Chapter 126 The Awakening of Geniuses

Gravel like snow danced through the air, forming a vast blue chain that led directly to the igloo. At the bottom of the chain stood the Iceman, Sethron. His expression was grim, his body rigid. His limbs were transforming into ice crystals, and within them, malevolent motes trembled. Sethron's power was unleashing a surge of undue violence.

The stone monster's sand and gravel have invaded its body!

Qingye froze, bewildered by how the situation had suddenly deteriorated so drastically. The brown hut had only covered about half of the igloo, so rescue should have been possible in time. Then, Sethren let out an inhuman howl, and ice crystals gathered and surged, transforming into a wave of ice that swept in all directions.

A circular glow surged, forcibly sealing the ice crystals within the formation. Ji Huaisu smashed her shield against the ground, urgently adjusting the formation. Her face was ashen from the cold. "Move! There's no time for you to be in a daze!"

"Yes!" Qingye answered reflexively. She quickly swung her sword, trying to cut through the blue locks, but the icy chains, like the stone monster itself, gathered and dispersed freely, breaking and reconnecting with the blade's cuts, like the stone monster's silent mockery.

The young Canxin was in turmoil, unsure of what to do. Canxins were naturally better at killing than rescuing, and the Stone Monster's methods were far beyond her imagination. Even using her most hidden skills wouldn't necessarily solve the problem. Everything she'd been taught pointed to a single answer...

"It's time to take action, Zanxin."

The long-haired man silently approached them, and Qing Ye subconsciously raised her knife in defense. When their eyes met, she felt his overwhelming aura and realized that he had been there for a long time, but they were not strong enough to detect him.

"You're too inexperienced. To the Scourge, one is the same as all. Once Turbid Tear's defenses are breached, he's finished. The forces of both sides are completely connected, and the speed of the feeding process depends solely on the stone monster's mood." Shax lit a cigarette. "You come from a noble family, so you know what's going on. At this point, you have no choice but to kill Turbid Tear."

Qingye remained silent. She had indeed anticipated this. Having studied so much since she was a child, she had long since learned to consider the worst-case scenario. She had thought clearly when making the emergency plan: everyone would do their best to save the victim. If they couldn't save him, they would kill him. She was decisive and didn't fear getting her hands stained with blood.

But the actual execution was completely different from the plan. When she was thinking about it in her mind, she could think about killing a person at will, as easy as throwing away a bag of garbage. But when she actually faced it and saw the Iceman's face, she realized the deep despair in the man's heart at the moment of the explosion.

It was an expression she would never forget: lips bruised and purple, eyes bulging, a look of deep fear, as if falling into an abyss. A man wouldn't be so humiliated unless he was terrified. In such a desperate moment, he chose to do everything in his power to protect this small town.

And now, was she going to kill such a person with her own hands? For the sake of... the justice and duty of more people?

Qingye's mind was in a daze, and she could barely hold the knife steady. Then she heard Ji Huaisu's voice, still decisive and unwavering: "Killing the Iceman will ruin the Ice House, and we can't commit murder for the sake of justice. You haven't made a move yet, which means you also think it's wrong, right?"

"I'll kill them all." Shax exhaled a puff of smoke.

Everyone understood what he meant. Shakes had no way to save them; he had waited until now simply to see if these few men could be of any use. The sniper stomped out his cigarette, turned away with a bored expression, and spoke in a cold tone.

"You have one minute."

"Then there's still time."

It was Finder who took over. Having experienced the race against time with the Immortal Machine, he knew a minute was more than enough for a final, daring gamble. Carefully maintaining his hypnosis, he took command. "The current problem is the intermingling of the Unfixed Dust and the Turbid Tears. If we only remove the gravel without damaging the ice crystals, our plan will proceed smoothly."

"I don't have such a solution..."

"Others have it." Vander activated the communication relic. "Dude, do you hear that?"

The killer's voice came out of it, steady, solid and reliable.

"Give me thirty seconds."

·

Above Jinye City, at the top of the desert vortex.

The stone demon's shrill laughter echoed, and tens of thousands of its clones floated in the air, waving their sand wings and swooping down wantonly. They scattered colorful dust, and their hot air triggered continuous explosions, blasting the man in the sand with overwhelming force.

Yet the killer would not fall, like a rock holding firm against the tide. He parried the onslaught of dust with raging fire, neutralized the impact of explosions with his willpower, and the shrieking, all-wiping death wind blew, but it couldn't match his ultimate speed. With his sheer strength, he fought the stone monster without a sign of weakness, a move that amazed the golden leaves in the air.

"Dragon Country Fist, Secret Writing, Demonic Power... Could that golden light be an annihilation field?" Jin Ye dedicated a mouth to speculation. "Such a combination of powers is rare even in the Thousand Dust Islands! I'm truly curious about your current state... Just how much pain are you enduring to be able to fight me?"

How long can you sustain fighting with these energy-consuming magical powers on your own?"

Jin Ye chuckled, having grasped the key. Chu Hengkong's strength stemmed from his endless array of methods, but exceeding the limits of his essence inherently demands excessive energy consumption. Both the Fire of Ambition and the Field of Annihilation were extremely draining, while the One Qi Thousand Autumns was an extreme measure, trading one's life for combat power. Even a formidable machine like the Immortal Machine had to carefully manage its energy use, let alone a mere bone grafted with genuine mechanical components.

"Don't want to refute? Or are you unable to speak?" It looked down at the killer who was fighting silently. "To reward you for your efforts in persevering until now, I will show you my true strength!"

It reveled in the thrill of wielding its power. Nothing better exemplified the triumph of a villain than the stone demon at this moment. Yet this villain possessed genuine power. Among the Scourge, the more they acted unchecked, the more their power grew. Torturing Sethron and destroying the city had already brought his emotions to a fever pitch. Now, Jin Ye's strength was twice as great as when he first appeared.

It raised its hands, and a vast expanse of dust surged up, like a blooming lotus closing. The dusty petals mingled with cold, icy water, the water element drawn from its turbid tears clouding them, solidifying them, turning them as hard as steel. At the center of the flower sat a silent Chu Hengkong. The air within the petals was rapidly permeated by the magical power of the golden leaves, and the hyper-vibrating particles heralded the approach of death.

Under the stone demon's exquisite control, sheer density and weight transform into a deadly attack. The steel petals become the earth in the sky, and all the air within the flower has been replaced by an "eraser." There is no room for dodging or moving here; it will crush the killer into dust in the most brutal way!

"Ten seconds." Chu Hengkong said.

Even in the face of imminent disaster, he remained unfazed, more immovable than a stone demon capable of controlling a mountain. The killer relaxed completely, even ceasing his immortality technique, letting the dust carve bloody streaks across his face. He swung the white spear's tip, letting go, and it fell, its unsupported tip ablaze with a faint green flame.

"Five seconds."

The stone demon suddenly felt an inexplicable nervousness. He couldn't understand why his opponent remained so confident. As a particle 2, he should have already revealed all his cards. Yet, he could sense his opponent's emotions, like a straight line without a single fluctuation, as if he were observing a dead person. The stone demon increased his spellcasting speed, expending even more energy. In less than three seconds, the steel flower had completely closed. The white spear was the first to collide with the petals, its tip piercing through with a weightless ease.

"—a prairie fire."

The blue fire raged, and the dust burned. The blue enveloped the steel lotus, and the blazing fire burst through the buds, like a firebird soaring in the sky!

The painstakingly crafted flower crumbled in an instant, its charred petals falling to reveal the killer's impassive face. Its dust, its earth, even its body—everything it controlled—burned, as if being devoured by an even more ferocious, even more voracious beast. But the flames extinguished instantly as they fell upon the ice crystals, not even consuming the building. The beast targeted only him; the stone demon was its only prey!

【The Remnant of Ambition】

【Rating: 3 (5)】

[Origin: Senluo Secret Realm - Huilong City]

【Effect:……

4. A prairie fire

After charging for a certain period of time, it activates. Select a substance/life/energy as a target, and the Heart Fire will burn fiercely, treating it as firewood. It will burn until the target is consumed, or the ambition is extinguished.

The duration depends on the level of Vision's excitement. Currently, it lasts for 30 seconds.

In previous battles, Chu Hengkong had thoroughly grasped the nature of the stone demon's immortal form. Its existence was rooted not in spirit but in matter. Complete elementalization meant that every grain of sand was its physical form, while its ethereal form became the "magic" that controlled matter. Eliminating some of its ethereal form with the annihilation field merely severed the threads controlling the sand. The stone demon could transform its power into more threads with a single breath.

Such a creature lacks a self. Its flesh can be replenished with external substances, and its ethereal body is equivalent to its own energy. The solution is, as Vander said, either physically destroy all of its matter, or inject it with a deadly poison that instantly spreads throughout its body.

Chu Hengkong chose the second option. His "poison" was the Fire of Ambition. The Demonic Remnant Fire was a relic that grew stronger as its holder's Sephiroth rose. After Chu Hengkong reached Sephiroth Level 2, it revealed a deeper power. It was precisely that prairie fire that had a miraculous effect on natural disasters.

The Heartfire's target was the Stone Monster. For the next thirty seconds, the Fire of Ambition would burn only dust. And now, with dust blanketing the sky and firewood plentiful, the Stone Monster, feeding on the dust, soared like a spark into the weeds, igniting a prairie fire in a flash.

Chu Hengkong stabbed the bottom of the lotus with his spear, and the fire in his heart followed the spear light straight to the ground, burning towards the dust chain that bound the ice man!

·

"Great! As expected of the Great Demon's power! The fire of ambition is fucking powerful!"

Vander waved his tentacles with great excitement, and Miss Qingye beside him was almost dumbfounded. She pointed to the sky and stammered, "Big, big demon...?"

"Don't worry, it's not the devil's contractor, it's our trophy!" Ji Huaisu gave a thumbs up.

Qingye began to scream: "How dare you go out with the power of a big devil?!"

"Having too much debt is no big deal, and having too many lice doesn't make me itch, so this is not a big deal either!" Ji Huaisu's face turned from blue to green. "Brothers, are you ready now? Captain Huaisu, I'm already holding on with my guts!"

Gulibo shivered non-stop: "But, but, the link is still there!"

"What did you say..." The Eye Demon was stunned, subconsciously looking upwards. Just as he had calculated, after using the prairie fire, the fire of ambition plummeted to the ground, dispelling all the dust within his field of vision.

Yet the Iceman's chains remained! The ice-dust bond swayed in the azure flames, evidently suffering greatly from the flames, almost completely melting. The few remaining fragments still held together, tangibly tangible. Finder instantly calculated the melting time: at least fifteen seconds. Those extra seconds could mean the difference between life and death. Before the chains burned through, the sniper would fire, or the Iceman would be devoured.

But this is logically impossible. The dust has already been burned, so how can a one-sided chain continue? Who is supporting it?

"No..." Vander muttered to himself, "No...!"

It couldn't be just a coincidence. Even someone as unlucky as Chu Hengkong had a chance to turn danger into safety. Such frequent coincidences seemed like malicious intent. It focused all its attention on observing the chains, even forgetting to maintain the hypnosis. Through the burning flames, it could clearly see the "core" within the ice lock. The faint iron chain gleamed, reflecting the ice man's terrified face.

It had an impression. It remembered this thing. A chain of misfortune. A torrent of forsakenness...

"—Olek Seton Tantar!"

Finder screamed, its voice changing, its intelligence betraying rage. Its tiny body radiated genuine fury, no less intense than the azure flames of the heavens. Twilight shone brightly in the beholder's eyes, its twilight light anchoring the chains and allowing everyone to see the true form hidden behind the scenes.

It looked towards Ji Huaisu and said in a clear voice: "Knight, draw your sword!"

Without a moment's hesitation, Ji Huaisu unsheathed his Shadow Blade and slashed with all his might. The iron chain was already on the verge of breaking under the burning fire of his heart, and the Shadow Blade's strike was the final straw that broke the camel's back. The Doom Demon's iron chain snapped instantly, the blue light fading with it, and the iron ring fell to the ground with a crisp sound.

Sethlun let out a hollow roar, and a terrifying cold wave broke out at this moment!

The misfortune wasn't over yet; this was the final link in the chain of misfortune. The original plan was for Qingye to cut the iceman, while Ji Huaisu sealed the power. However, by the time Ji Huaisu had severed the chains, there was no time to seal the power. The power of the turbid tears erupted, attacking those closest to it and completely freezing Ji Huaisu.

A slender figure pushed aside the knight, standing in her place before the ice. It was Qing Ye! She bravely slashed at the frost, the black jade-like sin bone within her body emitting a deep light!

(End of this chapter)