Chapter 1748: Chen Ling's Hesitation

Rip—

The jagged hunting knife pierced through his palm, the irregular serrations almost tearing his entire hand apart.

Under the extreme pain, the figure jolted awake from his unconscious state. The moment he opened his eyes, he saw a young man in a blood-stained gentleman's suit, gripping the hunting knife with both hands, continuing to stab him like a mad dog!

The next strike pierced his thigh.

Heart-wrenching screams echoed through the sky, but bound by those red papers, the rooftop figure could do nothing. He could only watch helplessly as Li Laide swung the knife again and again, stabbing his body into pieces.

Li Laide certainly wouldn't kill him with one strike; that would be letting him off too easily. He dared to use his mother as bait, so he deserved to be hacked to pieces!

In the young man's eyes, there was a madness and ferocity that did not belong to his age. Hot blood splattered onto him, making him look like a demon under the night sky.

He stabbed him eleven times before the rooftop figure finally breathed his last...

Immediately after, Li Laide carried the knife to the bearded man who had called him a heretic.

By now, the bearded man had also regained consciousness and had even witnessed the death of his companion. He looked in terror at the swaying, crazed boy and immediately spoke:

"I take back what I said!! I was wrong, you are not a her..."

Pfft—!

Before he could finish, a blade tip was precisely thrust into his mouth.

As Li Laide twisted the blade, the bearded man's mouth was instantly filled with blood. He couldn't even say half a word, only able to moan in pain... He could never have imagined that this elegant and refined-looking boy would be so cruel!

Li Laide didn't speak; perhaps he no longer had the strength to. He just silently mustered all his remaining energy, stabbing the bearded man again and again, venting the anger and resentment in his heart.

After an unknown amount of time, the bearded man also stopped breathing, turning into a puddle of unrecognizable flesh.

Clatter—

The hunting knife in Li Laide's hand fell powerlessly into the pool of blood.

He had already reached his limit and could no longer even stand. He took staggering steps, leaving a bloody footprint with every stride, walking toward Chen Ling...

"You want my life... then... take it."

"Dying by your hands..."

"Is not bad."

Plop—

Everything went black before Li Laide's eyes, and he completely lost his balance, collapsing in front of Chen Ling.

Under the dim stars, Chen Ling stood like an observer detached from the world, the hem of his opera robe fluttering silently in the wind. Those ruby-like eyes watched Li Laide, who had collapsed before him, in silence...

After a long moment, as if he had made up his mind, he took a thin booklet from his pocket.

—"Character Biography: Li Laide".

This biography was not the one once extracted by the Red King, but a "New Li Laide" biography that Chen Ling had written by hand over the past few days...

In this story, Li Laide was an orphan with no family, having no attachments in the world. In the past dozen years of his life, the person he trusted most was the master who saved him from a pile of corpses... which was Chen Ling.

After spending this time with him, Chen Ling had roughly figured out Li Laide's personality. This guy was extremely stubborn and had a very strong sense of self, making him difficult to control completely... The fact that he had tried to play tricks and escape time and again was the best proof.

Since that was the case, the safest solution was to simply give him a new past, a new personality.

This way, even if Chen Ling did nothing, he would loyally serve him and the Twilight Society, becoming an asset... This was what Chen Ling meant by "settling things."

It was just that Li Laide seemed to have misunderstood.

But it didn't matter. Once this biography was inserted into his mind, his memories would be completely replaced, and he wouldn't remember anything from tonight.

Just as Chen Ling was about to insert the biography into Li Laide's mind, a rustling sound came from the side.

"...Hmm?"

Chen Ling's hand paused in mid-air. He turned his head to look and saw that Li Laide's mother, who had been unconscious on the ground, had actually woken up and was crawling up from the ground in a daze.

The pool of blood flowing everywhere and the unrecognizable, mysterious corpses were too much of a shock to her mind. When she saw Li Laide, who was also lying in a pool of blood at Chen Ling's feet, she screamed in terror!

"No..."

"No!!!"

Endless fear occupied her mind. She didn't know what had happened, but seeing the opera-robed figure holding something in front of Li Laide, she seemed to realize something and moved forward abruptly...

But under her left pant leg was a crude, makeshift prosthetic limb, which had already been twisted and deformed from when she fell earlier. She lost her balance and fell into the pool of blood again, looking incredibly disheveled. Even so, she relied on her hands to crawl toward Chen Ling's feet bit by bit.

"No... this lord... I beg you..."

"I beg you... let my child go!"

"He did do some wrong things... but he is not bad by nature. He... he just had no one to teach him, so he made mistakes..."

"If you must kill, then kill me! It was my fault for not teaching him well, for not giving him more love... making him into what he is now. It's all my fault!"

"I beg you to show mercy... let him go..."

"I beg you..."

"Really... I beg you!"

The mother's blood-stained hands grabbed the hem of Chen Ling's opera robe. She couldn't stand up, so she just knelt on the ground and kowtowed frantically.

Tears streamed down her cheeks. Every time her forehead hit the ground, it made a dull, heavy sound. After just a couple of times, her forehead was already covered in blood!

Chen Ling watched this scene in a daze, his gaze full of complexity...

He gently patted the mother on the back, and she fell back into a deep sleep, lying quietly on the ground.

Chen Ling did not respond, nor did he know how to respond... Even for him, at this moment, it was impossible to distinguish what was right and what was wrong... Whether it was solving the Red Star or restarting the world, he needed Li Laide to back up the Twilight Society. Therefore, Li Laide had to be absolutely controllable; he was the most important piece.

But... a puppet Li Laide, whose past and personality had been tampered with, and who had never experienced those trials and tribulations—was he really the Li Laide he wanted?

Chen Ling's heart was in some turmoil. He intended to stop Li Laide's bleeding first. Just as his hand touched Li Laide's body, something fell out from Li Laide's chest...

It was an old diary.

Seeing this diary, surprise appeared in Chen Ling's eyes. After hesitating for a moment, he picked it up and opened it slowly...

Rustle— Rustle—

The sound of pages turning echoed silently under the night sky.

The diary was thick and heavy. The painful past written by Li Laide's own hand unfolded before Chen Ling's eyes bit by bit. He flipped through it page by page for a long time, yet he still hadn't finished...

A breeze swept across the quiet land. While Chen Ling was focused on reading, a thin booklet fell silently onto the pool of blood.