Chapter 1648: Stab

Boom—!!

A thunderous explosion erupted from within the Cangyun government building.

The shouting citizens outside were startled, but they didn’t panic; instead, they became even more incensed, thinking that the Molotov cocktails they had just thrown had successfully blown something up. They swarmed toward the main gate!

“Jack of Clubs.” A faint voice sounded from under the large red paper umbrella.

The moment Chen Ling’s voice fell, the Jack of Clubs behind him gently took off the magician’s top hat from his head.

As the magic hat flipped, white doves flew out as if by magic. They were like a white storm, swirling directly in the downpour, dazzling the agitated crowd around them, who couldn’t tell where the doves had come from.

When the magician snapped his fingers, the sky full of white doves turned into countless feathers. Everyone who focused their gaze on them rolled their eyes back and fainted on the spot…

The Cangyun government building, which had been noisy and chaotic just a moment ago, fell into a deathly silence in the blink of an eye.

The figure in theatrical robes holding the large red paper umbrella didn’t pause for a second, walking calmly past the unconscious crowd, not even a corner of his robes dampened by the rain…

He stepped into the Cangyun government building and gently closed the large red paper umbrella.

“Don’t let anyone else in.”

He said faintly.

Outside the door, the Queen of Diamonds and the Jack of Clubs nodded simultaneously: “Yes!”

A green light dyed the Queen of Diamonds’ pupils. The next second, a cloud of mist rolled out from the void, wrapping the entire Cangyun government building as if completely isolating it from the outside world, not a single trace of aura leaking out.

After doing all this, the Queen of Diamonds and the Jack of Clubs stood firm before the door, like two mysterious and powerful gatekeepers.

Drip—drip…

Scarlet blood dripped from the ceiling of the hallway.

Several blood-soaked Dragon-Twisting Warriors were pinned to the ceiling, their eyes wide with terror, their bodies covered in hideous slash marks…

Between the dripping blood, the figure in the red-bottomed, black-patterned theatrical robes walked slowly through.

As he passed, several soul phantoms drifted out from the corpses, as if attracted by some powerful force, and entered the inside of the large red paper umbrella one after another…

Chen Ling did not let the Jack of Hearts leave any survivors.

Since the funeral bell of human civilization had already rung, everything would lose its meaning. Rather than letting them continue to struggle in this world, it was better to take their souls and bring them to the next world as much as possible.

“Heaven spins and earth darkens, the common people fall;”

“A thousand killings are not evil, the Red Boat ferries the suffering.”

Chen Ling now somewhat understood the meaning of these words from Master Sun Bumian.

Chen Ling held the red paper umbrella and walked calmly through the hallway. The Jack of Hearts held the hilt of the curved blade behind his waist with one hand, following closely behind him with a smile. Whenever an enemy appeared, the blade light would strike first…

By the time Chen Ling reached the enemy’s position, the opponent would most likely have already become a bloody corpse.

The Cangyun base was located directly beneath the Cangyun government building. Chen Ling traveled through the path of blood and arrived at the lowest level of the base without obstruction…

At the end of the hallway, a quiet door came into his view.

“Wait for me outside.”

“Yes.”

The Jack of Hearts stood at the door, while Chen Ling gently pushed it open and walked inside.

……

“Pfft—”

Scarlet blood splattered onto the wall of the alley. The Lord of Cangyun wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his shirt sleeve, his face growing paler.

He looked down at his chest, seeing the hideous blood vessels on the surface of his skin still extending outward, as if the Turbid Disaster within him was unwilling to have its life and death controlled like this and was fighting back fiercely.

“You think you can devour me?” The Lord of Cangyun snorted coldly.

He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressed the Turbid Disaster once more, and walked slowly forward…

Vaguely, he saw a figure lying on the ground in the distance.

It was a woman with graying hair at her temples, lying motionless in the rain, soaked through, as if she were dead… But when the Lord of Cangyun walked up and touched her neck, he found that she seemed to be merely unconscious.

“Hey…”

“Wake up!”

The Lord of Cangyun gently shook the woman, and after a moment’s hesitation, he pressed his thumb directly into her philtrum.

Under the intense stimulation, the woman’s pale face twitched slightly, and a pair of desperate, hollow eyes slowly opened in the rain…

“A-Qiang…”

“Xiao Sheng…”

“Don’t… leave me…”

A faint murmur reached the Lord of Cangyun’s ears. Perhaps because the sound of the rain was too loud, he didn’t hear it clearly at all.

“What did you say?”

The woman didn’t repeat it. She looked hazily at the man who had awakened her, and when she saw his face clearly, she was stunned…

“You… you are…”

The Lord of Cangyun didn’t speak. He looked at the woman who had been sickened beyond recognition, silently pursing his lips… Pain and struggle were hard to hide in his weary eyes.

The Lord of Cangyun certainly knew why these people had become like this. In the end, he was the culprit who had brought all this about. In the past, he had just silently locked himself in the Cangyun government building, pretending not to hear the cries outside, not to hear the suffering of the masses, so that at least he could feel a little better…

He had no choice. Since he had decided to bear all this, he could only do so.

But when he truly saw the outside world, the pain in his heart that he thought he had been able to suppress surged up again, even more violently than ever before.

The Lord of Cangyun didn’t know what he could do. After a long silence, he bent down, hoisted the woman onto his back, and stumbled step by step toward a nearby shop.

“Don’t be afraid…”

“I’ll take you to get out of the rain…”

The Lord of Cangyun’s footsteps were heavy, for he, too, was exhausted.

He knew that no matter what he did, he couldn’t change anything. He even felt that he was being hypocritical and disgusting, but… he did it anyway. He wanted to atone for his actions, even if only by a little.

However, just as he was carrying the woman and about to reach the shelter of the shop…

A sharp pain shot from his waist!

The Lord of Cangyun looked down stiffly to see the woman on his back gripping a pair of scissors tightly. Perhaps because she was gripping them too hard, the veins on the back of her hand were bulging… and the blade of the scissors was already deeply embedded in the Lord of Cangyun’s body.

Scarlet blood flowed along the scissors.

“Lord of Cangyun!!!”

The woman’s damp hair was scattered in disarray. She looked like an evil spirit crawling out of hell, roaring at the Lord of Cangyun with all her might.

“It’s all your fault… it’s all your fault!!!”

“You beast, lower than a pig or dog!!!”

“Give me back my children… give them back to me!!!!”