Chapter 217 The Divine Shot Ends

I once told the young Lu Chan that I knew Lu Youxun might become an enemy in the future, but I didn't intend to take action against him now. If things really turned into an adversarial situation, it would simply be a matter of fighting back when the time came.

I never expected this "when the time comes" to come so quickly, and my emotions are worse than I imagined. Maybe I still had some desire to trust Lu Youxun.

Seeing that I had restrained the remaining three demon hunters, Lu Youxun stopped speaking. After several changes in expression, he said bitterly, "How did you find out? 'Firefly' should have been dealt with, and the GPS bracelet was frozen. Moreover, judging from her attitude and behavior, you shouldn't have left any other monitoring methods besides these..."

As he spoke, he glanced at Ma Zao inside the crystal coffin, his gaze landing on the frozen GPS bracelet.

Then, he seemed to realize something: "...Could it be that besides this GPS bracelet, you've hidden other monitoring methods from her? Is it 'heat'? But I haven't observed any similar traces on her body...Wait, did you hide it inside her internal organs? Does she know about this herself?"

As far as I can recall, he never inquired about similar information from Mazao from beginning to end. However, perhaps he had his own unique methods of observation and analysis, and it was precisely the conclusions drawn from these observations and analyses that led him to make a misjudgment.

As for the thermal markings on Mazao's body, I actually placed them on her body when Chenlong attacked the Zhu family mansion so that I could get to the scene quickly. Although I had Mazao's consent when I placed them, I didn't tell her afterwards that I didn't remove them, and even "as usual" moved them to her internal organs.

If you ask me why I did that, there's really no particular reason. Although this thermal marking later came to be used as a "defense against a possible sudden attack from a sharpshooter," I just did it naturally at first. If I had to analyze my psychology, it might be because I'm anxious about Asahaya's presence, and I always unconsciously make small gestures to increase my sense of security. Although, if Asahaya were to leave me, these small gestures would be useless no matter how many times I did them.

And it's precisely this seemingly unnecessary "cleverness" that has come in handy now. I really have to thank my past self.

I didn't respond to Lu Youxun's words, but instead raised my right hand. With a flash of fire, the black rope heart-locking ring appeared on my middle finger, and my palm became ethereal; then, the right arm formed by flames extended, and the palm swiftly pierced into Lu Youxun's chest, grasping his vibrant, beating heart.

He suddenly became unable to move.

The black rope heart-locking ring was a gift he gave me in the past. I don't know if it works on him personally, but it won't hurt to try. I have a lot of questions I want to get out of him. He just said that only he and Sharpshooter know the inside story of the kidnapping mission, so asking him first is the most efficient way.

I've now grasped some of the inside story. First, from his previous words, we know that he and Shenqiang are accomplices, and the one who can command Shenqiang is likely Dawuchang. His backer is probably the same person. Second, although we don't know what the mastermind's purpose is, the most likely outcome after Mazao was kidnapped is death. This shows that the mastermind may not intend to use or may not know about the jinx constitution.

The fact that he and the sharpshooter were accomplices contradicted what I had previously heard. Since the two were in cahoots, there shouldn't have been an incident where the sharpshooter didn't know my skill level and launched a surprise attack rashly. Furthermore, since Lu Youxun was in a hostile position towards me, he shouldn't have been able to calmly and mentally align with me in the past.

If my speculation is correct, the opportunity that led to Lu Youxun's betrayal must have come very late and very suddenly, catching even himself off guard, so much so that he didn't have time to communicate with Shen Qiang.

My fire elemental body is like a giant "firefly," capable of retrieving past memories with incredible precision. Scenes from the past flashed through my mind at supersonic speed, finally settling on a certain point—it happened after I was first forced to log out of my independent reality space. At that time, Lu Youxun's phone suddenly received a message, and upon seeing it, he reflexively frowned.

I asked him if there was bad news, but he only said that the sharpshooter had responded to his request, which should have been "good news" that met his needs. He then changed the subject, making me involuntarily focus my attention on the sharpshooter's problem. Afterwards, he quickly left the reception room, saying that he needed to perform another purification bath—a ritual performed to temporarily wash away inner malice.

What message did he receive at that time?

I think Lu Youxun must have conceived the idea of ​​betrayal around this time. I never imagined I would be fooled by my own usual tactic of changing the subject. At that time, he should still have had the opportunity to secretly contact Shenqiang, but he probably didn't for two reasons: First, he didn't know if he would need to help me enter the independent reality space a third or fourth time, so he had to temporarily maintain a mental state free of malice and couldn't carry out any actions detrimental to me;

Secondly, he probably didn't expect the sharpshooter to attack so immediately—this optimistic thinking certainly doesn't align with Lu Youxun's cautious mindset, but at the time, he couldn't think too deeply about the premise of being my enemy. These are all my guesses, and I don't know how accurate they are.

“Tell me, Lu Youxun, who is behind you?” I asked.

"...I cannot answer."

Despite being in a position where he was required to answer, Lu Youxun said this.

"So you really have a way to resist the Black Rope Heart-Locking Ring?" I asked.

"Since there are spells that force out answers, there must also be spells that prevent them. I have placed a restriction on myself, preventing me from revealing information about the person behind the scenes. Even if you force me to tell the inside story, or use spells like mind reading to dig out information, it will only trigger the restriction and burn my brain."

As he spoke, he glanced at the other witchers, "Besides, they were subjected to similar methods before they went on their missions, so using the Black Rope Heart-Locking Ring on them would be useless."

The feedback from the Black Rope Heart-Locking Ring told me he was telling the truth, but I didn't entirely believe him. I glanced at the other three Witchers, each held by a giant fiery hand, and then looked back at him.

"Really? Since you put the restrictions on yourself, you can remove them yourself, right?" I said. "If you don't, your good friends will be in danger."

"...Don't drag them into this; they're just knives too..."

Before he could finish speaking, the enormous fiery hand that was gripping one of them clenched tightly, unleashing a burst of intense heat. When the light faded, the person had vanished, leaving only ashes seeping through the gaps in the fiery hand and carried away by the wind. Seeing this, the two surviving individuals turned even paler with terror.

“That’s not what I want to hear,” I said.

“I won’t reveal any information about the people behind this.” He said through gritted teeth, “Kill me if you want, Zhuang Cheng. They’re just following orders out of desperation, otherwise they might lose their heads.”

"They kidnapped Asao because they had no other choice, were obeying orders, and were afraid of losing their heads—I'll just believe that for now. But when they were opposing me, didn't they ever think they might lose their heads too? Why weren't they helpless then?" I said. "You say they're just knives, then I've just broken them. Are they only knives when they oppose me, and when I deal with them, they all turn back into living, breathing people?"

"It's okay if you don't want to talk about it, I have my own thoughts too."

After I finished speaking, I pulled my right arm out and stretched it out to the other two people.

At the same time, I sent several "fireflies" towards the portal to see what was behind it and where they were taking Mazao. Maybe the person behind it was on the other side.

Unfortunately, these "fireflies" didn't reach another space after passing through the portal; instead, they emerged directly from the other side of the portal frame, as if the portal were merely an illusion. I speculate that this portal likely has a whitelist mechanism, preventing unauthorized entities from passing through.

Not only that, my interrogation of the other two also ended in failure. Just as Lu Youxun had said, they seemed genuinely unable to reveal any information they knew about the person behind the scenes. They either remained silent or explicitly stated that they couldn't provide any information. Both of them were stiff, seemingly understanding that they were doomed.

It doesn't matter if we can't get any information from the living; we can just take their heads back for Asao to investigate. However, compared to them, Lu Youxun's head is clearly more significant. I turned to look at Lu Youxun. Just then, a powerful and familiar surge of magical energy came from afar.

Without even needing to examine it closely, I could tell it was the magical fluctuations of the Divine Spear. Through the heat emanating from the old stronghold, I could sense a space suddenly become murky and distorted like sugar water, and then a figure as swift as lightning pierced through it. It was none other than the Divine Spear, wielding a silver spear.

As his magical energy swept across the area, as if his gaze had swept over them, he suddenly turned his head and looked in this direction.

Without needing any explanation, he seemed to understand everything instantly, and then transformed into a silver flash, charging towards them.

In the blink of an eye, the divine spear traversed a distance of three miles and shot towards where I was.

Just as I was about to raise my hand to meet the attack, I saw that at the very moment he was about to collide with me, his path suddenly turned at two sharp angles like lightning. Then, he stretched out his free left hand, grabbed the crystal coffin that was sealed by Ma Zao, and sped towards the direction of the teleportation portal!

It seems that his mission objective is more important to him than competing with me. If I let him enter the portal, I probably won't be able to track him and Asahi. Considering the portal's whitelist mechanism, even the heat I left inside Asahi might not be able to reach the other side. The result could be that he and Asahi pass through the portal, but I can't use the heat to teleport myself to the other side. This is absolutely unacceptable.

In the nick of time, I ignited the portal's frame with my gaze. An immense heat appeared out of nowhere, causing the frame to explode on the spot, and the portal itself crumbled. The Divine Spear, clutching the crystal coffin, futilely swept past where the portal had been. At the same time, I prepared to teleport myself to him.

However, he seemed to realize that he had to defeat me first, so he threw the crystal coffin on the spot, turned his speeding route 180 degrees, and rushed back with lightning speed.

The tip of his spear erupted with incredibly powerful magical energy; I could feel the terrifying force concentrated there, enough to tear space itself apart. Without a doubt, that was the ultimate move he had originally intended to use to forcefully pierce through Dream Dragon's "Teleportation Armor." And now, he was aiming that ultimate move at me.

I had no intention of taking this attack head-on, but just as I was about to teleport away, it was as if space itself froze, and my body was frozen in place like an insect trapped in amber. Unable to move, unable to parry, and even unable to use fire teleportation, I could only watch helplessly as the divine spear's attack came crashing down upon me.

I am all too familiar with this power; I have been locked onto by the same force before. The so-called spatial freezing is merely a superficial phenomenon. Even if I shatter space itself, I cannot escape the subsequent attack. Because the essence of this phenomenon dictates that I must take this blow head-on.

Guaranteed to hit, guaranteed to wear —

The silver spear pierced through my fire elemental body, and with it, my soul. If the Dragon symbolized ultimate defense, then the divine spear symbolized ultimate attack. The power of this strike even surpassed the Silver Moon's final, devastating blow, annihilating more than half the volume of my soul.

That was incredibly powerful; even I might not be able to unleash such a strong attack now. Such a powerful finishing move must have been a considerable burden for him. He braked and stopped his charge a dozen meters behind me, then swayed, using his spear to support himself, panting heavily.

However, this level of lethality still couldn't kill me.

He quickly pulled the spear from the ground, glanced at the damaged teleportation device, and then walked towards Lu Youxun's location, seemingly wanting to say something. Lu Youxun looked at me, then his face showed disbelief, and he hurriedly shouted, "Divine Spear, behind you—"

It's late, it's over.

I summoned a large amount of flames from inside my body, quickly restoring myself to full condition. At the same time, I came behind the Divine Spear, stretched out my right hand, and placed my five fingers on the top of his head.

He turned his head stiffly and looked at me in disbelief.

(End of this chapter)