Victory, sacrifice

"Phew... You can disbelieve me if you want, after all, she's your sister... You really can't make a rational judgment."

Faced with Lin Yu's questioning, the secretary looked at him and said, panting.

Lin Yu looked at the secretary and said coldly, "Even setting aside emotions, what you've said is full of loopholes... Regardless of what you think, I believe that Lin Zhao absolutely did not intend to 'sacrifice himself to delay the Trial's settlement' back then."

The secretary countered, "Do you think your sister isn't that noble? Perhaps she doesn't have the resolve to sacrifice herself to save the world... but have you ever considered that she did all of this for you—after all, you are also a member of this world?"

"You'd go to any lengths to Resurrection her, don't you think she wouldn't sacrifice herself for you?"

Lin Yu looked at the secretary and shook his head. "I'm not questioning Lin Zhao's character... it's just that your proposed plan is too foolish and inefficient."

"If Lin Zhao chose to 'sacrifice' herself, it wouldn't be as simple as just delaying the Final Trial's conclusion—if she willingly gave her life as the price, then the 'Death game' should be completely harmless by now."

Looking at Lin Yu, whose eyes were filled with unwavering determination, the secretary said in a low voice, "You seem to be underestimating the 'Death game'."

You underestimated Lin Zhao.

Lin Yu responded immediately, then paused for a moment. "Anyway... no matter what the Truth is, I will ask her myself—I will definitely wake her up and find out exactly what happened back then."

The secretary said in a low voice, "Yes, that's why I had no choice but to kill you."

As soon as he finished speaking, a strong fluctuation suddenly surged from the secretary's body.

Lin Yu could sense that a second soul had appeared within his body.

No...

Not a second soul, but the other half of the same soul!

The half that belongs to the "Chancellor"!

Although the secretary did not possess any skills related to the soul, his soul did indeed have nearly twice the structure of a normal person.

The part that had been hidden before was naturally not under Lin Yu's control.

The moment it unfolded, the methods characteristic of the "Chancellor" resurfaced.

The ink spread in the air, turning into sharp, knife-like cracks that landed on Lin Yu's body.

The attack caused Lin Yu to briefly lose control of his body; his limbs and torso were slashed by the ink marks, leaving behind a series of bursting bloody marks!

Blood and ink mingled together, red and black blended together, forming a strange, dark purple hue.

The ink stains also followed the wound, trying to penetrate Lin Yu's body.

But Lin Yu did not back down because of this.

Almost the instant the secretary launched his attack, he simultaneously activated the "spiritual power" that flowed through the secretary's body!

"Pfft!"

The secretary's entire body was like a ruptured blood bag, with almost every blood vessel bursting open, losing more than half of his blood in an instant.

At the same time, Lin Yu's Soul Power also shattered the secretary's soul and spirit—because it had been mentioned before that "Schreiber" and "Zhu Ming" had planted some kind of method, so Lin Yu was not worried that using this method in front of Li Hua would arouse suspicion.

This blow was indeed enough to kill the "Secretary"—his soul and body were damaged simultaneously, let alone whether he could survive.

Even if "Loquat Candy" were present to immediately begin treatment, this Divine Doctor would probably feel at a loss.

However, the premise is that the "secretary's" soul... is only the shattered part.

The current "Secretary" still possesses half the soul of the "Chancellor".

More ink smudges emerged in the air, coalescing into a line of ink characters.

No one sheds blood!

The bleeding from the secretary stopped immediately, and Lin Yu's wound also stopped bleeding.

An abnormal "vitality" re-emerged from the secretary's broken body—a "vitality" forcibly constructed through "Profession" abilities.

Lin Yu's condition worsened... After the blood stopped flowing out, the ink began to seep into Lin Yu's wound without any resistance.

At that very moment, the secretary looked at Lin Yu, who was shrouded in ink stains.

"Director, you and the 'Gambler,' along with 'Sherlock,' did find me and Desperate Plight me—but you two overlooked one thing: if I kill you here, no one will know I'm a member of 'Copper Furnace.'"

"As long as I kill you all, everything will go smoothly... I can even go to His Majesty's aid."

Li Hua said coldly, "Secretary, even if you kill us, it won't change anything... because everything that happened here will become 'physical evidence'—your abnormal soul and your methods have been recorded by me using the [Card Counter]—and it's hidden here!"

"The 'Carrier Pigeon' of 'Dionysus' and 'Night Watcher,' and the Robin's will arrive soon. Killing us wasn't easy to begin with, and if you want to find and destroy the [Card Counter], time won't allow you to leave... Don't make any more mistakes, surrender!"

"Do you really have the energy to deal with 'Dionysus,' 'Carrier Pigeon,' and 'Robin'? I can tell from them that you're in... very bad shape!"

"Don't compound your mistakes!"

The secretary did not respond to Li Hua, but with trembling, blood-stained hands, he pulled a small birdcage from his pocket—the birdcage contained no bird, only a seal.

Li Hua's expression changed slightly. He immediately pulled out [Blood Chips] and [Gambler's Cards], and shouted in Lin Yu's direction, "Lin Yu, be careful of his [Exclusive item - Public Authority]... He can use this to construct an 'Absolute Red Line' that applies to a single individual!"

The playing cards flew towards the secretary, and the chips clattered down—the playing cards sliced through the "secretary's" body, and the chips plundered the secretary's flesh and blood.

However, no more blood was flowing from the wound.

Li Hua made no mistakes; he knew that the current "Rule" no longer involved bloodshed.

His goal was to sever the secretary's "tendons" and render him physically incapacitated.

But it was still too slow.

The secretary had already crushed the metal birdcage and taken out the seal inside!

The blood-stained seal slammed into Lin Yu's body.

"Using extraordinary energy... Instant Death!"

The bloodstain was pressed against Lin Yu's chest, even connecting with the ink marks within his body, seemingly trying to completely seal off the energy inside his body.

Lin Yu listened to the secretary's words and raised his head.

He had almost suppressed the ink marks within his body, but now all his efforts had been in vain.

But...

Lin Yu looked at the secretary, but showed neither surprise nor despair.

"Truly worthy of being called a super 'Tier 3'! Even without a single moment of carelessness, even after being crippled once by a 'Tier 4', you still managed to inflict such great damage once the situation was pushed to the Desperate Plight and you were fighting for your life!"

Lin Yu spoke coldly, reaching out to grab the secretary again.

"But... to use the power of 'officials' to construct 'Rule' to deal with someone like me, favored by the God of Rules? How utterly foolish!"

Lin Yu grabbed the secretary, and the [Unfinished Totem Pole] fell from behind him. The [Water Prayer Necklace] drew in the Dark Flow Waters and seawater mixed with the Authority of Ocean, creating a terrifying Water Control Witchcraft!

Originally, Witchcraft was a supernatural technique that mobilized the power of nature. Its characteristic was "borrowing external objects", so the "energy consumption" in the judgment was actually not much.

At this moment, with the "Rule Code" emanating from Lin Yu constantly weakening the energy of the ink marks and seals, the Backlash and "punishment" incurred for violating the "Secretary's" Rule were far from achieving an "Instant Death" effect!

Although Lin Yu's body and soul were suffering Backlash damage, the reduced efficiency of this damage was far less effective than the effect of Lin Yu using his Soul Power and Life Force to repair himself without regard to the cost.

Almost instantly, a water jet formed and struck the secretary!

The water jet nearly cleaved the secretary's body diagonally, leaving a horrific wound that exposed his internal organs!

At the same time, while the water blade sliced through the secretary, it did not pass through his body. Instead, it dispersed back into streams of water, trapping his entire body within a water curtain.

Even without bleeding, the Party Secretary was already seriously injured!

But his actions did not falter in the slightest.

The secretary raised his hand, ink stains appearing again. "Director! You... you will definitely die here today!"

As he spoke, Mohen lunged at Lin Yu again.

But this time...

Before the secretary's ink stains could entangle Lin Yu, Li Hua's cane had already pierced through his chest!

"Stop!"

The moment Li Hua's voice rang out, a chilling aura erupted from his cane, instantly freezing the water on the secretary's body—the condensed water turned into sharp ice, completely piercing and freezing the Chancellor's body and the energy within.

The reason Lin Yu chose to end with "Witchcraft" was not only due to the inherent "borrowing power" characteristic of Witchcraft, but also because...

The Previous Generation owner of the [Water Prayer Necklace] was none other than Li Hua!

Lin Yu had a gut feeling that Li Hua must have a way to work with "Water Control Witchcraft".

Just as Lin Yu had predicted...

Li Hua's "freezing" attack just now became the final blow!

The secretary's attack, launched by concealing his soul, has now completely failed.

He was almost dead and had completely lost the ability to resist.

Looking at the secretary who couldn't even speak, Li Hua pulled out his cane and spoke, his face pale.

"You failed... Secretary, you failed in the end."

"I will not execute you here. What awaits you is the organization's Judgment."

As Li Hua spoke, he walked over to Lin Yu's side.

"How are you?"

Lin Yu shook his head. "It's nothing serious, I'll recover quickly... Although the damage caused by his ability is severe, it won't be difficult to remove afterward if we win the fight."

"That's good..."

Before Li Hua could finish speaking, he heard a violent cough coming from the secretary behind him.

"Cough, cough... cough!"

He looked at the two of them and struggled to loosen his frozen fingers that were gripping the seal.

"Comrade Li Hua, Comrade Lin Yu... my goal... has been achieved."

"I said I could sacrifice... anything."

The seal landed with a "thud".

The life force within the secretary was thus extinguished.