Chapter 232: But the protagonist of the trial is!

But the protagonist of the trial is!

Let's rewind time a bit, back to when Li Yi and Gao San disappeared.

When Gao San burrowed into the ceiling, Li Yi found his chance.

He didn't vanish instantly because he turned into a pile of playing cards; rather, he scattered a handful of cards as a diversion, using a magician's trick to teleport himself away.

And the location he teleported to was exactly where he had tapped on the experimental device to alert Cheng Shi while outside the door earlier.

It was that very tap that allowed him to silently drop a displacement card behind the blackout curtain.

Thus, the magician's "great escape" was performed for the second time.

When Li Yi appeared outside the door, his hanging heart finally settled; he felt he had seemingly escaped Cheng Shi's clutches.

"Phew—even a magician has moments of exhaustion. It's time for the curtain call."

Li Yi had no other thoughts in his mind; he only wanted to leave this place as quickly as possible, leave this laboratory filled with 【Chaos】 thoughts, and then stop participating in the civil war of 【Deceit】, finding a place to quietly wait for the trial to end.

He was too tired; this trial was far more exhausting than any other.

Both body and mind were weary.

But just as he pulled back the blackout curtain, preparing to leave, he found a person standing before him.

Serius, the scholar who had been chatting with him in the workshop just moments ago, was standing right in front of him again.

It was him!

The Serius from outside the door!

Looking at his expression, it seemed completely different from before—more gloomy, and more terrifying.

Li Yi's pupils shrank; he tried his utmost to maintain a calm appearance, smiling slightly:

"We meet again. How did you know I was here?"

Serius sneered: "No, I didn't know, but he told me you were here."

As soon as the words fell, a "clatter" sound came from behind Li Yi, and immediately after, a pair of wet hands locked onto him from behind, just like Gao San had locked onto the attendant, hugging him tight.

Li Yi was horrified, glancing sideways in shock, only to find that the experimental device behind him had already shattered, and an identical Serius had lunged out from within, looking at him with the same sneer, his face pressed right against Li Yi's neck!

!!!

A slice of Serius!

What was hidden in the experimental device wasn't ordinary experimental material, but a slice of Serius!

He had guessed that the shattering of the experimental device wasn't an accident, but he hadn't guessed that the experimental subject inside was actually Serius himself!

Moreover, his strength was terrifyingly great; he didn't look like a frail, elderly scholar at all.

Li Yi's gaze sharpened, and the words that the Serius in the workshop had said flashed through his mind:

"At least the mutation of human nature has spawned many powers beneficial to living beings and helpful in overcoming fear."

Power!

So, the Serius who had sliced himself up had also mutated this power; he wasn't a scholar with no strength to truss a chicken at all, but a warrior skilled in disguise!

At least his slice was!

Li Yi was locked in place, unable to move; his thoughts raced as he quickly reviewed the current information, then said with a solemn expression:

"There's no need for this; we still have room for cooperation."

Serius looked at him coldly and asked: "You like cooperation?"

"I wouldn't say like or dislike, but I tend to resolve differences through cooperation."

"In that case, how do I know if you haven't already cooperated with the 'me' inside...?"

"!"

The moment he heard this, cold sweat broke out on Li Yi.

Damn it, I've tangled myself up. I didn't expect the Selius outside the door to be so cautious; he was guarding against whether I was a trick thrown out by the Selius inside the door.

"I didn't..."

Before he could finish, Serius's hand-blade plunged into Li Yi's stomach.

He winced in pain, immediately flying several playing cards from his hand to take the opportunity to teleport himself.

However, Serius's strike was powerful and heavy, leaving him severely wounded; after stumbling two steps, Li Yi stood firm in the corridor of the experimental field.

This wasn't because he was too wounded to run, but because in front of him, countless "clattering" sounds rose one after another, and one after another, wet Serius figures rubbed their wrists and walked out of the culture dishes.

Not only were they not naked, but they were wearing identical black clothes, the material of which looked similar to the prisoner helmets.

So... this clothing could reduce damage?

There was no time for Li Yi to guess; the Serius figures all looked at Li Yi in unison, their identical voices resonating in frequency, converging into an eerie and terrifying "chorus."

"Do you know why there aren't many guards in the experimental field?

Because...

When there are enough people in charge, the presence or absence of guards is irrelevant.

Outsider, you should feel honored; before you is the great divinity germination experiment, the great scholar Serius, worthy of being recorded in history.

After witnessing all this, you can die without regrets."

"Damn!"

Li Yi's face was as black as ink; he looked around and broke through toward the place with the fewest people.

The magician was indeed very powerful, taking down at least a dozen Serius figures during the breakout, but two fists are ultimately no match for four hands, let alone when there were more than forty hands present.

Thus, in the increasingly fierce encirclement, with his activity space constantly compressing, the magician finally made a mistake.

Just because his turn was a beat too slow, his arms were held again by a Serius behind him, and countless Serius figures swarmed up, tearing this magician of many tricks into countless fragments with brutal methods.

The performance ended.

Li Yi was dead; at least in Serius's eyes, this experimental subject had been erased.

Dozens of Serius figures cleaned up the scene, then turned their heads in unison to stare at the wooden door that couldn't be entered, seemingly waiting for new prey.

And what they didn't notice was that in the middle of the dozens of Serius figures, one gloomy-looking Serius silently pulled up his wet coat to cover a faint green light, then looked "gregariously" at the familiar wooden door.

Gao San hadn't escaped.

No one expected that an acrobat eager to flee the scene hadn't left; bold and daring, he had cleverly wedged himself into the gap above the ceiling with his exaggerated limb flexibility and top-tier physical balance, staying motionless and quiet as he outlasted the confrontation between Cheng Shi and Serius.

After this teammate and Galiusha left one after another, the Iron Law Knights had no intention of investigating, because the Serius needed by Montrani and that lord hadn't died, and as for who died, it didn't matter.

So they didn't even take measures to survey the scene, leaving directly after sending Galiusha away, leaving behind a mess that no one dared or found convenient to touch.

Not until the room had been quiet for a long time, long enough for Gao San to feel that night was about to fall, did he quietly descend and stand before the dead scholar.

He had heard everything, and naturally, he had heard the conversation between Cheng Shi and the Lips of Foolish Play.

Now his mind was full of this, full of that "schizophrenic" teammate, Cheng Shi.

He seemed to be talking to himself, to another personality? A personality called Brother Mouth?

Was he sick?

Gao San's expression was incomparably solemn, because this wasn't funny.

In other places, this might be a joke, but here, in an experimental field where personalities were extracted to make slices, didn't his words prove even more that he was very likely another personality slice of his?

After slicing five personalities, did he actually still possess two?

Absurd?

Gao San felt some fear inside, a slight fear, and at a certain moment, a doubt that shouldn't have existed arose in his mind:

Am I, really me?

Am I actually the Cheng Shi personality stripped away by this Concentric Dagger?

His gaze turned to the blood-stained "dagger," and then he cautiously picked it up.

It looked like an ordinary scalpel; how on earth did it become a "Concentric Dagger" capable of splitting personalities?

To hide himself, Gao San only dared to listen and not look, so naturally, he didn't know that Cheng Shi had swapped the Concentric Dagger, and even less did he know that this swapped dagger was exactly the one Cheng Shi had used to shake hands with Li Yi, who had turned into a mouse.

Thus, the moment he brought the dagger before his eyes to examine it carefully, the dagger turned into a playing card without warning, and then with a "whoosh," it pierced through his throat.

Gao San was stunned.

Wearing the prisoner helmet, he couldn't see his own neck, so he had to touch it lightly with his hand, but this touch let him feel a warm liquid.

"Huh? Acrobat?

No, I am a clown, a real clown."

"Thump—"

The acrobat hadn't even delivered his curtain call, ending his performance so hastily, bottling up all his unwillingness inside.

Six remain, three left, fate takes one.

Let me explain to the plot-focused readers again: I haven't deliberately accelerated the pace; this volume is following the original schedule. It is indeed almost finished, about a week.

Finally, thank you all again for your support, encouragement, and for following the updates! ===== CHAPTER 233 =====