90: Hidden Puppet Master, Miss Puppet, Church of Suffering

"Boom! Crash!"

"Clank, clank, clank, clank!"

The sky rail shook violently.

It was that water Dragon crashing into the sky rail.

The programmatic defensive magic array was activated, enveloping the entire sky rail like a barrier.

But under the continuous impact of the water Dragon,

shattering was only a matter of time.

Passengers in other carriages who didn't understand what was happening couldn't help but let out panicked screams.

It was pure chaos.

...

Inside the carriage stained red with blood,

cold gale-force winds mixed with torrential rain poured ruthlessly through the window, and the water vapor turned into white mist.

"Swish, swish, swish."

Passengers with expressions of extreme terror stood on their seats like marionettes.

The black-haired, golden-eyed youth stood in the aisle with a cold expression.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

Three cold lights slashed toward Jiang Yuan's back of the head.

Jiang Yuan didn't even look.

With a backhanded punch, he smashed into the empty air!

Crunch, crunch.

Black lightning flickered, and crimson ripples surged!

The air cracked like glass, the surrounding windows violently exploded, and a terrifying shockwave swept in all directions!

A short figure with a shocked expression and disordered aura fell from the air.

Jiang Yuan's figure flashed, appearing right in front of him, reaching out to grab his head and squeezing it until it exploded.

But it was only a paper body.

"Substitute skill...?"

Jiang Yuan thought to himself.

"Go to hell."

A voice came from the shadows.

A bloody and mangled mass of flesh was thrown out, landing on the floor.

"Th-this, what is this?"

In Cao Xiaoyu's terrified and frightened gaze,

that bloody and mangled thing wriggled to form a human mouth, opened it toward Jiang Yuan, and uttered a spell.

"Die!"

"Hum——"

The formless power of the curse transformed into black spikes, ignoring defense and instantly pinning Jiang Yuan's limbs.

[-384]

As red damage floated above Jiang Yuan's head,

a Tier 3 Shadow Assassin emerged from the dark shadows, instantly flashing before Jiang Yuan,

"Blade Rage."

"Throat Slit."

"Shadow Thrust. Seven-Hit Combo!"

The poisoned blade in his hand slashed toward Jiang Yuan's vital points at a speed too fast to see.

The blade images overlapped seven times, and all seven attacks were aimed squarely at Jiang Yuan's heart, incomparably vicious and precise.

"Scram!"

Jiang Yuan raised his eyes, his whole body erupting with terrifying Qi and blood, forming a barrier-like Qi and blood barrier that made it difficult for the assassin's thrust to advance even an inch.

Terrifying golden light shot from his indifferent golden eyes.

Boom!

In an instant.

An extremely strong pressure erupted from his body!

The citizens who were still in terror and fright didn't even have the power to resist, instantly fainting before this terrifying deterrent force.

The Shadow Assassin even bore the baptism of that pressure head-on, his spirit and willpower instantly collapsing!

Jiang Yuan shattered the curse spikes, reached out to pinch the short assassin's head, and with a flash of black flames in his palm, burned him to ashes.

A Tier 3 rare assassin class had fallen!

"Gulp..."

Witnessing all this, Cao Xiaoyu couldn't help swallowing a mouthful of saliva, saying:

"So, so amazing..."

Jiang Yuan looked at the bloody and mangled thing on the ground. After releasing a spell once, it became grayish-white and withered, as if it had lost all its power.

"Appraise."

[Sinful Flesh] (Low-grade): Made using human Soul and Vicious Beast flesh as Materials through an evil ritual, capable of bearing and releasing curses.

"Disgusting thing."

Jiang Yuan said with disgust, stepping on it and crushing it into ashes.

After finishing this,

he looked at Cao Xiaoyu and said coldly, "How much longer are you going to hide?"

Cao Xiaoyu froze for two seconds, looked to the side, and pointed at herself,

"Me?"

A gray Evil Aura appeared behind Jiang Yuan. Looking at the pure young girl wearing a school uniform, a trace of black light flashed across his golden eyes.

Eye of Fear.

Cao Xiaoyu took two steps back with a face full of terror and a vacant look in her eyes, obviously having her spirit dragged into the abyss of fear, but her mouth emitted a girl's crisp laughter,

"Tee-hee-hee-hee... How did you discover me?"

"The mental pressure I released didn't avoid her."

"I see. So the flaw appeared here."

"You must be the Puppet Master behind the scenes,"

"That's right. Unlike those trash lunatics of the Abyss Believers, I am a big shot of Tier 6."

Cao Xiaoyu's terrified face revealed a bizarre smile,

"You can call me—Miss Puppet."

...

Above the sky rail,

feeling the aura of his companions disappear, the Tier 4 man in black, entangled by the Martial God Clone, gritted his teeth.

"A bunch of useless things!"

Rumble...

Lightning flashed and thunder rolled in the sky, with torrential rain intertwining with violent winds.

Seeing a few figures vaguely appearing under the dim canopy in the distance, the mage said, "The people from the Patrol Division have arrived."

"They really came fast."

"This group of lackeys of order, loyal dogs of the rules, are indeed hateful..."

The leader in black cursed, a look of madness appearing on his face,

"There's no other way, we can only use that last move."

"Going to use that move? Heh-heheh..."

The mage's body shook beneath his cloak, letting out a somewhat frantic laugh.

"Fantastic! I hear the abyss calling me."

"Stop talking nonsense, hurry up!" cursed the man in black, being swept by a kick from the Martial God Clone once again. His defensive ability shield shattered, and his entire body flew backward into the air like a cannonball.

"Dominator of the great abyss, we your servants use flesh and blood as a sacrifice, respectfully inviting you..."

The mage chanted the spell, the words evil, as a blood-colored magic array gradually appeared beneath his feet.

"Swish!"

The Martial God Clone flashed in front of the leader in black mid-air and pressed down with a finger.

Prison-Suppressing Finger.

A vast gravitational force bore down, sealing the space and forming a Domain.

The leader in black was like sinking into a quagmire, unable to move.

Above his head, dense crimson Qi and blood intertwined into a giant finger phantom carrying wisps of electric arcs, suppressing toward him with an irresistible, majestic might!

Looking up at the giant finger crushing down,

the man in black with blood overflowing from the corners of his mouth revealed a wanton and crazy smile, his black clothes fluttering loudly in the fierce wind, and his hood fell off, revealing an ordinary face.

"Awesome, awesome, fantastic!"

"To think that I could actually fight such a monster! Hahaha, Mom, did you see that?"

"I'm not as useless as you said, right?"

At this moment, the excitement and madness on his face reached their peak, as if he were on a podium watched by tens of thousands of people, where his long-dead mother smiled and applauded for him alongside countless others.

"If I can die together with such a Genius, my Lord will surely praise me."

Anticipation and hope surfaced on his face, and black-purple light spheres condensed in his hands. With one, he shattered the head of the mage who had completed the magic array.

With the other, he unhesitatingly drove it into his own chest, personally crushing his own heart, and with a satisfied smile on his face, he followed the mage and melted into blood, flowing into the formed blood-colored magic array.

In an instant.

The magic array glowed brilliantly.

Blood-colored magic arrays resembling red roses appeared on the outer layers of the carriages everywhere along the sky rail, emitting dazzling red light before exploding with a roar!

"Boom boom boom boom boom boom!!"

...

The sky rail swayed and shook violently amidst the explosions.

The defensive magic array capable of resisting missiles became fragmented and shattered.

As if it would shatter the next second.

Inside the carriage where the citizens lay scattered all over the place,

Jiang Yuan stared at the young girl opposite him with a pleasant smile on her face, his expression solemn.

Tier 6...

This is a bit tricky.

Haven't the people from the Patrol Division arrived yet?

If it comes to the point where I have to protect myself with all my might and unleash my full strength to fight...

The aftermath of the battle, coupled with the speed of the sky rail and being high in the air... I'm afraid everyone on the entire sky rail will die.

From the beginning until now,

Jiang Yuan has only thought about minimizing casualties and protecting others to the best of his ability, which is why he controlled his power to avoid affecting ordinary people.

Compared to transitioned Martial Artists, ordinary people's lives are really too fragile—so fragile that getting accidentally caught up in a transitioned Martial Artist's battle would result in dying without even knowing why...

But all Jiang Yuan could do was try his best.

If it truly comes to a last resort,

he will not hold back either.

Facing the Abyss Believers, a group of madmen who view human lives as grass, if he were to surrender just because the other party used the lives of a carriage of citizens as hostage,

that would be truly hopeless stupidity!

Just now, witnessing the giant twist off the old man's head and watching someone die because of him, although Jiang Yuan felt anger, he would not let anger make him lose his reason.

A Tier 4 transitioned Martial Artist is not so easy to kill, especially when Jiang Yuan was tied down and unable to use his full strength. Once he failed to kill him instantly, the commotion caused by the battle inside the narrow sky rail carriage would probably shatter everyone inside the carriage. The best choice was to instantly kill him when he let down his guard, and the result proved his choice was right. Aside from a few people being severely injured by the exploding head thrown by the giant, no greater casualties were caused.

The old man was the sacrifice to achieve all this.

It could be said to be ruthless, or it could be said to be cold-blooded.

This is the fate of the weak.

It is also like a microcosm of the world.

"Hey."

'Cao Xiaoyu', who called herself [Miss Puppet], said with a crisp girl's voice, looking at Jiang Yuan before her with a smile:

"Have you ever heard of the Church of Suffering?"

"Never heard of it."

Jiang Yuan asked: "Aren't you an Abyss Believer?"

"Of course not, I am not one of those lunatics who go and die at every turn."