Time for This to End

The plan went exceptionally smoothly. At times, Yaxiu had to admit that the five of them were practically a crime syndicate made in heaven. Through a string of improvised moves, they had actually managed to lure Gerard away, opening up a window of opportunity to breach the Void Realm passage. The plan had actually been quite simple: First, Igola randomly picked an audience member from the crowd to intimidate. Nine out of ten adventurers had dirty laundry to hide, and the tenth was dirt itself. Without having to expend much effort, Igola easily drew out the fear in the man's heart, convincing him that Igola was an enemy seeking his life, sending him fleeing toward the exit in sheer terror. When a hunter set off in pursuit of the adventurer, Harvey used necromancy to interface with the chips, imposing restrictions on everyone present and plunging the adventurers into panic. At the same time, Ronald used steel pellets to covertly knock down several adventurers and graze Yaxiu and the others, allowing them to collapse naturally to the ground. The voice recorder Yaxiu had improvised would sound from his substitute, and Igola would activate a mind miracle to amplify everyone's suspicion and panic. The adventurers would quickly descend into sheer terror of the hunters, ultimately charging out of the camp behind Yaxiu's substitute. Once Gerard was lured away and the other adventurers had all fled, those feigning injury on the ground would seize this gap to leap up, charge toward the passage, leave the Blood Moon behind, and start a new life! Originally, Yaxiu hadn't harbored much hope, yet this hastily improvised plan, riddled with flaws, had actually succeeded without a hitch. When Gerard streaked over him like an afterimage, Yaxiu's heart had nearly jumped out of his throat. A scene even better than Igola had envisioned unfolded: only a single hunter remained atop the high platform, and the surrounding Moon Shadow priests seemed utterly stunned. After Langna knocked the hunter unconscious with a single punch, the path ahead was smooth sailing. In the stage where things were most likely to go wrong, everything had gone smoothly. Yet at the very end, where failure seemed least possible, an accident occurred. On the stairs leading to the passage, Yaxiu suddenly felt a chilling dread. His heart tightened as if clenched in an iron grip, and he could practically feel a single word floating above his head: Danger! He knew what this was—Feral Intuition had triggered. Back during his Void Realm adventures, this skill acquired from the sorcerer manual had saved him from peril time and again, and Yaxiu naturally chose to trust it once more. Miracle: Sword Body Barrier! After advancing to Two Wings, Yaxiu could drive the Earth Sword with golden sorcery power, nearly tripling the miracle's defensive strength. Bang! With a deafening gunshot, the warm yellow barrier shattered like glass upon contact, and even the ground responsible for dispersing the destructive force cracked into a web of fissures! Never mind a direct hit; Yaxiu felt that even a graze from an attack like this would strip away over ten jin of flesh and bone! Yaxiu turned his head slightly and spotted the orc sniper lurking in the shadows by the camp entrance. Xilin's lackey. He hadn't forgotten Gessas, but he never expected Gessas to snuff out his final glimmer of hope with such impeccable timing. This sudden stroke of misfortune made Yaxiu feel as though he had burned through all his luck orchestrating the prison break. Even worse, while maintaining Sword Body Barrier, he had to keep his sword planted in the ground, rendering him unable to move! After all, the strength of the swordsmanship faction was destruction, not defense. Deriving such a potent defensive miracle from swordsmanship with the sole drawback of restricted movement was already more than anyone could ask for. Before this, Yaxiu had never been troubled by this limitation, so he had naturally never thought of improving the miracle. And now, Yaxiu faced a brutal dilemma: drop the Sword Body Barrier, and Gessas would blow away half his body with a single sniper round; maintain the barrier, and Gerard would shatter it in person just seconds later! Yet Yaxiu soon abandoned the choice—because Gessas opened up a third path for him. Gessas swiftly raised his left hand, straightened his torso, and brought the heavy sniper rifle on his left arm and the twin rifles at his waist into position. All four sniper rifles were deployed simultaneously, but he didn't target Yaxiu; instead, he aimed at the other four escaped convicts! He was too greedy. No longer satisfied with Yaxiu as his sole prey, he wanted to bring down everyone. After all, it would only take a few seconds for Gerard to rush back and suppress the entire scene with overwhelming power, and the only price Gessas had to pay was a sliver of sorcery power. What was he after? The bounties on the fugitives? Or the favor of a Three-Winged Sanctuary Sorcerer? As an orc sorcerer who had clawed his way up from the bottom, Gessas had too many reasons to be greedy. Perhaps he hadn't even given it much calculated thought; he simply refused to let slip any opportunity, any prey. That past experience might have cost him at times, but far more often it had yielded bountiful rewards, so he subconsciously enacted this survival rule. Yet his prey this time happened to be the most heinous criminals in Kaimeng City. Harvey, running at the very front, suddenly tossed up a bone glowing with dark green light. The next instant, the bone detonated in midair—evidently the bullet aimed at Harvey had been redirected onto it! Even so, Harvey let out a muffled grunt, his left arm dangling limply as if stripped of its bones. Igola instantly released a Mind Shriek. The intense sound waves formed an omnidirectional barrier that forcibly deflected the bullet to the right. But the distance was simply too close; the edge of the bullet still grazed Igola's shoulder, tearing away a large chunk of flesh. Agony sent Igola stumbling to the ground. Specializing in long-range assassination, Ronald possessed no means to defend against such sniper bullets. But he didn't need to—Langna hauled him behind his back, his right hand glowing with golden light as he turned and struck in rapid succession! Two bullets were forcibly battered away by Langna's bare hands! This was the might of a peak Two-Winged ascetic sorcerer! Deflecting sniper rounds with bare hands! Ronald didn't idle while under Langna's protection either. With a flick of his wrist, he hurled a barrage of steel pellets. Accelerating with sonic booms midair, the pellets shot toward Gessas like guided missiles! Though describing the process seemed lengthy, everything had unfolded in the blink of an eye: Yaxiu raising his Sword Body Barrier in defense, Gessas deploying four heavy sniper rifles to pick off targets, and the escaped convicts defending and countering. As their sole ranged damage dealer, Ronald did not disappoint Yaxiu; his storm of steel pellets forced Gessas on the defensive. This was precisely the opening Yaxiu needed! Yet after this brief delay, Yaxiu had fallen to the very rear of the group. The platform was difficult to scale to begin with, and he hadn't even pulled his sword from the ground. As everyone knew, when fleeing for your life, being slow might still let you survive, but being the very last in line meant certain death—pursuers would always do everything in their power to capture the easiest prey! He needed a miracle—one that could at least keep pace with the team so he wouldn't be left in last place! Heart Sword, Substitute, Transference: these were the three sorcery spirits he commanded best, and Sword Body Barrier was the only miracle he had mastered. With a shift in Yaxiu's thoughts, the effects of these three sorcery spirits surged relentlessly in his mind, and the structure of miracle sorcery procedures unraveled layer by layer before his eyes. His insights into the realms of the swordsmanship faction and water sorcery faction transformed into raging flames, burning away all stray thoughts until only the most brilliant crystallization of wisdom remained! Suddenly, he recalled Valkas's final sword strike, and remembered the miraculous scene of him and Sword Princess flying into the sky. Then Yaxiu moved. His right hand remained propped on Honeyed Words and Daggered Heart planted in the ground, but in his left hand, another Honeyed Words and Daggered Heart suddenly appeared, a streak of sharp golden light swirling around its blade. Using 'Substitute' on Honeyed Words and Daggered Heart, and having 'Heart Sword' attach itself to the substitute sword. By this time, Harvey had already stepped into the Void Realm passage, and the rest of the team was only a few paces away. Yaxiu, however, did not take a single step. Holding the substitute sword in a reverse grip, he assumed a javelin thrower's stance and hurled the blade, striking true onto the topmost step of the platform! Then, he activated 'Earth Sword' simultaneously on both Honeyed Words and Daggered Heart and the substitute sword imbued with Heart Sword! Two pillars of warm yellow light manifested at once on the high platform. When Igola dashed past and glanced at the light pillar around the substitute sword, Yaxiu's heart jumped into his throat—a casual flick from Igola would shatter the substitute sword. But Igola seemingly had no intention of wasting another second on Yaxiu, charging straight toward the Void Realm passage. By now, Yaxiu lagged far behind; he could even hear the sound of Gerard trampling the moonlight from behind. Never before had Yaxiu felt so acutely that his fate rested entirely in his own hands—a single slight misstep, and that fragile fate would burst like a bubble, obliterated in his grasp. Yet Yaxiu felt no fear, nor excitement; he wasn't even particularly calm. He was simply quiet. He was quietly watching to see what kind of story the person named "Yaxiu" would play out next. With the substitute sword as the destination coordinates and Honeyed Words and Daggered Heart as the starting coordinates: 'Heart Sword' as the guide, 'Earth Sword' as the path, and 'Transference' altering the method! Miracle! Aside from a faint yellow streak flashing between the two warm yellow light pillars, there was no other commotion, as if nothing had changed at all. Yet within that single breath, Yaxiu had arrived at the topmost step of the platform. He drew Honeyed Words and Daggered Heart from the ground, while the substitute sword transferred below dissipated into wisps of smoke. It worked! Earth Sword formed the path, Transference eliminated friction, and Heart Sword pulled Yaxiu forward—holding Honeyed Words and Daggered Heart, Yaxiu had instantly swapped places with the substitute sword! This miracle was called... Mutual Rush! Seeing Yaxiu suddenly appear in front of them, Langna and Ronald looked slightly startled, but didn't dwell on it, assuming it was Yaxiu's hidden trump card—though there was hardly any need to hide such a trash miracle that only offered short-distance movement. The three of them were now merely ten paces away from the Void Realm passage. Igola, half a step inside the portal, glanced back at them, his pupils abruptly dilating. Though Feral Intuition hadn't triggered, Yaxiu hesitated not in the least. He immediately used the Severing Self Miracle on himself, cutting down an illusory substitute with a single strike and purifying all abnormal statuses within his body! His blood, just on the verge of congealing, instantly flowed normally again, so Yaxiu merely stumbled without even falling flat on his face. Langna appeared to possess a miracle that dispelled abnormal statuses as well, remaining completely unaffected. Ronald alone screamed in agony and collapsed to the ground, his whole body seized by spasms and paralysis. Meanwhile, Igola pitched forward in a flat-out dive into the Void Realm passage, having clearly been hit at the final moment. Behind them, Gerard's chain sword had extended to its maximum length, tearing the air with shrieking wails as it surged toward them cloaked in cruel crimson light! Without question, the blood anomaly affecting them was Gerard's doing. As a Three-Winged Blood Saint, Gerard might dislike the blood sorcery faction, but that didn't mean he lacked mastery in it! When it came to dealing with creatures of flesh and blood, blood sorcery was the truest specialized discipline! Langna reacted with astonishing speed, kicking Ronald airborne with a heavy boot. A dull snap echoed from Ronald's abdomen, clearly breaking several ribs. Then the bald man turned around. Shadows on the ground crawled up his body like clowders of black cats, outfitting him in armor of shadow. It made his already hulking, burly frame look even more massive, cold, and ferocious—like a pitch-black abyss. Boom! Langna blocked Gerard's strike with crossed arms. The shadow armor shattered by more than half, and his left foot carved a gouge into the stone paving, but he withstood it in the end, even deflecting Gerard's chain sword upward! On the other side, Yaxiu caught Ronald, swiftly cast the Severing Self Miracle on him, and sprinted forward while dragging him by the collar. Ronald was, after all, a hardened "Woodpecker Gold Beak" accustomed to living on the razor's edge. The moment his body recovered, he controlled his center of gravity and found his footing, not even letting the piercing agony in his abdomen hinder his movements. But he didn't rush to flee alongside Yaxiu; instead, he glanced back. Gerard had already stepped out from the moonlight, his chain sword shifting back into a longsword. Rage and humiliation made his already unhandsome face look even more ghastly. Langna stood there in silence, bracing himself to bear the brunt of Gerard's wrath. Everyone could foresee the scene about to unfold—no one believed Langna could withstand a full-power strike from Gerard. The previous chain sword attack had only lost power due to the sheer distance. Now that Gerard had arrived in person, he had no need to circumvent Langna; a single stroke could tear Langna, Ronald, and Yaxiu to pieces all at once! There would never be a better opportunity than this. *This is my last chance.* "It's time for this to end." After muttering those words, a trace of resolve surfaced in Ronald's eyes. Stopping dead in his tracks, he spun around and flicked his right hand, firing a steel pellet. The steel pellet accelerated furiously through the air, streaking toward Langna like a meteor!