Chapter 50: Then All of You Can Just Die
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"Alright, alright~"
Jiang Cheng shrugged. "If I die, so be it."
She never really cared much about her own life anyway. Otherwise, she wouldn't have come up with those elaborate schemes to fake her death before.
It's just a pity... If she really died, she wouldn't be able to see Lyle anymore. So for now, she'd revive herself with her backup plan and come back.
This time, she wouldn't just disappear after faking her death.
Armed with a backup for revival, Jiang Cheng, who already didn't value her life too highly, grew even more audacious. She even looked at the director on the monitor with playful interest.
"What method are you planning to use to kill me?"
Jiang Cheng asked with a smile.
"Hmm, or maybe be more straightforward about it? After all, us divine arts users, even if you want to torture us, we don't feel pain."
"You won't feel pain?"
The director gave a perverse smile. "I don't think so."
A vague sense of unease suddenly arose in Jiang Cheng's heart.
But what real danger could there be, given that she could revive? It was very hard for her to feel pain because of anything nowadays.
Suppressing the faint sense of foreboding, Jiang Cheng sneered.
"Don't believe me? Give it a try."
Jiang Cheng shrugged. "If I do end up feeling pain, maybe I'll even have to thank you."
"Heh," the director hooked his lips, "Is that so?"
"Well then, out of scholarly habit, allow me to introduce to you the divine art that's about to kill you."
Jiang Cheng's heart tightened. As long as you were a believer, even if you weren't a divine arts practitioner, there was still a small chance of obtaining a special divine art.
So, this so-called safety director might really have acquired some frightening divine art.
"Three years ago, my lord bestowed this divine art upon me," the director said with a beaming smile.
"I call it the most powerful divine art against divine arts users. So, from the first moment I saw you, miss Saintess, I knew you were the reason my lord gave me this gift—the enemy my lord wanted dead."
This lunatic... Jiang Cheng cursed inwardly. Just because of that, he had regarded her as an enemy from the start.
No matter how careful she was to hide in the shadows, she could never have predicted such an outlandish person.
"Oh well, time to explain its effect," the director smiled, looking in Jiang Cheng's direction.
"Whoever is hit by this divine art, will instantly manifest every injury they've ever sustained in this life."
"Injuries suffered as the price for using divine arts count too, you know."
Hearing this, Jiang Cheng inexplicably relaxed a bit inside.
She wasn't like those half-baked practitioners who had to use Church materials to numb their nerves just to use high-level divine arts.
This level of ordinary pain was nothing to Jiang Cheng—she could practically ignore it.
"Still acting like you don't care?"
The director sneered coldly, snapping his fingers.
"Well, let's begin the divine art. You're in for a treat."
Jiang Cheng sneered in silence as various wounds began to open up all over her body.
Feeling the blood continuously draining from within, Jiang Cheng laughed, "Is that all?"
The next instant, as if infuriated by Jiang Cheng's provocation, the rate at which wounds appeared sped up severalfold.
Her entire body levitated, joints twisting and cracking alarmingly, the sounds of bones fracturing filling the air.
Her limbs contorted like a ragdoll abused past breaking, warped into a wrecked, ruined shape.
"Ha—"
Jiang Cheng let blood drip from the corner of her lips, her mouth curling up in a crimson smile.
"Still not enough. I still don't feel real pain. What a... useless trash."
"Puh-puh"—new wounds blossomed across her body, blood spraying everywhere,
She bled and bled, seemingly without end, staining the cage around her.
"I didn't think you could really endure so much," the director looked at her with a hint of admiration.
"However, the divine art is telling me, there's still more to go. Power up!"
The next second, Jiang Cheng's skin blackened as if burned by fire, her fair complexion charred and ruined—
That was how her 'Teacher' disguise met its end, dying after suffering mortal wounds from demons and being incinerated together with the Mage Tower.
This divine art was sharp... Jiang Cheng frowned. It could even trigger physical injuries received under other system-assigned identities.
Unease resurfaced in her heart, growing ever stronger.
With a sudden splatter, Jiang Cheng's body was pierced all over by countless blades, riddling her abdomen and chest with ghastly wounds.
That was how her previous identity had died—impaled by a thousand blades.
Next, a deep rope mark appeared around Jiang Cheng's neck,
Tight enough to choke her, making it impossible to speak.
That was the first identity's death—hanged to death.
There was still a smile in Jiang Cheng's pale gold eyes, but the uneasiness inside her grew ever more intense—
Until the next moment—
A familiar pain stabbed through her heart and lungs.
The pain wasn't particularly severe, no different from the others she'd borne before,
But in Jiang Cheng's eyes, for the first time ever, a trace of fear appeared.
The pain began to spread outward from her lungs, until every bone in her body burned with searing agony,
Terror filled her eyes, deepening—and finally gave way to despair.
Loneliness, endless loneliness washed over her, as if she had become utterly alone in the world once more.
If only Lyle were here now...
In the depths of that despair, a thought flashed through Jiang Cheng's mind—then was ignored by her.
"Don't..." she subconsciously murmured aloud.
"So, now you're scared?" the director's voice came. "Too late."
"No matter what, you're an enemy of the Lord, and you must die, but if you'd begged earlier, perhaps I could have let you die less painfully."
"But now? Suffer and die, Saintess."
But suddenly, before he could finish speaking, a brilliant flash of holy light ignited in front of Jiang Cheng.
With the appearance of that sacred glow, a door of holy radiance formed before her.
Lyle's figure stepped through to stand in front of Jiang Cheng.
Before his feet had even touched the ground, Lyle, holding the Sword in the Stone, turned anxiously to look Jiang Cheng's way.
"Jiang Cheng, Jiang Cheng? What happened to you?"
Jiang Cheng weakly opened her eyes.
Lyle? Must be a hallucination. But... even if it was, having someone here was nice.
"Help..." she murmured with difficulty, her voice barely a whisper.
Seeing Jiang Cheng's body—wounds everywhere, not a single patch of healthy skin—Lyle's eyes blazed with flame.
"Break!"
With a furious shout, he slashed the Sword in the Stone toward a patch of empty space near Jiang Cheng's side.
Bang! The director's face changed dramatically. That slash actually severed his divine art.
Freed from the divine art's effects, Jiang Cheng stopped floating and fell, landing in Lyle's arms and coughing up another mouthful of blood.
"How dare you lay a hand on the Saintess?"
Lyle cradled Jiang Cheng with his left arm, his cold gaze fixed on the director on the screen,
Murderous intent in his words laid utterly bare.
"In that case, all of you can just die."