Realm Walker

Just as Zhang Yuanqing had suspected, the final step to complete the hidden quest had been to kill the sorcerer.

The staff had to be the reward promised for reaching the square first. Kill the boss, snatch the loot. This was a test of team endurance, and his body was in terrible shape, stamina plummeting by the second.

What was this unclaimed Yin Yang Spell Robe, though? Where was he supposed to pick it up? Right, the river.

A flood of thoughts crashed through Zhang Yuanqing's mind in a single heartbeat, but there was no time to think. Li Xianzong, the closest person to the staff, was already lunging for it.

The move sent adrenaline spiking through every member of the Lawful team.

Bang!

The crack of a gunshot rang out. Li Xianzong, who was already stretching for the staff, threw himself flat a beat early, rolling across the ground in a blur. A massive crater appeared right where he'd been standing.

He'd been tracking the sniper the whole time and anticipated the shot.

Seizing the opening, Zhang Yuanqing rode forward on his Red Dancing Shoes, charging ahead of everyone to reach the staff. His fingers closed around it.

"Yuanshi!" Queen cried out.

Zhang Yuanqing froze. His hand was empty. The staff had vanished.

No—it had never been picked up at all. He had been hallucinating, caught in an illusion.

Pfft! Pfft!

The rat man's cheeks puffed out, and two emerald-green poisoned needles shot out from the slender bamboo tube between his lips. Without waiting for a command from Zhang Yuanqing, the Red Dancing Shoes took over, spinning him in a tight pirouette and whisking him sideways. Both needles whistled past, missing by inches.

The youth with the missing ear burst forward like an arrow, racing for the staff where it lay on the ground. The instant he neared it, two metal rings sailed through the air and cinched around his torso and legs. Momentum carried the youth forward, hurling him into the dirt in a graceless faceplant.

Bang!

Guan Ya's bullet punched clean through his skull. Bone and tissue sprayed outward, and the Hex Master crumpled, dead before he hit the ground.

A chill ran through the remaining three Evil-class Walkers, Li Xianzong included.

At that moment, Fire Virtue flicked his wrist and hurled a lance of pure flame that embedded itself beside the staff. In the same breath, fire engulfed his body as he used the flames to transport himself across the intervening space, materializing where the lance had struck.

The instant he stooped down to grab the staff, Guan Ya and Li Chunfeng each locked onto a separate enemy and squeezed their triggers, providing cover fire.

Relief flashed across Zhang Yuanqing's face. Beautifully done.

The Red Dancing Shoes led him toward Fire Virtue, ready to secure the artifact. Whoever controlled the staff controlled the fight.

A small wooden box appeared in Li Xianzong's palm. The lid snapped open with a click, and the next instant, thick fog flooded the square, cutting visibility to zero.

Li Xianzong had held this item back during the fight with the sorcerer. Fog would barely hinder a creature with supernatural senses, and it would have blinded both his own team as well as the Lawful team, leaving them helpless fodder. Thus, he'd waited.

Guan Ya and Li Chunfeng had no choice but to hold their fire. In fog this dense, a stray round could maim or kill a teammate. Their ranged advantage had just been neutralized.

Within the blanket of fog, Fire Virtue's range of vision was practically zero, but he knew the staff had been right at his feet. He reached down, groping for it.

Pfft! Pfft!

The fog rippled. Two green poisoned needles sliced through it, embedding themselves into Fire Virtue's chest. Li Xianzong glided in under cover of the fog, spectral and silent. His butterfly knife slashed through the air, arcing straight for Fire Virtue's throat.

Clang!

With the aid of the Red Dancing Shoes, Zhang Yuanqing reached his teammate just in time to intercept the blow with his yanagiba. The edge of the butterfly knife scraped across the Bloodthirsty Blade in a shower of sparks.

He grabbed Fire Virtue by the shoulder in the same motion and flung him backward, bellowing, "Fire Virtue's been poisoned!"

Even as he shouted, he lashed out with his foot and kicked the staff, which skittered away into the fog.

Fire Virtue's burly frame sailed a good ten meters and tumbled out of the fog's radius. Grass Upon the Plains, the Wood Demon youth, darted over and dragged him clear. He shoved several antidote pills into the big man's mouth, then sprinkled sandalwood powder over the tiny puncture wounds on his chest.

It was a stopgap measure at best. Whether Fire Virtue survived was still anyone's guess. Any further fighting was out of the question.

Grass Upon the Plains did a quick tally of both sides, and worry flickered through his eyes. The Evil team still had three members standing, while his own team was down to just the captain and Queen. Not to mention, the fog was the enemy's home turf.

Li Xianzong listened to the staff clattering and rolling across the ground, gauging the distance by sound alone. A grin split his face.

"Funny how fate works," he called out. "Back at Pingtai Hospital, there was fog just like this. Remember how I beat you? Need me to jog your memory?"

Zhang Yuanqing remained expressionless and kept his voice cool. "Here's a thought: maybe the one begging for mercy today will be you."

Li Xianzong's grin widened. "Oh? It's been, what, a week? Did you hit Level 3? Pick up a rule-type item? Or do you actually think that red veil of yours can still threaten me?"

Zhang Yuanqing's heart sank. Is he saying he has something that counters the ghost bride?

The Red Veil was his trump card, reserved for enemies he couldn't handle through normal means. If it was neutralized, he'd lost a critical resource.

The fog had blinded Guan Ya and Li Chunfeng. Neither could shoot. The Red Dancing Shoes gave him an edge, but he had less than three minutes before he had to take them off. Beating Li Xianzong in this fog within that window would be near impossible. Even worse, Queen might die in the fog.

Zhang Yuanqing weighed his options at breakneck speed, anxiety gnawing at the edges of his composure.

Then came the cackling.

Somewhere in the fog, the rat man's triumphant laughter rang out. "I got it! I got the staff!"

Zhang Yuanqing's expression turned grim.

Li Xianzong's lips curled upwards in a grin. "Not bad. A week's worth of progress and you've grown this much. Your talent makes me jealous, which is exactly why you die today."

His voice hardened as he addressed the rat man. "What are you standing around for? Curse them!"

He hadn't been idle. While pinning Yuanshi down, he'd been quietly signaling his teammate, guiding the rat man to the staff's location through the fog.

The rat man cackled, hoisting the staff high. "Li Xianzong, this thing is a divine artifact! You have no idea how powerful it is—"

As he was gloating, the fog ahead of him churned violently. A long, sculpted leg whipped out of the haze like a bullwhip, hurtling toward his skull. He yanked the staff down to block, swinging it into the path of the foot screaming toward him.

Crack!

Staff and leg rebounded in opposite directions. The rat man stumbled, but whoever the leg belonged to twisted with fluid grace, converting the energy from the recoil into a second devastating roundhouse.

He'd never seen an attack this vicious. The kick landed like a whip, catching him flush across the side of his face and launching him spinning through the air. The staff tumbled from his grip and clattered to the ground.

Li Xianzong and Zhang Yuanqing both froze. Who?

Then Zhang Yuanqing heard Guan Ya's voice cut through the fog. "Yuanshi, I can't see a thing. If you're alive, say something."

Joy surged through him. "How did you get here?"

Without hesitation, he slammed his fists together, detonating a shockwave like a high explosive grenade. The fog shuddered and tore apart, fire and concussive force punching a temporary clearing through the haze.

For a brief moment, he could see everyone and everything.

At the epicenter of everything was the fallen staff. Closest to it was the rat man, still reeling and dizzy. Behind him stood the long-legged Guan Ya, the wound on her shin somehow fully healed.

She used the last of the Essence of Life? She always comes through in the nick of time. But why didn't she bring her rifle?

Zhang Yuanqing's gaze swept onward. On the far side of the staff, near the edge of the square, the man with the crew cut was crouched low, trying to sneak in and grab it. Opposite him, Queen was creeping just as stealthily, tracking the sound the staff had made as it had been kicked.

The combatants on opposite teams locked eyes. Then everyone charged, and the fight for the staff devolved into an all out brawl.

The rat man sat up first and spat a poisoned needle at Guan Ya. As a Scout, anticipating an enemy's moves was second nature. She twisted sideways as the needle grazed past, but that dodge cost her the initiative.

This was exactly why she hadn't brought the rifle. Holding a long gun would have made dodging needles impossible. On top of that, the rifle had a cost that gave her bad luck. Bringing Li Chunfeng's Burst Pistol would also have stripped away her composure.

The rat man scrabbled toward the staff on all fours. His fingers were almost on it when two metal rings clanged off the staff's dark surface, knocking it and sending it skidding out of reach.

The man with the crew cut snapped his fingers to layer an illusion over himself as he lunged for the staff, warping the vision of his enemies so they saw a decoy of him still rooted in place while his real body dove forward.

Just as his hand was about to close around the staff, a deep, resonant drumbeat punched through his mind.

Boom. Boom. Boom...

Thunderous war drums echoed across the square, piercing every ear present. Consciousness was scrambled, and primal terror, panic, and dread rose unbidden in every heart.

It was the Cat King Speaker's war drums.

The Cat King Speaker was an incredibly powerful support item, but Zhang Yuanqing rarely used it. The drums affected everyone who was in range, and both allies and enemies were affected. Only the owner was immune. When used poorly, it could potentially improve an enemy's situation while crippling one's own team. But at this critical juncture, he couldn't afford to care.

The mind of the man with the crew cut went blank. His knees buckled with the instinct to either prostrate himself or to turn and flee. Still, he was an Illusionist, and such mental interference was a specialty of his class. His resistance to the psychic meddling kicked in fast, and he recovered quickly, sending out a piercing shriek.

The scream jolted everyone else back to their senses. But by then, Zhang Yuanqing was already airborne. He drove a flying knee straight into the man's chest.

Boom!

The Illusionist rocketed backward and crashed into the earthen wall behind him, sending dust cascading down onto him in sheets. He crumpled at the base of the wall, clutching his chest, and didn't get up.

Zhang Yuanqing had no time to finish him off. He didn't bend for the staff either, because the Eye of the Observer alerted him to a flash of movement—Li Xianzong, closing in without a sound, his leg muscles coiled, driving power downward to his toes.

Crack!

A savage upward kick split the air with an audible snap. Zhang Yuanqing arched backward, letting it whiff over his head. Then, defying the momentum of his lean, his body spun as if gravity were optional. He cut around to Li Xianzong's flank, and stabbed his Bloodthirsty Blade toward his target's carotid artery.

Even with all his experience in close quarters combat, Li Xianzong had never seen anything like it. He twisted his spine, throwing his body into a sideways tumble, and lashed out with both legs in a savage double kick.

Mid motion, two crimson veins surfaced in his pupils.

A jolt went through Zhang Yuanqing's brain, and he momentarily blanked out.

Li Xianzong's lips peeled back in a savage grin. As a master of hand to hand combat, he could already see how the next few seconds would play out for Yuanshi Tianzun.

Impossibly, the stunned Zhang Yuanqing continued to drift backward, dodging the brutal kick by a hair's breadth. Li Xianzong followed up with a flying side kick, but it connected with nothing but air.

His expression flickered. That's impossible.

He sensed a rush of wind behind his skull. Guan Ya had arrived. Pivoting on her left leg while keeping her knees slightly bent, she whipped her right leg in a devastating arc toward the back of Li Xianzong's head.

Zhang Yuanqing clearly heard the sharp crack of Li Xianzong's cervical vertebrae snapping. The Enchanting Demon's head bent at a grotesque angle, and his body tumbled through the air like a ragdoll.