The white light faded.
Six people stood in the second-floor corridor of the Douluo Game Hall, staring at one another.
The corridor lights were off. Moonlight streamed through the windows, leaving their faces half bright and half in shadow.
Every one of them was clean, without wounds or bloodstains, their clothes completely intact. It was as though none of what had just happened had ever occurred.
But it had.
Tang Hao lowered his head and sensed his soul power. It had diminished since before he entered.
Level 95. Now level 94.
His face went pale.
Tang Xiao was checking his own as well. He had been level 95; now he was level 94.
Dugu Bo stood motionless with his eyes closed, looking as though all his vitality had been sucked dry.
His level had dropped from 92 to 91. It had taken him twelve years of cultivation to reach level 92. A single game had erased those twelve years of bitter effort.
Yu Yuanzhen, Sword Douluo, and Bone Douluo had all lost a level.
The corridor remained silent for a long while.
Then the arguments erupted.
"I said we shouldn't come! I told you long ago that something was wrong with this place! Tang Hao, this was your idea. Look where it's gotten us!" Gu Rong was the first to lose his composure.
"Who could have imagined it? An entire hidden world inside one room?" Tang Xiao gritted his teeth.
"What the hell are your Clear Sky Sect spies good for? Your intelligence didn't mention a single word about a trap like this!" Fury surged through Yu Yuanzhen.
"You think we didn't want to investigate thoroughly? How is any normal person supposed to investigate that Game Domain?" Tang Xiao snapped in frustration.
Dugu Bo squatted on the floor, his arms resting on his knees.
He stayed out of the argument, keeping his head down as he questioned his entire life. Over a decade of painstaking effort, deducted just like that! Tang Hao, you deserve a thousand deaths!
Chen Xin did not argue either.
He stood beside the window, watching the moon outside, his lips pressed into a thin line.
Tang Hao had remained silent throughout.
He leaned against the wall with his arms folded across his chest. The eyes behind his iron mask swept over everyone present before finally settling on a spot in empty space.
He had lost a level.
Ninety-five had become ninety-four.
It would take him at least five to eight years of cultivation to recover that level.
But his level was not what troubled him most.
It was the feeling he had experienced inside the game.
All the soul power in his body had been sealed. Every trump card of a level 95 Titled Douluo-the Clear Sky Hammer, his nine Soul Rings, all his Soul Skills-had been rendered unusable.
He had lain on a shabby bed, saved up gold coins, upgraded a door, and watched a dark figure that had appeared from who knew where batter that door.
Like some kind of joke.
He, Tang Hao, had spent over half his life fighting his way through the world. He had slaughtered his way out of Slaughter City and fought Spirit Hall. When had he ever been reduced to counting gold coins in a rundown room?
After a while, the argument gradually quieted.
Because arguing was useless. Their levels were already gone, and even shouting their throats raw would not bring them back.
Dugu Bo rose from the floor. "Stop arguing!"
Everyone turned to him.
Dugu Bo's expression was calm, but something lay beneath the surface of his eyes.
"What's done is done. We've lost levels. That's a fact. Now we have two options."
"First, pretend nothing happened, go back to cultivating on our own, and spend ten or twenty years recovering our levels."
"Second, go to Spirit Hall tomorrow to negotiate, find Qin Chuan, and make him give our levels back."
"How would he do that?" Chen Xin asked.
Dugu Bo glanced at him. "Obviously, Qin Chuan set up this mechanism. He should have a way."
Gu Rong nodded. "Tang Hao, what do you say?"
Tang Hao finally spoke. "We'll go to Spirit Hall tomorrow and negotiate."
"If covert means won't work, we'll do it openly," Tang Xiao added. "The six of us are Titled Douluo representing the Upper Three Sects. If we go there to speak face-to-face, they can't possibly refuse to show us some respect."
The corridor fell silent for a moment.
Indeed, who would willingly spend ten or twenty years cultivating their way back?
"Let's go!"
As they left, Tang Hao looked back at the sign with gold lettering on a black background.
The words "Douluo Game Hall" gleamed coldly in the moonlight.
Early the next morning.
Qin Chuan emerged from Spirit Hall's secret chamber and stretched, feeling a little sore.
Bibi Dong had already left. There was only a note by the bed, bearing a single sentence: "I've inspected Protector Bao and learned his length."
Qin Chuan put the note away and stepped out through the secret chamber's door.
Footsteps sounded in the corridor.
Chrysanthemum Douluo hurried over, an unusual hint of urgency on his face.
"Qin Chuan, hurry. Her Holiness wants us in the Council Hall."
"What's the matter? Why the rush?"
Chrysanthemum Douluo lowered his voice. "Six Titled Douluo from the Upper Three Sects have come to Spirit Hall for talks. They're demanding to see you."
Qin Chuan paused.
Six Titled Douluo. Talks. They wanted to see him.
He turned it over in his mind, thinking of the trap he had set.
All right, here they are.
Qin Chuan followed Chrysanthemum Douluo toward the Council Hall at a brisk pace.
On the way, he brought up the system panel, which only he could see, and glanced at it. There was a new entry:
[Otherworld Survival trap activation record: 6 intruders forcibly transported to "Haunted Dormitory" (maximum difficulty). All participants failed. Level -1. Executed.]
The corner of Qin Chuan's mouth twitched, and he closed the panel.
The Council Hall was in the east wing of Spirit Hall's Main Hall.
The hall was enormous, its domed ceiling thirty feet high, with two rows of black gold stone pillars supporting the entire space.
A rectangular council table stood in the center. Its top had been fashioned from a single slab of black ironwood, polished until it could reflect a person's image.
By the time Qin Chuan entered, everyone who was supposed to be there had arrived.
Bibi Dong sat at the head of the table. Today, she wore the full Pope Robe, with the Nine-Curved Purple Gold Crown set squarely on her head and her scepter standing to her right. Her expression was calm, betraying neither pleasure nor anger.
Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo stood behind her, one on either side.
Six people sat on the other side of the council table.
Tang Hao, Tang Xiao, Dugu Bo, Yu Yuanzhen, Sword Douluo Chen Xin, and Bone Douluo Gu Rong.
None of the six looked happy.
Tang Hao was expressionless, but something dark lurked in his eyes.
Tang Xiao's brows were knotted, his lips pale.
Dugu Bo leaned against his chair, his gaunt face unreadable, but his fingers kept tapping the tabletop.
Yu Yuanzhen folded his arms across his chest, his entire face as black as the bottom of a pot.
Chen Xin's lips were pressed into a narrow line, his aged eyes fixed on the doorway.
Gu Rong huddled in his chair, looking half an inch shorter than he had yesterday.
The moment Qin Chuan entered, six pairs of eyes swung toward him in unison.
"Qin Chuan, you're finally here," Tang Xiao said, suppressing the anger in his voice.
Qin Chuan did not panic.
He swept his gaze over everyone present, then walked straight toward the head of the council table. An empty chair stood beside Bibi Dong.
Qin Chuan sat down.
He sat beside Bibi Dong, facing six Titled Douluo.
Tang Xiao's brow twitched. This brat is taking center stage, sitting as the Pope's equal?
But Bibi Dong did not correct him, which meant she had tacitly approved.
Qin Chuan leaned back in his chair and looked at the six men opposite him, perfectly composed. "Gentlemen, have you come here today to see me?"
"That's right." Tang Hao's voice was heavy. "We've come here today specifically to see you."
All six men fixed their gazes on Qin Chuan.
Those were the gazes of six Titled Douluo. In any setting, that pressure would have been enough to leave an ordinary person unable to speak.
Bibi Dong sat at the head of the table without saying a word.
She wanted to use this opportunity to test Qin Chuan's courage.
Since she had acknowledged him as her sworn younger brother, he needed to be able to hold his own.
If Qin Chuan was so frightened by six Titled Douluo coming to his door that he could not even speak properly, how could she make use of him in the future?
Before you continue