72: Only magic can defeat magic.

"——Just based on you lot?"

Lin Chen's voice was calm, yet carried a kind of extreme mockery that seemed to originate from above the Nine Heavens, clearly echoing throughout the dead-silent Listening Tide Banquet Hall.

This understated rhetorical question was like a spark thrown into boiling oil, instantly igniting the fury of everyone present!

"Presumptuous!"

The hot-tempered Sect Master of the Crimson Flame Divine Palace slammed her hand onto the jade table in front of her and shouted sternly: "Lin Chen! You Devil Head, you are at death's door, yet you still dare to be stubborn! In front of Lord City Master and Lord Inspector, how can we allow you to be so rampant here!"

"Indeed!" The Valley Master of the Divine Wind Valley also had cold eyes, "We fellow practitioners of the Eastern Wasteland have gathered here today to act on behalf of Heaven! You have slaughtered the innocent, the evidence of your crimes is irrefutable, why do you not quickly surrender and await judgment!"

Terrifying pressure belonging to Nascent Soul experts, like a tangible tide, surged from all directions, crazily crushing toward the figure in white at the head of the table!

They wanted to use the most absolute power to first thoroughly suppress this arrogant fool who did not know the immensity of heaven and earth! Make him kneel! Make him submit!

On the high platform, the corners of Inspector Leng Yan's mouth curled into a cold, barely perceptible arc.

This was the effect she wanted!

Provoke him! Make him resist!

As long as he dared to make a move under "judgment," that would be publicly defying the iron rules of the Sky Patrol Hall! At that time, regardless of what background or trump cards he had, he would be branded as a "rebel," and everyone would have the right to execute him!

However, just when everyone thought that Lin Chen was about to either rise up in resistance or become utterly disheveled under this terrifying pressure, a shocking scene occurred.

Only to see that the expression on the face of Lin Chen, who had just been wearing a trace of playful and mocking smile, suddenly... changed.

That smile, like mist blown away by a cold wind, vanished without a trace in an instant.

Replacing it was a kind of... bewilderment. Immediately followed by shock. Then, disbelief.

Finally, all these complex emotions converged into a kind of... endless sorrow, a hundred times more painful and ten thousand times more desolate than that of the Extinction Sword Crone kneeling on the ground!

His body, under the "suppression" of those dozen or so Nascent Soul pressures, began to slightly, uncontrollably... tremble.

But that was not a tremble of fear. It was a kind of... empathetic tremble, born from hearing the most tragic story in the world and being overwhelmed with grief!

His eyes, which should have been as deep as the starry sky, were at this moment rapidly covered by a layer of crystalline mist.

A crystalline, scalding hot teardrop, filled with "story," slowly slid down his handsome cheek. Drip. It landed crisply in the wine cup before him, rippling out a circle of sadness.

The entire hall instantly... went quiet. Everyone was dumbfounded.

Those Sect Master bigwigs who were exerting their full pressure felt as if they had punched cotton, an indescribably uncomfortable feeling!

This... what is the situation?! He... he cried?!

Just in this eerie silence, Lin Chen slowly stood up from that thousand-year cold jade chair.

He did not look at Codename: Sharp Blade on the high platform, nor did he look at the surrounding Sect Masters who were eyeing him like tigers.

His gaze crossed the entire hall, carrying a complex emotion full of "feeling of being in the same boat" and "regretting not meeting sooner," and landed fixedly on the Extinction Sword Crone, who was still kneeling on the ground with an equally stunned face!

Immediately after, he spoke in a voice even hoarser, even more choked up, and even more filled with endless grievances than the Extinction Sword Crone's previous wailing.

"Sen... Senior..."

"Please... please don't say anymore..."

Lin Chen's voice trembled uncontrollably; he raised his sleeve, as if using all his strength to wipe the tears from the corners of his eyes.

"Junior... Junior cannot bear to hear these things..."

"Junior... is also a... bitter person!!!"

He roared those last five words almost as if screaming to the heavens!

The sorrow, repression, unwillingness, and despair contained within that voice seemed as if they would completely flip over the dome of the banquet hall! Its infectious power was so strong that it instantly washed away the tragic atmosphere that the Extinction Sword Crone had painstakingly created!

"..." The expression on the Extinction Sword Crone's face completely froze. The bellyful of lines she had prepared to continue playing the victim were forcibly choked back by Lin Chen's shout!

And Lin Chen's "performance" had only just begun!

He staggered down from the head of the table. As he walked, he began his "misery competition" with "tears streaming down his face"!

"Senior! Do you think Junior is willing to slaughter the innocent? Do you think Junior is willing to have hands stained with blood?!"

"No! Junior... Junior was forced!"

Lin Chen's eyes were filled with endless confusion and pain, as if he had fallen into some unbearable tragic memory.

"You... you simply don't understand!"

"You don't understand, being born as a 'male' in this cruel, cold world that views men as the 'original sin,' is how... humble and desperate it is!"

Once these words were spoken, the whole hall was in an uproar! A cruel matriarchal world?! What kind of shocking, world-defying statement was this?!

However, Lin Chen didn't care; he had completely immersed himself in his own "tragic story"!

"From the time Junior could remember, what I heard in my ears was 'men are useless,' 'men are merely tools for passing on the Bloodline,' 'men are born to serve women'!"

"In order to survive, in order to obtain a little bit of poor, most basic Cultivation resources, Junior paid a price you simply cannot imagine!"

He began to half-truthfully, half-falsely, perfectly integrate his tragic experience as a "corporate slave" on Blue Star in his past life into the background story of this cultivation world!

"When you proud daughters of heaven were still inside the Sect, enjoying the care of your elders, cultivating without a care in the world, what was Junior... what was Junior doing?!"

"Junior was undergoing '007' style bitter cultivation!"

"Twelve hours a day, no days off all year! Meditating, practicing sword, doing missions without sleeping or resting! Just to be able to exchange for one piece of... Low-Grade Spirit Stone, which in your eyes is like trash!"

"Junior dared not have the slightest slack! Because the elders of the Sect would assign Junior 'performance targets' every month that were simply impossible to complete! If I couldn't reach them, they would deduct all of Junior's already pitifully few... resources!"

His voice was full of accusations of blood and tears! Many male Cultivators present, hearing this, subconsciously felt empathy and clenched their fists!

Lin Chen's performance was still continuing! His emotions were progressing layer by layer!

"Resources being deducted, that would be fine! Junior also had to constantly be on guard against 'being sabotaged' and 'being made a scapegoat' by fellow Disciples!"

"If a female Disciple made a mistake, the first one pushed out to take the blame was always Junior!"

"When a Heaven And Earth Treasure appeared, the one who fought tooth and nail to grab it was Junior! But in the end, the ones enjoying the results were those female Disciples who did nothing and only knew how to move their lips!"

"Even... even Junior had to, every day, face those so-called 'Senior Sisters' who were far inferior to me in cultivation, but because of their gender advantage, could boss me around and act arrogantly, and I had to force a smile and act obsequiously! Whatever they said, even if it was wrong, Jun... ior could only nod and agree! If they were in a bad mood, they could find any random excuse to... beat and scold me at will!"

Speaking of this, Lin Chen seemed unable to suppress the humiliation in his heart any longer, and he suddenly tore open the lapels of his clothes in front of his chest! Revealing that bronze-colored, well-defined, flawless... chest.

He pointed to his smooth skin and, in a tone of sorrow and indignation filled with trembling, cried out to everyone:

"Look! Look! These... these are all scars!"

"Although they have been repaired by Junior using a Cultivation Technique and cannot be seen! But they... they are forever branded in Junior's heart, which is already riddled with holes!"

"..." The entire hall fell into an unprecedented, eerie silence. Everyone was completely stunned by Lin Chen's accusation full of "blood and tears"!

What he said... what he said seemed... a hundred times more miserable than the Extinction Sword Crone!

The Extinction Sword Crone only had her Disciple die and her cultivation crippled. But what about this Lin Chen? He... he simply lived in Hell from birth! His entire life was a... history of blood and tears that would make those who heard it sad and those who listened to it shed tears!

Even the City Master Long Yan on the high platform, the gentle smile that had remained unchanged for ten thousand years, showed a trace of... cracking at this moment.

On the iceberg-like face of Inspector Leng Yan, for the first time, a kind of expression called "bewilderment" appeared.

All the rhetoric she had prepared to judge Lin Chen regarding "rules" and "righteousness" appeared... so pale and powerless in the face of Lin Chen's shocking "misery competition"!

You go to talk about "rules" with a "victim" who has lived under the oppression of "rules" since childhood? Isn't that bullshit?!

And Lin Chen had already walked in front of the Extinction Sword Crone. He looked at this old witch who had been choked into silence on the spot by his divine operation.

He not only did not stop. Instead, he unleashed the most fatal, and also the most shameless move!

"Magic" was about to defeat "magic"!

Only to see Lin Chen slowly squat down. On his face, which had still been full of sorrow and pain, all emotions suddenly converged.

He "wiped away his tears" and, in a tone full of "feeling of being in the same boat," "mutual appreciation," and incomparable sincerity, gently patted the Extinction Sword Crone's shoulder. Then, he sighed a long sigh.

"Sigh..."

"Senior."

His voice was full of vicissitudes and understanding.

"Junior just lost composure."

"Originally, Junior thought that I was already the most unfortunate person in this world."

"But... but, when Junior finished listening to your story, Junior realized..."

"You... you have it so hard too!"

"Compared to your overwhelming hatred of losing your Disciple and having your Sect humiliated, what are the grievances Junior suffered before... what do they count for!?"

"Come, Senior, don't cry anymore, get up quickly."

As Lin Chen said this, he even actually reached out his hand to help the Extinction Sword Crone up!

His eyes were so sincere! His tone was so earnest! He even, in turn, began to "comfort" this "victim" who had originally come to him to "wail and seek revenge"!

"Senior, rest assured! Junior now fully understands your feelings!"

"All of this, blame us! Blame us... sinners born as 'men'!"

"It is us men who have let you down! It is us men who have made you suffer grievances!"

"Pfft—!!!"

Finally. The Extinction Sword Crone could no longer bear it!

She was not injured by the pressure, nor shaken by True Qi! But was forcibly, by this shocking, world-inverting, shameless-to-the-extreme "misery competition" and "comfort" divine operation of Lin Chen, alive... angered into spitting out a mouthful of blood!

Her whole person was stunned! Her old face turned the color of a pig's liver, her eyes wide open, her lips trembling, pointing at Lin Chen, wanting to say something.

"You... you... you..."

But she couldn't say a single word!

All her tragic foreshadowing, all her emotional buildup, all her "victim" persona... in front of this more "tragic," more "sincere," and more "empathetic" performance by Lin Chen, turned into a comical, ridiculous, stupid... one-man show!

She was like a well-prepared, aggrieved wife who wanted to go on stage to accuse her husband of domestic violence. As a result, her husband, one step ahead of her, rushed onto the stage and, with tears streaming down his face, told the tragic story of how he had been subjected to domestic violence by her for thirty years!

And goddammit, he told it a hundred times more miserably than her! In the end, he even turned around, crying, holding her thigh and saying: "Wife! I understand you! Hitting me is because you love me! It's my fault! I'm not worthy! You hit me right!"

This... this is fucking, how is anyone supposed to play this?!

The entire Listening Tide Banquet Hall completely fell into a dead, eerie silence. Everyone looked at Lin Chen with eyes like they were looking at a "Divine Being."

They finally understood. The most terrifying thing about this man in front of them, perhaps, was not his unfathomable strength. But this... art of shamelessness that had already reached the Transcendent realm!

And just when the Extinction Sword Crone was blocked and unable to get off the stage, about to be completely enraged and roar regardless of anything, Lin Chen suddenly changed the subject.

He slowly stood up. All the "sorrow" and "guilt" on his face disappeared without a trace in an instant. Replacing it was a harmless, innocent, and even slightly "curious"... smile.

He slowly took out from his Storage Ring a... shadow-recording stone that was flickering with a faint light.

He tossed the shadow-recording stone lightly in his hand. Then, facing the Extinction Sword Crone who was still slumped on the ground, panting heavily, he smiled and said softly:

"Right, Senior."

"You just said, it was Disciple, who 'cruelly slaughtered' your Sect members?"

"Regarding this point..."

"Disciple here, actually has some different..."

"'Views'..."