Chapter 631: The Source of the Mutation in Old Sin City (Two in One)

"You looked pretty sharp earlier, kid. I saw the whole thing."

The Old Man crossed the distance in two quick strides, moving with his usual wind-like swiftness. He instantly appeared in front of Chen Nian, craning his neck to look him up and down. "Why are you wrapped in even more stuff now?"

"I'm preparing to break through. I've reached the final barrier." Chen Nian's expression was calm. He had nothing to hide from the people in front of him, so he spoke frankly, revealing that stripping away his flesh and blood actually held a deeper meaning.

"Breaking through..."

The Old Man naturally placed his hand on Chen Nian's wrist.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. You really are only at the Sixth Tier."

"Have you been taking drugs, kid?"

He had witnessed Chen Nian send that ninth Mechanical Emperor flying with a single punch. Sensing Chen Nian's true tier now, he still found it somewhat unbelievable.

Chen Nian smiled bitterly.

"Mr. Cat lent a hand, otherwise I wouldn't have had any strength left to trade blows with that Mechanical Emperor," he explained. "He was much stronger than he showed. He was only sent flying because he wasn't prepared for my sudden surge in strength. He probably noticed Mr. Cat's presence beside me, which is why he hasn't shown up again."

"Mr. Cat..." The Old Man stroked his chin.

"Is it a cat?"

Chen Nian nodded.

"A friend of Mr. Luo Sheng's."

"The young master's friend!" The Old Man understood now.

To be friends with his young master, it had to be an excellent cat.

"One of our own. I definitely need to meet him if I get the chance."

The Old Man rubbed his hands together.

"Come on, we haven't played cards in a long time. Let's play a hand."

"We haven't finished this one yet,"

Yan Jing said helplessly.

"You can't possibly win."

Grinning, the Old Man flipped his cards around to show Yan Jing.

He actually held a 2 and both Jokers.

Yan Jing laughed out of sheer annoyance.

"You didn't call the Landlord with a hand like this?!"

"You can't blame me. Who told you to call the Landlord with the kind of hand you had, Xiao Yi?"

Chuckling, the Old Man prepared to organize his cards.

Yan Jing laid four 7s and four 9s down in front of him.

Then he spread out his remaining hand: a 2 and three Kings.

The Old Man's expression froze. He stared at the cards, his eyes darting around, before sweeping his hand across the table to gather all the cards into a pile.

"Well, you never know how a game of Fight the Landlord will go until you play it. Ah, Xiao Yi, you should've said something earlier! If you'd told me, we would've kept playing," the Old Man said, shuffling briskly. "Come on, come on, let's start a new hand."

Everyone smiled knowingly at the Old Man's shamelessness, and the card game truly started anew just like that.

After drawing their cards, Chen Nian became the Landlord for this round. Without even looking at his hand, he spoke up.

"Actually, I have a theory."

"Play your cards first. We can talk after you play," the Old Man urged.

Chen Nian finally looked at his hand. After a moment of thought, he played a 10.

"Starting with a 10?!"

The Old Man's eyes widened.

Across the table, Tiger frowned at his cards. After thinking for a long time, he let out a sigh.

"Pass."

Pass?!

The Old Man's eyes widened even further.

He looked at his own cards, deliberated over and over, and finally gritted his teeth and played a Queen.

"Jack Bomb."

Chen Nian tossed out four cards.

A Jack bomb?! The Old Man was no fool. He immediately reached over to flip Chen Nian's hand.

Four 2s, four Aces, and the Big Joker. That 10 from earlier had even been broken out of a four-of-a-kind 10 bomb. He didn't have a single card lower than a 10 in his entire hand. "You cheated, kid!" the Old Man said indignantly.

Chen Nian shrugged, not denying it.

"That's not right. We all swore this was a fair competition—"

Halfway through his sentence, the Old Man suddenly remembered that Chen Nian hadn't sworn any such thing. He immediately leaned back and sprawled out on the floor.

"Morals are decaying! The world is going to the dogs!"

"So, Mr. Chen, what's your theory?"

Tiger looked at Chen Nian, wanting to hear his guess about the item capable of causing the mutation in Old Sin City.

Chen Nian spoke softly.

"First, the timing of when that item appeared."

"I think that rather than trying to guess its spatial location, pinning down the time frame might be more reliable."

"When did the mutation begin?"

He looked at the group.

The Old Man's upper body popped up like a swing, sitting up steadily as he pondered.

"Seems like it was just a week ago... No, probably even earlier. After all, if the news reached an obscure corner like Minhu, it must have already been spreading for a few days."

"But... it definitely hasn't been two weeks."

Tiger nodded.

"I found out about eight or nine days ago, but I caught a glimpse of Old Sin City's destiny changing even earlier than that, roughly fifteen or sixteen days ago." Yan Jing shook his head.

"No, that was merely when the mutation began to undergo a qualitative shift."

"If we're talking about when the first signs of the mutation appeared, it would trace back to... over a month ago."

"Mantou said that over a month ago, everyone's tiers started experiencing completely unreasonable changes."

"But I feel... it should be even earlier than that."

Yan Jing's eyes flickered.

"Actually, ever since Old Sin City began its return, I felt that the residents' tiers were skyrocketing a bit too fast. You should know more about this than me, Old Chen."

"Yes." Chen Nian nodded.

"Here is the statistical chart for the tier progression of all the residents."

Chen Nian tapped his arm a few times, and a massive spreadsheet materialized in the air. The chart detailed the tier fluctuation levels of every resident, alongside the tier growth data previously compiled for residents of the Inner World.

The chart was highly professional, featuring comparisons, trends, conversion data, and even statistics and analyses for special cases.

As everyone studied the curves, they quickly and clearly realized that the growth rate of Old Sin City's residents was indeed at an extremely abnormal level. "At first, I thought this speed might be a blowout phenomenon caused by Old Sin City's tier cap being suppressed for too long. But as everyone's progress accelerated faster and faster, I changed my mind."

Chen Nian spoke slowly.

"I just never expected that the item affecting Old Sin City would actually involve the power of the Demigod Realm."

Yan Jing looked at the series of data, his eyes gleaming.

"What we can be certain of now is that the item has likely been inside Old Sin City this whole time."

"Furthermore... it should be connected to Old Sin City's return."

In terms of timing, the mutation only began after Old Sin City started its return.

"Then it's related to Sin City."

Tiger said slowly.

"Indeed, the rumors also say that an item related to Sin City is hidden here."

"But... what exactly is it?"

He couldn't calculate it. This was normal; if he could, those entities from Sin City would have long since dragged the Path of Destiny into the search. But in reality, they couldn't even pinpoint Old Sin City's location.

"Wouldn't we know if we just found someone from Sin City and asked?" The Old Man rolled up his sleeves.

"Sin City definitely sent people this time, right?"

"They did come."

Tiger frowned.

"But he doesn't seem to be here."

He...

A hint of confusion flashed through Chen Nian's eyes. He knew Tiger was referring to Sin City's only Tenth Tier existence.

Truth be told, he also found it strange. Logically speaking, that existence shouldn't have passed up this opportunity.

According to their information, that person had been searching for this item in Old Sin City for some unknown purpose.

"He probably snuck in," Tiger said.

"I'll do a reading later to see if I can calculate his general location. If he doesn't have an item that blocks divination on him, finding his position shouldn't be hard."

"No, there's no need to calculate."

Yan Jing suddenly stood up. Under everyone's puzzled gazes, his palm shimmered. A second later, a deathly pale corpse appeared before them, causing everyone's pupils to shrink in unison.

That appearance, those weird energy fluctuations... Without a doubt, this corpse belonged to the Tenth Tier existence from Sin City they were looking for.

The Wrath Emperor.

This once-in-a-millennium genius of Sin City now lay freezing cold before them, utterly devoid of life.

"I killed him."

Yan Jing spoke softly.

"When Old Sin City was returning, he made Mantou suffer quite a few grievances."

Actually, there was no need to explain the reason...

The same thought surfaced in everyone's minds simultaneously.

"But things are a bit tricky now."

Yan Jing murmured to himself, looking at the Wrath Emperor's corpse. After a moment, he grabbed the body and walked toward the door. "I'm going to try something."

"Stay here and don't wander off."

Listening to Yan Jing's words and watching his figure gradually disappear, the three of them were momentarily stunned.

Why did that sound so much like a parent lecturing kids?

But...

Almost instantly, the three tossed the thought to the back of their minds.

Wasn't it great having someone to back them up?

All three were the type who desperately craved a laid-back life. They quickly restarted their game of Fight the Landlord.

The only difference was a rule change: from "no one can use abilities" to "everyone can use abilities."

Carrying the Wrath Emperor's corpse, Yan Jing walked into a secluded room.

The room wasn't large; it only had a table and a bed.

On the bed, Mantou was sleeping soundly.

This was exactly the room Yi Ji had used in Rotten Vegetable Village back then.

Yan Jing had kept one detail from his good brothers.

He actually already had a guess about the location of the item capable of changing Old Sin City.

It was just...

The location was a bit too complicated, which was why he hadn't mentioned it to them.

He first walked over to the bed to check on Mantou. After confirming she was fine, he went to the table, arranged the Wrath Emperor's corpse, and took out his Paintbrush.

The Paintbrush trembled slightly. With weird energy acting as ink, he began to draw in the air.

Vivid, lifelike scenes emerged in midair.

"Has the location of that item been confirmed?"

The Wrath Emperor stood up and looked at the subordinate who had brought the news.

"It's confirmed, My Lord. It is absolutely in Old Sin City."

The subordinate spoke, unrolling a map in front of the Wrath Emperor.

Just as the image on the map was about to materialize, the Paintbrush in the air suddenly paused, jerking to a halt for a second. Then...

The Paintbrush shuddered violently, continuing to draw as if locked in a struggle with some unseen force.

Feeling the weird energy draining from his body like a burst dam, Yan Jing actively pressed the Paintbrush to a halt.

It wasn't that the Paintbrush lacked power.

It was that he wasn't strong enough yet.

There was no need to make the Paintbrush bear the risk.

The halted Paintbrush rolled back and forth in Yan Jing's palm, as if crying and throwing a tantrum.

Yan Jing gently stroked the barrel of the brush with his fingers to comfort it, then bypassed drawing the item's full appearance and continued painting the scene.

"Good, good, good."

The Wrath Emperor looked at the item in the drawing, overjoyed.

"This is it. Well done. Can you pinpoint a more specific location?"

The subordinate shook his head. The Wrath Emperor didn't criticize him too harshly.

"It's fine. I will make a trip there personally."

"But I need to make some preparations first."

The subordinate withdrew.

Alone, the Wrath Emperor gazed at the blurry drawing and said softly, "Found it. I finally found it. With a power capable of fighting the Sin Burden, you'll definitely be able to come back."

"You died because of the Sin Burden. As long as the Sin Burden is dispelled, you will definitely return."

You will definitely return.

The Wrath Emperor repeated it many times, his eyes brimming with longing.

Yan Jing understood that piece of the past, but what caught his attention more was the power to fight the Sin Burden that the Wrath Emperor mentioned.

He originally thought that what the Wrath Emperor was seeking would be a power beneficial to the Sin pathway.

The truth was the exact opposite: it was a power capable of completely dispelling all Sin.

Having obtained a clue, the next step was to follow the trail.

He transmitted this information to Chen Nian.

A reply came quickly: Tiger would go back and investigate any relevant records regarding this power capable of dispelling Sin.

After all, the Path of Destiny had existed for a long time, and given Tiger's special status, he should be able to dig up some information.

Meanwhile, since Chen Nian and Old Master Liu both held rather awkward positions within their respective factions, they took on a different task.

That task was to find other people from Sin City who were in the know.

As for Yan Jing, he was doing much the same thing as Tiger.

He walked out of the room. Weird energy spread across the ground like a spiderweb, and it wasn't long before he found his targets.

With a single step, he crossed hundreds of meters.

Following that was a series of continuous blinks.

Half a second later, he appeared on a street tens of thousands of meters away.

In a corner of the street, two men were currently squatting on the ground, smoking back to back.

"I told you we shouldn't have come!"

Shi Yicheng was so angry that the hand holding his cigarette trembled.

"Don't you understand the old man? You should! With Old Seven around, are our lives even considered lives?"

"Now look at this mess. Look at all those big shots up in the sky. It's a battle between gods! How are either of us supposed to intervene?"

Shi Sanchuan, who was leaning against his back, also wore a deep scowl. He sucked his cigarette halfway down in a single drag.

"I didn't want to come either, but Father gave the order. What choice did I have?"

"I told you, we should have just offed the old geezer while Old Seven wasn't around! Fifth Uncle is there, sure, but we could have both called in our own people!" Shi Yicheng crushed his cigarette butt with his fingers, fuming.

"If Father dies, what do we do when Old Seven comes back?" Shi Sanchuan looked even more distressed.

"What if he still cares for Father and slaughters us all? I still have a wife and kids—"

He would have been better off not saying that. The moment he did, Shi Yicheng boiled with anger.

"Wife and kids, wife and kids... Damn it, how did I end up with an older brother like you? To think I actually fought against you for all those years! I really misjudged you!"

"How could Old Seven have any affection for the old geezer? If he did, would he have wanted to leave?"

"If he cared, would he have completely disrespected the old geezer?!"

"Great, just great. Now here we are, dragging around two of our ancestors' Coffins. If we bring them back safely, fine. But if we can't, take a wild guess who that old geezer will blame for bringing the ancestors' Coffins out in the first place!"

"He'll definitely say we stole them!"

The more Shi Yicheng spoke, the angrier he got. He slapped his hand against a Coffin beside him, smacking the wooden lid loudly.

Right at that moment, Yan Jing, who had been watching from the sidelines for quite a while, finally spoke up.

"Big Brother, Second Brother."

As his words fell, Shi Yicheng and Shi Sanchuan both shuddered violently, as if they had just heard a ghost's wail.