Watching himself being shunned and driven away by all the teams vying for the scrolls, like a rat crossing the street, the disgusted and wary gazes were like cold needles, piercing Chen Tiannan's heart until it bled.
At this point, he no longer dared or was able to venture into those intense battlegrounds.
Behind him, Lin Ming and his dark golden Puppet had formed a pincer movement, their overwhelming Killing Intent like two death guillotines slowly closing in, squeezing out his last bit of room to maneuver.
An unprecedented sense of despair, like an icy tide, instantly overwhelmed Chen Tiannan.
He looked around the vast hall, still deafening with shouts of battle and explosions of energy, and felt a chilling despair rise in his heart.
It's over... it's really over...
In a daze, the world in his eyes seemed to begin to fade.
The figures frantically scrambling for the prize, the streaks of light flying around, and the bursting energy all gradually lost their color, turning into a monotonous black and white.
The deafening noise seemed to be rapidly receding, leaving behind an eerie, suffocating silence, as if he had been detached from this world and was watching a silent black-and-white film from the perspective of an observer.
"Is this the world after death? Silent, colorless, without feeling... Is this my fate Chen Tiannan?"
"No... I'm not reconciled... I'm really not reconciled..." A bitter and desperate thought swirled in his almost stagnant mind.
"Ah--!!!"
Just as Chen Tiannan lost his composure and was about to give up resistance and resign himself to death, a shrill scream, distorted with extreme pain and fear, pierced through his despair like a red-hot iron, fiercely penetrating his eardrums and soul!
Suddenly jolted awake, Chen Tiannan's unfocused gaze instantly sharpened as he looked in the direction of the sound—
Not far away, an Ancient Human Puppet was tearing a powerful expert at the Peak Dou Ancestor in two with its blood-stained, flesh-covered, stone-gray arm!
Internal organs and blood poured down like a torrential rain. The desperate cry uttered by the Peak Dou Ancestor before his death was the source that awakened him!
This cry, filled with primal fear and the last struggle of life, was like a boulder thrown into Chen Tiannan's nearly dried-up well of despair, splashing up a torrent of water!
A powerful, primal will to survive erupted within him like a volcano!
The deathly grayness in his eyes vanished instantly, replaced by an almost frenzied, burning light!
"That's right! That's right! There are also these! And these Puppet!"
Chen Tiannan's heart pounded wildly with excitement, and a thought of a way out of his predicament flashed through his mind like lightning!
"Yes!"
"Although these groups that are vying for the Light Scroll reject me and unite to resist me, they are not the only ones in this hall!"
"Here, there are still more than a dozen uncontrolled Ancient Human Puppet that only know how to kill and are wandering around causing chaos!"
Upon realizing this, Chen Tiannan's mind instantly became incredibly clear and active, and a twisted sense of pleasure and hope appeared on his face.
"Lin Ming! You really are amazing! You can use your silver tongue to incite these rational, pragmatic people to reject and isolate me! But—"
His gaze abruptly shifted to Lin Ming, who was rapidly approaching, his eyes filled with provocation and a desperate, ruthless determination.
"--Can you really allow these mindless Puppet, who only obey commands to kill, to also reject me?!"
"If you can do that too, then I won't say anything more today. It's fate, so I'll admit defeat and offer my neck for execution!"
"But! Is that even possible?! Absolutely impossible!"
Chen Tiannan screamed wildly in his heart, as if he had grasped at the last straw.
"If Lin Ming truly possessed the ability to control all the Puppet at will, then he and the Blazing Flame Valley team, along with these dozen or so Dou Venerate- level Puppet, would be powerful enough to crush all the forces present! Even if these forces joined forces, they could still hold their own. Why would they need to painstakingly snatch the scrolls one by one like they are now? They would have already swept across the entire area and claimed all the treasures for themselves!"
"Therefore, these Puppet are my only way out!"
"They don't distinguish between friend and foe, they only kill those who get close! I can use them to hold off Lin Ming! Even... to divert the trouble!"
At this moment, Chen Tiannan had made up his mind! He would no longer try to escape those Puppet, but instead turn them into weapons for his counterattack in his desperate situation!
Chen Tiannan, seeing Lin Ming about to complete the encirclement and his face filled with icy Killing Intent, not only didn't continue his escape, but stopped. A complex smile, a mixture of despair, resentment, and insane provocation, appeared on his face. He channeled the remaining Dou Qi within him and shouted in a hoarse yet exceptionally clear voice, deliberately drowning out the surrounding sounds of fighting, carrying far and wide:
"Lin Ming! Sect Master! Your trip to the Ancient Ruins this time has truly been incredibly profitable!!"
After speaking, Chen Tiannan immediately pointed his finger at Lin Ming and began his Deadly Land counterattack—a media offensive!
"Everyone, look! Listen!"
Chen Tiannan's gaze swept over the nearby experts who, while still vying for power, were also paying attention to the commotion here, and he said:
"This Sect Master of the Five Elements Sect easily captured ten Dou Zong- level guardian Puppet the moment he entered the ruins! Ten of them! Combined with the power of the formation, they could evolve into a Dou Venerate Puppet that is no less powerful than the current Puppet."
"That's not all!"
Chen Tiannan's voice suddenly rose, filled with intense jealousy and accusation:
"Just now, everyone witnessed it! He used some kind of evil magic to forcibly control a powerful Ancient Human Puppet! This is equivalent to having another absolutely loyal and fearless Dou Venerate henchman out of thin air!"
His fingers trembled as he pointed again at the Storage Ring where Lin Ming had just put away the scroll:
"Besides, everyone saw it with their own eyes! Lin Ming, all by himself, monopolized two Light Scroll!"
"These two scrolls, after he personally 'opened the lottery,' even the worst one is still a high-grade Earth Tier High-grade item! Priceless! And the other one, I don't need to say more, right? That Profound Scroll, with its majestic and domineering aura, is definitely Earth Tier Peak-grade! It might even be a peerless treasure at the half-step Heaven Tier!!"
Chen Tiannan deliberately obscured the truth of the "lottery draw" and exaggerated Lin Ming's gains to the extreme.
"This! And this is only what we've all witnessed with our own eyes!"
Chen Tiannan's voice carried a stirring indignation. "Since the opening of this ruin, what have they gained—in the Pill Hall, in other places—the rest of their spoils?!"
"I won't speculate further. Even if they're worth the same as the items I just mentioned, don't you all have a good idea of how terrifying the total amount of resources and treasures Lin Ming and his Five Elements Sect have obtained is?!"
After speaking, Chen Tiannan suddenly waved his arms, like an accuser, pointing the finger directly at Lin Ming's "greed":
"It can be said that, so far, the biggest and only beneficiary of this Ancient Ruins is Lin Ming, and his Five Elements Sect!!"
At this point, Chen Tiannan began to reveal his true intentions and started to accuse others of the most serious crimes:
"We accept that Lin Ming is profiting handsomely and raking in the cash! After all, strength reigns supreme! But what about him?! He doesn't even want a single drop of soup for any of us!!"
Chen Tiannan's face revealed just the right amount of grief and anger as he pointed at Lin Ming, his voice shrill:
"Our Profound Nether Sect's Great Elder! Before the ruins even officially opened, he was brutally murdered on the spot by this ruthless scoundrel for no reason, merely because of a minor skirmish at his base! He was a genuine Dou Zun expert! He killed him without hesitation, treating human life like dirt!"
Chen Tiannan's gaze swept over the crowd, attempting to evoke a sense of shared fate. "This isn't over yet! You all saw it now! Just because I accidentally interfered with his attempt to seize the scroll in my haste, he's been relentlessly pursuing me, determined to kill me! What is he trying to do?!"
Chen Tiannan roared hoarsely, elevating Lin Ming's actions to a threat to all those who reaped the benefits:
"He's trying to silence me! He wants to monopolize all the treasures and opportunities within the ruins! It's me now! Because I offended him, and because my Profound Nether Sect is weak! After I die, who will be next?!"
Chen Tiannan's finger, like a viper's forked tongue, swiftly pointed at several lone experts or small teams in the arena who had also gained something, or were relatively strong. "It's you?! It's you?! Or all of you?!"
"Anyone carrying valuable resources who could threaten his monopoly on the ruins' resources is his next target! He intends to eliminate all potential competitors!!"
These weighty accusations, coupled with Chen Tiannan's emotionally charged and seemingly tearful performance, did indeed cause many powerful figures around him to slightly change their expressions.
As a result, many people now looked at Lin Ming with a mixture of apprehension, suspicion, and even a hint of barely perceptible hostility, in addition to their original apprehension.
After all, Lin Ming's demonstrated strength and achievements were indeed too dazzling.
"Alright! I've said everything I should and shouldn't have said!"
Seeing that he had successfully stirred up the atmosphere, Chen Tiannan knew the time was right. He adopted a tragic and resolute demeanor, as if he were about to face death:
"This ruthless executioner is now determined to kill me to silence me! Gentlemen, you'd better watch yourselves! I... I have to run for my life!"
Before he finished speaking, Chen Tiannan's figure suddenly moved. Instead of fleeing towards the crowd, he... charged straight towards the Ancient Human Puppet that had just torn a person in two and was now turning its gray-white eyes toward other nearby targets!
At the same time, in the instant he turned around, his gaze towards Lin Ming was filled with naked provocation and madness, as if to say:
"Lin Ming! Aren't you so great? Aren't you able to get all these living people to reject me? Fine, let's see if they believe your luck or my 'advice' in the end!"
"And another thing, you can control Puppet, right? Then come on! If you're so capable, try controlling all the Puppet here! Let's see how many you can control! I'll play this game with all the Puppet in this hall to the very end today!"
At this moment, Chen Tiannan had made up his mind to use these indiscriminately killing Ancient Human Puppet as his last talisman and weapon of retaliation, to tear a bloody path through this desperate situation!