Run Sheng crossed his arms, accumulating strength throughout his body, then slowly opened them.

Accompanied by a dull grinding of muscles and bones, a powerful wave of air continuously emanated.

Standing at the forefront, he created a barrier for his companions behind him.

In the past, Run Sheng couldn’t control the airwaves with such precision, but after the “crash course” improvement, these tasks were now effortless.

The flames surged forward, immediately scattering like eggs rapidly stirred into boiling water.

Li Zhuiyuan and the others found themselves surrounded and covered by what seemed like a heavy blanket of fire.

Although the passageway here was wide, it was still a sealed space. As long as the fire was large and fierce enough, most people would be unable to resist, and the few who had means of resistance wouldn’t even have time to react.

Screams of agony echoed incessantly as a large number of Wulin people, just one door away from the Longwang Portal, saw their bodies and their aspirations of soaring to the heavens and leaping over the dragon gate turn into ashes.

Tan Wenbin continuously turned his body, and the information he perceived was transmitted in real-time to Xiao Yuan Ge’s mind via a red thread, allowing Li Zhuiyuan to grasp the situation outside when his vision was obstructed.

The four women’s positions remained stable; they withstood the onslaught of flames in their own way.

As for the man, his location couldn’t be determined for the moment. Li Zhuiyuan believed he was not dead yet.

He was very clever, not only managing to block the burning but also isolating his aura and movements.

Around the thick blanket of fire, dark red flames occasionally approached. These flames, with their deeper color, had higher temperatures and more terrifying incineration power.

Lin Shuyou always reacted in advance, condensing a trident phantom in his hand and throwing it to disperse the dark red flames.

Overall, the fire continued, showing no signs of stopping, even now.

Chen Xiyuan: “The senior inside the door is trying to refine us completely, as if we were demonic beasts.”

Li Zhuiyuan:

“Do you think he can’t distinguish between the cries of demonic beasts and the screams of humans?

Of course, it’s also possible that he genuinely can’t distinguish, given the special circumstances of the Yu family, where there’s a mix of demons and humans, so human screams are also quite reasonable.

Do you see those dark red flames appearing from time to time? Those are enhancements made by spewing out essence blood from the tip of the tongue when performing this spell.

However, even with such a great cost, it can be understood that he fears some demonic beasts might escape by their natural talents, so he’s ensuring that evil is eradicated thoroughly.

He’s been burning for so long, yet he continues. Why doesn’t he push the stone door wider and come in to see for himself?

Finally, normal people don’t have this habit of talking to themselves in daily life, especially when facing what he ‘believes’ to be demonic beasts, and still adding a very exaggerated ‘haha’ at the beginning.”

Chen Xiyuan: “You mean, he knows we’re not demonic beasts, and he’s deliberately attacking us to kill us?”

Li Zhuiyuan: “He’s not sure if we’re demonic beasts, and he’s unwilling to find out, because once he confirms it, he’ll suffer a backlash from the Dao of Heaven.

But he, in these potentially ambiguous situations, deliberately overreacts.

He’d rather kill a thousand than ‘wrongly’ kill one.”

Zhao Yi had reminded Li Zhuiyuan that the elders of those families, when attacking the Yu family, would definitely leave some traces of overexertion.

But clearly, these old seniors’ understanding of the Dao of Heaven was deeper than Zhao Yi had imagined, and their methods were even more ruthless.

The special image created by the Yu family’s prevalence of beasts gave them a reason to attack “humans.” As long as they heard any movement, they would launch an attack without a word, perhaps even pre-emptively eliminating outstanding younger generations from other families and sects.

At the same time, their own younger generations were also in the same “friendly fire” situation.

Li Zhuiyuan felt that the Dao of Heaven’s layout in this wave was really interesting. The overall rules were:

Their own elders cannot protect their younger generations on the river. Even if the younger generation encounters danger, they cannot flee to their elders, and the elders dare not directly intervene to help.

And the special environment here provides an opportunity for those seniors to attack the children of other families. As soon as someone can’t resist doing so, or even if the idea just forms in their mind, the prisoner’s dilemma appears.

If you don’t attack others’ younger generations, your own younger generation might be encountering someone else’s suppression, perhaps already met with an accident and died inexplicably.

Although these old fellows are all shrewd, they wouldn’t be so desperately short-sighted.

But the Dao of Heaven painstakingly set the stage with Longwang Yu and assembled such a luxurious lineup of elite river-travelers. Just the known orthodox Longwang family descendants, including Yu Dibei, already numbered six.

If there’s no accident, then create one. If there’s no conflict, then incite one. Even a wisp of wind or a single leaf can change a person’s life trajectory. The Dao of Heaven has countless ways to bring about the desired effect.

The more fiercely those old fellows killed and cleansed the demonic beasts of the Yu family previously, the faster they were clearing the field, preparing for the internal struggle of the righteous path.

Before coming to the Yu family, the old fellows only thought about sharing the Yu family’s resources. They certainly didn’t expect to become “actors” pre-arranged in this wave, playing the traditional evil roles in a normal wave.

Even at this moment, most people probably haven’t fully realized it. One reason is their insufficient depth of understanding of the Dao of Heaven; even Li Zhuiyuan only understood it when it happened. To be able to predict it in advance, one must be truly “in tune” with the Dao of Heaven, like the ultimate victorious Longwang of each generation, and the people and… animals who accompanied the Longwang on his river journey.

Another reason is the excessive killing of demonic beasts in a short period, leading to a massive proliferation of their demonic blood and resentment. Combined with the unique environment of the Yu family, deeply built underground in Mangshan, a special miasma formed, making people more prone to impulsivity and unable to maintain rationality.

Driven by the Dao of Heaven, the river had long meticulously arranged everything, taking all aspects into consideration.

The outstanding talents of this generation were, in the end, meant to fight each other, and a victor must be determined. It’s either death or surrender; you cannot remain leisurely watching the scenery on the river forever.

Every generation’s Longwang struggle has been like this. Journeying the river is, by its very nature, a life-and-death arena built by the Dao of Heaven for a generation of heroes.

Li Zhuiyuan thought the man was smart because he immediately discerned the intention of the person behind the stone door, hiding his aura. This denied the opponent any further opportunity to attack.

Currently, Li Zhuiyuan had two choices before him.

Either he takes everyone with him to confront the person behind the stone door. As long as they could rush out of the stone door, and Chen Xiyuan loudly shouted “Longwang Chen!”

Then the old man on the other side, unless he was疯 for wanting to forcefully endure the backlash from the Dao of Heaven and kill a river-traveler in the midst of the wave, would have no choice but to immediately withdraw his hand and awkwardly say, “Mistake, mistake.”

This was considered preferential treatment under the rules. The people sent by each family were roughly equivalent to the status of Uncle Qin and Aunt Liu in a family.

Therefore, if the current river-travelers were to fight against the elders of the various families, the chances of winning would still be very low. This was also a restriction set by the river on those old fellows.

If they truly wanted to fight to their heart’s content, it would be very simple. Like last time in Lijiang, each team would be issued a black shattered jade, which they must carry with them. It would be directly “Heavenly ordained” as an evil entity, allowing them to reasonably kill each other.

But for Li Zhuiyuan, if pushing open the door only resulted in an apology from the other party, then doing so would not be very meaningful.

For the second choice, with Chen Xiyuan present, Li Zhuiyuan didn’t believe he was completely unqualified to contend with the opponent. If luck was good, with a low probability, he might even defeat or kill them. After all, these old fellows only had Uncle Qin’s status, not necessarily his strength.

However, he would also have to pay an extremely heavy price.

To use up all his cards right after entering the Yu family’s gate would be truly irrational. There were still many things to do and many benefits to seize.

So, he would hold back for now. Since it was a cat-and-mouse game, he would play the mouse.

The opponent dared not focus too much attention on observing them, because once they “saw clearly,” they wouldn’t be able to justify themselves. The old man behind the stone door was definitely in a state of “rare confusion.”

Li Zhuiyuan: “Tell me your date of birth.”

Chen Xiyuan immediately replied.

The young man pulled a small stack of five yellow papers from his sleeve. The spirit of the black Jiao flew from his palm, stained with Li Zhuiyuan’s blood, and “wrote” everyone’s names and birth dates on each yellow paper with strokes.

Then the young man crossed his hands, bowed forward, and the puppet technique took effect. The five yellow papers landed and folded up into five small paper figures.

Since he knew the other party was “confused,” there was no need to be too meticulous; they would just deceive each other.

The young man knelt on one knee and slapped his right palm on the ground.

“Pa!”

Run Sheng closed his Qi gate, but the obstructing air current did not disappear; it merely transformed into a formation effect.

Tan Wenbin’s eyes widened, allowing his vision to penetrate the flames more, while Lin Shuyou more swiftly projected trident phantoms, further in advance, to disperse the dark red flames that were about to converge.

Chen Xiyuan witnessed all of this. The young man did not give verbal commands, yet his three companions immediately reacted. Even stranger, Tan Wenbin’s snake eyes seemed to be able to be shared with Lin Shuyou?

Li Zhuiyuan said, “Open the domain.”

As Chen Xiyuan instantly opened her domain, she was still muttering to herself: Why do I have to speak verbally?

She had already noticed that these four people, with the young man as their core, certainly possessed a secret technique she had never heard of, capable of transmitting their thoughts in real-time.

Chen Xiyuan also wanted to join and experience it at this moment.

Run Sheng retreated, Lin Shuyou retreated, Tan Wenbin advanced. Everyone quickly moved closer, enveloped by Chen Xiyuan’s domain.

Li Zhuiyuan’s formation also disintegrated, allowing the great fire to break through and burn the five paper figures.

Under the young man’s control, the paper figures struggled endlessly, emitting silent, mournful screams.

Immediately after, Li Zhuiyuan grabbed Chen Xiyuan’s hand, pulling her to continue maintaining the domain and retreating. Run Sheng and the others also moved in unison.

The five people first moved in the direction the flames were sweeping, then, as the fire receded, they immediately retreated again.

Once they stopped, Chen Xiyuan’s domain remained open to isolate them. Li Zhuiyuan still didn’t feel safe, so a formation flag appeared in his right hand, and he set up a temporary isolation formation outside the domain.

With this double layer of protection, unless they revealed killing intent, it would be difficult for others to detect their presence.

The next moment, the passageway, previously filled with flames, became quiet. Streams of fire were drawn away, transforming into fire snakes, all rushing towards the location of the four women.

In the old man’s perception from outside the stone door, Li Zhuiyuan’s group had already been burned to death, so now he only needed to focus on dealing with the last group of stubborn demonic beasts.

“These demonic beasts, are they fire-resistant? I don’t believe I can’t burn you to death! Pfft!!!”

Essence blood from the tip of the tongue spewed out as if it were worthless, and then, a fire dragon composed entirely of dark red flames roared towards the location of the four women.

Seeing this scene, Li Zhuiyuan immediately concluded that the old man outside the stone door had not been idle during the previous great fire.

The old fellow had set up a killing move at the door.

The fire dragon was ferocious.

The blind woman shook her head, indicating that her formation had no chance of resisting it.

The woman in the white dress drew her sword, her eyes chilling. She had made a decision to take the initiative.

“Boom!”

The fat woman took a deep breath, and dense purple scales grew on her body. She forcefully pushed open the flames in front of her alone, creating a path for her companions, then shattered the surrounding ordinary fire snakes, and finally, punched the dark red fire dragon.

The fire dragon twisted, its direction shifting. Large areas of scales fell off the fat woman’s body, and her right arm instantly melted. The remaining flames at the wound continued to devour.

The thin woman appeared beside her, a silk thread passing through, cutting off the fat woman’s burning wound. Then the silk thread extended, and her figure continuously changed in a short time, avoiding the fire dragon attempting to capture her.

After reaching halfway, the thin woman pulled the silk thread forcefully. The white-dressed woman stepped on the silk thread, moving like a ghost. The sword in her hand began to gather momentum.

The fire dragon turned its head, trying to block her, clearly not wanting her to approach the stone door.

The blind woman clasped her hands together, looking up, desperately setting up a formation.

“Boom!”

Invisible shackles fell, attempting to trap the fire dragon, but it was only trapped for an instant.

Blood flowed from the blind woman’s eyes, and her head slumped forward; she almost fainted.

However, that instant was enough.

The white-dressed woman appeared behind the stone door, about to stab her long sword, a symbol of her identity, through the door crack. At the same time, she shouted:

“He Gu Ding Jia Ding…”

The sword body was about to pass through the door crack. The white-dressed woman deliberately omitted “I am” when shouting, but how could a temporary decision compare to a long-planned one?

Almost simultaneously, two withered index fingers and middle fingers merged together and extended inward from the crack of the stone door.

With this move, the entire stone door dimmed, and all surrounding sounds were silenced!

The white-dressed woman’s eyes widened, and she retracted her sword in front of her.

“Pa!”

Upon contact between the sword body and the fingertips, it instantly snapped.

A jade pendant on the white-dressed woman’s neck was about to swing, the bracelet on her wrist was about to tremble, and bell sounds seemed about to emanate. All of her life-saving items, just as they were about to function, turned into dust.

As the fingertips approached, the white-dressed woman’s dress began to tear apart. But as soon as it tore, the special material inside remained intact, not scattering, but retracting again, protecting the woman.

Li Zhuiyuan could only sigh inwardly, with so many protective artifacts and such deep resources, it would truly be difficult to die in a normal wave.

However, under this one finger, all external obstructions became meaningless. The barrier was broken through once again, and the fingertips continued to advance.

The woman opened her mouth, and a small, toy-like precious sword flew out. Her face instantly aged, and her hair turned white.

This final sharp weapon, released at the cost of life essence and vitality, did not shatter or bounce away upon impact with the fingertips. Instead, it pierced into the fingertips and continued deeper.

However, the overall movement of the finger did not stop.

The thin woman appeared in front of the white-dressed woman, and silk threads quickly interwoven into a barrier in front of her, only to instantly disintegrate.

“Bang!”

The thin woman’s body exploded.

The white-dressed woman behind her continued to face the finger; her chest had already caved in.

But it must have been that small sword, which entered through the fingertip and traveled inside the old man’s body, and at this point, the old man had no choice but to divert his attention to deal with it.

“Whoosh…”

The fingertip paused.

The white-dressed woman couldn’t transmit her voice, but she still clutched her original broken sword.

With a forceful flick, the broken sword flew out through the stone door crack. It bore her family’s crest and her name; seeing the sword was like seeing the person.

The old man’s voice came:

“Ah, so it’s my grand-niece. I thought it was some kind of powerful, hard-to-kill demonic beast. My apologies, a mistake, a mistake!”

Without hesitation, the old man behind the door immediately left.

His willingness to use essence blood from his tongue to enhance ordinary spells and to use his fingertips rather than his own weapon to unleash a killing move indicated that he did not want to expose his identity. If he failed to kill and allowed the target to escape, it would mean gaining another enemy in the Wulin world. Therefore, the voice the old man initially emitted might also have been faked.

However, under various suppressions, he must have been injured, especially that small sword, which would definitely not be easy to remove.

The white-dressed woman collapsed onto the ground, clutching her chest, looking at her shattered companion in front of her.

Just then, a shadow peeled off the wall, and the man whose aura had previously vanished stepped out.

The first thing the man did upon emerging was to say:

“My purpose in infiltrating this group was to utterly eliminate you Wulin scum who aid tyrants!”

The one-armed fat woman immediately guarded the white-dressed woman, who stared coldly at the man.

Chen Xiyuan looked at Li Zhuiyuan beside her, who didn’t react. Chen Xiyuan knew that her younger brother had no intention of saving them.

She had wanted to help, but after the museum incident, her desire to save people was no longer strong.

Since she was currently being used by her younger brother, she might as well do as he wished.

As the man walked towards them, he glanced at the spot where Li Zhuiyuan and the others had stood previously, then shook his head:

“I was startled outside earlier, thinking it was the Qin family sending someone out to journey the river again.

Anyone who can be burned to death so easily definitely isn’t from the Qin family.

It seems my father and the others, working together back then, truly broke the Qin family’s spine of resurgence.”

To reverse my blood sugar, I quit sugar and then started losing weight, which caused my biological clock to crash again. I haven’t slept for two nights, and my brain has been numb all day, so I’m writing slowly.

This chapter is short on words, so I owe everyone 5k.

I apologize here. Old readers know how overweight I am and how unhealthy my work habits are. In short, I will adjust as quickly as possible, catch up on updates, and have a burst.