Chapter 850: You Shouldn't Have Sacrificed Your Comrade!

That choked, grieving cry made Lynn stop.

He turned his head and looked at Bai Yi, who was desperately clutching his tentacle, refusing to let him drag that yin spirit down into the Rift. Bai Yi's gaze trembled as he looked at him with pleading eyes, but Lynn showed not the slightest flicker of emotion in response.

"So now you know she's your comrade?"

Lynn asked in that slightly teasing voice of his.

Bai Yi opened his mouth, his gaze stiff, and for a moment he couldn't utter a single word.

Lynn smiled and propped his chin on his hand. "I thought you were just like me, treating her as a disposable item. After all, when I made that deal with her, I made it perfectly clear that once she came down with me, she would absolutely be treated like a slave. But back then, you said nothing. Now the deal is done, and when I'm about to take her down, you suddenly want to back out?"

Those few calmly spoken words struck him like sharp swords, making him feel crushing pressure and leaving him unable to breathe.

He lowered his head, trembling, completely unable to meet Lynn's eyes, his gaze filled with nothing but pain and struggle.

Of course he understood.

His current behavior was tantamount to unilaterally trying to break the deal. Not only might it change nothing, it might even make his Big Brother develop a dislike for him.

But...

"She's a good person... I... I really don't want to see her suffer in hell. She saved me, and she saved her older sister too. She... she deserved a better ending than this... not..."

He struggled voicelessly, head hanging low, his whole body shaking beyond control.

Lynn tilted his head and said:

"Then did you tell me that?"

Bai Yi's face went pale as he opened his mouth, unable to produce a single word.

Lynn closed his eyes and cracked his neck with a series of pops. "I gave you plenty of chances, but you couldn't muster up a single word, like a piece of trash. Are you afraid I'll kill you? Or do you think I'll grind you into mincemeat like that Evil Spirit did?"

"You call me Big Brother with your lips, but in your heart, you treat me like an evil ghost. In your eyes, there's really no difference between me and the other monsters in hell. That's why you're afraid of me, isn't it? So afraid that even when your own comrade is about to be dragged off and violated by your Big Brother, you can't even squeeze out a single damn word, is that it?"

Bai Yi's face instantly went as white as paper. He jerked his head up urgently and said:

"No! That's not it! You've always been the Big Brother I admire most in my heart, and I've never once compared you to those evil ghosts. I... I just..."

Lynn watched him with a faint smile, eyes glinting with interest. "Just what?"

Bai Yi stood there breathlessly, gaze vacant, like a helpless statue slumped in place.

Lynn stared at him for a long moment. "Bai Yi, I am your Big Brother. And you are the first human from this 'hometown' that I met in the Dark World. So you need to understand, I am not your master. I am your family. But if you don't treat me as your family, then we might just have to end things here."

Because...

Just say it!

He's already your Big Brother! If a little brother runs into trouble, isn't it perfectly normal for the big brother to help out?!

Your friend is badly hurt! About to die! And you're going to just watch as she makes that awful deal with your Big Brother?!

Is it really that hard to say, "She's my comrade! Big Brother, please help her!"?!

If he won't agree...

Throw a tantrum, roll on the floor, even if you just grab a knife and wave it at your Big Brother, do you really think he'd get angry over that?

Yin Yi stared at the scene, dazed, and finally began to vaguely understand Lynn's intent.

Timidity and weakness.

These were the flaws and character weaknesses that this child Bai Yi had been unable to shake for so long. Not just toward enemies, but toward the people around him as well. Perhaps in a normal society, this wouldn't be much of a flaw. But in the supernatural domain, it had become his most fatal weakness.

If he cowered even before the Big Brother he revered most... then how could he possibly keep going in this domain...

It was obvious.

She knew that Lynn had seen through this problem at a single glance, which was why he was lecturing him without the slightest mercy.

Looking at Bai Yi's increasingly pale and vacant expression, Lynn pushed up his monocle and said indifferently:

"That was your first problem, Bai Yi."

"But at least in the end, you mustered up the courage to stand up. It was useless, sure, but at least it wasn't as hopeless as I imagined."

"However, the next problem I'm about to bring up... has already made me consider giving up on you. It's even made me contemplate whether I should just kill you."

The moment those words landed.

Both Yin Yi's and Bai Yi's bodies violently shuddered.

His tone was calm, but it was precisely because it was calm that it seemed he truly had considered it.

Lynn watched Bai Yi, who looked back at him, ashen-faced, and said with a placid expression:

"Bai Yi, you are a man."

"How exactly did you manage this? On the premise that she had already saved you once, and with the initiative of the Summoning still firmly in your hands, you actually let her serve as the offering to summon me. You actually sacrificed your own comrade in exchange for my descent. I am genuinely shocked by this."

"So does that mean, if it hadn't been me you were summoning, but some other devil from hell, you could just as easily sacrifice your teammate to bring about its descent, is that right?"

This question instantly plunged Bai Yi's heart into an ice cave. Every hair on his body stood on end, and an indescribable panic appeared on his face.

Yin Yi also immediately sensed the subtle, stern shift in Lynn's tone.

This shift made her tremble with wave after wave of dread.

She immediately, in a panic, desperately tore at the tentacles covering her face and urgently explained: "That's not it! Please, listen to me! I volunteered to be the offering to summon you! It had nothing to do with him! And in that kind of situation, we had no better..."

But Lynn cut her off directly, saying calmly:

"I'm not asking you. I'm asking him. This is none of your business."

Tentacles instantly coiled around her mouth, silencing her. She struggled, only able to turn her head anxiously, trembling, toward Bai Yi, who knelt there with a face drained of all color.

Bai Yi raised his head bitterly and with difficulty, looking toward Lynn, and said:

"I... I..."

Lynn closed his eyes. "Of course, using her as a sacrifice to summon me isn't necessarily unacceptable. But the premise is that you know the Big Brother you're summoning won't do anything to her. If you had that assurance in your heart, you could even sacrifice your own mother and it wouldn't matter. But it's very obvious, based on the test I just gave you, that you didn't."

"You didn't believe I wouldn't do anything to her. When I said I'd treat her like a sex slave to toy with, you said nothing. Clearly, in your heart, you think I really might do that."

He opened his eyes.

"And under those circumstances, you still did nothing and let her become the offering. You gave absolutely no consideration to her life or her future. That's why when I heard the word 'comrade' come out of your mouth, I found it laughable. Because you have never understood the meaning of that word."

Yin Yi's gaze trembled more and more violently. She could only shake her head helplessly, able to do nothing else.

Because it was obvious.

He was truly angry.

Bai Yi sat there slumped, his face the color of dirt. Those calm words hacked what remained of his self-respect into powder, like sharp blades.

Lynn watched him quietly. "I'm telling you all this because I consider you one of my own. If you were an outsider, who would bother? If you really want to keep seeing yourself as a cowardly, selfish piece of trash forever, you can pretend you didn't hear any of this. But if you want to be a proper, upright man, then listen carefully."

"Her wanting to be the offering is her business. But you cannot agree to it. This is a matter of principle. If someone truly must be sacrificed, the first person you think of should never be your comrade."

He stared at the pale-faced Bai Yi.

"If I were you, I wouldn't have let her step forward willingly. I would have torn out my own bones and flesh. I would have used my own soul and blood to summon my Big Brother. Even if it wasn't enough to bring about his true form descent, even if it might kill me, what does that matter? Using your own life is always better than using a friend's life."

"Do you understand?"