Sunshine Boy paced around the wooden table for a moment, then looked at the last six Night Guards. "Tell me, which one should I choose?"
No one spoke.
"At a critical time like this, you won’t even give me any advice? Mother, they’re allowed to give me suggestions, right?"
"Of course, they are," the Deceitful Mother’s voice was gentle.
Sunshine Boy, who had now reverted to the body of a fifteen- or sixteen-year-old, walked up to the Night Guards. Like a general inspecting his soldiers, he passed before the single-file line of men, locking eyes with each one.
No one spoke.
"You guys... You’re all heartless," Sunshine Boy complained, his face scrunched up.
Among the six Night Guards, some sighed, some looked ashamed, and others remained expressionless.
Sunshine Boy circled the table once more, looked at the six Night Guards, and asked, "Really? Not a single suggestion?"
The six men still didn’t answer. The Book Listener just shook his head.
Sunshine Boy once again walked before the six men. Just like before, he stared into each man’s eyes as he passed.
When he reached the last man, Hao Yunsheng, he gave him a look of utter contempt, as if to say, ’You’re completely useless.’
Hao Yunsheng glared back irritably at Sunshine Boy. ’At a time like this, what... could I possibly... do?’
In the instant Hao Yunsheng was distracted, Sunshine Boy suddenly shot out his hands. His left hand seized Hao Yunsheng’s left wrist, while his right grabbed the Black Dragon with Black Gem Qiankun Ring.
"I’ll take this one!"
As Sunshine Boy spoke, he yanked hard.
The Book Listener saw this and was about to intervene. That kind of Magical Artifact was no ordinary item; it was surely bound to Hao Yunsheng’s lifeblood and couldn’t simply be removed. Forcibly taking it would trigger a backlash from his Fate Grid.
After a brief moment of panic, Hao Yunsheng instantly calmed down, an unconcealable sneer appearing on his lips.
The two locked eyes.
In an instant, the Qiankun Ring’s dragon mouth opened and it slid off, leaving a white mark on his middle finger.
Sunshine Boy swiftly put the Qiankun Ring on his own left middle finger.
Hao Yunsheng witnessed a familiar scene: the Qiankun Ring slid onto the middle finger, and the dragon’s mouth clamped shut.
CLICK.
The Qiankun Ring had a new master.
A colossal BOOM resounded through the heavens.
「Yanzhou, Guangtong Prefecture.」
Countless people looked up at the sky.
Beneath a sky full of stars, a bolt of lightning struck from the clear air. A blinding sea of electricity covered a hundred-mile radius, with layer upon layer of thunderbolts striking upward from below, illuminating the night sky.
In the pitch-black night, a sun appeared in the void. A great, dim yellow sun rose from west to east, hovering within the sea of lightning.
An inverted sea of lightning, a sun rising against its natural course—a vast aura enveloped Guangtong Prefecture.
Hao Yunsheng’s body trembled, horrified beyond belief.
Sunshine Boy yelled, "Now! Chihuo, give the sword to the Captain!"
Chihuo hurriedly opened the brocade box and shoved the Divine Pattern Flying Sword into the Captain’s hands.
The Captain only saw Sunshine Boy sidestep as Hao Yunsheng reached out to snatch the ring back. Halfway through the motion, Hao Yunsheng’s forehead was struck as if by an invisible, heavy blow. His head snapped back violently, blood gushed from his nose and mouth, and his body slumped to the ground.
The Captain instinctively reached out and caught Hao Yunsheng.
The exact moment blood gushed from Hao Yunsheng’s nose and mouth, a piercing, pained shriek suddenly came from behind the black curtain.
The black curtain trembled violently.
"Ahhh..."
Sunshine Boy’s body trembled, and a trickle of blood flowed from his left nostril. He shouted, "Protect me! I’ll take care of this! Captain, you promised me!"
With that, he sat down cross-legged and began Mind Guarding Life Mansion.
The Night Guards swarmed forward, forming a protective circle around Sunshine Boy.
The Captain let out a soft sigh. He laid Hao Yunsheng on the ground, grabbed the Divine Pattern Flying Sword, and with a single bound, placed himself in front of everyone.
Behind the Captain were the other Night Guards. Before him was the black curtain with its purple grape pattern, and behind it, the silhouette of a massive, seated human figure that swayed continuously.
Inside the Life Mansion, Sunshine Boy looked up at the sky.
The pasty-white, seated humanoid silhouette was shaking violently. The four Light Chains extending from the silhouette were still connected to the Life Mansion, but they too were trembling intensely, their surfaces covered in fine cracks.
Outside the Life Mansion, a Long Qi Fortune Bridge shattered the void, opening a Void Gate that connected to Hao Yunsheng’s Life Mansion.
Standing at the entrance of that Void Gate was a Yellow Talisman Man.
This Yellow Talisman Man was none other than one of the two Talisman People Sunshine Boy had created earlier: the Iron Armor Talisman Man.
Upon its Iron Armor, the two words "Ye Han" were written with Magical Power.
The Iron Armor Talisman Man had its back to Hao Yunsheng’s Life Mansion, facing the Deceitful Mother Fate Grid in the sky.
Sunshine Boy loudly recited the Life-Separating Skill Formulas: "When heavenly reason is born, the pure and the turbid divide; Qian gives birth to all things, Kun sustains all life; Yang forges destiny’s number, Yin crafts Qi Fortune... Yin borrows a Yang body, Heaven and Earth invert! Go!"
One after another, the Bait Destiny Stars that had once borne his vows shattered—four of them in succession.
Sunshine Boy pointed. His Magical Power surged from his body, and just as he was about to be drained dry, a Qi Fortune Fish flew out, took the place of his Magical Power, and drilled into the body of the Iron Armor Talisman Man.
VMMMM...
A magnificent, immense sound, like the tide of ten thousand seas, surged forth.
Above the Iron Armor Talisman Man’s head, an illusory, transparent replica of Hao Yunsheng’s Life Mansion appeared.
It was resplendent and magnificent, like the Jinluan Hall itself.
It had the same protection from a host of stars, the same stacked Life Clouds and Destiny Stars, the same Sun and Moon Ascending, Poisonous Pool Hidden Dragon, and Ten Thousand Grinds into a Vessel. It even had the same Life God Celestial Calamity.
This tiny Iron Armor Talisman Man now possessed the might to shoulder a thousand mountains and the majesty to swallow the four seas.
Golden light erupted from the Iron Armor Talisman Man’s head and shot toward the heavens. The magnificent Life Mansion, like a Jinluan Hall, soared straight up, slicing through the void as if cloaked in a river of stars, and crashed directly into the Deceitful Mother Fate Grid.
Above the Deceitful Mother, a yellow bird cried out, its eyes flashing gold as it guided the way.
The Deceitful Mother Fate Grid struggled frantically, but the Light Chains were connected to Sunshine Boy’s own Fate Grid, and it could not break free.
The instant Hao Yunsheng’s phantom Life Mansion struck the Deceitful Mother, the Great Cutting Sword flew up.
Its black body adorned with golden patterns, it slashed horizontally, then spun in a full circle.
KRA-CHUNK...
Three crisp cracks sounded at once.
Three of the Light Chains snapped, leaving only one.
A cluster of light exploded in the sky. Divine splendor tore through the air as immeasurable divine light and boundless power swept over everything.
The Life Mansion shook violently.
Sunshine Boy felt his consciousness get thrown back by the surging shockwave, and his vision went black.
Back in the Deceitful Mother Hall, inside the threshold, Hao Yunsheng, still on the floor, coughed up a mouthful of blood. His vision was filled with the silhouette of a bloated white giant. His peripheral vision caught sight of the Qiankun Ring on Sunshine Boy’s left middle finger, and he fainted again.
Sunshine Boy, also bleeding from the corner of his mouth, slumped over, caught by the Book Listener and Chihuo.
The black curtain rippled like the surface of a wind-swept sea.
Nanny Xiang and Wang Laoshu stood frozen on the spot, completely motionless.
PFFT...
Behind the black curtain, the ten-foot-tall giant figure shuddered violently and spewed a cloud of grayish-yellow smoke onto the center of the fabric.
The Deceitful Mother’s shrill, piercing voice filled the hall. "What are you two looking at? Kill them! Now!"
Her gentle, kind voice was gone.
Nanny Xiang and Wang Laoshu glanced at each other, then at Sunshine Boy, who had just opened his eyes, and then back at the Deceitful Mother behind the curtain. They walked over to the square table at the side.
Nanny Xiang held a black and white cleaver and began chopping at the broken locust tree branches, one slice at a time, splattering blood.
Wang Laoshu gripped a wooden club wrapped in white cloth, bringing its end down on the locust tree branches again and again.
The two were expressionless, moving mechanically like puppets.
"Where is my son, Ye Han? Where is my son, Ye Han? Who stole my son? My child, listen to Mama’s rattle... Listen to Mama’s rattle..."
SHAKE-SHAKE... SHAKE-SHAKE...
Sunshine Boy was stunned to find his own body walking forward against his will.
The others desperately tried to hold him back, but to no avail.