Chapter 527: Only Half a Second

When Liang Wen uttered that line, the entire battlefield fell silent for half a beat.

It's not that no one wanted to laugh.

It's that everyone lacked the strength to laugh.

This guy's half of his windcoat was burned away, his hair collapsed into a disaster zone, blood still clung to the corner of his mouth, yet he still tried to pose as if "the king has arrived."

Su Ming leaned against the broken armored vehicle, raised his hand to wipe the blood from his chin, his tone turning cold.

"If you say a few more dying words, Sai Men could scatter our ashes three times."

Liang Wen gave him a sidelong glance.

"Shut up, time thief."

"What do you call me?"

"It's a title of respect I give you; don't pretend you don't appreciate it."

Su Ming was too lazy to curse.

He lowered his head and looked at his palm.

The Time Marrow Worm roamed beneath his skin, no longer the usual tiny undulation but a maddened pounding against flesh and blood.

Each movement made a rush of bloodstained taste rise in Su Ming's throat.

This thing was never an infinite‑refill cheat.

Press the time once more, and he might truly compress himself into a human husk.

But he still raised his hand.

Because Lin Fan was still ahead.

Because Jiang Yuan also stood up.

Because Liang Wen, whose chuunibyou was about to die out, was still acting cool there.

Su Ming muttered a low curse.

"What a loss."

On the other side, Chen Shao crawled out of the collapsed bell tower ruins.

Half of his body had been gnawed by Gray Mist into a blood‑splattered mess, and the demonic eye pattern on his left eye was frighteningly dark.

Xu An tried to help him, but Chen Shao raised his hand to block.

Chen Shao didn't look at him; he stared toward the distant gray chaos.

Sai Men stood in the center of the Gray Mist, a crack in his mask spanning his face, the eye orb on his staff dripping gray blood, yet he seemed excessively cheerful.

Chen Shao's Adam's apple moved.

"Yao Yao is in this world, so I will protect this world."

Chen Shao lifted his right hand, pressing his fingertip onto his left eye.

"If you keep this thing, isn't it exactly for moments like this?"

Jiang Yuan's Dark Shadow Court emitted a harsh scraping in the wind.

One black card after another jammed the Gray Mist's gaping maw, the card faces constantly worn down, their edges turning into fine ash.

Cold sweat covered Jiang Yuan's forehead, yet he did not retreat.

He saw Chen Shao approaching, his brows furrowing.

"Can you still move?"

Chen Shao replied coldly.

"You're not dead, how could I have the decency to lie down?"

Jiang Yuan nodded.

"Shared vision."

Chen Shao paused.

These four words were stranger than a blade.

They had once fought to the death in Anhe City.

Later, over the Wish Bottle, both sides schemed against each other down to the bone.

Jiang Yuan mastered the Bone Knife, while Chen Shao snatched the Wish Bottle.

One represented the Federation, the other the Eden Garden.

Logically, their meeting was not to discuss cooperation but who would bury whom first.

But now, Chen Shao merely lifted his hand to press his left eye, blood seeping through his fingers.

"Take it."

The next second, gray rule traces of Sai Men appeared in Jiang Yuan's vision.

It wasn't an image.

It was a "rule flow."

Where the Gray Mist would converge, where it would devour, where it would misalign, where a counterattack lay hidden—all were poured into Jiang Yuan's mind in a brain‑piercing sting.

Jiang Yuan let out a muffled hum as his nosebleed dripped.

"Do you usually use this thing to view the world?"

Chen Shao's voice became hoarse.

"That's why I hate idiots; they're too noisy."

Liang Wen, dragging the Black Flame Knife, walked to the side of the two and, after listening, actually nodded.

"This I, the king, approve; idiots truly are noisy."

Su Ming did not look up.

"If you keep mouthing off, I'll freeze you for half a second first, letting Sai Men slice you."

Liang Wen immediately retracted.

"Su Team is wise and mighty; I recognize your dark aptitude."

Lin Fan, who was up front, heard it and a vein at the corner of his forehead twitched.

"Do you Federation always chatter like this before a fight?"

Ling Xinyu, pressed against his back, her spirit had already faded considerably, but she still gently tapped the back of his neck with her fingertip.

Lin Fan whispered, "I'm fine."

She gave no reply.

She simply pressed more Hellfire into his right eye.

The eerie blue flame crawled back up the blade.

Sai Men tilted his head, watching this group of people who should be tearing each other apart gather together, his shoulders trembling with delight.

"Oh dear."

"Rivals merging, forming a team at the ready, a hot‑blooded classic moment."

"Where's the director? Add a chicken leg to this segment."

Jiang Yuan raised his hand.

The Black Card spread out, and throne patterns formed in the air.

"Lin Fan, you take the main attack."

Lin Fan shouldered the sword, his right eye a frightening eerie blue blaze.

"Less command over me."

Jiang Yuan said seriously, "I'll handle blocking the rules."

Lin Fan clicked his tongue.

"Fine, don't mess up."

Su Ming placed his palm on the ground, and the Time Marrow Worm emitted gray‑white markings beneath his skin.

"I'll freeze for half a second."

Liang Wen raised his sword, and black flame crawled up the blade.

"I, the king, will open the way."

Chen Shao's left eye bled incessantly, the Demon Eye pattern flared, and the surrounding debris was crushed into powder by unseen psychic force.

"I'll lock his left arm."

A few short sentences.

The encirclement formed.

No rehearsal.

No orders.

No one said anything about for humanity, for the world.

They simply stood where they were supposed to stand.

Sai Men lifted his staff, and the Living Eyeball spun faster.

"Come."

"Let me see if the examinees, in the heat of the moment, can clutch at the Buddha's foot and knock the chief examiner off the podium."

Gray Mist moved first.

It no longer devoured the ground; instead it rolled in from all directions, forming layer upon layer of boundless gray curtain.

Jiang Yuan's Dark Shadow Court surged upward.

The Black Card collided with the gray curtain, producing no explosion, only a teeth‑aching scrape.

The card faces shattered one after another.

Jiang Yuan's wrist trembled, yet he kept pressing forward.

"Three steps to the left, the Gray Mist will shift distance!"

The images Chen Shao shared flickered chaotically in his mind.

Lin Fan did not hesitate.

Black Water formed a narrow path beneath his feet; he lowered his whole body, skimming close to the ground.

Sai Men tapped his staff.

The distance ahead of Lin Fan was stretched.

It was clearly only ten meters, yet the Gray Mist stretched it into a blank stretch with no visible end.

Su Ming pressed his palm down.

"Stop."

It wasn't a command for Sai Men to stop.

It was a command for that segment of Gray Mist to operate half a beat slower.

The Time Marrow Worm emitted a fine, gnawing sound; Su Ming vomited blood on the spot, the droplets staining the gray‑white markings on the back of his hand a dark red.

Half a second.

Only half a second.

Lin Fan stepped on the Black Water, crossed the blank, and his blade went straight for Sai Men's chest.

Sai Men raised his hand to block.

Chen Shao's left eye surged with a burst of blood.

"Don't move."

Sai Men's left arm halted in midair.

It wasn't a complete seal.

It only paused for an extremely brief gap.

But for Lin Fan, that was enough.

Liang Wen stepped forward at the same time, and the Black Flame Knife's aura swept across the gray veil.

"Dark-Blooded King, final technique!"

Su Ming gritted his teeth and cursed, "Don't shout the technique name!"

Liang Wen roared even louder.

"Night Burial Heavenly Gate!"

The Black Flame split the gray veil, giving Lin Fan the final half‑body space.

The crimson eyes behind Sai Men's Mask finally contracted.

Lin Fan had already reached him.

"Don't you love watching dramas?"

The Black Water long sword rose.

"This part is called 'face‑slap.'"

The blade fell.

Crack!

A crisp cracking sound pierced the rain curtain.

Sai Men's Gray Stone Mask split in half from the temple to the jaw.

Fragments flew out, grazing his face, revealing the lower half of a pale, handsome yet sickly visage.

His lip line was thin.

The jawline was clean.

That face was too young.

In the distance, if Qin Zhixia were here, they would probably feel an intense sense of familiarity at first glance.

But on the battlefield, no one had time to identify.

Because Sai Men lowered his head to watch the falling mask fragments.

It was silent for two seconds.

Then, he smiled.

First came a low, breathy sound.

Then it turned into an exaggerated, chilling cackle.

"Hahaha!"

"Beautiful!"

"So beautiful!"

"Lin Fan, you truly are my favorite variable."

Sai Men spread his hand, letting rain fall on the shattered Mask, the pale lips stained with gray blood.

"You don't think this counts as a win, do you?"

"Stop messing around."

"The test has only just increased in difficulty."

As the words fell, the Living Eyeball atop the staff suddenly swelled.

The sclera cracked.

The pupil inverted.

Su Ming's complexion changed dramatically.

"Retreat!"

Too late.

The eyeball shattered on the spot.

A gray storm surged from the top of the staff.

There was no flame.

No high temperature.

Only an extremely violent extraction.

Life force.

Reason.

The edge of memory.

All were seized by that gray storm and dragged onto Sai Men.

The allied soldiers on the outer ring fell first.

A young soldier was raising his gun to aim; the next moment his hair turned white, his skin dried and wrinkled, and he knelt in the mud, unable to even scream.

The medic beside him tried to pull him; as his hand reached out, his own back of the hand withered instantly.

A line of people fell.

Another line.

The combat channel was filled with broken calls.

"Retreat! Retreat!"

"The pollution index is off the charts!"

"Deceptive Squad can't hold on!"

Jiang Yuan's Dark Shadow Court was swept into the storm, and a massive spread of Black Cards shattered.

He felt a pressure in his chest, and his whole body fell from mid‑air, smashing through the roof of a scrapped armored vehicle.

Lin Fan protected Ling Xinyu with Black Water, yet the storm still struck his shoulder, and half of his flesh quickly turned ashen.

Ling Xinyu raised her hand to shield him, but he thrust her back into the Symbiosis circuit.

"Don't come out!"

Liang Wen's Black Flame Knife aura was torn apart, and his whole body was flung backward, crashing into half a wall. After landing, he tried to get up, but his elbow slipped, spreading a spray of blood.

Su Ming's Time Marrow Worm backfired, and blood seeped from his seven orifices.

He lay on the ground, his fingertips still trembling, but he could no longer hold back time.

Chen Shao's Demon Eye was repelled by the gray wind, a blood line erupted from his left eye, and he fell to his knees, his fingers digging hard into the mud.

Xu An rushed forward to save him, but the edge of the storm swept him, tearing his sutured lips open, and blood dripped down his chin.

The encircling net was torn apart.

That brief surge of excitement was trampled back into the mud by Sai Men in an even more cruel way.

Sai Men stood at the center of the gray tornado, half a mask shattered, half a pallid face exposed to the rain.

He spread his arms, his dark red shirt billowing in the wind, his posture so elegant it made one feel sick.

"That's right."

"The main party faces the headwind, the supporting cast exits, the audience holds its breath."

"Come, who will give me a surprise first?"

The gray wind continues to expand.

A North American Deceptive squatted, clutching his head and howling wildly; the next second, gray fluid poured from his eye sockets as he knelt and bit his own arm.

The raging wolf tried to charge forward, but Sai Men flicked a finger, sending him soaring sideways into the depths of the ruins.

Jiang Yuan lay in a pool of blood, his throat filled with the taste of rust.

He saw the storm.

He also saw the gray fissure inside the storm, flickering in and out.

Very narrow.

Pathetically short.

That is not a weakness.

It resembles the gap left when the pattern takes a breath.

The residual vision Chen Shao shared still flickered in his mind.

Jiang Yuan's pupils contracted.

Each time the gray wind devours a cycle, the center shifts for half a second.

Half a second.

It means nothing to ordinary people.

But for Lin Fan, it's enough to kill once.

Jiang Yuan propped himself up on the wrecked vehicle, his fingers reaching for the Card Bag.

Inside, only the last card remained.

The throne on the card's face was already cracked.

Su Ming saw his movement and coughed up blood foam.

"Jiang Yuan… if you keep going, you might die."

Jiang Yuan didn't look back.

"Then don't let me continue in vain."

Liang Wen lay far away, and upon hearing that, he twisted his mouth, blood gushing from his teeth.

"So cool."

"I possess three points of my own flair."

Jiang Yuan ignored him.

He stared at Lin Fan.

Lin Fan also rose at the edge of the storm, Black Water shielding Ling Xinyu, his right eye a deep blue, pressed down to a single flicker of flame.

The two faced each other across the gray tornado.

Jiang Yuan lifted the cracked throne card.

His arm trembled, yet it did not fall.

"Lin Fan!"

His voice tore through the wind.

"I can carve a path!"

Sai Men turned his head.

A blood‑red eye socket stared over.

Jiang Yuan chewed the blood in his mouth, and the Poker Card ignited into darkness at his fingertips.

"But only half a second!"