Chapter 4408: Wrong Again

Duze then noticed that it wasn’t only Rean who was awake. Roan, Celis, and Kentucky were also standing there, although none of them had said anything at first.

"How are all of you awake?" Duze asked, his expression shifting from surprise to suspicion as he looked from one to the next.

Roan answered before anyone else could. "Whatever you tried to do was aimed at the soul. Back in our Great Void, soul cultivation, soul protection, and soul strength were regarded as the most important aspects of a cultivator’s life, and we stood at the very top in all three."

"That didn’t change after we ascended to the Celestial Plane. So even though you tried to interfere with our souls, whatever happened simply wasn’t powerful enough."

Naturally, that was a complete lie. The Vinx Great Void wasn’t especially advanced when it came to souls. If anything, it was fairly ordinary. The only reason the four of them remained unaffected was because the Orb System had intercepted the attack by creating puppet souls to take the blow in their place.

Well... perhaps saying it saved them wasn’t entirely accurate.

After all, Duze had never intended to kill them in the first place.

Maybe that intention had changed now.

Fortunately, there was no way for Duze to prove Roan’s story. There weren’t any other cultivators from the Vinx Great Void in this section of the Celestial Plane to compare them against.

The reason was quite simple. Default had explained it long ago. Depending on where someone ascended from within their Great Void, they would arrive at a different location in the Celestial Plane.

The twins’ group hadn’t ascended from an ordinary location.

They had ascended from the absolute center of the Vinx Great Void, the very birthplace of the entire Great Void itself. That place was completely inaccessible to everyone except Default, and only after receiving the Arbiter’s Echo Power had the twins’ group been granted access to enter it.

Since no one before them had ever ascended from that location, it naturally meant no cultivator from the center of the Vinx Great Void had ever reached this part of the Celestial Plane. As far as Duze knew, the four of them could very well be perfect representatives of their Great Void.

Duze narrowed his eyes. It wasn’t as though he had never encountered cultivators capable of resisting the Sacred Relic’s memory wipe before. Such people certainly existed. However, finding four of them simultaneously inside a grassroots region was something else entirely.

"You should’ve just pretended to be asleep," Duze sighed. "Now I can’t let you leave that easily."

"Obviously," Roan replied without the slightest trace of panic. "So wherever you’re going next, bring us with you. We have no interest in staying in these grassroots lands you’ve mentioned so many times."

Duze’s eyebrow twitched.

Why did it feel like these people were somehow steering the conversation instead of him?

"Do you think it’s that easy?" he asked.

"Obviously, it shouldn’t be," Kentucky joined in. "But according to you, the purpose of these grassroots lands is to nurture future experts. Well, congratulations! You just found four outstanding prospects. Aren’t we worth taking along?"

Duze rubbed his forehead.

"You do realize I could simply kill all of you and solve the problem immediately, right?"

"You won’t," Roan answered with complete confidence.

"Oh?"

"If killing us were truly an acceptable solution, you would’ve done it from the beginning instead of going through the trouble of erasing everyone’s memories. You even gave us that whole speech about nurturing future talents."

"If protecting the secret behind Godly Pressure Control were truly your highest priority, killing a few cultivators from a few insignificant regions would’ve been much easier than wiping memories across multiple regions."

Naturally, Roan’s real confidence came from something else entirely.

Throughout this entire encounter, Duze hadn’t emitted even the slightest hint of the red color of Killing Intent. Someone who genuinely intended to kill wouldn’t have remained that calm the whole time.

There was no reason to reveal that observation, though.

Duze scratched the back of his head with an awkward expression.

"You guessed correctly that I can’t casually kill you... but that’s only without sufficient justification. The fact that you’re still awake means you could spread the Godly Pressure Control methods again. That alone would already qualify as a legitimate reason."

"Unless you simply bring us with you," Rean replied with his usual bright smile. "Come on! We’re good!"

"Good?" Duze snorted. "Like hell you are! I investigated all of you thoroughly. Your talent color... is no color! You’re destined to have an incredibly difficult cultivation journey, far worse than even those with the poorest talent colors. What future prospects could you possibly have?"

"That’s just prejudice," Rean complained immediately. "You can’t judge a book by its cover."

"I can."

"And I will."

Duze answered without the slightest hesitation.

"But you’re still wrong about us," Celis cut in before Rean could continue arguing. "It isn’t that we lack talent. The systems used in this region simply couldn’t evaluate us properly. If you doubt that, compare the date of our ascension with our current cultivation. Can you honestly find anyone who has advanced faster than we have during the same amount of time?"

Duze blinked before quickly opening the information inside his RC once more.

"Hm..." His eyes scanned the records. "...That is... admittedly very fast for the standards of this place."

He continued reading for another moment before snorting again. "But so what? According to these records, you received an absurd amount of rewards over the years. You practically brute-forced your cultivation using far more Godly Crystals than ordinary cultivators could ever dream of obtaining."

He pointed directly at Celis. "In fact, with the amount you’ve accumulated, you should’ve reached the Aura God Realm long ago. Instead, you’re still lagging behind. Doesn’t that prove my point?"

Celis simply shook his head. "Not really. We require several times more energy than normal cultivators at the same cultivation level. That’s why our advancement appears slower despite actually progressing much faster. On the other hand, we gain a lot more strength for the same levels."

He smiled faintly. "Trust me. We’re excellent."

Duze folded his arms, looking completely unconvinced. "...Why am I even arguing with you people?"

He suddenly smiled. "There’s a much simpler method."

Then, he clapped his hands once. "Little ones. Come out."

Immediately afterward, several tiny pink-and-golden spheres with miniature white wings floated into the room from seemingly nowhere.

The twins’ group looked around in surprise. None of them had sensed those little creatures hiding nearby before.

"What are those?" Kentucky asked.

"They’re responsible for removing every trace related to Godly Pressure Control," Duze explained. "However, they can also perform another task."

He looked at the tiny winged spheres with an expectant smile. "I need your help. Check the foundations of these four and show me exactly how broken they are."

"Yes, Duze!"

"We’ll do it!"

"Duze asked!"

"We’re helping!"

"Duze’s curious!"

"We’re curious too!"

"We’ll check!"

"We’ll show Duze!"

The little creatures spoke over one another like an excited group of children, barely waiting for each other to finish before blurting out the next sentence.

Without asking permission, they immediately flew into the bodies of Rean, Roan, Celis, and Kentucky.

None of the four felt any discomfort.

Still, their bodies gradually became covered in a faint pink-and-golden glow.

"It works very simply," Duze explained confidently. "The worse someone’s foundation is—and yours should be utterly disastrous after forcing so many breakthroughs—the darker that glow becomes."

He folded his arms with satisfaction. "I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the color turned completely black."

Seeing their expressions, he added another explanation. "Don’t misunderstand. This isn’t measuring talent or aptitude. It merely evaluates how many mistakes you’ve made throughout your cultivation. Your foundations are simply the easiest indicator of how recklessly you’ve advanced."

The four exchanged glances before looking back at Duze.

"I see..." Rean nodded.

"So..." Kentucky scratched his head.

"How long does it take before it starts to darken?" Celis asked.

Duze frowned slightly. "...It should’ve already started."

One second passed.

Nothing.

Ten seconds.

Still nothing.

Thirty seconds.

The tiny winged creatures continued circling happily inside their bodies without producing any visible result.

Duze’s confident smile slowly began to disappear. "...What’s taking so long?"

Just as impatience started showing on his face, the glow surrounding the four finally began to change.

"There!" Duze pointed. "See? Now watch as it dark—"

His words stopped halfway.

The glow wasn’t becoming darker.

It was becoming brighter.

Far brighter.

The pink-and-golden light intensified continuously until it illuminated the entire room. The brilliance became so overwhelming that even Duze instinctively narrowed his eyes, finding it difficult to look directly at them.

"Oh!" Kentucky stared at himself excitedly. "I’ve always known I was bright, but it’s nice finally having proof! Hahaha!"

Rean laughed just as loudly. "As you can see, I’m the light that brightens everyone’s lives! Hahaha!"

Celis examined the radiant glow surrounding his body before giving a satisfied nod. Just as expected, their foundations remained unimaginably solid.

Only Roan had his usual cold expression. "...Annoying." He wasn’t a big fan of bright lights... for a very obvious reason, of course.

Duze’s mouth twitched. This... was absolutely not the result he had expected.

The tiny winged creatures suddenly burst back out of the four’s bodies, happily circling around Duze while shouting all at once.

"They’re amazing!"

"So shiny!"

"No mistakes!"

"Super good!"

"Very pretty!"

"Perfect!"

"Duze!"

"They’re bright!"

Duze stared blankly at the four for several long seconds before finally managing to squeeze out a sentence.

"Just... what is wrong with you guys?"

The smiles on the twins’ group’s faces instantly vanished before they glared at him in perfect synchronization.

"Fuck you! You’re the one with something wrong! Your entire family has something wrong!"

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