"This isn't right," Yan Shaozhe thought, cold sweat streaming down his face. Why was he consuming this flower now? Clearly, Lu Cheng could return at any moment, yet he hadn't even considered anything suspicious about this. His usually sharp mind felt like mush, thick and sluggish.
He looked up. He saw a pair of eerie, blood-colored eyes, rippling with strange patterns, looking down at him with a smile. It seemed his mind had been subtly influenced...
No, this was a trap designed long ago.
Using Zhang Lexuan as bait, the true target had been him all along... No, that's not right either...
Yan Shaozhe struggled to support his body, but the Blood Pupils opposite him slowly dissipated, returning to a normal, pitch-black color. The figure watched him with interest, as if observing a dying ant.
Lu Cheng had gone to such lengths to kill him, why...?
Ma Xiaotao?
Even if that girl had fallen into evil and become the Holy Maiden of the Holy Spirit Cult, there was no reason for her to want to kill him.
Because of Zhang Lexuan... That shouldn't be it either. He might have been somewhat annoyed with Zhang Lexuan, but he had never shown any killing intent toward her from beginning to end.
As the Dean of the Martial Soul Department, he hoped more than anyone that Zhang Lexuan would safely inherit the position of Pavilion Master of the Sea Gods Pavilion. If Lu Cheng wanted Zhang Lexuan to live safely, he should...
Wait... Zhang Lexuan?!!
Yan Shaozhe's pupils shrank suddenly as he suddenly thought of another hypothesis.
What if that boy had designed a chess game from the very beginning, starting with the slaughter of the Zhang and Lu families in Shrek?
What was shown on the surface, known to everyone, was that for the sake of Zhang Lexuan, he was willing to break his own wings and expose his blood pupils; in order for the young girl to live forever in the light, he was willing to cast himself into the mire and fall into evil forever.
All these years, everything the boy displayed perfectly matched this, which made them willing to believe that Zhang Lexuan would completely keep him in check, despite their inner unease at the rapid skyrocketing of his strength. But... what if the boy still had a hidden move in the shadows?
The goal was still to hope that Zhang Lexuan would live in the light.
But what he truly wanted to do was by no means just silent protection.
It was to eliminate all existences that posed a threat to Zhang Lexuan, including him, including Mu En... because everyone that knew about that incident back then was the greatest threat to Zhang Lexuan.
There are no airtight walls in the world. What if Zhang Lexuan found out everything one day in the future?
The most likely outcome would be her taking revenge on the true culprits one by one. But among them, there were three existences standing at the peak of the continent: a Limit Douluo, a 98th-rank Super Douluo, and then... him.
And if Zhang Lexuan insisted on revenge, everything she once had would be reduced to dust, crushed by the rolling tide of history.
The boy knew Zhang Lexuan's nature, and he knew it too.
Yan Shaozhe's throat bobbed, his eyes growing increasingly shocked.
So... he was going to stake everything he had to help Zhang Lexuan eliminate all potential threats to her.
From a pawn at the beginning, he had, step by step, become the puppet master behind the scenes. He didn't even doubt that the boy had envisioned today's scene from that very night.
What terrifying methods, what terrifying perseverance...
It was all connected, it was all connected…
Yan Shaozhe's heart surged like a tide, his back already soaked with sweat.
With the boy's personality, he naturally shouldn't be the kind of arrogant person he appeared to be. But ever since joining the Holy Spirit Cult, he had repeatedly displayed various arrogant postures, putting many forces in opposition to the behemoth that was the Holy Spirit Cult, and even the Sun Moon Empire, whose foundation upon which the Holy Spirit Cult relied for survival, was said to have been offended by the boy entirely. He had previously thought that the boy had completely exposed his true nature after joining the Holy Spirit Cult, but now it seemed that was absolutely not the case...
What was he trying to do?
His true goal was far more than just him. He was merely an appetizer for this grand play.
The real targets were the three Limit Douluo: the teacher, the Grand Elder of the Holy Spirit Cult Ye Xishui, and Senior Long. He wanted to ignite a war across the entire continent and then use the momentum to eliminate the three powerhouses who posed the greatest threat to Zhang Lexuan and even the Holy Spirit Cult itself.
He wanted to make Shrek Academy completely shaped to fit Zhang Lexuan.
"Have you figured it out?"
Lu Cheng quietly looked down at the Dean of the Martial Soul Department, who was half-kneeling on the ground with a look of horror, and let out a soft breath.
"For Lexuan, I can only wrong you all."
"So that's how it is..."
The horror in Yan Shaozhe's eyes gradually faded, replaced by joy at the bottom of his eyes.
He looked at Lu Cheng with a smile.
"Even though you are such a prodigy, I'm afraid you didn't calculate that I have other ways to escape, right? Lu Cheng, I have already figured out your plot. I will join forces with the teacher and inform Long Xiaoyao and Ye Xishui of everything. Hahahaha... Kid, your plan has failed by one move after all."
Yan Shaozhe's figure slowly dissipated, turning into a bubble in the sunlight.
You You looked at this scene in a daze.
A smile curled on the corner of Lu Cheng's mouth.
"So that's it... Nirvana Rebirth."
...
Sunset Forest.
On an ancient tree.
Yan Shaozhe restrained the smile in his eyes and glanced at the valley behind him with a complex look. If he hadn't seen through the chess game set by this boy in advance, he would have been deeply trapped in it.
It was too terrifying. For so many years, he had actually deceived everyone.
But now...
Just as Yan Shaozhe's figure rose, flying into the distance.
A faint voice slowly rang in his ear.
"Dean Yan, rest in peace..."
Puchi~
A sharp pain surged into his heart. Yan Shaozhe's expression was one of horror as he slowly lowered his head. A crimson arrow had pierced his body at some point, and everything around him was like an illusion, shattering and reforming. He was back in the valley from just before.
Only this time, his vitality was rapidly fading away...
"No, no!"
Yan Shaozhe's eyes were dazed and astonished. He had already used Phoenix Nirvana once and could not activate it again in a short time.
And he had performed the Nirvana technique in the same spot. He thought he had escaped, but he had been standing in the same place all along.
Illusion!!!
Only at this moment, when he looked up again, did Yan Shaozhe finally understand that from the very beginning, he had fallen into an extremely bizarre illusion and never escaped it from start to finish.
Lu Cheng, with his scarlet blood pupils, quietly looked down at Yan Shaozhe.
That blood-red color had never faded.
"Hehe, hehe..."
Blood surged from Yan Shaozhe's throat. His body had already been completely paralyzed by that little flower. Looking closer, that remnant was no white flower at all but a pitch-black, ink-like poisonous herb.
Phoenix Nirvana consumed his own soul power, and with the toxic herb raging in his body, his body had already broken down, teetering on the edge.
"Lu Cheng, I will wait for you in hell..."
Yan Shaozhe looked at Lu Cheng with complex eyes, his body finally unable to hold on, and he collapsed heavily.
Thump-
Watching the life gradually fade on the ground.
Lu Cheng's eyes were calm, and he took out a white notebook.
He opened it.
There were four names.
And Yan Shaozhe, who was ranked at the very top, was lightly crossed out by him with a red pen.
Notes:
The second one, since you all go plus ultra.
By the way I have new books, do check it out~
(2/2)
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