Chapter 1663: Exclusion

*Sizzle—*

"Lord Wuji... I'm in so much pain... I feel like my head is going to split open..."

"It hurts so much... please... please stop... ahhhhhhh!!!"

Wisps of electric light flickered in the dim hall. A thin, haggard figure was currently locked to a metal table, letting out painful wails.

At this moment, a figure in black robes stood coldly by his side. As his fingers lightly brushed over the patient's flesh, which was full of pus-filled sores, the flesh actually turned bit by bit into a mysterious metal with a golden luster, reflecting a faint light in the dim hall.

No emotional fluctuation could be seen on Lord Wuji's face, as if he had focused all his thoughts on the material change in his hands. Even if the patient's wails were painful and sharp, he seemed as if he couldn't hear them at all.

As more and more of the patient's flesh was transformed into metal, the wails echoing in the hall grew weaker... until they turned into bursts of painful murmurs and pleas...

And then fell into complete silence.

The moment the patient's heartbeat stopped, Lord Wuji's fingertips suddenly paused in mid-air.

Under the dim light, half of the patient's body in his hands had turned into metal with a golden luster, and the head seemed to have been cut open, like a strange and ugly monster.

Only when the heartbeat stopped did Lord Wuji finally pull himself out of the state of total concentration. A flash of confusion briefly crossed his pupils... When he saw the half-human, half-ghost corpse in his hands, this confusion was gradually replaced by pain.

He just stood there blankly, his mysterious black wizard robes fluttering in the silence. The hands under his sleeves clenched bit by bit, and hideous veins bulged on the backs of his hands!

I don't know how much time passed...

He took a deep breath and placed his palm on the surface of the corpse again.

In a breath, the half-human, half-metal corpse was completely transformed into metal, its whole body exuding a golden luster, like a lifelike golden sculpture.

Lord Wuji gently raised his hand, and the golden sculpture automatically flew to the edge of the hall. As the lights in the hall gradually brightened, hundreds of golden sculptures were situated all over the hall like treasures displayed in a museum... They were men and women, old and young. The only common point was that the expressions and postures of these sculptures were extremely painful, as if they had suffered terrible torture before death.

"You failed again."

A voice came from behind him.

Lord Wuji didn't look back; he knew who had come... A figure wearing rough white linen robes was walking slowly from the entrance of the hall.

That person had sword-like eyebrows and star-like eyes, with an extraordinary bearing. A faint pressure flowed from his every gesture, but at this moment, there was no overbearing momentum in his eyes, only an indescribable exhaustion...

Lord Wuji glanced back and saw the ancient mourning clothes on Ying Fu, his pupils shrinking slightly.

"That Mr. Han... couldn't save your sister?"

Ying Fu slowly closed his eyes.

He lowered his head and was silent for a long time before speaking hoarsely:

"She begged me... to kill her."

The hall fell into dead silence.

Even Lord Wuji didn't know what to say at this moment. For Ying Fu, A-Qian was absolutely his only attachment in this world, but in this desperate era, even an emperor through the ages... could not save the person he cherished.

An emperor and a Nine Lord stood among the hideous suffering of all living beings, their lonely shadows projected on the wall, like dim fires, swaying powerlessly...

"Before they died... they begged like that too." Lord Wuji's gaze swept over the golden sculptures around him.

"I said from the beginning that your attempt to help these ordinary people discard their flesh and blood is simply wishful thinking." Ying Fu said in a deep voice. "In the Eternal Domain, you can keep everything material eternal... but people, that cannot be done."

"If you don't try, how do you know it can't be done?" Lord Wuji snorted coldly. "Do you think I'm like you, who would soften your heart upon hearing others beg for death?"

Ying Fu's eyes narrowed slightly, and an imperial pressure surged from his body. He was currently in a sensitive period after losing A-Qian, and his depression and anger had nowhere to vent, like a powder keg ready to explode at any moment.

"...Are you looking for death?"

Facing Ying Fu's rage, Lord Wuji didn't continue to provoke him; he didn't want to fight at all right now... That was meaningless to eternity.

"I'm just telling the truth... I've come this far, and if I had softened my heart even once, I wouldn't be where I am today."

"Then keep trying slowly. Once you finish killing your subjects with your own hands, you will know... whether what you are pursuing has any meaning."

After Ying Fu finished speaking, he didn't leave directly, but reached out to Lord Wuji.

Lord Wuji's eyes narrowed slightly:

"What do you mean?"

"[Morality]." Ying Fu said calmly. "After reversing the era and restarting the world, only those holding three era archives can enter the new world... The one I have is a fake you made, so I can't get in."

Lord Wuji sneered, "Why should I give it to you?"

"That thing is meaningless in your hands." Ying Fu continued. "The moment the world is restarted, the era archive will trigger an 'Exclusion' mechanism. Anyone who has another 'me' consciousness existing in the world at the point of return cannot enter the new world."

"The point of return is the moment the Red Star first crossed. On that timeline, the scientist Lou Yu already exists... So, even if you hold this archive, you can't go back."

A flash of surprise crossed the depths of Lord Wuji's eyes.

The fake in Ying Fu's hand was personally forged by him. He had mastered the principles of the era archive and naturally knew this point, but from beginning to end, he had never revealed this mechanism to Ying Fu... How did the other party know?

"Even if I can't go back, why should I give it to you?" Lord Wuji frowned.

"The humans of this world have already failed." Ying Fu said slowly. He took out a strangely shaped cloth bag from his bosom, his gaze flashing with depth. "Let me go to the next world... humans will still have a chance to turn everything around."

Ying Fu opened the bag in front of Lord Wuji, and the latter was slightly stunned when he saw what was inside...

He just stared at Ying Fu, as if lost in thought.

"No..."

"I can't give it to you yet."

In the end, Lord Wuji shook his head.

Ying Fu didn't seem to expect Lord Wuji to refuse. He understood Lord Wuji and knew that the source of everything he did was to continue human civilization... Letting himself go to the next world was absolutely extremely beneficial to humanity.

Lord Wuji's gaze slowly swept over the golden sculptures around him.

"I can't give it to you now... but I can later."

"I..."

"still have some things left to do."