God-Level Special Forces Soldier

Chapter 841: Chapter 837: Xiao Tian’s Advice

Just now, Xiao Tian had seen very clearly that the very moment everyone’s anger flared at the same time, the darkness all around them actually shrank inward again.

Although it was only the tiniest, almost imperceptible bit, Xiao Tian could be a thousand percent sure he hadn’t seen wrong!

This abnormal phenomenon made Xiao Tian form a new judgment once more: that lofty old man up in the sky was deliberately provoking everyone, speeding up their march toward annihilation.

As for the principle behind it, Xiao Tian’s initial guess was that the surrounding darkness used everyone’s anger and other negative emotions as nourishment, devouring them to grow stronger.

But if that was the case, there was something that didn’t add up—because just now the old man had driven the darkness right up to the edge of the arena, which already proved he could control the darkness around them. Wouldn’t doing this be completely redundant?!

However, Xiao Tian had no time to get tangled up in that kind of problem. If he kept circling around these minor details, that’d be the textbook case of picking up sesame seeds and dropping a watermelon—no different from courting death.

What he didn’t expect was that, right after everyone calmed down and blocked out their hearing, the old man in midair couldn’t help revealing a very strange smile.

Xiao Tian instantly read the meaning in that eerie smile—it was the satisfaction of everything going according to plan, as if the other side had been waiting for this very moment.

At that thought, Xiao Tian’s heart gave a jolt. He knew for sure that his judgment had gone wrong somewhere, but he couldn’t recall exactly where for the time being, and that ominous feeling only grew stronger.

”To tell you the truth, even if you don’t make a move, in one hour the darkness around you will bury you. You don’t have much time left!”

The old man spoke lightly: ”If you don’t believe me, you can take a good look around you. Whether what I said is true or not will be obvious at a glance.”

Everyone’s eyes widened in shock, rendered speechless. They couldn’t understand why, when they’d clearly blocked out their hearing beforehand, they could still hear the other party’s words.

Following the old man’s words and looking around, everyone was stunned to see the surrounding darkness really was slowly shrinking inward, and for a moment their fear deepened.

As for Xiao Tian, his face was now as dark as it could get. He hadn’t expected that even with such caution he’d still fall into the other side’s trap.

Was this what they called lifting a rock only to smash your own foot?!

Or should he blame it on the fact that there’s no defending against every move, that it wasn’t a matter of fighting ability at all?!

The others might not understand, but Xiao Tian had been paying attention to the surrounding darkness the whole time, which was exactly why he felt the opponent was so troublesome.

Xiao Tian had clearly seen that right before the old man told everyone to take a good look at the darkness, the darkness around them hadn’t moved at all.

And only after everyone looked over did the darkness start to change in a way visible to the naked eye, even more obvious than before.

So, even if Xiao Tian could be sure the old man was speaking and revealing some of the trick to everyone, it still wouldn’t have any decisive effect. At most it would only delay the darkness’s advance a bit.

The reason was very simple. Even if Xiao Tian could successfully convince everyone to believe him, he still couldn’t keep their emotional state synchronized with his. There was no way to solve the problem at its root.

”Well? Doesn’t it feel suffocating, like you’re surrounded by a bunch of brainless pigs?”

The old man’s voice appeared in Xiao Tian’s mind without warning, his tone half-mocking, half as if he truly understood, all twisted together.

Hearing this, Xiao Tian swept a cold gaze over the whole arena. After confirming he was the only one who could hear it, he spoke in his mind the same way he had with the little girl: ”Killing us—is that your final goal?”

The old man ignored the question and said on his own terms, ”You’re very smart—extremely smart. But what I hate most are smart people. The more they say, the more mistakes they make. So this conversation ends here!”

”Have a good taste of the frustration of being powerless to turn the tide! Though you only get this one chance...”

With that, there was no more sound.

A moment later, everyone heard the old man’s voice again.

”I can tell you something: if you want to live a little longer, besides defeating me personally, you can also throw one of your own into the darkness. That can temporarily stop the darkness from advancing and buy you a bit more time to live!”

Xiao Tian thought to himself that, sure enough, the other party’s tricks were endless. According to what he’d just said, if things kept developing like this, the outcome would inevitably be mutual slaughter.

It might not show just yet, but once someone felt their own life was threatened, they’d instantly strike ruthlessly at those around them who were weaker, in exchange for prolonging their own pitiful existence.

This move was truly brilliant: first plant an unstable factor inside the group, then just wait for it to erupt all at once and seize the final victory!

And sure enough, after the old man’s speech, subtle changes began to appear in the crowd. Those experts whose strength was slightly lower in particular started to ”unintentionally” keep their distance from those around them, afraid of being used as sacrificial offerings.

Powerless!

Truly powerless!

That was exactly how Xiao Tian felt at this moment.

To let someone stir them up to this point with just a few words made Xiao Tian sigh inwardly that so-called ”experts” these days were really not worth much.

On the other hand, Xiao Tian also understood what was going through their minds.

In an environment completely beyond their understanding, facing a constant, looming threat of death—if everyone could stay absolutely calm, then there wouldn’t be all this talk about human nature being full of weaknesses.

Taking a deep breath, Xiao Tian sensed everyone undo their hearing block, then said, ”Everyone, don’t panic yet. The darkness around us feeds on your negative emotions to strengthen itself—things like anger and fear.”

”If you don’t want to die, you’d better all stay calm and not let your emotions fluctuate too much.”

Hearing Xiao Tian’s words, everyone was half-skeptical, half-convinced, though clearly the side of belief took up the majority.

Even if this kind of trust was different from ordinary trust, with a kind of forced ’no choice but to believe’ in it, they couldn’t care about that now.

”I just want to tell you this: right now, the only ones who can save you are you yourselves. If your minds aren’t firm enough, if you let his bewitching words sway you, then there’s nothing I can do.”

After saying this, Xiao Tian felt a kind of indescribable irony.

Thinking back to how not long ago he’d sworn he would lead everyone out of this predicament, and now he was telling them they could only save themselves—even though he was telling the truth—he couldn’t help but feel a certain strange emotion.

When he finished, Xiao Tian swept his gaze over the crowd. Seeing all those faces, some trusting, some suspicious, he finally sighed and said, ”I hope you can remember this.”

Leaving aside the crowd’s reaction, the old man in midair simply watched Xiao Tian with a mocking look, as if what he was seeing was his past self.

That feeling of powerlessness, where no matter how you explain no one will believe you, and no matter how you struggle you can’t change the outcome, was the cruelest torture in the world. Every time he recalled it, he felt tormented and furious all over again!