"Commander, you..."
A Martial Artist began to speak cautiously, trying to ask.
But Feng Zhiyu waved his hand, managing to suppress his laughter with great difficulty. He wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes, his face still holding an expression of barely contained amusement, and pointed at the screen to explain to everyone:
"You... you all still don’t get it?"
"Why was that Slaanesh Demon defeated so completely? So humiliatingly?"
"Because from the very beginning, it chose the wrong target! It tried to evoke Qin Feng’s deepest desire. And the result?"
Feng Zhiyu slammed his hand on the table, unable to hold it in any longer, and burst into another earth-shattering roar of laughter.
"The result is that Qin Feng’s deepest obsession is... to kill Shi Dang! HAHAHAHA—!!!"
As soon as he said this, the conference room fell silent.
Then, as if enlightened, everyone instantly understood. Expressions of sudden realization, which then morphed into something incredibly strange, appeared on their faces.
"I didn’t notice just now. I was too busy marveling at the killing move..."
The most senior alumnus stroked his beard, a look of helpless amusement on his face. "I understand now."
"Shi Dang is a fallen Believer of Khorne. He is tainted with the purest Aura of Chaos, that of a Chaos Demon."
"And this newly born Slaanesh Demon, although it belongs to a different Evil God’s faction, is also a Chaos Demon in essence. Their auras are extremely similar at their source!"
Feng Zhiyu smilingly picked up the thread: "Exactly! Qin Feng has fought Chaos Demons and carried out many cleanup missions before! So, even when dragged into an illusion, his combat instincts, his Will to avenge, could still accurately and unreasonably lock onto the Aura of Chaos that he hates the most!"
"So... he just muddle-headedly mistook this poor Slaanesh Demon for his much-longed-for ’Shi Dang’ and beat it to death?"
A Ninth-level Martial Artist said, dumbfounded.
"It was more than just beating it to death!"
Feng Zhiyu said, overjoyed, "Even the Chaos Altar, which was the mission objective, was casually obliterated by his ’out of control’ punch!"
"HAHAHAHA—"
Having figured it all out, all the powerful experts in the conference room could no longer hold it in.
Suppressed laughter rose and fell throughout the room.
"I bet that Slaanesh Demon didn’t understand, even at the moment of its death. How could its pride and joy, the illusionary Realm Killing Technique that could toy with the souls of all living beings, be completely useless against this human Martial Artist!"
"It never would have guessed that there’s a Martial Artist in this world whose deepest, purest desire isn’t power, isn’t beauty, isn’t eternal life... but to slay another Chaos Demon!"
"This is just the Chaos Realm cannibalizing itself!"
"That poor little Slaanesh Demon must not have checked its almanac before going out, running headfirst into Khorne’s ’natural enemy’. What rotten luck for eight lifetimes!"
For a moment, the conference room was filled with a joyful atmosphere.
The previous gravity, worry, and tension all vanished in this unexpected, darkly humorous conclusion.
They looked at the figure still standing amidst the ruins on the screen, and in their eyes, besides shock, there was now a heartfelt affection and appreciation.
A Warrior whose Will is so pure that his only desire is to "eradicate Chaos Demons."
Who could not respect such a Martial Artist?
-----------------
The mountain completely collapsed, and the dust that filled the sky began to gradually settle in the strange purple jungle.
Qin Feng’s eyes, which had turned crimson with extreme rage and killing intent, slowly regained their clarity.
He still held the posture of having thrown his Qian Yuan punch, his entire body like a statue frozen in time.
The illusion peeled away from his consciousness, inch by inch, like a shattered mirror.
The cold, dead void of the Cosmos vanished.
The demonic "Shi Dang" he had obliterated with a single punch vanished.
The cold corpse of Lei Meng, which had shattered his heart and soul, also vanished.
In its place was the familiar clearing surrounded by the twisted jungle, the war-torn ruins at his feet that had become a giant crater, and... not far away, his three teammates, still collapsed on the ground, yet to awaken from their own illusions.
Qin Feng slowly withdrew his fist, feeling the immense emptiness within his body from unleashing Qian Yuan, as well as a sense of smooth, perfect clarity deep in his soul that came from breaking through a bottleneck.
He understood.
He understood everything.
There was no "Shi Dang," and no "revenge."
Everything just now was merely an illusion tailored for him by that Slaanesh Demon, based on his deepest obsession.
And he, within this illusion, had beaten to death that pitiful Tier Six Slaanesh Demon, which he had, in all likelihood, mistaken for "Shi Dang."
And "along the way," he’d also destroyed the Chaos Altar that was the mission objective.
’What a pity...’
Qin Feng let out a long sigh, his voice tinged with a deep, genuine sense of regret.
’If only I had really killed Shi Dang.’
He looked down at his fist. The Will of Qian Yuan, which concentrated all his life’s learning into an unstoppable force, still lingered around his fingers.
Although it was only in an illusion, the birth of this move was undeniably real.
’I finally have it—a trump card, the strongest killing blow, enough to settle things with one strike.’
Just then, not far from him, the three collapsed figures twitched almost simultaneously.
With the Slaanesh Demon, the source of the illusion, completely annihilated, the Spiritual Field enveloping them also dissipated.
"Huh...?"
Dragon Jade was the first to react. He leaped up from the ground and subconsciously took a defensive stance.
But when he saw the battlefield, now a field of ruins, his face instantly filled with bewilderment.
Next were Ning Jing and Nissan.
Ning Jing stopped attacking the wall in front of him, which he had already hacked to pieces, and looked blankly at the long whip in his hand, then at his surroundings.
Nissan, meanwhile, stopped his suppressed, sorrowful sobs. He slowly raised his head, his eyes, usually full of sunshine and fighting spirit, now held a trace of deep, heart-wrenching grief.
The three of them were like people waking from a long dream.
"What... happened?"
Dragon Jade shook his helmet, trying to shake off the extremely real, yet utterly absurd "dream" from his mind. He looked at the wreckage all around, his voice filled with confusion.
"The altar? That flesh-and-blood altar... where did it go?"
Ning Jing’s gaze was locked on the giant crater where the altar had been, a look of utter disbelief on his face.
"And... what about the Slaanesh Demon?"
Nissan’s voice was a bit hoarse. He looked around; besides the widespread destruction, he could no longer feel that nauseating, evil Aura of Chaos.
The gazes of all three eventually, and in unison, focused on the only figure in the field who had remained standing from beginning to end, like a Stabilizing Needle.
"The mission... is complete?"
They looked at Qin Feng and asked in unison, their tone filled with uncertainty.
"Yes, the mission is complete."
Qin Feng looked at his three bewildered teammates and showed a faint smile. He didn’t explain much, simply tapping the "Submit Mission" button on his mission terminal.
"Let’s go back."
Although Dragon Jade, Nissan, and Ning Jing were filled with countless questions, seeing Qin Feng’s confident gaze and the "Mission Objective Destroyed" confirmation message in the system prompt, they could only suppress their confusion and blankly submit the mission as well.