Chapter 36: Who... can punish me?

Bright red blood splattered on the screen behind the stage.

The drums and wind instruments on both sides of the stage vanished instantly!

Everyone froze, their pupils contracting sharply. The intense smell of blood suppressed the alcohol in their bodies. They stood up abruptly, their faces filled with disbelief!

"You..."

Bone Blade slowly lifted his gaze from his bloody chest to Chen Ling's face.

He seemed to think of something.

"Are you... that kid's... brother?"

A large amount of blood gushed from his throat, making his words garbled. His expression was filled with extreme terror.

"You like to tear people's hearts and lungs out?" Chen Ling's cheeks were covered in blood, his eyes filled with intense hatred and madness. "Today... I'm going to dig you out completely too!"

"Give me the knife!!"

Chen Ling raised his hand toward the void behind him.

A sharp dagger at the waist of one of the Ice Spring Street residents, who was standing there in a daze, suddenly trembled violently!

As if an invisible hand had grabbed the hilt, it was pulled from its sheath and flew toward Chen Ling in the center of the stage with a whistle!

The "Audience" was cooperating with his performance.

Chen Ling gripped the dagger and stabbed it into Bone Blade's chest like lightning, following the bloody hole he had opened with his hand all the way down, slicing him open in an instant!

Bone Blade couldn't help but open his mouth wide. The extreme pain made him want to scream, but the blood gushing from his throat blocked his windpipe, and only a painful wheezing sound could be heard.

Blood mixed with organs flowed out from the slash. Bone Blade knelt on the ground limply, his hands frantically trying to stuff everything back in, but after a few attempts, his movements slowly stopped...

He was dead.

In his pupils, the bloody stage and everything about himself were reflected... mostly terror and helplessness.

Chen Ling looked at Bone Blade, who had knelt and died in front of him. His expression didn't change much. This was his first time killing someone, but perhaps due to the hatred and the surge of adrenaline, he didn't feel much... except for a faint sense of nausea.

He didn't notice that at this moment, above the sky filled with flying snow, a black star lit up slightly.

"Chen Ling?! Are you crazy?!!"

"As an enforcer, killing people wantonly without any reason!! You will be punished!!"

Qian Fan saw this scene, his pupils dilating involuntarily. He roared immediately.

On the bloody stage, the figure in red turned slowly...

The boy's cheeks were still covered in hot blood. He held the dagger, looking down at the terrified crowd, his eyes full of killing intent and madness!

At this moment, the screen behind him lit up with dense blood, like countless scarlet eyes opening in the darkness, sitting in the void of the audience seats, watching everything.

[Audience Expectation Value +5]

*Click*—

With a soft sound, all the torches in the mansion were extinguished at the same time.

"Punish me?"

Chen Ling chuckled. He slowly raised his fingertip, stained with the hot blood on his cheek, and drew a bloody line at the corner of his eye... The Chen Yan who once wore red makeup and Chen Ling's face overlapped in a trance, and his entire aura became eerie and bloody!

He was the ghost Chen Ling, and also the ghost Chen Yan, a performer acting alone under the gaze of the "World-Ending" Calamity.

"By what right do you punish me?"

"You... who can punish me?"

The next moment, the figure in red disappeared from the stage instantly.

A dagger cut through the void, so fast that no one present could react. Immediately after, a muffled groan sounded, and an Ice Spring Street resident closest to the stage had his throat slashed, falling to the ground.

Li Mang, Sun Laoliu, and the others were terrified. They had all fought Chen Ling before and knew how terrifying he was.

Most importantly, they were all here for a celebration and fun today, so almost no one brought a gun, at most hiding one or two cold weapons on their bodies... But even when they had guns in the tavern, they couldn't take Chen Ling down, let alone now?

The red phantom wove through the banquet, reaping lives with a frenzy. As the body count rose, Chen Ling completely overcame his initial shadow of guilt, finding himself inexplicably skilled at the act.

Amidst the vast, heavy snow, a bloody and bizarre massacre unfolded within the courtyard.

Meanwhile,

a hundred meters away from the courtyard.

"He actually drew the gaze of the 'Path of the War God'?" Chu Muyun stood beneath a snow-laden tree, his eyes fixed on the distant courtyard. "I never imagined he was truly a genius... when it comes to killing."

"It’s not just the 'Path of the War God'."

Out of the void, the figure of a man entirely shrouded in shadows slowly took shape.

"Haven't you noticed? The stars of the 'Path of the Witch God' have also reacted..."

"'Path of the Witch God'?" Chu Muyun was startled. "What connection does he have with the 'Path of the Witch God'? Why would he trigger it?"

"I don't know."

"But don't you find it strange?"

"What?"

"How could an Assimilator trigger the gaze of the Divine Paths? And he’s an Assimilator carrying an 'Extinction'-level burden at that..."

"There’s nothing strange about it. He merely drew their gaze, as if his own talent caught the attention of the Divine Paths, but he hasn't truly received [Divine Favor]... The path to godhood is not meant for monsters."

"I see."

"Still, this kid is crazy and ruthless enough. Your eye for talent is good."

Chu Muyun smiled slightly and said nothing.

"But he’s in trouble now."

"Why?"

"I can smell it." The shadowed man paused for a moment. "That enforcer named Qian Fan carries the scent of a 'Sacrificial Artifact'."

……

In the courtyard.

With every flick of Chen Ling’s blade, seven or eight residents of Ice Spring Street fell one after another.

Lacking firearms, the residents of Ice Spring Street almost unanimously chose to flee, but they were no match for the speed of Chen Ling, who possessed [Killing Waltz]. Before they could even reach the front courtyard, they were hunted down!

"Brother Fan! What do we do?!" an enforcer shouted in a panic.

"He must have already received [Divine Favor] and stepped onto a Divine Path..." Qian Fan recalled the scene of Chen Ling summoning the dagger out of thin air, his expression turning ghastly. "Damn it, which Divine Path did he actually walk onto?"

"Doesn't that make him an official Enforcer?" another enforcer asked, his face deathly pale. "How could we possibly beat him?"

"Why hasn't Brother Ma arrived yet?!"

"It’s too late... If this continues, not only will Ice Spring Street be completely wiped out, but we might not even save our own lives."

A ruthless glint flashed in Qian Fan’s eyes. He reached into his coat and pulled out an object wrapped in black cloth.

As he slowly unwrapped the cloth, a severed finger bone was exposed to the air...