“Despicable methods…”

“You’re unfit to be human!”

The black-and-white makeup on the Prince’s face was completely smudged by rivers of sweat, creating a smeared mess of pigment over his ashen skin. It made his already fanged, Jiangshi-like face all the more ferocious. Strangely, an unnatural red flush pulsed beneath his gray skin.

He felt that even lifting a hand took far more effort than usual.

Rip—

As the players warily closed in on him again, the Prince grabbed the ornate Overlord’s Kao on his body and tore the costume to shreds.

His bare upper body began to tremble. Periodically, he pierced his own flesh with his dark, sharp fingernails.

Seeing this, Troupe Leader Yu’s gaze sharpened.

He shouted, “Don’t let him continue! He’s using his internal force to expel the poison!”

Bang!

Before Troupe Leader Yu had even finished his sentence, Wu Wang had already pulled the trigger of the 【Elemental Gun】.

Although he knew nothing about so-called internal force, his medical knowledge told him that every spot the Prince pierced was an acupoint that accelerated blood circulation. He was clearly using some method to purge the poison.

A powerful flame erupted from the muzzle, forming a blazing fireball that roared toward the Prince. The scorching heat could be felt from nearly ten meters away.

Bang!

Just as everyone felt the wave of heat, Wu Wang pulled the trigger again.

A blast of air, compressed to its absolute limit, formed an invisible bullet that shot forward at a speed imperceptible to the naked eye. It instantly caught up to the fireball ahead of it.

The moment the two made contact, a qualitative change occurred.

The already terrifying fireball transformed into a straight, golden-red line of energy, like a laser. Before anyone could react, it pierced through the Prince’s left shoulder blade, causing his entire arm to hang limp and useless.

Swish swish swish—

The scholar boy standing beside Wu Wang immediately followed up. Several Thousand Paper Cranes flew from his sleeves, their wings and beaks glinting with a sharp, cold light.

As they flew past the wooden stakes that had fallen from the collapsed tent, they shattered them silently, a testament to their destructive power.

But just as the paper cranes reached the Prince and were about to pierce his eyes, he unexpectedly raised his right hand and swatted them away casually.

The Thousand Paper Cranes were crushed into a dirty wad of paper.

He twisted his neck, the unnatural flush on his face having mostly subsided. The Prince’s gaze turned icy cold.

He looked in Wu Wang’s direction and said slowly, “You should have aimed for the head.”

The response he got was another torrent of elemental bullets.

This time, however, the Prince simply raised his right hand again. As if swatting flies, he shattered the bullets one by one in mid-air.

Seeing this, Wu Wang tossed the 【Elemental Gun】 back into his inventory.

He shrugged helplessly. “Come on, I’m not Thor. Of course I aimed for the head.”

In truth, if the Prince hadn’t tilted his body at the last second, his head would have been the one pierced through. Wu Wang was proud of his ninety-point score in a ten-shot, 300-meter rapid-fire rifle test.

Why not a hundred? Because the last shot had overlapped with a previous bullet hole, and the shooting club owner adamantly refused to acknowledge it. He’d heard the owner’s surname was He, and he liked to use a sniper rifle with a strange leftward trajectory. Wu Wang used to frequent that club back in his black-market days; it was a popular spot for assassins to practice.

Not only had he aimed for the head, but Wu Wang had even factored in the kinetic energy drop when the air bullet struck the fire bullet. While propelling the fireball forward, the air bullet itself would drop by about two meters, aiming it precisely at a certain other vital part of the Prince.

Wu Wang hadn’t just aimed for the big head; he hadn’t spared the little one either.

Unfortunately, the opponent’s reaction speed was simply heaven-defying. And according to Troupe Leader Yu, this guy also had internal force? Dodging bullets with nerve reflexes? This looked less like martial arts and more like immortal cultivation.

“Oh, right,” Wu Wang said suddenly. “I know you’re stalling to expel the poison.”

The Prince froze, his expression turning grave.

But then he saw the corner of the boy’s mouth lift in a smug, mischievous grin.

“But I’m stalling for time too. I’m counting on you, my other self!”

In the next second, another Wu Wang suddenly emerged from the shadow behind the Prince.

【Big Dipper Seven Star Steps】! Clone!

The clone clutched what looked like an ordinary cleaver, but hidden behind the blade was a broken sword with no tip.

【Effect 1 (A Thousand Threads and Ten Thousand Strands): Using this sword can ignore the target’s defense and directly affect their soul. As long as it hits the target, it will certainly cause damage.】

【Effect 2 (The Fated One): Xiaochuan Lock-on to a target. For the next ten minutes, you gain three instant teleports to any position within a two-meter radius of the target. Each teleport consumes 20% of your maximum mental power. Cooldown of 10 minutes after three uses.】

The Prince felt a sense of foreboding and tried to dodge, but his right hand rose involuntarily, wanting to clap down on the cleaver.

【100% Caught Bare-handed】!

However, his shattered left arm could not be raised. With only one hand, he couldn’t catch the blade. He could only watch helplessly as the unremarkable cleaver slashed into his neck.

In an instant, the light faded from the Prince’s eyes. He fell into a daze, standing frozen on the spot as if his soul had left his body.

At that moment, the sound of something whipping through the air was suddenly heard. Xiaoxiao and Zi Jin looked up to see another Wu Wang descending from the sky, his palm aimed at the Prince’s head.

Just as the Prince shook his head and regained his senses, the palm struck him squarely on the crown.

Boom!

A powerful shockwave kicked up a large cloud of dust. The power of the move far exceeded the other players’ imaginations, and they all looked on in anticipation, hoping the Prince had been smashed to death.

Only the Wu Wang standing next to the scholar boy shook his head.

“Stop watching the show. You guys get in there too.”

“Don’t give him time to force out the poison again,” he ordered.

Zi Jin, holding her bronze coin sword, immediately rushed into the dust. Xiaoxiao slapped a few single-use enhancement items onto herself and followed close behind. The scholar boy flicked his long robe, sending a large number of paper sheets flying out.

He tilted his head and asked Wu Wang, “Is he really not dead?”

Unexpectedly, the other shrugged. “I don’t know. But you know the saying, if there’s smoke, they aren’t dead. It’s never wrong to go in and land a few more hits.”

The scholar boy was speechless. Fucking psycho!

But his hands still commanded the origami to take on various forms and surge into the dust cloud. He also didn’t believe the Prince would die so easily.

Only Troupe Leader Yu took two steps back as everyone else moved forward, preparing to avoid some great danger.

Wu Wang keenly noticed his abnormal behavior. His gaze sharpened, and he immediately pulled the scholar boy behind him.

“Topple Mountain!” a furious roar echoed from within the dust.

Xiaoxiao and Zi Jin, who had just rushed in, were sent flying back out, spitting blood. The thick dust was instantly swept away as if by a gale.

It revealed Prince Xiang standing in the center, his bare upper body covered in blood, his fangs grown as long as an elephant’s tusks. On his skin, some kind of pattern was faintly emerging and gradually becoming more prominent, as if pieces of military armor were embedded in his body.

“Overturn Sea!”

The moment the patterned armor took shape, the Prince slammed his palm onto the ground. The earth began to heave like ocean waves.

Everyone standing on the ground felt their feet rooted in place, unable to jump or run. A sharp pain spread from the soles of their feet, shooting up through their bodies.

“He’s projecting his internal force at you!” Troupe Leader Yu shouted. “Get away, quick! Or all your meridians will be shattered by the shock!”

At this moment, he was treading on the shoulders of several Ghostly Shadows, having distanced himself from the ground.

The scholar boy’s entire body trembled before he turned into a paper doll and was shattered to pieces by the force. His real body had already vanished.

Zi Jin and Xiaoxiao, who had landed far away, wore tense expressions as they took out various escape items and began to move away from the Prince’s vicinity.

When they turned to look at Wu Wang, they were shocked to find the boy sitting cross-legged on a guard. Beneath him was not one body, but two… three… almost all the guards were stacked on top of each other like Jenga blocks.

Wu Wang, sitting at the very top, even scratched his butt from time to time, as if the guards’ armor was a bit too uncomfortable.

As the guards turned to ash one by one, the Prince’s skill finally ended when only three 【Twisted Resentful Spirits】 remained.

“Yu Ji! Get out here and die!” The Prince glared viciously at Troupe Leader Yu.

The man calmly leaped down from the Ghostly Shadows’ shoulders. He didn’t answer the Prince, but instead said to Wu Wang and the other players, “In this form, he has undergone Corporeal Liberation.”

“He has completely merged with his Jiangshi body. He will not enter reincarnation, and no god or immortal can save him.”

“Thank you all for your help,” he continued. “Leave the rest to me.”

With that, Troupe Leader Yu walked toward the Prince with his chest wide open, completely undefended.

His words made both the scholar boy and Wu Wang narrow their eyes. In other words, once the Prince entered this state, the 【Five-Flower Melody】 puppets would no longer affect him. He had given up his chance at resurrection just to slaughter everyone here. This was enough to show the Prince’s determination and killing intent.

But from what Troupe Leader Yu said, he alone could handle the Prince in this state.

He was another hidden master?

“Rest assured, you won’t be lonely in the underworld,” the Prince said, clenching his fists. “Those actors will be down to accompany you for another song soon enough.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he raised his right hand and clenched it in Troupe Leader Yu’s direction. The very air seemed to compress as invisible pressure squeezed in from all sides. His power had clearly risen to another level.

However, despite this being a far more ferocious attack than before, Troupe Leader Yu acted as if it were nothing. He continued to walk forward with light, easy steps.

This time, not just the Prince, but Wu Wang and all the other players were utterly astonished. How did he do it? Did Troupe Leader Yu have some hidden technique?

“Impossible!” Prince Xiang snarled through gritted teeth. “A mere actor! We have spent all these years together. Do you think I am not aware of what abilities you have?”

With a roar, he balled his right hand into a fist again, vanished from his spot, and reappeared before Troupe Leader Yu. An iron fist that could shake mountains flew toward the man’s face.

Logically, the next second should have been a scene of a watermelon exploding, red gore splattering everywhere. But an even stranger scene occurred.

Troupe Leader Yu merely extended a single finger.

It was slow and gentle, like a light touch on the surface of water that creates ripples without startling the fish. His fingertip rested on the Prince’s fist.

And stopped it completely.

“No… that’s not right!” the Prince said, his voice laced with sudden terror. “Your strength hasn’t changed at all…”

“It’s me… something’s wrong with me! What trick did you use!”

In response, Troupe Leader Yu simply retracted his finger. With a mix of helplessness and immense pride, he said, “That’s right, Brother Xiang. You said it yourself.”

“We’ve been together for so many years. Have you forgotten how I used to deal with the resentful souls of those Descenders?”

“Did you always think it was I who could subdue them?”

“In fact, it’s not. It is that in this Opera God’s Yi Garden, all souls without a self cannot harm me. Their souls can be extinguished with a flick of my finger. This is the grace of the Ancestor Master.”

Souls without a self?

Everyone was stunned. Only Wu Wang showed a pensive expression.

But the Prince, unconvinced, cursed loudly, “I am a Prince of the frontier! I am the blood brother of the Supreme Ruler! How dare you insult me by saying I have lost my self?”

This remark made Troupe Leader Yu’s eyes gradually fill with contempt.

He said coldly, “In life, you feared death and sought medicine, becoming obsessed with alchemy.”

“After death, your resentment lingered, and you turned into a Jiangshi, addicted to the arts of resurrection.”

“And now, you are willing to completely degenerate into a filthy thing, abandoning your human identity.”

“The Opera God is my witness. Your soul, in the eyes of the Ancestor Master, has already lost its self.”

“Brother Xiang, you are not the true Overlord.”

“Rest in peace.”

With that, he patted the other’s shoulder.

That tall, powerful body, capable of cracking the earth and shattering mountains, seemed to have been drained of all its strength. Finally, it collapsed with a great crash. Like the fall of a great mountain, it caused the surrounding ground to tremble.

An invisible soul emerged from the Jiangshi’s body. It had the face of the Prince.

He was wailing. He was roaring.

He was dissipating.

Seeing this, all the players breathed a sigh of relief. They had finally won.

This instance boss was truly not one that could be defeated by brute force. Even with poison, sneak attacks, and a group siege, if not for Troupe Leader Yu’s mechanical kill, that final Corporeal Liberation form could have easily crushed them all.

This round, the mechanics monster had beaten the stats monster.

Thinking of this, their gazes all turned to Troupe Leader Yu.

That’s right. There was another mechanics monster here. Although just a few seconds ago he was their ally against the Prince, now that their common enemy was gone, this man was another boss in the instance.

Realizing this, the scholar boy’s figure flew over from a distance on a paper crane. He landed beside Wu Wang.

“What’s your plan now?” he asked helplessly.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Wu Wang played dumb.

The scholar boy just sighed. His tone grew even more helpless as he waved a small white flag made of folded paper.

“Don’t think I’m still in the dark. I figured it out the moment you appeared.”

“You’re the Painted Face Troupe Leader who came to me last night, aren’t you? Isn’t this current situation exactly what you planned?”

“This round, I admit defeat.”

Yes, the scholar boy had guessed from the very beginning that he had been tricked. Unfortunately, it was too late. From the moment the players revealed themselves, they were bound to a life-or-death struggle with the Prince.

To be precise, from the moment Troupe Leader Yu struck the Prince, the players had been forced into a corner with no way back. They could only choose to help kill the Prince. Otherwise, none of them believed they could earn forgiveness from such a furious opponent.

The scholar boy immediately realized that Wu Wang didn’t care if his identity as the Painted Face Troupe Leader was exposed. All he wanted was for the players, especially himself, to go all out to kill the Prince, without holding onto any delusions.

By the time he saw through it, the scholar boy had already lost.

Snatching the white flag from his hand, Wu Wang finally grinned. “Don’t be in such a hurry. The good part is yet to come. You’ll know if you come with me.”

With that, he strode quickly to Troupe Leader Yu’s side. He didn’t look at the troupe leader, who was dressed as Yu Ji with a complicated expression on his face. He just squatted down beside the Prince’s corpse.

Then, he waved at the scholar boy. “Let me use your precious.”

“What?” the other asked, confused.

“Your precious is the Qing Long Guan Dao, of course,” Wu Wang said, rolling his eyes. “You don’t think I meant you, my little scholar boy, do you? Buddy, I’m not into guys.”

He couldn’t just pull out the 【Xiaochuan Broken Sword】 in front of everyone. Even when he had used it before, he had done so secretively to prevent anyone from realizing that 【Pending Death】 and 【Yan Shuangying】 were the same person.

Although the scholar boy didn’t know what he was up to, he still folded a cleaver that was easier to grip and handed it over.

“The sharpness is the same.”

Wu Wang nodded. He raised the cleaver and sliced down decisively.

Under the stunned and fearful gazes of the other players and the angry, uncomprehending glare of Troupe Leader Yu, he swiftly dissected Prince Xiang’s entire skeleton with the practiced skill of a master butcher.

“You bastard!” Troupe Leader Yu trembled with rage. “Eliminating the Prince was a last resort for me! But I will not allow you to insult his corpse like this! This is grave disrespect!”

As a member of an opera troupe, he held such rules in higher regard than anyone. The irony was that this man, now infuriated by the dissection, was the same demon who dismembered players to piece together his puppets.

“As I thought… so that’s how it is…”

Wu Wang ignored Troupe Leader Yu’s anger. He just stared at the Prince’s skeleton and smiled knowingly.

His guess was correct.

The true core secret of this instance was right here.

The Prince, Yu Ji, Lou Yu, everything that happened that night, including what Troupe Leader Yu had just called the grace of the Ancestor Master… In the face of this ironclad truth, all of the players’ previous speculations would be overturned.

Grace? What damn grace!

Was the Prince’s death perfunctory? No, not at all.

He was always meant to die by your hand, Troupe Leader Yu. And he could only die by your hand.