Chapter 130: Face Swap

"Not so great."

"I think that historian was absolutely right."

Chen Nian stood up and spoke slowly.

"That place of yours specializes in churning out lunatics."

With that, he started walking toward the right.

"It's a bit like where we're from."

Leaving those final words behind, his figure gradually vanished into the boundless night.

Meanwhile, Yu Xiran's group was steadily retreating toward the rear right. The two Second Tiers had directly tucked Yu Xiran and Yu Ling under their arms, moving at breakneck speed.

However, when that dark moon arrived at terrifying speed, both of them were startled.

This dark moon was absolutely not an attack that an ordinary Second Tier could unleash.

Their enemy this time was likely unprecedentedly powerful.

The moment this thought surfaced, the Second Tier carrying Yu Ling immediately set her down.

Tentacles frantically sprouted from his abdomen once more, bundling together as they blasted toward the dark moon.

With a deafening boom, the tentacles were ground away bit by bit by the dark moon. Blood scattered like rain under the night sky, plummeting into the darkness and dyeing the black earth crimson.

A wretched scream tore through the heavens, making the blood run cold in anyone who heard it.

Aside from Yu Xiran's group, no one could have imagined that such a miserable shriek came from a Second Tier.

It wasn't until more than half the tentacles on the Second Tier's abdomen were obliterated that the dark moon was finally ground down to nothing.

But before they could even catch their breath, a beam of light suddenly materialized, instantly illuminating the night sky.

Faint, drifting clouds were scattered across the illuminated sky. They looked impossibly distant from the black earth, appearing extremely high and ethereal.

But no one had the time to appreciate the sight.

Because right on the heels of that single beam came an endless, densely packed barrage of countless others.

They plummeted like a torrential downpour, leaving the group with absolutely nowhere to run.

"What Pathway is this?!"

The Second Tier guarding Yu Xiran cried out in shock. Tentacles burst from her abdomen as well, thrashing wildly to form a barrier that intercepted the rain of light.

Sizzle—

Plumes of white smoke billowed the moment the glowing rain made contact with the tentacles, filling the air with the stench of charred flesh.

The Second Tier was not having an easy time either. The light rain seemed to harbor some insidious power; upon landing, it clung to her tentacles and continuously gnawed at her flesh and blood.

However, compared to the fist winds from earlier, this newly arrived Second Tier was noticeably weaker.

And most importantly—the fist winds had stopped.

This seemed like a prime opportunity.

The guard responsible for protecting Yu Ling roared, "Meng Yu! There are two of them in total—go find that earlier Second Tier!"

"Got it!"

From within the dark night came the response of Meng Yu, the Second Tier from Sleepland.

Sleepland had two Second Tiers present. As long as Meng Yu could kill one of the enemy Second Tiers, the remaining one would be entirely at their mercy.

Meanwhile, Chen Nian's eyes flickered. Through his thermal imaging visor, the silhouettes of the group opposite him were laid bare.

His right arm had fully transformed into a pitch-black cannon, continuously firing beams fused with Weird Energy.

Watching the display in the upper right corner of his vision show the first backup energy block gradually depleting, he felt for a split second that he had truly gone mad, acting no different from those drugged-up junkies back in his hometown.

To think he would actually do something this insane.

But upon hearing that the enemy was preparing to take the offensive, his gaze darkened once more.

When the Old Man had made his move just moments ago, the enemy had only known how to retreat. Yet now that he was the one attacking, they actually dared to seize the initiative.

Contrasting the two reactions, the gap in strength seemed rather obvious...

He let out a long breath.

Taking a deep breath, his Weird Energy surged as he chose to directly crank the temperature up by two hundred degrees.

Simultaneously, the firing rate increased by 15%.

Power output rose by 20%.

Weird Energy particle fusion efficiency spiked by 50%.

Ammunition biological factor ratio increased by 30%.

Boom, boom, boom, boom!

The torrential downpour of beams expanded its area of effect even further. As they pounded the black earth, rolling clouds of white smoke billowed upward, forming a dense fog thick with an acrid, burning stench.

Carpet bombing!

To prevent himself from feeling like a madman again, he simply went ahead and temporarily blocked the neural network systems in his brain associated with crisis processing.

Timer set for five minutes.

The two Second Tiers on the opposing side were now suffering unspeakably.

They had originally assumed this attacker was weaker than the previous one, but they never expected his firepower to suddenly ramp up to this extent!

Swish—

Finally, a beam pierced through the last line of defense of the Second Tier who had intercepted the dark moon earlier, punching a bloody hole straight through his waist.

"Retreat! Retreat!"

That Second Tier shouted at the top of his lungs, deciding to abandon Yu Ling, whom he had been shielding behind him.

To his surprise, however, Yu Xiran vehemently refused.

"Xiran, this isn't the time to act on emotion!" the Second Tier barked sternly.

If Yu Xiran was his only remaining protection target, he could take the initiative to attack like Sleepland's Meng Yu and try to break out of this current predicament.

But Yu Xiran shook her head.

"Are you confident you can defeat them?"

Amidst the hail of gunfire, Yu Xiran's words cut straight to the heart of the matter. Indeed, the strength the enemy was displaying right now was absolutely crushing, and no one could guarantee there weren't even more people waiting in the wings.

Right at that very moment, the group suddenly noticed the faint, hulking silhouette of a colossal giant emerging in the distant night sky.

A furious roar tore from its throat as it slowly advanced toward them step by step.

This sight made the expressions of the two Second Tiers even uglier.

"It's that group from the Mad Amusement Park. Someone among them advanced to the Second Tier?"

If that person wasn't a Second Tier, there was no way they would dare to actively seek them out.

In an instant, the two Second Tiers felt that tonight spelled almost certain doom.

The bombardment of light continued relentlessly.

Yu Xiran spoke slowly, "Let me go. Their target is Yu Ling."

The two Second Tiers were momentarily stunned by her words.

Before they could figure out what she meant, Weird Energy surged from the 'Yu Ling' standing behind the man. She turned her back and stealthily peeled a mask off her face.

Beneath the mask was, shockingly, the face of Yu Xiran.

Looking at the two bewildered guards, the 'Yu Ling' who had just slipped the mask back on said, "This was Mother's instruction. She had Ling'er and me swap identities to ensure no accidents occurred."

"Now, one of you will cover my retreat. The other will help Ling'er escape first, then come back for me."

The two dazed guards exchanged a glance and ultimately chose to believe her.

And so, they split into two directions, each taking one person as they retreated outward.

As expected, the frenzied artillery fire chased after the real Yu Xiran.

Because 'Yu Ling' had hidden behind the Second Tier when removing the mask, and the action itself was extremely discreet, it was naturally impossible for Chen Nian to notice the face swap through their blurry silhouettes.

Meanwhile, an imperceptible glint of smugness flashed through the eyes of the 'Yu Xiran' being carried away by the other Second Tier.

The face swap was her final insurance policy.

And the item she used was, naturally, the treasure the Disguiser had buried in Sleepland.

This insurance allowed her to normally operate under a highly scrutinized, public identity, but when the critical moment arrived, if the enemy wanted to make a move against Yu Xiran, she would simply cease to be Yu Xiran.

This inevitably reminded her of her last encounter with that man in the Sun-Swallowing Tower.

At the time, seized by a sudden bout of playfulness, she had proactively revealed herself by whispering into his ear.

She had originally just wanted to see the flustered look on that guy's face.

But as it turned out, that guy didn't seem to remember a single thing.

Moreover, he seemed to have completely changed.

And he was surrounded by a bunch of weirdos...

The relentless pressure from those people forced her to ultimately reveal the real Yu Xiran's face at the very end—which was, in fact, her own face.

In truth, she hadn't wanted to expose herself. For her, figuring out a way to kill that guy from behind the scenes was the safest approach.

He knew far too many of her secrets.

Her purpose for coming here this time was naturally to uncover the memories he had buried in this place.

She hadn't expected him to push things that far. Left with no choice, she was forced to reveal her trump card.

She had the fake Yu Ling show him her face.

It was the perfect opportunity to test if he had truly forgotten her.

And if he hadn't, what exactly his attitude toward her was now.

If it was hatred, it meant he had lied to her back then and hadn't actually deleted his memories.

Furthermore, he would have learned through the Disguiser that she was the mastermind behind the scenes.

In that case, she would push the real Yu Xiran forward and let that guy kill her.

Once that happened, she would have a legitimate excuse to capture him and execute him openly.

On the other hand, if that guy was still foolishly in love with her like before, then she would have the chance to bring that adorable fool back under her control.

She remembered him saying that even if he deleted his memories, seeing associated things would still trigger vague recollections.

He had even stupidly told her back then that if he ever truly erased his memories, she had to promise to recount all those lost memories to him the day they met again.

Heh, how cute.

But it seemed the guy really had wiped his memories. He hadn't shown any emotional fluctuations upon seeing her face.

Now that was even more interesting...

She began plotting how she would pretend to bump into him later and reenact their whole story from the start. Just thinking about it was highly amusing.

But suddenly, she felt the Second Tier carrying her come to an abrupt halt.

Her heart skipped a beat as she quickly lifted her head and looked forward.

A well-proportioned figure slowly emerged from the rolling white fog. This figure wore a cardboard box with two eye holes cut into it over his head, and in his hand, he carried a black-and-white Thorn Spear.

With a mere flick of the spear tip, both the white mist and the pitch-black night were churned and dispersed like clouds. Currents of air coiled around the weapon, making him look like a divine warrior descending from the heavens.

He exuded an aura of being truly Peerless in this world.