Chapter 560

The crown pressed back inward into Zhou Ping's skull.

Sai Men's smile stopped.

Gray Mist's claws were still hooked onto the edge of Zhou Ping's skull, originally pulling outward.

But now, that Seven-Eyed Crown was falling inward.

Not a return.

It is a sinking.

It is pouring Zhou Ping's remaining life, the unextinguished resentment, the blood from the Black Pool water prison, and the tears before his sister's sickbed, all into the crown's core.

Sai Men's wrist paused.

"Mr. Zhou Ping."

"This operation of yours doesn't really match the product manual."

Zhou Ping's face was covered in blood, his teeth gaps full of red.

He ignored Sai Men.

His gaze swept past the invisible wall three meters away and landed on Zhou Ning in the corner.

Zhou Ning was held in Qin Zhixia's arms, crying until she could not speak.

She had her mouth open, tears smearing her whole face.

Zhou Ping looked at her for a long time.

Actually, it wasn't that long.

But for him, it was enough.

From childhood on, he had always been counting money.

Rent.

Medicine fees.

Food money.

His sister's school tuition.

Later, he told fortunes.

How much longer he could hold on.

After that, he stopped calculating.

Because he had obtained the crown.

He thought he could finally drag down those lofty things.

But in the end, his sister was still being used as leverage.

That is really annoying.

It's quite meaningless.

Zhou Ping's throat rolled out a broken breath.

"Jiang Yuan......"

Jiang Yuan half-kneeled on the ground, his palm still pressing the floor, the shadow pressed back under his palm by the gray mist.

He lifted his head.

"I'm here."

Zhou Ping smiled grimly.

"My sister, I entrust to you."

Jiang Yuan's teeth clenched until they felt sore.

He wanted to say not to go through this last words routine.

He wanted to say hold on.

He wanted to say there was still a way.

But when the words reached his throat, not a single character could come out.

He was no longer a raw recruit just out of training.

On the battlefield, some people's choices cannot be stopped by others.

Jiang Yuan nodded heavily.

Qin Zhixia did not speak.

She simply held Zhou Ning tighter behind her.

Her mechanical prosthesis was already smoking, the interface covered in blood.

Whether this arm was ruined or not no longer mattered.

What mattered was that Zhou Ping had entrusted them with his final matter.

This trust must not be dropped.

Zhou Ning understood.

She struggled as if gone mad.

"Don't!"

"Brother! Don't say such things!"

"I won't let you go! Do you hear me?!"

Zhou Ping looked at her.

His vision had already blurred.

He could only make out his sister's outline.

Pretty good.

Still alive.

He whispered: "Ningning, don't cry."

"Brother, I haven't made a name for myself in this life."

"My car repair skills are so-so, and I make so-so money."

"But today..."

He coughed up a mouthful of blood, mixed with dark red shreds.

"Brother wants to become a great person."

Sai Men stared at the crown deep in Zhou Ping's forehead, his scarlet pupils constricting.

Wrong.

Very wrong.

The crown wasn't taken back.

It is overloading.

Seven red eyes opened on the crown's surface, the originally dark red patterns began to collapse inward, and the core emitted a blinding red light.

That is not submission.

That is self-destruction.

Sai Men finally put away his playfulness.

He raised his hand to pull back the gray mist claws.

Couldn't pull it out.

Zhou Ping's broken arms lifted, clutching his right arm tightly.

The bones broke.

The flesh tore.

But those two hands were locked tight.

Sai Men lowered his head to look at him.

"Can you let go?"

Zhou Ping grinned, mouth full of blood.

No.

"Aren't you after the crown?"

"Come, take it."

The living red eyes on Sai Men's staff spun wildly.

Above the gray subspace, that unviewable gaze also pressed down.

Qiu Ce Yuan infirmary.

Chu Che sat behind his desk, the lenses reflecting the editor's red alarm.

The data on the light screen jumped wildly.

【Seven-Eyed Crown Core Reverse Overload】

【Host's life essence countdown to zero】

【Abnormal resentment infusion】

Chu Che looked at those red frames, his finger hovering in midair.

He didn't panic.

He even laughed.

"Everything is developing as expected."

He pushed his gold-rimmed glasses.

Magic City Hospital.

Sai Men didn't smile again.

Gray mist surged from half of his body, frantically cutting Zhou Ping's arm.

Zhou Ping's arm flesh flipped open, the bones cracking segment by segment.

But he still held on.

He wouldn't let go even in death.

Jiang Yuan slammed into an invisible wall.

Shadow was crushed.

He struck again.

The wound on his chest split again, blood streaming down along his battle uniform.

"Zhou Ping!"

"Don't bear it alone!"

Zhou Ping didn't turn back.

"Jiang Team."

"You officials are sometimes really annoying."

"You want to control everything."

"Don't interfere this time."

Su Ming stared at the red glow on Zhou Ping's forehead, having already figured it out in his mind.

Too late.

Zhou Ping wasn't calling for help.

He was attending a funeral.

Su Ming swore a filthy sentence.

"Damn."

"I really hate this kind of person."

Liang Wen wiped the blood from his mouth, got up, then fell again.

Qin Zhixia lowered her head to look at Zhou Ning.

Zhou Ning had cried until she had no strength left, her hand still gripping her combat uniform.

Qin Zhixia bent Zhou Ning's fingers back, then took hold of them.

"Watch him."

Zhou Ning froze.

Qin Zhixia's jaw tightened.

"This is the last thing your brother wanted you to see."

Zhou Ning looked up.

The line of sight passed through the shattered sickroom, through the invisible wall, and fell on Zhou Ping.

She saw her brother drenched in blood.

She saw her brother embracing that monster.

She saw the crown on her brother's forehead burning into a red mass.

Zhou Ping was also looking at her.

He strained to make a tiny mouth shape.

"Look."

"Brother can also be great."

"The next moment."

The Seven-Eyed Crown sank completely.

Zhou Ping's dark red patterns all over his body lit up at once.

Those patterns did not spread outward but converged toward the crown's core.

The crack in Sai Men's rock mask on his face widened.

Sai Men wanted to retreat.

Zhou Ping held on tighter.

His chest had already collapsed, and his legs began to turn gray.

But his smile grew more wanton.

"What does the god want?"

"Fine."

"Let's go to hell together, old man!"

The words fell.

The crown's seven red eyes closed simultaneously.

Then they opened.

It was not an outward judgment.

But an inward reckoning.

Zhou Ping poured everything he had into the crown.

Hatred.

Pain.

Resentment.

And the last bit of ordinary human dignity left by the auto repair worker.

Dark red energy exploded at the center of the sickroom.

No warm-up.

No countdown.

The entire gray subspace was torn open by red.

Where the higher-dimensional gaze pressed down, large cracks appeared.

That eye that could not see the whole picture shrank back for the first time.

It wanted to withdraw.

But the crown's self-destruct rule had already locked the recycling channel.

Dark red shackles burst from Zhou Ping's body, reversed to entangle that gaze, and jerked it down hard.

Sai Men took the brunt on half of his body.

His right arm, attached to his shoulder, was ground to powder by the red rule.

His chest cavity burst open.

The mask shattered more than half, and along with his face was corroded.

"Mr. Zhou Ping."

"You really have no spectator etiquette."

Zhou Ping could no longer hear clearly.

He only stared at Zhou Ning.

A red storm swept up.

The Sighing Wall emitted a piercing crack.

Before Jiang Yuan, the three-meter heavenly moat cracked open its first fissure.

Then the second.

Then the third.

Qin Zhixia reacted the fastest.

"Get down!"

She lunged over, pressing Zhou Ning beneath her.

Jiang Yuan raised his hand to prop up the shattered Dark Shadow Court.

Liang Wen gritted his teeth and drove the Black Flame Knife into the ground, still muttering: "Remember to claim work injury compensation!"

Su Ming forcibly pulled the Time Marrow Worm, delaying the blast's aftermath by half a beat.

Half a beat was enough.

The next second, the Sighing Wall shattered into large piles of ash.

Red energy swept across the ward.

The Gray Subspace was overturned from within.

Sai Men was swept into the Core, half his body missing, the remaining flesh also decomposing.

He lifted his head and glanced upward.

That higher-dimensional gaze was seized by the power of the self-destructing crown, its surface torn open in a large patch.

It retreated quickly.

Sai Men tore open a spatial rift with his remaining hand, dragging his mutilated body into it.

Before leaving, he glanced back at Zhou Ping.

"Oh, what a shame for an actor like you to die."

The rift closed.

Sai Men vanished.

Zhou Ping stood at the explosion's core.

His body could no longer hold up.

His arms dissipated first.

Then his shoulders.

His chest.

His legs.

There was no anguished cry.

No struggle.

He simply gazed at Zhou Ning.

Zhou Ning lifted his head from Qin Zhixia's embrace, tears unstoppable.

"Brother..."

Zhou Ping's lips moved.

This time, no sound came out.

But Zhou Ning understood.

Live on.

The red consumed him.

All that remained was his relaxed brow and eyes.

The man who had been forced into the Seven-Eyed King by the Black Abyss Prison, before vanishing, briefly turned back into the brother who bought medicine for his sister, repaired cars until midnight, and couldn't bear to eat an extra bowl of noodles.

The storm began to subside.

The Gray Subspace shattered.

The ward returned to reality.

The walls collapsed largely.

The windows were completely gone.

Medical equipment fell to the ground, alarm lights still flashing erratically.

Jiang Yuan pushed himself up from the ground, his steps unsteady.

His first act was not to look for Sai Men.

But to go to Qin Zhixia's side.

Zhou Ning had already fainted.

Qin Zhixia handed the person over to Jiang Yuan.

Jiang Yuan took her, his movements gentle, afraid of breaking something.

"Medical Team."

He spoke into the communicator, his voice hoarse.

"Seventeenth floor, priority for the wounded highest."

"Zhou Ning, ordinary citizen, mental shock, vital signs pending."

A chaotic response came from the communicator.

Liang Wen lay on the ground, raising one hand.

"By the way, I'm also about to die."

Su Ming climbed in through the window, and as he landed his knees went weak, almost making him kneel.

"Say two fewer things, and you'll live five minutes longer."

Liang Wen tugged at his tattered windcoat.

"What do you know? Last words need to be queued up in advance."

Qin Zhixia didn't laugh.

She stared at the scorched black patch in the middle of the infirmary.

Zhou Ping was no longer there.

Only a lingering dark‑red burn mark remained.

Jiang Yuan held Zhou Ning and also looked over.

He had promised Zhou Ping.

This doesn't need to be written into the report.

And no one will give him an award for it.

But he will do it anyway.

How Lord Wei will characterize Zhou Ping, how the official bulletin will word it, how public opinion will argue—those are matters for later.

To Jiang Yuan, Zhou Ping had finally entrusted his sister to him.

So no one must be allowed to move her.

Su Ming suddenly fell silent.

He crouched down, staring at the scorched black ground.

"Wait."

Qin Zhixia turned her head.

"What's wrong?"

Su Ming didn't answer, reached out to touch it, then stopped.

On the ground lay a few tiny black‑red fragments.

They were very small.

The largest was no bigger than a fingernail.

They were set in the cracked floor tiles, flickering with a red glow that alternated bright and dim.

They weren't ash.

Nor were they ordinary debris.

The energy‑level detector on Qin Zhixia's exoskeleton suddenly went off.

The alarm was shrill.

Red characters popped up.

【A‑level Weirdness Response】