In the brief, eerie silence, the gunshot erupted like a clap of thunder, and the bullet tore through the air with a piercing howl.

The moment the lever-action rifle was raised, Lou Feng instinctively dismissed it, not taking it seriously. But in the very next moment, a chill ran down his spine as he sensed something was off, and he reflexively turned away to dodge.

Only after the thunderous sound spread did he realize the deep gouge carved into the spirit shield before him and the cold dread brushing against his temple.

A streak of silver light had grazed past his forehead, parting his disheveled hair as thick and cold blood slowly seeped out, causing him to feel dizzy. It was an alchemical bullet with mercury inside. The moment he recognized the material, a sudden realization struck him, sending a chill down his spine!

Fluid Alchemy?!

Mercury was a common alchemical material. Even in the field of modern alchemy, it still saw widespread use. From a single bullet alone, it was impossible to determine the truth, but his mind had already begun to unravel.

Clutching the shattered bullet head, Lou Feng’s eyes turned blood-red, his anger no longer restrained. “Silan, kill them!”

“Roger!”

The Homecoming Knights, who had been waiting for this moment, hesitated no longer. Their spectral horses neighed as they charged forward, surging toward the erratically moving Horsey like an advancing iron wall! There were only a mere dozen or so riders, yet through their formation they sealed off every possible path of escape, leaving no room for evasion or retreat.

Meanwhile, on the speeding three-wheeler, An Ran, who had been sitting quietly in the back, tugged at Ji Jue’s sleeve and said, “They attacked first, Mr. Ji.”

Ji Jue nodded. “Mm. Looks like there’s no way to settle this peacefully now.”

“If they’re enemies, then there’s no other way.” The boy blinked once and asked the final question, “Can I kill them?”

For a brief moment, Ji Jue fell silent, recalling Wen Wen’s instructions before they had set out. An Ran was a very obedient child, quiet and well-behaved, but that was because he lacked common sense. More precisely, having grown up in a place like the An family home, he had never developed the basic notions an ordinary person should have, including but not limited to morality, the concepts of good and evil, or compassion, just like how people from Cliff City had never seen winter.

An Ran was aware of this, which was why he relied on others for guidance, support, and strategy. So, Ji Jue was instructed not to give him complicated matters to handle, and not to expect him to think with the same weak mentality as an ordinary person. An Ran would protect Ji Jue without hesitation, but he shouldn’t be expected to see others as his own kind. Thus, Ji Jue was instructed not to let him fight people unless absolutely necessary.

But now, there was no longer any room for restraint or retreat.

Ji Jue said, “Do as you like.”

Click!

It was as if some invisible shackle had come loose. When blood splashed onto An Ran’s face, a smile appeared on that youthful, almost feminine face. The smile was soft and radiant, like a child basking in the sunlight at an amusement park.

Ji Jue didn’t even see how An Ran disappeared from behind him. In the blink of an eye, the boy vanished like mist. In the next moment, he had already crossed dozens of meters, appearing right before the spirit warhorses.

He slipped ‌Darkstar from his sleeve and caught it between his fingers. Then, with a casual flick, the warhorses and riders that brushed past him seemed to collide with invisible blades, splitting apart in an instant. Torn to pieces, they were flung forward by their own momentum as vivid bursts of blood painted fleeting flowers in the air.

With a slight movement of his fingers, the metal shard hidden in his sleeve shot forth with a shriek, transforming into a streak of white light amid the sword energy as it raced ahead.

Silan accelerated. From the rear of the formation, he surged to the very front, positioning himself directly in the path of the projectile. Encased in blood-red heavy armor, he raised the round shield on his arm, blocking the white arc of sword energy. A harsh, ear-splitting clash erupted, and the metal shard ricocheted away.

Right after, a scream resounded from beside him. The deflected shard burst with new force and accelerated, correcting its trajectory before piercing into the chest of another knight from the side. It punched through and left a gaping hole. Blood sprayed violently from an instant, devastating blow!

Hurling Pot Ritual: Swift Arrow!

Silan remained unmoved, not even bothering to look at the knight. With a backhand motion, he hurled forward the spear hooked to his saddle. Lightning boomed as the spear cut through the air, piercing the ground and pinning the spot where An Ran had just been standing. But the boy had already vanished again, like a phantom, then reappeared in Silan’s blind spot, right behind him!

The Darkstar swept in front of him, cleaving through the helmet with unstoppable force, yet it collided with a blade held in reverse. Sparks burst forth.

The clash sparked fire, yet neither showed the slightest change in expression. One had long since cast aside life and death after countless battles. The other had never even grasped the concept of life and death.

The killing machine of the Swarm Path and the hunter of the White Deer Path collided, exchanged blows, shifted stances, and disengaged in a heartbeat.

A fine crack appeared across Silan’s mask as An Ran cut across his eye. Thick blood seeped from within, as though his brain had nearly been pierced through in that single strike.

Landing on solid ground once more, An Ran flicked his hand, and a line of blood dripped from his fingertips.

The gruesome gash on his arm split open, then closed again as the muscles tightened, covering the exposed bone beneath. Only the sleeve remained, slowly soaking through with spreading crimson.

He snapped his fingers again.

Dozens, hundreds of metal shards shot out from his sleeve, scattering like a sky full of stars before gathering into a torrent, then rushing forward as they collided head-on with the tide of the Homecoming Knights.

Pale sword energy was stained red. The grating sound of steel breaking rang out without end. As countless scattered strands of sword energy re-converged upon the Darkstar in his hand, they forged a blade so dense it seemed to drip with blood.

Slender and elusive, shifting freely between tangible and intangible, it weaved through the vast hall, even lifting An Ran’s weightless body into the air and allowing him to soar freely through the air.

It was as if invisible wings had unfurled behind his back, freeing him from the pull of earth and gravity, and revealing an entirely new form. It was the matrix Sword Cry!

A cold snort echoed amidst the pounding of iron hooves, and silvery-white mist materialized out of thin air. Vague, blurred figures appeared in midair. These were clones created through Spirit Morph. Their unique transformation unfolded once more as countless particles of spirit matter atomized into a scale too fine for the naked eye to perceive, sealing off the sky and effortlessly carving cut after cut into the boy’s body.

Silan scowled. The captain of the Homecoming Knights turned back, shouting a warning directed at Lou Feng, who had just made his move.

“No!”

Only then did Lou Feng notice the faint, subtle sound, like insects crawling across the floor, and the dreamlike glint of metal. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

It was mercury. Large quantities of mercury flowed across the ground, spreading in patches, writhing and shifting. They moved like living things, sprouting insect-like limbs, crawling nimbly across gaps, walls, and ceilings, or wriggling along while dragging their swollen “abdomens.” They had already begun to encircle Lou Feng.

There was a snap, as if something had been pulled. Those crude, grotesque mercury constructs all opened their mouths at once, spitting out objects that looked strangely familiar...

Grenade pins?!

Lou Feng’s face turned deathly pale as he looked back and shouted, “Ji—”

Ji Jue smiled and clenched his fist.

BOOM!!!!

Sixteen violent bursts of searing flames erupted at point-blank range, swallowing Lou Feng completely. Without hesitation, Ji Jue emptied all the grenades he had in stock in a single instant. Amidst the countless flying shrapnel, scorching heat, blinding flashes, and deafening noise, shockwaves collided with each other, even distorting the sound of the explosion.

A sky full of silvery mist contracted, blocking in front of Lou Feng, but it vaporized at a very fast rate under the unexpected and terrifying impact. At the very front, the spirit clone’s phantom flickered intermittently. It lifted its blurred face slowly with difficulty, and then a hand casually pressed down on that featureless visage and clenched tight.

Snap!

A faint, indistinct scream filled the room, but it didn’t last long. Soon, everything fell back into silence.

Right before Lou Feng’s eyes, the spirit clone of a Lou family elder was effortlessly dismantled in Ji Jue’s grasp. Its form collapsed completely, dissolving into viscous spirit matter that scattered into nothingness.

Before Lou Feng could even react, a black gun barrel was raised and aimed directly at his frozen figure, the trigger pulled without hesitation.

Having already withstood the explosive impact of sixteen defensive grenades head-on, the Dragon Scale Helm on Lou Feng’s head let out a mournful tremor. Under the impact of a mercury-enhanced solid-core bullet, he was sent flying backward. He didn’t even have time to register shock or cry out.

BOOM!

“Sorry, patch update. Spirit Morph got nerfed!”

Ji Jue pressed forward, his movements never slowing. He kept shooting at Lou Feng again and again without the slightest pause. It was like he was swinging a copper-headed belt whip, beating Lou Feng, who was hiding inside his “turtle shell” and scrambling all over the ground, unsure where to go.

“In the new season, we’ve made a lot of very cool changes, and there are even more new heroes for sexual minority groups. I’m sure you’ll love them!”

At the very center of his hands, within the intricate matrix of totemic patterns, faint traces of spirit light flickered. This was the true reason the entire battle had been completely overturned, leaving Lou Feng without a single chance to fight back. It was the matrix Pacifier!

Just how vast the difference was between a Chosen One with a matrix and one without could be seen from Ji Jue’s earlier utterly miserable state as a blank-slate newcomer when Lou Feng was suppressing him.

For a Chosen One, the enhancement brought by a matrix was a complete qualitative transformation. Now, it was Young Master Lou’s turn to taste what it felt like to be helpless and beaten down! Even if, to be fair, he had kind of already been tasting it the whole time, but there was no harm in letting him have a bit more of it.

The Pacifier’s effect was exactly what the name suggested: it possessed no active offensive capability at all. In fact, all of its later advancement blessings contained not a single option with direct lethality.

A matrix had limits. Even the most advanced one was no exception. You simply could not have everything at once. You could not demand a matrix that strengthened soul and will like the Ascension Path, suppressed and controlled its surroundings like the Origin Path, granted speed, armor-piercing, and explosive bursts like the White Deer Path, stealth and unpredictability like the Mirror Path, defense and hardness like the Ruins Path, and the external manipulation and utilization of Ember Path.

Such a thing had never existed. Even if a master of this era forced one into existence, no human soul would be able to bear or withstand it. It would only end up as a foolish yet beautiful display piece in a showcase. Perhaps it would also be the most convenient weapon of destruction if someone were foolish enough to actually strap it onto themselves.

Pacifier was the quintessential example of a matrix that abandoned everything unnecessary in pursuit of a single specialization. In the past, the Celestial Beings of old, with an almost utilitarian mindset, had stripped away all other possibilities besides this one. They abandoned all offensive power and defensive capability in exchange for an extreme breadth of harmonious compatibility and unprecedented precision!

To put it simply, when this matrix was designed, its primary goal was not to resist a corrupt and tyrannical imperial rule or anything of the sort. At its core, it was meant to ensure that its user could run away at any time, without hesitation and with maximum efficiency.