bookbashuk Chapter 267: Yang Qingxi’s Life At Risk!
Chapter 267: Yang Qingxi’s Life At Risk!
"No," Su Mo interrupted immediately.
"We are enemies."
His tone left no room for discussion.
The intruder seemed slightly speechless.
They clearly hadn’t expected to encounter someone this unreasonable. Normally, there would at least be an attempt at negotiation.
However, Su Mo wasn’t interested.
Just now, a blade had been placed against Yang Qingxi’s neck. That alone was enough to kill the perpetrator a hundred times.
The metal beasts charged, and the courtyard outside became visible as the battle expanded beyond the destroyed room.
The intruder retreated into the garden. But the beasts followed relentlessly.
"Truly stubborn."
The intruder sighed.
Then a massive wave of spiritual energy erupted from his body.
For the first time, Su Mo’s expression became serious. This pressure was nothing to scoff at.
Much stronger than Foundation Building. Almost reaching the Golden Core stage.
Moreover, the feeling the opponent gave off was increasingly wrong.
It was twisted like two different beings occupying the same body. Spiritual energy mixed with extremely dark energy.
The strange mixture made even Su Mo feel uneasy.
However, he didn’t show any expression. Instead, he merely watched coldly. Waiting to see what moves the opponent had hidden under their sleeves.
The next moment, the ground exploded.
BOOM!
Six giant white chains burst from beneath the earth.
Some slammed into the charging metal beasts. Others attempted to bind them.
The force behind each chain was terrifying. Several metal beasts were smashed apart immediately. Yet Su Mo remained expressionless.
The destroyed beasts melted into liquid once more. The metal flowed across the chains, wrapping around them, covering them.
The giant chains trembled as liquid metal crawled over their surfaces like parasites.
Neither side yielded.
Moonlight illuminated the ruined courtyard.
Broken walls, destroyed flowers, shattered stone paths, floating liquid metal, towering chains, and in the middle of it all stood Su Mo. His crimson eyes stared at the cat-masked intruder without the slightest warmth.
He quickly realised that, despite being surrounded by metal beasts, the intruder wasn’t truly being pressured.
The white chains erupting from the ground were extremely troublesome. Every time a metal beast lunged forward, several chains would intercept it.
Even when a beast managed to get close, the intruder would either tear it apart with those strange, dark claws or use the chains to bind it temporarily.
The battle seemed intense, but neither side had gained a decisive advantage.
His eyes narrowed. He had no intention of dragging this out.
Yang Qingxi was still unconscious nearby, and every second spent fighting increased the chance of something unexpected happening.
Without hesitation, he raised his hand.
A blazing fireball condensed above his palm.
The surrounding temperature immediately rose.
Unlike before, Su Mo didn’t launch it right away. Instead, he continuously compressed it, forcing more and more spiritual energy into the flames.
The fireball gradually shrank.
From ten meters wide to the size of a washbasin.
Then smaller.
The flames became increasingly condensed until they were roughly the size of a basketball.
The terrifying amount of spiritual energy packed within distorted the air around it.
Even the intruder seemed to sense the danger. The cat mask turned toward Su Mo.
At the same time, the metal beasts attacked once again from multiple directions, forcing the intruder to divide their attention.
Su Mo didn’t give him any time to react.
With a wave of his hand, the compressed fireball shot forward.
The fireball tore through the night sky like a blazing meteor.
The distance between them vanished in an instant.
The intruder’s body immediately tensed.
Abandoning any thought of counterattacking, they crossed both arms in front of their chest.
A silver-white light rapidly gathered between their hands.
The next moment, a brilliant beam shot forward.
Su Mo didn’t recognize the technique. Nor did he care. He was ready to launch another attack right after.
The silver beam collided directly with the incoming fireball.
For a brief moment, the world seemed to freeze.
Then—
BOOOOM!
A deafening explosion erupted. The compressed fireball detonated. Violent flames surged outward.
The shockwave swept through the courtyard, shattering the remaining stone paths and reducing several nearby pavilions to rubble.
The metal beasts closest to the blast were blown apart instantly.
Even the giant chains trembled under the impact.
At the centre of the explosion, the intruder was sent flying.
Su Mo’s eyes immediately followed their trajectory. Then his expression darkened.
The intruder was deliberately using the explosion’s impact to create an opening and escape.
"I won’t let you escape."
Spiritual energy surged beneath his feet.
Just as he was about to pursue, a strange feeling suddenly gripped his heart.
It wasn’t danger or killing intent directed at him. But an indescribable sense of unease.
His spiritual sense instinctively swept backwards.
Then he saw it.
A tiny blade of dark energy.
It was so small that it had escaped notice during the battle, hidden amidst the chaotic fluctuations of spiritual energy.
The blade had remained near Yang Qingxi’s neck the entire time.
Waiting and watching. Like a venomous snake hidden in the grass.
At that moment, it moved. A black streak flashed across the darkness.
The thin line it traced across Yang Qingxi’s neck seemed almost insignificant.
Then blood burst out.
Su Mo’s mind went blank. The escaping intruder instantly disappeared from his thoughts.
The battle no longer mattered. Capturing the enemy no longer mattered.
Even the answers he wanted from the corpse became meaningless.
His vision locked onto the unconscious figure floating with the support of the liquid metal.
The crimson blood gushing down her neck appeared painfully bright beneath the moonlight.
For the first time since entering this world, genuine panic seized his heart.
The kind that made one’s chest tighten and made breathing difficult.
He didn’t stop to think.
His body moved before his mind could catch up.
Empty Steps was activated to its limit.
The ruined courtyard blurred.
The shattered walls disappeared from sight.
The distance between them vanished in an instant.
By the time his senses caught up, he was already kneeling beside Yang Qingxi.