As it turned out, Zhang Tinglei's choice was indeed correct.
Previously letting Zhong Cheng call Wu Zhao over had simply been to find an opportunity to launch a sneak attack, leaving the man no room to resist. After all, although Zhong Cheng was only at the Houtian Rank, his talent and specter items were still unknown.
As a Xiantian Rank expert, shamelessly using schemes to launch a sneak attack on a Houtian Rank expert didn't bring him any sense of guilt. After all, he had originally come from a rebel background.
Calling themselves a rebel army was just a nice way of putting it.
Of course, he had also genuinely wanted to seek welfare for the common people of the northern border.
Yet things had still developed beyond his expectations. It truly went to show that one must never underestimate anyone.
He had made many conjectures, but he had never expected that Zhong Cheng's talent could actually transfer his own injuries. This had truly caught him off guard.
Zhang Tinglei slowly shook his head, no longer dwelling on what had happened. He cast a flat glance at Wu Zhao's situation and casually snapped his fingers.
With a crisp snap, Wu Zhao's body stiffened, and he stood frozen on the spot.
Zhang Tinglei didn't care in the slightest. He turned and walked over to sit by the campfire. At this moment, Zuo Lin'an was sitting beside him, his eyes locked onto Wu Zhao, who was slowly regaining his senses.
“Ugh...”
Wu Zhao only felt a throbbing pain in his head, and his hands instinctively clutched his temples.
At this moment, he still hadn't realized what had just happened, nor did he have any memory of killing anyone.
He only remembered Zhang Tinglei slowly approaching him.
And then... and then...
The dizziness in Wu Zhao's head gradually subsided, and his consciousness slowly cleared. However, when he reopened his eyes, he was met with a scene that shocked him to his very core.
He was currently standing in the middle of over a dozen corpses!
These corpses were all people he recognized. After all, they had just been chatting here earlier, even watching the show—the grand drama of the infighting between Zhang Tinglei and Zhong Cheng.
But now, all of them were dead, and only he was left alive.
Wu Zhao's eyes blankly swept over the messy pile of corpses on the ground. Some had twisted necks, while others bled from all seven facial orifices.
“This...”
So, who killed them?
Wu Zhao recalled the image of Zhang Tinglei walking toward him earlier, and those eyes.
Could these people all have been...
With some difficulty, he turned his head to look at the campfire not far away.
Zhang Tinglei was currently sitting near the campfire with the native.
The warm orange firelight shone on them, looking exceptionally warm. Compared to his own winter-like predicament, it was like heaven and earth.
And Wu Zhao also saw that at the very edge of where the firelight could reach, a vigilant figure was standing. It was General Zhong Cheng.
None of the three looked like the one who had committed the murders.
So...
“Was it... me?”
Even if he didn't have any memory of taking action, or even the slightest impression, he could still piece together the truth with his limited brain capacity.
He had done it!
He had killed all these people!
A total of thirteen people had all died by his hand!
Wu Zhao slowly raised his hands and looked at them. Under the dim firelight, he finally noticed the dark red bloodstains coating his hands.
His hands even throbbed with a faint ache.
He turned his head once more to look at the corpses with shattered skulls, swallowing hard in shock.
So...
Jin Youwu, the current family head of Mount Jinfeng's Jin family, and Zhou Shan, the widely renowned bounty hunter in the Jianghu—two powerful Houtian Rank martial artists—had both died by his hands?
Wait, no!
Wu Zhao suddenly realized something.
Was now the time to be thinking about this?!
He had killed people. He had killed people inside a dungeon!
What should he do?
What could he do?
What could he do to survive?
Wu Zhao could no longer care about anything else. He didn't even think about questioning Zhang Tinglei.
After all, with his strength, if he dared to ask even a single question, he would definitely be crippled by the other party and left here to fend for himself.
But... how was he supposed to deal with the unsolvable specters?
From the moment specter dungeons first appeared until now, he had never heard of anyone surviving an encounter with an unsolvable specter.
The more he thought about it, the heavier and more rapid Wu Zhao's breathing became!
In the end, he clutched his head and let out a broken, hysterical scream. Immediately after, he spun around and bolted, plunging into the dark withered forest in the distance, seemingly intending to run as far away as possible.
Though he also knew in his heart that running far away would be utterly useless.
Zuo Lin'an watched Wu Zhao's fleeing figure, then slowly withdrew his gaze.
No matter how Wu Zhao struggled, it would be useless. There was no way he could survive.
This was because a chilling aura was already beginning to rise from the corpses lying on the ground. In just a few minutes, they would surely transform into unsolvable specters and hunt him down.
Zhang Tinglei paid no attention to Wu Zhao at all, treating him as if he were already a dead man.
“As we agreed before, you cannot go back on your word.”
Zuo Lin'an nodded.
“Of course. I promised you before, and I am not a man who breaks his word.”
Zhang Tinglei slowly breathed a sigh of relief.
“That is good.”
With that, he looked in a certain direction.
Zhong Cheng had been standing there just a moment ago, but he had already left and vanished without a trace.
But as far as Zhang Tinglei was concerned, no matter where Zhong Cheng ran or how far he went, he could never escape the palm of his hand.
It was just a pity that he couldn't make a move on him right now.
He merely felt it was a bit of a shame. After all, the “guilty” status he had judged Zhong Cheng with inside the dungeon would be completely wiped away once they cleared it.
Everything experienced within the dungeon—including the Death Lock, the special effects of various talents and specter items, and all physical injuries—could not be brought back to the real world.
Then... should he kill Zhong Cheng at the very last moment before clearing the dungeon, right as they repelled the specter?
At most, it would only cost him two-fifths of his life force. He could still afford that consumption.
Forget it.
Now was not the time to think about this. It was better to wait until the final moment to decide.
Even if he couldn't kill Zhong Cheng inside the dungeon, it would only be slightly more troublesome for him.
Once they returned to the real world, the worst-case scenario was that he would make a personal trip to the western border.
He would go there to kill Zhong Cheng, find an opportunity to assassinate the dog Emperor, and then slaughter all the noble clans, aristocrats, and corrupt civil and military officials in the imperial court!
In the end, he, Zhang Tinglei, would establish a peaceful and prosperous era.
He had confidence in himself.
He had even already been planning some policies for after he ascended to that supreme throne.
For example, he would first deal with all the tribal barbarians outside the western and northern borders. Even if he couldn't kill them all, he would use his talent to completely wipe out their royal families and powerhouses.
After all, once he became the Emperor, everyone in the entire nation would belong to the same faction as him.
In other words, everyone in the country, regardless of gender or age, would be his companions.
If those foreign barbarians ever dared to raid and murder in the country under his control...
Hmph!
Even if they were thousands of miles away, he could judge them as guilty, and then utilize his third rule to execute the person of the highest status every single day.
Zhang Tinglei refused to believe that, with such an incredibly bizarre and powerful talent of his, he wouldn't be able to govern this nation well.
Rate on N.U.
