Chapter 638: Rushed for Time (Two in One)

Yan Jing didn't know exactly how long he had been stringing the Earth Saint along, only that he was getting a little tired of running.

He looked back over his shoulder and yawned.

The pitch-black lights trailing him seemed tired as well. They hovered in place, looking sluggish.

"If you ask me, you should stop chasing me and go after that stalker instead," Yan Jing said.

He let out a sigh.

"It's awfully tiring."

With that, Yan Jing pursed his lips, gesturing for the black lights to change targets and go after the Earth Saint.

In the next second, several massive stone pillars erupted from all directions, thrusting simultaneously toward him.

Crash!

Following the deafening boom, a pair of eyes emerged from the rock wall. A flash of joy cut through their exhausted gaze.

He had finally waited until this damned black cat exhausted its strength.

As far as the Earth Saint was concerned, if Yan Jing wasn't drained, there was no way he would have stopped.

Moreover, he distinctly felt the stone pillars slam into something. The pillars were shattering, and whatever they hit was breaking right along with them.

Thrum—

The black lights immediately swarmed the spot where Yan Jing had been standing. The stench of Fear instantly filled the space.

"It's over," the Earth Saint said coldly.

The process had been somewhat convoluted, but at least he had finally killed this blasted black cat.

His opponent wasn't actually all that strong, even if his abilities were somewhat bizarre and had unusual effects.

But... he lacked offensive methods.

That was his assessment of Yan Jing.

An ability meant only for running away had its limits, no matter how powerful it was.

Just as he turned to leave, his eyes suddenly narrowed.

The previously familiar subterranean rock layers stretching out before him suddenly felt incredibly foreign.

He stared at the soil that usually felt as natural to him as air, confusion pooling in his gaze.

Was this... the path he had taken here?

Where exactly was he?!

"Heh heh heh."

A hoarse, grating voice echoed right beside his ear.

The Earth Saint's expression instantly changed.

It was that black cat!!!

He glanced around in disbelief, but there was no sign of Yan Jing anywhere.

"Come on, come find me,"

Yan Jing murmured.

Weird energy surged around the Earth Saint. Having already merged with the earth, he reached out to sense the surrounding soil elements.

The earth layers that originally belonged to him seemed completely transformed. His connection to every grain of soil had grown incredibly faint.

It was like reading a book where perfectly coherent sentences had been scrambled into chaos. The connections between the words had been entirely severed, and to make matters worse, a layer of frosted glass had been slapped over the pages.

What was going on?!

Fine beads of sweat trickled down the Earth Saint's forehead.

With no time to wonder how Yan Jing had dodged his previous attack, his weird energy erupted like a flood, tearing through the surrounding earth layers like a massive gale.

He didn't care what methods Yan Jing had used to throw the soil into such a chaotic state. Right now, he was going to unleash his full strength and pull all the earth back under his control.

His gaze was resolute, his expression twisting into a slight grimace.

His opponent was only stalling for time. As long as the other party had no way to actually harm him, victory would ultimately belong to him.

Meanwhile, on the other side.

"I'm back,"

Yan Jing's voice rang out right next to Mo Xuan.

Mo Xuan looked at him as if she had just seen a ghost.

She couldn't figure it out. How had this black cat shaken off the lock of her Fear Power, and how had he bypassed the Earth Saint to return to her side?

"Look at you. What's with that expression?"

Yan Jing smiled.

"I didn't kill him, so don't get the wrong idea."

"But I do want to kill you."

As Yan Jing's tone shifted, Mo Xuan suddenly shivered.

Without a moment's hesitation, the weird energy around her interwove into streaks of black light that shot explosively toward him.

The pitch-black rays gleamed with a metallic luster. They contained an indescribable power; any entity that came into contact with them would feel a deep sense of dread welling up in their heart.

It was as if a shadow had been thrust directly into the sunlight.

Any gaze could pierce straight through to their core essence.

"Fear: Exposure."

This was Mo Xuan's unique brand of Fear.

Yan Jing twitched his fingertips, slicing open a massive, pitch-black maw in the air.

A Space Rift gaped wide, attempting to swallow up all the dark light.

"It's useless,"

Mo Xuan said icily.

Her power didn't exist on a physical level, meaning it wasn't something space could fully restrict.

Sure enough, several streaks of dark light bypassed the rift in front of Yan Jing. Like light sinking into water, they surged straight toward the spot between his eyebrows.

Thrum—

Yan Jing's figure flickered. In the final second before the dark light pierced his brow, he swapped places with Mo Xuan.

The streaks of light sank directly into Mo Xuan's forehead.

Mo Xuan spoke coldly, "I told you, it's useless."

This was her Fear.

How could it possibly hurt her?

An instant later, several more streaks of light materialized out of thin air around Yan Jing, shooting toward his brow once again.

"This is pretty interesting."

The corners of Yan Jing's lips curled up slightly.

From the looks of it, the Space Pathway wasn't omnipotent when it came to defense.

At the very least, it had quite a few limitations against mental abilities.

"I need to change my approach,"

Yan Jing said. Like a phantom, his figure materialized right behind Mo Xuan.

"As long as I take out the opponent before I get hit, it should be fine, right?"

Mo Xuan's expression instantly changed, the weird energy around her morphing into a Black Robe.

It was as if a blade of light had crashed down upon the Black Robe.

A massive, bloody gash instantly tore open across Mo Xuan's body. Blood spurted out, spraying like a fountain.

"Urgh..."

Mo Xuan's body stumbled heavily backward.

Yet, a gleam of satisfaction flashed through her eyes.

Yan Jing looked down at his fingertips.

There... a layer of dark light stained them.

"You're done for."

Mo Xuan let out a cold laugh.

Yan Jing blinked.

It seemed his understanding of the Space Pathway still wasn't up to par.

"Oh well, forget it."

Yan Jing sighed.

"Let's end this."

As he spoke, a purer, far more terrifying Fear emerged from behind Yan Jing, cleanly sweeping away the touch of darkness on his fingertips.

Mo Xuan's pupils froze, and in the next second, her eyes went wide.

Absolute disbelief flooded her heart.

"That's impossible!!!"

The exclamation slipped from her lips. She didn't even care about her bleeding chest as she reached out, trying to touch the Fear Power radiating from Yan Jing.

The moment her fingertips brushed against that black current, an incredibly familiar sensation instantly surged through her body.

Cold. An indescribable chill flooded into her veins.

She stared at Yan Jing as if she were looking at a monster.

Because what was unfolding right in front of her was absolutely impossible.

Completely impossible!

"This is the power of Fear Intent."

Mo Xuan stared at him.

Yan Jing offered a faint smile. He didn't admit to it, but he didn't deny it either.

"You've learned my secret, dear lady."

"Do you know what that means?"

The terror in Mo Xuan's eyes practically overflowed. In the very next second, she spun around, preparing to smash through the earth layers and flee.

But she had barely turned when her movements abruptly froze.

Then, her entire body was crushed by some invisible force, instantaneously blowing apart.

Flesh and blood splattered everywhere.

Yan Jing's gaze remained tranquil.

He wasn't particularly excited about the outcome of this battle, nor was he especially downcast.

He was just... incredibly calm.

As if he had simply gone for a short stroll.

He looked in a certain direction, his thoughts having long since drifted over there, hoping his friends would be able to solve the problem at hand.

Just then, he seemed to notice something and turned his head to look behind him.

There, a burly figure stepped out of the dirt, glaring at Yan Jing with flames of fury dancing in his eyes.

"Oh?"

The corners of Yan Jing's lips twitched upward.

"You made it out."

...

...

Time ticked past day and night, the minute hand drawing circle after circle.

Chen Nian and the other two were currently gathered around the table, all of them looking as if they were possessed.

"First, follow the secret ritual track, then turn three-quarters to the right and adjust the lines to their lightest setting. There will be a violent tremor in destiny, but you can't panic then..."

Tiger muttered to himself as he sat in his seat. The tiger mask on his head looked significantly more wrinkled. Even though his face was hidden, it inexplicably gave the impression that the person underneath was definitely sprouting a thick five o'clock shadow.

"Add another Energy Accumulator."

Chen Nian thought for a moment before picking up his tools and bringing them down on a section that already had at least seventeen Energy Accumulators attached.

Clink, clink, clank, clank!

After a flurry of hammering, Chen Nian examined the finished product in front of him. Pondering for a moment, he said, "No, I should be able to squeeze in one more Energy Accumulator. The explosive power will go up, but it's not like Old Liu will die from the blast... Yeah, one more..."

With that said, he grabbed his tools and resumed his clinking and clanking.

Compared to those two, Old Master Liu, who was sitting off to the side, was the quietest.

But...

Hiding far away, Rose stared at the Old Man and couldn't help but gulp.

The elderly figure was currently wreathed in a faint aura of energy. The chilling, murderous intent was so thick it felt as though it could drown everything in its vicinity.

Only guys as extraordinary as Tiger and Chen Nian were capable of moving naturally through that aura, let alone working with such ease.

"Let's do it again."

An unknown amount of time had passed.

Tiger finally spoke up, looking over at Chen Nian.

"Sure."

Chen Nian looked at the chassis, which had just been fitted with five more Stabilizers. He nodded, feeling like it was ready for another test run.

Neither of them looked at the Old Man sitting nearby.

Per the Old Man's request, they weren't allowed to speak to him.

Even though they said nothing, it was as if he had sensed it. The Old Man casually stood up, took the machine body from Chen Nian's hands, and began strapping it on without a word.

"Then let's begin."

A single, golden thread emerged from Tiger's fingertip.

Swish—swish—

The golden thread extended far into the distance.

Countless other golden threads were already waiting there.

These were the strings of destiny from the Path of Destiny. Right now, Tiger had to connect his own fate to the massive power of the entire Path of Destiny, drawing upon its full might to complete this scrying attempt.

Everything...

...was for the sake of concealment.

Chen Nian watched nervously as Tiger guided the string of destiny right into the center of Mantou's brow.

Tick—tock—

On the wall, the second hand ticked forward.

Sweat beaded on Chen Nian's forehead.

Finally, Tiger gave a nod. The string of destiny retracted from Mantou's forehead and instantly plugged into the back of the machine body the Old Man was wearing.

The location sensed by the string of destiny would be transcoded into coordinates within the machine before finally feeding directly into the Old Man's nervous system.

And then...

The Old Man reached out his hand.

Invisible Electronic Tentacles extended outward.

There were millions of these Electronic Tentacles, to say the least. Yet right now, every single one of them was under the complete control of the Old Man.

Pop—

The Electronic Tentacles sank into Mantou's brow like raindrops falling onto the surface of a pond.

Chen Nian sweated even more profusely.

He gripped his tools tightly, ready to perform emergency maintenance and repairs on the machine body at a moment's notice.

An unknown amount of time passed.

Suddenly, Chen Nian and Tiger simultaneously felt the aura surrounding the Old Man shift.

It was as if a slumbering mountain demon had abruptly awakened and opened its eyes.

It's coming!!!

Both of their hearts lurched.

In the next second, they saw the Old Man's hand forcefully yank upward!!!

A shattered phantom was dragged out from Mantou's forehead.

The instant it breached the surface, it immediately dissolved into fine foam and vanished into thin air.

Following that, Mantou's entire portrait shattered once again.

Huff—

The Old Man stumbled, nearly landing hard on his rear.

Tiger let out a long sigh of relief, his calves feeling somewhat weak.

Chen Nian collapsed right into his chair, his choppy silver hair completely soaked in sweat.

Even though that figure hadn't been fully extracted in the end, all three of them began to laugh.

They had succeeded.

The final phantom had shattered because the portrait couldn't capture the likeness of that Demigod Realm existence.

Because no one had ever seen it.

"Pull yourselves together. We'll practice a few more times, and then we'll call Yi Ji over. He has to seize that exact window of opportunity," the Old Man instructed. The other two nodded in agreement.

But right at that moment, an unexpected anomaly occurred.

Not far away, Mantou's brow suddenly furrowed deeply. Then... a feeling of sluggishness began to spread through the surroundings.

The expressions on all three of their faces changed simultaneously.

Only then did they notice the time. A full day and a half had already passed.

Judging by Mantou's current condition, she probably wouldn't last much longer. An hour? No, perhaps even less than that!

"We can't wait anymore! One last practice run, right now, and then we adjust our conditions! We don't have time to wait for Yi Ji's coordination!"

Chen Nian shouted, then immediately turned to Rose.

"Miss Rose, please go call your boss."

"Okay."

Rose gave a prompt nod, and her figure vanished from the spot.

"Begin!!!"

Chen Nian looked at the other two. They exchanged glances, then nodded in unison.

...

...

Phew—

Yan Jing and the Earth Saint across from him exchanged another blow. He let out a long breath.

They had been 'evenly matched' for quite a while now. They must have been fighting for at least a few hours, locked in what seemed to be a stalemate.

Huff—huff—huff—

The Earth Saint panted heavily, secretly trying to regulate his breathing.

He glared at Yan Jing, the killing intent in his eyes not diminishing in the slightest.

"You forced my hand," he said coldly. In the next instant, an unimaginable amount of weird energy erupted from his body.

This dense weird energy far surpassed any of his previous outbursts. In a fraction of a second, it triggered a resonance with all the surrounding subterranean rock layers. In an instant, the weight of the entire earth seemed to layer itself upon the Earth Saint.

All the soil was transmuted into his own strength.

This was his trump card. Once used, it was highly likely to damage his foundation.

But he didn't care anymore.

His opponent had to die.

Otherwise, when Advent Day arrived, it would cause even greater trouble.

This was the only thought occupying his mind right now as murderous intent churned around him.

Just as he prepared to strike, however, Yan Jing abruptly raised a paw and held it out in front of him.

"Sorry about this, hold on a second."

Half a second later, Yan Jing nodded.

"Alright, we can continue."

"Die!!!!"

Unable to endure this insolent and arrogant black cat any longer, the Earth Saint let out a deafening roar. The entirety of the earth gathered around him as he crashed down heavily toward Yan Jing.

Yan Jing also reached out his hand.

He snapped his fingers.

And then...

The Earth Saint watched his own body begin to disintegrate.

The soil layers that had originally belonged to him now seemed to possess a will of their own, tearing his body apart from the inside out.

Like a crumbling clod of dirt—ashes to ashes, dust to dust—every single muscle on his body was turning to dust.

"My apologies. I have real business to attend to now."

Yan Jing turned and walked in the opposite direction, his pace swift.

With every step he took, the earthen walls ahead of him collapsed on their own accord, opening a path for him.

It was as if he was the true master of this subterranean domain.

"Let's play again next time."

"If there is a next time."