Chapter 81: I Once Destroyed a City Out of Boredom

"How is that possible?!" Shock washed over Tie Feng's face. Even as a Bronze Stage 3, he couldn't withstand the Statue's oppressive pressure. Su Mu was also Bronze 3, so why could he?

Was Su Mu's strength actually far beyond his own?

At this moment, all his doubts regarding Su Mu's strength vanished, replaced by an overwhelming sense of dread.

What he didn't know was that Su Mu wasn't Bronze 3 at all. Strictly speaking, he couldn't even be considered Bronze Tier 2.

"I've seen plenty of gods like you. Hurry up and ask." Su Mu adjusted his Tinted Glasses, his lips parting in a silent prompt to the Statue.

He wasn't lying. In his dreams, trash of this caliber didn't even have the right to step foot into the Celestial Palace to seek an audience with him.

After a long silence, the Statue finally posed its question in a mechanical tone.

"State the most wicked deed you have committed."

"Murder," Su Mu said calmly.

"Brother Su, that answer won't cut it! A lot of them have killed people too. You have to specify how many and why you did it," Jun Wushang called out from a distance.

Su Mu pondered for a moment and changed his phrasing. "I once destroyed a city out of boredom. I've lost count of the exact number of people, but it was at least a few million."

The moment he delivered those words with such casual indifference, the entire Land of Sacrifice plunged into an eerie, deathly silence.

In the distance, Tie Feng and the others stared at him, dumbfounded. Disbelief was written all over their faces; they even questioned their own ears.

Destroying a city out of boredom? Millions of people?! We haven't even killed that many in video games!

"Brother Su! Don't lie! The Statue will kill anyone who lies!" Jun Wushang shouted in a panic, terrified that the Statue would come alive at any second and slaughter Su Mu.

However, his worst fears did not come to pass.

Hum!

An eerie humming echoed through the air, and the Statue returned to its dead silence.

"The... the Statue... this, this..." Jun Wushang was already babbling incoherently, his body trembling slightly.

"Wait a second, let me think this through... You can't lie in front of the Statue, or it'll kill you. Brother Su said he once destroyed a city, so he... he... he..." Getting to this point, Jun Wushang simply couldn't process it any further.

He looked toward the center of the grounds at the smiling Su Mu, dressed in a sharp suit and leather shoes, radiating the elegance of a noble. For some inexplicable reason, an overwhelming sense of terror swept through his entire body, making his scalp go completely numb!

Suddenly, Su Mu furrowed his brows. A burning, stinging pain flared up from his left arm beneath his clothes. At the same time, the Statue transformed before his eyes. It was no longer the Divine and Demonic Dual Phase; instead, it turned as pristine white as jade, completely taking on the form of a holy Angel Statue.

He could now clearly see the angel's entire figure. It bore eight wings on its back, and bizarrely, it had three eyes—a Silver Vertical Pupil resting right in the middle of its forehead!

An angel?

Just as he had expected.

He had roughly grasped the mechanics behind how the Statue issued its curses. It had nothing to do with good and evil.

He slowly strolled out of the Statue's range, heading toward the group.

Yet as he approached, everyone took a synchronized step back. They looked as tense as if facing down a mortal enemy, staring at him like he was a demon king about to bring about the apocalypse.

Tie Feng was wound up to the absolute limit. This Su Mu had definitely lied! Bronze 3 his ass, he had to be Silver 3, right?! Destroying a city?

He had originally thought that doing dirty work for the nobles and killing over a hundred people made him an unforgivable sinner. Now, compared to Su Mu, he felt like he deserved the Angel Curse rather than the demon's.

"Su Mu, did... did you really destroy a city?" Yang Dongqing asked with a conflicted expression.

Su Mu offered a slight smile. "Of course it was a lie. Do you have any idea how much trouble it is to destroy a city? For a medium-sized city, using explosives, you would need at least 879.35 tons. And that's assuming the city doesn't have any military structures like air raid shelters, otherwise you'd need even more."

Phew.

Yang Dongqing let out a sigh of relief. "See? I knew that was impossible."

Tie Feng and the others were collectively speechless. They practically wanted to slap Yang Dongqing to knock some sense into him. Hadn't he noticed that the guy had just calculated the required explosive tonnage down to the decimal point?

Furthermore, you couldn't lie in front of the Statue!

Just then, Yang Dongqing seemed to remember something. "Hey, wait a minute, aren't you unable to lie in front of the Statue?"

Su Mu shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe it's broken. After all, even polygraphs fail sometimes, let alone a pile of rocks."

"Good point." Yang Dongqing nodded in sudden realization.

Why the hell are you nodding?! You actually believe that lie? Tie Feng watched Yang Dongqing, his eyelids twitching wildly. He finally understood why Yang Dongqing could stand by this murderous demon king's side—the guy was a complete idiot, which was why he wasn't afraid.

In reality, Su Mu hadn't lied. Whenever he got bored in his dreams, he frequently blew up entire cities.

A heavy silence fell over the group, the atmosphere turning incredibly tense. Everyone subtly put more distance between themselves and Su Mu, backing away as if avoiding some terrifying monster. Everyone, that is, except the clueless Yang Dongqing.

"What do we do now? We're all cursed, right?" Yang Dongqing instinctively turned his gaze toward Su Mu. "Oh, right, I almost forgot to ask. Did you get hit with the Angel Curse or the demon's?"

"The demon's," Su Mu replied without batting an eye. He was lying again. Out of everyone present, only three had been struck by the Angel Curse, while the rest bore the demon's. Though he didn't quite know what that meant just yet, he habitually placed himself in the majority. Anyway, his clothes covered his burn marks, and no one would dare lift his shirt to check. He could claim whatever he wanted.

The others were now even more convinced that Yang Dongqing was a moron. The man had destroyed a city; what else could he be but a demon?

Su Mu slowly swept his gaze over the crowd. Feeling his stare, everyone immediately averted their eyes. Not a single person dared to meet his gaze.

Eventually, his gaze landed on the woman afflicted by the Angel Curse. She was in terrible condition. Flashes of sheer agony regularly crossed her face, and her exposed neck, thighs, and arms were covered in severe burns. The burns were still slowly spreading, creeping dangerously close to her face.

It was obvious that this woman would be the first to die.

He walked off to the side, leaning his tall frame against a stone pillar as he pondered a countermeasure.

He had far too little information to work with. Even he couldn't immediately figure out a way to break the curse. However, he harbored a faint suspicion—perhaps this wasn't a curse at all. But he would need time to test that theory.

Time slowly slipped by, and the atmosphere within the group grew increasingly suffocating. No one enjoyed the feeling of their life steadily ticking away toward its end.

"I can't take it anymore!" the woman suddenly shrieked in agony. She shot to her feet and shouted at the others, "I'm about to die, and the rest of you aren't going to live much longer either! Rather than just sitting here waiting for death, we might as well risk it all and attack the Statue!"