novelraw Chapter 227: A Warlord’s Deal
Chapter 227: A Warlord’s Deal
The pitch-black gun muzzle steadily locked onto Yan Xilou's figure.
This great Qing schemer halted his steps, looking at the young man who was half-kneeling on the ground, blood still staining the corner of his mouth, yet still trying to confront him with a single gun.
The last few remaining Esoteric Masters of the Black Lotus Sect behind him revealed fear and wavering in their eyes, unable to organize effective resistance any longer.
Yet, facing this situation of defeat, an eerie calm that made Lin Jie feel uneasy appeared on Yan Xilou's face.
He even smiled.
It was a complex smile mixed with self-mockery, appreciation, and a trace of pity.
"Brilliant. Truly, utterly brilliant." Yan Xilou began to clap.
Not a trace of displeasure at his defeat could be heard in his tone.
Lin Jie's brows knitted tightly together, the feeling of unease in his heart growing stronger and stronger.
The development of events was very abnormal.Yan Xilou was absolutely not the kind of person who would meekly surrender.
The calmer he was, the more it indicated he still held a trump card in his hand.
"Put away that pretentious rhetoric of yours, Yan Xilou." Lin Jie's voice remained icy cold. "Your road has come to an end."
"Road?" Yan Xilou seemed to have heard an amusing joke. He shook his head. "No, Brother Lin, you still don't understand."
"For someone like me, there has never existed a 'dead end'."
"Every step we take is merely a stepping stone laid down for the next objective."
He took a deep breath, and a chilling flame reignited in his deep-pool-like eyes.
"I admit, in this game of 'deceiving the gods', I lost."
"But you seem to have forgotten what my original purpose in coming here truly was."
Yan Xilou's gaze passed over Lin Jie, landing on the [Scales of the Dead], which was still in a state of severe imbalance and had become increasingly unstable due to the destruction of the second magic circle.
"What I wanted was not to become the master of this temple."
"Rather, it was to bring this spiritual essence, capable of weighing death and reversing the heavens and earth, back to my homeland!"
The moment his words fell!
Yan Xilou moved!
Without any warning, his body transformed into a white blur at a speed surpassing the limits of human visual capture.
But the direction he charged in was not towards Lin Jie for a final battle.
Nor did he turn and flee towards the passageway he came from.
He charged towards the base of the [Scales of the Dead]!
"Not good!"
Alarm bells blared in Lin Jie's mind. He subconsciously pulled the trigger.
But Yan Xilou was too fast.
By the time Lin Jie's gunshot rang out, Yan Xilou's figure had already appeared like a ghost on the complex ritual platform constructed of golden metal at the base of the scales.
With a flick of his wrist, the [Nine-Bend Yellow River] three-sectioned staff once again appeared in his hand.
"Brother Lin."
Yan Xilou's voice came from the platform.
"Now it's my turn to teach you the final lesson."
"The name of this lesson is..."
The three-sectioned staff in his hand transformed in an instant into three streams of dark yellow light indistinguishable to the naked eye, smashing towards the core energy nodes on the platform that supported the entire spiritual operation of the scales!
"...Mutual Destruction!"
"BOOM!!!"
A heart-palpitating, tremendous roar erupted violently from the center of the hall.
This was a spiritual-level fusion!
The energy base that had supported the stable operation of the mythical-grade armament, the [Scales of the Dead], for thousands of years was as fragile as paper before the [Nine-Bend Yellow River]'s flowing, defense-ignoring, penetrating power.
Several complex spiritual circuits inscribed on the platform were brutally torn apart and destroyed.
Losing the energy supply from its base, the spiritual projection of the [Scales of the Dead] suspended in mid-air began to flicker and distort violently.
The golden crossbeam of the scales shook intensely, as if it could disintegrate at any moment.
And as the scales became further imbalanced, the entire obsidian-constructed Judgment Hall also began to tremble violently along with it!
"Crack... crack-crack-crack..."
Huge spiderweb-like fissures spread out in all directions from the scales' base as the center.
On the ceiling, obsidian blocks weighing several tons began to loosen and fall, crashing towards the ground with destructive howls, stirring up clouds of dust.
The twelve massive jackal-headed stone pillars on both sides also began to emit groans of unbearable strain, showing signs of cracking on their surfaces.
The entire ancient temple hidden beneath the salt lake for thousands of years was, under this Eastern schemer's mad final strike, heading towards collapse at an astonishing speed!
"You... are you insane?!"
Lin Jie was shocked by the apocalyptic scene before his eyes. He looked incredulously at Yan Xilou, who stood at the center of the collapse, his clothes flapping wildly in the gale.
Lin Jie couldn't understand why the other party would make such a suicidal, insane move.
Destroying the scales meant he himself would also be buried alive here. What benefit did that hold for him?
"Insane?" A martyr's expression appeared on Yan Xilou's face. "I am more clear-headed now than ever."
He spread his arms wide, as if to welcome a painful new life born from the ruins.
"This power containing the secret of the 'Cycle of Life and Death', it should have belonged to us! It is the 'catalyst' I sought for that decaying empire!"
His voice grew high-pitched, carrying grief, indignation, and deep sorrow.
"But I failed. I couldn't bring it back intact. However!"
His tone shifted abruptly.
"Even if I fail, even if I cannot take it away!"
"I will absolutely never let it fall into the hands of those Western bandits who have plundered our homeland for hundreds of years!"
"Rather than letting it become yet another tool to enslave the world, I would rather personally smash this 'divine medicine' to pieces!"
Yan Xilou sharply raised his hand, pointing at the [Scales of the Dead], which was flickering violently and on the verge of disintegration.
"See those golden light particles escaping from the scales?"
Lin Jie followed the direction of his finger and indeed saw countless pure golden spiritual light particles, the size of rice grains, continuously overflowing from the illusory scales like fireflies, then merging into the surrounding turbulent energy chaos.
"That is the most fundamental spiritual essence of this mythical armament!" Yan Xilou's voice was filled with anticipation and desire. "As long as I can collect enough fragments and return to the Great Qing, with the help of my Black Lotus Sect's Living Holy Embryo secret arts, I can reconstruct a weakened version of a pseudo-divine artifact!"
"And you..." Yan Xilou's gaze fell back on Lin Jie. "...now face a new choice."
He extended two fingers.
"One, stay here, continue trying to stop me, and then be buried forever in this tomb along with your two severely wounded Western companions under these millions of tons of salt rock and obsidian."
He paused, then extended a second finger, the curve of his mouth becoming increasingly cruel.
"Or... two."
"Abandon the scales, which are already meaningless to you, immediately turn around, and flee this place with your burdens."
"Brother Lin, you and I should never have been enemies." His tone carried what might have been a sincere persuasion. "Your wisdom and potential should not be wasted on guarding these barbaric remnants destined to be eliminated by the times. Please bring it back to the place that truly needs it."
"I can give you one chance today."
"After all, the distance from here back to the surface is still quite considerable. In your current condition, every second is precious, is it not?"
This was Yan Xilou's overt scheme.
He used the collapse of the temple and the lives of others as threats, forcing Lin Jie to voluntarily give up.
He didn't want to engage in a meaningless struggle with Lin Jie here, because every minute, every second, those precious spiritual essences escaping from the [Scales of the Dead] were continuously being lost.
His primary goal was to collect as much of this fundamental essence as possible, then withdraw calmly before the temple buried him alive.
Yan Xilou had seen through Lin Jie's nature. He knew this calm, rational young man's deepest, most vulnerable soft spot was his companions.
He had calculated that Lin Jie would absolutely never disregard the lives of William and Julian for the sake of seizing an external object.
This was a multiple-choice question that never had a second answer from the very beginning.
"Bastard!"
Lin Jie gritted his teeth until they creaked. A huge wave of humiliation and powerlessness swept over his entire body.
"BOOM!"
Another, even more violent roar sounded. A massive jackal-headed stone pillar finally could no longer support itself and collapsed with a thunderous crash. The shockwave it stirred up sent Lin Jie tumbling to the ground.
In the distance, Julian let out a heart-rending shout: "Lin! Go! Now! This place is collapsing!"
Lin Jie gave Yan Xilou a helpless look and tightened his grip on the revolver.
"Let's go!"
He resolutely turned around and sprinted towards William and Julian.
He chose to flee.
He chose to lead his companions to survive.
Watching Lin Jie's slightly trembling back recede into the distance, Yan Xilou then took out from his bosom a simple, ancient-looking small bottle made of dark jade. He opened the stopper, and a strange suction force emanated from it, beginning to draw those golden spiritual light particles floating in the air into it, one by one.
He was the ultimate victor of this battle.