Chapter 253: The End of the Super-Large Dungeon

Bai Qiu was dead.

Reduced to a withered skeleton in his bloodstained white suit, he clung tightly to Yan Jing's hand in his final moments, treating him like a last lifeline.

The two had never actually been close. During his brief interactions with Luo Sheng, he had only feigned offering help when Luo Sheng returned to Bianliu County.

And from the moment he crossed paths with Yan Jing, they had been enemies.

Yet he gripped Yan Jing's hand tightly. In his eyes, whether it was Yan Jing or Luo Sheng, they were merely enemies—there was no personal grudge between them.

Enemies were enemies, and grudges were grudges.

In Minhu, these two things had always been clearly separated.

With this, among Bianliu County's Fourth Tiers, only that last West Street Artisan remained.

The rest had all died.

Of course, there was one other Fourth Tier who hadn't been in the county to begin with.

Old Master Liu dragged in Tang Lian, whose pupils had already lost their focus. He looked at Yan Jing, feeling rather ashamed.

"Young Master, she's dead. She used a strange method, and I couldn't stop it in time."

"It's fine."

Yan Jing looked at Tang Lian. He felt completely indifferent, but he deliberately let a hint of sorrow show.

"Bury her. Have the Advisor handle it."

"You got it."

The Old Man agreed.

[You are gradually approaching Luo Sheng's long-cherished wish.]

This phrase had appeared again.

The blackness in Yan Jing's eyes gradually faded, and the Little Bird on his shoulder vanished along with it.

The dungeon wasn't over yet. Logically, there were still some players hiding in the dark that needed to be dealt with; otherwise, they would have to wait for the console's power to run out.

But this no longer mattered.

After seeing Old Master Liu's performance just now, no one was going to jump out and court death.

Yan Jing and the Old Man gathered the corpses of the Fourth Tiers one by one. Afterward, the Old Man returned to the Lin Estate, while Yan Jing fetched a handcart meant for hauling vegetables and straw, loading the bodies onto it.

He pushed the cart from Feinan Temple around to North Street, then through East Street, West Street, and South Street, before finally leaving the city, parading it through every domain once more.

The Inner World residents living in these territories watched the scene through the cracks in their doors.

Upon seeing "Advisor Yan" pushing the bodies of those Fourth Tiers, the same thought surfaced in everyone's minds:

"Bianliu County has changed masters!"

"From now on, this place takes the surname Luo!"

Finally, Yan Jing pushed the cart toward one of Lin Changgui's fields on North Street.

In the vast crop fields, a gust of wind sent the wheat rippling like ocean waves.

At the intersection of the field ridges sat an extremely inconspicuous little dirt mound.

Yan Jing carried the bones over to the mound, dug open a small, prepared pit beside it, and placed a symbolic piece of each Fourth Tier's remains inside.

The abbot's hand and wooden fish, Boss Bai's white suit, the mechanist's wooden puppet, the West Street Artisan's coal briquette...

As for the rest of the corpses, Yan Jing set them ablaze.

Flesh and bone crackled in the scorching fire. Amidst the billowing black smoke, Yan Jing looked at the little dirt mound. He took out the joss paper he had just acquired in East Street and tore it up piece by piece.

Once it was torn, Yan Jing tossed the joss paper into the flames, the roiling firelight reflecting in his eyes.

"Commander Wei, here is the joss paper you asked for. I'm burning it for you."

"The people who tried to kill you back then—except for that Carving Cultivator—have all come to accompany you."

"I won't kill him for now. He followed me all this way without any ulterior motives. Now that he's met Old Master Liu, he won't dare have any funny ideas anyway. Treat it as a little selfish indulgence of mine."

"I buried your son here with you. I hadn't come to see you before, but it wasn't because I forgot."

"Before you died back then, I was the one who struck the final blow. There are too many messy accounts that can't be settled clearly. If you hadn't died then, you might have ended up just like them later. Let's just say you were unlucky to run into me."

"And let's say they were all unlucky, too."

"Let's leave it at that. As long as I'm alive and still in Minhu, I'll fulfill my promise and come burn paper for you every year."

The flames finally died down little by little. Yan Jing stamped out the paper ashes, headed back, and went to sit in the courtyard of the Lin Estate for a while.

The Old Man had gone out to check on Bi Jie.

Only Tiger and Fei Yu were in the yard. For the first time, Yan Jing drank the Herbal Tea brewed by Xiao Yu in his original body.

It was even more bitter than when he used Luo Sheng's body. He suspected that body had already built up a tolerance to the Herbal Tea.

He sat there from late morning until the afternoon, putting on a show of switching identities to chat with them for a bit. Finally, a system prompt appeared before Yan Jing's eyes.

[Dungeon settlement in progress...]

[Task "Clear the Cheat!!!" settled. The player successfully evaded pursuit, counter-killed one Fourth Tier, and used the hands of others to counter-kill several more. Task evaluation: S+ (highest grade: S+).]

[Overall Dungeon Rating: S+]

[Reward settlement in progress. Basic reward: No basic reward for C-stage.]

[S+ Evaluation Extra Reward: Inner World Diamond Box] [Personal Title Extra Reward: Congratulations, your Personal Title has been advanced and updated.]

[Personal Title: Chaos Missionary]

[Title Description: You hold high the banner of chaos. Everywhere you go, a wave of chaos is immediately stirred up, letting the flames of chaos burn the land clean. Title Effect: For any of your dungeons, you may choose between Chaos Mode and Normal Mode. In Chaos Mode, the difficulty will be drastically increased, and the rewards will also be drastically increased.] [Other players participating in the dungeon with you will also enter Chaos Mode. They will learn this news on the day they enter the dungeon. Your penalty for mission failure is slightly reduced.] [Ding! Player Leaderboards updated! You have entered the top 20 of the Yueyin Sector Player Leaderboard! You have entered the Southeast Sector Player Leaderboard!]

[Countdown to forced exit from the Inner World: 00:10:00]

[The next dungeon will commence in one month. The task will be issued in one week!]

A Diamond Box, the ability to pull other players into Chaos Mode, reduced mission failure penalties, the Southeast Sector Player Leaderboard...

A region even larger than Yueyin, and the next dungeon taking place in a month.

Yan Jing quickly grasped the key information from these rewards.

Then, he bid farewell to everyone in the courtyard:

"I'm heading out, everyone."

"Come back and visit often, Advisor Xiao Yan! If your future missions are in Bianliu County, we can look out for each other."

Tiger waved his hand.

"Bye, Advisor Xiao Yan. Come over for tea more often."

Fei Yu said.

"Advisor! Have a safe trip! And thank you for the medicine!"

The Old Man cupped his fists.

Just then, a flock of pitch-black Little Birds fluttered out and surrounded Yan Jing. Then, Luo Sheng's voice rang out:

"See you later, Advisor!"

"Alright, see you later, everyone!"

Yan Jing used his threads to revert his voice back to normal.

Then, he vanished from the Inner World.

Not long after he disappeared, the people in the courtyard watched as beams of blue light gradually converged from the edge of their vision, gathering toward the Lake just as they had when the dungeon first began.

This clash of Prohibited Items...

...was finally over.

Everyone felt a considerable weight lift from their shoulders.

Luo Sheng walked out of the room at this moment:

"Old Man, go call Inspector Bi and Inspector Liu; let's chat over dinner. Huzi, go to Tranquil Valley to find Mr. Yi Ji and ask how his matters are being handled. Xiao Yu..."

He looked at Fei Yu. Seeing her blink her big eyes in anticipation, he smiled helplessly.

"Prepare the food and tea!"

After he finished speaking, amidst Fei Yu's cheers, Luo Sheng walked back into the room. "I'll rest for a bit."

Surface World.

Yan Jing quickly picked up his phone and called Shen Youran:

"Teacher Shen, I'm out. Everything is fine, but right now I—"

"Xiao Yanzi, as long as you're fine. I have to step out right now for that matter I mentioned to you last time. I'll be back later—"

Both of them paused in surprise at the same time.

What a coincidence; they both had things to do.

Then there was no rush.

"Alright, let's talk tonight."

Yan Jing finalized the time.

"Okay."

Shen Youran hung up the phone and looked at herself in the mirror.

Today, she wore minimalist black slacks and a white dress shirt tucked into the waistband. She had specially chosen a pair of thin-framed glasses and pinned her hair up at the back of her head.

Her fox-like eyes narrowed slightly.

Her makeup was flawless. Her outfit was flawless. Her gaze was flawless.

Excellent. Perfect.

Then, she slipped in an earpiece. "Can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear."

The twintailed girl on the other end replied.

"Just like before, cut the comms signal when we meet, and rely on Xiao Ran for indirect communication."

This was the safest method when meeting with big shots.

Today she was going to meet a person named Zhou Zimo, Wang Changnian's secretary.

The other party had arranged the meeting in advance, and she could easily guess they were going to discuss Xiao Yanzi.

After receiving news from Lin Xiaoran that Yan Jing was fine, she had readied herself to head out, just waiting for Yan Jing's phone call to confirm he was safe.

Truth be told, she wasn't too nervous.

After all, Wang Changnian was only at the Sixth Tier. Back in the day, her father had also been at this Tier, and the Seed her grandfather invested in had even reached the Seventh Rank.

Besides, this time she was only meeting a secretary.

"You can do it, you can do it, you can do it!"

She cheered herself on.

However, she forgot she was still wearing the earpiece. On the other end of the line, the twintailed girl burst into roaring laughter.

Stepping out the door and arriving at the main road, she saw a black sedan already waiting by the curb.

Getting into the car, she saw Zhou Zimo.

Dressed in a professional suit with crystal pendants dangling from her ears, her oval face was fair, and her entire being exuded flawless beauty. Seeing Shen Youran get in, Zhou Zimo gave the driver a nod.

Receiving the signal through the rearview mirror, the driver started the car.

The car had no fixed destination; it simply kept driving in circles along the highway.

This was the venue for their meeting.

"She's in the car!" the twintailed girl announced to Lin Xiaoran over the earpiece.

"Hold on, I'm not there yet." Lin Xiaoran, who had exited her own dungeon not long ago, was rushing toward the location.

When she was about a kilometer or two away, the phantom of an old-fashioned camera materialized behind her and rose into the sky.

This was her Ritual ability, called the Heavenly Eye.

It could fly up to take photos and record video within a certain range. Normally, from a distance of a kilometer or two, the footage would be exceptionally blurry.

But one of the twintailed girl's abilities was Mechanical Upgrade, which perfectly enhanced Lin Xiaoran's Ritual ability.

The twintailed girl's other ability was called Mechanical Grafting.

Simply put, it allowed her to graft the functions of two mechanical devices she created onto each other.

For example, Shen Youran's earpiece was already jammed right now. However, through the effect of the graft, Lin Xiaoran's camera served as the earpiece. She could still hear Shen Youran's words, just through a camera floating far away in the sky.

This was the synergy between Rituals.

"We likely won't be able to accept the conditions Miss Shen has proposed."

Zhou Zimo spoke softly.

Shen Youran had just laid out the conditions for Yan Jing to accept Wang Changnian's Seed quota, making her realize the depths of this woman's greed.

She even suspected that Shen Youran was using this method to reject Wang Changnian. Perhaps Yan Jing had already accepted an offer from someone else behind their backs.

"My intentions are Xiao Yanzi's intentions."

Shen Youran replied just as softly.

Zhou Zimo pursed her lips.

Her original intention was to speak with Yan Jing directly. The woman in front of her was a bit tough to deal with.

But upon hearing Shen Youran's name, Wang Changnian had specifically asked to speak with her first.

As for resorting to violence... what era was this? If you had your eye on someone and wanted to nurture them, how could you use force—

"So, Miss Shen is dissatisfied with our pressure-based cultivation plan?"

The concept she proposed was a plan personally approved by Wang Changnian, aiming to apply artificial pressure on Yan Jing to spur him into competing with the other Seeds.

"Of course I'm dissatisfied."

Shen Youran narrowed her fox-like eyes.

"First of all, our Xiao Yanzi doesn't need so-called artificial pressure. He is outstanding enough as he is. If you have Domain Chief Wang meet him in person, he will definitely come to the same conclusion."

"Someone this exceptional would have been discovered long ago if placed anywhere outside of Yueyin. To be blunt, it's only because Yueyin's management strategies have run into problems in recent years that Domain Chief Wang even got the chance to find Xiao Yanzi."

Hearing Shen Youran's words, Zhou Zimo frowned.

She felt that the Shen Youran in front of her was being a bit too confident.

Furthermore, she spoke far too bluntly.

"Secondly, this method of cultivating talent through competition, akin to raising Gu insects, is completely outdated!"

Shen Youran's tone was resolute and decisive.

"You and I both know that Domain Chief Wang doesn't lack resources; he just doesn't know who to spend them on. Look at the factions that have already risen to power. Who among them is still playing those old games of internal division, having veteran geniuses suppress the newcomers?"

"The neighboring Beast Lord and Tianzi don't play this game, and the First Ring Domain and Second Ring Domain definitely don't play it anymore either."

"What good end can a faction meet by using such an obsolete routine? Haven't you seen the consequences the Eight Major Families are facing right now?"

"Moreover, pardon my bluntness, but even without Domain Chief Wang, our Xiao Yanzi can absolutely reach the Summit."

The Summit?!

Hearing the word Summit, Zhou Zimo's eyes widened. In all of Yueyin, there was only one person who had reached the Summit, and that was the domain lord!

Hearing Shen Youran mention reaching the Summit now, she simply couldn't accept it.

Shen Youran, however, seemed to have guessed Zhou Zimo's reaction long ago. She tilted her head and smiled.

"You see, this is the reason for Yueyin's decline."

"You all forgot long ago that the true meaning of a Seed is someone with the potential to reach the Summit."

"If they don't even dare to aim for the Summit, what kind of Seed are they? I will always believe that my investee can reach the Summit."

"This is my confidence in him! It's not just some empty talk meant for your ears."

Looking at Shen Youran's captivating face, Zhou Zimo fell into silence.

She began to sense the charm of the woman beside her, but trailing right behind it was an even greater pressure.

Listening to Shen Youran's words through the earpiece, the twintailed girl sighed in admiration.

"She really thinks highly of that monster. She's even crazier than she used to be."

"Yeah. This is where Big Sister Shen's charm lies, isn't it?"

Lin Xiaoran straightened her beret. Recalling the scene of Yan Jing slowly pushing the corpses of the Fourth Tiers down the street at the end, she chuckled.

"But going forward, I think all the surrounding cities in our entire Fifth Ring Domain will support that man. Sometimes, it's not that people no longer believe; it's just that they've been unable to see hope for so long that they've grown numb."