60: Chapter 60 I'll expose your trickery!

Chen Fan's knuckles rested against Su Shuang's lower back, his palm touching the blood-soaked fabric beneath her fox fur.

That Reverse Burn Flame just now had nearly scorched his lungs clean through, yet as he helped her up now, he felt his heartbeat was steadier than ever—steady as a load-bearing wall that wouldn't collapse on a construction site.

"Hot," Su Shuang suddenly spoke, her fingertips lightly tapping his chest.

The armor there was split by a gap the width of a knuckle, revealing the churning crimson-gold streams of light beneath the skin. "Your critical hit... can burn through lies now."

Her voice carried the hoarseness of recent healing, but the trailing end was like freshly brewed Biluochun tea from the Teahouse, wrapped in a clean, crisp sweetness.

Chen Fan lowered his head, meeting her gaze as her focus returned to her purple eyes.

Those eyes held no panic of near-death survival; instead, they burned with the light he had seen on red-hot iron quenching in water at the construction site—quenching not water, but the fierce resolve that had refined all unwillingness into the flames.

"Shuanger?" His Adam's apple bobbed, the "Are you alright?" he meant to say cut short by her suddenly raised hand.

Her fingertip, stained with blood, pressed extremely lightly against his brow as she recited an ancient curse he had never heard before.

The syllables sounded like shattered jade falling into a bronze cauldron, humming as they drilled into his marrow.

The next second, the red light inside Chen Fan suddenly solidified.

This wasn't ordinary energy flow; it was more like an invisible thread that 'swished' through, linking his and Su Shuang's meridians.

When the system notification exploded in his ear, he almost laughed out loud—[Twin Critical Hit · Locked State Activated: When either party triggers a critical hit, the other party can actively choose the 'Delayed Release' timing, up to 3 seconds].

"This is..." He turned to look at her, only to see Su Shuang's fox ears faintly glowing like pearls.

She tilted her head and smiled, a bead of blood rolling down her chin into her collar: "The ancient scrolls of my clan say that true twins are not about living and dying together... it's about being able to clench the other person's opportunity into one's own knife."

Before the words had fully faded, the suspended copper coin suddenly vibrated.

Chen Fan looked up and saw the ashes of the Blood Vine being swept by the wind, forming a fragmented map above their heads—a moon-white well bottom, where a piece of cyan-gray jade plaque emitted a faint glow, its central pattern fitting perfectly with the engraving on the copper coin.

Su Shuang's purple eyes instantly contracted, her fingers gripping Chen Fan's wrist tightly: "The Jade True Form from the bottom of the Buried Moon Well... I searched for three years.

It turns out the last piece of the map wasn't at the bottom of the well, but in 'their' hands."

Her other hand trembled as she pointed toward the afterimage of the Mirror of Fate—that dark door carved with 'Critical Hit Source · Purge Protocol' was still open, and the chill pouring out from behind it gave Chen Fan goosebumps on the back of his neck.

"Purge Protocol?" Chen Fan sneered, rubbing the copper studs on his gauntlet with his fingertip.

He recalled the old beggar erased by the system three days ago in the Newbie Village, the foreman's face when he said, 'Get lost if you won't sign the life-and-death waiver,' and the look of those players in Su Shuang's Teahouse whose eyes were red after drinking tea, saying, 'We'll fight it out if it comes to it.'

His critical hit system burned hot in his chest, tightening his throat. "So, what they want isn't clearers, but to cut out everyone who dares to resist... like cancer cells?"

"So." Su Shuang stood on her toes, exhaling lightly near his ear, "You are standing before their door now."

Chen Fan's breathing suddenly deepened.

He looked at the dark door, at the seven cold-glowing characters on the lintel, and suddenly remembered the scene when he triggered his first critical hit—cutting his hand on rebar while moving bricks at the construction site, the system prompt reading 'Basic Stamina +1,' resulting in a 17x critical hit that allowed him to lift half a ton of cement with one hand.

At that time, he squatted behind a pile of bricks and laughed out loud, feeling that this damned system had finally given the unfortunate a little sweetness.

Now he finally understood: the sweetness was bait, and the real trap was making you believe you could live by relying on it, only to eventually force you to become the executioner.

"Let's go," he squeezed Su Shuang's hand. "Let's flip their table."

But just as he took two steps, the snow and wind at the end of the stone steps suddenly condensed into a dark figure.

The hairs on the back of Chen Fan's neck instantly stood up—it was the instinct of being targeted by a wild beast, an instinct more painful than having rebar smash his foot at the construction site.

He shielded Su Shuang and turned, seeing the newcomer clad in a black robe embroidered with 'Anti-Crit Runes,' his face hidden in shadow. In his hand was a long saber engraved with the three blood-red characters: 'Suppress Anger,' 'Sever Calamity,' and 'Seal Life.'

"An afterimage of the Mirror Slave..." Su Shuang's voice suddenly dropped low. "He was the previous Critical Hit user."

Chen Fan's pupils shrank to pinpoints.

He remembered the final image reflected by the Mirror Slave—that man kneeling in blood, his shoulder blades pierced by system chains, shouting, 'I refuse to submit.'

The chains were gone now, but his gaze was colder than chains, like iron quenched in a thousand years of wind and snow.

"Your critical hit is the cancer of the system," the man spoke, his voice like a hundred people speaking at once, making Chen Fan's eardrums ache. "Today, I act on behalf of Heaven to excise it."

Chen Fan remained silent.

He could hear his own heartbeat, one beat, two beats, overlapping with the hum of the critical hit system.

Su Shuang gently squeezed his palm. He looked down and saw her smiling at him—not the polite smile from the Teahouse, but the smile she used to steal glances at him from behind a teacup when he first helped her move tea crates that year.

"Hide behind me," he pulled Su Shuang closer to his chest, crossing his fists in front of him.

Crimson-gold light seeped out between his fingers, condensing into a rotating orb of light in his palm.

Just as the prompt [Charged Critical Hit × 3] popped up, he felt a scorching power surge through that invisible thread—it was Su Shuang delaying the release of her critical hit opportunity to him.

The King of Scavengers' saber moved.

Runes lit up on the blade, surprisingly forming a semi-transparent barrier around the two of them.

Chen Fan's orb of light struck it, like a fist hitting cotton, failing to even ripple the surface.

The system notification exploded immediately after: [Detected 'Anti-Crit Domain,' Critical Hit Effect Immune].

"Chen Fan!" Su Shuang suddenly tugged his sleeve.

He looked down to see her lips moving—not speaking, but chanting a spell.

A layer of golden patterns surfaced in her purple eyes; this was the Word of Fate Reversal she had just awakened.

"He said 'on behalf of Heaven'..." Su Shuang's voice mixed with the wind and snow, pouring into Chen Fan's ears, "But does Heaven have a name?"

Chen Fan's breath hitched.

He saw the King of Scavengers' saber pause, and a thin crack appeared on the barrier of the Anti-Crit Domain.

System notifications flashed wildly above his head: [Detected 'Logical Paradox Impact,' Anti-Crit Domain Delayed Failure by 0.7 Seconds].

0.7 seconds.

When moving bricks at the construction site, he could run three steps carrying 200 jin of cement; when fighting monsters in the Newbie Village, he could swing two heavy slashes; now, it was enough time for him to pour all his unwillingness, all his defiance, and all the days he had been trampled under the system's feet into this one punch.

"Go to hell with your destiny!" he roared, his right fist wrapped in crimson-gold flame blasting out.

The power of the Twin Critical Hit exploded at his fingertip, and the aftershock of the Rule Critical Hit drilled through the crack in the Anti-Crit Domain, like a red-hot iron rod poked into an ice hole.

The King of Scavengers' saber shattered.

Runes on the blade crumbled inch by inch, like wax melting under fire.

He staggered back, his mouth widening beneath the mask—Chen Fan realized then that the mask was made from his own facial skin, the seams still oozing black blood.

"You... actually used 'Disbelief' to break 'Heaven's Will'?"

Chen Fan didn't answer.

He stepped over the shattered saber pieces and walked forward, the copper coin somehow embedded in his gauntlet, burning his palm red.

The wind lifted the corner of his coat, revealing the tea pouch Su Shuang had given him—it was sewn with fox fur, which she said could ward off bad luck.

Now the tea pouch was also heating up, entwined with the temperature of the copper coin, like an unquenchable fire.

"I don't believe your Heaven, nor do I accept your fate," he stopped before the King of Scavengers, his fist resting against the other's Adam's apple. "What I blow up has always been... the situation I decide."

As his voice fell, the King of Scavengers' body suddenly began to disintegrate.

The black robe turned into black mist, the long saber crumbled to dust, leaving only a whisper scattered in the wind: "You will regret this... when the critical hit burns through the final curtain of the sky..."

Chen Fan paid it no mind.

He turned around and saw Su Shuang bending down to pick up the copper coin.

The ashes had completely dispersed, and the pattern on the coin was clearer than ever, like a dragon about to come alive.

"Let's go," Su Shuang placed the coin into his palm. "Let's go see what treasures they hid behind the dark door."

Chen Fan nodded.

Just as he was about to lift his foot, he heard a 'click' sound from above.

He looked up; the snow outside the abyss had stopped at some point, and the dark door on the ninth floor of the Starlight Tower was slowly closing, as if afraid of something.

And on the abyss beneath their feet, an incomplete bridge had appeared—cyan-gray powder seeped from the cracks in the bridge structure—was this the remains of the King of Scavengers?

"Chen Fan," Su Shuang suddenly tugged his sleeve and pointed into his embrace.

He only then noticed that the ashes that had formed the fragmented map had somehow slipped into his clothes, burning hotly against his chest. "The map... is waiting for us."

Chen Fan looked down and touched the spot that was burning.

There was something hard there, like jade that hadn't fully formed yet.

He smiled and enclosed Su Shuang's hand in his own: "Then let's go find all of it."

The wind blew over from the broken bridge, carrying a scent of tea.

Chen Fan suddenly remembered the plaque of Su Shuang's Teahouse—the words 'Shuang Yue' swayed in the wind, like the ripples spreading across a teacup the first time she smiled at him.

(The snowstorm gradually ceased, an incomplete bridge spanned the abyss, and the fragmented map burned faintly in Chen Fan's embrace, as if something in the shadows was watching these two who dared to burn through destiny.)