Chapter 180
Chapter 180: The soul will not lie
"Interesting."
Jiang Nan set his teacup down gently on the table.
At the same time, a slip of paper floated down onto the tabletop.
【Still early. Go pick an occupation.】
Seeing the boss's instructions, the 3 of them immediately straightened up and called out in unison: "Yes, Boss!"
Seeing this, Tu Xiaowu hurriedly wiped her tears away with her sleeve and said sensibly:
"Sir, I know the roads in this town well. Let me guide you all."
Just then, the sound of footsteps came from the staircase.
Shop owner Tu Xiaogang came up carrying an enormous tray.
It was loaded with steaming spicy rabbit heads, stir-fried rabbit meat, and 2 jugs of sorghum liquor.
"Ah, dear guests—where are you all off to?"
Tu Xiaogang set the tray down and looked at the group preparing to head out with a face full of puzzlement.
Tu Xiaowu stepped forward and explained: "Father, I'm taking the groom and his friends to the Assignment Office."
"To get their occupation identities sorted."
"You go on with your work—we'll be back shortly!"
Hearing it was official business, Tu Xiaogang hurriedly wiped his hands on his apron and urged:
"Then you'd best be quick! This rabbit meat'll get gamey once it cools—won't taste right!"
Tu Xiaowu gave no reply, only nodded obediently.
She turned and took Tang Sirui firmly by the hand, then led Jiang Nan's group down the stairs.
The private booth on the 2nd floor fell quiet.
Tu Xiaogang stood alone by the table, watching the retreating figures of his daughter and his son-in-law—who moved like a hollow walking corpse—until they disappeared.
The warmth drained from his face, replaced at once by a helpless, mournful look.
Tu Xiaogang poured himself a full cup of baijiu.
Glug.
The strong liquor hit his throat and made his eyes go red.
"If only… I had gotten there sooner…"
Tu Xiaogang gripped the cup.
"If only I had been stronger—strong enough to cut those 2 animals down with a single blade…"
"Would Xiaowu and little Sirui have been able to stay together properly?"
"Would they…"
"…have been spared the same agonizing separation I suffered?"
He murmured to himself, tilted his head back, and gazed up at the sky through the window.
"This so-called Eternal Life… is it truly a blessing from the gods?"
"Or is it…"
"…nothing more than a vicious curse draped in the skin of 【love】, imprisoning everyone for all eternity?"
……
At the same time, on the bustling streets of Soul-Return Town.
Tu Xiaowu was pulling Tang Sirui along at the front, leading Jiang Nan and the others toward the 【Assignment Office】.
The street was alive with people coming and going, hawkers' calls ringing out without end.
Just then, a figure in a purple suit was walking with his head down, hurrying around the street corner.
It was none other than the Joker—who had just made a wretched escape from Yue Tian's hands.
The gears of fate locked together at this very moment.
In the instant the 2 sides brushed past each other!
The Joker instinctively raised his head, and his gaze collided squarely with Jiang Nan's—who was walking in the middle of the group.
Jiang Nan's expression remained as arrogant as ever.
Because he had never seen the Joker's true face.
So Jiang Nan did not recognize him at first.
But…
The Joker recognized him!
The man who had personally wrecked his plans back at Seattle Mercy Hospital!
The Joker's heart nearly stopped on the spot!
"It's him!"
"How did he get to Soul-Return Town this fast?!"
"And from the look of things, he came for the Groom Selection too!"
"I absolutely cannot let him ruin a plan we've been brewing this long!"
Countless thoughts flashed through the Joker's mind, his pupils widening.
"While he still doesn't recognize my true face, I need to slip away now!"
"I have to find the Sage quickly and work out a counter-strategy!"
The Joker tried to casually quicken his pace and leave.
However, he had underestimated the instincts of a top-tier powerhouse.
In that 0.01-second window when their eyes met and the Joker's gaze flickered violently—
A fragment of memory cut across Jiang Nan's mind.
It was from the time he had swept through the casino at Seattle Mercy Hospital.
A pair of eyes he had caught sight of—filled with mocking madness.
The face was different.
But those eyes, carved into the bone—there was no mistaking them.
At the same time, the 【Sovereign Lantern】 hanging at Jiang Nan's waist erupted in an intensely excited hum!
‘The soul… never lies.’
Jiang Nan's lips curved into a smile.
"So… it's you."
Hearing the other man's voice, the Joker's body went rigid.
He knew—he had been made.
"Since I've been found out, then die!"
The Joker spun around.
3 fleshy orbs bearing twisted human faces materialized instantly in his hands!
Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh!
He hurled them straight at Jiang Nan's face!
"Quanquan! Go!"
Guo Shuai roared.
"Roger, Daddy!"
Quanquan's face immediately twisted into a whirlpool shape.
2 of the orbs were swallowed straight into Quanquan's belly.
"Ahh! Quanquan's full! Too stuffed!"
Quanquan clutched his round, bloated belly and wailed in grievance.
One orb remained, tearing through the air straight toward Jiang Nan!
At that very moment, a tall figure stepped in front of him.
Han Fei thrust out her palm!
Plunder!
The orb—on the verge of exploding—was seized from the air by Han Fei.
She didn't even glance at it, spinning on her heel and hurling it back with full force, smashing it straight into the Joker's face!
"Here, have it back!"
Faced with the orb flying back at him, the Joker not only made no move to dodge—his grin grew even more manic.
"Heh… you've walked right into it!"
He snapped his fingers.
Bang!
The orb detonated mid-air in an instant!
But rather than any devastating explosion, it dispersed into a blood-colored smoke that blotted out everyone's vision!
"Hahaha! Farewell, all of you!"
Using the smoke as cover, the Joker immediately turned and bolted for his life!
However, he had miscalculated one thing.
In this man's dictionary, there had never been such an entry as letting him escape unharmed.
Within the thick fog, Jiang Nan had already locked onto him—vision wasn't needed at all now.
He gripped the God-Slaying Spear in his right hand and hurled it with explosive force!
Bang!
With a sonic boom!
The God-Slaying Spear split through the smoke and shot straight at the Joker as he sprinted away!
Hearing the shriek of something cutting through the air behind him, the Joker looked back—his pupils contracting!
"Not good!"
Thud!
Blood splattered!
The God-Slaying Spear punched clean through the Joker's right chest, carrying him back more than 10 meters and pinning him to a stone wall!
About 5 seconds later.
The smoke gradually dispersed.
Jiang Nan walked out of the fog, expression blank.
Before the stone wall, all that remained was the God-Slaying Spear—drenched in blood—nailed into the stone.
But the Joker's figure had vanished into thin air.
He had clearly forced his way free.
Jiang Nan walked to the wall, casually lifted his foot, and kicked the God-Slaying Spear into the air, then caught it in his hand.
He looked down at the trail of blood on the ground—stretching all the way to the alley entrance before disappearing—and gave a cold snort.
"Doesn't matter. We have plenty of time ahead… we'll take this slowly."
With those words, he turned and put the God-Slaying Spear away.
Only then did Guo Shuai and the others come running out of the smoke.
"Boss, are you alright?"
Guo Shuai asked, tense with worry.
"Let's go."
Jiang Nan shook his head.
Tu Xiaowu, beside him, had been in a state of complete bewilderment throughout the whole thing.
She could not understand what had just happened.
Nor did she know that the man Jiang Nan had just pinned to the wall with a single throw was one of the perpetrators behind her husband's suffering.
Hearing Jiang Nan's prompt to move, she could only nod in a daze: "O—oh, alright."
"Turn at the next corner, and we'll be at the Assignment Office."
The group set off once more and vanished into the far end of the street.
……
In a secluded dead-end alley somewhere.
The Joker was pressing a hand over the gaping bloody hole in his right chest—one you could see clear through from front to back.
He staggered with each step, leaving a bloody print on the ground with every stride.
"Damn Dragon Kin… damn No Words Needed!"
The Joker snarled through gritted teeth: "One day… I will wipe out every last one of you monsters—your whole clan, your whole bloodline!"
At that very moment, a familiar voice drifted down from above him.
"Heh."
"Rather than wasting breath on big talk here, you'd do better to go out onto the main street and steal something—save up enough to enter the tournament."
The Joker looked up.
There, on the 2nd-floor windowsill of an abandoned building nearby, the Sage sat with both arms folded across his chest.
His once-neat long robe was now in tatters.
Seeing him in this state, the Joker couldn't resist a snide remark.
"Well, well—if it isn't our masterful strategist, the great Sage."
"Haven't seen you in a few hours, and somehow you're in an even worse state than I am?"
The Sage showed no irritation at the mockery, responding with the same calm composure.
"Just bad luck."
"I was tracked down at my hiding spot by that Huaxia interrogator's wide-range tracking—had to go toe-to-toe with him."
"Though he's not faring well either."
"After taking my technique, without top-tier light-based abilities or Dragon Blood to counter it—"
"He'll be joining the graveyard of this Soul-Return Town within 2 days, I'd estimate."
The Joker leaned against the wall, hissing through the pain, still talking tough:
"Tch. Anyone can run their mouth."
"When I ran into him, he was still on his feet and sprightly, swinging that 3-section staff around."
"Unless—"
"No 'unless' needed."
The Sage cut him off.
"You were taken in by that old fox's Empty Fort Strategy."
"He was already at the end of his rope at that point—he was bluffing you."
The Joker froze, his expression going rigid.
Having his intellectual inferiority exposed so nakedly naturally made his temper flare.
"Come up. I'll show you."
The Sage leaned back, making room on the windowsill.
The Joker gave a cold snort: "Fine. I want to see what trick you're pulling."
He gritted through the searing pain, flipped himself through the window, and landed inside.
The moment he touched down, he spotted Dusk—bound head to foot—dumped in a corner, even snoring away in his sleep.
The Sage pointed at the hand the Joker was pressing to his chest: "Move it."
The Joker shot him a wary look, but did as he was told and pulled his hand away.
"Honestly, this is my first time seeing you use your ability."
The Joker stared hard at the Sage's eyes—shrouded behind a grey cloth—"What Sequence are you exactly?"
The Sage's lips curved into a sinister smile: "Once you see… you'll know."
His voice fell, and the Sage slowly extended his right hand.
A black mist began to rise, billowing from his palm!
The instant the Joker laid eyes on that black mist—
Every trace of mockery in his eyes vanished without a trace!
His face was flooded with sheer disbelief!
"You… this aura…"
The Joker instinctively stepped back half a pace. "Just who are you?!"
The Sage's smile grew more sinister still. He reached up and pulled off his blindfold.
Revealing those eyeless sockets—hollow as an abyss.
"We…are your guides."
Before the words had finished, the Sage's hand—wreathed in black mist—pressed down onto the Joker's wound!
The wound, fed by the black mist, began to writhe and close at a rapid rate!
In the span of just a few seconds.
Flesh knit together. Skin sealed shut.
……
At the same time.
On the other side of Soul-Return Town.
Before the gates of the 【Assignment Office】.
Guo Shuai was idly tagging along behind Jiang Nan in the queue.
Mentally calculating how much extra compensation he could squeeze out of the boss if he ended up drawing the manure hauler job.
Suddenly!
His 【Eye of Calamity】 opened on its own!
"What the hell!"
Guo Shuai immediately shouted wildly inside his mind.
"Old man! What's going on with you?!"
"Didn't we agree—no acting without authorization?!"
However, the voice that answered from within his mind was nothing like the usual high-and-mighty, boastful Magic God of days past.
Albert's voice at this moment was frantic—and even…
Laced with fear.
"Kid… forget the queue!"
"Tell your boss to get ready to draw his weapon—right now!"
"We're about to be in serious trouble…"
"That body of mine from back then—the one that got lost…"
"The one that developed its own consciousness—a demigod's body…"
"It seems…"
"…it's somewhere in this town!"
Bunny