Volume One: The Nature of the Devil Never Changes
Arc: The Great Guerrilla War
Lin Yuan and Gu Yue left the auction house. Before departing, Gu Yue contacted Liu Zai Hang spiritually.
(We will meet in the forest near the laboratory.)
Lin Yuan and Gu Yue went to the collection area and retrieved the items they had purchased, along with a spatial bag containing the primal stones they had earned.
Lin Yuan asked,
"How many primal stones did we get?"
Gu Yue examined the bag with his spiritual sense and answered,
"Fifty-six thousand primal stones."
Lin Yuan was shocked.
"Whoa… That is a fortune."
Gu Yue placed the items inside his spatial ring and gestured for Lin Yuan to leave.
"Alright, let us head back to the laboratory."
The two flew swiftly toward the laboratory.
[After Two Hours of Flying]
They were approaching the laboratory when a shadow suddenly appeared above them.
Scarlet King forcefully shoved Lin Yuan aside and took an overwhelmingly powerful blow that sent him crashing into the grassy ground between the trees.
The attacker was Long Wei.
"Well, well, well… What do we have here? Gu Yue and Lin Yuan. It seems fate has given me the chance to eliminate both of you at once. Ever since I entered the third level of Path Initiation, my desire to kill you has only grown stronger."
After the dust and debris cleared, Gu Yue was lying on the ground, his body covered in blood.
The force of the blow had struck his entire body, tearing and rupturing many of his blood vessels. He was drenched in blood and showed signs of severe internal damage.
Yet he calmly raised a hand, wiped the blood from his nose, swiftly turned his head, and fired a laser from his eye toward Long Wei.
Long Wei effortlessly blocked it with his bare hand.
"Oh? Are you trying to warm my hand?"
Lin Yuan suddenly appeared and attempted to strike him, but Long Wei blocked the attack with ease.
Gu Yue then appeared from the opposite side and threw a punch. His fist struck the side of Long Wei's body, pushing him back by only half a step without leaving so much as a red mark on his skin.
"Is that all you have?"
Gu Yue replied,
"I have something better."
He opened his mouth and unleashed Dragon Breath, temporarily blinding Long Wei and burning away his clothes.
Gu Yue appeared in front of him and delivered another punch that hurled him into the ground. He then fired his laser at full power toward the spot where Long Wei had fallen.
However, Long Wei suddenly appeared beside Gu Yue and struck him, sending him flying dozens of kilometers away before he crashed violently into the ground.
Lin Yuan shouted,
"Scarlet King!"
Long Wei suddenly grabbed him and attempted to strike, but Lin Yuan kicked Long Wei in the face and escaped from his grasp.
A small amount of blood began flowing from Long Wei's nose.
"Interesting."
A flash of light appeared in the distance.
It was Gu Yue, charging forward with all his strength, reinforced by a partial transformation into the Titan King.
He collided with Long Wei, creating an explosion resembling a blazing nuclear blast that illuminated the sky.
Long Wei emerged with only minor injuries, while Gu Yue's entire body had been shattered.
A system screen appeared before Lin Yuan, displaying an image of Gu Yue's completely broken body, including his bones.
Within seconds, however, his body began healing at high speed. His blood vessels reformed, and his bones regenerated.
Gu Yue moved, drew the Imperial Scales Daggers, and appeared in front of Long Wei.
He managed to wound Long Wei's chest, hand, and face, but nothing more, even while using all his current strength and the power of both daggers.
Gu Yue retreated and avoided an attack from Long Wei.
He moved his hand.
"Hegemon's Touch."
Long Wei felt numbness spreading through his body as hundreds of trees were uprooted from the forest and launched toward him at tremendous speed.
The trees crashed into him, and dozens surrounded him.
However, the moment Long Wei released the full force of his aura, every tree shattered.
Gu Yue used Hegemon's Touch to slam him violently into the ground, then descended at high speed and struck him.
Before Long Wei could retaliate, Lin Yuan appeared and attacked him as well.
The two began striking him one after another, preventing him from moving.
Long Wei suddenly roared,
"You bastards! I will kill you both and tear your bodies apart!"
He caught both of the hands they were using to strike him, tightened his grip, and smashed them into each other with tremendous force.
Lin Yuan's rib cage shattered, while Gu Yue's neck broke.
Gu Yue retreated, while Lin Yuan collapsed, choking on his groans as tears streamed from his eyes from the intense pain.
Gu Yue simply grabbed his head, forced his neck back into place, rubbed it briefly, and resumed attacking Long Wei.
Long Wei shouted,
"Damn it! Do you not ever die, you parasite?"
He looked toward Lin Yuan, who was clutching his chest and groaning, and thought,
(Killing this parasite will take time… but the other one will not get back up after one more blow.)
He moved toward Lin Yuan to attack him, but Scarlet King appeared in front of him and blocked the strike.
Long Wei's arm pierced through Gu Yue's chest and emerged from the other side, holding his heart.
Long Wei squeezed with all his strength, crushing the heart in his hand.
Gu Yue swung both arms inward and struck Long Wei from both sides of the head, causing him a severe headache.
Long Wei pulled his arm free and struck Gu Yue, sending him crashing into the nearby mountain.
A laser then struck Long Wei and pushed him backward, but he emerged without any serious injuries—only a few wounds, blood beneath his nose, and burned clothing.
"You bastard! I will kill you!"
He grabbed the nearest tree trunk, reinforced it with the Tyrant Path, and hurled it at Gu Yue with all his strength.
The trunk violently pierced through Gu Yue's abdomen.
At that moment, Long Wei sensed a familiar aura approaching.
It belonged to Liu Zai Hang.
Long Wei immediately moved, summoned the Wings of the Mighty Eagle King, and flew away at high speed, fleeing from the approaching Liu Zai Hang.
A short while later, Liu Zai Hang slowly descended onto the same spot from which Long Wei had escaped.
"What in the heavens happened here?"
He looked ahead and saw Gu Yue severely injured, with an enormous tree trunk piercing through his abdomen.
Liu Zai Hang approached and removed the trunk from Gu Yue's body.
"Oh… You are badly injured."
Gu Yue replied,
"For hell's sake, go to Lin Yuan. My body will recover within a few hours at most, so check on him instead of me."
Liu Zai Hang remained silent for several seconds.
"..."
He calmly left Gu Yue and went to Lin Yuan, who was still kneeling and coughing up large amounts of blood until his face was reflected in the pool beneath him.
From Lin Yuan's perspective, everything around him was distorted, and even his hearing was unclear.
He could hear nothing except the beating of his injured heart and distant voices.
"Lin Yuan? Lin Yuan!"
The voice gradually became clearer.
"Lin Yuan, wake up!"
It was Liu Zai Hang.
He took out a medicinal pill.
"Hah… This is a rare pill, but I have no other choice."
He gave it to Lin Yuan, pushed it into his mouth, forced him to swallow it, then laid him down on the ground.
Lin Yuan thought,
(Scarlet…? He helped me? He saved me?)
Lin Yuan slowly closed his eyes.
Liu Zai Hang looked at him without much concern, the wrinkles around his eyes clearly visible.
He turned around and saw that Gu Yue had managed to stand and move despite the obvious holes in his heart and abdomen.
"Let us go to the laboratory. Carry Lin Yuan and hold on to me."
Liu Zai Hang carried Lin Yuan, stood beside Gu Yue, and placed a hand on his shoulder.
Gu Yue said,
"Vaporization."
Mist appeared around them, and within seconds, they were transported to the laboratory, where the slaves were working diligently.
When the three appeared, everyone was shocked, but they continued working out of fear of disobeying their orders.
The Yin and Yang Guardians moved toward Gu Yue, while Ikalat went to Lin Yuan, picked him up, and carried him into a side room.
The two guardians asked,
"Master, what happened to you?"
Scarlet King answered,
"Long Wei attacked us. Do not worry. My body will heal after a short period of meditation and cultivation."
The Yang Guardian asked,
"Why did you not use Vaporization to return to the laboratory?"
Scarlet King replied,
"Because of the dimension's weak spacetime laws. If I repeatedly used Vaporization more than once, a spacetime rupture might occur, and I do not want to be sent into the region beyond nothingness and crushed by the Ink Clan."
"Also, the laws of this dimension are so weak that they only allow me to use Vaporization once every three hours. I also need several seconds to activate it while remaining completely still. If I move, the technique will be canceled, and if I stop moving in the middle of a battle, I will become an easy target."
"Besides, if I used it and left Lin Yuan to die, I would lose something useful. I do not want to lose anything that benefits my plan."
The Yin Guardian asked,
"Then how did he know where you were?"
Gu Yue shrugged with complete indifference.
"Perhaps he tracked us, or he was behind us and we did not notice, or something like that."
Scarlet King thought,
(Most likely, he refined the eagle wings and then flew after us at high speed after observing our movements.)
He continued indifferently,
"Haaah… Anyway, I am going to heal myself. Ikalat, make sure Lin Yuan is alright. Liu Zai Hang, you can do whatever you want."
One of the slaves approached while carrying something.
It was a pistol.
Scarlet King took the pistol and began examining it.
At the upper rear section was a slot designed to hold a primal stone.
Scarlet King took the Infinite Energy Stone out of his spatial coat and thought for a moment.
(I could place it inside the pistol and obtain infinite ammunition, along with infinitely penetrating shots that deal nearly infinite damage at Absolute Rank One. However, even then, its power would be weaker than its true level because the laws of infinity are weak in this dimension… or I could give it to the system.)
Scarlet King heard the system's voice inside him.
(I am merely a system and am not tremendously useful to you, but this weapon will benefit you greatly in battle.)
Scarlet King fell silent, closed his eyes, smiled faintly, and placed the stone inside the pistol.
Liu Zai Hang asked,
"Amazing. What are this weapon's abilities? Its appearance is also unique. I know weapons are not normally shaped like this."
Scarlet King answered,
"This is a pistol. After placing this stone inside it, its abilities became infinite at Absolute Rank One. Its penetration is infinite, and its damage is nearly infinite, but naturally, the recoil is overwhelming."
"Also, the pistol can withstand only one shot before it needs to cool down. Since it was made from resources belonging to the First Dimension, it will only be powerful by the standards of the First Dimension, and it will be especially weaker against Path Initiation experts."
"It can inflict fatal injuries on Qi Condensation cultivators, but it will be somewhat weak against those at Path Initiation. That is because of the materials from which the pistol was made."
Liu Zai Hang and Scarlet King suddenly sensed a strange presence.
Liu Zai Hang immediately drew the two short swords sheathed behind his back, but Scarlet King gestured for him to calm down.
"Do not worry. He is an ally."
He signaled for the slaves to open the laboratory door.
Once it opened, Wei Xia Mo was revealed standing outside with a faint smile on his face.
"Hello. I came to speak with you for a while, Gu Yue…"
His eyes widened when he saw the miserable condition of Scarlet King and Lin Yuan.
"What happened to you people?"
Scarlet King replied,
"Long Wei wiped the floor with us. That is why we are injured like this."
Wei Xia Mo remained silent for a few moments before saying,
"Well, I have a deal for you involving the sale of several taverns at a low price."
Scarlet King moved and gestured toward them.
"Liu, Wei, and the Yin and Yang Guardians—follow me to the meeting hall."