Chapter 1646: The Bell, Has Rung

The Bell, Has Rung

"Whether a person has value or not depends on the era itself," Lord of Hidden Clouds answered slowly.

"In this era, those who hold the destiny of humanity in their hands are none other than you and Wu Tongyuan... Out of reason, I cannot make an enemy of you, because you are the hope for humanity's restart; out of emotion, I cannot make an enemy of Wu Tongyuan, because I have already placed all my bets on him..."

"Since this is the case, whether I exist or not is already unimportant..."

"My final value is to bear the resentment and anger of this Domain, face Unanimous Condemnation, and then disappear from this world."

Chen Ling didn't answer.

He knew that no matter how he tried to persuade him, it would be meaningless. Since the Calamity of Corruption had successfully parasitized him, it could no longer be stripped away... From the very beginning, Lord of Hidden Clouds didn't leave himself the slightest way of retreat.

Lord of Hidden Clouds drank all the tea in his cup, slowly stood up, and walked in front of the continuous curtain of rain.

With his back to Chen Ling, he slowly spoke:

"Right now, in this Domain, everyone hates me, but no one can kill me... The Butcher, the Farmer, and the Dragon-Strangling Warriors are all official organizations, and it's also impossible for them to make a move..."

"The only ones who can kill me and hold a funeral for this Domain are you guys..."

Chen Ling fell silent for a moment,

"Logically speaking, the Dusk Society won't participate in struggles between Domains, much less directly attack the Nine Monarchs... We are only responsible for wrapping things up."

Lord of Hidden Clouds turned around. His gaze towards Chen Ling was full of sincerity:

"But for everything, there can always be exceptions... right?"

Boom—

Pale lightning flickered in the curtain of rain outside the Theater House.

The figure in the red-bottomed, black-patterned Theatrical Robe stood quietly in the center of the Theater House. Amidst the roaring sound of rain, he slowly closed his eyes.

He saw Doctor Jia questioning him in the dim Clinic, saw Kong Baosheng whispering softly on the bed... Those voices of either anger or disappointment rang in his mind:

"Since you can't save us... then let the process of our suffering be shorter."

"Rather than living ignobly in this fucked up era..."

"Death, is also a kind of release."

"..."

"Mister, you don't understand..."

"In this era, staying alive... is the greatest torment."

"..."

Amidst the torrential downpour, Chen Ling seemed to be able to hear those painful, noisy, and sorrowful howls of the Hidden Clouds Domain piercing through the curtain of rain and falling into his ears.

There were still too many people like Doctor Jia and Kong Baosheng in the Hidden Clouds Domain. They had long lost their desire to live, and only had anger and despair towards this era... To them, death was a release.

At the same time, the words Lord of Wuji once questioned him with roared in his mind!

"Who will judge failure? Who will define success? You? What is your basis?"

"Chen Ling..."

"What right do you have... to be the one who finally tolls the death knell for humanity?"

Chen Ling had also pondered this question. As a World-Ending Calamity, what right did he have to judge when humanity had lost hope, and what right did he have to decide when humanity's death knell should toll?

The answer Chen Ling gave at that time was that he would naturally have his own judgment.

Now,

Chen Ling had another answer.

The one capable of deciding when humanity's death knell would toll wasn't him, Chen Ling... but humanity itself.

Amidst the roaring curtain of rain, Chen Ling slowly opened his pupils. Those ruby-like eyes gazed at the city and all living beings beyond the curtain of rain:

"Listen..."

"The bell, has rung."

...

"I say... when are you going to finish this painting of yours?"

In a certain corner of the Spirit Void Domain, Nine of Hearts spoke somewhat helplessly.

At this time, Eight of Clubs was hugging a Drawing Board, squatting at the edge of a corner of a flowerbed, earnestly staring at the last cluster of un-withered small white flowers in the flowerbed, as if earnestly copying something...

Strangely, although he was looking at these flowers, what was being outlined bit by bit on the Drawing Board were actually the figures of a few innocent and romantic children wearing white clothes.

"What's the rush," Eight of Clubs answered without even lifting his head. "We don't have any missions right now anyway, where are we rushing off to?"

"But we've both been squatting here for a whole day..."

"There are people from the Spirit Void Domain everywhere outside. If you want to be hunted down, go out yourself."

"..."

Nine of Hearts rolled his eyes, crossed his legs, and sat back down on the edge of the flowerbed. He pulled out a bottle of machine oil from somewhere unknown, and slowly began to perform maintenance on his arm.

Right at this moment, a gentle breeze brushed past the flowerbed, blowing apart the petals of that small cluster of small white flowers...

Eight of Clubs, who was only halfway through his painting, looked at those white flowers that became bare in a second, his entire person slightly stunned... When he lowered his head to look again, the petals blown off by the wind had already outlined into two small words at his feet:

[Hidden Clouds].

When Eight of Clubs blinked again, those two small words vanished without a trace, and the petals had all returned to the bodies of the small white flowers, as if everything just now was just an illusion brought by his thoughts.

"Hey, did you see that?" Eight of Clubs's brows furrowed tightly.

"Hehe..."

Nine of Hearts's eyes were incredibly bright. He immediately stood up from the flowerbed, gently cracking his knuckles with both hands, making crisp cracking sounds,

"Finally... is it time for Team Building again?"

...

Tianshu Domain.

Bridge Underpass.

"Achoo!!" Sun Bumian sneezed violently.

"Diamonds, do you have a cold?" Jiang Xiaohua popped half his head out from the dirt beside him and asked quietly.

"...Probably not, it might be someone missing me."

Sun Bumian shrugged, stood up straight, and strolled forward while stretching his muscles and bones. With his every movement, an Aura infinitely approaching Rank 8 drifted out from his body...

Speaking of which, they had already lived in the Bridge Underpass of the Tianshu Domain for a long time. Due to the deliberate protection of Su Zhiwei and Hong Xiu, no one had actually ever come over to disturb them. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Sun Bumian quietly digested the power that once belonged to him. Now, even without utilizing the Power of Samsara, he already had half a foot into Rank 8.

If Sun Bumian's feeling wasn't wrong, breaking through to Rank 8 should just be a matter of these next two days.

As for Jiang Xiaohua, he had always stayed quietly in the dirt. Unless he was occasionally attracted by the fragrance of food or wine, he wouldn't actively climb out at all... No one knew what he was doing in the dirt all this time.

Sun Bumian strolled all the way to beside the chicken coop, resting his chin on one hand and studying them carefully, as if contemplating which one to kill for soup tonight that would smell the most delicious.

At the same time, a thought crossed his mind out of thin air.

"...En?"

Sun Bumian raised his eyebrows somewhat in surprise.

Afterwards, he chuckled lightly. "I was wondering why I sneezed for no reason. Looks like, a certain someone has finally remembered us."

Rustle, rustle...

A figure completely wrapped in bandages slowly climbed out from the dirt. Snow-white long hair draped over his back, and those silent purple pupils also finally regained a bit of vitality.

He spoke in a muffled voice: "I miss Hearts."

"Let's go... Did you bring the Suits?"

"Brought them."

"Bring The Beggar's too. When we run into him on the road later, we'll take him along."

"Okay!!"