Shushan

Shushan was actually a profession dungeon for Day Wanderers? Zhang Yuanqing's first reaction was surprise. Shushan was an immortal swordsman sect, and its subsidiary Southern Courtyard was a guild dungeon belonging to the White Tiger Brigade, so the main peak of Shushan should have naturally belonged to the Scout profession. On second thought, however, having Shushan serve as a solo Spirit Realm dungeon for a Night Wanderer made complete sense—the sinister anomaly enshrouding Shushan was clearly a Night Wanderer boss. His second reaction was: *What a coincidence!* An S-rank dungeon appearing right now was coincidental enough, but Shushan appearing was even more so. It was so coincidental that Zhang Yuanqing almost suspected Ling Tuo had orchestrated it. Of course, the Lord of Taiyin had no such authority. That meant it could only be pure coincidence. Looking at Diana, who was sitting at the computer composing an email, he said, "No need to contact your elders. My solo Spirit Realm dungeon just opened." Foreigners disliked texting and preferred using email for business, which was actually quite inefficient. Diana froze upon hearing this. "What a coincidence! Which dungeon is it?" "The S-rank dungeon, Shushan!" With a wave of his hand, Zhang Yuanqing left without giving any further instructions. To his mind, now that he was a fully geared Heavenly Venerable, clearing an S-rank Level 8 dungeon would hardly be difficult. The next instant, he vanished from the office. *** Inside the War of the Gods dungeon. As the yellow sands gradually settled, the battle between the orthodox and evil factions drew to a halt. In the first round of the battle over the array cores, the orthodox faction had secured three array cores, while the evil faction had taken two. Neither side had called a truce to rest. Instead, they had kept fighting non-stop for three straight days. As the duration of the first array expired, the clashes grew even more ferocious. This was because the arrays in the second round were unsealed one by one, unlike the first round where five arrays had been contested simultaneously. Every time an array unsealed, both sides fought until brains nearly splattered. The orthodox demigods were lower in quality compared to the stronger evil demigods, but the orthodox faction possessed a more balanced and comprehensive lineup of abilities—defense, healing, damage output, and mobility were all accounted for. Furthermore, they had three Scholar demigods who could suppress any prop. As a result, the orthodox faction once again secured three arrays in the second round, leaving the evil faction with two. This time, neither side fought to the bitter end, finally calling a halt to rest and recover. Yellow winds whipped up wild sands. Old Mai of the Bacchus Club glared malevolently at Fear Heavenly King. "I don't care what grudges you have with Marshal White Tiger. In a team battle, the most important thing is following orders and coordinating with everyone else, not burying yourself in your own little world and ignoring the tactics and arrangements of your teammates." During the earlier clashes, Fear Heavenly King of the Soldier Master sect had refused to obey orders or follow tactics. The moment he laid eyes on Fu Qingxuan, he had thrown himself into a frenzied death match. To make matters worse, he couldn't even beat her. Fingering his earring, Fear Heavenly King smiled faintly. "Who I fight is my business. If you don't like it, you're free to attack me too—that's your business. We in the wild professions do whatever pleases us." Old Mai turned to look at Asura, who was busy pummeling three orthodox demigods all by himself, his face virtually screaming: *Are you just going to stand there and watch your subordinate drag us down?* Fear Heavenly King shrugged. "Don't bother looking at Asura. He's slacking off even more than I am." Ling Tuo, the black full moon branded upon his forehead, withdrew his distant gaze. His voice sounded gloomy and low. "With demigods from both the Xie family and the Zhu family present, orthodox demigods can be revived even if they die. Eliminating any of their demigods in the short term is virtually impossible. "It doesn't matter how Fear fights. The Five Elements haven't fused yet, and Void hasn't exhausted his props. Everything up until now has merely been a warm-up." The Illusion God of the Southern Sect spoke in an eerie, synthesized voice: "Indeed. Given this dungeon's mechanics, I see no signs pointing to a fight to the death." "Why not fuse the Five Elements? Are you all just slacking off and fishing in troubled waters?" Gang Leader Jiang of the Red Fire Gang glared at the orthodox demigods. He had proposed fusing the Five Elements to suppress Asura several times, but the other four leaders had turned him down every time. "Fusing the Five Elements consumes too much spiritual energy. Now isn't the time to unleash our trump cards," the Void demigod said, patting Gang Leader Jiang on the shoulder. "Don't be rash. Rashness is the devil." Gang Leader Jiang frowned. "Then how long are we supposed to wait? Unless we kill all the Dominators in the evil faction, we'll never be able to claim all the cores." Draped in a robe woven of starlight, the Taiyi Sect Master said placidly, "No matter how we fight, as long as we don't kill all of the evil demigods, we won't be able to control all five array cores. But if we must kill every evil demigod anyway, what would be the point of the array core mechanic?" Gang Leader Jiang frowned in thought for a moment and found himself agreeing. If all the evil demigods were slaughtered, the Sun Origin would naturally fall into the hands of the orthodox faction. If that were the case, what would be the purpose of contesting the arrays? Why would the Spirit Realm have modified the dungeon's rules in the first place? It could have simply done nothing and let the demigods of both factions slaughter each other. Once one side was wiped out, the Lord of the Sun would be born. Fu Qingxuan concluded, "The battle over the array cores is merely one stage of an endurance match. When a decisive outcome cannot be reached in this stage, the dungeon will automatically trigger the next." Sure enough, as soon as her words fell, the chime of the Spirit Realm rang out in everyone's ears: [Ding! Side quest unlocked: Life-and-Death Arena!] [Both factions will send one member to fight, determining not only the victor, but life and death. In the first match, the faction trailing in points will select their combatant first.] [Note 1: In the battle over the array cores, the faction that claimed the greater number of cores earns one point.] [Note 2: Points may be used to surrender and bypass a life-and-death match. Bypassing one match consumes one point.] [Note 3: Using points requires the agreement of at least six members.] [Note 4: The orthodox faction has 2 points; the evil faction has 0 points.] [Note 5: For each victory, the winning faction's array duration is extended by one day, while the losing faction's array duration is reduced by one day.] A tremendous rumble sounded in the distance. Amidst the vast expanse of yellow sand, an enormous arena rose up, several kilometers long and wide, resembling a miniature continent. [Ding! The arena battle will begin in thirty minutes. Please arrive at the arena and select your first combatant before the battle begins.] Behind his silver mask, a sharp glint flashed in the Void demigod's eyes. "See? The mechanic to break the stalemate has arrived!" *** Kangyang District Police Department. Having just handled a street brawl, Chen Yuanjun bought two cups of hot coffee from the café across the street and walked toward his office. "Captain Chen, your face got scratched!" A newly arrived young female officer attentively handed him a bandage. Chen Yuanjun touched his cheek. It was only a shallow scratch that just needed a dab of rubbing alcohol or iodine, but he took the bandage from her nonetheless. Subordinates needed opportunities to show their goodwill. Being completely unapproachable would only alienate them from you—though accepting bribes was strictly off-limits, of course! In front of the young officer, Chen Yuanjun peeled open the bandage, applied it to the scratch, and quipped with a chuckle, "Evil cults have been running rampant lately, spreading a terrible influence. Men in Songhai used to be so civilized—if an argument could settle it, fists were out of the question. Now, they break out into fights over the slightest disagreement." Basking in the young officer's beaming smile, he walked deeper into the station and knocked on the chief's door. The round-faced, rather portly chief was poring over documents. He looked up, his eyes lingering on the bandage for a second before he spoke in a calm, seasoned tone: "Don't push yourself so hard. Dealing with cults is the special department's job. We're not the main force; we only play support. Going at it like your life doesn't matter—what, are you eyeing my seat and trying to take me down to get promoted?" Knowing the chief was subtly hinting at how unusual the enemies were, Chen Yuanjun smiled. "Chief, I'll definitely keep your teachings in mind. I won't be heading out on calls today. I'd like to take a business trip to Hangcheng; I might need their local police department to cooperate, so I'll need your signature on a document." The chief immediately frowned. "What case?" Chen Yuanjun said, "A kid from one of my former neighbors went missing last year and still hasn't been found. After investigating for a long time, I discovered that his family actually filed a report four years ago. "For some reason, our department deleted those files. So I figured, since the kid disappeared in Hangcheng, after the parents filed the report locally, our station must have advised them to file another report with the Hangcheng authorities, or forwarded the case there. "Hangcheng might still have those records on file." For over a month, he had been swamped with official duties and hadn't found an opportunity to travel to Hangcheng personally to investigate Lei Yibing's case. Lately, none of the consecutive cases had involved Spirit Realm walkers. In truth, Li Dongze had given him credentials from the special department, which would authorize local special departments to assist his investigation. However, the police department and the special department belonged to different systems. If he could obtain an interprovincial case-handling authorization from his own superior, there was no need to go out of his way to involve the special department. The chief stared at him and asked, "Does this have to do with those unusual groups?" Chen Yuanjun nodded. "There's some connection, but there won't be any danger. I'm just going to the police department there to dig through some old archives." After pondering for a few seconds, the chief nodded. "Alright!" *** The scene shifted from blurry to clear. Zhang Yuanqing returned to the Shushan dungeon, surrounded by substantial yin energy. As far as the eye could see, black smoke hung dense and heavy, obscuring his vision entirely. *Did I pierce straight through the barrier and land directly on the main peak? I thought reaching the main peak would take some effort...* Zhang Yuanqing heightened his senses, but the black smoke smothered everything, swallowing every sound. Just as he was debating whether to cast Sunrise right away to dispel the yin energy and its concealing effects or to use the Tortoise Shell Diagram to divine the situation first, a sudden pang of pain hit his chest. He looked down to see that his clothes had been pierced by a sharp blade. Aside from a sharp sting, his skin was unharmed. He had been attacked! The enemy who attacked him wasn't strong—they hadn't even breached his defense, belonging at most to the Saint stage. However, hidden inside the smoky yin energy and continuously sheltered by Taiyin, they couldn't be detected. *Right now, I'm practically a sitting duck. The enemies in this dungeon can see me, but I can't see them... This time it was only a Saint-stage enemy, but what if the next one is a Dominator?* With that in mind, Zhang Yuanqing immediately channeled his solar divine power, condensing a miniature sun behind his head. At the same time, he activated the Blazing Sun God of War skill, causing a sun mark to surface on his forehead, his skin turning dark gold, and his eyes transforming into golden pupils. In an instant, an overwhelming, scorching, and pure golden light ripped through the black smoke that had shrouded Shushan's main hall for thousands of years. Like water poured into a boiling vat of oil, the yin energy hissed violently, evaporating and dispersing. The enemies lurking within the yin energy had nowhere left to hide. In that very moment, the devastated immortal sect of Shushan was unveiled before Zhang Yuanqing's eyes.