169: Chapter 169 Aren't you afraid of getting beaten to death...?

Standing directly in front of the Pool of Ten Thousand Wishes were two War General Realm experts guarding the place...

The one on the left was burly, bald, and had a ring of dark red Source Power patterns tattooed around his neck.

The one on the right was tall and thin, wearing a dark gold mask on his face, revealing only a pair of narrow eyes with vertical pupils, just like a snake's.

The aura radiating from the two of them was on a completely different level from the men in black around them.

These two were likely the only ones who could pose a threat to him.

This place was completely different from where Qian Fuyun was.

The walls of the entire underground space were embedded with metal pipes, each as thick as an adult's thigh, with dense Source Array patterns carved on their surfaces, extending all the way from the dome to the floor.

The pipes converged from all directions, finally splitting into three branches that led to three rooms behind the altar.

The doors to all three rooms were closed.

The doors were made of alloy, their surfaces covered with dark gold sealing inscriptions, and each door had a circular observation window with a faint light shining from behind the glass.

The pipes ran into both sides of the door frames, and one could hear a low humming sound coming from inside, identical to the vibrations of large machinery in operation.

Lu Cheng withdrew his gaze and took two steps forward.

"Mr. Heize!"

His voice echoed throughout the underground space.

Some of the men in black around the altar turned their heads to glance at him, then continued their work with their heads down; apparently, they were quite familiar with Supervisor Lin's face.

But no one paid him any mind.

Lu Cheng cursed inwardly; he had no idea which one was Heize.

So he could only shout like this and wait for someone to come out.

He stood at the edge of the altar and waited for three seconds.

Then, the crowd stirred.

The men in black kneeling at the edge of the altar moved aside in unison, their movements extremely fast.

At the end of the aisle opened up by the crowd, an... old boy walked out.

He was at most 1.2 meters tall, wearing a well-tailored black suit with dark gold cufflinks on his cuffs, and his tie was tied neatly.

The skin on his face was wrinkled, and he looked at least sixty years old, with deep-set eye sockets, prominent cheekbones, and short, gray hair combed meticulously...

This person was also in the War General Realm... He hadn't even noticed him just now...

The men in black around him all kept their heads down, and some of their hands were still trembling slightly.

This kind of fear wasn't faked; it was the kind of terror carved into one's bones.

Moreover, the aura on this person was stronger than that of the bald man and the masked man.

This person must be Heize.

"What is it?"

Heize spoke, his voice unexpectedly low, like sandpaper grinding on an iron plate, carrying an uncomfortable rasp.

Lu Cheng suppressed the vigilance in his heart, walked quickly to Heize, bowed slightly, and kept his posture very low.

"Mr. Heize, there's been a situation with Qian Fuyun."

Heize's eyebrows twitched.

He turned around and walked two steps toward the edge of the altar, avoiding the men in black who were activating the Source Array, and then raised his hand to signal Lu Cheng to follow.

Lu Cheng followed, lowered his voice, and continued, "That old thing's Source Power has recovered a little; he was even able to knock me flying just now..."

Heize frowned, his bead-like eyes staring at Lu Cheng's face...

Based on that old thing's current state, it was absolutely impossible for him to achieve such a level.

Heize stood with his hands behind his back, his 1.2-meter-tall body standing straight, his leather shoes tapping lightly on the floor.

One second. Two seconds.

"I'll go take a look."

Heize turned and walked toward the stone steps, took two steps, and then looked back at the bald man and the masked man.

"You two, continue watching this place... report any situation upward."

Both War General Realm experts nodded simultaneously.

Lu Cheng immediately followed, staying two steps behind Heize.

As he walked, he secretly used his terminal to photograph the surrounding patterns and synchronized them to Aunt Mei.

Aunt Mei then said that simply destroying the pipes would cut off the connection between the Golden Toad and the rooms...

"Our people will arrive in ten minutes."

"During this time, take care of your own safety..."

"What's wrong?" Heize frowned.

"Nothing... I'm checking on my subordinates' movements... One of them didn't seem to follow his route just now..."

Lu Cheng said.

Heize replied indifferently: "You people... are just not reliable enough... After I finish checking on that old man Qian, you can go over and take a look..."

"Alright." Lu Cheng put away his terminal and looked up at Heize's back in front of him.

The two of them had already walked out of the main entrance of the main villa.

The Hua Hai Realm guards at the door saw Heize and immediately lowered their heads to salute, their posture as respectful as if they had seen the King of Hell.

The three Meridian Opening Realm guards outside were the same, retreating to the sides in unison to clear the way.

The night was heavy.

The Source Power light strips in the manor illuminated the road in a ghastly white, and from the direction of the banquet hall in the distance, one could faintly hear music and conversation; Qian Congrong's centennial celebration was still ongoing.

Heize walked in front, his pace not fast, his exquisite leather shoes making crisp sounds as they stepped on the stone path.

Lu Cheng followed behind him, maintaining a distance of two steps.

Since that's the case...

It would be simple.

Aunt Mei said ten minutes, so ten minutes it is.

Ten minutes was enough for him to deal with Heize first, then turn back to destroy the pipes...

Lu Cheng invoked Seeking Good Fortune and Avoiding Bad Luck...

Then, a clear intuition slammed directly into his brain...

"This is great fortune!"

The corners of Lu Cheng's mouth curled up slightly.

He opened the live stream on his terminal.

In less than a second, the number of viewers began to skyrocket.

One hundred. One thousand. Ten thousand. Fifty thousand. One hundred thousand.

The comments flooded across the screen like a torrential rain.

[What's the situation?]

[Why is it pitch black?]

[Who is that following behind?]

[Wait, this background looks familiar. Isn't this the Qian Family Manor?!]

[Holy sh*t, holy sh*t, holy sh*t, this account is... Lu Cheng?? Lu Cheng, where are you?!]

[This perspective... first-person live stream?!]

Lu Cheng felt a warm current surge up from within his body.

The number of online viewers in the live stream broke one hundred thousand.

The power within his body began to surge.

Very good.

The audience was in place.

Lu Cheng raised his head, staring at the 1.2-meter-tall back in front of him.

Heize seemed to sense something and paused his steps.

But it was too late.

"Holy Dragon Armament, activate."

Dragon scales began to spread from his collarbone, the gold-white armor plates exploding with a halo of light in the night, and the phantom of the Radiant Dragon Soul behind him suddenly spread its wings.

The air was pressed by the dragon's might into a visible ripple, pushing out in all directions.

"Flame Demon Transformation."

His pupils instantly turned molten gold, two pitch-black flame horns protruded from the sides of his forehead, and black-red Eternal Calamity Flame sprayed from his shoulder blades, winding through the gaps in the dragon scale armor, flowing like a living thing.

Heize turned around abruptly.

His bead-like eyes widened.

"You..."

"Ten Thousand Souls Prison Suppression!"

Pitch-black soul power exploded from around Lu Cheng, and hundreds of remnant souls roared, covering an area of fifty meters in radius.

The stone path was crushed by the soul pressure into spiderweb-like cracks, the landscape trees on both sides swayed violently in the soul wind, and the leaves were ground into powder before they could even hit the ground.

Heize's reaction was extremely fast.

In less than 0.3 seconds, he completed the transition from astonishment to defense, pressed one hand downward, and a dark gold Source Power shield instantly formed, blocking in front of him.

Being able to react so quickly was indeed the standard expected of a War General.

But it was useless.

"Holy Dragon Roar!"

The giant mouth of the dragon soul phantom opened, and a gold-white beam of light, carrying dragon might and Eternal Calamity Flame, blasted directly onto Heize's forehead at point-blank range.

The air was torn into a scorching vacuum trajectory, and the moment the light beam collided with the Source Power shield, that dark gold shield shattered like glass shards.

Heize flew backward.

His body bounced twice on the ground, smashed through a flower bed beside the stone path, and broken bricks and mud splashed more than three meters high.

Violent coughing sounds came from the smoke.

Lu Cheng shook off the residual Eternal Calamity Flame on his hands and frowned slightly.

One has to admit, a War General is a War General after all.

And unlike those who attacked Rong City before, the Source Power concentration, reaction speed, and defense thickness were all a cut above.

His blast actually hadn't killed him outright.

However...

Lu Cheng looked at the figure in the smoke struggling to get up.

This person was already in a dying state.

Heize's suit was more than half burned away, revealing the charred skin underneath, his gray hair was burned into a bald spot, and his facial wrinkles were embedded with blood and mud.

His left hand was pressed against the ground, his whole arm was shaking, and his knuckles were creaking.

"You... who exactly are you..."

Halfway through his sentence, blood gushed out of his mouth, drowning out the rest of the sentence.

Lu Cheng ignored him and crushed his forehead with a punch...

Then he turned around and rushed back toward the main villa.

The Hua Hai Realm guard at the door had already sensed the commotion outside and was about to draw his sword when a dragon-shadow afterimage swept past him. Before his sword could be drawn, he flew out, hit the wall, bounced once, and stopped moving.

Lu Cheng stepped over the collapsed door frame and rushed into the living room, kicking open the entrance to the underground.

The stone steps retreated rapidly beneath his feet.

Three seconds. Five seconds.

When he rushed back into the altar hall, those men in black hadn't even realized what had happened. The bald man and the masked man had reacted, however; both turned their heads simultaneously, expressions of disbelief on their faces.

But Lu Cheng's target wasn't them.

He bypassed the altar directly and rushed toward the room on the far right.

On the alloy door at the entrance of the room, the sealing inscriptions sensed the intruder and immediately lit up with a blinding red light.

Lu Cheng slammed his palm onto it.

The brute force that could blow the door open directly only stirred up a ripple when it hit the inscriptions.

The seal didn't break.

But the pipe vibrated.

Behind him came the bald man's roar and the sound of the masked man unleashing a Source Skill through the air.

Lu Cheng glanced back.

The two War Generals were already charging toward him.

At the same time, two bursts of Source Power fluctuations suddenly exploded in the sky directly above the Qian Family Manor.

"War King Realm! And not just one!"

Two auras shot up into the sky from the direction of the banquet hall, moving extremely fast, and were heading this way.

Lu Cheng clenched his fists.

The next second, two figures intercepted the two Qian Family War Kings in mid-air.

One person was blindfolded, holding a three-foot-long sword in his hand, with a pale cyan light flowing on the blade.

Shen Guhong.

The other person stood with his arms crossed, his body wreathed in scorching white Source Power flames, his tone sounding somewhat helpless and somewhat disdainful.

"This kid, he's caused such a big scene before even entering the academy..."

Instructor Qi Xiangtian shook his head and turned to look at the two approaching War Kings.

"Aren't you really afraid that if we hadn't arrived, you'd have been slapped to death by a War King?"