40: Chapter 40 The bell rings on the seventh floor, I don't believe in light.

The searing pain of being consumed by fierce flames did not come from the skin, but was branded directly into the depths of his soul.

Chen Fan watched helplessly as Xiao Ma's body twisted and carbonized in the flames. The face that usually wore a simple, honest smile now showed only silent screams and a charred silhouette.

He wanted to rush over, but his body was pinned in place by invisible chains, unable to move even a single finger.

"Save me... Brother Fan..."

Xiao Ma's plea was so faint it sounded like an illusion, yet so clear it stabbed Chen Fan's eardrums like a poisoned needle.

No! This isn't real!

He roared madly in his heart, trying to break free from this nightmarish scene.

However, when his gaze shifted, another scroll of hell unfolded before his eyes—Su Shuang, that woman as cool as the moon, yet always showing a trace of tenderness for him, was now lying in a pool of viscous blood.

Her nine fox tails, which she took pride in, were severed at the root and scattered around her body. Her snow-white fur was stained a shocking dark red with blood.

There was a huge cavity in her chest; her heart was nowhere to be found.

Her beautiful eyes had lost all luster, staring blankly at the sky. The drop of fox blood from her fingertip that had once touched the back of his hand now seemed to be the most vicious curse.

"Three sticks of incense... I didn't last..."

The faint lip movement, light as a feather, carried the weight of ten thousand pounds, shattering Chen Fan's last psychological defense.

Immediately following, the earth cracked open, and scalding lava erupted from the fissures.

The Broken Gong, which he had personally given to Xiao Ma, was slowly sinking into the crimson magma, emitting a sizzling sound, and in an instant, it turned into a wisp of smoke.

The last lingering thought belonging to Uncle Broken Gong was gone just like that.

Despair, like icy seawater, flooded his mouth and nose, filling his lungs.

Anger, regret, powerlessness... countless emotions intertwined into a giant net, tightening around his consciousness inch by inch.

The lingering bell in his hand, the companion that had fought alongside him and given him warnings, was now cold as iron. The luster on its surface rapidly dimmed, and finally, with a 'crack,' a fine fissure spread from the gong mark, and it completely lost its sound.

It was over.

Everything was over.

He had come here with all his might, only to end up watching like a spectator as everyone he cared about headed toward destruction.

That so-called obsession with guardianship was nothing more than a huge joke in the face of absolute tragedy.

"Seventh Trial: Heart Fire Purgatory."

The Tower Spirit's emotionless, mechanical voice sounded full of mockery and derision at this moment.

"Challenger, your will has been destroyed.

Your heart of guardianship has been proven fragile."

"Give up. Admit your incompetence. Kneel down, and you will find release."

The voice echoed like a curse in the empty, blood-colored world.

Chen Fan felt an irresistible force pressing down on his knees, trying to force him to the ground.

His body trembled, his spirit on the verge of collapse.

Perhaps giving up was the right thing to do.

Perhaps he shouldn't have hoped to change anything from the very beginning.

He was just a brick mover from the Rusty Iron Factory, an ant struggling at the bottom. By what right could he fight against this destiny that devoured everything?

"Kneel down!"

"Admit it!"

"You are trash!"

The demonic sound flooded his ears, and Chen Fan's waist bent lower and lower.

His vision began to blur, and the scenes of blood and fire gradually distorted, as if about to completely swallow him.

However, just as his knees were about to touch the ground soaked in Su Shuang's blood, a slightly discordant sensation, like an electric spark in the darkness, suddenly flashed through his mind.

Something was wrong.

Something was wrong somewhere.

It was the little bell.

That little girl curled up in the corner of the fourth level, with a death countdown branded on her wrist.

What did she say?

"Seventh Level... Don't believe the light. They will use the 'Heart Fire Illusion' to burn away your will."

"The last person who didn't believe is still down at the bottom of the tower, crying and begging for death."

Illusion!

Those two words struck Chen Fan's chaotic mind like a thunderclap!

He suddenly looked up, his bloodshot eyes staring fixedly at everything before him.

If this was an illusion, why was it so real?

This pain that penetrated to the bone, this heart-wrenching sorrow—was it all fake?

No, the pain was real.

But precisely because it was too 'real,' it became fake.

He thought of Broken Gong.

That seemingly mad old man who used his own life to ring the alarm bell of the rules.

He roared, "Look outside for me." That obsession was transmitted to him through the lingering bell, activating the [Guardianship Obsession].

What was the core of that obsession?

It was guardianship!

It was believing that his companions were waiting for him in the outside world, fighting alongside him!

If Xiao Ma was truly dead, how could Xiao Ma, to whom he entrusted the Broken Gong, generate a synergistic obsession with him?

If Su Shuang was truly dead, why was the power of the fox blood she left behind, enough for three sticks of incense, still faintly flowing within him and not dissipating?

And... the lingering bell.

Chen Fan slowly lowered his head, looking at the silent, even cracked bell in his hand.

All along the way, whenever a companion was in danger, whenever he was about to face a fatal blow, it would vibrate, it would warn him.

It was like the most loyal bond between his companions and himself.

But just now, in the 'instant' when Xiao Ma was burned, Su Shuang was brutally murdered, and the Gong Face was melted in lava, it showed no reaction.

It didn't ring wildly, it didn't tremble violently; it just quietly 'died'.

This was illogical!

This completely violated the 'settings' of the lingering bell!

Unless... everything that happened was an attack in itself.

An attack that the lingering bell could not warn against, or rather, one that was shielded by a higher level of power!

An attack directed straight at his will!

"So that's how it is..." Chen Fan slowly straightened up. The force pressing him to kneel seemed to be pushed back by an even stronger force the moment his will reformed.

The grief and despair in his eyes rapidly receded, replaced by the coldness and... surging rage that came from seeing through everything!

"You use what I fear most to burn me?"

Chen Fan muttered to himself, his voice hoarse, but carrying a heart-stopping calm.

"You've gotten one thing wrong."

He raised his head, his gaze seeming to pierce through this illusion, looking directly at the unknown manipulator behind him.

"What I fear is not failing to save them."

He spoke word by word, each one squeezed out through his teeth, carrying the taste of blood.

"It's... that someone dares to lay a hand on them before I even have a chance to save them!"

The moment his words fell, the blood in his body seemed to ignite!

"Warning: High-intensity mental contamination detected!"

"Willpower judgment in progress..."

"Guardianship Obsession passive activated, judgment strength +200%!"

"Judgment passed!"

"Mental immunity triggered!"

"Detecting challenger's strong resistance will... analyzing said will..."

"Analysis complete. New status activated: Wrath of the Inverse Scale!"

"Wrath of the Inverse Scale: When an object associated with 'Guardianship Obsession' suffers fatal damage in an illusion, the challenger will be immune to all mental control effects, all attributes temporarily increase by 30%, and synergistic critical hit multiplier gains an additional +1.0!"

A string of system prompts flashed before Chen Fan's eyes, transforming into an unprecedented, majestic power that exploded in his limbs and bones!

"Get... out of here!"

Chen Fan roared toward the sky with a sound that was no longer human.

What was contained in this roar was no longer a mournful cry of despair, but an undying fury after his bottom line had been crossed!

As he roared, the entire blood-colored world trembled violently.

"Crack... crack, crack, crack..."

A crisp shattering sound rang out.

The solidified pool of blood cracked open with fissures, just like a mirror surface.

The figure of Xiao Ma, being consumed by fierce flames in the distance, began to become transparent and distorted.

The blood clouds in the sky seemed to be stirred by an invisible giant hand, transforming into chaotic whirlpools.

"...Abnormal mental resistance."

The Tower Spirit's voice sounded again, but this time, there seemed to be a trace of disbelief in the mechanical tone.

"The Heart Fire... is being... counter-bitten?"

"Counter-bitten?" Chen Fan grinned, revealing a set of stark white teeth, his smile ferocious and crazed. "No, this isn't a counter-bite. This is... a reckoning!"

He suddenly clenched his fist. The lingering bell, which had 'died,' shone faintly again in his palm, and the cracks on its surface slowly healed as his will surged!

"You made me see the scene I fear most. Very good."

"Now, it's my turn!"

Boom—!

Chen Fan's will transformed into the most violent torrent, crashing fiercely against this illusory world!

He no longer tried to distinguish between true and false, nor did he try to escape.

He chose the most savage and direct way to smash this cage that made him feel boundless pain completely from the inside out!

The world was disintegrating.

The flames extinguished, revealing the gray mist behind them.

The pool of blood evaporated, turning into nothingness.

The figures of Su Shuang and Xiao Ma, along with the Gong Face that had sunk into the lava, all transformed into countless points of light amidst violent tremors and vanished into smoke.

The demonic sounds in his ears stopped abruptly, replaced by the mournful cry of the entire space being unable to bear the burden.

The last fragment of illusion dissipated before his eyes.

Chen Fan stood in place, his chest heaving violently, gasping for breath.

What lay before him was no longer a hell of blood and fire, but a vast, unnervingly empty high platform.

The platform was constructed from some unknown black rock, cold, hard, and smooth as a mirror, reflecting the eternally unchanging gray sky light from the dome above.

Dead silence.

Absolute dead silence.

It was as if the earth-shattering mental battle just now had exhausted all the sound and energy here.

Su Shuang's fox blood power was still there; the three-incense-stick duration had not been exhausted.

The lingering bell in his hand, restored to its original state, sent a familiar, faint tremor synchronized with his heartbeat.

Everything proved that he had won; he had endured this most perilous hurdle.

But for some reason, the alarm bells in Chen Fan's heart did not decrease but increased.

This seventh level was too empty.

So empty... it was somewhat bizarre.

This dead silence was too fragile.

It was like the brief, suffocating calm before a storm.

Just then, on the vast and empty black stone platform before him, the air ahead began to distort without any warning.

This was not the chaos from the shattering of the illusion, but a more stable, more orderly reconstruction.

Gray mist gathered from all directions, slowly condensing in the center of the high platform.

At first, it was just a faint shadow with blurry outlines.

But soon, the shadow became clearer and more substantial.

One, two...

They did not exude any hostility, nor did they make any sound. They simply appeared there quietly and naturally, as if they inherently belonged here.

That aura...

Chen Fan's pupils contracted sharply, and the fingers gripping the lingering bell turned slightly white from excessive force.

That was not the dregs of the Flame Sect, not his copy, and certainly not some ferocious monster.

That aura was familiar to his very bones, so familiar that all the blood in his body instantly turned cold.