Chapter 198: Folded Paper Man

The moment he heard the voice, Jian Changsheng felt his scalp tingle.

As night approached, a paper figure suddenly appeared in the deserted forest and, what's more, it could speak. Had Jian Changsheng not been a man of experience and strong will, he would likely have been scared out of his wits right then.

Without hesitation, he burst out of the doghouse, turning and sprinting away from the paper figure. As he ran, his short sword landed in his palm, and with a forceful slash, scarlet blood immediately welled up.

He vigorously swung his blood-soaked hand, sending several drops of blood flying. The next instant, his figure vanished from where he stood.

Jian Changsheng wasn't foolish; the paper figure couldn't be a natural phenomenon. Someone was clearly manipulating it, and whoever possessed such an ability was undoubtedly a wielder of a Divine Path, though certainly not the Martial Divine Path.

In Aurora City, the sudden appearance of another Divine Path wielder, especially one seemingly targeting him, meant the identity of his opponent was already clear.

Was it those outsiders hired by the Starfall Merchant Guild? But Liu Chen had said they weren't deployed!

Jian Changsheng cursed Liu Chen in his heart, regretting only that he had been too efficient in killing him. Now, he suspected that strange bird he'd encountered on his way back was the problem. Otherwise, he hadn't seen anyone, so how else could they have tracked him all the way here?

Jian Changsheng activated the Blood Droplet Teleportation twice in quick succession, covering hundreds of meters in mere seconds. The original paper figure was now out of sight, but he didn't stop.

Jian Changsheng knew full well how formidable the outsiders from the Starfall Merchant Guild were. To think he could shake them off with such a meager effort was pure delusion.

As if to confirm Jian Changsheng's premonition, the next moment, he felt a sudden weight on his shoulder, as though something had latched onto his back.

Jian Changsheng's pupils contracted slightly, and he instinctively turned his head.

He saw the vivid face of the paper figure pressed against his back, its empty, eerie gaze fixed on him.

The instant their gazes met, Jian Changsheng’s heart seemed to skip a beat. He couldn't comprehend how the paper figure had instantaneously caught up to him after he'd covered such a distance, but he had no time to ponder it.

The paper figure gently raised a hand and patted his shoulder. A muffled thud, like distant thunder, resonated from within Jian Changsheng, and half of his body instantly went numb!

Jian Changsheng didn't even register pain before his body lost balance and he crashed heavily to the ground.

The paper figure, which had been clinging to his back, floated up lightly like a kite the moment he fell, hanging upside down from the tip of a nearby tree branch. Its minimal weight barely caused the branch to bend.

"Who are you!?" Jian Changsheng struggled to his feet, his eyes bloodshot.

Sensing Jian Changsheng's severe injuries, the Blood Robe activated furiously, channeling a continuous surge of power through his body as a murderous aura permeated the deserted woods.

The paper figure showed no intention of speaking. It simply hung silently from the branch, swaying gently in the cold wind, like a forgotten New Year's print.

Jian Changsheng gritted his teeth, stomped hard on the ground, and launched himself like a cannonball towards the paper figure.

Since he couldn't escape even with the Blood Droplet Teleportation, he had no option but a direct confrontation. Jian Changsheng gripped his short sword, and a cold flash of steel streaked towards the paper figure's face with astonishing speed.

The instant the sword's edge was about to make contact, the paper figure trembled slightly and vanished from Jian Changsheng's sight.

No, it wasn't a disappearance at all. Jian Changsheng watched as the figure "unfolded," as if disassembled into several creased sheets of paper in mid-air. These then transformed into slender "snakes" that instantly coiled around his body, wrapping around the arm holding the short sword.

Jian Changsheng froze. He had never conceived of such a possibility. The sight before him completely transcended his understanding of "combat." When had the straightforward Martial Divine Path ever fought such an outlandish battle?

Well... except when he faced Chen Ling.

Jian Changsheng instinctively tried to swing his sword to cut the paper strips binding him, but several of them instantly entwined into chain-like restraints, completely immobilizing his hands and feet. Another strip wrapped directly around his neck, hoisting him onto a tree branch.

Jian Changsheng struggled violently. His strength, which could tear through steel bars, was now useless against these paper strips. Deep marks appeared on his neck as an intense sensation of suffocation overwhelmed him.

Only then did he glimpse a hunched figure slowly approaching through the dim, dense forest.

It was a gaunt, pale man, whose back was severely hunched, and who walked with a limp, resembling a congenitally malnourished refugee.

In his hand, he was expertly toying with a sticky note, folding and manipulating it. One moment it was a human figure, the next a paper crane, then a flower.

His drooping eyes lifted slightly to glance at Jian Changsheng hanging from the tree, betraying not the slightest emotional fluctuation.

"This one... to be taken alive," he murmured.

As he spoke, the paper strip around Jian Changsheng's neck naturally loosened, and he plummeted from mid-air, hitting the ground with a heavy thud.

Jian Changsheng, his face purple, gasped for air, staring intently at the pale man beside him. He wanted to get up and continue fighting, but he couldn't break free from the paper snakes binding his limbs.

The pale man paid him no heed. As the sticky note at his fingertips unfolded, sheets of paper began to sprout from the soil beneath his feet, coiling and wrapping around Jian Changsheng as if alive, gradually encasing him like a white coffin.

Seeing this, Jian Changsheng seemed to realize something, and fear flashed in his eyes.

"A domain... You're Tier Four?!"

As the pale man folded the sticky note at his fingertips into a small cuboid, Jian Changsheng's body completely vanished. All that remained was a solitary white paper figure lying on the ground, trembling incessantly.

The pale man slowly crouched down, pulled a red pen from his pocket, and drew a pair of red eyes onto the paper figure. Instantly, the figure became motionless and silent.

A deathly silence fell over the forest.

The pale man reached out, placed the weightless paper figure on his hunched back, and walked silently into another part of the dead, dark forest, like an undertaker heading to a funeral.

"Two more left," he muttered to himself. "This time, no survivors."