Who... Can Punish Me?

Scarlet blood splattered across the screen behind the stage,

The drumbeats and string music on either side of the stage vanished in an instant!

Everyone froze for a moment, their pupils suddenly contracting. The heavy stench of blood suppressed the alcohol in their bodies as they shot to their feet, disbelief written all over their faces!

"You..."

Bone Knife slowly raised his gaze from his blood-soaked chest to Chen Ling's face.

He seemed to realize something.

"You're... that kid's... brother?"

A great deal of blood gushed from his throat, making his words incomprehensible. His expression was filled with terror.

"You like tearing people open and pulling out their hearts?" Chen Ling's cheeks were stained crimson, intense hatred and madness surfacing in his eyes. "Today... I'll dig you out clean too!"

"Give me the knife!!"

Chen Ling raised a hand toward the void behind him.

At the waist of an Ice Spring Street resident standing dazed beneath the stage, a sharp dagger suddenly began to tremble violently!

As though an invisible hand had seized its hilt, it was violently drawn from its sheath and whistled toward Chen Ling at the center of the stage!

The "Audience" was cooperating with his performance.

Chen Ling caught the dagger and, like lightning, plunged it into Bone Knife's chest. Following the bloody hole he had torn open with his hand, he carved downward, disemboweling him in an instant!

Bone Knife's mouth opened uncontrollably. The extreme pain made him want to howl, but the blood constantly pouring from his throat blocked his airway, leaving only miserable whimpers.

Blood and organs flowed from the gash. Bone Knife collapsed weakly to his knees, frantically trying to stuff everything back inside with both hands. But after only a few motions, his movements gradually came to a halt...

He was dead.

In his pupils was reflected the blood-red stage and everything that had happened to him... but more than anything, there was terror and helplessness.

Chen Ling looked at Bone Knife, dead on his knees before him, without much change in expression. It was his first time killing someone, but perhaps due to the surging hatred and adrenaline, he felt almost nothing... aside from a faint trace of nausea.

He did not notice that, at that moment, a black star faintly lit up in the snowy sky above.

"Chen Ling?! Have you lost your mind?!!"

"As an Enforcer, you're killing people wantonly without cause!! You'll be punished!!"

Qian Fan's pupils involuntarily widened at the sight, and he immediately shouted.

Upon the blood-red stage, the figure in red slowly turned around...

The young man's cheeks were still streaked with steaming blood. He held the dagger as he looked down at the terrified crowd below, his eyes filled with killing intent and madness!

At that moment, the dense bloodstains on the stage screen behind him faintly lit up, like countless scarlet eyes opening in the darkness, seated in the void's audience seats and watching everything.

[Audience Expectation +5]

Ssh—

With a soft sound, every torch in the courtyard went out at once.

"Punish me?"

Chen Ling chuckled. He slowly raised a fingertip, dipped it in the hot blood on his cheek, and drew a streak of crimson at the corner of his eye... Chen Yan, once adorned in red makeup, seemed to overlap with Chen Ling's face in a daze, and his entire aura instantly became bewitching and bloody!

He was the dead Chen Ling, and also the dead Chen Yan—a performer alone beneath the gaze of the "World-Ending" Calamity.

"What gives you the right to punish me?"

"Who... can punish me?"

The next moment, the red-clad figure vanished from the stage in an instant.

A dagger sliced through the void at the same time, so fast that no one present could react. Then came a muffled groan. Blood sprayed from the neck of an Ice Spring Street resident closest to the stage, and he fell with a thud.

Li Mang, Sun Laoliu, and the others were horrified. All of them had fought Chen Ling before and knew just how terrifying he was.

Most importantly, they had come to enjoy the celebration today. Almost no one had brought a gun; at most, they had hidden a weapon or two on their person... Yet even with guns at the tavern, they had failed to take down Chen Ling. How could they possibly manage it now?

A red phantom darted through the crowd, madly reaping lives. As more and more people died, Chen Ling had completely overcome the faint shadow cast by his wrongdoing and instead became inexplicably skilled at it.

Amid the vast snowfall, a bloody and bizarre massacre unfolded in the courtyard.

Meanwhile,

A hundred meters from the courtyard.

"He actually drew the attention of the War God Path?" Chu Muyun stood beneath a snow-covered tree, his gaze fixed on the distant courtyard. "I didn't expect him to really be a genius... when it comes to killing."

"Not just the War God Path."

From the void, the figure of a man shrouded in shadow slowly took shape.

"Didn't you notice? The stars of the Witch God Path have reacted too..."

"The Witch God Path?" Chu Muyun froze. "What does he have to do with the Witch God Path? Why would he draw the Witch God Path's attention?"

"I don't know."

"But don't you find it strange?"

"What?"

"How could a Fusionist draw the attention of a God Path? And he's even a Fusionist carrying a World-Ending-class Calamity..."

"There's nothing strange about it. He merely drew their attention, as though his own talent had caught the notice of a God Path, but he hasn't truly obtained [God's Blessing]... The Path to Godhood will not be left open to monsters."

"I see."

"But that kid really is crazy and ruthless. You have a good eye."

Chu Muyun smiled faintly without speaking.

"But he's in trouble next."

"Why?"

"I smelled it." The shadowed man paused for a moment. "That Enforcer named Qian Fan carries the scent of a Ritual Artifact."

The courtyard.

As Chen Ling raised and lowered his blade, seven or eight Ice Spring Street residents died one after another.

Without firearms, the Ice Spring Street residents almost unanimously chose to flee. But they were far slower than Chen Ling, who possessed [Slaughter Waltz]. The moment they reached the front courtyard, they were hunted down one after another!

"Brother Fan! What do we do?!" an Enforcer urgently asked.

"He must have already obtained [God's Blessing] and entered a God Path..." Recalling the scene of Chen Ling taking the dagger from thin air, Qian Fan's expression turned exceedingly grim. "Damn it, which God Path did he take?"

"Then doesn't that make him a Law Enforcer?" Another Enforcer's face went pale. "How could we possibly beat him?"

"Why isn't Brother Ma here yet?!"

"There's no time... If this continues, not only will Ice Spring Street be wiped out completely, but we might not even be able to save our own lives."

A vicious glint flashed through Qian Fan's eyes. He reached into his clothes and pulled out an object wrapped in black cloth.

As he gradually unwrapped the black cloth, a severed finger bone was exposed to the air...