Do You Want to Get Out?

Xu Yuan had once entertained a plan. He would use a silver tongue to persuade the Barbarian King, that hulking alien powerhouse, to punch straight through this Silent Crypt. Though they were enemies—enemies whose hatred had been carved into their very bones over continuous years of war—they currently shared a single objective. To get out. To escape this Silent Crypt. As a king of great talent and bold vision, the Barbarian King should know how to make that choice. Yet looking at things now, that earlier idea had been truly naive. Indeed, the Barbarian King might have chosen to cooperate with someone holding intelligence for the sake of his people. But that required a prerequisite: Xu Yuan had to be able to speak first. "..." Watching the massive fist of bone spikes bear down on him, Xu Yuan finally felt the near-deranged killing intent burning in the Barbarian King's eerie blue eyes, as well as the unmatched power behind his punch. Even wounded and down to one arm, the Barbarian King could still kill Li Qingyan in a single encounter now that she was stripped of the military array's empowerment. They had no opportunity to negotiate terms—not even the chance to speak. Disregarding the damage to his meridians, Xu Yuan pushed the Blood Yuan Heart Calamity Art into overdrive. A bizarre, eerie glow surfaced in his scarlet pupils, his vision flushed entirely blood-red, and his whole being plunged into a state akin to bullet time. The Barbarian King's colossal physique resembled a demon descended upon the mortal realm, the powerful eerie blue Source Qi erupting around him boring straight through the subterranean rock layers. The instant the spiked fist slammed into the crimson mirror surface, a massive force bore down with immense momentum. The creep beneath Xu Yuan's feet was instantly pulverized into grass mud, and the solid stone floor more than a hundred feet down fractured and caved in. In a flash, fractures webbed across the Blood Mirror condensed before Xu Yuan. Yet before it could shatter, the crimson Source Qi leaking around Xu Yuan condensed into fresh layers of Blood Mirrors radiating an enchanting luminescence, holding off the Barbarian King's earth-shattering blow. Eerie blue and crimson light intertwined. Gales surged violently. The Source Qi packed behind that single punch was like an endless ocean, shattering all five layers of transparent mirrors glowing with enchanting blood light one after another. The gale from the fist hurtled toward Xu Yuan with undiminished momentum. And at that very moment, a massive crimson spiral bone spike formed above their heads, its point aimed at the Barbarian King while radiating a chilling, desolate blood light. A layer of blood-ink landscape began to emerge at the tip of Qingyu in Xu Yuan's grip. This was Xu Yuan's first time clashing head-on with an expert of this caliber; the instincts of his body even overrode his own combat experience. "Changtian, don't take it head-on!" An anxious voice transmission abruptly sounded by Xu Yuan's ear. Though it had only been an instant, Li Qingyan had already reacted to what was happening. Xu Yuan heard her warning, but he did not dodge—at least, not completely. The massive crimson spiral bone drilled downward with a violent spin, and the ink-dance sword light from Qingyu's tip slashed out toward the hard-armored flank of the Barbarian King, while the Barbarian King's fist slammed into his shoulder. Time froze at that instant. In the next breath, the collision of Source Qi nearly drowned the entire tunnel, as though space-time itself trembled and the air was ruthlessly torn apart. Centered on Xu Yuan and the Barbarian King, a hurricane erupted. Tunnels within a thousand feet crumbled under the tremendous force, and falling boulders were reduced to powder midair by the turbulent eddies of energy. "..." Amid the surging torrents of Source Qi, Li Qingyan grabbed the collar of Bai Muxi's robe and retreated rapidly, her crimson eyes fixed firmly on the center of the clash. Having fought him for over a decade, she knew the Barbarian King's combat strength all too well. In a battle of this level, though her current strength allowed her to provide support, a single lapse in attention would turn her into Xu Yuan's vulnerability. The smoke thrown up by the compressed energy shattering the stone walls enveloped the entire passage, but in the next instant, the howling gale swept the dust toward both ends of the tunnel. In Li Qingyan's sight, the surrounding corridor had been thoroughly devastated, strewn with shattered stone. The ten-foot crimson spiral bone spike was lodged dead center in the Barbarian King's chest, its tremendous momentum having shoved him back several dozen yards. Meanwhile, Xu Yuan stood firmly where he was after enduring the Barbarian King's blow. Amid the trembling of Source Qi, everything returned to temporary silence. Xu Yuan held Qingyu in his right hand, gazing at the burly figure dozens of yards away. Although the Blood Marrow Drill had pierced the tough keratin layer on the Barbarian King's chest, it had not driven in deeply. The deeper wound was the gash Xu Yuan had carved into the Barbarian King's flank using Blood-Ink Jade: Circular Dance. The keratin there had been severed entirely. The wound was deep enough to show bone, dark blood welling forth. Yet Xu Yuan saw no panic on the Barbarian King's face. The king's single arm tightened forcefully around the Blood Marrow bone spike. *Crack!* The ten-foot bone spike lodged in his chest shattered directly into specks of blood light and dissipated into the air. The Barbarian King's eerie blue pupils stared at Xu Yuan without a shred of emotion. He did not make another move, his thick, deep voice carrying a trace of gravity. "This king truly did not expect you to be teleported into this crypt as well. Even less did I expect that you, Xu Changtian, would have turned into an aberrant ghost." "..." Xu Yuan did not reply. He lowered his gaze to glance at his left arm, which was rapidly regenerating beneath his crimson sleeve. The reason he still stood in place was not that he had gained the upper hand in their clash, but that the Barbarian King's blow had been so devastating it had obliterated his entire left arm in an instant. He had not even had the chance to be thrown backward. Still, it had to be said that the quality of this Blood Jade Glazed Robe was remarkably good. The arm beneath had vanished, yet the garment remained completely undamaged. During those brief thoughts, after a series of wet gurgles of regrowing flesh, the aberrant ghost body automatically restored his left arm without him even needing to urge it. He raised it, opened and closed his palm into a fist, and swung it twice. There was not the slightest sense of discomfort. The aberrant ghost body was truly terrifying. Calmly raising his eyes, Xu Yuan released a wave of crimson Source Qi that rapidly condensed several ten-foot spiral bone spikes around him. Looking at the Barbarian King in the distant darkness, he smiled. "Yes. For the sake of power, I have temporarily taken the form of an aberrant ghost." Pausing for a breath, Xu Yuan added with a soft chuckle, "Don't be nervous, though. For a short time, I should still be able to maintain my human consciousness." The eerie blue eyes in the dark narrowed, the Barbarian King's voice deep and heavy. "Whether you are an aberrant ghost or a human, what does that have to do with this king?" Xu Yuan answered plainly, "Because I believe we can cooperate." At those words, a killing intent so thick it was practically tangible erupted from the Barbarian King. The corners of his lips twitched in what seemed to be a sneer. "Cooperate? You, a scion of the Great Yan Chancellor's Manor, wish to cooperate with this king once more?" As he spoke, the burly figure several yards tall strode slowly toward Xu Yuan. In the pitch-black tunnel, the shroud of eerie blue Source Qi made the Barbarian King resemble a demon clawing its way out of hell. "Xu Changtian, this king admits that you are powerful right now. Though I know not how a mere Soul Condensation cultivator like you can adapt to the might of the Transcendent Realm, so long as you have not grasped Intent, you are no match for this king—even as an aberrant ghost." As he spoke, the bone-deep wound on the Barbarian King's flank began to vanish rapidly beneath the swirl of eerie blue Source Qi. In just a few breaths, it was restored as though it had never been. *Intent.* Seeing this, Xu Yuan suddenly understood a few things. The "Intent" spoken of by his uncle and Xu Changge was not merely an oppressive aura that could kill with a single glare; it was something that prevented high-level cultivators from self-healing. No wonder Luo Xiran had remained confident after taking his Falling Sakura, Heavenly Dance, claiming he was no match for her. Because without grasping Intent, he had no way of damaging her true origin. While he was thinking, the Barbarian King had already closed the distance by dozens of yards. He stared at Xu Yuan, enunciating each word: "My patience is limited. You had best speak quickly. What do you wish to cooperate on with this king this time?" Xu Yuan did not waste words. "I can get you out." "..." After a moment of silence, the Barbarian King clenched his single fist so hard the air seemed to vibrate. "Get this king out? You know where this place is?" Xu Yuan's aura also began to climb, the Qingyu sword in his hand humming softly. He said, word by word, "My Chancellor's Manor possesses intelligence regarding this aberrant ghost crypt." Hearing this, the Barbarian King suddenly grinned. "Just as that fox said. To think that after reaching this point, you still want to speak of cooperation with this king?!" *A fox?* *Nan Jinxi?* Xu Yuan froze slightly, numerous thoughts flashing through his mind at once. He asked, "Nan Jinxi also entered this crypt?" "..." Hearing that, the Barbarian King came to an abrupt halt. With a deranged smirk in his eyes, he retrieved a skinned white fox from his Sumeru storage and tossed it casually to the ground, kicking up a puff of dust. "Yes. But this subordinate of yours has already been killed by this king." Its four limbs were shattered, a hole had been punched through its skull, and its demon core had been removed. The three-foot white fox was devoid of all life. She was dead. "..." The instant Xu Yuan saw the corpse of the white fox, his heart sank. He did not care about Nan Jinxi's death. The Barbarian King was overwhelmingly powerful compared to her. If her fortune had been low enough that she entered the crypt and crossed paths with the Barbarian King, death was an inevitability. Yet before she died, she had most likely manipulated the Barbarian King into believing something nonexistent. His people's women and children were currently facing the vanguard of Marquis Wucheng, the God of War of Great Yan, while hundreds of thousands of his tribe's warriors were trapped within enemy territory on the eve of a decisive battle. At such a critical juncture, as the greatest hope of his people, he had been schemed against and teleported to this unknown crypt. The Barbarian King's urgency to escape went without saying. If Xu Yuan could foresee this, Nan Jinxi naturally could as well. Xu Yuan could even guess how that fox would sling mud. As long as Nan Jinxi met the Barbarian King, she would likely guess that the teleportation triggered by the Kunwu Mirror's destruction would bring Xu Yuan and Li Qingyan here as well. She did not need to be overly elaborate; with insufficient intelligence, the more one said, the more mistakes one made. She only needed to make the Barbarian King believe one thing: that their earlier teleportation into the Barbarian army camp was a bitter flesh stratagem—a self-injury ruse meant to make the Barbarian King, the sole variable in the decisive battle, vanish beforehand. After all, the Kunwu Mirror that had caused the four of them to be teleported had been severed by Li Qingyan using the power of the military array. And the facts now presented before the Barbarian King all served to corroborate the lie Nan Jinxi had forged with her life. If it wasn't a bitter flesh stratagem, how did Xu Changtian know the way out of this crypt? If it wasn't a bitter flesh stratagem, why was there an unfamiliar woman by Xu Changtian's side? If it wasn't a bitter flesh stratagem, how could Xu Changtian have acquired aberrant ghost power capable of matching the Barbarian King in less than ten days, all while retaining his human consciousness? It was like yellow mud smeared inside one's trousers—whether it was filth or not, it was treated as such. "..." In the silence, Xu Yuan licked the corner of his lips and curved them into a peculiar arc. Looking at the Barbarian King, he asked softly, "So, you now believe that our earlier teleportation into your camp was merely a bitter flesh stratagem?" The Barbarian King inhaled deeply, his knotted muscles quivering, and laughed coldly. "How do you plan to explain it? By using your and Wuyuan's noble status in Great Yan to tell this king that my life was not worth such a risk?" "Theoretically, you were worth it." Xu Yuan shook his head, speaking in all seriousness. "From the perspective of the entire Great Yan and absolute rationality, using a single gamble with Qingyan and myself to eliminate you—the sole variable in this decisive battle—and guarantee the preservation of the imperial court's three hundred thousand elites and the safety of the three northern provinces was entirely a worthwhile bargain." The Barbarian King stared at Xu Yuan, the eerie blue Source Qi around him undulating as though ready to strike at any second. "So, do you have anything else to say?" Xu Yuan took a deep breath, looked back toward Li Qingyan, and commanded in a tone that brooked no refusal, "Qingyan, leave first." With that, Xu Yuan looked back at the Barbarian King. "Your name is Chi Feng, correct?" The Barbarian King's eyes narrowed. "You actually know this king's true name?" Hearing Li Qingyan's transmitted voice—"I will wait for you in the cavern from earlier"—along with the sound of retreating footsteps, Xu Yuan smiled faintly and spoke via voice transmission to the Barbarian King: "The intelligence sources of my Chancellor's Manor run far deeper than you imagine. Not only do I know your true name as the Barbarian King, but I also know that directly above this crypt lies your Barbarian Sacred City. "Heh, looking at your eyes, you seem skeptical. Then allow me, Xu Changtian, to be blunt: your so-called Sacred City is located within Tiangui Canyon. Oh, of course, Tiangui Canyon is what our Great Yan calls it; I'm not quite sure what you Barbarians call it, but in any case, it is within a canyon. Am I right?" "..." Hearing this, the Barbarian King's breath hitched violently. He thought of Marquis Wucheng continuing to push deep into the north. If the Sacred City was exposed... Xu Yuan walked toward the Barbarian King with Qingyu in hand, speaking slowly as he went: "Don't be too anxious. Our Great Yan Dynasty is not only divided between imperial court and sects, but also between the imperial family and the Chancellor's Manor. Marquis Wucheng is a staunch royalist; he does not know this information. Nearly ten days have passed since we entered this crypt. Perhaps the Barbarian host can no longer be saved, but the Sacred City may still have a chance." "Do you think this king will believe you—" "Believe it or not, it's up to you." Xu Yuan cut him off, swinging Qingyu lightly. The ink-like hue at the tip traced graceful arcs through the air. "Chi Feng, I know very well that people like you and Qingyan are not easily swayed once you have set your mind on something. That is probably a necessary trait or quality for an exceptional commander. Since you've already decided this teleportation was our bitter flesh stratagem, I won't waste words trying to convince you." Having said that, Xu Yuan came to a halt right before Chi Feng. He looked up at the Barbarian King, who stood twice his height. "This young master will ask you one last time: do you want to get out?"