Reboot Arc, Chapter 222: The God of Fire Descends!
“Help!”
No! Why was he acting like such a coward? It was not as though he could not defeat them!
Mo Xing swung the “Little Ice Sword” in his hand and unleashed “Pillar of Frost.” The pillar of ice crashed down at once, freezing the insects at the front.
Mo Xing leaped to the ground and cast another technique, “Frozen Blades.” Sharp icicles pierced through the bodies of the insects, drawing out streaks of blue blood. He then used the sword’s edge to kill several blood-red insects that had attempted to ambush him from behind.
Mo Xing’s nerves were stretched taut. He kept his eyes fixed on the few insects nearby that were preparing to pounce. The slightest lapse in concentration, and he would be bitten. Those strange drugs had particularly severe side effects—he had no desire to become infected!
There was only one option left: use the purple potion to make the insects turn on one another. He was still some distance from the storage cabinet, but with “Frozen Waters: Spiral Storm,” he should be able to fly over there.
“Bzzzzzz—”
“Hm?” Mo Xing frowned and glanced sideways. A half-dead blood-red insect was crawling along the blade in his hand! Its mouth was spread wide, almost as though it were grinning at him.
“Holy crap!”
Mo Xing flung the “piece-of-junk sword” away and ran for his life!
He really could not defeat these disgusting mutant insects! He should have escaped while they were tearing one another apart! Why had he insisted on testing the potion’s effects? Why had he insisted on trying to make poison fight poison?
Was he trying to get himself killed?
Why had he never learned one of those wide-area clearing skills with devastating output?
Because those were all high-level skills! He could not learn them yet! Mo Xing answered his own question.
What a miserable sight he made! For a moment, Mo Xing felt like a stray dog driven from its home.
No!
Mo Xing suddenly spun around. Even if he died, he would stand his ground like the warriors in the film *Resident Evil* and hold out until the very last moment of his life!
Surrounded by the insects, Mo Xing gathered the water element and prepared to make a desperate last stand.
Suddenly, the laboratory shook.
Mo Xing turned his head and saw that the wall beside him had begun to melt!
Unlike ordinary buildings, the walls of the Divine Armament Tower were forged from metal.
Yet they had melted in an instant!
A scarlet current of air swept past him. The water element in Mo Xing’s hands instantly evaporated into white steam, while the insects in midair burst into flame. They shrieked in agony and fell one after another onto the floor.
A large doorway had been burned through the wall. Someone walked in.
The newcomer had a handsome, heroic face and naturally short hair. He wore a black trench coat. His resolute gaze revealed an extraordinary presence.
“May I ask where Mianhua is?”
He looked at Mo Xing, his voice unexpectedly gentle—so polite and refined that he sounded like a true gentleman. Mo Xing could hardly believe that this man had been the one to destroy the wall.
“Over… over there!”
Mo Xing pointed toward the eleven o’clock direction. That was the direction from which he had just run.
“Very well.”
The man nodded and glanced at his watch.
“Time is limited. Please follow my pace.”
The instant he finished speaking, a blast of hot wind swept through the room. Powerful air currents erupted, making it impossible for Mo Xing to keep his eyes open.
After a while, Mo Xing slowly opened his eyes and looked around. The gentleman had already vanished.
After hesitating for a moment, Mo Xing hurried in the same direction.
Elsewhere.
Li Qingchi reinserted the red tubes into Mianhua’s body.
“At last, we can begin injecting the drug.”
Li Qingchi smiled and turned toward the experimental control console beside him.
The work had originally been proceeding smoothly enough. He had gone outside to prepare the final step, only to return and discover that a first-year student named Mo Xing had broken into the laboratory and pulled the infusion tubes from Mianhua’s body.
That Mo Xing should be wishing he were dead by now, shouldn’t he? He had come to rescue someone without possessing the ability to do so. For the sake of that person, Li Qingchi had intended to spare his life, but the boy had refused kindness and chosen punishment instead. He could hardly blame Li Qingchi for being ruthless.
Compared with certain people in his sect, however, he was not truly cruel enough. As for that sect, it was always labeled a cult by those so-called righteous people. Li Qingchi himself had once believed the same thing as a child—until a certain war changed his understanding.
Just as Li Qingchi was about to activate the switch, a blast of hot wind swept over him. Scarlet currents surged through the air, and the surrounding temperature instantly rose by more than ten degrees. In the distance, a figure glowing red came rushing toward him!
Li Qingchi drew the blue-violet bow he had used earlier, “Wind凝,” and gathered the wind element in his hand, forming several arrows. Relying on his practiced technique, he fired two volleys.
“Piercing Volley!”
One of an archer’s offensive skills, it was a sweeping and powerful form of archery with tremendous destructive force. In midair, the arrows could easily pierce sheet iron—let alone a person charging straight toward him!
Faced with the two volleys, the newcomer did not dodge. He merely raised a hand and swept it lightly through the air. The arrows split cleanly in two.
“Oh? President Zhang has returned?”
Li Qingchi finally got a clear look at the man before him.
“Long time no see, Qingchi,” President Zhang replied with impeccable courtesy. “You have laid hands on someone you should not have touched.”
“The experiment requires strong test subjects.” Li Qingchi smiled. “Why not take his place, President Zhang?”
With that, Li Qingchi gathered wind energy around his bow and fired at President Zhang.
At that moment, a long sword wreathed in blue flames appeared before President Zhang and sliced the arrows apart.
“This… this is the Holy Sword of King Shenluo!”
Li Qingchi stared in astonishment. The sword in President Zhang’s hand was one of the legendary sacred weapons personally forged by King Shenluo!
Its flames changed according to the wielder’s strength, and each type possessed a different miraculous effect. Only two sacred weapons of King Shenluo were known to exist. Li Qingchi had never expected one of them to be in President Zhang’s hands.
“When a lion hunts a rabbit, it still uses all its strength!”
President Zhang caught the Holy Sword of King Shenluo as it hovered in midair and gathered the fire element. Blue flames formed around him, and the temperature in the surrounding area abruptly dropped.
“Frostbound Azure Flame: Ascending Dragon Strike!”
The sword aura released by President Zhang soared into the air, merging with the blue cold flames around it. Several enormous, dragon-shaped streams of fire erupted from the ground and shot straight toward Li Qingchi.
Li Qingchi hurriedly leaped backward to widen the distance. He was just about to unleash a skill in retaliation when the Ascending Dragon Strike struck him, lifting his entire body into the air.
“How… how is this possible?”
Li Qingchi was stunned. In his understanding, a swordsman’s Ascending Dragon Strike was a linear attack. Why, then, could these dragon-shaped flames turn?
President Zhang leaped into the air and swung the Holy Sword of King Shenluo at him.
“Wind Element: Overwhelming Pressure!”
Li Qingchi awakened the wind element hidden within his body, attempting to blast his opponent away. But President Zhang gave him no opportunity. A single savage strike sent Li Qingchi crashing to the ground.
“How… how is this possible?”
Li Qingchi lay on the ground, his face filled with disbelief.
“We are both at the third stage of the Azureblue Tier. Even if you possess extraordinary talent, the gap between us should not be this enormous!”
“Hmm.”
President Zhang answered with a simple “Hmm” and said nothing more.
“No… I want power! I want to become stronger! I want to defeat everyone—including you!”
Li Qingchi revealed a sinister smile and took a bottle of yellow capsules from his pocket. He quickly twisted off the cap.
“Let it go.”
President Zhang frowned and gestured for him to put down what he was holding.
“Those drugs can increase your strength, but their side effects are severe. You should know that.”
“So what?”
Li Qingchi smiled, took two steps backward, and swallowed all the capsules in one gulp.
“I will pay any price to pursue the ultimate power!”
Yellow-black smoke began to pour from Li Qingchi’s body. His teeth and fingernails transformed into sharp blades, while the bones at his temples thrust outward. His entire face became hideously distorted. Like a beast, he lunged at President Zhang.
“You arrogant man…”
President Zhang shook his head and waved the Holy Sword of King Shenluo. The blue flames transformed into crimson fire, and his entire body passed through Li Qingchi like a current of air.
“You deserve no mercy.”
When President Zhang finished the second half of the sentence, Li Qingchi collapsed behind him. His entire body convulsed. The muscles around his waist had split open, and blood mixed with traces of the yellow drug flowed from his mouth.
“No… impossible. I took RIN! I cannot lose!”
Li Qingchi’s entire hand trembled. He could not believe that even after taking RIN, one of the Seven Forbidden Drugs, he had still been defeated by a single effortless strike.
President Zhang ignored him. He stored the Holy Sword of King Shenluo inside his storage bracelet, then turned and walked to Mianhua’s side, slowly pulling out the infusion tubes.
…
…
“What… what is going on here?”
Mo Xing came running over and discovered that Li Qingchi had been defeated by the gentleman from earlier—and utterly crushed at that. He had only been gone for two minutes, yet the battle was already over!
Who exactly was this gentleman?
What kind of legendary figure was he?
Mo Xing felt as though he had barely appeared in this entire episode!
“The battle is over.”
President Zhang turned around.
“You arrived at just the right time. Come and help me with something.”
“Uh… all right.”
Mo Xing paused. The gentleman was probably asking him to help remove the red infusion tubes, so he quickened his pace and walked over.
“Mo Xing? You… you’re still alive?”
Li Qingchi, lying on the floor, stared at Mo Xing in confusion. But the confusion soon vanished.
He instantly understood. President Zhang must have saved the first-year student!
Mo Xing glanced at him and hurried around him in terror, like Little Red Riding Hood encountering the Big Bad Wolf.
Li Qingchi’s heart trembled. The look in Mo Xing’s eyes reminded him of the companions he had known during that war many years ago. Mo Xing resembled them in some ways. It was impossible to say whether the expression in his eyes was fear, anger, or hatred.
And now, Li Qingchi himself was like the foreign invaders of that time. The two words “evil” were written across his face—something that could neither be washed away nor erased.
…
…
“Um…”
When Mo Xing heard Li Qingchi suddenly speak from the floor nearby, he turned and glanced at him.
“The chains on Mianhua are specially made. If you try to unlock them by force, they will trigger a mechanism and cause an explosion.” Li Qingchi smiled. “When that happens, his arms—”
“Holy crap!”
“You… you planted another trap for us? That’s unbelievably vicious!” Mo Xing cried out in shock.