Chapter 334: The Next King?

The atmosphere was eerily silent. Chen Junnan turned his head to look at Yun Yao, both at a loss for words regarding the current situation.

“Chen… Chen Junnan…” Yun Yao took a deep breath, suppressing her emotions. “They’re all ‘natives’… Do you think we still need to save them? They don’t even realize what they’re doing right now…”

“No… that’s not the point,” Chen Junnan snapped out of his daze and replied. “‘Natives’ won’t fade away with time… If we don’t save them, they’ll be trapped here for eternity.”

“This…” Yun Yao glanced at Xiao Ran. “Though her turning out like this is beyond my expectations, you know what kind of person she is, right?”

“I do,” Chen Junnan nodded. “We came from the same room, so I know her character. Even though I made her cry over a dozen times, I still don’t feel satisfied.”

“So, do you think she’s worth saving?”

Chen Junnan sighed and turned back. “Big star, I regret seeing this too. But if we just walk away now, we’re no different from Earth Serpent.”

Yun Yao looked at him in confusion and asked faintly, “Chen Junnan… what kind of person are you?”

“In a world full of good people, I want to be the villain.” Chen Junnan bent down and unfastened the chain around Xiao Ran’s neck. “In a world full of villains, I want to be the good guy.”

He gazed at Xiao Ran’s face, feeling a pang of melancholy.

“You guys help undo the chains too…”

The three of them moved around the room, freeing these emotionless ‘natives.’ The chains were merely loosely wrapped around their necks, yet they were like lifeless husks, utterly incapable of breaking free.

Before long, all the chains had been removed from their necks—yet none of them moved.

“Hey!” Chen Junnan shouted. “You’re free. You can leave now.”

The girls in the room remained motionless, making Chen Junnan briefly wonder if they were deaf.

After a long pause, Xiao Ran, seated beside the throne, slowly raised her head and muttered, “Bad people…”

“What?” Chen Junnan turned to her.

“Bad people… I won’t leave…” Xiao Ran slurred. “I’ll wait for my master to return…”

Chen Junnan looked at her, then smirked. “Suit yourself. I’ve done my part.”

As soon as he finished speaking, a girl standing by the wall began shuffling toward the stairs. Then a second, then a third.

Half of the twenty-odd girls walked toward the stairs, moving like automatons as they left the room.

“Let’s go too,” Chen Junnan said, turning to Yun Yao and Xu Qian. “We’ve given them a choice.”

Xu Qian glanced uncertainly at the remaining girls. “Are we really just leaving them? There are even teenagers here…”

“Qian-jie, I may be a good person, but I’m not *that* good,” Chen Junnan said. “I only do what I can.”

As the three of them left the basement, the air of the ‘Land of Finality’ suddenly felt fresher than ever.

It was hard to imagine these girls spending their days in a sealed room, surrounded by filth and corpses. Thankfully, they had long lost their consciousness—otherwise, they’d have gone insane.

The girls who had walked out glanced around before dispersing in different directions. Yan Zhichun, dressed in white, remained standing where she was.

“You…?” Yun Yao looked at her in confusion. “You didn’t leave?”

Yan Zhichun smiled faintly, smoothing her long hair. “You three righteous heroes are bold, leaving your ‘Paths’ unattended while you ran off to the basement. What if I locked the door and took all your ‘Paths’? What would you do then?”

The group eyed her warily, unsure of her intentions.

Yan Zhichun then glanced at the departing women and added, “But I must say, you did a good deed… in a way, you’ve protected the ‘Land of Finality.'”

Xu Qian thought for a moment before asking, “Did you… stay behind to cover for us?”

“Not exactly,” Yan Zhichun shook her head, then looked at Chen Junnan. “I remember someone telling me not to leave afterward—that he’d treat me to a meal.”

“Ah?” Chen Junnan suddenly recalled something and stepped forward. “Chun-jie, I’d do more than just treat you to a meal…”

“Oh?” Yan Zhichun arched an eyebrow. “What else?”

“Chun-jie… do you want a husband?” Chen Junnan chuckled weakly. “If you want one… just say the word… and I’ll deliver…”

Before he could finish, his eyelids drooped, and he collapsed forward.

Yun Yao and Xu Qian were too far to catch him.

Just as Chen Junnan was about to faceplant and break his nose, Yan Zhichun suddenly raised her hand—and at the same time, Chen Junnan’s unconscious body mirrored the motion, steadying himself with his palms.

Yan Zhichun then pushed forward slightly, guiding his body to roll over gently, as if turning in his sleep, until he lay flat on the ground.

The three women stared at his bloodied, unconscious form, unsure what to do—or even if he was still alive.

Yun Yao was the first to kneel beside him, pressing her fingers to his neck. Though faint, there was still a pulse.

“I’m taking him back,” she declared. “He was instrumental in killing Earth Serpent. I’ll make him the king of ‘Paradise Port.'”

She looked up at Yan Zhichun and Xu Qian. “Can you help me?”

The two women exchanged puzzled glances. Yan Zhichun hesitated before asking, “How? There’s no cart here.”

Without another word, Yun Yao stripped off her jacket, revealing a sports tank top beneath. “I’ll carry him.”

“Carry him?”

Yun Yao crouched with her back to Chen Junnan, pulling his arm over her shoulder. Using her jacket as a makeshift harness, she tied him firmly to her waist, then stood with a grunt, hoisting him onto her back.

Only then did Xu Qian and Yan Zhichun notice that despite Yun Yao’s slender frame, her arms and legs bore well-defined muscles—likely the result of rigorous training.

Ignoring Xu Qian, Yun Yao turned to Yan Zhichun. “I don’t know your stance, but if you try anything, you’ll die by my hand.”

“Is that so?” Yan Zhichun’s smile remained pleasant, yet carried an edge of danger. “My ‘stance’? I’m with the ‘Extremists.'”

At those words, Yun Yao’s expression darkened. In this land, there was nothing she despised more than the ‘Extremists.’

“Those who walk different paths cannot work together,” Yun Yao said coldly. “Leave.”

“Ha.” Yan Zhichun found her amusing. “Sis, *you* weren’t the one who invited me. So you don’t get to tell me to leave.”

Xu Qian sensed the tension between them, fraught with unspoken grudges, but had no idea how to intervene.

“If you keep delaying… Chen Junnan *will* die,” she urged. “Shouldn’t we get him treated first?”

Yun Yao knew she was right. Collecting herself, she walked to Earth Serpent’s corpse, grabbed the withered serpent’s head, and strode out of the room—Chen Junnan still on her back.

Yan Zhichun and Xu Qian followed, leaving behind that nauseating den of horrors.