Chapter Ninety-Seven: An Entirely New Era

Feng Tianlin narrowed his eyes. “Do you take me for an idiot? This is clearly just a painting. What the hell kind of Book of Divine Words is this?”

As he spoke, he smashed two heavy punches into Fan Tianxing, driving the man to cry out in misery.

“It really is the Book of Divine Words. Open it and you’ll see.”

Feng Tianlin instinctively sensed that something was wrong here. He had no idea what Fan Tianxing was scheming.

But was Feng Tianlin the kind of coward who would back down?

He barely counted as human anymore.

Besides, the body he was using now was only a clone; his true self was still bound over there, so there was no risk to speak of.

After a moment’s thought, he picked up the painting and unfurled it. Yet before he could even see what was on it, a change occurred.

Blinding golden light burst from the image, and a tremendous force of attraction tried to drag Feng Tianlin inside. Fan Tianxing’s face filled with ecstatic triumph.

“Huh...?”

As expected, Feng Tianlin simply could not withstand that pull. In an instant, he was sucked inside. Unfortunately, it was only one of his clones.

Fan Tianxing quickly rolled up the painting and laughed in smug delight. “Hahaha! What master of a twisted domain? I only had to use a little trick, and this stupid worm fell right into my painting.”

But as soon as the words left his mouth, someone patted his shoulder. He turned his head and saw a doll-faced figure brimming with rage.

Feng Tianlin was already furious to the extreme. This fellow had toyed with him again and again; he no longer wanted to give him even the slightest chance. The Book of Divine Words? He could keep it.

Seeing Feng Tianlin’s expression, Fan Tianxing’s legs nearly gave out. He was just about to say something, but Feng Tianlin gave him no chance at all. Raising his hand high, he smashed a fist into his face without the slightest hesitation.

The pitiful Fan Tianxing was sent flying at once, arcing gracefully through the air before crashing to the ground. He struggled instinctively to get back up, but before he could do more than twitch, Feng Tianlin was upon him again.

This time, his arm stabbed furiously again and again into Fan Tianxing’s body, the last thrust plunging straight into his chest.

Blood ran down Feng Tianlin’s arm, but he merely withdrew it and watched coldly as Fan Tianxing’s pupils contracted.

Just as he turned to leave and deal with the other humans, he suddenly sensed life stirring behind him once more.

Looking back, he saw Fan Tianxing lying on the ground. The blood around him was flowing back into his body at astonishing speed, and he was laughing madly.

“Didn’t expect that, did you? I can revive. You can’t kill me at all! Hahaha!”

Feng Tianlin heard this and, without a word, threw another punch. This blow shattered his head directly, spraying blood everywhere.

But in the blink of an eye, Fan Tianxing had grown a new head as though nothing had happened.

“Come on, then. Keep going.”

His voice dripped with provocation.

“Interesting.”

A smile appeared on Feng Tianlin’s face. He pressed his hand to the crown of Fan Tianxing’s head and guided his power into a soul interrogation.

His current Soul Interrogation was already level six; even trained individuals could not endure it, let alone someone like Fan Tianxing.

The moment it activated, Fan Tianxing began convulsing violently, frothing at the mouth, his eyes rolling upward.

But Feng Tianlin knew these were only the human body’s emergency responses, and Fan Tianxing could not die anyway. He could only bear the torment.

“P-please... spare me... I’ll give you anything you want.” Fan Tianxing’s plea was shrill and heartbreaking.

Yet a wild smile spread across Feng Tianlin’s face. “Too late!”

He could still speak. That meant the effect was not strong enough.

With that thought, Feng Tianlin raised Soul Interrogation to level seven.

“Aaah!!!”

With an even more piercing scream, Fan Tianxing began rolling uncontrollably, and Feng Tianlin, to stop him from thrashing, used the Era of Ice and Snow to freeze both his arms and legs to the ground.

“Didn’t you think you were so amazing? Hm? The chosen one of humanity.”

Watching Fan Tianxing’s gaze grow increasingly vacant, Feng Tianlin only grew more frenzied.

No one knew how long had passed before Fan Tianxing’s eyes finally went completely still. If not for the human aura still emanating from him, Feng Tianlin would have thought him dead.

Looks like this guy had gone numb.

“Still, Soul Interrogation has already been used, and I can’t kill him. And this brat seems to have lost whatever ability to resist he had left. Maybe I should plant a Nightmare Mark on him?”

The thought had only just been born when Feng Tianlin was already grinning so hard he could hardly close his mouth. If Fan Tianxing were branded with a Nightmare Mark by his hand, what would the humans even have left to play with? They might as well wait for extinction.

No sooner had he decided than he got to work, raising the Nightmare Mark from level two to level three and guiding the energy into Fan Tianxing’s mind.

The instant it entered Fan Tianxing’s consciousness, Feng Tianlin vaguely sensed a golden book there. Before the Nightmare Mark could even properly arrive, the golden radiance from that book destroyed it utterly.

“The Book of Divine Words?”

At the sight of it, Feng Tianlin immediately understood. So the Book of Divine Words, like a twisted domain, was not a physical object at all, but a form of energy akin to primordial power.

“Could I try to devour the Book of Divine Words?”

The idea had barely taken shape before he dismissed it himself, because the moment his energy entered the other’s consciousness it was destroyed. He could not even get close.

But at that very moment, Fan Tianxing regained his senses. His reflexes were astonishingly fast; he immediately seized the painting and hurled it forcefully into the air.

Feng Tianlin frowned in confusion. Had this fool gone mad?

Yet after being thrown upward, the painting did not fall. Instead, it drifted straight higher, finally hovering in the sky. An inexplicable flame began to kindle from the bottom edge of the scroll.

Fan Tianxing, trembling, raised his head and looked at Feng Tianlin.

“Unless I have no other choice, I would never use it.”

Feng Tianlin frowned. “What exactly is that painting?”

“It has a beautiful name: the Immortal Painting. Usually, it’s just a treasure pouch with many divine artifacts inside. But it has another function as well—to usher in an entirely new era.”

“An entirely new era?” Feng Tianlin was somewhat bewildered.

By logic, even if the age of the uncanny had returned, it should merely have reverted to the ancient era of eerie things. How had it become an entirely new era?

“Hahaha! I used to think the end of the resurgence of the uncanny would only be a return to the environment of the previous age. But after the guidance of the Book of Divine Words and the Immortal Painting, I realized this is a brand-new era!”

As the words fell, boundless storms swept across the entire planet, as if the blue world had been wrapped in a new atmosphere.

The painting erupted with terrifying power, a force that could only be compared to the moment when Ruan Miao destroyed the core of the twisted domain.

That power instantly shattered Feng Tianlin’s twisted domain. Before it, the domain looked so fragile, so utterly vulnerable.

The surrounding crimson was broken apart, revealing the original light—but before that light could remain even for a moment, darkness once again replaced it.

Looking up, night had descended. Stars glittered overhead with blinding red radiance. The sun no longer bathed the earth in light; instead, it exuded a deep crimson glow, a glow seemingly filled with countless horrors that left everyone who gazed upon it breathless.

Beside the sun was a half-moon shining with the same red light.

For an instant, sun and moon shone together.

Terrifying. Terrifying beyond measure.

Eerie. Eerie beyond measure.

The whole world seemed to have entered another dimension, a dimension of terror and uncanny dread.

And Feng Tianlin could only stare in stupefaction.

Yet the transformation was still not over...