Dead End

Empowered by Source Qi, the gentle voice echoed through every corner of Huizhou County, reaching the ears of every soul in the city. The chaotic throng fleeing amidst deafening weeping and clamor fell abruptly silent for a fleeting heartbeat. The vast majority of Huizhou County's inhabitants were ordinary folk who rose with the sun and rested at dusk, toiling endlessly for a few meager slivers of silver. Before that voice rang out, they had not even known what was happening within their ordinarily peaceful county. All they knew was that the heavens had overturned while they slept. Heavenly fire raining down from above swallowed their homes in endless explosions. Neighbors who had sat chatting amiably before their gates only yesterday were blasted into bloody froth, while unquenchable flames steadily devoured the city. And this sudden voice had given them an answer. An assassination. An assassination that sought to slaughter an entire city just to kill a single person. How absurd. Yet what was more pathetic was that even knowing the truth, they had no power to change anything. Before resentment toward this truth could even kindle, the primal urge to survive drove them to resume scattering in flight. Praying only to survive this cataclysm. Amidst the chaotic streets where the commoners fled, the composure of two men wearing Wailing Iron Masks stood in stark contrast to the surrounding frenzy. Strolling leisurely against the panicked flow of people, the two made their way toward the central district where flames billowed high. They were none other than Taishi Ran and Fatty Zhou, tasked with hunting down Xu Yuan. Watching the chaotic throngs around them, Fatty Zhou asked with a chuckle, "The Third Young Master of the Prime Minister's Manor would come out on his own initiative? Could it be an impostor?" Taishi Ran also looked at the fleeing refugees, but his voice was grave. "The master of that voice is indeed Xu Changtian." A glint of intrigue flashed in Fatty Zhou's eyes as his calm gaze swept across the surrounding chaos. "Stepping out at a time like this... is he planning to trade his life to save these commoners?" "Him? Save mortals?" Taishi Ran glanced at Fatty Zhou. "Does that sound realistic to you?" Fatty Zhou chuckled dryly and gave a slight shake of his head. "True enough. Never mind hundreds of thousands, even millions of mortals wouldn't weigh as much as the life of a young master of the Prime Minister's Manor. His coming forward must be an act of desperation." Gazing into the distance toward the Exotic Beast Bureau, Taishi Ran spoke with a heavy cadence: "This Third Young Master must have caught wind of something and intends to use Jing Xuelan as leverage to negotiate with us." "Jing Xuelan..." Fatty Zhou muttered. Beneath the mask, his brow furrowed slightly and his smile faded. "You mean his target is Fairy Luo?" Taishi Ran glanced at the crazed elder in the sky. "Old Man Tian already blurted out our numbers. Facing an assassination by four Transcendent Realm cultivators, his only reason for daring to show his face would be having a way to talk Fairy Luo down." Puzzlement flickered in Fatty Zhou's squinted eyes. "Even if the Prime Minister's Manor possessed intelligence detailing Fairy Luo's relationship with Jing Tingxi and Jing Xuelan, she is currently wearing a Wailing Iron Mask. How could Xu Changtian have recognized her?" Taishi Ran's voice was matter-of-fact, chillingly calm. "As the progenitor of the Great Calamity, Xu Changtian naturally possesses unique traits." Fatty Zhou fell silent for a moment, then cast a look toward the Semi-Saint battlefield outside the city. "Brother Taishi, should we talk with him now? Fairy Luo..." "Brother Zhou," Taishi Ran interrupted. He slowly turned back and looked directly into Fatty Zhou's eyes. "Do you truly wish to negotiate with the origin of the Great Calamity?" "..." Fatty Zhou fell silent. As a member of the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion, he knew all too well what the Great Calamity signified. At all times and by any means necessary, the Great Calamity was a target the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion sought to eradicate and strangle in its cradle. If the Great Calamity could be eliminated, never mind the life or death of a mere Jing Xuelan, even their exalted Pavilion Master would walk calmly to his death. Yet the future had already turned into an impenetrable shroud of ink. If they killed Xu Changtian now, could the future truly return to clarity? Fatty Zhou did not know. Judging by Taishi Ran's expression, however, the man had already made up his mind. "Kill him." Taishi Ran's indifferent voice transmitted into the ears of the withered elder and the middle-aged beauty, and at that very moment, Xu Yuan's extended spiritual vision intercepted it from where he stood on the deck. The instant he caught that transmission, Xu Yuan's heart plummeted. The worst-case scenario had arrived after all. As someone accustomed to solving crises with words, he was confident he could use Jing Xuelan's life to talk Luo Bingli down. But the leader of these assassins clearly had no intention of letting him speak. If they never gave you the chance to open your mouth, whatever cards you held would follow you straight into the grave. Ruthless and decisive. In that instant, time seemed to slow to a crawl. Having received the order, the middle-aged beauty did not act immediately, hesitation flickering in her eyes. Loving the house and its crow, she did not want Jing Tingxi's only surviving daughter in this world to perish here. More importantly, Luo Bingli had consented to participate in this assassination solely for Jing Xuelan's sake. If something happened to Jing Xuelan, how could they answer to that woman? In contrast to her hesitation, the crazed elder's murky eyes erupted with boundless ecstasy the moment he heard the command. An uncontrollable surge of mania swelled in his chest. In an instant, his figure blurred into an afterimage as he swooped straight toward the black eagle pavilion. The blistering flames around the black eagle pavilion erupted. A Transcendent Realm expert moved at a speed far beyond what Xu Yuan could currently react to, but fortunately, there was someone beside him who could. Faster than thought, Qianxi reached out without hesitation, seized Xu Yuan by the scruff of his neck, and leapt violently backward. Boom! Almost in the very next breath, the elder's emaciated, withered frame smashed like an arrow into the pavilion deck right where Xu Yuan had been standing. He punched entirely through the colossal body of the black eagle beneath the pavilion, crashing into the ground below and churning up a plume of dust. "Skreee—!" As a First-Grade military demonic beast, the black eagle was practically incapable of panicking or losing control. Yet beneath this excruciating agony, it could not help but let out a shriek of torment. However, its cry lasted only a few breaths before cutting short. Boundless flames surged from its bloody, gaping wound, instantly engulfing its hundred-zhang wingspan and reducing it to a charred, flaming carcass. Retreating nearly a hundred zhang in a flash, Qianxi landed atop a stretch of ruined wall with Xu Yuan and the unconscious Jing Xuelan, her gaze locked firmly onto the elder stepping out of the sea of flames. Drenched in blood, he looked like a demon born of fire. The withered elder did not attack again immediately. Instead, he eyed the trio like a cat playing with mice. Seeing this, Xu Yuan's eyes narrowed slightly. That "fun-seeker plague" had clearly made the elder fearless of death, but it had stripped him of rational judgment just the same. He was beginning to pursue amusement. Amidst a sea of disastrous news, this was the sole glimmer of hope. From the fragmented memories inside the illusion, Xu Yuan understood very well that for powerhouses of the Origin and Transcendent Realms, a clash against a peer could be lost by a hair's breadth, spelling utter doom. At this thought, Xu Yuan glanced at the middle-aged beauty, who had still not joined the fray. He did not know why she was hesitating, but this was an opening. While top experts of this world could hardly be called glass cannons, the destructive power of their arts far exceeded what their physical bodies could endure. He had no idea where Qianxi's strength truly lay, but if she could exploit the elder's lost sanity to strike him down in one blow— Just as the thought crossed his mind and Xu Yuan was about to send a voice transmission, Luo Xiran's voice rang out in his mind first, sounding deadly serious: "Brat, the next time that old man comes near you, stand right where you are and don't move." "..." The ruthless decisiveness of the Overseeing Heaven Pavilion's leader had cast Xu Yuan into a true dead end. With Lou Ji pinned outside Huizhou County by Luo Bingli, relying solely on Qianxi, whom he had borrowed from Li Junqing, gave Xu Yuan nowhere near the sense of security he needed. Faced with such circumstances, he could only inch forward along the razor's edge of death. After all, there were not just the two Transcendents before his eyes who wanted his lowly Soul Condensation life—two more were lurking in the shadows. The tactic he had just conceived was nothing more than a desperate gamble to trade lives in a hopeless impasse. Even if Qianxi managed to instantly slay this fire-wielding elder using the opening he provided and then tie down the voluptuous woman, the other two Transcendents lurking in the dark could still claim his life at any moment. The vipers concealed in the shadows were always the deadliest. Yet Luo Xiran's sudden voice kindled a faint ember of hope in Xu Yuan's chest. "What do you mean?" Luo Xiran replied with grave severity, "As long as you can make physical contact with his body, I have a method to make that bizarre plague rapidly flare up within him, perhaps even devouring his sanity entirely." "..." Hearing this, the hope in Xu Yuan's chest vanished instantly, and he let out a wry, helpless laugh. Lou Ji had mentioned before that it took half a month for this fun-seeker plague to completely transform a Grandmaster like Jing Xuelan. For a Transcendent Realm cultivator like this withered elder, full infection would inevitably take even longer. For Luo Xiran to possess a method to accelerate its onset was certainly offering charcoal in a blizzard. After all, it essentially meant converting this withered elder—who currently wanted nothing more than to kill him—into a "neutral mob." The problem was... A handful of charcoal did nothing to save someone trapped in an avalanche. Helpless though he felt, the primal urge to survive drove Xu Yuan to make an instant decision: "How do we do it?" "Relax," Luo Xiran answered crisply in her clear voice. "Surrender control of your body to me." Before Xu Yuan could speak, countless fungal carpets silently surged from the Blood God Stone jade pendant. One portion directly coated the surface of Xu Yuan's body to form a set of black death armor, while the rest flooded entirely into his body. Having once hosted a Transcendent and even Semi-Saint aberrant ghost, Xu Yuan was no stranger to fungal carpets invading his flesh. Entering his body, the mycelium acted like tight, interwoven ribbons, binding every single cell within him firmly together. Under the reinforcement of this fungal carpet, Xu Yuan could distinctly feel his physical strength surging at a morbid, exponential rate. Sensing these changes, Xu Yuan felt an inexplicable urge to laugh despite his despair. They truly were brother and sister. Old Man Luo could refine Source Qi using intent-soul power, temporarily granting him strength on par with a Grandmaster. Meanwhile, this Luo Sister used fungal carpets as a medium to directly reinforce his flesh. He only wondered to what extent this Luo Sister's enhancement could measure up compared to Old Man Luo's... At that thought, Xu Yuan cut his reflections short. His old habit was flaring up again—whenever he grew tense, his mind drifted to nonsense. Reining in his thoughts, Xu Yuan glanced at Qianxi, who stood beside him as if facing a mortal foe, and gave an order via voice transmission: "Qianxi, keep your eyes on that woman in midair. Leave the fire-wielding elder to me." Hearing this, Qianxi, whose expression had been solemn, could not help but show a flicker of astonishment in her eyes. Soul Condensation fighting a Transcendent? What did this mean? Had the Third Young Master lost his mind? "Third Young Master..." Xu Yuan's gaze remained locked on the elder strolling out of the flames, his voice barely a murmur. "I recall Junqing telling you to obey my orders in all things." "..." After a heartbeat of silence, Qianxi gave a soft acknowledgment and spoke no further. She held no affection for this Third Young Master of the Prime Minister's Manor. If he insisted on seeking death, then so be it. If he died, she would immediately rush back to His Highness's side to ensure his safety. His Highness was still waiting for her... Looking down from the sky, a third of vast Huizhou County had already been swallowed by flames, and the conflagration was spreading at blinding speed toward the remaining districts. And the perpetrator of it all was walking step by step toward Xu Yuan. The withered elder's heavily wrinkled cheeks, his disheveled white hair, and his luxurious robes were drenched in the black eagle's blood, yet the wafting scent of gore seemed only to stoke his frenzy. He was not walking quickly, yet in a matter of breaths he closed the distance between them. A hundred zhang. Sixty zhang. Ten zhang. Standing atop the ruined wall, Xu Yuan drew the willow ghost blade. He stared silently at the elder's bark-like, withered visage, which was twisted in grotesque exhilaration, without uttering a single word. Seeing Xu Yuan's calm expression, an edge of displeasure crossed the elder's warped face. He was dissatisfied with his target's reaction. He felt that the boy ought to be terrified, ought to drop to his knees and beg for mercy, ought to bring up his all-powerful father to pressure him—only to be cruelly mocked and tortured to death. Yet soon enough, the elder resumed his twisted, savage grin. He would tear that handsome skin straight off the youth's face, then see whether his expression could remain so placid. Then, his figure vanished abruptly from Xu Yuan's field of vision. The speed of a Transcendent Realm cultivator was not something Xu Yuan could track. But just because he couldn't did not mean Luo Xiran couldn't. Bang! A dull, heavy detonation rang out. Luo Xiran swept the willow ghost blade across his chest, clashing directly against the elder's flame-wreathed fist. The immense force of the Transcendent Realm tore the willow ghost blade from Xu Yuan's grip, sending it spiraling away to embed itself into a pile of rubble over ten zhang away. With merely a single strike, despite having countless fungal carpets shielding his body from within, Xu Yuan still felt several of his internal organs rupture. Yet because the fungal carpets held the shattered organs tightly bound together, his body suffered no debilitating collapse from the trauma. Yet the block Luo Xiran had mounted with the willow ghost blade had failed to halt the momentum of the elder's fist; it had only deflected its trajectory slightly. With undiminished force, his fist punched straight through Xu Yuan's right chest.