Chapter 1 The Standoff

Above the sea, between heaven and earth, the gods gazed at each other.

The sea began to churn, water vapor gradually condensing. The once cloudless sky was slowly covered by patches of dark clouds, obscuring the starlight and moonlight.

On the Submersible, Su Zhou stood at the center of the deck. Albert and the other sailors prostrated themselves before him, while the youth simply looked up with curiosity, gazing upwards.

The sacred and majestic Judgment Dragon, like a mountain range amidst the clouds, coiled at the top of the firmament. The golden dragon overlooked the lands and seas with detached and emotionless eyes.

Only Su Zhou, who had blocked His judgment and heavenly punishment, the one who was almost one with Him, could receive a fraction of the divine dragon's attention.

But then, with a gust of wind, He turned His head to look at Albert on the Submersible, who had already closed his eyes, waiting desperately for death.

The pirate's beard and hair fluttered in the wind, showing no sign of resistance.

Immediately afterward, the Lord of Judgment spoke, His sacred voice resounding loudly, shaking both realms, arriving like a thunderclap.

[Judgment.]

[Thou, plundered merchant ships and fishermen.]

[Thou, murdered the innocent and kind.]

[Thou, abandoned the righteous path and precepts.]

[Thou, desecrated the sacred and faith.]

Thus He proclaimed, the Judgment Dragon judged the sins of the King of the Sea of Affliction, delivering the final verdict: [Albert Idris, thou hast violated the teachings of the covenant, disregarded the constraints of the precepts, and scorned the authority of the code. Thou art a renegade.]

[Thou hast forsaken the covenant between man and god, committing one hundred and seventy-two major sins and nineteen minor sins.]

[Final judgment. Death.]

[Thunderous punishment shall swiftly descend.]

When the divine voice fell, it was the time for judgment to be executed again.

In that instant, above the firmament, endless clouds were born out of thin air, and countless fine golden sparks flickered and roamed among the rolling clouds.

A sacred aura permeated the air, and countless wishes converged. The Eye of Judgment formed once more, with the lightning of punishment brewing within.

In the spirit realm, a similar invisible force collapsed, locking onto the soul, guiding the arrival of judgment, and giving the final warning.

For a time, it was as if the heavens and earth were about to collapse, an unstoppable and unyielding momentum spreading.

But this time, after the Judgment Dragon made His proclamation, Su Zhou kept his hands behind his back, showing no intention of intervening.

Clear punishment and righteous law, this is the correct way.

Initially, Su Zhou did want to ask Albert for some information, which was why he didn't kill him immediately. But in reality, through the Mind of No Thought, he had already grasped the most important key elements – whether it was the possible existence of the 'Harbinger Kin' or the pirates' plan to find the Soul of the Source Water and become gods, he already knew these crucial pieces of information, with only some unimportant details remaining to be clarified.

Therefore, such an evil person like Albert, if he died, he died. There was no need to protect him. Su Zhou's initial intervention was just out of habit. After all, his 'judgment' had not yet ended, and the Judgment Dragon of this world came to interfere, which made him a little displeased.

But displeasure aside, no matter what, Albert was a person from the cycle world. The Judgment Dragon pronounced his sins according to the covenant, which was the order of this world. Committing crimes should be punished, which was reasonable.

However, Su Zhou, who had intended to watch from the sidelines, did not expect that this time, the Judgment Dragon would condense an avatar to manifest in the world, not just to punish the sea pirate Albert.

[Ye all, are guilty.]

After pronouncing judgment on Albert, the Judgment Dragon's gaze swept indifferently over the Submersible, the Wild Boar, and everyone on them – wherever the gods look is their domain, and in His domain, the guilty are destined to receive punishment.

Thus, everyone on the Submersible and the Wild Boar, except for Aemon, felt a vast and scorching aura, and rumbling thunder echoed in their ears. That was precisely the gaze and warning of the Lord of Judgment.

Immediately, there were those who wept and repented, praying for forgiveness; those who angrily cursed, unrepentant until death; and many more who begged for mercy, denying their guilt and unwilling to admit reality. For a time, due to the gaze of the gods, the two ships were filled with clamor.

Naturally, Neither and Sarah were no exception.

It was as if a bolt of lightning flashed before their eyes, the aura of destruction so clear that it felt tangible before their noses.

"Wahhhh—"

The omen brought by the Lord of Judgment's gaze immediately startled the Wind Folk girl on the Wild Boar. She subconsciously hid behind Aemon – Sarah tightly grasped the hem of the gray-haired priest's robe, her face pale: "I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die—hic."

She trembled, and then, just like that, she couldn't catch her breath, her eyes rolled back, and she fainted.

"What the fuck..."

On the contrary, the captain of the Wild Boar, Neither, this tall former hunter, although his face was pale, still had the courage to look up at the sky above. He cursed angrily, instinctively stepping forward: "I admit I'm guilty, but according to the covenant, my crime is definitely not punishable by death!"

"Is the Lord of Judgment not reasonable?!"

But it was obvious.

Whether it was repentance, prayer, angry cursing, begging for mercy, or standing up to argue, these were all meaningless to the Lord of Judgment.

Under the gaze of the indifferent dragon eyes, countless thunderbolts containing infinite power simultaneously leaped from the Eye of Judgment at the top of the firmament. Lightning snakes danced wildly in the air, spanning heaven and earth, like an inverted, branching tree, crashing down towards everyone.

"Are you just judging randomly like this?"

But at this moment, the youth's voice, tinged with a hint of annoyance, sounded.

Seeing that the Judgment Dragon seemed intent on catching everyone present in one fell swoop, punishing and eliminating them all, Su Zhou could only raise his left hand.

He raised his index finger, and this finger was like a black hole. The moment it was raised, the lightning in the sky seemed to be attracted by a magnet, all turning with an astonishing arc, converging towards this fingertip.

One divides into ten thousand, and ten thousand return to one.

In an instant, the originally astonishingly powerful punitive lightning was all striking the youth's fingertip, the lightning flashing, gradually turning invisible, and being absorbed into Su Zhou's body.

Withdrawing his hand, Su Zhou frowned and flexed his index finger a few times, moving his fingers—the Judgment Dragon's lightning punishment was not powerful, it was estimated that it was just deriving the corresponding strength according to the amount of wish power received, but at its root, it was also an attack from a Hegemon-level righteous god. He blocked it all with thunder magic, and felt his fingers were a bit numb.

Even he felt a little uncomfortable. If these thunderbolts were to strike a little girl like Sarah, wouldn't she die?

[...]

The lightning punishment was blocked for the second time. Above the firmament, the indifferent gaze of the Judgment Dragon's avatar shifted to Su Zhou again—He was neither happy nor sad, and did not become angry because the judgment was hindered.

And Su Zhou also looked at the other party, the two sides looked at each other from afar, the youth's tone was slightly dissatisfied, and he questioned in a deep voice: "Albert and his crew are one thing, these sea pirates who have been rampant for decades and their subordinates are by no means innocent and kind, so I won't stop you from punishing them."

"But on the Wild Boar, let alone that most of the crew don't deserve to die, Captain Neither, although he should also be judged, using lightning punishment is probably a bit too much—not to mention Sarah, she at most just attempted robbery when she was about to starve to death, it doesn't even count as a crime, why kill her?"

Su Zhou's voice echoed in the high sky, and his thoughts even traversed the spirit realm, directly reaching the Judgment Dragon's main body in the distant beyond.

In response, the golden god gazed at Su Zhou, as if listening.

Then, a calm response sounded in the youth's heart.

[Because of hatred.]

This voice was exactly the same as Su Zhou's, only carrying the vicissitudes of history, like the voice that Su Zhou could have after witnessing hundreds of years of reincarnation in the cycle world.

He answered so calmly, as if stating the truth: [All the Fire Folk and Wind Folk hate the sea pirates, Sea Folk, renegades, and criminals.]

[Tens of millions, hundreds of millions of people, are like this.]

[They pray, make wishes, and beg me to send down punishment—all the wishes are praying for their deaths.]

[God, fulfills wishes.]

[So they must endure judgment and punishment.]

The Lord of Judgment's response was very simple, crude, and logical.

But, in the end, it still fell within the scope of 'tyranny of the majority'.

"That's your reason?"

Su Zhou looked at the divine dragon, he listened to the Lord of Judgment's response, knowing the true thoughts of his derivative in the cycle world. He wasn't actually angry in his heart, he just wanted to let out a sigh.

Because he had already clearly known this when he saved Sarah from the lightning punishment in Twilight City.

The strength of the judgment and punishment in this world is not imposed according to the severity of the violated covenant code, it is determined by the strength of the people's prayers and wishes.

Some people commit major crimes, but the people don't know, so there is no lightning punishment, and the temple needs to execute them itself by hanging, beheading, or burning at the stake. And some people haven't committed any mistakes. They are just different from ordinary people, unwilling to believe in gods, and unwilling to accept the constraints of precepts, so they are regarded as monsters. Even if they escape to islands and live in isolation from people, they are still deeply hated.

It's like the Evil-Devouring Demon Lord.

The sins that the Demon Lord doesn't care about, even if others see them as major sins, don't count as evil to him, and the things that others think are as a matter of course, if they violate the Demon Lord's wishes, then they are evil people.

To put it bluntly, the Evil-Devouring Demon Lord's divine ability is nothing more than replacing justice with his own heart.

It is indeed a demonic divine ability. What righteousness? To put it bluntly, it's just that the divine ability possessor's fist is big, so he can forcibly pronounce judgment. Its essence is pure arrogance.

Su Zhou has come all the way, praised and commended by people, just because his concepts of good and evil happen to coincide with the simple justice recognized in the eyes of ordinary people—but if they are different, he is a pure demon, and still the biggest and most terrifying kind of demon.

Is this a bad thing?

Actually, not necessarily.

Demons have their own paths and their own ways to relieve the world. The divine ability of free-willed judgment can be evil, and naturally it can also be good.

It's just...

"Lord of Judgment, you are a god."

Looking at the divine dragon in the high sky, Su Zhou gazed at the other party's illusory and hazy avatar body condensed from wish power, and couldn't help but sigh: "If I am alone, and always alone, with no one following me, no one worshiping me, no one recognizing me, no one believing."

"Then I can do whatever I want, act as I please, with no shackles to bind me."

"But this is the path of being human and being a demon—it won't work as a god."

"If the thoughts and precepts of gods cannot transcend human prejudice, then what is the point of the existence of gods?"

Precisely because he is the Evil-Devouring Demon Lord, Su Zhou is very clear about the similar essence between himself and the Lord of Judgment in front of him, as well as the differences.

All the way, whether it was the Godwood World, the Cycle World, the Beast God World, the God Dragon World, or other things he did on Earth, the core idea was nothing more than 'for my own pleasure'.

Even if he helps others, it is ultimately so that Su Zhou himself can live with it. What other people think, whether it is gratitude or hatred, dissatisfaction or worship, he doesn't care at all.

And the Cycle World at this time is the same.

Just like the judgment of Sarah in Twilight City.

Those devout Fire Folk, praying for the Lord of Judgment to send down divine punishment, were simply 'for their own pleasure'. Their hatred and hostility all originated from the sense of superiority brought by faith.

Do the people care about the thoughts of the 'evil person' on the judgment platform? Do they care if he is innocent? Never. The people just want to see someone labeled as an evil person being judged, enjoying the joy of 'the evil person is dead', satisfying their sense of superiority, and the collective feeling of having many like-minded companions.

True righteousness, the fairness that requires effort to think about, is all an unrewarding effort. Where does the joy of free-willed judgment come from?

The Evil-Devouring Demon Lord is such a terrifying divine ability and power. Su Zhou is very clear that as long as his three views are slightly skewed, he can arbitrarily grow into a capricious monster who replaces the will of heaven with his own will.

For example—in order to obtain evil souls to grow, he can regard everyone in the world as 'evil people who are unwilling to die obediently and dedicate their growth food to me', and then regard everyone as evil and kill them, devouring the evil souls.

Scary? But this is the power of the Evil-Devouring Demon Lord. Su Zhou didn't do this, simply because he is Su Zhou, his will is firm, and he will not waver in order to obtain power.

This internal line of thinking is no different from 'you are unwilling to believe in my god, and you are unwilling to die obediently'.

Su Zhou should have been chilled by this, and he had no position to criticize the Judgment Dragon—because they were actually one, they were exactly the same existence.

The Judgment Dragon is also an Evil-Devouring Demon Lord, only He is an Evil-Devouring Demon Lord composed of more people, an Evil-Devouring Demon Lord composed of the 'wishes' of all the Wind and Fire Folk in the entire cycle world—the wish power to pray for judgment is the evil soul that allows Him to grow, and the renegades recognized by all ordinary people are the evil people used to devour.

But now, through the experiences in Twilight City, the thoughts on the judgment platform, and the re-analysis of his own essence, Su Zhou is very clear that the thoughts in his heart are completely different from the past.

And the Judgment Dragon is no longer his reflection.

So, the youth spoke again, denying the gods.

"You're wrong, Lord of Judgment."

"Good and evil, justice, the righteous path, are not decided like this. If you only listen to the thoughts of the majority without judging according to a standard, judgment is nothing more than a riot."

"Most of the people are blindly following, they are too easily led, like during the plague, everyone is unwilling to be locked up at home, wanting to move freely and work—but as the order keeper, you should, for the safety of everyone, conversely constrain the people, instead of letting the plague, which is wrong, spread."

Su Zhou's voice could be clearly heard even by the people on the distant Wild Boar.

The divine dragon in the firmament heard this and made a simple response.

[God, is wish.]

[The prayers of all living beings, is the heart of God.]

[They are guilty, undoubtedly.]

At the same time.

On the deck of the Wild Boar.

Priest Aemon looked up at the distant sky, his mind in a mess for a time.

——Two Lords?

——And arguing and debating with each other?

What exactly is going on? The covenant doesn't say how to deal with this situation!

But relying on the big heart he had developed during this recent period of time, traveling with Su Zhou and witnessing his actions, Aemon quickly calmed down.

"Don't think about the external appearance, but think about the essence."

Muttering to himself, the priest closed his eyes, thinking in his heart: "Very good—I now know that the Lord presenting in dragon form has descended, wanting to kill everyone on the Submersible and the Wild Boar, except for me."

"The Lord in human form initially protected Albert, but that should have been instinctive. During the second judgment, he didn't stop it at first, obviously feeling that this sinner deserved to die, just like the Lord imposed judgment on the person spreading the plague on the judgment platform in Twilight City."

"But then, he blocked the Dragon Lord's judgment again, protecting everyone."

After summarizing, Aemon opened his eyes.

At this time, he had already reached a conclusion in his heart.

"The Lord in human form is right."

Thinking this way, Aemon turned his head at this time, he took off his robe, covered the unconscious Sarah behind him with the robe, and then carefully placed her aside. He muttered to himself: "At least, I think it's right."

Aemon could feel that the little girl's body was very light and very weak… The Sarah clan had drifted all the way from the Sea of Affliction, spending a long time, and during the time she was captured for robbery because of hunger, and then sent to be judged, she had only eaten a little fish on the coast before.

So weak, and facing the omen of divine judgment, how could she not faint from fear?

People have empathy. Aemon put himself in her shoes. He thought, if he was about to starve to death and wanted to trade with others for food to survive, but was rejected by the other party because of faith.

Then, would he take action to rob?

If he took action to rob, whose sorrow would it be?

Naturally, it wasn't the robbed fishermen. They were not wrong. The ones who were 'wrong' were indeed Sarah and the others who took action to rob.

But the real root, the ones who were truly 'guilty', were the pirates who drove the Sarah clan away from their home… and the precepts that caused the current situation, causing people to discriminate against those who had not done evil!

Mistake and guilt are worlds apart.

"What exactly is guilt?"

[The Lord of Judgment's holy words say: He who fights monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.]

[The same is true for the struggle and fight for justice. When we fight against evil people, we should be careful lest we also become monsters.]

After settling Sarah, the priest slowly raised his head. He looked again at the Dragon Lord in the sky, whose atmosphere was already very tense, as if he was about to send down thunder again, and the human Lord who wanted to stop the other party.

Aemon's face was distressed. He didn't know what guilt was—he was just a priest, not a pope, not a god. He had no right to determine what was guilt.

But, he was very clear.

"At least, innocent people cannot be allowed to die innocently."

"If we allow this to happen in the name of the majority's justice, then we will also become evil people."

And at the same time, in the sky.

For the Judgment Dragon, who began to gather wish power for the third time, condensing lightning punishment, and wanted to continue judging everyone on his own, Su Zhou just shook his head slightly, took out the Annihilation Blade from his personal space, and aimed it at the divine wish power avatar above his head.

"God of Judgment, for your people, you may be a good god."

"But, you are far from being a good order creator."

The Judgment Dragon did not respond in any way to Su Zhou's pronouncement on him.

Only at the top of the firmament, streaks of light golden electricity darted back and forth in the clouds, and then instantly condensed into thunder light spheres, instantly illuminating the night sky like the sun.

For a time, the magnetic field between heaven and earth began to change violently. Under the control of the Judgment Dragon, the endless spiritual power stirred, causing the clouds and electricity to spin restlessly, forming a huge vortex of dark clouds tens of kilometers in diameter—His will caused the charges in the atmosphere to collide and intersect, forming streaks of golden divine lightning that shook heaven and earth.

The wish power was intertwined with the real phenomena of the sky, and the transcendent phenomena created by spiritual power combined with the real thunderclouds, instantly increasing the power tenfold.

The first and second judgments were blocked by Su Zhou, and the power of the lightning punishment was correspondingly increased. And the current third judgment had already reached the point where a Hegemon-level powerhouse was going all out!

The next moment, along with earth-shattering rumbles of thunder, streaks of almost substantial lightning were condensed at the center of the vortex of dark clouds. They were so dazzling that they illuminated heaven and earth as if it were daytime. In the thick dark clouds, electricity flashed, like a spider web running vertically and horizontally, and just as it condensed into an almost substantial thunder spear, the Judgment's lightning punishment crashed down!

And just as this terrifying lightning punishment crashed down, the Judgment Dragon's voice rang out between heaven and earth.

[I am, wish.]

[Which is, correct.]

"Correct my ass!"

And Su Zhou's straightforward denial, at the moment the lightning punishment crashed down, he tightly gripped the divine blade, and whispered: "You are wrong—the past me was also!"

At this moment, facing the Judgment Dragon representing his past mistakes, the youth's mind was clear. He swung his blade with all his strength, not only slashing at the lightning punishment and the divine dragon, but also at the last trace of identification in his heart with his past self.

A shrill roar rang out, the divine blade's light and flames soared, and the majestic blade light mixed with crimson golden flames swept back into the sky, meeting the lightning punishment head-on.

The boundless wish power light condensed on the Annihilation Blade was no less than the divine thunder spear condensed by the Judgment Dragon, and Su Zhou was even more here in person, the power he condensed was far higher than the Judgment Dragon, who was just a wish power avatar.

Therefore, the thunder spear that bloomed in this third judgment was instantly pierced by the vertically slashed blade light, torn into two halves from the middle, and collapsed like an illusion.

And behind it, the huge vortex of dark clouds was divided into two along the trajectory of this blade, the crack covered by the raging crimson flames.

After splitting the clouds and dividing the sky, the momentum of the blade did not stop, still extending towards the distant horizon like lightning—behind the vortex of dark clouds, in the firmament, the Judgment Dragon's wish power avatar was also cut open by a blade mark several hundred meters long and ten meters wide, and the huge wish power avatar began to gradually turn into light spots like rain, gradually collapsing.

A straight beam of starlight and moonlight hung down along the crack, illuminating the ocean covered by the dark clouds caused by the divine confrontation.

Su Zhou withdrew the Annihilation Blade, turned his head, and stopped looking at the high sky.

This time, he completely repelled the Judgment Dragon's avatar, interrupting this lightning punishment.

It had to be said that the Judgment Dragon's power was indeed at the Hegemon level. Even if he shot from afar with a wish power avatar, the power of the lightning punishment he condensed was incomparably powerful. The lightning spear strike just now, condensed from all the spiritual energy within a few tens of kilometers, was probably enough to instantly destroy a small city and kill most of the people in it.

If Su Zhou didn't have a weapon, he would probably only be able to reveal his true form to block the lightning while ensuring the safety of everyone.

Slowly landing back on the Submersible, now, Su Zhou felt that he might have roughly understood the views of great existences towards each other.

"——This can also be considered correct?"

Muttering to himself, the wish power light spots formed after the Judgment Dragon collapsed were slowly falling. Su Zhou looked around at these rain-like light spots, he couldn't help but shake his head slightly, and then stretched out a hand, took one, and said in a deep voice: "No wonder great existences can't stand each other, the struggle for what is correct, indeed can't have the slightest compromise... Huh?"

Just as he was thinking, suddenly, Su Zhou sensed a familiar feeling from the wish power light spot he had received.

Of course, it wasn't that the aura or the essence of the power was familiar. After all, Su Zhou's relationship with the Judgment Dragon was so close that it would be strange if he wasn't familiar—what really made Su Zhou let out a surprised "Huh" was the aura faintly carried in this wish power light spot.

"Soul of the Earth? No, it's a different feeling… This familiar feeling, I've definitely seen it somewhere else outside the cycle world!"

Thinking this way, after all, he was someone who had eaten many Wisdom Fruits. Su Zhou quickly thought of where this familiar feeling came from.

It was in the God Dragon World, during the Dragon Ball War, the alien dragon serpent that he hadn't seen many times, 'Leviathan'!

In other words—the Dragon of the Human Crowd!