Chapter 1518: Left Out

All of a sudden, footsteps echoed from the shadows.

"What about the code?" Zhao Li Xin’s voice drifted out from the corner, quiet, unhurried, and colder than the glacier itself. When he stepped into the light, the atmosphere shifted as if the room itself recoiled. ℯℓ.

Igor’s breath hitched. The others had been frightening, yes, but this man was...different. The air feel stagnant, his step was soundless, it almost like he was floating.

Igor felt the oxygen in the room become thin for some reason, and the pressure around him suddenly became extremely heavy, like a mountain was pressing on his chest. But what scared him the most was a sudden voice screaming in his head, saying: RUN!

Alas, he was tight down and wounded. But even if he wasn’t, he didn’t think he could run. As if he were nailed to the ground, as fear froze him in his place, helpless.

Zhao Li Xin stopped a single step away. Close enough that Igor could see the faint sheen of light on his pale skin, close enough to feel the cold radiating off him like he’d been carved from winter itself. Igor forced his head up he wanted to see what kind of demon these people brought.

When their eyes met, Igor’s breath hitched. For a moment, his mind refused to process what he was seeing. He had braced himself for a brute—some towering monster of a man with a face carved by violence, scarred and twisted into something nightmarish. That was what he expected from someone who radiated such killing intent.

But the reality stopped him cold.

The man before him looked nothing like the beast Igor had imagined. Instead, Zhao Li Xin possessed the kind of beauty Igor had only ever seen in ancient murals—those ethereal gods painted with strokes of reverence and fear.

His features were refined, almost delicate, framed by an aura that was both regal and untouchably distant. Every line of his face seemed sculpted with meticulous precision, so flawless it made Igor’s chest tighten with an unfamiliar sense of awe.

And yet... beneath that celestial beauty was something far more terrifying. It was his eyes—dark, cold, utterly devoid of emotion or warmth. They reminded Igor of the ocean at night when there was no moon, no stars—just endless black water and a chill that seeped straight into the bones.

His body trembles with inexplicable terror. In that moment, he understood: this was not a man you ever lied to.

"Co — code?" Igor’s voice quivered, the fear in him now more raw than before.

Zhao Li Xin folded one arm neatly behind his back and rested on his stomach. His posture was straight as a bamboo pole, graceful, composed, and lethally intimidating.

"There’s a code to disable the mana-deterrent device," he said, voice flat as a blade. "What is it?"

"I-I don’t know," Igor stammered.

Zhao Li Xin’s eyes narrowed, shadows curling around him like they recognized their master. "You don’t know? How disappointing." His voice sends a chill to anyone who hears it.

"W-wait—wait—wait!" Igor yelped, panic clawing up his throat. His breath hitched, his hands trembled violently against the restraints. "The code is inside Blackridge! Every device has its own disable sequence, and all of them are stored in the mother system of the Aetherion Spear! The tower controls all mana-deterrent devices. Whatever you want, whatever you need... It’s all there!"

Zhao Li Xin’s brows drew together, faintly. "This Aethe—something." His voice sharpened. "How does it work?"

"I told you... It controls every mana-deterrent unit," Igor sputtered, breath breaking between words. "The system continuously tracks the bearer’s location using embedded arcane-sensor arrays. It monitors vital signs—heart rate, mana flow, neural stress levels, and adjusts the suppression output accordingly."

He swallowed hard, voice thinning into a tremor.

"And if someone resists the protocol... there’s a failsafe. A remote-triggered termination sequence. They can kill the bearer from kilometers away."

A heavy, oppressive silence fell over the room. Everyone’s expressions stiffened, and stress and anxiety shrouded their faces like a dark cloud. Lory’s brows knit together, though not out of fear, but out of a deeper, heavier worry for the future of all the talented people.

Zhao Li Xin’s expression faltered for a fraction of a heartbeat—shock flickering through his eyes like a spark catching dry tinder. Then it vanished, swallowed by a surge of cold, murderous fury. His face darkened, as if shadow itself rushed to cover him, charcoal-black and storm-heavy.

Before anyone could react, his hand snapped forward and closed around Igor’s neck, the movement sharp, instinctive—pure wrath unleashed without hesitation.

"So," Zhao Li Xin hissed came like a hot blade slice the butter, "you’re telling me anyone with that device inside them can be killed at will. Right here — right now now." The idea that someone out there could have killed Lory so easily in front of his face almost snapped the sanity he had so hard to maintain.

"N—no... It’s not like that—please—" Igor rasped, eyes bulging as he clawed for air.

Zhao Li Xin’s grip tightened another fraction. Igor’s breath hitched in a strangled whine.

Clift moved closer, careful, like someone approaching a wild predator. "Zhao Li Xin," he murmured in a low voice, almost pleading. "Let him speak."

For a moment, nothing changed. Zhao Li Xin unmoved, his eyes cold and empty, causing the room to seem to shrink around him. Finally, he released his grip from Igor’s neck.

Igor took a deep breath, then coughed so hard his entire body shook. His face turned blotchy red, then pale. When he finally looked up, fear gripped him like a second skin. It was dawned that he realized how close he had come to death.

"Explain," Jay said, the word dropping like ice into the room.

"The tower... It’s not finished," Igor wheezed, fighting for breath. "It’s still in testing." His mouth clamped shut afterwards—too fast, too tight.

Jay’s eyes narrowed. "Talk. Or you can talk to him again."

He jerked his head toward Zhao Li Xin, whose expression hadn’t softened at all, only sharpened into something lethal.

Igor jolted. "The signal range is still small!" he blurted. "Fifteen kilometers at most. They’re collecting data for the next phase; they haven’t expanded it yet."

Relief flashed across them; at least for now, Lory was safe. The plan remained unchanged, finding the code first to disable the Madd in Lory.

Unfortunately, they only felt a moment of relief before Zhao Li Xin suddenly raised his head, his expression changing slightly. "Many people are coming, on their way," he said in a cold and indifferent tone.

"They finally tracked him," Jay muttered in a casual tone, almost indifferent.

Clift and Samuel remained steady, unbothered even as the danger closed in. They slipped into their jackets with quiet, deliberate movements. Then a voice crackled through Clift’s earpiece.

"Sir, there’s a three-car coming in our direction, and it led by Sean Lockwood at the front, oh, Timothy Caron is with him."

Clift said in a steady tone. "Stall them. We’ll be on our way."

"Yes, sir." The line went dead.

"You’re all in trouble," Igor rasped, a grin tearing crookedly across his sweaty face. "None of you is getting out. Not a single one." His eyes gleamed with a sick mix of triumph and spite, hungry for even a scrap of fear from them.

But no one so much as flinched; they barely pay him attention.

"What should we do with him?" Samuel asked, sparing Igor a brief, disinterested glance, as if looking at a piece of broken furniture.

Clift exhaled slowly. Without a word, he uncapped a syringe, drew the viscous liquid from the vial, and stepped behind Igor. The needle caught the dim light like a sliver of cold steel.

"Hey, what are you trying to do?" Igor panicked, trying to free himself from Clift, forgetting that he was still tied to the chair. In one swift movement, Clift grabbed Igor’s head and pressed the syringe into the back of his neck.

Inside the syringe was a special drug created by N.I.M.S. to erase Igor’s memory. He then forced Igor to drink a healing potion to remove all his wounds so that no one would know what they had done to Igor to extract information from him. If they saw Igor’s wounds, they would know Igor had revealed everything they knew to them. So they need to keep them wondering, for now at least.

As soon as Igor passed out, they immediately took out their weapons and prepared to face the incoming enemy group.

Before they left, Jay spoke to Zhao Li Xin, "Li Xin, can you send Lory to your territory? We don’t know what else MADD might do to her. Once she enters your territory, the connection will be cut off. I wouldn’t believe the signal could reach the other realm."

"If it blocks it, can I just take it out then?" Lory was annoyed facing the fact that she needed to hide from now on to avoid the enemy from locating her.

Jay shook his head. "No. It would automatically detonate. The defense mechanism is troublesome. If we want to remove it safely, we need to return to N.I.M.S."

Lory clicked her tongue in annoyance. They already knew how they could go back now. Suddenly, she remembered something important. "Wait a minute, what about the MADD in Zhao Li Xin’s body? MADD doesn’t affect him, but it should still be in Li Xin’s body, right? Will it harm him?" She looked at Zhao Li Xin worriedly.

"It’s fine. I already destroyed it with my Qi," Zhao Li Xin replied casually.

Everyone stared at him in shock. Samuel’s mouth fell open. "You can do that?"

Zhao Li Xin blinked. Not understanding what’s so great about that, all high-level cultivators he knew could do that.

"How did you do that?" Jay was genuinely shocked and extremely intrigued.

"All cultivators can regulate every nerve and physiological response in their bodies. We can precisely control our blood flow, tissue reactions, and internal energy pathways. Because of that, we can detect any foreign substance or anomaly the moment it enters our system. Some cultivator can use their power to force it out of their body. But in my level, I can use my immortal flame to neutralize and destroy the object at a cellular level."

Jay and Clift immediately remembered how Zhao Li Xin had saved Lucas.

"See? My healing power is basically useless on him," Lory said, giving him a helpless look.

"Anyway, that’s good to hear," Clift cut in. "Alright, Lory, your husband will send you away." He gave Zhao Li Xin a brief nod.

Lory snorted angrily. "So I’m the only one being left out."

Zhao Li Xin smiled dotingly. "Don’t worry, wife. I promise we’ll bring you for the next one."

Lory pouted but relented. "Okay... send me away then."

Zhao Li Xin raised his hand, and Lory’s body vanished into thin air. Jay gave Zhao Li Xin a helpless look. "Li Xin, I think you spoil her too much."

Zhao Li Xin didn’t respond. He indeed liked spoiling Lory.

"Okay, now that’s creepy," Samuel feel a bit uneasy as he witnessed it for the first time.

"Scaredy-cat," Clift smirked.

Samuel shot Clift a side-eye.