Who... Among You Can Punish Me?

Scarlet blood splattered across the screen behind the stage,

The drums and string music on both sides of the stage vanished in an instant!

Everyone froze, their pupils suddenly contracting. The heavy stench of blood suppressed the alcohol in their bodies. They shot to their feet, their faces filled with disbelief!

"You..."

Bone Knife slowly raised his gaze from his bloodied chest to Chen Ling's face,

As if he had realized something,

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

A large amount of blood poured from his throat, making his words indistinct. His expression was utterly terrified.

"You like tearing out other people's hearts and guts?" Chen Ling's cheeks were covered in crimson blood. Intense hatred and madness surfaced in his eyes. "Today... I'll dig you out clean too!"

"Give me the knife!!"

Chen Ling raised a hand toward the emptiness behind him.

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

As if an invisible hand had seized its hilt, it yanked the dagger from its sheath and sent it whistling toward Chen Ling at the center of the stage!

The "Audience" was cooperating with his performance.

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

Bone Knife's mouth opened uncontrollably. The extreme pain made him want to howl, but the blood continuously pouring from his throat clogged his windpipe, leaving only pained whimpers.

Blood and organs spilled from the wound. Bone Knife collapsed weakly to his knees, his hands frantically trying to stuff everything back inside, but after only a few movements, his actions slowly came to a halt...

He was dead.

His pupils reflected the blood-red stage and everything that had happened to him... but more than anything, they held terror and helplessness.

Chen Ling looked at Bone Knife, dead on his knees before him, without much change in expression. This was his first time killing someone, yet perhaps because hatred and adrenaline had surged through him, he did not feel much... aside from a faint nausea.

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

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

"As one of the Enforcers, you're slaughtering people without reason!! You'll be punished!!"

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

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

The youth's cheeks were still stained with scorching blood. Holding the dagger, he looked down at the terrified crowd below, his eyes full of killing intent and madness!

At that moment, the dense blood covering the stage screen behind him faintly glowed, like countless scarlet eyes opening in the darkness, seated in invisible Audience seats and watching everything.

[Audience Expectation +5]

Whoosh—

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

"Punish me?"

Chen Ling chuckled. He slowly raised his fingertips, dipped them in the hot blood on his cheek, and traced a streak of red at the corner of his eye... Chen Yan, once painted in red stage makeup, seemed to overlap with Chen Ling's face. His entire aura instantly became bewitching and bloody!

He was the dead Chen Ling, and also the dead Chen Yan—an actor performing alone beneath the gaze of the World-Ending Calamity.

"What gives you the right to punish me?"

"You... who among you can punish me?"

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

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

Li Mang, Sun Laoliu, and the others were horrified. They had all fought Chen Ling before and knew how terrifying he was.

More importantly, they had come to enjoy the celebration today. Almost no one had brought a gun; at most, they had hidden a few melee weapons on themselves... Yet even when they had guns at the tavern, they had failed to deal with Chen Ling. What chance did they have now?

A red phantom darted through the crowd, madly reaping lives. As he killed more and more people, Chen Ling gradually overcame the shadow cast by his earlier misdeeds and instead became inexplicably proficient.

Amid the boundless snowfall, a bloody and bizarre massacre unfolded within the courtyard.

Meanwhile,

A hundred meters away from the courtyard.

"It 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 never expected him to truly be a genius... when it came to killing."

"Not just the War God Path."

Out of the void, the figure of a man shrouded entirely 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 was startled. "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 bearing a World-Ending-level Calamity..."

"That isn't strange. He only drew its attention, as though his own talent had caught the notice of a God Path, but he hasn't truly received God's Blessing... The Path to Godhood will not be left open to monsters."

"I see."

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

Chu Muyun smiled faintly and said nothing.

"But he's in trouble next."

"Why?"

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

The courtyard.

As Chen Ling's blade rose and fell, seven or eight Ice Spring Street residents died in succession.

Without firearms, nearly every Ice Spring Street resident chose to flee. But they were far slower than Chen Ling, who possessed Slaughter Waltz. They were caught and killed one after another before they could even reach the front courtyard!

"Brother Fan! What do we do?!" a member of the Enforcers hurriedly asked.

"He must have already received God's Blessing and stepped onto a God Path..." Qian Fan recalled Chen Ling taking the dagger out of thin air, his expression turning extremely grim. "Damn it, which God Path did he walk?"

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

"Why hasn't Brother Ma arrived yet?!"

"It's too late... If this continues, not only will Ice Spring Street be completely wiped out, we might not be able to save our own lives either."

A ruthless 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 broken finger bone was exposed to the air...