The Truth

What the hell is this?!

A dry laugh squeezed out of Blood Butcher's throat, his facial muscles twisting in anger.

He couldn't comprehend the bizarre situation unfolding before him. Something that walked out of a painting had easily neutralized his lethal strike.

He said no more, unleashing his Tier-8 power without reservation.

Across the floor of the entire suite, the stagnant pool of blood began to bubble.

Hundreds of long bloody tendons shot out from it, twisting toward the Chen Guan from the painting from all directions.

Each blood tendon writhed and shrieked. It was the very essence of despair he had extracted from countless lives, potent enough to corrode steel and taint souls.

Facing this purgatorial scene, the Chen Guan from the painting merely raised the scythe in his hand.

He didn't swing it, nor did he even adopt a defensive stance. He simply tapped the tip of the scythe lightly against the air in front of him.

Hum.

A silent shockwave rippled outward.

The roaring blood tendons lunging at him all froze in midair, less than half a meter away.

Immediately after, they began to fade in color.

The deep blood-red turned pale red, then pinkish-white, before finally dissolving into the most primal life energy and returning to nothingness.

The power Blood Butcher had been so proud of was directly neutralized.

The negative energy of millions of people that he commanded seemed so crude and pathetic before the power his opponent wielded.

This was no longer a contest of skill, but the domination of the source over its tributaries.

"Impossible!" Panic leaked into Blood Butcher's voice for the first time.

He finally realized that his power was a filthy gutter stream mixed with countless resentments, while what the other party held was the spring of life that nourished all things.

[Holy crap, what is going on?]

[Is this Brother Coffin's true strength? Was he acting for us again earlier?]

[No, look at Brother Coffin's main body, he's still standing at the door. Is this a summon? Or an avatar?]

[With this aura, I declare this is the real Brother Coffin. The one at the door is just the hype man, irrelevant.]

The discussions in the bullet comments could not affect the battlefield.

Blood Butcher spread his arms, and his entire body's power converged directly into a primal, destructive torrent, washing toward the Chen Guan from the painting.

He wanted to use the most barbaric power to smooth out this bizarre gap and launch a final strike.

The bloody tide swept through the entire room.

The Chen Guan from the painting stood amidst the washing tide, his figure not swaying in the slightest.

The scythe in his hand rose, and this time, he swung it.

A pitch-black rift opened in front of him.

Blood Butcher's offensive was blocked by a single line.

He looked at that face, identical to his prey's, and the hairs on his back stood on end. A chill shot straight up his spine to the top of his head.

This power had long surpassed the Tier-3 his subordinates mentioned, even exceeding the realm of Tier-8.

Blood Butcher's understanding was completely overturned. In his moment of distraction, he felt a fatal tremor from his connection to the city-wide array.

The distant foundation was shaking.

The blood-red array covering the entire city, that giant web made of countless emotional threads, had found its final destination.

All the threads pulled taut, turning their direction in unison. They no longer surged toward Blood Butcher at the Queen Casino.

Instead, with an almost pilgrim-like fanaticism, they threw themselves toward the rooftop of that inconspicuous office building.

All streams returning to the abyss.

The most spectacular scene played out in the night sky of Jiang City.

Countless blood-red streams of light tore through the sky, weaving into a reverse-flowing meteor shower, all sinking into that small water tank.

The person in that black coffin transformed into an insatiable abyss, greedily devouring the feast gathered from the negative emotions and life force of a million living beings.

The bloody patterns in the sky faded completely within a mere three seconds. The night sky returned to a deep blue-black, with only a few stars twinkling in the distance.

The heavy weight pressing on everyone's hearts vanished instantly, followed by the bewilderment of surviving a disaster.

What happened?

The ritual had its foundation entirely ripped out from underneath.

...

Top floor of the Queen Casino.

The source of his power cut off, the aura around Blood Butcher rapidly withered.

The blood flames burning on his body extinguished inch by inch. The originally thick blood light became thin and dim, threatening to dissipate completely at any moment.

He fell heavily from the clouds of Tier-8.

Pfft.

He spat out a mouthful of black blood, his breath weakening to the extreme.

"Who... who stole my ritual!" he roared, unwilling madness burning in his pair of scarlet eyes.

The Chen Guan from the painting gave him no answer.

He took a step forward, his figure passing through layers of space to appear in front of Blood Butcher.

The scythe in his hand slashed down once more.

From this strike, Blood Butcher had nowhere to hide.

He could only watch helplessly as that weapon representing finality cleaved toward his body.

Having done all this, the man from the painting turned around, casting an indifferent gaze at Chen Guan by the door.

Subsequently, his figure began to break down into flowing ink, scattering bit by bit, and finally entirely retracting into the scroll suspended in midair.

The scroll rolled up. Losing its power support, it fluttered lightly onto the carpet.

In the entire luxurious suite, only Chen Guan remained standing.

Consecutive deaths and the extreme overdraft of his spirit completely backfired at this moment.

His vision darkened in waves and began to blur. Using his last bit of strength to grip the doorframe, he barely prevented himself from collapsing on the spot.

[We won? We just won like that?]

[Brother Coffin is awesome! What was that thing in the painting?]

[Look at Brother Coffin, he looks like he's dying. His face is as pale as paper.]

[It hurts my heart. He carried everything by himself. So where exactly are the official people?]

Chen Guan ignored the clamor of the bullet comments. He merely forced his body to stay upright, while his consciousness had long since sunk into the system.

The popularity value number had already broken through a threshold he had never imagined.

And the main body on the other side... according to the current situation, he had succeeded...

What the old me wants, the old me gets.

...

At the same time, above the clouds of Jiang City.

The air here was crisp and cold. Beneath their feet lay a rolling sea of clouds, and the distant city lights were brilliant, having returned to their former tranquility.

White Tiger leaned back in a lounge chair made of clouds and mist, leisurely swirling the red wine in his glass.

Beside him stood a woman.

She was Santai of the Return to Source Group.

"The boss's script is always so unreasonable," White Tiger chuckled softly. He took a sip of wine, his eyes revealing the amusement of watching a good show. "So, can you tell me now? The part of the mission that belongs to you."

"Haven't you already guessed it, Uncle White Tiger?" Santai said seriously. "My mission was to ensure he successfully stole from the gods, and your mission was to lure Vermilion Bird into the cage. Now it seems we've both accomplished them."

"Indeed."

White Tiger swirled his wine glass, using the stem to point down at the city below, toward the area where Long Ao was evacuating the crowd and fighting desperately.

"However, the boss really doesn't trust me, actually dispatching different missions to the two of us separately. Just how little faith does he have in my professional capabilities?"

Santai paid it no mind. "He's just afraid you'd be too busy to handle it. This isn't a game; if you make a mistake, there's no chance to load a save file and start over. I had to prevent the officials from getting in the way while also helping that kid succeed. It was really troublesome, okay? After I finished, I even had a rare moment of kindness and helped him move that dead-heavy coffin. I really don't know what the boss is thinking."

"True." White Tiger nodded slightly. If all the tasks were assigned to him, he would indeed be a bit too busy. Just stalling the authorities was troublesome enough, and if his sweethearts died, they would be dead for real. "Your Myriad Manifestations Scroll is getting more and more overpowered. To directly replicate an ideal state of him for battle—that Blood Butcher didn't lose unjustly."

"And that kid from the Long family." White Tiger's gaze turned to Long Ao.

Hurry up and grow up, boys.

Once you grow up, you can't keep letting your handsome but ruthless boss run all over the globe anymore.