the wisher desires to fulfill the wish. The more wish points you will receive after helping the other person fulfill their wish.

"If just one of these wish bubbles is granted, it should be enough to completely heal the soul, and there might even be some left over..."

Zhou Chen swallowed hard, his curiosity beginning to overflow—the wish bubbles that were now appearing all came from people he had had initial contact with, so whose wishes were these?

Filled with intense curiosity, he poked at one of the giant bubbles, which was seven stories high.

"Fire is the beginning of all things, and the end of all things. May the fires of the abyss burn the world to ashes, and may all things return to the beginning of chaos!"

A young girl knelt before an eerie altar, praying hysterically as if performing some sacred ritual. Her expression was one of extreme fanaticism, and in the candlelight, her deranged and distorted state was revealed.

"This is... Li Xiaoxiao?"

Zhou Chen was stunned. The owner of the wish was completely unexpected. How could it be her?

"I don't think I've ever had any contact with her... Right, was she the person I was communicating with on the dark web? Or was it her for a period of time? Does communicating online count as some kind of contact?"

"Is she participating in the Eternal Flame Festival? Her greatest wish is for the Abyss Flame to burn the world to ashes and return everything to the beginning of chaos... In other words, for the world to be destroyed by the Chaos King? Hmm, that fits the wishes of the Abyss Cultists, but this faith is far too strong. She is definitely an ultimate fanatic."

"I didn't expect to be given such a tough task right from the start. How could I possibly fulfill such a wish?"

Zhou Chen clicked his tongue and reached out to poke the next wish bubble.

"I'm going to kill them all, leave no one alive!" The girl gazed tearfully at the two cold tombstones, her eyes burning with a flame of vengeance—so resolute, so furious, so…sad.

"...Jiang Che?" Zhou Chen was stunned.

The girl was very young, looking only ten years old, but since they were in a superior-subordinate relationship, he was quite familiar with Jiang Che's face and could recognize Jiang Che's appearance from the girl's still-developing, immature face.

"These two tombstones are for her parents? She wants to kill her enemies to avenge her parents? But she's almost at the top of the leadership hierarchy, and she still can't get revenge? What kind of background does her enemy have?"

A series of questions popped into Zhou Chen's mind, making him feel even more that there was something much more complicated behind this matter.

With Jiang Che's current abilities, killing people would be incredibly easy. Even if she couldn't do it herself, there were plenty of powerful organizations willing to give her face. At worst, she could anonymously post a bounty on the dark web. The fact that she hasn't been able to get revenge yet is most likely because the other party also has a powerful background, perhaps even more powerful than Jiang Che's.

"I didn't expect her to have such a past. I wonder if her emotional deprivation syndrome is related to this."

Zhou Chen exhaled, cherishing the precious time, and reached out to poke the next bubble.

[A tombstone, another tombstone.]

In the solemn and dignified cemetery, a weathered man sat silently beside a tombstone, smoking a cigarette.

After the cigarette burned out, the man stood up, patted the tombstone, said goodbye silently, and left without a word, casually stubbing out the still-burning cigarette butt on a passing trash can.

A soft whisper drifted from the receding figure: "I will avenge you."

It's Yang.

"Old Yang's past is a bit heavy too..."

  

Zhou Chen rubbed his temples, already feeling the fatigue in his mental energy, and decisively popped the next wish bubble.

Outside the technology lab, several researchers sat in front of a screen, watching the horrific explosion scene inside the observation room, and sighed helplessly.

It failed again.

A middle-aged man sitting in a chair irritably tapped the armrest of the chair:

"The most crucial element of a god-slaying weapon is its adaptive evolution module. With this module, a god-slaying weapon possesses the terrifying ability to self-evolve, self-adjust, and self-adapt, thus truly deserving the title of a god-slaying weapon. But... where exactly are we going wrong? Why have we consistently failed? What exactly are we lacking?"

The person who made this wish is Professor Ang Lee.

The head of the research department of the Golden Bamboo Star Society, a registered scholar of twelve disciplines, a top researcher, and also an alchemist, seems to have the wish to successfully develop the so-called "adaptive evolution module".

What Zhou Chen cared about even more was the "divine-slaying weapon" he mentioned.

"Is the Star Society secretly researching a god-killing weapon to intimidate the gods? No, it shouldn't be. Leaving aside the two gods who defected to the Abyss, the remaining five gods all advanced from the Ascended, and the Star Society must have been involved behind the scenes, essentially making them their own people... So the god-killing weapon is probably aimed at the forces of the Abyss."

After a brief moment of random thoughts, Zhou Chen came back to his senses. He had absolutely no interest in Professor Li An's wish.

Just kidding, he hasn't even graduated from university yet, and he's not some kind of scientific genius. Even top talents like Professor Ang Lee and a bunch of other research giants couldn't solve this problem, so what makes him think he can help achieve it?

To be honest, he didn't understand a single symbol from the various formulas that flashed by just now.

"This is the last one..." Zhou Chen reached out and poked at the last large wish bubble. Compared to the other four, this wish bubble was smaller, only two stories high.

"Fire is the beginning of all things, and the end of all things. May the fires of the abyss burn the world to ashes, and may all things return to the beginning of chaos!"

The man knelt before the sinister altar, praying loudly as if performing some kind of sacred ritual, his expression fanatical.

"???"

Upon seeing the familiar scene, Zhou Chen was momentarily stunned, thinking he had clicked the wrong bubble. Only after continuing to look did he realize that the person was a "birdman"!

As a believer in the Eternal Flame, his ultimate wish is the same as Li Xiaoxiao's, except that his faith is not as extremely fanatical as Li Xiaoxiao's, so his wish bubble is much smaller in comparison.

Zhou Chen's gaze swept over the enormous bubbles one by one, and he fell into deep thought: "These are not short-term wishes, but long-term wishes, the deepest desires in our hearts, so they are exceptionally large and extremely difficult to fulfill."

"With my current abilities, I should focus on my immediate short-term desires first."

With a thought, he changed the detection conditions of the wish radar again, and the surrounding floating bubbles began to sink, replaced by brand new bubbles that rose again.

This time, the shape and size of the bubbles are more normal. Even though some bubbles are larger, they are not as huge as before.

"Let's take a look at this first." Zhou Chen poked at one of the larger wish bubbles.

The face that came into view surprised him somewhat.

He is a Western European.

In a small room, a young man with dark brown hair and emerald green eyes sat at a table, fidgeting with his hair. On the table was a gray fruit pit—which seemed to be the source of his turmoil.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it! That bastard William actually got bribed! He dared to charge me 700,000 for a fake material! I don't want to see him again, or I'll break his legs... Damn it, the alchemist's exam is next week! Where am I going to buy another Screaming Ash Tree Core? This stuff is in high demand and short supply..."

Next week is the alchemist assessment... Zhou Chen seized this key information, quickly recalled the people he had come into contact with, and soon found the answer, his expression changing slightly.

Could this guy be the one who said, "Miss Karina, I really like you"?

Is he from Western Europe? Can radar detect such a distance? Or is it because he had further contact with me, which allows him to disregard distance?

Zhou Chen pondered for a moment, thinking he could lend him a hand. He remembered that there was an alchemy material called [Screaming Ash Tree Core] on the reward list. Selling it to the other party would not only earn him money, but he could also get a considerable amount of wish points along the way...

As he was thinking this, he inexplicably felt that the connection between this wish bubble and him was deeper than the connection between all the previous bubbles. Almost instinctively, he extended his consciousness along this invisible connection.

The wish bubble suddenly burst into a blinding white light, instantly enveloping his bewildered face.

at the same time.

In a rented room in the old suburbs of Paris, Western Europe.

Soren Berger, who had been furious all day because of his friend's betrayal, suddenly felt a deep weariness wash over him. He wanted to close his eyes and take a nap, but he couldn't resist the drowsiness and fell asleep on the table.

In the darkness, after an unknown amount of time, a white light suddenly appeared before Sauron's eyes.

After his vision returned, he found himself in an unfamiliar place.

White mist floated beneath my feet, making it feel unreal. The distant scenery was obscured by the thick fog, appearing boundless.

And the place where he was was like... an empty square?

Five or six meters to the left of Soren, there is a beautifully designed fountain in the center of the square, but at this time the fountain is dry and there is no water.

In a corner not far away, under a parasol, a mysterious figure shrouded in white mist sat like an English gentleman on a pristine white plastic chair, leisurely savoring afternoon tea.

Soren was extremely surprised and shocked. A sense of fear rose in his heart, along with a strong sense of vigilance. As an alchemy apprentice and an Ascended being, he knew all too well what it meant to have one's consciousness pulled into an unknown illusion.

—The instigation of those with malicious intentions!

For decades, the Stars Society has been vigorously promoting anti-fraud apps around the world to prevent the forces of the underworld or malicious illegal ascendants from disguising themselves as secret entities to deceive, bewitch, and exploit victims.

If you are inexplicably pulled into an unknown illusion, it means you have been targeted by scammers!

Soren forced himself to calm down, preparing to stall the other party for a while, and then immediately report to the Star Council after leaving the illusion.

"Sir, did you invite me here?" he asked politely, bowing slightly.

Enveloped in a white mist, Zhou Chen slowly put down his teacup, thinking to himself, "How the hell was I supposed to know? If I hadn't arrived a little earlier and disguised myself beforehand, I'd probably be even more confused than you are right now..."

Looking at Sauron waiting for a reply, his mind raced, and many thoughts came to mind in an instant.

This guy will definitely report this to the Star Council when he gets back, and they might even track him down. So I either have to get rid of him or trick him into becoming crippled. But all I have here is my mental power; I don't have any fighting skills. So I guess I'll just have to figure out how to trick him...

Zhou Chen chuckled softly, his tone gentle:

"it's me."

"After so many years, I never expected anyone would come here again."

"Here..." Soren asked doubtfully, not pressing for an answer, but waiting for Zhou Chen to reply.

Zhou Chen tried to imitate Jiang Che's flat, emotionless tone in his response:

"This is a place where any wish can be fulfilled."

It sounds just like the seduction of those Abyss cultists… Sauron thought to himself, but outwardly put on a polite smile and asked:

"Sir, what should I call you?"

Zhou Chen quickly searched his mind for various code names, and finally spoke calmly and indifferently:

"The term 'genie' should be familiar to you."

"The Genie..." Soren's pupils contracted slightly.

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