Ou Shen's generous rhetoric failed to move the two of them.

Everyone had fought their way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood; if there was any passion, it should have long since cooled.

Moreover, Lai Anding is still at the peak of power. Challenging him and replacing a Chief God, be it outside or inside the Primordial Abyss of the game, is hardly a conceivable possibility.

"It's really unimaginable that Oshen, who was most active in rebelling against Leoz, now says—'Leoz is not our enemy.'"

Jiang Zhanguo teased:

"So you too can be opportunistic? Upon seeing Leoz break free from sequence, gain emotions and strength, you felt unwilling and wanted to emulate him?"

"I opposed Leoz because he usurped power as an usurper, monopolized great power, ruled tyrannically, waged war yearly, suppressed dissenters, and abused power."

Ou Shen said:

"Of course, the more primary reason is that, as a subordinate, he imprisoned Morphederia, who was gracious and helpful to me, akin to an enmity of patricide; how could this not be avenged?"

"And now?"

"Now everyone has died once; what should be put down, should be put down for the time being."

Ou Shen shook his head:

"It's hard for me to say I can completely let go of the knots in my heart, but the current situation must be calmly examined. Although Leoz isn't anything good, Lai Anding is simply nothing. If we continue to be exploited and enslaved by Lai Anding, we won't even have the capital to oppose Leoz."

"You've grown quite a bit. In the past, you would just recklessly charge at the enemy."

Yin Shuwen said indifferently:

"Hopefully so. Shouting slogans is useless; you have to have real skills. The Primordial Abyss belongs to the Primordial God Clan, not the Abyss Lai Anding controls. At least for this purpose, we have to liberate a batch of awakened Spiritual Warriors."

"That's why we need Teacher Xia's help."

Ou Shen nodded and said:

"You're also aware of Teacher Xia's past identity."

"A messenger during the War Beyond the Abyss, the most dangerous occupation, always strategizing against the Destroyers, thus both courage and intellect were correspondingly enhanced."

"For fifteen years, through the intervention of Xia Yubing, we've already unlocked the Cognition Filters of 1400 Spiritual Warriors, but that's far from enough. We need Elite talents like Xu Kefu to join..."

"But, there's still the same issue."

Jiang Zhanguo flicked the ash off his cigarette and said:

"This time is different from before; acting in front of Lai Anding, do you think she can do it?"

"Let's wait and see."

Ou Shen sighed:

"In the current stage, if we don't take risks to seek breakthroughs, then we can't do anything."

"In your view, at worst, it's just losing Teacher Xia, right?"

"I don't mean it that way, but if things really get bad, it's a necessary loss too..."

"You know, Oshen."

Yin Shuwen looked at him and said:

"Right now, you are almost identical to Leoz. To achieve your goals, you'll stop at nothing. If we succeed in the future and you become the new spokesperson for the Abyss, can you guarantee you'll act differently from the tyrant Leoz?"

Faced with this question, usually fluent Ou Shen suddenly fell silent.

Beside him, Jiang Shui was very calm; the ripples gently pushed the waves forward, and the waves would become ripples, pushed forward in a cycle of overlap and flow, allowing the Jiang Shui river to run for millions of years unchanged.

"... Someone has to make sacrifices, and all we can do is not let them go to waste."

"To overthrow a ruler who stops at nothing, you too become someone who stops at nothing, and even after ascending to power, you remain someone who stops at nothing; what then? Will it ultimately require another calculating hero to overthrow you?"

Yin Shuwen questioned him:

"—When will such a cycle of cause and effect finally end?"

"Then why don't you tell me, what else can we do?"

Finally unable to contain his anger, Ou Shen snarled at him:

"Have you never been rained on? Have you never been blown by the wind? When it rains, you use an umbrella, and when it's windy, you wear clothes. The way to deal with tyrants and powerful ministers is with the sword and fire, an eternal truth! If you approach reform with a merciful heart, then better not reform at all; keep your head down and be an obedient citizen!"

"... That's not what I mean. To overthrow Lai Anding, of course, we need to use violent means, but towards our own people, we can't be like how we were in the past."

Yin Shuwen said calmly:

"During the War Beyond the Abyss, we discarded our companions like tools when they were no longer needed. Meanwhile, the Destroyers' armies would lick each other's wounds and cheer each other on with music and dance."

"Oshen, haven't you noticed that we have no culture of our own? We, as deities, seem nobler and longer-lived than mortals, but we lose so much because of it."

"Mortals die, mourn, and get angry. We do not fear death, yet we do not respect life. Mortals, due to their weakness, worship us, yet we disregard their lives. So when the Divine Clan declines, mortals, under the banner of deities, win hearts and minds, and their civilization grows stronger."

Ou Shen finally understood what the other meant:

"You mean, we should abandon our divine identities and learn from those mortals?"

"Exactly!"

Yin Shuwen said confidently:

"I agree on one point, Spiritual Warriors need change, but their thoughts need reform even more. We must shed our noble cloaks and, like mortals, bravely acknowledge our weaknesses."

"What nonsense, Starry Abyss is ruled by the Divine Clan, it has always been so!"

"How long will you remain in this dream of a Divine Country?"

Yin Shuwen said angrily:

"The Primordial Abyss has already declined. In the War Beyond the Abyss, we lost! To the victor go the spoils; even Society and narratives are more dynamic than us. We were once great; don't I know it? I'm also from the Divine Clan. Of course, I wish to maintain the past stature of Starry Abyss, but that is no longer possible!"

"The 'From Star Abyss' plan illustrates our weakness, doesn't it? We won back then, and each Starry Abyss relied on our protection, contributing people and resources in exchange for a fair contract—what about now? We can't even maintain basic indirect rule."

Wake up, Ou Shen, you must understand that the current Starry Abyss is not ruled by the Divine Clan but belongs to the trillions of Cosmic residents across the Six Abysses and Thirteen Narratives."

Yin Shuwen's words plunged Ou Shen into silence once more.

Undeniably, he did know this in his heart.

If once, Starry Abyss was a vast Empire and Primordial Abyss was its central hub, then the other five layers of Starry Abyss were Protectorates of the Empire.

But now, the Empire has fallen, ministers control the court, multiple defeats in battle, foreign invasions, and the people's hearts have scattered, no longer defending the capital.

Times have changed.

Even outlying warlords like Leoz no longer pledge loyalty to Starry Abyss and begin to establish their own domains. It's hard to imagine how these defeated Spiritual Warriors would treat the Primordial Abyss if not for the Cognition Filters.

In this moment, Ou Shen couldn't help but think of Leoz.

It's hard to say what kind of pressure Leoz, a Cannon Fodder Deity, had to bear back then to keep the Dominating Universe firmly in his grip.

He even suspects whether Leoz would feel the pressure.

The various brutal policies he implemented, yet the Dominating Universe stood for over a hundred billion years without collapsing; even this one point is difficult for the current Primordial Abyss to achieve.

Could it be that what Leoz did was right?

But if Leoz's actions were right, then why, even mimicking Leoz, won't his comrade Elevent support him?

Or is it—

"... Let's just take it one step at a time."

Ultimately, Ou Shen lacked the courage of Leoz.

Not to mention capability, at least he couldn't ignore everything and forcefully resist the crowd like Leoz.

After fighting against him for so many eras, he finally admitted that he was not as good.

"Teacher Xia should have already started taking action; there are new portable gaming pods at the base. Ye, drive us over."

Jiang Zhanguo was surprised:

"Going in so early? Isn't version 9.0 updating tomorrow?"

"Prepare early, if Teacher Xia fails, we need to go rescue."

"Rescue whom? Xia Yubing, or that Xu Kefu?"

"Everyone."

Ou Shen said:

"If discovered by Lai Anding, no one will escape."

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