49: Your secret

Boom!!!!

This was not a sound, but a vibration.

A destructive vibration that came from deep within the earth, threatening to tear apart the entire God Burying Abyss and even a hundred-mile radius!

In the very center of the valley, the black boulder beneath the Guardian Beast suddenly exploded!

Endless demonic energy surged out, not an ink-black, but a pure darkness that could devour light and strip away vision.

It shot straight into the sky, polluting the clouds on the firmament into a nauseating, necrotic hue.

A figure, embraced by that monstrous demonic energy, slowly ascended into the air.

He wore a tattered Qingyun Sect Disciple robe, and his exposed skin was covered in eerie black demonic patterns that seemed alive, slowly writhing on his body.

A violent and crazed aura swept across the entire scene, his cultivation having clearly reached the peak of Golden Core!

A familiar yet strange face turned towards Lu Yuan's hiding place.

The corner of his mouth stretched into a hideous, inhuman arc.

A arrogant and venomous laugh echoed through the valley.

"Lu Yuan!"

"Your schemes, I am also a part of them!"

Ye Chen!

He emerged from the ground in the guise of a Demon Child!

At this moment, the entire God Burying Abyss fell into an eerie silence.

All Cultivators hidden in the shadows, whether Foundation Establishment Cultivators or Cultivation Realm Cultivators, felt a tremor originating from their Divine Souls.

Under the sweep of that demonic power, the air became viscous, and spiritual energy circulated sluggishly and with difficulty, as if trapped in a quagmire.

Deceived by Su Qing's Lunar power and interrupted by Ye Chen's appearance, the peak Cultivation Realm Guardian Beast finally reacted.

Its ten thousand years of guardianship, its final nurturing, all had been destroyed.

Its violent and chaotic golden vertical pupils locked onto Ye Chen, whose aura was the most sinister.

"Roar!"

With a roar full of unwillingness and fury, the Guardian Beast ignited all its remaining Divine Soul Origin, and its massive body transformed into a golden meteor, launching a desperate, all-out attack as if to perish together.

This was the final, life-burning strike of a peak Cultivation Realm powerhouse.

Facing this mountain-shattering blow, Ye Chen's face was contorted in a morbid, wild laugh.

"Good timing!"

He stretched out his arm, covered in demonic patterns, fingers splayed, and actually chose to meet it head-on.

Demonic energy and divine light violently collided.

There was no deafening roar, only a death domain that devoured light and sound, spreading between the two.

Rocks silently turned to dust, and vegetation instantly withered into ash.

Those Foundation Establishment Cultivators hidden in the shadows, whose cultivation was slightly weaker, merely brushed by the edge of that domain, let out shrill screams, their bodies rapidly decaying and turning into a pool of pus and blood.

The three Cultivation Realm old monsters from Xuanbing Palace, Demon Flame Valley, and Wan Jian Mountain Villa had extremely grim expressions.

All their original plans seemed like a joke in the face of this absolute power.

Above the cliff, Lu Yuan's brain was working frantically at an unprecedented speed.

The dark red future line representing "failure" in his [Sand Table Simulation] became incredibly clear and infinitely magnified the moment Ye Chen appeared.

He immediately opened the trading interface that only he could see.

On the light screen, several new, high-risk, extremely short-term targets were frantically refreshing.

"Tradable Target: Guardian Beast falls within the time it takes for one stick of incense to burn."

"Tradable Target: Ye Chen is severely wounded, his demonic body damaged."

"Tradable Target: Demon Flame Valley Elder is affected by the battle's aftermath and severely injured."

Below each target, astonishing odds were marked.

This was a feast capable of driving any gambler to madness.

But Lu Yuan's eyes were cold, without a trace of greed.

He did not choose to go all-in on any single target.

He consumed hundreds of Karma points and quickly constructed a complex hedging options portfolio.

He simultaneously bought put options on "Beast Death" and call options on "Ye Chen Injury."

He even bought a short-term contract for "No one from the three major forces dares to act."

This was not gambling.

This was risk management.

No matter how the battle situation changed, he would be able to extract his share of profit from this chaos and minimize his losses.

Han Yuexi, standing beside him, turned pale, and the jade talisman in her fingertips was already emitting a dazzling light.

"Let's go! This is no longer something we can interfere with!"

She prepared to lead her people to retreat but saw Lu Yuan's cold and calm profile.

There was no fear in those eyes, only an absolute calmness comparable to a machine's.

Han Yuexi's heart trembled, and she forcefully suppressed the urge to flee, choosing to trust this man who had created miracles time and again.

At this moment, Ye Chen, in the midst of the fierce battle, his blood-red gaze penetrated the spatial barrier, pierced through the concealment of the Heaven-Shrouding Cloth, and locked onto Lu Yuan with pinpoint accuracy.

A voice full of mockery and malice directly echoed in Lu Yuan's mind.

"The 'Heavenly Dao Mark' on you is like a lighthouse in the dark for me!"

"You can't hide!"

A chill shot up Lu Yuan's spine to the top of his head.

His greatest secret, his Golden Finger, which he relied on for survival, was not without traces after all!

This discovery threatened him more than Ye Chen's peak Golden Core cultivation or the life-and-death crisis before him.

However, he did not panic.

The moment the thought arose, he activated the [Karma Severing] sword intent he had just comprehended from the jade slip.

This sword intent was not used for attack.

It transformed into an invisible and insubstantial thin mist, silently enveloping Lu Yuan's body.

An invisible blade temporarily and gently severed and shielded the myriad Karma connections between him and the surrounding world.