The Gentleman at the End

Yi Chen, who was kneeling in the Black Sea, also smelled the blood that shouldn't have been there, and even saw blood seeping into the corner of his eye.

This deep crimson was already able to reach the domain of Death, posing an absolute threat to Yi Chen.

However, Yi Chen's devoted prayer did not halt because of this; he continued to prostrate himself repeatedly, his pure concentration causing the darkness to gradually rise, completely enveloping the wooden boat where Yi Chen was.

Perhaps because Yi Chen's sincerity was felt,

or perhaps because the God of Death, who scorned the development of followers, also sensed the threat from the deep crimson and was reluctant to let His only devotee die here.

In an instant,

Yi Chen seemed to return to the scene when he first saw the divine statue,

At that time, Yi Chen, only six years old, was half dead from abuse due to multiple escape attempts and issues injuring staff.

Moreover, Director Cao happened to be on a business trip, and the staff who had long been displeased with Yi Chen resorted to more extreme methods of tormenting him, ensuring he wouldn't die completely before throwing him into the dark small room.

But they overlooked one thing,

In such a condition, Yi Chen might not die immediately, but if he didn't receive nutritional meals from the orphanage's canteen and get proper rest, the situation would worsen.

This ordeal lasted for a whole month,

In the absolutely pitch-black environment, Yi Chen died a little every day,

The concept of time had long been blurred, and he even vaguely saw classmates who had died before, fantasies about the outside world playing in his brain, even his physical being was softening, wanting to collapse for permanent rest.

But Yi Chen refused to die like this, he had unfinished matters to attend to.

Thinking of this, he began to call to the 'little companions' in the corner, one after another, furry creatures came at the call, volunteering to become Yi Chen's food.

Devouring fur and blood,

Originally, he thought these little creatures could bring Yi Chen back from death's gate, but this led to a more severe rat plague, worsening the situation.

Yet Yi Chen still refused to die, using his mouth to gnaw off the festering parts and chew them down,

Even as his vision became completely blurred, he continued to grit his teeth desperately, refusing to die…

Suddenly, a clear sound of ocean waves woke Yi Chen, his vision became clear, allowing him to see the contours of the room in absolute darkness, as if experiencing the return of light.

The originally 4×4×4m small dark room unexpectedly extended into a deep passage.

Yi Chen dragged his battered body towards it on instinct, crawling for an unknown length of time until a shrine, carved from Black Rosewood, stood at the end,

The divine statue enshrined upon the shrine was shrouded by thick black fog,

Gloomy sounds echoed from within the fog: "Your body clearly desires to die, longs for eternal peace and rest. Yet why does your spirit continuously resist, obstructing the gift of death?

Is death not beautiful enough for you? Why do you reject this gift?"

Without a moment's hesitation, Yi Chen replied, "Because I have unfinished business, I still need to spread death to others."

The word 'spread' was nicely used, even faintly sensing some delight from the divine statue within the fog.

"Spreading death, interesting… I didn't expect such an interesting creature to emerge from these otherwise dull humans.

Gaze into my divine statue and kneel before me, little one. I will grant you a chance, seize it and you will have the opportunity to spread death."

Yi Chen slowly crawled towards the shrine with his battered body, thrusting his head into the fog, seeking to glimpse the true face of this mysterious divine statue.

Unlike a statue arranged with poses and gestures, or perhaps with no 'pose' at all,

The 'divine statue' concealed within the thick black fog on the shrine turned out to be a water tank, filled with black sea water.

The ocean tide sounds Yi Chen heard previously emanated from it,

But as Yi Chen gazed into it, he saw the composition of the seawater—liquefied corpses entirely dissolved; each tide represented the synchronized wailing of multiple dead.

Furthermore, in the deepest part of the water tank, corresponding to the deepest part of the sea,

At the bottom of this ocean made up of countless deceased stood a solitary tombstone, where a special deceased was buried.

It seemed the entire ocean, all the departed, are burial goods for the one entombed beneath.

…

Within the Circus,

Art looked at the Great Emperor's 'incomparable' presence grinning wickedly, as though even in his peak state he could rival such a being.

The entire audience was subdued by the Emperor's aura,

Only one area remained unaffected, the spot where Yi Chen was located.

The Emperor's twin eyes turned to the devotedly kneeling Yi Chen, his head inclined slightly, he chose not to draw his sword to slay the man before him,

Because the Great Emperor has already regarded Yi Chen as an 'adversary,' he must completely crush him from the front.

The Death Depth exhibited by Yi Chen made the Great Emperor willing to wait for a moment, waiting for this bizarre act of kneeling.

Suddenly,

the kneeling stopped.

Black sea water frantically overflowed from Yi Chen's seven orifices, and the whole person struggled as if drowning, with more and more black liquid until it enveloped Yi Chen entirely.

Finally, it was absorbed back into the body, returning to its original state,

only Yi Chen's posture was like a dead man floating on the water, arms drooping forward, the entire back arched at the highest point, head deeply hanging down.

Still wearing the black shirt and trousers, appearing without much change.

But some of the audience on site could feel the true meaning of Yi Chen's posture,

William, who had been training in the Original Tomb for several months, looked at the 'drowned' Yi Chen and whispered, "From initially coming on stage forming the other [Entity] through a spectator's corpse,

to previously abandoning the physical body to appear as the pure concept [Void],

to now re-casting the ego [Entity] through Deep Sea Water.

There have been three transformations in total, each time drowning deeper towards the Black Sea, each time showcasing more divinity, each time getting closer to true death, with everything reset if not careful.

So strong… Yi Chen, you!"

In the arena,

seeing Yi Chen stabilize his state, the Great Emperor no longer waited,

stepping forward!

The blood filling the field surged into hundred-meter-high waves, as if the Great Emperor commanded tens of thousands of Blood-colored Crusaders to start his expedition,

swinging the Blood Sword in his hand, every name engraved on the bandages let out a roar.

The 'drowned' Yi Chen was suddenly startled awake, seemingly raising his arm with the buoyancy of the Black Sea, wielding the pitch-black long blade.

At the instant the blade and sword collided,

all the smiling faces among the spectators exploded and perished.

Catherine maintained the Buddha Mother's lotus position, raising a sea water barrier in front, but was still shaken to the point where blood seeped from the corners of her mouth,

William also unfolded the Yellow Skin barrier, using his Abyssal rotation to deflect the impact, but the surface of the clothing still rippled with strong waves,

only Art relied on his physical body to withstand the impact, yet his expression was not good, and his eyes were bloodshot.

The situation was similar on the side of the Blood People; several Earls combined to create a Blood Barrier to block the impact, while Lust. Naste hid behind the Blood Wall created by Marquis Enwei.

Only Glatoni and Zede sat side by side, maintaining a normal posture, bearing the impact with their physical bodies, seemingly competing in secret.

However, blood flowed from multiple mouths all over Glatoni's body.

Zede quietly commented on the situation before him,

"The level of this duel has already transcended the [Silver Circle], even as spectators, we are affected by this duel. We might lose a limb or even die if not careful."

Not just the audience; the newly expanded circus tent was directly torn in half, the top completely ripped open and sucked into the subspace turbulence.

Before William, the person in charge, could repair the tent,

the blood at the Great Emperor's feet surged up on its own, forming a blood curtain to mend the circus tent, isolating the effects of the subspace.

With the clash of one black and one red, the knife and sword, the tent continued to be torn apart and repaired by blood again and again.

The spectators were strongly impacted by the duel, forcing Zede, who was still sitting normally before, to curl up into a muscle ball.

Glatoni let the enamel cover his whole body, no longer daring to hold out.

Only Art continued to maintain his posture, divinity revealed, but with an extremely unsightly expression because what the two figures before him displayed had already transcended him.

Crack!

When the knife and sword collided once more,

the Great Emperor seemed to make a decision, a blood arm formed by people holding and stacking each other grew from his back, gripping Yi Chen's face firmly, and threw him out with full strength!

He was thrown out of the tent, flung into the subspace turbulence.

It seemed that, to the Great Emperor, such a duel should not be confined by the narrow space of the tent; he took a step, carrying with him endless blood as he pursued into the depths of subspace.

Leaving William and others sitting amidst the shattered tent, staring at each other in dismay.