Chapter 256 Elevator (9) Servant and Clown
At this point, Wei Wei finally understood why the system had been trying to sow discord between him and Gao Mengtang.
Wise King Thirteen has a religious and lofty love for Wise King Eleven. He is willing to be driven by Wise King Eleven to complete Eleven's resurrection.
He also understood that in the Xiao family's old house, they caught Wei Wei but refused to kill him. Instead, they tortured Wei Wei to discredit Gao Mengtang. Because Gao Mengtang had a good reputation, if his image was not destroyed, the new king's title of "the most benevolent" would be difficult to convince the public.
Wei Wei's speculation was flawless and watertight. Duan Song and Wei Xiangchen could not find any way to refute it and could only stand there in a daze.
Thinking of this, Wei Wei bought another item [Oracle].
"We don't have enough points, why should we spend money to buy this!" Duan Song said in surprise.
"Your Excellency the Blind must be informed." said Wei Wei.
Wei Xiangchen: "Next time the competition venues overlap, we can just tell him."
"It's too late." said Wei Wei.
The oracle was limited in length, and Wei Wei could not explain it in detail, so he just wrote briefly: The Eleventh Wise King was half dead, and Xiao Tien held a birthday party to resurrect the Eleventh Wise King.
Afterwards, Wei Wei emphasized in larger and bolder fonts: Mr. Blind Man, you must never do anything that will damage your reputation, remember this.
After releasing the oracle, there was a noise of fighting in the distance. Shang Yu stretched his neck and said, "Come on, the battle is about to begin again."
"How is your injury?" Duan Song looked at Wei Wei's arm worriedly. There were still black teeth marks left on his arm from the evil dog.
"It's okay." Wei Wei covered the wound.
*
Hearing the sound of the oracle appearing, Gao Mengtang fumbled around, his fingers almost touching the parchment scroll, and his other pale hand succeeded and quietly took the oracle away.
"I just heard the sound of the oracle. Who wrote it and what did it say?" Gao Mengtang said. Everyone else followed Shang Yin to plan a trick to kill someone, only Zhong Lichen was wandering around.
"Zhongli Xing wrote this to me, my beauty." Zhongli Chen laughed. He unfolded the oracle and took a look. His smile instantly disappeared and his expression became extremely cold and solemn.
In that brief moment, Zhongli Chen seemed to have become a different person. All his irreverence and frivolity were gone. He looked like a shrewd conspirator, and his eyes were like knives, fixed on Gao Mengtang.
"Eh?" Gao Mengtang looked up blankly, "What did the oracle say?"
"Hehe, Zhongli Xing and we have the same idea," Zhongli Chen said in a lively tone, but his expression was still dark and heavy. "He also discovered that you can get points by killing others when the arena overlaps. He also asked you to bring as many people as possible to the fifth floor before the next arena overlaps."
Gao Mengtang: "Oh. Is this true?"
The oracle disappeared. Zhongli Chen lowered his hands. His face was as white as if it was covered with flour, his muscles were as stiff as plaster, and his mouth opened and closed: "The beauty doesn't believe me. I'm so sad."
I really don't believe you, Gao Mengtang thought. But he couldn't do anything about it, because he was blind.
The swindler left, leaving the blind man standing there in a daze.
*
"Shang Yin, will this work?" He Qi tilted his head and looked at a black magic circle drawn on the floor. "Can it really fool them? I know at first glance that this is a confinement formation."
"How about this?" Shang Yin threw out a card, and a layer of transparent film covered the magic circle. The original lines slowly twisted, and the magic circle changed its appearance.
He Qi gestured with his fingers, looked at it for a long time, and shook his head: "I don't know."
Shang Yin: "It's right that you don't know him."
He told other players that Gao Mengtang knew a magic circle that could "raise the spirit value to the same level as [000 Blind] within 1 hour". Gao Mengtang wanted to temporarily raise the spirit value of all players to 999.
Other players will naturally question: Why did Gao Mengtang do this?
Shang Yin replied: Gao Mengtang is kindhearted. He saw too many people dying in the dungeon and he couldn't bear it. Gao Mengtang hoped that after the players' spirit value increased, they would leave the dungeon as soon as possible and no more people would die.
"It doesn't matter whether you believe it or not. Chief Gao will save as many people as he can," Shang Yin said at the time. "Trust us, and get to the fifth floor in 35 minutes."
If it were anyone else, the players would not have believed such a lame lie. But it was Gao Mengtang, the well-known Holy Father, and the players actually believed it.
Of course, there is no magic circle that can increase the spirit value. That is Shang Yin's nonsense. He drew a magic circle of confinement. Players standing in the small circle will lose their ability to move and be at the mercy of others.
Cards were used to confuse the vision, and there was no lighting in the Group B stadium. If you didn't observe it attentively for 10 minutes, you wouldn't be able to find any mistakes.
"You'd better kill all the players," He Qi said seriously, "Otherwise, if this matter spreads, Brother Mengtang's reputation as a kind person will be ruined."
Shang Yin glanced at her and said, "Are you really a believer of the ancient gods? Kindness is the most useless word."
One after another, the remaining 30 players came to the 5th floor. They looked at the magic circle on the open space in the exhibition hall warily.
"Where is Gao Mengtang?" asked a cat man.
Shang Yin: "He is still preparing. Don't get so close. This kind of array is difficult to draw. If you mess up a stroke, it may fail."
Hearing this, the others stepped back, not daring to even look twice, as if their eyes were paintbrushes that would scribble on the magic circle.
"How long can the confinement formation last?" He Qi asked in a low voice.
Shang Yin: "About 10 minutes, maybe shorter."
The floors began to shake, and the fifth floor gradually collapsed. Shang Yin shouted, "Quick, now is the time. Find the circle in the magic circle and stand inside!"
"But I haven't seen Gao Mengtang yet!" The cat man shouted, but he obediently found a circle and stood inside it.
What happened later became a natural process.
The two arenas overlapped, and Wei Wei and other players from Group A appeared. The members of Group B were shocked for a moment, instinctively feeling that something was wrong, but at this moment, the imprisonment array was activated, and a gallows emerged from the floor, with ropes strangling the necks of all the players in the array.
"What kind of show are you performing?" Wei Wei asked in surprise, "Where is our leader?"
"Quick, attack them, the more brutal the better!" Shang Yin said, "Don't ask too many questions, we need points, and we can get points by killing them. Sister, what are you just watching? Go ahead and do it!!"
The cat man's legs kept flapping: "Shang Yin, what do you mean? Are you lying to us? "
"Where's the promised strengthening of spirit value?"
"Where's Gao Mengtang! Where is he? Where is he?"
At this moment, in Shang Yin's eyes, they were just livestock to be slaughtered, producing points. No matter what they said, it was just mooing.
Shang Yu and others immediately acted according to Shang Yin's request. She threw out 5 cards, creating 5 shadow clones that were exactly the same as her. The cards fluttered like snowflakes, scraping off the flesh and chopping the bones. The red hearts were exposed in the air, still beating.
The players on the gallows screamed, struggled, and tried their best to escape from the noose. Two strong men broke free from the restraints, but the next second, Shang Yu's card separated their heads from their bodies.
The sticky blood dyed Wei Wei's leather shoes red. He took a half step back but still did not take action: "What about the blind man? What did you do to him? Did he receive my letter?"
"Listen to me first and attack them, okay?" Shang Yin said anxiously, "We only have this one chance, and we are still 600 points short!"
Wei Wei was half-believing and half-doubting, and just as he was about to attack, he felt a sharp pain in his left arm. The pharyngeal muscle spasm started again.
He fell to the ground, holding his neck, and felt dizzy from suffocation.
Shang Yin stamped his feet anxiously, left Wei Wei behind, and went to reinforce the imprisonment array. Fortunately, Shang Yu acted quickly, and 7 minutes later, the 30 players were completely unrecognizable.
Some were beheaded, some were chopped into pieces, some were skinned, some had a long stick stabbed into their mouths through steel doors, some had their intestines pulled out and dragged on the ground...
"How's the effect?" Shang Yu clapped his hands, feeling very proud. "The believers of the ancient gods always treat the police like this. Today, they will have a taste of their own medicine."
Shang Yin praised repeatedly. At this time, several people were transformed into missionaries in extreme pain. Shang Yin aimed at them and pressed the shutter.
Points +50+50+50...
"It's still faster to accumulate points this way." Shang Yin said. After another 3 minutes, they had obtained 300 points.
"I'm telling you what the hell are you doing!" Duan Song held Wei Wei's shoulder with one hand. He never attacked those people. "At least explain it! Where's Gao Mengtang?"
Shang Yu seemed not to have heard his words at all, and only stared at the dying man: "What a pity, this is the only one who has hope."
Transformed into a missionary, players are required to beg for forgiveness in "extreme pain".
First of all, "asking for forgiveness" is a subjective behavior of the players, which they cannot control. Some people were tortured terribly, but they only cared about the pain and forgot to repent.
Secondly, it is difficult to control the degree of "extreme". If you fail to control the severity of your attack and let them die too easily, they will no longer be missionaries.
Of the 30 people, only 6 became missionaries, the rest died tragically in torture, and only this one was left...
"Evil, demon!" Xiao Canglan pulled Duan Song's sleeve and pointed towards the elevator hall, "People!"
More than 10 people walked out of the elevator hall and their faces suddenly changed when they saw the tragic situation on the 5th floor.
These dozen or so people are all Group A players!
Seeing them, Shang Yu frowned, confused: Gao Mengtang got a lot of points, which allowed Shang Yu and others to go downstairs faster. The other teams didn't have as many points as them, so they should still be trapped on the 6th floor. Why did they appear on the 5th floor?
"What are you doing!" The Trouble Dog rushed over and hugged the cat man whose limbs were cut off, "You killed our people again!"
"younger sister!"
"My friend, you..."
"Father, father, what's wrong with you!"
Those who were brutally killed were relatives, close friends, and lovers of Group A members... Upon seeing this scene, the dozen or so members of Group A rushed over, hugged the bloody and flesh pieces on the ground, and cried bitterly.
The only person alive, with his limbs chopped off, crawled towards a man, spitting out a ball of blood foam from his mouth where his teeth had been knocked out:
"Dad, Gao, Mengtang. They lied to us." His naked body was tightly embraced by the man, "For me..."
The boy died before he could even utter the word "revenge". The embrace of his family comforted him and he did not become a missionary.
"Why?" The father raised his head and stared at Shang Yu with red eyes, "Tell me why!!"
Shang Yu was stunned for a few seconds, and did not answer his question, but covered the members of Group B and quickly retreated. She blocked two waves of attacks.
After the game ended, Shang Yu turned around and smiled coldly:
"Zhongli Xing, you sent them down?"
"Oh, Ms. Shang is very smart?" Zhong Lixing walked out slowly, tilted his head, and picked his ears with his little fingers. "What a wonderful torture show, but there are no audiences, what a pity!"
Shang Yu glanced at the people present, with a sneer on his face: "The elevator can only carry 12 people. Pick one or two people from each surviving team and let them take the elevator down with you, just to watch our...torture show."
"Zhongli Xing, you have good intentions."
"Of course, we have to watch the good show together," Zhong Lixing knocked his head, and a small translucent part fell out of his ear, "Next, what do you want to do, quibble, or ask why?"
Shang Yu held a deck of cards: "I want to kill you."
*
Back at the Group B arena, Shang Yin grabbed Zhong Lichen by the collar and punched him on the temple.
There was a clanging sound on Zhongli Chen's head and his neck was bent at 90 degrees.
"You're so angry, I understand. If I were you, I'd be angry too." Zhong Lichen supported his head and neck, pressed the broken spine back, and straightened his head.
"I saw it! Your brother took 11 Group A players down the elevator!" Shang Yin roared, "Why did he do this! Do you know what kind of predicament this will put the Group A members in?!"
If other players saw their teammates being slaughtered, they would undoubtedly transfer all their hatred to Wei Wei, Shang Yu and others. They would probably unite and attack all ten of them.
The combat power of the players who have survived to this day should not be underestimated. If they join forces, it will be difficult for Wei Wei and Shang Yu to deal with them.
"You said you didn't want to be a sacrifice, so why are you still persecuting us!" He Qi roared.
Zhong Lichen shrugged: "I really don't want to be a sacrifice, or rather, I don't have the qualifications to be a sacrifice. I'm just... a well-made puppet... I'm just..."
The white paint, bright red lipstick and exaggerated eyeliner gradually dissolved, revealing Zhongli Chen's original skin color and unmodified facial features. His clown mask gradually turned into a normal human face.
When Shang Yin saw Zhong Lichen's true face, he felt a chill on his back, his whole body trembled, and he unconsciously took half a step back.
They were very familiar with this face—Shortien’s servant!
The Xiao family's servants were all very skilled, and all of them were extremely similar in height, appearance, and voice, as if they were cast from the same mold.
Outsiders had many speculations about the identity of the servants, but no one expected that the fear-inspiring Zhongli was actually Xiao Tien’s servant!
"You, you are Patriarch Xiao's..." Shang Yin stuttered.
"...I am just a humble servant." Zhong Lichen twisted his neck, and his joints made a crackling sound. "Beside Patriarch Xiao, we are servants. Without Patriarch Xiao, we are clowns."
Xiao Tien's reputation made Shang Yin dare not act rashly. Even Xiao Tien's servants were respected on weekdays. He stared at Zhong Lichen, unable to speak for a long time.
"Why?" Bai Jie asked in horror, "Why do you keep getting in our way?"
"Servants shouldn't ask too many questions. We should just do whatever the master tells us to do." Zhong Lichen answered in his ethereal voice, "My master ordered me to force you into a desperate situation and kill as many of you as possible. I am just following orders. As for why, I don't know."
The players were silent, their instincts in awe of Shorten made them forget their anger.
Zhong Lichen said slowly: "Come to think of it, I don't even know where I came from, I don't know what I am. Am I a human? Am I a puppet? Who made me?"
"But it doesn't matter." The oil paint covered Zhong Lichen's face again, and the sharp red corners of his mouth turned up. He laughed, "I am just a humble puppet, respectfully following the orders of my master. Now, I have to complete the last step of the mission."
"Praise be to Allah, who is supreme over all things." Zhong Lichen said softly. A crisp sound like porcelain cracking came from his body, his skin cracked, and white light shone through the cracks.
"If you know what I am, tell me in front of my grave." Zhongli Chen shattered like broken glass, his dislocated jaw bouncing up and down. "Will something like me have a grave?"
Song Zhong blocked his ears and couldn't hear what Zhong Lichen was saying, but he could see that Zhong Lichen's whole body was glowing white. He shouted in panic: "Is Zhong Lichen going to self-destruct? Run!"
The teleportation rift was torn open, and Song Zhong was about to throw Gao Mengtang in. Then he looked carefully and found that Zhong Lichen did not self-destruct. He turned into porcelain pieces scattered all over the ground. A glittering object lay between the porcelain pieces and glass beads.
Song Zhong walked over tremblingly. The shining object was a mirror fragment, about the size of an open palm. He wanted to pick it up, but was afraid, so he stood at the edge and stretched his head to look.
"Isn't this a fragment of Mirror Lake?" Pegana's dog head came over and scared Song Zhong.
Gao Mengtang: "Mirror Lake Fragments? What is that?"
"Ouch, the twelfth wise king tore apart the barrier between the inner and outer worlds in order to destroy the Supreme Order. He used the energy that flowed back from the surface world to shatter the Supreme Order." Pegana was not afraid at all. He dug out the fragments of Mirror Lake with his furry claws.
"The barrier that was torn apart is called Mirror Lake." Pegana said, "The ancient god's followers often prayed, 'Look at the dim light, the lake is vast.' The 'lake' in this sentence refers to Mirror Lake."
The fragments of Mirror Lake are actually the fragments left after the boundary between the inner and outer worlds was broken.
The dog's two front paws held the Mirror Lake fragments and placed them in Gao Mengtang's palm. This thing was cool and had a magical touch, with the hardness of a solid and the softness of a liquid.
Gao Mengtang asked: "What is the use of the Mirror Lake fragments?"
"Every piece of Mirror Lake fragment can be cultivated into a moving thing. They have a characteristic that they belong neither to the surface world nor to the inner world, but they can survive in both the surface world and the inner world." Pegana's tail shook like a flower.
Pegana said that his ancestor was sucked into the space tunnel when the barrier between the inner and outer worlds was broken, and a piece of Mirror Lake fragment pierced into the ancestor's body.
The fragments of Mirror Lake merged with the body of Pegana's ancestor, which allowed the inner-world creatures like Pegana's ancestor to reproduce after wandering in the surface world for hundreds of years.
"Is it just as simple as nurturing life?" Gao Mengtang held the fragment.
Pegana corrected: "Those are just moving things, not life. The fragments of Mirror Lake are just broken world barriers. They cannot carry souls. I don't know what to call them."
"Why did Zhongli Chen want to end his... uh..." Gao Mengtang wanted to say the word "life", but the word was not appropriate, "Why did he become motionless and leave this fragment behind?"
"Aww, I don't know." Pegana rubbed his head against Gao Mengtang's trouser leg. "Pure Mirror Lake fragments have another characteristic. They can devour each other, the big eating the small, like slime."
At the beginning, the barrier was torn into tens of thousands of fragments. Hundreds of years later, Pegana still didn't know how many lives were left that had developed from the Mirror Lake fragments.
"A piece of Mirror Lake fragment as big as a palm has very powerful energy. If Zhongli Chen fights with us, none of us together can be its match." Pegana said.
Hundreds of years ago, the fragment that was integrated into the bodies of the Pegana group was only the size of a fingernail, but it could also significantly enhance their strength.
Bai Jie poked the fragment and said, "Dog, you better be careful not to be swallowed by it."
"Only pure Mirror Lake fragments can be devoured!" Pegana said, "For our group, the energy of the Mirror Lake fragments has long been contaminated."
Everyone held up flashlights to illuminate the fragments. The strong light passed through, revealing several cracks inside the fragments, like the contents of a crystal.
Shang Yin took a closer look and found that the fragment of the mirror lake in front of him was made up of 7 fragments fused together, and the cracks were traces of each other devouring each other. During the observation, the cracks merged together like water.
Zhongli Chen sacrificed his six teammates and devoured their fragments.
The players thought the Mirror Lake fragment was weird and wanted to throw it away. But outside the window was a layer of soil and the pavilion on the ground had collapsed. They didn't know where to throw it.
Hellen used his spear to dig a hole in the soil outside the window, trying to bury the fragments.
"Let's take it." Gao Mengtang said suddenly.
Others said no, it was too dangerous.
Gao Mengtang: "Zhongli Chen followed Xiao Tien's instructions and left the fragment here, which means Xiao Tien is absolutely sure that we can't deal with this fragment. This fragment will play its role sooner or later. If we keep it with us, at least we can know what the fragment is used for."
Shang Yin frowned disapprovingly: "What if it's dangerous?"
"There's no such thing as a chance of that happening..." Gao Mengtang said with a smile.
The players showed joy on their faces as if they had been saved from despair, but after hearing Gao Mengtang's next words, the hope that had been rising in their hearts fell to the bottom again.
"——The fragment must be dangerous." Gao Mengtang smiled confidently, "If it wasn't dangerous, why would Xiao Tien leave it here?"
Everyone: "...Then what are you laughing at?"
Gao Mengtang: "My reasoning is correct. This is of course worth being happy about!"
It was deduced that they would most likely die. Is this something to be happy about? Shang Yin was speechless, but he still followed Gao Mengtang's advice and put the fragments away.
Suddenly, Shang Yin felt something was wrong.
Nine and a half out of ten players who enter this instance want to become a sacrifice and die gloriously. No matter what, the ending is death. Chief Xiao’s painstaking arrangements are definitely not aimed at Shang Yin and other players who want to become sacrifices.
There should be only one person that Xiao Tien wants to deal with - Gao Mengtang.
But what exactly did Patriarch Xiao want to achieve, and what role did this fragment play? Shang Yin looked at the fragment in his hand blankly.
Gao Mengtang asked a question that made Shang Yin not in the mood to care about other details.
"We are still 300 points short of having Group A members reach the first floor." Gao Mengtang said, "What should we do now? Is there any other way to find the rabbit?"
Four hours passed in the game. When I opened the player list, I saw that except for seven people including Gao Mengtang and five people including Shang Yin, the rest of the avatars turned into black and white.
Everyone's face turned into a dismal gray.
There is only one way left: choose 6 players from among them to sacrifice.
*
"Hold on a little longer, hold on a little longer!" Wei Wei slapped Duan Song's face, and Duan Song's eyes gradually dimmed, and a lifeless gray color appeared under his skin.
The battle was too brutal. Three of Shang Yu and the other five died. Xiao Canglan had her neck chopped off and her limbs broken by Zhongli Xing, and Wei Wei resurrected her once.
At this moment, Wei Wei's resurrection skill entered a 12-hour cooldown period, and Duan Song's chest was pierced by Zhongli Xing again. The Clown King's hand directly crushed Duan Song's heart.
"You are so fragile. Your soul lives in a perishable body made of flesh. Don't you feel pain?" Zhongli Xing was cut into pieces by Shang Yu's cards for the tenth time, but his companions put him together again.
In just three seconds, Zhong Lixing stood up straight from the ground and twisted his neck: "But the most ridiculous thing is me. I think I may not have a soul."
In the Group A arena, the blood in the corridor formed a red mirror. The blood was shaking, and the lights reflected in the blood were also shaking.
Except for the two groups of Wei Wei and Shang Yu, as well as Zhongli Xing and others, the rest were all dead.
Shang Yu panted heavily, resting her hands on her knees against the wall. Her hands were shaking from exhaustion, and her sweat soaked the back of her black cloak.
"You said you wanted to kill me. That's ridiculous. How are you going to kill something that has no life?"
Zhong Lixing's head turned 270 degrees, and his large, lifeless eyes stared at her: "How do you plan to kill the water or the ocean?"
"There are only three of us left," Shang Yu said breathlessly, "You said you don't want to be a sacrifice, you can quit now."
Zhongli Xing: "Hehehe, not yet."
"What on earth do you want to do!" He Suzhi was so frightened that he burst into tears, "Why are you making things difficult for us!"
Zhongli Xing's head turned from the back of his body to the front. He moved his wrists and the joints made a crackling sound.
The paint on his face faded, and he briefly turned into a servant of Xiao Tien's family: "Because I have to complete the master's order."
Five faces painted with clown paint rushed towards them. Wei Wei gritted his teeth and placed the only resurrection coin in the Moon Banner warehouse on Duan Song's chest.
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