The silent street was thick with murderous intent.
Lian Qiguang stood in the middle of the road. Surrounding him were seven men dressed in strange concealing uniforms, slowly closing in with guns in hand.
Expressionless, Lian Qiguang watched the seven men tighten the circle around him. A flash of killing intent flickered through his eyes.
“Where is Guan Ze?” one of them demanded, his gun aimed steadily at the center of Lian Qiguang’s forehead.
“Tell me where Guan Ze is, and I might spare your life.”
Seeing that Lian Qiguang remained silent, the man raised the stakes.
“If you tell me who hired you…” Lian Qiguang’s hand closed around the hilt of his blade, his eyes utterly lifeless. “I still won’t spare any of you.”
“I’ve always preferred to wipe out the roots.”
The sealed Qianming broke free of its restraints.
Ink-black mist coiled around the blade like a dragon twisting through the air. Suffocating murderous aura swept across the surroundings, carrying icy bloodlust and bone-deep chill.
The instant Qianming left its sheath, everything nearby trembled.
The seven gunmen felt an overwhelming pressure crash down upon them. Their bodies sank, and they collapsed to the ground. Unable to breathe, the suffocating weight and the terror rising from the deepest parts of their souls drained all color from their faces.
Lian Qiguang raised the blade toward the heavens.
The saber trembled lightly, and the sound of countless birds crying echoed across the sky.
That was why the blade was called Qianming—A Thousand Cries.
Whenever it was drawn, it sounded as though a thousand birds were mourning.
Qianming spun through his hand.
A torrent of baleful energy swept forward. Before the two gunmen in front could even scream, they were sliced into countless pieces by the murderous force.
A rain of blood poured from the sky.
“Spread out!” one of the men shouted in terror.
The remaining four endured the crushing pressure and quickly scattered, taking cover behind the corners of nearby buildings.
Gunfire erupted once more.
Lian Qiguang turned to evade the bullets, leaped several meters away, slid backward upon landing, and swung the blade downward from midair before planting it into the ground.
Flames wrapped themselves around the saber.
From beneath his feet, they transformed into several enormous fire serpents that lunged viciously in every direction.
Dual elemental abilities?
The men hiding nearby were horrified.
They hurriedly gathered their own abilities, forming protective barriers to resist the incoming flames.
To outsiders, Lian Qiguang looked overwhelmingly powerful.
But only he knew he had already reached his limit.
He was already seriously injured. Maintaining his ice ability for so long had been sustained entirely by sheer willpower.
Qianming possessed terrifying strength, but it was power that his current cultivation simply could not control. His fragile body was equally incapable of enduring it.
He had forged Qianming after discovering a mysterious piece of black iron inside his space.
It had taken him half a year to temper it with his fire ability.
During the forging process, he fused it with dragon bone and his own blood.
Later, he reforged it a second time, embedding five Level-30 crystal cores, seventeen Level-25 cores, well over a hundred cores below Level 20, and even one Level-45 crystal core into the blade.
Leaving aside the mysterious black iron and dragon bone…
Those crystal cores alone were already beyond what his current body could bear.
Swallowing the metallic taste rising into his throat, Lian Qiguang gritted his teeth and gripped the hilt tightly before swinging Qianming once more.
Flames engulfed him.
Several blazing fire dragons let out long roars before charging violently outward.
Accompanied by earth-shaking explosions, the surrounding buildings collapsed one after another.
Blasts echoed continuously as flames soared into the sky.
“Xiao Guang!”
A cry rang out.
A hovercraft circled overhead. The constant explosions and turbulent shockwaves made it sway unsteadily in the air.
Lian Qiguang glanced toward the aircraft.
He crushed a seed in his hand.
A vine burst forth, wrapped around him, and shot him toward the hovercraft.
Three elemental abilities?
The lone surviving gunman staggered out of the sea of flames, heavily wounded, and collapsed onto the ground.
Just in time to witness the scene.
His eyes widened in utter disbelief.
“Damn it!”
Glaring hatefully at Lian Qiguang’s retreating figure, the man exhausted the last of his strength and slowly raised his gun.
Reaching the hovercraft, Lian Qiguang saw Guan Ze throw open the hatch and extend a hand toward him.
“Xiao Guang! Hurry! Get on!”
“Die!”
The man roared as he pulled the trigger.
Just as Lian Qiguang was about to board, he sensed murderous intent erupt from behind him.
His eyes narrowed.
His hand suddenly exerted force, shoving Guan Ze away from the hatch.
An ice barrier instantly rose behind him.
But his body had already been drained completely.
The bullet struck the ice shield, producing a harsh scraping hiss.
The blood he had been suppressing in his throat could no longer be held back.
He spat out a mouthful of blood.
The ice shield shattered.
The bullet tore through his abdomen.
Countless fragments of shattered ice scattered in every direction, piercing his body until he was covered in wounds.
The vine withered.
Like a puppet whose strings had been cut, Lian Qiguang lost all strength and fell from the sky.
“Xiao Guang!!”
Guan Ze let out a heart-rending scream.
Lian Qiguang gazed at the empty sky.
The wind rushed past his face, bringing a sharp stinging pain.
His ears rang with hollow silence, shutting out every sound around him.
The pain spreading through his body felt both familiar…
…and strangely distant.
Ever since coming to this world…
It seemed he hadn’t suffered physical injuries like this in a very long time.
His mind became blank.
Nausea and dizziness overwhelmed him.
Scenes he had slowly begun to forget flashed rapidly before his eyes once more.
His mother.
The base.
The zombie siege.
The Little Crown Prince…
Finally, the images stopped on a familiar back.
The figure slowly turned around, revealing a cold, resolute face.
Xiahou Shaoxuan.
Just as Lian Qiguang was about to plunge into the raging sea of flames—
A gentle force wrapped around him, carefully lifting and supporting his falling body.
…The power of wind.
His vision gradually blurred.
In confusion, he allowed the invisible force to carry him.
Just before darkness swallowed him…
Through his fading consciousness, he seemed to see someone.
A black coat.
Slightly long black hair.
An icy expression.
Qiu Limo.
The gunman lay sprawled on the ground, supporting himself with trembling hands as he desperately crawled backward.
His eyes were filled with terror as he stared at the man before him.
The newcomer wore a black cloak.
His face was completely hidden.
“Y-Don’t come any closer! Stay back! Don’t come near me!”
The man’s desperate screams echoed through the ruins.
The cloaked man seemed not to hear his pleas.
Slowly, he raised one hand.
Black mist gradually gathered in his palm.
“No! Please! Don’t! I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you who hired me! I’ll confess everything!”
Seeing the black mist gathering in the man’s hand, despair completely overtook him.
The black mist shot forward like a venomous serpent, wrapping around the gunman.
“Ah—”
His scream never escaped.
The black mist coiled around his throat, corroding his windpipe and robbing him of all sound.
Bit by bit…
It devoured his body.
First his arms.
Then his legs.
Then his torso.
Slowly.
Painfully.
Never touching anything immediately fatal.
His eyes bulged from their sockets.
His face twisted into a grotesque mask.
Like a fish stranded on land, he opened his mouth again and again, yet not a single sound emerged.
He could neither live…
Nor die.
The cloaked man simply stood nearby and watched in silence.
From beginning to end, he never spoke a single word.
Only after the man’s entire body had been consumed did the black mist slowly creep toward his head.
The cloaked man quietly turned around.
Without another glance, he disappeared into the sea of flames.
Behind him remained only a severed head—
Eyes wide open,
Its face frozen forever in a horrifying expression of agony.