It was truly a crazy plan. WangXia was the only person in the team who became aware of the plan. He hesitated for a long time but in the end, refrained from telling the other members. He would reason with Xuan prior to accepting the order. However, once he accepted the order, he would remain as nothing more than a soldier. Whether the mission ahead of him was doable or not, whether it led to hell or not, he would not bat an eye.

Zero went to Shanxi so there were only Heng and ChengXiao in the northeast region. Only a select few in the team could dissuade Xuan from his actions. Neither Heng nor ChengXiao came close to Zheng in this respect. Even Zero fared better than them. Coincidentally, Zheng was sleeping and Zero was guarding him in Shanxi.

(Did he set us up since the beginning? Why else would he choose to send Zero over? Zero’s probably the only one who would speak up to him. Furthermore, if an internal conflict breaks out, he’s the only other person who would pose a threat to Xuan.)

WangXia clapped his head and kicked the thoughts away from his mind. He didn’t want to kill innocent people but he also felt it was the logical thing to do after hearing Xuan’s rationale. They were not saints after all. If it was the only path to survive, they would walk down this path even if they were to transform into demons. WangXia’s mind slowly cleared up.

(Yet, we won’t have the strength to kill Hao 1 if Zheng doesn’t wake up on time, which would render all our efforts futile. Pray that the Lambda Driver and the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception are effective… Why hasn’t Zheng woken yet?)

Zheng wished he could. Living in a dream world for over half a year was incredibly boring. He had established a daily routine of watching the pretty loli jumping up and down, taking baths and swimming. Aside from these benefits, he was bored to death.

(Is there going to be an end? It’s been so many months already. I might as well show up and explain the situation to her.)

One of his accomplishments over the past several months was the degree of his emulation of YinKong. He could come in contact with the dream world for a brief duration during emulation. Furthermore, the higher the degree of emulation, the more power he could use. He also obtained a secret technique to safely step into mid-fourth stage from YinKong. If this technique was feasible, team China could become the strongest team in the realm, at a level far surpassing team Devil and team Celestial.

Rui-Kong was likely a powerful psyche force user in the fourth stage. Her psyche force was an inborn aptitude. YinKong discovered an unconventional method to overcome the heart’s devil, which was to get pass it with force.

The heart’s devil would infuse a person’s mind with frenzy and violence despite the varied forms of its manifestation in each person. The person would become unable to distinguish friends from foes and attack anyone in proximity. This violence suppressed the individual’s consciousness so unless one could overcome the heart’s devil, death was the inevitable ending.

YinKong, however, found a way to overcome the heart’s devil from a different angle. She named it ascension by force.

To draw an analogy using Cultivation, the heart’s devil of the fourth stage was the heart’s devil before ascension to immortality. This obstacle posed on the person’s mental state and had no relation to his physical strength. When Zheng overcame his heart’s devil, his strength immediately took a leap into mid-fourth stage. What YinKong wanted was to suppress this violence completely.

She had reached the fourth stage and gained infinitesimal control, although still in its initial phase. At the same time, waves of violent lust thrust into her mind. Rui-Kong drained the violence from her until she couldn’t hold it anymore. Once YinKong recovered from the unlocked mode, Rui-Kong would return it back to YinKong’s mind. Without being in the unlocked mode at that time, she would become able to suppress the invasion.

“Whew. How are you feeling? What stage have you reached this time? Almost breaking free of the heart’s devil yet?”

Rui-Kong was also a pretty loli. She lay on the sand exhausted after using her psyche force ability. Her face was ruddy like a little apple. She breathed heavily while asking YinKong.

YinKong also looked exhausted. She rubbed Rui-Kong’s face and giggled. “You look so cute when you are exhausted. No wonder your brother calls you little apple. You look just like an apple.”

Rui-Kong’s face grew even redder and she slapped YinKong’s hand away. “I am not the only one who he calls little apple. He likes to call you little apple when we are not around too. Hehe. When are you going to become an apple and let him eat you?”

YinKong blushed. She pinched Rui-Kong’s face and said, “I am still far from meeting the heart’s devil. But every time I suppress this violence and I grow more accustomed to it and I feel I can endure it a little more. I think if we should continue like this, my conjecture would become true. We can safely enter mid-fourth stage through ascension by force.”

Rui-Kong let out a sigh of relief seeing YinKong looking relaxed. YinKong suddenly clasped her hands on Rui-Kong’s face and said in a serious tone. “Be honest, Rui-Kong. Is your unlocked stage advancing at an increased pace? Is the violence that you held each time increasing the pace of your progress?”

Rui-Kong laughed as she was going to give an answer. However, YinKong stared into her eyes without wavering. She finally nodded in defeat. “Yeah. My unlocked mode is advancing a little faster… but it shouldn’t have anything to do with you. This happened before. And with the method you discovered, the heart’s devil is no longer so scary. If I end up meeting the heart’s devil, I can just split the violent lust to everyone. Wouldn’t that make it easy for me to overcome the heart’s devil?”

YinKong said, “No. The state you would enter is vastly different from going berserk. How should I explain it? It’s a state where your mind is filled with frenzy and violence and your body begins to attack those around you. Yet, you will feel that you exist as a separate consciousness. That’s the scariest part of the heart’s devil. You won’t feel you are in a berserk so you can’t stop it. It is the reason I am attempting to completely suppress the violent consciousness in order to suppress the heart’s devil. The path is too difficult to walk. We have only taken the first step in this non-traditional shortcut. I guess I will truly enter mid-fourth stage if I can actually overcome the heart’s devil. Rui-Kong, don’t test your luck against it.”

“Fine. Fine.” Rui-Kong quickly diverted the conversation. “Speaking of the unlocked mode, my brother has only unlocked the first stage. He’s so slow. Is it because he lack the aptitude? Will you ditch him in the future?”

YinKong blushed. “What are you talking about? We are not in that type of relationship… It might not be accurate to judge our strength by our unlocked stage. As we age, our unlocked stage will naturally increase. I actually think… your brother is a super genius. He’s much more talented than any of us. That’s how he can suppress unlocking the genetic constraint. So, ZhuiKong might actually be stronger than me.”

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