Chapter 45: Cold Shadow Blossoms
After glancing at the other regions, Shen Zhong suddenly pointed at the point of light at the very top of the statue, which had already broken through into the second corridor.
“Still, that little fellow named Lin Yuan is moving very quickly.”
“In less than half an hour, he’s already broken through to the second passage.”
Lin Yandong nodded with a smile.
“That little fellow’s combat power is far from ordinary. If he can link up with the strike team, they’ll definitely be able to clear the dungeon faster.”
“What a pity. The strike team chose the region on the right. If they want to meet up, it’ll still take some time.”
“I’m not asking for anything else,” Shen Zhong sighed. “I just hope they can clear it safely.”
“Let nothing go wrong.”
Before his words had even finished,
a powerful wave of dark force shot over from the distance
and slammed into the Barrier with a tremendous crash.
BOOM!
The Protective Barrier, which could withstand 500,000 damage, shattered in a single blow.
“Ice Wall, rise!”
Lin Yandong roared.
Eight thick walls of ice, radiating frigid energy, appeared before everyone
and blocked the remaining force of the dark shockwave.
“Who dares make a move inside the city?”
“Clap! Clap! Clap!”
A black-clad figure appeared out of thin air above the city.
“You actually managed to block my Black Dragon Wave. You’ve got some ability.”
“Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Xiao Jun.”
“I come from Dark Knight Guild.”
The man named Xiao Jun wore a black Mage Robe.
In his hand was a grimoire emblazoned with a purple skull.
His expression was arrogant and untamed.
“Xiao Jun!”
“A Level 56 Dark Magus!”
“How did he end up in Tianfeng City?”
Lin Yandong and the others exchanged glances, all of them alarmed.
Could he have come for Mu Tianxing?
Damn it. This was bad.
Without the slightest hesitation,
a blue staff radiating icy energy appeared in Lin Yandong’s hand.
“I’ll hold him back. The rest of you, hurry and notify the Demon Suppression Army. Tell Meng Zhan to come support us immediately.”
Lin Yandong’s figure flashed, and he appeared in the sky,
facing Xiao Jun directly.
“Extreme Ice Feast!”
A frost aura capable of freezing all things condensed around the staff.
The space within a hundred meters instantly became a world of ice.
“So you’re trying to buy time?” Xiao Jun’s lips curled with disdain.
“You’re too slow.”
Xiao Jun pressed his left hand against the grimoire and pointed at Lin Yandong with his right.
A vast mass of dark energy condensed into a Dark Dragon.
The dragon threw back its head and roared.
“ROOOAR!”
With nothing more than a simple Dragon Breath spell,
it instantly burned away the frozen world
and severely wounded Lin Yandong along with it.
If he had not activated Ice Guard and a Magic Shield,
Lin Yandong would already have died beneath Xiao Jun’s Dark Dragon Breath.
“Dark Imprisonment!”
Xiao Jun lightly brushed a hand over the grimoire
and cast a large-scale binding spell.
Lin Yandong, Shen Zhong, Cui Xianglong, and everyone else
were trapped inside a purple sphere of magical force.
None of them could make any movement.
There was only one exception.
Liao Chen, Commander of the Enforcement Squad.
A silver vortex flashed around Liao Chen’s body,
and his whole person became wrapped in violent wind.
“Swift Gale Flicker Flash!”
Liao Chen transformed into a gust of wind, invisible to the naked eye,
and in an instant arrived before Xiao Jun.
“Hah! Hah! Hah!”
In the span of three short seconds, Liao Chen threw hundreds of punches.
The violent force of his fists made it impossible for anyone to keep their eyes open.
That was how he had earned the title Swift Storms.
Xiao Jun’s robe was whipped about by the storm of blows.
“Your speed is fast, but your attacks are too weak.”
A cruel smile appeared on Xiao Jun’s lips.
Behind him rose the shadow of a hideous demon.
The demon reached out, grabbed, and then clenched its hand tight.
Crack!
That was the sound of Liao Chen’s bones shattering.
With a casual flick, Xiao Jun threw him away.
Liao Chen crashed to the ground,
and no one knew whether he was dead or alive.
Xiao Jun’s gaze swept across every person present.
“Weak. Far too weak.”
“The weak do not deserve to enjoy such a privileged life.”
“All of you will become blood offerings for the Dark Dragon!”
Madness filled Xiao Jun’s face.
The grimoire in his hand erupted with thick purple radiance,
evil, filthy,
and overflowing with a deeply unsettling aura.
“A Sacrificial Array!” Lin Yandong was horrified.
“So this Regional Dungeon was brought into the city by you!”
“Correct.” Xiao Jun snapped his fingers. “But there’s no reward.”
The Regional Dungeon before them truly was Xiao Jun’s doing.
The Dark Dragon was a Level 60 Lord-class fiendish beast
that dwelled in the Dragon Caverns of the Demon Realm.
For a Dark Dragon to break through the boundary and descend upon Blue Star was an extremely difficult thing.
Before it could even descend, it would likely be surrounded and killed by a team of powerful Class-Holders.
So,
Xiao Jun had thought of a compromise.
First, open the boundary of a lower-level Regional Dungeon.
Then, use a Sacrificial Array to offer up the humans of an entire city as a medium,
temporarily allowing the Dark Dragon to descend across realms onto Blue Star.
The Dark Dragon had promised that, so long as Xiao Jun allowed it to descend upon Blue Star,
it would, in exchange, grant him its innate spell, the SSS-Rank Dark Oblivion.
And so,
the incident of the Regional Dungeon descending upon Tianfeng City came to pass.
This matter had nothing at all to do with Mu Tianxing.
Even the upper ranks of Dark Knight Guild knew nothing about it.
This was purely Xiao Jun’s personal undertaking.
If the upper ranks of Dark Knight Guild had known,
they would have sent at least two of their Level 60 aces,
rather than letting Xiao Jun come here alone.
“Open the connection to the Demon Realm. Sacrificial Array, activate!”
Xiao Jun had long since arranged the Sacrificial Array in advance.
He had only been waiting for the moment when the Dungeon boundary would break.
Although the Regional Dungeon had not yet opened its boundary,
Xiao Jun was not worried in the slightest.
He had already planted a mole inside the strike team,
ensuring that nothing could go wrong.
To conquer the Regional Dungeon before them?
Impossible.
As the Sacrificial Array’s range slowly expanded,
a feeling of despair began to rise from the depths of everyone’s heart.
It was over.
If Xiao Jun succeeded,
Tianfeng City would likely cease to exist.
“In pain? In despair? This is what the world truly looks like.”
Xiao Jun’s tone was wild and unrestrained.
“This world was always meant to be ruled by the strong.”
Suddenly,
a fierce sword aura was born out of nowhere.
It was cold enough to pierce the bone and raise the hairs on one’s skin.
A white figure came streaking through the darkened sky,
as swift as a meteor crossing the night.
A woman dressed in a fitted white outfit, with pale blue cloud patterns embroidered at the cuffs, appeared before everyone.
“Cold Shadow Blossoms!”
The chill voice rang out,
and Xiao Jun’s expression changed at once.
“Black Dragon Armor!”
“Demon Skin!”
“Magic Shield!”
“Become Darkness!”
Without the slightest hesitation,
Xiao Jun instantly threw out every life-saving skill he possessed.
The sword-light blazed brilliantly.
A white branch appeared in the sky,
and in an instant pierced through Xiao Jun’s body.
The sword-light poured down like a waterfall,
and white blossoms bloomed all along the branch.
Xiao Jun’s entire body was wrapped within them,
like a snow lotus blooming in the wind,
beautiful beyond words.
Bang!
The snow lotus shattered,
vanishing like an ephemeral flower in bloom.
Only one word could describe it:
stunning.
The moment Xiao Jun died, the Dark Imprisonment binding everyone vanished with him.
The woman moved lightly, touching down with the tip of her foot,
and landed steadily before the statue.
With her back to the crowd, her voice, cool and detached, rang out:
“Where is Lin Yuan?”