"Let's keep looking for people," Lu Zhi retracted his gaze from the bodies of the deceased foreign apostles. "You said the Serpent God Tower has more than a dozen different passages. We've passed nearly half of them. I have a feeling my brother and the others are not far from us."
Shen Qi grunted, his eyes suddenly flashing. "Hmm?"
"What's wrong?" Lu Zhi noticed the subtle shift in Shen Qi's expression, as if something beyond his expectation had occurred.
Before Lu Zhi could ask further, the entire passage began to shake violently.
"What's happening?" Lu Zhi leaned against the wall to steady himself. Suddenly, the wall vanished with a whoosh. Before Lu Zhi could react, he was falling in front of Shen Qi.
In this moment of crisis, Lu Zhi found his thought to be: I was careless. Why did I lean on the wall? I should have stayed close to Shen Qi, then it would have been foolproof.
"Be careful." The moment the passage shook, Shen Qi noticed the changes around him and instantly teleported to Lu Zhi's side, catching him as he fell.
Lu Zhi withdrew his scattered thoughts and observed the collapsing passage. It was as if someone had triggered a mechanism, shattering all the paths. Everything around them was about to be plunged into darkness.
Lu Zhi and Shen Qi were now suspended in the void beneath the collapsing road, looking up at the magnificent passage dissipating like smoke.
Soon, Lu Zhi discovered that one of the paths showed no signs of collapse.
He recalled Shen Qi saying that the strongest illusion was to turn the fake into the real.
"So, from beginning to end, there was only one real path?" Lu Zhi exclaimed. "Someone found a way to break the illusions, so the fake passages collapsed. What happens to the people who fall?"
Lu Zhi looked down, but saw only darkness.
Would those who fell manage to get out alive?
Shen Qi surveyed the surroundings. "I don't know. They might be randomly teleported out of the Serpent God Tower, or they might fall to their deaths."
Lu Zhi kept an eye on the collapsing passages, worried his brother might be in them. Fortunately, he wasn't.
However, he also didn't see any foreign apostles, meaning they might have already encountered them on the real path!
Shen Qi seemed to sense Lu Zhi's thoughts and, carrying Lu Zhi, flew to the outer wall of a passage. With a single, rough kick, he shattered the outer wall.
Before Lu Zhi could be surprised by Shen Qi's roughness, he was filled with only anger upon seeing the scene inside the passage. His black pupils instantly turned black and gold, and the divine mark condensed in his palm, transforming into the Death God's scythe. With a menacing sweep of the scythe, a killing aura was unleashed towards Lu Chengxuan.
...
Li Mei and a blood-covered Mu Sen lay on the ground, their conditions unknown. Chu Shiling's abdomen was pierced by steel spikes and pinned to the wall. A foreign apostle was about to finish him off.
Lu Chengxuan was fighting two opponents, unable to split his attention. Seeing Chu Shiling's life hanging by a thread, his eyes turned scarlet. His telekinetic power erupted, pushing back the two foreign apostles with powerful currents, and he seized the opportunity to save Chu Shiling.
The opponents seemed to be waiting for this moment. Countless steel spikes shot out from all directions. Lu Chengxuan's eyes narrowed, and his fierce lightning tore through the barrage of spikes, repelling the foreign apostles and rescuing Chu Shiling from their grasp.
Lu Chengxuan pulled the steel spikes out of Chu Shiling's body. Just as he was about to take Chu Shiling and escape, the foreign apostle holding the sapphire ring appeared behind Lu Chengxuan as if from nowhere.
A pair of green eyes exuded excitement and a malicious smile. Holding a water-colored spear, he suddenly lunged from behind to impale them both.
Chu Shiling, half-conscious, used his last bit of strength to push Lu Chengxuan aside and weakly uttered, "Time stop..."
But before his extraordinary power could be unleashed, Lu Chengxuan covered his mouth, allowing the water spear to pierce through his shoulder blade.
Lu Chengxuan's face turned pale, and he let out a muffled groan. He said to Chu Shiling, "If you use your power again, you'll die."
Chu Shiling gritted his teeth, but was too weak to retort. His wound was healing, but he lacked the strength to use his extraordinary power.
Lu Chengxuan roared, and fierce lightning erupted again, forcing the two approaching apostles to retreat.
The purple lightning wove into an electric net, preventing the three apostles from a full assault.
The female foreign apostle clicked her tongue. "So troublesome."
Another male apostle in blue attire shouted at the short boy in a hoodie standing in the corner, "Hey, it's been so long, aren't you going to make a move?"
The boy looked up and said to the female apostle, "You go ahead. I don't want to get electrocuted."
Lu Chengxuan's extraordinary power was the strongest lightning, and he was an S-class expert. Even a single shock would be enough for them to handle.
The boy crossed his arms, intending to watch indifferently. This action annoyed the two apostles.
The female apostle said angrily, "If you're not going to help, why didn't you chase them when they were escaping earlier?"
The boy shrugged. "You didn't tell me to chase them then."
This rascal and uncooperative attitude greatly angered the two apostles.
"Shut up, and help me take him down," the apostle with green eyes said coldly to the other two.
The blue-clothed apostle dared not disobey. He exchanged a glance with the female apostle. The female apostle's eyes lit up as she looked at the blue-clothed apostle. The blue-clothed apostle's form slowly blurred and became translucent as he stealthily moved towards the injured Lu Chengxuan and Chu Shiling.
The blue-clothed apostle estimated the depletion of Lu Chengxuan's psychic power. The more powerful the extraordinary ability, the greater the psychic power consumed, and the defense strength of the electric net was gradually weakening.
The foreign apostle with green eyes attacked the electric net. The unyielding electric net cracked and then disintegrated the next second.
The invisible blue-clothed apostle was overjoyed. His hand transformed into a steel blade, ready to decapitate Lu Chengxuan.
At this very moment, the foreign apostle with green eyes seemed to sense a threat and quickly retreated to the side of the boy apostle.
The next second, the solid passage wall beside them was kicked open with a rumble.
As the green-eyed apostle's gaze met Shen Qi's icy silver-grey eyes, a crisis more terrifying than facing the Rat God struck him. In just three seconds, he grabbed the boy apostle beside him, exhausted all the divine power of the sapphire ring, activated a teleportation, and instantly vanished from the Serpent God Tower.
Before the female apostle could react, she was surrounded by a swarm of red-tailed moths. She only managed to let out a scream before being incinerated.
Meanwhile, a furious Lu Zhi swung the Death God's scythe with all his might, slicing the blue-clothed apostle in half as if he were cutting through a chopping board.
Before he died, the blue-clothed apostle's expression was still one of twisted horror. With a thud, he fell to the ground, spreading a pool of blood.
Lu Zhi's black and gold eyes were chillingly cold, making Lu Chengxuan feel a momentary sense of unfamiliarity.
"Brother, how are you guys?" Lu Zhi retracted the Death God's scythe, turned, and summoned Manluo, who extended branches to help them heal.
Lu Chengxuan looked at Lu Zhi's black and gold pupils and, after a long pause, asked hoarsely, "Why are you here..."
Lu Zhi examined Li Mei and Mu Sen and found that they were severely injured and in a coma, but their lives were not in danger for the time being. Chu Shiling was the most severely injured.
Hearing Lu Chengxuan's question, Lu Zhi did not conceal it. "Lan Guoguo sent me a message saying you were in danger."
"Guoguo..." Chu Shiling's wound was healing under Manluo's treatment, but his face was pale from excessive blood loss, and his eyes were filled with confusion. "Guoguo... why would he do this..."
"Guoguo... betrayed us, and then sent you to save us..." Chu Shiling murmured, "Why..."
Lu Zhi's pupils trembled. He abruptly looked at Lu Chengxuan. "What betrayal? Lan Guoguo betrayed you? But he was the one who sent me a message to save you..."
Lu Chengxuan's expression darkened.
At this moment, Shen Qi, who had been silent, suddenly said, "Lan Guoguo? His abilities are very special..." His silver-grey eyes were dark. "He can see the timeline."