The Gentleman at the End-Chapter 771 - 769: The Gift of Death

On the dark sea as black as ink,

a ’young man’ sat alone in a wooden boat, appearing here once again. He wouldn’t drift to some far shore with the current, nor would he be lost in the darkness; instead, he felt a sense of returning home.

The ’young man’ was none other than Yi Chen. He used to need to reach a certain special state to come to these waters, but now it seemed much easier for him.

Perhaps it was the unprecedented training and improvement from battling clowns, or maybe it was the liberation of deep memories and a profound comprehension of death,

Now, he merely needed to rest among the coffins and descend through consciousness to reach the beach, pushing a wooden boat carved with the character ’Yi’ into the sea. Moreover, the boat now contained more fishing equipment than before.

After the battle with Art, Yi Chen had gained much new insight, but his body, more than 50% in decay, had grown even older, even starting to lose and grey strands of hair to a certain extent.

The whole person looked to be between forty and fifty years old, no longer fitting the term ’young man’. However, his hanging black hair and the slender, well-defined muscular body made Yi Chen still seem quite young.

His concept stripped away, even his consciousness was incomplete,

The Yi Chen sitting in the wooden boat still had only his upper half,

As he picked up the fishing rod, he also raised his hand blade, slashing downward at one of the corporeal dead following him, cutting off one of its fingers to use as bait.

Fishing began with a clear mind,

Even if the hook stirred slightly, Yi Chen didn’t make any move to reel it in,

until a strong pull came, enough to drag Yi Chen into the deep sea. He immediately tensed his arm and pulled with strength,

A ’dead fish’ with a body covered in fish heads (basically one head for every three scales), sporting eight tentacles as well, was hoisted up, weighing more than twenty pounds and emitting a strong death aura.

It was pitch-black, and it even felt like every fish head had an eye in its mouth, staring at the fisherman.

As fishing came to an end, the fishing rod in his hand also instantly vanished, suggesting limitations to fishing here, requiring certain conditions to be met for corresponding fishing opportunities.

Yi Chen didn’t take this fish along, nor did he cook it with fire. Instead, he bit into the fish head’s surface without any treatment.

In less than five minutes, he had swallowed the last tentacle, without a hint of disgust, but rather with closed eyes, he seriously controlled the blood flow in his body to distribute the nutrients of the dead fish throughout his body.

In this process, Yi Chen’s conceptually erased internal organs and lower half showed faint signs of recovery, yet it was still not enough.

Yi Chen’s features had slightly rejuvenated, looking to be in his thirties, with a few more strands of black hair on his head.

He devoutly knelt on the wooden boat, bowing three times and kneeling nine times, as if giving thanks to the sea’s bounty. As he completed the motions, it seemed as though a response came from the depths of the Black Sea, perceived by Yi Chen as vibrations.

"Is it a ’reward’ for having added Nash into the equation?"

He didn’t linger on the sea surface for long. As a beam of lighthouse light fell upon the boat, Yi Chen’s consciousness returned to the Aquarium.

Dragging his upper body across the ground, he crawled from the Aquarium to the Library area,

William’s Consciousness was drinking coffee and reading a book among the Library. After exchanging a look, they merged back into their physical bodies, returning to reality.

Hum!

With a ringing in his ears, Yi Chen’s ’Second Body’ controlled by William also opened its eyes behind him.

The current location was none other than the Chief Office within the Theater,

where Thirteen, with a candle overhead, was cleaning the space,

William had once again put on the silver monocle made for him by Lorrian,

And the traveler-like Little Grape was reclining on a second floor chaise, engrossed in a book.

Beyond that,

Ludwig Reagan from Zion was there as well, his chubby face turned this way, his fully metallic arm waving hello to William.

"You didn’t ’Combine’ with Little Grape any further?"

Upon being asked, William adjusted his monocle,

It was only a temporary combination during the performance, and indeed, the ’rejection’ was quite strong.

While I was hosting the show, I frequently felt strong repulsion between the Evil Sun and the Abyss inside me, forcing me to tighten the necktie made from the umbilical cord to strengthen the Divider.

It’s not as simple as I thought~ Let’s see if I can ’Combine’ more deeply with Little Grape. If that’s not possible, I might need to consider other solutions, like the Skin Factory or the Main Material Plane, and so on.

Moreover, Yi Chen, you seem to have infused him with the divinity of "Death" during the competition. That fellow is in a half-dead state and is currently receiving treatment in a temporary clinic that Lorrian set up on the False Moon.

As of now, the problem isn’t serious, but recovery will still require a few more days.

Considering the Duke wants a private audience with you, I’ve collaborated with Reagan to create a temporary prosthetic device for you. It can effectively circumvent the effects of concept erasure. Want to give it a try?

"Ta-da! Take a look!"

William took out a piece of technological equipment from his Greed Ring,

a mechanical lower body fashioned after William himself, where sleek lines and geometric shapes combine flawlessly,

with a vertebral column riddled with various exposed spinal ports extending upward from the hips, waiting for the individual’s installation.

"Hmm." 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Yi Chen struggled somewhat to separate from behind William, refusing William’s offer of assistance and climbed onto the metal device by himself.

As the spine slotted into place, the lower body instantly came under the control of his brain,

allowing him to perform various basic movements, though it fell far short of Nash’s perfect mimicry.

Yi Chen was also very polite, expressing his thanks to Reagan alone, "Thank you."

"I’m William’s good friend, and if Mr. Yi shares the same body with William, then naturally we are friends too. Don’t be polite! If you feel any discomfort during its use, you can come to me for adjustments."

Yi Chen didn’t say much more and turned to look at William.

"What about Art?"

"He withdrew right after the awards ceremony. After all, he and Catherine went too far during their performance in the Old World. Staying too long would attract attention from the Monastery.

Besides, Catherine left you a letter."

William took the opportunity to pull out an envelope stamped with a black heart from his suit,

but Yi Chen clearly showed no interest, waving his hand, "You can read it...probably just some stuff about her playing the role of fiancée during the performance."

William shrugged and reluctantly put the letter away, while mentioning Catherine suddenly reminded him of something.

"Oh right! Those women from the Deep Sea who came over are still in Lu Pu, and among them, the Ancestor Primordial Body expressed an interest in you, Yi Chen.

During the awards, they specifically sought me out and said they’d like to meet with you afterwards.

It’s up to you, Yi Chen. It would be nice to establish some relations with the Arc Sea if you can."

Actually, it’s not just them, all the audience who watched the performance are very interested in you, Yi Chen. You’re now a celebrity in Lu Pu. I bet if you walk down the streets, people will come up asking for your autograph."

"I’m off to see the Duke."

William spread his hands, "Go ahead! The Commerce Guild is still in Lu Pu, just descend from the False Moon to get there.

As for me, I need to tally up the total amount of Fear obtained from this performance, and figure out a way to deliver it to the Circus headquarters. Anyway, we each have our own tasks.

Once Nash wakes up, if you, Yi Chen, want to go to the Original Tomb and delve into the realm of Death, I’ll write you a recommendation letter."

While William was talking about all this, Yi Chen had already walked to the office door with his hands in his pockets and disappeared from everyone’s sight by the time the last word was spoken.

Yi Chen walked out of the theater area alone, following the complex passages inside the False Moon towards the surface, when a flicker of silver light suddenly flashed at the corner of his eye.

"Is there something you need, Mr. Lorrian?"

The silver-haired Lorrian, in a state of concealment, leaned against a stone edge, obviously having come over intentionally.

"An impressive performance, Mr. Yi."

A silver coin that had been sliding between Lorrian’s fingers was tossed up and fell towards Yi Chen, who quickly caught it, feeling for any possible traps or hidden barriers within.

But he sensed nothing, it was merely a precious silver coin made from Moon Crystal,

its face imprinted with the visage of Lorrian with his Moon Eyes open, while the reverse displayed the image of the Moon God of Chaos, adorned with moon horns rising above his head in the Illusion Dream Realm.

"This is my personal token of thanks for the "Beheading" you gave to Art, preventing the performance from becoming his showground. If you encounter any trouble in the future, just toss this coin up, and the moonlight will sprinkle down."

Lorrian spoke these words with an indifferent face, and when he turned his head back to look for Yi Chen, the latter had already vanished.

"Tsk!"