Mr. Kong held a book with no words in it. The writing on its pages had turned into a vast swarm of ants, like a shadow that ebbed and flowed beneath his feet.
“Shi Buyi, turn back now... Ah, forget it.” Mr. Kong knew there was no point in trying to persuade him.
The [Stone Whisperer] paused for only a second before moving again.
He stepped straight into Mr. Kong’s swarm of ants, allowing countless insects to crawl up his stony muscles.
“Mr. Kong seems to know me quite well. [Rest Gate · Theoretical Law]. Good laws and benevolent governance are my guiding principles; the scales of justice rest within my heart.”
The [Stone Whisperer] transformed completely into a stone man, paying no attention even as the swarm gnawed at him.
After releasing the ants, Mr. Kong made no further move. He simply allowed the Stone Whisperer to pass by him.
The [Stone Whisperer]’s strength had exceeded everyone’s expectations.
He had actually withstood the attacks of eight high-ranking Mystics all by himself.
The Stone Whisperer continued onward until he reached the main exit.
It wasn’t that there were no other experts present. However, there were already very few people above [Mystery] 5, and the rest had little reason to intervene.
Chen Miemie had been waiting eagerly for someone to bring the Stone Whisperer down. After waiting half a day, he watched in astonishment as the stone man defeated eight opponents in succession. Even as he marveled at how deeply the [Stone Whisperer] had hidden his strength, he couldn’t help curling his lips.
The [Stone Whisperer] was indeed powerful, but there was a reason behind each of his Eight Gates.
Among the Eight Gates, the Life Gate, Open Gate, and Rest Gate were relatively gentle. The three opponents corresponding to those moves—[Zhiliao], Luo Lang, and Mr. Kong—had practically gone easy on him in plain sight.
Especially Mr. Kong. He hadn’t even bothered to pretend otherwise; he had been doing nothing but slacking off.
Chen Miemie had no intention of making a move.
For one thing, many of the mysteries had been unraveled today, so unlike before, he no longer had many questions to ask.
For another, when he attacked, it was actually the strange beings within him that attacked. With the high-ranking figures of the entire Sealed Library watching, he didn’t want to reveal too much.
Just as the [Stone Whisperer] was about to walk out the door and escape, his next action once again took everyone by surprise.
The [Stone Whisperer] reached out and closed both doors. Then he turned around to face everyone in the auditorium.
“I, Shi Buyi, hereby surrender myself. I admit to all the crimes just accused of me by the [Butler] and everyone else, and I am willing to submit to the law.
“I, the [Stone Whisperer], Grand Scholar of the Sealed Library, am in charge of law and punishment. Today, I presided over the final case—the case of [Shi Buyi inciting hostility between humans and witches].”
Three wounds suddenly appeared on his body, each deep enough to expose the bone. In an instant, he became a man drenched in blood.
The attacks had come from President Yu, the “Pestle Grandma,” and [Silence].
The [Stone Whisperer] spat out a large mouthful of blood. Ignoring the three women, he instead pointed at the documents scattered across the floor.
“In this entire case, I am the principal culprit, and I should be executed. As for the subsidiary crimes already confirmed, witches, do you have any objections to the crimes listed in these documents?”
The “Pestle Grandma” struck him again. “What? Do you really think you can’t die?”
The [Stone Whisperer] shook his head. “You can kill my body, but you cannot kill my thoughts. There are still many, many people in the Sealed Library who think as I do. Ideas do not die.”
The “Pestle Grandma” was about to attack again.
The [Stone Whisperer] stomped on the ground, and a spike of earth thrust up from the ground beside the “Pestle Grandma.”
“‘Pestle Grandma,’ when you said you weren’t afraid to drag me down with you, were you telling the truth?
“Good. I feel the same way.
“Many people have already forgotten that the law is the order upon which the entire Sealed Library rests. Scholars can be tried, witches can be judged. It is time to draw this rusted sword of justice once more.
“The rift between humans and witches has existed for far too long. What we need is a thorough reckoning. When a disease has spread to the marrow, treating only the surface wounds is not enough—we must open the wound deeper and cut away the rotten flesh. Some blood must be spilled.
“If we want to move forward unburdened, we must turn the page on the past completely. I have already entered the game. Are you prepared to do the same?”
The “Pestle Grandma” stopped her attack and stared at the [Stone Whisperer] for a long while before saying, “What is there to fear?”
She walked toward the stage.
As she passed [Bridge Princess] and Chen Miemie, her voice drifted over in a whisper too soft to hear clearly.
“[Bridge Princess], the [Molting Clinic] will be yours from now on.”
[Bridge Princess] tried to get up and stop her, but Chen Miemie and Du Jun pressed down on her shoulders from either side, keeping her seated.
Du Jun forced the words out through clenched teeth. “[Bridge Princess], don’t forget what Grandma told us at yesterday’s meeting.”
Gongshu Key was biting down so hard that blood nearly appeared in his mouth. “Why? Grandma doesn’t have to go! The [Stone Whisperer] has already exposed himself. Why not just kill him?”
Du Jun shook his head.
“He is a Grand Scholar. He has entered the game with his own life and surrendered himself. Now, no one but the law has the right to kill him.”
“There are so many witches. Why does it have to be Grandma?”
Chen Miemie no longer listened to them. He simply watched the “Pestle Grandma” walk onto the stage.
He silently turned the thought over in his mind.
The “Pestle Grandma” was old enough, respected enough, and her crimes were proven beyond doubt. She would accept responsibility for the crimes of the vast majority of witches, then be buried underground together with those charges, becoming nourishment for the two races’ fresh start.
Her ending would not only serve as an answer to humanity; it would also serve as a warning to the witches.
When the Stone Whisperer saw the “Pestle Grandma” come onto the stage, he asked only one extremely simple and direct question:
“‘Pestle Grandma,’ do you plead guilty?”
He did not specify which crimes or how many.
The “Pestle Grandma” looked around the room.
“Guilty.”
“Good. Someone come and take the ‘Pestle Grandma’ and me away together.”
The entire hall fell silent. Everyone watched wordlessly as the security officers shackled the [Stone Whisperer] and the “Pestle Grandma,” then escorted them out through the doors.
Watching the [Stone Whisperer]’s back, Mr. Kong let out a long sigh.
He seemed to return to several decades earlier, when Shi Buyi had still been a bus driver.
The young Shi Buyi, carrying a letter of complaint he had written himself, walked toward the complaint office.
The middle-aged [Stone Whisperer] exercised his authority to judge others—and was about to have himself locked away in prison.
Two figures separated by decades overlapped in that moment.
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
orn and Humiliation】【Forced Love】 In his past life, Lin Ran was betrayed and murdered by his girlfriend and family, while the yandere female aristocrat, who had treated him as a mere plaything, avenged him by doing in his enemies. Upon seeing the yandere female aristocrat lying in the same coffin, ready to die with him, Lin Ran realized how profoundly mistaken he had been. Reborn, he abandoned the fickle campus beauty and wholeheartedly embraced the yandere female aristocrat's arms. "Ran! If I dig out your eyes and turn them into a specimen, you'll only be able to look at me!" Lin Ran: "Darling, kiss me!" "Ran! If I break your legs, you won't run away anymore, right?" Lin Ran: "Love, hold me tight!" "Ran! If..." Lin Ran: "Hush now! Love me more!" Luo Yao: ... Seeing his scumbag dad: "Take him out!" Seeing his stepmother: "Get rid of her!" Seeing his brother: "Eliminate him!" Seeing his white moonlight: "Send that to Southeast Asia!"
