Chapter 1646: The Bell Has Tolled

"Whether a person has value depends on the era itself," the Cangyun Lord answered slowly.

"In this era, those who hold the destiny of humanity are none other than you and Wu Tongyuan... By reason, I cannot be your enemy, because you are the hope for humanity’s restart; by emotion, I cannot be Wu Tongyuan’s enemy, because I have already staked all my bets on him..."

"Since that is the case, whether I exist or not is no longer important..."

"My final value is to carry the resentment and anger of this domain, become the target of everyone’s finger-pointing, and then disappear from this world."

Chen Ling did not answer.

He knew that no matter how he tried to persuade him, it was meaningless. Since the Turbid Calamity had successfully parasitized him, it could no longer be detached... The Cangyun Lord hadn't left himself any way out from the very beginning.

The Cangyun Lord drank the tea in his cup, stood up slowly, and walked to the front of the continuous rain.

With his back to Chen Ling, he spoke slowly:

"My time is running out..."

"In this domain right now, everyone hates me, but no one can kill me... The Butcher, the Farmer, and the Dragon-Twisting Knight are all official organizations, and they cannot take action either..."

"The only ones who can kill me and hold a funeral for this domain are you all..."

Chen Ling was silent for a moment.

"Logically speaking, the Twilight Society does not participate in struggles between domains, and even less will we take action directly against the Nine Lords... We are only responsible for the aftermath."

The Cangyun Lord turned around. The gaze he cast toward Chen Ling was full of sincerity:

"But there can always be exceptions to everything... right?"

Boom—

Pale lightning flashed in the rain outside the theater.

The figure in the red-bottomed, black-patterned theatrical robe stood quietly in the center of the theater. Amidst the roaring rain, he slowly closed his eyes.

He saw Dr. Jia questioning him in the dim clinic, saw Kong Baosheng whispering on the sickbed... Those voices, whether of anger or disappointment, rang in his mind:

"Since you can't save us... then let the process of our suffering be shorter."

"Rather than lingering on in this shitty era..."

"Death is also a form of liberation."

“……”

"Sir, you don't understand..."

"In this era, living... is the greatest torment."

“……”

Amidst the torrential rain, Chen Ling seemed to be able to hear the painful, noisy, and sorrowful screams of the Cangyun Domain passing through the rain and falling into his ears.

There were too many people like Dr. Jia and Kong Baosheng in the Cangyun Domain. They had long since lost the desire to live, possessing only anger and despair toward this era... For them, death was liberation.

At the same time, the words the Wuji Lord had once used to question him roared in his mind!

"Who judges failure? Who defines success? You? What is your basis?"

"Chen Ling..."

"By what right... do you become the one who finally tolls the funeral bell for humanity?"

Chen Ling had also thought about this question. As a world-ending calamity, by what right did he judge when humanity had lost hope, and by what right did he decide when humanity’s funeral bell should toll?

At the time, Chen Ling’s answer was that he would have his own judgment.

Now,

Chen Ling had another answer.

The one who can decide when humanity’s funeral bell tolls is not him, Chen Ling... but humanity itself.

In the roaring rain, Chen Ling slowly opened his eyes, those ruby-like pupils gazing at the city and the sentient beings outside the rain:

"Listen..."

"The bell has tolled."

……

"Say... when will this painting of yours be finished?"

In a corner of the Lingxu Domain, Heart 9 said somewhat helplessly.

At this moment, Club 8 was holding a drawing board, squatting at the edge of a corner of a flower bed, staring intently at the last cluster of small white flowers that hadn't withered, as if earnestly copying something...

Strangely, although he was looking at these flowers, what was being outlined bit by bit on the drawing board were the figures of several innocent and lively children in white clothes.

"What’s the rush?" Club 8 replied without looking up. "There’s no mission right now, where are you in such a hurry to run off to?"

"But we’ve been squatting here all day..."

"There are people from the Lingxu Domain everywhere outside. If you want to be hunted down, go out yourself."

“……”

Heart 9 rolled his eyes, sat back down by the flower bed with his legs crossed, and took out a bottle of machine oil from somewhere to start slowly maintaining his arm.

Just then, a light breeze blew across the flower bed, scattering the petals of that small cluster of white flowers...

Club 8, who had just drawn halfway, looked at the white flowers that had become bare in a second, and was slightly stunned... When he looked down again, the petals blown off by the wind had already outlined two small characters at his feet:

【Cangyun】.

Club 8 blinked again, and those two small characters vanished without a trace, and the petals had all returned to the small white flowers, as if everything just now was merely an illusion brought on by his thoughts.

"Hey, did you see that?" Club 8’s brows furrowed tightly.

"Hehe..."

Heart 9’s eyes were incredibly bright. He stood up from the flower bed immediately, cracking his knuckles with his hands, making a crisp clicking sound.

"Finally... are we having a team-building event again?"

……

Tianxu Domain.

Under the bridge.

"Achoo!!" Sun Bumian sneezed violently.

"Diamond, did you catch a cold?" Jiang Xiaohua, who had half his head poking out of the ground nearby, asked gloomily.

"...I don't think so, maybe someone is thinking of me."

Sun Bumian shrugged, stood up straight, and walked forward while stretching his limbs. In his every gesture, an aura infinitely approaching the Eighth Rank drifted out from his body...

Come to think of it, they had been living under the bridge in the Tianxu Domain for a long time. Thanks to the deliberate protection of Su Zhiwei and Hong Xiu, no one had ever come to disturb them. Sun Bumian had taken this opportunity to quietly digest the power that had once belonged to him. Now, even without using the power of reincarnation, he had already stepped half a foot into the Eighth Rank.

If Sun Bumian’s feeling was correct, breaking through to the Eighth Rank should happen within these two days.

As for Jiang Xiaohua, he had been staying quietly in the soil all along, and unless he was occasionally attracted by the smell of food or wine, he wouldn't crawl out on his own... No one knew what he had been doing in the soil during this time.

Sun Bumian strolled all the way to the chicken coop, resting his chin on one hand and examining it, as if thinking about which one to kill for soup tonight would be more fragrant.

At the same time, a thought flashed across his mind out of thin air.

“……Hmm?”

Sun Bumian raised an eyebrow in surprise.

Then, he chuckled softly. “I was wondering why I was sneezing for no reason. It seems someone has finally remembered us.”

Rustle, rustle…

A figure wrapped entirely in bandages slowly crawled out from the dirt. Long, snow-white hair hung loose behind him, and those dull purple eyes finally regained a glimmer of life.

He spoke in a muffled voice: “I miss Heart.”

“Let’s go… Did you bring the suit?”

“I did.”

“Bring the beggar’s too. If we run into him on the way, we’ll take him along.”

“Got it!!”

……

……

Not feeling well, no update today. I need to properly rewrite the outline for this volume and speed up the pacing of the later plot. I am truly sorry.