The Silver King's Test
Chen Ling had never seen "himself" from this perspective.
A headless body wearing a Great Crimson Theatrical Robe stood quietly in front of him. Behind it was a shocked Ying Fu, as well as other incredibly astonished Adjudicators...
This was the field of vision from the dining plate.
I...
Was decapitated?
No, that's not right... In this instant, Chen Ling's brain spun rapidly. Almost without any hesitation, the Head stranded on the dining plate abruptly opened its mouth!
"[Cut]!!!"
In an instant, the world stagnated.
The swaying candle flas next to the dining cart froze instantly. The music of the piano and cello ca to an abrupt halt... Everyone in the venue was motionless like sculptures. Faces full of shock and astonishnt entered Chen Ling's field of vision.
Chen Ling's Head was served on a dining plate. His gaze swept over his surroundings bit by bit. His face was gloomy, not knowing what he was thinking.
A mont later, he spoke again:
"[Retake]."
As his voice fell, everything around him began to rewind along the trajectory of the story. A line of text was the first to appear before Chen Ling's eyes...
[Action: Chi Tong stole Chen Ling's 'Head']
Stole a "Head"?
So far, the most precise "Stealing Art" Chen Ling had seen was the Silver King casually pulling out a heart, and then returning the heart to its original place... Although Bai Ye could also pull out organs, putting them back in was incredibly difficult.
But this Chi Tong in front of him could actually steal his "Head" directly out of thin air. One must know that the connection between the head and the body was extrely complex. Bones, blood vessels, flesh and blood, ridians... From an operational standpoint, this was much more difficult than stealing internal organs!
Most importantly, after Chen Ling's Head was stolen, it could actually still maintain bodily functions and still think...
This had already exceeded the scope of ordinary "Stealing Arts." It was highly likely the characteristic of the Path Chi Tong had embarked on... Just like how Bai Ye excelled at stealing mories, Chi Tong's Path should be an extrely special kind of "Stealing Art".
Chen Ling glanced at this line of text and continued to control The Script to trace backwards.
[Chi Tong (jokingly): "How about we take a look first?"]
[Action: The Silver King casts a vigilant look at Chen Ling]
[Chi Tong (shrugged): "Are you really not going to eat? This thing isn't commonly seen... It'd be a pity not to eat it."]
[Chen Ling: "No need, I'm already full."]
[...]
[Action: Ying Fu seemingly notices the 'theft' occurring, looking at Chen Ling's back deep in thought]
[Chen Ling: "Thank you."]
[The Silver King stole Chen Ling's 'doubt']
The eight seconds of The Script rewound to here and ca to an abrupt halt.
With the rewinding of the plot, Chen Ling's Head also returned to his own body. He looked at the lines of The Script before his eyes, his pupils narrowing slightly...
"As expected..."
Just a few short lines of text contained a massive amount of information. Looking at it now, the Silver King hadn't truly left, but had gone from the open to the dark, constantly observing this place from another location.
Furthermore, he even stole his "doubt"... What was the doubt about?
Chen Ling recalled for a bit. Before these eight seconds, he should have been chatting with Tian Huai, and they talked about his younger brother, Huai ng... No, Huai Wen?
A wisp of doubt rose from Chen Ling's heart once again.
His eyes suddenly lit up!
That's right! The Huai ng in his mory and the Huai Wen in Tian Huai's mory were definitely not just simple Information Asymtry. Rather, the Silver King used so thod to tamper with Tian Huai's mories... Otherwise, there would be absolutely no need for the Silver King to take action and steal his "doubt"!
This action of the Silver King falling into Chen Ling's eyes was undoubtedly a guilty conscience, clearly indicating that it had to do with him.
The current Chen Ling no longer had any "doubt". He was certain that all this was related to the Silver King. Right now, he vaguely felt that he was very close to uncovering the true reason for the five Adjudicators betraying the Human Domains.
"But even Senior Bai Ye could only steal mories and couldn't replace them with new ones... Is this a new ability of the eighth or ninth Rank of [Borrowing the Moon]?
As the Pathway Chief of the Path of the Thief, which specific Path is the Silver King on? Why can he use so many different abilities from various Paths of the Thief?"
Chen Ling frowned and pondered for a long ti, but still couldn't think of an answer... He didn't have ti to keep thinking about this either.
Right now, he was facing another predicant.
The Silver King ostensibly left the church but was actually observing everything from the shadows, aning Chi Tong's provocation was absolutely inextricably linked to the Silver King... There was a high probability that Chi Tong stealing his "Head" was exactly the ans the Silver King used to test him.
If the Silver King stayed in the venue and Chi Tong provoked him like this, he would definitely have to react. So he simply chose to leave, allowing Chi Tong to perform without restrictions.
He wanted to see how he would deal with Chi Tong's provocation...
The gap in Rank was a hard injury. Chen Ling was only Fourth Order, while Chi Tong was Rank 7. Under this disparate gap in strength, Chen Ling would either have to swallow his pride and beg Chi Tong to return his Head; or he would fly into a rage and be easily suppressed by Chi Tong.
Regardless of which one, it was a suppression and insult to Chen Ling... What the Silver King truly wanted was to use this thod to test the bottom line of the "Mockery" within him.
Roughly to what extent would that World-Ending Calamity react? What kind of symbiotic relationship was there between "Mockery" and Chen Ling?
This banquet was an experint by the Silver King. The results of the experint would determine how he would "use" him in the future...
"What a good calculation."
Chen Ling figured out the logic behind it, his gaze growing increasingly cold.
If there was no [Cut], if he hadn't seen everything within these short eight seconds, Chen Ling would probably really be played like a fiddle by the Silver King... His current Expectation Value was at 78%, absolutely unable to unleash the Calamity of Mockery. If the Silver King realized this, or saw that he could resurrect, then in the future, his attitude towards him would absolutely not be as friendly as today.
"Mockery" was like Nuclear Weapons. A country that could launch Nuclear Weapons at any ti and a country that couldn't use Nuclear Weapons had a world of difference in their international status.
"Since you want to test , I'll give you this chance... Let's see if you have the guts."
Chen Ling's gaze swept over The Script in front of him, using all his Spiritual Power to activate "Negation" on the last line of The Script's text!
A completely new line of text began to overwrite the original Script.
Scarlet blood flowed from Chen Ling's seven orifices, but fortunately, he only changed one line of text this ti, so he hadn't reached the point of exhaustion yet. He reviewed the brand new Script one last ti and took a deep breath...
"[Action]."
Snap—
With the snap of his fingers, the tiline reset instantly. Everything returned to eight seconds ago, and a brand new storyline was about to unfold!
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