Chapter 528: Very Exciting

Jiang Yuan's words were crushed in half by the Grey Wind; the remaining half forced its way across the battlefield and into Lin Fan's ears.

Lin Fan looked up.

The faint azure flame in his right eye trembled violently within the Grey Wind.

Ling Xinyu was pressed deep within his Symbiosis circuit, her fingertips pressed against his nape.

She said nothing.

But Lin Fan could hear.

It was a very light, very gentle urging.

Go.

Don't be afraid.

Lin Fan clenched his teeth, his throat filled with the scent of blood.

"Half a second?"

He stared at the narrow slit in the center of the Grey Wind and muttered a curse.

"Jiang Yuan, your deal is too shady."

Jiang Yuan did not smile.

He couldn't smile either.

All seven orifices were bleeding.

Nosebleed dripped down his chin onto his combat suit, his sclera filled with cracked red lines, and even his breathing sounded fragmented.

The torn throne card was pinched between his two fingers, its surface already missing half a character.

It was no longer a prop.

It symbolized the capital Jiang Yuan had amassed by slaughtering his way to today, the last resource the Dark Shadow Court could muster.

Su Ming leaned on the wrecked armored vehicle to stand, but as soon as he steadied himself, his knees buckled again.

He raised his hand to press his temple and spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Jiang Yuan, clear the way."

"I'll slow the passage and extend the time."

Liang Wen crouched against the collapsed wall; hearing that, he forced the Black Flame Knife against the ground.

"Don't steal my lines, Your Majesty."

Su Ming gave him a cold stare.

"What's your success rate?"

Liang Wen wiped the blood from his lips, revealing an expression begging to be punched.

"I never consider success rate when I fight."

"It's a matter of fate, hard."

Su Ming was silent for half a second.

"Then you're quite fit for writing a death note."

Liang Wen lifted his knife and staggered forward.

The black flame burned from the hilt to the tip, its hue much darker than before, yet it possessed a biting ferocity.

"A death note is too trite."

"I only leave a legend."

Listening to their banter, Lin Fan felt the blood in his chest settle a bit.

No wonder the Federation folk have survived this long.

Madness is still madness.

At the critical moment, they actually dared to go forward.

The Grey Wind was still expanding.

The distant front had already fallen back to the third line of defense.

Armored vehicles stalled one after another, the cunning ones collapsed in the mud; some got up and kept running, while others were drained by the Grey Wind halfway, their pallid hands still reaching for comrades.

Sai Men stood in the eye of the storm, half a mask shattered, the other half of his pallid face washed clean by the rain.

He stared at the throne card in Jiang Yuan's hand, then at Su Ming and Liang Wen, his blood‑red eye sockets filled with interest.

"Wow."

"The hidden act finally shows up?"

Sai Men lifted his staff; the withered stalk of his broken eyeball coiled around the tip, still twitching.

Jiang Yuan ignored him.

He raised the throne card and pressed it to his own brow.

The lingering darkness of the Dark Shadow Court swirled back from all directions of the battlefield.

Below the ruins.

In the blood‑filled pool.

Within the shattered shadow of the card.

The Shadow Soldiers he had once subjugated lifted their heads one by one.

The broken shadow of the Rain Night Butcher crawled up from the ground.

The shadow of the Bone‑Shaving Demon dragged a broken blade.

More indescribable weird shadows lined up behind Jiang Yuan.

They have no form.

Only black outlines remain.

Jiang Yuan whispered, "Lend me once more."

Those Shadows all bowed their heads.

There was no response.

But they handed over the final source.

Ashes in the gray wind frantically splice, becoming sharp Shadow cards.

One.

One hundred.

One thousand.

Countless Black Cards rose from the ground, forcefully thrust into the gray wind.

The gray wind is a meat grinder.

A Black Card shatters upon entering.

When shattered, it is replaced by new cards.

Jiang Yuan pressed forward with both hands, his shoulder flesh cracking, blood streaming down from the sleeve of his battle suit.

He gritted his teeth.

Press again.

The Black Cards finally pried open a black corridor leading to Sai Men's chest.

The corridor is narrow.

Only one person can pass through.

Both sides are swirling gray wind, scraping the card faces, producing a friction that makes one's teeth ache.

Jiang Yuan's knee sank into the mud.

"Lin Fan!"

"The path is open!"

Large sections of Black Cards collapsed and shattered.

Su Ming moved.

He pressed his palm into the muddy water; beneath his palm, the gray‑white pattern of the Time Marrow Worm spread into a twisted ring.

It is not a pause.

Nor is it a Rewind.

It pulls the time inside the corridor out from the outside world.

One second outside becomes a longer seam inside.

But the price falls directly on Su Ming.

Blood gushes from his ears, nose, and mouth simultaneously, and his eye sockets are terrifyingly red.

Su Ming squeezed out words from his teeth gap.

"I'll pull it until you can swing a blade."

"Lin Fan, don't waste it."

Lin Fan gripped the Black Water long sword tightly.

"Don't worry."

"I'm poor, and I can't stand waste."

Liang Wen has already reached the outer side of the corridor.

He held the Black Flame Knife horizontally before him, its edge pressed against the edge of the Black Card.

The gray wind bit the Black Flame, rebounding along the blade to Liang Wen's arm.

The skin split.

Blood was swept away by the wind.

Liang Wen's shoulder trembled with pain, yet he forced his torso upright.

"Dark-Blooded King is here."

"Who dares to clear the way?"

The gray wind gnaws at his spirit.

It's not pain.

It pulls every memory in his mind out to be chewed up.

A pretentious technique from the training ground.

His wife scolds him for never being home.

Liang Ting's sobbing beside the sickbed.

The time emptied after each Rewind.

Liang Wen's vision darkened, yet he pressed the knife even more firmly.

Lin Fan is already standing at the corridor's entrance.

Gray wind sweeps in from both sides, Black Water shields his body, yet it cannot block the emptiness of life being drawn away.

Ling Xinyu gently brushed his right eye from within.

Lin Fan closed his left eye.

The world lost half of itself.

The remaining half was filled with deep‑blue flame.

Ling Xinyu's resentful thoughts surged.

It wasn't the crazy hatred of the past.

Inside were Jiang Yuan's rain, an old school uniform, a milk‑tea shop on the way home, and a little note she had hidden in her backpack.

There were also suffocating river water, a night of discarded corpses, and Lin Fan's body heat when he collapsed holding her corpse.

These things were devoured by Hellfire.

Then they were reshaped.

The resentment did not disappear.

Love was not scattered either.

They interlocked, becoming the weight a sword should have.

Lin Fan closed his left eye, and his right eye turned completely deep‑blue.

He spoke, his throat hoarse as if not his own.

「Xin Yu。」

「This sword, the two of us together。」

Ling Xinyu pressed close within his body.

Those black pits that once wept blood turned back into a girl's clear eyes.

She raised her hand, covering Lin Fan's hand that held the sword.

Black Water steamed.

No smoke.

No fire.

Only an invisible blade aura gathered around the long sword, compressing, compressing again.

Raindrops around the blade edge had not yet fallen when an unseen force sliced them into fine mist.

Lin Fan stepped into the long corridor.

First step, the Black Card shattered three layers.

Jiang Yuan's throat spewed blood, and his arm sank.

「Don't stop! 」

Second step, Su Ming's time circle cracked.

The Time Marrow Worm bulged from the back of his hand, nearly breaking through the skin.

Su Ming pressed it down tightly with his other hand.

「I'm at a huge loss. 」

Third step, Liang Wen's black flame was gnawed through by the Ash Wind, and his entire right arm's flesh and blood peeled open.

He, however, bit the sword hilt and pressed his shoulder against the outer wall of the passage.

「I, the king, haven't approved your collapse yet! 」

Lin Fan no longer listened to the outside.

He only looked at Sai Men.

At the center of the Ash Wind, Sai Men finally withdrew the mocking stance.

That half‑pale face turned toward Lin Fan, thin lips slightly parting.

「How interesting. 」

「You all, clearly hating each other, yet always manage to form a single sword at the most troublesome moment. 」

Lin Fan stepped forward on the Black Water.

「Because we are at least still human. 」

Sai Men's smile grew broader.

「Human? 」

「Humans betray, scheme, treat Fierce Ghosts as snack, and stuff children into test chambers. 」

「Now you wield the blade for them, don't you find it disgusting? 」

Lin Fan did not stop.

「Disgusting. 」

「So this sword does not serve them. 」

「For those you treat as pawns. 」

「For Xin Yu. 」

「For those who fall one after another, their souls scattered. 」

「And for myself as well. 」

Sai Men raised a hand.

Gray fingertips pointed at Lin Fan's brow.

Jiang Yuan roared, 「Turn! 」

The Ash Wind's core began to exchange breath.

A narrow slit appeared.

It was very short.

So short that an ordinary person couldn't even blink in time.

Su Ming pressed his last breath of life into the time circle.

Time in the corridor was forcibly dragged half a beat slower.

He fell to his knees, his forehead knocking into the mud water.

Liang Wen growled low, pouring all the black flame into the outer wall; the black flame seeped from his eye corner, keeping the gray wind at least three inches away.

Jiang Yuan pressed his five fingers together.

The shadowed corridor contracted, pushing Lin Fan forward.

Sai Men anticipated this strike.

He let out a light laugh; his fingertip had already touched Lin Fan's brow.

Lin Fan's skin turned ashen, spreading from his brow to the corner of his eye.

A little lower, and Lin Fan's consciousness would be drained.

But the knife he had poured everything into had already arrived.

The Black Water Long Knife silently pierced Sai Men's chest.

There was no stagnation.

There was no obstruction.

The tip emerged from his back, the Blue Flame of the Nether drilling along the wound, directly biting the core of the law within Sai Men's body.

Sai Men's maniacal laugh got stuck in his throat.

He lowered his head, looking at the knife that had pierced his chest.

Half a mask clattered into the mud water.

Lin Fan leaned close to him, his right eye blazing with the deepest blue flame.

"It seems the bond between humans won,"

The blade spun.

The gray law core was shattered by Hellfire and Black Water together.

Click.

A very light cracking sound.

Yet it halted the entire battlefield.

The gray wind vanished.

The storm expanding under the heavens, its previous breath still devouring life, its next breath losing support, fell in massive sheets.

Gray mist fell into the mud, turning into lifeless powder.

The battlefield's screams, gunfire, and the Communicator's alarms all faded away.

The rain kept falling.

The subtle sound of the blade piercing flesh became clear in this silence.

Blue firelight rose along Sai Men's chest.

Sai Men lowered his head to look at the knife, then raised his eyes to Lin Fan.

That half face finally ceased its exaggerated performance.

Only a strange quiet remained.

Lin Fan gripped the hilt, his arm still trembling.

Ling Xinyu pressed his hand in the Symbiosis circuit.

The two of them pressed down on that knife together.

Sai Men suddenly laughed.

It wasn't the previous manic laugh.

Very light.

So light that the rain could disperse it in a splash.

"Great."

Lin Fan furrowed his brows.

The blue flame on Sai Men's chest burned brighter; his body began to turn gray from the wound, his dark red shirt cracking piece by piece.

In the distance, Jiang Yuan lay on the ground, unable to lift his hand.

Su Ming lay prone in the mud, his eyes still fixed on Sai Men.

Liang Wen sat down against the broken wall, the Black Flame Knife slipping from his palm; he was so disheveled he could barely see, yet he still lifted his chin.

"Won?"

No one answered.

Because Sai Men was still standing.

He raised that Eyeball Staff.

The eyeball at the staff's tip had already shattered, leaving only a hollow stalk.

"I have to say, this scene is truly... spectacular."