The One Who Tore Down the Window Paper
Ye Xinglan ran very fast.
Because she heard a loud bang.
Her lungs felt like they had been burned; every breath carried a metallic, rusty smell, but she didn't stop.
When the street, now razed to the ground, came into view, her steps slowed; she saw a figure.
A silvery-white figure swept across the night sky, like a shooting star falling to earth, landing silently at the edge of the crater.
Cai Yue'er.
Ye Xinglan quickened her pace and rushed over.
The gravel rolled beneath her feet, and the smell of scorched earth filled the air. She stumbled and climbed to the edge of the pit, stopping beside Cai Yue'er.
She opened her mouth, wanting to ask, "Where is Yun Jingheng?", "Where did he go?", "Is he alright?"—but all the sounds were stuck in her throat, and she couldn't utter a single word.
Because she saw what Cai Yue'er was holding in her hand.
Soul Guidance Communicator.
No, it's the wreckage of Soul Guidance Communicator.
The outer casing was cracked, exposing the internal components. Several thin wires dangled from the cracks, swaying gently in the night breeze.
That was Yun Jingheng's communicator. Ye Xinglan recognized it. There was a small crescent moon engraved on the back of the communicator, which Yun Jingheng had engraved himself.
Cai Yue'er held the fragment tightly in her hand, her knuckles turning white.
Her other hand hung at her side, her silver-white skirt was covered with dust and gravel, her hair was a little messy, and a few strands of silver hair slipped from her temples, obscuring her profile.
Ye Xinglan couldn't see her expression.
"Teacher Cai."
Ye Xinglan finally found her voice, hoarse and dry, like water squeezed from sand, "Where's Jing Heng?"
Cai Yue'er did not answer.
"Teacher Cai, where is Jing Heng?"
silence.
"Teacher Cai--!"
"I have no idea."
Cai Yue'er's voice was very soft, so soft that it was almost blown away by the night breeze.
It was a kind of Ye Xinglan that Ye Xinglan had never heard of before, an unfamiliar emptiness that chilled her to the bone.
It was as if someone had dug a hole in her voice, and all her emotions leaked out through that hole.
Ye Xinglan's legs went weak, and her knee hit the gravel at the edge of the pit, scraping her skin, but she felt no pain.
She reached out and grabbed Cai Yue'er's sleeve, gripping it tightly.
"Could he...?"
"No, it can't be."
Cai Yue'er's voice was filled with certainty.
She released the communicator fragment, which slipped from her hand and fell softly onto the rubble at the bottom of the pit.
Then she raised her right hand.
Her hands were covered in dust and blood of unknown origin—perhaps her own, perhaps someone else's.
My fingers were trembling, a fine, dense tremor from the base to the tip, like autumn leaves struggling in the wind.
Her Soul Guidance Communicator hovered in her palm, its silver-white body gleaming coldly in the moonlight.
Her finger hovered above the touchscreen for a moment. Then she pressed the number.
Beep--beep--beep-- Each beep felt like a hammer blow to her heart.
Her breathing became shallow and rapid, and the rhythm of her chest rising and falling betrayed her outward calm.
She bit her lower lip hard, until the color of her lips changed from pinkish-white to pale, and then a drop of blood seeped out from the teeth marks, slowly spreading along the lines of her lips.
The call was connected.
"Yue'er?"
"Ming... Brother Ming..."
"What's wrong?"
"Jing Heng... he..."
"What happened to Jing Heng?"
He's gone...
"Gone? What happened?"
Cai Yue'er told everything she knew, and the other person remained silent for a long time.
"Wait for me."
Cai Yue'er slowly lowered her hand holding the communicator, and it slipped from her grasp, falling together with Yun Jingheng's remains. One was black, the other white; one was large, the other small, like two kites with broken strings, never to fly again.
The night wind blew, drying the bloodstains on Cai Yue'er's skirt, cooling the tear stains on Ye Xinglan's face, and scattering the last ray of moonlight in the pit.
In the distance, Zhuo Shi's crimson figure was rapidly approaching.
Cai Yue'er stood at the edge of the pit, gazing at the direction where the now-vanished crack had once stood in the night sky. Her lips parted slightly, as if she were saying something, but no one could hear her.
Boom--!
The crimson figure crashed to the edge of the crater, sending rocks flying and cracking the ground.
Zhuo Shi's body emerged from the dust and smoke of the impact. The scales of the Red Armored Dragon still bore the scorch marks of the battle, and several scales were broken, revealing the skin beneath.
The old man looked around.
The streets disappeared, the buildings disappeared, the streetlights, the roadside trees, the shop shutters—everything was gone.
Instead, there was a giant crater hundreds of meters in diameter, with charred soil and broken rocks at the bottom, and glassy crystals formed by high-temperature burning on the walls, reflecting a pale light under the moonlight.
The air was thick with the stench of gunpowder, scorched earth, and blood, so strong it was nauseating.
His gaze swept across the edge of the giant crater, over the shattered armor fragments, over the Soul Douluo who had been reduced to a pool of blood by three level-six Fixed Soul Guidance Cannonball, and over the communicator wreckage scattered at the bottom of the crater—one silver-white and one black.
He paused for a moment.
He recognized the silver-white one; it belonged to Cai Yue'er.
That black one... he'd seen it countless times, Xiao Jing Heng.
He strode towards Cai Yue'er amidst the Zhuo Shi.
The scales of the Red Armored Dragon gradually disappeared from his body, revealing his old and emaciated body beneath, but his steps remained heavy and powerful, each step leaving deep footprints on the scorched earth.
He walked to Cai Yue'er's side, stopped, and his gaze swept over her blank face before landing on the wreckage of the black communicator at her feet.
Where is Xiao Jing Heng?
Zhuo Shi's voice was hoarse and deep, like iron polished with sandpaper, each word carrying a heavy weight.
Cai Yue'er did not answer.
Her gaze lingered on the direction where the crack in the night sky had once stood, her lips slightly pursed, and the lines of her jaw taut.
Zhuo Shi asked again, his voice deeper. "Yue'er, where is Xiao Jing Heng?"
"I don't know." Cai Yue'er's voice was very soft, so soft that it was almost blown away by the night breeze.
She finally looked away, lowered her head, and stared at her empty hands.
My fingers were still trembling slightly, a fine, persistent tremor from the base to the tip, which I couldn't stop.
"When I arrived, there was nothing left but the wreckage of his communicator."
The Zhuo Shi fell silent.
His cloudy old eyes moved away from Cai Yue'er and scanned the battlefield again, observing the depth of the giant crater, its spread, and the traces of Soul Power remaining on the scorched earth.
He was calculating, using his experience and intuition Titled Douluo to reconstruct everything that had happened here.
A few minutes later, he came to a conclusion that made his heart tighten.
"He used Blood Moon." Zhuo Shi's voice was even lower, so low it sounded like a muffled thud coming from underground.
Cai Yue'er nodded, her movements so subtle they were almost imperceptible.
"There are also level 6 Fixed Soul Guidance Cannonball."
Zhuo Shi crouched down, picked up a small fragment of a shell casing from the scorched earth, twirled it between his thumb and forefinger, then released it. The fragment fell back to the ground with a soft, crisp sound.
"Level 6? How could he have Level 6 shells?"
"He did it."
Cai Yue'er's voice remained very soft.
"I once showed him the design blueprints for a Level 6 Fixed Soul Guidance Cannonball, and he was able to make it."
"Zhuo Shi," she began.
"Um."
"Star Luo Empire... must give us an explanation."
Her voice didn't tremble when she said those words.
From the first word to the last, it was as smooth as a frozen river, its surface as smooth as a mirror, revealing no hidden currents beneath.
Zhuo Shi saw it; in the depths of her deep blue eyes, he saw something surging, scalding, almost boiling beneath the surface of the river.
"Tang Wulin is seriously injured, Xie Xie, Yuanen Yehui, Wu Siduo are unconscious, Xu Xiaoyan has a severe fracture in her left hand, Jing Heng... is missing."
The Zhuo Shi remained silent for a long time.
He turned around, facing the center of Star Luo City, where it was brightly lit and the golden dome of the imperial palace shimmered in the night, unaffected by anything that had happened that night.
A massive crater hundreds of meters in diameter was blasted into the northern edge of the city, where Shrek Academy's genius students vanished without a trace. Yet, the heart of the city continues to beat steadily, as if nothing had happened.
"They have to hand them over."
Zhuo Shi's voice wasn't loud, but every word seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth, carrying the oppressive feeling unique to the Red Armored Dragon Martial Soul, a feeling from the ancient and barbaric era.
"Those who plan, those who execute, and those who handle the aftermath—none of them can be missing."
Cai Yue'er bent down and picked up the remains of Yun Jingheng's communicator from the rubble. She wiped the dust off the surface with her sleeve, then clutched it tightly in her hand, so tightly that the broken casing cut her palm, and blood seeped from between her fingers, dripping onto the scorched soil.
She didn't loosen her grip; instead, she tightened it even more.
"What if Star Luo Empire can't pay?" she asked.
Zhuo Shi turned to look at her.
Something was burning in those cloudy old eyes.
"Then let Star Luo Empire become our explanation."
Cai Yue'er looked into his eyes for two seconds, then nodded gently.
"I've already informed Brother Ming."
Cai Yue'er said, "He's on his way."
Close your eyes to this Zhuo Shi.
What does Yun Ming's arrival signify?
Yun Ming's arrival means that the thin veil separating Shrek Academy and the Star Luo Empire will be completely torn apart.
The son of the successor to the Sea God Pavilion Master, the man known as "the strongest in the world," disappeared here, in this city, in the heart of the Star Luo Empire.
Who the hell comes here for tea at a time like this?
The night wind grew stronger, causing their robes to flutter loudly.
The scales of the Red Armored Dragon in the Zhuo Shi are faintly visible beneath its skin, like strands of suppressed magma that could burst through the earth's crust at any moment.
Cai Yue'er's long, silvery-white hair was blown about by the wind and fluttered in the night sky, like a flag that refused to fall even after a defeat.
"Let's go, let's settle the other children first, and wait for Yun Ming to arrive."
"Um."
Cai Yue'er pulled the sobbing Ye Xinglan along as they followed Zhuo Shi.