Chapter 524: Crushing Again

The clock tower was broken in half.

Gray Mist crawled out from the ruined tower, swallowing the flames, swallowing the Blood Mist, and also swallowing the last sliver of luck on the battlefield.

Jiang Yuan fell from the heights.

The Black Combat Suit was shredded by the gray rule, and the Card Bag at his waist was already more than half empty; a few pieces of Shadow Poker clung to his body and whirled, yet they could not form a complete card formation.

The Dark Shadow Court shattered.

That throne domain, which had once forced even Quasi‑S Weird to bow, was now broken into fragments scattered across the sky.

Jiang Yuan's throat was filled with the smell of blood.

He tried to raise his hand.

His arm would not obey.

It wasn't simply that his bones were broken; something of a higher order was holding down his very "action" itself.

The thought arose, only to be drowned by Gray Mist.

"Damn."

He bit his tongue, and blood ran down along the gaps between his teeth.

Pain pulled his scattered consciousness back by half an inch.

And that was only half an inch.

Below, Kuang Lang lay in a pit of broken stones.

This proud trickster of the North American Union had once been able to flip an armored vehicle with his bare hands and cut his way through a Spider-like humanoid nest.

Now, his limbs were splayed at grotesque angles, his bones shattered in large part, and each rise and fall of his chest forced blood foam to gush from his nasal cavity.

Kuang Lang still tried to crawl.

His nails dug into the concrete ground.

To no avail.

The gray rule pressed on his back, pinning the muscle monster like a disobedient child napping in kindergarten.

Chen Shao hung from the exposed Reinforced Steel Bar of the clock tower.

His black suit tore open in several places, the Dominating Demon Eye closed and then cracked, and blood streamed down from the edges of his eye sockets.

He tried to squeeze out his remaining life force.

The Demon Eye lit up half a circle.

Gray Mist rolled in.

That red glimmer was smothered alive.

A hoarse, low laugh spilled from Chen Shao's throat.

"How ugly."

It was unclear whether that remark was aimed at Sai Men or at himself.

Federation.

Eden Garden.

North American Union.

The top forces of the three sides were pinned in the center of the battlefield by the same madman.

They lost without any technical merit.

Crush.

Bare, naked crushing.

Sai Men stood on the broken edge of the collapsed clock tower, the Gray Mask covering his features, leaving only two black‑hole‑like openings.

He leaned on the Eyeball Staff and stepped down into the void.

With each step down, a ring of gray‑white ripples spread beneath his feet.

No hurry.

No rush.

Deadly elegant.

Also begs to be beaten to death.

"Gentlemen."

Sai Men tilted his head, and the eyeball at the tip of his staff turned toward Jiang Yuan, then toward Chen Shao, and finally settled on Kuang Lang.

"I must admit, your performance just now possessed a certain… crude aesthetic."

Kuang Lang spat out half a mouthful of blood and cursed, "Fuck your aesthetic."

Sai Men clapped lightly.

The applause was slow.

Clap.

Clap.

Clap.

"Listen, how plain, how wild."

"The cultural foundation of the North American Union, condensed into four characters, can be called a retrograde showcase of linguistic art."

Kuang Lang still tried to curse.

Gray Mist swept past his mouth and sealed his throat.

Sai Men sighed.

"Shh, audience, please keep quiet."

He walked to the center of the three, his staff tapping the void.

Thud.

On the battlefield, every survivor's heart skipped half a beat.

In the allied forces' position far away, Su Ming leaned against a broken wall, his lips pale.

The Time Marrow Worm frantically warned inside his body.

Cannot approach.

Cannot interfere.

In that gray realm, time was kneaded into scrap paper, space reshaped into a labyrinth, and the very rules yielded to Sai Men.

Su Ming tried to use the flow of time.

The next second, nosebleed gushed out.

"Damn it."

He wiped the blood, muttered low, "Is this guy cheating and got into the admin backend?"

Liang Wen half‑kneeled beside the church ruins, the Black Flame Knife plunged into the ground, his chest heaving rapidly.

His flamboyant windcoat was torn into a beggar‑only edition, his hair messed up beyond any style.

Normally, Liang Wen would first feel sorry for his hairstyle for three seconds.

No time now.

Yan Ming lay fallen in the distance, his bone‑white gavel cracked, remnants of the Absolute Court's rules still drifting in the air.

But they didn't win.

The real Boss stood by the bell tower, just about to have a meal.

Liang Wen gritted his teeth and forcibly drew his blade.

As the Black Flame flared, gray mist swept in from hundreds of meters away.

The fire went out.

Liang Wen's whole body was pressed back to the ground.

"Holy shit."

He pressed his forehead against the hilt, smiling bitterly, "The Dark‑Blooded King didn't check the almanac today."

Sai Men lifted his head, gazing at the struggling people in the distance.

"Don't rush."

"Everyone gets a curtain call."

"But according to the show's schedule, we start with the three leads first."

He lightly tapped his staff.

Jiang Yuan's falling body halted mid‑air.

Not rescued.

He was hung up.

The gray rules seized him, suspending him before the bell tower, his chest aligned with the staff's tip.

Inside Jiang Yuan, the Shadow Ghost Abyss churned.

Countless Shadow Soldiers howled.

Rain Night Butcher, the remnants of the Blood‑Flesh Holy Sound, the Spider Humanoid's shadow, all the weird troops he had subdued were striking the cage.

But the gray rules descended.

The Abyss was pressed back into the bone crevices.

Jiang Yuan's fingertip twitched.

In the card bag, the last black card trembled, flew out half a centimeter, then fell back.

Sai Men drew near, his tone light.

"Shadow Lord, don't do this."

"You're quite a promising child."

"If you die too ugly, I'll have trouble reporting back."

Jiang Yuan lifted his eyes.

In those dark pupils, fighting spirit still burned.

Sai Men's smile behind the mask grew richer.

"Whoops, almost spoiled the plot."

"But for those about to die, hearing some behind‑the‑scenes tidbits is fine."

Chen Shao struggled to lift his head on the rebar.

"You're not a Divine Envoy."

Sai Men turned his face.

"Huh?"

Chen Shao coughed up blood, his words slurred yet clear.

"You're just a dog let out to bite."

The battlefield fell silent for half a beat.

Even at a time like this, he could still talk trash—Chen Shao counts as a different kind of hardcore.

Sai Men wasn't angry.

He even bowed, extending an exaggerated gentleman's salute to Chen Shao.

"Thank you for the rating."

"But let me correct that, dogs are loyal."

"I only handle happiness."

The Eyeball Staff rotated, and Gray Mist swept over Chen Shao's chest.

Chen Shao's body shivered, the edges of his Demon Eye cracked and spread, and he almost fell off the Reinforced Steel Bar.

Xu An roared from afar, "Chen Shao!"

He tried to rush over.

A gray chain shot up from the ground, crushing him entirely.

Sai Men lifted a finger and gave a gentle shake.

"Villain family area, please line up as well."

"How rude."

He turned back toward Jiang Yuan.

"Now, let's count down."

The Eyeball Staff rose slowly.

A red light at the tip flickered, condensing into an extremely fine point.

That red dot landed on Jiang Yuan's chest.

Jiang Yuan's entire blood seemed seized by Gray Mist.

His heart beat slowed.

One.

Another.

"Ten."

Sai Men opened his mouth.

In the allied forces' position, someone lifted a heavy cannon.

The muzzle just lit up, Gray Mist swept over, and the barrel collapsed from within.

"Nine."

Su Ming braced against the wall and stood up, the Time Marrow Worm crawling under his skin, leaving large dark patterns.

He was ready to gamble his life.

But the time ability, just as it spread, was swallowed by a gray dead sea.

"Eight."

Liang Wen drew his sword, and black flames coiled around the blade.

He muttered out-of-place lines, yet his throat was terrifyingly hoarse.

"My Abyss, you have overtime today."

Gray Mist pressed down.

The black flames were extinguished again.

"Seven."

Chen Shao closed his right eye, using his left eye to stubbornly support the Demon Eye.

Blood trickled from the corner of his eye to his jaw.

"Six."

The feral wolf slammed its forehead onto the ground, forcing the throat‑closing Gray Mist to crack.

Sai Men spread his hands happily.

"I'm sorry, sir, your status is insufficient."

"Five."

Jiang Yuan finally smiled.

Blood stained his teeth red.

"You talk too much nonsense."

Sai Men paused.

Then, he pushed the tip of the staff forward by half an inch.

The combat suit on Jiang Yuan's chest was pierced by the red light.

Flesh began to cave in.

The Shadow Ghost Abyss roared madly, yet could not break out of the cage.

"Four."

In Lord Wei's communication channel, it was all static.

In the headquarters command room, the old man's hand rested on the table edge, his finger bones tightening.

On the screen, Jiang Yuan hung in midair, Sai Men's staff pointing at his heart.

Someone whispered, "Director, should we activate the orbital weapon?"

Lord Wei stared at the image.

"Too late."

Three words.

It pressed the entire command room to the point of suffocation.

"Three."

Sai Men began to hum softly.

The melody was odd, carrying the absurdity after a circus had closed.

"Two."

Jiang Yuan bit his tongue to the point of crushing.

A rush of blood surged to the top of his head.

In the Abyss of the Shadow Ghost, the wreckage of the black throne trembled.

He intended to self‑detonate the source.

Even if he couldn't kill Sai Men, he would shatter half of the opponent's Mask.

Chen Shao saw through his intention and hoarsely shouted, "Don't send!"

Jiang Yuan gave no response.

He only stared at Sai Men.

The young Shadow Lord was now in utter disarray.

Yet that defiant vigor still propped up inside his bones.

Sai Men was very satisfied.

"Beautiful."

"The most moving thing about humans is that, right before being crushed, they always try to strike a cool pose."

"One."

The Eyeball Staff was raised high.

A red light pierced the Gray Mist.

Sai Men leaned forward slightly, politely as if saying farewell.

"Good night, gentlemen."

The staff fell.

The tip was a hair's breadth away from Jiang Yuan's heart, a line so thin it could not be thinner.

That was the line.

At the edge of the sky, a Fierce Ghost's howl suddenly rang out.

It was not an alarm.

It was not artillery fire.

It was not a human weapon either.

It was the roar of resentment, pressed to the limit, tearing the heavens.

At the edge of the Gray domain, a tide of ink‑black water surged up.

The Blue Flame of the Nether burned within the water tide, its color eerily vivid, scorching large voids through the Gray Mist.

Sai Men halted for the first time.

The black hole behind the Mask turned toward the distance.

The next second.

An ink‑black wave swept across the battlefield.

No rules.

No logic.

And it doesn't follow any procedure.

It slashed down from the horizon, brutish and fierce, with a wild temperament that could overturn a chessboard.

The Gray chaos was split apart.

A thousand‑foot chasm pierced the sky above the bell tower.

The suppression on Jiang Yuan's body suddenly loosened.

He fell from mid‑air, but several streams of Black Water caught him, delivering him steadily to the ruined wall.

The Gray Mist on the raging wolf's back shattered.

The Reinforced Steel Bar beneath Chen Shao was wrapped by Black Water, preventing him from crashing into a pulp.

In the allied camp, everyone lifted their heads.

The rain fell even harder.

Black splashes of water fell from the sky.

Within the splashes, there was fire.

A blue‑hued fire.

Sai Men stood in the center of the cracked Gray domain, the eyeball at the staff's tip spinning wildly, as if it had encountered some unscripted filth.

On a distant high platform.

A youth walked forward on Black Water.

His white shirt was soaked by the rain; his right eye was a deep blue, his left eye still the black of a living person.

He carried a long Black Water blade, its edge swirling with Hellfire.

Behind him, a long‑haired girl stood at the head of the Black Water tide, her brows and eyes delicate, her figure half‑ethereal, half‑solid.

Ling Xinyu raised her hand.

The Black Water halted at Lin Fan's feet.

Lin Fan sheathed his blade and lifted his gaze toward Sai Men.

That blue‑eyed Abyss locked the gray‑clad gentleman on the platform tightly.

He opened his mouth, his voice not loud, yet the whole battlefield heard it clearly.

"Laughing like that, and you still dare to call yourself a messenger of the gods?"