120: Chapter 120 A Second Move

Li Zhengyang landed steadily.

With his sea of consciousness fully open, the terrain below became crystal clear.

Five Rank Seven Soul Demons were desperately fleeing.

"Still running?"

Li Zhengyang flicked his right hand.

The Tiangang Flying Blades tore through the mist, sealing off the Soul Demons' escape routes.

Pfft, pfft, pfft!

The net of blades strangled and shredded them.

Two of the Rank Seven Soul Demons couldn't dodge in time and shattered on the spot.

Two soul crystals dropped.

Li Zhengyang scooped the soul crystals into his pocket.

"That's a million in the bag."

The remaining three Soul Demons were completely terrified. They abandoned their mental spikes and plunged headfirst into the black mud at the bottom of the rift.

"Playing dead?"

He gripped his dragon spear, looking at the bubbling swamp beneath his feet, and chuckled.

He raised his spear, pointing the tip downward.

"Thunder Fall! Activate!"

Boom!

...

In the supreme command conference room at headquarters.

Bang!

Commander Chu Xiong slammed his palm onto the table.

"Nonsense! Absolute nonsense!"

He pointed at the static-filled monitoring screen and cursed, "That's the core cliff of the Soul Demon Abyss! A loose seal zone! He's just a kid in the Martial Venerable Realm, and he just jumps down like that?"

The screen was a complete blind spot.

After Li Zhengyang jumped into the rift, the magnetic field intensity went off the charts, completely frying all the probes.

Great Elder Lu Anguo paced around the conference room anxiously.

"Old Qin, say something! If this kid dies in there, our Great Xia's national fortune is completely finished!"

Qin Zhan stared intently at the black screen and squeezed out, "Isn't Lei Qianjue guarding outside?"

"Guard my ass! With Lei Qianjue's meager psychic resistance, reaching the middle section is his absolute limit. Would he dare jump down the cliff?"

Commander Chu Xiong glared.

Qin Zhan tapped the table, interrupting them.

"Enough. Li Zhengyang is an unusual kid. Since he dared to jump, he must have a card up his sleeve."

"The backup I arranged should have reached the perimeter by now, timing-wise."

Commander Chu Xiong was stunned. "What backup?"

Qin Zhan looked deeply pained.

"What other backup could there be? To ensure nothing goes wrong with this operation, I spent a fortune to hire a Psychokineticist team from the Raven Association."

"The Raven Association? Those money-grubbing, arrogant snobs?" Great Elder Lu Anguo gasped. "How much did you spend?"

"Twenty billion," Qin Zhan said through gritted teeth, "plus a thirty percent cut of the soul crystals produced this time."

No one in the conference room uttered a word.

Twenty billion, plus a thirty percent cut.

Psychokineticists were a rare profession and had always been incredibly snobbish. Getting them to act meant treating them like royalty.

Commander Chu Xiong curled his lip. "Money is a small matter. As long as we can get Li Zhengyang out safely, twenty billion is worth it. But those Raven guys have terrible tempers."

...

The perimeter of the Soul Demon Abyss.

"Achoo!"

Zhang Tie rubbed his nose, spat out some bloody phlegm, and plopped down on a rock.

Lei Qianjue held his longsword, staring at the red mist zone ahead.

It had been nearly ten minutes since Li Zhengyang jumped down.

There was absolutely no movement inside.

The members of the First Squadron were all meditating and regulating their breathing in the perimeter. The mental pressure from earlier had really taken a toll on these tough men.

"Venerable Lei, are you really not going in to take a look?" Zhang Tie couldn't sit still.

Lei Qianjue rolled his eyes.

"You go? You wouldn't even last three seconds inside."

Just then, the roar of hovercar engines came from behind.

Three armored vehicles drove into the perimeter and stopped dozens of meters away.

The vehicle doors popped open.

Six people wearing long robes stepped out.

The leading man was in his thirties, wearing no mental protection whatsoever.

With his arms crossed, he swept his gaze over the meditating First Squadron members before finally looking at Lei Qianjue.

"Oh, if it isn't Venerable Lei?"

The man walked forward, deliberately avoiding the black mud on the ground.

"Bringing so many people, yet you can't even clear the perimeter?"

Zhang Tie suddenly stood up, lifting his heavy shield.

"Captain Wu Ao! What the hell are you spouting?!"

Captain Wu Ao, captain of the Raven Association's Fourth Squad, was a Rank Five Psychokineticist.

He squinted at Zhang Tie and snorted with laughter.

"Martial artists are just martial artists. With nothing but brute strength, they still end up crawling on the ground like cowards when faced with a mental attack."

The Psychokineticists behind him chimed in, their faces full of disdain.

Lei Qianjue pressed down on Zhang Tie's shoulder, stopping him.

"Did headquarters send you?"

Captain Wu Ao touched the guild badge on his chest.

"Minister Qin shelled out twenty billion in cash, plus a thirty percent cut of the soul crystal earnings, to hire us to clean up your mess."

He pointed at the red mist zone ahead.

"Some arrogant kid rushed in, right?"

"Venerable Lei, high-risk missions like this should have been left to us professionals from the very start."

Captain Wu Ao turned to look at the red mist, feeling the strong magnetic field dissipating in the air, and grew excited.

"With such a strong magnetic field, there's definitely a high-level Soul Demon of Rank Seven or above inside."

"Venerable Lei, you guys just stay in the perimeter. Our squad will take over everything inside."

Zhang Tie ground his teeth in anger.

"Don't be so arrogant. Minister Li is also a Psychokineticist."

Captain Wu Ao laughed so hard he slapped his thigh.

"A Psychokineticist?"

"Any random nobody dares to call themselves a Psychokineticist these days? That kid's brain has probably been sucked dry by the Soul Demons by now."

He waved his hand to those behind him.

"Let's go, boys. Let's go in, retrieve that kid's corpse to complete the job, and collect the soul crystals inside while we're at it. Minister Qin's money is just too easy to make."

The six Psychokineticists channeled their Psychic Powers simultaneously.

Their robes fluttered without any wind, and an invisible mental barrier enveloped them from all sides.

Captain Wu Ao led the way into the red mist zone.

Zhang Tie spat. "What a bunch of jerks."

Lei Qianjue, on the other hand, was amused.

He stabbed his longsword into the ground and leaned against a rock.

"Alright, let them go."

Zhang Tie was taken aback. "Venerable Lei, aren't you worried they'll steal Minister Li's thunder?"

Lei Qianjue snorted.

"Steal his thunder? Is that kid someone who would willingly take a loss?"

"When those guys go in, they won't even know what hit them when they end up crying."

...

The middle section of the Soul Demon Abyss, at the edge of the rift.

Captain Wu Ao led his five squad members, advancing all the way to the edge of the cliff.

The further they went, the more uneasy they felt.

"Captain, something's not right."

One of the squad members looked at the empty red mist around them. "There isn't even a low-level Soul Demon? Not only are there no monsters, but we can't even see a single scrap of a soul crystal."

Captain Wu Ao furrowed his brows.

The ground was covered in scorched marks from lightning strikes, as well as sharp, clean cuts.

It was obvious that a one-sided slaughter had taken place here.

Furthermore, the person who cleared the battlefield was incredibly stingy, even scraping off a layer of the ground itself.

"Could that kid really be a Psychokineticist? Even more professional than us?"

Captain Wu Ao shook his head, quickly discarding this absurd thought.

Impossible.

He had met all the famous Psychokineticists; he had never heard of this guy.

He walked to the edge of the cliff and peered down.

The black mist below was churning violently, and the magnetic field strength had soared to a terrifying level.

"Such strong mental interference!"

Captain Wu Ao's eyes lit up.

"There's definitely a big guy down there! If a soul crystal drops from it, a single one could sell for tens of millions!"

He turned to look at his squad members, rubbing his hands together in excitement.

"Prepare the formation! No matter what's down there, once it comes up, we'll strangle it directly with our Mental Thorn Net!"

The five squad members quickly dispersed, taking their positions.

The Psychic Powers of the six individuals interwoven in mid-air, forming a massive invisible net that sealed off the entire exit of the rift.

"Come on, baby," Captain Wu Ao muttered, staring at the bottom of the cliff as he licked his lips.

Suddenly!

A shrill, miserable shriek echoed from the bottom of the cliff.

Immediately after, the black mist beneath the rift was instantly torn apart by a gust of wind.

"Boom!"

A red shadow shot up from the bottom of the cliff like crazy.

Captain Wu Ao focused his gaze.

It was a Rank Seven Soul Demon!

The monster's head was missing half, its body was riddled with holes, and it was desperately fleeing upward.

"A big one! Guys, it's a big one!"

Captain Wu Ao was overjoyed.

"Net it!"

The six of them exerted their strength simultaneously, slamming the Mental Thorn Net hard onto the heavily injured Soul Demon.

Already fleeing in panic, the Soul Demon crashed headfirst into the net and instantly let out a frenzied roar.

Veins bulged on Captain Wu Ao's forehead.

"Suppress it! It's almost finished!" he roared, desperately squeezing out his Psychic Power.

Just as they were about to close the net and deliver the finishing blow—

From beneath the cliff.

A streak of dark-gold light charged up, stepping along the cliff face.

"Running? Did I say you could run?!"

The roar made Captain Wu Ao's ears ring.

A figure holding a lightning-clad long spear shattered the mist surrounding the Soul Demon.

Twelve flying blades dragged afterimages through the air.

In an instant, they shredded Captain Wu Ao and the others' Mental Thorn Net.

Pfft!

The flying blades sliced into the Soul Demon's body without any resistance, churning wildly.

Immediately after,

Li Zhengyang descended from the sky. Swinging his long spear in a full arc, he smashed it down violently toward the remaining half of the Soul Demon's head!

"Die for me!"

Boom!

Under the dumbfounded gazes of the six Psychokineticists,

the Soul Demon's body exploded into a sky full of light specks on the spot.

A soul crystal dropped onto the ground with a clatter.

Li Zhengyang clapped his hands and finally turned around.

He looked at the Raven Squad, who were frozen in place like six wooden posts.

The scene was dead silent.

Li Zhengyang tilted his head, staring at the silver robes they wore.

"Oh, humanoid Soul Demons too."

Captain Wu Ao shuddered all over and stammered,

"We... we aren't Soul Demons."

"W-we were sent by headquarters to support..."

"Cut the crap."

Li Zhengyang weighed the dragon spear in his hand, his tone laced with annoyance.

"Since you aren't Soul Demons, that means you're here to steal my kill, right?"

As he spoke, he stretched out his hand.

"Attempted kill-stealing. Pay up for my mental distress."