“What are you doing? What are you doing?! Are you trying to steal the merchandise? Security!!!” the auctioneer shouted in terror.

A group of guards who looked extremely powerful quickly rushed out and blocked Mo Bai’s path.

No one knew what these guards ate to grow so big, but every one of them was around two and a half meters tall. Judging from their appearance, they seemed to possess some kind of abilities. Even if they weren’t A-rank monsters, they were at least among the strongest of the B-rank monsters.

What disgusted Mo Bai most was the faint stench that wafted from their mouths whenever they opened them. It wasn’t ordinary bad breath, but the smell of corpses.

Mo Bai couldn’t help remembering the scene she witnessed in the Dream Domain, where Yang Lingxi ate a finger. She suspected that these guards were monsters Gao Siyun created from corpses, similar to Yang Lingxi.

Naturally, the guards were nowhere near as strong as Yang Lingxi. The death power they possessed was negligible, but they had the advantage of sheer numbers.

And this Organ Trading Market had plenty of corpses every day, which were perfectly suited to feeding the guard monsters and nourishing the death power inside them. That allowed them to grow stronger and undergo increasingly horrific mutations.

This was also one of the reasons Gao Siyun operated the Organ Trading Market.

She no longer possessed the human capacity for empathy. She hated both the buyers and sellers involved in organ transplants, yet she felt no sympathy whatsoever for the pitiful people who received transplanted organs.

She wanted revenge, using her own power to retaliate against the buyers. At the same time, she needed corpses to feed her enforcers, and the Organ Trading Market allowed her to accomplish both at once.

Mo Bai was certain Gao Siyun would never become an Ultra-Star Rank monster.

The reason an Ultra-Star Rank monster could rise above other monsters was because its foundation was love and not hatred.

Perhaps Gao Siyun once possessed a trace of maternal love, but that love was twisted into authoritarian control. Even that tiny, selfish fragment of maternal love was nowhere near enough to create an Ultra-Star Rank monster.

Mo Bai recalled the pollution from the two Ultra-Star Rank monsters she encountered, Dusk and The Story. Their pollution was terrifying, and their power immense, but the reason they nearly contaminated Mo Bai was not because they were horrifying. It was because of the limitless compassion that lay hidden within their pollution.

It was the compassion of a god gazing upon the mortal world, filled with great love.

Dusk never wanted to actively harm or torment anyone. It believed that everything eventually comes to an end. After all living things endured every form of suffering, all that would ultimately remain was a handful of yellow earth.

It pitied all suffering beings and sincerely believed that guiding them toward their final destination was itself an act of love.

It wanted to leave those who suffered with one beautiful sunset. Under a blood-red twilight, it would raise gravestone after gravestone, dissolving all worldly suffering.

The Story also pitied the suffering of all living beings. It wanted to use fairy tales to save people from misery. Like the little match girl, who ultimately died in a warm dream, The Story wanted to give the entire world a beautiful dream.

It wanted the little girl to enter The Story while she was suffering from cold and hunger, reunite with her grandmother there, and embrace her loved ones. She would never have to endure what came afterward or become another frozen corpse lying on a winter street.

If the whole world became a beautiful, grand story, then sorrow and evil would cease to exist.

The Story’s original purpose, too, was born from great love.

Only something nourished by love could grow flesh and blood. Only then could it possess the power to embrace everything. That was what made an Ultra-Star Rank monster.

Gao Siyun merely obtained a power she could not truly control. Under the name of love, she forced her daughter to share the burden of that power.

Yang Lingxi could not become an Ultra-Star Rank monster either because she was too young and lacked the capacity for that kind of great love.

The two of them were merely Super-S-rank monsters, still below the threshold of an Ultra-Star Rank monster.

No matter how powerful a monster was, it still had weaknesses and could be defeated.

The guards stood in front of Mo Bai, blocking her from moving forward.

The Black Boots were extremely powerful. Every path they walked became their territory, but there was one prerequisite: they had to walk.

If they couldn’t move forward, the Black Boots were nothing more than an ornament that could only devour their host.

To properly make use of the Black Boots, the host needs to be powerful as well.

Mo Bai was being dragged down by her heart and couldn’t use her abilities, but that didn’t matter. She had help.

She said quietly, “Du Heng. Except for the merchandise on display and the goods that were brought here to be sold, leave no one else alive.”

Standing behind her, Du Heng grinned. “I’ve been waiting for you to say that.”

Du Heng reached into empty space and pulled out his Scythe of Death, an enormous blood-red scythe. The blade trembled excitedly, as if eager for battle.

Du Heng removed his helmet, revealing his moderately handsome face, and declared in an extremely chuuni tone, “You haven’t had a chance to strike in so long. You must be lonely and angry. Don’t worry. I’m letting you out now.”

Du Heng wasn’t weak, but he suffered unbelievably bad luck across the last several instances.

At the Research Institute, his strength was suppressed, preventing him from using his higher-level combat abilities. Then, just when Mo Bai finally helped him recover his strength, the instance boss sealed his Scythe of Death.

After arriving in Disease Town, either his lower body was paralyzed, and he had to be dragged around, or every monster inside the Plague Garden had no soul. Meanwhile, the Love Amusement Park simply forbade him from entering at all.

When Mo Bai was surrounded by sick townspeople, Du Heng still had a moral conscience and refused to slaughter those miserable NPCs, so he didn’t act. Otherwise, Qiu Xuerong wouldn’t have to sacrifice herself.

“This instance is great,” Du Heng said happily as he stroked the Scythe of Death. “I like evil people. Killing evil people doesn’t make me feel guilty.”

He slowly swung the Scythe of Death, and the weapon stretched to a full ten meters in length. With Du Heng at the center, a pale-red sphere with a ten-meter radius formed around him.

He gave the massive scythe a light swing. Within the sphere, roughly 4,200 cubic meters in volume, every living thing except Mo Bai collapsed to the ground.

The wealthy buyers who came to participate in the auction and the guards surrounding Mo Bai died silently before they could even display their abilities.

This was the ability known as Soul Reaping.

And that wasn’t all. The reason Du Heng bound his ability to the Scythe of Death was because of its second ability.

A cloak appeared behind Du Heng. Its outer surface was blood-red, and its inner lining was black. It was called the Death Cloak, an accessory created to complement the Scythe of Death.

Once he put on the cloak, Du Heng rose into the air. Whenever he used the cloak to fly, the attack radius of the Scythe of Death tripled.

A space of roughly 37,000 cubic meters fell entirely within its attack range.

Du Heng hovered in the air and closed his eyes. Within his mind appeared one red point after another. Each red point represented a soul within his attack radius, and every one of them was within his reaping range.

He could precisely identify the strength of every monster in the area and avoid striking his teammates.

“What? There are only three A-rank monsters in the entire area?” Du Heng said disdainfully.

He raised his hand. The Scythe of Death flew free of his grip, tracing a circular arc of bloody light through the air. Du Heng slashed his hand downward, and the ring of blood-red light descended like a guillotine. Wherever the scythe passed, every monster below A-rank died without a sound.

The A-rank monsters were merely severely injured. But that was fine. It wasn’t like he could only strike once.

Du Heng raised his hand again, summoning another ring of bloody light, then slashed down once more.

Raise, slash down! Raise, slash down! Raise, slash down!

Five consecutive strikes of Soul Reaping!

After five attacks in succession, the three A-rank monsters within range were thoroughly dead.

Du Heng spread his arms, the blood-red cloak billowing behind him. Holding the Scythe of Death like the incarnation of a god of death, he said contemptuously, “Hmph. Pathetic.”

This was his true strength, the strength of an Advanced player of Mending Heaven known as the Grim Reaper!

Li Ming could unleash Catastrophe-level power. Du Heng’s range was merely smaller, and his endurance weaker, but he was not a slouch either!

Once the only people still alive below were Mo Bai, Ding Xun, and Ye Pingjun, with Ye Pingjun forced to lie down and pretend to be dead because he could no longer conceal himself among the crowd, the Grim Reaper Du Heng finally put away his scythe and stopped killing.

Then he wrapped his cloak around himself and dropped headfirst out of the air with absolutely no dignity whatsoever. 

Smack.

Fortunately, the enormous corpses of the guards cushioned his fall. Without them, the impact would really injure him.

Mo Bai frowned. “You didn’t save even a little energy so you could land properly?”

“Heh heh. I overdid the posing,” Du Heng said, filthy from head to toe. “I’ve been holding this in way too long. Everyone keeps treating me like some harmless kitten.”

He was still the same Du Heng. A little foolish, extremely chuuni, unable to keep anything in his mouth, and passionate and kindhearted at his core.

“Very strong,” Mo Bai said softly.

Du Heng happily rolled over. His heart felt as sweet as if he had swallowed honey.

Mo Bai praised him!

“But you also ruined my chance to show off how strong I am,” Mo Bai added.

“I only cleared out the small fry,” Du Heng said. “My battery’s dead now. The rest is up to you.”

During his attack just now, he didn’t detect Dai Qianzhong, Pang Mian, Xie Xingchen, Gu Tiandong, or Gao Siyun. They weren’t upstairs or downstairs, and no one knew where they went.

Mo Bai stepped onto the stage. With one punch, she shattered the glass coffin and lifted Ding Xun out.

Ye Pingjun casually stripped an outfit from one of the corpses and tossed it onto the stage. Mo Bai gently draped it over Ding Xun.

A bracelet was still fastened around Ding Xun’s wrist, which continuously injected anesthetic into her body.

Under normal circumstances, the bracelet couldn’t be removed inside the instance.

But while Du Heng was slaughtering everyone, Mo Bai had already walked a complete circle around the stage. This place was now within the Black Boots’ territory.

Mo Bai gave the bracelet a gentle tug. It snapped. Not only that, but the bracelets worn by Du Heng, Mo Bai, and Ye Pingjun all broke as well.

Mo Bai took out the Human Enhancement card that still had two uses remaining.

She activated it on Ding Xun, hoping that strengthening her body would help her.

Once the card took effect, purplish-black blood suddenly began flowing from the needle puncture on Ding Xun’s wrist. About 100 milliliters drained out before the puncture healed by itself.

Ding Xun abruptly sat upright and shouted, “Just watch me kill all of you!”

Then she saw the pile of corpses beneath the stage. A mixture of shock and delight crossed her face. “I did that?”

“Dream on! I did it!” Du Heng said as he walked up to her and held out his hand. “I’m Du Heng.”

“I’ve heard a lot about you. I’m Ding Xun.” Ding Xun casually shook his hand.

Then she threw her arms around Mo Bai. “I’m so glad to see you! I was terrified I’d die and never see any of you again! Wait. Hold on. Don’t tell me you died too and we’ve met up in hell? No, no, no. You’d never die!”

Seeing that he no longer needed to hide, Ye Pingjun got up and approached Ding Xun. “You’re surprisingly energetic.”

“You’re okay too? You got out of the painting?” Ding Xun said. Then she waved a hand. “No need to explain. You’re not strong enough to get yourself out, so Mo Bai obviously rescued you!”

Ye Pingjun originally intended to comfort Ding Xun. But apparently, she didn’t need comforting at all. She was always this optimistic.

She was someone almost absurdly insensitive to pain, yet her abilities were Extrasensory and Synesthesia. No one knew what logic the system used when assigning abilities.

Ding Xun climbed to her feet and pouted at Mo Bai. “Mo Bai, I didn’t protect Gu Tiandong.”

“It wasn’t your fault. We’re going to rescue him now,” Mo Bai said.

“Okay! But I used up all my cards, energy, and nutrient potions. My energy bar should be... Wait, it’s full?” Ding Xun checked her status in surprise.

“You were lying there for eighteen hours,” Ye Pingjun said. “Of course your energy recovered automatically.”

He took some compressed biscuits from his Storage Pouch and handed them around so everyone could replenish their strength.

After entrusting Ding Xun to Ye Pingjun, Mo Bai quickly walked back and forth across the corpse-covered auction hall, using the Black Boots to claim the territory.

Du Heng ate as he asked, “Where are we going to look for Gu Tiandong?”

“The operating room first,” Mo Bai said.

Earlier, she chatted with the registrar under the pretense that she was considering selling skin. One of her goals was to determine where the operating room was located.

The registrar never directly revealed its location. But during their conversation, Mo Bai noticed something: every time she mentioned organ-transplant surgery, the registrar unconsciously glanced behind himself.

It was a habitual movement. That meant the operating room used for organ transplants might very well be behind the display cabinets in the eastern district.

Mo Bai led her teammates over to the cabinets. Ding Xun thought their helmets looked cool, so she asked Du Heng for one.

After all four of them put on black helmets, Ding Xun asked, “How many helmets are left?”

“The motorcycle team only had five bikes,” Du Heng said. “So there’s one helmet left.”

“Once we rescue Gu Tiandong, our five all-black squad will finally be complete!” Ding Xun said.

“You...” Ye Pingjun shook his head. “You really are optimistic.”

He couldn’t bring himself to tell her that Gu Tiandong might already be in danger.

Ding Xun was carefree by nature. She rarely felt sad and rarely got angry. Even after being stripped naked, displayed as merchandise inside a glass coffin, and dressed in clothing taken from a corpse, she felt no embarrassment standing in front of her two male teammates.

As far as Ding Xun was concerned, staying alive mattered more than anything. What did showing a little skin matter?

Ye Pingjun, on the other hand, felt slightly awkward around her now because of the woman he met through matchmaking inside the painting.

Ding Xun didn’t notice the change in his attitude. She said, “I know Gu Tiandong was taken away for surgery. They might even have replaced his skin. But you guys haven’t forgotten, right? Gu Tiandong has Blessing of the Puppets. It’s the only healing card we have. As long as he uses that card to heal his skin and restore his appearance value, who can break through his defense?”

The first time they were tricked into leaving, Gu Tiandong handed the card to Ye Pingjun and told him to take it along for the rescue.

After they regrouped, Ye Pingjun returned the card to Gu Tiandong. He believed their only healing card was safest in the hands of their defender.

Mo Bai suddenly stopped walking. Ding Xun’s words reminded her of something.

She focused so much on the problem of Gu Tiandong’s appearance value that she overlooked the fact that he possessed a card capable of healing injuries.

The Phantom Butterfly used the existence of Blessing of the Puppets as part of its excuse for tricking Gu Tiandong into going to rescue the others. That meant Six Paths and Mending Heaven knew this card existed.

They knew full well that Gu Tiandong possessed a healing card. Yet they still went through the trouble of using surgery to destroy his appearance value.

Their goal was never to turn him into a card while he was using his ability. It was to force Gu Tiandong to consume their one and only healing card!

Only Advanced Observation Group players could become cards. If their ultimate objective was Gu Tiandong’s card, they would have to find a way to make him use Pulling Up Seedlings to Help Them Grow.

So their actual plan was to destroy Gu Tiandong’s appearance value, force him to use up the healing card, and then trick him into activating Pulling Up Seedlings to Help Them Grow. Only then could they turn him into a card.

If that was the plan, Dai Qianzhong might even have intentionally allowed her malicious intentions to be discovered.

Once Dai Qianzhong’s deception failed, they could send a faceless person to earn Gu Tiandong’s trust. Then they could coax Gu Tiandong into fighting Gao Siyun.

Gu Tiandong already fought Gao Siyun once and lost. This time, if he wanted to defeat her, he would almost certainly use Pulling Up Seedlings to Help Them Grow to forcibly increase his strength.

Once Dai Qianzhong was exposed, the only person who could plausibly trick Gu Tiandong was Xie Xingchen, who remained unknown.

But Xie Xingchen and Pang Mian were previously trapped by the Phantom Butterfly inside the Love Amusement Park. They only escaped after Mo Bai destroyed the amusement park.

Based on that time difference, Xie Xingchen and the others arrived here only slightly earlier than Mo Bai, so there simply wasn’t enough time.

“Gu Tiandong really might still be alive!” Mo Bai said, suddenly delighted.

Another thought immediately came to her. Earlier, Gu Tiandong and the others caused only a small disturbance, and Gao Siyun personally intervened. Yet now, they wiped out everyone in the Organ Trading Market, but Gao Siyun was nowhere to be seen.

If Gao Siyun appeared and used her authority as the instance boss to seal the Scythe of Death, Du Heng would lose access to his ability again, and things wouldn’t have been this smooth.

So Gao Siyun wasn’t here, and that likely meant something was keeping her occupied.

Perhaps that something was Xie Xingchen and Gu Tiandong.

Mo Bai took a deep breath. “We need to hurry. Gu Tiandong might already be dying!”