Chapter 817: Sunset

Chapter 817: Sunset

Chen Ling's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Now, wherever Tu Tian, who has obtained the 'privilege,' is, that place will become the eye of the storm. But no matter how fiercely they fight, they are destined to gain nothing from it. I will be the sole beneficiary."

Chen Ling opened his palm, revealing a crystal-clear bead lying there, emitting a mesmerizing glow.

Upon seeing the bead, Jian Changsheng's eyes immediately widened.

"When it comes to being black-hearted, you're the one!" Jian Changsheng extended his hand. "Let me have a look, will you?"

"No."

"So stingy?!"

"If I give it to you, I won't get it back."

"Didn't you say you're not interested in the Heavenly Star position? You might not be, but I am! If you give it to me, you'd be helping someone in need!" Jian Changsheng declared righteously.

Chen Ling gave him a disdainful look. "I obtained this through my own skill. You offer nothing in return, yet you expect to take it?"

"Then... what do you want?"

Jian Changsheng searched himself all over. Aside from a few scattered coins, his pockets were empty. He could only look at Chen Ling pleadingly. "I have no money, but my life is yours... Or, how about I let you hack at me a few times for entertainment?"

Chen Ling: ...

Chen Ling ignored him, rolled his eyes, and turned to leave.

Just then, his peripheral vision seemed to catch something, and he suddenly stopped, walking towards a section of ruins.

He pushed aside the piled-up rubble and debris. Beneath it lay a blood-soaked beggar, with multiple stab wounds, a pale face, and tightly closed eyes, as if he had been dead for a long time.

"What happened to him?" Jian Changsheng walked over, asking with confusion.

"...No."

Chen Ling's eyes narrowed slightly. With his keen perception, he could faintly discern a subtle pulse in one of the man's veins. As the two approached, the pulse noticeably quickened.

"Playing dead?"

Chen Ling was somewhat surprised. It was his first time witnessing such a sophisticated act of feigning death. Even Pu Xiachan and the others earlier hadn't detected that he was still alive. If not for Chen Ling's Secret Sight, he too might have been deceived. From this, it seemed that Li Shengmen's plan, as well as Chen Ling and Jian Changsheng's secret discussion, had all been overheard by him!

With his feigned death exposed, the beggar's heart pounded even faster.

He decided to abandon his pretense. His tightly closed eyelids trembled slightly before opening. Blood began to flow through his body again. He lay on the ground, looking at Chen Ling and Jian Changsheng, and spoke in a hoarse voice:

"Well... my two brave sirs, I actually didn't hear anything just now..."

A black gun barrel pressed against his forehead.

Bang—!!

Gunfire flashed instantly. Chen Ling, expressionless, pulled the trigger, shattering Heart 7's head with a deafening roar. It was swift and decisive, giving him no chance to survive. After a single headshot, scarlet blood and fragments of his skull splattered across the ground. Heart 7, who had painstakingly feigned death until now, was truly dead.

"Crafty outsider," Jian Changsheng clicked his tongue. "Good thing we're smart, or he would have tricked us!"

"What does that have to do with you?"

Chen Ling rolled his eyes and put away his gun.

Then, he took out the referee's list from his pocket. After scanning the names, he quickly identified the beggar's face.

"Hmm... a folk master, Tier 4, named Jin Fugui... Hmm??"

"Jin Fugui? Wasn't that the name of the person who just left?" Jian Changsheng asked, confused.

"It seems that person's name was an impersonation... Yes, I've checked, that person's real name isn't this."

"Impersonation! How despic—" Jian Changsheng stopped mid-sentence, as if realizing something, and chuckled awkwardly. "Hmm... Hehehehe... How tragic."

Chen Ling ignored him, simply rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"This style of action feels somewhat familiar..."

"What's familiar or not familiar about it?" Jian Changsheng, feeling guilty, quickly changed the subject again. "Let's hurry and go!"

Chen Ling nodded slightly. As he walked, he took out a walkie-talkie and spoke in the referee's voice:

"The Dark Palace situation is over. You can send people to collect the bodies... Tu Tian ultimately secured the privilege, and three other individuals survived and have now departed. I also didn't expect the casualties to be so heavy... Perhaps it was due to their internal conflict?"

The two walked one after another, straight into the passage, disappearing without a trace. Only Heart 7, with his eyes still wide open in death, watched the direction they had left, seemingly having fiercely memorized their appearances.

An unknown amount of time passed.

A ghostly figure drifted out from behind the silent wall, landing lightly on the ground as if weightless. His lowered eyelids gazed in the direction Chen Ling and the other had departed. His pale cheeks held no trace of blood, like a corpse that had crawled out of a tomb. Only a single vermillion dot between his brows was strange and mysterious.

"So, it's the Path of Thespians disguised as a referee... Truly splendid." A tranquil voice emanated from within him, as if from the underworld, yet his lips remained motionless throughout.

His gaze swept over the Dark Palace, strewn with corpses. A hand as fair as jade slowly rose, forming a hand seal at his chest. A mysterious power began to spread wildly outwards!

"But regardless, thank you for your gift."

Invisible ripples swept through the entire Dark Palace. The man's lowered eyelids finally lifted slowly, revealing one black and one white pupil, as if reversing Yin and Yang. Reflected in these eyes, ghostly white figures began to rise from every corpse! In the Six Palaces of Qiaohuang, every checkpoint, every participant who had perished within, seemed to be awakened by some force, rising blankly from their respective bodies. Their eyes were hollow, as if devoid of self-awareness. Only a few of higher rank retained a faint glimmer.

Snow-white chains extended from the man's hand seal, piercing through nothingness and tethering the wrists of all the ghosts. Immediately, these dozens of ghosts, as if manipulated, slowly rose to their feet.

They floated effortlessly through all the checkpoints, walls, and floors, finally reaching the side of the figure with Yin-Yang eyes.

His eyelids lowered once more, concealing the black and white pupils. The ghosts vanished from sight, leaving only a bone-chilling cold that lingered around him.

He slowly stepped into the passage.

With each step on the staircase, he soon emerged from the Dark Palace onto the surface. As the dim, yellowish sunlight fell upon him, his lowered eyes closed completely, as if he were a blind man, cut off from the world.

"The sun is setting..." he murmured, eyes closed, bathing in the evening sun. "After a thousand years, the Ghost God Path will finally return to the world."