Chapter 1138: Goodbye Thinking of Disaster

Chapter 1138: Si Zai Returns

A red silhouette swept across the sky. Chen Ling, whose body had expanded to its extreme, without hesitation, slammed his palm onto the head of the largest centipede!

The overflowing Red Star Wish Power penetrated the body of this shadow centipede. The latter immediately began to howl in pain, its dense centipede legs thrashing wildly, and its long body coiling on the ground. Its dark surface glowed with an eerie red, as if burned.

Chen Ling knew this centipede had reached its limit, so he rushed towards the next one. However, he soon felt this was too slow. Countless red papers directly seized these centipedes of all sizes, drawing them all towards him!

Hundreds of centipedes piled up, engulfing Chen Ling's figure and forming a towering pyramid. An eerie crimson glow, like a red-hot iron ball, subtly emanated outwards from the deepest part of the centipede pyramid...

"Cough, cough, cough..."

Black killing intent intertwined around Jian Changsheng. In a trance, he seemed to return to that dream of the muddy swamp...

He saw himself sinking deeper and deeper into the mud, while not far from him, a figure became increasingly clear. The former Jian Changsheng had not detected its presence, but after the events of the Boundless Realm, he began to perceive the changes happening within his body.

"No matter who you are... I decide what happens with this body!!"

Jian Changsheng clenched his fingers tightly into the ground, as if struggling with all his might. Gradually, the killing intent intertwined around him began to dissipate, and completely vanished several minutes later.

Beads of sweat trickled down Jian Changsheng's cheeks as he stumbled and sat on the ground, letting out a long sigh...

"How are you? Feeling better?" Jiang Xiaohua asked worriedly, leaning in beside him.

"...I'm fine now."

Jian Changsheng looked down at his palms and muttered, "Damn it, this killing intent is powerful, but it can backfire..."

"That's not backfiring; you simply don't know how to use that power yet. Improper control will only harm yourself," Jack of Diamonds slowly explained. "Although I don't know where your killing intent comes from, it's all external power, and it's not that simple to convert external power into your own..."

Jack of Diamonds paused for a moment, then looked back towards the centipede pyramid.

"Of course, with the exception of certain prodigies..."

At this moment, the depths of the centipede pyramid no longer emitted mysterious red light. Massive, grotesque centipedes crawled down from its exterior. The closer the centipedes were to the interior, the more their surfaces glowed with an eerie crimson, and their bodies were several times larger than their original size.

The largest centipede, which had initially carried Chen Ling, was now entirely crimson. Its centipede legs, originally broken off by itself, had regrown and were now as sharp and hard as blades...

As the other centipedes dispersed, this coiled centipede finally uncoiled, its body reaching up to a hundred meters in length. Its massive body stood upright, comparable to a skyscraper. Its aura had also surged from its original Tier 6 to Tier 7; just a glance was enough to make one's scalp tingle.

In the center of this calamity legion, a figure clad in a theatrical robe slowly stood up.

"Huu..."

Chen Ling let out a long breath. The wounds that had burst open on his skin gradually healed. He swept back his disheveled hair, his eyes glowing with a faint crimson light.

He had taken such a potent tonic that he almost injured himself in the process...

Due to the nature of the Tier 6 performance, Chen Ling could not directly advance. However, most of the Red Star Wish Power had accumulated within his body. Once he completed the performance, the converted spiritual power would still allow his rank to advance rapidly. As for the excess, it had been distributed into the bodies of these shadow centipedes.

And whether it was an illusion or not, ever since Chen Ling shared the Red Star Wish Power from his body with these shadow centipedes, a certain connection seemed to have been established between him and them... a closer bond, transcending that of "king and servant."

Just as Chen Ling intended to delve deeper into this connection, an anomaly suddenly occurred!

A storm, seemingly from nothingness, suddenly swept past Chen Ling's ears. He turned his head to look and saw three young girls standing around the bonfire, each holding a withered head in their hands, their eyes completely hollow...

"Xiao Tao?!"

Chen Ling's brows furrowed instantly.

Logically, these three girls should have been guarded by Xiao Bai at the bottom of the well, yet they had appeared unnoticed. Furthermore, they were each holding the head of a cardinal. Xiao Tao, in particular, was holding the archbishop's head, and with both hands, she forcefully twisted it!

Crack—!!

The three delicate girls, with unknown strength, forcefully broke open the three withered heads, revealing the somewhat shriveled brains inside...

At the same time, mysterious and obscure words began to emanate from their mouths, as if performing a mystical ritual.

The embers of the almost extinguished bonfire suddenly flew up again, as if swept by a storm, surging up into the sky around Chen Ling... Chen Ling had heard this kind of ritual incantation before; in the Mortal Realm, those followers of the Crimson Sky Cult used this very ritual to remotely summon the Abyss of Ghostly Mirth!

"Are they trying to summon a world-ending calamity?!"

Jack of Diamonds reacted first, his figure about to shoot out, but it was already too late.

A storm from the depths of the soul erupted from the chaotic lines that filled the eyes of Xiao Tao and the other two girls, directly enveloping Chen Ling's figure!

All of this happened too quickly, as if it were a pre-arranged scheme. The chaotic storm swirled around Chen Ling, its aftermath scattering the debris across the ground...

The brains in the three girls' hands turned into dust at a visible rate. But perhaps because Chen Ling had already absorbed most of the Red Star Wish Power from these brains, the three brains combined only lasted for less than two seconds.

The moment these brains dissipated, the tangled lines in Xiao Tao and the other two girls' eyes also vanished, and they collapsed, unconscious.

"Xiao Tao!! Miaomiao!! Linglong!!!"

A completely dark silhouette of a young boy hurried over from afar, his face turning pale with fright at the sight. He immediately rushed forward to check their breathing. Fortunately, none of the three were in any life-threatening danger at this moment.

"Who are they? Remnants of the Crimson Sky Cult?" Sun Bumin asked with a frown.

"I don't know..." Jack of Diamonds shook his head. "From their aura, they are Fusers, likely hostages captured by the Crimson Sky Cult... They might even be from the Fusing Faction, but I've been away from the Fusing Faction for too long; I'm not sure which members they have now."

"The biggest problem right now is Red Heart, isn't it?! He seems to be trapped by something!" Jian Changsheng said with a frown, looking at the figure engulfed by the storm.

"No, he's still here... his consciousness has just been pulled elsewhere."

Jack of Diamonds looked at the scattered dust on the ground, his expression showing some relief.

"Fortunately, the Red Star Wish Power of those three bishops had been drained," he said. "Even if they initiated the summoning ritual, it could only barely last for an instant, having almost no effect... But just now, there was indeed a fleeting aura of a world-ending calamity."

"Which world-ending calamity was it?"

"Storm Island, Si Zai."