### Chapter 2: The Grand Finale (3)
==============================
Duowen Heavenly King never expected that the three of them, high-level deities among the twenty heavens, could not overpower an enemy who had just grasped the strength of a higher deity!
The gods observing from afar on Mount Sumeru were left utterly flabbergasted by the scene before their eyes.
“This woman… the new goddess is no joke! She can fight three at once without losing ground?”
“How on earth is she doing that?”
“Terrifying indeed!”
“Could it be that a new goddess is really about to join the ranks of the twenty heavens?”
The gods chattered amongst themselves, completely at a loss.
Meanwhile, the citizens of the Great Dao Empire, fervently praying for Their Majesty, the female emperor, hoped that she would triumph in this final battle.
But right at that moment, something bizarre happened.
A portion of the kneeling citizens suddenly went mad—screaming and causing a ruckus, their faces a swirling mess of emotions.
Fear, excitement, shock, dread—every emotion they had ever felt in their lives came together in that instant.
“Ahh… ahh…”
These deranged individuals were flailing their limbs and occasionally shrieking at the top of their lungs.
In just a few minutes, it felt like they had released every last drop of emotion they had accumulated in their lifetime.
“Thud… thud…”
Eventually, the exhausted people began to foam at the mouth and collapsed to the ground.
The onlookers cautiously approached to check, only to find that they had already kicked the bucket.
What… what is happening?
Why have they turned into this?
In merely a moment, nearly a thousand people dropped dead!
Even Duowen Heavenly King’s first wave of attacks had not caused this many casualties to Sky Tower.
What on earth is going on?
Cool Moon arrived at the scene just in time and darkened at the sight of the bodies strewn across the ground.
“Second Great King, you’ve got to save us! We don’t want to end up like this.”
“Yeah, this is too weird! These people were fine just a moment ago; how did it suddenly turn into chaos?”
As the panicked crowd spoke, a second wave of people suddenly began howling.
Their symptoms mirrored the first batch of crazies perfectly—caught between laugh and cry, excitement and terror, they too soon succumbed, collapsing lifelessly.
Everyone was left speechless, “…”
The relentless tragedies shattered whatever sanity remained among the survivors.
Even Cool Moon’s appearance couldn’t restore order.
People screamed and fled in all directions; some darted deeper into the Sky Tower, thinking that the further they went down, the less likely they would be to catch the bizarre d*ath, while others struggled to escape onto the fortress ruins above.
No one wanted to go near the crazed corpses, as though the air were thick with a cursed virus.
What was once a bustling hall in the Sky Tower’s ground level was now eerily empty except for the bodies, with only Cool Moon and Little Drill Wind standing lonely amidst the chaos.
Little Drill Wind shielded Cool Moon like a screen.
As if that could block the maddening virus outside.
Cool Moon pushed him aside, forcing a smile, “It’s useless.”
Little Drill Wind stubbornly shook his head.
Cool Moon decided not to bother with him. She approached a corpse, ignoring Little Drill Wind’s frantic protests, and leaned down to examine it closely.
Though the person had passed, their facial expression was undeniably strange.
After observing for a while, Cool Moon pondered, “Could it be…”
At that moment, clear footsteps echoed from the entrance, and Cool Moon looked up to find Fu Yetian and Lady Rong Ji.
Then she heard a strange, wailing scream coming from below, indicating that someone else had fallen victim.
“…Could it be Their Majesty?”
Upon hearing this, Little Drill Wind trembled, looking at Cool Moon in disbelief, utterly baffled that she would voice such a suspicion about the Great King. He always thought it was an enemy’s plot but never considered that these corpses could relate to the Cool Moon Great King fighting the enemy.
Fu Yetian sighed, “The Second Great King is indeed very perceptive.”
Cool Moon raised her gaze at him, “What’s going on? What do you know?”
Lady Rong Ji silently watched everything unfold, unable to accept such a disrespectful d*ath. She never imagined things would escalate to this point.
“The Majesty commanded Ji Shen while in the Demon Race Imperial Capital to establish an energy-gathering array beneath the Sky Tower, to be used as a last resort in critical moments.”
Upon hearing this, Cool Moon understood the reason behind her previous weakness and fatigue.
“But hasn’t it already been activated?”
Fu Yetian nodded, “Yes, both Lady Rong Ji and I thought the array activated only partially and then stopped, failing to deliver results. But upon investigation, we discovered that the array had actually been taken over by Their Majesty.”
“From the way those people erupted in concentrated emotions and ultimately expired, it appears that what Their Majesty needed was not life energy, but rather the complex and chaotic emotions!” Lady Rong Ji chimed in.
Cool Moon and Little Drill Wind were left utterly shocked.
They never imagined that the reason for Their Majesty’s rapid power increase was here.
“In order to contend with the gods, the Majesty had to resort to such brutal means, sacrificing a few to save the majority…”
“No wait!”
Cool Moon interrupted Fu Yetian’s musings.
“I’ve spent enough time with the Majesty to know her personality and character. While she may seem cold and distant, her heart burns with passion. When establishing Cold Wind City, she took it upon herself to greatly develop the Monster Race and constantly considered their future.
The first thing she did after building Cold Wind City was to relocate the Little Demons from the damp and chilly Cold Wind Cave.
She once told me personally that every Little Demon is our treasure—if we treat them like brothers and sisters, they will wholeheartedly invest in their own growth.
Whenever a warrior sacrificed themselves to protect Cold Wind City, she would personally officiate their funeral.
This cherished memory sticks with everyone who has come from Cold Wind City for their entire lives.
So how could she sacrifice her precious subjects for a fleeting victory?
If she did that, then she would not be the Majesty we know.”
Lady Rong Ji’s eyes darted with confusion, “Occupying the nest? It’s not impossible, especially since I previously raised quite a few Heart-eating Worms. Controlling puppets isn’t really difficult.”
Fu Yetian slapped his thigh, exclaiming, “No wonder I kept feeling her gaze seemed different from before… But how could the Majesty be easily controlled when she’s so powerful? Moreover, if she didn’t use such extreme methods, she probably wouldn’t stand a chance against those three gods!”
The group fell silent in an instant.
Indeed, what a dilemma it is.
If they found themselves in the position of the Female Emperor, how would they choose? Truly a tough question.
