Chapter 56: Today, You're the Most Beautiful!

After the statement that [the beauty everyone agrees upon is the true beauty] was made, the citizens who hadn't undergone cosmetic procedures at the beauty salons and were collectively groveling paused.

The first expressions to appear on their faces were not agreement or joy but shock and confusion that they found hard to accept.

This contradicted the principles they had lived by all their lives.

Upon hearing this statement, they should have immediately objected or even scorned, yet their hearts and instincts left them standing there, unsure how to choose.

Compared to these citizens who had been insulted, berated, and demeaned multiple times within half a month for not meeting the beauty standard, the "little people" who had met the standard exploded in anger the moment they heard this.

Their supposedly cute, youthful faces were now twisted in ferocity, "Who is it! Who is spouting such nonsense and uttering such drivel!"

"You who hides in the shadows, show yourself if you dare! How dare you speak such ugly words in the City of Beauty?! How dare you question the supreme criteria of the City of Beauty!!"

However, Chen Shijin, who was invisible, did not reveal himself.

"I don't follow others' words. No one can bind me with their rules."

"You, who are clearly in your forties but only have the height of a dwarf and a face that will never grow up, how can you shamelessly claim to be beautiful with such ugliness?"

The speaking little man's eyes reddened with rage: "You dare call me ugly?! You dare say I'm ugly!! I have already achieved the beauty trend of youthful smallness! How could I be ugly? The ugly ones are clearly you people who didn't follow the trend!"

"I've said it already."

"The beauty trend isn't a living person, nor is it me. By what right does it determine beauty and ugliness?"

"It's worth repeating the important point."

Chen Shijin's voice suddenly amplified by several decibels over the square.

[The beauty trend isn't a living being, by what right does it determine beauty and ugliness?]

The citizens on the square, who had been silent all along, started to stir.

Indeed.

The beauty trend they had been following all along, on what basis does it determine beauty and ugliness?

At that moment, another voice spoke up:

“That's because the beauty trend itself doesn’t understand beauty! The beauty trend just wants to torment us, wants us citizens to become its puppets!”

The citizens' expressions became even more confused upon hearing this.

The little man jumped up on the spot: “Nonsense! Beauty as defined by the beauty trend is beauty! It has always been like this!”

Chen Shijin’s mouth twitched.

[Just because it has always been like this, does that make it right?]

“Like your current appearance, it looks utterly ridiculous. Your height is only half of what it used to be, your face looks like that of a six or seven-year-old. What use is there in someone like you? I alone could beat three dwarfs like you.”

“I'm not a dwarf! I'm a beautiful person!”

The little man, rebutted and pressured sentence by sentence, trembled with rage. He began to scream and curse: “What are you ugly things still doing standing there?! Hurry up and help me! Find that damn person who's contradicting us! He must be very ugly! Extremely extremely ugly!”

As the little man screamed, the other thousand or so little people who had met the beauty standard also gathered.

They looked around with angry, critical eyes at all the citizens surrounding them, who dared to be indifferent to their words.

They started to curse, accuse, and kick and punch.

"What are you standing around for! Find him and beat him to death! That ugly thing that dares not show his face!"

[Dwarves are the ugliest.]

The silent citizens: ……

"Ahh, what are you trying to do? Are you trying to rebel? Are you not going to follow the beauty trend's instructions anymore? Do you all want to die?!!"

[In the City of Beauty, only the ugly cannot survive. But I think the citizens aren’t ugly, the ugly ones are you dwarves.]

The slightly bowed citizens: ……

"Nonsense nonsense nonsense nonsense! Beauty as defined by the beauty trend is the true beauty! We are the beautiful ones! You are the ugly ones! We are the ones who will survive! You all should be the ones to die—"

[I disagree. You’re the ugly ones, our current appearance is the most beautiful.]

The slowly raising their heads citizens: ……

They looked at the group of "little adults" in front of them, raging and ranting with hands on hips, their pointing fingers only reaching their thighs, and suddenly found them repulsive, seemingly devoid of any beauty.

The little people being silently stared at suddenly felt a bit panicked, so they yelled even louder and started to jump up to hit the knees of those they disliked.

"Damn it! Damn it! You’re the ugly ones, you’re the ugly ones! We've met the standard! We are the most beautiful! We are the most beautiful—"

And at that moment, all the citizens in the City of Beauty on the square suddenly heard a massive rumble.

When they turned their heads, they saw it growing bit by bit right before their eyes, until it became as big as the square's big screen... another large screen appeared.

Then, all the citizens saw on that big screen images they had never seen before—

It was the newborn sunrise, the azure sky, the white clouds, the passionate sunset, the brilliant starry sky.

There were people with brownish-yellow skin laughing and running on the grasslands, people with black skin dancing joyfully in the tropical rainforest, and people with white skin pulling sleds and drinking beer in the snowy ice fields.

They were old and young, tall and short, fat and thin, even some were disabled and unique.

However, everyone in this big screen radiated with a light of freedom and confidence. None of them fit the beauty trend of the square, yet, they, they looked so charming and beautiful.

“What, what is this? How come there's another, another one,”

The shocked little person hadn't finished speaking, but he already felt something was wrong in his heart.

At that moment, this newly appeared big screen suddenly had a voice.

[If beauty must have a standard, then, that standard should be—our hearts.]

[What we perceive as beautiful in our hearts, that is beautiful!]

[Likewise, what you find beautiful in your hearts, that is beautiful too!]

At that moment, the screen cuts to a child laughing heartily, her smile so pure, adorable, and genuinely natural.

The citizens listened as the voice spoke.

[She is beautiful.]

Then the screen changed to a kindly smiling elderly man. Even though his face was full of wrinkles and his hair had turned gray, his smile remained warm.

[I think he is beautiful too.]

The screen then continued to shift to many different people, the previously silent crowd now completely captivated by the diverse individuals on the screens.

Now, the screen showed a resolute warrior standing in the midst of snow and wind, his face without a smile, even frostbitten, with frost and snow on his eyelashes and below his nose.

But the voice still said:

[He is beautiful too.]

Then, just as the citizens thought this big screen would continue to display those people, a regular face of a citizen suddenly appeared on the big screen.

"Huh?" Some citizens recognized him.

[I think this citizen's eyebrows are beautiful, very dark and thick but not messy, making his face beautiful too.]

The citizen featured on the big screen suddenly lit up, beginning to unconsciously touch his own handsome eyebrows.

Soon after, another face of a citizen appeared on the big screen.

[I find this citizen's eyes beautiful, not too large to be frightening, nor too narrow like a line. Their size and shape are perfectly suited for this face, making the face beautiful!]

The citizen with just the right eyes smiled with eyes bending, continuously touching his own eyes.

Following that were hundreds, then thousands of faces displayed and praised.

The silent citizens began to get excited.

At that moment, the owner of the voice, who had not appeared until now, suddenly materialized above this new, oversized screen.

He was actually wearing a golden fish head on his head!

"Everyone! If you need a standard! Then, the new standard has already appeared!"

[What we consider beautiful is beautiful! The soul never lies!]

"So, citizens! Look at the big screen! Is this beautiful girl beautiful?!"

The screen showed a truly beautiful citizen, who reverted to her original appearance after each new beauty trend. However, she hadn't been successful in queuing during the height trend and now had two-meter-long legs, yet her face was her original one.

The citizens, seeing that face filled with nervousness yet hopeful and shyly smiling, finally opened their mouths to echo in agreement.

"Beautiful!"

Thus, the girl on the screen suddenly brightened her eyes and bloomed into a smile.

She became even more beautiful.

The screen switched to the next citizen.

The inquiry from the golden fish head continued.

"Citizens! Is this robust young man beautiful?"

"Beautiful!!"

This time, a third of the citizens enthusiastically responded.

And that young man, with somewhat dark skin but well-proportioned features and a sturdy figure, also smiled warmly.

The scene shifts from one to another, with each citizen's photo being loudly hailed as beautiful by those enamored with beauty!

From a few individuals to a third, then half, and the majority.

The debate over beauty lasted only twenty minutes.

Yet, the citizens in the square seemed to have embraced a new standard of beauty.

But such a change sent the sixteen hundred figurines into a frenzy.

"No, no, no, no! How can you just call someone beautiful at will?! You haven't met the standard! You haven't met the standard!"

The golden fishtail flashing brightly on the new big screen retorted: "Oh, but now there's a new benchmark, isn't there?"

"Why should we adhere to the old standard?"

The sharply shouting male figurine suddenly went pale, standing thunderstruck, unsure of how to respond.

Indeed, if they all judged beauty based on the benchmark, then which is the true standard of beauty, the new or the old one?

The sixteen hundred individuals chasing after the benchmark began to feel uneasy, terrified, and resistant.

What to do? A new standard of beauty has emerged! How can they become beautiful and keep up with the new standard?

They absolutely cannot become ugly! They must remain beautiful forever!

Remain beautiful forever!

So what's the new trend?

What is the new beauty trend?

[Everyone! Do you see? What we find beautiful in our hearts is indeed beautiful! Each of us has our own beauty! All of us are beautiful!!]

The beauty-enthused citizens shout out loud!

"That's right! What feels beautiful in our hearts is indeed beautiful! All of us are beautiful!!"

Then, these little people who had been frantically chasing the beauty trend lifted their heads.

The new trend is... everyone is beautiful! Then they, too, must possess their own beauty!!

So, when the golden fish head once again raised his arm high, these sixteen hundred previously most stubborn and proud citizens also slowly revealed passionate expressions.

[Family, look! Is this person beautiful?]

"Beautiful!"

They, along with the other citizens, raised their hands.

Thus, the entire City of Beauty was submerged in a sea of praise.

At that moment, the young man wearing the golden fish head on the big screen pulled off his golden fish head mask.

His face, reverted to its original appearance, bore a warm and enchanting smile as he said:

"Family! Am I beautiful?"

"Beautiful!"

With a stamp of his foot, the large screen beneath him displayed the photos of sixty-seven individuals in succession.

"Family! Are they beautiful?"

"Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!"

At that moment, the smile on the young man's face reached its zenith.

"That's right, people like us, who are kind, confident, brave, and strong, are the most beautiful."

As all the citizens fervently shouted that word at Chen Sijin, the entire City of Beauty seemed to quiver.

And when the citizens collectively declared the sixty-seven exiles in the photo wall beautiful, amidst the exiles' immense shock and disbelief, they heard the hoarse and strange world announcement from the sky above the City of Beauty.

[Congratulations to Chen Sijin for gaining the recognition of beauty from all citizens, your fame spreading far and wide.

The city lord will soon grant you the highest honor for your beauty.]

The exiles: !!

[Congratulations to Feng Tianhuo, Lu Jun, Zhou Mo... for gaining the recognition of beauty from all citizens, your fame spreading far and wide.

The city lord will soon grant you the highest honor for your beauty.]

The exiles: !!!!!

"Dad!! From now on, you are my real dad, ahhh! No, even my real dad isn't as awesome as you, ahhh!"

Instantly, the Eternal Heart No. 1 group chat exploded with messages.

It was an explosion of frenzied screams and flattery.

And when the global announcement sounded, or rather when Chen Shijin removed his golden fish head mask to reveal his true face, the golden sunset that was about to usher in the night over the City of Beauty had already turned into a blood-red color that struck fear into those who saw it.

The All-Seeing Eye, opened.

*

In the City of Gold.

On the Golden Square.

The exiles who had been waiting there witnessed the scene they had hoped to see.

"My god! The All-Seeing Eye has indeed opened again! The one to initiate the World Battle is... ah!"

"As expected, it's him again?"

"It's him! I'll never forget that image of him flipping off with that face for the rest of my life!"

"Impressive. So, which high-level devourer's World Battle has he initiated this time?"

The one who asked this question was a man of extremely tall and thin stature, whose presence was intimidating, making him seem sinister and dreadful just by standing there, despite the polite and gentle smile on his face.

A female exile next to him, playing with her beautiful, sharp nails, spoke indifferently: "Who knows? It's probably one of those high-level worlds that are weak and can't take a hit."

"It's hilarious, really. Just because of some good luck with three simple high-level devourer worlds, he's treated like a savior. He probably hasn't even seen what a true ruling-level devourer is like, has he?"

"Not to mention..."

The woman snapped her sharp nail, which instantly regenerated.

Not to mention, above the ruling-level devourers, there are king-level and god-level ones.

"Truly, ignorance is..."

"It's the City of Beauty."

The woman's speech abruptly stopped.

She suddenly looked up, her voice becoming sharp, "Say that again? Which devourer world has initiated the World Battle this time?"

The exile standing in front of the All-Seeing Eye repeated: "It's the City of Beauty. Ranked fifth among the ruling-level devourer worlds."

Thus, even the tall, thin man with the indifferent smile tightened his lips, staring seriously at the youth standing on that giant smartphone screen through the All-Seeing Eye.

"...Ah. So, he might actually have the potential to become humanity's savior."

The woman with sharp nails sneered upon hearing this.

"That is, assuming he doesn't encounter us."

A exile with horns on his head burst into laughter: "Too bad, I have a feeling he'll definitely run into us."

"There goes the savior."

"Hmph, so you think this guy, who just arrived in the land of exile a few days ago, can defeat the devouring core of the City of Beauty?"

That's a madly powerful entity, ranked in the top five among the ruling-level devourers.

*

When the global announcement was made, the fervor of the City of Beauty seemed to chill instantly because of it.

The citizens' shouts stopped abruptly.

And at that moment, the entire City of Beauty shifted from day to night instantly. In this darkness, with the sound of heavy footsteps that seemed to tread upon hearts, the lights of the City of Beauty's square began to light up one by one.

Thus, in that darkness, Chen Shijin saw the approaching figure... step by step.

Indeed, it appears to be a person.

Likely the ruler of the City of Beauty.

This world's core is different from the previous three encounters, manifesting in human form.

And what troubled Chen Shijin was the immense pressure and threat he felt just by seeing this figure slowly approaching them.

...It seemed like an unbeatable opponent.

No, it was definitely unbeatable.

The approaching figure seemed very confident in itself, as Chen Shijin could almost see the "ruler's" lips curling up in a malicious, cold smile.

Chen Shijin: "......"

Two seconds of silence.

Then it's time for the ultimate cheeky tactic!

At the moment when all the exiles were tensely on guard, Chen Shijin shouted: "Family!"

"We're here!"

"Don't struggle! Now, let's all transform into human-sized fleas together!"

"What, what?!"

Lu Jun's scream, along with his transformation, echoed throughout the entire Beauty Square.

"Transformation what? What transformation?! Cousin, I don't want to become a giant humanoid flea, ahhhh—"

A blood-red spear appeared in Chen Sijin's hand.

He grinned, "Too late."

For that one transformation, he used up ninety percent of his energy.

The remaining ten percent would be spent using the blood-sucking, energy-swallowing spear in his hand to fight to the death with this worthless city lord!

"What's so bad about being a flea? High attack, high agility, high defense, and comes with bloodsucking recovery, isn't it stronger than being a fragile mosquito?"

At this time, the other sixty-seven exiles in the group chat had already started their flea transformation under the power of the word spirit.

Though temporary, everyone could clearly feel the increase in agility and defense, and...

"Hahaha! Holy shit, hahaha! I feel like I could throw a fire chain and suck blood with it! Let's see who's the unlucky one to be burned and drained by me!"

Feng Tianhuo's crazed laughter was followed by him leaping towards the city lord, his usual fireball transforming into a surging fire dragon, roaring as it attacked the disdainful core figure.

The fire dragon wrapped around the city lord but didn't turn him to ash; the city lord even had a moment to glance at the fire dragon and scoffed "ugly" before extinguishing it with a slap.

A single palm extinguished the fire dragon.

However, in the instant the ruler extinguished the fire dragon, his face showed a slightly distorted expression.

Feng Tianhuo burst into laughter: "No problem! I extinguished it but I absorbed energy, haha! God, I knew bloodsucking energy is really useful! Paired with fire, it feels great!"

"What are you waiting for, my family! Group attack now!"

Feng Tianhuo's expression even became a bit ferocious at this moment: "Haven't you heard of a very profound saying?"

"With enough ants, even an elephant can be bitten to death!"

The moment this saying was uttered, Chen Shijin who had teleported behind the ruler made his move, witnessing a -100 actualized number floating above the ruler's head.

And the total energy value of the ruler's core is 1,000,000.

Chen Flea, who hit and ran: "......"

A strong smile, it's just a grind, right?

The opponent loses a hundred, he gains a hundred.

With persistence, the ruler will be worn down to a needle!

Following him, the remaining mutant flea exiles also howled and charged forward!

They were almost blown away at the first contact, after all, their levels were too low, and their strength too weak; even a successful attack could only drain 10 points of the ruler's energy.

But what does that matter!!

Every exile blown away was not scared but thrilled instead!

As long as they can't be killed! As long as they can run fast! As long as they can suck blood! They could keep fighting until the end of time!!!

There is no being more enduring than the [Exiles].

Thus, the exiles watching from beyond this world, through the all-seeing eye, witnessed a battle unlike any they had seen before, an unsatisfying, drawn-out struggle that lasted a full seven days.

Initially, the exiles found the dozens of flea-transformed exiles laughably overconfident.

But when Feng Tianhuo tore off the city lord's arm with laughter on the third day, the exiles fell silent.

On the fifth day, when Lei Hu traded half of his body in a life-for-life fight for the city lord's other arm, the observing exiles began to feel stirred.

And on the last day.

When the youth holding the blood-red spear pierced the heart of the now tragically beautiful city lord amidst the collapsing energy flows of the devouring world.

All the exiles saw the youth's eyes, tired yet incredibly bright, blood still marking the corner.

Those eyes, through the crimson all-seeing eye, looked out over the entire realm of exile.

"Everyone, welcome to Eternal Heart."

"Also, starting today, we will begin retaliating against the Devourers."

"Please be prepared."