Chapter 202: "Qingwan." "Let's do it."

“No good!”

“They’ve completely lost control!”

“Stop them!”

“At least suppress them for now!”

Under the terrifying shockwave from the three Super Malevolent Deities rampaging at once, Li Guanqi and Fu Yuanshan’s faces changed drastically.

They snapped out of the embarrassment caused by Lu Yuan’s questioning, replaced instead by an instinctive terror and resolve in the face of annihilation!

They no longer had the time to argue with Lu Yuan.

If they couldn’t find a way to rein in these three rampaging deities now, never mind the lives outside the Great Wall, even they themselves would likely perish on the spot!

“Little Lu!”

“First, join forces and stabilize the situation!”

Fu Yuanshan roared. The seemingly ordinary blackwood staff in his hand was suddenly hoisted high above his head.

The Yin-Yang Fish pattern at the top, which had been slowly rotating, abruptly reversed direction and sped up crazily!

A profound, obscure fluctuation, as if bridging the barrier between the yin and yang realms, exploded outward from him!

“Backing Yin family secret technique: Yin-Yang Reverse Passage — Soul Pact Borrowing the Way!”

Fu Yuanshan’s whiskers and hair stood on end as he rapidly chanted the ancient incantation.

Each syllable seemed to carry the heavy force of a contract, burning an invisible mark into the void:

“Heaven clear, earth turbid, souls return on their path!”

“The living world has roads, the netherworld has gates!”

“Now using the Fu bloodline as lead and a century’s lifespan as proof, open the breach of yin and yang, accept the pathless souls!”

“With this final decree—”

As the last character left his lips, Fu Yuanshan’s face suddenly turned three shades paler, a thin trail of dark red blood escaping the corner of his mouth.

Clearly the secret art drained him heavily.

But the black-and-white light erupting from the blackwood staff reached an unprecedented intensity!

That light did not illuminate. Instead it carved out in the cave a twisted, indistinct virtual “passage,” as if hovering between reality and illusion!

This “passage” was not a physical tunnel but a rule-level “contract road.”

It emitted a powerful sucking and restraining force, its target aimed squarely at the two deities inside the cave that were spewing chaos!

The Thousand-Faced Dream Fiend and the Ten-Thousand-Filth Mother!

This was not an attack, but the Fu family’s signature technique!

Forcibly create a temporary, unequal “soul pact” with chaotic, formless souls — even with deities — to burden or guide them toward a predetermined “destination,” usually some sealing or banishment site.

Fu Yuanshan attempted to use himself as the medium to temporarily divert and split these two rampaging deities through this “Yin-Yang Reverse Passage,” relieving pressure in the cave and buying Li Guanqi an opening!

Almost simultaneously, Li Guanqi moved as well.

He drew a deep breath. The dim electric light in his deep purple eyes flared again, even more brilliant than before.

His hands no longer formed seals; instead he thrust them outward, fingers splayed, as if trying to seize an invisible “river” flowing in the void.

"Du'e family secret: Time River Draws Away Killings — Calamity Suppression!"

Li Guanqi’s voice swelled vast and ethereal, as if not coming from him but from some ancient entity communicating through him that linked time and disaster:

“The river of years, beginningless and endless!”

“Calamity’s killing air trails like a shadow!”

“Now by the key of the Li bloodline, open a sliver in time!”

“Draw away scattered calamities and lock away the world’s fiendish aura!”

“Quick!”

Before his words finished, the worn token carved with the character “Li” at his waist rose and hovered above his head.

The “Li” on the token seemed to come alive, twisting into a purple thunder pattern that resonated with the electric light in Li Guanqi’s eyes.

The space around him began to warp and lag.

As if an invisible time tributary filled with endless calamity and killing intent had been forcibly tugged out by his secret art, pulled into the present!

The Li family of Calamity Crossing specializes in guiding, diverting, and even temporarily “storing” the accumulated calamity, killing qi, and inauspicious energies in the flow of time.

At this moment, Li Guanqi sought to forcibly open a seam to the time river of calamity.

He intended to treat the most concentrated destructive, chaotic, and filthy negative energies released by these three rampaging Super Malevolent Deities as an utmost “present-world calamity.”

He would attempt to “draw” those energies into specific “killing qi accumulation points” in the time river, performing a temporary “seal and diversion.”

This required profound insight into the laws of time and calamity, and the caster had to bear tremendous backlash risk during the ferrying!

Li Guanqi’s hands appeared to clamp an invisible time tributary, and he tore toward the cave’s raging ghostly green spiritual currents, the surging filth waves, and the towering blood-killing qi pouring in through fissures, yanking them hard!

A peculiar sensation washed over the area, as if time were being artificially slowed.

Energy flows were twisted and retarded, blanketing a wide region near the cave entrance.

The speed of the violent blood-killing qi was visibly reduced by a fraction.

Some of the most concentrated, savage destructive energy seemed subject to an invisible pull, detaching from its sources and gathering toward the point between Li Guanqi’s hands, contorting as if to be forced into a nonexistent channel.

Inside the cave, the Thousand-Faced Dream Fiend’s ghost-green spiritual chaos and the Filth Mother’s eruptions of filth were also affected by Fu Yuanshan’s Yin-Yang Reverse Passage.

Portions of the chaotic spiritual pollution and filth energy were yanked like invisible contract chains, drifting toward the black-and-white passage’s virtual image, beginning to flow in as if being forcibly “sent away.”

The two operated with remarkable tacit coordination: one directed and diverted the cave’s chaotic souls and energies, the other ferried and suppressed the most violent killing qi.

Both methods belonged to the Ten Families beyond the Great Wall’ top-tier responses to large-scale deity rampages — arcane, profound, and mighty.

However...

Their opponents were three fully-unbound, utterly rampaging Super Malevolent Deities of twenty-star level!

Monstrous beings cultivated through generations by the Liu Family, nearly touching the power ceiling of this world!

And these deities were the very sources of destruction driven into a hysterical frenzy after being grievously wounded by Gu Qingwan!

“Roaar—!!!”

The Filth Mother inside the cave reacted first.

Fu Yuanshan’s soul-contract force tried to drag away part of her filth essence.

That only triggered her most primal refusal and counterattack in her enraged state!

Her filth sacs bulged frantically, and what spewed forth was no longer random pus.

It condensed into several enormous streams, mixed with countless twisted, agonized faces, forming filth floods of colossal proportion.

Like rampaging pythons, they stopped striking at random.

Instead they reversed course and, carrying a soul-devouring, corrosive malice, violently surged toward Fu Yuanshan’s black-and-white “passage” propped by his blackwood staff!

“Rumble!!”

The filth flood slammed into the Yin-Yang Reverse Passage’s virtual projection!

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only the eerie sound of myriad wronged souls screeching as they writhed on contract chains!

Fu Yuanshan’s body convulsed. He spat a mouthful of blood and went deathly pale.

The Yin-Yang Fish pattern atop his staff abruptly slowed, flickering uncertainly.

The passage’s virtual image twisted violently, wobbling as if it might collapse at any moment!

What he had tried to bear and guide back was the Filth Mother’s frenzied counterstrike, a ferocity and chaos far beyond ordinary souls.

Against absolute power and madness, his soul-pact strength looked so pale and powerless!

Almost at the same time, the Thousand-Faced Dream Fiend’s ghost-green spiritual turbulence seemed provoked into inward collapse and consolidation.

It coalesced into countless razor-sharp, needle-like green spiritual spikes, as if capable of piercing soul and mind!

Like a torrential storm, they shot toward Fu Yuanshan and Li Guanqi, zeroing in especially on Fu Yuanshan, whose spirit was tied most tightly to maintaining the Yin-Yang Reverse Passage!

Contained within those spikes were chaotic dream-fiend thoughts and maddening intentions that could cause any fragile mind to sink instantly, soul disintegrating!

“Old Fu, be careful!”

Li Guanqi bellowed, but he himself was in no better shape!

He tried to ferry away the most concentrated and savage portion of the Blood-Skeleton Spirit Lord’s towering blood-killing qi, along with the residual shockwaves from the two deities inside the cave.

The destructive killing qi’s intensity and chaos far exceeded any calamity he had ever ferried!

He felt as though his hands, arms, even his entire soul were being pierced by countless searing hot blades.

The hovering “Li” token trembled violently; tiny cracks appeared on its surface!

The slender time tributary he had forcibly drawn quivered like a fragile dam on the verge of breaking under such monstrous killing qi.

It could not only fail to ferry the energies but might be smashed from the inside out, backfiring on him!

“Pah!”

Li Guanqi spat blood. The blood contained trace electric sparks and ashen killing qi.

The electric light in his purple eyes rapidly dimmed. He swayed, staggering, yet clenched his teeth and persisted.

He forced himself to maintain the ferrying ritual that threatened to collapse at any moment.

Both men poured everything into their clan’s secret supreme methods, yet they could only barely, temporarily restrain portions of the three rampaging deities’ power.

And they were falling into a dire state of rapidly depleting strength, on the brink of catastrophic backlash!

To confront three Super Malevolent Deities without any preparation was simply overreaching!

“Pah!!!”

Li Guanqi spewed blood again, the mixture of ashen killing qi and purple lightning in it even thicker.

He felt as if an invisible hammer had slammed into him, forcing him to his knees as he stumbled backward several paces.

Each step left a deep bloody imprint pressed into the hard ground.

The “Li” token above him sprouted spiderweb-like cracks across its surface, emitting a mournful groan as its light dimmed rapidly.

The sliver of time tributary he had torn open broke apart like paper under the frontal onslaught of the Blood-Skeleton Spirit Lord’s torrential blood-killing tide — and vanished!

“Ugh—!”

Fu Yuanshan gave a pained groan, and his blackwood staff emitted a crisp cracking sound.

Fine hairline fractures appeared on the Yin-Yang Fish motif at its tip!

The Yin-Yang Reverse Passage virtual conduit — which linked the Filth Mother’s filth flood and the Thousand-Faced Dream Fiend’s spiritual spikes — rippled like a pond struck by boulders.

Their forces distorted and shuddered violently, on the verge of disintegration!

The two deities that he had tried to bear and guide were relentlessly counterattacking.

Like two invisible mountains, they crushed down on his soul and body.

Blood seeped from his orifices, his figure sagged; he seemed to age ten years in an instant.

“No... we can’t hold them!!” Li Guanqi howled hoarsely, purple eyes injected with blood.

Although these two bore the secret transmissions of two Ten Families beyond the Great Wall, in such desperate urgency and without preparation, they faced three deities that had completely lost restraint and were releasing their full destructive instincts!

This was not a contest of comparable scale!

No matter how exquisite their techniques, they required time, supporting formations, specific environments, and often huge costs to unleash their full power.

Fighting now, right in the heart of the deities’ rampage, they could barely hold for a moment — and that was already the limit!

“Lu Dao-you!!”

Fu Yuanshan summoned the last of his strength, whipping his head around toward Lu Yuan, Gu Qingwan, and the Deity of Beauty standing in the back as if uninvolved.

He uttered a desperate, urgent roar, his voice hoarse and distorted from pain and exhaustion:

“Why aren’t you moving?!!”

“Do you really intend to watch these three abominations break all restraints, turn this place into a death zone, and bring ruin across the Great Wall?!”

“If we die, you’ll be next!!”

“Can a collapsing nest still leave intact eggs?!”

“Hurry and suppress them!!”

Through gritted teeth, Li Guanqi forced himself to turn and look at Lu Yuan.

His purple eyes were filled with grievance, anxiety, and a final plea:

“Daoist Lu!”

“Earlier... our words were out of line; we did not consider things fully!”

“But now the great calamity is upon us; this is no time for petty disputes!”

“If these three deities completely break their bonds here, the surrounding hundreds of miles of living people will be hit first, and Zhenlong Temple will also be doomed!”

“I beg you, Daoist Lu, to put the greater situation first, or at least temporarily seal these beasts!”

“Otherwise... everyone here today may not escape this disaster!!”

Their shouts were saturated with hopelessness and a desperate clinging to survival.

They truly had reached their limit and could be swallowed by the deities’ counterstrike at any moment.

Lu Yuan stood at the back, having watched Li Guanqi and Fu Yuanshan’s brief, bitter endurance and their final failure play out.

His expression was calm, his eyes sharp. He had not spoken or urged Gu Qingwan or the Deity of Beauty to act not out of fear or indifference.

He had been observing.

He was watching Li Guanqi and Fu Yuanshan’s true strength, their methods, and how they reacted when cornered.

He wanted to see whether these two “family heads who came to save the people beyond the Great Wall” actually had the weight they claimed — were they mere names, or did they hold hidden trump cards?

He also wanted to see whether they were genuinely “sorrowful for the world” and “able to consider the greater good.”

Now it seemed...

They did have power.

The Li family’s method of drawing time river calamity, and the Fu family’s ability to communicate yin and yang and bear soul pacts, were indeed profound and astonishing.

They could, in this rushed instant, sustain a moment under the triple deities’ furious counterattacks, proving their lineages were exceptional.

Their cultivations were by no means trivial.

But... that was all.

Faced with utterly rampaging twenty-star Super Malevolent Deities, their methods proved woefully insufficient, like an insect trying to stop a cart.

Without meticulous preparation, adequate external conditions, or a pre-laid great formation, two people alone trying to suppress or even temporarily seal these three deities was pure fantasy.

As for their motives and character...

Lu Yuan glanced at the raw fear, despair, and barely concealed will to survive on their faces.

His initial disgust and distrust softened slightly.

At least now, when confronted with a common, unstoppable threat, their displayed terror and desire to live were genuine.

Their willingness to cooperate was urgent.

Whether they had truly “cared for the people” before, whether they had known of or secretly condoned the Liu Family’s atrocities — that was no longer important.

What mattered was that the three rampaging deities had to be dealt with.

Otherwise, as they warned, a catastrophe sweeping beyond the Great Wall would occur.

And the key to solving these three deities... obviously did not lie with Li Guanqi and Fu Yuanshan.

Lu Yuan slowly lifted his gaze, passing over the two near-collapse men,

beyond the raging ghost-green currents, the filth floods, and the towering blood waves pouring in,

and finally falling on the two figures floating serenely midair, oddly out of place in this apocalyptic scene.

Gu Qingwan stood motionless, her moon-white qipao immaculate.

Behind the thin mist, her blood-red heavy pupils looked down indifferently at all the chaos and struggle below.

She seemed to be watching a play whose outcome was already decided, or perhaps awaiting some command.

The Deity of Beauty tilted her head slightly, amber eyes curious and investigative.

She observed the struggling Li Guanqi and Fu Yuanshan below, then the three deities growing ever more violent,

and finally her gaze landed on Lu Yuan, as if waiting for his decision.

Lu Yuan drew a deep breath, suppressing a light dizziness brought on by his wounds and the scene before him.

He knew this could not be delayed any longer.

Li Guanqi and Fu Yuanshan could not hold for many more breaths.

Lu Yuan still needed to hurry down and save the old man.

He did not know the old man’s current condition yet.

Lu Yuan ignored the pleading, desperate looks from Li Guanqi and Fu Yuanshan.

He did not react to the approaching deity roars and energy detonations filled with destruction.

He lifted his chin slightly, his aura calm and resolute, and looked at the moon-white figure hovering in midair —

the woman who had quietly guarded him, who possessed power beyond ordinary comprehension.

Then, with a clear, steady, and unquestionable tone, he spoke:

“Qingwan.”

“Do it.”

“Deal with them.”

“Leave none alive.”