176: Chapter 176 If You Won't Let Me Talk, I'll Let You Talk with a Hammer

Chen Fan's fingers dug deep into the cracks of the broken wall's bricks.

The Little Girl in his arms was as cold as ice; he could clearly feel the protruding vertebrae on the back of her neck, each one pressing against him and making his heart race with anxiety.

The jade slip pressed against their overlapping palms, emitting a faint vibration like the wings of a dying hummingbird—was that the last remaining remnant of the Silent Child?

He didn't dare think too deeply about it; his Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed back the words "don't be afraid" that had rushed to his lips.

Three squads of dark shadows had already blocked three directions.

The leading hunter wore a bronze mask, and the Word-Locking Chains glinted with a ghostly blue under the moonlight, their lengths carved with Silence Incantations.

Chen Fan's Critical Hit Foresight screen flickered on his retina, with red markers tracing the movement paths of every hunter—they were waiting, waiting for him to make the first move.

"Only I can read the Cipher Key." He deliberately revealed a corner of the jade slip, his voice kept extremely low.

A blinding red light immediately exploded in the air, and the system notification sounded like rusting gears: [High-risk information carrier detected, initiating immediate destruction protocol].

Chen Fan stared at those words and laughed, his tongue pressing against his back molars—back at the Sound Prison Tower, the system had said the same thing, but the so-called "destruction" was merely locking people in an Echo Prison.

[Critical Hit Determination Countdown: 3...2...1—Triggered!]

His pupils suddenly constricted to the size of needle points.

The moment the hammer of the thunder god slammed into the ground, a golden current surged from his spine to the crown of his head; the shockwave toppled half of the broken wall, and dust mixed with brick fragments rained down on the nearest hunters.

Chen Fan rolled on the ground while holding the Silent Child, his back shoulder slamming into a pile of rubble; he let out a muffled groan of pain but shielded the person in his arms with everything he had.

"Chase him!

Don't let him get away!" The masked hunter's roar was scattered by the wind.

The whistle of chains cutting through the air grazed the tip of Chen Fan's ear; out of the corner of his eye, he saw the tip of a chain brush against the back of his hand, slicing open a bloody gash—it didn't hurt, it really didn't. He could even count the beads of blood seeping from the wound, each one screaming: The Little Girl hasn't woken up yet, the Little Girl hasn't woken up yet.

The system prompt popped up again: [Target has left the monitoring range].

Gritting his teeth, Chen Fan tucked the Silent Child into a more concealed crevice in the rocks. As he turned, he swung the hammer of the thunder god in a full arc. "Lies," he cursed at the air, golden patterns crawling from the hammer's handle onto the back of his hand, "it's all fucking lies."

The golden light of a 5.9x critical hit, wrapped around the hammer's shadow, slammed into a hunter's chest.

That fellow's bronze mask shattered on the spot, and he was sent flying into a wall; the crisp sound of breaking ribs mixed with a muffled groan, making Chen Fan's temples throb.

The chains of the second squad of hunters had already woven into a net. He caught a glimpse of "87Hz" flickering on the foresight screen and suddenly remembered the resonance principle the Silent Child had taught him—the frequency of the system's notification sound was actually synchronized with the vibration of the chains.

"I'll borrow some of your blood." He tore off a piece of his robe to wipe his hands, then dipped his fingertips in his own blood to draw a talisman on the ground.

The jade slip grew hot against his palm. He closed his eyes and imitated the vibration rhythm the Little Girl had previously transmitted—one, two, three—that was the "Pseudo-Awakening Signal" she had spent three days and nights using her remnants to knock into his head.

As expected, the system blew up.

The notification [Large-scale Speaker revival detected, initiating regional silence] came to an abrupt halt, sounding like a goose being strangled.

Chen Fan seized the opportunity to trigger a third critical hit. The hammer of the thunder god swept out, and the sound waves crashed into the chains; the sound of metal snapping was louder than firecrackers.

"Interesting." On a high tower a hundred meters away, the Third Seat of the Red Robes' knuckles turned white as he gripped his binoculars.

He had watched with his own eyes as Chen Fan used lies to trick the system into triggering a critical hit, then used the critical hit to reinforce the lies, as if playing a meticulously designed game of cat and mouse. "This isn't a simple critical hit..." he whispered into his communicator. "He's decoding the system's rules, feeding his own abilities with lies."

The voice of a Shadow Pavilion Deacon came through the communicator: "Is an immediate execution required?"

"No." A strange purple light flickered in the pupils of the Third Seat of the Red Robes; it was the Alien Consciousness parasitic within him becoming restless. "Keep him. I want to see how big a hole this rat can gnaw through." He pressed his finger on the control console. The moment he activated the Circuit Breaker Protocol, the city-wide broadcast went silent, and the task panels of all New Players went black, leaving only combat permissions flickering on their retinas.

Just as Chen Fan was about to pursue, the system prompts suddenly vanished.

He opened his mouth and found that he couldn't even hear his own breathing—the voice function had been completely disabled; speaking in violation would lead to direct erasure.

"You won't let me speak?" He wiped the blood from his face and grinned, revealing white teeth. "I'll speak with my hammer."

Raising the hammer of the thunder god above his head, Chen Fan stared at the ground, remembering the waveform diagram Black Crow had carved into his palm before dying.

The first strike hit the ground with a dull thud; the second strike was a light tap, a crisp ring; the third strike was a heavy slam, causing fine cracks to split the ground—the triple rhythm was precisely the acoustic password for the Cipher Key.

A miracle occurred.

The jade slip suddenly erupted with a blinding white light, resonating with the hammer's sound to produce a "Silent Declaration."

Chen Fan saw that at a distant construction site, Old Wu was hitting the ground with a shovel—one, two, three. In an underground dungeon, a female student was tapping a stone wall with a broken sword, the rhythm identical. Even the New Players imprisoned by the Shadow Pavilion were stomping the ground, banging their heads against walls, using every possible way to create vibrations to respond to this "Silent Call" from the ruins.

The Third Seat of the Red Robes' teacup cracked with a "ka" sound.

He stared at the vibration sources appearing one after another on the monitoring screen, his Adam's apple bobbing. "They... are speaking with their bodies." The Alien Consciousness surged in his sea of consciousness, urging him to issue the final command: "Initiate the 'Shadow Heart' plan. I want him alive, but he must be silenced."

In the night, the ley lines deep within the Shadow Pavilion suddenly vibrated.

A crimson pillar of light pierced through the clouds like an inverted sword, pointing directly at the ruins where Chen Fan was.

Panting heavily, Chen Fan crouched down and pulled the Silent Child out from the crevice.

Dust clung to her eyelashes, and her pale face looked like thin paper under the moonlight.

He felt her wrist—it was still cold, so cold it reminded him of the water pipes on a winter night at the construction site, so cold he wanted to tear out his own heart to warm her.

"Let's go." He tucked the jade slip into her arms and wrapped her tightly in his coat. "I'm taking you somewhere where you can sleep in a warm bed."

The Old City Square at the edge of the Shadow Pavilion was already close at hand.

Chen Fan stumbled forward over broken glass, the light weight in his arms making his heart sink with worry.

He looked down at her; the Little Girl's fingers were still clutching the jade slip, her pale knuckles almost embedded into the jade.

"We're almost there." He whispered to the top of her head, his voice swallowed by the silence system until only a breath remained. "When dawn comes... when dawn comes, I will..."

The broken stele in the Old City Square cast a long shadow under the moonlight.

Chen Fan knelt on the bluestone slabs and gently laid down the person in his arms.

The wind ruffled the stray hairs on her forehead, revealing the faint blue veins behind her ear—was that the color of a living person?

He reached out to check her breath, but only felt a wave of coldness.

From afar came the roar of the crimson light pillar piercing the clouds.

Chen Fan looked up and saw the Shadow Pavilion's Airships gathering within the red light.

He wiped the tears from his face and planted the hammer of the thunder god by their side; golden patterns crawled along the hammer's handle and spread across the ground like a golden chain.

"Little Girl." He smiled at her closed eyes. "Once I tear down the Shadow Pavilion, I'll take you to eat the sweetest candy."

The night wind swept up a piece of broken tile, which struck the broken stele with a soft "ding"—sounding just like the clink of a tea spoon against a porcelain cup when Su Shuang brewed tea in the Teahouse.