Reincarnated as the Death Spider Queen, sacrificing Bibi Dong at the start

"It's nothing." Nan Feng shook his head. "It was nice meeting you all. Goodbye."

After saying that, he didn't linger any longer and went straight to the huge, dark purple "zongzi" filled with the evil orca king, stretching out his hands to carry it away.

Just as his fingers were about to touch the spider web.

"Om-!"

A dazzling blue-gold beam of light descended from the sky without warning, carrying a vast and sacred pressure, and landed directly between Nan Feng and his prey.

As the light faded, Poseidon, holding a gleaming golden scepter, appeared out of thin air and blocked his path.

Nan Feng stopped what he was doing and straightened up.

"The high priest chased after me specifically to prevent me from taking this demonic orca king away?"

Poseidon did not answer the question.

She stared intently into Nan Feng's eyes, as if trying to see through all the pretenses in the depths of his soul.

The sea breeze made her red robe flutter, and a brief silence fell between them.

After a moment, Poseidon finally spoke, her voice cold yet carrying an overwhelming weight.

"Nanfeng, I have a question for you."

"If I'm willing to put aside my prejudices and cooperate with your plan..."

Poseidon gripped her scepter tightly and asked, enunciating each word clearly, "Can you guarantee that the flames of war in the future will absolutely not reach Poseidon Island?"

"Can you guarantee that this ocean will continue to maintain its current peace and order?"

"Can you guarantee... that the Spirit Hall won't launch a bloody war of aggression on the continent?"

Poseidon stepped forward, staring intently at him.

"If you can make this promise, I can cooperate with all your plans, and even... I can personally help you hunt down that deep-sea demon whale king."

"But, Nanfeng... can you guarantee that?"

Chapter 198: I Can't Trust the High Priest

……

Hearing Poseidon's seemingly desperate question, Nan Feng's finger hovered in mid-air. He remained silent for a long time, the sea breeze whipping up sand and grime that lashed against his clothes, but it couldn't dispel the depth and absurdity in his eyes.

Finally, he slowly withdrew his hand.

"No."

Poseidon's grip on the scepter tightened abruptly, a flash of anger and confusion crossing her azure eyes: "Why not? Since you have the ability to scheme against the world, since you dare to shamelessly claim you want to change the Spirit Hall's power structure, why can't you even give this most basic promise of peace?!"

Nan Feng looked at Poseidon, who was somewhat agitated, with a puzzled look in his eyes. He even felt that this questioning was utterly absurd.

"High Priest, do you seem to have some misunderstanding about my identity?"

Nan Feng gave a self-deprecating sneer, "Why do you need to ask me, a wandering ghost without even a physical body, for a guarantee on such a matter that concerns the fate of the world and the lives of billions of people? Do I have the qualifications or ability to guarantee such a thing?"

"Am I the invincible Peerless Douluo of this era? Or am I a god high above, capable of establishing the laws of the world?"

Nan Feng took a sudden step forward, looking directly into Poseidon's eyes. "None of that! I'm just a ghost living under someone else's roof, forced to eke out a living just to survive!"

"Yes, I can manipulate people's hearts, I can use information gaps to plot and sow discord. But High Priest, you've lived for over a hundred years, don't you understand the cruelest truth? On this Douluo Continent, what determines whether a war begins, whether the flames of war will spread to this ocean, has never been some bullshit about people's hearts and calculations!"

"It's determined by absolute power!"

"If you, Poseidon, regain the Heart of the Sea God, truly inherit the Sea God's position, and become the deity who rules this ocean, even if the Spirit Hall has lost its mind, how dare they cross the sea to cause trouble for Sea God Island?"

Nan Feng pointed towards the mainland, "Similarly, if Bibi Dong really completes the Rakshasa God Trial, do you think I could still rely on so-called 'friendship' or 'scheming' to casually say 'Stop fighting,' and she would really obediently stop fighting?"

"This final decision-making power has always been in the hands of those who possess absolute military force, not in my hands at all!"

Nan Feng looked at Poseidon, a deep sarcasm flashing in his eyes: "High Priest, don't you think it's ridiculous to make me make this kind of promise?"

"Or perhaps..." Nan Feng's eyes sharpened, "you actually know I can't guarantee anything. What you want is just a few empty words from me to win you over?"

"Then, once you've comfortably used me to retrieve the Heart of the Sea God, and once you've rightfully inherited the Sea God's position and gained overwhelming power, you can stand on the moral high ground and, on the grounds that 'I failed to keep my promise of peace,' legitimately turn your back on me?!"

“You…” Poseidon’s expression changed slightly, and he was about to speak in rebuttal.

"High Priest, no explanation needed."

Nan Feng interrupted her, "Between us, there's no need to discuss trust anymore."

"I told you before, for me, what I cannot control cannot be trusted."

Nan Feng glanced at the Poseidon's Scepter in Poseidon's hand and shook his head: "In the Temple of Poseidon, from the moment you ruthlessly exposed all the pretense and forced me to lay out all the truth and my trump cards, there was no longer any cooperation or trust between us."

"Because I've been forced by pressure to reveal all my intentions and my Achilles' heel. But what about the other way around? I have no means or bargaining chips to interfere with whether you will cooperate with me next, or even know if you are pretending to cooperate and secretly preparing to eliminate me, this potential threat."

"The so-called 'tacit understanding' among smart people is to leave each other a layer of paper, a safe distance. This distance contains mutual distrust, but it is precisely because of this distrust that there is a disguised balance and trust."

"But once you forcibly erase this distance and dig out all the bloody truths to expose to the light, then the so-called honesty and openness simply cannot exist between two people with opposing stances!"

“Before, it was because you, High Priest, didn’t believe me.”

"And now... I no longer trust you, High Priest."

After saying that, Nan Feng shouldered the heavy Demon Orca King and was about to leave past Poseidon.

However, the blue-gold light flashed again, and Poseidon once again blocked his way.

She looked at the man before her, who was completely shrouded in suspicion, her brows furrowed: "All those worries you just mentioned are just your own anxieties. Those are your own thoughts, not mine."

"You think I'll betray you after using you, or turn my back on you? That's just because you're used to betrayal and you're projecting your own experience onto others!"

Upon hearing this accusation, Nan Feng stopped in his tracks. Instead of being annoyed at being exposed, he laughed without a care in the world.

"Yes, I was judging others by my own petty standards, so what?"

Nan Feng met Poseidon's gaze calmly, his tone carrying a sense of self-righteous clarity: "I am an absolute scoundrel, and I will do anything to survive. I never deny that, and I have absolute self-awareness."

“But High Priest, I admit I am a scoundrel, but how can I be so sure that you are a man of your word, a true gentleman who would never break his promise?”

Nan Feng freed one hand, pointed to the gleaming gold scepter in Poseidon's hand, and then pointed to himself: "In this world, those who wield violence decide the rules."

"Under this rule between you and me, from beginning to end, I have always been the passive, controlled, and decided party. In this game, I am the weaker one."

"How can I, a weakling, trust someone as powerful as you, who can crush me at any moment, without any real constraints or countermeasures?"

"To put it bluntly, what if you, High Priest, really change your mind in the future and turn against me? What can I do then?"

Nan Feng spread his hands. "Do you think I can beat you or run away? Do you expect me to lie on the floor tiles of the Sea God Temple and throw a tantrum like a shrew, accusing you of breaking your promise?"

Poseidon was momentarily speechless, choked by this crude yet undeniably truthful rhetorical question.

"Originally, if some things were not completely clarified, I could still find even a little bit of security in the calculations of people's hearts."

Nan Feng sighed, "Even if that sense of security is just self-deception, at least there is a slight illusion. That illusion is enough to make me dare to sit at the gambling table and place a bet."

"But what about now?"

Nan Feng looked at Poseidon with a chilling smile: "Everything has been laid bare, all my cards have been revealed. I have lost all my cover, advantages, and means. Asking me to trust the High Priest now is tantamount to asking me to respectfully offer up my life and death with both hands."

Nan Feng couldn't help but laugh, his laughter filled with undisguised mockery: "High Priest, don't you think it's ridiculous to make me do such a stupid thing?"

"It's not that I'm afraid to gamble. Even if the chance of survival is only one in ten thousand, I'm willing to bet my life without hesitation."

"But the premise is that this one in ten thousand success rate is something I can be certain of, something that is truly in my hands and exists!"

"If this only chance of survival cannot be guaranteed, we must place our hopes on the kindness and trust of others..."

Nan Feng shook his head. "No matter how grand or beautiful your words are, they mean nothing to me."

"Even with Bibi Dong, the person I spent every day with and shared joys and sorrows with, I only dared to trust her to some extent after we forcibly established a blood pact of life and death together."

Even so, I still can't fully trust her, and I'm still running around the world, trying every possible way to find a way out for myself.

Nan Feng looked at Poseidon, "Now you want me to trust you completely, Poseidon?"

"Stop fooling around."

"To entrust one's life to others and rely on their generosity or a momentary whim to survive?"

"I've never been the kind of fool who leaves his fate to be judged by others."

Chapter 199 Returning to Wuhun City

……

Faced with Nan Feng's unwavering suspicion, Poseidon was genuinely annoyed.

She has put aside her haughty attitude and shown sufficient trust and sincerity.

But this paranoid madman in front of her just wouldn't believe her!

Azure divine power subtly gathered at the top of Poseidon's scepter, and the surrounding sea breeze instantly became heavy.

Since reasoning with him was futile, she even considered taking action again to suppress this reckless individual.

Just as a fierce glint flashed in Poseidon's eyes, and he was about to make a move...

"If the High Priest wants to make a move against me, he'd better think it through first."

Nan Feng stood still, showing no intention of backing down even under the oppressive aura of a god.

“I have offered all the compromises I could. I have told you the truth you wanted. I have also revealed your trump cards.”

Nan Feng looked at her, his tone filled with undisguised mockery, "If the High Priestess still wants to attack me now, what is your purpose?"

"Using force to suppress me, to force me to believe you're a good person?"

"High Priest, don't you think this idea is ridiculous? To forcibly pursue an outcome about 'trust' using a violent method that is destined to lead nowhere?"

Nan Feng hefted the enormous demonic orca king on his shoulder and smiled indifferently.

"Of course, if the High Priest is really sure he has thought it through and insists on taking action, then please do so."

“This body of mine is merely an energy shell. I don’t mind being suppressed and imprisoned by you on this Seagod Island for a few more months. But…”

"If I remain completely out of contact, what will Bibi Dong, who is far away in Wuhun City, think? What will that woman, who could be influenced by Rakshasa's evil thoughts at any moment, do? That's beyond my control."

"Furthermore, if the High Priest really goes too far and completely cuts off the last bit of room for maneuver between us, then don't blame me for taking some less-than-honorable countermeasures."

Nan Feng looked directly into Poseidon's eyes. "Back then, in order to clear the way for Bibi Dong, I trampled the previous Pope, Qian Xunji, into the mud, ruining his reputation and making him infamous for eternity. He couldn't even enter the ancestral graves of his Qian family."