Chapter 725: Audience Seizes Power

Chapter 725: Audience Seizes Control

Thud—Thud—Thud—Thud!

Pale spotlights illuminated with dull thuds. The beams, like swords descending from the heavens, pierced the darkness, lighting up a corner of the silent stage…

At the center of the stage, a figure in a crimson opera robe, resembling a corpse, remained motionless.

Now, outside the small halo of light, shadowy hands silently emerged from beneath the stage. Like boneless water snakes, they grabbed the hem of the crimson opera robe, slowly dragging it towards the darkness below the stage…

Rustle—

The crimson opera robe was gradually dragged from the center of the stage to the edge by these hands, its hem rustling lightly against the old floor… Yet, the figure still did not awaken.

His breath was already as faint as a wisp of smoke, his face under the spotlight as pale as paper, and his eyes tightly shut, as if trapped in a terrifying nightmare.

Beside the path where he was dragged, the display screen continued to flash!

Current Expectation Value: 5WARNING! WARNING!Audience begins to intervene in the performance!

Numerous shadowy hands, like countless vengeful spirits from the abyss, surged from beneath the stage. As Chen Ling's body was drawn closer, their numbers rapidly increased…

Only by the dim light at the edge of the spotlight could one barely discern that these shadows were actually climbing onto the stage, one stepping on another's shoulders, surging like a tide!

Pulled by these hands, Chen Ling's body became suspended from the edge of the stage: hands, forearms, shoulders, torso…

Finally, he flipped, and his entire body plunged beneath the stage.

The moment he fell, the darkness beneath the stage seemed to boil. Countless dark figures frantically crowded together, as if scrambling for something, their scarlet eyes like a horrifying ocean of squirming maggots, churning ceaselessly!

The crimson opera robe vanished among the dark figures. Chen Ling's skin color deepened, as if night was spreading… Not only that, but even his facial features visibly blurred and faded. Within mere tens of seconds, he had completely transformed into a shadow, just like the other audience members, lost among the spectators.

At the same time, an "audience member," donning the crimson opera robe, struggled out from the countless shadows. Stepping on its companions' bodies, it slowly crawled towards the stage!

Finally, its fingertips hooked onto the edge of the stage. With all its might, it pulled its body upwards…

And then clumsily tumbled onto the old wooden floor.

It had ascended the stage!

As a dull grinding sound echoed, light rapidly gathered on the stage, and its figure finally appeared in the spotlight… Its grotesque scarlet lips involuntarily curved upwards. It shakily rose to its feet and spread its arms…

The crimson opera robe fluttered lightly on the stage. It stood within the spotlight, as if declaring to the world that it was the new master of this stage!

***

The Gray Realm.

Several figures slowly stopped at the edge of the shattered wilderness.

Beneath the lead-gray clouds, the once boundless wilderness was now fragmented… Countless skeletons, once active calamities in this area, from Tier 2 and 3 to even Tier 7 and 8, floated from the ground into the sky. Roughly hundreds of them, a dense mass, obscured the entire sky.

In addition, the land appeared like a toy that had been wantonly trampled. Hundreds of grotesque ravines crisscrossed it, while mountains and underground rock formations floated suspended in the air. Some had transformed into thin crimson paper, while others seemed to have come alive, bizarrely growing limbs, wings, and eyes… drifting aimlessly in mid-air.

"This… Is this the Wailing Wilderness?" Mo Jiao asked in disbelief. "It's far too abstract…"

"A cataclysmic death match is no laughing matter," Senior Brother Ning Ruyu replied gravely.

"While Calamity of Cessation's attempt to draw Calamity of Scorn back to its home turf could indeed maximize the suppression of Calamity of Scorn's power… it also comes at a price."

"So, who won in the end?"

"That… you'll have to ask Master."

The four simultaneously turned their heads to look at the youth in the opera robe, who was casually seated on a stone.

The Master casually glanced in the direction of the Wailing Wilderness, leisurely replying, "Naturally, Sixth Junior Brother won."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"However, Calamity of Cessation had the home-ground advantage, so although defeated, it wouldn't be dead… Calamity of Scorn was also injured. By my reckoning, it should be about to emerge from there soon."

"Master, since Junior Brother released Calamity of Scorn, will the one who returns eventually… still be him?" Ning Ruyu asked the question most on his fellow disciples' minds.

The Master chuckled lightly.

"I promised Sixth Junior Brother that I would resolve anything that happened," the Master said faintly. "My words are out there. Even if the one who returns this time isn't him… it still has to be him."

Upon hearing this, the disciples immediately felt reassured.

They exchanged glances, about to say more, when the Master, resting on the stone, waved his hand and said:

"Alright, hurry back… That fellow will be out soon. You staying here won't help, and it'll be dangerous. Go on, go on."

"Understood, we're leaving now."

"Then we'll leave Junior Brother to you, Master… If he returns, please remind him to report his safety to the Ancient Repository of the Theatrical Way."

Ning Ruyu, Luan Mei, Wenren You, and Mo Jiao simultaneously bowed to the Master. Without hesitation, they transformed into four streaks of light and sped towards the Ancient Repository of the Theatrical Way.

After they departed, the air fell silent.

The smile on the Master's lips, as he lay on the stone, gradually faded, replaced by an unprecedented seriousness and gravity… He stood up and gazed into the depths of the Wailing Wilderness, as if bracing himself for something.

"…Hmm?"

Just then, he seemed to sense something, and his expression turned a little strange.

The Master raised his hand and grabbed at the void, parting a curtain of emptiness. After fumbling for a moment, a figure, having crossed hundreds of miles of space, was directly dragged out from behind the void curtain.

It was a young man, covered in injuries. An ancient killing intent from the Martial God Path emanated from him, but at this moment, his breath was faint, and his steps were unsteady.

Seeing this figure, the Master couldn't help but click his tongue:

"They were fighting, why did you have to come and join the fun? They've both recovered to Tier 9, but what about you? This is what you get for having too much time on your hands…"

The Master swung a palm, directly striking Jian Changsheng's neck. Jian Changsheng, whose eyes were completely black at this moment, reacted extremely quickly, instinctively moving to counterattack, but perhaps due to his severe injuries, he was a fraction of a second too slow…

As the Master's palm struck him, the power of the Theater God Way surged into his body. The latter's eyes rolled back, and he immediately fainted to the ground.

After doing all this, the Master looked up again, gazing ahead…

His brows slightly furrowed.

At the end of the shattered horizon, a figure holding a large crimson paper umbrella was slowly walking towards him.