Chapter 306: The Net and the Fish

BOOM!!!

A roar erupted. The moment Zhou Lun collapsed—no, the moment that speck of scarlet appeared on Zhou Lun's forehead—the first to react was actually Lu Yang, who had just been at odds with him.

The Vortex-rank Awakened, whose back sprouted twin wings, suddenly swelled. His limbs burst, and hundreds of arms shot out. Amidst the mid-air transformation of flesh and blood, he unfurled writhing wings, morphing into a structure like a soaring serpent, and dashed away.

After flesh and blood exploded time and again to accelerate, he pierced through the torrential rain, transforming into a pale bone spear that descended from the sky.

In an instant, it completely covered both the source of the bullet and the position where An Ning had once been.

Immediately following, the forest of bone spears burst one by one. Wicked flames and poisonous blood splashed and spread, like bombs, plowing through the entire ground. Amidst the rotting, scorched earth washed by the downpour, flying insects spawned from the corruption on the countless bone spear fragments unfurled their wings, hungrily searching for any living thing.

But they found nothing.

There was nothing there.

After firing the shot—no, the moment the trigger was pulled, the person had already turned and left. All traces had been thoroughly erased; only a support frame, shattered and twisted by the recoil, remained in place, mocking the subsequent assault.

The flying insects, like white ash, scattered and searched rapidly, but apart from a few massive imprints left in the mud from the initial leap, they found nothing. Instead, for some unknown reason, they triggered bombs hidden beneath the mud, all of them buried in the spreading flames and explosions.

Footprints, scents, clues, traces—even the Aether records had been pre-emptively scrambled into a mess by Mirror-rank phantom ash and fragments of Aether record books.

It was completely impossible to trace.

Even during the investigation, they were subjected to numerous black-market shots from all directions. All of them were pre-made, one-time-use items, and they even—damn it—self-destructed.

This was a trap.

Just as Zhou Lun had said before he died, perhaps from the very beginning, they were the prey lured into a trap by bait. God knows what other tricks that guy was hiding.

How on earth is this dog-shit profession of Artisan even possible?!

Can you even play without a nerf?

But even for an Artisan, this shouldn't be so absurd. Even if he carried a matrix like Non-Aggression that could be refined by hand, and had the training of that monster Ye Xian behind him... it was still too exaggerated!

Even though they had already raised the stakes by several levels, targeting him with the premise of the Rebirth Rank, and even sending out a monster like Gao Yue Chen, he still succeeded time and again.

He had even exposed a great deal of his own intelligence, considering the countermeasures the Artisan would naturally take next...

None of them were going to have a good time.

Soon, an off-road vehicle appeared out of thin air. Gao Cheng, inside the car, looked grim and slowly shook his head.

He had spared no cost in pursuit, jumping to over a dozen locations, but at his closest, he could only barely catch a glimpse of the opponent's taillights.

The opponent possessed at least one creation of the Gate of Eternity with a high-spec blessing chain. The "Tracks of the Preceding Chariot" used by Bai Lu to stir space and form a locked domain had actually been broken.

That wasn't all. Before the last jump, his personal blessed equipment had issued a warning first. He suddenly felt a hair-raising sensation, as if an aircraft had been locked onto by radar.

That wasn't some baseless fantasy, but a genuine instinct that had saved him countless times. He had narrowly and forcibly aborted the final jump.

He had already lost his navigator; he could not afford any more mishaps with the partner he had teamed up with for so many years.

Yet, seeing Zhou Lun's cooling corpse once again, he couldn't help but be consumed by rage and overcome with grief.

It was just one shot.

Of the four blessed creations Zhou Lun carried—one active and three passive—the Tian Yuan repulsion field, the Mirror-rank phantom illusion, the Vortex-rank life-binding, and the Wasteland-rank air-wall iron-fortress were all instantly pierced. Even the Vortex-rank blessing chain hadn't had a chance to take effect...

No one dared to touch the seemingly pale corpse.

A breeze blew, and amidst the washing of the downpour, cracks appeared, as if it were piled together from dust, gradually dissolving. Only grains of blood-red iron sand emerged in the mud, so conspicuous.

During the tempering process, the fragments stripped from Mo Xie's blade also possessed Mo Xie's nature. Moreover, because they had broken free from control and the Artisan's deliberate guidance, their hunger and thirst for life and blood-Qi became increasingly exaggerated.

After all, the Sword of Mo Xie needed to ensure stability for long-term use, but the purified fragments did not. They were originally just impurities within the blade, directly treated as one-time consumables.

Fragments smaller than a third of a fingernail, once in contact with blood and soul, would crazily gorge and absorb, never pausing even when reaching the limit, until they self-destructed... Under the massive irrigation and stimulation of blood-Qi, they exploded with a bang!

It was as if, in an instant, all the blood and life in the body had been drained, converted into a bomb, and from the inside out, the entire shell and soul had been ground into powder.

During this process, the sin-tainted pollution mixed into the fragments also vanished amidst the agitation and burning of the spiritual quality.

In the end, only a seemingly complete empty shell remained.

Seeing Zhou Lun's fate, everyone couldn't help but feel a chill, especially the Entropy-rank who had almost died under the flying light just moments ago. Now, they didn't dare to breathe, their expressions shifting.

"The situation is terrible; everyone is urging us."

Gao Cheng, who had just finished a call inside the car, pushed the door open and reported the decision to the others: "The higher-ups mean we can't drag this out any longer. We solve it right here in Kunwu."

"Solve it? So fast? I thought we were waiting for..."

Lu Yang's expression shifted slightly. Realizing he had spoken out of turn, he forcibly changed the subject: "What about reinforcements?"

"Reinforcements were sent out long ago, but don't pin too much hope on them."

Gao Cheng said indifferently: "Wang Haichuan, Yu Shu, Zhao Chengping... important personnel, once scattered, all lost contact. Li Wuliang's corpse was found in Dragon Abyss yesterday; only half his head remained. Both sides have been fighting until now; it's not just here and Sea Province. I'm afraid the entire Desolate Sea line has already become a battlefield!"

Gao Cheng paused for a moment, then suddenly asked point-blank: "Now that we're all grasshoppers on the same rope, pawns that have crossed the river, stop hiding things. What exactly did you bring when you set out this time?"

Lu Yang was silent. He wanted to refute something several times, but in the end, he didn't hide it anymore.

After glancing at his surviving teammates, he sighed silently: "A piece of 'bait'."

Gao Cheng was also stunned, silent, his expression shifting.

As if shocked.

"I don't know how the Echo side arranged it, and don't tell me New Origin is clean." Lu Yang looked up: "Now that things have been laid out, among us brothers in adversity, you should at least lay your cards on the table, right?" Gao Cheng was speechless, silently spreading his hands.

It was as if an invisible seal was slowly being opened. From the void between his hands, the outline of something like a glass bottle faintly appeared.

Looking at flowers through the mist, it was hard to distinguish.

Amidst the flickering, the details couldn't be seen clearly, but through the surface of the glass bottle, one seemed to see flickering images, faint human figures, and even black drizzle like hallucinations.

Just looking at it, countless tiny wails seemed to reach his ears.

"..."

In the silence, Lu Yang subconsciously took a step back, distancing himself, his face pale and hair-raising:

"Are you crazy?!"

"You in the North sit on the Desolate Province. Even without the military industry market, if you go back to do energy, you'll still live well. You know how cruel the competition in the Central City is. New Origin has no way out."

Gao Cheng was expressionless: "Before coming, the Fourth Uncle's instruction was: succeed or die. If we can't win, then no one gets to have a good time!

Besides, at this point, do you really expect to walk away unscathed if you lose!"

Lu Yang didn't speak again, his expression shifting. After a long time, it turned ferocious.

【Content omitted】

"Then let's do it!"

BOOM!!!

Outside Outside Yacheng in Haizhou, the vast wilderness.

A flash of lightning crossed for an instant, illuminating the wilderness that seemed to be gradually submerged in the washing of the downpour. Amidst the raging torrents, in the mud and scorched earth, were incomplete corpses...

Traces of fire burning and freezing were visible everywhere, and sharp, twisted rifts still lingered in the void.

Under the natural disaster manifestation like a black hole, gravity was distorted, and countless fragments and water droplets floated in mid-air, still stained with wisps of scarlet.

Tong Shan sheathed his sword, expressionless.

From Outside Yacheng to here, he had been chasing numerous targets along the way, deep into the wilderness, fighting for days. Even he felt a trace of long-lost fatigue.

He wondered how Ji Jue was doing now.

No, according to that guy's style, he might be in his element right now... Why would he need to worry?

Tong Shan sighed self-deprecatingly and shook his head.

Hopefully, everything goes smoothly.

However, when he turned back, the gaze that had softened for an instant turned cold again.

"Another group of things that don't know how to die..."

He looked up, glancing into the deeper parts of the downpour, at the few gaunt figures gradually emerging.

Unlike the appearance of the Federation people, although they had black hair, their eyes were emerald green, their nose bridges were high, and their bronze skin, weathered by the sun, was covered in wrinkles.

The three old men were adorned with large amounts of gold and jewels, their hunched figures sitting on a luxurious giant carpet. The incense burning in the censer rose in wisps of smoke, which actually acted like a wall, blocking the surroundings; wind and rain could not enter.

"This appearance..."

The leading old man grinned: "This must be Lord Tong Shan, right?"

"The Corpse Sacrifice of the Shi Bang?"

Tong Shan was indifferent: "Why, do the Central Plains people also want to wade into these muddy waters?"

"What are you talking about, my lord." The old man in front laughed loudly: "Under the heavens, whoever pays is the father, whoever has milk is the mother. As long as the money is enough, muddy water is also fragrant soup."

As he spoke, he rubbed his fingers: "To tell you the truth, I'm not very interested in the offer from that side either. If the Tong family is generous enough, this matter is actually not impossible to discuss.

When the time comes, if your noble house eats the meat and can reward us old things with a mouthful of soup, we will be satisfied."

Although he said so, the intense greed in those eyes, where the whites outweighed the blacks, was ready to burst out.

"Get lost."

Tong Shan's palm pressed on the hilt of his sword, expressionless: "The Tong family does not have the habit of following rules with wild dogs. The meat won't be your turn, and there isn't even a mouthful of soup."

Hearing this, the three old men looked at each other, as if they had discovered something, their smiles becoming increasingly strange and excited.

"If it were the past, and the Tong family of Heavenly Hearing ordered us like this, we wild dogs would naturally obey. However..."

The leading old man paused, mocking: "At this point, Mr. Tong, you have fought three battles in a row; how much strength do you have left? Why bother putting on a show? You aren't hoping to delay time and wait for others to come to the rescue, are you? When we came, your subordinates were all busy."

"..."

Tong Shan was silent, sighing self-deprecatingly.

It seems he was truly stupid to waste compassion on these old dogs buried in money.

"I am indeed a bit tired."

He sighed lightly and released the hilt. When the old men were overjoyed, he waved his hand behind them: "These pieces of trash, I'll leave them to you."

"Heh—"

A sneering voice came from above the firmament, "Wouldn't it have been better to be straightforward earlier?"

At this moment, when the three old men's expressions changed drastically and they turned around abruptly, they saw: straight lightning descending from the firmament to the earth, thousands, tens of thousands, endless thunder sealed in spiritual quality crystals, turning into spears that covered the sky, already hanging high above the firmament!

Amidst the storm and thunder, the girl-like Lou Yanyue looked down indifferently and extended her finger:

"Then, all of you, go die!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 307 =====