Chapter 123: [Verdict of Mortal Sins]

"Brother Meng leveled up?"

Feeling the intense fluctuations of Han Meng’s aura, Xi Renjie’s eyes were filled with surprise.

When he saw the shadow centipedes attacking the district earlier, Xi Renjie had assumed Han Meng was dead. He never expected that not only was he alive, but he had also advanced to the fifth stage of the [Judgment] path... As of now, Han Meng should be the first Executor to reach the fifth stage, not just in the Third District, but across all seven major districts.

Chen Ling stood in the crowd, watching this scene with great interest.

He was also curious: what exactly was the skill of the fifth stage of the [Judgment] path?

As Han Meng raised his gun, the sunlight in the mist dimmed slightly... Before the raging inferno, the fluttering black trench coat suddenly exuded an irresistible majesty, as if he were the absolute master within his range, a gun of judgment staring into the abyss.

"[Verdict of Mortal Sins], court is in session."

The moment Han Meng’s words fell, complex patterns spread wildly beneath his feet, instantly covering the ground within the range of the courtroom.

The surging tide of shadows suddenly stalled. The next moment, the rocks and soil beneath them were deconstructed and reorganized, turning into chains that simultaneously bound them and forced them to crawl on the spot!

Even the matriarch, also a fifth-stage entity, was not spared. More than a dozen thick, snake-like chains climbed onto its body. Even though it was charging forward with all its might, it was dragged down bit by bit, finally imprisoned on the ground a hundred meters in front of Han Meng.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, the entire shadow centipede clan lay prostrate on the ground before the fire, like countless "defendants" waiting for judgment, locked in prisoner chairs.

At this moment, the scorching flames illuminated half of Han Meng’s face, leaving a blade-like shadow.

He was the judge of this courtroom, and the only existence in this domain capable of moving freely.

At some point, a dark red hue had appeared in his pupils. Those eyes, which seemed to see through everything, stared at the entire clan prostrate on the ground. After a long while, his deep voice, like an unquestionable divine oracle, echoed over the kneeling clan.

"In court: Ghost-Mocking Abyss, offspring of the Eighth Insect Lord of the centipede clan..."

"Invading the realm, slaughtering the populace, devouring human flesh;"

"[Verdict of Mortal Sins]... Guilty."

"Sentence: Death by fire."

As the words fell, Han Meng calmly pulled the trigger.

Click—

A soft sound came from the barrel, but no bullet flew out.

At the same time, the raging fire behind Han Meng seemed to come alive. A pillar of scorching flame, dozens of meters thick, erupted like a sword of fiery judgment swung by an enraged fire god, crashing down upon the prostrate tide of shadows!

BOOM—!!!

The surging waves of fire instantly engulfed hundreds of shadow centipedes. Their shrill, overlapping shrieks were enough to tear eardrums.

Those black shadows struggled frantically in the leaping flames, like shackled prisoners dancing. Everyone outside the sea of fire stared blankly at the scene, their hearts shaken to the core!

Hundreds of shadow centipedes had nearly wiped out half of the Third District, yet Han Meng had pulled the trigger only once to erase them all in the sea of fire... This was the first time they had seen a fifth-stage powerhouse in action, and the first time they had so intuitively felt the terror of the [Judgment] path.

"Chen Ling, what's wrong?" Hearing the repeated sounds of swallowing from beside him, Xi Renjie turned his head in confusion.

"...No, nothing."

Chen Ling closed his eyes to hide the craving in his pupils. Holding his head, he said hoarsely, "I'm not feeling well... I'll step away for a moment."

Without waiting for Xi Renjie to say anything more, he quickly moved away from the battlefield... Chen Ling found a deserted spot and frantically stuffed his nose with mud so he couldn't smell the savory aroma of the "broilers," only then letting out a slight sigh of relief.

Recalling the scene just now, Chen Ling suddenly felt that his decision to replicate a [Judgment] path was an incredibly correct one.

The sea of fire burned on, and a large number of shadow centipedes were incinerated within it. The matriarch, still prostrate on the ground, roared in fury. Its massive body twisted violently, snapping the chains that bound it, and it charged toward Han Meng with savage force!

Han Meng’s shot had judged all the offspring present, but the matriarch, as a fifth-stage calamity, naturally couldn't be burned to death so easily.

Its body whipped up a gale, briefly tearing a fire-free path through the inferno. Its dark red orifices spat out dense masses of shadows that reached out like countless tentacles toward the figure in black.

Han Meng crouched slightly, and the next moment he turned into a blur, rushing into the sky. The countless shadow tentacles missed their mark on the ground and turned to follow him into the clouds.

In mid-air, Han Meng narrowed his eyes. His dark red pupils looked down, locking onto the massive centipede matriarch once more.

Amidst the howling wind, he raised his gun again:

"Ghost-Mocking Abyss, Eighth Insect Lord of the centipede clan... guilty of grave crimes, sentenced to annihilation."

As Han Meng pulled the trigger, the power of deconstruction fell from the sky like an invisible sword, instantly annihilating the shadow tentacles that had nearly grabbed his ankle. The matriarch seemed to sense extreme danger and crawled rapidly to the side to dodge, but still had a small portion of its body shattered by the shot.

Having stepped into the fifth stage, Han Meng’s strength had reached a new level. The range of his ability to shatter material structures had expanded several times over. As he pulled the trigger repeatedly, giant craters with radii of dozens of meters appeared silently on the ground, as if a meteor shower invisible to the naked eye were falling.

"Is this the fifth stage..." Xi Renjie watched the figure in black battling the matriarch, his eyes full of longing.

The other Executors also stared blankly at the scene, as if looking up at a god.

But at this moment, Chen Ling was thinking about something else... If a fifth-stage Executor already possessed such terrifying combat power, how strong must those high-level Executors in Aurora City be?

Under Han Meng’s judgment, the matriarch’s body was already shattered and broken. While dodging the power of deconstruction, it crawled rapidly toward the intersection point of the Gray Realm deep within the steel factory...

It was afraid.

At this point, it was no match for Han Meng at all. Its only way out was to flee back to the Gray Realm... but Han Meng would not give it that chance.

As the matriarch stumbled through the sea of fire, seeing the deep pit drawing closer, a figure in black descended from the sky, landing steadily in front of the giant crater, his pitch-black gun barrel aimed at the dark red orifice on the matriarch’s head.

"I uphold the justice of human civilization..."

"I sentence you to death."

Bang—!

The matriarch’s massive head was annihilated into nothingness on the spot, as if erased by a rubber, leaving only an incredibly clean cross-section... Scarlet blood seeped from the broken body, and it collapsed heavily to the ground.

The flames licked at its body, turning it into charcoal bit by bit. Under the nervous gaze of the crowd, the tattered figure in black walked out, staggering.

Seeing this, the crowd felt a sense of relief and erupted into cheers. They crowded around the figure in black as he walked slowly toward them, their eyes filled with worship and awe.

Han Meng walked out of the crowd in silence. As he passed by Chen Ling and Xi Renjie, he lowered his voice and said,

"You two... follow me."