Chapter 572: The Mad King

"What is 'feng chang'..." Zhao Yisheng frowned and asked, "Aren't you saying these things are hair?"

"Can't 'hair' 'feng chang'?" Chu Tianqiu asked. "When a person's 'hair' is applied with 'ying hua' and 'xun zong', then just one 'feng chang' can turn it into an excellent weapon."

Chu Tianqiu blew on the powder in his hand a few times, then walked to the window and gazed at the earthy-yellow sun in the sky.

Behind that sun, countless fine black lines extended outward, now covering the entire sky. These strange hairs not only had extremely high toughness but had also increased in thickness.

Without touching them firsthand, it would be impossible to recognize them as hair; they would only seem like black threads.

Chu Tianqiu narrowed his eyes at the sun, which gave off no glare, and murmured to himself, "Hair growing from the sun... So, are you the 'mu shen' that Tong Yi mentioned?"

The 'mu shen' appeared as a massive sphere covered in black lines, floating in the air and waving its countless hairs, slaughtering all its subjects.

Chu Tianqiu's soft murmur was heard by Han Yimo, who slowly lifted his head to look at the sun in the sky.

"Is there something strange about the sun up there?" Han Yimo asked.

"Is she beautiful?"

Chu Tianqiu's brief question startled Han Yimo.

"I... I've always thought the sun here is beautiful..." Han Yimo seemed entranced, murmuring softly, "It looks just like... just like..."

"An eye," Zhao Yisheng said. "It looks like a huge eye."

The three of them nodded in unison. The earthy-yellow sun was surrounded by fine black lines that spread inward, truly resembling a massive eyeball, with those lines like layers of vast blood vessels on it.

What should have been a pure white eyeball appeared eerily earthy-yellow under the dark red sky of the 'zhong yan zhi di'.

But when did it start?

When did the sky here stop being blue, and this strange earthy-yellow massive eyeball rise into the air?

"So, every move we make is being watched by a huge eyeball," Han Yimo murmured to himself. "It's the 'shen zhi yan'... What's behind the eye?"

"But what about the 'tong kong'...?" Zhao Yisheng murmured. "Such a massive eyeball, yet it has no pupil."

It wasn't surprising, really. If this huge eyeball had a pupil, perhaps the 'can yu zhe' would have realized long ago that it wasn't the sun.

Precisely because it was an earthy-yellow sclera hanging in the sky, it looked just like the sun.

The two of them felt that Chu Tianqiu had indeed opened up a mad line of thinking for them. As long as they knew everything here could be explained by 'hui xiang', then nothing was truly "impossible."

"A huge eyeball without a pupil..." Chu Tianqiu narrowed his eyes, as if pondering something. "'Shen zhi yan'... Is this my 'lu'...?"

"Your 'lu'...?"

The two of them turned to look at Chu Tianqiu simultaneously.

"What a wonderful path of destruction..." Chu Tianqiu chuckled dryly. "This is the path to 'cheng shen'..."

"'Cheng shen'..."

"You two, I want to 'cheng shen'," Chu Tianqiu said. "I want to collect all the 'hui xiang' here and embark on a supreme path."

Chu Tianqiu's words made the two of them look uneasy. They had joined 'tian tang kou' with the ultimate goal of escaping, but the leader of the organization had no intention of escaping at all.

"Don't be tense," Chu Tianqiu continued. "Once I become the supreme existence here, I can freely decide your fates. But before I 'cheng shen', I still need your help."

Zhao Yisheng frowned in thought for a moment, then asked, "Why us two? 'Tian tang kou' has so many talented people, so why specifically us?"

"Because I have too much emotional attachment to those people," Chu Tianqiu laughed. "I couldn't bear to harm any of them, so I can only harm you two."

"Wha—"

"The path to 'cheng shen' can't be smooth sailing..." Chu Tianqiu's gaze shifted from Zhao Yisheng to Han Yimo. "I need extremely powerful assistants. You two are the ones I've chosen. I will step on your broken bones to ascend this path to the top."

"You're crazy..." Zhao Yisheng said, somewhat dazed. "Do you even know what you're saying? Is this your attitude toward 'seeking cooperation'? You 'cheng shen' by stepping on our broken bones—how insane would we have to be to agree to this?"

"Don't fear death," Chu Tianqiu said. "Here, you can fear anything except death."

Seeing that the two didn't respond, Chu Tianqiu extended his hands and placed them on their shoulders respectively:

"When normal people choose their 'tools', they like to pick a spear and a shield, but I'm different. I like cannons and explosives. You two are my cannons and explosives. Whatever can be destroyed, we'll destroy. If we encounter something that can't be destroyed, we'll go down together with it."

Han Yimo let out a bitter laugh and said, "Chu Tianqiu, I originally thought you were the 'savior', but I never expected you to be the 'destroyer'."

"That's a great mindset," Chu Tianqiu laughed. "Only by keeping that in mind will I be able to stand on equal footing with Qi Xia at the most critical moment. I've told you, you don't need to fear death, but you do need to fear me."

With that, he reached into his coat pocket and slowly pulled out a string of bloody objects.

Han Yimo and Zhao Haibo instantly gasped, involuntarily stepping back half a step.

In Chu Tianqiu's eyes, his level of madness seemed to have risen another notch.

In his hand was a string of eyeballs that emitted a foul odor, rotting and oozing pus.

These eyeballs appeared to come from different people, varying in size and appearance, but all were bleeding and ulcerated. Chu Tianqiu had threaded them onto a rope like a necklace, with about a dozen in total.

He gently touched the eyeball necklace, smearing his palm with thick black blood. Then, he swept his hair back, exposing his blood-streaked forehead, and used his index finger to draw a blood mark on his brow.

Once his disheveled hair was styled with the help of the blood, Chu Tianqiu removed his glasses and tossed them aside.

His aura had changed somewhat.

At first, he only seemed to have a mad temperament, but now even his appearance had become bizarre.

Before Han Yimo and Zhao Yisheng could speak, Chu Tianqiu hung the eyeball necklace around his neck. His fine shirt was now stained with filthy blood, making his image perfectly match Han Yimo's description of the "destroyer."