Spider Silk I

Under the dissuading gazes of the other three, Illusion Law King Jun raised her head.

"I said it already. You guarantee you'll let me go and save my life?"

"Of course. This is my promise, Aria's!" Aria threw her a flirtatious wink. "I guarantee it with this indescribable beauty of mine."

"Fine, I'll talk! High Mountain's Third General's true identity is..."

Bang!!

One moment, Illusion Law King Jun's beautiful head was still twisted in a savage grimace. The next, it burst like an exploding fruit, red and white pulp mixed with flesh spraying everywhere.

An arm pierced through from an extreme distance away, brutally punching through Jun's skull from the back and breaking out through her forehead, directly blasting her entire head apart.

The arm passed through the walls, through the large crowd of Source Energy Users surrounding the area, and extended all the way into distant Du Jing Peak.

In the instant when no one noticed, that arm had shot over from several kilometers away, piercing through every person and object in its path, breaking through the force-field suppression released by Lei Ling Prince and Aria, and directly killing Jun, the Flying Shadow Source Energy User who was an Illusion Law King.

"Who!?!!!"

Lei Ling Prince and Aria rapidly retreated, suppressing the shock in their hearts as their respective biological armors swiftly covered their bodies. They split apart and flashed to either side.

"Weren't you looking for me?" A calm voice carried over from an extreme distance.

Screech!

The arm suddenly contracted and vanished from their sight in the blink of an eye.

The incident had been far too bizarre. An attack capable of crossing such a vast distance and breaking through their force fields would threaten anyone present.

A faint chill rose in the hearts of both Lei Ling Prince and Aria.

"Could it be some monster drawn out by the Millennium Fragment? Or perhaps High Mountain's Third General has been possessed by a monster from the Folded Space?"

Lei Ling Prince narrowed his eyes, danger glimmering in his pupils.

Boom!!

He abruptly extended a hand, and a pillar of white light formed into a javelin in his grasp.

"Go!"

He lifted his palm slightly. With a hum, the javelin chased after the direction from which the arm had come.

The javelin became a dragon-shaped pillar of light and shot out like a cannonball.

For a moment, blinding afterimages were left in everyone's eyes, while an explosive boom burst against their eardrums and rendered them completely deaf.

"Fall back!!"

Whether Illusion Law Kings or the many Source Energy Users of other factions, no one present could withstand the terrifying shockwave. They hurriedly retreated wildly.

Immediately afterward, an even more deafening boom erupted.

A pink, disc-like force-field ring spread out directly in the distance, as though the earlier pillar of light had struck something immensely powerful and triggered a massive explosion.

"Did that settle it?"

Aria was the only Source Energy User who had not moved away from the scene.

The red-and-green clown-like biological armor covering his body blocked every shockwave completely.

"Someone from the Aojia Empire?"

It was not Lei Ling Prince's voice, but that of the earlier speaker.

A blurry silhouette gradually became distinct beneath the shattered wall of the inn.

He was a man who appeared very young, with gentle features and ordinary clothing. There was not the slightest trace of biological armor on him, yet he simply stood quietly upon ground melted by extreme heat.

Standing before him was Lei Ling Prince.

"You..."

Clear shock appeared on Lei Ling Prince's face, followed at once by an uncontrollable fervor. He sensed the force-field intensity on the other man's body, unfathomable as the abyssal depths of the sea.

"So strong... As expected, my journey of thousands of miles from the imperial capital was not in vain..."

Lin Xin gave the man a slightly strange glance, then shifted his gaze away.

His attention was not on the nearby area at all, but locked from afar onto a certain place beyond Du Jing Town.

"That's right... that's what I want..."

He sank somewhat into thought. The thing that had erupted from Chen Feiyang's body seemed faintly connected to the Millennium Fragment he had only recently acquired.

What exactly that connection was, even he could not say.

The aura of this Millennium Fragment seemed to contain a profundity that even he could not fully fathom.

"Looks like I'll have to gather more Millennium Fragments..."

Pfft!

Lin Xin suddenly paused slightly and slowly lowered his head, looking at Lei Ling Prince, who had abruptly appeared before him.

Lei Ling held two short guns that had merged into one, driving them fiercely into Lin Xin's lower abdomen like a drill. A strange smile curved across his face.

"What are you doing? Performing tricks?"

Lin Xin looked at him.

The eerie smile at the corner of Lei Ling Prince's lips froze at once.

He hunched before Lin Xin, as if his entire head were about to burrow into the other man's embrace.

If not for the short gun viciously stabbing into Lin Xin's abdomen, to outsiders it would have looked as though Lei Ling Prince, beautiful as a Celestial Immortal, had plunged headfirst into Lin Xin's arms.

"Interesting." Lin Xin stretched out a hand, lightly pinched Lei Ling Prince's neck, and lifted him up. "Are you the strongest in the Aojia Empire?"

Lei Ling's biological armor shuddered violently, erupting with the terrifying power possessed only by a high-ranking Annihilation Envoy.

Yet when it struck Lin Xin's hand, it was like a clay ox entering the sea.

His originally exquisite face immediately became even stiffer with terror.

The short gun fell from Lin Xin's abdomen. Not to mention leaving a white mark, it had not even torn his clothing.

Lei Ling Prince, who had still held a trace of hope, turned deathly pale.

His ability, the ability of his biological armor, was to devour and absorb the blood of any living creature, strengthening his biological armor and flesh.

But if he could not even break through the other party's skin, there was no need to speak of absorbing blood.

"You...!" Bang!!

Before he could utter a second sentence.

Lei Ling's entire body exploded. Before the scattered blood and flesh could fly even half a meter away, black light flashed, devouring it all.

Lin Xin casually raised his head, his gaze falling upon the prince's spaceship hovering in midair.

Boom!!

In a single instant, the entire spaceship suddenly exploded, becoming a huge platinum-gold fireball as it crashed toward the earth in the distance.

To him, an Annihilation Envoy was merely a slightly stronger little ant in terms of power and speed.

There was actually no difference between one and a Flying Shadow Source Energy User.

The only difference was that an Annihilation Envoy's power, speed, and abilities were far greater than a Flying Shadow's.

Of course, that "far greater" was only in relation to ordinary people. To him, that slight increase could basically be ignored. It was equivalent to a somewhat larger ant.

"G-General...!"

Illusion Law King Li was the first to rush back, only to witness the entire process of Lin Xin devouring Lei Ling Prince.

Her lovely face was pale, yet she still forcibly suppressed the urge to turn and flee.

Illusion Law King Ji also slowly returned, together with Sha Lu and the remaining subordinates of the High Mountain organization.

Every face was filled with shock. None of them could speak.

Especially Sha Lu.

Lei Ling Prince, who had just been dominating the entire field and was practically invincible, had now been crushed in an instant like a chicken awaiting slaughter.

That powerful contrast made the High Mountain organization members, who had been in despair moments ago, feel as though they had risen from hell to heaven in an instant.

Aria and the others also hurriedly rushed back.

But all they saw was the final moment when Lin Xin blew Lei Ling Prince apart.

The experts from the Star Cluster Empire, Ith Empire, and other factions all had their pupils contract sharply.

Some people from the Dark Investigation Department had already begun quietly retreating.

Aria's expression was incomparably ugly. His eyes even held a trace of incomprehension and disbelief as he stared fixedly at Lin Xin, who stood where he was.

"He actually killed one of Lei Ling Prince's avatars in an instant?" His tone no longer carried its earlier relaxed, seductive air. It was replaced by gravity and tension.

"Aren't you running?"

Lin Xin withdrew his gaze from the distance and slowly settled it on Aria.

Aria shook his head, seeming to have finally recognized reality.

"Before Your Excellency, running and not running are no different. I'm not Lei Ling, with who knows how many blood avatars."

"Then what is your decision?" Lin Xin curved his lips and asked casually.

"I don't want to die."

Aria let out a long sigh.

"If Your Excellency is willing, I hope to submit myself under your command."

He understood that if the other party had wanted to kill him, he would have acted long ago. Just as with Lei Ling, he would not have wasted words on him.

"I do happen to need a few people to handle miscellaneous matters for me." Lin Xin extended his right hand, palm spread flat.

A colorful, gelatinous fragment emerged.

"High Mountain's strength can provide me with intelligence, but they have too few people. Therefore, everyone present who wishes to survive must have value worth keeping alive for."

"I understand Your Excellency's meaning."

Aria's scalp prickled, but he forced out a smile.

There were no fewer than eight hundred, perhaps even a thousand people gathered here. It also included personnel from numerous major factions.

This person before them actually intended to bring everyone here under his command in one stroke.

This... was simply a wild fantasy.

"Forgive me for speaking plainly, Third General. Even if you temporarily achieve your objective through violent and bloody methods, these organizations' people will each return afterward and be subjected to all kinds of inspections and probing. Furthermore, since they are not willing, they will inevitably turn against you after returning..."

After her shock, Illusion Law King Li finally reacted and hurriedly stepped forward to remind him.

"It doesn't matter."

Lin Xin replied blandly.

"I only need news of Millennium Fragments. As for turning against me..."

He extended a hand and gave it a light flick.

Countless streams of red magma melted across the ground boiled and rose, automatically gathering and changing shape before him. Soon, they became thin, gray-black stone tablets.

The stone tablets were glowing red and scorching hot. Because of the intense temperature created by the earlier pillar of light, they remained half-molten.

The stone tablets scattered automatically, page after page, shooting in all directions with whooshes.

Such an almost divine technique of force-field manipulation left Aria and the two Illusion Law Kings dumbfounded. As for the crowd gathering around them again at the outskirts, they too were utterly stunned.

"This... has already gone beyond the scope of biological armor..." The last trace of disbelief Illusion Law King Ji had held completely vanished.

"Third General is not an Annihilation Envoy at all..."

Illusion Law King Li widened her eyes. A terrifying term never heard before faintly flashed through her mind.

"No wonder Your Excellency does not care at all about the coercion of every faction here..."

Aria had clearly accepted reality by now.

A wise man submits to circumstances. Besides, he had originally betrayed one organization to join the Dark Investigation Department.

So long as he could survive, he would be willing even to be the other man's dog.

As for dignity?

He had never possessed such a thing.

However, the glowing red stone tablet pages floating before him left him somewhat puzzled.

"Your Excellency... may I ask what these are..."

Faint, incomprehensible patterns and symbols were engraved upon the stone tablets, making them look exceedingly mysterious.