Chapter 597: The Disaster Bell Rings

The Jiangtian cultist was dumbfounded.

According to the original plan, he was supposed to complete the suicide ritual alone in this deserted inn, sacrificing the organ corresponding to the "Wilderness of Sighs" to summon the descent of the Gray Realm... But he never expected that just as his ritual was about to be completed, some inexplicable female beggar would appear.

Not only was this beggar not frightened by his ritual, but she was terrifyingly calm, and she had restrained him with a backhand move—she was clearly not an ordinary person.

Blood trickled from the Jiangtian cultist's body. Since the start of the suicide ritual, he had been in a near-death state, and his vitality was fading rapidly... His exposed lung lobe heaved, and his breath grew weaker.

"Are... are you from the Floating Life Painting? Or... the Twilight Society??"

"Neither."

"Then... then you..." The Jiangtian cultist glared at her, wanting to blurt out, "Then what the hell does it have to do with you?" but he didn't have the strength to curse.

Liu Qingyan's hand gripped his arm, refusing to let him pull out his lung. Her black-gem-like eyes stared at the Jiangtian cultist, narrowing slightly...

She saw a faint, ethereal thread drifting from the opponent's heart, extending into the void.

"I see it, your faith."

Liu Qingyan murmured, her voice seemingly possessing a soul-captivating power amidst the flickering kerosene lamp. "Disaster, omen... what exactly are you worshiping?"

The Jiangtian cultist didn't answer. He stared fixedly at Liu Qingyan, his eyes filled with anger and unwillingness.

If he weren't in the middle of a suicide ritual, if he weren't already in a near-death state, he wouldn't be so passive...

"It seems your ritual requires the removal of this lung lobe." Liu Qingyan took it all in, a slender, jade-like finger slowly rising from the darkness.

"In other words, if I kill you now... does that mean the ritual fails?"

The Jiangtian cultist knew he was doomed to fail. His vision began to darken from blood loss, and he could only speak intermittently:

"No matter who is behind you... I am not the only one performing a suicide ritual in these blocks... even if the ritual here fails... the surrounding blocks will still intersect with the Gray Realm... do you think saving this tiny area... will change anything?"

The dim light of the kerosene lamp flickered outside the door. In the narrow, dark room, Liu Qingyan slowly crouched down, the scarlet blood on the floor staining her hem. Her face was cold and calm in the darkness.

She looked through the small, dark window at the outside. Under the pitch-black night, the lights of an opera house silently illuminated a patch of the sky, and the melodious opera singing still echoed.

She said calmly:

"I don't care about other places... but this place is not something you can touch."

As she finished speaking, Liu Qingyan's fingertip flicked against the Jiangtian cultist's forehead.

Bang—

The next moment, his head exploded like a bloody flower, instantly splattering the entire wall. Even the closed small window was stained with blood, a shocking sight.

Amidst the blood on the floor, Liu Qingyan slowly stood up, stepped calmly over the headless corpse, and came to the closed, blood-stained window.

She pushed the window open with force, and fresh air flowed in immediately. The opera singing, previously muffled outside, became clear and melodious!

Liu Qingyan took a deep breath and exhaled slowly;

Under the reflection of the lights from across the street, Liu Qingyan's blood-stained face remained cold.

She closed her eyes gently, her long eyelashes trembling in the wind, as if she were completely intoxicated by Chen Ling's opera.

"Lord Chen Ling's singing is truly beautiful..."

……

Thump—

Several kilometers away from Jinghong Tower, in another inconspicuous inn, a Jiangtian cultist who had been crushed into pieces fell to the ground with a dull thud.

"Damn it... it really is the Jiangtian Cult!!" In the darkness, Wang Jincheng's expression was incredibly ugly.

"First the Twilight Society, now the Jiangtian Cult. What kind of bad luck has the Red Dust Domain had... to attract two plagues at once?!"

Wang Jincheng didn't have time to curse further. He walked quickly to the window, took out his walkie-talkie with one hand, and pressed the button:

"I've taken care of mine... how are things elsewhere?"

"The one on Green Ivy Road is also taken care of."

"Damn it... I've searched all over Narcissus Road and still haven't found the location of the suicide ritual!"

"I haven't found it here either. These Jiangtian cultists were well-prepared and hid very separately. It's impossible to find them one by one in time..."

"This is definitely an organized and premeditated attack by the Jiangtian Cult, and there must be someone behind the scenes directing the overall situation. We noticed it quickly, but we still weren't as fast as them..."

"It's too late. The suicide rituals of the Jiangtian cultists are usually performed simultaneously. I estimate that most of the rituals have already ended by now."

"Conservatively estimated, at least one-third of the Red Dust main city will be involved in the intersection with the Gray Realm... the casualties will be immeasurable."

"Even the Floating Life Painting can't save everyone."

Wang Jincheng's grip on the walkie-talkie tightened, the veins on the back of his hand bulging, and anger burned in his eyes.

"These animals..."

Before Wang Jincheng could finish, wisps of gray, thin "smoke" began to rise from various parts of the Red Dust main city under the night sky, like ignited bonfires, gradually connecting with the sky.

Wang Jincheng knew that those were not bonfires at all, but the aura of the Red Star escaping from the corpses of the Jiangtian cultists who had completed their suicide rituals... These auras would attract a certain area of the Gray Realm to approach, causing a large-scale intersection.

Almost all the blocks on the south side of the main city had this "smoke" rising. Only a few blocks were spared, likely because something went wrong during the ritual. But even so, it wouldn't change anything. If the surroundings of a block intersected with the Gray Realm, those disasters would sooner or later attack from all directions, leveling everything to the ground.

As these "smokes" rose into the sky, it was as if a large hole had been burned into the sky, and a gray hue began to spread rapidly, shrouding the world!

Wang Jincheng witnessed this scene with his teeth clenched... He took a deep breath, picked up the walkie-talkie, and slowly spat out four words:

"Sound the Disaster Bell."

……

Jinghong Tower.

"Suddenly hearing the golden drums and the sound of the horn shaking, awakening my ambition to break the Heavenly Gate.

Thinking back to the days on the peach-blossom horse, majestic and awe-inspiring, enemy blood splattering my pomegranate skirt..."

On the stage, Chen Ling, dressed as "Mu Guiying," was pacing along the edge of the stage. Before he could finish singing, he seemed to notice something and looked up abruptly at the hollow roof of the opera house!

In the distant sky, a gray hue was spreading rapidly;

This is...

Chen Ling's apricot-red eyes narrowed slightly.

The crowd below was mesmerized, but the next moment, several thunderous bell tolls rang out from afar!

Clang—

Clang—!!

Clang—!!!

Three tolls of the Disaster Bell, chaos in the Red Dust.