Translator: CinderTL
"Enough," the first old man said, looking up. "Let's set this aside for now. What truly matters is recovering Zero's memories."
"Fortunately, only a portion of his memories has resurfaced. Lin Yuan, I believe you can fix this."
"After all, you personally trained both Zero and Crimson. As their instructor, no one understands them better."
"I'll do my best," Lin Wan'er replied.
"Not just your best—you must succeed!" The Chief Inquisitor's face twisted grotesquely, his forehead stained with blood and something writhing beneath his skin. "The Abyss Plan cannot fail! We can't let a minor misstep ruin everything. Time is running out!"
Lin Wan'er met his gaze and nodded. "Understood, Chief Inquisitor. But I believe you need to rest. I can sense your Gate is growing restless."
"Damn them all! Crimson, Xia Tan, An Xuan, and that rebellious Xia Family—they'll all pay!" The Chief Inquisitor's voice rose with fury, the gray mist swirling around his face cracking into bloody fissures, a horrifying sight.
The first old man sighed and waved Lin Wan'er away. "You may leave. Report any developments immediately. Crimson will likely make further moves soon."
After Lin Wan'er left, the Chief Inquisitor, who had been agitated moments before, gradually calmed down. He stared in the direction she had disappeared, a blatant greed flickering in his eyes.
"I know you're severely injured, but you can't covet her Gate," the old man advised, pausing before adding, "At least not yet. She's still useful to us."
Hearing this, the Chief Inquisitor's twisted face slowly regained its composure. He cracked his neck and glared at the old man beside him, his voice dripping with malice. "Old Ghost, we can't rely on her anymore. I never trusted her from the start. You were the one who insisted on making her the leader of the Abyss Plan."
The man called Old Ghost shook his head, picked up a candlestick from the table, and began to retreat into the shadows. "That was unavoidable. When Xia Tan led his forces to cripple us and nearly destroy our plan, there was no one more suitable at the time."
"But it's all in the past now. We have another way to open the Abyss Gate."
The Chief Inquisitor froze, his expression shifting as if struck by a sudden realization. His breathing quickened. "Did it succeed?"
Old Ghost offered no reply, carrying the candlestick deeper into the chamber. If the area where they had stood earlier had been shrouded in gray mist, the place they were now heading was pure, impenetrable darkness.
The darkness was oppressively thick, swallowing sound like a deep sea. As they ventured deeper, the flame on the candlestick gradually shifted from its initial color to a ghastly green. The flame was pressed low, almost to the point of extinguishing, yet it stubbornly refused to die.
The eerie green fire burned with a ghostly glow, like a will-o'-the-wisp. Yet even this feeble light managed to dispel the surrounding darkness, revealing a chair before them—an old-fashioned wooden armchair with a high back draped in a white cloth.
As they approached, the Old Ghost holding the candlestick slowly crouched down, the dim light now illuminating only the area beneath the chair.
The candle flickered violently. In the next instant, an unsettling sight materialized: a pair of legs appeared on the previously empty seat.
They were clad in worn black cloth shoes with white soles and coarse trousers made of cheap, outdated material—a style clearly decades out of fashion. The trousers clung tightly to the knees, outlining disturbingly thin legs that seemed to be nothing but bone. A flap of fabric at the hem exposed withered ankles, their skin a mottled purple-blue.
It was a mummified corpse.
Yet both the Chief Inquisitor and the Old Ghost holding the candlestick regarded this mummy with solemn reverence, profound respect, and even fear.
The Old Ghost slowly stood up, but the light illuminating the mummy's legs flickered violently, as if suppressed by an unseen force. Through the wavering glow, they could barely make out that the mummy was clad in some kind of uniform.
Its face remained a blur.
"Old Chairman, you've finally awakened."
As if in response to those words, the faint candlelight suddenly flared brightly. In that fleeting moment of brilliance, the Old Ghost and the Chief Inquisitor saw countless identical chairs materialize behind the mummy's throne.
The chairs were arranged in clusters of two or three, stretching endlessly into the pitch-black darkness beyond the room's confines.
This space clearly belonged to another dimension, utterly incomprehensible.
Seconds later, the entire chamber began to tremble. A cacophony of muffled weeping, anguished howls, metallic roars, and the grinding of gears filled the air, as if a massive, ancient machine with a rust-eaten frame was slowly shuddering to life.
Only after the mummy and all the chairs had vanished completely did the Old Ghost and the Chief Inquisitor regain their composure, their chests heaving violently.
"It worked!" the Old Man Chief Inquisitor exclaimed, his voice trembling with excitement. "Our twenty years of effort haven't been in vain! Though the price was exorbitant, awakening the Old Chairman makes it all worthwhile!"
Old Ghost, watching the direction where the thunderous roar had faded, his eyes burning with venomous resentment, muttered, "An eye for an eye. Crimson sent us this grand gift with Xia Tan, and we must return the favor."
"Well said!" the Chief Inquisitor roared. "What is Xia Tan worth? Over twenty years ago, we crushed his forces thanks to the Old Chairman. More than a dozen High-Ranked Disciples of the Door fell, and Xia Tan barely escaped—at the cost of his own Gate completely devouring him from within!"
"If the Old Chairman hadn't simultaneously fallen into slumber, the Abyss Gate would have opened long ago. We wouldn't have had to wait until now!"
"Don't be too optimistic. You should understand the implications better than anyone," Old Ghost retorted, turning his pale, shadowed face toward the Chief Inquisitor. After a moment's silence, he sighed heavily. "A strategy that kills a thousand enemies while crippling eight hundred of our own is a tactic best used only once."
The Chief Inquisitor seemed unfazed. "Come now, Old Ghost, don't be so pessimistic! Once the Abyss Gate opens, we'll seize control of an entirely new world!"
(End of the Chapter)
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