Chapter 145: Lan Er Wu Si

Lei Kedun's figure abruptly materialized inside the brick‑red little building, and a paper person folded from pale‑yellow paper appeared beside him at the same time.

Before Sai Xi Ma and the other night‑watchers could react, the surrounding scene was swiftly torn open like a drawn curtain.

"What is this?" Sai Xi Ma stared blankly, looking at the suddenly bright surroundings, as he and the others were teleported from the building into a desert still bathed in daylight.

Sai Xi Ma thrust the bone sword in his hand into the yellow sand, and a dense darkness spread rapidly, swallowing all the surrounding light.

"Concealment? How could that be possible!"

Sai Xi Ma muttered in disbelief, his already furrowed brows deepening further.

The link between the Goddess Sword and the Night Goddess was severed.

After isolating the Night Church's night‑watch squad in Ideal Village, Lei Kedun did not hesitate; he directly recited the revered name of the Hidden Sage, for the True Creator's aura was beyond his own control.

"The sage who perceives the world, the eye that probes truth, the embodiment of endless knowledge and spiritual numbers!"

A beam of light invisible to most mortals suddenly appeared, seeming to have shifted from the far reaches of the spirit realm, disregarding distance and descending here at once.

The light had no substance, as if composed of wave after wave of tangled information, moving in an illusory, torrent‑like flow.

A black mass studded with countless eyes emerged from the information torrent.

Having sensed it early, Lei Kedun immediately shut his eyes, cutting off all perception of the outside world.

This time the Hidden Sage showed its true form without any concealment, and Lei Kedun's spiritual intuition screamed a frantic warning..

At the same time, Lei Kedun sensed the sage trait within his body stirring, even giving him the illusion that his own stature was rapidly elevating.

On the distant bell tower, Ke Lai En had not yet shaken off his body's tremor and his thoughts' wildness when he felt another terrifying aura descend, denser and more real, as if a great being had truly arrived.

"What did A Er Dan do?"

Ke Lai En rasped a low incantation, feeling as if his head were about to explode, as everything around seemed to turn into information trying to burrow into his mind.

The Hidden Sage's arrival lasted only a brief instant before it hurried away.

It seemed that together with the Hidden Sage's arrival, a magnificent consciousness also descended here, and the Hidden Sage avoided clashing with it.

Lei Kedun opened his eyes again, and a transparent amber the size of an adult's fist, encasing twisted flesh, floated in midair before him.

In that instant of sight, Lei Kedun understood: this was the True Creator's remnant left on Lan Er Wu Si, a seedling vessel prepared for its own descent.

Lei Kedun reached out and took the vivid red flesh, frozen as if in stasis and wrapped by the transparent amber, its shape like an inverted human silhouette or a strangely formed sapling, bearing the True Creator's divinity.

Glancing toward Lan Er Wu Si's escape route, a barely perceptible smile curved his lips.

During the Hidden Sage's brief earlier arrival, the other party, due to the True Creator's remnant on its body, did not immediately lose control; after the remnant was stripped away, it decisively seized the chance to flee, saying not a word.

The surrounding night grew denser, like a clump of unspilled ink, as if something was about to emerge.

"No wonder it's the Goddess Sword; it's already about to break through the isolation of Ideal Village."

He whispered a line, and Lei Kedun swiftly stepped into the spirit realm, returning to the bell tower.

"Lan Er Wu Si slipped into the sewer when the chance arose; shall we chase now? I've marked his scent; he can't escape my sight."

As soon as his figure materialized, Lei Kedun asked immediately.

Ke Lai En, who had intended to ask what had just happened, heard the voice and, without further thought, nodded repeatedly and said:

"Chase, go now."

Lei Kedun placed his hand on Ke Lai En's shoulder and, before the people on the airship recovered from the Hidden Sage's influence, led Ke Lai En into the spirit realm.

Following Lan Er Wu Si's scent, Lei Kedun guided Ke Lai En, revealing their forms within the maze‑like sewer.

Streaks of starlight flickered around Lei Kedun, dense and dazzling. The starlight raced outward, scattering ribbons of star radiance that wondrously formed a transparent, glittering barrier.

Lan Er Wu Si's sprint halted as instinct sensed danger; using his dark vision, he saw clearly the pursuers behind him.

A blond youngster wearing bronze‑tinted metal‑rimmed glasses was the fellow who had earlier recited the Hidden Sage's revered name.

Next to him stood a figure in a black long coat, his face masked by a comical clown visage.

Having just identified the pursuers, Lan Er Wu Si lunged sideways.

Bang! A tarot card was thrust into the wall of the sewer behind, its height exactly even with Lan Er Wu Si's neck.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Depriving the opponent of reaction time, Ke Lai En flung out more paper cards.

"Slow!" Lei Kedun, standing still, whispered a word of the Dragon language, imposing a negative effect on Lan Er Wu Si.

Lan Er Wu Si barely managed a clumsy dodge; his now‑laden body made the evasion difficult, failing to fully avoid the paper‑blade darts, leaving shallow to deep wounds on his shoulders, thighs and other non‑vital spots.

The fierce assault left Lan Er Wu Si no time to ponder who the opponent was or why they pursued him relentlessly.

A tarot card depicting stars, Aquarius and holy water pierced Lan Er Wu Si's right ankle.

Just as Lan Er Wu Si began to step, he fell flat on the ground, rolling over the filthy sewer floor as card after card sank into the ground.

The next moment, a tarot card portraying an angel and a horn embedded itself in Lan Er Wu Si's neck.

But instantly all the tarot cards lodged in Lan Er Wu Si's body were ejected; his neck, chest, and exposed skin writhed wildly as one grotesque flesh bud after another sprouted.

The buds glimmered with an iron‑colored metallic sheen, densely clustering together like a suit of armor.

This is the blood‑flesh magic Lan Er Wu Si has acquired during his recent contact with the True Creator.

Bang! The tarot card Ke Lai En launched was blocked outside.

"Sun!" Ke Lai En whispered a word of the Ancient Hermes language.

A golden‑hued sigil on Ke Lai En's hand turned to ash, and the next instant he fired a tarot card bathed in pure, bright light.

The paper‑blade dart passed through as if nothing, piercing Lan Er Wu Si's chest and lodging in his heart.

The purifying radiance cleansed all lingering malevolent energy on Lan Er Wu Si, causing the trying‑to‑regenerate flesh to die swiftly.

Lan Er Wu Si's eyes weakly gazed ahead, his voice broken as he asked:

"Who are you."

"Why… must… kill me."

Before any reply came, Lan Er Wu Si's body collapsed onto the sewer floor, his breath utterly cut off.

"He died." Lei Ke Dun spoke up to remind.

Ke Lai En fell silent for two seconds, removed the clown mask from his face, calmly stepped forward two steps, then suddenly accelerated, kicking Lan Er Wu Si's head with all his might.

Lan Er Wu Si, whose neck had already been pierced by a card-throwing dagger, had his head kicked flying by Ke Lai En's kick. It slammed heavily into the Starlight Bulwark ahead, sending ripples across it.

Lan Er Wu Si's head shattered, scattering red and white.

"Hahaha, hahahaha!"

Ke Lai En laughed hysterically, head bowed, his voice growing louder, his laughter uglier than crying—just like a mad clown!

Lei Ke Dun beside him felt his eyebrows twitch; although he knew the reason, Ke Lai En's current appearance still looked somewhat eerie, like a mad clown.

"Sometimes, in my view, the name of a potion is more like a description of an extraordinary person's fate."

Lei Ke Dun seemed to have sensed something and said this.

"Fate? A clown's fate?"

Ke Lai En whispered:

"Captain."

Drop after drop slid down, forming lines on Ke Lai En's face.

After composing himself, Ke Lai En wiped away the remaining tear marks on his face and scanned Lan Er Wu Si's body and the Tarot Cards still embedded in him.

He had wanted to see how many Tarot Cards were scattered around, but Ke Lai En, lacking dark vision, could only see a few things relying on the faint light emitted by the surrounding Starlight Bulwark.

The previous battle had relied entirely on Spiritual Sight to locate Lan Er Wu Si's position, but using Spiritual Sight to find ordinary playing cards was completely useless.

"Can you help me perform a counter-divination on the scene? Too many Tarot Cards are scattered around."

Ke Lai En turned his gaze to Lei Ke Dun, who had been standing motionless to one side.

"Sure."

Lei Ke Dun waved his hand, and the Starlight Bulwark around them quickly disintegrated into specks of starlight that faded away.

A layer of starlight shimmered in Lei Ke Dun's eyes as he reached into the void and tugged twice, disturbing the information of the surrounding Spirit World. Any divination targeting the scene or objects would be interfered with, yielding erroneous or chaotic results.

"Thanks!" Ke Lai En nodded slightly, sensing the spiritual fluctuations around.

Approaching Lan Er Wu Si's corpse, Ke Lai En found a badge the size of an eyeball, faint spiritual light glimmering quietly on it.

Besides that, there was nothing else—not even a scrap of cash or materials.

Next, Ke Lai En took out his remaining Tarot Cards and scattered them randomly over Lan Er Wu Si's corpse, some face up, some face down.

Lan Er Wu Si's corpse, along with the patterns, numbers, and designs, intertwined to form a highly symbolic image.

Ke Lai En walked back to Lei Ke Dun's side, gave a slight nod, and said nothing.

Lei Ke Dun understood, then immediately led Ke Lai En into the Spirit World, leaving the sewer.

(End of chapter)