Chapter 771: Twisted Theater Divinity?

The man in the round hat, seeing this, felt anger rising in his eyes. With his hands, he grasped Chen Ling's body from a distance, forcibly twisted him back, and even slammed him through three walls before pinning him against a massive pillar!

At this moment, Chen Ling was a bloody mess. Having lost a shoulder, he was temporarily powerless to resist; even the gun he had been holding was crushed. His other hand felt as if it were pinned under a mountain, his fingers unable to lift.

Chen Ling, his eyes stained with blood, looked at the flip phone on the ground. A countdown was constantly ticking on the screen.

"The last thirty seconds..." Chen Ling's heart immediately sank as he saw this. In his current state, he couldn't avoid the third shot. Although he didn't know the exact ranks of these two individuals, they were undoubtedly far superior to him. Their cooperation was incredibly tight, making escape nearly impossible for him now.

From the distant signal tower, the woman in the leather jacket narrowed her eyes, her domain locking onto Chen Ling through the sniper scope.

"This time... you can't escape."

Crack!

As a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, the image in the sniper scope suddenly turned white. In a daze, a ghostly face seemed pressed against the scope, eerily sinister.

The woman in the leather jacket gasped, stumbling back several steps in fright, her heart pounding as if it would burst from her chest.

"What... what was that?!"

The woman in the leather jacket took a moment to compose herself, then, still uncertain, pressed her eye back to the sniper scope. This time, the ghostly face did not appear.

"Was it an illusion?"

After a moment of hesitation, the woman in the leather jacket placed her finger back on the trigger. Her domain had already locked onto Chen Ling, who was pinned to the pillar. She took a deep breath and pulled the trigger again!

Bang—!!

The next moment, her rifle barrel exploded!

To her horror, shattered fragments from the barrel cut her cheek, and the force of the blast threw her into the center of the signal tower, causing her vision to go black. She sat there dazed, taking several seconds to regain her composure.

"The gun, it backfired??"

"How is this possible... how is this possible??" the woman muttered to herself, as if her soul had left her body.

A gentle breeze swept across the top of the signal tower, scattering the exploded barrel fragments downwards, as if an invisible hand had brushed past her, then vanished without a trace.

Meanwhile.

Inside the commercial building, the man in the round hat glanced in the direction of the sniper rifle, his brows furrowing deeper.

"What is that guy waiting for?"

He snorted coldly, deciding not to wait for the third shot. Instead, he walked directly toward Chen Ling, who was pinned to the pillar. He raised his hand, as if strangling something in the air. The next moment, Chen Ling, still pinned, forcefully raised his one remaining hand and desperately clutched his own neck, as if trying to strangle himself to death!

Chen Ling's blood vessels rapidly dilated, blood continuously spurted from his severed arm and chest, and his breathing was severely restricted by his own hand! An endless stream of illusions flooded Chen Ling's mind, constantly stripping away his sanity. It felt as if he had lived hundreds of years in just three seconds, the chaotic thoughts giving him a splitting headache!

Crack!

A second bolt of lightning flashed across the sky.

Beneath the pale sky, a figure emerged from the edge of the shattered glass curtain wall. It was cloaked in a black and red theatrical robe, a sinister mask glinting in the lightning, seemingly capable of stealing souls. With one hand, it carried a bell, and with the other, an unknown banner, bouncing through the curtain wall with a peculiar, almost dancing gait.

Upon seeing this, the man in the round hat suddenly froze, as if remembering something, his eyes wide with shock.

"Nuo? You are..."

As the ghostly figure raised the banner in its hand and swung it forcefully, two bolts of lightning struck down from the clouds, tearing through the curtain wall in a cross shape. Their intersection point was precisely where the man in the round hat stood!

Boom—!!

This sudden cross-shaped lightning strike charred the man in the round hat. Before he could react, a crisp sound of a bell rang out. A terrifying repulsive force swept across the floor, ejecting him from the commercial building like a cannonball. After crashing through a curtain wall, he plunged directly into the dimly lit street below.

The countdown on the phone screen silently ticked down. Chen Ling, still pinned to the pillar, laboriously lifted his eyelids. A bolt of lightning streaked across the sky, momentarily illuminating the grotesque ghostly face, which stood silently before him like an envoy from the underworld.

"You are..." Chen Ling croaked.

"You're 'Ghost Scorn'? Unexpectedly, you're also a Theatrical Daoist..." A familiar male voice came from beneath the mask, the same person he had spoken with on the phone recently. But then, as if realizing something, his voice instantly became incredibly surprised!

"No, your Theatrical Dao... it's twisted too?"

Crack!

Roaring lightning flashed near Chen Ling's ears. As the countdown on the phone screen reached zero, lines of characters floated up from nothingness!

Code limit reachedRead interrupted

Chen Ling's consciousness suddenly sank!

The Gray Realm.

Railways inscribed with mysterious runes lay silently across the dark ground, like winding, slender dragons.

Beside a section of the track, a figure sat idly among scattered rocks, propping his head with one hand, occasionally looking up at the stone sculpture across from him, which resembled an old monk in deep meditation.

"Eleven hours... no, it must be almost twelve hours. Why isn't he waking up??"

Jian Changsheng, having sat bored in the Gray Realm for twelve hours, was utterly frustrated. He grumbled as he stood up from the ground, wishing he could grab Chen Ling's clothes and shake him awake.

"So bored... truly, I'm dying of boredom."

"I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I want to sleep but can't... You dog-hearted fellow, you're having a grand old time yourself!" Jian Changsheng cautiously looked around, and after confirming no calamities were approaching, his cursing grew louder and more unrestrained.

He aimlessly circled among the rocks. Finally, as if an idea struck him, he bent down and picked up a pile of black stone dust. Then, glancing at the still-sleeping Chen Ling, he walked towards him with mischievous intent. Jian Changsheng used his fingertips to pick up a bit of the dust, meticulously drawing on Chen Ling's face. It looked like a cat, or maybe a fox—as ugly as could be. Meanwhile, the "culprit's" lips curved upward in a growing smile.

Just as Jian Changsheng was about to draw a mark on Chen Ling's forehead, a USB drive suddenly popped out of the ground in front of Chen Ling!

Jian Changsheng froze. Before he could react, Chen Ling, who was right next to him, violently opened his eyes, and a gush of murky blood sprayed onto Jian Changsheng's face like a fountain!

Bang, bang—!!

Two bursts of blood mist erupted simultaneously from Chen Ling's body. His eyes rolled back, and he fell directly into Jian Changsheng's arms.

At the same time, a shriek of surprise and anger echoed above the Gray Realm:

"No... not again?!"