Chapter 200: Even if the Heavenly King himself came, he would die today!

Just as the dark power within Gu Qingwan—an essence that could end all things and erase existence—was about to fall with the sweep of her fingertip, finally annihilating Liu Xuanyin in that last instant,

two urgent, anxious, almost panicked shouts rang out.

Like two arrows tearing through the void, they ripped without warning through the cave’s absolute stillness and thick murderous intent.

They came from the passage at the cave entrance that Gu Qingwan had opened, suddenly sounding from outside!

The voices did not belong to a single person, but to two distinctly different timbres overlapping.

Filled with urgency and the intent to stop something, they were clearly aimed at Lu Yuan!

This unexpected development instantly shifted the atmosphere inside the cave again!

Gu Qingwan’s poised fingertip paused imperceptibly.

The pure black swirl at her fingertip hiccupped with the slightest stutter.

The Deity of Beauty’s teasing smile tightened a little, and a flash of surprise crossed her amber eyes.

It then turned into an intrigued curiosity as she also looked toward the source of the voices.

Lu Yuan’s heart leapt. He turned instinctively toward the sound, his face full of shock and alertness.

Who was it?!

Showing up now and shouting his name?

Judging by the voices, they were not acquaintances...

And Liu Xuanyin, who was frozen in place, his consciousness already dragged into boundless death, waiting only for the final extinguishing,

the last tiny flicker of light in his gray-white eyes seemed to tremble almost instinctively because of those two sudden shouts.

Could there... still be a variable?

Could someone... be coming to save him?

No, impossible.

Liu Xuanyin’s remaining awareness immediately rejected that absurd thought.

The Commanding Ghosts Liu Family’s layout here was top secret. Apart from him and the dead Hu Huxu, only a handful beyond the Great Wall knew the details.

It was even less likely that anyone could break through the blockade of the Blood-Skeleton Spirit Lord and countless evil things outside, find this exact spot, and appear at this critical moment.

Under the different gazes of everyone present, the invisible barrier at the passage entrance—maintained by Gu Qingwan’s power and separating inside from outside—rippled violently like water. Clearly some external force was trying to force its way in.

Perhaps with tacit consent from something inside, Gu Qingwan did not reinforce the seal.

Immediately, two figures squeezed in through the rippling barrier, one after the other, a bit hurried, almost wolfish as they forced their way through.

The first to step into the cave was a very young-looking man, about twenty-three or twenty-four years old.

Tall in build, he wore a deep-blue tight-cut garment of seemingly ordinary fabric that nonetheless hinted at faint drifting dark patterns. Over it he wore a matching short coat with simple cloud-pattern embroidery at the cuffs and hem.

His hair was tied at the back with a simple wooden pin; a few strands on his forehead were damp with sweat from the rush and stuck to his smooth temple.

His features were handsome: clean brows and eyes, a straight nose, lips pressed together. Yet his face was filled with anxiety and a gravity beyond his years.

Most striking were his eyes—not ordinary black or brown, but an extremely rare deep purple, like the color of the sky before a thunderstorm.

Those purple eyes scanned the cave urgently and instantly locked onto the blood-smeared, wolfish Lu Yuan.

A look of relief flickered in them, quickly replaced by deeper worry.

His aura was restrained, yet it carried a peculiar fluctuation as if he could commune with heaven and earth and invoke a kind of natural might.

His presence subtly opposed the cave’s sinister “spirit-locking forbidden land” atmosphere, making the air within several feet of him feel clearer than elsewhere.

At his waist hung a nonmetallic, nonwooden, archaic token. A lively, swooping character “Li” could be faintly made out carved on it.

Right behind him came an old man of about sixty, with a clear, weathered figure.

He wore a gray cotton robe washed nearly white, in an old-fashioned cut with wide sleeves, and ordinary black cloth shoes—dressed like a rural schoolteacher, extremely plain.

His hair was gray and neatly pinned on top of his head with a simple wooden stick.

His face was thin and deeply lined, especially a pair of long white brows that slanted into his temples, giving him a stern, world-weary look.

The old man’s complexion was paler and more troubled than the young man’s, even tinged with an unhealthy blue-white as if he’d just suffered great exhaustion or shock.

He leaned on a seemingly ordinary blackwood staff that shone with an oily luster.

But looking closely, the staff’s top was not a normal beast-head or sphere.

It was carved into an extremely complex Yin-Yang Fish pattern, as if slowly rotating, with a faint, stinglike spiritual glow flowing around it.

His eyes were not large, but exceptionally deep and bright, seeming to see through a person’s soul.

At this moment those eyes stared fixedly at Lu Yuan, then quickly swept across the broken segments of the Nine Nether Soul-Refining Chains on the ground, the “frozen” Liu Xuanyin,

and the two soul-chilling figures hovering midair—Gu Qingwan and the Deity of Beauty.

His gaze held unspeakable shock, lingering fear, and a trace of... deep apprehension.

Their intrusion had clearly come at a cost.

The young man panted lightly, sweat at his temple. A flash of electrical light flickered through his purple eyes.

He seemed to have just expended a highly draining secret art.

The gray-robed old man steadied himself on the blackwood staff, barely keeping his balance. His chest rose and fell slightly; his face went even paler.

“Daoist Lu!”

“Stop your hand!”

“Liu Xuanyin must not be killed!”

“At least not right now!”

As soon as the purple-eyed young man steadied himself, he stepped forward and shouted urgently at Lu Yuan, his clear voice edged with unquestionable anxiety.

“Young friend!”

“Do not—under any circumstances!”

“The life of the Liu family head is of grave importance!”

“Do not act rashly!”

The gray-robed old man followed immediately, his voice hoarse but steady, carrying the weight of someone tempered by experience.

After they finished speaking, Lu Yuan said nothing. He only frowned and looked at these two complete strangers, trying to figure out who they were and whether he had seen them before.

Seeing this, the purple-eyed young man quickly waved his hand and hurriedly explained:

“Daoist Lu, I am Li Guanqi, the current head of the Du’e Li Family!”

“This is Fu Yuanshan, senior of the Backing Yin Fu Family and current head!”

“We are not Liu Xuanyin’s allies, nor are we your enemies!”

“On the contrary, we came to save you and to save the countless lives beyond the Great Wall!”

Du’e Li Family?

Backing Yin Fu Family?

Lu Yuan couldn’t help but frown.

The old man’s little notebook had mentioned that the Ten Families beyond the Great Wall were not all evil; it depended on the character of the current family heads.

But after Hu Huxu’s betrayal from the Continuing the Lamp Hu Family, Lu Yuan had lost any sympathy for the Ten Families beyond the Great Wall.

They were all of a kind, connected branches!

Fu Yuanshan, who claimed to be the older Fu, caught his breath and continued in a grim tone:

“Little friend Lu, do you know that Liu Xuanyin is the fundamental hinge of the Nine Nether God-Refining Array and this Spirit-Locking Forbidden Land’s Life Gate?”

“If you kill him now, the formation will lose its only controllable key and will go utterly out of control!”

“Then the countless evil spirits and monsters the Commanding Ghosts Liu Family raised for generations will emerge en masse!”

“Worse still, the three super Malevolent Deities that retain their last thread of connection to his soul will lose that final restraint and become wandering calamities bent only on destruction!”

“The land beyond the Great Wall will face a catastrophe!”

Lightning flashed in Li Guanqi’s purple eyes as he added:

“Liu Xuanyin used his blood and soul to bind deeply with the formation’s evil gods. If his soul disperses in an instant, the resulting chain reaction could turn this long-operated forbidden land into the most terrifying bomb!”

“Daoist Lu, vengeance can wait. But to cause an irreversible disaster for a momentary satisfaction is neither wise nor what your master would wish to see!”

Their words like thunder shattered the air in Lu Yuan’s ears again!

He turned sharply to look at the broken segments of the Nine Nether Soul-Refining Chains on the ground, then to the frozen Liu Xuanyin,

and finally up at the two presences in midair who seemed to tower above everything.

The Deity of Beauty slightly twitched her perfect brows as if she was sensing and calculating something.

Gu Qingwan... the blackness at her fingertip still spun slowly.

Her blood-red heavy pupils behind the mist calmly “looked” at the newly arrived two, then “looked” at Lu Yuan.

The gaze seemed to ask:

“Kill, or not kill?”

After hearing those two men out, Lu Yuan did not hesitate at all. He looked at Gu Qingwan and replied seriously:

“Kill.”

Lu Yuan’s answer was resolute, without a shred of doubt.

His voice was cold, saturated with deep disgust and distrust toward the Ten Families beyond the Great Wall.

What calamity? What slaughter of lives? Having lived through Hu Huxu’s betrayal and Liu Xuanyin’s scheming,

and after seeing his master nearly have his soul ripped away, every word uttered by these so-called family heads was met with skepticism.

To him, this was just another dying struggle by Liu Xuanyin.

Connected branches, all snakes and rats in a nest!

Maybe the old man’s little notebook recorded some possibilities of goodness.

But Lu Yuan’s firsthand experience told him that in matters of absolute interest, these ancient lineages’ bottom lines fell far lower than imagined.

Besides...

What does the old man know about the Ten Families?!

If the old man were dragged out and compared to Lu Yuan in acquaintances, Lu Yuan could say for certain the old man knew far fewer people among the Ten Families than he did!

The old man was wrong!

Whatever the notebook said about the Ten Families being good was absolutely wrong!

Hearing Lu Yuan’s unhesitating, bloodthirsty “Kill,” both Li Guanqi and Fu Yuanshan turned ashen.

Lightning danced wildly in Li Guanqi’s deep purple eyes, full of disbelief and panic.

Fu Yuanshan’s brows knitted tightly; the lines on his face seemed to deepen, veins showing on the back of his hand as he gripped the blackwood staff.

“Daoist Lu! Think again!!”

Li Guanqi shouted urgently.

“The Liu family has managed this place for generations. The formation’s links to the evil gods are far deeper than you imagine!”

“If Liu Xuanyin dies, this place will instantly become a doomed realm. The three evil gods losing their final restraint will become the source of catastrophe!”

“The first to suffer will be the people living within a hundred li, and Zhenlong Temple will be hardly spared!”

But their advice sounded only like noise to a resolute Lu Yuan.

He was too disdainful to even glance at them anymore.

Gu Qingwan’s blood-red heavy pupils behind the mist twitched the slightest bit... as if confirming Lu Yuan’s final resolve.

Then she did not hesitate.

Her index finger, formed of pure darkness that seemed capable of ending everything,

moved in a slow, inexorable arc downward toward the frozen, sacrificial-looking Liu Xuanyin.

“Chaa—!”

The black origin at her fingertip suddenly expanded and stretched, forming an extremely thin yet space-searing, existence-erasing jet-black filament.

Silent and carrying a soul-freezing death aura, it aimed precisely at Liu Xuanyin’s brow and cut toward it!

“No—!!!”

“Stop!!!”

Li Guanqi and Fu Yuanshan roared in simultaneous, furious alarm!

They had not expected Lu Yuan to be so decisive, unmoved in the least.

That terrifying female specter simply acted, giving them no chance to continue persuading him!

Seeing the black death line about to touch Liu Xuanyin, the two abandoned caution!

“Thunder Seal! Exorcise!”

Lightning flared in Li Guanqi’s purple eyes as he quickly formed seals across his chest.

The token at his waist carved with the character “Li” exploded with brilliant purple thunderlight!

A condensed, almost solid purple thunder, radiating heaven’s majesty like an angry dragon surfacing, struck out, trying to intercept or deflect the black filament’s path!

Where the thunder passed, the cave’s remaining sinister aura recoiled as if meeting its nemesis and was extinguished.

“Yin-Yang Reversal, Borrow Heaven and Earth!”

Fu Yuanshan slammed his blackwood staff heavily into the ground!

The Yin-Yang Fish pattern at the top of the staff spun wildly, erupting a chaotic black-and-white light!

An invisible, immaterial field carrying strong restriction and reversal power expanded out from him in an instant.

It attempted to interfere with and slow the spatial rules around Gu Qingwan’s black filament, trying to alter its trajectory!

The two unleashed their last-resort life-saving, even life-risking divine arts!

Li Guanqi’s purple thunder contained the Du’e Li Family’s heritage: the “Du’e Divine Thunder,” said to suppress all yin-evil, a potent force not to be trifled with.

Fu Yuanshan’s Yin-Yang Reversal was an unshared secret of the Backing Yin Fu Family, profound and abstruse.

However, their opponent was Gu Qingwan.

The one who with a casual stroke had gravely injured a super malevolent deity, casually froze Liu Xuanyin, and made the Spirit-Locking Forbidden Land itself malfunction.

Facing the purple divine thunder that drove ordinary evil gods to retreat, and the space-warping Yin-Yang field that would leave similar-level experts helpless,

Gu Qingwan did not even lift an eyelid.

The pure black death filament continued on unchanged, not even rippling.

The purple thunder struck the black filament with no thunderclap, no extinguishing. The furious thunder’s force was swallowed and assimilated by that absolute darkness without a trace, not even a spark spattering.

The Yin-Yang reversal field contacting the air around the black filament hit an immovable, perfectly smooth wall.

It could not even crease the air; it collapsed and dispersed of its own accord.

Absolute power crushing absolute power. Absolute rules overriding all.

Li Guanqi and Fu Yuanshan immediately turned pale as paper, disbelief and despair in their eyes!

They had known Gu Qingwan was strong, but not to this degree!

Their all-out strike, in her sight, probably amounted to no more than an itch.

The black filament ignored all obstacles, its speed undiminished, and continued slicing down toward Liu Xuanyin’s brow!

Death was within reach!

“Lu Yuan! Make her stop—now!!”

Li Guanqi’s eyes brimmed as he screamed at Lu Yuan, his voice already laced with pleading despair.

“If Liu Xuanyin dies, the numerous evil worships, ghosts, and even the three super Malevolent Deities the Commanding Ghosts Liu Family amassed over centuries will lose control!”

“They will become unbound, swarming forth to wreak havoc on the human world!”

“The first to be struck will be the mountain region where Zhenlong Temple is!”

“Do you want to watch your master barely escape only to be trapped again by ten thousand ghosts surrounding the mountain?!!”

Fu Yuanshan urgently added, his old face twitching from anxiety and drained strength:

“Little friend!”

“In the Liu family’s forbidden land, the sealed and restrained evil entities number far more than you think!”

“Liu Xuanyin is the only key and rein!”

“If the key breaks and the rein is gone, those suppressed monsters will unleash accumulated hatred and desire for destruction a thousandfold!”

“Then people will suffer, rivers will run red. This is not an exaggeration!!!”

Their cries were full of urgency and fear, not falsehood.

Lu Yuan only let out a cold sneer at their words.

“Enough talk!”

“Even if the Celestial King himself came today, he would die too!”