310: Chapter 311 Your Cage, My Toy

Ying Wan stopped in his tracks.

Beneath his mask, a look of gravity appeared for the first time in those eyes, sharp as a hawk's.

The sniper had lost contact.

"Shadow Bind" was trapped within a bizarre spatial stretching.

Two carefully prepared killing moves had been silently neutralized in the blink of an eye.

And the target, from beginning to end, had just been standing there.

This was completely different from the script he had envisioned.

"What... did you do?" Ying Wan's voice was no longer as confident as before, now tinged with a hint of hoarseness.

"What did I do?" Lin Qi spoke as if he had heard something amusing. "I just... fixed a few bugs."

He pointed toward Zhang Wei's direction. "A bug that attempted to illegally delete user data."

Then he pointed toward Instructor Su Qing's direction. "A bug that attempted to lag the game's visuals."

Finally, his gaze fell upon the four black totem poles rising into the sky.

"And this, a shoddy firewall bug attempting to block the server signal."

Ying Wan's pupils constricted sharply.

Bugs?

This was the "Four Directions Prison Formation" that the Shadow Blade Alliance had spent a massive price to obtain from some ancient ruin! It was a masterpiece specifically designed to suppress Space-type Experts!

In his eyes, it was actually just a... shoddy bug?

"Arrogance!"

Ying Wan was completely infuriated.

He no longer hesitated. His body instantly turned into a phantom, and the Cursed Dagger in his hand, carrying a Soul-tearing shriek, aimed straight for Lin Qi's heart.

"Within the 'Prison Formation,' the Law of space is suppressed to its minimum! The speed you take pride in will no longer exist!"

His speed reached the extreme, nearly vanishing from his spot and appearing before Lin Qi in the next second.

The tip of the dagger flickered with an eerie green light, which even caused the surrounding rainwater to emit a "sizzling" corrosive sound.

This was the "Soul-Quenching Poison" that could directly attack the Soul's Origin!

Once touched by even a fraction, even a Rank 5 Expert's Soul would be slowly corroded, eventually turning them into a walking corpse.

Facing this certain-kill strike.

Lin Qi's reaction, however, was simple to the extreme.

He merely... raised his right hand.

Then, he spread his five fingers.

No energy shield, no fluctuations of Law, just ordinary like that, he opened his palm.

The next second.

Ying Wan's determined dagger came to a dead stop half a foot away from Lin Qi's chest.

It stopped.

Just like that, it froze abruptly in mid-air.

As if it had slammed into an invisible wall.

The expression on Ying Wan's face froze completely.

He could feel an utterly irresistible resistance coming from his dagger.

It wasn't any defensive method he was familiar with.

Not a parry, not a redirection of force, and certainly not an energy shield.

That feeling...

It was as if the action of his thrust, the behavior of "stabbing" itself, had been "forbidden."

It was as if a new rule had suddenly been added to the world—"No assassinating Lin Qi."

"This... what is this?!" Ying Wan's voice was filled with unprecedented horror.

"I told you, it's fixing a bug."

Lin Qi's palm slowly clenched.

"You, this bug, are too noisy. You need to be muted."

As his palm clenched, Ying Wan felt the air around him turn into solid concrete.

An unimaginable, massive pressure from all directions squeezed in from the Void Realm.

His bones emitted an overburdened "creaking" sound.

The Void Realm traversal ability he took pride in was completely rendered useless at this moment.

He wanted to retreat, but found he couldn't even move a single finger.

He was "fixed" in place.

"'Four Directions Prison'..." Lin Qi looked at him, his gaze like he was looking at an idiot. "You thought this thing was meant to seal me?"

He raised his other hand and pointed from a distance at one of the black totem poles.

"You're wrong."

"This is what I use... to shut the door and beat the dog."

As the words fell.

The four totem poles originally used to anchor space and suppress Lin Qi suddenly jolted in unison.

The flickering eerie light on them instantly turned from black to red!

A surge of energy ten times more violent than before erupted from the four pillars.

But this time, the target of this energy was no longer to suppress the entire space.

But rather...

All concentrated on Ying Wan alone!

"No—!!!"

Ying Wan let out a shrill, wretched scream.

He felt as if he had been thrown into a high-pressure reactor.

The power of the "Four Directions Prison Formation" was frantically tearing and squeezing his body and Soul.

The cage he had set up became his instrument of torture!

The weapon he used to deal with Lin Qi had, in turn, become a toy for Lin Qi to deal with him!

"Who... who exactly are you?!"

Ying Wan squeezed the words from his throat with all his strength.

Terrifying cracks had already begun to appear on the surface of his body, black blood seeping from them only to be instantly evaporated by the violent energy.

Someone who could instantly reverse Karma, stretch space, and even... reverse control a secret treasure of the Shadow Blade Alliance...

This had already exceeded his understanding of the concept of an "expert."

This is not a human!

This is a god!

"Who am I?"

Lin Qi slowly walked up to him, looking down at him from above.

"I'm here to collect a debt."

"Last time in the Dragon Tomb, you stabbed me once. I've remembered that strike."

"Now, it's time to settle the interest."

Lin Qi reached out and grabbed Ying Wan's helmet.

With a "crack," the hard alloy helmet was crushed into fragments in his hand as if it were made of paper.

Revealing Ying Wan's face, twisted by extreme pain and fear.

"It seems there are quite a few interesting things hidden in your Soul."

Lin Qi reached out and pressed his hand onto the crown of Ying Wan's head.

"Let me see who gave you the courage to dare provoke me a second time."

"Soul Search!"

Two cold words, like a death sentence.

Ying Wan's pupils dilated to their limit in an instant.