Murderer

Countdown 40:20:00.

Qing Chen walked out of the alloy gate as usual. He saw the prisoners in the corridor looking at him strangely, apparently surprised that he had reappeared after five days.

But this time, instead of moving through the corridor, he obediently stood where he was.

He waited for the prison broadcast, then followed the line downstairs to get food.

The prisoners immediately believed the rumors from the past few days: the young man had angered Li Shutong, been locked in The Black Room for several days, and suffered some torture.

So, the young man had now lost his special treatment in Prison No. 18.

Still, the prisoners did not dare provoke him easily. Li Shutong could offend the Qing Consortium, but they could not.

During the meal, Lu Guangyi and Qing Chen sat far away from Li Shutong.

Qing Chen kept his head lowered as he ate, chewing every bite carefully and thoroughly before swallowing.

His stomach and intestines were fragile now, so he had to be careful.

Qing Chen did not say a word throughout the meal. Other than silence, there was only silence.

There was a clear divide between his side and Li Shutong's side.

It was as if they had been friends just days ago, yet today they were complete strangers.

The prisoners whispered among themselves, gossiping about what had happened. Had Li Shutong fallen out with the Qing Consortium?

They also speculated about the Forbidden Item Li Shutong was guarding. What could it be that made him so wary and irritable?

At that moment, only Guo Huzhan remained carefree and unconcerned.

Carrying his tray, he sat beside Qing Chen and asked cheerfully, "How did you offend Li Shutong? He actually tortured you into this state?"

Qing Chen looked up at him. "Aren't you afraid of offending Li Shutong by sitting here?"

Guo Huzhan said indifferently, "Black Spades isn't even afraid of the consortiums. Why would I fear Li Shutong?"

"Then why did you come looking for me?" Qing Chen seemed rather uninterested in this burly man who made wild boasts and empty promises, so he did not even look at him while speaking.

"I'm different from the others. They might value the Qing Consortium behind you, but I don't. I value your abilities!" Guo Huzhan said. "I'm serious. I want to invite someone as ambitious as you."

"Not interested." Qing Chen calmly rose to his feet. He tossed his tray to Lu Guangyi to wash, then headed alone toward the reading area.

After only two steps, he seemed to lack the strength to continue and stumbled toward the ground. Fortunately, he caught himself with his hands before embarrassing himself.

Qing Chen got up and continued forward.

Before he realized it, two prisoners had somehow fallen in behind him and were casually drawing closer.

But in the next instant, the Qing Chen who had seemed weak just moments ago suddenly spun around to stare at them.

The young man's gaze was clear, yet it carried an extraordinary pressure, as if he had seen straight through them.

The two prisoners froze. They exchanged a glance, seemingly making up their minds. In an instant, each pulled a sharpened toothbrush handle from his waistband and rushed at Qing Chen.

In Qing Chen's eyes, the hydraulic drive shafts in their mechanical legs suddenly exerted force. He could even see steam spraying from their steel limbs.

That was not a physical reaction caused by mechanical limbs. Rather, some mechanism within their mechanical bodies had compressed the air, instantly vaporizing the moisture inside it!

Yet just as they leaped into the air and pounced, both of them shut their eyes and fainted.

Qing Chen merely shifted his body where he stood, allowing the two to fly past him. They landed behind him and rolled across the ground more than ten times before finally stopping.

Neither could get back up. Their consciousnesses had been tightly ensnared by Lin Xiaoxiao's nightmare.

Qing Chen crouched beside them to observe, while Lu Guangyi walked over, pried open their mouths with his mechanical arm, and forcibly snapped out both of their back molars.

The prisoners were all stunned. No one had seen clearly what had happened; everything had occurred too quickly.

They did not know why the two prisoners had attacked Qing Chen, nor did they know how the pair had collapsed.

Lu Guangyi held up one of the molars for Qing Chen to see. It was clearly a silver poison capsule.

At that moment, Qing Chen understood. The three dead operatives from before had not come for Li Shutong at all. Their target... had been him.

These two operatives had entered five days ago, together with Jian Sheng from Chuanzhou.

At the time, everyone's attention had been on Jian Sheng. Yet even amid that chaos, Qing Chen had noticed something strange about the two men.

At first, he had not paid it any mind. But on the fourth day in The Black Room, the lonelier Qing Chen became, the clearer his mind grew, until every strange detail from the past replayed in his head.

So he gave them an opportunity—an opportunity where he was alone and weak.

He used it to determine whom those operatives had truly come for.

If the two did not act, he would still drag them out into the open. But if they did act, then the answer would immediately become clear.

Thinking back, the first batch of operatives had entered alongside him.

So someone had wanted to kill him from the very first day he crossed over. If he had not found Li Shutong immediately and made them wary, he would have died long ago.

The operatives who entered later seemed to have received a death order. They had to kill him even at the cost of their own lives, which was why they had been so urgent.

Who wanted to kill him? The other Shadow Candidates?

Qing Chen could not be certain, but it was the most likely answer.

It seemed the Shadow Struggle was even more dangerous than he had imagined.

The Shadows of the Qing Consortium, who specialized in doing dirty work, naturally stopped at nothing. Only those who dared eliminate dissidents were worthy of becoming Shadow.

This race of nine people through the darkness had never been about who could execute missions better. From the very beginning, it had been about who was more vicious and decisive.

At that moment, four mechanical prison guards ran over in perfect formation.

But they did not trouble Qing Chen. Instead, they directly carried the two operatives away.

Qing Chen knew they would face extremely harsh interrogation and punishment, because he had just experienced it himself.

"Boss, what do we do now?" Lu Guangyi asked.

"Wait for them to talk." After saying that, Qing Chen exchanged a distant look with Lin Xiaoxiao, then headed toward the reading area.

That night, Prison No. 18 returned to its tranquility.

Just as Qing Chen lay on his bunk thinking, the alloy gate to his cell opened on its own.

He was not surprised. He silently walked out, finding Li Shutong, Ye Wan, and Lin Xiaoxiao already waiting downstairs in the fitness area.

They had agreed on this beforehand. What Li Shutong wanted to teach him could not be known by anyone else. Fortunately, after nine o'clock, all prisoners had to return to their cells, giving Qing Chen ample time to learn... how to become a transcendent.

Li Shutong looked at Qing Chen and asked, "Is there anything you want to ask? Before we begin learning, we can deal with other matters first."

"Who wants to kill me?" Qing Chen asked.

"We haven't gotten it out of them yet," Lin Xiaoxiao said from the side. "Those two are pretty tough. Even in the nightmare, they gritted their teeth and refused to talk. They really committed crimes before coming in, and no one arranged their imprisonment, so we can't find anything from that angle either. Their mechanical limbs seem to have been specially replaced, specifically to keep us from tracing where they were sold or manufactured. But don't worry. Give me seven days, and I'll give you an answer."

"Thank you." Qing Chen nodded.

After thinking for a moment, Li Shutong said, "It has to be those juniors from the Qing family. If you want to fight for the Shadow position, danger is an unavoidable part of the path. You need to prepare yourself mentally for that."

"Why does everyone want to fight for the Shadow position?" Qing Chen did not understand. "Even if it means nine deaths out of ten?"

Li Shutong smiled. "Because, no one knows which generation of the Qing family established this rule, but only someone who has been Shadow can become the family head."

Please vote with your monthly tickets, please vote with your monthly tickets. Just let me stay in the top ten—I'm about to fall out again!

Thank you to Er Shixiong Bu Qujing, Yuntian Zhiqing, Wuliang Yehuo, Huifei de Xiao Wula, Mimo Qiyin, and Yizhi Dou L Tongxue for becoming this book's new Alliance Leaders. Thank you, bosses—so generous!

Thank you to Li Dongze and Yuanzhang, the two readers, for your new million-level donations. Thank you, bosses—so generous!

May you bosses enjoy blessings as vast as the Eastern Sea and lifespans as long as the Southern Mountains. Yesterday was such a wonderful surprise—there were so many new Alliance Leaders!