Chapter 1 Don't Rush

"Don't rush. Let me savor his despair and fear a little longer, otherwise, I'd feel bad for my grand entrance."

Zhai Cai flicked the hem of his black mink coat, like a flamboyant general tossing his cape.

Though his words were frivolous, his actions were swift. He lowered his stance slightly, positioning his knight's longsword to his side, adopting a battōjutsu stance.

Qian Ning took a deep breath, calming himself. He scanned his surroundings while recalling information about the black-mink-coated youth.

According to the Hunter Guild's intelligence, this man was the sole heir to the Holy See's Knights Templar, a sixth-generation successor, a level 7 Holy Knight. In terms of levels alone, Qian Ning was one level higher.

But this was the secret chamber housing the Eye of the Sky; a forced breakout was impossible. No escape techniques or explosive skills could breach it.

Fighting a knight in a confined space was exceptionally dangerous for a thunder mage.

At that moment, the sole-heir knight completed his charge, violently swinging his meter-long sword. The blade erupted with bronze light, which swept out with the swing, transforming into an arc of sword qi that targeted the Heavenly Punishment's administrative minister.

Qian Ning Lu immediately raised his feather fan, creating a wall of wind before him.

The arc of bronze sword light held against the wind wall for a long time, generating wild, unbridled currents until its power was exhausted and it dissipated.

Qian Ning Lu waved his feather fan at Zhai Cai. With a shrill "whooshing" sound, wind blade arrows shot out like a rain.

Zhai Cai planted his knight's longsword in front of him, the bronze light flaring, constructing an illusory wall before him.

Level 7 Holy Knight's active skill: Wall of Protection!

This was a defensive skill even more powerful than a wind mage's wind wall.

The transparent wind blades slammed violently into the bronze wall, creating ripples like raindrops.

Taking advantage of the "Wall of Protection" blocking the wind blades, Zhai Cai grabbed a set of bronze armor from his inventory. With clangs and clatters, the helmet, breastplate, vambraces, mask, and skirt armor flew up on their own, equipping him like a medieval knight.

This armor was called "The Holy Knight's Battle Garb," a tool passed down from the third-generation Holy Knight, possessing the effect of amplifying knight skills. Furthermore, it was a walking "Wall of Protection."

A knight wearing this battle garb was under the protection of the Wall of Protection at all times. On the battlefield, he was like an armored tank.

Qian Ning Lu waved his fan again, creating wind blades that slashed toward the oncoming sole-heir knight.

This feather fan was one of Qian Ning Lu's only two Sovereign-grade items. Its functions were "Raging Hurricane" and all wind mage skills below the Sovereign stage.

This effectively gave him the skills of two dozen mages. Therefore, although the feather fan was not an unpredictable, unsolvable supreme-grade item, it was still exceptionally valuable.

For example, now, with his lightning-attribute spiritual power restricted, he could still fight the Holy See's sole-heir knight.

In truth, he could forcibly manipulate lightning-attribute spiritual power, breaking the knight's rules, but doing so would inevitably cause the other party to use Judgment, needlessly buffing the enemy.

Allowing a knight skilled in close combat to gain buffs in such a small, confined space would be fatal for him.

Clang, clang, clang... Dense wind blades continuously struck the sole-heir knight, scattering dazzling sparks. Zhai Cai transformed into a stream of bronze light, instantly charging before Qian Ning Lu, stabbing his chest with his sword.

Qian Ning Lu retreated using wind manipulation, the feather fan in his hand suddenly unfolded, turning into a small palm-leaf fan. He vigorously fanned it upward.

"Whoosh..."

A hurricane with a diameter of five meters rose from the ground, emitting a piercing, chaotic shriek.

Raging Hurricane! He activated the fan's active skill.

Zhai Cai was directly caught in the hurricane, heavily slammed into the ceiling, emitting a muffled thud.

Seizing the opportunity, Qian Ning Lu controlled the raging winds, rapidly rushing toward the secret chamber's entrance.

His thinking was clear: Winnie Burren, with her two defensive items, would be difficult to kill in a short time, and as a lightning mage, he could not defeat the knight in a confined space.

Therefore, after successfully luring the knight into close combat, he unhesitatingly used the wind mage's wind manipulation ability, preparing to abandon the assassination plan and escape the secret chamber.

While in mid-air, Zhai Cai intoned in a low voice, "The rules of this battle are a one-on-one duel. Escape from the secret chamber is forbidden."

Qian Ning Lu felt the surrounding lightning-attribute abilities become active again, no longer suppressed by the knight's laws.

But he only hesitated for less than a second before giving up the idea of fighting back. The reason was simple: even with his strength restored, it would still be difficult for him to kill a level 7 knight.

Moreover, there was Winnie assisting the enemy, even if she was "blind." Even blind, she was still an level 8 lightning mage.

This assassination was doomed to failure the moment Zhai Cai appeared.

"Bang!"

Qian Ning Lu crashed open the secret chamber door, arriving outside. Ten meters ahead was the elevator, and to the left of the elevator was the staircase.

The instant he crashed open the secret chamber's iron door, Zhai Cai's low judgment came from behind him:

"In the name of the knight, I sentence the fleeing one to death."

He violently flung the knight's longsword in his hand, transforming it into a bronze flash of lightning, chasing after Qian Ning Lu at an even faster speed.

Having just escaped the secret chamber, Qian Ning felt a whistling wind behind him, his hackles raised. His expression changed slightly, and he hurriedly waved his feather fan, erecting a wall of wind.

At the same time, he grabbed two items from his inventory: a deep-gray jade stone engraved with void runes, and a circular horn shield.

The horn shield was what he had exchanged from the Hunter Guild using a Sovereign-grade item of his class and merit points.

Just as the two items were taken out, the stream of bronze light flew before him. The wind wall instantly collapsed into strong winds. In Qian Ning Lu's pupils, the bright bronze light was reflected.

He hurriedly raised the small shield, pushing it forward. "Clang!"

The knight's longsword pierced the horn shield, stirring up dazzling light.

Fine cracks appeared on the surface of Qian Ning Lu's round shield, and his body flew backward.

He was extremely grateful that his choice in the secret chamber had been the right one—not to forcibly break the rules and mobilize lightning-attribute spiritual power.

This Holy See knight, a sixth-generation sole heir, was much stronger than ordinary Holy Knights. If he had allowed him to use "Judgment" in the secret chamber, Qian Ning estimated that he would have already returned to the Lingjing Xingzhe.

While flying backward, he unhesitatingly crushed the teleportation jade stone.

The jade stone crumbled into tiny spots of light, enveloping Qian Ning Lu's body, and then disappeared.

"Thud!" Qian Ning Lu, who should have teleported away, fell heavily to the ground. He sat up somewhat blankly, not understanding why the teleportation jade stone had failed.

Immediately afterward, he saw that his surroundings were covered in talismans with red characters on a black background.

The talismans formed a circular array, supporting an invisible barrier, trapping him inside. It was also the barrier that had restricted his teleportation escape.

A Sovereign-grade restriction... Despair surged in Qian Ning Lu's eyes. Even more despairing, from the six black talismans, illusory chains extended, entangling Qian Ning Lu's hands, feet, neck, and waist.

"Ah..."

The moment the illusory chains wrapped around his body, Qian Ning Lu felt his soul being burned by fierce flames, and he couldn't help but let out a painful scream.

"Zzz..."

Streaks of tree-like lightning burst forth from his body, striking the floor, the ceiling, and the black paper talismans, causing some disturbance in the invisible barrier, but it was not destroyed.

Qian Ning Lu endured the pain of "soul refining," struggling to wave his feather fan, directly activating the "Raging Hurricane" skill. The terrifying hurricane rose from the ground, directly tearing apart the floor and ceiling, connecting the rooftop and the next floor.

But even though the floor beneath his feet had been torn apart, the six black paper talismans were still unaffected. They seemed to exist in another space.

The barrier formed by the Soul Refining Talismans ignored physical destruction.

Immediately afterward, an intense lightning light erupted from his body again, and his entire person transformed into a ball of bright blue light. The next second, the bright blue lightning ball exploded.

With a "pop," the translucent shockwave directly short-circuited the entire building's power supply, causing all electrical appliances to malfunction.

And the top floor's structure, except for the secret chamber nearby, all the reinforced concrete was destroyed.

Even so, Qian Ning Lu despairingly discovered that the explosion he created by overdrawing his spiritual power still had not destroyed the six black talismans.

Zhai Cai floated in the air, leaning on his sword in one hand and stroking his chin with the other, examining the six paper talismans with a contemplative expression.

When Qian Ning Lu had tried to destroy the paper talismans earlier, he had also tried to poke the barrier with his sword, discovering that physical attacks seemed unable to destroy the paper talismans and the barrier. "Ding-a-ling~"

A crisp silver bell sound came from the collapsing corridor below. Qian Ning Lu and Zhai Cai simultaneously turned their heads, seeing a woman wearing a red dress and a mask walking in, swaying her waist.

She was barefoot, her snow-white jade feet adorned with dark-gold bells on her ankles.

The bronze halo on the knight's longsword in Zhai Cai's hand slowly intensified. He stared at the red-dressed woman. "Who are you!" The red-dressed woman giggled, "A friend of Xiaoyao Jianxian." (Carefree Sword Immortal)

New Covenant Harbor.

The snow-white xenon lamps shone on the harbor, as cold as frost and snow, just like the mood of the evil faction's saints at this time. Icy cold.

Te Fierce had returned to the Lingjing Xingzhe.

A legendary figure who had been a peak saint for ten years, dominating the Free Federation, with a reputation louder than most saints, had returned to the Lingjing Xingzhe.

Killed by a newly risen young man in two or three moves, ending his brilliant life.

Even though the saints present had seen many storms, seeing the scene before their eyes, they still felt it wasn't real enough. "Slap!"

A cocktail slapped his face, making it burn with pain.

He stared blankly at Te Fierce's corpse, his expression stiff.

"It's not an illusion..." the Baku murmured.

Cocktail's lips began to tremble.

At this moment, the night covering the Yin corpse dissipated, and the Sleeping Magic Bullet's duration had passed.

Zhang Yuanqing bent down, picked up the Chaotic Painting, and threw it into the sky.

The mottled colors in the painting separated from the frame, scattering in all directions. The intense colors quickly spread out, distorting everything in reality.

The black-clothed people surrounded by the painting's colors fell one after another with plops. Some had their heads between their legs, some had their butts on their chests, some had their heads twisted behind their backs, and some had their genitals growing on their faces.

Their body structures were completely reversed and chaotic.

The Baku, with his weak constitution, was the first to fall. His physical body died, and his soul left his body, quickly floating toward the night sky.

The short knife in Zhang Yuanqing's hand lit up with black light, making a grasping motion toward the Baku's spiritual body, grabbing a translucent phantom from the air and slashing down fiercely.

"Ah..."

The Baku screamed miserably, his spiritual body collapsing and then dissipating.

The Soul Severing ability of the Form and Spirit Extinction Blade was especially effective against illusionists.

Among the other peak saints, the Jealousy God General, who was the strongest in close combat but lacked life-saving skills, died first, his body like a randomly assembled doll.

Water Ghost, Star Official, and Cocktail used their respective life-saving skills to escape the range of the painting's coverage in a thrilling manner.

As for the Leader of the Tongtian Sect, he had already fled far away.

Zhang Yuanqing endured the tearing pain of his genes after transforming into a beast, coldly sweeping over the orderly saints behind him, "What are you spacing out for? Leave no one alive."

Boom!

The emotions of the orderly saints erupted like a volcano, displaying unprecedented excitement and fighting spirit.