The bullet left the chamber amidst a loud rumble and tore right through the pages!
The projectile grazed Xu Ran’s chest, tearing through all the flesh and revealing a row of golden ribs. The pages in the air burst into flames after he was struck, and that ephemeral sensation around the man suddenly vanished.
“You… managed to hit me! What is that secret art?!” Xu Ran glared at Zhao Jundu.
For the first time, the calm Zhao Jundu found himself in a difficult spot. How was he to explain Trueshot? A shot that is always true? Any explanation would sound like he was making fun of the other party.
While he was thinking about it, his vision went dark, and he fell off the sky. Soulrender was a weapon only heavenly monarchs could use. Zhao Jundu wasn’t one just yet, so a single shot drained him entirely.
Xu Ran glanced once at the world below him before riding away on his ancient book.
All of a sudden, he sensed an inexplicable sense of danger and jumped out of sheer instinct.
A garish sword radiance swept past under him at that moment.
Out of nowhere, a girl in a white dress appeared. She still looked as innocent and puzzled as she always did.
“W-What is this?!” Xu Ran was startled. This girl’s entrance was too uncanny and out of place.
The girl moved all of a sudden.
Shaken, Xu Ran raised his arms to protect his body against the potential attack. This world was being absolutely unreasonable. This was clearly a desolate land, yet they had produced an endless stream of strange experts, pushing this emissary into a corner. He was out of treasures at this point, so he had to be careful.
He was guarded against the incoming attack, but he never would’ve imagined that the girl would go for the book. She latched onto the tome with her little hands and tugged hard!
Xu Ran’s connection to the ancient book was cut off, and the girl dragged the item away.
The girl turned and fled, biting the sword in her mouth and holding the book on her head.
Xu Ran staggered from the anger.
Qianye shouted from below, “Kongzhao, that’s not your sword!”
The girl swung her head in his direction and let the blade fly toward Qianye. She then ran away with the book in tow, never to be seen again.
The sword stabbed into the ground beside Qianye, still trembling slightly from the impact.
Qianye let out a wry smile as he put away the blade. “Why not come down?”
An expressionless Xu Ran slowly landed on the ground.
“Now that things have reached this stage, what do you have to say for yourself?”
Xu Ran plucked a hair from his head and transformed it into a blade. “Enough nonsense, come fight me if you’re so capable.”
“Allow me!”
The arachne warlord Noxus jumped down from atop the Sacred Mountain.
Xu Ran charged forth to meet the incoming combatant, unleashing a torrent of sword radiance that restrained Noxus entirely. This hair-sword was his true power, with which he made short work of Noxus. The warlord could hardly retaliate.
The arachne warlord roared furiously, but both his armor and the constitution he was so proud of felt like paper before Xu Ran’s blows. He was covered in wounds within moments. Fortunately, the arachne possessed powerful lifeforce, so these injuries weren’t a threat to his life just yet.
Noxus charged in from a risky position and finally managed to land a blow on Xu Ran’s chest. This was the first time he had struck the enemy’s vitals since the battle began.
“Clang!” The axe managed to cut through the emissary’s flesh but was bounced back after hitting his metallic chest bones.
Noxus was stunned for a moment, during which a slash arrived at his waist.
The arachne did not have the time to evade. The attack cut open his abdomen and almost split him into two. Several spider webs flew over and enveloped Noxus at this point, then dragged him away. The Spider Queen had stepped in to save the warlord.
Xu Ran didn’t go after the target, either. He stood there with his sword pointed at the ground and said coldly, “I’m invincible as long as I’m protected by the power of the chronicle. You can’t destroy me even if you destroy my physical body. The Immortal Heavens will send people to investigate if I don’t return in thirty years. Only death awaits you all when the time comes. Even now, how many are you willing to sacrifice in order to destroy my physical shell?”
“The power of chronicle?” Qianye walked over to Xu Ran.
“Exactly. The power of the chronicle binds together the radiant sun and this world. No one from this world can remove it, did you think I came unprepared?” Xu Ran sneered.
Qianye’s consciousness sank into the depths of his body, where a jade box sat within his heavenly monarch crystal. It was the Feather of Fortunate Omens!
Qianye raised his hand and formed a sword with two fingers, which he thrust toward Xu Ran.
The emissary made no effort to evade and merely stabbed Qianye through the waist.
The two attacked almost at the same time. The incoming sword pierced Qianye all the way through and emerged from his back. The pain caused even someone like him to groan softly, which proved that there was definitely some other power on the blade. Qianye’s sword fingers, on the other hand, were stopped by the emissary’s rib cage.
At that moment, a small jade box opened at his fingertips, revealing a drop of water so transparent that it was hardly visible. That was the Martial Emperor’s gift.
Qianye exerted some strength, shouting, “Go!”
The waterdrop shot through Xu Ran’s ribs and shattered his heart with relative ease.
The emissary was shocked. “I have a great future ahead of me. How can I… die… here…”
He fell onto his back with open eyes.
The Feather of Fortunate Omens transformed into countless butterflies that flew up into the air to form a familiar figure.
Qianye trembled all over. “Adoptive Father!”
Lin Xitang turned around to face him.
Qianye glanced at his surroundings and found that everything was quiet. Everyone was focused on the dead Xu Ran, so much so that none of them noticed what was happening over here.
Lin Xitang glanced at the emissary’s corpse. “Back when I learned of the Martial Ancestor’s backup plan, I knew he was also skeptical of the Chronicle of Glory. It’s just that the human race’s fortunes had been accelerated, so we had no choice but to complete the plan. Otherwise, the human race would never survive the calamity once it was over. The Martial Emperor’s plan wasn’t perfect, so I added to it and removed the seal in that last attack. It looks like I made the right choice. The Immortal Emissary is indeed difficult to deal with.”
Qianye wanted to say something, but Lin Xitang already knew what he was going to say. “You did well, very well in fact. I paved the way for you, but the path was extremely difficult. In truth, I didn’t know whether you would succeed. Not only did you reach the end goal, but you did so in a much better fashion than I had imagined. What you have achieved today, what the humans and Evernight have achieved today, is something you did on your own. Other people may be able to guide you, but they can’t help you take a single step. Unfortunately, the human race’s fortune has come to an end, otherwise, I would’ve been able to set things up in leisure. There would’ve been no need to force the fight on the void continent to expedite the momentum. You would not have to suffer so much, either.”
Qianye said, “I’m not afraid, but… what should I do from now on?”
Lin Xitang smiled. “You’ve grown up and you’ve long since found your own path. What you’ve done on Fort Continent is something I could’ve never imagined. You should keep following your own path.”
Qianye wanted to say something, but Lin Xitang’s image became blurry as the butterflies began to disperse.
“Adoptive Father!”
Lin Xitang turned back to him. “What else do you have to say?”
“Are you… really dead?”
“Of course.”
“But who in this world could’ve killed you?”
Lin Xitang smiled, saying, “No single person in this world can kill me, but the well-being of the countless living beings here can.”
With that, he turned around and left, slowly merging into the world.
