Chapter 1216: Conspiracy

Conspiracy

Chancellor Han held one hand behind his back and lightly tapped the character with the other.

The next moment, an invisible, several-hundred-meter-long slash swept out, slicing all the thin vines in its path into pieces and forcibly carving out a path of blood from this Bitter Flesh Forest!

This one dragon and one slash purged the majority of the Calamities in the surroundings. The survivors who had successively crawled out stared blankly at this scene, their eyes full of shock.

Rumble—

"Still looking?"

Amidst thunder and lightning, a figure wearing a Nuo Dance theatrical robe and a ferocious mask drifted down from the sky.

Muffled drumbeats echoed in the nothingness. Shen Nan carried a Black Flag on his shoulder, and with a light sweep, a bolt of lightning struck the nearest flesh-and-blood tree, charring it black. He turned and spoke calmly to the crowd, "Hurry and leave... More Calamities will be coming soon."

"...Leave? Where to?" The survivors were bewildered.

"The stars will guide your way."

The crowd looked up, only to see a figure strolling among the starlight. As he gently flicked his sleeve, the surrounding starlight wove into a shining river of stars, flowing toward a certain direction...

The end of the river of stars was the Mid-mountain Hotel.

This dreamlike scene made the survivors feel as if they were dreaming... Nuclear strikes, flesh-and-blood monsters, mysterious figures flying and diving, a river of stars flowing to the horizon amidst dark clouds... In these short twelve hours, their worldview had been impacted time and time again. By now, they were almost numb to it.

It wasn't until the roaring sounds of battle rang out again in the distance that they violently snapped back to their senses and hurriedly ran in the direction guided by the river of stars!

"Who are you??" Among the survivors, someone couldn't help but stop and ask.

Wearing the Nuo Mask, Shen Nan remained silent for a long time as one answer after another surfaced in his mind... White Hands of Bureau 749? Divine Path Possessors? Inheritors of some ancient culture? How should the people of the future address them?

Ultimately, he shook his head:

"It doesn't matter anymore."

Whether it was Shen Nan or the other inheritors who had come to save people, no one had come for fame or fortune. They had delved into their respective fields to the absolute limit before embarking on this path; how could they care too much about worldly fame?

They had come, they had saved people, and that was enough.

More and more survivors were rescued from the ruins. They sprinted from despair along the mighty river of stars, occasionally looking back at the flames and explosions rising in the writhing forest, as if to engrave this scene forever in their hearts.

But at this moment, no one noticed that at the boundary of the war where the crowd was slaughtering the Bitter Flesh Forest, two ghost-like figures were quietly watching this place...

They were both dressed in white clothes, their figures hovering in mid-air with their eyes tightly shut. The cinnabar dots between their eyebrows were glaringly eye-catching. One had a cold expression and solemn facial features; the other's eyes were curved like crescents, beaming with joy. They looked like ghosts wandering outside the world, looking down at the battlefield below.

"...It's a mess, it's all a mess." Suxi's voice sounded as if it came from the netherworld. "These people were all supposed to die..."

"I've said it long ago, that variable will change everything," Kongwang replied indifferently.

"Did you think you were the only one who discovered the variable?"

Suxi watched Ying Fu, who was in the midst of slaughter, while Kongwang's gaze fell on Chen Ling amidst the starlight.

"They shouldn't have appeared here... Now they've changed the ending, and everything is heading toward the unknown."

"No, they haven't changed yet." Suxi paused for a moment. "As long as the people who are supposed to die are allowed to die, and the people who are supposed to live are allowed to live, there won't be any difference in everything..."

"You mean..."

"Cough, cough."

Just as Kongwang and Suxi were speaking, a deliberate coughing sound rang out from behind the two.

Kongwang and Suxi violently looked back, only to see a figure wearing small Round Sunglasses sitting cross-legged on the back of a burning Awakened Lion, looking at them with a subtle expression.

"Long time no see, you two." The corners of Sun Bumian's mouth turned up. "What are you conspiring about here?"

"Sun Bumian?"

The two's expressions instantly darkened somewhat. "What do you want to do?"

"The point isn't what I want to do, it's what you want to do." The smile at the corners of Sun Bumian's mouth gradually faded. He lightly pulled down the small Round Sunglasses on the bridge of his nose and spoke indifferently, "Everyone is risking their lives to save people right now. Don't you two even think about causing trouble..."

"Sun Bumian, do you know what you are doing?" Suxi coldly snorted. "There shouldn't have been any survivors in this town. Now, because of those two people, everything is going to be changed..."

"The Ancient Vault of the Ghost Path can predict death, I've experienced this long ago. But so what?" Sun Bumian spoke disdainfully. "I've attempted the matter of Defying Fate more than once. Did you think I'd be scared just because you speak a bit more intimidatingly?"

"You..."

"Besides, what does your Ancient Vault of the Ghost Path's performance not matching the ledger have to do with me? Doing things that make you guys suffer losses brings me too much joy!"

"Sun Bumian, you're courting death!!"

Faced with this unreasonable scoundrel Sun Bumian, the two special envoys of the Ancient Vault of the Ghost Path were both somewhat infuriated. The temperature around Kongwang and Suxi plummeted rapidly, and the next moment, they charged toward Sun Bumian like two bolts of white lightning!

Yet Sun Bumian wasn't afraid in the slightest. The multicolored Awakened Lion directly engaged the two in slaughter, and deafening explosions rang out one after another.

...

"Lu Xun, how is your condition??"

As the Calamities around the shelter receded, Su Zhiwei immediately stepped forward and asked.

The original Lu Xun had already grown pale from overdrawing himself. But after Chen Ling fed back Spiritual Power to him through their shared starlight, his complexion began to recover. He immediately waved his hand:

"I'm fine. Where is Chu Changqing?"

"I'm also fine... probably."

Su Zhiwei and Lu Xun turned to look, only to see Chu Changqing, who had turned into a treant, struggling to pull his legs—which had turned into roots—out of the ground bit by bit, and then slowly and staggeringly moving toward them.

"Can't you change back?" Lu Xun asked in confusion.

"It seems... I can't?" Chu Changqing's voice was incredibly bitter. "I still can't control the boundaries of this ability well. I haven't found a way to change back..."

"Then you can't just be a treant forever in the future, right?" Su Zhiwei's brow raised.

"..."

Chu Changqing's face full of wood grain looked like it wanted to cry but had no tears.

Just as the few were speaking, the crowd around them who had narrowly escaped death finally recovered a trace of vitality, recovering from the shadow of death just now. Among them, someone carefully stepped forward,

"Um, Lord of Tianshu..."

"What should we do next?"

When he first heard the title "Lord of Tianshu," Lu Xun actually blanked out for a moment, seemingly unaccustomed to this new name. He pondered for a moment before still saying, "Next, wait quietly for rescue."

"Rescue?" A confused voice came from the crowd. "But it's all monsters outside right now. Who would come to rescue us?"

"There will be people."

Lu Xun looked up at the starlight. "They are almost here."