Chapter 487: The City Bathed in Blood (4)

Chapter 487: A City Soaked in Blood (Part Four)

"Fallen all the way to four-two-nine, huh... Quite a miserable sight indeed."

Zou Sijiu, whose tongue was usually sharper than a razor, seemed to have lost his appetite for bickering this time.

"I lured you into my dreamscape, thinking I could leverage a bit of home-field advantage to stall for time, hoping the others would finish their battles and join me to gang up on you. I never expected you to turn the tables, carving out such a battlefield right inside my own dream and tossing me square into the Gate of Death. You've cornered me so thoroughly that there's nowhere to run; I have no choice but to trade the count of my backdoors with you here."

Zou Sijiu smacked his lips and spat out a mouthful of choking, metallic blood. He flashed a thumbs-up at the colossal, crouching monstrosity before him, baring a grin full of crimson-stained teeth, and laughed. "The Yin-Yang Four, Zhuang Zhou's Butterfly—truly magnificent."

"You are actually still expecting someone to come to your aid?"

Lü Chou's whole body of coarse fur quivered, and a mocking voice seeped from her split, bloody maw. "The Soldier Three, Badu; the Dao Four, Zhang Qingsheng; the Buddha Four, Mingwang; and a Juzitang squad dedicated solely to dealing with the Chiyou Lord—not to mention that ferocious figure currently clashing with Su Ce inside that Buddhist realm. The outcome of tonight's absolute death trap was decided from the very beginning. Even if someone manages to luck their way into surviving, how could they possibly come to save an insignificant little piece of refuse like you? Instead of clinging to these useless delusions, you would be better off considering how to beg me to set aside my loathing and grant you one more chance at life."

"An absolute death trap. That really does sound quite despairing. But a word as absolute as 'absolute' isn't something that the likes of us from the Yin-Yang Sequence should ever utter."

Zou Sijiu wiped the bloody smear from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand and laughed. "Setting aside that pair of unfortunate bastards, Li Jun and Lord Ma—they crush mountains when they meet mountains, and part seas when they meet seas, turning grand paths into narrow alleys and flat plains into mountain passes. I have never seen a destiny so fierce in all my life."

"That boy Chen Qisheng also carries the miserable face of someone bearing deep-seated hatred, possessed of a rotten luck that could easily rival that bringer of calamity, Old Li. As for Yuan Mingfei, though I can never see through her, the sheer volatility of her fortune is even more terrifying than the curves of her chest."

Zou Sijiu said slowly, "Before entering Edo Castle, I cast a divination for our little group. The hexagram was so fiercely ominous that my legs turned to jelly, and I nearly jumped out of the carriage to turn back. But once I caught my breath and looked at it from every angle, I spotted something peculiar buried inside that deathly, stagnant omen. Want to guess what it was?"

Perhaps because victory was already firmly within her grasp, Lü Chou was in no hurry to deal the killing blow.

Or perhaps some backdoor technique linked to the Seven Emotions and Six Desires was covertly at play, tugging at her curiosity, causing Lü Chou to blur out almost instantly, "What was it?"

"A silver lining!"

The moment the words left his lips, a spear cried out with a long hum!

A brilliant, snowy spear-shadow illuminated the sudden astonishment appearing in Lü Chou's eyes, her pupils reflecting a terrifying countenance drenched in blood.

Zou Sijiu's figure manifested out of thin air mid-skiff, his arched back snapping violently straight. The great spear, wielded in both hands, brought itself down with the savage fury of a broadsword. The momentum was devastatingly cruel, the whipped-up wind causing the fur on Lü Chou's face to ripple like waves.

Pfft!

A large chunk of dripping flesh dropped to the ground, the severed edge as smooth as a mirror. The scalding blood, entirely unaware that its path forward had been cut, surged recklessly into the freezing air.

Simultaneously, the seal-script numbers suspended in the sky flipped rapidly like a scoreboard, plummeting from four-two-nine down to five-two-nine in the blink of an eye.

Whoosh!

Before Zou Sijiu could celebrate his successful ambush, a piercing shriek of breaking air exploded past his ear. He caught only a flash of a black shadow before an irresistible, overwhelming force slammed into him, sending his body flying uncontrollably sideways.

Thud!

Zou Sijiu hit the ground like a cannonball, the rebounding force launching his body once more through a massive swath of buildings until his back finally crashed into the towering wall that pierced the clouds.

The bent and deformed long spear lay amidst the debris, as he spat out mouthful after mouthful of blood onto his chest.

Slumped against the wall with his legs splayed, Zou Sijiu's eyes grew dim, his hollow gaze staring blankly into the distance as he muttered, "Motherfucker, it makes no sense. This is just a dream, isn't it? Why does it hurt so damn much?"

"Sacrificing fifty backdoors to suppress my independent thought, guiding me to subconsciously follow your words and slip into a brief moment of distraction. Then trading another fifty backdoors for a thunderous strike, hoping for a turnaround in a desperate situation. The idea was indeed sound, and the use of backdoors was clever enough to successfully lure me into your trap."

Lü Chou raised her front paw, more than half of which had been lopped off, and sneered, "But is this the silver lining you spoke of?"

"Wrecking my brains to place a reckless bet, only to trade a hundred of mine for a hundred and twenty of yours—a measly profit of twenty. Motherfucker, what a total loss."

Zou Sijiu squinted at the tablet of Master Zou hovering above Lü Chou's head, smiling bitterly. "In the end, it's because my pockets are empty. A poor man has short ambitions; I couldn't bear to throw all the capital I've accumulated over the years onto the table. If I had burned it all in one go, it would have cost you at least half your life. What a shame..."

"To be able to inflict this much loss on me is enough for you to be proud—"

"Bah!"

Zou Sijiu looked at those disdainful beastly eyes and cursed fiercely, "Can you stop disgusting people here? Can you run those words through your brain before spitting them out? Even if you aren't embarrassed, I find it repulsive. Making yourself look like some brainless villain from a low-grade yellow-sorghum dreamscape—'enough to be proud'? What kind of big shot are you trying to play, motherfucker? If you and I were having a fair duel within the same sequence today, you'd be the one lying here right now!"

"Li Jun, Chen Qisheng, and the rest of the brothers are truly disappointing. They still haven't come to save Master Zou yet, otherwise would it be your turn to act so arrogant here?"

Zou Sijiu's expression grew twisted, gesturing with his hands as he spoke, "I would have stripped the backdoors off your body one by one long ago, motherfucker, and let you taste what it feels like to be completely bankrupted!"

It had to be said that Zou Sijiu's tongue was far more potent than any backdoor related to 'wrath' that he possessed. The fire of rage in Lü Chou's eyes suddenly flared, burning hotter and fiercer.

With a sweep of her paw against the surrounding ruins, she kicked up a massive volley of boulders, sending them whistling through the air straight toward Zou Sijiu.

Amidst the rumbling thuds, the wall shook violently, and the flying boulders continued to crash into the rising, clamorous smoke and dust.

Five-two-nine... Five-three-eight... Five-four-nine...

The numbers belonging to Zou Sijiu plunged ruthlessly downward, signifying that his life was stepping toward annihilation with every passing second.

Yin-Yang establishes life through numbers, and Lü Chou wanted Zou Sijiu to watch his own numbers drain away completely with his own eyes, venting her wrath through a slow execution!

"A silver lining? Nothing but a fool's dream! A stubborn, wretched genetic sequence like yours has absolutely no value to continue existing within the Yin-Yang Sequence."

"Changing destiny instead of accepting it—that is what Yin-Yang is about... That is what being a man is about... You don't have the parts, so you wouldn't understand..."

The weak voice drifted out from the dust in the intervals between the crashing boulders, acting like a ladle of boiling oil thrown into Lü Chou's burning rage.

The frequency of the bombardment abruptly intensified, and the flipping numbers were a horrifying sight to behold.

Lü Chou's chilling voice echoed continuously throughout this dreamscape world, "Didn't you want to change your destiny? Hurry up and let me see how you change it! Didn't you want to strip away my backdoors? Come on then!"

"You ugly hag, you sure talk big! I never liked hitting women, but it looks like I'll have to make an exception today."

A highly magnetic voice cut cleanly into the rolling, toxic speech. A mane of fiery red hair appeared out of nowhere, barging directly into Lü Chou's line of sight.

"Who are you—"

Bang!

The uncertain, startled question was cut short by a sharp, whipping kick. A broken canine tooth flew into the distance, and Lü Chou's massive body crashed heavily to the ground.

Beneath the distant wall, the churning dust gradually dispersed, revealing Zou Sijiu's unrecognizable face.

He stared blankly at the figure that had slowly descended in front of him. His gaze naturally drifted upward from the ankles, climbing along straight, slender legs, passing over a pleasingly curved backside, and moving past a waist that could be held in a single hand...

His gaze was like a charging cavalry unit, poised to launch an assault on the most perilous stronghold amidst the rapid, drum-like sound of his own breathing.

Right at this critical juncture...

"Hey, brother, have you stared long enough?"

Zou Sijiu's eyes were already bloodshot by now, turning a deaf ear to the voice beside him. Just as his gaze was about to press further upward, he suddenly felt a tightening around his collar, and he was lifted straight up into the air.

Red hair like fire, a face as pure as frost.

Zou Sijiu felt as though he were looking at a white lotus blooming within a raging inferno, and suddenly felt that the brief glimpse of flatness from before no longer seemed to matter.

"To still be able to harbor lustful thoughts after being beaten into this state, you're quite a character. Once I handle this bitch, I'll introduce you to the other brothers."

Shouyu patted Zou Sijiu's shoulder in a carefree manner, flicking a single finger toward the sky.

The numbers that had already plummeted into the sixes spun rapidly forward, shifting in an instant to a position that left Zou Sijiu utterly dumbfounded.

Two-four-nine.

"I can only charge you up this much, but it should be enough."

Shouyu crossed her arms, tilting her chin contemptuously toward the roaring behemoth in the distance. "Get to work."

So this was the silver lining!

Suddenly fabulously wealthy, Zou Sijiu revealed a brilliant smile. His hands, caked in blood and dirt, smoothed back his temples, pressing the messy hair that hung before his brows tightly back against his scalp.

With a flex of his fingers, a completely restored long spear fell once more into his palm.

Zou Sijiu tapped his toes and surged forward in a grand stride, the spear slung behind his back, its tip skimming the earth, plowing a deep trench into the ground as he boldly charged toward that frenzied, furious beast!

Clang!

The zanbato clashed against the Zhaodan spear.

The humming mechanical heart confronted the surging torrent of fresh blood.

Two silhouettes of vastly different sizes parted the instant they touched, only to collide once more with ferocious speed.

The entire street had already been ravaged beyond recognition, riddled with devastation, yet the deafening sonic booms continued to detonate in a relentless cadence. Deep craters gouged out by stamping boots materialized abruptly, only to be stamped even deeper a moment later by descending soles.

Clang!

The two figures converged abruptly, slamming together fiercely once more, as surging gales and fracturing earth rippled outward simultaneously.

The colossal force rippling up his arms meant Li Jun could no longer hold back the blood in his mouth; he spat it out in a sudden spray. The Zhaodan spear, trembling and wailing, scraped a shower of sparks against his gauntleted palm before slipping violently from his grasp!

The zanbato that had deflected the Zhaodan capitalized on the momentum with a reverse upward slash, cutting straight toward the ribs of the unsteady Li Jun.

At the precipice of life and death, Li Jun decisively kicked out at Badu's sword-wielding wrist, yet the exact instant the blade's momentum was disrupted, a sudden burst of dark shadow slammed into the side of his face.

Bang!

Li Jun’s flying body smashed a surviving building into ruins, the thunderous rumble of collapse echoing continuously.

Badu lowered his left hand, which had swung the fist, lightly brushing the dust from his right wrist before turning his gaze toward the majestic armor imprisoned within the thunderous abyss.

Now was the absolute best opportunity for revenge, a fact Badu knew all too well.

Yet at this moment, Chizhu’s arrogant eyes, combined with the aged countenance intentionally exposed upon his chest, left Badu completely afraid to act rashly.

True, Su Ce was trapped within the Buddhist Kingdom, facing the combined assault of three Sequence Threes, with a vanishingly small chance of victory.

But vanishingly small did not mean impossible; what if he approached only to cross paths with a newly escaped Su Ce?

Furthermore, Meng Xi’s Deer Terraces were not as reliable as imagined, having been forcefully snapped by Chizhu! Though that sudden punch had not caused much damage to himself, there was no guarantee Chizhu did not possess other hidden trump cards yet to be revealed.

"To be safe, it is better to wait until the outcome within the Buddhist Kingdom is decided."

Badu, whose head had previously been clouded by the fury of revenge, had been hammered back to sanity by Chizhu’s fist; he directly ignored the exasperated reprimands ringing in his ears and turned back toward the field of ruined debris.

Snap.

An armored palm braced against the edge of a broken wall, the straining fingertips scraping down showers of crushed stone and dust.

The figure that stepped forth was slightly disheveled, the damaged helm revealing a horrific visage, where a festering wound on the cheek bared white facial bone, and a waterfall of blood flowed along his neck into the interior of the armor.

The superficial wounds were not fatal; what truly alarmed Li Jun was that with every collision against the opponent, an impact vibrated through his consciousness, suppressing the internal energy within his body and even weakening the recovery capabilities of his flesh.

Even Lord Ma was affected by the shock, his ghost-perceiving consciousness sinking into weakness, failing to speak for a long time.

This bizarre situation was something Li Jun had never encountered before.

Yet without a doubt, the source was inevitably that mechanical heart within Badu's chest!

"Rank Three ghost-model mechanical heart, Tubo of Youdu."

Chizhu’s still wild voice drifted out from the thunderous light, sneering: "Badu, your mind is truly fucking petty, isn't it? Did you evolve in this direction just to target me and Old Su?"

"That is right, I am indeed petty, which is why on the day the two of you ripped out my mechanical heart, I survived solely on that resentment and hatred for you."

Badu spoke expressionlessly: "I want you and Su Ce to taste the agony of being disemboweled and having your hearts ripped out, to experience the despair of watching your own genes slowly sink into dormancy."

"Why waste so many words? I am right here now; if you have the guts, come and dig out my core."

"I will come. Once the vitality upon Su Ce is completely extinguished, I will make sure you see exactly what your own core looks like with your own eyes."

"Coward."

Badu no longer paid heed to Chizhu’s provocation, casting a cold gaze toward Li Jun.

Their eyes locked.

In the next instant, Li Jun’s figure vanished from where he stood, reappearing right before Badu.

Surging internal energy washed through tensed muscle and rigid arm bones; the outer armor plating emitted a terrifying, rattling din as blazing black flames wreathed his fist, slamming heavily into the crosswise blade.

Clang!

Amidst the metallic resonance, the escaping flames brought a suffocating, blistering heat crashing against his face, Badu’s features flickering within the shifting light of the fire, though the indifference in his eyes remained entirely unshakeable.

The blade-light flared, and Li Jun trod upon the edge of the blade amidst the chilling frost. His movement speed, enhanced by various explosive skills and the Mohist armor, was the only thing capable of matching Badu at this moment without falling behind.

After dodging a vicious slash by a hair's breadth, Li Jun slid his body down to seize the great spear from the ground, reversing his form like a rider mounting a dragon, delivering a backward spear thrust straight toward Badu's heart.

Clang!

The spearhead made contact, yet the sensation that returned was a rigid, unyielding touch akin to clashing steel.

Even up to this moment, the mechanical rhythm emanating from within Badu remained calm and unhurried, far from the overclocking threshold of the Weapon Sequence.

The immense disparity, akin to a heavenly chasm, allowed a sense of despair to surge into Li Jun’s mind in an almost unstoppable manner, threatening to obscure his furiously howling genes.

Surrender? Concede? Give up?

The fluctuations of emotion triggered a string of self-interrogations, only to be utterly obliterated and scattered in the next second by a sudden, violent outburst of fierce rage!

"Nonsense."

Li Jun muttered to himself, the fingers of his left hand releasing the pommel of the spear as he swung a fist violently against the shaft.

Screech!

Colossal force drove the spearhead scraping along Badu’s chest, until it was firmly grasped by a single palm.

"Badu, for your actions today, the Mohist Hall of Rectitude will surely demand an explanation from the Six Secret Teachings Corporation!"

The abruptly sounding voice caused a flash of irritation to appear on Badu’s originally indifferent face, the dark skin of his visage cracking open into a fine web of fissures.

"Hah!"

The soundwave rushing from the cracks collided with Li Jun’s body like a pouring deluge, the immense airflow lifting debris from the ground as countless sharp pebbles tore through the air like bullets, emitting a boiling roar like heavy rain striking roof tiles.

Boom!

Li Jun gripped the long spear with both hands, the spearhead burying deep into the ground, yet it still failed to stop his body from sliding backward.

Not until his back was on the verge of colliding with the pervasive electrical light did he finally manage to halt.

Armor shattered, the man stained with blood.

Li Jun stood propped against the spear, the darkness expanding within his eyes already occupying the vast majority, while a ghastly pool of blood had formed beneath his feet at some unknown point.

Drip.

A drop of blood fell from his chin, creating faint ripples.

The dark red surface reflected a tapestry of interwoven lines, a projection appearing within the thunderous pool, hovering right in front of Chizhu.

"Chizhu, why have you still not given up? Do you mean to watch all these people die entirely before your eyes?"