Chapter 141: The Gamble

Once the words were spoken, the long-awaited greeting echoed through the farewell hall along with the thunder.

The flowers were fragrant, the candles flickered, everything was as solemn as before, and even Lei Wuye, lying in the coffin, was so peaceful.

But in an instant, the atmosphere at the scene had become tense.

At this critical juncture, as uninvited guests arrived one after another, too much pressure and tension had accumulated in the dead silence.

And when Chen Xingzhou, who should have been lying in the hospital, appeared openly in front of the farewell hall, it was like a spark; the flames and shock spreading in the powder keg could no longer be stopped.

The sharp sound of chairs scraping was incessant.

No one knew how many people in the entire hall stood up, looking coldly at Chen Xingzhou, swords drawn, but many others stood up and looked at Lei Yaoxing.

In the fleeting change, all the outsiders sat firmly in their original positions, not saying a word.

From the seemingly frozen air, Lei Yaoxing stared silently at the opponent within arm's reach, studying his appearance, which he no longer bothered to mask or hide.

Even though the gap between them was so vast.

For Lei Yaoxing, an ordinary person like Chen Xingzhou, who had repeatedly refused the Bai Lu's blessing and the succession ceremony, could be made to bleed in the mourning hall and lose his head with just a slight flick of a finger.

No, he didn't even need to do it himself.

He could feel that Chen Xingzhou's condition at this moment could be considered a compliment if called "on the verge of death"—he was truly a candle in the wind.

It wouldn't be a surprise if he vomited blood and died the next moment.

Yet, this person, decayed to the extreme, had become the opponent he could least ignore. Merely by fanning the flames in the dark, he had made Lei Yaoxing run around in a panic for days, unable to achieve success despite being within arm's reach of the position of Speaker.

At this moment, when the other party finally appeared before his eyes in this posture, he, who held the decisive advantage, was actually starting to…

…act as if facing a formidable enemy?!

Even without the claws to prey on opponents or the teeth to tear flesh, something even more hair-raising surged in the spirit of the man before him.

Clearly already sitting in a wheelchair, his breath like a gossamer thread.

But at this moment, that gaze was like looking down from a firmament higher than a hawk.

It was as if… from beginning to end, he had never placed him in his eyes…

"So that's how it is?"

Amidst the unbearable killing intent and rage, Lei Yaoxing was expressionless, sighing lightly: "Really, I underestimated you…"

From a money-laundering glove once used as a chamber pot, he had actually walked step by step to this degree.

In this Dark Side War, relying merely on a few insignificant pebbles, he had actually stirred up huge waves in the stagnant water of Yacheng.

"When did it start?" he asked suddenly.

"Hmm?"

Chen Xingzhou smiled slightly, seemingly puzzled: "Specifically, what do you mean? The plan? Or the ambition? That would be a bit long ago…"

"Seven years ago, Old Man Lei valued me and wanted to adopt me as his foster son. Unfortunately, I'm a troublesome person, ungrateful; I didn't want the wealth I had to kneel and beg for."

He sighed lightly, stroking the armrest of the wheelchair, "More than twenty years ago, I took a broken folding knife to the vegetable market to collect protection fees, was seen through as being fierce in appearance but cowardly in heart, surrounded and beaten, and finally, knelt on the ground crying and begging for mercy… No, or maybe even earlier."

Chen Xingzhou said, "Even earlier than that…"

The moment this spark of ambition and greed first burst forth, burning the soul and rising in blue smoke.

It was the moment he first felt despair.

"Don't cry, Yubo, from now on, there are only the two of us left."

Under the bridge, the homeless boy hugged his crying younger brother, staring coldly at the cold neon lights in the distance, "Raise your head, wipe away your tears, we are not bastards.

Don't be afraid, one day, no one will dare to look down on us."

Rain fell silently, and a cold wind blew from the distance.

It was as if the sneers and mockery of the dead spirits buried in the darkness were being emitted.

But when he looked back to recall all of that, everything became so blurry, no longer clear.

Some memories were already too distant.

So much so that it was hard to recall even in nightmares…

"So many years have passed in a flash."

Chen Xingzhou laughed at himself, looking at Lei Wuye's coffin, shaking his head slightly: "Now it seems, from the very beginning, I was never someone who knew how to repay kindness."

"Indeed, foster father probably never imagined that one day, a dog thing like you, who ate leftovers, would dare to be so arrogant before his spirit."

A hint of scarlet appeared in Lei Yaoxing's eyes, looking down, and finally asking: "Not hesitating to be a traitor, inviting so many outsiders to interfere in the internal affairs of the Wilderness Gathering? Chen Xingzhou, have you thought about the consequences?"

Chen Xingzhou shook his head indifferently.

"Please rest assured, they were all invited by me to be witnesses, and it has nothing to do with what is about to happen, and even less to do with the matter between you and me.

They had to come today…"

Chen Xingzhou's words paused for a moment, staring calmly at Lei Yaoxing's appearance, "After all, for the many chaotic phenomena caused by the Wilderness Gathering in recent days, there must be an account."

"An account?"

Lei Yaoxing was almost amused, "Who is giving the account? You? And what kind of thing are you?!"

Chen Xingzhou shrugged, "I just want to talk to you."

"You? Talk to me?"

Lei Yaoxing couldn't hold back anymore and laughed out loud, questioning amidst his rage: "Are you worthy, Chen Xingzhou! What the hell do you have to talk to me with?!"

At that moment, the sound of tables and chairs scraping sounded again.

At the very back, the one-eyed woman smoking a cigarette stood up first, threw away the cigarette butt, and walked toward the mourning hall. Facing Lei Yaoxing's near-cannibalistic gaze, she stood behind Chen Xingzhou. She was impressively the eleventh goddaughter under Lei Wuye's command during his lifetime.

Immediately after, the second person, as if forced, stood up with a helpless face and walked behind Chen Xingzhou.

The third, the fourth, the fifth…

From the dead silence, those remnants that Lei Yaoxing hadn't even placed in his eyes, the trash that had been wagging their tails and begging for mercy just a few days ago, stood up one after another… even several of Lei Wuye's capable assistants, and even several head horses and red sticks from other associations, stood up without hesitation at this moment, shaking off the tugging of the people beside them, and stood opposite Lei Yaoxing.

In the mourning hall that had been crowded, five or six out of ten chairs were now empty!

But those who remained in their original seats, apart from the associations directly under Lei Yaoxing and a few inseparable allies, were few!

At this very moment, the map that Lei Yaoxing had spent so much effort to mend over the past few days had fallen apart in an instant.

Click.

Ji Jue heard a crisp sound.

Beside Tong Shan, Tong Ting had already taken melon seeds out of his pocket, spitting out the shells with great pleasure, making his eyes ache.

Wherever you Aether Daoists go, even if you don't want your lives, you can't forget the two handfuls of dried fruits and melon seeds in your pockets, right?

You really do eat every kind of melon.

Tong Hua could only ponder the motive for a crime of passion at a crime scene, calling Ji Jue "Brother" every afternoon, but her elders were sitting right under the Bai Lu's eyelids, watching the grand drama of the Wilderness Gathering's split… Was the gap in rank a bit too big?

Sensing his gaze, Tong Ting looked back, seemingly stunned for a moment, then smiled helplessly, and then… shared a handful of melon seeds from his pocket.

An enthusiastic invitation.

"…" Ji Jue's expression twitched, subconsciously wanting to wave his hand, but his outstretched hand reached out on its own, grabbing a large handful without hesitation.

Crack!

Crisp sounds rang out from the very back, scattered.

Ji Jue's eyes lit up; these Aether melon seeds… were truly fragrant.

Give me more!

Sitting among so many big shots was like sitting in an invisible fortress; the ant that would have been crushed to death by a giant with a single step at the slightest movement was now safe.

So much so that he couldn't even feel the pressure that had already solidified in the mourning hall.

Killing intent, hatred, and anger, resentment and thirst…

The beasts in the wilderness met with claws and teeth, cold auras crisscrossing, and even the raindrops falling from the eaves were frozen in mid-air, as if solidified.

In the air, the dancing dust trembled in fear, but dared not fall.

In this silence, which was too short to be noticed but long enough to torment the soul, a single shout, a single glance, or even a single movement was enough to ignite the final fuse and trigger an unprecedented internal strife in the Wilderness Gathering.

But before that, Chen Xingzhou on the wheelchair sighed lightly and coughed hoarsely.

He raised his hand in a disheveled manner, wiping the blood oozing from the corners of his mouth and nose.

Under the formal suit he had just changed into, a shocking dark red spread; the wound had burst, but he didn't care at all, just saying slowly and methodically:

"Before that, there is one thing I must tell you."

He paused and said slowly: "A few days ago, I went to Mount Yingtai and had the honor of seeing the Leader."

Yingtai, Leader.

When these two words, carrying immense weight, appeared in the mourning hall, even the heavy breathing and swallowing of saliva disappeared in the dead silence.

It was as if even the souls and ferocity of the beasts had been cowed.

On Mount Yingtai, which drifted on the sea, the Leader, who was longed for and feared by all Bai Lu followers, was the only one… the former leader of the entire Federation's Dark Side, who had single-handedly quelled the disaster of the Wilderness Gathering's split a hundred years ago, stepping on the bones of his predecessor to ascend to the position of Leader—the Bai Lu Heavenly Human!

Since he lost interest in the authority above ten thousand people and let go of everything, there had been no news of this Leader, known as the Recluse, for more than a decade, and the once-unified Federation Dark Side had once again naturally ushered in a split, fighting each other endlessly.

And now, the moment the Leader's will manifested again, everyone instinctively held their breath.

"I told him that Old Man Lei was already old, increasingly muddled, and gradually deviating from the Bai Lu's path. Once he passed away one day, I feared the people under his command would immediately lose control.

The longer the Wilderness Gathering remained leaderless, the more the struggle would spiral out of control, and it would likely become a target for everyone. The achievements of generations of Speakers over hundreds of years would be destroyed in one fell swoop.

Just like, right now…"

Amidst the intermittent coughing and gasping, Chen Xingzhou said slowly: "The Leader asked me what I wanted to do? I answered that I wanted to clean up the hearts of the people, eradicate the disaster, and reorganize the disordered wilderness.

If I were lucky enough to succeed, I would be a clay figurine; savage growth might also be a wilderness rule… He agreed and said, let me try.

So, we made a bet."

"—I bet I could survive, and after I 'died,' the affairs of Yacheng would not escape my expectations and control."

Chen Xingzhou laughed and spread his hands.

Revealing the scarlet that had stained the bullet holes on his chest.

This was the order issued by the Leader.

Even now, that pitch-black wound could not be healed, and even with the help of the Panacea, it left a pain that could never be erased for a lifetime.

And at the same time, this pain was the honor of the winner who had struggled against death!

Thus, looking down arrogantly at the opponent before him, he told him:

"I won this gamble." ===== CHAPTER 142 =====