Inside the dark Wood Punishment Room, Higan was standing in the middle in her white dress.
Countless tiny white flowers blossomed from her body and withered away. The process happened within minutes and every time the flowers withered, blood would spew.
Each time blood spewed from her body, Higan bit her lower lip instinctively.
Two minutes later, her white long dress was painted with strokes of red, and blood started to trickle from her lower lip.
She locked her brows tight, but her eyes were determined as if she saw through the endless darkness and found light and at the brighter end of the path. There was a young boy waiting for her with a warm smile. In his hands was a black stone and he said to her, “Higan, here’s your present.”
…
The scenario was the Yellow Sand Bandits on Hell difficulty.
Tang Ling was in the midst of an onslaught. His sword flashed and another bandit was decapitated with a splash of blood, but at that very moment, pain suddenly flared in his heart, and he had the urge to cry.
What caused the urge?
Tang Ling gripped his sword tightly. A moment later, he felt endless rage rising.
The sun was harsh above the yellow desert. Where his sword pointed, the stomachs of two bandits were perforated.
“Aaaaaaargh!” Tang Ling bellowed with gnashing teeth as he held his sword with all his might and rushed forward, skewering the two bandits together and pinning them onto a giant cactus in the desert.
What caused the rage in him? As if he tried to vent his anger with the kill, it was probably the least ideal way to do it because he wasted his strength and performed many unnecessary movements, but he simply wanted to…
Tang Ling removed his sword. Blood dripped from the edge and fell onto the sand, sinking deep into the yellowish grains. The sandstorm brewed and the sun was as red as blood.
A voice from the scene echoed in Tang Ling’s ears, “Successfully eliminated 86 bandits and one bandit leader within 12 minutes. Clearing rating: SSS.”
Swish!
Tang Ling sheathed his sword.
He looked at the red sun on the horizon of the desert as a sudden endless sorrow drowned him. As he tried to keep himself above the sea of grief, he muttered a name, “Higan…”
…
Tang Long was sitting in the resting room in silence. Once again, he cleared the second level in record-breaking time, but he was not in a hurry to start the third level as he was waiting for Tang Ling.
Ever since he heard about Tang Ling’s existence and met him face-to-face, he intentionally put himself on the scale of comparison with Tang Ling. Despite the two of them agreeing to fight in the Life Or Death Ring, he still could not free himself from the unnecessary comparison.
If he could not disengage himself, he would just wait for the moment of truth to arrive. He would wait for Tang Ling to start the third level and see who could perform better.
Indeed, he no longer wanted to see who was stronger. Their growth was only a matter of time. They would eventually become stronger and rise to the peak. What he wanted to compete with Tang Ling in was who would be the strongest in shaking the world.
The screen in the resting lounge showed Tang Ling killing the bandits in the desert.
His performance was perfect, and his Precise Instinct was evident. Even when Tang Long put himself in Tang Ling’s shoes, he could not have done any better without using the other powers that he did not want to reveal just yet.
However, at the very end of the fight…
Tang Long furrowed his brows when he sensed Tang Ling’s sorrow, and unconsciously, Tang Long also started to feel a tinge of sadness.
*Damn it…*Tang Long unintentionally covered his chest with his palm.
Is it because we are connected by blood, so Tang Ling’s sadness affects me?
Tang Long responded in disdain, rejecting the tinge of sadness.
It was then that he saw Tang Ling go mad and exterminate the last two enemies in a stupid way.
It was not a Precise Instinct move! The last attack was not worthy of Precise Instinct!
Tang Long wanted to sneer but the expression was replaced by an unknown whimper followed by icy-cold despair mixed with pain, enveloping him whole. He bolted up when he saw Tang Ling disappear from the desert scene after he muttered Higan’s name.
“Higan?” Others would never have heard or known that Tang Ling was muttering Higan’s name, but Tang Long was very sensitive towards the name, so he heard it the moment Tang Ling uttered it.
“Higan…” Unintentionally, Tang Long also muttered the name. As the name escaped his mouth, a drop of tear rolled down his cheek.
…
“Tang Long!”
Tang Ling once again appeared in the resting lounge. He did not listen to what the voice in the resting lounge was saying or did he care about what he had gotten from the desert scenario. Instead, he shouted Tang Long’s name as if he was a mad man.
The scene in the contestant’s resting lounges was not shown to the audience, so Tang Long could not hear Tang Ling calling out to him.
Tang Ling realized the isolation right away, thus he chose to go out without a second thought.
A moment later, he reappeared in the entry passage to Hell Ledge and dashed out like a maniac.
The tsunami of cheers came from the audience when they saw the top genius racing out of the passage, but they soon realized things were not as simple as it appeared. It seemed like Tang Ling did not have any intention of continuing the challenge. Instead, he ran towards the stage in the center of the colosseum.
The Simpering Pierrot was commentating on another young genius performance on stage, but he suddenly realized Tang Ling speeding over.
“Huh? What happened to our genius, Tang Ling? It seems like he has a request for the competition.” The moment the Simpering Pierrot’s voice subsided, Tang Ling jumped on stage.
Before the Simpering Pierrot could ask why, Tang Ling snatched the mic and shouted into it, “Tang Long! I want to speak to Tang Long right away! Right now! Immediately!”
The sorrow in Tang Ling’s heart almost drowned him whole.
The anguish was like watching the silver-haired man in black robes snatching San San away from his arms, watching her falling into the grasp of the zombies and watching her empty eyes stare at himself.
B-big brother…
No! I can’t accept this!
It was a hint from his Precise Instinct and the Precise Instinct was never wrong and could never be wrong! It had been proven again and again from losing his grandmother, his sister, Vian, and Uncle Su Siao…
When Higan’s name came out from his mouth instinctively, he knew something must have happened to her.
Therefore, he wanted to speak to Tang Long, he must speak to Tang Long!
The audience made an uproar in shock after the question. They started to wonder what happened to Tang Ling during the competition. What had driven him this mad?
Was it because of the ranking whereby Tang Long ranked 1st while he ranked 19th?
Was Tang Ling such a narrow-sighted person? He should not be one.
If that was not the case, a thrilling show must be on its way!
Inside the VIP room, Boss Huang furrowed his brows tightly.
What’s this kid doing?
However, when Boss Huang saw Tang Ling’s red eyes, he knew something must have happened.
The Simpering Pierrot wanted to take the mic back from Tang Ling and he could easily do it with his strength, but when he saw the kid’s red eyes, he threw a meaningful glance at one of the cameras.
The giant screen on the monolith showed Tang Long in his resting lounge. He was standing there with a tinge of sorrow in between his brows. He looked up and saw Tang Ling appear on the screen in his resting lounge.
“Tang Long, where is Higan?” Tang Ling glared at him.
Tremendous anxiety and pain rumbled in Tang Long’s heart as he tried his best to keep calm and looked into Tang Ling’s eyes through the screen. “Why do I have to tell you?”
“Oh? Not talking, eh? Then, let’s start the Life Or Death battle right here, right now!” Tang Ling held the hilt of his sword tightly and drew it out, pointing it at the camera. “Are you bold enough to accept my challenge?” he shouted, his voice echoing around the colosseum.
He plunged his sword deep onto the stage.
The fire of rage in Tang Long burned blazingly and he disappeared from his resting lounge. Less than 10 seconds later, he also appeared in the colosseum.
The audience’s vociferation and cheers reached the boiling point!
What were they doing? Starting the Life Or Death battle right now? Truth be told, it did not matter to the audience when the Life Or Death battle started because the fight between Tang Ling and Tang Long would be an exciting one, and that thought alone was orgasmic to the audience.
However, the Simpering Pierrot was stunned by the scene. If the two of them started the battle of Life Or Death right now, right here, regardless of the winner, the interesting points of the entire event would be halved and it would severely affect Darkness Port’s income.
The focus of the whole Life Or Death event was the fight between Tang Ling and Tang Long, but the two of them wanted to start under such strange circumstances without any proper advertising. The fight had not even been promoted by the officials yet and it was about to begin!
No, the Simpering Pierrot could not let this happen!
He quickly snatched the mic from Tang Ling, but the latter did not resist at all. He practically tossed the mic back to the Simpering Pierrot.
Regaining his mic, the Simpering Pierrot said, “The two of you, please calm down. It’s against the rules to start the Life Or Death battle now. Please, even if the rules allow it, the stage is at sea. Don’t you think…?”
After he started to dissuade the two of them, the Simpering Pierrot somehow failed to find a reason to stop the two of them from starting the fight.
It was then that Tang Ling jumped off the stage and walked to Tang Long.
The two of them were less than 20 meters apart.
“I’ll ask you one last time. Where is Higan?” Tang Ling sounded like he was trying his best to hold himself together and his voice was shaking.
“If anything happens to Higan, I’ll kill you first,” Tang Long declared in a cold voice.
Only Tang Long knew that nothing would happen to Higan because she had gone back to Starstay City, but if something really did happen to her, then there would only be one reason.
Tang Long dared not think about it because the sole thought of it would make his heart bleed. The thought of it would drown him in hatred and he wanted to drag Tang Ling down the 18 levels of hell with him.
“If I win the battle of Life Or Death, you’ll tell me where Higan is.” Tang Ling kept his cool. If he did not get Higan’s whereabouts, killing Tang Long would not mean anything.
“If you can beat me, that is,” said Tang Long.
“Sh*t!” Boss Huang bolted up.
Tang Ling and Tang Long were destined to fight, but the fight would be a strange one because it would involve some major important matters.
Regardless of which, there were some people who could not bear watching the brothers welcome such a dreadful end. Therefore, the others could simply sit back and watch without having to worry.
However, what if the fight happened right there and right then?
The always calm Boss Huang was sweating nervously as he looked at everyone else in the room and found the same expression on their faces.
Things had just gotten worse.
