Chapter 80: You Did Well... Child

The moment Chen Ling’s voice fell, an aura of judgment surged into the gun barrel!

At the same time, Chen Ling felt his spirit rapidly wither, as if he had poured everything into his palm. In the dark, it felt as if some power had locked onto the front through the muzzle in his hand.

Jian Changsheng, approaching him, instantly felt the hair on his body stand up, an unprecedented sense of crisis erupting. He looked at the black muzzle approaching, like the gaze of death.

Instinct told him he must avoid this attack, but his body was already too slow.

Bang—!

Chen Ling pulled the trigger.

The power of deconstruction turned into a bullet and shot out from the muzzle. No sparks, no explosion, quiet as a silent arrow, instantly piercing Jian Changsheng’s chest.

Jian Changsheng felt his body lighten, and only a fist-sized bloody hole remained in his chest. Looking down, he could even see the ground behind him... Everything hit by this bullet seemed to be annihilated into nothingness, including his heart.

He could no longer control his body, staggering two steps before collapsing in front of Chen Ling.

After firing that shot, Chen Ling also felt his vision go black. The intense overdraft of mental energy made him nearly faint on the spot. It was only by gritting his teeth and supporting his body that he didn't fall down.

Sure enough, releasing the Fourth-Stage skill [Judgment Court] at the First Stage was still too much of a stretch.

And judging by the effect, he hadn't been able to open a domain like Han Meng had back then, but could only condense it into a domain countless times smaller near the gun barrel. The lethality of the deconstruction bullet was only the size of a fist...

One had to know that Han Meng had shattered the body of the red-paper monster with three shots, and the lethality range of each shot was more than ten times that of Chen Ling’s current one.

So even if I can release a skill beyond my own stage at the First Stage, the skill’s intensity will be greatly reduced, limited to the corresponding stage... This thought flashed through Chen Ling’s mind.

But the facts proved that even a weakened [Judgment Court] was enough to instantly kill almost all enemies of the same stage, such as Jian Changsheng.

"You are... a monster..."

A weak voice came from the throat of the fallen Jian Changsheng. Perhaps due to his own skill, even with his heart pierced, he didn't die immediately, but stared fixedly at Chen Ling,

"I shouldn't... have died... here... I had only just... begun."

"I am not... reconciled..."

His voice grew smaller and smaller, until finally, it fell into dead silence... But even so, those eyes still looked at Chen Ling, as if wanting to remember his face for the next life.

He died with his eyes wide open.

Only after confirming Jian Changsheng was dead did Chen Ling finally breathe a sigh of relief... This guy was too hard to kill.

Not only did he not feel pain when injured, but he fought even more fiercely. Chen Ling suspected that if he hadn't used the [Judgment Court] skill to kill him instantly, he might not have been Jian Changsheng’s match if it had dragged on.

Chen Ling rested in place for a while, finally recovering some strength from the edge of fainting. He scanned the surroundings and moved his feet bit by bit, walking toward Number 8 in the pool of blood.

At this point, Number 8 had been beaten into an unrecognizable state by Jian Changsheng. Chen Ling searched through the flesh and blood for a while before finding the Soldier God Dao Foundation fragment that Number 8 had been clutching.

He was about to take it away when he found that Number 8 was still clutching the fragment tightly, refusing to let go.

"You’re actually still alive?" Chen Ling said in surprise.

Although Number 8’s body had been shattered, he indeed still had a trace of breath. The only remaining eyeball stared at Chen Ling in the blood, his palm clutching the fragment tightly; that was his final stubbornness.

The eight of them, the Fire-Stealers, had traveled thousands of miles from other realms just for this Soldier God fragment. To obtain it, they had even been wiped out... This was the fruit they had exchanged their lives for, so how could they let Chen Ling take advantage of it in the end?

"Let go." Chen Ling sighed. "Everyone is dead. Did you think you could still turn the tables?"

A flash of despair crossed Number 8’s remaining eyeball... But he still didn't let go.

Chen Ling didn't try to pry the fragment from Number 8’s hand again, but instead placed his palm gently on Number 8’s mangled face, his other hand pulling out his gun and pressing it against Number 8’s temple.

Chen Ling could feel Number 8 trembling, but whether it was fear, anger, or unwillingness... he didn't know.

"Alright, alright." Chen Ling, draped in bright red theatrical robes, squatted beside the mangled flesh and comforted him gently, as if coaxing a child,

"You did well... child."

Bang—!

The bullet pierced Number 8’s skull, and he completely lost his breath.

Chen Ling moved his palm away, and Number 8’s eyelids had been forcibly closed by him, as if he had passed away peacefully.

Chen Ling used his dagger to slice open Number 8’s stiff palm, took out the blood-stained Soldier God Dao Foundation fragment, and stood up slowly... A breeze brushed the hem of his bloody theatrical robes, swaying lightly in the dead wilderness, like vermilion fire from the underworld.

"Is the performance not over yet..." Chen Ling pondered for a moment, suddenly realizing,

"Right... I’m not dead yet."

He was the final winner, and the only survivor on this stage.

And the final condition for the performance was [And Then There Were None].

Chen Ling looked at the text outlined in blood on the ground—

[Current Expectation Value: 65%]

After the performance began, the audience’s expectation value had been growing slowly as the performance progressed, but the plot that truly accumulated expectation value was after he transformed into Bai Qi Ling and instigated the melee between the enforcers and the Fire-Stealers...

Just by killing Yan Xicai, seizing the ring ritual artifact, and appearing after Jian Changsheng and the other two thought they had won, fighting one against three, he had harvested nearly 30 points of expectation value.

Harvesting Number 8’s life just now added another 5 points.

"Everyone is dead, where am I supposed to get another 5 points of expectation value?" Chen Ling felt a headache. If he had known, he should have designed a few more plot points to let these corpses contribute a bit more expectation value.

Chen Ling’s gaze swept over the corpses covering the ground and finally landed deep within the Soldier Path Ancient Treasury, in that unknown, mysterious darkness...

That was the only path left.

Chen Ling checked the time; there was still a short while before the Soldier Path Ancient Treasury opened, so he immediately set off, walking deep into the Ancient Treasury.

Five-man trench, ten-man trench, fifteen-man trench, twenty-man trench... fifty-man trench;

As Chen Ling went deeper, the soldier respawn points appearing around him became larger and larger. After passing the fifty-man trench, he saw a conspicuous stone tablet standing tall on the gray-white land.

"Trial Boundary, No Further Advancement."

Crossing this tablet meant leaving the trial area designated for them by Aurora City and entering the depths of the Ancient Treasury... And the area ahead was clearly not open to their group of newcomers.

Chen Ling stood before this tablet, paused for a moment, and continued forward... The moment his footsteps crossed the trial area, a faint warm current flowed from his chest.

Chen Ling was startled, reaching into his bosom to pull out the heating object,

it was none other than the Bai Qi Ling.