'Sha... shasha...'
The nine spiders dragged their jointed legs across the ground, making a hair-raising rasping sound, their mandibles clicking as if echoing the Major's words.
They crowded close around the Major, brandishing their limbs, just like the nine members of the Luo family before them—so much like nine children yearning for their father, crying out to be fed. Crimson pools of blood, twisted corpses, blooming pustules, living spiders... Upon this altar steeped in blood and fire, the blasphemous yet gorgeous scene was like a painting hung upon the high wall of an ancient castle.
'I created you, and now, my children.'
Major Luo looked down at the nine vivid, bright-red spiders at his feet. 'I need you...'
Before the words had even finished, with a plop, nine clouds of blood mist burst without hesitation at Major Luo's feet.
Nine drops of deep-red blood then appeared, each merging into one of nine parts of Major Luo's body.
So the rejection between the different parts of the body faded to its lowest, and the sense of incompatibility disappeared a great deal.
Major Luo's control over this body improved dramatically!
All of this happened in an instant, catching everyone off guard. The weak and inconspicuous Major carried out his strange actions on a chaotic battlefield strewn with slaughter.
Although from the moment Major Luo killed his nine 'sons,' some had noticed the shocking change here, seeing the Major suddenly acting like a lunatic, neurotic and crazed—
yet the battlefield at this moment changed from second to second, and everyone had their own opponent. For the time being, no one could spare a hand to interfere with the Major's mad 'killing of his own kind.'
They could only marvel inwardly, wondering whether this man had suffered a mental collapse under enormous pressure.
First silently counting off the digits of pi, then killing his own people, and finally cutting his own flesh in self-harm... it was just like those Extraordinaries who had suffered a mental breakdown.
However, when the black alloy skeleton named 'Liu Zhen' fused with the nine organs, the officials realized something was wrong.
But the traitors noticed this too. Though they did not understand what the Major was doing, any change was hope for their rescue, so they madly entangled the officials.
Another three seconds passed. At last, a Titled Extraordinary wearing a yellow robe broke free of the crazed 'traitor' entangling him with an all-out strike, and turned to charge at the Major.
He put on a stern face and let out an authoritative, sharp shout, his voice exploding from afar into the air:
'Boy, what are you doing!'
Even as he rapidly closed in, his eyes calmly observed the current Major Luo.
His sharp gaze swept over this man, two meters thirty-three tall, who looked like a proportionally enlarged version of the former Luo Tunan. His expression abruptly changed, filled with shock and uncertainty.
—Because, in his perception, this man had not only failed to advance along the path through this series of actions, but had neither a Spirit Intent Domain nor any awakening of 'Intent.'
Instead...
Instead, he seemed to have become a 'cripple'!
More precisely, this Luo Tunan, originally a Level 4 Extraordinary, now had absolutely no spiritual reactions around him at all!
Yet a Level 4 Heavenly Mandate holder had long since opened up the internal and external circulation between the human body and heaven and earth, and the spiritual reactions around him should be extremely active.
Yet at this moment, this Major Luo standing on the altar not far away, in the perception of his Spirit Intent Domain, was like a blank sheet of white paper. No overflow of spirituality, no spiritual radiance that an Extraordinary should have, not the slightest bit of extraordinary marvel.
He looked just like a...
...an ordinary, unremarkable person who had not awakened the Fate Principle?
It was only that this ordinary person was rather good-looking, his charm a little higher than most, with no blemishes in his pores or skin...
—But how could this be!
This Titled Extraordinary in the yellow robe felt a chill in his heart.
Major Luo had suddenly performed so many crazy, bizarre actions. Could it be that it was purely for self-harm, and after all this fuss, he had directly turned himself into a nothing, an ordinary person?
'Playing tricks!' With a cold snort, even as his thoughts raced, the yellow-robed Titled one crossed more than a hundred meters in less than half a second. 'Let me sound out just how deep you go!'
The speed raised a whistling wind-pressure, and the flashing figure reached below the altar in the blink of an eye.
Bending his knees and exerting force, the yellow-robed Titled one's figure became a blur as he leaped high into the air. Raising his right hand, he brought down a palm from the sky, striking straight at the crown of Major Luo's head.
This palm strike was golden-red, capable of melting gold and forging iron. High temperatures spread and distorted the air. The secret technique was named [Heavenly Fire Seven Mysteries Palm], meaning heavenly fire burns the world, the earth shakes and heaven is startled!
Moreover, the palm contained seven layers of transformations; its force was long and vast, unavoidable. The derived flames were even more spectacular and ceaselessly born—once ignited, they were hard to extinguish.
Even refined steel would immediately turn to molten iron upon meeting this palm; its power was immense. It was quite renowned throughout the mystical world of Tinghai, and his title [Unquenchable Flame] was related to this.
Far away, quite a few people, in the gaps between fighting, cast the corner of their eye toward here.
They too wanted to know whether some change they were unaware of had occurred in the Major.
And the yellow-robed Titled one's surging secret technique, unleashed with full force from the very start, made them sigh with emotion: [Unquenchable Flame] truly lived up to its name. In the mystical world, the lion that puts forth full strength even against a rabbit is the true lion that can survive forever.
'Boom...'
The rolling heat waves curled Major Luo's hair with scorching heat. He raised his head.
Facing the terrifying secret technique that came bearing down from above with overwhelming force—one that could make even an ordinary Titled Extraordinary face it as a formidable enemy—Major Luo's deep eyes were exceptionally calm and composed.
'We're all men, so there's no need to test my depths.'
The Major frowned slightly. Even such a subtle expression, appearing on his near-perfect face, showed a soul-stirring, almost inhuman beauty.
'Regrettably, you don't fall within my aesthetic range.'
His right hand rose even before his words, five fingers spread, and as if brushing the dust off his shoulder, he pressed lightly upward.
The movement even seemed very slow, light and airy, without a trace of the mundane.
Thus he met head-on the surging [Heavenly Fire Seven Mysteries Palm] that descended like a falling star.
'Bang!!!'
The air exploded with a boom, mixed in with which was the crisp sound of breaking bones.
The yellow-robed Titled one's face abruptly stiffened, then turned to horror and shock.
Amid a series of teeth-aching 'crack' sounds, his right arm shattered section by section, from fingertips to arm bone to shoulder.
'Agh—pfft!'
Blood mixed with fragments of internal organs gushed from the yellow-robed Titled one's mouth like tap water. His whole body was as if hit head-on by a full-speed high-speed train, flying backward at a speed even faster than when he had come.
'Boom!'
Dust and smoke splashed everywhere, and the crowd cried out in alarm.
The yellow-robed Titled one's figure was slammed hard into a wall two hundred meters away, his whole body deeply embedded in a spread-eagle shape, the wall cracking section by section, broken stones mixed with bright-red blood pattering down.
When the dust and smoke dispersed, and people saw clearly the residual expression of shock on the yellow-robed Titled one's face, he had already lost his life.
'This is...?'
Time seemed to freeze. Many people even retreated as if frightened, and after separating from the enemy before them, dared not act rashly.
Even those top-tier Titled ones—Elder Song of the Special Control Bureau, Director Qi of the Anomaly Investigation Bureau, Commander Qin of the FZDC, Chief Instructor Shi of the Swordbearers... and even Wu Lao—their eyes all sharpened for an instant!
Most of the Extraordinaries present turned their attention to Major Luo atop the altar.
Not because of the yellow-robed Titled one's death.
Among those present, more than one could easily kill a Titled Extraordinary like him.
But the problem was that Major Luo, who had done this—
had no fluctuation of spirituality on him from beginning to end!
No spirituality, no 'qi,' no 'Intent,' and none of the characteristics of any Extraordinary path.
—He relied purely on the power of the flesh!
Throwing a punch like an ordinary person, then crushing a Titled Extraordinary to death!
This completely exceeded the understanding of the many Extraordinaries.
All things have spirit; spirituality is the source of life, and awakening spirituality is the starting point of an Extraordinary.
No matter how powerful a secret technique, spirituality was the foundation for using it.
—Could a purely physical body possess such power?
Even the most worldly leaders of the various organizations present had never heard of such a thing!
Even the Major's ally Wu Lao was dumbstruck, not expecting that Major Luo still had such a trick up his sleeve.
'What on earth has happened to him?'
At this moment, more or less, such a doubt appeared in everyone's heart.
And as the focus of so many gazes, Major Luo atop the altar slowly withdrew his hand, as if he had done nothing more than a trivial thing. Moreover, he even swung the arm he had just thrown out with some dissatisfaction.
'...Not enough yet.'
Major Luo frowned and looked at Deputy Director Liu beside him.
'This body is indeed worthy of being called perfect—but a sacred body, even newly born, should be complete with all six: body, heart, qi, essence, intent, and spirit!'
'Rather than being like it is now—empty, having nothing, with even the spirituality lying dormant and unmoving, just an ordinary empty shell.' An ordinary empty shell...
This remark made many people grumble inwardly: if such a body were an ordinary empty shell, then what were they, Extraordinaries who had painstakingly advanced along the Extraordinary path?
'Sacred body? Sain—' Elder Song murmured under his breath, as if he had thought of something, his expression suddenly startled.
'So, now, it's your turn.' Major Luo looked at Deputy Director Liu beside him, his expression gentle as if compassionate. Lit by the surrounding firelight and the blood filth covering the ground, he even showed a trace of holy radiance.
'The first step that should have been carried out at midnight...'
Major Luo seemed to think again of a certain spoiler surnamed Bai. Deep in his compassionate eyes flowed killing intent. 'Though carrying it out now is a little late, with greatly reduced effect, there's no other way.'
'I know, I know...' Deputy Director Liu's eyes were dim and gloomy, his demeanor completely unlike the deputy director of the Anomaly Investigation Bureau.
'Actually, just now I still thought you were going to have me go in first.'
'After all, according to the normal procedure, shouldn't it be that I go in first to activate the core, then Fang Xiaoxia fills in the remaining parts, and finally the nine organs form the outer shell?'
'The ritual should be so, but perhaps reversing the order better fits the ritual's true meaning.' Major Luo's deep gaze looked at Deputy Director Liu, meaningful. 'Besides, Fang Xiaoxia hasn't arrived yet. If I don't take over this body first, how could I withstand and bear the contamination from you?'
'By then, the guest would turn into the host, and who knows who would be dominant!'
'Suspected again.' Deputy Director Liu lightly covered his mouth and gave a few dry, insincere laughs, though his eyes carried a faint, indistinct disappointment and helplessness. This look of secretly gritting his teeth in resentment was clearly like a...
...a woman whose plan had failed!
But at this moment.
'Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish!!'
Sixteen streaks of dark-black light tore through the chaotic battlefield, like soaring dragons raising sonic booms along the way, shrieking straight in to kill.
Behind the sixteen blades, a high-tied ponytail swayed. Chief Instructor Shi of the Swordbearers, riding a flying shuttle, cut through the air with a stern face to attack. 'What drama you want to put on, I don't care.' Her voice was not loud, yet it echoed clearly over the chaotic battlefield.
'But thinking to finish building the stage right in front of me—wishful thinking!'
As the chief instructor of the Swordbearers, in charge of teaching the Swordbearer squads killing techniques, Chief Instructor Shi spoke little but acted with extremely high efficiency. Rather than waste words in a standoff, better to slice the enemy into pieces before he even finished speaking.
In the time it would take her to watch others plot loudly right before her eyes, she had already used her flying knives to kill the enemy one hundred and eighty-eight times. There was even a record: she once, facing an enemy skilled at transforming into a second form, seized the opportunity during the transformation into the second form to instantly kill the enemy.
Beneath her tall combat boots, the end of each pitch-black flying knife was engraved with mysterious characters, and if those characters were translated into modern text, they were none other than—
'Kill!'
Facing the life-threatening danger so close at hand, Deputy Director Liu abruptly turned his head, his body unmoving but his head rotating one hundred and eighty degrees, looking behind him in an extremely horrifying manner:
'Get lost!'
A low roar that seemed to come from an ancient abyss, as if exploding deep within people's souls.
Dust and smoke splashed, broken stones struck the air, and a hurricane swept through the underground base.
The flying knives shattered with a few 'cracks,' and Chief Instructor Shi, riding her flying shuttle, was blasted back.
The entire chaotic battlefield suddenly came to a halt amid the shrill, piercing shrieks.
Then, Deputy Director Liu's body began to swell. Quivering flesh and bulging pustules overlapped, splitting and multiplying. A small mountain of flesh manifested before everyone, with the wreckage of desks and exam papers mixed within it.
And from deep within the mountain of flesh, a woman wearing a red dress slowly walked out, her body in an unstable, semi-transparent state.
'Hum!'
'What's going on?'
'An earthquake? What's happening?'
Amid the crowd's cries of alarm, the ritual runes engraved everywhere throughout the entire underground base suddenly glowed, and even the air twisted. They had originally been destroyed, many buried under flames and rubble, but at this moment, with the woman's appearance, these runes seemed to come alive again, wriggling out from underground and surging in droves toward the woman's body.
Her steps suspended in the air, she slowly rose, her figure floating in an instant to the top of the altar, floating to—
the cross standing atop the altar!
'Chi is...'
Many of the high-ranking figures present seemed to recall something, and were suddenly stunned.
Many of them were not unfamiliar with this woman who had drilled out of Deputy Director Liu's body; at the very least, they had seen her in the files—
'The school demon that descended in the Ruin Realm, whose descent in embryo form failed?!'
Someone spoke in astonishment.
'—But didn't Chi fail to even leave a cocoon, and was already killed?!'
'So that's how it is...' Elder Song's gaze was deep, various divine lights flowing deep in his eyes. He quickly connected the recent anomalies occurring in this city.
The explosion at Base 36, the bomber wanted by Base 36 who was suspected to be a Blood Cultist, the demonic advent in the Ruin Realm, and the underground base exposed today... and so on and so forth.
'So, Luo Tunan is the one who colluded with the demon, conducting demon worship and demon summoning?'
Elder Song suddenly understood, his gaze becoming extremely sharp. 'This is absolutely intolerable forbidden behavior!'
'All the traitors here, and the Luo family! The Zijing Group! All of them need to be thoroughly investigated!'
Beside him, Commander Qin of the FZDC took a deep breath. 'I originally thought it was Liu Jia of the Anomaly Investigation Bureau who couldn't resist temptation and stole the demon's corpse. I didn't expect...'
'—Liu Jia is already dead.' Director Qi of the Anomaly Investigation Bureau took up the topic coldly. 'I'm afraid he died long ago in the Ruin Realm!'
'When...?' Commander Qin and Elder Song exchanged a glance.
'According to the post-incident report, I'm afraid the demon already killed Liu Jia at the very instant it swatted Liu Jia away.'
Director Qi reached a conclusion almost immediately: 'I'm afraid it was also at that time that the demon left a cocoon inside Liu Jia's body!'
'Chi wasn't at all as we assumed—killed before there was time to leave a cocoon...'
'The cunning demon was reborn in Liu Jia's body!'
Saying this, Director Qi grew tense: 'Having stolen a past body, Chi is about to return in full splendor!'
But Elder Song beside him had a different view.
He looked at the shocking change atop the altar, his expression uncertain. 'I think... not.'
Because the demon who had appeared—at the instant her body touched the cross atop the altar—as if drawn by a magnet, quickly attached to it. Hands outstretched, head drooping, the large red dress fluttering in the wind, the demon bound and hanging upside down upon the cross...
...her posture was highly similar to the suffering Holy Son of the Cross Religion!
'Swish, swish, swish'
At this moment, countless Black Warriors fell prostrate to the ground, kowtowing in worship. The scene was devout and eerie.
At this moment, the officials stepped forward; some could not help but make a move, some dared not act rashly, and even the traitors no longer attacked those around them.
A demon... if they had known that Major Luo was secretly summoning a demon, they would never have cooperated with this thorough madman!
'Hum!'
The [N]-shaped mark atop Major Luo's head glowed again.
Faintly visible was a mysterious n-shaped jade pendant, embedded in the alloy skull beneath the skin.
'Crack!'
The cross rotated one hundred and eighty degrees at the sound, and the demon bound upon the Cross Religion's cross was turned upside down along with it.
With a 'pfft' sound!
A long nail made of mystic silver extended from the cross, nailing straight through the demon's head.
Brain matter splattered. Nailed to death on the inverted cross, the demon girl's exquisitely beautiful face curled into a mysterious, light smile.
Chi opened her mouth and softly sang:
'I hear the teachings echo through the classroom,'
'With a fountain pen for a staff, guiding the lost lambs!'
'Laughter and dreams are all superfluous noise!'
The sacred and joyful hymn echoed through the underground base, yet the lyrics were recited like a fierce wind and rushing rain, one line faster than the last, like surging great waves that left no room to breathe.
'Hallelujah! Erase the untamed edges!'
'Hallelujah! Pave the hall of glory!'
'Hallelujah, hallelujah—oh! Hallelujah!'
At the climax of the song, the bound and inverted demon began to gradually disintegrate.
Her already semi-transparent body turned into pitch-black fragments. Countless numbers, formulas, and characters surged within, a torrent formed of various concepts, mixed with vast spirituality, as if drawn by an invisible force, rushing toward the scorching, red-glowing, seemingly burning [N]-shaped mark on the Major's forehead.
During this process, something even more wondrous happened.
Those pitch-black fragments, those pitch-black concepts, transformed into pure white halfway through the air, and finally the pure, clean white concepts poured into the Major's brow.
Everything was madly devoured and absorbed, and Luo Tunan's perfect sacred body, two meters thirty-three tall, grew full and plump along with it.
'Gurgle, gurgle...'
The sound was like flowing river water. Vigorous spirituality was awakened within, and body, heart, qi, essence, intent, and spirit were filled in one by one. Specifically, it was as if the sacred body was being filled, gradually changing from an empty shell into...
...a living person!
Meanwhile, the crimson [N] on the Major's forehead also inverted, turning into pure white, and even taking on a noble golden light. 'Ascension to Sainthood...' Major Luo's eyes grew ever brighter.
'Look at their positioning!' Elder Song said in a low voice. 'The inverted demon, the perfect sacred body below, and beside it the rotten flesh of Luo Tunan's old body!'
'Future, present, past—Holy Father, Holy Son, Holy Spirit!'
'A triangular positioning—this is the Cross Religion's ritual layout of the Trinity!'
Elder Song took a deep breath. 'Turning the utmost evil demon upside down makes it the holy—Luo Tunan never cooperated with the demon at all. He clearly used some method to control the demon's true name, and took the demon to complete himself!'
'Just as a demonic advent requires gestation, his goal was to let himself, as the 'Holy,' be born!'
'This Luo Tunan must have schemed for today for a very, very long time!'
Even as they conversed and communicated, they were not idle.
While the demon was still singing the hymn, the three leaders had already exchanged glances, each leading their people to spread out and surround the altar from all directions. The ritual quietly unfolded, and the black boxes were made ready.
Elder Song's whole body's muscles bulged high, Commander Qin's eyes were especially excited, and Director Qi also stared intently at Major Luo, who stood atop the altar beneath the cross, his whole body seeming to shine with holy light.
'Though we missed the encirclement and suppression of the newborn demon in the Ruin Realm.'
Commander Qin's heartbeat was soaring again, simply like a roaring engine vibrating ceaselessly.
'Killing a 'Saint' isn't impossible either!'
On the other side, Elder Song signaled to Director Qi from afar, indicating that he would activate the black box in his hand. A destructive aura flickered faintly about his hands.
'Can it be done?' The secretary beside them, holding another black box, asked with worry.
'If I'm not mistaken, after the demon's death, its power actually weakened.' Another high-ranking figure of the Black Box Special Administration spoke in a low voice. 'That sacred body is equivalent to an infant newly appeared in the world, with infinite potential.'
'An infant that, just upon being born, naturally commands body, heart, qi, essence, intent, and spirit.'
'Probably equivalent to a...' As he spoke, he evaluated uncertainly, '...an absurdly strong Titled Extraordinary?'
Indeed, absurdly strong.
After all, this sacred body, in the 'ordinary person' state where the spirituality within had not yet been awakened—had already been able to beat a Titled Extraordinary to death with bare hands.
'But with us here, we can still deal with him.' The high-ranking figure said to the slightly nervous secretary.
What a Titled Extraordinary could not handle did not mean they could not handle it.
There was no lack here of powerhouses above Level 6, and those few black boxes in Elder Song's hands...
...were even more earth-shaking, terrifying things!
However.
The Major seemed to have no intention at all of entangling with these people.
'Incomplete! Incomplete! Incomplete, incomplete, incomplete, incomplete!'
The Major's mouth and nose began to breathe heavily.
'Half the core has returned to its place, and there is still the other half of the core...'
Like a person starved almost to death suddenly eating, becoming half full, and feeling even hungrier than when they had not eaten at all.
'Six hours...'
On the altar, he lowered his head, looking at the lines on his palm that were more like a whirlpool than tree rings, as if calculating something.
'Enough!'
From the corner of his eye, Major Luo glimpsed everyone's little movements.
Even the previous allies, including 'Wu Lao,' had now resolutely betrayed the Major, preferring to stand far away and watch, no longer lightly attacking the other officials.
No matter which faction, at this moment before the Major, they had all reached some kind of strange tacit understanding.
All had turned against him, kin and allies alike.
Surrounded by the multitude, Major Luo stood alone atop the altar. Apart from the mindless Black Warriors, there was no one else who stood shoulder to shoulder with him.
But Major Luo's gaze was disdainful.
'Originally, if things had proceeded according to plan, and the Ascension to Sainthood had succeeded, what would any of you have counted for?'
'But you did not succeed.' Elder Song's voice carried certainty.
'Your body is drawing something... You are still incomplete, aren't you?'
'Indeed.' Major Luo unexpectedly nodded candidly.
His gaze swept over face after face—some tense, some uncertain, some boiling with killing intent. 'So, the current me is indeed no match for all of you joined together—'
'But...'
Major Luo changed tack again. 'I also never said I had already been born, did I?'
'What...?'
'When a Saint is gestated by heaven and earth, he is unstained by dust, and mortals cannot harm him.'
Major Luo tilted his head up slightly. 'Only after dawn comes the day the Saint descends with his Heaven.'
'As for now—'
He slowly stretched both arms out to the sides, as if embracing the void, or as if drawing back a curtain.
'All bystanders, please exit the stage.'
As if his word made it so.
The instant the words fell—
'Hum!!!!!'
A magnificent, indescribable ringing echoed in everyone's ears, even in the depths of their hearts.
Above the altar, spreading from beneath Major Luo's feet, a pure, cold white light burst and expanded soundlessly.
'A domain?!'
Chief Instructor Shi gave a stern shout, and the sixteen flying knives turned into a whirling storm of death, being the first to pierce into the white light!
Director Qi, Elder Song, and Commander Qin attacked at the same time. Various destructive means bloomed in an instant, striking the white light with a boom.
However, no matter how high the level, all attacks vanished the instant they touched that white light.
It was not a matter of who was stronger or weaker, but that the two seemed not to be in the same world at all. Beyond the white light was another heaven and earth, another dimension. A powerful repelling force faintly appeared at the edge of the white-light world, as if it did not fit in with this world.
'Watch closely.' Major Luo gave a light shout, standing at the center of the white-light domain.
The boundless white light turned into an illusory world, a world that was like a school both infinitely large and infinitely small.
Major Luo said, 'Heaven is about to take off!'
Finally—
Under the gaze of countless eyes, within the surveillance of various monitoring devices, under the gaze of the Extraordinaries of the entire city of Tinghai, a pure white hemispherical domain with a diameter exceeding tens of kilometers slowly rose into the air.
Like an overturned giant bowl, the illusory school world quietly hovered several hundred meters above the city of Tinghai.
The entire illusory world seemed cut off from the world. In the isolated, solitary domain, Major Luo alone stood within, his hands clasped behind his back.
Countless strange numbers and symbols appeared out of thin air, slowly floating, rotating, and combining as if alive, ultimately forming every blade of grass and every tree of the world. Illusory light and shadow floated above the Major's head, hung atop the entire world, and was seen by the countless Extraordinaries of Tinghai—
that was:
'[Time remaining until the exam ends: ...]'
'[6:00:00]'
This seemed to be a countdown, or rather, a clock hung in the examination hall.
'It's not a domain!' Elder Song shook his head and said in a deep voice. 'It's the Saint's cradle, or rather, the womb gestating the Saint!'
'What do you mean?' Chief Instructor Shi frowned and asked coldly.
'It means he has won himself six hours.' Elder Song gazed far into that world in the sky. 'Within these six hours, either he completes himself and is successfully born, or he fails to complete himself, the Saint miscarries, and he is destroyed along with that world.'
'And within these six hours, we can try to find a way to break through that world, but this is probably a bit difficult.'
Elder Song frowned. 'I have read records in ancient texts. This is the protection and blessing the world grants to creatures like the holy or demons, protecting them from dying prematurely before their birth.'
'For such worlds, the ancients recorded them with some vague and unclear terms. Certain Extraordinaries in the domain even regarded them as the ultimate pursuit of their extraordinary art.'
'Such as Little Heaven Realm, Forged Paradise, or...'
Elder Song said in a deep voice:
'—an alchemical domain, Nibelungen!'
Within the domain in the sky, the Major withdrew his gaze that had been looking up at the numbers, thoughtful.
'So, now...'
As he spoke softly, the [6:00:00] above his head changed to [5:59:59].
The countdown began.
Time within the small world began to flow.
Major Luo said:
'—The entrance examination officially begins!'
The instant the words fell.
Under the gaze of all Extraordinaries in Tinghai, that small world hanging high in the sky, the school domain shrouding the skies above Tinghai City, suddenly vanished.
Like fleeing into another dimension, unable to be observed, unable to be entered, and unable to be harmed.
As if a projection's power had been cut off, everything vanished without a trace, making people almost think the previous scene was their own illusion.
Only the splashing, roaring torrential rain resounded through the night, and thunder flashed across the mid-air, yet illuminated nothing.
As for where that world had hidden...
...in this world, perhaps a few people could still see it.
At the foot of Zhenlu Mountain, the Gem Witch stood at the edge of the pedal tricycle's cargo bed.
The pedal tricycle sped along like the wind, and the hurricane lifted the Gem Witch's formal dress with a flutter.
She was looking with a strange expression at Fang Xiaoxia, who was obediently sitting in the vehicle clutching a plush doll, and at a certain coachman surnamed Bai who was pedaling hard.
'You're using this thing to make your escape? Unbelievable!'
'Just tell me, is it fast enough or not?' On the tricycle going three hundred kilometers per hour, Bai Zhou, who had pedaled his pedals until they smoked, rolled his eyes.
'If you don't like riding it, you can go back to pulling the grappling hook and climbing the rope, as long as you can keep up.'
'Actually...' Fang Xiaoxia's face reddened, and she shifted her bottom under the white dress. 'Using cabbage leaves as a cushion, it's quite comfortable to sit on.'
'Do you want to try?' The girl even extended an invitation to the witch.
The witch blinked, her eyes showing some curiosity, but she raised her hand and instinctively refused. 'No, no, I don't want to.'
The instant the words came out, the Gem Witch somewhat regretted it, worried whether her words were too harsh and might hurt Fang Xiaoxia's self-esteem.
After all, it sounded like she was disdaining Fang Xiaoxia's cabbage-leaf cushion.
Fortunately, Fang Xiaoxia giggled and laughed, seemingly completely unconcerned about this—or rather, she had not heard even the slightest bit of disdain in it at all.
She just sighed with great regret, then raised her small hand and carefully gathered the cabbage leaves a few times under her bottom. Soft and comfy, not bad!
'Rumble, rumble, rumble'
In the distance, thousands upon thousands of streaks of white dawn light suddenly broke through the sky's dark clouds, making people almost think dawn had arrived.
'What's that?' Bai Zhou, Fang Xiaoxia, the Gem Witch, and Crow all looked toward the sound.
Then, they raised their heads and saw...
'A s-school?' Several of them were dumbstruck.
A school, a semi-transparent school, flew rumbling through the sky at five hundred kilometers per hour, like a train running across the sky. It raised layer upon layer of sonic booms along the way, flying at high speed straight toward their direction, like a meteor falling from the sky.
Fang Xiaoxia's heart stirred, as if she sensed something.
She gazed up at that school in the sky, and in a daze saw a man two meters thirty-three tall, standing with hands clasped behind his back in the center of the school.
The man seemed to sense something, turned his head, and his gaze met Fang Xiaoxia's at this instant.
The man curled a smile, his lips moving, as if saying—
'I've found you.'
Fang Xiaoxia suddenly shuddered all over, goosebumps crawling up her arms in an instant.
And so, Fang Xiaoxia, who had just 'instigated' the bomber to blow up her own school and thought she would not have to go to school tomorrow, now saw the school come flying over on its own.
Coming to find her.
'I-I-I-I...'
Dumbstruck, Fang Xiaoxia sat straight and stiff in the tricycle's cargo bed, tightly clutching the plush doll in her arms and trembling, even her speech quivering. 'I just skipped school, is it really worth all this?'
Seeing the rumbling, flying small world, Bai Zhou's pupils contracted, and his heart skipped a beat. 'Major Luo!'
Without a doubt, it must be Major Luo coming again.
Bai Zhou remembered a line from Eight Thousand Questions of Naughty Black Cat: 'to carry Mount Tai on one's back and leap across the North Sea,' meaning to carry Mount Tai while leaping across the Bohai Sea. It perfectly fit the current scene.
The Demon King emerged across the sky in a manner befitting the Demon King's status, heading straight for the Hero and the princess on the Hero's horseback.
A whole world came crashing down like this, right in their faces.
On a stormy, rainy night, on the highway at the foot of Zhenlu Mountain, what kind of feeling was it to personally watch a school, a whole world, dragged rumbling through the air by a single person?
It was like the Hero, still sharpening his blade and picking the battlefield for the decisive battle, looking up to see the Demon King carrying his Demon King's castle and coming to attack through the night—and even the floorboards of the Demon King's castle hid gargoyles and flamethrowers, armed to the teeth.
The most fantastical fairy tale could be no more than this.
'Hum!'
A huge attractive force came faintly from deep within the small world sweeping across the sky, as if to suck this pedal tricycle, and the three people on it—to grab them before the world's master.
'Run—still looking? Stop looking!'
The Gem Witch trembled all over as if electrocuted, screaming involuntarily:
'It's come to collect you all!'
Chapter 217