Chapter 794: I Mean No Harm

Fireworks brilliantly bloomed under the starry sky. Jian Changsheng saw this scene and remained motionless.

"The struggle will last for 48 hours, and during this time, every battle will consume stamina," he thought. "So the most sensible approach is to hide in the dark, wait until most others have fought themselves to exhaustion, and then make my move!"

"By then, everyone else will be heavily injured, while I'll still be in peak condition. The probability of seizing the Heavenly Star position will be much higher."

"As soon as I arrived here, I blew out my kerosene lamp. Now, in complete darkness, others won't be able to find my location at all. This is a perfect opportunity to hide and recover!"

"This time, the advantage is mine!"

His mental calculations clattered loudly. The corners of his mouth unconsciously curved upwards, as he seemed to have already envisioned others fighting fiercely while he reaped the benefits.

Just as Jian Changsheng was about to lie down where he stood, a rustling sound came from overhead.

A wisp of dust drifted from a gap in the floorboards onto Jian Changsheng's shoulder. He looked up in confusion, and the next moment, a burst of explosive fire suddenly crashed down!

Boom—!!

The explosion tore through the building, splitting the entire abandoned small building in half, and a smoke-shrouded figure was sent flying backward from within!

In mid-air, a tall woman, holding a flaming chain, proudly looked down at the startled Jian Changsheng. The sound of machinery whirred from within the chain, which, originally just over two meters long, visibly extended, coiling out like a fiery serpent!

Before Jian Changsheng could land, a second figure silently emerged from the darkness and pointed an airborne finger at the ground beneath him!

"Thorn."

Stone-like spikes suddenly burst from the ground, their sharp tips capable of piercing through any living body, like a silently erupting thorny thicket. Malice permeated the darkness!

Jian Changsheng: ??!!

In mid-air, Jian Changsheng swiftly twisted his body, his index finger and thumb tightly clasped, and powerfully flicked them at the thorny stone forest below!

Boom—!

A roaring thunderclap exploded in the air, and the entire thorny thicket instantly shattered. Jian Changsheng fell onto the dust-filled, cracked earth, his legs firmly bracing his body. Only then did he have time to look up at the two people who had ambushed him.

"Wait... what's going on?"

Jian Changsheng didn't understand. According to his plan, he should have been able to lie low until the end and then shine brightly. How was it that he was ambushed by two people right at the start?

"He's not dead?" the woman with the chain in the air said, a little surprised.

"Blowing out his candle and hiding his location as soon as he arrived, I thought he was a soft target trying to take advantage of the chaos," she continued. "But now it seems he has some skill."

"One less competitor is one less problem," the man said, glancing at the woman and speaking in a deep voice. "Let's clear out the small fry first, then we can fight each other based on our own abilities. Let's eliminate this small fry together first, and then we'll fight."

"Alright," she agreed, "but no backstabbing or sneak attacks before that."

"Hmph, less talk."

Jian Changsheng listened to their nonchalant conversation, feeling a sudden bewilderment.

He stretched out a hand, pointing at himself, his expression incredibly strange:

"Soft target, small fry... me?"

He just wanted to lie low and preserve his strength. How did he suddenly become "small fry" in others' eyes? No wonder these people had attacked him like madmen from the start. So they were going for the softest target first?!

The commotion from the battle had already attracted some surrounding participants. They hid in the darkness, seemingly spying on the situation, like venomous snakes waiting for an opportunity. Unbeknownst to him, Jian Changsheng's location had gradually become one of the battle's epicenters.

Seeing this, Jian Changsheng sighed helplessly.

He tried to hide but failed; instead, he attracted more and more enemies. This hellish start only solidified Jian Changsheng's determination to seize the Heavenly Star position. With such awful luck, he truly didn't want to stay here for another moment.

Filled with resentment and anger, Jian Changsheng casually picked up a piece of rebar from the ground. He gazed at the two approaching figures in the distance, his eyes narrowing into a cold arc.

"You want to pick on me... you'll have to see if you're even qualified."

An ancient killing intent began to spread wildly around him!

Meanwhile,

Chen Ling stood on the rooftop, looking at the utterly silent darkness around him, momentarily speechless.

Before the competition officially began, he had very conspicuously revealed his location with a pillar of fire. He had intended to use a fierce, satisfying battle to boost audience expectations above 70, but he never expected that nearly twenty minutes into the competition, he hadn't seen a single person!

Even the guy who was originally in the building across from him, after seeing him raise the pillar of fire, quietly blew out his own kerosene lamp, as if afraid Chen Ling would come for him.

After Chen Ling finished his skirmish with the referee, he came to his senses and realized that all the participants within a few kilometers of him had actually fled.

After all, in the eyes of other participants, Chen Ling was a super formidable individual who could ignite a pillar of fire even before the competition began. No matter how confident they were, they didn't want to fight such a powerful person at the very start of the competition. They didn't even dare to get close to him, fearing they might get caught up in battles between top powerhouses, so they ran as far away as possible.

Ultimately, Chen Ling was the only one left in the entire area.

"Damn it... where did everyone go?"

Chen Ling rubbed his temples and sighed helplessly.

He directly ascended into the sky using a cloud-stepping technique. With his terrifying eyesight, he finally spotted a lone young figure several kilometers away.

Without a word, Chen Ling quickly charged towards him!

The figure had not lit a kerosene lamp, skulking alone in the darkness, cautiously observing his surroundings. After feeling a chill approach him, he suddenly shivered and turned around to see Chen Ling charging fiercely towards him!

His heart sank!

He had run so far—could this plague god still chase him?!

His face instantly turned pale. Without hesitation, he turned and bolted into the distance, with an expression as if he had seen a ghost.

Chen Ling: ...

"I am Lin Yan, I mean no harm..." Chen Ling said, holding a boning knife and accelerating his pursuit, trying his best to make his voice sound gentle and harmless. "Brother, please stop for a moment, I'd like to chat with you..."

The person's escape speed only increased!

The two continued this chase-and-flee, crossing several street blocks. Finally, a few other participants occasionally appeared in the surroundings.

They saw someone being chased, and their first reaction was to hide and observe the situation. But some, unafraid of death, stood their ground, watching the person in front race past. Immediately after, the one-armed young man holding the boning knife arrived before him.

"You..."

The observing participant eyed him for a few moments. Before he could speak, Chen Ling smiled faintly...

Then, with a swift stroke of his knife, he directly decapitated him.