He worried that time was running out.
So instead of leaving when the level boss has been recruited, it's better to stay at this level.
"When the curse was born, everyone died one by one... At first, we didn't even know why people were dying."
"But later, some people like me, who awakened abilities in the apocalypse, began to receive guidance."
"This guidance informed us of the existence of the Balance Curse."
"The number of living creatures in the area must remain constant. Once there is a change... it triggers a correction of life and death. The balance is absolutely unyielding, never tilting..."
"Later, it seemed we also received confirmation, and it was indeed so; the balance did not tilt."
"When the curse reached Level 3... all beings were equal. If a mosquito flies in, we might all die."
"We tried running away, but it was pointless. Firstly, we couldn't escape the curse's boundary, and secondly——running away would just cause monsters to appear in the place we depend on to survive."
"You should already know these things, so I won't elaborate further."
"My ability is painting, to briefly materialize things from the canvas, even determining the power of the manifestation based on the content of the painting."
"For example, if I paint a Western dragon, even if I don't set any attributes, since everyone assumes it can fly, it will indeed fly when it appears."
"Although there are no dragons in the real world."
"Of course, it cannot exist for long. But even so, my ability has amazed countless people."
"For a time, I thought I was a miracle in this world, my ability was enough to change the world. I wanted to break the Balance Curse."
"But I needed to know where the curse originated from."
"I once tried to ask the person who gave us the guidance how to break the Balance Curse."
"For this, I had to paint an omniscient character, so I painted a familiar God, one who fulfills wishes."
"Of course, I knew I couldn't make outrageous wishes to the God I painted. If I did, it would at most be fulfilled in the ephemeral realm of dreams."
"I just needed the God I painted to answer one question for me."
"It was a lengthy process."
"My work seemed to be obstructed by some power, so the God in the painting would just start to speak as I finished asking, then suddenly vanish into an ink blot."
"And every time after I painted it, although I wasn't tired, as soon as I asked a question about the Balance Curse, I felt a tremendous pressure and fatigue."
"I was unwilling to give up, and maybe because of my persistence, after trying hundreds of times, I gradually recognized several words from the God's lip movements."
"Scorpio, Libra. Aries."
"These felt unfamiliar and somewhat irrelevant to my question. But shortly after..."
"I met a child claiming to be Scorpio, dressed in a light blue suit."
"He told me everything. He revealed that Libra's life and death balance domain is what we refer to as... the Balance Curse."
"This domain is actually an experiment, or rather, a formation. If the core is not dismantled, the Balance Curse will continue to proliferate."
"Someday, after the curse's testing is complete, it will affect the entire world."
"Life and death are never tilted, life's insignificance, death's weight."
"I barely understood those words, but he still shared a lot with me."
"He also told me that in this region, most people with high potential have received his hints. He gave different messages based on different potentials."
"He urged us to wait for the commander's arrival. Informed us that a game against Libra had begun."
"Only a miracle-working commander could lead us out of the cursed land, breaking the curse itself."
"But... the commander never arrived. I didn't receive the recruiting from the Balance Tavern, I hate the word 'balance'."
"My family, friends in town, died one by one. To protect them, I tried to let them live in my dream..."
"But in the end, you know, I failed."
Wen Xishu thought to himself...
I'm all in, full marks.
Is it really a showdown between Libra and Scorpio?
Is the role of the commander... supposed to be me?
No, this is the Land of Obsession, it's Deceit Tower, it hardly influences reality. Desire Tower holds the key.
There might still be a Destructive in the Desire Tower. Given the large backdrop of the Balance Curse, the Destructive would also find it hard to survive.
Wen Xishu stroked his chin, pondering for a long time.
He was considering the characteristics of Libra.
It's a mysterious constellation, undoubtedly different from Sagittarius which tends towards combat but possesses low authority within the Three Towers.
Whereas Libra clearly holds high authority.
Wen Xishu acquired the Scales of Chaos, which has the feature of summoning a "third-party force" corresponding to the level of the item.
Wen Xishu suddenly shivered.
A terrifying thought crossed his mind.
If one day, the Balance Curse keeps expanding, affecting several critical regions, even engulfing the entire world...
Then life will inevitably bring death.
The scales of life and death never tilt.
On the surface, Libra is creating chaos, seemingly stirring up waters and forming new forces, opposing Leo...
But in reality, if the scales of life and death keep tilting, Libra creating new forces means —— old forces will die.
"If the Balance Curse enveloped the entire world... then those creating life would concurrently bring death to others."
This thought sent chills down Wen Xishu's spine.
This is the true Libra.
Chaos isn't his stepping stone, chaos is just a persona he disguises himself as. His real goal is to renew the old.
Once he has mastery over the Balance Curse and grasped the method for creating new forces... then the old forces will continually perish.
This authority is too dreadful. If truly realized, Libra would practically wield the authority over life and death. Command over the entire world's life and death.
"Assigning the same meaning to creating and dying forcibly… thus, creation becomes slaughter."
But Wen Xishu quickly calmed down.
Because — while this authority is certainly terrifying, also due to being too frightening, even powerful as Libra, they can't achieve it now.
Currently, the Balance Curse is only effective in a small area.
He was relieved once more that he hadn't let the old principal kill Sagittarius back then.
"If the principal had killed Sagittarius, Libra would have been significantly empowered, who knows how much the reach of the Balance Curse would have expanded."
Simultaneously, Wen Xishu also became more intrigued by Scorpio:
"Looks like I've been used by him again, this time to deal with Libra."
Defeat Aquarius, Pisces, recruit Sirius, battle Leo, fight Libra...
It's probably only Sagittarius's defeat that wasn't within Scorpio's plans. In all of Wen Xishu's encounters with constellations at this stage, the shadow of Scorpio's behind-the-scenes activities was present.
"But if my guess is correct, then I must destroy Libra's Balance Curse."
"Hopefully, in the next stages, I'll get closer to Scorpio's so-called 'core'."
"Surely those places will become increasingly distorted."
Wen Xishu didn't think that he would encounter Libra itself on the fiftieth floor of Deceit Tower, but destroying Libra's Balance Curse would certainly lead to a perfect clearance, being quite perilous.
Thankfully, Scorpio already marked the worth recruiting talents.
Utilize the tavern efficiently, recruit earnestly, upgrade, and make the best use of everyone's power... success isn't entirely out of reach.
Wen Xishu said:
"Thank you for telling me all of this, Enzo, we should return to the Balance Tavern. Other than you, others with similar potentials were also affected by the curse…"
"Without mustering everyone's power, we won't be able to defeat Libra."
Enzo nodded:
"My life has lost too much already, and now... I only want revenge."
Enzo's eyes bore a striking resemblance to Albert's.
Wen Xishu and the others began searching for the location of the door, and with the Compass, everything became much simpler. They quickly found the door back.
Wen Xishu still felt a bit uneasy inside.
"If I factor in Sagittarius's support... will my trump card be enough to destroy the core?"
The core of Libra's Balance Curse certainly isn't easy to annihilate, it could even be said to be fraught with difficulties.
But Wen Xishu still has firepower comparable to the old principal's fist, after some consideration, maybe this task could be accomplished.
However, at present, he had to remedy a problem.
That was the issue of the population quota being exceeded again.
Indeed, with Wen Xishu recruiting the wild boss, his population went from 4/4 to 5/4.