"He was crushed to death just like that."
Su Chen raised an eyebrow, looking at the bronze-skinned giant with solid muscles before him. Half of the giant's body was stuck on the second floor. His knotted muscles were as distinct as tree roots, exuding a terrifying and overwhelming pressure.
Those eyes, fully the size of an infant's fist, stared intently at him.
The body gradually shrank. What surprised Su Chen was that the clothes the man wore also shrank proportionally; clearly, they were no ordinary garnts.
"Are you alright?" Teng Liang asked, seeking confirmation while secretly sighing in relief after verifying that Su Chen hadn't sustained any injuries.
"I'm fine. Senior Brother, you arrived just in ti." Su Chen shook his head, hesitating for a mont before adding, "However, I was only suspicious. I'm still not entirely sure if this guy is ng Qi in disguise."
The ssage Su Chen had sent to Teng Liang only ntioned that soone had suddenly co to find him, acting peculiarly, which aroused his suspicion.
He initially thought that inviting Teng Liang over would at most result in subduing the person. He hadn't expected Teng Liang to directly smash him to death.
Su Chen could be certain that the person before him was ng Qi in disguise, but could Teng Liang also be sure?
"Better to kill by mistake than to let a threat go." Teng Liang's coldness left Su Chen quite astonished. Then, he heard him continue, "Besides, I implicitly trust Junior Brother's intuition."
That reason—was truly unassailable.
"Moreover, this corpse is indeed abnormal." Teng Liang stared at the pile of mashed at sunken into the floor.
Although it had been reduced to pulp, the shredded flesh was still slowly squirming, seemingly trying to reassemble itself. It was clearly not a normal lifeform.
At this mont, a fierce ruthlessness that Su Chen had never seen before surfaced in Teng Liang's eyes. "Foolhardy wretch. Instead of staying hidden, you actually dared to show up and launch an attack."
"Every grievance has its source and every debt its debtor. If you had co looking for , I would have at least respected you as a worthy opponent."
Teng Liang felt infuriated, believing that the reason this creature attacked Su Chen was essentially to exact revenge on him; otherwise, there was no way it would target Su Chen.
"Senior Brother, you struck way too heavily," Su Chen muttered, looking down at the mashed flesh. "The Chief Inquisitor probably still wanted to ask him how Wei Yinshuo died."
"We should have completely destroyed this corpse last ti." Teng Liang said coldly. "Keeping it around is only a hidden danger. As for how Wei Yinshuo died, do you think this creation of the Evil Gods would tell us anything?"
"Alright." Su Chen also didn't want to see this thing resurrect again; it was simply too bizarre.
What an absolute maniac!
Within the pile of pulped flesh on the ground, the consciousness belonging to 'ng Qi' had not yet dissipated; only shock and furious anger remained.
He never anticipated that after taking such a massive risk, his plan would be ruined by a crude brute who smashed him to death without even giving him a chance to explain himself.
'Such a perfect faceless vessel, gone just like that. The Holy Banquet is imminent, and I no longer have the chance to create a second body. Damn it!'
His objective of preserving the vessel was completely shattered, and the residual consciousness within his body gradually faded away.
"Why is it still moving—" Su Chen stared at the pieces of at on the floor and frowned. "This won't do, let's just burn it."
"Good idea." Teng Liang nodded. With a casual wave, he scattered a spread of green flas that landed on the corpse. In an instant, a raging inferno ignited.
At the sa ti, the surroundings gradually beca noisy. mbers of the Adjudication Court, having noticed the commotion, began gathering over.
On the top floor of the Adjudication Court's central building, Chong Jingtian was looking down at the entire Adjudication Court, his brows tightly furrowed into deep lines of unresolvable worry.
"—The explosion at the dical Departnt seems to be the result of the Evil God Power within him going out of control. He might have been fighting soone right before he died—"
Lei Tieyan sighed, "But unless we figure out why he sent the others away, I'm afraid there's no way to continue the investigation."
This was simply a dead end. Wei Yinshuo was already dead, so who could possibly tell what he had been trying to do?
"Why does it feel like the activities of the Evil God Cultists have beco very frequent recently?" A trace of bewildernt showed in You Shan's eyes. "Especially today. It's almost as if followers of various Evil Gods are sending themselves to their deaths. Are Wei Yinshuo and that corpse really that important?"
"It's not just recently—" Chong Jingtian said slowly. "Old Xia and his team have the latest news. Not just in Yingfeng, but also in Yuandu, Lieyang, and other regions under our control, blood sacrifices are occurring to varying degrees."
"I suspect this is what the Royal Court refers to as the 'Holy Banquet'."
"Holy Banquet?" You Shan's eyes revealed her confusion.
"That's right—" Chong Jingtian said faintly. "Ten years ago, when we first ca into contact with the Royal Court, we learned that beyond the do of the sky, there lies a boundless expanse."
"Only then did the four cities put aside their entanglents and cease their continuous infighting."
Lei Tieyan and You Shan had long known about the matters of the Royal Court, so they listened quietly.
Chong Jingtian's voice lowered: "They ntioned that once the number of Evil God Cultists on a certain planet reaches a specific threshold, the Evil Gods will initiate a Holy Banquet to decide the ownership of this planet, completely turning it into a paradise for the Evil Gods."
"To think such a thing exists." Lei Tieyan suddenly stood up, his expression turning ugly.
You Shan was also learning of this for the first ti, her composure similarly shattered.
Chong Jingtian sighed. "The Council of Elders suspects that since the actions of the Evil God Cultists are becoming increasingly frequent, it's highly likely they are trying to initiate the Holy Banquet."
"Then we—" You Shan hesitated, "Could we request support from the Royal Court?"
Chong Jingtian gave a bitter smile. "Even if we request it, they might not agree. We'd have no choice but to offer the most valuable thing—the very thing they failed to find back then, which we jointly concealed—that class."
"Even so, we would only beco a vassal of the Royal Court in the future, forced to hand over more than sixty percent of our resources every year."
Just as Yingfeng accepted the tribute of its lower-tier cities, they would have to offer tribute to the Royal Court the sa way. Not just the people in Yingfeng, but those in other regions were also deeply opposed to this.
"However, as long as we prevent the Holy Banquet from starting, we still have a chance."
It sounded simple in theory, but it was far easier said than done. The mist isolated everything, aning there were entirely too many things the Evil God Cultists could do in the shadows. Both Lei Tieyan and You Shan understood this reality.
Seeing the heavy atmosphere, Chong Jingtian didn't continue on the topic and instead shifted the conversation: "According to the Royal Court, in certain places with special resources, the intensity of the struggle between Evil Gods is also massive."
"They might even project a portion of their consciousness to observe, or even directly enter the fray."
Chong Jingtian brought this up abruptly, but both Lei Tieyan and You Shan quickly caught on. They asked hesitantly, "Are you talking about ng Qi?"
"That's right." Chong Jingtian nodded solemnly. "Faceless Ghost Cultists couldn't possibly achieve such a perfect disguise. After the corpse was stolen this ti, I suspect even more strongly—that it might have been born from the actual flesh and blood of a true Evil God."
A faint sense of terror crept into Lei Tieyan and You Shan's hearts. What they had always been entangled in fighting were rely Evil God Cultists, not the actual Evil Gods themselves.
To truly face the thods of an Evil God, or even a true Evil God manifested from flesh and blood—
"Why would he want to infiltrate the Adjudication Court?" Lei Tieyan voiced his question after a mont of silence. "Did he want to beco part of the upper echelons to coordinate from the inside?"
"That possibility cannot be ruled out." Chong Jingtian nodded.
"Then we must find him as quickly as possible," Lei Tieyan couldn't help but say. "If he really is a manifestation of an Evil God's flesh and blood, the longer this drags on, the more disadvantageous it will be for us."
Chong Jingtian smiled bitterly. The words were correct, but if it truly was a manifestation of an Evil God, whether they could actually find him was an entirely different story.
But right at this mont, his eyes flashed. He tilted his head slightly, staring straight in a certain direction, and his expression drastically changed.
With a sudden crash, he pulverized the glass window, sending shards flying everywhere as his figure disappeared from sight.
"Sothing happened!" Lei Tieyan and You Shan's reactions were a beat slower, but they too sensed the undisguised, powerful energy fluctuations coming from not far away.
From a distance, Chong Jingtian saw personnel congregating in the residential area of the Core Seeds, and his heart sank.
Currently, Su Chen was the only Core Seed in the Adjudication Court. Could it be him—
His figure landed in the blink of an eye, but upon seeing the completely unhard Su Chen and Teng Liang before him, he breathed a sigh of relief.
"This is—" He stepped forward. Before he could say anything more, Teng Liang pointed to the charred object on the ground and said, "Chief Inquisitor, we found him."
"Found him?" Chong Jingtian paused, looking in astonishnt at the irregular, scorched black object on the ground.
This fast?
"This—" He was speechless for a mont until Lei Tieyan and You Shan arrived, finally asking, "What exactly happened?"
Su Chen provided a brief summary, "ng Qi disguised himself as an Inquisitor and ca looking for . I noticed his expression was strange and his behavior peculiar, so I secretly notified Senior Brother Teng Liang. The mont Senior Brother Teng Liang arrived, he took him down and discovered it was ng Qi in disguise."
"This thing is ng Qi?"
Lei Tieyan and You Shan finally understood what had happened, casting astonished gazes at the thing on the floor.
An Evil God manifestation was just this?
After everything Chong Jingtian had built up, they had all thought they might never find him. Yet, no sooner had the words left his mouth than the person had already been turned into a charred lump.
Lei Tieyan quickly gathered his emotions. Detecting sothing strange in Su Chen's words, he asked, "How did you confirm he was ng Qi?"
"After his death, the corpse was still squirming," Teng Liang stated.
Confird only after death?
Lei Tieyan's expression darkened. Chong Jingtian frowned slightly but said nothing.
Instead, he just had soone peel open the charred corpse, retrieve a relatively intact piece of at from inside, and send it to the research lab for comparison.
After doing all this, Chong Jingtian slightly raised his palm, lightly curling his five fingers. The charred pieces of corpse on the floor began to silently vibrate.
In the next mont, like a sand dune blown away by the wind, all the remains instantly disintegrated into fine black particles that drifted away, leaving not a single trace behind.
He couldn't help but sigh in relief internally as he looked at Su Chen. "Was he planning to make a move against you?"
"Perhaps. After all, it was Senior Brother Teng Liang who ruined his cover, and he was incapable of dealing with him," Su Chen replied. "It's also possible he wanted to disguise himself as after succeeding."
Disguise himself as Su Chen?
A delicate thought suddenly floated up in Chong Jingtian's mind: Was the current Su Chen really Su Chen?
This thought was quickly snuffed out by him. If he kept dwelling on it, he feared there wouldn't be a single person in the entire Adjudication Court who could truly be cleared of suspicion.
He would wait until the comparison results from the lab ca out. If they didn't match the previous data, it wouldn't be too late to doubt Su Chen then.
With these thoughts, a trace of imperceptible fear suddenly drifted through Chong Jingtian's heart. Was this the true terror of the Faceless Ghost?
Looking around, although everyone was a familiar person with a familiar face, perhaps one among them had already been replaced.
In the past, they had thods to detect Cultists, and the disguise of Faceless Ghost Cultists couldn't hide from them at all; they had never experienced this kind of soul-striking unease before.
ng Qi's appearance was like a thorn, nailed right into his heart.
What if another creature like ng Qi appeared?
They couldn't discover anything remotely unusual on ng Qi's body at all.
"Chief—" Lei Tieyan called out. Suppressing his inner emotions, Chong Jingtian said faintly, "We have already found the most troubleso one. If there are remaining Faceless Ghost Cultists, they won't be able to hide for much longer."
"Su Chen, you did well," Chong Jingtian praised, though anyone could see that their Chief Inquisitor's mind was preoccupied.
"It's what I should do," Su Chen appropriately responded.
This place was temporarily locked down. To ensure Su Chen's safety, Teng Liang brought him back to his own living quarters.
He had a Gravity Room there as well, and the Spirit Realm Instrunt was easy to carry around.
Teng Liang arranged for him to stay on the second floor. There were plenty of rooms, and no one usually lived there anyway.
Su Chen picked a room at random and lay back on the bed, all the recent events flowing before his eyes.
Killing Wei Yinshuo—he had already tried his best to cover it up, so the investigation shouldn't trace back to him. 'Regardless, the Adjudication Court will definitely have to figure out why Wei Yinshuo actively sent his people away.'
'They would only figure that out if ghosts were real.'
Su Chen's thoughts drifted. 'I just don't know if that High Priest truly died, or if it was just a fragnt of his spiritual body—'
'But it doesn't matter either way. It didn't expose my identity as Su Chen.'
'As for that guy, Black Buddha, he keeps issuing divine edicts but hasn't taken any decisive, thunderous actions. He likely has so kind of restriction, such as not being able to arbitrarily interfere with reality, otherwise he would have just snatched away with a massive hand long ago.'
'However, the most important thing is still the stone slab. People from Yuandu were also after it. It looks like I'll have to go see Old Sang in a couple of days to figure out what exactly this 'Great Exalted' class is all about—it actually requires his approval...'
He was no longer the clueless novice who had just arrived, and he wasn't far from the 4th-Tier either. He should be able to gain so useful information by asking directly.
'I might as well take the chance to ask him about the 4th-Tier class options. Plus, I've acquired three portions of interdiate Evil God Power from Black Buddha, which is just enough.'
As Su Chen pondered, his body gradually turned ethereal, hiding within the dinsional fold, and he once again attempted to switch to the Priest of Black Buddha state.
After attempting to sense his connection for a mont, he said in surprise, "Empty?"
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