A small smile spread across Cel's face - the first genuine one in longer than he could remember.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡel3h0xmkxD
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The blessing. Finally.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuTMhsUDIDX
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After everything he'd endured, every nightmare survived, every wound that should have killed him - he was about to receive what he'd earned. What he'd bled for.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnTWEymA19Y
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The moon hung full and radiant above, its pale light washing over the cracked earth of his soul's landscape.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4zqdY1rSd3
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"Please follow me, Chosen One." Selina’s voice carried gentle warmth as she gestured toward the mist with graceful fingers.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpeZpM04Sjf
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Cel's breath steadied, though his heart quickened with something that might have been anticipation. He nodded once, that small smile still tugging at his lips.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYzEyrdj4Th
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She turned, white robes trailing across broken ground as she moved toward the mist with unhurried elegance. Cel followed, his bare feet padding softly against fractured stone.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG7HBawQMpt
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They walked in silence through the transformed landscape. Small flowers with bluish-white petals bloomed from the deepest cracks, reaching toward moonlight. Jagged stones jutted up at irregular intervals - ruins carved into the depths of who he'd become.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuJYd00E4vt
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Cel's mind drifted toward what awaited him.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH1uxPrILB4
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A blessing.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAwAmJe0zTh
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Soon the goddess's power would be woven into his very being.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7sytaDUzy5
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This power had always been a part of his world - expected, almost mundane among nobles. Divine gifts granted to those called by the gods, transforming the Chosen into something more than human.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX2czHsEue1
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But he'd never truly considered what they were. What it meant to be bound to a deity.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2G9YiiutgU
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Three factors shaped every blessing - the foundation that determined what a Chosen One could become.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9MUBfyCPlO
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First: the nature of the god.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0cWIOO6ifU
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The Mountain God granted strength and endurance. The Storm Goddess gave lightning and wind.The Sun God's blessed were always strong, proud, radiant. Warriors who commanded fire and light.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvGx5ieB9Jr
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He'd spent his entire life studying them, memorizing their achievements, listening to endless sermons about their legendary deeds.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpBbpKn4jHE
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But the Moon Goddess?74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4eZ21ujZ6w
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She was different.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrn82hKxYRg
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Unlike other gods, each with an entire Clan devoted to them, the Moon Goddess had none. No bloodlines carried her favor. No buildings bore her name. She'd had few Chosen throughout history, and even fewer records of what they'd accomplished.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNQob33H1Ig
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The reason was simple.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgPdSz16nOV
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They had been weak.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwN7UHBEjwk
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Where other Chosen reshaped the world - commanding tides, healing mortal wounds, razing plains with fire - those who served the Moon Goddess had left no mark. Their abilities - whatever they'd been - hadn't shaken the world. Hadn't carved legacies worth remembering.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaE5tPIduhS
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They'd lived and died as footnotes.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8HIkxWPMkT
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The irony might have made him laugh if it didn't make him so angry. Cast out by the people who raised him. Saved instead by the only deity he knew nothing about.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvgfkmr7z85
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Selina's figure moved steadily ahead. The mist parted for her as though bowing in deference.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqZ76YnUHjx
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Cel watched her for a moment before his thoughts moved to the second factor: 74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡK8LxZ81Xsp
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The rank of the priest.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡePP6W81u0y
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Unlike the rigid hierarchies found in most hierarchies, priestly ranks held no special titles, no formal order. A servant of the gods could be rank 1 or rank 100 - the number itself was all that mattered.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwMCYAWPeE5
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But that number meant everything.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBU9ZkiEot2
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The rank indicated proximity to their deity. How close they stood to the divine.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvXsapc8g6I
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And which priest was sent to a Chosen One revealed how much the god valued them.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvwzDxISLpb
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The gods dispatched their most trusted servants only to those they deemed worthy. A newly Called receiving a high-ranked guide? That was a declaration of divine favor - a promise of investment and expectation.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLHBB3VaH29
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Conversely, someone of lower standing suggested... less. Not rejection, but neither was it embrace.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGHK1077tsg
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And this hierarchy directly influenced the quality of blessings bestowed.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡoUSc9coZdZ
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At lower ranks, the paragons and artifacts granted were functional but limited - straightforward abilities within the deity's domain. Useful, certainly. Yet unremarkable.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0n8EgULk2f
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Higher ranks yielded far more. Through a rank 40 priestess, a god might grant paragons that reshaped battlefields. Through a rank 10, they could forge legends whose names echoed through history.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg6lDxKq8Zd
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At the pinnacle, the gods held nothing back. Paragons of devastating power. Artifacts of impossible grace. Blessings worthy of those they deemed truly exceptional.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKgpOJB1iQO
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Cel studied Selina's back as they walked. What rank did she hold? Her presence carried weight - certainty that suggested she wasn't newly appointed. But beyond that, he couldn't guess.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPn6WNUopSl
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Priests only revealed such information after the first blessing - a rule dictated by the gods themselves for reasons mortals couldn't grasp.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlfAMbffTYN
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His fingers curled at his sides.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcyDBkvrCja
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And the third factor:74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxihY4jtMOm
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The compatibility between the deity and their Chosen One.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ77oGo3FZE0
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This was the part no one understood. Even the royal family, with their vast library and generations of recorded history, had no answer to why certain people were chosen.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiIPpwtVvmN
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Some claimed personality - that gods selected those who reflected their own nature. Others insisted on fate, predetermined and inescapable. And then there were those who believed it was arbitrary. That mortals were nothing but playthings for forces beyond comprehension.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡobkRypL9ZV
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Cel wasn't sure what he believed. Maybe all those theories were wrong. Maybe they were all right.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRAhUhwBknw
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In the end, gods remained an enigma. Everything humanity claimed to know was guesswork dressed as certainty. Fragments stitched together over centuries.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqFCnXw68pn
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Only the priests could claim true connection to the divine. And even they spoke in riddles, revealing only what lay within their god-given authority.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡroNmgNWubM
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This secrecy made divine knowledge one of the world's most valuable commodities. Kings, warlords, scholars would pay fortunes for even the faintest whisper of celestial truth.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfez5nMPAg1
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Everyone wanted answers. Few existed. And in that desperation, lies flourished.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN6TIBZSeqE
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His stomach churned with familiar revulsion.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTXjFnBb23K
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False doctrines. Fabricated revelations. Entire faiths built on deliberate misinformation. Humanity had drowned itself in deception.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8pqecOX6V6
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And every level of society fed the rot.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSHYsrRGZzN
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The nobles controlled access to knowledge, yes - they dictated who was worthy and silenced threatening voices. Their monopoly turned belief into power, worship into currency, gods themselves into weapons.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡT47BqGrwzO
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But the common people?74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgu3CbRxja5
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They weren't innocent victims.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW4UQ2m1DYH
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False prophets rose from peasant villages, claiming divine visions for coins. Sects multiplied like weeds, each convinced they alone understood divine will - demanding obedience in exchange for salvation. Merchants sold 'artifacts’ to the desperate - splinters of 'sacred' wood, water from 'blessed' springs, all fabricated for profit. 74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBIY1tpW742
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Faith twisted by greed became poison that seeped through the entire kingdom.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhrHiSTUtwb
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That was why understanding had stagnated. Why humanity, despite centuries of devotion, still grasped blindly at truth's edges. Because no one wanted truth - they wanted comfort, wealth, power, whatever lie served their needs.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYb1wy4Ot6C
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Almost laughable. People begged gods for salvation while ensuring their own downfall.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPfwuUP5R90
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And through it all, the gods remained silent.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF5hDKyez34
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Did they care? Or were they simply indifferent?74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXBbyYg5wEo
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That question haunted him more than any other.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCJZlYwGu9O
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What if the gods saw exactly what he did? 74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZpAR7TZSVx
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Every lie, every corruption, every twisted doctrine - and remained silent because humanity had earned its ignorance. Not punishment. Just... consequences. 74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrqg1LwSMgY
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And Cel, no matter how much he wished otherwise, was part of that same corrupted race.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8N59cArEy0
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Would he be any different?74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyoC92wNoCD
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A bitter smirk pulled at his lips. He wanted to believe so.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDjef57DVyq
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But he knew better.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡu2lIH9Pkuu
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Lies weren't just tools of the powerful. Sometimes they were the only way to survive. If he returned to civilization, he'd wield deception as readily as those he despised.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIx1iuDKUXB
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He had to.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwgrD2wwvJR
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Ahead, Selina stopped.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡywo2u3xWgZ
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Cel nearly collided with her before catching himself.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4E0DCm8OEg
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She turned to face him, white robes trailing through the mist like they were woven from it.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGaRCqErDcP
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"We are nearly there, Chosen One."74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjOTPAqD7Yi
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Selina gestured forward into the mist, but Cel remained still.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDeknwkEiNT
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She paused, waiting.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3SrSYPREwB
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"I have questions," he said. "About the trial."74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlyip1HtE6M
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After a moment, she lowered her hand and faced him fully. "Of course. Please, ask."74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjoVuvqzUKb
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Cel studied her masked face. "When I was dying in that cavern, I heard a voice. Female. Sharp and commanding - telling me to get up." He paused. "At first, I thought it was you. But the tone was different. Harsher."74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSyLUoZCjvx
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Silence stretched between them.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVUBIaEGF1H
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"Who was it?"74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3N5KdMJ77h
74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6PHcRoFnMI
"I am sorry, Chosen One. This does not lie within my authority."74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡldRtMZCspv
74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ98GEYPOFBs
He was silent for a moment, then moved on. "The moon appeared right as I was dying. No trigger I could see - unless dying itself was the trigger. Was the trial simply to survive long enough? Or was there something else I was supposed to do?"74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6zlccnkxmP
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"That, too, does not lie within my authority," Selina said, her tone carrying something that might have been regret.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡznWg2UDw48
74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW2FuwVD4Mg
Cel hummed softly - half-amused, half-resigned. "Can you tell me anything about what I just went through?"74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPRPIvfTDIy
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"Only what you experienced yourself. The trial's purpose belongs to the goddess alone."74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUTEl2lvZNl
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He let out a quiet breath. 74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ76CNgZYPJa
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He expected as much, and he didn't really care. The trial was over. He'd survived. Whatever secrets it held, whatever meanings he'd missed - none of that mattered anymore.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFZFoTTKZRB
74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR0pKO4GMoX
"Alright," he said finally. "I'm ready."74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ4FdOY36My
74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXGaNX45gEm
Selina turned, gesturing forward once more. "Then let us continue."74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiOyacLmXDr
74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRtEi7931dA
They walked in silence, moonlight breaking through the mist in shifting rays. The air grew colder. Thinner. Each step felt lighter, as if the ground beneath his feet was becoming less real, less solid.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHalHPLC4cT
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Then the mist parted.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCsSfZMbCEC
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Cel stopped.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXMJEbpnQSA
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The ground was carpeted in bluish-white flowers that swayed gently through the mist, their petals drawing in moonlight and releasing it in steady pulses. At the center, a focused beam of moonlight descended - so strong and concentrated it almost seemed tangible.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRV2pzDrwpV
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At first sight, he knew that this was a sacred place.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFk56w7zZPB
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Selina stepped forward.74Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ738hzTYB2f
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"We have arrived, Chosen One."1234 copyright protection70ＰＥＮＡＮＡrT0b7hUhMr 尼

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