Chapter 1600: Wu Tongyuan's Weakness

Wu Tongyuan's Weakness

Chen Ling saw it.

Wen Ruoshui's memories, two consecutive failures, the suffocating might of the Calamity of Mockery, and the despair of being unable to escape no matter how hard they tried...

He looked at Wen Ruoshui, whose face was covered in blood streaks, and silently clenched his fists.

"Director Chen..."

"I... have no way of performing another restart..."

"This is our... last chance..."

"I know." Chen Ling took a deep breath. "Rest at ease. Leave the rest to me... This time, I will definitely let you all go back safe and sound."

"Director Chen, what should we do next?" Having lost Wen Ruoshui's safety net, Qi Muyun and Wu Tongyuan were somewhat nervous at this moment.

Everything proceeded steadily, just like the last restart.

Chen Ling led the two Poison Chiefs to barge into the Bitter Flesh Forest, forcing the Calamity of Corruption to hand over Chu Changqing. Then, right before leaving, he ruthlessly mocked the Calamity of Corruption once again.

The Calamity of Corruption was furious. The Calamity of Corruption chased madly. The Calamity of Corruption raged in sheer impotence.

A pitch-black figure riding a centipede wearing a skirt perfectly entered the Bitter Flesh Forest...

"You must listen carefully to every word I say next."

On the gecko's back, Chen Ling looked at Wu Tongyuan and the others with an extremely serious expression.

Wu Tongyuan nodded like a chick pecking at rice.

"In a moment, I will split up and act separately from you all. While I'm not here, the gecko will protect you well. Then, if nothing goes wrong, the extra-dimensional rift will open at a certain location near you. The moment you see the rift open, charge inside immediately. Do not hesitate, understand?"

Qi Muyun froze for a moment. "Director Chen, what about you? How will you go back?"

Chen Ling shook his head:

"I... can't go back."

"Ah? No way... Director Chen, if we're leaving, we leave together." Wu Tongyuan furrowed his brows tightly. "If it weren't for you, we would have died here long ago. We are all comrades. We can't leave you behind."

"If it weren't for me, you wouldn't even be here... I insisted on bringing you all over. Now, of course, I must take responsibility for your safety." Chen Ling said in a tone that brokered no objection.

"The Calamity of Mockery's target is me, not you. As long as we separate, it will definitely come chasing after me... If we stay together, no matter what method we use, we won't be able to escape. Moreover, with Doctor Wen exhausted now, we have no more opportunities for trial and error."

"Then... then what will you do? You will die!"

"I won't die."

A trace of determination flashed through Chen Ling's eyes. "This is the Gray World. It is the Calamity of Mockery, and I am also the Calamity of Mockery! With you all gone, I actually have nothing left to worry about... At worst, I'll turn this entire Gray World upside down with it!"

Chen Ling paused for a moment and looked at the crowd again. "Rest assured, even without the Extra-dimensional Wake rift, I have a way to get out."

Since Chen Ling had already said this much, the crowd couldn't really object anymore. They saw Chen Ling rapidly carve the script onto a stone before mounting the toad's back.

Right at this moment, Wu Tongyuan's voice rang out again:

"Director Chen..."

Chen Ling turned to look at him.

Standing on the gecko's back, a trace of conflict flashed in Wu Tongyuan's eyes... but ultimately, he still took a deep breath.

"Director Chen, do you remember asking me what weaknesses I have?"

Chen Ling froze. "You..."

Wu Tongyuan paused. "I can feel that you actually approached me on purpose... You kept prompting me, wanting to know my weakness. This shows that in your future, we most likely became enemies. My ability is too strong, and you have no way to deal with it, so you could only come to fish for information from the past me."

Chen Ling hadn't expected that Wu Tongyuan, who usually seemed so carefree and absentminded, would actually have such sharp intuition. Not only did he see through his intentions, but he could even connect it to future events...

No wonder, no matter how much he probed at the time, Wu Tongyuan didn't reveal the slightest weakness. He already knew why he had come, so naturally, it was impossible to easily expose his weakness to him. After all, the him back then was just a stranger he had met a few times to Wu Tongyuan. Wu Tongyuan was already a sensitive, fragile person who lacked a sense of security. Although he had agreed to protect the future of humanity together, it didn't mean he completely trusted him.

As expected... among the Nine Monarchs, not a single one was a fool.

"But Director Chen, after interacting with you for this period, I found out that you actually aren't a bad person..."

"So, the bad person can only be the future me."

"I don't know exactly what happened in the future, but I know that a person like me easily does stupid things... If I do something wrong, I hope you can stop me."

Standing on the gecko's back, Wu Tongyuan looked at Chen Ling, whose gaze was equally complex. After doing some mental preparation for a moment, he slowly spoke:

"I... indeed haven't discovered the weakness of my ability yet... But the weakness of me as a person is actually very simple."

"I'm afraid of the dark, and afraid of enclosed, narrow spaces. No matter what kind of power I obtain, the trauma deep in my heart will not easily heal."

"If you want to kill me, make good use of this point... If possible, try to be quick about it when you strike. I'm afraid of pain too."

Wu Tongyuan revealed an expression halfway between crying and laughing.

The gentle breeze brushed past the hem of the theatrical robe. Chen Ling blankly stared at him, momentarily at a loss for words...

That's right, his purpose in entering the Timeline Save File this time was to find out Wu Tongyuan's weakness to make it easier to deal with the Lord of Spirit Void later... But when Wu Tongyuan earnestly and frankly stated his weakness like this, Chen Ling felt somewhat overwhelmed.

It wasn't that Chen Ling found Wu Tongyuan's weakness, but rather that Wu Tongyuan personally handed the knife that could kill him into Chen Ling's hands.

To be honest, the past Chen Ling didn't actually think that highly of humanity's future, nor did he have much goodwill toward humanity. But the existence of the Nine Monarchs refreshed Chen Ling's impression ceiling of the human collective time and time again. Perhaps it was precisely because they were led by such a group of people that humanity could stumble along and extend its life for hundreds of years.

"I will." After a long silence, Chen Ling could only give this kind of answer.

Chen Ling lowered his head and said to the gecko:

"Help me send them behind the rift, alright?"

The gecko glared its eyes unmovingly, as if it hadn't heard Chen Ling's words, but the depths of its eyes contracted slightly, as if responding to Chen Ling.

Chen Ling didn't waste any more time. He knew the Calamity of Corruption couldn't stall the Calamity of Mockery for too long, so he directly bid farewell to Wu Tongyuan and the others and got onto the back of the toad, which was unwilling to move.

He patted the toad's head:

"Didn't you want to know who between it and me is the real 'King'?"

"Take me over to find it... I will give you an answer."

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