Han Meng was no stranger to the legends of the Gray Realm.
Human scents didn’t belong in this world. Lingering too long would inevitably draw swarms of Calamities. But Han Meng hadn’t expected them to arrive so swiftly—barely minutes after his arrival.
The skeletal talons plunged deep into the earth, wrenching up Han Meng along with chunks of soil and rock as they retracted skyward.
His black trench coat tore in multiple places. Han Meng blasted the claw apart with a well-aimed shot, breaking free midair—only for the bone eagle’s hollow eyes to flare with rage. Its massive wings beat, propelling it toward him at terrifying speed!
Though Han Meng was fast, the eagle moved twice as quick. In seconds, it was upon him. A gale erupted from nowhere, slamming Han Meng back toward the ground!
Boom—!!
Han Meng cratered into the black earth from a hundred meters up, spiderweb cracks radiating outward. Blood sprayed from his lips as his face drained of color.
Meanwhile, the swarming shadow centipedes suddenly halted. They scoured the wasteland, as if their target had vanished, before beginning to mill aimlessly… Until the fifth-tier mother centipede turned its pulsating maw toward Han Meng.
Damn it. Han Meng glimpsed the movement through his blurred vision, staggering upright.
With a shriek from the mother, hundreds of shadow centipedes surged toward Han Meng like a tidal wave, the mother herself coiling forward like a living mountain.
Trapped between the bone eagle above and the shadow tide below, Han Meng had no escape.
He now faced two fifth-tier Calamities at once.
His tattered coat fluttered as Han Meng sighed, lighting a cigarette and gripping his gun grimly…
Elsewhere on the blackened plains, a streak of vivid crimson moved steadily forward.
This red was the only true color in the gray world—so glaringly conspicuous it seemed to warn all creatures of its danger. For minutes, it walked undisturbed, no Calamities daring to approach.
Then, the hollow eyes flickered. Something stirred within them. The figure halted abruptly.
"Where… am I?"
Chen Ling’s mind felt scrambled, as if waking from a nightmare. Awareness flooded back into his vacant pupils as he scanned his surroundings in confusion.
What… just happened?
His last memory was igniting the warehouse. He vaguely recalled feasting amid the flames, though the details were hazy. The only vivid impressions were the agony of being burned alive and the suffocating darkness that followed.
As for the battle with Xi Renjie after the warehouse door opened, or stepping into the Gray Realm—he remembered none of it.
"I advanced?"
Chen Ling immediately noticed the changes in his body, his eyes brightening.
He’d been on the cusp of the second tier before. That final feast must have bridged the remaining gap, propelling him fully into the second tier of the divine path.
Simultaneously, he sensed a new skill waiting to be unraveled.
As Chen Ling processed the information flooding his mind, his expression grew increasingly odd… Compared to [Faceless], this ability was even more bizarre.
The skill had two primary functions.
The first was akin to sleight of hand—conjuring illusory objects from nothing or transforming existing items into something visually similar. Like a magic trick, these illusions held no inherent properties beyond their appearance.
Even if he turned clothes into snakes, those snakes couldn’t actually bite. At most, they’d serve as intimidation.
At face value, this was simple illusionism. What truly surprised Chen Ling was the second function…
He could swap similarly shaped objects over short distances using items on his person.
For example, he could replace an enemy’s gun with a banana. The banana in Chen Ling’s hand would become the gun, while the enemy’s gun would morph into a banana. Of course, the "banana" didn’t need to be real—it could be a rock, a piece of charcoal, or anything else disguised by illusion.
The simplest application of this created a "rule": When Chen Ling and an enemy aimed guns (or gun-shaped illusions) at each other, regardless of who held which, the enemy would always be the one shot.
The first function was pure "falsehood," while the second allowed "reality" to hide within "fiction." Truth and lies intertwined, indistinguishable from one another.
"Sounds like a murderous carnival trick…" Chen Ling mused.
"Let’s call it…[Scarlet Trickery]."
Having digested his new skill, Chen Ling studied his surroundings more carefully. This place matched descriptions of the Gray Realm, though he had no idea how he’d gotten here… But Chu Muyun had mentioned that progression along the twisted divine path often brought temporary mental instability.
Perhaps his presence here was another side effect?
As he pondered, a thunderous explosion echoed in the distance.
Chen Ling turned toward the sound. A dust cloud mushroomed on the horizon, vague shapes flashing within—a battle raging.
"Calamities? Or people?"
His eyes narrowed. After a brief hesitation, he started walking toward the chaos.
Boom—!
The earth trembled. A skeletal eagle burst from the swirling dust, while a bloodied figure streaked across the low sky, fleeing desperately.
Below, a black tide churned—a mountainous shadow centipede winding in pursuit.
Caught between aerial and terrestrial hunters, the bloodied figure seized every slim chance to escape, weaving through the overlapping threats… until the bone eagle’s talons found their mark once more, smashing him into the ground!
"Han Meng?!" Chen Ling’s breath caught as he recognized the figure.