Chapter 1308: Royal Palace

Royal Palace

Under Wu Yi's guidance, the outline of an Underground Palace slowly emerged at the end of the abyss.

This royal palace looked like a building carved out of some mysterious giant stone. It occupied an extremely large area, and inside and out, it revealed a primitive and mysterious aura. Although it wasn't as exquisitely carved as a human imperial palace, it was like a totem of the earth, giving people an ancient and magnificent sense of impact.

Seeing this Underground Palace, Chen Ling was somewhat surprised in his heart. It was hard to imagine that such a large royal palace was dug out by this group of centipedes and scorpions. Even for human artisans, building such an Underground Palace would be extremely difficult, right?

"Who built this royal palace?" Chen Ling couldn't help but ask Wu Yi.

Wu Yi let out bursts of calls, responding to Chen Ling's question:

[The outline of the royal palace was dug out over many years by all the Calamities of the Ghost Mockery Abyss under your orders... The fine things inside were arranged by you yourself, King. But because you would change personalities every once in a while, the styles inside would be a bit... messy?]

In Chen Ling's mind, a scene immediately surfaced of the former "Calamity of Mockery" standing up high, whipping this group of Calamities like Qin Shi Huang to build a royal palace for himself.

Not only using subordinates to make artworks, but also forcing them to do hard labor...

But Wu Yi's response also brought Chen Ling a very important piece of information, which was that the Calamity of Mockery would change personalities every once in a while.

Chen Ling wasn't surprised by this point. Back then, when he liberated the Calamity of Mockery in the Red Dust Domain and let another "Audience" step onto the Stage, his body was also controlled by the other party for a period of time... That "troll Chen Ling's" personality was vastly different from his own, and possessed a completely independent personality and thoughts. Just as he said back then, whoever stands on this Stage is "Chen Ling."

Or rather... whoever stands on this Stage is the next personality of the "Calamity of Mockery."

Teacher Ye had specifically tutored him on knowledge regarding the Calamity of Mockery. The Calamity of Mockery was a combination of numerous individuals, and would fall into infighting every once in a while. And after the infighting, a "personality" would often emerge to control the body, and he himself was one of them...

It was just that the difference between himself and the other "Chen Lings" was that he possessed the Character Profile written by the Red King. If the factory settings of the other personalities were defaulted to a World-Ending Calamity, then his own factory setting was defaulted to "Human."

To Chen Ling himself, he was Chen Ling; but in the eyes of these Calamities of the Ghost Mockery Abyss, "Chen Ling" was just the personality their King displayed during this period.

Putting himself in their shoes, the Calamities of the Ghost Mockery Abyss also didn't have it easy. They all say Accompanying a King Is Like Accompanying a Tiger. Every day they woke up, they had to face a brand new King. If they didn't serve him well, they would be turned into artworks and placed on the King's bedside table in the next second...

No wonder compared to the Forbidden Sea, the number of Calamities in the Ghost Mockery Abyss was so small. Anyone whose strength wasn't strong enough or whose fate wasn't tough enough had probably died out completely.

"During the time I wasn't here, who had the final say in the Ghost Mockery Abyss?" Chen Ling asked again.

[It was decided together by the several Poison Chief Lords. But Lord Gecko and Lord Toad are relatively lazy, so generally it's decided by the Centipede Ancestor, Lord Black Snake, and Lord Scorpion]

"Oh."

Chen Ling was thoughtful.

Wu Yi slowly stopped at the entrance of the royal palace. Inside was the King's residence. With its current status, it wasn't qualified to enter yet. After Chen Ling nimbly flipped off, he walked inside alone.

The Underground Palace was indeed big enough. Strolling through it, Chen Ling even felt a sense of outdoor spaciousness.

He spent a few hours touring all over this place. Just as Wu Yi said, the arrangement styles of different areas inside were extremely chaotic. Chen Ling saw a pitch-black throne made of an unknown material, a bloody high tower built from Calamity bones, a human bedroom carved out of stone, a bizarre hot spring filled with bloody water... But seeing these, Chen Ling actually wasn't too surprised.

But some places, Chen Ling truly couldn't understand.

For example, a museum filled with sculptures of sexy human females. For example, a "Lego Land" where all objects were built using stones of fixed specifications. For example, an outdoor space arranged as a 1:1 replica of a human basketball court, but using human heads as basketballs. Or even a pink room with walls hung full of leather whips, collars, and candles, and the floor covered in centipede severed limbs...

Chen Ling didn't dare to imagine what kind of weirdos those "Calamity of Mockery personalities" who once opened up these rooms were.

Chen Ling wandered inside for a long time, and ultimately still felt that he could only reside in the black throne and the human bedroom. As for the other places, if he took even one more look, he would feel psychological discomfort...

After confirming there was no potential danger around, Chen Ling slowly lay down on the bed.

This bed in the bedroom was unexpectedly soft. He stared blankly at the cold stone ceiling above his head, feeling somewhat dazed for a moment.

From now on, this... was his home.

No longer boarding in anyone's home, no longer attached to any faction, everything here belonged solely to him... There would be no scheming, no leaving, eternally unchanging.

To be honest, this bedroom wasn't warm, nor was it considered comfortable, but Chen Ling was simply too tired.

He gently closed his eyes on the bed and sank into a deep sleep.

...

Outside the royal palace.

In a deep, secluded burrow, the Centipede Poison Chief's pupils flickered with bizarre faint light. It looked at the direction of the royal palace from afar, unknown what it was thinking.

Rustle, rustle, rustle——

A burst of fine, fragmented sounds rang out from the side. The Black Snake Poison Chief was seen slithering out from underground, lightly flicking its forked tongue, as if questioning something:

[Centipede, are you crazy? Just now you actually dared to block the King's path? Even if you don't wish for him to return, you can't put it out in the open, right??]

The Centipede didn't respond immediately. Instead, after gazing at the royal palace for a long time, it shook its head:

[...The King's state is not right.]

[You mean his human appearance? The King's personality is random to begin with, it's not the first time, what else could be wrong?]

[Back then, I saw it with my own eyes]

[What?]

[That person also wearing a theatrical robe broke into the Ghost Mockery Abyss. When he used four Spirit Tablets to imprison the King's body and stuffed that book into the King's mind, I saw it very clearly... After that book disappeared, the King's aura continuously declined, and finally completely disappeared...]

[What can that explain? Don't forget, the King is the strongest creature in this world, no one can defeat him! Since he has returned now, doesn't it mean that human in the theatrical robe failed?]

[No, didn't you notice? This time the King returned, his aura is very weak...]

[So?]

[So I suspect the King's aura is weak not because he changed personalities and hasn't awakened yet... but because, he is truly restricted by that book. He now only has strength of less than the Seventh-Tier.]