Realm Walker

Elation blazed across Zhang Yuanqing's and Queen's faces. That single kick from Guan Ya had all but sealed the victory. Zhang Yuanqing approached his downed opponent, streaking toward Li Xianzong on his Red Dancing Shoes to finish him off.

He had deliberately chosen not to use the Demon-subduing Awl's purification on himself earlier, partly because he trusted the Red Dancing Shoes, and partly to lull Li Xianzong into a false sense of victory and create an opening for Guan Ya.

The rat man panicked. He raised his bamboo tube and fired off a rapid burst, launching six poison needles in quick succession. With his body still under the Red Dancing Shoes' control, Zhang Yuanqing spun, leaped, and twisted, weaving past every single one.

Li Xianzong's head lolled at a sickening angle. His eyes burned crimson, feral and murderous. He slammed his arms together, and a wall of dense fog surged forward, engulfing his body.

Guan Ya sprinted after him, but when she reached the spot, he was gone.

A blood-chilling scream echoed from deep within the fog.

"No!" Zhang Yuanqing cried as he realized what had happened instantly.

Cornered and desperate, Li Xianzong had killed the man with the crew cut. The Enchanting Demon's blood frenzy was triggered by slaughter.

Li Xianzong's satisfied sigh drifted through the fog. "Of course. Only killing brings me joy. Only killing makes me invincible."

Guan Ya's pretty face darkened. "This bastard..."

Suddenly, she sensed the fog ahead of her churning. Something was closing in fast. A straight punch blew out of the grey mist and rocketed toward her chest.

She'd already begun retreating, crossing her arms over her torso. Still, the blow connected with a massive impact, and pain exploded through her forearms. She staggered backward, nearly falling.

"Yuanshi, he's back to at least eighty percent strength!" she shouted, fighting to stabilize her stance.

She swept her long leg forward in a horizontal arc, churning the fog in front of her into a turbulent swirl, but there was nothing there. A sudden gust of air screamed in from the side, and Guan Ya's heart lurched. She retracted her leg, pivoted, and threw out a fist.

Crack!

Fist met fist, and she heard her own finger bones shatter. The pain nearly brought tears to her eyes. The gap in raw strength was so great that her superior technique could not close it. On top of that, the fog robbed her of her sight, leaving her to take hits she couldn't see coming.

She had zero chance.

Boom!

A deafening explosion ripped through the air. The shockwave, wrapped in flame, tore the fog apart. From the corner of her eye, Guan Ya caught Li Xianzong lunging toward her.

In the face of mortal danger, she charged instead of retreating, slipping past his knife and ramming her shoulder into his chest. But all it did was rock the Enchanting Demon slightly. She couldn't push him back.

Realization hit the seasoned fighter like a stone dropping into her gut. This is bad.

Li Xianzong snarled, clamped his arm around Guan Ya's neck, and pressed the butterfly knife to her pale, slender throat.

"Li Xianzong!" Zhang Yuanqing yelled, his face twisted with fury.

The butterfly knife kissed the skin on Guan Ya's neck, then jerked to a halt. A water whip had coiled around Li Xianzong's wrist.

The other end was in Queen's hand.

The earlier explosion had punched a small window through the fog, giving her a clear view of what was happening.

Zhang Yuanqing hit the second button on the Cat King Speaker. Instantly, the piercing wail of a suona split the air, each note shriller and more devastating than the last, sharp enough to crack metal and shatter stone.

Blood vessels inside Zhang Yuanqing's eyes burst as his muscles swelled to almost twice their size, his veins bulging like cords beneath his skin. He looked like a bull pumped full of stimulants. The suona's power dragged his broken, exhausted body back to its peak for one fleeting moment.

The side effects of this ability were catastrophic. It was a terrible gamble, and he would never use it unless certain death was the alternative. There was every chance the suona's power would destroy him before he destroyed his enemy.

He rocketed forward on the Red Dancing Shoes, faster than he'd ever moved, leaving afterimages in his wake. The keen edge of the yanagiba streaked toward Li Xianzong's temple.

Li Xianzong's wrist was still bound by the water whip. He shoved Guan Ya hard, launching her straight into Zhang Yuanqing's path. Zhang Yuanqing retracted his knife and caught her.

Li Xianzong ripped free of the whip, legs coiling and springing as he lunged forward. "You want to go all out? Come on then."

"Come on!"

Zhang Yuanqing landed a solid blow with his fist, sending Li Xianzong flying. Then he grabbed Guan Ya's hand and ran, bolting for the edge of the square.

Li Xianzong touched down lightly, completely unharmed, a cold smirk on his lips. "You think you can run?"

He was about to give chase when the rat man's panicked shout cut through the air. "Li Xianzong! Something grabbed the staff and took off with it!"

Li Xianzong's heart skipped a beat. He abandoned his pursuit immediately, scanning the fog, feeling for disturbances in its flow. Within his perception, the staff was floating by itself, one end tilted up, the other dragging along the ground, and it was scurrying away at surprising speed.

"A spirit?"

He snorted, reached into his coat, and produced a circular plastic needle case. From it, he drew a single dark needle that radiated vicious spectral energy. The fleeing staff screeched to a halt then clattered to the ground, as if whatever had been dragging it had been terrified into fleeing.

On the other end of their link, Zhang Yuanqing instantly felt Little Goofball's terror, a fear so intense it had driven the infant spirit to the verge of tears.

So the bastard really did prepare something to counter powerful spirits. Zhang Yuanqing's last shred of hope vanished, and his resolve to flee hardened to iron.

The escape had been a feint. His real objective was to have Little Goofball steal the staff while testing whether Li Xianzong had anti-spirit measures. If it had been a bluff, Zhang Yuanqing would have thrown on the Red Veil without hesitation. Unfortunately, after their clash at Pingtai Hospital, Li Xianzong had witnessed the ghost bride's power firsthand, and had come prepared.

Damn it. The hidden quest reward is my only shot, Zhang Yuanqing decided. He ordered the Red Dancing Shoes to assume their alternate form, sent them a command for them to harass Li Xianzong, then turned and pulled Guan Ya out of the square without looking back.

The two of them burst free of the square, with Queen following close behind, face white, a faint hint of despair in her eyes.

"We're giving up?" the smoky-eyed Queen asked.

Guan Ya laughed bitterly. "How do we fight? With what?"

Her gaze drifted to Zhang Yuanqing, whose muscles were still swollen and his face flushed an unnatural red. It was obviously some kind of temporary potential-unleashing technique. When it wore off, his condition would be worse than ever.

Queen bit her lip hard. Grass Upon the Plains and Li Chunfeng caught up in time to hear the exchange. The light drained from their eyes, replaced by bleak resignation.

Zhang Yuanqing waved them quiet. "Everyone shut up and listen. Grab Fire Virtue and Lotus Eater. We're taking the river and heading back to where we did our initial planning. Queen, can you carry all of us there?"

The Queen nodded, her expression hollow. "You want to adopt guerilla tactics? Use the dungeon's open terrain to drag things out?"

Li Chunfeng frowned. The strategy was the last resort of a cornered animal, but they had nothing better. All they could do was survive as long as possible.

"Stop talking and move. Now." Zhang Yuanqing's voice left no room for argument.

Li Xianzong had a curse-releasing item. The Red Dancing Shoes wouldn't stall him for long. Every second counted.

As for the hidden quest reward, he kept that to himself. He didn't know the item's properties yet, and sometimes rare items did not pack offensive power. If the reward turned out to be something with a niche utility skill rather than a fight-winning ability, the team's morale would collapse entirely. They wouldn't even have the spirit left for guerrilla tactics.

Yes. If the hidden reward couldn't turn the tide, he'd wage a war of attrition against Li Xianzong.

Grass Upon the Plains hoisted Fire Virtue onto his back, while Li Chunfeng carried Lotus Eater. The group leaped into the river as one.

The water was clear and biting cold. The Queen moved through it like she'd been born to it, and four powerful currents surged at her command, propelling her teammates forward at speed as they swam toward their earlier staging point.

***

Li Xianzong bent to retrieve the staff and dropped to both knees at the same time, prostrating himself before the Red Dancing Shoes. In an instant, the pristine pair of shoes took on a dull, ashen tinge. The frequency of their attacks slowed, and the power of their strikes weakened.

Tch. The Spell Robe only suppresses it? This thing has Saint-tier power. His eyes blazed with covetous heat. These Red Dancing Shoes must be top-tier. Once I kill Yuanshi Tianzun, they're mine.

He pulled his gaze away and examined the information on the staff.

【Name: Staff of Decay】

【Type: Weapon】

【Function: Curse】

【Description: The weapon of the Poison Valley Master. Every three years, the lord of the valley slaughtered over a thousand souls and pooled their blood to nourish this weapon. One day, the Yin Yang Hermit heard of the lord's crimes. He traveled to Poison Valley, ended his wicked life, and took this item.】

【Note 1: Activate the gemstone at the tip of the staff to curse all living creatures within a fifty meter radius.】

【Note 2: You may place a curse on any target that has harmed you. An eye for an eye. Blood for blood.】

【Note 3: When you wield this staff, you owe it one thousand lives.】

Incredible. Li Xianzong's eyes narrowed as ecstasy flooded through him. With this, nothing at the Transcendent tier could stop him. He could even hold his own against a Level 5 Saint. And in a large-scale slaughter dungeon? He'd be untouchable, and would be the highest-scoring player on the board.

Every large-scale slaughter dungeon would have a ranking system. Plenty of Walkers advanced through them each year, but the spotlight fell on the top ten. Anyone who cracked that list was destined to become a Saint-tier powerhouse, like the Five Elements Alliance's Four Young Masters. They were all top-ten finishers.

Ordinary stewards, by contrast, were Saints who'd never made the list.

Still, the cost of the item was terrifying. Li Xianzong reined in his elation, brow furrowing. From the moment he used the staff, he'd have three years to give it one thousand lives. Given the Morality restrictions in place, a thousand lives would cost ten thousand points. Even if he started doing good deeds nonstop right that second, he probably couldn't accumulate that much Morality.

Could he perhaps hand it off to someone else before the three-year deadline? No. That was too obvious an exploit. An item of this caliber wouldn't have a loophole that simple.

Beside him, the rat man snickered. "Told you, didn't I? This thing is broken beyond belief."

He licked his lips, beady eyes glittering with something vile and hungry. "Boss, those two women earlier were gorgeous. How about we hamstring them and let me have some fun?"

Li Xianzong's spirits were soaring after acquiring the staff. He endured the Red Dancing Shoes' weakened blows and flashed a grin.

"Sure. You could ask for a guy and I wouldn't care."

The rat faced man straightened. "Then let's get after them. These brats think they can play guerrilla? Ha. Fat chance."

***

After surfacing twice to catch his breath, Zhang Yuanqing peered through the murky, particle flecked water and spotted a coffin resting ahead of them. He reached forward and gave the Queen a quick tap on the rear, then pointed toward the coffin, signaling her to go on.

She glanced back, confusion written across her face. She had searched this stretch of river before, and had even blasted away the silt on the riverbed to check. When did the coffin appear?

She didn't know about the hidden quest, nor did she know about Little Goofball's Treasure Hunting skill. Back then, she hadn't understood why Yuanshi Tianzun wanted to search this stretch of water. Finally, it was starting to click. But how had he known about it in advance? And what was inside?

The Queen undulated through the water with fishlike grace, guiding everyone to a stop before the coffin. She pointed upward, signaling them to surface.

Zhang Yuanqing and the others kicked toward the surface, riding the current, and hauled themselves up onto the bank.

Zhang Yuanqing stumbled, barely staying on his feet. His face was bloodless, with the hollow, guttering look of a lamp burning its last drops of oil.

The sustained high-intensity fighting, the Demon-subduing Awl's purification, the gauntlets' explosions, the Cat King Speaker's suona... All of it had wrung him dry. The only thing holding him up was the Nocturnal Specter's naturally resilient constitution.

He'd barely found his footing when there was a great splash behind him. A geyser of water launched the coffin out of the river and deposited it on the bank, and Queen leaped out after it. Unlike Guan Ya, who was dripping wet, not a single drop of water clung to her.

"What is this?" Li Chunfeng asked.

He crouched beside the coffin, studying it closely. It was nearly two meters long, black lacquer peeling, obviously waterlogged for ages. Nothing remarkable about it.

"This really isn't the time to be fishing junk out of the river," Grass Upon the Plains urged. "We need to keep moving."

Then, he noticed that Li Chunfeng, Guan Ya, and the Queen had all turned to stare at Zhang Yuanqing, their expressions thoughtful.

Zhang Yuanqing's voice was thin and ragged, and it seemed like he was forcing himself to speak. "It's a hidden quest. Whether we turn this around depends on what's inside."

The words hit them like lightning. All four faces transformed, sudden wild hope burning away the despair that had been there just moments ago.

He'd been hiding this up his sleeve the whole time?

The Queen's breathing quickened. "Open it. Now."

Li Chunfeng was already reaching for the lid, but no matter how hard he strained, the coffin wouldn't budge.

He whipped around frantically to face Zhang Yuanqing. "It won't open! What do we do?!"

Guan Ya was staring at Zhang Yuanqing too, urgency sharpening her features. "The conditions for opening it probably haven't been met yet. What's the hidden quest?"

Every second mattered. Li Xianzong could catch up at any moment, and one wave of the staff would stop every heart within fifty meters.

Zhang Yuanqing didn't waste time. He pulled the round white jade pendant from his inventory and placed it on the coffin lid. The unassuming jade pendant flared, sending out a soft white glow that washed over the entire coffin, then the pendant vanished.

Zhang Yuanqing reached out a trembling hand and gave the lid a push. It slid open with almost no resistance.

Every pair of eyes snapped to the coffin's interior.