# 503
**Chapter 503: No One Gets Out Alive**
The nightmare space slowly crumbled, the surrounding environment twisting and flickering between illusion and reality.
Shen Qingzhu picked up the ring from the ground and walked toward the Ninth Seat at the edge of the altar.
The Ninth Seat lay on his back, the pool of blood beneath him slowly spreading outward. He turned his head slightly, watching Shen Qingzhu approach, a faint smile tugging at his pale lips.
“How are you?” Shen Qingzhu asked, frowning at the blood beneath him.
“Still alive, for now,” the Ninth Seat replied weakly.
Shen Qingzhu’s expression relaxed slightly. He sat down beside the Ninth Seat, pulled two cigarettes from his pocket, and offered one.
“Trying to kill me faster?” the Ninth Seat said dryly.
Shen Qingzhu silently tucked both cigarettes back into his pocket. “I just thought you might need something to keep you alert.”
“No need to secretly pump more oxygen around me. I told you—this kind of injury won’t kill me.”
“Oh.” Shen Qingzhu shrugged. “So, you knew I was a mole all along?”
“Honestly, you had quite a few tells.”
“Like?”
“You’re too kind,” the Ninth Seat said slowly. “In the forest, you secretly saved Baili Tuming. At the Baili Tower, you helped those kids deal with the [Elegy], even risking your life to take out Baili Xin for them…
And when you were channeling mental energy into the altar, your act was way too obvious. I could tell at a glance whether you were really overexerting yourself.”
“So, when I knocked you out in the courtyard, you let it happen?”
“I went out on supply runs so many times and still couldn’t contact Squad 008. I had to see if you had any tricks up your sleeve.” The Ninth Seat glanced at the sword scar above them. “Didn’t expect your trick to be so… brutal.”
“So, the stories you told me at the nightclub—were they all fake?”
“Half and half,” the Ninth Seat paused. “The first half was mostly true. The second half was a backstory I made up for myself.”
“…Backstory?”
“That’s how I knew your acting still needed work. You didn’t even have a solid character setup. If it weren’t for Yiyu’s overconfidence in his soul contract and me covering for you, your identity would’ve been exposed long ago.”
“…”
Shen Qingzhu thought of the Seventh Seat’s repeated tests and sighed helplessly.
He had indeed been too eager to eliminate the [Believers]. Without the Ninth Seat’s protection, his cover would’ve been blown.
“But none of that matters now.” The Ninth Seat smiled as Lin Qiye and the others began to appear in the fading illusion. “Your time walking in the dark is over…
You can return to the light.”
“What about you?” Shen Qingzhu turned to him.
“Not sure,” the Ninth Seat shook his head. “I want to go find the Chairman, but I can’t move through the fog. I’ll have to wait for them to return… Though that’s fine too. I’ve saved enough money to live it up. Even if I hit the clubs every day chasing girls, I could last six or seven decades.”
“…”
Shen Qingzhu looked at his serious expression and swallowed the retort he’d been about to make.
**Bang—!**
With a soft crack, the surrounding nightmare completely shattered. The battered estate from the battle reappeared before them.
In that instant, a strong sense of weightlessness enveloped both Shen Qingzhu and the Ninth Seat.
Shen Qingzhu’s body lifted into the air automatically, while the Ninth Seat, still lying on the altar, began to float skyward along with it.
“What is this…” Shen Qingzhu frowned, looking up.
Massive stones hovered in the sky. At the center of the steel clouds, a figure crackling with electricity floated suspended. Around him, figures shattered the rocks beneath their feet, using the force to launch themselves upward.
**Whoosh—!!**
A blinding golden pillar of light pierced the sky. The Third Seat transformed into lightning, weaving through the air to dodge attacks. With a flick of his hand, a storm of metal shards rained down from the steel clouds.
“**Heaven and Earth Reversed!**”
Beneath Baili Pangpang’s feet, a massive Yin-Yang Bagua diagram unfurled. His hand seemed to grip an invisible dial, twisting it violently in reverse.
The metal shards froze mid-air.
**Disarmed!**
At the same time, a wave of night swept across the sky.
Lin Qiye slowly clenched his left fist. The frozen metal shards were consumed by darkness, twisting like twisted dough. He raised the white blade in his right hand and slashed repeatedly through the air.
White blade flashes crisscrossed before him.
With a series of ringing cuts, the hundreds of metal shards were shredded into fine dust, scattering in the wind.
The Third Seat frowned. Just as he was about to act, his body jolted!
He could clearly feel a契约 deep in his soul—one tightly bound to him—quietly dissolve…
Then, his soul began to wither rapidly!
His face turned deathly pale.
“Lord Yiyu… impossible… how?!” The Third Seat knew exactly what this meant. His eyes filled with terror.
Once the soul contract was signed, his soul was bound to Yiyu’s. He couldn’t betray or escape. If Yiyu’s soul was erased, he would vanish too.
**Yiyu is dead?!**
He looked down sharply. A broken gray-white altar was rising from the ground, the gravely injured Ninth Seat still lying atop it.
Shen Qingzhu was rushing through the air toward them.
He didn’t see Yiyu.
But… why were the Ninth Seat and Shen Qingzhu still alive?!
He stared at them for a moment, then realization struck—his eyes burned with fury and unwillingness!
“You’re moles?!” he screamed at Shen Qingzhu. “You killed Lord Yiyu?!”
**Buzz—!**
The nine black vortexes behind him began to collapse, and the gravity warping the battlefield turned chaotic.
The steel clouds in the sky began to fall.
The Third Seat’s soul was withering, his mental power collapsing. His Forbidden Ruins could no longer hold.
Shen Qingzhu narrowed his eyes. He didn’t deny it.
At this point, there was nothing left to hide.
“Damn you! Damn you all! You killed him! Now I die too!!” The Third Seat’s face twisted in madness, his body shaking with rage.
His gaze swept the area, finally landing on the gray-white altar.
An idea flashed through his mind—his eyes turned wild.
“If I’m dying… none of you are getting out alive!!”