[Gate of Despised Desire]:
You may use a corpse consud by the obsession of desire to construct a Gate of Despised Desire. Open it with the door key and step into the true Abyss of Desire.
Before Cheng Shi now stood the gateway to the Abyss of Desire. To open this door, he was supposed to first offer two sacrifices to the one upon the Bone Throne. But sohow, these [Death]-powered tools seed to be operable on... credit.
Praise [Death]!
Cheng Shi wasn't sure whether the torrent of death he'd previously offered could still offset the sacrifice cost. But the door had already materialized — he couldn't exactly not go in.
So Cheng Shi stood, tidied the shredded at and cloth dangling from his chest, and walked through with a smile.
After he vanished from the Rosna Court, the blood-soaked battlefield fell silent once more. Only the howling wind remained, as if mourning the Screaming Earl's death.
anwhile, on the other side.
Poison's injuries had nded considerably under the healing potions. She was still interrogating Jia Lun, cross-referencing every detail with the Rosna Historian.
Jiang Chi stood nearby with his usual smile, waiting for the result of the other hunt.
After a long while, terrifying thunder rumbled from the direction of the Court where they'd entered. Lightning flashed, illuminating the area for a split second — and three stunned faces.
Jia Lun panicked because he couldn't recall thunder of such magnitude ever striking Kannar. Jiang Chi was startled because he distinctly rembered a certain priest teammate claiming his "single-use item was already spent."
Only Poison, after a brief mont of surprise, curled her lips and sneered at Jiang Chi in a saccharine, singsong voice: "Soft~ per~ sim~ mon~"
Jiang Chi looked sowhat helpless. He spread his hands: "Well, at least I'm not the one who cracked a tooth. Sigh, let's hope the traveler returning through the blizzard brings good news."
Shortly after, Da Yi returned — from the direction he'd originally vanished toward.
Poison and Jiang Chi exchanged a glance, silently asking if this was his so-called "blizzard traveler." Jiang Chi gave a slight nod and turned to Da Yi with a smile:
"Find anything?"
Da Yi's expression was conflicted. He shook his head:
"Hot damn. I found a secret chamber, even saw a dagger rack. But the dagger... was gone. Those cowards took everything.
"Forget that — what happened here?
"Gongyang ca?
"Where's Brother Cheng?"
'Brother Cheng?'
Hearing this, Poison wanted to laugh. But she couldn't — not in front of Da Yi. In her mind, Cheng Shi might indeed be soone's "brother," but probably not Da Yi's.
Because if Da Yi truly cared about Cheng Shi, his first words wouldn't have been a response to Jiang Chi's question. They'd have been asking where Cheng Shi was.
Clearly, he already knew what had happened here. He knew the thunder was connected to Cheng Shi. Perhaps he even knew things she and Jiang Chi didn't. Yet he was choosing to play ignorant, tossing the bla for the "lost teammate" right back at them.
Jiang Chi seed to have anticipated this. With a look of regret, he lifted his pierced foot and sighed:
"Gongyang Jiao and the Chaleon ca together. We got scattered. The hunter's trap caught
off guard and I couldn't keep up with Brother Priest. To protect our only lead..."
He pointed at old Jia Lun: "I had to turn back."
Now Poison understood why Jiang Chi hadn't treated his own wound — he'd been saving himself an alibi.
She chuckled softly but said nothing. The laugh, however, drew Da Yi's attention.
Da Yi heard Jiang Chi's account with furrowed brows and what looked like anger. He turned to Poison, seemingly expecting an explanation. But Poison only murmured under her breath:
"It's fine. Once we find the Gift of Sores, I won't fight over it. I just hope, Da Yi, that you'll let
look at it once. So I can paint a portrait of the Gift of Sores and burn it as an offering to the little priest — to thank him for everything he did for ."
"..."
"..."
This was pure passive-aggression. Poison's aning was crystal clear: since everyone's goal was the Gift of Sores, why bother pretending to care about "Brother Cheng"?
Da Yi choked. Worst of all, he couldn't argue back to her face.
No matter how dark the scheming ran underground, you couldn't put it on display. Simple as that — it was about face.
So he could only backpedal: "Hot damn, Brother Cheng's got plenty of tricks up his sleeve. What makes you so sure he's dead?"
Poison pursed her lips without responding. Jiang Chi maintained a grave expression: "We didn't dare risk it. We were waiting for you."
"..."
Da Yi felt like he was being roasted alive. His original plan had been to create an opening for Gongyang Jiao to kill Poison — that simple. But Gongyang's appetite had been far larger than expected. The man had tried to kill everyone.
Too bad he'd run into Cheng Shi and gotten himself killed instead.
Indeed — Da Yi knew Gongyang Jiao was dead. He'd seen it with his own eyes.
He shared the Screaming Earl's bewildernt at Cheng Shi's terrifying combat power. But what shook him far more was what Cheng Shi had said while opening that eerie Bone Gate!
'What did he an by "Still a mortal shell, after all. A bit too fragile"?'
That tone and perspective didn't sound like anything a human player would say!
'Could Cheng Shi be rely a vessel whose soul... had long since been replaced?'
Not impossible. Every peak player knew that within the peak circle, certain non-human existences lurked. Why souls long destroyed on the Land of Hope's historical stage would resurface in new skins was anyone's guess. But there was one consensus: these beings were not to be trifled with.
Da Yi hadn't expected to dig his own grave today — provoking a "non-human existence" with terrifying combat power.
The thought complicated his feelings enormously. But the mission to find the Gift of Sores couldn't be abandoned. So he could only take it one step at a ti and maintain the surface-level peace.
"Hot damn, rescue first — standing around isn't going to help! I'll take point. Cover my flanks!"
He scooped up old Jia Lun and streaked toward the direction the lightning had co from.
Jiang Chi raised a brow, popped a pill, and hurried after him. Poison watched the two actors' retreating silhouettes with evident amusent, then laughed and followed.
On the other side.
When Cheng Shi pushed through the door and stepped into the darkness, the void before him twisted and shifted. Before long, it deposited him in front of a familiar structure.
The Evil Infant Inquisition of Dolgod!
That door that had nearly dragged Cheng Shi into the Abyss of Desire was once again before his eyes.
This ti, he felt none of the unease or apprehension from last visit. He marched straight to the door and began pounding on it frantically:
BANG BANG BANG!
"Aph Ros, open up! I know you're ho!"
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