Chapter 430: Extremely Cruel Methods

Suolang Baima had long grown intolerant of Jiang Li trailing behind him like a ghost. Now, seizing the opportunity, he struck with thunderous force.

The instant he drew his curved blade, Spirit Pattern unfurled to its limit, a wild wind erupted, and within the gale, faint Sanskrit chants could be heard.

Suolang Baima’s burly figure seemed to vanish into the howling snowstorm, charging at Jiang Li like a ferocious white dragon rolling across the earth.

“Damn woman, you like following me, huh? Watch how I kill you!”

With Suolang Baima’s low growl, a wave of cold swept forth. Jiang Li snapped back to her senses in an instant, the burly figure ahead coalescing from the snowstorm, golden curved blade in hand, slashing fiercely at her face.

Seeing this, Jiang Li gritted her silver teeth, forcibly enduring the pain brought on by the black solar totem, stepped back, and hurriedly raised her long blade to guard herself.

“Hmph!”

Jiang Li’s move drew a cold laugh from Suolang Baima. With a twist of his wrist, the downward strike instantly shifted, slashing diagonally at her long blade.

“Clang-!”

A violent clash of metal erupted, followed by a shrill, piercing sound.

At the moment their weapons met, Suolang Baima leveraged both his strength and psychic energy fluctuation to forcibly press Jiang Li’s long blade down, the blade spinning, sliding up along the length of her blade, sending up a string of dazzling sparks.

“Bang-!”

A sonic boom exploded.

At the critical moment, Jiang Li blocked the curved blade aimed straight at her with the guard of her blade. The guard and curved blade collided head-on, psychic energy fluctuations from both weapons clashing, instantly triggering a powerful shockwave.

The blast, mixed with potent toxins and biting wind and snow, sliced outward like a ring blade, leveling nearly fifty meters of mountain forest in its path.

Under the intense impact, Jiang Li was sent flying backward, chanting the incantation for a spell formation at high speed.

“Engrave gold, glass and jade, slanting sun array, like a jade terrace…”

“The Midnight Watchers Society’s defensive precision spell formation [Golden Glass Terrace]? Heh!”

As a defector from The Midnight Watchers Society, Suolang Baima instantly recognized the spell formation Jiang Li was casting and couldn’t help but sneer.

If it’s just a precision spell formation, how could it possibly withstand his attack?

Sneering, he didn’t pause. His waist bent slightly, and like a wild beast he lunged forward, sweeping his long blade once more.

In a flash, the Spirit Pattern behind him lit up, the phantom of the Nine-Colored Lotus flickered behind him, and psychic energy as majestic as a snowfield sacred mountain surged down his muscular arm, pouring into the curved blade, transforming the power of the Spirit Pattern into an avalanche-like, overwhelming pale arc of light.

At the same time, Jiang Li finished chanting the spell formation. With psychic energy fluctuations surging, nine radiant glass terraces burst from the earth.

The pale arc swept across, the glass terraces shattered in succession with explosive sounds, and in an instant, blazing light engulfed the mountain forest.

It’s over…

Staring at the raging blizzard ahead, Suolang Baima thought to himself. Just then, a sound like horse hooves striking stone suddenly rang in his ears.

He was stunned for a moment, then traced the source of the sound and jerked his head up.

He saw a silver-white figure stepping atop the shattering glass terrace, leaping several meters, passing over his head, then plummeting down, her long blade tearing through his sheepskin coat and leaving a hideous bloody gash on his back.

[Mythical Type – Kā róng Familiar] Spirit Pattern activated, Hydra toxin released!

–

“Interesting.”

Watching the mountain forest engulfed in blazing light, Berses murmured from his hiding spot, a playful smile curling at his lips.

This level of attack might not be enough to kill Jiang Li, but it could seriously injure her. Next, he only needed to walk over and he could easily take away the severely wounded Jiang Li.

“Yeah, it’s pretty interesting.”

Just as Berses was about to get up, a soft, girlish voice suddenly drifted into his ear. He turned in surprise, his pupils contracting violently.

Behind him, at some unknown moment, appeared a round-faced girl in a red cape, with chestnut hair, a spicy strip in her mouth, and a Broken Sword slung over her shoulder.

Neither he nor the mysterious substance on him had sensed the girl’s arrival.

And in the instant he turned, the girl’s Broken Sword was already whistling toward his face. Only then did he realize that sealing spell formations had been set up all around him, his face turning pale.

No good, I can’t dodge!

Wait, that’s not…

Berses had just realized that the girl was swinging the flat of the sword at him, not the edge, and hadn’t had time to wonder why she’d do such a thing when a shock struck his forehead, his brain wracked with searing pain.

A bizarre force, transmitted through the sword, bypassed his flesh and psychic energy defenses, poured into his skull, and shredded his brain. His vision instantly plunged into darkness.

Watching Berses’ skull explode with a bang from the Pure Lotus Sword’s strike, blood mixed with brain matter gushed from his nostrils and parted lips. Lu Yibei was startled, hurriedly jumping two or three meters back.

What the heck? What’s going on? Normally people just faint from a blow, maybe bleed a little, but how did your skull just explode? Lu Yibei wondered, staring at the corpse in deep thought.

She’d rushed over just now, seeing Jiang Li locked in a bitter fight, and had planned to jump in and help immediately. But as she was about to act, she noticed this mysterious psychic lurking and spying in the shadows.

So, without a word, Lu Yibei thoughtfully set up a full sealing spell formation package for him, with a complimentary Pure Lotus Sword head massage.

And the result…

I really didn’t mean to kill him. I only acted because I was worried he’d ambush Jiang Li-it was the Pure Lotus Sword that did it.

Knocked him out, and now my haunting chat group bounty site shop gets a happy new order, isn’t that great?

Lu Yibei thought, sticking to her principle of “if you kill, kill thoroughly; if you bury, send them to heaven,” and was about to give Berses’s corpse the full kill-cremate-bury treatment.

Just then, Jiang Li not far away let out a violent fit of coughing.

At the sound, Lu Yibei’s heart tightened. She looked up and saw Jiang Li’s abdominal armor twisted and deformed, slumped on the ground against a broken tree. Blood seeped from the corner of her mouth with every cough-she’d clearly lost all combat strength. Meanwhile, Suolang Baima was staggering toward her, dragging his curved blade.

Suolang Baima was, after all, an A+-level psychic. Though his combat skills were a bit lacking, his psychic energy was impressive. The Hydra toxin on Jiang Li’s blade had actually been temporarily suppressed by his psychic energy.

Seeing this, Lu Yibei shot a fierce glare at the fallen Berses, quickly withdrew her gaze, then used her movement technique to dash forward with her sword.

Though not finishing off an enemy went against her principles, but…

What time is it now?

To hell with finishing off, to hell with principles!

Just as Lu Yibei turned to rush toward Jiang Li, Berses’s bloodshot eyes suddenly shifted. With a soft “pop,” his eyeball, trailing flesh and blood, burst from its socket, wriggled and crawled away, vanishing into the pitch-black forest…

–

His vision blurred in waves, Suolang Baima panted heavily, staggering to stand before Jiang Li.

He’d come so close-so close to dying under Jiang Li’s blade.

The pain from the Hydra toxin, enough to make a deity forsake life, stabbed at his nerves relentlessly, driving him nearly mad.

He didn’t even know if, after killing Jiang Li, he’d survive at all.

But he knew that as long as Jiang Li lived, he had no hope of survival.

So, he slowly raised his curved blade with both hands, summoned the last of his psychic energy, and slashed fiercely at Jiang Li.

“Pfft-!”

A soft sound of flesh tearing, crimson blood splattering, and the air instantly thick with the stench of blood.

Suolang Baima’s eyes widened as he watched his own arm fly into the air, spinning and spraying a mist of blood before vanishing from sight. The next moment, a heavy blow struck him from the side, sending him airborne and crashing to the ground, splashing a mix of blood and melted snow into the mud.

Lu Yibei kicked Suolang Baima away without caring if he lived or died, then immediately lunged to Jiang Li’s side. Flustered, she fished out several test tubes of mercury-like medicine from her jacket pocket and held them to Jiang Li’s lips, muttering under her breath.

“I told you, didn’t I? If things go south, just let him go…”

Jiang Li avoided Lu Yibei’s gaze, her eyes landing on the medicine tubes in her hand, trying to change the subject. “These seem to be standard issue from The Midnight Watchers Society…”

“That Madam Inspector-General shoved them at me earlier,” Lu Yibei explained, still scolding, “His psychic energy fluctuation level is two LEVELS higher than yours-why pick a fight with him? Killing above your level is something only the protagonist can do, don’t you know?”

“…” Jiang Li looked at Lu Yibei with a resentful gaze, silent and refusing to drink the medicine she held to her lips, acting as if she were sulking.

“What’s wrong? Too weak to drink it yourself? Fine! Then I’ll feed you, okay?” Lu Yibei said, raised a tube to her own mouth, and then leaned in toward Jiang Li.

“Tsk!” Jiang Li’s cheeks flushed, she spat lightly, pushed Lu Yibei away with both hands, and snatched the remaining medicine from her hand, grumbling, “Who feeds medicine like that?”

“Why not? In novels, when someone’s paralyzed, isn’t this how they’re always fed medicine?”

Jiang Li rolled her eyes, pulled the stopper from a test tube, poured the mercury-like medicine into her mouth, her slender neck moving as she swallowed. After a moment to catch her breath, color gradually returned to her face.

Then she turned to look at the fallen Suolang Baima nearby, calmly asking, “Him-how do you plan to handle it?”

Lu Yibei followed Jiang Li’s gaze, frowned in thought for a moment, took a tube of medicine from Jiang Li’s hand, stood up and walked over. She used her toe to flip Suolang Baima’s body over, bent down to pry open his mouth, poured the medicine in, and then used psychic energy to guide it into his stomach.

Turns out, even with someone paralyzed or unconscious, mouth-to-mouth isn’t strictly necessary-she’d just wanted to take advantage earlier.

Seeing this, Jiang Li was stunned, surprised. “You-what are you doing? If his injuries recover…”

“Relax, it’s better if he recovers!” Lu Yibei turned to Jiang Li. “If he’s still injured, I’m afraid he’ll die before I finish with him. That’d be letting him off too easy.”

“By the way, if you don’t neutralize the poison on your blade, it won’t kill him right away, right? If there’s a risk, please neutralize it first.”

“…” Jiang Li stared silently at Lu Yibei, momentarily speechless.

Though Lu Yibei’s tone was so calm, her face utterly unruffled, at this moment, her presence sent chills down one’s spine.

After a long silence, Jiang Li slowly raised her long blade, gave it a gentle shake, and with a hum, neutralized the toxin in Suolang Baima’s body.

Under the dual torment of Hydra toxin and blood loss, Suolang Baima had already lost consciousness. But as the toxin dissipated and the medicine took effect in his body, he quickly woke up.

He opened his mouth wide, gasping for air like a drowning man rescued, and when he saw the girl’s face before him, his eyes suddenly widened.

“It’s you, it’s you! You’re the one from last time…”

“That’s right, it’s me,” Lu Yibei interrupted.

“Who exactly are you?! Why did you…”

“Why did I attack you?” Lu Yibei interrupted again, expressionless. “Didn’t I tell you last time? I’m just a passing Witch. You interrupted my movie, so you must die.”

Lu Yibei would never tell Suolang Baima the real reason. That would let him die too easily.

People like Suolang Baima surely understand the principle that ‘what goes around comes around.’ In the midst of endless killing, he’s always prepared to kill any enemy who comes for him, or to be killed by one seeking revenge.

Lu Yibei wanted him to feel his death was utterly meaningless, without rhyme or reason.

“……”

Interrupted your movie??!

How could anyone, or any haunting, become enemies with someone, even to the death, over something like that?

Suolang Baima glared angrily at Lu Yibei, breathing heavily, feeling as if a mass of pus and blood was stuck in his chest, neither rising nor falling.

He stared hard into Lu Yibei’s eyes, trying to see something in them, but found her eyes as calm as a still lake.

There was no trace of anger-just as if she were casually teaching a lesson to some thug who’d disturbed her movie.

Finally, Suolang Baima couldn’t stand it anymore. He struggled to get up, letting out a low growl, “You fucking…”

As soon as he opened his mouth, he heard Lu Yibei say softly, “Look into my eyes.”

As she spoke, her charm and Dream-entering abilities were unleashed to the fullest. Within the range of her gaze, the light and shadows instantly twisted.

That alluring voice entered Suolang Baima’s ears, and for a moment, he almost forgot Ms. Rabbit’s warning to him. He instinctively met Lu Yibei’s gaze, and his consciousness immediately grew hazy.

“Pu-!”

The instant his mind blurred, Suolang Baima unhesitatingly raised his hand and stabbed out his own eyes.

It worked, I dodged it. As long as I don’t meet her gaze, she can’t affect me.

Suolang Baima was just feeling relieved when Lu Yibei’s devilish whisper sounded in his ear.

“Heh, did you forget? Your hands were already cut off by me!”

That’s right, already cut off… then just now…

Suolang Baima cursed inwardly. The moment he realized his mind had fallen under Lu Yibei’s control, a piercing light stabbed his eyes. His pupils trembled violently, shrinking to a point.

“Now, let’s see-what is it that you fear most in the depths of your soul?” Lu Yibei said softly to Suolang Baima.

With Lu Yibei’s whisper, Suolang Baima suddenly felt a wet sensation on his face, as if rain was beating down on him. The chill of the rain instantly sobered him. He focused ahead, and then…

He saw that rainy night.

In the torrential downpour, everything was blurred, but Suolang Baima saw something darker than the night itself, like a mass of formless smoke stretching across the sky.

They displayed a transcendence of time and space, defying logic at every turn, as if they existed in a twisted, bizarre, utterly chaotic and turbulent space.

Then, something began to shriek in his ear. Every sound was distorted, filled with unmistakable malice.

He saw nothing with a physical form, yet terror instantly took root in his mind, clinging to him. A fear ten times more intense than the worst nightmare crawled out from every cell in his body, making him tremble uncontrollably.

At that moment, the illusion before Suolang Baima abruptly ended.

Lu Yibei herself had no idea what the hell Suolang Baima saw that scared him so badly. All she did was amplify his greatest fear and present it before his eyes.

She tried to figure out what appeared in Suolang Baima’s Dream, but even as the one constructing the Dream, she was affected by those illusions. Soon, her head was spinning and she nearly fainted, forcing her to temporarily end the illusion.

“……”

Suolang Baima stared blankly at Lu Yibei for a long time before coming to his senses, then let out a heart-wrenching scream, “Please, kill me! Just kill me! Don’t let me see that thing again.”

Lu Yibei steadied herself, looked coldly at Suolang Baima, pressed her hands firmly to his forehead, and said just one thing.

“No.”

–

In the distance, Jiang Li watched Lu Yibei with a meaningful gaze, her brows tightly knit.

She could tell Lu Yibei was using some kind of hallucinogenic method on Suolang Baima, torturing him mentally, but she couldn’t imagine what kind of illusion Lu Yibei was showing him.

While Suolang Baima was lost in the fantasy, he looked like he was having a seizure-his eyes rolled back and bulged, his whole body convulsed violently. He wailed in agony, the sound making one’s scalp tingle.

Just when Jiang Li thought Lu Yibei would scare Suolang Baima to death, Lu Yibei paused briefly, then after a minute, pulled him back into the hallucination.

Jiang Li, “……”

Watching this scene, she suddenly thought of a line of poetry-“I could have endured the darkness, had I never seen the light.”

What Lu Yibei was doing now was like letting Suolang Baima see a faint light again and again, only to plunge him back into the deepest darkness.

Such methods were extremely cruel.