Boom!!!

In the blink of an eye during the crossover, Ji Jue lunged forward, with the female assassin who controlled Illusions closely on his heels. Even though there was a distance of more than ten meters between them, the next instant Ji Jue hit the ground, he was stabbed in the back with a dagger and killed on the spot.

At that moment, what suddenly exploded was the hand grenade hanging on the woman's waist.

To be exact, there were two hand grenades, 300 grams of Flame Element Explosives, and an Electric Grid Restriction Emitter…

In that instant, the spinning world of Illusions abruptly ended.

What replaced it was a terrifying flame light soaring into the sky like a torch, without even giving a chance to scream. Under the terrifying impact of the flying fragments and Flame Element Explosives, comparable to the brutal high temperature of the Melting Furnace, it instantly shattered into pieces.

Only a half-burnt body flew up from the blast, fell, and crashed next to the giant beast.

Whether it was a dying flash or something else, on that fragmented, charred face, the carbonized lips silently parted, as if pleading for something.

"Susu!!!"

Caught off guard by the sudden change, the giant beast hardly reacted, seeing its teammate with whom it had been in daily contact turn into a barely alive charred corpse, it couldn't help but scream.

It even stopped attacking An Ran vigorously.

Instead, it turned and lunged towards its dying teammate, with spiritual light glowing in its hand, desperately trying to save them.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

Before the last words were even spoken, a fragment of metal had already pierced into her skull from the left side and exited from the right.

Throwing Jug Technique—Yi'er!

The moment it sensed the teammate's death, the giant beast let out a soul-shattering roar, its body swelled again, and it roared, layers of bone grew out of its face.

Bone branches unfolded like a giant deer, densely covered with blood patterns!

Its entire body was enveloped in blood fire that seemed solid.

Vortex System Matrix "Wendigo"!

At the cost of excessively converting blood and life, it forcibly elevated its abilities by one rank, transforming into a monster from myths and spooky tales.

Facing the meteor-like whizzing fragments, it charged forward!

At the same time, the sound emitted by Xiao An was actually:

"Brother Ji Jue, dodge!"

Dodge what?

Where to dodge? How to dodge?

In an instant, all the questions that arose in his mind went unanswered, but Ji Jue's body, still crawling on the ground, had already darted out.

No longer caring about the pain and burning sensation in his limbs and back, or even the dizziness and urge to vomit.

The aftermath of the explosion seemed to be ignored.

Ji Jue immediately slapped his own body.

White Deer Emblem.

Using both hands and feet, he lunged forward.

In the next instant, the wall behind him burst apart as if hit by an invisible sledgehammer, while a red-hot bullet had already grazed Ji Jue's thigh and buried itself into the opposite wall of the lobby, disappearing from sight.

There was another sniper!

Ji Jue was dripping with cold sweat.

Bro, are we playing? Locked and shooting through walls? Isn't this for real?

The bullet had already been caught by his abilities in the moment it passed by; all the parameters emerged from within his chest, a 12.7 mm caliber anti-materiel sniper rifle, Empire make, with the machinery in good operating condition, well-maintained.

At a straight-line distance of over eight hundred meters!

Boom!

Following that, the second shot was already flying towards Xiao An's head.

Under Ji Jue's command, Xiao Niuma had long begun to sprint, kiting the giant beast around like a non-stick pan, not directly engaging the opponent.

Otherwise, with Wendigo's terrifying power, one punch might have turned Xiao Niuma into a beef and horse patty.

Far away, the Ether Chosen One emotionlessly pulled the trigger again.

Amid the thundering roar, the bullet soared out, and the dust rose in terror before falling again.

Unexpectedly, it was still a step too slow!

To avoid prematurely triggering the murderous sense within the White Deer Path or similar blessings, he was the last to prepare, only to watch helplessly as his teammate died in the explosion.

In the reflection upon the water dish, the scene of the battle in the ruins emerged, a moving reticle had once again locked onto Ji Jue, trigger pulled!

Another loud bang.

This time, Ji Jue nearly had half his body blown apart.

Run, kid, running will only lead to a dead end!

The sniper sneered coldly, cocked the gun, ejecting the hot cartridge, but when he aimed again, he saw Ji Jue standing in the original spot.

Kneeling on the ground, in his hand, raised toward himself, was...

Actually a rifle?!

But the style and model of that rifle made the sniper incredulously freeze in place, a Federation Thunderbolt lever-action rifle, with a total length of 1134 millimeters, .40 caliber, effective shooting range of 800 meters…

In the history of modern firearms, this gun was once so celebrated that it had established countless deaths and victories, terrifying the enemies of that time.

The only problem is...

This was a piece of antique from one hundred twenty years ago!

It had long been outdated!

Heaven knows where that kid across found this thing, perhaps from some antique shop; the sniper almost burst out laughing, no, he did laugh out.

The smile was ferocious.

Unconcerned with the opponent's aiming action, he similarly aimed at Ji Jue.

Come on, kid, let's send you on your way!

Bang!

In an instant, two simultaneous blasts erupted from both locations, gunflame and smoke billowing into the air.

But from the moment indistinguishable to the naked eye, what sprayed out from Ji Jue's barrel was a beam of silver light that stung everyone's eyes... a bullet that Xiao An had just tossed over.

He didn't inherit the An Family's Matrix. The Matrix that Xiao An found later atop Desert Market was called "Sword Sound."

Its assembly effect was simple, transforming one's own spiritual substance and attaching it to a material, forming a sword-qi-like effect for a short duration.

At this moment, what burst out of the gun barrel was the Sword Qi Streamlight!

Shrieking as it sped, it crossed a great distance in an instant, colliding head-on with the Armor-Piercing Sniper Bullet and sparking a dazzling cold light.

It sliced right through the center!

Then, with the silver light rushing towards him, it crossed eight hundred meters and penetrated the sniper rifle's scope, finally bursting out from the back of the sniper's head.

Crimson and pale white intertwined, gushing out.

The sniper was silenced forever.

In the final moment, he barely managed to whisper softly, "So fast."

"Report to the commander, the target is eliminated."

As soon as the bullet left the barrel, the Thunderbolt in Ji Jue's hand transmitted an illusion-like sound, silent and reticent as an old soldier sparing of words.

In the blood battles of Central Earth, after passing through four owners and long-term nurturing by spiritual substances, it eventually returned to the Federation with the last owner, fading into obscurity.

It was after hearing Ji Jue's request that Sister Laila ran through the market, finally finding this predecessor's relic at the home of a retired soldier from the mutual-aid society.

After Ji Jue's disassembly, processing, and maintenance, this antique that had collected dust on a display shelf for over twenty years finally regained its fierce spirit unique to weaponry!

Next, there was only one left.

Ji Jue turned around, looking towards the frenzied giant creature.

After losing the responses of his teammates in the communications channel, the leader Wendigo finally sensed something was amiss. With a roar, disregarding everything, he lunged at Xiao An, but suddenly, a huge pair of wings sprouted from his back mid-air. The fierce wind howled, pulling him off the ground and into the sky.

Fleeing far away!

But it was too late.

After the storm of the throwing jug technique and the hunting bullets, the giant creature once again fell clumsily. Xiao An and Ji Jue, one in front and one behind, completely surrounded him.

There was no escape.

"Wait, I—"

Wendigo raised his hand, about to speak, only to leave behind half of his last words.

A thread of dark light flew out from Xiao An's sleeve, piercing the eye socket, drilling in like a bird, then exiting from the back of the head, leaving a gaping hole.

Finally, it returned to between Xiao An's fingers and disappeared.

From beginning to end, Ji Jue hadn't seen clearly what it actually was.

"Aren't we going to leave someone alive to interrogate?" Ji Jue cautiously moved forward with his gun raised, checking Wendigo's life or death, only to find that Wendigo was already bereft of life, killed with one strike!

"Oh right."

Xiao An seemed to react, belatedly becoming aware, but soon nonchalantly waved his hand: "Anyway, it's either for vengeance or for bounty, every time it's the same old story, you get used to it."

"… Can you really get used to this kind of ghostly affair?" Ji Jue's eye twitched.

"Um, with time and frequency, you get used to it. Ji Jue brother, you're probably almost there too."

Xiao An bluntly said, "Just now, a small half of the hostility among those people was directed at you. It seems the bounty on you isn't low either."

"…"

Ji Jue felt he couldn't maintain his expression.

"Relax, relax, most of these guys can only make trouble in the Crack Realm, after all, outside, who would dare touch you? Sister Wen wouldn't let them off.

If someone capable of beating Sister Wen comes for you, they probably won't target you."

"…"

Ji Jue's expression became even harder to maintain.

Crap, so my value is considered as negligible? Those who can beat me won't dare, and those who dare aren't interested, highlighting an utterly tasteless situation.

But wait, I'm still an apprentice at the Tide Sound Workshop.

I have strong backers!

Although Professor Ye probably wouldn't bother with this trouble even if he knew, that doesn't stop me from bluffing with borrowed authority!

With two such strong backers, what's there to fear!

During the brief interlude, the two took a moment to rest, and now closer to the bell tower, the distant loud noises were clearer, off and on, from the left and then the right.

It seems that the vengeful seeds in the ruins weren't just those few that showed up.

One "Vortex," one "Mirror," and one "Ether."

"This haul is really bountiful."

Ji Jue pulled out a Ghost Work Ball, rubbing his fists and walking towards the corpses, taking advantage while the Chosen One had just breathed his last, the soul not yet fully dissipated, some of the blessings bound by the Matrix could still be extracted with tools.

These blessings extracted from the Chosen One's soul, although somewhat damaged and incomplete, after being fused with the soul, were no longer usable by others, but this didn't hinder their value as materials.

The inner part of the Ghost Work Ball had integrated the function of a 'Blessing Cage,' temporarily housing the blessings bestowed by the Superior, ready for Ji Jue's future alchemy needs.

Although the Embers could not be fought, when it comes to treachery, they're truly second to none among the Twelve Superior. Even the Heart Core, used to hypnotic brainwashing, sometimes admitted inferiority.

After everyone got used to the quality competition chicken-eating game over the years, a complete set of methods and processes for eliminating traces and utilizing waste was developed, highly replicable, and even countless theories and schools emerged from this basis.

Someone had even crossed the paths of Embers and the Vortex, directly refining the Chosen One's corpse into puppets and tools. Compared to them, Ji Jue's approach was merely burying them peacefully, genuinely charitable.

He hadn't even directly drawn out the opponent's soul to throw into the furnace to cultivate fire essences, he was really, I'm crying to death.

"Wait, something's not right."

The Ghost Work Ball suddenly transmitted a sound, "There's a problem, don't move!"

Ji Jue's movements froze in place.

He carefully stepped back, one step, then another.

Then he saw, on the two corpses in front of him, fractures suddenly appeared, followed by a second crack, a third, a fourth...bursting apart, rapidly desiccating, turning to ash.

And the thick blood and spiritual substances turned into streams.

Under an invisible force, they moved slowly forward.

Streaming directly towards...

The direction of the Bell Tower!

Boom!!

At that instant, the soul-shaking bell sound rang from the distance!

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