"Create a world?!" The four words left Lin Luo's mouth as easily as taking a sip of water, yet everyone who heard them paled, staring at Lin Luo with disbelief.

There were those capable of creating worlds; take Shenqi, present at this very moment, who had forged the Demon Realm. But could Shenqi's creation truly be called a world? Clearly not. Shenqi's Demon Realm was tethered to the current world; it lacked parallel dimensions, higher-dimensional space, or the structure of planets and universes. In truth, Shenqi's Demon Realm was merely an (alternate space).

But everyone present understood that the world Lin Luo intended to create was not such a narrowly defined alternate space, but a true world! Otherwise, it would be impossible to contain the Dragon God, and a battle would inevitably spill over and damage Gensokyo.

But was such a feat even possible?

One had to know that creation was far harder than destruction. Lin Luo himself had stated that to destroy a world, he would need to strike at its core, triggering a chain reaction. This implied his own power was insufficient to destroy a world. If he couldn't even destroy one, how could he possibly create one?

The assembled company was deeply skeptical. But would Lin Luo boast at a time like this?

The answer was obviously no!

Boom!

A sound like an explosion echoed, and the entire world seemed to shudder. Instinctively, everyone looked up. The sky, so familiar to them, now seemed to be missing something—it had become indistinct.

The Great Barrier had collapsed!

In that instant, they knew the reason.

Indeed, the moment he finished speaking, Lin Luo had removed the soul substitute placed within the Great Barrier, and the barrier, obligingly, began to crumble.

The collapse of the Great Barrier occurred in a split second; no one could react from start to finish. The explosion and tremor they heard were the entirety of the phenomenon marking the barrier's end.

Understanding this brought no relief; instead, their expressions grew more grave. They knew the barrier's collapse was merely the prelude. The main event was yet to come... the Dragon God’s appearance!

The Dragon God was no fan of sudden plot twists designed purely for the audience. Thus, immediately following the barrier’s demise, under the gaze of a million "expectations," endless black clouds converged from every direction, instantly engulfing the entire sky and extinguishing the light of the moon and stars.

Within those dense, overlapping clouds, a colossal form writhed, appearing and disappearing intermittently.

"Is that... the Dragon God?!" Not everyone present had witnessed the Dragon God before. Newcomers to Gensokyo, like Remilia and her companions, had never seen it. Their faces shifted in alarm upon this sudden sighting.

Hieda no Eirin frowned, momentarily stunned by the terrifying aura surrounding the Dragon God’s emergence. Then, as she watched, she suddenly spoke, "It feels like it’s gathering power. Has it not fully materialized yet?"

"Worthy of the Sage of the Moon," Lin Luo praised. "What we see now is merely the manifested projection of Equivalent Exchange—a false body, if you will. Its true form is dispersed as rules throughout the entire world. Only when it fully materializes its true form will we see the true Celestial-rank Dragon God. Until then, it will not attack us."

"Then we can attack it now?" Sanae offered somewhat naively.

Lin Luo shook his head with a wry smile. "If it were that simple, you lot could stand idly by, and I’d handle the Dragon God alone. Even if we destroy this false body now, it won't cause it any actual harm. On the contrary, it will simply manifest its true form elsewhere, putting us in an even more passive position."

"I see," Sanae blushed, feeling foolishly innocent.

"While that may be true... to have to wait for an enemy we intend to defeat with all our might to reach its complete form—that feeling is truly vexing," commented Hijiri Byakuren.

Lin Luo chuckled. "Don't you know? Allowing the hero sufficient time to complete their transformation—that is the aesthetic of the villain."

The others were instantly speechless. He had just called himself a hero, only to switch to calling himself the villain in the next breath—such a lack of consistency! Only Cirno, innocently confused, asked, "Are we the villains?"

"Of course. We are the party who unilaterally violated the contract. Though we have sacrificed much and endured too much sorrow because of the Dragon God, it is also because of the Dragon God that Gensokyo exists... It took payment from us, and it was not wrong to do so, for such are the rules. We are the ones in error for unilaterally breaking the contract to reclaim what was ours," Lin Luo explained.

"Now that you put it that way, we really do sound like the villains," Shokyo said sheepishly.

Lin Luo nodded, then stated seriously, "Yes, we are indeed the villains. But this battle has nothing to do with who is the protagonist or the antagonist. We fight only because we refuse sorrow. We wish to live... That is all!"

"Precisely." No one agreed more wholeheartedly with this statement than Hijiri Byakuren.

"Enough talk about the Dragon God. I see its transformation is nearly complete. It’s time to move to our battlefield." As he spoke, Lin Luo stepped forward, stopping ten meters ahead of the others, then looked up at the gradually forming Dragon God in the sky, a trace of sorrow in his eyes.

Thousands of years ago, you saved me. Because of you, I defeated the stronger West Wolf King. Because of you, Gensokyo exists. I never imagined that today I would stand opposed to you. But... to live, we have no other choice. So, I apologize!

Lin Luo thought to himself. Then his gaze sharpened. He curled his five fingers into claws and snatched violently forward. The very void before him shattered like glass under his fingertips, creating ten holes that echoed with cracking sounds. Countless fissures spread outward from his ten fingers, instantly covering the entire space.

"What is he trying to do?" The others were deeply puzzled by the sight.

But no one dared step forward to ask. For at that moment, a vortex materialized behind Lin Luo. As the cracks spread, the vortex began to spin wildly, releasing an oppressive, terrifying aura like a surging tide.

Immediately, the earth began to tremble, and the sky roiled with deep, rumbling sounds. The anomalies caused by the Dragon God were completely drowned out, as if the entire world was shaking apart.

"What's happening? What's going on?"

"Hey, don't mess around!"

"This is even more terrifying than the earthquakes I cause."

Under the violent shaking, even Reimu and the others struggled to keep their footing, crying out instinctively. While they knew Lin Luo must have a reason for this, such terrifying phenomena made them deeply uneasy.

"Look, the shrine is fine! The Scarlet Devil Mansion and the Human Village are fine, and Gensokyo too... Strange, it seems only we are being affected!"

The group suddenly realized that despite the violent tremor, Gensokyo, which should have been overturned, remained utterly undisturbed, calm as ever. This struck them as very strange. Then, remembering Lin Luo’s earlier words about sending them and the Dragon God into a new world, they dimly grasped something.

Instinctively, all their gazes turned toward Lin Luo in front of them.

At this moment, Lin Luo’s hands still gripped the fracturing void, as if seizing an immovable behemoth. His aura peaked, as if he were trying to wrench this space over to his side.

"Hooaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!"

The ground trembled, the sky trembled, and Lin Luo’s body trembled too. A heaven-splitting roar erupted from his mouth, like the bellow of countless ancient beasts, striking terror into all who heard it. Even Reimu and the others had to cover their ears and tightly shut their eyes against the intensity of the sound.

Boom!!!

After an unknown amount of time, the terrifying roar finally ceased. But what followed was an even more violent boom, so intense that the assembled company felt their souls were being wrenched from their bodies, nearly causing them to faint. Fortunately, this boom was as sudden as it was fleeting; by the time they registered it, the sound was gone, replaced by a deathly silence across the entire world.

The eerie atmosphere made them lower their hands from their ears and slowly open their eyes. They found they were still in Gensokyo, but...

"Does anyone else notice something is wrong?" Shenqi was the first to detect the anomaly, and then everyone else realized it: the Gensokyo they occupied... was gray!

Only they, Lin Luo, and the still-forming Dragon God in the sky retained their normal colors.

"There's such a huge sense of cognitive dissonance. This reminds me of games I used to play where skills and characters remained grayed out because the level wasn't high enough," Kaguya observed after scanning their surroundings.

In any other circumstance, the others would likely have teased the computer-game enthusiast, but now, not a word escaped them, as they shared a similar sensation.

"Surprised? I already told you, I would create a world."

As they stared in shock at the bizarre phenomenon, Lin Luo’s voice suddenly came from ahead. They all looked over and exclaimed, "Is this the world you created?"

Lin Luo nodded. "Yes, though strictly speaking, it isn't true creation. It’s more like copying... no, to be more precise, it’s transportation."

"Transportation?"

"Mmm. This current world is a copy I made using our previous world as a template. But what I copied was only the world’s structure. Though both worlds are equally vast, in this one, besides us, there is no life, no consciousness; everything is dead. So, it is merely transportation."

Lin Luo explained with a smile. "For us, there is no better battlefield. Here, you can fully unleash your power. Even if you shatter this world, Gensokyo’s safety will not be affected—provided, of course, you have the strength to destroy the Dragon God!"

"Roar!!!"

As Lin Luo mentioned the Dragon God, an earth-shattering roar echoed from the sky. The immense sound manifested as physical air currents, surging toward them like a gale, whipping their clothes.

Everyone reflexively looked up. They saw a massive dragon, hundreds of meters long, coiling and soaring in the gray sky, exuding an incredibly terrifying pressure... At that moment, the manifestation of Equivalent Exchange was complete. The Dragon God had fully transformed from a false body into its true form. As this Celestial-rank powerhouse materialized, the previously dead, silent world seemed to come alive.

Looking at the behemoth in the sky, every face, including Lin Luo's, grew solemn. Lin Luo was somewhat better off, having faced a stronger Celestial before, but for the others, this was their first encounter with a being of this magnitude. Merely looking at it generated an irresistible pressure that instilled instinctive fear.

Their very life force trembled, and even their bodies shook with this primal instinct.

"It seems there's no more time for talking. Then... everyone, let's go!"

Lin Luo roared, without hesitation. Before the Dragon God's destructive power could descend, he launched the first attack. As he flew forward, a beam of light shot from his right index finger, accurately striking Cirno’s head.

"A Celestial-rank Dragon God... Heh, a truly exhilarating yet terrifying opponent."

A sharp glint flashed in Lin Luo’s eyes. But unlike before, he didn't immediately draw the Sword of Destruction to strike. Instead, he instantly dissolved his physical form into formless consciousness, creating a thin luminous curtain under the rules of creation, which instantly enveloped the Dragon God’s massive body.

He was the closest to Celestial rank and had exchanged blows with Celestial experts. Though he couldn't defeat a true Celestial, his abilities could not be completely immune to them either. Moreover, the Dragon God's essence—Equivalent Exchange—had originated from the Contract Book, making it impossible for it to be entirely immune to some form of countermeasure.

And most importantly, this world was his creation. While he couldn't yet command everything within it, maximizing his own advantage was undeniable.

His greatest advantage was not offense, but defense and immortality!

Therefore, in this battle, his role was no longer the primary attacker, but the unyielding bulwark of defense!

"Roar!!!"

Although the Dragon God lacked human-like intelligence, as a Celestial-rank powerhouse, it possessed instincts unmatched by any other creature. The moment it was wrapped in Lin Luo’s formless consciousness, it reacted like a provoked beast and immediately attacked.

The Dragon God's attack was simple and direct: a single roar, followed by a violent shudder of its massive body. Yet, this simple, direct attack unleashed terrifying destructive power.

Visibly tangible shockwaves instantly surged in all directions, their sharpness almost unbelievable. They easily broke through Lin Luo’s created defense and then, like a surging tide, overwhelmed Reimu and the others standing below in the blink of an eye.

Splash!

Reimu and the others, engulfed by the shockwave, vanished completely from sight, but the ground beneath their feet was instantly pulverized as if it were made of tofu.

With just this single shockwave, this planet—replicated by Lin Luo, identical in strength to the real Earth save for the absence of Gaia consciousness—vanished into thin air in an instant!

But when the shockwave dissipated, Reimu and the others were standing unharmed in the void.

"We're fine! We're actually fine?!"

The group looked at themselves, then looked around. Discovering they hadn't sustained a single scratch filled them with shock. They had clearly seen the Dragon God’s shockwave coming, but they couldn't react at all, forced to watch the attack bear down on them.

In that moment, their minds held only one thought... We’re doomed!

They didn't even have time to feel sorrow or fear before they were swallowed by the shockwave. Yet now, they were safe, making them wonder if the attack had just been an illusion.

However, the empty space below—the ground that had already disappeared—

What was going on?

This question filled every mind. Then, at that moment, they noticed a faint luminous screen covering their bodies. While it looked ordinary, they could feel a mysterious, powerful, yet warm force tightly enveloping them.

Intuition told them that the only reason they survived that ordeal was this seemingly plain light barrier protecting them.

"Could it be..." Those with some understanding already began to surmise.

"Don't be surprised," Lin Luo’s voice suddenly sounded in their ears, though it now seemed ethereal, as if simultaneously near and far. "With your current power, facing the Celestial-rank Dragon God head-on would guarantee your death. So, to allow you to fully exert your combat potential, I have attached my own existence to you, serving as your shield. This way, I can block at least ninety percent of the attacks."

"Ah!" The group gasped. Although some had guessed Lin Luo was behind this, they hadn't expected this much. "But... what about you?"

"Don't worry. I am immortal; even the Dragon God cannot kill me, so you don't need to worry about my safety. However... in order to grant you the strongest defense, I have completely lost my offensive capabilities at this moment. Therefore, defeating the Dragon God relies entirely on you."

"Do not doubt your strength. Since I made this arrangement, it is because I have absolute faith in you. Believe in yourselves, and believe in me who believes in you. Cast aside confusion, discard hesitation, and with the conviction of victory, go out and make a glorious, earth-shattering fight!"

The others froze. Yes, they felt confused, hesitated, and lacked confidence facing such a formidable foe. Although they had joined this fight, deep down, they hadn't held much hope for victory. They had prepared themselves for death, but!

In Lin Luo's words, they felt his trust and expectation for them.

Then...

"Oh!!!" The group roared in unison, instantly erupting with unparalleled fighting spirit.

They were obligated to answer this trust and expectation! (To be continued)