157: I've been sold out?

"Lord Xiao... I haven't treated you poorly, what are you doing..." Tanaka Mori said with difficulty, looking in disbelief at the half-inch of a blade tip protruding from his chest.

Just a moment ago, he had brought Xiao Xu back to the Shadow Realm. After escaping the danger, he had finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Completely off guard, his body was pierced by Xiao Xu, who was right beside him.

"Could it be... Lord Xiao, are you after that divine beast crystal core?"

"Actually, you didn't have to do this. If you had just asked, I would have been completely willing to give it to you..." Tanaka Mori forced a smile while hissing in pain, enduring the agony in his chest.

"Commander Tanaka is too polite. The divine beast crystal core is yours, how could I steal it?" Xiao Xu said with a smile, while simultaneously pushing the dagger in his hand deeper.

Under the intense pain, Tanaka Mori spat out a large amount of blood. At the same time, the black clay-like beast in the shadow beneath his feet struggled in agony.

While he was using words to pacify Xiao Xu, he had been preparing to have his beast launch a surprise attack.

But it was unclear whether Xiao Xu had seen through him or if Xiao Xu simply had no intention of letting Tanaka Mori live.

He thrust and then pulled the dagger in his hand again, and blood immediately gushed out like a spring.

Just as Xiao Xu was about to pull the dagger away, Tanaka Mori suddenly reached back with both hands and gripped him tightly.

"Lord Xiao, you have deceived me so cruelly. You truly are a dangerous man; I actually sent my own son to serve under you..."

"For his sake, I must keep you here!"

"Hmm?" Xiao Xu raised an eyebrow, seemingly sensing something.

Sure enough, looking down, that clay-like beast was exhibiting an extremely unnatural state.

Su Ze, who had just appeared, saw this scene clearly. However, he did not join in, instead staying at a distance to watch the two fight.

"Fortunately, I didn't go with them. That familiar scent... it's another self-detonation!"

"It's truly a dog-eat-dog struggle!"

"The harder you fight, the better. When the time comes, I'll be the oriole behind the mantis stalking the cicada!"

Su Ze thought to himself.

Xiao Xu also noticed immediately that Tanaka Mori wanted his beast to self-detonate to take them both down.

He decisively let go of the dagger, directly broke both of Tanaka Mori's arms, and began to pull away.

His movements were calm and unhurried. As he flew backward, he constantly knocked all the obstacles along the way toward Tanaka Mori.

While preventing the beast from following him, this also helped resist the impact of the self-detonation.

Only a few seconds after he retreated, there was a loud "Boom!" A powerful shockwave hit, and the first to bear the brunt was Tanaka Mori's body, which was torn to pieces.

The distance Xiao Xu had retreated was still far from being completely safe, but the obstacles he had thrown over did indeed withstand much of the explosion's power.

However, the powerful impact still sent him flying.

He happened to land not far away, in Su Ze's direction.

Su Ze's eyes lit up, and he quietly approached the spot where Xiao Xu had landed.

The explosion made him look very wretched, covered in blood and wounds, but he didn't seem to be permanently disabled, which made Su Ze quite dissatisfied.

"This traitor actually has decent luck, but his luck has run out!"

"It's actually good that you weren't blown to death on the spot; it gives me a chance for revenge!"

Su Ze came before Xiao Xu. Looking at him—eyes closed, chest heaving violently, but with an ambiguous smile on his face—Su Ze raised the great saber transformed from the Shadow Moon Wolf King.

The tip of the blade pointed at Xiao Xu's chest. With a forceful downward thrust, he prepared to end his life.

But just as the tip of the blade touched the other's skin, a shadow appeared from beneath Xiao Xu and blocked Su Ze's blade.

Seeing this, Su Ze tried to push down with force but failed.

He immediately took a step back, and the weapon in his hand had already changed into the phoenix feather departing fire fan.

He shouted, "Who is it? Come out!"

The reason he hadn't chosen to burn Xiao Xu to death with Phoenix Fire just now was that Su Ze wanted him to die the same way Lin Xi did.

He hadn't expected the opponent to still have a trump card in such a situation, and he immediately became extremely alert.

"Sigh..." A long sigh came, and then Su Ze watched in surprise as an impossible figure appeared before him.

"You are... Teacher? Impossible... this is impossible, why are you here!"

That's right, the person appearing before Su Ze was none other than Lin Xi!

But soon after, he noticed some differences.

This Lin Xi had an ethereal figure and was somewhat darker. Su Ze remembered—this was the human form of his teacher's beast, the Nightmare Lord!

"You are Teacher's Nightmare Lord?! Why are you here? Could it be... that this guy stole you when he killed Teacher?" Su Ze said, pointing at Xiao Xu on the ground in an extremely hostile tone.

At this moment, Xiao Xu, who was being pointed at, suddenly laughed and scrambled up from the ground.

Although he still coughed a few times and spat out some blood, the damage caused by the explosion didn't seem to be that severe.

He might have been faking unconsciousness just now to lure Su Ze into attacking.

He said with a smile, "I won't take the blame for this. Su Ze, your teacher and his beast are both experts in the field of Spiritual Power. To steal their contract... unless a Level 100 War God steps in, and it would have to be one with a spiritual attribute monster, otherwise, there is no way. I see."

"And as far as I know, such a War God doesn't exist in the world yet."

Hearing this, Su Ze looked at the Nightmare Lord, who had suddenly appeared to stop him from killing Xiao Xu, and asked in confusion, "Then what is going on?"

Xiao Xu shrugged and said, "Better let him explain it to you."

At this time, the Nightmare Lord, who had turned into Lin Xi, spoke as well. He said with some hesitation, "Su Ze, actually... this is a deal."

"Using my death as a price to make the suspicious Emperor of Fuso trust Xiao Xu, thereby allowing him to come into contact with their core Yamata no Orochi Completion Plan."

"Moreover, he will definitely find a way to confirm the death, so it couldn't be a fake death; it required my actual death."

"Wait..." Su Ze raised his hand to interrupt him, saying in an unfriendly tone, "You should just be Teacher's beast, right? Why are you speaking in his tone?"

"Lin Xi" continued, "Because many years ago, I began an experiment, gradually merging my soul and memory with the Nightmare through the beast contract."

"My physical body will eventually die, but my soul will share a life with the beast!"

Su Ze listened to all this in disbelief. He hadn't expected that his carefree teacher would have such a mad scientist side to him.

It wasn't that he didn't believe it, but that he was unwilling to believe it.

Lin Xi's reappearance did not bring Su Ze joy, but rather heartache.

Because if all of this were true, then Xiao Xu killing Lin Xi's body and bringing him and Feng Qingyi to Fuso had all been planned from the beginning!

From the start, he was the one kept in the dark, the one who was sold out!

"I need a reasonable explanation!"