Chapter 139: The Last Stand

Chapter 140: The Last Stand

[Elsewhere in the Labyrinth...]

Situ Li stopped mid-stride.

His pale eyes narrowed as a sharp, familiar spatial ripple washed past his senses.

"The Array Master," Situ Li murmured, recognizing the distinct Void signature instantly.

Behind him, thirty members of the Emerald Venom Corps came to a halt. The lead female officer stepped forward, her light-green robes fluttering.

"Veyra Qing Lian instructed us to assist you in sweeping the perimeter."

Situ Li glanced back at her, his expression dry. "I do not require assistance to slaughter cattle."

The woman smiled coldly. "Perhaps."

BOOOOOOM!

Before another word could be spoken, the entire sector shuddered.

Every emerald serpent insignia embroidered across the Corps’ robes ignited with a sickly, fluorescent light. A blood-red system prompt flashed before their vision:

[NEW VARIABLE DETECTED]

[HOSTILE ENTITY AWAKENED]

[INTEGRATION INSTABILITY: 51%]

[ALL EXTERNAL LIFEFORMS ARE SUBJECT TO IMMEDIATE PROCESSING]

Situ Li’s pale face shifted slightly.

"So..." He looked deeper into the dark, descending corridors of the palace. "The real game has finally begun."

——————————

Farther down the line—

Oren and Justin watched in silence as another group of fleeing cultivators was dragged kicking and screaming into an active extraction formation.

Oren raised his right hand.

HUMMM—!

The surrounding rubble immediately lifted off the flagstones—heavy stone slabs, shattered pillars, broken iron swords, and jagged metal fragments. Everything within a twenty-meter radius began floating in an orbiting, telekinetic ring around his shoulders.

Justin stepped up beside him, his black hair whipping across his face as purple lightning crackled wildly along the edge of his broadsword.

Oren looked at Justin. "We can’t keep running like cornered rats."

Justin raised his blade, his dark eyes fixed on the approaching shadows. "No," he growled softly. "We can’t."

Behind them, a dozens-strong crowd of bloodied, desperate human survivors stared at the two young men in awe.

Oren’s long, silver-white hair fluttered in the rising tempest of Qi, his facial features carrying an undeniable, regal resemblance to his sister, Nyren.

He turned his head slightly, his voice carrying over the din of distant screams:

"Find anyone who can still stand."

Justin nodded, his purple lightning flaring into a roaring aura. "And we survive together."

He pointed his sword straight down the dark corridor toward the approaching constructs and Venom Corps squads.

"Then we fight back!"

For the first time since the slaughter began, the human survivors stopped running.

They gathered around Oren and Justin. One by one. Two by two. Dozens.

Broken swords. Notched spears. Cheap talismans. Cracked shields.

It didn’t matter how damaged their weapons were. They were still weapons, and these were still living cultivators.

Oren flicked his wrist. His telekinesis swept across the stone floor, lifting dozens of abandoned blades and floating them in an iron canopy above the survivors’ heads.

Justin stood at the vanguard, purple lightning blanketing his arms.

"We stop dying alone!" Oren barked.

BOOM!

Thirty members of the Emerald Venom Corps descended from the upper archways like hunting raptors!

Emerald Qi erupted across the hall as green silk robes blurred through the gloom.

The human survivors roared, raising their weapons to meet the charge!

Justin took three violent bounds forward, his purple lightning detonating off the stones.

CRACK!

SHING!

The lead female of the Venom Corps thrust her open palm forward with lethal precision!

"Emerald Serpent Palm!"

BOOM!

A massive, coiled python constructed of acidic green Qi erupted from her hand, its jaws gaping wide to swallow Justin whole!

Justin didn’t dodge. He stepped straight into the viper’s mouth!

One step. Two. Three!

SHING!

His black sword flashed in a clean, vertical arc, wrapped in compressed purple electricity.

SLASH!

The giant green serpent was cleaved clean down the middle, dissolving into harmless green sparks!

The woman materialized directly behind his left shoulder, her fingers dancing through an instant seal: "Emerald Binding Threads!"

Dozens of razor-thin, venomous green threads shot from her fingertips, wrapping tightly around Justin’s right forearm.

Justin’s eyes narrowed into slits.

Instead of trying to sever the lines, he planted his boots, gritted his teeth, and violently yanked his arm backward!

The woman’s eyes widened in shock as her light body was dragged directly toward him across the air!

Justin drove a brutal, lightning-infused knee straight into her sternum!

BOOM!

The woman vomited blood as she was launched backward. Before she could touch the stone—

CRACK!

Justin vanished, reappearing directly above her in a flash of violet light, his broadsword descending like a guillotine!

CLANG!

Two crossed emerald short-swords intercepted his blade in mid-air! A second Venom Corps member had moved in to cover her comrade.

Justin glared down at the two green-robed women, a ruthless smirk curling his lips.

"Two of you?"

Purple lightning exploded from his dantian, flooding his blade. "Then I’ll kill you both!"

BOOM!

On the opposite flank—

Oren stood motionless amidst the chaos, commanding the battlefield with a flick of his fingers.

SWISH!

A dozen floating swords shot through the air like a volley of arrows!

A Venom Corps elite spun through the air, her twin daggers executing a dazzling, fluid defense.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

She deflected every floating blade, closing the distance to Oren in a heartbeat. She drove her open palm straight toward his throat!

Oren didn’t flinch.

Her palm stopped three inches from his skin, trapped against an impenetrable wall of invisible telekinetic force.

Oren slowly closed his fingers into a fist.

The woman gasped as an invisible grip clamped around her neck, hoisting her multi-ton force straight into the air!

"What—?!"

BOOM!

Oren flicked his wrist, and the woman was slammed violently into the high stone ceiling!

BOOM!

He flicked his finger down, and she was hurled into the flagstones!

BOOM!

He swept his arm sideways, throwing her battered frame straight through a basalt pillar!

Oren lowered his hand, his white hair settling as he looked down at her bleeding body. "I’ll kill you all."

The woman spat a mouthful of dark blood, her teeth stained crimson. "You... you think a few native cattle can stand against the Emerald Venom Corps...?"

Oren raised his hand once more. Dozens of floating, razor-sharp stone spears rotated, pointing directly at her chest.

"No," Oren replied, his voice entirely devoid of emotion. "I just know I’m killing every single one of you in this hall."

SHING!

The spears descended.

All around them, the human survivors fought with savage, desperate intensity. They weren’t fighting as structured sects or disciplined armies; they were fighting as cornered beasts.

A sword cultivator deflected three venomous strikes with a jagged blade. A rogue cultivator used Wind Qi to fling himself across the room to break an ally’s chokehold. A female cultivator slammed her palms together, erecting an earth wall to absorb a volley of poisonous needles, while a spear user stepped onto her shoulders to drive his weapon down from above.

Under the absolute threat of extinction, the humans were adapting. Every strike became cleaner, faster, and infinitely more lethal.

Yet the Emerald Venom Corps fought as a hive mind. One attacked, another redirected, a third sealed the escape path, and a fourth struck the exposed weakness. Emerald Qi linked their meridians into a singular, devastating killing formation.

BOOM!

Seven human cultivators were thrown backward into the dust. One crashed heavily against Justin’s back.

Justin caught him by his collar before he hit the ground. "Can you still breathe?!"

The man coughed up a cloud of blood, clutching a broken arm. "I’m... I’m still breathing!"

"Then stand up!" Justin shoved him back toward his feet, his broadsword humming with electricity. "You aren’t dead yet!"

Suddenly—

An oppressive, suffocating pressure dropped over the entire corridor.

The air turned heavy, thick with the stench of ancient, high-tier poison.

A figure walked slowly through the smoke.

Deep, luxurious emerald silk robes floated around her frame. Long, ink-black hair cascaded down her waist.

Qing Lian.

Her mere presence caused the weaker human survivors to drop to their knees, their lungs seizing under the ambient pressure.

Qing Lian swept her cold eyes over the battlefield, looking at the bloodied humans, then at the Venom Corps members. Her expression was one of supreme, total indifference.

"So these are the insects occupying this quadrant?" Qing Lian murmured, her voice soft, beautiful, and utterly devoid of warmth.

Situ Li stepped out from the shadows beside her. "Veyra."

Qing Lian didn’t even glance at him. "They are weak. Unworthy of being refined into the primary host."

Her eyes drifted over Justin, then Oren, then the trembling survivors. None of them held her interest for more than a second.

She turned her back on them, taking a slow step toward the deeper, descending passage that led to Sector Four.

"I have zero intention of wasting my time stepping on ants."

Justin’s expression darkened into rage. Purple lightning crackled violently around his eyes. "Ants?!"

He stepped forward, raising his blade.

Qing Lian didn’t even bother to turn around. She simply released a microscopic fraction of her aura.

BOOM!

The sheer weight slammed into Justin’s shoulders like a falling mountain. His knees buckled, and the basalt floor beneath his boots shattered into powder!

Oren immediately raised both hands, pouring every drop of his telekinetic power into a barrier to lift the weight off Justin!

BOOM!

The collision of forces drove Oren skidding back three meters, blood trickling from his nose.

Qing Lian finally cast a lazy glance over her shoulder, her eyes unblinking. "Why are you native creatures always so stubborn? It is truly tedious."

She looked away again. "Fortunately for you, your lives are not worth the second it would take me to crush you."

Justin gritted his teeth through the crushing weight, his knuckles white. "Then stay and fight, you bitch!"

Qing Lian ignored him completely.

Her attention had been caught by something far grander—a massive, rhythmic pulse echoing from the absolute bottom of the Ancient Palace.

The Core.

She could feel the ancient, sleeping presence waking up. A faint, venomous smile touched her painted lips.

"Finally..." Qing Lian whispered, her eyes gleaming with dark reverence.

"The Sovereign’s grand design has reached fruition."

Situ Li’s eyes narrowed. "You are departing for Sector Four now?"

Qing Lian walked into the dark archway without looking back.

"I have no reason to remain among the livestock," her voice echoed from the shadows. "Clean up the mess, Situ Li. Do not let them clutter the Core."

And with a swirl of emerald silk, she vanished into the depths.​