Chapter 637 - 408: Vengeance is Served (Part 2)

Chapter 637: Chapter 408: Vengeance is Served (Part 2)

The Dream Light and Shadow erupted in a brilliant stream, and a pure Light of Spiritual enveloped Hua Manzhu. Within the light, her consciousness fading, Hua Manzhu saw her past—a past that was so beautiful, so glorious.

Countless faces, ones that had appeared so often in her dreams and memories, materialized within the light. They were her friends, her confidants, her lover. Yet every single one of them gazed at her with cold eyes, as if the person she was now was a complete stranger they viewed with utter disgust.

"Damn it..."

She squeezed her eyes shut in anguish, not daring to look at those faces any longer, nor daring to watch the horrifyingly tragic scene that she knew would follow.

Familiar face after familiar face fell into pools of blood, becoming cold corpses in a morgue, their expressions peaceful, as if they were merely sleeping...

She desperately wanted to ask the World why it had been so cruel to her. She wanted to tell those faces why she had fallen so far, why she had become the monster she was now. ’But at this point, what meaning is there in any of it?’

Zhou Chen walked over, Demon-Breaking Sword in hand. He said nothing, just watched Hua Manzhu with a calm expression.

"The nine children I captured are hidden in a pocket dimension at Hai City First People’s Hospital," Hua Manzhu suddenly said, her voice hoarse and laced with a deep, bone-weary exhaustion. "They’ve gone mad, but there’s still a chance to treat them."

"Understood," Zhou Chen nodded.

"Kill me," Hua Manzhu said, closing her eyes and abandoning all resistance. Under the effect of the Purifying Light, the malice in her heart had been suppressed and her benevolence amplified. Her spirit was broken, exhausted beyond measure. She didn’t want to go on.

Zhou Chen lowered his gaze. "I’m sorry, Sasha. I can’t take you to the amusement park anymore."

SWISH! The blade fell.

Hua Manzhu’s head rolled to the ground.

[Wish Value +800]

The notification appeared before Zhou Chen, plunging him into silence.

’Seeking only release... that was probably the last shred of goodness left in Hua Manzhu’s heart—the part of her that was Sasha, and the part that was a pious believer.’

’Only after absorbing the Clones of Sasha and the pious believer did Hua Manzhu become whole again. Otherwise, she would have remained as before: a ruthless, cold-blooded killer who wouldn’t bat an eye. She never would have shown such hesitation and mercy in Sinful City, let alone felt those self-destructive urges.’

’Perhaps the influence of that inner goodness was so severe it caused her to develop a split personality. That must be why she split herself into four people, then imprisoned and tortured the Clones of Sasha and the pious believer—in an attempt to kill her past self and escape her ’weakness’...’

In the silence, Zhou Chen sighed. Hua Manzhu was a pitiful person, worthy of sympathy, but not in her Late Stage. She had killed too many innocent people, becoming the very Evil Dragon she despised and throwing her lot in with evil.

’As for whose fault it truly was...’

’Perhaps the World itself was to blame.’

Zhou Chen observed a moment of silence, then turned to look at Dupe, who was heavily injured and lying on the ground.

He was a Grand Councilor, after all; he was bound to have plenty of good items on him. Even though he was severely injured, he had managed to survive the battle’s fallout using various Artifacts. Even the heart that Hua Manzhu had stabbed from behind was slowly mending. His subordinates, however, had all been wiped out.

"Hahahaha..." Seeing Hua Manzhu dead, Dupe burst into wild laughter, as if his great revenge had finally been realized. "That damned bitch! In the end, she still couldn’t escape death!"

"You’re not far behind," Zhou Chen said coldly, slashing out with his sword.

The Demon-Breaking Sword Light passed through Dupe’s body without causing any damage. He had entered an intangible Phantom State, rendering him immune to the attack.

"You’re the one who’s going to die!" Dupe shrieked, his expression crazed as he hurled a black object at Zhou Chen. It was his final trump card!

At the sight of this, Zhou Chen immediately blew the Soul-Shocking Copper Whistle. Amid the sharp, piercing sound, Dupe’s face twisted in pain. His form wavered, and he was forced out of his Phantom State. His expression instantly turned to one of horror as he scrambled to erect a defense.

It was only then that Zhou Chen got a clear look at what Dupe had thrown.

—A nuclear warhead!

’Holy shit!’

Zhou Chen’s face drained of color. He immediately made a wish to stop the warhead’s detonation, but he was a step too late.

In that instant, a searing light erupted, bathing the world in a dazzling brilliance as bright as midday.

A mushroom cloud, the symbol of destruction, slowly rose, shaking the sealed-off space to its foundations.

·

·

An unknown amount of time passed before the dust finally settled.

Amidst a steaming, scorched wasteland, the silhouette of a charred husk stirred. Large chunks of blackened debris immediately cracked and flaked away, revealing raw pink muscle and stark white bone underneath.

Zhou Chen let out a pained groan. He felt like he was dying. There wasn’t a single spot on his body that didn’t ache. It was as if he’d been roasted in the Eight Trigrams Furnace for forty-nine days; the searing pain of burns wracked his body, his head swam, his ears rang, and his consciousness kept flickering in and out, refusing to focus.

’I actually tanked a nuke head-on...’ The thought flickered through Zhou Chen’s fractured consciousness.

When the nuke exploded, he had activated his Abyssalization. He’d wished to convert the boosted Attack Power from the Dice Potion into Defense Power. With the 50% All Attributes Buff from Tang Ling’s blessing, on top of the 100-fold boost from the Dice Potion, his constitution and Defense Power had reached a Tier Four level. As a final measure, he had frantically borrowed Li Xiye’s Power through the Bonds Ring, using her Absolute Will to block the damage from the blast.

If Li Xiye herself had been here, the nuclear blast would have been harmless. Her Absolute Will would have simply twisted it into an insignificant breeze. She could have even tanked it head-on without using any Abilities. Most Tier Four individuals had ways to deal with a nuke, and Strength Type Ascenders could simply withstand the blast directly. But he was not Li Xiye, nor was he a true Tier Four Uncrowned. He had only temporarily reached this Realm through the help of multiple Buffs. The difference was vast.

Just barely surviving it was already an impressive feat.

"That was impressive, Zhou Chen."

Just then, a familiar voice spoke, accompanied by the sound of leather shoes on the ground.

’Jiang Che?’

Zhou Chen couldn’t move, but he knew it was her.

CLICK. A lighter flickered to life.

Jiang Che lit a Forbidden Object—D-418, the Healing Cigarette—took a drag, and slowly walked over to Zhou Chen.

Zhou Chen looked up to see her covered in soot, her hair disheveled. She had a number of injuries, and a noticeable bloodstain was spreading across the waist of her white shirt as blood continued to seep out.

"Running straight into a nuclear explosion right after leaving Sinful City... just my luck," Jiang Che grumbled, a rare complaint from her. It truly was terrible luck. If her teacher hadn’t given her a life-saving Artifact, she would have been vaporized.

As she spoke, Jiang Che leaned down and stuck the Healing Cigarette she had just taken a drag from into Zhou Chen’s mouth. He could even feel the dampness on the filter and was momentarily stunned.

Then, Jiang Che walked over to Dupe, who had also miraculously survived the nuclear blast but was just as gravely injured.

She pulled out a pistol.

BANG!

Without a single wasted word, she pulled the trigger.

A bloody hole appeared on Dupe’s forehead, and he instantly went still.

Jiang Che then fired two more shots to make sure he was dead.

[Wish Value +600]

Zhou Chen saw the notification. It signified that Jiang Che’s long-held wish had been fulfilled. However, the amount wasn’t as much as what he had received from Hua Manzhu, who had only sought release. This was because Hua Manzhu was of a higher tier and therefore provided more Wish Value.

He took a deep drag on the Healing Cigarette, and the entire thing burned away in an instant. It restored a sliver of his consciousness, and he hastily used the moment of clarity to wish for his body to recover. His bones immediately began to crackle and pop as his broken, twisted limbs snapped back into place. Large pieces of charred flesh sloughed off his body, revealing raw red skin, which then rapidly healed over as his hair grew back.

A few seconds later, he struggled to his feet and staggered over to Jiang Che.

"That’s it? I thought you were going to give some long-winded speech about revenge."

Jiang Che raised her pistol again and—BANG! BANG! BANG!—emptied the rest of the clip into Dupe’s body, riddling the corpse with bloody holes.

"That was my long-winded speech," she said.