Chapter 143
Chapter 143: The Strongest Called Despair
Thud…thud…
That eyeball descended slowly.
Watcher's Eye
At last, it hovered in the palm of a small, slight Scarecrow.
This Scarecrow was Ling Yu—the support position of the Black Shark Squad, who had yet to appear until now.
Alongside Ling Yu was Tank, the defensive position of the Black Shark Squad.
Tank stood before the Ling Yu Scarecrow.
"What in the world is this thing trying to do?"
Luo Kun swallowed hard, his Psychokinesis barrier already stretched to its absolute limit.
Faced with that eerie eyeball, he did not dare make a single reckless move.
"You still can't figure it out? Vice-Captain Luo truly lives up to his undeserved reputation."
Liu Ruyan let out a cold laugh, casting a contemptuous glance at Luo Kun.
"This is obviously the core body of that Scarecrow!"
"What nonsense about the Wheat Field being its true body—all fearmongering!"
"How could a mere S-Grade Boss possess a domain this vast?"
"As long as we shatter this eyeball, the trial is over!"
"Exactly! Watch how this genius brings this battle to a glorious end!"
Liu Feng was eager to perform in front of Liu Ruyan.
S-Grade Speed Star erupted once again, launching him toward the eyeball!
"I'm in too! Liu Feng, don't even think about hogging all the glory!"
Seeing Liu Feng charge ahead, Iron Bull roared and hurled himself forward, refusing to be left behind.
Meanwhile, Shadow, who had been lurking in the darkness all along, kept her eyes locked on that eyeball.
Suddenly!
A sharp assassin's instinct made her scalp prickle and every hair on her body stand on end!
The sense of threat radiating from it surpassed every S-Grade monster she had ever encountered!
Just as Liu Feng and Iron Bull were about to close in—
A shift occurred!!
The Ling Yu Scarecrow extended its gnarled wooden arms and, with reverence, reached out…
and caressed the eyeball.
Hum!
In an instant, a wave of Suppressive Pressure exploded outward from the eyeball as its epicenter!
Then it surged straight into Tank's body!
Countless strands of straw and flesh began to weave and reshape!
Under the horrified gazes of every member of Blade Squad—
The Tank Scarecrow slowly shed its withered husk of dead grass and began to take on the contours of a human form in flesh and blood!
Even the texture and creases of clothing were replicated!
He wore a black shirt, collar slightly open.
The night wind swept past, pulling at the dark hem of his jacket.
And yet…
It was all in the form of a Scarecrow!
Watchful Scarecrow
The moment Shadow—concealed in the darkness—made out that silhouette, her heart nearly stopped.
That figure…
She had seen it countless times before entering the Battle Royale trial.
"Get back! You idiots!!"
"Don't go near it!!"
Shadow, who was ordinarily silent and reserved, let out a rare, full-throated shout!
The others realized instantly that something was wrong!
The Suppressive Pressure radiating from the black-clad man—
They recognized it all too well!
"It's him! It's that man!!"
Luo Kun and Liu Ruyan both inwardly cried, ‘Trouble!’
Their faces drained of color in an instant!
Luo Kun immediately activated Psychokinesis, attempting to forcibly haul the 2 who had charged out back to safety!
Liu Ruyan, abandoning any pretense of composure, unleashed all 108 flying swords from the Frost Sword Case at once!
Trying to intercept the 2 of them!
But it was too late.
Iron Bull and Liu Feng had charged too hard to stop—
Especially Liu Feng!
He was already standing before the black-clad Scarecrow, less than 5 meters away!
Having now made out the other's silhouette, clothing, and the Scarecrow's face—
Even someone as arrogant as Liu Feng, even someone as bluntly simple as Iron Bull.
Both were struck so dumb that their minds went completely blank, rooted to the spot!
"How is it possible that it's him!?"
"Why can a Scarecrow transform into him!?"
Liu Feng's voice was trembling.
And in that instant—that fraction of a second, not even 0.1 seconds of stunned hesitation—
The black-clad Scarecrow slowly raised its hand.
Its thin lips parted, and it spoke with cold indifference.
"Let this be the candle…"
"Raised in your honor…"
"Burn. Until there is nothing left."
Accompanying that low murmur—
A flicker of Crimson-Black Flame ignited at its fingertip…
quietly, hauntingly.
After returning from hell, the Watchful Scarecrow had learned its lesson from despair, and so…
It had grown cunning. It had grown powerful. It had become…
Despair itself…
It had become…
No Words Needed!
As the cursed verse conjured from the depths of hell fell upon the air—
Without any superfluous motion, it simply flicked its hand.
That wisp of Crimson-Black Flame landed directly on the bodies of Liu Feng and Iron Bull, who stood right before it!
"Ahhhhhh!!!!"
Liu Feng, who was closest, released a shriek of pure agony!
He was not engulfed all at once—instead he convulsed on the ground in torment.
A scene that made every onlooker's skin crawl unfolded before them.
Liu Feng's face—young and arrogant mere moments ago—was visibly aging at a speed visible to the naked eye!
His skin shriveled in an instant!
Corpse spots erupted across it!
His once jet-black hair turned white and began falling out in clumps!
Under the unstoppable might of Time, he wailed and flailed his arms in the air wildly.
"Save me! Save me—!!"
His cries lasted less than 2 seconds.
For being so close to the No Words Needed Scarecrow—
His entire body transformed into a blazing crimson-black figure wreathed in flame!
His body could no longer endure the ravages of Time flowing through it.
He crumpled to the ground!
"Ugh—! It burns so bad! It's that black flame!"
On the other side, Iron Bull had been a fraction slower, and so he was only grazed across his right arm by the flung wisp of Crimson-Black Flame.
Even so, the skin across his arm began carbonizing and aging in large swaths.
It was only thanks to Luo Kun's lightning-fast reaction behind him that Iron Bull was dragged back from the edge of death!
"Dammit! Iron Bull! Hold on!"
Luo Kun stared at Iron Bull's right arm, still hissing with black smoke that refused to be extinguished no matter what. His expression turned grim.
"I…I'm fine! I can take it!"
Iron Bull bit through his own lip, cold sweat pouring down his body.
"Watch me—Swords, come!"
Liu Ruyan's fingers snapped rapidly. The 108 slender swords that had scattered reassembled in the air.
Forming a formation of frigid ice blades, she attempted to use the black ice cold to smother the flame on Iron Bull!
Sizzle—sizzle—sizzle!
But the millennia-old black ice chill—cold enough to freeze molten lava on any ordinary day—
Collided with the Crimson-Black Flame and vaporized instantly!
It continued burning away at Iron Bull's time and life!
Liu Ruyan bit her lip. "Impossible…"
"Even the black ice chill can't extinguish it!"
"Save your breath! That's Tribulation Flame!!"
Luo Kun turned, fixing his gaze on the expressionless black-clad Scarecrow.
He had recognized it.
"It's No Words Needed's ability…"
"The fire that burned down the Wheat Field! The fire that burns through Time!"
"According to the records!"
"Once you're touched by it, there is absolutely no conventional method to put it out!"
The moment Luo Kun's words ended—
Swoosh!
A dark shadow erupted from the darkness beneath Iron Bull's feet!
A blade flashed—blinding speed, bone-deep cold!
Iron Bull's right arm, along with the shoulder, was cleanly severed by Shadow's single strike!
The severed arm fell to the ground, continuing to be devoured by Tribulation Flame.
"Ahhhhhh! My hand! My arm!!"
Iron Bull screamed. Massive jets of blood sprayed from the stump at his shoulder.
And on the other side, Liu Feng was crawling toward them!
"Save me! Ruyan! It hurts so much!"
"Save me!"
Shadow, ever stone-cold, sheathed her dagger.
"Move! Liu Feng is beyond saving!"
"Iron Bull's wound is critical—get away first, then we regroup!"
"With Tribulation Flame present, your attacks are useless!"
"Your swords will melt before they land!"
"I…"
Liu Ruyan looked at the completely collapsed situation.
Then she looked again at the No Words Needed Scarecrow.
This proud young mistress—in that single moment—finally shed the imperious, commanding air she had carried all her life.
"Liu Feng…for the sake of the bigger picture, go in peace!"
"Your captain will find a way to avenge you!"
Liu Ruyan delivered a parting line that even she herself didn't believe—
Then she directed the sword formation to shred the incoming Scarecrows!
She wore a look of revulsion as she raised a wall of ice!
Blocking Liu Feng, who was desperately crawling toward her—
Afraid that the flames on his body might spread to hers.
"Scarecrow…I'll let you off this time!"
"Once your captain has regrouped, I will tear you to pieces!"
Her words still hanging in the air, her fingers snapped frantically through sword seals.
The Frost Sword Case spread open beneath her feet, transforming into a single massive black-ice flying sword!
Iron Bull, Luo Kun, and Shadow leapt onto the sword.
A streak of blue ice-light blazed away into the distance!
Before leaving, Luo Kun turned his head for one last look—at Liu Feng, rolling in desperate agony across the Wheat Field…
Already beginning to mummify.
"I'm sorry…we can't save you."
"Tribulation Flame…there is currently no way to extinguish it."
The flying sword shot away and vanished into the vast golden Wheat Field.
In this golden field of slaughter, only Liu Feng's wailing remained.
Liu Feng stared in the direction Liu Ruyan had gone.
She had not even spared him a second glance.
In the moment he needed saving the most—
She had chosen to dismiss him with hollow, imperious words.
Even if she'd just tried—just once—that would have been enough!
But…
She hadn't.
She had even cut off his escape out of disgust.
And Luo Kun—the one he had always looked down on—
Had been the only one to offer an apology at the very end.
"Why…?"
"Why did you cut off my path…?"
Liu Feng's face, already mummified, was a mask more terrifying than any ghost!
He erupted in pure, blinding rage!
Not at everyone for leaving him to die—
But at Liu Ruyan's final wall!
What gave her the right to do that!
"Liu Ruyan…"
"You vile woman…"
"You'll die too…"
"You'll die here alongside me!!"
Drowning in boundless hatred, Liu Feng's body gradually ceased its aging and burning.
As Tribulation Flame slowly dispersed, he became a complete mummy.
His life—was over.
His hatred—had only just awakened.
And the No Words Needed Scarecrow standing in place—or rather, the true body of the Watchful Scarecrow—
Having personally experienced the power of that man!
It lost itself utterly in the intoxicating rush of what could only be called despair!
‘Wonderful! This is absolutely wonderful!’
“Hahahahahaha!”
The Watchful Scarecrow's mouth split open all the way to its ears.
It spread both arms wide, embracing this field of death.
Then it slowly turned its head, gaze falling on Liu Feng's mummified corpse on the ground.
It elegantly snapped its fingers.
Snap!
Rustle rustle rustle!
Countless straw vines exploded from its palms!
Squish!
Forced into Liu Feng's gaping mouth!
Driving downward, threading through his throat, his organs, his viscera!
The entire Wheat Field convulsed wildly in that instant.
Liu Feng's charred, shriveled chest heaved up and down repeatedly as it was packed with straw.
A short minute later—
When the Watchful Scarecrow withdrew its vines—
Liu Feng, who had wielded Speed Star, had shed every last trace of his humanity.
His body's surface was wrapped in charred black straw.
His once-youthful face was replaced by a featureless, horrifying straw mask with no eyes, no nose, no mouth.
The carefully styled fringe he had once groomed with such care to impress Liu Ruyan now hung as a clump of withered, yellowed dead grass.
Liu Feng Scarecrow
Hum!
Two points of red light ignited in the eyes of the Liu Feng Scarecrow.
It twitched twice on the ground.
Then it transformed into a dark shadow and took its place at the side of the Rex Scarecrow!
Its speed—in death—had become something far more terrifying than it had ever been in life.
It swiveled its head, eyes locked dead onto a single direction.
The horizon where Liu Ruyan and the others had fled.
From that faceless mask, a screech began to tear itself out.
"Why…?"
"…..Didn't you save me?!!"
That sky-drowning hatred—so overwhelming it nearly seized control over every instinct—
Filled the Watchful Scarecrow with deep satisfaction. It parted its mouth in a soundless, delighted laugh.
This.
This was exactly what it wanted!
The despair born from being abandoned by the teammates you trusted most—
The ones you admired the most!
The Watchful Scarecrow moved like an elegant orchestra conductor.
Stepping across golden waves of wheat, leading the Liu Feng Scarecrow whose eyes blazed with murderous red light—
Amid the swirling crimson fireflies—without haste, without hurry—it began walking…
slowly…
in the direction Blade Squad had fled.
Behind it—
Were the possessed Extraordinary One Scarecrows…
And an army of hundreds of Scarecrows awakening from the Wheat Field.
They advanced in perfect, uniform lockstep.
Inch by inch, grinding toward the fleeing Blade Squad.
Now—
It was the sole sovereign, the sole hunter, of this Death Wheat Field.
The Battle Royale!
Has officially!
Begun!!