Chapter 105: The Banquet Opens

Use stronger mental methods to suppress mental methods.

Yan Jing looked thoughtful as he turned to Tiger.

"Could you explain that in more detail, Mr. Tiger?"

"I'm not exactly sure what it means myself." Tiger hesitated before continuing. "But Mr. San specifically emphasized that this method only works when you are consciously on guard. Once you are deeply affected and can't remember to stimulate yourself with strong mental methods, the method becomes useless."

Yan Jing's eyes flickered at those words.

Mr. San controlled the Fear Domain and was highly likely an entity of the Fear Pathway.

In that case, Mr. San's method should be the most suitable one for him...

Combined with the methods the others had mentioned earlier, he thought he knew what to do.

"Thank you, Mr. Tiger," he said.

Tiger waved his hands repeatedly.

"It's nothing, it's nothing. It's my honor to be able to help you, Mr. Yi Ji."

"Have Hippo and Mr. Zebra arrived?" Yan Jing asked.

Tiger nodded. "They got here this morning. They told me it was a good thing they didn't come earlier, or they might have been hit by the bombs."

Yan Jing nodded.

"A wise move."

Just then, Yan Jing saw Old Master Liu stand up, walk over to Tiger, and say something else.

Just like after their last meeting, Tiger nodded happily upon hearing it, his eyes shining.

"What exactly is that old man doing?" Yan Jing looked toward Chen Nian.

Chen Nian's gaze remained indifferent.

"Who knows."

"But I do know he's about to lose."

"Heh, impossible!" Old Master Liu had sharp ears. He smugly smoothed down his bodyguard uniform and spoke up.

As they spoke, One-Eye returned.

"How many people? Tell us, Xiao Yan," Old Master Liu urged.

He had bet on 347 people, while Chen Nian had bet on 209.

"209," One-Eye said, blinking.

"Impossible!"

Behind his sunglasses, Old Master Liu's eyes widened.

"Heh."

Chen Nian reached out and shook One-Eye's hand. "The discs and projector I promised you, I'll give them to you in a bit."

"You bribed the referee!" Old Master Liu gasped.

"The rules didn't say I couldn't." The corners of Chen Nian's mouth curled up beneath his mask.

"Isn't there an impartial judge around here to uphold justice?!" Old Master Liu cried out.

"Me." Yan Jing tapped the name tag on his chest. He had already been promoted to Grade D.

"OK, perfect timing!" Old Master Liu swung his right fist and patted Yan Jing on the shoulder. "Yi Ji, my boy, you count them. How many are there exactly?"

Yan Jing then looked carefully across the way.

He soon reached a conclusion.

"209."

"What?!"

Old Master Liu stared with wide eyes, and then watched as Yan Jing and Chen Nian also shook hands.

"You bribed the referee's referee?!" Old Master Liu was furious. "I am very disappointed in the competitive sports of your Domain!"

"Old Master Liu, has no one ever done this where you're from?" Yan Jing asked as he counted the two hundred Eerie Coins he had just received.

"At most, they take performance-enhancing drugs!"

"Tch—"

The crowd scattered—those who needed to work went off to work, and those who ran shops went to open them.

...

...

The next day.

Today, everyone in the Tower was given a day off, except for the staff hosting the banquet.

And the group from Rotten Vegetable Village, acting as special guests, were invited to prepare a dish for the main table.

Naturally, it was the Heavenly Fried Rice.

However, before the evening banquet began, they were free to do as they pleased.

Today, the main reception hall on the first floor was an absolute sea of people.

From early morning, there were performances on the stage, set to continue right up until the banquet started.

Old Master Liu and Old Chen ran off to compete with each other right after breakfast.

Holding Mantou's hand, with Rose and One-Eye trailing behind, Yan Jing walked into the dining area. Using his Grade D name tag, he secured a table near the back and settled in to watch the show.

The performers were mostly Tower employees, putting on a mix of singing and poetry recitations. Yan Jing listened for a while and found them to be strictly amateur; even the good singers were just slightly better amateurs at best.

However, midway through, a singer from Solitude Lane took the stage. The moment they opened their mouth, the entire audience was captivated.

The singing was melodious, brimming with emotion, and beautifully lilting. Faint traces of weird energy seemed woven into the voice itself, making the listeners feel a profound urge to weep.

One-Eye and Rose listened with tearful eyes, a massive pile of used tissues accumulating on their table.

Mantou didn't feel much of anything, as the voice inside her body shielded her from the weird energy.

'The Pride of this Domain is only at this level. At most, it can trick these sheltered Gluttony folks.'

'It's not even as good as that old geezer's stories. They should have invited him up to speak instead.'

"D-don't say that about G-Grandfather Liu..."

Mantou furrowed her brows, suppressing the voice in her mind.

In front of her, Rose, overcome with emotion, turned around and threw her arms around Mantou, bawling loudly.

"Waaaah—waaah—waaah— (It's so touching, Miss Mantou, boo-hoo!)"

Mantou hurriedly patted Rose's back, quietly comforting her.

Just as the hall was filled with the sound of collective sobbing, a sudden, low groan shattered the emotional atmosphere everyone had built up.

The sound was so filled with agony that the crowd couldn't help but turn their eyes toward Mantou's group.

Seeing this, Yan Jing hurriedly clutched his profusely bleeding thigh, forcing a smile onto his face.

"Sorry to disturb everyone. Please, keep listening to the song. Don't mind me."

"Ugh—"

Even as he spoke, a wave of phantom pain washed over him. He couldn't stop himself from dropping his head and letting out another low groan, the veins bulging on his neck.

He had only ever used the Fear Thorn on others before. Experiencing it firsthand, he hadn't expected it to hurt this much.

And this was just from covertly stabbing himself with a thorn from a Fear Seed.

He hadn't expected the Fear Tree's power to increase so drastically after upgrading to the purple-black tier. A single prick had ripped open a massive gash, leaving his mind completely blank for a moment.

Seeing this, Mantou panicked immediately. She and Rose hurriedly ran off to fetch tissues and bandages.

Along the way, she accidentally bumped into a figure draped in a white robe.

"S-sorry... I'm s-sorry..."

Mantou quickly apologized.

"It's fine," the figure replied, then added softly, "As long as you die, everything will be fine..."

"S-sorry... what... what did you s-say... I didn't... didn't catch that..."

Thinking the figure had said something to her, Mantou apologized again.

But the person had already walked away.

"Waaah—waaah— (Don't mind her, let's hurry up.)"

Rose said.

"O-okay... okay..."

Mantou quickly tossed the incident to the back of her mind; right now, Yan Jing was the most important thing.

Soon, the two returned with bandages and wrapped up Yan Jing's wound.

"Y-Yi Ji... does... does it still hurt...?"

Mantou's face was full of heartache as she reached out a trembling hand, using a tissue to wipe the beads of sweat from Yan Jing's neck.

"I'm fine, Mantou."

Yan Jing forced a smile onto his face.

"I tested it out. This method is indeed pretty good."

Hearing this, Mantou pressed her lips together and didn't speak. She simply lowered her head and gently wiped the area around Yan Jing's wound with a tissue.

She was simple-minded and didn't understand the things Yan Jing talked about.

She just didn't want to see Yan Jing in so much pain.