Chapter 428: A Death, or a New Beginning

Screams and curses echoed through the canyon.

Every member of the illegal psychic organizations hunting Lu Yibei had a bloodthirsty gleam flickering uncontrollably in their eyes.

Their reasons for wanting to kill Lu Yibei were as varied as they were bizarre: some had their belief offended, some had unspeakable secrets exposed, and some had their covert actions against other factions inadvertently revealed by Lu Yibei’s schemes to frame and scapegoat…

In short, as Lu Yibei danced repeatedly on the edge of death, she managed to hit every one of their sore spots.

That feeling was just like someone who knows your weird fetishes, uses your money to take your girlfriend to a hotel, and even uses your most beloved figurine as a kinky prop-simply indescribable.

Seeing Lu Yibei didn’t respond, Bai Kai repeated his earlier words, “Xiao Bei, how about after this is over, we publicly sever our godfather-godchild relationship for appearances’ sake?”

Lu Yibei had offended so many people that even if Bai Kai could get her out now, endless revenge would follow.

Bai Kai wasn’t afraid of dying, much less dying for Lu Yibei.

But those scheming bastards were as annoying in their revenge as when he poked holes in Li Xuan’s tires-just a pain!

The only difference was that he was handsome and suave, while those guys were rat-faced and shifty-eyed.

“…” Lu Yibei was silent for a few seconds, then said seriously, “Shui-Ge, you know, self-preservation is the most disgusting form of ‘betrayal.'”

“How about we go all the way and cut ties in private too? From now on, I’ll call you bro, you call me little brother, how about it?”

Bai Kai’s mouth twitched, and he forced a laugh, “No way! I was just joking.”

If I start calling Xiao Bei my brother, wouldn’t that let Lu Ming, that bastard, take advantage for nothing? Absolutely not! Bai Kai thought to himself.

Lu Yibei, “…”

Hello, once again I’m touched, but also a little grossed out.

As she grumbled inwardly, she glanced around at the scenery, estimated Bai Kai’s speed, then whispered to him, “Shui-Ge, in twelve seconds, stop for three seconds, stab upward with all your strength, then leave the canyon as fast as you can.”

“What?” Bai Kai was stunned. “Why go all out?”

“Your old flame is waiting up ahead! Don’t you want her to see how much you’ve changed over the years? Of course, if you want to embarrass yourself, you can keep it hidden. I don’t care, but your status at home in the future might…”

If he just casually stabbed, the sword energy would be too weak-what if no one saw the signal?

To be safe, the bigger the sword energy, the better. Lu Yibei thought to herself.

“Five, four…”

Hearing Lu Yibei’s countdown, Bai Kai stopped asking questions, his gaze sharpened, and he drew the long sword from his waist with a flourish, shedding the scabbard. He softly recited, “One sword for loyalty over life, the white rainbow streaks home for vengeance,” then raised his hand and sent a cold gleam skyward.

With one thrust, a thunderous roar erupted, the water beneath his feet paused, and sword energy swept up the drifting snowflakes, forming a hundred-meter silver dragon that soared into the sky, unfurling a dazzling galaxy above the canyon.

Lu Yibei stared at the brilliant silver light exploding in the sky, her lips parted and eyes wide, speechless for a moment.

Shui-Ge, this isn’t just going all out-he’s gone above and beyond!

And that line he recited, wasn’t it a revenge poem? Lu Yibei secretly wondered.

She’d always thought Shui-Ge was an agile assassin, but today she saw he was actually a warrior with a rage bar.

From that sword, it was clear he’d built up plenty of anger over the years!

–

Moments earlier, near Jin Chan Rock.

Including Xing Yuan and Silver Horn, there were thirty-two members of The Midnight Watchers Society, divided into four teams, each hiding in a different direction, waiting for the “big fish” about to take the bait.

“Reporting to the inspector, Team One has completed the trigger-type spell formation.”

“Reporting to the inspector, Team Two has completed…”

“Reporting to the inspector…”

Once three teams confirmed the alchemy bombs were set, Xing Yuan glanced at Silver Horn beside her, received a subtle nod, and gently pressed the stopwatch.

The time stopped at 3:54.07, more than a minute before the five-minute mark Lu Yibei had specified.

After pressing the stopwatch, Xing Yuan lightly touched the Death Owl Emblem on her chest and sent a message to all teams, “Good, everyone activate the suppressors, enter silent mode, and wait for the signal.”

At Xing Yuan’s command, all teams simultaneously activated their portable alchemy psychic energy fluctuation suppressors, spreading the operators’ psychic energy fluctuations within the radiation range to a level undetectable by psychic sense.

Under the night, rocks and grass returned to silence, snowflakes drifted down noiselessly.

The raging river crashed against the abrupt Jin Chan Rock, sending up a booming roar and splashing white waves.

Everything was just as it had been for centuries-no one would have guessed that over thirty psychics were hidden on the steep canyon walls.

The combination of equipment suppression and strict discipline had always been The Midnight Watchers Society’s advantage over illegal psychic organizations.

And Jin Chan Rock was at the most turbulent part of Taoyuan Canyon, with mountains confronting each other on both sides, sheer cliffs, and the narrowest part of the river only thirty meters wide-its danger rivaled Tiger Leaping Gorge, one of Country Z’s most treacherous canyons.

Such terrain pushed the advantages of equipment suppression, teamwork, and ambush to the extreme, turning what would have been an even fight into a one-sided massacre.

“They’re here.”

Gazing at the pitch-black canyon, Xing Yuan suddenly furrowed her brows and muttered to herself in a very low voice.

If she had to pick the person whose psychic energy fluctuation she was most familiar with in this world, aside from that damned guy who forced her to leave Hua City more than twenty years ago, it would only be Bai Kai.

At this moment, the faint psychic energy fluctuation coming from the other end of the canyon was unmistakable to her-it was definitely Bai Kai.

No wonder Lu Yibei said to use silver-white sword energy as the signal…

But why is Xiao Bai here?

Wasn’t he forbidden from participating in the operation? Xing Yuan thought.

The next moment, a piercing shriek like air being torn apart stabbed into everyone’s eardrums.

Before anyone could search for the source of the shriek, everything before their eyes was coated in a layer of silver light.

Immediately after, Xing Yuan, hidden in the shadows, swiftly brushed her Death Owl Emblem on her chest and called out softly, “Move!”

As soon as her voice fell, the operators of The Midnight Watchers Society, lying in ambush at four different positions, almost simultaneously detonated the trigger-type spell formations set up around the canyon.

“Boom-!”

With a deafening explosion, rocks shattered, and the fire from the violent blast instantly filled the entire canyon. The collapsing mountainsides from the explosion crashed down, cutting off the river and raising monstrous waves.

–

They saw that astonishing silver-white sword energy shoot up into the sky.

The members of the illegal psychic organizations felt their hearts tighten, “…”

This is probably bad.

In an instant, earth-shattering explosions erupted everywhere.

The members of the illegal psychic organizations froze, their faces turning pale, “!!!”

Damn, this is a complete disaster.

However, just as all the illegal psychic organization members were thrown into shock by the sudden turn of events, one figure had already fallen behind them by some distance, following closely behind Jiang Li’s group and breaking away from the team.

That person was Suolang Baima.

The news about the ambush near Jin Chan Rock was deliberately leaked to him by Lu Yibei.

Letting him die in The Midnight Watchers Society’s ambush would be too easy for him.

Lu Yibei wanted to kill him with her own hands-or rather, to torture him to death. Even simply beheading him with a single sword stroke felt far too merciful to her.

“Swish-!”

Amid the thunderous explosions, a faint sound of wind arose as Suolang Baima’s figure fled rapidly in the direction away from Jin Chan Rock.

Seeing this, Jiang Li’s group, hidden in the shadows, immediately followed after him.

From the moment Lu Yibei said Suolang Baima might have been involved in killing Lu Ming, Jiang Li, just like her, put Suolang Baima on her must-kill list for this life.

–

“Boom-boom-boom-!”

A series of violent explosions erupted almost simultaneously, merging into one, stretching from Jin Chan Rock to both sides, instantly turning the kilometer-wide canyon into a sea of fire.

Amid the violent tremors and shockwaves, raging flames and thick smoke shot into the sky. Boiling blood mist spread, dancing with the dust, finally settling on the cliffs and in the river.

With careful planning against the unprepared, several hauntings and psychics were reduced to dust in the first wave of explosions, and more than half were wounded.

But this didn’t mean the members of these illegal psychic organizations would give up resistance and wait to be slaughtered.

After a brief silence, the thick smoke in the canyon twisted and tore apart, and countless shadowy figures appeared on the riverbed, surging upward like an agitated swarm of bees.

The operators of The Midnight Watchers Society, already in position, sprang into action at once.

Over thirty sealing spell formations of various attributes, all ready, fell almost simultaneously. Among them were paired, triplet, and even multi-combination sealing spell formations, instantly weaving an inescapable “giant net” above the canyon.

Wherever it passed, the surging figures of the illegal psychic organization members immediately stalled.

Just as their actions were momentarily hindered, a new wave of attacks descended.

Talismans, precision spell formations, Spirit Pattern innate skills…

The operators of The Midnight Watchers Society unleashed all kinds of techniques in a wild barrage, as if neither money nor psychic energy mattered, caring not for quality but only for quantity. All sorts of radiant streams, carrying impressive psychic energy fluctuations, rained down like a storm.

Thirty-two operators of The Midnight Watchers Society were divided into four groups, rotating every three minutes, always keeping three groups at maximum output while one group adjusted and recovered psychic energy, maintaining perfect order.

Thus, before one round of bombardment ended, the next had already begun, leaving those illegal psychic organization members not a single moment to catch their breath or devise a countermeasure.

Carpet bombing.

One of The Midnight Watchers Society’s signature moves.

So, before the smoke from the explosions could even dissipate, it was already torn through by overwhelming force.

Under this brutal and savage assault, they were like thin sheets of paper-some torn to shreds, some burned black in the intense heat, some suddenly losing all vitality, their corpses falling one after another into the riverbed, now dried up by the steam.

–

Lu Yibei, who had already retreated to a safe distance, watched as the corpses of those illegal psychic organization members gradually piled up into a small hill in the riverbed, her brows tightly knit.

For some reason, seeing those evil beings lose their lives because of the disaster she had stirred up, her witch type haunting’s core entity actually felt a restless urge, as if trembling with excitement, and even her psychic energy faintly increased.

She had no doubt that if she lay down and slept now, she would definitely dream of some new “dark fairy tale.”

Could it be that “harming others” is the key to mastering and enhancing the psychic energy fluctuation of the witch type?

If that’s the case, then wouldn’t I have to…

One day in the future, will I lose control under the temptation of power and go on a killing spree? Lu Yibei thought anxiously.

Beside her, Bai Kai adjusted his psychic energy fluctuation, sensed something unusual about Lu Yibei, and furrowed his brows slightly. He stepped forward and gently squeezed her shoulder.

It was as if he wanted to give her strength through this gesture.

Bai Kai knew that, with Lu Yibei’s temperament, watching so many lives vanish before her eyes-even if they were all evil-would still stir a trace of compassion in her heart.

“Xiao Bei, what are you thinking? Is it because you saw this scene…”

Before Bai Kai could finish, Lu Yibei interrupted him, expressionless, “I’m thinking, with so many corpses in the river, will anyone finish them off later?”

“For existences like hauntings and psychics, if you just see the corpses and don’t finish them off, the risk of them coming back to life is pretty high, right?”

“If no one’s going to do it, I’m willing to take over, but their haunting core entities should be given to me as payment.”

Guessing Bai Kai’s intention, Lu Yibei didn’t want him to worry, so she spat out a few lines of trash talk.

Of course, her desire to finish them off was genuine.

Bai Kai, “…”

–

1:55 AM

Tang City, Lotus Seed Lake.

Beneath the lake’s surface, inside a massive, little-known underwater structure, a silver spire over a hundred meters tall stood towering, intricate incantations flowing rapidly across it, bursting forth with dazzling orange-red light.

There were thirty-six such silver spires hidden in Tang City’s secret corners, like steel nails driven into the city’s earth.

The spires were connected by alchemical tracks buried deep beneath the subway lines, which facilitated psychic energy conduction, weaving together across the city into a giant lotus flower, forming a massive defensive barrier.

Of these thirty-six silver spires, thirty-five stood forty-nine meters tall; only the one beneath Lotus Seed Lake, used for the city barrier’s energy emission, was special, reaching a height of one hundred and eight meters.

At this moment, three operators from The Midnight Watchers Society of Tang City stood at three different positions around the silver spire, kneeling on one knee, one hand pressing the Death Owl Emblem to their chest, the other touching the orange-red incantation extending from the base of the spire to the ground.

“Tang City Midnight Watchers Society Operator 01, Xu Wentao, confirming the city barrier can be activated.”

Old Xu’s slightly hoarse voice echoed in the empty space. As his words fell, he poured his unique psychic energy into the incantation beneath his hand.

“Tang City Midnight Watchers Society Operator 02, Shang Nanxing, confirming the city barrier can be activated.”

“Tang City Midnight Watchers Society Operator 03, Mao Sanyou…” Mao Sanyou glanced at the time, “Let’s wait a bit longer.”

Old Xu, Shang Nanxing, “???”

Seeing this, Mao Sanyou grinned at the two of them, “First time doing this, I’m a bit nervous. I’ll hit the restroom first, just in case I can’t hold it during the barrier activation and cause trouble.”

If we said we’d activate the barrier at exactly 2 AM, then it should be 2 AM. What if we start five minutes early and Auntie’s side isn’t ready yet? Mao Sanyou thought.

–

2:00 AM, Lotus Seed Lake shore.

Lead-gray clouds hung low over the sky, the entire lake shrouded in gloomy wind and snow, a thin layer of frost freezing over.

“Crack-crack-!”

In the dead silence, a series of teeth-grinding snaps rang out one after another.

With each snap, the thin ice on the lake shattered inch by inch, the water boiling violently as if coming to a boil. Through the deep blue water, the cold, imposing spire at the lake’s bottom could be seen slowly rising, splashing waves that crashed thunderously against the shore.

The spire, glowing with orange-red light, seemed to be heating up, its glow shifting from orange-red to gold, then to azure, finally emitting a deep violet light. The surrounding water evaporated, white mist curling upward, and a sharp sound vibrated through the air, like an ultrasonic screech.

As the surging psychic energy fluctuation gathered, it felt as if every particle in the air was frantically leaping, stirring up all sorts of bizarre illusions.

Suddenly, the piercing noise stopped, and Lotus Seed Lake fell silent. A deep violet pillar of psychic energy, shrouded by the night, silently shot up into the sky.

Then, the restless air stilled. Above the layered clouds, the massive violet pillar stretched across the sky, like a giant striker slamming into the city barrier invisible to the naked eye.

And so, Tang City’s city barrier was activated.

Staggering energy rose from the various silver spires one after another, the air crackling with a “shh-shh” sound like sand rubbing together. Beneath the clouds, violet streaks gathered like meteors, blooming into a violet lotus flower.

Immediately, the lotus spun rapidly, its petals shattering, transforming into a torrent on the “shell” of the city barrier, rushing toward the depths of Taoyuan, in the direction of the Fusang divine tree.

–

Deep within Taoyuan, atop the Fusang divine tree.

Having just finished a round of suppression, Gou Meng was still resting with her eyes closed. Suddenly, as if sensing something, she opened her eyes and looked up at the sky.

In an instant, countless violet bolts of lightning appeared out of nowhere, stretching for kilometers, raining down destructive power upon her location. Thousands of beams, like meteors, poured down.

“It’s here?” Gou Meng murmured, a relieved smile appearing at the corner of her mouth. She spread her arms toward the sky, abandoning all resistance.

She waited quietly, for either death, or rebirth.

The next moment, the light fell like rain.