The Black-haired Bishop looked at Robert with pity. "You know nothing about the power of God."

Robert retorted, "And you know nothing about Players."

With a meaningful smile, the Bishop stared at Robert, his body gradually becoming transparent before him, and then vanishing.

「Shortly after...」

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

A few dull thuds, and brilliant fireworks lit up the entire night sky.

The magnificent symphony "Wedding March" resounded as spotlights shot towards the sky, swaying with the rhythm of the music.

"Colorful lanterns illuminate the vibrant festivities, and beautiful melodies fill this auspicious moment," the host began, his voice enthusiastic as he picked up the microphone. "Today, we raise our glasses with cherished friends and family! Esteemed guests, dear friends, welcome to the wedding of Lin Bai, Alliance Hierarch of the Justice League; Xu Longyun, Commandery Princess of Taiyi Country; and Jiang Qingqin, Sacred Maiden of the Pill and Spirit Sect! Let us seize this joyous occasion to offer our most heartfelt blessings to the three of them. May their union be everlasting and filled with happiness!"

The wedding officially began.

Lin Bai stood on one side of the stage, dressed in bright red auspicious attire, a five-clawed golden dragon coiled around him. He wore a ceremonial headdress, and at his waist hung a decorative jade pendant and a Longsword—every inch the Emperor.

Having consumed many Temperament Fruits and long held a high position, his mere presence emanated an aura of majesty that commanded respect, casting the handsome groomsmen behind him into shadow.

Spotlights also shone on figures like Elder Zi, Pei Yanzong, and Monk Wu Wang, but at this wedding, they were merely supporting characters; no one dared to upstage Lin Bai.

Beneath each of their feet, a Magpie Bridge materialized, leading directly to the brides on the opposite side. No red carpet or flower-strewn path, however beautiful, could compare to the breathtaking sight of these Magpie Bridges.

At the other end of each Magpie Bridge stood the strangely attired brides, each blushing demurely, awaiting the host's cue to meet at the center of their respective bridges.

Next to the main wedding stage, two smaller stages had been erected.

Celebrities from all over the world performed dances, martial arts, and acrobatics. The directors spared no effort to highlight the wedding's lavishness, ensuring every guest felt attended to.

「Meanwhile, among the audience...」

"I never thought I'd see the day my favorite idol was overshadowed by someone else."

"Little White Fox is prettier than any celebrity."

"The biggest mistake of this wedding was inviting those celebrities to perform. Lin Bai just standing there is enough to capture everyone's attention."

"What's extravagance? It's doing things you know are useless just for show! The Alliance Hierarch, who's practically in control of three worlds, is getting married. If there weren't any stars to grace the event, wouldn't that look bad?"

"Having celebrities as foils only makes Lin Bai stand out more!"

"Humans and Demon Beasts, men with men, monks with Taoists who've transitioned from male to female... among all these weddings, Lin Bai's is the only 'normal' one. He's not just using celebrities as foils; he's using a whole menagerie of monsters and demons to make himself look even better. So calculating!"

"He's hardly normal himself. He married two of his disciples—at the same time!"

"Sigh, the whole concept of love and marriage has been utterly corrupted!"

"I wonder how many men envy Lin Bai! To hold the world in his palm by day and rest his head on a beauty's lap by night—that's the pinnacle of life! Three days of that, and I'd die content."

"After this wedding, Lin Bai will become a public enemy."

"All I want to know is, what kind of Love Principle will Lin Bai comprehend from these unions that so flagrantly violate natural law?"

"Didn't Lin Bai already say? The principle of universal love."

"Wrong, it's the evil principle of love."

"Damn, look! What's going on?"

"The moment I've been dreaming of! Someone's actually making a move at Lin Bai's wedding!"

"I can finally breathe easy. If no one dared to cause trouble at Lin Bai's wedding, *that* would have been the most terrifying outcome. It would mean everyone was completely cowed by him, like frogs slowly boiling in warm water, their fates sealed and dictated by Lin Bai. As long as there's courage to resist, we still have hope!"

「On the main stage...」

A giant, temporarily erected screen scrolled through photos of Lin Bai with Xu Longyun, and Lin Bai with Jiang Qingqin, capturing various stages of their relationships.

The host was using his magnetic voice to describe how the couples met and fell in love when, suddenly, billows of thick smoke erupted from the side stage where a ballet was being performed, expanding rapidly outwards.

Where the smoke encroached, some of the ordinary people responsible for setting up the stage aged at a visible rate. Their hair turned white, their skin rapidly withered, and they transformed into desiccated corpses.

A few Players nearby who didn't react in time also had their life force drained, collapsing to the ground.

"No one can dictate our fate!" a raspy voice echoed from the center of the stage, speaking in the language of the Western Continent.

Then, a skeleton, cloaked entirely in black, with two orbs of blue fire burning in its eye sockets, floated into the air.

With a wave of its hand, the black mist coiling around it surged towards the brides at the other end of the Magpie Bridges. Wherever the black mist passed, leaves withered and life vanished.

Simultaneously, those—be they ordinary people or Players—whose life force had been drained and who had turned into skeletons, shakily rose to their feet and lunged into the crowd.

As expected, someone's causing trouble!

Qing Yun, looking at the suddenly chaotic crowd, suppressed her disgust. She used a taunt on the black-cloaked creature, repeating the words Lin Bai had telepathically relayed to her, "Thank you to this performance artist for bringing such a splendid show to the wedding—'Destruction and Rebirth'! Marriage is the union of Yin and Yang, and love signifies the advent of new life. This is a special arrangement, and we hope all our guests will comprehend the true essence of the Love Principle from this display of death and life..."

As she spoke, she pulled the undead creature, its heart consumed by hatred, and swiftly retreated into the distance.

Ye Song wove through the undead creatures, activating his Silence skill.

Lin Bai demanded perfection for the wedding; he couldn't allow this undead to utter any more outrageous words. If it weren't for the impropriety of bloodshed at a wedding, he would have gladly torn these accursed skeletal remnants to shreds.

Qing Yun and the others didn't recognize the skeleton, but Lin Bai knew at a glance what it was. He sent a telepathic message to Qing Yun from afar: "Keep that Lich alive; don't kill it."

Just as Qing Yun lured the Lich away, Lu Wei from the Valley of Thousand Souls produced a silver gourd. He aimed it at the residual black mist on the stage, sucking all of it into the gourd.

But the host was gone from the stage. The performers backstage, who had yet to perform, were pale and trembling, slumping to the ground. Not one dared to step up and save the situation.

Is this a joke! Who would have thought attending a wedding could cost them their lives!

"Continue the performance! Don't let the stage go cold!" Lin Bai's voice reached their ears just in time. "If anyone dies, I will help you undergo Metamorphosis Butterfly, transform you into members of the Monster Race, help you with Shaping, and grant you eternal life. If everything proceeds without further incident, I will gift you Spirit Condensing Fruits. This is a promise from the Alliance Hierarch of the Righteous Door."

The performers hesitated for a moment, but the standby host had already picked up the microphone and announced the next act.

The System demanded the wedding be grand and flawless. Lin Bai didn't want the slightest mishap, so he could only remotely control his disciples, constantly altering the skills he granted them to deal with emergent situations.

However, those who had gone to such lengths to disrupt the wedding would not have sent merely a single, minor Lich.

Qing Yun had just led the Lich away, taunting it as she went, when the fan club behind the Magpie Bridges erupted in gasps and screams.

"Heavens!"

"What happened?"

"How could this be!"

The Players were so shocked they even forgot to use private chat.

Lin Bai looked up and froze, stunned.

Opposite him, Xu Longyun and the other brides still stood, awaiting the host's direction. But now, their flesh clung tightly to their bones, their hair was as white as withered grass. They resembled ancient crones on the verge of death, or perhaps zombies freshly crawled from their coffins, exuding an aura of decay. Yet, they themselves seemed oblivious, still standing at the bridgeheads, looking on with anticipation.

Damn!

Lin Bai's expression darkened instantly.

He had shared many Puppet skills, but sifting through his own repertoire, he found nothing that could address the current crisis.

The Heavenly Dao Sect possessed soul purification techniques, but those were either for cleansing or for ensuring transcendence; they offered no solution for this specific, peculiar situation.

Even the Valley of Thousand Souls had no method to revert zombies back to humans.

Little White Fox shrieked, dropping her flower basket in horror. "Xu Longyun, Jiang Qingqin, you... you all..."

Only then did Xu Longyun and the others realize something was amiss. They exchanged glances, shrieked in unison, and then looked down at their own bodies.

Even someone with Xu Longyun's usually calm demeanor was now frantic. "Lin Bai, save me!"

"Lin Bai, don't you claim to be comprehending the Love Principle?" A nebulous shadow appeared above the brides. His figure was elusive, his features indistinct, and his voice seemed to emanate from all directions at once. "I have laid a curse of aging upon your lovers. Unless there is a heart that truly loves them, they shall remain in this state forever. Now, the time has come to test whether true love exists between you. I have never believed that a heart divided can still hold true love."

"If they cannot be restored," the shadow continued, "it will prove your love for them is false, your Law of Love is false, all your Laws are false! You are merely deceiving the world. I shall expose you, this False God, before everyone. Then, the faith placed in you will cease to exist, and all your Divine Power will evaporate..."

He spoke in the language of the Western Continent. Most people present couldn't understand him, but there were Players who could translate. Soon, everyone knew what was happening and turned their gazes towards Lin Bai.

Truthfully, they too wanted to know: was Lin Bai's Way of Laws genuine or not?

If he could use the various aspects of the Love Principle without true love, then Lin Bai was undoubtedly deceiving them.

「Elsewhere, Robert and the others...」

Robert and the others were dumbfounded. They had only managed to persuade one Lich, and Qing Yun had easily led it away. They had thought their mission was a failure.

Who could have predicted this sudden appearance of a shadowy figure?

What is he planning?

But whatever his aim, with a single move, he had decisively disrupted Lin Bai's wedding. His methods were far more potent than the Lich's.

Idiot! Lin Bai cursed inwardly. Does this fool not realize my Divine Power doesn't come from faith at all? But what the hell *is* this thing?

"Who are you?" Lin Bai demanded, using the Truth-telling Technique on the ethereal figure before him.

"I am Noss, the God of Curse," the shadow declared, revealing his identity. Oblivious to the Truth-telling Technique, he boasted, "Do not attempt to defeat me. I am not a False God like you, deceiving the world. I am a god born of heaven and earth, possessing my own Divine Status. A curse I cast cannot be broken, even by myself, unless its conditions are met. I have crossed two worlds to come here, specifically to expose your hypocrisy and cultivate my followers on this wondrous Continent."

So this is a god? Lin Bai's heart skipped a beat. He didn't understand the Laws of the Heavenly Kings in the Fairy World, but the attacks of celestial beings always had discernible patterns. What the hell is this guy's curse? If it can only be lifted when conditions are met, couldn't he control everyone by casting curses indiscriminately?

"Lin Bai, don't listen to him!" Xu Longyun, looking at Lin Bai's troubled expression, forced herself to remain composed. "This is a curse he designed. Who knows if he'll secretly manipulate the outcome! I believe you love me, and I believe you'll find a way to save me."

Though her body was aged and frail, her mind remained sharp.

She didn't know if Lin Bai's Love Principle was real or a sham, but she absolutely did not want him to be humiliated this way.

If it turned out to be false, everything Lin Bai had built would crumble.

"Woman, you insult a god!" the God of Curse Noss suddenly turned to Xu Longyun, words in the Eastern Continent's language spilling out. "My curses are born of the world itself! From the moment they are cast, the outcome is fixed. Not even I can alter it!"

Under the Truth-telling Technique, Noss's words were undoubtedly true. And that was precisely what was terrifying!

Lin Bai was certain he loved Xu Longyun and Jiang Qingqin. The Matchmaker System had used the Magpie Bridge and the Milky Way to attest to their love, but its definition of love was so perfunctory, almost like a joke. Even this wedding was primarily to complete a System task. How could that be true love?

If he failed this test, his credibility would shatter. Without the Way of Laws, how could he unite people? Martial Power alone couldn't maintain control indefinitely! And he still needed the Way of Laws to fool the celestial beings in the Fairy World!

DING!

[Threatening others is for villains. Since when do *you* get threatened? Eliminate this buffoon before you, or subdue him. Prove your strength to the world! Reward: Draw (Randomly seize one ability or organ from your defeated foes for your own use).]

Just in time. Lin Bai thought. He might not be able to break the curse, but he had plenty of ways to defeat this fellow! Randomly seize? Though he didn't know what abilities this so-called God of Curse possessed, he could just defeat him multiple times. Each time he'd randomly seize something; eventually, he'd bleed him dry... When had he ever suffered such humiliation?

BONDAGE!

Lin Bai used Flash, appearing beside the God of Curse in an instant. He unhesitatingly flung out the Red String, but the usually infallible cord bound only empty air.

The God of Curse Noss watched the Red String weave uselessly around his incorporeal form and sneered. "Lin Bai, I have studied your methods. Did you truly believe your rope could bind a god? I once cursed myself so that no one could ever capture me. If I were ever caught, I would lose my physical body and exist in this world as an Undying Soul. And then, someone actually did capture me. Now, I am an eternal and indestructible great being..."

Suddenly, Noss's voice cut off.

Unseen, Lin Bai had Flashed to his side again. One hand pressed down lightly, holding him fast. A kitchen knife scraped against his scalp, deftly shaving off hair that wasn't even there.

Lin Bai looked disdainfully at Noss, pinned down by Absolute Suppression, and inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. He mocked, "Undying Soul, is it? I happen to know a dish called Fried Ghost!"

"Impossible!" Noss shrieked in disbelief. "I have laid countless curses upon myself, paid all manner of prices! How could you possibly capture me? How could your damned knife harm my soul form?"