"So he just got crushed to death."
Su Chen raised an eyebrow. He looked at the bronze-skinned giant before him, whose muscular body was stuck halfway through the second floor. Its gnarled muscles, distinct as tree roots, radiated an intimidating pressure.
Its eyes, each the size of a baby’s fist, were staring intently at him.
Its body began to shrink. To Su Chen’s surprise, the clothes it wore also shrank proportionally, clearly no ordinary attire.
"Are you all right?" Teng Liang asked, confirming that Su Chen was uninjured. He breathed a sigh of relief but asked again just to be sure.
"I’m fine. You got here just in ti, Senior Brother," Su Chen said, shaking his head. He hesitated. "But I was only suspicious. I wasn’t sure if this guy was ng Qi in disguise."
The ssage Su Chen had sent to General Manager Teng only said that so guy had suddenly co looking for him, was acting strangely, and that he was suspicious.
He had expected that Teng Liang’s arrival would, at most, result in the man’s capture. He never imagined Teng Liang would just smash him to death.
He could be certain that this guy was ng Qi in disguise, but could Teng Liang be certain too?
"Better to kill the wrong person than to let one escape." Teng Liang’s coldness stunned even Su Chen. Then he heard him add, "Besides, I have great faith in my junior brother’s intuition."
’That reason... is pretty much airtight,’ Su Chen thought.
"Besides, there’s definitely sothing wrong with this corpse." Teng Liang stared at the pile of mangled flesh sunken into the floor.
Although it had been reduced to a pulp, the scraps of flesh were still squirming slowly, as if trying to reassemble. It was clearly not a normal life form.
At that mont, a ferocity Su Chen had never seen before flashed in Teng Liang’s eyes. "You reckless fool. Instead of hiding properly, you dared to show yourself and attack."
"Every grievance has its source. If you’d co after , I’d at least have so respect for you."
Teng Liang was furious. He believed the only reason this thing attacked Su Chen was as an act of revenge against him. Otherwise, there was no reason to target Su Chen.
"Senior Brother, you were a bit too heavy-handed," Su Chen said, looking down at the pile of flesh. "The Chief probably wanted to ask him how Wei Yinsuo died."
"We should have destroyed the body last ti," Teng Liang said coldly. "Leaving it around is a liability. As for how Wei Yinsuo died, do you really think a creation of a Deceitful God would tell us?"
"Fair enough." Su Chen didn’t want to see this thing co back to life again, either. It was just too bizarre.
’What a lunatic!’
In the pile of mangled flesh on the ground, the consciousness belonging to "ng Qi" had yet to dissipate. He was filled with shock and rage.
He never imagined that his high-risk gambit would be ruined by a brute who didn’t even give him a chance to explain before smashing him to death.
’Such a good Faceless Ghost shell, gone just like that. The Holy Banquet is imminent, and I don’t have ti to make another one. Damn it!’
His goal of preserving the shell was completely shattered. The consciousness lingering in the body gradually faded away.
"Why is it still moving...?" Su Chen stared at the pieces of the corpse and frowned. "We should just burn it."
"Good idea." Teng Liang nodded. With a wave of his hand, he unleashed a sheet of green fla that landed on the corpse, which instantly erupted into a blazing inferno.
At the sa ti, the surrounding area grew noisy as mbers of the Judicial Court, alerted by the commotion, began to gather.
...
On the top floor of the Judicial Court’s Central Building, Chong Jingtian was looking down on the entire court complex. His brow was deeply furrowed with an unshakable anxiety.
"...The explosion at the dical ward seed like the Deceitful God’s Power in his body went out of control. He might have been fighting soone before he died..."
Lei Tieyan sighed. "But if we can’t figure out why he sent his people away, I’m afraid we can’t continue the investigation."
It was a complete dead end. Wei Yinsuo was already dead; who knew what he was planning?
"Why does it feel like the Deceitful God Sect has been very active recently?" You Shan’s eyes were filled with confusion. "Especially today. Deceitful God’s Followers from multiple factions are acting like they’re on a suicide mission. Are Wei Yinsuo and that corpse really that important?"
"It’s not just recently..." Chong Jingtian began slowly. "We have the latest news from Old Xia’s side. It’s not just Ying Feng. Yuan Capital, Lieyang, and other controlled territories have all seen varying degrees of blood sacrifices."
"My guess is that this is the ’Holy Banquet’ the Royal Court ntioned."
"The Holy Banquet?" You Shan looked puzzled.
"That’s right..." Chong Jingtian said grimly. "Ten years ago, when we first made contact with the Royal Court, we learned that beyond our sky lies a boundless expanse."
"That was when the four cities finally set aside their squabbles and stopped fighting."
Lei Tieyan and You Shan already knew about the Royal Court and listened quietly.
Chong Jingtian’s voice was low. "They ntioned that once the number of a Deceitful God’s Believers on a planet reaches a certain threshold, the Deceitful Gods will initiate a Holy Banquet to decide the planet’s ownership, thereby turning it into a paradise for them."
"Such a thing exists?" Lei Tieyan shot to his feet, his face grim.
It was also the first ti You Shan had heard of this, and her calm deanor vanished.
Chong Jingtian sighed. "The Elder Council speculates that the increasingly frequent movents of the Deceitful God’s Followers are, in all likelihood, preparations to start the Holy Banquet."
"Then can we..." You Shan hesitated. "Can we ask the Royal Court for support?"
Chong Jingtian gave a bitter smile. "Even if we ask, they won’t necessarily agree. We would have to offer our most valuable asset—the one thing they couldn’t find back then, the thing we all conspired to hide... that one profession."
"Even so, we would beco a vassal of the Royal Court, forced to hand over more than sixty percent of our resources every year."
Just as Ying Feng accepted tribute from its subordinate cities, they would have to provide for the Royal Court. It wasn’t just Ying Feng; people in the other regions were also very resistant to the idea.
"However, as long as we can prevent the Holy Banquet from starting, we still have a chance."
It was easier said than done. The fog isolated everything, and there were far too many things the Deceitful God’s Followers could do. Both Lei Tieyan and You Shan understood this.
Seeing the heavy atmosphere, Chong Jingtian changed the subject. "According to the Royal Court, in places with special resources, the competition between Deceitful Gods can be extrely intense."
"They might even split off a part of their consciousness to observe, or even enter the fray themselves."
Chong Jingtian’s statent was abrupt, but Lei Tieyan and You Shan both understood. They asked hesitantly, "Are you talking about... ng Qi?"
"Correct." Chong Jingtian nodded, his expression grave. "Faceless Ghost Followers are incapable of such a perfect disguise. After the corpse was stolen this ti, I’m even more suspicious... that he might be an incarnation of a Deceitful God’s actual flesh and blood."
A faint sense of dread crept into the hearts of Lei Tieyan and You Shan. They had always fought against Deceitful God’s Followers, not an actual Deceitful God.
To have to face the thods of a Deceitful God, or even an incarnation of its flesh and blood...
"Why did he infiltrate the Judicial Court?" Lei Tieyan asked after a mont of silence. "Was he trying to reach a high position and coordinate an attack from the inside?"
"That’s a possibility." Chong Jingtian nodded.
"Then we have to find him as soon as possible," Lei Tieyan couldn’t help but say. "If he’s really an incarnation of a Deceitful God’s flesh and blood, the longer we delay, the worse it is for us."
Chong Jingtian smiled bitterly. What he said was true, but if it really was a Deceitful God’s incarnation, whether they could find him at all was another question entirely.
But just then, his eyes flashed. He tilted his head slightly, staring intently in a certain direction, and his expression suddenly changed.
With a CRACK, he shattered the glass window. Shards flew everywhere as he vanished from sight.
"Sothing’s happened!" Lei Tieyan and You Shan reacted a beat too late, but they also sensed the undisguised, powerful energy fluctuation from not too far away.
From a distance, Chong Jingtian saw a crowd gathering in the residential area for Core Seeds, and his heart sank.
’Right now, Su Chen is the only Core Seed in the Judicial Court. It couldn’t be him...’
His figure landed in an instant. Seeing Su Chen and Teng Liang standing there completely unhard, he couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.
"What is this...?" He walked over, but before he could speak, Teng Liang pointed to the charred object on the ground and said, "Chief, we found him."
"Found him?" Chong Jingtian froze, staring in astonishnt at the irregular, charred black mass on the ground.
’So quickly?’
"This..." He was speechless for a mont. It wasn’t until Lei Tieyan and You Shan arrived that he asked, "What exactly happened?"
Su Chen gave a brief summary. "ng Qi disguised himself as a Judge to co find . I noticed his strange expression and bizarre behavior, so I secretly notified Senior Brother Teng Liang. As soon as Senior Brother Teng Liang arrived, he took him down and discovered it was indeed ng Qi in disguise."
"This thing is ng Qi?"
Lei Tieyan and You Shan finally understood what was going on, their shocked gazes fixed on the thing on the ground.
’This is a Deceitful God’s incarnation?’
After Chong Jingtian’s dramatic buildup, they had thought the target might be impossible to find. But the words had barely left his mouth, and here the person was, turned into a charred lump.
Lei Tieyan quickly composed himself. Noticing sothing odd in Su Chen’s words, he asked, "How did you confirm he was ng Qi?"
"After he died, his body was still squirming," said Teng Liang.
’They only confird it after he was dead?’
Lei Tieyan’s face darkened. Chong Jingtian frowned slightly but said nothing.
He just ordered soone to peel open the charred corpse and take a piece from the relatively intact flesh inside to be sent to the research lab for comparison.
After this was done, Chong Jingtian raised his palm slightly, his fingers curling as if to grasp sothing. The charred pieces on the ground began to tremble silently.
The next mont, like a sand dune scattered by the wind, all the remains instantly disintegrated into fine black particles that drifted away, leaving not a single trace behind.
He couldn’t help but feel a sense of relief. He looked at Su Chen. "Was he trying to attack you?"
"Perhaps. After all, it was Senior Brother Teng Liang who ruined his cover, and he couldn’t deal with Senior Brother Teng Liang," Su Chen replied. "Maybe he was also planning to impersonate after succeeding."
’Impersonate Su Chen?’
A subtle thought suddenly surfaced in Chong Jingtian’s mind. ’Is the current Su Chen really Su Chen?’
He quickly squashed the thought. If he continued down that line of thinking, probably no one in the entire Judicial Court could be truly cleared of suspicion.
Once the lab results ca back, if the data didn’t match the previous records, it wouldn’t be too late to suspect Su Chen then.
As he thought about it, a sliver of imperceptible fear arose in Chong Jingtian’s heart. ’Is this the true terror of the Faceless Ghost?’
He looked around. Although they were all familiar people with familiar faces, perhaps one of them had already been replaced.
In the past, they had thods to detect Believers. The disguises of the Faceless Ghost Followers could never fool them, so they had never felt this kind of deep-seated unease.
ng Qi’s appearance was like a thorn embedded in his heart.
What if another creature like ng Qi appeared?
They hadn’t been able to detect anything unusual about ng Qi at all.
"Chief..." Lei Tieyan called out. Chong Jingtian suppressed his emotions and said calmly, "The most troubleso one has been found. If there are any other Faceless Ghost Followers left, they won’t be able to hide for long."
"Su Chen, well done," Chong Jingtian praised, but anyone could see their Chief was distracted.
"It’s what I should do," Su Chen replied formally.
The area was temporarily sealed off. To ensure Su Chen’s safety, Teng Liang took him to his own residence.
He had a Gravity Chamber there too, and the Spirit Realm Instrunt was easy to carry.
Teng Liang put him on the second floor. There were many rooms, and no one usually lived there.
Su Chen picked a random room and lay down on the bed, face up. The events that had just happened flowed through his mind.
’Killing Wei Yinsuo... I did my best to cover my tracks, so they shouldn’t be able to trace it back to . No matter what, the Judicial Court has to find out why Wei Yinsuo sent his people away.’
’Like hell they’ll ever figure that out.’
Su Chen’s thoughts drifted. ’I just don’t know if that High Priest is really dead, or if that was just a part of his Spirit Body...’
’But it doesn’t matter. I didn’t expose my identity as Su Chen back then.’
’As for that Black Tuo guy, he keeps sending divine oracles but hasn’t taken any drastic asures. He’s probably under so kind of restriction, like not being able to interfere with reality at will. Otherwise, he would have just snatched away with one big hand.’
’But the most important thing is still the Stone Slab. The Yuan Capital People are after the Stone Slab too. It seems I’ll have to visit Old Sang in a couple of days to figure out what’s up with this Great Venerable profession. It actually requires... acknowledgnt?’
He was no longer the newbie he was when he first arrived. He wasn’t far from Tier Four, either. If he asked directly, he should be able to get so useful information.
’I can also ask him about Tier Four profession choices. I’ve managed to get my hands on three portions of Mid-tier Black Tuo Power, so that should be enough.’
As Su Chen thought, his body gradually beca ethereal and faded into the interlayer, once again attempting to switch to his Priest Black Tuo state.
After trying to sense it for a mont, he said in surprise, "It’s empty?"
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