Chapter 523: Time Trap

Chen Ling’s eyebrows lifted slightly.

“...Yes,” Chen Ling chuckled. “If you’re scared, you don’t have to come in. Anyway, your gun is already destroyed. We can just stand here, far apart, and see who exhausts themselves first and dies.”

Nie Yu’s eyes grew colder, especially the wolf-like gaze superimposed in the air, which was frantically devouring his remaining mental energy. Faint wisps of light flickered within it.

The Wild Hunt constantly overtaxed Nie Yu's body, which was already at its limit. If he continued to endure, he would undoubtedly be the first to die. Chen Ling had clearly grasped this fact, standing between the curtains of rain with a detached smile, as if the situation had nothing to do with him.

Despite being the one targeted by the domain and clearly at a disadvantage, Chen Ling now held the upper hand. With just one sentence, he forced Nie Yu into an impossible dilemma.

Nie Yu stood at the entrance, clutching his blade. After a brief hesitation, he made up his mind and slowly walked into the factory.

“Then let’s see... if your trap can kill me.”

Regardless of whether Chen Ling had set a trap, Nie Yu couldn't just wait to die there. He would rather step into a trap and fight Chen Ling head-on than die cowardly outside, under his opponent's watchful eye.

The blade of his hunting knife reflected the surrounding rain curtains. His steps were heavy and slow. Even with Nie Yu’s guard fully raised, he couldn't find where any traps might be hidden. In the current environment, he couldn’t identify anything that could pose a threat.

Chen Ling was not surprised by Nie Yu’s choice. He casually picked up two metal gas canisters from behind him inside the repair shop and hurled them forcefully at Nie Yu. The heavy canisters cut through the air, emitting a low hum.

Nie Yu frowned, choosing not to strike with his hunting blade. He cautiously sidestepped, letting the two canisters fall to the ground behind him.

As the two metal canisters clattered to the ground, the trap Nie Yu had imagined didn’t materialize. He tensed his body and said:

“What exactly are you playing at?”

“Ordinary traps, of course, would be useless to a seasoned hunter like yourself,” Chen Ling said unhurriedly. “Especially with your domain active, you can ignore terrain obstacles and see through any trap’s setup directly. So, I prepared nothing.”

“Are you messing with me again??” Anger flared in Nie Yu’s eyes once more.

“Not exactly.”

Chen Ling pulled out his flip phone and checked the time: “00:17:49.”

“The trap I prepared… is time.”

With a forceful tug, Chen Ling pulled back a corner of the tarp beneath him, revealing lines of text outlined in blood!

What first caught Nie Yu’s eye was a long sequence of partially written times, from 00:10 AM to 00:30 AM, all arranged in order, only lacking the seconds.

Nie Yu didn't understand the meaning of these numbers, nor was he interested in watching Chen Ling play tricks any longer. He gripped his hunting blade tightly and charged at Chen Ling with extreme speed!

The moment Nie Yu moved, Chen Ling raised a blood-stained fingertip and swiftly wrote the current seconds into the blank space next to “00:17:__”!

As a gust of wind swept through the factory, the tarp was fully ripped away, completely exposing a long, complete narrative text outlined in blood.

00:17:54. Thunder roared. The metal roof of the abandoned factory, acting as the best conductor in the wilderness, drew a lightning bolt down from the sky. It perfectly passed through a gap in the damaged metal sheeting, striking Nie Yu as he moved rapidly, blade raised!

Crackle—

Wisps of electrical arc flickered across the metal roof. The next moment, a pale bolt of lightning, like an enraged dragon, roared down from the heavens!

Nie Yu’s pupils contracted abruptly.

Boom—!!!

A massive lightning bolt intensely flashed through the curtain of rain. The oxygen and acetylene tanks Chen Ling had thrown earlier were ignited by the sparking electricity at that very moment. Lightning and flames exploded from beneath the roof, as if a blazing sun had engulfed Nie Yu’s form!

Electric arcs pulsed beneath the metal roof. Chen Ling's large red opera robe flapped wildly in the gale. He held one hand up, shielding himself, his eyes, narrowed slightly, reflecting the dazzling explosion.

Before the lingering flames had dissipated, Chen Ling shot forward like an arrow from a bow!

Nie Yu, having been struck head-on by the lightning, was now charred black and barely recognizable. Coupled with the subsequent explosion of the oxygen and acetylene tanks, even his iron armor was largely shattered. Yet, despite all this, he was still alive.

He let out an angry roar, his last reserves of strength fully unleashed. But before he could even raise his blade and charge out, a sharp boning knife was hurled by a blood-stained hand, piercing through the billowing smoke and accurately impaling his left eye!

Thwack—!

Even the iron armor couldn't cover his eyes, a critical vulnerability. A spray of blood erupted, and the hilt of the boning knife replaced Nie Yu’s wolf-like eye. A low groan of agony immediately echoed through the factory.

At the same time, a cold voice sounded from beside him:

“Judgment.”

From the barrel of a dark handgun, a bullet capable of deconstructing all matter shot forth. In an instant, it tore a vacuum path through the black smoke, shattering Nie Yu’s hunting blade along with half of his body down to a molecular level, obliterating them into nothingness.

From the moment Chen Ling wrote the time, to the explosion, and then to this moment, less than two seconds had passed. Ninety-nine percent of the audience watching on screen hadn't even fully registered what happened before they saw Nie Yu, now only half a body, fly backward out of the dense smoke, crashing heavily against the wall, a boning knife still stuck in his eye, looking utterly pathetic!

“Ugh… cough, cough, cough, cough…”

Blood pooled on the ground. Nie Yu’s shattered half-body was charred and grotesque. His one remaining eye stared fixedly at Chen Ling, who was slowly approaching, filled with disbelief and horror.

Nie Yu didn't understand how the lightning strike could have hit him so precisely, nor how Chen Ling’s single shot could tear through his iron armor and obliterate half his body into nothingness. He had felt the power of a domain in that shot, but how could this guy, only a third-tier, possess a domain?!

Wisps of smoke curled from the dark gun barrel. Chen Ling, wounded all over, stumbled from a distance, his face ashen from severe blood loss. His body, too, was nearing its limit.

He looked up. The wolf’s eye suspended in the sky was gradually dissipating, meaning Nie Yu could no longer maintain his domain, and the power that had locked onto Chen Ling had vanished with it.

“It seems… the outcome is decided.”

Nie Yu had completely lost the ability to move, propped against the wall like a broken corpse. Only his one remaining eye still glared grimly at Chen Ling.

Chen Ling stopped in front of Nie Yu, raising the gun barrel again and pressing it against Nie Yu’s charred forehead.

He said calmly:

“Do you… have any last words?”