The countdown began here.
"Three!"
BOOM—!
Thunder rolled through the heavens. Spurred on by Gao Cheng, the endless rain of blood whipped up a fresh tempest, sweeping across everything in a choking haze as wails rose toward the sky once more and roars resounded everywhere.
It crushed inward with frenzied force, punching through every obstruction to splatter across the armor. Eroded by the blood rain, boundless curses erupted; steel decayed, paint peeled away, and the flow of all spiritus spiraled completely out of control amid the corruption taint.
The Non-Offensive matrix awoke of its own accord. Rising from Ji Jue's hands, it crept up to his shoulders, pushing with difficulty toward his heart to preserve his sanity and stability, forming his last line of defense.
Yet that split second of delay was enough—the critical opportunity had arrived.
The Bashe roared. Lü Yang's body grew and lengthened once more, morphing into a serpent hundreds of meters long. It slithered violently, countless limbs thrusting out from beneath its scales at blistering speed.
He extracted boundless power from the fish scales even as he was assimilated by the fish twice as fast. Ignoring the cleaves and draining of Pan Ying, he coiled tightly around the armor, pinning his opponent in place.
"Two!"
Meanwhile, Yue Chen had already pulled away, retreating explosively.
He raised his hand once more.
Drawn by the power of the Desolate Ruins, boundless matter converged, roaring as it collapsed inward, once again compressing into the structure of hyperdense matter!
It was even more violent and turbulent than before.
Even gravity warped and twisted faintly beneath this sheer mass, dragged into the vortex...
"One!"
A world-freezing chill rose from around the Entropy Chosen, almost deadening sensation across half of Gao Cheng's body as numbness set in rapidly. Yet at this moment, cold sweat soaked Gao Cheng's back. He glanced around vigilantly, on guard against any Flying Light striking from the shadows.
Those few short seconds felt agonizingly long, right up until the charge was completed.
Even then, he didn't dare lower his guard in the slightest.
As the Entropy Chosen shrieked and wailed, pouring out everything to release a descending torrent of ruinous frost, the hyperdense matter in Yue Chen's hands hurled forth as well, booming as it expanded and swept out to blanket everything.
—"Zero!"
*Now!*
The White Harness manifested once more!
Gao Cheng ripped through the void, appearing before the Bashe. Right beneath the torrents of destruction, the transport began, ready to carry the Bashe through the void again—
Yet in that instant, the expression on his face froze solid. The smile that hadn't even had time to form was petrified by unforeseen terror.
"Wh—"
Just as he locked onto the Bashe and tried to pull him back, a hand rose gently and rested on the Bashe's scales as well.
And then, the White Harness's transport went completely out of control!
From within the armor came a faint sigh.
*Waited so long, and at last...*
*I've caught you!*
After so many scans and data collections, after experiencing it firsthand, the White Harness's teleportation could no longer escape Ji Jue's eyes.
*What gives you the right?*
*You think you can play these cheap extortion tricks against my Celestial Rail?!*
In a flash, the foundational matrix of the Doomsday Express spun into motion. The power of the Myriad Phenomena Engine spanned space to descend into Ji Jue's hands, unfolding, counter-corroding, and reversing the process!
It was as if, in the middle of a speeding vehicle's dash, another hand had suddenly snatched the steering wheel from Gao Cheng's grip and commandeered the drive!
Even if only for a fraction of a second, it was enough to veer the White Harness down an unforeseen fork in the road...
Completely out of control, the transport commenced once more.
Only this time, the target conveyed alongside him was no longer the Bashe—it was Ji Jue himself!
In the snap of a finger, he ripped through the void!
Only the dumbfounded Bashe was left abandoned where it lay, raising its head to gaze up at the sky-covering lethal frost torrent and the impacting jet of hyperdense matter...
"Fuck your—"
Hissing in despair, it thrashed, trying to flee.
Unfortunately, it was already too late.
Destruction descended from above, drowning everything. In an instant, beneath the shroud of ruinous frost, life ground to a halt; immediately after, bombarded by countless violent jets smaller than dust motes, it exploded with a deafening roar.
Nonstop agonized wails erupted like a fountain of blood, surging and spreading. Innumerable fleshy tumors sprouted from the gore, thousands of Lü Yang's faces surfacing from them in tortured screams.
Roaring curses, wailing pleas!
Engulfed by the erosion of boundless life, he had long been beyond salvation.
Yet watching that spectacle, Gao Cheng had no time for panic or guilt.
Only sheer terror gradually surfaced in his heart.
Dumbstruck, he turned his head.
He looked behind him.
And saw the steel hand that had come to rest on his shoulder at some unknown moment.
Like fate itself, it clamped onto his throat, gripping tight without leaving a hair's breadth of leeway.
"Y-You..."
His expression twitched as he activated his matrix again and again, but the spatial gate that he could normally open with a wave of his hand twisted and collapsed before it could even manifest this time, refusing to answer his call.
Amid the rain of blood, Dragon Mountain lowered its gaze, its eyes of fierce flame looking down!
A decisive declaration rang out:
"You are sick."
Like a doctor delivering a diagnosis.
Pity was, the voice held not a shred of mercy or regret.
Trifling with calamity and sin, poisoning the world...
*Your sickness has seeped into your marrow. Incurable!*
*But no matter.*
*—At least you can still die!*
*Crack!*
Tearing through countless defensive armaments like dead twigs, the broken blade of Pan Ying plunged into his throat. Then, amid its hum, blood-red light erupted with a roar.
A twist!
A single strike severed the head!
Then, the tally that controlled everything dropped into the bloody water, trampled into fragments beneath heavy feet.
"Next—"
Stepping across that pathetic, insignificant corpse, the Dragon Mountain armor raised its eyes toward Yue Chen's position. Across the endless, squirming torrent of flesh and blood, they locked eyes.
Flying Light appeared once more!
After a long, agonizing wait, from behind Yue Chen, a tiny glimmer materialized out of thin air, gliding forward like an imperceptible ripple or spray of water—yet it caused Yue Chen's movements to abruptly hitch.
Prostrate in the mud, the dazed, weakened Entropy Chosen suddenly shouted, surged upright, and swung down the jade axe in his hands.
*Sever!*
In an instant, Flying Light was cut off.
Yet before he could rejoice, his smile froze on his face.
A blade thrust silently from his chest, piercing his heart as spiritus erupted, wreaking havoc to destroy his life and annihilate his soul!
It was An Ning.
Holding the hilt, she stepped forth like a spectral apparition, the blade running clean through his vitals.
Of the hundred arts passed down by the Hunting Finger, Flying Light was merely one! Could an assassin not work without Flying Light?
Even setting aside Flying Light and the legacy of the Hunting Finger, once an Entropy user was closed in on by a White Stag, there was no turning back.
All that remained was death!
Yet in that moment before death, the nameless Chosen's face twitched, oddly curling into a smile akin to relief.
*Finally... it's over.*
Then, a raspy laugh rang out from within that utterly lifeless husk.
When An Ning instinctively moved to draw her dagger, she found it wouldn't budge, as if welded into iron and stone. Immediately after, the blood gushing from the wound transformed into sharp blades.
Boundless curse-poison and malice materialized, condensing into a spike.
Even as the blade pierced the heart, that spike drove right into An Ning's body!
Right after, the writhing blood surged and formed into hands, seizing An Ning's wrists in a crushing grip.
The wound pierced by the blade abruptly lengthened and rolled back, peeling open to both sides like a leather sheath.
Amid shattered viscera and gushing gore, a face covered in stellar tattoos emerged from the internal organs, rising up to relish the stunned look on her face.
Grinning like a wolf.
*At last...*
"Caught you!"
The hunter launched the attack, the hunter stepped into the trap, the hunter lowered her guard—and then, in the instant of death, the hunter finally saw the wolf's reflection.
Right in the hunter's own pool of blood!
Just as the fundamental truth of the wilderness dictated:
The identities of hunter and prey were never fixed; they shifted silently between tracking and ambushing. Not until the moment victory was seized by any means necessary would the true victor stand atop the loser's bones!
For this moment, the wolf had waited far too long.
Far too long.
So long that An Ning had almost forgotten the enemy even existed...
From the very beginning, he had been hiding inside this Entropy Chosen's body—or rather, inside his blood!
Shedding most of his power and physical form, he had concealed his claws and fangs, watching coldly. He had waited quietly, waiting for that one-in-ten-thousand chance to appear before him.
Even when his unlucky host nearly perished beneath the Edge of Flying Light moments earlier, he hadn't wavered in the slightest, ruthlessly staking everything on the scales of fate, awaiting the final verdict.
Now, the dagger was revealed at the end of the scroll.
The victor was decided!
Yet after that fleeting flash of shock, the wolf saw a light, cheerful smile grace that pretty face.
"No," An Ning said. "I caught *you*!"
In that instant, beneath the hooded sweatshirt pierced by the blood spike, a faint glint of silver emerged behind the tear.
On her wrist, the bracelet she had worn was nowhere to be found.
Heart, back of the chest, throat, back of the head, abdomen, lower body...
In the tight space hugging her skin, the quicksilver that originally formed the bracelet flowed quietly. Tens of layers of blessings—Metallic Quality and Form of Utmost Resilience—interlaced to weave a suit of armor shielding every vital point across her body.
The fatal blood spike had only breached the outer guard and pierced flesh before being seized by shifting muscle and quicksilver, unable to advance another millimeter.
Even if it was only a hair's breadth from that little heart!
When the Wolf Sin—having melted into blood to hide—instinctively tried to channel power and inject blood to drive the spike that extra fraction forward, he felt the hands he pinned tremble slightly. Slipping free of every joint, her muscles flowed and gripped the bones, shifting in motion once more.
In reverse, her backward-turned hands and fingers clamped down upon the Wolf Sin's hands!
Then, An Ning opened her mouth.
A wisp of faint light blew forth from her throat and trachea, flying straight at the Wolf Sin's face.
Who said launching required hands?!
***
Two hours earlier.
"Something's wrong."
After clashing with the three convoys and pulling back, inside the vehicle, Ji Jue paused while maintaining his sniper rifle. Putting down the component, he said, "No, it still feels wrong to me."
"What is it?"
Resting against the back of the car seat, An Ning tilted her head, watching his furrowed brows and somber expression. "I always feel like you make a fuss over nothing, Brother Ji Jue, jumping at shadows... Even when everything goes smoothly, if there's just one detail you don't understand, you won't let it go. Isn't that called OCD? It's getting pretty severe, isn't it? Should we go see a doctor?"
"Sorry, I don't plan on lying in a recliner in Heart Pivot's therapy room anytime soon."
Turning the component in his hand, Ji Jue pondered for a long while before suddenly asking, "Don't you think their counterattack this time was off?"
"Off?"
An Ning stared blankly, tilting her head at him. *Meow, meow, meow, meow?*
*Do you even hear what nonsense you're spouting? If you threw those people together in an unprepared encounter, wouldn't any of them be enough to kill an artisan like you dozens, if not hundreds of times over?*
"What's off about it?" An Ning didn't get it. "Is it because they didn't entertain you enough, or didn't apologize to you?"
"The headcount—"
Relying on Deus Ex Machina to repeatedly review and inspect every video record, note, and memo since their departure, Ji Jue had finally found the source of his instinctive unease.
"The headcount is wrong!"
"From the very beginning up to now, we've encountered all the opponents from the Northern Realm, Xinyuan, and Sky City, right? Not counting all those messy bandit gangs, assassins, and dregs..."
Counting on his fingers one by one, Ji Jue stopped on the last finger he couldn't fold back. "Yet from start to finish, the only person in Echo's convoy has been Yue Chen."
He said decisively, "His navigator has never shown their face!"
An Ning thought for a moment and asked curiously, "Could it be they didn't make it in time? Or didn't show up because of an accident?"
"Maybe that's a possibility, but we can't rule out the alternatives, can we?"
Ji Jue twirled a screwdriver made of quicksilver between his fingers, his thoughts expanding further. "They definitely have someone else—no, at least one other person hiding in the dark.
"Aside from the members of the current convoys, there might even be outside help.
"If we prepare for the worst, there might even be a Celestial-Human sneaking alongside us, waiting to flip the table if things go sour. After all, at this point, expecting those people to have sportsmanship and play by the rules is less realistic than expecting the heavens to strike the Governor down with a lightning bolt."
He paused, looking toward An Ning. "Of course, among all the greatest possibilities, there is one that includes what you mentioned..."
"The wolf?"
An Ning's expression turned abruptly serious.
"You haven't found the wolf, right?" Ji Jue spread his hands. "Yet you said the wolf had appeared near you... Do you think that was an illusion?"
"Impossible!" An Ning shook her head decisively.
Across the wilderness, stags and wolves preyed on and slaughtered each other, yet in the shadows, they were virtually of one cloth, bound by tangled threads.
Their perception of one another could never be mistaken!
"Yet aside from those few, almost everyone who appeared before us is dead," Ji Jue said slowly. "Thinking on the worse side, no one ever ruled that there couldn't be a Wolf Sin among the convoys, right? Or worse still, the enemy has actually been tailing us all along, hidden in the dark, and we haven't found a single trace.
"Far-infrared scans, sound, spiritus, heartbeats, breathing... not our equipment nor your senses could pick up anything.
"If that's the case, I reckon we might as well lie flat and wait to die."
"..."
In the long silence, An Ning wore an unusually solemn, pensive expression, and her brain—even more unusually—began to whir. But as it turned, white smoke seemed to puff out, her mind drifting into a daze before she pitifully rolled around on the carpet, whining and wailing.
"Then what should we do, Brother Ji Jue?!" With tears practically pooling in her eyes, she looked pitifully at her external brain. "Can you help me?"
"No, thank you."
Ji Jue coldly shoved her face away. "Guesses are just guesses. No matter how much you speculate, without reality to back it up, you're just scaring yourself. If we want to confirm it, someone has to act as bait to flush them out for me."
And who would that bait be?
An Ning looked blankly at Ji Jue, and Ji Jue looked right back at her.
With a faint smile.
Until the kitten playing dumb couldn't keep up the act any longer, and rolling around acting cute proved completely useless, forcing her to accept reality.
"You're actually making the pretty girl who wants nothing more than to protect you serve as cannon fodder to draw fire?!"
Straddling his neck, she angrily pulled at his face. "Brother Ji Jue, you're an absolute piece of work!"
"Yup."
Ji Jue nodded calmly and picked up his teacup, unbothered.
"That's what everybody says."
Chapter 372