The roof tiles gave a faint cracking sound, as though someone were slowly moving along the gaps. I stared at a withered leaf about to fall; it hung motionless in midair.
The air had been frozen solid by some force.
The red lines on Yan Jiuxiao's arm had already crawled up to his shoulder, and droplets of blood faintly seeped beneath his skin. Ye Qingwan swiftly patted medicinal powder onto the point where his meridians converged. The grayish-white powder ignited upon touching blood, sending up a wisp of green smoke.
"It can't hold for long," she said softly.
I did not answer. My gaze swept across the surrounding walls. Those dark-red patterns continued climbing like living creatures, while a foul, cold presence began pouring from the cracks in the corners. Blood flames rekindled in the eye sockets of the three dried corpses. Their joints creaked as they slowly straightened up.
They were about to activate the heart of the formation.
I snatched up the pale-gold crystal beneath the altar table and stuffed it deep into my sleeve pouch. This was the wager I had won last night, and also the final perception fuse I had planted—once the formation fully closed, it would immediately feed back the flow of Spiritual Power around it.
"Don't circulate your power," I said in a low voice. "They use spiritual pressure to pinpoint us."
Before my words had faded, the roof tiles above exploded with a thunderous crash.
A black shadow leaped down through the hole, the Blood Crystal in his palm glowing with a scarlet gleam as he recited an obscure incantation. Two more figures dropped down right after him, pouncing toward the temple entrance and rear window respectively. Their Short Blades plunged into the frames, instantly carving out runes.
The Formation Eye was taking shape.
I stomped down hard. The Pseudo-Primordial Body spun madly within me, and a pale-gold barrier surged from beneath my feet, rising into the sky like a bell and enveloping the three of us. The charging assassin slammed into the light curtain and was flung away, crashing through a crossbeam and coughing up a mouthful of black blood.
The other two swung their blades down. The moment their edges touched the wall of light, a piercing shriek rang out, and their blades chipped apart.
"What an unbreakable protective aura!" one of them cried.
I ignored him and turned to Ye Qingwan. "You said earlier that the Soul-Burning Powder can last ten breaths?"
She nodded, her hand already reaching into her Treasure Pouch.
"Scatter it now," I said.
A glint flashed through her eyes. With a backhanded flick, she hurled the medicinal powder in the bottle at the two assassins casting spells by the entrance. The crimson-black powder ignited in the wind, turning into gray mist that spread through the air. One of them inhaled it, his pupils abruptly contracting. He spun around and slashed at his companion's neck. The other refused to be outdone and actually opened his mouth to bite down on the man's wrist, blood spraying everywhere.
The chaos lasted only a few moments, but it was enough to shatter the formation's balance.
Seizing the chance, I kicked over the altar table. The wooden board smashed into the bloodlight projected from the Formation Eye with a muffled hiss. The red glow condensed in midair immediately twisted and dispersed.
"City Lord Yan," I shouted low as I turned sideways. "Throw the token out."
He froze for a moment, seemingly not understanding.
"The token!" I sharpened my tone. "Throw it now! Throw it outside the courtyard!"
He gritted his teeth and finally reached out, hurling the dark jade seal out the door.
Almost at the same instant, the two assassins guarding the doorway immediately gave chase, scrambling and crawling toward the token where it had landed.
The opportunity had come.
I grabbed Ye Qingwan's wrist and leaped toward the hole in the roof. She did not resist, borrowing my momentum to flip herself up, her hem sweeping past the broken beam. I followed close behind, planting my right foot against the ruined wall for leverage and fiercely kicking the last ambusher in the chest with my left.
Before the man could form a hand seal, he was sent flying backward, smashing through the earthen wall and tumbling into the weeds.
Ye Qingwan had already gained her footing on the roof ridge. The ends of her hair fluttered lightly, her gaze icy and sharp. She looked back at me once without speaking, then turned and raced toward the eastern ruins.
I followed right behind her.
Roars and the clash of weapons came from behind us. There were clearly more deathsworn fighters waiting outside. Yan Jiuxiao was a step slower in getting onto the roof. The blood lines on his left arm snapped apart inch by inch, and his face was pale as paper, yet he still gritted his teeth and followed.
We sped onward, crossing collapsed courtyard walls, shattered pottery jars, and rotten door planks, until we finally slipped into a cluster of abandoned kilns. This had once been where bricks were fired in the old city. Now, only broken walls and crumbling ruins remained, with several half-collapsed kilns standing crookedly like the carcasses of enormous beasts.
I leaned against a scorched stone wall, catching my breath as my palm grew faintly hot. The system sent a slight tremor—another wisp of Heaven-Slaying Origin had silently finished accumulating. I now had two and a half wisps. Only half a wisp remained before I could shed mortality and become a Pseudo-Primordial Body.
Ye Qingwan crouched on the ground, tearing a strip from her sleeve to bandage the wound on her shoulder. Blood soaked through the cloth, but her movements remained steady, and she did not even furrow her brow.
Yan Jiuxiao stood at the cave entrance with his back to us, one hand pressed tightly against his chest, where the fake token was still hidden. His breathing was heavy, sweat mixed with blood and slid down from his brow.
"You knew all along that the token was fake?" he finally asked, his voice hoarse.
"Not all along," I said. "I noticed something from the cracks in the sealing wax. Your City Defense Office changed its clay formula three years ago. The seal on the token at the transaction point had the old cross pattern, while the one on you used fresh clay with a spiderweb pattern."
He fell silent for a moment, then suddenly gave a cold laugh. "So I was the scapegoat? This entire encirclement and assassination plan was never aimed at me?"
"They were after the Token Holder," I corrected. "Whoever held the token became the target. Even if it were a beggar, as long as he had that jade seal in his hand, he would be treated as the person who leaked the secret."
"But why did you give the token to me?" He spun around sharply. "You clearly knew it was fake!"
"Precisely because it was fake, it was useful." I looked at him. "You are the city lord. Your identity is the most conspicuous. They were certain you would fight to the death to protect the token, so they would pursue you with everything they had. But the true opening was never in the token itself."
He stared at me, his eyes complicated.
At that moment, Ye Qingwan raised her head. Her gaze passed between Yan Jiuxiao and me before she suddenly asked, "Then who exactly are you? How could a disgraced legitimate Young Master obtain a fragment of the Nine Revolutions Profound Art in the Black Market? And how could you recognize the Blood Demon Sect's mark at a glance?"
I did not answer.
She did not wait for one either. She merely lowered her head to look at her palm, where a faint trace of pale-gold light still remained—the Origin Power I had pressed into her hand earlier.
"The frequency of your protective barrier is very unusual," she said softly. "It isn't the circulation pattern of ordinary Spiritual Power. It is more like... some kind of rule leaking out."
The wind outside the cave gradually rose. In the distance, flames surged toward the ruined temple. Shadowy figures could vaguely be seen carrying corpses, accompanied by the sound of iron chains dragging across the ground.
Yan Jiuxiao slowly sat down, leaning against the icy stone wall as he clenched his fists.
I closed my eyes and felt the Heaven-Slaying Origin slowly circulating within me. The more dangerous the situation, the faster it accumulated. As long as I did not make a move, I could keep hiding it forever.
But sometimes, even without making a move, I had to let others see my strength.
Ye Qingwan suddenly rose, walked over, and crouched in front of me. She was very close. Raising her hand, her fingertips lightly brushed the edge of my sleeve—where a speck of pale-gold light had yet to fade.
"Next time you scatter medicinal powder," she said quietly, "remember to tell me the dosage first."
Before you continue