Chapter 647: Mad Demon (2)

I turned around. Gu Bei, possessed by Chen Jiuge's will, had returned. The skin on his face was splitting open, and his fury had reached its peak.

The lighter in my hand was already lit. I tilted my head, studying the possessed Gu Bei. Killing intent shone in my eyes beneath the Good and Evil Asura Mask, but I kept my mind absolutely calm.

I was wearing the mask and using a different identity. Recalling everything from the Deep Dream Layer, I disguised my voice just as I had back then. "Chen Jiuge, you're too late."

Hoarse and slow, with a distinct rhythm—it was a voice Chen Jiuge could never forget.

"It really is you!" Gu Bei stood frozen. His mannerisms and speech cadence perfectly matched Chen Jiuge's, though his drug-ruined vocal cords made the voice gratingly harsh.

He immediately tried to control the grand array. Unfortunately for him, the ancient characters on the walls suppressed the formation, rendering it completely unable to attack me.

Watching Chen Jiuge scramble in vain, the tension in my chest finally dissipated.

"We have a lot of visitors in the building today, and no one is particularly happy with your hospitality." I kept using the disguised voice to speak to him while wearing the Good and Evil Asura Mask.

The man was dangerously sharp. Before the live broadcast even began, Chen Jiuge had specifically sought me out to test me, meaning he already suspected me. A fake voice wouldn't fool him for long. It was better to just kill him and permanently eliminate the threat.

Hearing my voice, Chen Jiuge's extreme rage twisted into a laugh. "Two live show streamers showed up today, including you—one in the light, one in the dark. It seems the Underworld Live Show has already figured out my background. The real purpose of this broadcast is to kill me, isn't it?"

There was no point beating around the bush with a smart person. The skin on his face hung loose, looking as if it had been sloppily pasted onto the flesh with glue.

He displayed many traits only found on corpses. The only thing separating him from a dead man was his eyes.

Sinister and ice-cold, churning with chaos and madness. Chen Jiuge knew his path of retreat had been completely cut off. Otherwise, he never would have uttered the words 'Underworld Live Show' right in front of Wang Wu.

Standing outside the grand array, Wang Wu had no idea he had just earned himself another reason to die. He was still observing the situation, harboring the delusion that he could con me out of the Jade Bone.

Chen Jiuge was growing more accustomed to controlling Gu Bei's corpse, and his voice became more fluid. "I'm very curious. How did you break through the grand array set up by Mr. Paper himself? It's said that even if a Buddha descended in person, this array would trap them for a time. Did Mr. Paper tell you the array's flaws?"

"Think whatever you want, it doesn't matter. We're the same kind of people—we only care about the results, not the process." I gently raised my hand, watching the dancing flame on the lighter. "Chen Jiuge, it's time to settle our grudge from the Deep Dream Layer."

My desire to kill him had taken root back in the Despair District.

I would never forget that absolute nightmare of a dream for the rest of my life.

"I'm going to kill you completely, starting with your physical body."

My fingers opened. The lighter dropped into the Insect Coffin, and bright red flames rapidly spread across it. The exquisite larvae, resembling fine silver sand, frantically tried to escape the Insect Coffin but were sealed inside by the talismans' restrictions.

Plumes of black smoke billowed upward. Chen Jiuge's heart had to be bleeding right now.

With the larvae no longer an obstacle, I easily hauled his physical body out of the Insect Coffin and locked my hands around its neck.

"Wait!" Chen Jiuge suddenly blurted out. "Our grudge only exists because we were forced onto opposing sides! I was raised by the Buddha, I'm a live show streamer, and I'm a true disciple of the Profound Gate Daoist Sect. I have many identities, and being a live show streamer is the one I despise the most. It's restrictive, passive, and forces you to face life-and-death trials at every turn, all for a pitifully small reward. If the Buddha hadn't insisted, I probably would have chosen to leave the Live Show a long time ago!"

I had no idea why Chen Jiuge was suddenly telling me all this. Was he trying to convince me to betray the Live Show?

"I have a way out, but you don't. I can choose to quit, but you can't." Speaking through Gu Bei, Chen Jiuge's words sped up. "No one likes being shackled. No one wants to live this kind of life forever, and I'm sure you feel the same. I can give you a chance right now. I swear upon my Dao seed and my fate pattern—I will help you escape the Live Show, and I will gift you an unimaginable fortune. Whether you want immense wealth or the true mantras of the Dao, I can get them for you. I only ask that you promise me one thing—give me my physical body back."

"After all that talk, the truth is I still hold your life in my hands, don't I? Chen Jiuge, we're going to settle our score nice and slow. This is just the interest." I slowly increased the pressure of my grip, gradually twisting the neck of his physical body. "There's one more thing you should know. What other people give you is just charity—it's hollow and fake. I prefer to take what I want myself!"

Veins bulged on my arms as I violently flared my strength, snapping his neck. Looking at the dislocated spine, I still didn't feel completely reassured. I gathered a thread of yin energy and injected it directly into his lower dantian, completely destroying everything from the inside out.

Chen Jiuge watched as the vitality faded from his own physical body, witnessing his own death with his very eyes.

I acted with extreme caution, keeping most of my focus locked onto him. A cornered dog will jump a wall, not to mention a terrifying adversary with three different identities.

Under normal circumstances, it took five to ten minutes for the brain to die after the heart stopped beating. Once that happened, Chen Jiuge's will, which was possessing Gu Bei's body, should finally dissipate.

Pressing my hand against the chest of Chen Jiuge's physical body, I counted the seconds down, my eyes fixed intently on him to catch his every movement.

"My physical body is dead, but I will be reborn through another method! When I awaken again, I hope you're still alive—so I can take your life with my own hands!" Without a second of hesitation, Chen Jiuge whipped around and sprinted toward the main doors.

"He ran away?" Wang Wu, who was still standing at the periphery of the grand array, clearly didn't understand what had just happened. "He inexplicably killed Mr. Chen just like that? Who the hell is this guy? Did I just hear them talking about the Underworld Live Show? Are they from the Underworld?"

Chen Jiuge's retreat in Gu Bei's body was incredibly decisive. I froze for a moment. If the brain died, consciousness should dissipate, but that only applied to ordinary people.

Chen Jiuge had mastered the Dream Dao, making his willpower vastly superior to a normal person's. On top of that, it was highly likely he knew some forbidden technique to resurrect his soul in another corpse.

"Not good! He's going to risk it all and try to possess the Uncorrupted Bone with his consciousness!" Ninefold Nether Opening, imperishable and uncorrupted—if Chen Jiuge actually succeeded, the consequences would be catastrophic.

"Writer, hurry up! We're going back to the Underground Ninth Level! He's going after the Uncorrupted Bone!" I tossed Chen Jiuge's corpse aside and immediately bolted after him. Wang Wu still didn't seem to grasp the situation, but he kept his head down and blindly followed me.

The array within the array was failing, the Insect Coffin was destroyed, and all the larvae had been burned to death by my fire. The very second Chen Jiuge's heart stopped beating, the entire Jianghu Cancer Research Hospital was plunged into absolute chaos.

With the White Worms no longer under control, the terrifying Earth Corpses and white fiends were gradually breaking free and reverting to their instincts. They had just crawled out of their water tanks and hadn't had much time, but once they felt hunger, stimulated by fresh blood and vitality, they would very likely break out of the underground! I had a premonition that the Jianghu Cancer Research Hospital was about to become the source of a catastrophic disaster.

Sprinting wildly down the corridor, I didn't have time to worry about any of that. I tracked Chen Jiuge, pursuing him relentlessly.

A few white fiends and Earth Corpses occasionally blocked our path, but without anyone directing them, they were still unaccustomed and disoriented, showing very little aggression.

With the Jade Bone clearing the way, no corpse dared to block my path. I chased him with everything I had, but I was still one step behind.

A few minutes later, I finally emerged from the labyrinthine corridors. The floor tiles vanished, leaving only an unfinished dirt path before me.

Before I knew it, I had reached the Underground Ninth Level.

Rushing to the end of the passage, I found that the white fiends and Earth Corpses here had already scattered. Seizing the opportunity, I slipped into the subterranean cavern housing the Uncorrupted Bone.

Daoist chants echoed through the cavern, where the intense battle had reached a critical moment.

The coffin was densely covered in fractures, and three of the nine dragon poles had already snapped. Positioned in the center, the Suspended Coffin acted like a massive ocean vortex, swallowing and spewing out boundless waves of corpse qi as if aiming to destroy the world, drowning everything inside the cavern.

The weapons of the Eight Immortals bobbed up and down within the corpse qi, their colors dimming. Having arrived a step ahead of me, Chen Jiuge now stood directly in the center of the eight weapons.

He knew how to use the Eight Immortals Coffin Suppression Diagram, and at the same time, he possessed Gu Bei's corpse. With their shared bloodline, the Uncorrupted Bone didn't attack him.

With both sides yielding simultaneously, he easily walked right up to the side of the Suspended Coffin.

"Chen Jiuge!" I shouted, wanting to charge in.

"Don't be in such a hurry! It won't be long before I come looking for you!" Operating Gu Bei's corpse, Chen Jiuge gave me a deep look, then leaped into the Suspended Coffin. "Once I become a demon, I'll make sure you die without a burial place!"