Translator: CinderTL
After a while, Wu's muffled voice came from behind, "Tell me." He paused, then continued, "How did you figure it out?"
Without answering the question, Jiang Cheng picked up the paintbrush that had fallen to the ground and suddenly thrust it toward Lin Chen.
The paintbrush, which was far from sharp, effortlessly pierced through Lin Chen's chest.
In Lin Chen's disbelieving eyes, a large amount of blood gushed out, splattering all over Jiang Cheng's face.
But Jiang Cheng smiled.
"So it's like this."
The bright red blood had no trace of a metallic smell. Jiang Cheng licked the blood droplets on his lips, and a strange, astringent taste spread in his mouth.
Paint.
It was the taste of paint.
This wasn't blood—this was a painting.
And they... were all inside this painting.
Since the truth had been exposed, Lin Chen's expression gradually calmed, then slowly melted into a puddle of colorful, odorous paint.
Jiang Cheng moved his shoe to avoid getting the paint on himself.
"I'm asking you a question," Wu's voice fluctuated for the first time, "How did you realize we're inside a painting?"
The situation was gradually shifting. Facing the black-clad Wu, Jiang Cheng also began to gain confidence. "I didn't die," he said, looking at Wu behind him.
"With your abilities, you could have killed me the moment I charged at Lin Chen," Jiang Cheng stared at him, "But you didn't."
"If Lin Chen were real, you would never have allowed this to happen. Both of us know what would happen if Lin Chen saw this painting."
As Wu looked at Jiang Cheng, a different emotion gradually surfaced in his eyes. "Go on, I know there's more."
Few people could make Jiang Cheng feel like he had met his match. Chen Ran was one, and that woman named Li Lu was also quite troublesome, as was the middle-aged man by Xia Meng's side.
But their strengths lay more in strategy and tactics. The person before him, however, brought a completely different sense of threat.
In Wu's eyes, Jiang Cheng couldn't find anything that could instill fear in him.
Deciding not to provoke him for now, Jiang Cheng replied, "But you deliberately let me run to Lin Chen, so I knew it was a trap. As for this being the world inside the painting..."
He paused, then pointed to a corner about 3 to 4 meters away from his position, near the sofa.
There was nothing there.
But Wu nodded, seemingly understanding Jiang Cheng's meaning. "It's that mirror."
"Right," Jiang Cheng slowly stepped back while continuing to explain, "I've seen Lin Chen's paintings before. The last one was of this very room."
"This place is identical to the painting, except for the missing mirror," Jiang Cheng narrowed his eyes, "I remember someone noticed the mirror in the painting, and that mirror reflected the real you."
"The dark side of you."
"Worried that this setup would be exposed, you erased the existence of that mirror," Jiang Cheng walked to the easel, took a deep breath, and said, "It's not that you're stupid, it's just that I'm smarter."
Before he could finish speaking, Jiang Cheng lunged headfirst into the easel.
In the next moment, the light and shadows around him shifted. He staggered a few steps, then steadied himself as his feet found solid ground.
When he opened his eyes again, he was still in Room 808, but the strange feeling that had been lingering in his heart was gone.
The gray filter that had originally enveloped the room was now removed.
This place could finally be considered reality in some sense.
Just as Jiang Cheng let out a long sigh of relief and prepared to go find the real Lin Chen, a deep voice sounded behind him, "Well done."
The moment he heard this voice, Jiang Cheng's body instantly stiffened.
Wu sat on the tattered fabric sofa behind him, lazily leaning against the backrest, silently watching the man who thought he had narrowly escaped death.
A flicker of light passed through his eyes, as if he was anticipating more surprises from him.
"Why?" Jiang Cheng stood still, not turning his head, "Why are you here?"
The previous painting was also Lin Chen's work, but Wu was different from him. He was originally a Ghost from the painting. Even if he could escape from it, it shouldn't have been this quick.
Connecting all the previous events, it seemed as if this guy had been waiting here all along.
Everything he had done was within the other's calculations.
He had anticipated that Jiang Cheng would see through the deception, and he had also anticipated that Jiang Cheng would leave the painting. So, what was the next step? Before Jiang Cheng could react, the other's speed ensured he wouldn't have any time to respond.
0.01 seconds.
Or even shorter. The moment Jiang Cheng turned around, he was pushed back by a tremendous force, slamming heavily into the wall behind him.
A mouthful of blood spewed out, mixed with some sticky greenish flesh, resembling shattered internal organs.
Wu, representing despair, let go and slowly stepped back.
Jiang Cheng slowly lowered his head, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth, drop by drop hitting the ground. In his already reddened vision, a knife was embedded in his chest.
The terrifying force had directly pierced through his body, pinning him to the wall behind him.
"You didn't have to suffer like this," Wu said, examining Jiang Cheng, a hint of impatience faintly visible in the corner of his eye.
"In the painting, everything would have been simpler. That process wouldn't have caused you much pain," Wu said indifferently. "You're the one who complicated things."
"This is all your fault, so next..." Wu paused for a second, then raised his head, "You'll have to learn to pay the price for your actions."
Wu's eyes grew increasingly crimson, that crimson like towering waves rising from a sea of blood, reflected in Jiang Cheng's eyes. He seemed to see countless people struggling to survive in the sea of blood, and even more, floating and sinking limbs.
A sound he had never heard before echoed in his ears, like some kind of horn, but only similar. Jiang Cheng suddenly felt a sense of the vicissitudes of time.
He saw a massive book appear behind Wu.
No.
Not just a book!
It was... a Gate.
A Gate cast in bronze.
The immense pressure pinned Jiang Cheng to the wall, unable to move, his limbs trembling uncontrollably. The pressure from this Gate was even more terrifying than the knife embedded in his chest.
From two meters away, Wu slowly extended his hand toward Jiang Cheng's chest. But in the next second, Jiang Cheng actually felt a hand pierce into his body.
Inch by inch.
The intense pain felt as if it was tearing his body apart, but the other's goal was clearly not just to kill him. It was more like... searching for something.
"The Gate within you, I shall take custody of it." Wu's voice seemed to possess a strange power, and Jiang Cheng's consciousness began to dissipate.
Fragments of images started flashing through his mind.
The edges of each fragment were charred black.
As if stained with blood and fire.
I'll grab a bite to eat first, brothers, more to come later.
(End of the Chapter)
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