Chapter 823

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Protagonist:

Shen Yao

"Phew, good thing I pulled back quickly, almost—" Fan Sheng really had no hope of surviving.

Shen Yao noticed the entire illusion realm shattering like a screen, and at the very beginning of the shattering, she hastily drew her hand back into her sleeve.

She looked up and exchanged a glance with Lu Yan, the two of them tacitly saying nothing.

The system, meanwhile, stared open-mouthed as its own Host snatched Fan Sheng's soul back, thinking that the xuanhuan world also had the concept of souls, so where was Fan Sheng's body?

"Shh, the Black Hand is about to show up; Fan Sheng's body must be in their hands."

Shen Yao and Lu Yan stood together, back to back, scanning their surroundings, wanting to find the Black Hand as quickly as possible.

Unexpectedly, when the entire illusion realm shattered and the surroundings turned pitch black, identifying the Black Hand was actually quite simple.

Those two big red eyeballs, the purple strange body all over, and the jointed limbs flying everywhere—wasn't this just an inexplicably enlarged version of the parasite mother body?

"This is the Black Hand?" the system exclaimed, seemingly not very surprised either.

Compared to the parasite mother body left outside to serve as an offering to activate the Bronze Gate and the parasite child bodies used as cannon fodder, this Pangran Giant before them gave an even greater sense of oppression.

Especially since the pitch-black environment easily made one nervous, and the parasite mother body was already ugly; this place silently amplified its shortcomings. Fortunately, Shen Yao and Lu Yan were both battle-hardened veterans, otherwise the two of them would have had to admit defeat before even fighting the Black Hand.

"I suppose so," Shen Yao said dismissively, though her gaze remained fixed on the Pangran Giant not far away, her peripheral vision never failed to survey the surrounding environment.

When the illusion realm disappeared, some of the most real scenes would be revealed before the Wedding Guests.

Most obvious were the people lying on the Ground, unconscious for who knows how long; they wore all sorts of clothes, many had already become skeletons, but more were still breathing, just unable to wake up.

Shen Yao found Fan Sheng through the system's monitoring.

Good news: Fan Sheng's body was well preserved with no major problems. Bad news: there was a hidden black line on top of Fan Sheng's head; although the head end appeared on Fan Sheng's body, the tail end was with the parasite mother body.

"Not just Fan Sheng; others have these black lines too. The only difference is that Fan Sheng's line is the thickest," the system said, not forgetting to project the photo out, and it also happily declared itself smart, using their distance from the Black Hand to ensure the other party wouldn't discover anything.

Shen Yao:...

"Oh, then you're really impressive," Shen Yao had already stored Fan Sheng's soul away when the illusion realm completely shattered; at this moment she handed the task of waking Fan Sheng over to the system, "In a moment when we fight, we won't be able to worry about too much; you remember to send the thing into Fan Sheng's body; as for whether he can finally survive, it all depends on fate."

As the words landed, Shen Yao turned her head and said to Lu Yan, "This place doesn't seem to be a real scene; we should still be inside the illusion realm."

Lu Yan nodded, his expression serious, "When we fight in a moment, pay attention to safety."

The two then exchanged another silent glance, and each flew to a suitable position to fight; waiting for the mountain-like parasite mother body to twitch its jointed limbs and go berserk, they lunged forward at the same time, and dazzling arts completely illuminated this pitch-black environment.

The colorful, beautiful arts were dangerous and mysterious; when they landed on the parasite mother body with a unified target, they would erupt with super strong energy.

"Roar!"

The parasite mother body emitted a sharp explosive roar, and at the same time the entire illusion realm trembled, but it was not shattered like the previous layer of illusion realm.

Shen Yao and Lu Yan stood in midair, calmly watching the parasite mother body go berserk; its jointed limbs, bearing purple mysterious patterns, surged toward them like dense vines, accompanied by a nauseating smell.

How many people had it eaten? It must have been marinated in human blood essence by now.

Shen Yao complained while dodging; especially these jointed limbs seemed to have their own thoughts and positioning system, they could clearly and directly capture Shen Yao's every move, and they could even predict in advance, landing a step earlier to encircle and suppress Shen Yao.

Shen Yao:!!!

Realizing the situation was wrong, Shen Yao shouted at Lu Yan not to overthink; this parasite mother body was more advanced than the previous one; it could read people's thoughts.

"What kind of monster is this after all?" When dissecting the parasite child body before, it was said it might be a man-made creation; later upon encountering the parasite mother body, there was also this feeling, but now switching to this parasite mother body before them, the system wasn't sure.

"Monster? Calling it a monster isn't wrong," Shen Yao said while casually slicing apart the slender jointed limbs that wound toward her.

The jointed limbs broke in response, but there was no trace of blood at the break; instead, it turned into a patch of black mist.

"Calling it a monster, but it's not exactly a strange thing in the conventional sense."

"See? It has no physical form, although it looks too scary right now."

Shen Yao raised her beautiful eyebrows, then flashed her body to change position, continuing to slice off the jointed limbs that were surrounding and blocking her.

The speed at which the jointed limbs fell could not keep up with the speed at which the black mist took shape; especially since the parasite mother body's body looked too huge, these jointed limbs were nothing to it, having no effect at all.

Really no effect?

Not necessarily.

As Shen Yao's sneaky slicing of jointed limbs became more and more skilled and natural, those jointed limbs that pursued her relentlessly also began to have their own little schemes.

This made Shen Yao even more certain that this parasite mother body, which looked like a Pangran Giant and gave enough oppressive feeling, was actually a chimera; inside, who knew if they were quarreling, hating to act separately from one another.

Hmph!

It had to be said, the current situation was somewhat laughable; these jointed limbs were slacking off as salted fish; once they couldn't be restrained, the longer they fought, the more the parasite mother body would lose out.

"Why?"

"Because those people unconscious below are about to wake up."

Shen Yao finished speaking lightly, and the system saw the ground, originally lying haphazardly in a patch, fluctuate; someone slowly opened their eyes, someone quietly moved away, and someone even used hand seals to try to save their companion.

"Well, who do you think provided all this black mist?"

Shen Yao once again dodged the jointed limbs' attack, not forgetting to give a lesson to the system in her mind, "Those connecting black lines are used to conduct black mist. The black mist we saw in the illusion realm is the material used to form these jointed limbs."

As for how the black mist was produced, just look at those people who suddenly died in the illusion realm; their souls, after cycling again and again, could no longer hold on, and what finally collapsed was these black mist.

System:... Originally so

But if they did this, couldn't they take advantage of the chaos to save Fan Sheng?

"Not yet; those waking up are all unimportant small shrimps," Shen Yao instructed the system to definitely watch the timing before acting, otherwise it would be giving benefits to the parasite mother body, only making them harder to fight.

As more and more people woke up on the Ground, Shen Yao started circling around with these jointed limbs; she no longer struck viciously to slice off all the jointed limbs, but instead leisurely killed time.

The jointed limbs, seeing this, were all excited; slacking off was good, everyone slacking off together, no one suffered any loss.

These jointed limbs chased Shen Yao, and often at the moment they caught up, a misalignment occurred, allowing Shen Yao inside to successfully dodge.

Their movements were not obvious at first; after all, the parasite mother body was responsible not only for here, but also needed to keep an eye on the demon side. However, when it regained its senses again, it discovered that Shen Yao's distance to its main body was getting closer and closer.

Hm?

Wrong!

The parasite mother body flew into a thunderous rage. The jointed limbs, which had still been quite leisurely, froze for an instant, then immediately unleashed energy even more violent than before. The sky and earth were covered, dense and countless, all with jointed limbs extending and spreading out.

They began an all-round encirclement and suppression of Shen Yao; even Lu Yan beside her did not escape disaster.

Instantly, Shen Yao's movement speed had to become fast. Her body also became increasingly bedraggled, especially those awe-inspiringly fierce jointed limbs — they could not wait to directly grab Shen Yao and tear her to shreds.

Tsk tsk tsk

Shen Yao still had the mood to wrangle with the system, indicating that if this situation repeated several more times, she could take the opportunity to wake Fan Sheng up.

System: ……

why?

"Because it won't stay here forever. We can take the opportunity to take Fan Sheng away." During the time she spoke, although the jointed limbs' attack intensity increased, they still never touched the corner of Shen Yao's clothes.

And more and more people down below were waking up. Perhaps not all of them had the courage to face the jointed limbs, but their awakening still brought trouble to the parasite mother body.

The black thread on top of Fan Sheng's head still had not broken, but its thickness had already undergone an obvious change. Shen Yao kept a constant eye on Fan Sheng's changes, until the jointed limbs attacking her slowed down again and began to slack off. Then Shen Yao reminded the system to go save Fan Sheng.

Injecting the soul snatched from the illusion realm into Fan Sheng's body, as the soul and flesh merged into one, the black thread on top of Fan Sheng's head flickered in and out of existence.

The system was just about to tell Shen Yao the news, but unexpectedly its own host suddenly erupted. She directly took out from her space the talisman paper she had long barely used, scattering it like a heavenly maiden scattering flowers. Following that, she instantly teleported to Fan Sheng's side and, without a word, directly struck and severed the black thread on top of Fan Sheng's head.

Grabbing the clothes at Fan Sheng's neck with her hand, Shen Yao dragged Fan Sheng like this to Lu Yan's side. "Go quickly!"

As her words fell, this pitch-black illusion realm once again developed cracks. The jointed limbs, which had been slacking off and then got attacked by the talisman paper, panicked as if poisoned.

Lu Yan backhandedly grabbed Shen Yao's arm, and then the two of them retreated backward together. When they formally distanced themselves from the parasite mother body opposite, the piece-by-piece cracking illusion realm disappeared, and what appeared in its place was a scene currently in the midst of battle.

"Roar!"

The enraged parasite mother body slammed down hard, not only knocking back the crowd that had appeared out of thin air, but even the people originally lying on the ground could not avoid it.

Shen Yao saw the parties involved from when she was melon-eating outside the City Lord's Mansion back then — they were the Xuan Yuan Clan and Sima Clan two groups, plus that demon who had proactively activated the array to open the Bronze Gate.

"The demon?"

The system did not see the demon's whereabouts, somewhat curious where this thing had run off to. Logically speaking, since the demon could bring the parasite mother body out, it was most likely in cahoots with the mastermind behind the scenes here. But looking at the Xuan Yuan Clan and Sima Clan fighting fiercely with the parasite mother body up ahead, and no shadow of the demon in the surroundings, the system was again uncertain.

"Demon? Didn't it achieve its goal and withdraw?" It completed the mission it should complete; next there was no need for it to come out for a cameo.

Shen Yao supported Lu Yan at her side, then raised her hand and pointed at the parasite mother body, which was still terrifying but without much oppression now that it had lost the dark augmentation. "Look, they've already returned to where they should go."

Although Shen Yao's way of putting it was a bit strange, the system and Shen Yao had transmigrated through so many worlds that it could understand the meaning Shen Yao expressed.

"This demon, could it be a real demon?" It feels like it's all the parasite mother body's conspiracy and schemes. Whether it's the demon released, or the parasite mother body and sub-bodies sent out by the demon's hand, and finally the demon opening the Bronze Gate through the array — "What is its purpose?"

Shen Yao and Lu Yan observed Fan Sheng lying beside them. "Of course it's to live better."

Whether demon or parasite, or the Sima Clan and Xuan Yuan Clan's investment — those human flesh and blood and souls all became the parasite mother body's growth nutrients.

Look, how well this parasite mother body has grown. Compared to the one at the City Lord's Mansion that was used as an offering, it's simply a colossal giant.

"Host, then aren't we in great danger? Let's leave early while the Xuan Yuan Clan and Sima Clan can still hold it off."

The system's timidity was displayed perfectly, without a single bit of stubbornness.

Shen Yao raised her hand and touched Lu Yan. "Fan Sheng's condition isn't too good."

There are two consciousnesses fighting in his head. Currently, the one with the upper hand doesn't seem to be Fan Sheng.

"Forcibly waking him, whether he can endure it depends on himself." Lu Yan wasn't unwilling to take the person away, but Fan Sheng's condition might turn him into a second demon. Back then, his mother, in order to withstand the demon's bewitchment, directly sacrificed and exhausted her own lifespan.

Lu Yan's memories had completely recovered as the illusion realm he was in was shattered layer by layer. Therefore, he knew even more clearly the truth of his mother's early death.

After handling the matters on Jin Jue City's side, what he had to do was return to the Floating City to demand justice. So his father's role in this was so inglorious? Then he indeed didn't need to enjoy too many of the Lu Family's benefits; otherwise, when it came time to strike, he would have to be considerate of these things and would inevitably bring trouble upon himself.

Shen Yao raised an eyebrow. Since Lu Yan put it that way, she had no objection.

Fingertip pressed on Fan Sheng's head, and simultaneously she injected new consciousness inside. The two tigers contending in his mental sea became a three-legged standoff. Fan Sheng also thereby took the opportunity to clearly see the surrounding situation.

"Young Master Lu, Miss Shen"

"City Lord Fan"

Lu Yan nodded, indicating that now was not a good time for them to catch up. The next actions would involve life-threatening danger; Fan Sheng needed to be prepared.