Chapter 809: There's a Villain Among Us!

Having witnessed the "falling out" between Heart and Spade, Sun Bumian felt a bit panicked and instinctively took half a step back... In his mind, Jian Changsheng's evaluation of Chen Ling surfaced involuntarily:

"Insidious, cunning, cold-blooded, cruel, crazy, loves to lie, loves to toy with people's feelings, and builds his own happiness on the suffering of others..."

The veins on Sun Bumian's forehead throbbed.

Chen Ling stopped in front of him, his eyes fixed on the face wearing the small round sunglasses, his brows slightly furrowed...

"Have I seen you somewhere before?"

This was the first time Chen Ling had looked at Sun Bumian from up close, but the moment he saw that face, a sense of familiarity surged into his heart.

Sun Bumian had considered many possibilities, such as Chen Ling drawing his blade without a word, or throwing him into the underground like he did with Jian Changsheng. After all, under Jian Changsheng's vivid descriptions, the "Demon Chen" had been completely demonized; it wouldn't be strange for such a madman to do anything against human nature.

But he hadn't expected the first thing Chen Ling said to him to be so normal... or rather, relatively normal.

"...No," Sun Bumian shook his head. "I don't recall us having any interaction."

"...I remember now."

Chen Ling thought for a moment and realized where the familiarity came from. He had once seen a photo of Xiao Chunping in an era archive, showing him posing with a lion-dancing boy. Although the boy's attire was completely different from Sun Bumian's, the sunglasses and facial features were almost identical!

He scrutinized Sun Bumian, a look of astonishment appearing in his eyes... One had to realize that the photo was taken over three hundred years ago. How could he encounter someone exactly like the person in the photo in this era?

Unless...

"Do you also have an era archive?" Chen Ling proposed the most likely hypothesis.

"Era archive? What is that?"

"It's a USB drive like this."

Seeing the USB drive Chen Ling produced, Sun Bumian shook his head directly, "I've never seen such a thing..."

Chen Ling also realized. All era archives started at the same point: the moment the Red Star streaked across the sky above Earth. But the photo of Xiao Chunping and the lion-dancing boy was from 2020. Even if one used an era archive to go back, it wouldn't reach that point in time.

"Then can you time travel?" Chen Ling's brows furrowed even tighter.

"Or... do you know Xiao Chunping?"

……

Underground in the Dark Palace.

Behind one of the pitch-black doors.

A beggar kept his head low, walking quickly behind a group of vigilant participants, his bright eyes like clear glass, observing his surroundings in secret.

He was a possessor of the Divination Path from the civilian sector and the first person to find the entrance to the Dark Palace...

But beyond that, he had an extremely hidden identity.

He silently changed direction, walked up to another figure trailing behind the crowd, and after checking that no one was around, silently tugged at the person's hem.

The person frowned and stopped.

"Heart 7, what are you doing?" The person lowered their voice in the darkness after the crowd had moved away. "Didn't we say we were going to pretend not to know each other this time?"

"...No, Plum Blossom, I have a bad feeling about this!"

The beggar hesitated for a moment before speaking, "When I was choosing the door earlier, I cast a hex. It seems like all six of these are death doors!!"

Plum Blossom 7 frowned, "What do you mean?"

"Every door is a nine-deaths-one-life situation. You tell me, if the Heaven-Reaching Tower designed this Dark Palace, it shouldn't be this dangerous, right?"

"Isn't that normal?" Plum Blossom 7 said dismissively. "This Dark Palace was meant to speed up the competition. If it weren't dangerous, how would they reduce the number of people quickly?"

"But the hex also shows... there's a villain among us!"

"A villain?"

"It says there's a risk of being backstabbed."

The beggar scratched his head, "I figure, the two of us definitely wouldn't backstab each other... so besides us, who else could do this? We aren't familiar with anyone else, are we?"

Plum Blossom 7 lowered his head, lost in thought.

"Could it be that there are other Yellow... other people of ours mixed into this team? We didn't recognize each other's identities and accidentally hurt our own?"

"We've been in the Society for a while now, and we know most of the other members. There are only a few who are old enough to participate in this competition, and they aren't among these people!"

"Could it be the younger generation?"

"The '6' generation... we really don't have much interaction with them." The beggar pondered for a moment, "But I heard Old Chu mention them before. They aren't very old. Even if they are gifted, they shouldn't be able to threaten us, right?"

"That's true... By the way, if you knew these six doors were all death doors, why did you come in?"

"It might be a death door for ordinary people, but I can calculate fortune and misfortune, so it's not entirely without a way out... Besides, didn't I come to warn you?" The beggar patted his shoulder, "The favor I owed you last time is settled!"

Plum Blossom 7 snorted and said nothing more.

Just as the two were talking, a sudden scream came from ahead!

The previously flat path had developed a huge chasm. As mechanical sounds whirred wildly, scorching blue blades overlapped into a meat-grinder-like device, instantly slicing the two participants in the lead into four pieces!

This sudden turn of events startled everyone. They instinctively wanted to turn and run, only to find that the passage they had come from had disappeared...

In its place were three deep pits, just large enough to avoid the cutting blades.

And right now, above these three pits, there were signs labeled: "This pit can hold a maximum of 3 people," "This pit can hold a maximum of 2 people," and "This pit can hold a maximum of 1 person."

Ahead was a blade trap forged by the Heaven-Reaching Tower, and behind was a safe zone that could only hold six people. Yet, there were fourteen people who had chosen this corridor!

At this moment, all the participants understood the "referee's" intention in setting up this obstacle. Without hesitation, they unleashed their Divine Paths in the narrow space, revealing killing moves against the participants closest to them!

The same scene was playing out in the other five passages. Although the dilemmas faced in each passage were different, the mutual slaughter broke out at the same time!

The roaring sounds, accompanied by the falling of one corpse after another, slowly raised the curtain on the battle for the "Dark Palace"...

And the mastermind behind all of this had yet to intervene.

Inside the circular hall.

Hearing these two questions, a strange glimmer flashed deep in Sun Bumian's eyes.

He calmly pushed up the small round sunglasses on the bridge of his nose, using the lenses to block his eyes, and then spread his hands:

"I don't know what you're talking about... Heart 6 Chen Ling, right? Did you mistake me for someone else?"