Free Web NovelChapter 237: Chapter 225: Li Xing Institute
The Dark Star Association.
An organization of Fallen who had truly thrown their lot in with the Abyss. They acted in secret, and their methods were cruel.
They specialized in targeting small and medium-sized settlements, using the blood and souls of the living as sacrifices to the source of corruption.
"Pick up the pace." Ian’s voice was calm, yet carried an unquestionable chill.
"We have to be back in the city before dark."
"Yes!"
The team sped up, their boots crunching on the gravel with a dense RUSTLE.
Just when they were less than three li from the outer walls of Blue Cave Mountain...
Ian’s steps came to a sudden halt!
"Stop."
He raised a hand, and the team behind him instantly froze, even suppressing their breathing to the bare minimum.
Li Yao nervously tightened his grip on his sword’s hilt, following Ian’s gaze.
Ahead was a pile of rubble, with a few dead, crooked-necked trees swaying in the wind, their shadows stretching long and thin.
Nothing looked out of the ordinary.
But deep in Ian’s pupils, a speck of silver light suddenly flared!
[Starlight Perception] activated at full power!
In his vision, the world’s colors peeled away layer by layer, leaving only the purest flow of Energy.
Grayish-white Earth Vein Elemental Energy flowed slowly underground like a stream, while sparse, silvery points of Starlight drifted in the air.
And... a few extremely well-hidden, dark red Energy Threads that looked like filth-tainted blood!
The threads extended from deep within the rubble, snaking along the ground before finally disappearing into the shadows of Blue Cave Mountain’s city wall.
"Five people," Ian’s lips barely moved, his voice compressed into a thin line that reached Li Yao’s ears.
"Three at the Awakening Late Stage, two at the Initial Stage of Condensation... One of them has a strange Energy fluctuation, as if their power was force-fed into them."
Li Yao’s heart leaped.
’An unstable Initial Stage of Condensation?!’
"What are they doing?" the young man whispered, eager for action.
Ian’s gaze turned cold.
"They’re using an Abyssal contaminant as the core to set up a small Corruption Diffusion Rune Array. The eye of the array is pointed toward... the eastern water well of Blue Cave Mountain."
Li Yao sucked in a sharp, cold breath.
Between the Inner City and outer city, Blue Cave Mountain had a population of nearly one hundred thousand. Their daily drinking water came mainly from deep wells, and the eastern well supplied thousands of people in the outer city!
’If the water source gets contaminated...’
"Brother, we..." Li Yao gritted his teeth, his hand on his sword hilt, veins bulging on his skin.
"You all stay here, concealed."
Ian cut him off, his voice as calm as if he were discussing what to have for dinner.
"Don’t come out without my signal."
"But..."
"No ’buts.’" Ian turned his head and glanced at Li Yao.
There was no emotion in that gaze, yet it made Li Yao’s entire body stiffen, and he swallowed the words that were on the tip of his tongue.
For the first time, he saw it in his brother’s eyes... cold, murderous intent.
"Stay hidden."
The moment he finished speaking, Ian’s figure vanished from the spot.
[Star Step], pushed to its limit. He became a blurry gray afterimage, skimming low across the ground.
He didn’t stir a single gust of wind, nor did he even kick up any dust.
Fifty meters, thirty meters, twenty meters...
Deep within the rubble, five figures in black cloaks were gathered in a circle.
In the center of the circle, three dark red Bone Stakes were driven into the ground. Their surfaces were covered in twisted Runes, which were slowly oozing a viscous black blood.
The black blood flowed along carved grooves, outlining a complex Array about three meters in diameter.
At the center of the Array sat a fist-sized, dark red fleshy tumor, pulsing continuously.
The tumor’s surface was covered in vein-like patterns, and with each pulse, it emitted a nauseating, rotten stench.
"Hurry up!" a hoarse voice urged. A pair of bloodshot eyes peeked out from under a cloak.
"We have to finish before sunset. The time for the sacrifice is almost upon us."
"What’s the rush?" another voice drawled, tinged with a sick sort of pleasure.
"Let those idiots drink a few more mouthfuls of clean water. Their screams will be all the more melodious when the corruption erupts..."
Before the words had even faded!
A gray shadow cut into the Array like a phantom.
"Who’s there?!"
All five sensed it at the same time, but it was too late.
Ian had no intention of wasting words. He formed a sword-finger with his right hand, a dot of silver light flaring at its tip.
SHHIIING!
His sword-finger struck a Rune Node on the first Bone Stake with perfect precision.
VMMMM!
The Bone Stake trembled violently. The Runes on its surface instantly shattered, and the flowing black blood reversed its course, eroding the Array from within.
"You’re courting death!"
The nearest Solidified Fallen roared, drawing a curved Bone Blade in a reverse grip and hacking viciously at the back of Ian’s neck, its blade wreathed in filthy black energy.
A glint of gold flashed in Ian’s eyes, and his opponent’s body froze, as if struck by lightning.
He casually grabbed with his left hand, his five fingers clamping onto the man’s wrist like iron pliers, and twisted!
CRACK!
The crisp sound of the wrist bone shattering was clearly audible.
"Argh!"
The scream had barely left his lips before Ian used the momentum to pivot, slamming his elbow into the man’s chest like a heavy hammer.
THUD!
With a dull impact, the man spewed blood. His chest caved in, and his body was sent flying backward like a broken sack, crashing into the rubble. He twitched twice, then fell silent.
From attack to kill, it took less than a second!
"Condensation Tier?! Retreat!"
The one at the Initial Stage of Condensation with the strange fluctuation—his pupils shrank. He shrieked as he retreated explosively.
At the same time, his hands formed a rapid Sealing Technique. Black energy surged from his body, coalescing into the vague illusion of a tentacle!
Bloodline Illusion: Corrupted Follower!
The other three reacted as well. One threw out a handful of foul-smelling black powder, which turned into a spreading Poisonous Fog.
Another drew a Bone Flute and blew a sharp, ear-piercing shriek.
The last one, an Awakening Late Stage, scrambled madly toward the fleshy tumor at the Array’s center, clearly intending to detonate it!
"Too late."
Ian’s voice was terrifyingly calm.
He took a step forward.
Beneath his feet, an invisible ripple spread out.
[Gravity Manipulation]—Gravity amplified fivefold, maximum range of three hundred meters!
VMMMM!
The air seemed to solidify in an instant!
The Fallen who was about to detonate the tumor suddenly sank, as if crushed by an invisible mountain. His movements slowed by a factor of more than ten!
As for the one spreading the Poisonous Fog, the black powder had just left his hand when the sudden increase in Gravity yanked it to the ground. It went POOF, spreading out in a cloud and enveloping him instead!
Only the one at the Initial Stage of Condensation who had manifested the Bloodline Illusion barely managed to withstand the gravitational pressure, but even his illusion twisted and warped, its tentacle drooping limply.
"Who... Who in the world are you?!" his voice trembled, his face under the cloak twisted with fear.
Ian didn’t answer.
He simply raised his right hand, palm up, and slowly closed his fingers.
As he did so, the surrounding Gravity Field began to warp and compress!
With him at the center, the air within a fifty-meter radius turned thick like glue. The three Awakening Late Stage Fallen couldn’t even scream as their bodies were violently squeezed by an invisible giant hand!
CRACK, CRACK, CRACK...
A series of sickening bone-crushing sounds echoed.
The three bodies twisted and deformed into bizarre shapes before exploding with a SPLAT, turning into three mangled piles of flesh and gore!
The stench of blood mixed with rot instantly filled the air.
"M-Monster..."
The lone survivor, the Initial Stage of Condensation Fallen, completely broke down. He turned to run, but every step was like wading through a swamp, too heavy to lift his feet.
Ian finally glanced at him.
It was the look one would give a struggling Insect.
The next instant, Ian moved again.
Like a bolt of silver lightning, he tore through the viscous air and appeared in front of the man.
His right hand opened, and he clamped it over the man’s face!
"Mmph... gurgle..."
The Fallen struggled desperately, black energy pouring out of him in a frantic attempt to corrode Ian’s arm.
But the moment that filthy Energy touched Ian’s skin, it was obliterated by a faint silver glow of Purification Annihilation, not leaving even a trace behind.
"How many members of the Dark Star Association are in Blue Cave Mountain?" Ian asked, his voice calm.
"I... I don’t know..." the man squeezed out through gritted teeth.
"Oh."
Ian’s fingers tightened slightly.
The man’s skull began to make a strained CREAKING sound.
"I’ll talk! I’ll talk!" the Fallen shrieked.
"Th-Thirty or so! Most are lying low in the outer city. I heard there’s someone in the Inner City too, a Late Stage of Condensation. He’s..."
Before he could finish, his pupils suddenly dilated. Black blood poured from his seven orifices, and his body began to convulse violently.
’A self-destruct Restriction.’
Ian released his grip. The corpse slumped to the ground and rapidly decomposed, melting into a puddle of stinking black liquid.
The battle was over.
From the moment Ian attacked to the complete annihilation of the five Dark Star Association Fallen, the entire process took less than ten seconds.
He flicked the black blood from his hand. A silver light flowed over it, and all the filth vanished.
He walked to the center of the Array, crouched down, and looked at the still-pulsing, dark red tumor.
[Starlight Perception] scan.
The internal structure was complex. Its core was a highly concentrated mass of corrupting Energy. If detonated, it was powerful enough to pollute any water source within a hundred-meter radius, and the contamination would continue to spread.
’A crude creation.’
Ian commented, condensing the silver light at his fingertip into a Starlight Needle as thin as a hair. He plunged it into the tumor’s core.
VMMMM...
The tumor trembled violently. The vein-like patterns on its surface rapidly dimmed and shriveled.
Finally, with a soft PFFT, it deflated, turning into a lifeless black lump.
He stood up, his gaze sweeping over the wreckage on the ground.
The five corpses were rapidly decomposing. In less than a quarter of an hour, they would disappear completely, leaving not even a trace behind.
’The Dark Star Association certainly is thorough.’
"You can come out now," Ian called out toward the edge of the rubble.
Li Yao and the thirteen other youths ran in, their faces filled with shock and a hint of irrepressible excitement.
"Brother! That was incredible!" Li Yao’s eyes shone, his voice trembling with excitement.
"Two at the Condensation level, three at the Awakening Late Stage... just like that... all wiped out?"
"Mm," Ian nodded, his tone flat.
"Clean this up. Get rid of the Bone Stakes and the Array’s traces. Don’t worry about the bodies; they’ll disappear on their own."
The youths immediately got to work, their movements swift and efficient. Clearly, their two months of practical combat training had not been in vain.
Ah Ku crouched in front of the puddle of black liquid, frowning.
"Teacher, that Initial Stage of Condensation Fallen... he felt so weak. Not much stronger than the Awakening Late Stage opponents I’ve fought before."
"He was forcibly pushed to that level using Potions and Evil Techniques."
Ian explained, "His foundation was unstable and his Energy was chaotic. His actual combat strength was only a sliver stronger than an ordinary Peak of Awakening."
He paused, then looked at the group.
"Remember, if you encounter members of the Dark Star Association in the future, don’t be intimidated by their Realm. Most of this scum take shortcuts. Their practical combat ability is far lower than their Realm on paper."
"Understood!" the youths replied in unison.
Soon, the scene was cleaned up.
Ian led the team away from the rubble and toward Blue Cave Mountain.
The sun set in the west, dyeing the edges of the gray clouds a dark red, like congealed blood.
「That night, in the study on the fifth floor of the Chixia Business Alliance.」
Chen Jingshan sat behind a mahogany desk, clutching a confidential report that had just arrived, speechless for a long time.
The candlelight flickered, casting the wrinkles on his face in sharp relief.
Steward Wang stood by his side with his hands clasped, not daring to breathe too loudly.
After a long while, Chen Jingshan finally spoke, his voice carrying a hint of unconcealable amazement.
"Instantly killing five Dark Star Association elites, two of whom were at the Initial Stage of Condensation... This Li Xing is even more outstanding than I imagined."
Steward Wang swallowed. "Elder Chen, isn’t he being... too conspicuous? Those lunatics from the Dark Star Association hold the worst grudges."
"Conspicuous?" Chen Jingshan laughed, a chill in his smile.
"If he hadn’t acted, half the water supply in the outer city would have been contaminated by tomorrow morning."
He put down the report, stood up, and paced to the window.
Outside the window, the Inner City was brightly lit, a stark contrast to the darkness of the outer city.
The Dark Star Association has been lurking in Blue Cave Mountain for more than a day or two.
’Those old fools at the City Lord’s Mansion should know something about the situation, yet they’ve never been able to catch them. Why?’
Steward Wang shook his head.
"Because they don’t want to tear away the facade," Chen Jingshan’s voice turned cold.
Behind the Dark Star Association stands the Rotting Abyss Sect—a behemoth with entities that surpass the Manifested Saint level.
"The City Lord’s Mansion is afraid of bringing disaster upon itself, so they’d rather play deaf and dumb, as long as the Dark Star Association doesn’t cause too much trouble."
He turned back to face Steward Wang.
"Li Xing has just broken through to Condensation, and his foundation is still unstable. There are plenty of people in the outer city watching him. This battle served as a message to all those shadowy figures lurking in the dark."
’Don’t mess with me.’
Steward Wang was silent for a moment before asking cautiously, "Then... will the Dark Star Association retaliate?"
He looked out the window, his gaze as sharp as a blade.
"Those monsters should tuck their tails and stay far away. If they really dare to reach out their claws..."
The old man’s tone was calm, yet it was laced with a chilling killing intent.
"I wouldn’t mind joining forces with the various parties to give Blue Cave Mountain a thorough cleansing."
