Chapter 201: [Puppet God Path]

The moment the voice sounded, the paper figure jerked its head upward to look above. There, a figure in a brown trench coat was crouching upside down on the ceiling, a pitch-black gun barrel aimed directly at its brow!

The next moment, a terrifying power of deconstruction poured out, rushing toward the paper figure like an invisible pillar piercing through the floorboards!

Chen Ling knew the paper figure’s abilities were bizarre; it would be hard to gain an advantage in a head-on confrontation... But when it came to bizarre abilities, Chen Ling didn't feel inferior. In this complex, intricate terrain where sightlines were easily obscured, his skills had plenty of room for maneuver.

At the critical moment, the paper figure moved with such speed it left an afterimage, yet even so, most of its body was swallowed by the deconstruction force.

Dust swirled as the second-floor ceiling was completely blown through. A smooth, hollow hole extended all the way down to the uninhabited room below, even punching a massive gap through the floor beneath that and the entire building's foundation!

A gap was torn into the paper figure’s body. At the same time, a figure seemed to fall out of a tattered fishing net, detaching from the ruined paper body and crashing heavily onto the ground.

There was a person inside the paper figure?

Seeing this, surprise flickered in Chen Ling’s eyes. When he saw the person's face clearly, his surprise deepened.

"Cough, cough, cough..." Jian Changsheng lay on the ground in a wretched state, like a drowning man gasping for air. He looked up and saw Chen Ling dropping from the ceiling, freezing in place.

"It's you?!"

Chen Ling was currently disguised as Lin Yan, and Jian Changsheng never expected to meet him here.

"How did you end up inside that paper figure?" Chen Ling asked, frowning. Then, as if realizing something, he and Jian Changsheng spoke in unison:

"You’re a target too?"

[Audience Expectation +3]

[Current Expectation: 50%]

Boom—!

A loud crash came from the side. The tattered paper figure stood up crookedly. Outside the broken window behind it, a massive amount of paper sheets snaked in like giant pythons, wrapping around its body and rapidly repairing the gaps.

"Be careful," Jian Changsheng said immediately. "That guy is an Outlander hired by the Star Chamber of Commerce, a Tier 4 powerhouse of the [Puppet God Path]."

[Puppet God Path]? Tier 4?

At these two keywords, Chen Ling’s brow furrowed involuntarily... This was his first time encountering a practitioner of this God Path, but controlling a paper figure seemed a bit different from what he imagined the [Puppet God Path] to be.

But Tier 4 was indeed tricky. A Tier 3 [Thief God Path] user had nearly suppressed the entire trial of the Military God Path’s ancient treasury. A Tier 4 user who had mastered their own domain represented a qualitative leap compared to anything below Tier 3.

"This paper figure is unkillable. We have to kill the main body," Chen Ling said, his voice grave as he watched the paper figure, which was almost fully restored and even larger than before.

"I have the [Blood-Dripping Tuo], I'll kill him!"

Even though Jian Changsheng had nearly died at that man's hands, he felt no fear, only a fierce desire for revenge. He stabbed his own body three times in succession, creating three shocking bloody holes, and his aura climbed steadily.

Seeing this, Chen Ling didn't stop him, instead letting him flick a drop of blood out the window with his blade before vanishing from the spot in a flash.

Seemingly sensing Jian Changsheng’s intent, the paper figure turned rapidly, preparing to chase him through the window, but an invisible deconstruction bullet flew toward it once more!

The paper figure was prepared this time and narrowly dodged to the side. Its vivid head turned 180 degrees, and those hollow red eyes stared fixedly at Chen Ling, who was holding the gun not far away.

Wisp of blue smoke drifted from the gun barrel. Chen Ling locked eyes with it for a moment, then turned and bolted toward the corridor without hesitation. The next moment, a blurred paper shadow followed close behind!

……

Jian Changsheng leaped into the moonlight, his gaze scanning the surroundings, and quickly locked onto the hunchbacked man standing on the corridor of the other four-story building.

A sharp glint flashed in his eyes as he flicked a few more blood droplets from his blade, arriving at the fourth-floor corridor in an instant.

"Die!"

Jian Changsheng gripped his short sword, his eyes filled with grim killing intent. He knew Chen Ling couldn't hold out for long; he had to finish off the main body of this [Puppet God Path] user as quickly as possible, or they would both die here.

The edge of the short sword sliced through the air, emitting a sharp whistling sound. Just as it was about to touch the hunchbacked man, a flash of white light flickered before his eyes!

A severed wrist detached lightly from Jian Changsheng’s body...

Jian Changsheng’s pupils contracted violently!

In his field of vision, a blade folded from white paper had sliced through his wrist as if it had no weight at all. The cut was incredibly smooth; in that moment, Jian Changsheng could even clearly see the blood vessels slowly pulsing on his severed wrist as it flew away.

And along with the wrist, the short sword that had been aimed at the hunchbacked man flew off as well.

"You..." Jian Changsheng stood frozen in place.

The paper blade flipped lightly in the hunchbacked man’s hand, folding at a dazzling speed into a snow-white cane. The hunchbacked man slowly raised his head, his drooping eyes devoid of any emotion.

"Wouldn't it have been better to just stay sealed inside the paper figure... Why insist on coming out to seek death?"

The next moment, the snow-white cane whistled through the air and slammed heavily into Jian Changsheng’s back!

Bang—!!

Jian Changsheng felt as if he had been struck by a meteorite. The sound of his bones shattering erupted like a string of popcorn, and his entire body was blasted into the floorboards like a cannonball.

Flying dust nearly engulfed the entire fourth floor. Under the roar of the impact, lights flickered on in the surrounding residential buildings; it seemed some people had been awakened.

Jian Changsheng was now like a pile of mush, soaked in blood. He lay buried in the rubble and debris, seemingly still trying to crawl up.

The hunchbacked man bent over and slowly crouched in front of him. A hoarse voice sounded:

"First, not all main bodies of the [Puppet God Path] are fragile."

"Second, the [Puppet God Path] isn't limited to controlling only one thing at a time."

"Third, who told you... that seeing a domain means it must be Tier 4?"

Hearing the last sentence, Jian Changsheng’s pupils contracted slightly. He struggled to lift his head, looking at the hunchbacked man with eyes full of disbelief.

"You... you're more than Tier 4?!"

The hunchbacked man didn't speak. He lifted his fingertips slightly, and sheets of paper rapidly extended from the floor of the corridor. Amidst the flying dust, they transformed into a dozen paper figures, all identical in appearance, with vivid and eerie features.

These paper figures stood in a dense crowd behind the hunchbacked man, countless hollow eyes staring at Jian Changsheng. The paper figure Chen Ling was currently stalling seemed to be one of them.

The hunchbacked man said indifferently:

"What do you think?"