171: Chapter 171 Human...Toad...

Su Wan frowned slightly. How could Qian Congrong be the only one appearing in this kind of situation?

Sure enough, the second Zhou Luxiao tore off his disguise and released his War General Realm aura, the three side doors at the back of the banquet hall exploded simultaneously.

Three figures walked out from behind the doors.

They were people from the Qian Family's branch, and just like Qian Congrong, they were all fake War General Realm practitioners.

"Old Fourth Qian," Zhou Luxiao loosened his neck, and his joints cracked twice. "Is the Qian Family planning to wipe out all the wealthy people in South District 7 with this formation?"

Qian Congrong stood beside the Pool of Ten Thousand Wishes, his fingers still stroking the seal script inscriptions on the pool wall.

He turned his head to glance at Zhou Luxiao, his expression unchanged.

"Family Head Zhou, aren't you in the Northern Frontier? What are you doing coming to South District 7 to join the fun?"

"My son is here, can I not come?" Zhou Luxiao grinned.

The Source Power aura on his body exploded.

The pressure of a mid-stage War General Realm expert crushed in all directions, and the alloy floor beneath his feet instantly cracked into a spiderweb pattern.

The surrounding attendants swarmed up.

At least forty of them, all in the Meridian Opening Realm.

Zhou Luxiao glanced at this group of attendants, then looked at the four fake War Generals.

"Not quite enough..."

As soon as he finished speaking, his muscles exploded.

His upper-body clothing began to tear from the collar, and the sound of fabric snapping sounded like firecrackers popping.

The muscles on his arms swelled more than double, and blue veins bulged from beneath his skin, each one as thick as a little finger.

The Zhou Family's body-tempering technique, Tyrant Body.

This was a true War General Realm expert built by flesh and blood, unlike the imposters like Qian Congrong who relied on external forces.

Just standing there, the cracks in the floor beneath Zhou Luxiao's feet continued to extend outward, and one could even hear a low humming sound in the air, a resonance caused by the excessively high density of Source Power.

"Let's have all four of you come at once," Zhou Luxiao said...

Seeing that they didn't react, Zhou Luxiao stomped on the floor hard, and the wooden boards instantly turned into debris...

He charged out!

The very second Zhou Luxiao made his move, the forty Meridian Opening Realm attendants surrounding them had already completed their encirclement.

They did not attack Zhou Luxiao.

Their target was everyone else in the banquet hall.

One by one, the black-clad attendants lunged at the wealthy individuals and their families slumped on the ground, holding narrow-bladed long swords against their necks.

"Don't move!!" the lead attendant shouted loudly, the blade pressing against a middle-aged woman's neck, the restriction Source Runes engraved on the blade already glowing. "Whoever dares to move again, none of these people will live!!"

The wealthy individuals held at knifepoint didn't even have the strength to resist.

Most of them had relied on age and potions to force their way into the Meridian Opening Realm; their Source Power was as flimsy as water vapor.

After the extraction wave by the Golden Toad earlier, they couldn't even stand now, completely like lambs waiting for slaughter.

Su Wan stood in the corner, scanning the entire venue.

If they were allowed to die here, the sky of South District 7 would collapse tomorrow.

It couldn't go on like this.

Su Wan moved.

Treading Snow Without Traces.

Ice Source Power exploded into a layer of extremely thin ice beneath her feet, and she slid to the side, moving extremely fast.

Her fingers hooked inside her cuffs, and the Holy Soul marker lit up with ice-blue light in the air; the markers she had left on every guest were activated at this moment!

Instantly cutting off the Source Power supply to the Pool of Ten Thousand Wishes, a burst of ice-blue light suddenly exploded from the guests who were being held at knifepoint.

Ice layers spread from the marked positions in all directions, covering their entire bodies in the blink of an eye, freezing the blades held against their necks.

All the narrow-bladed long swords in the attendants' hands were sealed by the ice layer, and the restriction Source Runes on the blades were forcibly blocked by the Holy Soul's power, not even flashing anymore.

The lead attendant looked down at the ice block in his hand, stunned.

Su Wan had already lunged in front of the nearest attendant.

The Cold Soul Sword Cloak wrapped around her fist, and she smashed it into the attendant's temple.

Cold energy poured in from where her fist made contact; the attendant's face turned white at a speed visible to the naked eye, a layer of white frost formed on his eyebrows and eyelashes, and he fell straight down, hitting the ground with a thud.

She didn't stop.

Using the ice surface from Treading Snow Without Traces, she slid in front of the second attendant, and the ice chains of the Nine Cold Pulse Lock shot out from her palm, wrapping around the man's legs and pulling.

The moment the attendant lost his balance, Su Wan kicked him in the chest, sending him flying and knocking over three attendants behind him.

Then she turned and rushed toward the wall on the far right of the banquet hall.

Those attendants finally realized that someone was countering them, and several rushed toward Su Wan at the same time.

But just as they took a step, the ground beneath their feet was covered by an ice surface.

Su Wan rushed to the wall.

The hand holding the Frost Dragon Tooth was raised.

One punch.

Smashed into the wall.

Ice Source Power poured from her fist into the wall, and a circle of ice-blue shockwaves immediately exploded from the surface of the wall.

Bricks and stones flew outwards, revealing the alloy layer behind the wall.

Su Wan frowned slightly.

An alloy layer?

She threw another punch.

This time, the entire banquet hall shook.

The alloy layer cracked.

What came through the crack wasn't the night wind from outside.

It was intense Source Power fluctuations.

Su Wan's pupils constricted slightly.

Not the fluctuations of the War General Realm.

It was the War King Realm.

She turned her head to look outside the crack.

The entire sky outside the banquet hall was illuminated by the light of Source Power.

Four. At least four War King Realm auras were colliding fiercely in mid-air.

No.

More than that.

Su Wan sensed several more auras approaching rapidly from further away.

Is it causing such a big commotion...

She could have predicted that they would start fighting, but this movement...

It was too big.

In the banquet hall, Zhou Luxiao had already rushed to the second fake War General. The bald fake War General drew a pitch-black war blade, the blade wrapped in the golden Source Power of the Golden Toad's blessing.

The two collided head-on.

Zhou Luxiao grabbed the blade with his bare hands.

A burst of sparks exploded where his palm met the blade.

Then his other hand clenched into a fist and smashed into the bald man's shoulder.

The sound of the shoulder blade shattering was dull and loud.

The bald man was smashed into the floor, a deep pit was smashed into the alloy floor, and the golden Source Power patterns around the pit flickered twice before going out completely.

Qian Congrong and the goat-bearded fake War General took a few steps back, their faces having completely changed.

The calm smile on Qian Congrong's mouth was long gone, replaced by cold sweat continuously seeping from his forehead.

"Zhou Luxiao!!" Qian Congrong's voice cracked, "Is your Zhou Family really going to break ties with our Qian Family for the sake of these few outsiders?!"

Zhou Luxiao threw the war blade in his hand to the side, the blade hitting the ground with a clang.

"Break ties?" He shook off the blood on his hands, his tone as casual as if he were out for a stroll, "Old Fourth Qian, you've already treated the wealthy people of South District 7 as sacrifices to offer to your toad; who do you think will still care about saving face with you?"

Qian Congrong's face twitched.

The goat-bearded fake War General suddenly formed seals with his hands and rushed toward the Pool of Ten Thousand Wishes.

"It's too late!!" he screamed, his voice full of madness, "The Golden Toad has already been activated! None of you will..."

He didn't finish his sentence.

Zhou Luxiao had already appeared behind him.

He slapped the back of his head with one palm.

The goat-bearded man fell forward, lying on the ground, motionless.

Meanwhile, the underground altar.

Lu Cheng had already cut off three pipelines and turned back to smash his fist into the Golden Toad sculpture in the center of the Pool of Ten Thousand Wishes.

Hum!!

The moment his fist made contact with the Golden Toad, a violent counter-shock force bounced back from the sculpture's surface.

The dragon scales on Lu Cheng's entire arm buzzed, and even tiny cracks appeared on the golden-white armor plates on his fist.

But the Golden Toad sculpture didn't move an inch.

Not even a single crack.

Lu Cheng withdrew his fist and looked down at his hand.

This thing is actually indestructible?

Damn it!

Save people first!

Lu Cheng turned his head and looked at the three rooms behind the altar.

It was the middle room.

He walked over, smashed the room door open with one punch, and a bloody smell rushed into his face.

Lu Cheng stepped in.

The room was not big, about twenty square meters.

The four walls were embedded with energy conduits, and the conduits extended from the walls to the center of the room, where a person was tied.

Qian Shuying...

She was locked to an alloy pillar, with chains running out of the pillar, wrapping around her wrists, ankles, waist, and neck.

The surface of the chains was engraved with dense sealing inscriptions, which were continuously extracting Source Power from her body, and the extracted Source Power flowed into the pipes on the walls along the chains.

She was covered in wounds.

Most of her clothes were torn, and there was almost no intact place on the exposed skin.

The White Tiger markings on her body emerged from beneath her skin, the dark golden lines shining blindingly in the dim room.

One.

Two.

...

Six.

Lu Cheng's pupils contracted violently.

Six White Tiger markings.

This number had completely exceeded her current realm limit.

What did six mean?

It meant that her body was suffering loads several times beyond its limit every second...

Qian Shuying raised her head.

Her face was covered in blood and sweat, her hair stuck to her forehead, and her lips were cracked and covered in cuts...

She didn't expect Lu Cheng to come...

"Lu..."

She opened her mouth, her voice so hoarse it was almost inaudible.

Every word was squeezed out from her throat bit by bit.

"Lu Cheng... go save Duoduo quickly... he is the carrier... he is... about to..."

Lu Cheng didn't hesitate at all, immediately pulling a high-grade recovery potion from his storage space, prying open Qian Shuying's cracked lips, and pouring it directly in.

The moment the potion entered her throat, a pale green light spread from her chest.

Qian Shuying coughed violently twice, and her body, which had been stretched to the point of breaking, finally relaxed a little, and the six glaring White Tiger markings beneath her skin also sank back into her body like a receding tide.

Her breathing stabilized slightly.

But just at the moment the White Tiger markings completely faded.

The Golden Toad sculpture outside suddenly moved, its belly bulging slightly.

Thump...

A low sound came from the center of the altar.

The entire underground space shook along with it.

Lu Cheng turned his head abruptly.

The Golden Toad sculpture, which had originally been lifeless, had two eerie golden lights lit up in the position of its eyes.

Its mouth slowly grinned to both sides, as if it were smiling, or perhaps swallowing something.

The energy conduits on the walls flared up simultaneously.

In the pipes that Lu Cheng had cut off, golden Source Power flowed backward like blood, madly surging toward the Golden Toad along the inscriptions on the ground.

"It's bad..."

Lu Cheng's heart sank.

The next second, all the Black Seed researchers outside screamed.

"What's happening?!"

"My body... my body!!"

Those wearing white research clothes tried to run, but the ground beneath their feet suddenly bulged.

Gold coins, gold bars, jade, and pearls crawled out from the cracks in the ground, wrapping around their ankles like living things, and crawled up their calves.

They struggled desperately.

But the more they struggled, the tighter the gold and silver jewelry wrapped around them.

Soon, their bodies began to swell.

Their bellies bulged first, as if something was pushing them out from the inside, then their necks shortened, their shoulders slumped, but their arms became terrifyingly thick.

The flesh on their faces piled up in layers, their eyes were squeezed into two narrow slits, and their mouths cracked open bit by bit, almost reaching their ear roots.

Some people's skin began to turn green.

The flesh on some people's backs bulged out to both sides, as if a pair of deformed tumors were about to grow.

Others had membranes tear between their fingers, growing wet, slippery webbed feet.

The two War General-level Black Seeds reacted the fastest, wanting to shatter the gold and silver beneath their feet the moment the mutation began.

But it was useless.

Just as they erupted with Source Power, a dull frog croak came from the Golden Toad.

Croak...

The sound wasn't loud, but it was like a hand pressing directly into everyone's soul.

The two War General-level Black Seeds' faces turned pale simultaneously, the Source Power in their bodies instantly spiraled out of control, their knees went weak, and they actually knelt directly on the pile of money.

The gold and silver jewelry crawled up their spines, wrapping around their increasingly fat bodies.

They opened their mouths, their eyeballs bulging, and made incoherent screams in their throats.

"No... it shouldn't be like this..."

"We are the servants... we are not the sacrifices..."

No one answered them.

The Golden Toad just squatted in the center of the altar, its golden eyes slowly turning, as if admiring the things it had just hatched.

One by one, those researchers turned into half-human, half-toad monsters.

They squatted on the pile of money, their bodies wrapped in gold and silver jewelry, their greenish skin still stained with blood, their mouths split to their ears, and the expressions on their faces indistinguishable as to whether they were laughing or in pain.