I'm not just human!

Xia Fa interrupted it with a smile:

“I know all of this. Back then, Lord Absolute Defense fought against thirty-seven of you single-handedly, holding back thirty-seven of you Golden Cleaners, right? Then the three true gods, Silver Universe, Paradox Clown, and First History, appeared and joined forces to create a divine barrier, preventing the divine aura from spreading.”

Now, it was Gastis the Great Axe's turn to be surprised:

"You...you even know this? Your information network is quite impressive!"

As it spoke, it shook its head with a sigh:

"Luckily, I was planning to slip away anyway, so I was just slacking off. Otherwise, I probably would have been stuck and wouldn't have been able to reveal my true allegiance. I'm clearly on your side, you superhumans!"

Xia Fa said thoughtfully:

"That's true. If you were exposed on the spot, you'd probably be attacked by the other thirty-odd Gold Cleaners and chopped into mincemeat..."

Gastis the Great Axe smiled helplessly:

That's exactly the point.

Xia Fa then changed the subject, saying:

"When I last met you on the Dream Come True sea train, you said that there were less than thirty Golden Cleaners who had awakened. So, how many more have awakened recently? Will there be any more awakenings in the near future?"

Gastis the Great Axe said:

"No, don't worry. The few who recently awakened were said to have been awakened by the aura of the True Gods. But now, those True Gods are all working together to deal with the thirty-five Golden Cleaners, and they have also taken precautions against the spread of the True Gods' aura. So there's no need to worry about any new Golden Cleaners awakening. They will all awaken at the same time after a year."

The aura of a righteous god's intervention awakened him...

Xia Fa suddenly realized something. Perhaps when [Paradox Joker] and [First History] went back to fight the two fake Nine Gods who replaced them, they inadvertently released some of the aura of the gods, which led to the awakening of several more Golden Cleansers.

Wait, just the aura of some righteous gods is enough to awaken nearly ten Golden Cleansers?

How many of them haven't woken up yet?

As luck would have it, Gastis the Great Axe was here, so Shafa immediately asked:

"Do you know how many Golden Cleaners haven't awakened yet? You're not going to tell me there are hundreds, are you?"

Hundreds of them are already terrifying, equivalent to hundreds of true gods, capable of destroying the universe thousands or tens of thousands of times!

Unexpectedly, Gastis the Great Axe shook his head.

Seeing this, Xia Fa breathed a sigh of relief:

"That startled me. I thought there would be more than a hundred Gold Cleaners awakening a year from now."

But immediately, Gastis the Great Axe spoke up:

"Too low."

Too low?

Xia Fa was suddenly jolted, feeling as if he had been struck by a sledgehammer, and his heart almost stopped beating for half a beat.

"This...this...a hundred is too few? How many would that be? Hundreds?"

Unexpectedly, Gastis the Great Axe still said:

"It's still too low."

This is still considered low?

Xia Fa felt a cold sweat seep down his back, as if he were witnessing something more terrifying than any horror story:

"Could it be... a thousand? A thousand Golden Cleaners, could the universe possibly contain them?"

To his utter surprise, Gastis the Great Axe still shook his head:

"It's still too low."

Rumble!

At that moment, it was as if a thunderbolt from the heavens struck down, causing Xia Fa's mind to tremble violently. He felt as if a monstrous wave had been unleashed, one that was difficult to quell.

"So... how many are there exactly?"

Gastis the Greataxe sighed, unable to drink the iced strawberry wine in his hand any longer, and said:

"About ten thousand."

Xia Fa's eyes almost popped out of their sockets:

"One, ten thousand? You're not kidding?"

Gastis the Great Axe said:

"No, and when those ten thousand Golden Cleaners awaken, they will be just like when you first met me. Although they possess extremely high intelligence, they will not understand anything about this world and will only execute their goal, that one and only goal."

Without it needing to be told, Xia Fa understood what the Gold Cleaners' sole objective was.

To wipe out all supernatural beings in the universe.

"So, the more than 10,000 Golden Cleaners who awaken a year later have no chance of being persuaded to surrender?" Xia Fa asked again, still unwilling to give up.

“Yes.” Gastis the Great Axe nodded.

“This…” Xia Fa was at a loss.

To be honest, he had fantasized about it when he heard that Lord [Absolute Defense] could take on more than thirty Gold Cleaners single-handedly.

I fantasize that if I could become a true god within a year, maybe I could team up with [Absolute Defense] to fight against the awakened Golden Cleaners!

At that time, it was estimated that there were at most a hundred or so sleeping Gold Cleaners.

Xia Fa never expected that there would be... ten thousand of them!

Where did these Golden Cleaners come from? Does that mean divine titles are free?

"No rush, no rush. I now possess both the mutant and superhuman systems. I still have a year. As long as we haven't reached a dead end, there's still hope, even if it's just a sliver of a chance..."

Xia Fa now understands even more clearly why the nine righteous gods chose to put the "sparks" into that absolutely safe little world a year later, and then generously went to their deaths.

Ten thousand gold cleaners... that's really impossible to defeat.

"So, Gastis the Great Axe, now you can finally tell me all those questions you had before, all those things you promised me."

Surprisingly, Xia Fa remained calm at this moment, looking directly at Gastis the Great Axe, the only Golden Cleanser standing on the side of the superhumans.

Gastis the Great Axe replied without hesitation:

"Yes, I've always remembered that, aside from whether there's a problem with the Nine Great Gods, what you most wanted to ask was why I should help you, right?"

Xia Fa nodded:

"Ah."

Gastis the Great Axe sighed:

"It's simple, I don't want to fall into a deep sleep a year from now and never wake up again."

Xia Fa immediately understood what was going on:

"You mean..."

Gastis the Great Axe nodded slightly:

"That's right. A year from now, when those ten thousand-plus Golden Cleaners awaken, they will all move out together to wipe out all the extraordinary beings in the universe. But what happens after that? Needless to say, they will fall into slumber again."

It suddenly sighed deeply, looking extremely worried. It even picked up the iced strawberry wine again, took a sip, and looked towards the rainforest in the distance.

Xia Fa had discovered early on that the True God Realm created by Gastis the Great Axe was particularly interesting. As far as the eye could see, there were endless tropical rainforests, and they were rich in species.

Even just around here, you can see tapirs galloping by, elephants using their trunks to pick up bananas from banana trees and put them in their mouths, and colorful tree frogs leaping about on the vast rainforest leaves, and so on...

In the heart of this rainforest, a vast area has been carved out, almost the size of the city of Augustus, filled with houses of all shapes and sizes.

"I love this world, Shafa."

Gastis the Great Axe suddenly spoke, finishing his iced strawberry wine and picking up a piece of goat cheese, taking a slow bite.

"This world has so many delicious wines and so many delicious foods. There are also countless amazing landscapes in the universe. Every planet with life is different. In fact, you humans and demi-humans, as intelligent beings, have invented so many fun gadgets."

As he finished speaking, the doors of several uniquely designed houses nearby opened.

What appeared to be a variety of facilities included a pinball room, a card room, a basketball court, a fighting arena, a comic book store… and even the legendary games "The Bizarre Adventure of Traveling Slime" and "The Battle for the Extraordinary Crystals," a collaboration between [Silver Universe] and [Nature Monarch], were surprisingly present.

"Therefore, I do not want to fall into a deep sleep a year from now, and I do not want this prosperous universe, which was pioneered and built by the superhumans, to be destroyed, leaving only mortals without any superhuman power."

Xia Fa finally understood, walked over, and patted Gastis the Great Axe on the shoulder:

"I know, that's what I think too."

Gastis the Great Axe sighed:

"I could have told you that back then, it's nothing. The real reason, or rather, the real reason I couldn't tell you back then, is about the origin of you superhumans, and why the Golden Cleaners had to exterminate all superhuman beings. That was 30,000 years ago..."

Xia Fa did not interrupt it, but listened quietly and carefully, comparing it with what the Paradox Clown said.

It wasn't that he didn't trust the Paradox Joker; on the contrary, he had always regarded the Paradox Joker as an elder.

Instead, he wanted to see what exactly happened 30,000 years ago from the perspective of the Gold Cleaners.

"...In short, that's pretty much it. As the Golden Cleansers, we, or rather, they, must cleanse the entire universe of all extraordinary beings. On one hand, we must reclaim the overflowing power from the origin of the universe. On the other hand, we must prevent the masters of the extraordinary beings from descending."

After Gastis the Great Axe finished speaking, he revealed an expression of barely suppressed righteous indignation:

"But I don't understand, why does it have to be this way? Isn't the universe prosperous now? It's thousands, even hundreds of millions of times more prosperous than the era of mutants and magicians!"

It then picked up a bottle of sweet and slightly sour cider, gulped down a large mouthful, and continued, fueled by the alcohol:

"And the so-called masters of the extraordinary beings are utter nonsense! The extraordinary beings are born from the power overflowing from the origin of the universe, so where would they come from, masters?"

Xia Fa sighed:

"That's what I actually think too, but there's nothing I can do. By the way, so you don't know what exactly happened 30,000 years ago?"

Gastis the Great Axe shook his head:

"I don't know. I only started to have memories after I woke up a few months ago. What I'm telling you is all from what other Golden Cleaners and the fake Nine Great Gods told me."

Xia Fa couldn't help but say:

"What about the fake nine true gods? What are their origins, and how did they suddenly become true gods?"

Gastis the Great Axe shook his head again:

"I don't know either. Those nine of them suddenly became true gods more than ten thousand years ago, at the very beginning of the third ten thousand years of the extraordinary era, replacing the original nine true gods. Only the [Silver Universe] survived, but..."