Chapter 601: "Death"

The earth trembled, and rustling dust drifted down from the floorboards above.

In the basement of the Beidou Consortium, three black-clad figures were standing at the eye of a massive alchemy array with flowing light. The flickering light dyed their faces with a mysterious veil.

If someone could see through the underground of the Red Dust main city at this moment, they would see complex lines extending from this alchemy array, following a very regular and aesthetic path, covering one-third of the Red Dust main city, basically overlapping with the area intersecting with the Gray Realm. Looking down from the sky, it looked like a blooming red flower.

And every time someone died in an area, the corresponding array patterns underground would light up, like wriggling blood vessels transporting ethereal souls to this basement full of array patterns, causing the light in this basement to be the brightest!

Some kind of silvery-white alchemy powder filled the underground space. Through this powder, one could vaguely see phantom souls wailing in pain. Their facial features and torsos were squeezed and deformed bit by bit. Your head drilled into my throat, and my arm reached out from your ear, then they were condensed smaller and smaller, and finally turned from virtual to real, turning into tiny dark red liquid, floating in mid-air.

"Is this... the Philosopher's Stone?" At the edge of the basement, Mu Chunsheng saw this scene, his eyes full of shock.

"Far from it." One of the black-robed figures said calmly, "An ordinary Philosopher's Stone requires the souls of a million people as material, and there is a risk of failure... Wuji Jun's soul is too powerful. To carry his soul, one Philosopher's Stone is definitely not enough. Roughly estimated, it would take seven to ten."

"The souls of a million people to refine one Philosopher's Stone??" Mu Chunsheng was stunned. "In that case, even if you kill everyone in the Red Dust Domain, you can't refine a few?"

"That's right."

"Then when can I have a Philosopher's Stone and achieve eternal life?" Mu Chunsheng immediately spoke up. "In such a short time, our Beidou Consortium has spent a lot of money to open up such a huge and complex network underground for you, and the materials you used to draw the alchemy array were also provided by me... My contribution is not small."

"Feijia and the others just changed your body, living another ten years or more is not a problem... what are you in such a hurry for?" The black-robed figure glanced at him. "Besides, this world is not just the Red Dust Domain, there will be opportunities in the future."

Mu Chunsheng opened his mouth, but still fell into silence helplessly... The Witchcraft Association using this method to refine the Philosopher's Stone must be for Wuji Jun first. After all, Wuji Jun was their greatest reliance. It was already good enough that he might have a chance to have a sip of soup in the future.

"How many souls have been collected now?" one of the black-clad figures asked.

"It's just the beginning, a total of less than 20,000 people have died, and a large part are seriously injured and dying... However, this array itself can forcibly absorb dying souls. After a while, the number of absorbed souls will skyrocket."

"As time goes on, there will only be more and more disasters entering the Red Dust main city, and the death toll will grow faster and faster. Conservatively estimated, the first Philosopher's Stone can be refined within 24 hours."

"Don't forget that the Floating Life Painting has already entered the field, and those halls are not soft persimmons."

"So what? The Jiangtian Cult people are also preparing for a second mass suicide ritual. As long as they can successfully summon the 'Wilderness of Sighs' extinction-level descent, it's useless even if all nine halls are tied together... If it goes smoothly, that one extinction-level disaster alone can level the Red Dust Domain, and we can refine all the Philosopher's Stones in one go."

"To summon such a big guy, how many people must the Jiangtian Cult die?"

"I don't know. To make the Jiangtian Cult work so hard, Wuji Domain must have paid a great price."

"The extinction of the 'Wilderness of Sighs'... I wonder what kind of existence it is?"

"When it descends, you will know."

……

Jinghong Tower.

"Sir, are you really okay?"

Kong Baosheng confirmed Chen Ling's fingertips again and again, and there were no wounds left, so he finally breathed a sigh of relief... But he still didn't understand why the teacup, which had been used for so long, exploded for no reason.

Chen Ling blinked gently, and the four characters "Wilderness of Sighs" on the ground disappeared without a trace, replaced by a puddle of ordinary water stains.

His brow furrowed involuntarily.

Since he gradually mastered the use of the theater, the "audience" had rarely intervened in his performances, and after possessing "Zhu Yan," Chen Ling thought he could suppress a part of the "audience," but he didn't expect them to pop out again now.

He still had a "72%" expectation value, so why would they start affecting him again at this time?

Could it be that he did something that didn't satisfy them again?

Thinking of this, the "Wilderness of Sighs" from just now floated into his mind again... A thought suddenly emerged.

The "audience" in his body was likely the "extinction" disaster of the Ghost Mockery Abyss, 【Mockery】. And their anomaly happened after the Gray Realm intersection, when he touched those ashes...

Could it be that there is some grudge between 【Mockery】 and the Wilderness of Sighs?

Or rather... is it a grudge against the "extinction" of the Wilderness of Sighs? Did it trigger an anomaly because it sensed the other party's aura just now?

The more Chen Ling thought about it, the more he felt this was possible.

He came back to his senses and saw Huang Suyu and the others surrounding him, so he immediately waved his hand: "It's fine, maybe I used too much force when I took it just now..."

It was chaotic outside now, and Huang Suyu and the others were very tense. After learning that Chen Ling was okay, although they returned to their seats on their own, they still looked out the door absent-mindedly, as if worried about something.

Chen Ling didn't know how to comfort them, so he turned and sat on the chair he was just on. But as soon as he shifted his weight onto it, the chair beneath his feet split with a crack, and he sat down on the floor unexpectedly!

Bang!

In the stunned gaze of the crowd, Chen Ling stood up from the ground in a daze and looked back at the floor. The broken chair fragments also connected together, turning into a large "Death" character.

【Audience expectation value -1】

【Current expectation value: 71%】

Chen Ling: ???

Chen Ling naturally knew who was playing tricks, and this "Death" character was probably not directed at him... Looking at the posture of the audience, they didn't want him to stay in the opera house like this, and were urgently asking him to go out and "kill" the Wilderness of Sighs.

Just as Chen Ling was struggling in his heart, a blood-covered figure leaned against the wall and staggered to the entrance of the opera house.

"Cough, cough, cough..." Wang Jincheng coughed violently in the sighing wind. He wanted to step over the threshold, but his legs suddenly went soft, and he lost his balance and fell into the room.

"Boss Lin... come and help me."