82: Chapter 82 Bankruptcy! A Test Will Tell Whether They're Human or Dog

The destructive energy of the Lord of the Ultimate End's wrathful strike, like a collapsing galaxy, annihilated all color and matter in its path, pouring down towards Lin Chen and the shattered Fortress! The brilliance was so intense that even Bai Qi, who had just destroyed Core Alpha thousands of miles away, and Zhang Hao, still catching his breath within a spatial interlayer, felt a soul-deep tremor!

Death was the only footnote for this moment.

However, Lin Chen, facing this world-ending might, showed no despair in his eyes. Instead, a flash of icy calculation, a 'just as I expected' glint, passed through them.

This was the very moment he had been waiting for!

In the instant before that destructive energy was about to vaporize him and the Fortress completely, Lin Chen made a move that defied all logic.

He did not defend, did not dodge, did not even look at the descending death.

He suddenly raised his hand, not towards the sky, but towards the Fortress ruins beneath his feet—more precisely, towards a figure within those ruins, trembling incessantly, bound by special runes!

Lin Tian! That Nether Shadow Council doppelganger puppet who claimed to be his 'brother'!

'A soldier is trained for a thousand days to be used for a single hour,' Lin Chen's voice was bone-chillingly cold, piercing through the roar of energy. 'Your master wants my life, wants the authority of the Lord of the Underworld... Now, I'll return him a 'grand gift' first!'

The runes binding Lin Tian instantly reversed, transforming into a powerful repulsive force!

'No—! Lin Chen! You can't...' Lin Tian let out a scream of utter terror. He finally understood why Lin Chen had kept him alive—not for interrogation, but for this moment! He was a shield, a decoy, a... 'gift' for the Lord of the Ultimate End!

But his words remained unfinished.

That repulsive force swept him up like a cannonball fired from its chamber, shooting not towards the destructive energy in the sky, but outside the Fortress, towards the battlefield space that had become extremely unstable after the destruction of the three cores!

More accurately, it shot towards a specific point within that space—an extremely hidden and fragile spatial fold that had just been torn open by the explosion of Core Gamma!

That was precisely the entrance to the backup passage the Nether Shadow Council had set up to receive Lin Tian (or rather, the imitation bloodline vessel within him) for a 'doppelganger possession' at a critical moment! It was also one of the countless, unspeakable nodes connecting them to the Lord of the Ultimate End!

Lin Tian, this 'vessel' upon which the Nether Shadow Council had placed such high hopes, was now being used by Lin Chen as a targeting beacon and... a key to open the gates of hell!

*Squelch!*

Lin Tian's body slammed precisely into that spatial fold. The aura of the imitation Nether Lord Bloodline within him, like a drop of water falling into boiling oil, instantly triggered a chain reaction!

That already fragile spatial node violently expanded and distorted! A gray-green light, not of this world and filled with an aura of decay and corruption, seeped out from it!

Faintly, it seemed one could hear several roars of shock and fury coming from the other end of the passage!

'Now!' Lin Chen's eyes blazed with intense light as he roared at the system, 'Lock onto the passage coordinates! Calculate the energy refraction path! Let's pull our 'dear allies' in to play as well!'

[Command received! Locking onto Nether Shadow Council's hidden passage! Calculating refraction path for the Lord of the Ultimate End's destructive energy... Calculation complete!]

[Executing 'Kill with a Borrowed Knife' Protocol! Consuming all remaining computational resources!]

The system operated at overload. An invisible 'refraction prism' composed of pure rules instantly formed before Lin Chen!

And at that moment, the Lord of the Ultimate End's destructive torrent of energy descended!

It did not strike Lin Chen, nor did it strike the Fortress.

It slammed headlong into that newly formed 'prism of rules'!

Power capable of annihilating stars, under this exquisite interference of rules, underwent an extremely subtle yet decisive deflection!

It bypassed Lin Chen, bypassed the Fortress, like a guided flood, viciously... pouring into that spatial passage to the Nether Shadow Council which Lin Tian had just forcibly pried open!

'No—!!!'

On the other end of the passage, those roars of shock and fury instantly transformed into screams of utmost terror!

The destructive energy, like a volcano finding a vent, surged madly along the passage into the Nether Shadow Council's lair, hidden who-knows-where!

Kill with a Borrowed Knife!

Lin Chen used the Lord of the Ultimate End, the sharpest 'knife', to strike the 'person' he had always wanted to deal with!

One could imagine the hellish scene now unfolding within the Nether Shadow Council! Their meticulously laid backup plan had become the death warrant sealing their own doom!

*BOOM—!!!*

The passage, unable to bear the impact of the destructive energy, violently exploded! A fierce spatial storm swept out, turning that entire area into chaos!

The connection to the Nether Shadow Council was forcibly severed, their fate unknown.

Meanwhile, the majority of the energy from the Lord of the Ultimate End's wrathful strike was consumed, deflected, and annihilated in this 'refraction' and 'passage explosion'.

In the end, only less than a tenth of the residual force remained to fall upon Lin Chen and the Fortress!

'soul suppressing pagoda! Hold!' Lin Chen shouted sharply.

The battered soul suppressing pagoda erupted with a final indigo light. Together with the Fortress's remaining defensive runes, it stubbornly withstood this weakened impact!

*BOOM—!*

The Fortress shook violently once more, more structures collapsing, but... the core area was preserved! Lin Chen still hovered in mid-air!

He had succeeded!

Using Lin Tian as bait and the Nether Shadow Council's passage as a shield, he had forcefully neutralized this certain-death strike!

*Cough!* Lin Chen spat out a mouthful of blood, his face pale. Forcibly guiding energy of that level placed an immense burden on him, even with the system's assistance. But his gaze remained sharp, fixed on the enormous eyeball in the sky, which had grown even more frenzied and chaotic due to its attack being 'tricked' and its core damaged.

'Finished your three axe swings?' Lin Chen wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, his voice hoarse yet filled with provocation. 'Now, it's my turn!'

He took a deep breath, feeling the nearly exhausted power within him from the extreme maneuvers, then glanced at the glaring negative numbers and almost depleted resources on the system interface.

But he still had one last card to play.

A trump card he had been accumulating since awakening the system, yet had never truly used.

He slowly raised his hand, palm facing upward.

Not to summon nether soldiers, not to exchange for items.

But... to communicate.

To communicate with the foundational authority buried deepest within the nether domain asset system, intrinsically linked to the 'Netherworld's' authority, representing the ultimate rules of 'wealth' and 'contract'!

'In the name of the Lord of the Underworld,' Lin Chen's voice became grand and ancient, as if traversing endless time to resonate with a supreme existence, 'I hereby adjudicate this fiend—the Lord of the Ultimate End!'

'Its existence disrupts the order of Yin and Yang, damages Netherworld assets, refuses to pay compensation—its crimes are heinous!'

'I now initiate the highest liquidation procedure!'

'Target: Lord of the Ultimate End (Will Projection · Eye) and its associated main body!'

'Execution method: Forced acquisition—of its 'Right to Exist'!'

[Detected host activating highest Lord of the Underworld authority (Pseudo · Temporary)!]

[Initiating forced acquisition procedure for target 'Lord of the Ultimate End's' Right to Exist!]

[Assessing target value... Assessment in progress... Value excessively high, exceeds conventional acquisition range!]

[Initiating unconventional acquisition plan: Using host's total assets (including but not limited to nether talismans, Fortress, nether soldiers, system credit line...) and future potential as collateral for a risky acquisition!]

[Acquisition consideration: Formatting the target's 'Existence' concept!]

[Confirm payment of all collateral to execute 'Formatting' acquisition?]

'Confirm!' Lin Chen declared without a moment's hesitation, resolute and decisive!

Boom!

An indescribable 'power', transcending energy and rules, suddenly expanded outwards with Lin Chen at its center!

It was not destruction, it was... erasure! Defining a certain 'existence' as 'nothingness' from the most fundamental conceptual level!

In the sky, that enormous eyeball, caught in extreme fury and chaos from its damaged core and tricked attack, suddenly froze!

Its turbid grayish-yellow sclera began to turn... transparent at a visible rate!

Its slowly rotating dark vortex pupil, like a stain being erased, began to blur and dissipate!

It felt it!

Felt that emptiness more absolute than death, than ending—that utter 'non-existence'!

It was a complete 'non-being' that even 'the Ultimate End' itself could not comprehend!

'ROAR—!!!'

This time, that world-shaking, silent roar carried, for the first time... fear!

An extreme, instinctual fear born from the very essence of existence!

It began to struggle frantically, trying to sever the connection with this eyeball, trying to escape this incomprehensible erasing force!

But it was too late.

'The acquisition agreement takes effect immediately.'

Lin Chen's icy voice was the final verdict.

'Your existence is hereby confiscated.'