Chapter 1365: The Palace Lights Burn Out

The Palace Lights Burn Out

[Auspicious/Inauspicious Omen Reading - Divergence].

In an instant, the auspicious and inauspicious energies surrounding Sun Bumian were stripped and separated. All the golden Auspicious Qi surged into the Awakened Lion Head-dress, while all the black inauspicious energy drilled into his own body...

The Ghost Mockery Abyss was inherently a land of Great Inauspiciousness. After devouring the inauspicious energy here, Sun Bumian's Aura climbed steadily, similarly reaching the level approaching the Seventh-Tier!

Emitting a terrifying Aura all over, he raised his palm and grabbed directly towards the head of the shadow giant!

One sword, one palm;

In this instant, Jian Changsheng and Sun Bumian both unleashed their strongest killing moves at this time!

As the two streams of light approached, the shadow giant actually split into two directly from the middle, differentiating into two heads and four arms. They faced the madly surging sword and palm respectively. The black World-Ending Aura was like churning black clouds, submerging the two of them within it!

Boom——!!!

The huge noise in the sky lasted for several full seconds. A burst of painful muffled groaning sounded first. Immediately after, a miserable sword cry also slashed across the sky. A dim long sword flying backwards flew out of the black clouds and embedded into a cliff cave with a clang, almost cleaving a sleeping poisonous snake in half.

The churning black clouds gradually dispersed, and the body of the shadow giant had disappeared.

Pitch-black theatrical robes churned with the wind. Chen Ling hovered in the air, holding the knocked-out Sun Bumian in one hand and the exhausted and fainted Jian Changsheng in the other. He glanced at the two unconscious people in his hands, an inadvertent smile curling up at the corner of his mouth.

The violence and battle intent in his scarlet pupils gradually faded... The Great Crimson Theatrical Robe restored its color.

"Truly... can't take a beating."

Chen Ling waved his hands, and the two were directly thrown onto the backs of two centipedes at the door, motionless like two hard pieces of cured meat.

Chen Ling's figure slowly descended from the sky. He walked up to Jiang Xiaohua who was still playing dead and reached out to pat his shoulder:

"Stop pretending, it's over."

Jiang Xiaohua squirmed for a moment and finally pulled his head out of the dirt. Dirt crumbs rustled down from his snow-white hair, a pair of eyes looking eagerly at Chen Ling:

"Not fighting anymore?"

"... Not fighting, they've already fainted."

"Then... do I leave too?"

"Mm, leave together with them."

Jiang Xiaohua nodded and climbed up from the ground himself. Seeing the two neatly lying on their respective centipede backs, he quite consciously walked towards the back of the last centipede.

The moment he stepped onto the centipede's back, the centipede's body visibly swayed, as if almost directly crushed... Fortunately, Chen Ling had specifically picked a relatively strong centipede for Jiang Xiaohua, otherwise there really would be no way to carry him out of the Ghost Mockery Abyss.

"Clubs." Chen Ling suddenly spoke.

"Hm?" Jiang Xiaohua, who had just climbed onto the centipede's back, turned his head in confusion.

"Who exactly are you?"

Jiang Xiaohua blinked, "I am Jiang Xiaohua."

"I know. What I mean is..." Chen Ling opened his mouth, seemingly feeling it was difficult to explain his question to Jiang Xiaohua. He simply changed his way of asking. "On your body, there is a Curse same as mine... Can you tell me, why does the Curse of [Nuo] appear on your body?"

Jiang Xiaohua thought for a bit, "To help a friend."

"To help a friend?" These simple words left Chen Ling completely baffled. "What friend? How did you help?"

"A friend is just a friend... He is very similar to you, Hearts." Jiang Xiaohua paused for a moment,

"But, you are not the same."

Chen Ling still wanted to ask something, but Jiang Xiaohua had already sat cross-legged properly on the centipede. He looked at Chen Ling and couldn't help but speak again:

"Hearts... I want to drink."

The question that had already reached Chen Ling's lips, after hesitating for a moment, he still didn't ask it.

He nodded,

"Someone, pack a jar... no, three jars of Five Poison Wine and bring them over for this King."

With a command from Chen Ling, the surrounding poisonous insects immediately went to fetch wine for him. Chen Ling himself stepped over to the side of that poisonous snake that had been scared silly, casually pulled out that long sword that had been sent flying, and put it back onto Jian Changsheng's body.

A moment later, three jars of Five Poison Wine were tightly tied to the centipede, looking bloated and somewhat funny.

"Is this enough?" Chen Ling asked.

"Enough, Hearts, it's too much." Jiang Xiaohua nodded repeatedly.

"It'll probably be a while before the two of them wake up. I can only rely on you to protect them on the way." Chen Ling paused for a moment. "After they wake up, I have a few words for you to pass on to them..."

After Chen Ling finished speaking, Jiang Xiaohua let out an "mm". "I remembered it."

"Good, you guys can go now."

Jiang Xiaohua sat properly on the centipede. While waving his hand at Chen Ling, he suddenly asked:

"Hearts... we will meet again... right?"

Chen Ling was briefly taken aback.

A moment later, a smile curled up at the corner of his mouth. "We will."

"Oh... bye-bye."

Three centipedes, carrying the unconscious Jian Changsheng and Sun Bumian, and Jiang Xiaohua who had already silently begun sneaking drinks of the Five Poison Wine, departed from the Ghost Mockery Abyss just like that. Their massive figures gradually disappeared above the cliffs.

Chen Ling just stood quietly in place like this, watching them leave until he could no longer see their shadows. Yet he still didn't leave...

He stood motionless like a statue.

Who knew how much time had passed when he spoke in a deep voice:

"Wu Yi."

Hearing Chen Ling's call, Wu Yi immediately crawled out from the ground and waited respectfully beside him.

"Take some subordinates and destroy all the terrain around the Ghost Mockery Abyss." Chen Ling looked in the direction the three had left and spoke calmly. "The more chaotic the better. It's best to make them never able to find the route back... Send people to specifically guard the periphery. If they approach next time, just drive them away."

Wu Yi tilted its head, its eyes full of confusion:

[Great King, aren't they your friends?]

"For great heroes of the Human Domains to walk too closely with a World-Ending Calamity... is not a good thing." Chen Ling slowly closed his eyes and smiled bitterly. "In this world, the things that kill people the most are rumors and human hearts..."

He flicked his vermilion sleeves and turned around alone to walk towards the dim Underground Palace...

Without Sun Bumian's Auspicious Qi, the Underground Palace returned to dead silence and icy cold. Everything here was quiet, leaving only Chen Ling's solitary footsteps... just like when he first arrived at the Underground Palace.

But everywhere in the Underground Palace, candlelight still burned brightly.

Those were the candles Jian Changsheng had lit last night.

Every night he stayed here, Jian Changsheng would personally light the lamps. The battle just now had extinguished the candles in the dining room, but it hadn't affected the outside.

But starting from today, no one would light candles for him here anymore; no one would set up Auspiciousness; and no one would sit beside him clamoring to drink with him... The companionship of these past few days was like a dream bubble of a Lonely King dozing off. When he returned once again, it was as if everything had never happened.

A thousand red candles burned silently, like the last light spread out in the dark Underground Palace. The Great Crimson Theatrical Robe stepped up the stairs along the swaying candlelight, casually picked up a cup of unfinished Five Poison Wine, tilted his head back, and drank heavily!

His Adam's apple bobbed violently, pouring all the liquor into his throat in one gulp. An indescribable feeling of spiciness or pain surged into Chen Ling's heart, but immediately after, that illusory joy forcefully suppressed this bitterness...

Bang——!!

He smashed the empty wine cup onto the ground.

The Great Crimson Theatrical Robe spread its sleeves. Standing before the empty and lonely throne, he took a deep breath. A chest full of indescribable emotions surged into his heart under the influence of the alcohol. He gently opened his mouth, and a poignant Singing voice echoed within the gloomy and unpopulated Underground Palace:

"What good are gold needles and silver threads embroidering a python robe~"

"It is clearly thousands of threads and myriad strands trapping the physical form!"

"Poisonous wine fills a cup of red-clothed tears..."

"The palace lights burn out... the old play's stele..."

"Hahahahahahaha..."

Red sleeves lightly flicked, and the myriad candlelight in the Underground Palace instantly extinguished!