[So painful, why does it hurt so much?]
In a patch of unknown darkness, Xu Sanshi felt waves of pain assaulting him. But at this moment, it seemed as if a hand began to continuously slap his cheek, and the force was getting heavier and heavier.
Accompanying it was a familiar voice.
"Sanshi, wake up! Wake up..."
Xu Sanshi violently opened his eyes, then blankly looked around, feeling at a loss for a moment. His hand almost subconsciously lifted up, but he found it completely difficult to move.
"Thank goodness, you're finally awake. I saw your brows tightly furrowed, and you were tossing and turning; I thought something had gone wrong again. Are you feeling uncomfortable anywhere?"
Seeing Xu Sanshi finally wake up, Bei Bei's voice clearly revealed a sigh of relief. As a best friend, he naturally didn't want Xu Sanshi to have an accident. Even though Chen Junting had already said he was fine and was just unconscious due to the body's instinctive protection, Bei Bei still felt he should watch over him for a while.
It's just...
"Hiss, Bei Bei, you're sitting on my hand!"
"Ah! No wonder the bed felt a bit hard."
Realizing his mistake, Bei Bei hurriedly stood up. Under Xu Sanshi's tearful gaze, he considerately pulled Xu Sanshi's arm out from under the covers to avoid making the same mistake again.
"By the way, what's going on here?"
After the trace of confusion in Xu Sanshi's mind gradually dissipated, he began to look around with a face full of suspicion. He found himself currently in a room. The layout was simple; one look told it was a place specifically for patients to rest and receive treatment.
But then again, why was he here?
Or rather, could it be that he was severely injured in that chaos? So much so that even a healing-type soul master couldn't cure him?
"How strange?"
Thinking aloud, Xu Sanshi muttered to himself.
"I always feel like I've forgotten something?"
He continuously recalled, and scenes of what he experienced before falling unconscious constantly flashed through his mind. But whenever he was fiercely fighting those demonified soul masters and then passed out, his memories became unusually blurry, like a gap in the recording.
For a moment, Xu Sanshi felt a bit dazed.
Just as he fell into deep thought and even doubt, Bei Bei spoke with a strange expression, "You don't know what happened afterward? Did you really lose your memories?"
"I really don't remember. Ah—"
Shaking his head, Xu Sanshi suddenly gasped in cold air. He even wanted to lift the quilt covering him to see what exactly was going on with his body now!
It hurt so much it didn't feel like his own!
"Mother of mine! Who the hell beat me up!?"
Seeing himself under the quilt, Xu Sanshi widened his eyes!
What the hell was going on!?
His entire chest had actually caved in like a basin!
Was there a need to be so exaggerated!?
This sudden shock made Xu Sanshi continuously gasp "hiss, hiss, hiss," while completely failing to notice Bei Bei's increasingly weird gaze, which carried a trace of guilt and a sense of justification.
Although there was a reason for it, he was the one who did it, after all.
But there was no helping it.
If he didn't hit hard enough, a guy like Xu Sanshi in his demonified state wouldn't have been taken down at all; his defense was too troublesome!
So it was inevitable that he used heavy hands at that time.
Let it be stated in advance: there were no personal emotions mixed in here!
"Right! What about Nannan!? How is she!?"
Realizing that even he, a defense-type soul master, ended up in such a miserable state after a confusing battle, Xu Sanshi immediately became worried about his wife's safety.
So he hurriedly questioned Bei Bei, looking extremely anxious.
"Don't worry, her condition is much better than yours."
Seeing Xu Sanshi trying to struggle to get up, Bei Bei quickly pushed him back down. The next second, he placed his hand on the wall. Under Xu Sanshi's puzzled gaze, "Whoosh—"
The wall slid open like a sliding wooden door, pushed directly aside.
This brought Jiang Nannan, who was currently lying on the bed unconscious just like Xu Sanshi had been, into both of their lines of sight.
However, compared to Xu Sanshi, Bei Bei went much easier on the demonified Jiang Nannan. After all, a high-speed, high-attack agility-type soul master was mostly on the fragile side. So as long as he landed one attack that could knock her down, she basically wouldn't be as "hard to kill" as Xu Sanshi, requiring him to go all out.
"Nann... Mmph—"
Seeing Jiang Nannan lying motionless on the bed like a sick beauty, Xu Sanshi was just about to cry out when Bei Bei covered his mouth, not letting him make a single sound.
Under Xu Sanshi's slightly resentful gaze, Bei Bei whispered, "Don't wake Nannan up; both of your conditions require a natural awakening. It was precisely out of fear that your concern would lead to chaos that Junior Junting set up this wall that isolates perception in the first place."
Must wake up naturally?
Then what do you call slapping my face just now?
After confirming that Nannan was fine, Xu Sanshi, whose thoughts inexplicably reached this point, also placed his hand on the cheek that Bei Bei had just slapped red, and then their gazes met at this moment.
Without needing to speak, Bei Bei tacitly understood his meaning. "You can't blame me for that. After all, I said it earlier: you were the one tossing and turning while groaning in pain."
"Whatever, let's not talk about this."
Pushing the matter aside, Xu Sanshi also asked Bei Bei what exactly had happened after he fell unconscious.
Regarding this, Bei Bei naturally didn't hide anything.
Very soon, Xu Sanshi learned everything from Bei Bei. Including but not limited to the fact that he and Nannan were demonified, and ultimately restored to normal by Chen Junting using his methods.
During this period, he had been unconscious for a whole day. Moreover, because of the demonification, healing-type soul masters were basically useless, so after simple treatment, the two of them entered recovery.
"If what you say is true, is there enough time?"
A hint of worry flashed through Xu Sanshi's eyes.
If they couldn't make it in time, then everyone would turn into demons.
But soon, Bei Bei's next words made him put that worry back into his stomach. "Of course, there's enough time."
Saying this, he walked to the window and pulled the curtain open!
Whoosh—
With just one glance, everything outside was taken in.
A white torrent cascaded down, yet just as it was closest to the ground, it split into numerous branches, seemingly forming a giant net, enough to envelop the entire Lingdou City.
This shocking scene completely stunned Xu Sanshi.
"Holy crap! Junting made this!?"
He violently turned his head, "Just how strong is he now!?"
Bei Bei spread his hands, "Obviously."
"Then what should we do next?"
"Nothing at all, because nothing can be done."
This answer was quite blunt, but it fit the reality.
"Sigh…"
Thinking of this, Xu Sanshi couldn't help but sigh.
"The Dou Ling Empire is really miserable this time."
But there was no helping it; they were indeed powerless against this kind of thing. Who told Emperor Xue Feng to be so poor at judging character, resulting in such terrible luck.
Since there was nothing that could be done about this matter, then...
Taking advantage of the long period of boredom ahead, Xu Sanshi decided to bring up an old score. "By the way, Bei Bei, shouldn't we have a talk? Like about how you beat me up so badly."
Bei Bei helplessly shrugged his shoulders, a teasing smile hanging on his lips: "Can't blame me for that, I was helping you."
However, in his heart, he was thinking:
[I wonder what Dean Yan and Junting are doing?]
...
Meanwhile, in a hidden corner of Lingdou City.
"Sure enough!"
Chen Junting stood here, white light blooming in his eyes, clearly having seen through everything underground. Various patterns interwove together, forming a giant array that was constantly drawing in all the negative emotions, blood, and vengeful spirits from Lingdou City.
The next second, he thrust out a hand.
With just a light flick of his finger, he hooked onto a node of the underground array patterns. With another movement, he directly traced the direction of what was being drained based on these extracted things. But extremely abruptly, halfway through, it was directly severed by someone on the other end.
Clearly, they chose to give up on continuing to absorb.
And this severance also made Chen Junting stop.
"Too cautious."
To be honest, this result was within his expectations, so Chen Junting didn't feel too much disappointment.
However, facing the array below that was still operating, he didn't choose to ignore it either. Instead, he casually sketched a few strokes, directly connecting it to the Immortal Execution Sword Array that was currently enveloping the entire Lingdou City. Instantly, the function of the large array below changed directly, from an extraction channel to an endpoint.
With this move, all the negative emotions, blood, and vengeful spirits within Lingdou City converged toward this large array. But this time, they were no longer transmitted for anyone's use; instead, they were directly pulverized into nothingness by the mighty power of the Immortal Execution Sword Array. This saved them from remaining in the city and being stolen by them again when an opportunity arose.
After doing all this, Chen Junting turned and left.
Once the demonified soul masters in Lingdou City had all returned to normal, he planned to search for the whereabouts of "Zhongli Wu" and the Demon Empress. Although he hadn't found them through the reverse array just now, it didn't mean he had gained nothing. For example, a wisp of residual aura...
Very soon, Chen Junting arrived at the imperial palace.
After his treatment, the six Worships who had been in a demonified state not only returned to normal but also regained consciousness.
At this moment, these few were accepting Xue Feng's orders to head to the borders of the Dou Ling Empire to stand guard, in case Tianhun or Xingluo invaded.
Besides this, Yan Shaozhe, as the representative of Shrek Academy, was also staying here. However, the reason he was here was Xue Feng's request, asking Shrek Academy to support the Dou Ling Empire.
One didn't know what conditions this Emperor of the Dou Ling Empire offered to make the usually shrewd Yan Shaozhe actually fall into a dilemma.
But before he could struggle to a conclusion...
"Sword Douluo Your Eminence has arrived."
The voice of the attendant outside the palace directly shattered the atmosphere within the hall. The quickly reacting Xue Feng hurriedly put on a proper sitting posture and allowed Chen Junting to enter. Then, when he actually stepped into the hall, he hurriedly stepped forward to welcome him.
The speed of his changing face and his low posture were things he hadn't even shown when facing "Shui Xiye" before her identity was exposed.
Now...
He didn't look like an emperor at all.
But it was precisely this behavior that made Chen Junting can't help but take another look at him. Being able to bend and stretch; this mindset was no simple matter.
"Your Eminence, may I ask what brings you here?"
Seeing Chen Junting silent for a moment, Xue Feng took the lead to speak.
"Oh, it's just that there's one matter I need to tell you about."
Chen Junting seemed to have just snapped back to reality, but when he spoke these words, Yan Shaozhe, who immediately understood who the "you" referred to, instantly turned serious.
It seemed there was a big problem!
Thus, Yan Shaozhe, Xue Feng, and the several Dou Ling Empire Worships who had remained in the hall heard from Chen Junting's rather understated tone the news that "Zhongli Wu" and the Demon Empress had fled with a large group of Evil Soul Masters, and that there was a high probability they would wreak havoc across the entire continent.
"Phew—"
Hearing this, Yan Shaozhe let out a breath.
This wasn't that serious.
After all, the situation of Evil Soul Masters running amok was something they had anticipated years ago, and they had even jointly formed an organization. So as long as they dared to appear, they wouldn't be able to escape.
However, the two words of warning that Chen Junting added next made Yan Shaozhe's newly calmed heart instantly jump into his throat!
"What about 'Demonification'?"
Yes! What about demonification!
In an instant, visions of the results of that group of Evil Soul Masters using demonification methods in Shrek City, and the consequences of demonification across the entire continent, flashed through Yan Shaozhe's mind. Just thinking simply... if demonification didn't have too many conditions, it simply couldn't be defended against!
Instantly, Yan Shaozhe's complexion drastically changed.
But compared to Yan Shaozhe, Xue Feng couldn't help but feel a glimmer of joy.
What he was happy about wasn't anything else, but in his view, if this kind of demonification could also happen in the Tianhun Empire and the Xingluo Empire, could they still launch an attack on the Dou Ling Empire?
Just thinking about it, it was impossible, right?
Wouldn't this be advantageous for their Dou Ling Empire?
Should he add fuel to the fire?
However, just as this thought arose, he noticed a gaze that seemed to land right on him. In less than a second, it made Xue Feng break out in a cold sweat, feeling as if he was being stared at by some immense terror!
The moment he looked up…
He directly met Chen Junting's eyes.
That profound look was probably a warning.
Anyway, after Xue Feng's mind was intimidated, Chen Junting withdrew his gaze and turned to look at Yan Shaozhe.
"This matter is not that simple. Based on my conclusion, once they are exposed, they will go all out. I'm afraid that in the near future, the entire continent will fall into complete chaos. In less than half a year, the whole world will be engulfed in war."
"War!?"
Hearing this word, Yan Shaozhe's first reaction was disbelief.
War was something only two national-level forces had the power to ignite! Without an empire's support, how could those Evil Soul Masters have the capability?
Chen Junting saw through Yan Shaozhe's thoughts, so he said, "What stands behind them is not an empire, but a plane, a complete world just like our Douluo Planet!"
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