130: Chapter 130 Greeting? You almost killed my deskmate!
Linhai No. 2 High School.
Senior Year Class 2 had been quiet for less than three minutes.
Li Hao closed his math workbook and let out a long sigh.
"It's good to be alive."
Gu Lang glanced at him.
"Didn't you just want to apply to continue being controlled for ten minutes?"
Li Hao immediately became serious.
"That was another me."
Gu Lang: "..."
The Homeroom Teacher stood on the podium, just preparing to reorganize the class.
The next second.
The sky outside the window darkened.
It wasn't dark clouds.
Nor was it a power outage.
Rather, the light of the entire Linhai City had been pressed down by an invisible hand.
Outside the teaching building, the shadows on the playground elongated simultaneously.
A harsh buzzing of static sounded from the broadcast.
The electronic clock on the wall jumped once.
The time stopped at 3:17 PM.
The whole class looked up.
Li Hao looked out the window, his voice dry.
"Again?"
Gu Lang stood up abruptly.
The Corpse-eating Dog inside him didn't roar.
Nor did it struggle.
It simply lay down.
It was very skilled at playing dead.
Saintess Lin Xinglan stood by Su Yun's desk, her expression darkening.
"Underworld aura."
Arbiter Lei Zhen and Arbiter Qin Feng rushed to the door simultaneously.
The Holy Light on them had just flared up when it was forced to pause by the grey-black mist pressing in from outside the window.
Su Yun sat in his seat, looking up at the window.
He frowned. Is this what an old-school King-level is?
This sense of oppression was far stronger than Chu Youwei's.
However, his mouth immediately curled up uncontrollably, and a strong desire to devour surged from within the Strange Tales core of the Lord of Blind Idiot God inside his body.
He even felt an urge to fly directly into the sky.
Above the sky.
A massive black judgment scroll slowly unfurled.
The judgment scroll spanned the sky over Linhai, its edges dripping with countless grey-white chains.
The chains had no physical form, yet they passed through clouds, through high-rise buildings, and through the spiritual vision of every Awakened.
The next moment.
A figure appeared behind the judgment scroll.
The person wore an imperial crown and was draped in a profound black imperial robe.
Their face was hidden behind a beaded curtain.
Their features were indiscernible.
But everyone could feel that he was looking down at this city.
Old Fengdu.
Ghost Emperor projection.
All the alarms in Linhai City blared at once.
Investigation Bureau.
Inside the main control room.
Chen Jianguo slammed a hand on the table.
"A King-level projection!"
Executive Jiang Xu had already connected to the encrypted communication.
On the screen, the face of Commander Li Zhenshan appeared.
He didn't exchange pleasantries.
"Assessment."
Executive Jiang Xu looked at the energy curve on the big screen.
"Not the main body."
"The projection's intensity is at the lower limit of King-level, but its rule status is complete."
Chen Jianguo asked urgently, "Is he here to start a war?"
Executive Jiang Xu shook his head.
"No."
Su Yao looked at him.
"How can you be sure?"
Executive Jiang Xu pointed to the screen.
"If he wanted to start a war, the projection wouldn't have unfurled the judgment scroll first."
"He would have descended in his main body directly."
Ye Zhiwei closed her eyes and said in a low voice, "He is establishing his authority."
Commander Li Zhenshan asked in a deep voice, "Purpose?"
Executive Jiang Xu looked at that black judgment scroll.
"First, to take back the authority stolen from Old Fengdu."
"Second, to test the stability of this new King, Chu Youwei."
"Third, to force The Rancher to show himself."
The main control room was silent for a moment.
Chen Jianguo gasped.
"The Rancher again?"
Executive Jiang Xu was expressionless.
"Old Fengdu didn't lose to Chu Youwei."
"It was him."
Commander Li Zhenshan spoke up, "Does the Ghost Emperor dare to act directly?"
Executive Jiang Xu was silent for half a second.
"Not in the short term."
Su Yao frowned.
"The Ghost Emperor is the only old-school King-level in the Great Xia territory. Chu Youwei just became a King; if they really fight, she won't win."
Executive Jiang Xu nodded.
"She won't win."
"But King-level is not S-level."
"When a King-level fights for their life, even if they lose, it could result in mutual destruction."
He looked up at the screen.
"Furthermore, there is more than one King-level on Blue Star besides the Ghost Emperor."
Commander Li Zhenshan's eyes darkened.
Executive Jiang Xu continued, "If the Ghost Emperor fights Chu Youwei to the death in Linhai, even if he wins, he will be damaged."
"At that point, the other King-levels won't just watch."
Chen Jianguo understood.
He wiped his forehead.
"So the Ghost Emperor isn't here to fight, but to extort?"
Executive Jiang Xu glanced at him.
"That's putting it crudely, but it's accurate."
Just then.
Chu Youwei's figure was already standing in the sky.
Compared to that imperial shadow, her figure was pitifully small.
But after the Black Register was opened, the rules of the entire sky paused for a moment.
She looked down, her gaze crossing dozens of kilometers to glance at Su Yun, her lips slightly pressed together.
"I will handle this."
Chu Youwei stopped in front of the Ghost Emperor projection.
The Ghost Emperor lowered his eyes.
"You are the new Invigilator."
Chu Youwei looked up.
"I am Chu Youwei."
The Ghost Emperor ignored the name.
"Hand over the authority of Old Fengdu."
Chu Youwei said calmly, "That is the result confiscated after you cheated."
Countless people in Linhai looked up.
Once this sentence was spoken, the entire city fell silent for a beat.
The judgment scroll behind the Ghost Emperor vibrated.
The grey-white chains rattled.
"Presumptuous."
Chu Youwei opened the Black Register.
"King Qinguang, King Chujiang, King Songdi, King Biancheng, King Taishan, and others organized ghostwriting, hired mercenaries, and maliciously seized examination hall authority."
"The evidence is complete."
"The judgment is compliant."
She paused for a moment.
"If Old Fengdu is dissatisfied, you may apply for a review."
Chu Youwei's words fell.
The sky went quiet.
"Apply for a review?"
The Ghost Emperor projection lowered his gaze.
Behind the beaded curtain, his face could not be seen.
But everyone in Linhai City felt as if a grave had appeared above their heads.
The black judgment scroll slowly turned.
The grey-white chains hung down from the clouds, as if to drag the entire city into the Underworld.
The Ghost Emperor spoke.
"New King."
"Do you know who you are talking to?"
Chu Youwei stood in mid-air, the Black Register suspended in front of her.
She did not retreat.
"I know."
"Old Fengdu, Ghost Emperor."
The Ghost Emperor's voice sank.
"Then how dare you seize my authority?"
Chu Youwei opened the Black Register.
"First, you cheated."
"Second, the evidence is complete."
"Third, the judgment has already taken effect."
She looked up.
"If you want to follow the procedure, I can open a review portal for Old Fengdu."
All the Awakened in Linhai City were silent.
A review portal.
For the Ghost Emperor.
This was too outrageous.
But the problem was, she said it very seriously.
In the Investigation Bureau's main control room, Chen Jianguo's mouth twitched.
"Is she really planning to make the Ghost Emperor fill out a form?"
Executive Jiang Xu stared at the screen.
"No."
"She is using her own rules to forcibly drag the Ghost Emperor back into the examination hall system."
Ye Zhiwei closed her eyes, her voice somewhat tight.
"The Ghost Emperor won't accept it."
Sure enough.
In the sky.
The judgment scroll behind the Ghost Emperor projection shook violently.
"A King does not accept judgment."
Chu Youwei closed the Black Register.
"Then what did you come here for?"
The Ghost Emperor did not answer.
He simply raised a hand.
In that instant, all the lights in Linhai City went out simultaneously.
It wasn't a circuit failure.
It was that light was judged as "invalid."
The next second.
A giant hand covering the sky reached out from above the clouds.
Black.
Huge.
The palm prints were flowing with Underworld judgments.
It didn't rush to descend.
But just by hovering there, the glass in Linhai City began to shatter.
Cracks appeared on the exterior walls of high-rise buildings.
The students on the playground knelt down one by one.
Ordinary people couldn't see anything.
They only felt their chests tighten.
As if an invisible judgment document was pressed against their hearts.
Linhai No. 2 High School.
Senior Year Class 2.
Li Hao lay on the desk, his face pressed against the exam paper.
"Gu Lang..."
"Am I going to die?"
Gu Lang stood by the window, his expression very ugly.
"Don't talk."
The Corpse-eating Dog inside him was no longer playing dead.
It had started digging a hole for itself.
Saintess Lin Xinglan stood by Su Yun's side, the Holy Light supporting a thin barrier.
Arbiter Lei Zhen and Arbiter Qin Feng also rushed into the classroom.
The three of them joined forces.
To barely block that cold, oppressive pressure.
Su Yun sat in his seat.
He looked up at that hand.
His eyes were very calm.
King-level.
It really wasn't something a half-King could compare to.
If this palm landed, Linhai would disappear from the map.
Everyone would die.
Saintess Lin Xinglan looked at Su Yun.
"Aren't you afraid?"
Su Yun looked at the sky.
"I am."
Li Hao looked up abruptly.
"Brother Yun, you're finally normal!"
Su Yun continued, "I'm afraid there will be no one to keep me company on the road to the Yellow Springs."
Li Hao: "..."
Gu Lang said in a low voice, "He is still the same him."
The next second.
In the sky, Chu Youwei moved.
She did not retreat.
Nor did she speak.
She raised her right hand.
The Black Register hung in front of her, the pages turning without wind.
Streams of black spiritual energy surged from within her.
Chu Youwei's palm pushed upward.
Boom!
The giant black hand finally descended.
She met it with a palm strike.
The two hands collided over Linhai.
There was no explosion.
Yet the entire city sank simultaneously.
Glass shattered in sheets.
The outer walls of high-rise buildings fell off.
The sea at the port rolled back three hundred meters.
A long crack split open on the playground of Linhai No. 2 High School, and the basketball hoop was bent directly into scrap metal.
In the classroom.
Li Hao was jolted off his chair by the shock, then pressed back down by Gu Lang.
"Sit still."
Li Hao's voice trembled.
"Did I just fly up?"
Gu Lang said, "No."
Li Hao breathed a sigh of relief.
Gu Lang added, "Your Soul just stood up first."
Li Hao: "..."
In the sky.
Chu Youwei's right arm was trembling.
The cuff of her black uniform burst open, revealing a fair wrist.
A line of blood flowed down her palm, only to be swallowed by black spiritual energy.
She caught it.
But she didn't catch it completely.
The Ghost Emperor projection lowered his eyes.
"New King, you are too impatient."
Chu Youwei looked up.
There was not a shred of retreat in her eyes.
"You want to kill him."
The Ghost Emperor was silent for a moment.
"Who?"
Chu Youwei did not answer.
She opened the Black Register with her left hand.
The pages instantly stopped at the entry for Old Fengdu.
[Old Fengdu]
[Ghost Emperor]
[Associated Authority: Underworld Judgment Scroll, Decree of Life and Death]
The names on the Black Register began to burn.
Chu Youwei raised her hand and pressed her own blood directly onto it.
The black spiritual energy over Linhai suddenly contracted.
The next second.
A long, pitch-black line shot out from the register.
It didn't attack the Ghost Emperor projection.
Instead, it bypassed the projection and pierced into the back of that massive judgment scroll.
The Ghost Emperor finally looked up.
"Hm?"
Dahuang Prefecture.
Old Fengdu.
Inside the Ghost Emperor's palace, King Biancheng, who had just had half his life drained, was still lying on the ground.
King Taishan hadn't crawled up either.
The Ten Kings of Yama were reorganizing the judgment scroll.
Suddenly.
A black opening split in the sky above the Ghost Emperor's palace.
A phantom image of a massive Black Register hung upside down.
King Qinguang looked up.
"What is that?"
The next instant.
The black spiritual energy transformed into chains and struck him directly in the face.
Slap!
King Qinguang was sent flying, crashing and collapsing half a wall.
King Chujiang was furious.
"Who dares to attack the Underworld!"
The Black Register turned a page.
A second chain fell.
Slap!
King Chujiang was also sent flying.
King Songdi had just stood up and turned to run.
The Black Register paused for half a second.
Then it added a line of small text after his name.
[Fleeing from battle]
Slap!
King Songdi was whipped back into the palace from the doorway.
Old Fengdu instantly exploded into chaos.
A million underworld soldiers looked up.
Countless ghost messengers drew their blades.
But the Black Register did not stop.
It was like a cold hand, directly peeling away the Underworld shell of Old Fengdu, ripping out all the remnants of authority related to the Foreign Language Tribunal incident.
The judgment scroll vibrated.
The book of life and death turned a page.
The floor tiles of the Ghost Emperor's palace shattered one by one.
The Ghost Emperor's main body on the throne slowly opened his eyes.
He looked at the Black Register above his head.
For the first time, he did not strike immediately.
It wasn't fear.
It was that he hadn't figured it out yet.
In the sky over Linhai.
The Ghost Emperor projection also stopped.
He looked at Chu Youwei.
The gaze behind the beaded curtain had a brief moment of blankness.
"Do you want to perish together with me?"
Chu Youwei was still holding up the giant hand with her right hand, but her left hand continued to pour spiritual energy into the register.
"You struck first."
The Ghost Emperor's voice sank.
"I was just greeting you."
Chu Youwei said coldly, "Then you greeted the wrong place."
The Ghost Emperor: "..."
He glanced at Linhai below.
Then, he seemed to understand something, and yet seemed even more confused.
"I didn't intend to kill anyone!"
Chu Youwei looked up.
"If I didn't act, he would die."
The Ghost Emperor was silent.
The hand he covered was the entire Linhai.
Theoretically, everyone below would die.
But when King-levels act, who would calculate someone into it separately?
Is that reasonable?
The Ghost Emperor finally spoke.
"That was just a greeting between King-levels."
The register in Chu Youwei's hand shook.
Another side hall in Old Fengdu collapsed.
She said, "You call this a greeting?"
The Ghost Emperor's voice was cold and hard.
"When Kings meet, first test strength, then discuss terms."
Chu Youwei said, "Then your etiquette education in Old Fengdu really needs a remedial exam."
The Ghost Emperor: "..."
This sentence left the Ghost Emperor speechless.
Inside the Ghost Emperor's palace.
The Ghost Emperor's main body raised his hand, pressing down on the attack from the Black Register.
The black chains shattered inch by inch in his palm.
But the next second, Chu Youwei tore open another passage.
This time, the target was not the Ten Kings of Yama.
But a Yin well deep within Old Fengdu.
In that well, there was a part of the foundation the Ghost Emperor had planned for his ascension to godhood.
Chu Youwei poured her spiritual energy directly into it.
Boom!
The sky of the entire Old Fengdu darkened by a layer.
The Ghost Emperor's main body's expression finally changed.
"Stop."
Chu Youwei did not stop.
She continued to turn the register.
Every time she turned a page, an important place in Old Fengdu was attacked.
She couldn't beat the Ghost Emperor.
But she could follow the Karma lines that had just been created between the Foreign Language Tribunal and Old Fengdu, and specifically target the weak points.
This wasn't a duel.
This was flipping the table.
The Ghost Emperor projection looked at her.
"You just became a King."
Chu Youwei said, "So what?"
The Ghost Emperor said, "Your King-level core is not yet stable. Burning your spiritual energy like this will cause you to drop in status."
Chu Youwei said, "Then let it drop."
The Ghost Emperor said, "In a more serious case, you will die."
Chu Youwei said, "Then let me die."
The Ghost Emperor: "..."
He finally confirmed one thing.
This new King was not here to negotiate.
She was here to explode.
And the kind that would explode along with her throne if there was any disagreement.
The Ghost Emperor had lived for a very long time.
He had seen crazy ones.
He had seen ruthless ones.
He had seen ones who risked their lives for race, faith, or authority.
But this was the first time he had seen a young girl who had just become a King, and because he had a hand pressed over someone's head, she was ready to perish together with Old Fengdu.
Is it easy to become a King-level?
It is not.
Condensing rules, bearing pollution, sitting firmly on the throne—every step could kill people.
You just got to the table.
You haven't even held the chopsticks steady yet.
And you want to flip the table?
The Ghost Emperor wanted to ask.
But he felt that asking this would lose his dignity.
So he changed it to another sentence.
"Do you know what you are doing?"
Chu Youwei looked up.
There was blood on the corner of her lips.
But her eyes were terrifyingly bright.
"I do."
"You don't." The Ghost Emperor said coldly.
Chu Youwei said, "I do!!"
The Ghost Emperor: "..."