Chapter 71: Clown

The killing intent was chilling, stepping closer and closer to the tower of a thousand stacked masks that formed the All‑Beings' Countenance.

Yet…

The All‑Beings' Countenance showed not the slightest fear.

Instead, it erupted in ever‑wilder shrieking!

"Heh heh heh… je je je je…"

"Well performed! Truly well performed!"

The shrill laughter surged crazily into his mind, a thousand mocking tones detonated at once!

"What a pity… what a pity!"

"It's all fake!"

In an instant.

All the masks' expressions switched to an extremely mocking sneer.

"Your hatred is yours! Your sorrow is yours too!"

"What does it have to do with me? What does it have to do with that wrathful General? What does it have to do with that infatuated princess?!"

"You are not Jing at all!"

"You are just a lunatic who got caught up in the play and ran onto the stage to run wild!"

"A… self‑righteous one‑person show clown!"

With those words, the stage fell silent.

Buzz—!

The White Tiger Hall, which had just shattered its lingering resentment, suddenly flared with intense light, and the broken resentment reconsolidated!

The unwilling martial student's lament will be sung again!

Ding‑dang—!

In the center of Changmen Palace, a golden hairpin suddenly flew on its own, reviving the dead ash of mournful aura!

He… isn't Jing?!

He's an outsider?!

Is it the Wild Fox Zen that has taken over the magpie's nest?!

This is certainly not settling the heavens and earth!

This is a blasphemy from the onlookers!

It's an insult!

"Heh heh heh…"

The countless masks' laughter never ceased.

Arrogant and fearless!

On the stage, the Clown's role…

It is to interject humor, using the clearest stance, to pierce the bewilderment of those in power with a single word!

It succeeded!

In a few words, it tore apart the layer of Jing's outer mask that the person before had just put on.

Turning all his efforts into bubbles!

As long as anyone dares to brandish a blade at him!

That would be anger turning to shame!

That means being called out!

This self‑directed, self‑performed play is utterly, completely defeated!

"Fake?!"

Jing stopped in his tracks.

The black‑aura swirling dagger was only a foot away from those twisted masks!

He lowered his head; no one could see the expression on his face.

Only his shoulder gripping the Soul Dagger could be seen, trembling uncontrollably.

"Ignorant, overreaching, pitiful, laughable!"

All‑Beings' Countenance's mockery continued, victory in hand.

But at that moment, the person opposite suddenly lifted his head.

On his face, the Smile Mask was both radiant and eerie!

"Heh…"

"Right."

"I'm fake."

Boom!

What?!

He… he actually admitted it himself?!

The three altars trembled one after another.

Even the All‑Beings' Countenance, which excels at manipulating human hearts,

The expressions on the thousand masks also switched from mockery to unexpected astonishment!

Confusion!

Incomprehension!

"But what is truth…"

"What is false…"

Su Ming's body trembled even more violently, and the Smile Mask on his face grew ever colder, ever more insane!

"You all sing, chant, act, and strike, all are Mirror Flower Water Moon of the play!"

"You seek liberation, you seek true feeling, you seek reality!"

"At the bottom of it, your sorrow, your hatred…"

"It's nothing but a script long yellowed, a meaningless, baseless lament!"

Before the words fell, Su Ming suddenly raised his other hand.

His index finger jabbed toward his own chest!

In his eyes, light glittered brilliantly.

"Only I!"

"Born of true sorrow! Grown in real hatred!"

"My every breath, every minute I live, every second!"

"All of that is more damn… than your broken play that has sung for countless years combined…"

"Reality!!!"

The moment the last word was shouted, the 【Soul Dagger】 in Su Ming's hand moved!

It did not thrust forward, but stabbed toward the Clown altar just inches away!

Instead… it suddenly flipped the blade tip!

The sharpest edge reflected the lone, cold moon hanging in the sky!

It also reflected his face, written with madness!

What… what are you going to do?!

The three altars simultaneously erupted in violent tremor!

They are actually…

From this man's body, they sensed some fear!

"Today!"

"I will use my own body as the stage!"

Su Ming raised the 【Soul Dagger】 high; the grim blade tip, in the next second, unhesitatingly aimed at his own brow!

"With my blood as ink!"

"Tell you, what the hell actually counts as a play!"

Pfft—!

The blade tip pierced flesh without pause, then slashed down hard.

A horrifying blood trail ran from his brow, across his nose bridge, over his lips, all the way to his jaw!

The blood line, like a Heaven Rift, cruelly split his face into two halves!

In this way, he painted upon himself a line of uncompromising righteousness, hatred of evil as if a foe…

Yet also bearing a deep sea of blood hatred, born for revenge…

Mask!

"Sss!"

Pain!

Too painful!

But the smile at his mouth grew ever more frantic!

"Ha ha… hahahaha…"

He could feel it clearly.

The previously shaken 【White Tiger Hall】 and 【Changmen Palace】 were at this moment utterly subdued, trembling!

Including that self‑proclaimed lucid, arrogant 【All-Beings' Countenance】 altar.

The emotions on thousands of masks completely solidified!

Mockery, doubt, astonishment…

All turned into pure terror!

Actually…

It was painted with one's own flesh and blood!

"It's done!"

"I'm done!"

"Now!"

"He is Su Ming!"

"Also 【Pure】!"

"Who dares say his play is fake?!"

"My play…"

Su Ming slowly lifted the 【Soul Dagger】 still dripping with scalding fresh blood.

The blade tip, pointing straight at the heavens!

His chest rose and fell violently, greedily inhaling the cold night wind.

Then, using all his body's strength, he uttered each word with a pause.

He wants to name the opening of this epoch‑making drama!

"Named…"

"Orphan—!"

It is the loneliness of the night before Mid‑Autumn, with not even a single family member to share mooncakes with!

It is the loneliness of being forgotten and abandoned by the whole world, wandering alone across a dark wasteland!

This loneliness is more bone‑deep than the General's achievements that outshine his lord!

It is more sorrowful than the Princess's deep‑palace loneliness!

"Child—!"

It is the tragedy of parents brutally killed while one can only watch helplessly as the enemy roams free!

It is seeing cosmic justice become a joke… the wretched child!

This ingratitude!

This incompetence!

It is the midnight nightmare that makes him toss and turn, in agony beyond living!

"Hate!!!"

Orphan's Hate!!!

All sounds fall silent!

Lingering cries, unwilling lament, sharp, bitter ridicule…

At this moment, they vanish completely!

He… is not a Drama God.

Yet his story is truer than theirs!

More fierce than their obsession!

Heavier than their Karma!

He—

Is the play itself!

The piece ends!

Gods and ghosts are all startled!

Boom—!!!

A massive blast first erupts from the White Tiger Hall altar!

All murderous aura and resentment disperse.

It transforms into a pure, unparalleled Geng Metal torrent, infused with the aura of gleaming spears and iron horses, soaring skyward!

Buzz—!!!

Immediately after, the Changmen Palace altar collapses as well!

The phoenix‑crowned jeweled hairpins shatter inch by inch, turning into a dazzling golden rain that fills the sky, tragically beautiful beyond compare!

Wail—!!!

Finally!

That altar of All‑Beings' Countenance, composed of thousands of masks.

After a long sigh that is both a cry and a laugh, as if a burden were lifted.

All expressions on the masks dissolve, becoming countless golden particles, dream‑like and illusory!

Three distinct golden rays intersect, each flashing its own brilliance!

Boom—!

Before a victor could be decided.

A crimson, blood‑red pillar of light thunders down from the heavens!

Like a god‑slaying spear, it shatters all three golden rays!