Chapter Eighty-Seven: The Trial of Lights

The final trial—the Trial of the Blade?

Chen Qi froze. According to the Fog Lady’s hint, only one aligned with the Lamp could break this trial.

He set aside his doubts and looked to the text.

Black mist poured outward from all around you. You gripped the long blade of the Debt Collector and stared at the stone statue of the city lord before you.

The statue of the Lord of Mist City, stone sword in hand, kept walking toward you!

The Lord of Mist City told you the objective of the final trial.

There is only one goal in this trial: defeat him!

In a land without light, only by facing fear can victory be won!

Chen Qi looked at the text.

The Trial of the Blade. This should be the long blade from before.

Chen Qi clicked on the Mist City dueling sword and equipped it!

The statue of the Lord of Mist City tilted its head as it looked at the saber at your waist, as if some memory had been stirred.

In Mist City, there exists an ancient form of dueling: both sides wield a rusted blade, are forbidden to use techniques, and fight until one yields.

The Lord of Mist City accepted your challenge. He raised his stone sword and was willing to face you in a blade-to-blade battle.

Chen Qi read the text. This dueling blade could make the statue of the Lord of Mist City refrain from using techniques, forcing him into a melee duel.

The Lord of Mist City held a moss-covered stone long blade and waited for your first move.

The final trial begins!

A line of blood-red text flashed out, and black mist instantly invaded the entire screen.

Even through the screen, he could feel the Lord of Mist City’s silent oppression.

The Lord of Mist City gripped his long blade and waited for you to strike.

You seized the opportunity and thrust out a blade!

With the skill of the Blood-Edge Banquet Fruit, you exchanged ten blows with him in succession!

Your skill with the blade is acceptable, the Lord of Mist City said slowly.

Then, in the instant you thrust your blade forward, a vivid wound opened on your arm! Blood sprayed everywhere!

In the blink of an eye, the Lord of Mist City had already appeared behind you. One slash pierced through your back, carving out a stark wound and shattering even the blade-stone on your back!

You have entered a severe bleeding state. Your life continues to drain away!

Chen Qi looked at the text. In just a moment, after two lines of text, his health had fallen to fifty percent!

He subconsciously clutched his right shoulder as a stabbing pain welled up from within his body.

This was a true monster, a monster returned from the land without light. Before such a creature, he could not even land a single blow.

At this point, aside from the Lamp of Sanctuary, the Fog Lady’s items had all been used.

Chen Qi took a deep breath, forcing himself to recover from the pain, and looked at the text.

Blood splashed outward as the Lord of Mist City slashed down like a flash of lightning across your right arm.

A hideous wound was carved into your arm by the stone blade, and flesh was gouged from your chest!

Amid the searing agony of torn flesh, you still held the long blade and tried your best to block his attacks.

He said slowly: the true trial has only just begun!

This string of text left Chen Qi utterly stunned, his teeth clenched hard.

Your health drops to twenty-five percent. Your life is now a candle in the wind, and a mere breath will snuff it out.

He had only twenty-five percent health left!

According to the earlier text, if he took another hit of the same strength, he would die!

And in the next instant, another chilling line appeared.

The Lord of Mist City slashed like the wind. The tendons in your leg were injured, and your health dropped.

You crouched half-kneeling on the ground, looking at the cold stone statue before you. He slowly walked up to you.

His petrified face looked down at you, yet he did not deliver the final fatal blow.

The statue of the Lord of Mist City placed his blade before you, and that stony face split into a grin.

You are on the brink of death.

Like a veteran mocking a novice, the Lord of Mist City curved his mouth in a grin. He pointed the long blade toward the entrance, indicating that you could leave from there.

The Lord of Mist City spread his arms. He, too, had once been a counterfeit hero, and he would not kill anyone without cause.

He would grant you a chance—a chance to live.

You looked upon this trial ground and saw no corpse.

No corpse. And after taking the trial, the Fog Lady had also survived.

Chen Qi bit his finger. Perhaps it was truly as he said: even without passing the trial, one might still survive.

In your eyes, the Lord of Mist City seemed to split into hundreds of mocking figures, saying to you:

“Run, weakling.”

Wanderer, make your choice. Will you leave here?

Chen Qi looked at this crucial option. At this moment, he had no prophetic dream to guide him.

But the earlier text had shown that only by defeating this stone statue monster could the trial be passed!

And the Lamp of Sanctuary had not yet been used!

Based on the earlier text, there should also be a special way to defeat the statue of the Lord of Mist City.

Something in the details told him that this Lord of Mist City, like the other statues, had another method of defeat—only far more difficult.

After a moment of hesitation, his fingers trembling, Chen Qi finally chose to refuse!

Black text burst out one after another!

You looked at the Lord of Mist City before you. Blood flowed from your body, forming a pool beneath you.

Hearing your answer, the statue of the Lord of Mist City shook its head.

You will face true fear!

From behind the statue of the Lord of Mist City, black mist began to surge forth without end.

The black mist, like a vengeful spirit, gradually covered your body.

Within that pool of blood, scenes from the gutters kept surfacing in your mind, and wisps of mist began to rise from your shoulders.

His character was in terrible condition!

Chen Qi read the text, and in an instant his sanity dropped by five points!

Within the black mist, you saw the terrifying calamity that dominated the sky in the land without light, crushing city after city as if they were ants.

You returned to that cramped shared room of the Night Watchers. The blade-stone upon you throbbed faintly, painful and unwilling.

Chen Qi stared at these lines, and for some reason, his hand was growing numb.

A line he had never seen before instantly covered the entire screen.

The black mist from the land without light is faintly seeping into the reflection of your soul.

Please note: that distant calamity, through that faint thread of connection, is weakly reaching your true self!

Stay lucid!

What does this mean? What kind of attack is this?

Suddenly, the text on the screen froze.

Chen Qi went rigid. From the side of his neck, black mist emerged, like a shadow beast staring at him.

The mist instantly engulfed him.

Why was this happening?

He was stunned. He had never imagined that the contents of this trial could affect his real body!

“Stay lucid.”

He pressed a hand to his face and slowly opened his eyes. In that black mist, he saw his younger self, and he saw many familiar faces.

He saw himself standing dazedly at the school gate, watching as gentle parents picked up their precious children and took them home.

Within that black mist, he saw the deskmate he once secretly loved; in the end, because of his own ordinariness, he had done nothing at all.

He saw the exam he had poured his heart into yet still failed, and the night when he lay alone upon his bed.

Chen Qi looked at these old scenes and, for a moment, could not speak.

He dug his fingernails into the flesh of his forehead, using the pain to keep himself calm.

What on earth was this black mist? It could affect not only the game character, but even himself.

He let out a breath. These memories felt so real, so sorrowful—but that had nothing to do with the present!

At the very least, right now he needed to find a way forward, not sink into these grieving recollections.

The black mist slowly dispersed. It seemed that the mist itself had been nothing more than an illusion.

Chen Qi let out a long breath and kept watching the game!

Even if there was only the slightest chance of passing the trial, it was worth everything he had.

Lamp Alignment triggered!

You came back to yourself and looked beneath your feet.

At this moment, under the lure of the black mist, you had already reached the entrance.

And there stood the Lord of Mist City, stone blade in hand, waiting for you to leave.

Having shaken off the black mist, Chen Qi immediately focused on the text in the game.

The black mist erodes around you.

Lamp Alignment triggered!

A glimmer of light appears from the Lamp of Sanctuary in your backpack, defending you against the black mist from the land without light, the black mist personally nourished by the Lord of Mist City.

That light gives you the final thread of guidance, bringing you back from the black mist.

You look around. Amid this surging darkness, only a single flame still burns upon the throne!

The rolling black mist has already covered you.

A line of text flashed.

You look toward that flame; within the darkness, it carries the breath of life.

You once again grasp the long blade.

Chen Qi looked at the flame in astonishment.

The last ember of life of the Lord of Mist City. Health: 1/1.