Chapter 24: Shadow Pavilion Minions

At the end of the spiral passageway stood a tightly closed double door crafted from an unknown metal. It bore no patterns or handles, bare as a wall. "This is it," Mo Li's expression was grave. "Through this door, you'll reach the Tianshu Tower's central control room." She took a deep breath, extended her right hand, and began tapping on the door in an extremely complex rhythm and pattern. "Click, click, click..." A series of delicate sounds, like the meshing of gears, emanated from behind the door as the heavy metal door slowly swung open. Behind the door lay a vast, circular space. In its center, a massive, slowly rotating metal platform, over ten feet in diameter. Suspended above the platform were countless energy crystals of varying sizes, shimmering with a variety of colors. Countless visible streams of energy crisscrossed these crystals, forming an incredibly magnificent and complex energy star map. And at the very center of this star map stood a figure, clad in a pitch-black robe and a hideous, demonic mask. He seemed to have been waiting here for a long time. When he saw Chu Yun and the other two walk in, he slowly turned around. Behind the evil ghost mask were a pair of eyes full of cruelty and mockery. "Welcome to... my workshop." His voice was hoarse and low, like a poisonous snake spitting its tongue in his ear. Chu Yun's heart sank suddenly. He could feel that this person exuded a cold and evil aura that was ten times more powerful than the previous silver-masked killer. That aura formed a clear opposition with the power in his body, as if light and darkness were born enemies. "Are you the mastermind behind this?" Mo Li looked at the evil ghost masked man and asked with gritted teeth. "The mastermind?" The demon-masked figure chuckled, as if hearing something amusing. "No, no, no... I'm not the mastermind." "I'm just... a small craftsman." He reached out and gently stroked a floating energy crystal beside him. "A craftsman dedicated to creating a whole new world." "Stop spreading rumors and misleading people!" the bearded man roared, raising his broadsword and charging forward. "Don't move!" Chu Yun and Li Ge spoke at the same time to stop him. They could all sense the deadly threat emanating from the demon-masked figure, something they couldn't easily resist. "Oh? It seems there are still some smart people among you." The demon-masked figure was interested...

At the end of the spiral passage was a tightly closed double door made of an unknown metal. There were no patterns or handles on the door, and it looked as bare as a wall.

"This is it." Mo Li's expression was extremely solemn. "Go through this door and you will reach the central control room of Tianshu Tower."

She took a deep breath, stretched out her right hand, and knocked on the door in an extremely complex rhythm and sequence.

"Click, click, click..."

A series of fine sounds, like the meshing of gears, came from behind the door, and the heavy metal door slowly opened to both sides.

Behind the door lay a vast, circular space. In the center, a massive, slowly rotating metal platform, over ten feet in diameter, hovered above it. Suspended above it were countless energy crystals of varying sizes, gleaming with a myriad of colors. Countless visible streams of energy crisscrossed these crystals, forming an incredibly spectacular and complex energy star map.

And in the very center of this star map stood a man, a man wearing a pitch-black robe and a hideous demonic mask on his face.

He seemed to have been waiting here for a long time. When he saw Chu Yun and the other two walk in, he slowly turned around. Behind the evil ghost mask were a pair of eyes filled with cruelty and mockery.

"Welcome to...my workshop." His voice was hoarse and low, like a poisonous snake spitting its tongue in your ear.

Chu Yun's heart sank. He could sense a cold, sinister aura emanating from this man, ten times more powerful than that of the silver-masked killer. That aura formed a stark contrast to the power within him, as if light and darkness were natural enemies.

"Are you the mastermind behind this?" Mo Li asked gritting his teeth, looking at the man with the evil ghost mask.

"The mastermind?" The demon masked man laughed softly as if he had heard something funny. "No, no, no... I'm not the mastermind."

"I'm just... a small craftsman." He reached out and gently stroked a floating energy crystal beside him, "A craftsman dedicated to creating a whole new world."

"Stop spreading rumors here to confuse people!" The bearded man roared, raised the big knife in his hand and was about to rush forward.

"Don't move!" Chu Yun and Li Ge spoke at the same time to stop him. They could both feel the deadly threat emanating from the evil ghost masked man, which was not something they could easily resist.

"Oh? It seems there are still some smart people among you." The demon masked man looked at Chu Yun and Li Ge with interest. His gaze lingered on Li Ge for a moment. "The descendant of the Ghost Doctor lineage... what a rare visitor. I thought you were all dead long ago."

Then, his gaze fell on Chu Yun again. The moment he saw Chu Yun, his eyes beneath the mask suddenly lit up: "Taiyi Yuanqi... Hahahaha... It's like searching for something so hard, yet it's now effortlessly found! I was just wondering where to find the remnants of the Evil Suppression Division after I finished this 'masterpiece' here, but I didn't expect you to show up!"

His laughter echoed throughout the space, full of greed and fanaticism.

"Hand over the 'Heart of Heaven'!" Mo Li shouted at him.

"Heaven's Heart?" The demon-masked man tilted his head. "Are you talking about... this?"

He stretched out his hand, and in his palm lay quietly a fist-sized spherical core composed of countless tiny gears and energy circuits, which was slowly rotating - that was the Heart of Heaven!

"Give it back to me!" Mo Li's eyes instantly turned red. Without a second thought, she swung her hands in front of her. Dozens of metal plates instantly flipped up from the ground around her, transforming into countless sharp blades that shot towards the demon-masked figure.

The demon masked man looked at the flying blades, but did not dodge or evade. He just slowly raised his other hand, which was wearing a black glove.

"Let me show you what true... mechanical engineering is." He laughed hoarsely and clenched his fingers together. "Space distortion."

"Buzz—"

An invisible wave rapidly spread out from him. The metal blades that had flown three feet in front of him seemed to have sunk into a quagmire, their speed instantly slowing to an incomparable speed. Then, their shapes began to twist and stretch in an inconceivable manner, and finally, with a loud bang, they shattered into countless metal powders in mid-air.

Mo Li's face turned pale instantly. She couldn't understand how the other party could use the mechanical technique she was most familiar with to so easily neutralize her attack.

"I've told you, little girl." The demon-masked man looked at her with amusement, "This thing has never... belonged to your Mo family."

"Who are you?!" Chu Yun asked in a deep voice.

"Me?" The man in the evil ghost mask turned his head and looked at Chu Yun, "It doesn't matter who I am. What's important is that Shadow Pavilion will use the power of the 'Heart of Heaven' to create a magical artifact that can change the world. A magical artifact to welcome a new era! And this is just the first step of our grand plan." His voice was full of fanatical belief.

"Madman!" Chu Yun stopped talking nonsense. He knew there was no point in reasoning with a man like him. He took a deep breath, gathering the strength he had just recovered. He didn't use the "Evil-Breaking Divine Needle" again, because he knew that kind of delicate attack would be useless against the enemy before him. He would use the most powerful and direct attack method of the Evil Suppression Division.

He quickly formed a complex hand seal in front of his chest: "The sky and the earth are boundless, the universe borrows the law! Taiyi! Suppress the demon!"

With a low shout, the space behind him began to distort slightly, and a massive, golden-colored character, "Zhen," emerged from thin air. The character emanated a vast, masculine, and powerful aura, capable of suppressing all demons and evil. The temperature of the entire space instantly rose dramatically at the mere presence of the character.

"Oh? The core technique of the Evil Suppression Division?" The demon-masked figure looked at the golden word "Zhen" and for the first time, a hint of interest appeared in his eyes. "Interesting."

He slowly raised his right hand, and in his palm, a dark, constantly rotating ball of energy, filled with death and destruction, emerged from thin air. That energy was completely opposite to Chu Yun's power: one was to protect and suppress, while the other was to destroy and devour.

"Let me see," the demon-masked man laughed hoarsely, "Is your 'Tao' of the Evil Suppression Division stronger, or is my 'Spell' of the Shadow Pavilion more powerful?"

Before he finished speaking, they both moved at the same time.

Chu Yun pushed forward suddenly, and the huge golden "Zhen" character with the momentum of suppressing everything pressed down fiercely towards the evil ghost masked man. The evil ghost masked man also gently pushed out the black energy ball in his hand.

Gold and black, protection and destruction. Two diametrically opposed forces, representing the two extreme laws of this world, collided seamlessly in mid-air.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, nor was there a sound. Time and space seemed to stand still at that moment. The golden "Zhen" character and the black energy ball annihilated each other the moment they came into contact. Visible black and white energy ripples spread wildly from the center of the collision, silently reducing everything in their path, from the metal platform to the suspended crystals, to the most primitive particles.

Chu Yun's face instantly turned pale. He could feel the power within him being devoured and assimilated by the opponent's strange black energy at a terrifying speed. His power was actually... at a disadvantage!

"Puff!" Chu Yun could no longer hold on and suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood. The golden word "Zhen" also dimmed and was completely swallowed by the black energy ball.

After swallowing the word "Zhen", the black energy ball shrank by half, but its remaining force remained as it shot straight towards Chu Yun.

At this critical moment, a figure flashed before him—it was Li Ge. In her hand, a simple, palm-sized bronze mirror appeared. She aimed it at the incoming black energy ball.

"Underworld, reincarnation!" She shouted softly and sprayed a mouthful of blood onto the mirror.

The bronze mirror's surface instantly lit up with an eerie, deep purple light. The black energy ball, having struck the mirror, surprisingly didn't explode. Instead, it seemed to sink into a quagmire, forcibly sucked into the deep purple light. Then, Li Ge abruptly spun the mirror, and a smaller, but equally terrifying, black energy ball was reflected from the mirror and shot towards the nearby wall.

"Boom!" With a loud bang, a huge hole was blasted out in the extremely hard wall of Tianshu Tower.

"Give them a taste of their own medicine." The demon-masked figure looked at the bronze mirror in Li Ge's hand, his voice tinged with genuine surprise. "The Samsara Mirror... you actually have this thing. It seems I made the right decision today. All my planning paid off."