Chapter 300: Yan Feng Qili!

In the dim side corridor of the Tohsaka Residence, time seemed stretched infinitely, then compressed by Despair.

Yuanban Shichen could clearly feel the writhing mass in his chest had swollen to its limit; beneath the thin skin and muscle lay a hard, about-to-break shell.

The cold breath of death coiled around his throat.

(Is this… the end…?)

(Rin… Sakura… I'm sorry…)

His weary eyelids fell heavily, awaiting the final tearing pain and the arrival of eternal darkness.

Yet the expected explosion and excruciating pain never came.

Instead came a strange… stalemate feeling.

The frantic surge inside, desperate to burst through his body, seemed to slam into an invisible wall, forcibly delayed.

Though the gnawing pain and sense of life slipping away persisted, at least the most terrifying moment was postponed.

Shi Chen, bewildered, reopened a sliver of his eyes.

Then he saw the face of his little daughter, Sakura Matou, just within reach.

Sakura bit her lower lip hard, almost to the point of bleeding; her tiny body trembled violently from the strain, and fine cold sweat covered her forehead.

But most striking were her eyes—the pair of usually timid violet‑blue eyes now emitting a faint pale‑purple aura.

The aura seemed to contract inward, locking tightly onto Shi Chen, especially his chest.

She was trying to suppress it, delay it, even if only for a moment!

"Sakura... you..."

Shi Chen's eyes were filled with incredulous shock.

This power… is neither the Insect Technique taught by the Jian Tong family nor the Magic of the Yuanban family!

"Sakura! Your eyes!"

Rin also noticed her sister's abnormality, but at this moment she felt only ecstatic joy and lingering fear, "Dad! Look! Sakura is helping you! She can do it! Hold on, Dad!"

Sakura couldn't spare a word; all her will was devoted to battling the terrifying parasite.

Her complexion turned pale swiftly, her body swayed as if about to collapse, yet the violet light in her eyes refused to fade.

At that moment, a steady footstep sounded from the other end of the corridor, breaking the dangerous stalemate.

The hem of a black priest's robe came into view, and Yan Feng Qili's expressionless face appeared in the dim light.

"Teacher."

He stopped a few steps away, his gaze calmly sweeping over the dying Shi Chen, the struggling Sakura, and the thrilled Rin, "It seems the situation is dire."

"Qili!"

Shi Chen seemed to see a savior, rasping with effort, "Quick… help me… Command Spell… use the Command Spell to order Archer… perhaps with his Noble Phantasm…"

He thought of Gilgamesh's King's Treasury, the last straw he could grasp in Despair.

Yan Feng Qili heard this, his face still unmoved, and said lightly, "I see. Using the coercive power of the Command Spell to order Archer to employ his Noble Phantasm for eradication? Theoretically feasible. But Teacher—"

He took a step forward, his tone flat and matter‑of‑fact, yet Shi Chen's heart sank bit by bit into an icy vault:

"—Why don't you use it yourself?"

Shi Chen choked sharply.

Indeed, he still had a Command Spell!

Why hadn't he thought of using the Command Spell to call upon Archer before?

Was it pain and fear that robbed his judgment?

Or…

A cold, terrifying thought flashed through his mind—could it be that since the abdominal pain began, his thoughts had already been subtly influenced?

By that fox demon? By this insect?

"It seems you have realized."

Yan Feng Qili nodded, then stepped forward again, "Regrettably, it appears you… cannot do it any longer."

"Don't come!"

Sakura, still battling the internal insect, suddenly turned her head, her violet‑lit eyes fixed on Yan Feng Qili, her voice weak yet highly alert and repulsive, "You… are off‑kilter!"

Yan Feng Qili's steps halted.

He tilted his head slightly, seemingly surprised by Sakura's reaction, a fleeting, indescribable ripple flashing in his hollow gaze.

At that instant, an anomaly erupted!

From the shadows behind Sakura, the air rippled like water; a pitch‑black figure wielding a strange curved dagger silently materialized, plunging a fierce thrust toward Sakura's back heart!

It's Assassin!

"Sakura! Watch out!" Rin screamed!

At the hair‑trigger moment, the barely living Shi Chen, from somewhere, summoned his last strength and yanked Sakura into his embrace!

Pfft!

The dagger skimmed Sakura's shoulder, trailing a spray of blood, and plunged deep into Shi Chen's arm, which he had raised just in time to shield his daughter!

Fresh blood gushed instantly!

"Ugh—!"

Shi Chen let out a painful grunt, but his other intact hand, by muscle memory, flung several Magic gems already clasped in his palm!

Boom—boom—boom!

The gems struck the Assassin Clone and nearby walls and floor, erupting fierce flames and shockwaves!

The ambushing Assassin Clone was blown to pieces, smoke and dust filled the corridor, and cracks appeared in the walls.

Yet this violent action and magical outburst completely drained his remaining resolve, and more seriously, seemed to rouse the insect that Sakura had barely suppressed inside him!

He suddenly spat out a mouthful of foul blood with an eerie sheen, his vision flickered black, and the suppressing insect's violet light began to fluctuate violently.

The dust and smoke cleared slightly.

Yan Feng Qili still stood where he was, not even the hem of his clothing was disturbed.

Around him, like a phantom, silent and soundless, seven or eight Assassin clones dressed alike and wielding various exotic weapons materialized, shielding him in the center, their hollow White Skull Masks staring in unison at Shi Chen and his daughter, the three of them.

"Teacher, you are still so… unreasonable."

Yan Feng Qili looked at the dying, counterattacking Shi Chen, his tone revealing neither praise nor regret, "But you actually managed to reach this level?"

Shi Chen leaned against the wall, panting heavily, blood streaming from the wound on his arm, cradling in his arms the pale‑faced, shoulder‑bleeding Sakura who was terrified, while beside him stood Lin supporting him.

He watched the disciple surrounded by the Assassins, the Yan Feng Qili he had once trusted completely and regarded as his right‑hand, and for the first time saw clearly the void deep within those hollow eyes, a emptiness that chilled his very soul and… malice.

"Qili… you… what exactly…" Shi Chen's voice was hoarse and shattered.

Yan Feng Qili gave no reply, merely watching them quietly, as if observing insects struggling in a petri dish.

The Destruction storm in the main hall still raged, but the balance was being broken.

Boom!!!

San Yue Qi roared wildly, smashing a newly formed ice hammer hard onto Lancer's crossed‑Blocking twin pistols!

The ice hammer shattered, turning into a sky‑filled ice crystal storm, and Lance was blasted by the brute force, his feet leaving the ground as he slid backward, carving two deep grooves in the floor, his armor shell cracking further.

After Frenzy, San Yue Qi seemed to have no concept of fatigue, each wave of attack fiercer than the last.

When an ice‑forged weapon broke, he tossed it aside, and as magic surged, a new, often larger and more ferocious replacement instantly formed—greatswords, Battle Axes, heavy hammers, even spiked frost meteor hammers!

She moved like a humanoid blizzard, leaving only frozen ground in her wake.

Lancer's exquisite spear technique became increasingly hard to parry against the erratic, Frenzy‑driven onslaught, forced to rely on the insect‑like strange flexibility and regeneration to barely stay in the fight, his body constantly accruing new frostbite and cracks.

"Roar!!"

San Yue Qi seemed to be on a roll, letting out another bellow, her hands empty, two ice wheel blades with saw‑sharp edges whistling into shape, which she flung like throwing boomerangs, carving two intersecting arcs of death in the air, sealing off Lancer's left and right evasion space, and she plunged forward once more!

"Now it's getting more and more interesting."

Huan Long stood at the edge of the battle circle, watching Lancer's increasingly desperate posture with amusement, and San Yue Qi's fully unleashed massive Destruction power.

She gently waved her fan, a mischievous glint flashing in her fox‑like eyes.

"But a one‑sided crush, after watching long enough, does get boring."

She whispered to herself, the tip of the fan pointing toward Lancer, subtly tapping.

A barely perceptible strand of flowing light, almost invisible to the naked eye, slipped into Lancer's body like a living thing.