Free Web NovelChapter 368: Chapter 172: Heroes Never Die
Eerie laughter began to spread, not distinguishing between friend and foe.
Even Yuan Ye, Colt, and the others couldn’t resist the invasion of the laughter. At the beginning of the battle, only a small portion of people were affected by the laughter, but this time, the invasion of the laughter spread much faster than before Lin Rui and the others found the Clown.
The Perfect Level Mutation Entry, Joyful Voice.
By spreading laughter to control others, like an infection-like spread, this Entry has a special feature: the happier its owner, the more astonishing the Entry’s efficiency.
The laughter’s penetrating power was far more exaggerated than in the past.
In the distance, the Clown was indeed very happy, happier than it had ever been before, because Yan Jiu had laughed.
Yan Jiu did not really want to deceive the Clown. She had honestly told the Clown that she couldn’t feel joy, but she knew how to express it.
She hoped the Clown would save Baichuan City and drive away the invaders.
"Helping others brings joy, as seeing others smile makes you very happy. So, I believe your original intention must have been willing to bring joy to others," she said.
"This city is almost destroyed by the invaders... Please help me drive them away!" she pleaded.
When Bai Wu learned of Hong Yin’s death, he had arranged for Yan Jiu to find the Clown.
This was the last card he could play in Baichuan City, in fact, one that was used earlier than Bai Wu had anticipated.
As for the Clown, ever since it learned that there was someone in this world who wouldn’t be affected by its laughter, it had been constantly thinking about it.
It wanted to see this young girl smile, wanted to make her happy.
Over seven hundred years, the inner resentment from its Evil Fallen Transformation had twisted it, but as Yan Jiu said, it had initially only hoped to make people happy.
Even though it knew Yan Jiu’s smile was fake, seeing it made the Clown feel happy.
It hoped that the young girl would smile more, thinking that maybe by smiling, she could find the emotions she had lost.
For the Clown, these seven hundred years brought the happiest moment, and the Joyful Voice, at this moment, showed its unprecedented power.
The students in the dormitory area behind Baichuan Middle School became the earliest sources of spread.
The alliance between Black Gold Island and Huangquan Island gave all the teachers a sense... that facing such a massive Evil Fallen legion, even without the Well Level monsters joining the attack, Baichuan Middle School had no chance of winning in this battle.
The overwhelming army approached, and the entire Baichuan City seemed to be engulfed by a surge named Evil Fallen.
Nie Chongshan, fighting alone in the midst of the flood, invigorating as it was to see him instantly kill two enemy generals.
But such exhilaration quickly faded due to the sheer disparity in strength.
But at this moment... flames of joy began to ignite within the flood, dispelling the darkness with even darker things that had been hidden within Baichuan City!
No matter how happy the Clown’s laughter, the power of the Joyful Voice itself was evil.
The evil laughter soon spread throughout the entire space, rapidly expanding across the battlefield, a nurturing ground.
Yuan Ye, Colt, Qian Yixin, Lu Yan, and even Gu Hailin and Liu Mu... all started laughing.
The Mirror Evil Fallen repelled every one of Nie Chongshan’s attacks; Nie Chongshan, focusing on strength and speed, was a natural counter to the Mirror Evil Fallen!
But even the Mirror Evil Fallen couldn’t escape the invasion of laughter; it also needed to receive information and couldn’t repel sound!
"You might be very powerful, but with me here, you won’t touch my friends," said the Mirror Evil Fallen.
"Friends? With that ghostly appearance of yours, you think those behind you that you’re protecting?" retorted Nie Chongshan.
"You! You’re slandering my friends!" the Mirror Evil Fallen accused.
The Mirror Evil Fallen had planned to use its Soul Cage, but even though it was very angry, the anger forced it to laugh.
"Hahaha... what’s going on... hahaha..." it laughed.
Nie Chongshan also started laughing, partly because of the spread of the Joyful Voice, and partly because he genuinely found it funny.
The Mirror Evil Fallen, naturally countering various strong offensive entities, and different from Liu Mu’s powerful defense, with its body like a mirror, could even rebound an opponent’s attacks, naturally a higher tier defensive counterattack entity than Liu Mu.
But now, this very troublesome guy had become an ally.
The Mirror Evil Fallen turned around, its mirrors now reflecting not Nie Chongshan but the Judge, Blacksmith, and Merchant behind him.
And the new servant of Jing Wu, the Six-Arm Knife-wielder. What Nie Chongshan feared most were not the Judge, Blacksmith, or Merchant, but the Mirror Evil Fallen and the Knife-wielder.
But now, as the laughter swept across the battlefield, nothing else mattered anymore.
"Ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho..." the Merchant laughed.
Compared to the others, its laughter was more unique.
The Blacksmith furrowed his brow; this was the rhythm of complete annihilation.
The Judge played his flute, but his facial muscles had already started reacting to smiling, and his flute music was no longer steady. Besides... the flute’s sound and laughter were not on the same level.
Siren’s Song and Requiem, although originating from a single source, while the Joyful Voice had the spreading capability of a Legendary Tier Entry.
The fierce battle ceased in the midst of laughter.
The people in the command room, including Bai Can, covered their ears, using only their eyes to observe:
"It alone... can actually end a war?"
"Clowns are like that. I knew a Zhou Ke’er who could also start a war all by herself. That’s traditional artistry for you. Anyway, aside from the one from McDonald’s, it’s best not to mess with anyone who dares to dress up as a clown."
Bai Wu smiled.
Bai Can’s group could not understand Bai Wu’s joke but felt that the previous moment’s despair had completely vanished.
Victory in this battle seemed possible once again.
"But what will you do now?"
The laughter’s control was collective. Initially, when the laughter had not taken over the entire battlefield, the idea was for those infected by the laughter to deal with the invaders.
But now... almost the entire battlefield was full of the infected.
The tremendous efficiency of this left Bai Wu in awe. The sound of bliss was on the verge of becoming a Legendary Tier Entry.
"It seems that laughter can only issue uniform commands to the infected, which means that, to avoid harming their own people, the clown can only choose to stop everyone."
"Luckily, I can solve these problems."
Bai Wu was unaffected by the laughter’s control and could, therefore, head to the battlefield to kill several leaders.
That’s what he thought, and he prepared to do just that, leaving the command room to go deep into the front lines.
...
...
An earth-shattering reversal occurred in the situation at Baichuan City’s battle of attack and defense.
Judges, blacksmiths, merchants, sword knights, and even countless undead, all were controlled by laughter.
The battlefield erupted in joyful, evil, twisted laughter, gradually drowning out everything else. No other sounds could be heard.
The judges were dumbfounded. They had encountered such powerful psychic infection for the first time. What a terrifying ability was this?
The blacksmith and the merchants were also shocked. How many tricks had Baichuan City been concealing from the start?
Bai Wu, this human, how many more cards did he have up his sleeve?
Why would these Evil Fallen willingly help Bai Wu, a human? Could it be that Evil Fallen can no longer suppress humans?
The times are changing too quickly.
The blacksmith and merchants had always viewed Evil Fallen as monsters, beings like themselves, soaring above mankind.
But in Bai Wu’s eyes, most of the Evil Fallen are merely people twisted by their obsessions, essentially still human.
The clown who craves others’ happiness, Nie Chongshan who seeks power, and Gu Hailin who guards the refuge, all remain essentially human.
The powerful offensive was blocked by laughter; this could truly be called an absolute reversal!
...
...
Jing Wu felt some doubt.
Its showdown with Lin Rui had almost no suspense; even with the aid of temporal power, Lin Rui couldn’t surpass Jing Wu in speed. freeωebnovēl.c૦m
Not to mention that Jing Wu had many powerful methods that it had yet to use.
Time and again, Lin Rui was pierced by the black matter in the Soul-Devouring Swamp, nearly becoming Evil Fallen, falling from the sky...
But he always managed to get back up quickly.
"It seems your temporal power hides some means that allow you to avoid the Soul-Devouring Swamp?"
The calm Jing Wu was much more terrifying than the one from the Mechanical City. Facing Lin Rui without revealing any bottom line, Jing Wu had been analyzing Lin Rui from the moment it started suppressing him.
"For a human, your strength is unreasonable, but to me, you are still too weak. Now let me solve the mystery of your indestructibility."
Lin Rui had a bad feeling.
Golden energy surged, flying towards the high skies!
But the four Grudge Barriers, which were supposed to keep him in, suddenly had a fifth one on top.
Moreover, the four Grudge Barriers were shrinking.
To the eye, it was like a huge box... getting smaller and smaller.
The space Lin Rui had to move was steadily decreasing.
While everyone was focused on the two armies clashing outside the school gates, only Jiang Yimi was constantly concerned about Lin Rui’s whereabouts.
She did not want the young man with the aura of an older man to die in front of her again.
But Jiang Yimi had to admit that in the showdown between Lin Rui and Jing Wu, there was nothing she could do. Her attempt to help would only add to the chaos, and all she could do was pray for Lin Rui to turn the tide.
No one could imagine the pressure Lin Rui was facing against Jing Wu.
As space kept shrinking, Lin Rui realized that the black barrier seemed to block his sense of space!
He actually couldn’t use temporal power to teleport away.
"This battle should end now, this time, I will watch you die with my own eyes."
Lin Rui’s figure kept flickering, like a golden brush haphazardly drawing lines on paper.
But no matter how many times these lines intersected with Jing Wu, Lin Rui could never harm Jing Wu.
"Do you feel the gap? Using time manipulation and shortening spatial distance to increase speed won’t work against me."
Lin Rui really wanted to retort... This Great Demon King actually considered body-movement techniques his own weakness?
Such close-combat prowess was simply the strongest he had seen in seven hundred years.
It was unimaginable how terrifying this monster would be if it were to use its strongest methods.
Even more unimaginable... that his senior had actually defeated it once, albeit standing on the shoulders of giants.
Within the black grudge barrier, countless arms stretched out. They kept lengthening and writhing, like ink dropped on paper, spreading out and leaving behind trails of black.
These arms couldn’t catch Lin Rui.
Lin Rui was faster than Jing Wu, although not fast enough to catch Jing Wu off guard.
But as the space continued to shrink and more black arms appeared, Lin Rui’s resistance became so powerless...
If it were Zero, he could use powerful firepower to break the grudge barrier, but Lin Rui could only keep dodging within the grudge barrier.
This was an absolute gap in strength, one that no technique could bridge.
With both hands and feet seized by the grudge arms, Jing Wu floated in the air, looking down arrogantly at Lin Rui:
"I’ve changed my mind, humans becoming Evil Fallen might not be useful to me, and given your powerful strength and exposure to many things, your Evil Fallen form would probably be of the intelligent kind."
Lin Rui struggled, his body wrenching free from the grudge arms’ grip, while his consciousness fought against the surge of negative thoughts.
"So it’s better for you to die, to prevent the complication of an Evil Fallen transformation."
Jing Wu snapped his fingers.
The next second, Lin Rui’s eyes instantly filled with bloodshot lines, and intense pain struck! The grudge arms that had seized Lin Rui’s limbs suddenly yanked hard.
At that moment, Lin Rui’s body began to break apart!
High in the sky, Jing Wu made an empty gesture with his left hand, and instantly, a black spear appeared in his grasp.
These methods were not very effective against Zero, but against humans much weaker than himself, they were enough to easily crush the opponent.
Lin Rui’s limbs separated from his body, blood spurted, and his heart was pierced by Jing Wu with absolute force.
As the excruciating pain hit, it seemed as though Lin Rui lost consciousness in an instant...
His eyes turned white, his mouth agape, a look of agony on his face, as though he was completely destroyed by the intense pain.
The grudge arms, like living things, rapidly devoured Lin Rui’s limbs, while the body that kept falling from the sky saw the black spear start to disintegrate into dust.
Lin Rui’s wounds kept gushing blood, his life force, completely gone to zero.
The battle was over.
This time, Jing Wu did not allow Lin Rui any chance to use his shifting techniques; it directly prevented Lin Rui from making any move, tore off Lin Rui’s limbs, and impaled Lin Rui’s body with the powerful grudge spear.
As the grudge barrier dissipated, Jing Wu looked at Lin Rui’s corpse:
"Not bad, at least this time, I got a good warm-up."
A strange laughter spread between heaven and earth, and the fierce clash on the battlefield seemed to have ceased as well.
Jing Wu had not noticed before because Lin Rui, although not pressuring enough, had also prevented him from being distracted by other matters.
Only now did Jing Wu realize that the allied forces of Huangquan Island and Black Gold Island had been stopped by the laughter.
This kind of laughter could forcibly turn negative emotions into smiles, and at the same time, exert mental control over those who smiled.
But to affect a being like Jing Wu, it was still far too weak.
Jing Wu didn’t care, after all, the strongest enemy on the battlefield had been killed by him.
What followed was simply a matter of single-handedly destroying the city and then finding Bai Wu.
All of this was not very difficult, unless Bai Wu hid inside High Tower.
Only Bai Wu and the obsession within him were the ones Jing Wu definitely needed to eradicate.
...
...
The time, High Tower Calendar, year two hundred and thirty-three.
Lin Rui awoke to find himself lying in a chaotic space.
This space was a jumble of landscapes from all over the world: mountains, deserts, oceans, snowfields, cities, and more.
Lin Rui patted his head:
"That was close, that was close... I almost died... That’s too cruel, they actually planned to dismember me, haha... But I didn’t die!"
At the moment when he sensed death was inescapable, Lin Rui had already entered a deep sleep state.
That is also why he lost consciousness even before the pain struck.
It was a talent Lin Rui had honed through countless brushes with death.
Lin Rui could enter different timelines by sleeping, while Zheng Yue could pull real enemies into his dreams.
But to ensure he could fall asleep at any time, Zheng Yue relied on the fatigue from not sleeping.
However, Lin Rui felt this method wouldn’t resolve certain special situations, such as intense pain.
So he had an even stronger method—Feigned Death Skill, a way to change his breathing pattern and forcibly enter a state of death.
Considered a sort of... hardcore sleeping method, it was also Lin Rui’s exclusive survival secret.
Heroes never die—not just an empty phrase for Lin Rui, but something he truly achieved.
Once he went to sleep, Lin Rui’s body would escape into another timeline.
Even if his body in the original timeline was destroyed, Temporal Power would completely repair it using the life force of Lin Rui from another timeline.
This was why Lin Rui could ignore the negative attributes that occurred every four hours and withstand the powerful Grudge Barrier of Jing Wu.
If Lin Rui fighting against Jing Wu was considered to be from the main timeline,
then each time he slept, Temporal Power would preserve Lin Rui’s body within a certain timeline—these became his life reserves in the main timeline.
Once his consciousness returned to the main timeline, no matter how injured his body was, he would consume a life from another timeline’s Temporal Power to replenish the Lin Rui of the main timeline.
The only constant was Lin Rui’s memory.
So long as he could feign death before his opponent killed him, Lin Rui would not truly die.
And in this world, there was no one capable of killing him without him reacting to it. Of this, Lin Rui was certain.
By mastering the Feigned Death Skill, Lin Rui could also keep traversing through time.
But this method was painful, so most of the time, he chose to sleep normally.
For instance, facing Nie Chongshan and Liu Mu, though he repeatedly returned to the same scene, Lin Rui didn’t choose to use feigned death to escape.
Only in extremely dangerous moments would he choose this painful method. This also meant that his enemy was no ordinary opponent.
"This is troublesome... I can’t beat that guy, and if I go back now, I’ll still be killed, right?"
Lin Rui stretched lazily.
Part of his personality was his own, and part was influenced by the First Generation Masked Strange Person—overly carefree.
He had just faced death, encountered an unbeatable enemy, yet he seemed exceptionally excited.
"Where is this? Speaking of which, after seven hundred years of continuous traversing, how come I’ve never been to this place?"
Starting from the last time he kept falling asleep and repeatedly encountering Nie Chongshan and Liu Mu, Lin Rui suspected that the places he went to after sleeping were somehow controlled by a Causal Force.
This time, that feeling emerged again.
Lin Rui looked into the distance; the whole world was abrupt, but that patch of pitch-black sky was even more so.
It seemed as if it contained some sort of monster.
"Goosebumps... Oh my, why do I feel fear in my body? Hahaha... This place is so interesting, wait, should I go check it out and seek death?"
Lin Rui intuitively felt that there was some terrifying creature within that dark expanse of sky.
He didn’t know why he had come here, but since he was here, and since there was no way to hold back Jing Wu at the moment, he might as well explore this place...
So the next second, Lin Rui’s figure flashed, arriving at the edge of what appeared to be the sky.
The space was incredibly chaotic; Lin Rui even noticed that the mountains, deserts, and cities were continuously changing positions.
Perhaps in this place, directions like east, south, west, and north had no meaning.
Only that expanse of sky remained fixed in its position.
"What’s in there? Well, I’ll know once I go in and take a look." ƒrēewebnovel.com
Lin Rui felt it was very dangerous, but upon further thought, what was there to fear? Could the creature inside be stronger than the Great Demon King?
