Chapter 98: Standing Above Darkness

Thick smoke billowed, the sound of explosions incessant. Mu You transformed into a golden streak of light, charging straight into the dense smoke. Immediately after, a more violent rumbling echoed from within the smoke.

Flames burst from every direction. Mu You was repeatedly thrown out by Dian Shao only to explode back in with even greater speed.

“Ho!”

Mu You crossed his arms with blazing fire, fists pressed together, descending from the sky to smash down fiercely on Dian Shao.

A dull thud reverberated through the surroundings. The shockwave instantly dispersed the thick smoke, revealing Dian Shao catching Mu You’s attack with one hand.

“Rage is possible, but only if you have the capital!”

Dian Shao finished speaking, then threw another punch, blasting Mu You flying once more.

Mu You felt the earth-shaking impact force engulf his body. In mid-air, he tumbled several times, yet it was unrelenting. He crashed heavily into the broken wall at the end of the corridor, sliding down slowly. With difficulty, he propped himself up, coughing up a mouthful of blood.

This wall… how had it become so hard suddenly? The force before should have shattered it completely.

This wall…

Mu You raised his head with effort. The spot he had struck was precisely where the portrait had been hanging. After the portrait was destroyed, a blood-colored flower-shaped mark was revealed. This mark was very unique, the petals formed like threads, the tails curling together. Red and somewhat seductive, gazing at it for a long time caused a dizzying feeling.

The first impression of this flower wasn’t that it was beautiful, but that this flower shouldn’t exist in the human world, because it was truly too eerie…

Staggering to his feet, before he could steady himself, Dian Shao teleported right in front of Mu You. A killing intent pressed down, causing him to stagger, his balance thrown off, falling to his knees again. Dian Shao then placed a foot on Mu You’s head, pressing him hard against the wall.

“In my presence, only obedience, no self. Otherwise, the next second, you will become a corpse. I give you one last chance, do not disobey me. Do you hear me?!”

After speaking, Dian Shao increased the force under his foot, forcibly compelling Mu You to submit. The immense pressure on his face made Mu You cough blood again, flowing down along Dian Shao’s shoe sole. Mu You opened his bloodshot eyes, staring at Dian Shao’s blood-stained shoe sole, as if reliving the moment when the entire class was slaughtered by the original sin, Jiang Man’s blood-soaked butterfly bow pressed against his face, blood splashing from her slender arms onto his cheeks. Blood, bloody, blood feud intertwined.

I’m so fucking weak. Being the boss of A Building, the strongest on earth, compared to these real death row inmates who reside underground, I’m utterly trash.

But above even Dian Shao, whom I couldn’t resist, there were more terrifying S-ranks, SS-ranks. Who knew what was above the SS-rank!

Why, for me, Mu You, wanting to climb up, to overturn this death prison paradise, to kill that old dog Mo Han, why was it so difficult!

He finally understood why Mo Han always smiled when looking at him, why Zuo Canglang dared to face him with swords, and why even Dongguang, who was still satisfied with Mu You, had only given him the opportunity to prove himself, not true recognition.

Originally, these superiors had never placed him in their eyes. His life or death might be just their momentary whim. Before this, there were probably too many youths like Mu You, who in life and death became the after-dinner stories and jokes of these superiors.

Even if he died now, for them, there would still be countless Mu Yous created again, following the planned nightmares, experiencing them one by one, cycling repeatedly until the strongest one was selected to enter the higher-level amusement system.

He seemed to understand why Dian Shao had no human emotions. Perhaps he had desperately lived until now, having exhausted all emotions, his completely numb heart having already lost any hope for the future.

He also seemed to understand why Youba, Nono, and Fu Nian had those bizarre conversations and behaviors. Maybe their hearts had been thoroughly distorted in the darkness of sinking, or they had completely frozen their inner selves, numbed like dead ashes, to confront the despair that was terrifying, to survive the daily life in the death prison without going mad.

No, this absolutely was not his desired future. Mu You, even if he died, did not want to become like this! He could not bow his head, absolutely not!

Under Dian Shao’s gaze, Mu You’s dead, stagnant eyes gradually regained clarity. Overlooking the foot of Dian Shao, he looked at Jing Fei and Anru Xiang, who had charged to their deaths with the determination of going to meet death. A smile unexpectedly appeared on his lips, his eyes gradually narrowing, signaling the two not to come over.

Both were seeing this expression for the first time. They stopped their spiritual words, and with belated heart-trembling, quickly retreated backward.

Others did not understand Mu You, but these two did!

That expression was no longer the hysterical refusal due to anger from before, but rather a calm realization of no longer caring about anything, even death.

Once a person who had already become indifferent to death went mad, how terrifying that would be!

Recalling the scene of Mu You’s rampage, both their bodies trembled slightly. Mu You’s current strength was no longer the green wood of when his abilities first awoke. If he rampaged again, even if Dian Shao was not sealed now, who would live or die remained unknown.

“I used to think that in this world, no matter how cruel it was, as long as I retained a bit of kindness, even those with deep sins could be swayed by me. Perhaps there were people who liked solitude, but no one could endure loneliness forever. The lost heart of despair would always be gathered by caring people together. But now I realize how utterly wrong I have been all along.”

Dian Shao frowned, impatiently stomping hard. Mu You’s back of the head was immediately pressed with bloodstains, staining the blood flower on the wall.

“You only need to answer: heard or not!”

Mu You threw his head back, nosebleed also starting to flow. He looked up at Dian Shao, and unexpectedly laughed out loud with a heh heh sound.

“Actually, you’re really pitiful. More pitiful than me… cough, you’ve completely sealed off your self. In other words, you’ve surrendered to the death prison paradise, passively accepting everything here. Your indifference to life, including yourself, didn’t I say it correctly?”

Staring at the boy coughing blood continuously under his feet, Dian Shao’s rigid face actually twitched a bit. He slowly lowered his body, first seriously examining this bald boy.

“People with kind hearts will ultimately be lured by weak tranquility, and toppled by trembling terror. Both are human nature. I was wrong all along. In this world, gentleness doesn’t exist at all! Trash should be treated differently. Weakness itself is a sin! In true darkness, there is no hope to be found, and above darkness, it is not justice, but justice that can never reach… absolute darkness!”

The dead qi, for the first time, obediently followed along Mu You’s chest, slowly dyeing the red-gold phoenix feathers. The zigzag lightning pattern in Mu You’s left eye also began to transform, an S-shaped great sword piercing through his ink-black bloody pupil.

“I never asked for hope since childhood, but I also naively believed that I was not alone. I was wrong again. In this world, my place to stand never existed. From the beginning, I was destined to have nothing. Talking to a despairing person about ‘obeying’, you are simply boring…”

Blood-ink phoenix feathers covered Mu You’s face. He slowly closed his eyes, suddenly opened them. The blood-colored pupils and ink-black pupils completely disappeared, replaced only by one color.

The blood-ink color of all the dead.

“Enough stepping, roll out!!”