Chapter 537: Pursuit and Escape

The Rose School saint known as Jieke Si looked up toward the direction the wind was coming from and said in a flat voice:

"He can't escape; Xi Er Ni Si has already brought the Blood Pirate Crew to wait for him outside the city."

"You lead the school's members inside the city to chase him; if he has allies, drag them out toward the outskirts, if not, act directly."

"'Mother Tree' will guide us; he can't hide."

When mentioning "Mother Tree," Jieke Si's expression and tone became extremely reverent, as if ready to crawl on the ground, chanting the sacred name of "Mother Tree" while kissing the earth.

"Yes, Lord Jieke Si," the overly pale Wronged Soul bowed slightly, and while bending, didn't forget to glance at the strange little figure in his hand.

He tightened his right hand, his body instantly became transparent and ethereal, passing directly through a nearby house's glass window with a "mirror flash," swiftly traversing the mirrored world toward the city's cathedral.

Boom—! Boom—! Several thick silver‑white bolts of lightning suddenly leapt from the clouds, striking down from the sky and exploding at the spot where Jieke Si stood.

After a puff of smoke and dust, the street was left with a charred deep pit and scattered fragments of electric current.

Jieke Si's silhouette appeared on a nearby rooftop, his eyes tinged with a dark green, bearing unrestrained cruelty and bloodlust, gazing upward at the sky.

The black clouds above churned and pressed down, silver‑white lightning darted through them, emitting a rumbling roar that felt intensely oppressive.

A few pale‑yellow paper figures were swept by the wind into the air; under the silver lightning they ignited instantly, pale‑gold flames tracing strange symbols in the sky before being shattered by silver electric serpents.

On the second floor of a tavern at the street's end, a prophet's duplicate stood by the stairwell window, quietly watching the scene outside.

Watching the pale‑gold flames leaping in the air and the surrounding silver lightning, he sighed and remarked, "Even the Sea King has learned caution; he gives me no chance at all."

As he sighed, faint blue glimmers streamed in his eyes, as if reflecting a brilliant star river.

Amidst the twinkling starlight, his body became transparent, like a statue formed from countless points of starlight.

The statue shattered at once, brilliant star‑light rippling and flowing through cracks in the floor and walls, moving away from the street.

On a distant rooftop, Jieke Si, swept by swirling gale, cast a deep gaze this way; his body suddenly became transparent and ethereal, like a formless wraith, darting among leaves, paper, and tiles lifted by the wind.

The incessant lightning around him was unaffected; each moment a bolt was about to strike, he deftly evaded.

The chase on both sides gradually moved away from this street and the city. On the fountain plaza outside the Sea Wave Cathedral, clergy in deep‑blue robes walked about; since A Meng last stole from the Sea Wave Cathedral, the number of extraordinary beings stationed by the Storm Church at the cathedral has increased.

On the street at the edge of the plaza, in shadows beyond the reach of gas lamps, Kelei En moved at an even pace, occasionally looking up to watch the Storm Church Punishers patrolling nearby, ensuring that at the first sign of danger he could draw their attention.

He felt an inexplicable thrill; given his position, whether he fell into the Rose School's or the Storm Church's hands, no good outcome awaited him. Hoping that when the two sides clashed he could escape, he sighed inwardly and lowered the brim of his half‑high silk top hat.

Behind him, the secret familiar Ji Er Xi Ai Si, holding a dark‑bronze lantern in one hand and a black‑striped staff in the other, hurried along the street like a sailor rushing to the Red Theatre.

In an unnoticed corner, Kelei En slowed his steps; he was about to leave the fountain plaza's area.

Why hasn't anyone attacked yet? I'm almost out of the fountain plaza; I can't be forced to turn back, can I? Then it won't be the Rose School chasing me, but the Storm Church Punishers capturing a suspicious person.

Just as he was about to turn onto the next street, Kelei En suddenly halted, a sudden, source‑less sense of danger arising in his mind.

Sure enough, the Rose School had already spotted me; they were waiting for me to leave the fountain plaza beyond the Punisher's line of sight.

He took a deep breath, steadied his nervous breathing, and Kelei En turned his steps, assuming a stance ready to return to the fountain plaza.

His foot lifted, but the motion suddenly stopped, freezing him in place.

In his brown eyes, a figure reflected: a man in a black tailcoat, sunken eye sockets, pale complexion, light‑brown hair neatly part‑ed four‑by‑four, impeccably groomed, appearing to be in his thirties.

The next moment, the reflected figure vanished from his eyes, then appeared in the pupil of the nearby secret familiar Ji Er Xi Ai Si following him.

The instant the Wronged Soul possessed him, he commanded the familiar to wield the dark‑bronze lantern's power, warping the possessed target into his own familiar.

Immediately, he activated his spiritual thread vision, seeing extra spiritual threads on his familiar Ji Er Xi Ai Si that did not belong to him.

Sure enough, it was the Wronged Soul; fortunately he had previously restrained himself from using the spiritual thread to observe surroundings, avoiding alerting it. The Wronged Soul's spiritual intuition easily senses such gazes; Ms. Sha Lun had previously shown this peculiarity.

As his thoughts shifted, he began manipulating those foreign spiritual threads while amplifying his own spiritual thread effect through the dark‑bronze lantern. On familiar Ji Er Xi Ai Si, a translucent phantom face flickered, expression numb and feral.

The amplified spiritual threads were terrifying; in less than a second they entered an initial control stage. He felt that if he persisted for a minute, the Wronged Soul would become his new familiar. Unfortunately he already had a familiar, and with his current magic elixir digestion rate, he was far from able to master two familiars simultaneously.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! The sound of slicing through air rang from behind him; Kelei En immediately abandoned manipulating the Wronged Soul's spiritual threads in familiar Ji Er Xi Ai Si, lunged forward, rolled twice on the ground, and sprang up quickly.

A few glittering white ice crystal arrows brushed his hair, pierced familiar Ji Er Xi Ai Si's chest, instantly forming a layer of frost.

Seizing the interval, the Wronged Soul possessing Ji Er Xi Ai Si quickly detached.

Whoosh! Whoosh! More ice crystal arrows surged from the distant darkness.

Kelei En, while rolling on the ground to dodge, also commanded his familiar to launch a counterattack.

"Death!" A demonic word, laden with abyssal filth and decay, spat from the familiar's mouth.

The Wronged Soul that had just broken free from the familiar hadn't yet become fully transparent when its movement suddenly stalled; its heart seemed clenched by an invisible hand, stained with mottled rust, breath waned instantly, and it coughed out sparks.

The next moment, Ji Er Xi Ai Si's body swelled abruptly, curved goat horns sprouted from its head, covered with countless mysterious patterns; a pair of massive bat‑wing‑like wings unfurled behind, entwined with crimson and pale‑blue flames, emitting a strong sulfur odor.

Two curved demonic horns on its head ignited with dazzling illusory flames, as if various desires and emotions coalesced, sending an invisible wave striking the Wronged Soul before it.

Despair and fear spread uncontrollably within the Wronged Soul's mind, climbing rapidly, rendering it unable to think.

"Death!"

Another demonic word, full of filth and decay, accompanied by the lantern's flame flickering once.

Bang! Bang! Even the Wronged Soul, which resisted filthy, cursed damage, had its pupils contract at that moment, blood surging wildly to its brain as if to burst its skull.

The amplified filthy words overwhelmed its heart, igniting a sulfur‑smelling flame that turned to ash piece by piece, a pungent sulfur stench emanating from its mouth and nostrils.

Truly a semi‑god‑level artifact; it dispatched a Wronged Soul so easily. He felt that even facing a semi‑god head‑on, he wasn't defenseless. Kelei En sighed inwardly while approaching the Wronged Soul's corpse.

His lingering hunger and vacant space prepared him to herd the Wronged Soul's spirit; against the Rose School's pursuit, the Wronged Soul's ability proved useful.

Whoosh! Whoosh! In the darkness, several glittering white ice crystal arrows shot out again, while two figures surged forward, one ahead of the other.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" Kelei En slightly opened his mouth, mimicking the sound of cannon fire.

The air before him instantly compressed into a series of air projectiles, intercepting the incoming ice crystal arrows.

He then hurried to the Wronged Soul's corpse; his right‑hand glove twitched, sprouting a blood‑red maw bristling with fangs from his palm, beginning to devour the flesh on the ground.

While his writhing hunger consumed flesh, he simultaneously directed familiar Ji Er Xi Ai Si to block surrounding foes.

Crimson magma and pale‑blue flame intertwined into exaggerated, colossal column‑like shackles, sealing the area solidly; no matter how outsiders attacked, the wooden barrels could not budge them.

Just as the Wronged Soul's corpse had consumed half, fierce wind roared around, thick silver‑white bolts of electricity struck from mid‑air, enveloping both the flame barrier created by familiar Ji Er Xi Ai Si and the Rose School members' external attack barrier.

"How did the Punishers arrive so quickly," Kelei En sighed, lifting the remaining half of the corpse from the ground and sprinting away.

Marionette Gilseas followed him loyally, waving an exaggerated huge sword formed from crimson magma and pale blue flame, intercepting all the wind blades and lightning aimed at him.

A Penalty Enforcer with deep blue hair suddenly thrust his palm forward; the surrounding wind, under his influence, became viscous, turning into invisible ropes that hindered and bound the advance of Klein and the others.

This effect lasted only a moment, and the light of the dark bronze lantern held in Marionette Gilseas's hand flickered.

The invisible wind around them fell into chaos, forming an area with no obstruction whatsoever beside them.

At the same time, the standard for measuring distance around them fell into chaos, allowing him and Marionette Gilseas to cover dozens of meters with each step; they quickly left the street, throwing the Storm Church's Penalty Enforcer behind them.

Klein ran forward at flying speed, occasionally shifting his position to dodge the wind blades attacking from behind and above.

Above him, dark clouds piled layer upon layer, pressing down, while silver-white electric snakes writhed within the clouds, as if gathering for a deadly strike.

(End of chapter)