Chapter 1077: Death of Silver

At the edge of the Boundless Realm.

A blood-soaked, disheveled figure stumbled slowly towards the city gates.

His elegant British overcoat was in tatters, and his snow-white shirt was stained crimson. The Silver King's face was distorted and disfigured from the slap, almost unrecognizable. He was a pathetic and grotesque sight.

“Chao Zai… Chen Ling… Chao Zai…”

The Silver King repeatedly muttered these words, moving forward in a daze. His consciousness was blurred; he had even forgotten to use his 'Thievery Art' to teleport away. Only the instinct of fear, deeply etched into his heart, continued to drive his legs out of the city.

He did not notice,

a young man in a red theatrical robe silently following him.

“Chen Ling… Chao Zai… Chen Ling…”

The Silver King's murmurs were drowned out by the wind. Memories, deeply etched into his mind, seemed to be pulled by an unseen force, gushing forth in a continuous stream.

“Look, he doesn’t look like us… Why are his eyes this color? His nose bridge is so high!”

“His hair is curly, like seaweed, so disgusting…”

“Don’t you know? Li Laide’s mother is from a Western country, just like it says in the textbooks!”

“Li Laide, does your mom really only eat bread and raw meat? I heard Western women get fat when they get old, swelling up like pigs. Will your mom break the bed when she sleeps?”

“Li Laide might turn into a big pig-head too, hahahaha…”

“I heard many Westerners died during the Great Calamity, and the rest became our slaves in the Boundless Realm!”

“Did you hear that, Li Laide! From now on, you’ll call us master at school! Otherwise, we’ll throw you and your mother out of the Realm! Hahahaha…”

The Silver King continued his slow, stumbling walk. The memories pulled from his mind gradually transformed into actual scenes.

In the school corridor, blurry figures of children crowded behind him, pointing at his back and laughing loudly.

“Damn it… Damn it!!” The Silver King's chest heaved violently in his dazed state.

“I’m not a slave! My mom isn’t a slave either!! You can’t bully me!! Get lost!! All of you, get lost!!!”

The Silver King frantically swung his arms as if to tear the surrounding children to shreds, but the scene shifted. He was kicked to the ground, and muddy feet mercilessly trampled over him.

“It was him!! He stole the class fund!!”

“Yes, it was him! I saw him sneak to the class monitor’s desk after class and take a lot of money!”

“Five hundred… No! Six hundred!! He stole six hundred!”

“He’s the son of a slave, a bastard with Western blood; only he could do something so despicable! Teacher, just give us a little more time, and we’ll make him spit out the stolen money!!”

The young boy, whose figure overlapped with the Silver King’s, stared intently at the blurry crowd around him, his eyes filled with deep hatred and resentment.

“…They all say I’m a thief… So I’ll show them what a thief does.”

That night, the boy stood before four blood-soaked corpses, a short knife in his hand. In a fit of rage, he hacked off their black eyes, delicate noses, dark hair, and yellow skin, one after another.

The mutilated features, skin, and hair were crookedly glued onto a cardboard, forming an eerie Asian face. The boy tied this cardboard to his own face and furiously stomped on the lifeless corpses.

“Now I have a face just like yours! How’s that?! Are you satisfied??”

“Your faces and identities, they’re all mine now! I’m the master now!!”

“No one can bully me…”

“I, Li Laide, will always be the ‘master’!!”

The young man in the red theatrical robe stood quietly under a distant tree, observing Li Laide’s 'carnival'. The Shinto Star of the Way of Thieves lit up in the sky, and the Silver King stepped onto the path, moving step by step towards his future.

He witnessed the birth of a genius of the Way of Thieves. He watched the Silver King transform from a fugitive thief into a renowned expert of the Way of Thieves, forging a fearsome reputation across various realms through extreme self-interest and almost limitless unscrupulous methods.

These past events drifted out of the stumbling Silver King’s mind like invisible ribbons, intertwining in Red King’s hands, converging into a thick stack of pages.

—A Short Biography of Li Laide.

The Silver King suddenly bumped into something, and a flicker of clarity finally appeared in his dazed eyes.

Recognizing the red theatrical robe and the young man's youthful face, the Silver King paused for a moment, then spoke with a contorted expression:

“What… did you do to me?”

“I merely collected your ‘story’,” Red King replied calmly. “This is your last value in this world…”

There seemed to be no emotion in Red King’s eyes; he looked at the Silver King as if he were already dead.

A shroud of death enveloped the Silver King. This wasn't the first time his already collapsing consciousness seemed to spiral completely out of control, as if he had returned to the night he embarked on the Way of Thieves, laughing madly:

“Chao Zai can’t kill me… and neither can you!! No one can kill me!!”

“I am the Silver King, and I will become the master of this world!!!”

Thwack—!

Red King’s hand plunged directly through the Silver King’s chest. Scarlet blood spread and dripped from his pale, delicate hand, quickly staining the ground crimson.

The Silver King’s voice abruptly cut off. He stared blankly down at the arm plunged into his body, his distorted face contorted in agony.

“Become the master of this world?” Red King said flatly. “You’re far from it.”

Red King abruptly pulled his arm out, scattering fragments of torn organs across the ground and staining his theatrical robe crimson. The Silver King’s life force was completely extinguished; his body, utterly emptied, collapsed stiffly to the ground.

Red King calmly took a handkerchief from his pocket, wiped the blood from his hand, and walked away without looking back.

“Diamond 10.”

Red King’s voice echoed down the street, “Collect Li Laide’s body.”

Several coffin lids rose from the ground, enveloping the Silver King’s body. Diamond 10 emerged from the corner, carrying a heavy coffin lid, and slowly closed it.

As the lid moved, the dim daylight slowly faded from the Silver King’s corpse within the coffin, as if he were gradually descending into an endless abyss.

Thud—

The coffin sealed, perfectly airtight.