Chapter 195: The Mastermind Behind the Garden
The Light Spirit, clad in a golden dress, had brilliant gold light flowing from her shoulder blades, forming a pair of Spirit Wings. As the Spirit Wings trembled, her figure flickered, appearing before Xia Feng in an instant. The staff in her hand, shining with maddened radiance, raised a powerful beam of light, poised to strike between Xia Feng’s eyebrows.
But the moment she raised her hand, time seemed to stop. Only the spirit flow in the sea of fire raged around them. Her gorgeous golden eyes widened as they reflected the man’s K-Masked Man mask.
“Optimize—”
The calm male voice was like a seductive whisper in her ear. A jolt ran through her, and her spirit body began to sublimate involuntarily. Waves of indescribable pleasure coursed from her tailbone along her spine, reaching her nerves.
[Optimization Successful—]
This wonderful feeling surged through her mind like a gushing spring. She felt her abilities improve dramatically across the board, as if an expanding power was forcibly injected into her, making her even stronger!
“This… this guy’s ability?” The Light Spirit quickly regained her senses, her gaze fixed in astonishment on the K-Masked Man before her. She finally understood why she had inexplicably felt a desire to approach the K-Masked Man just now. This K-Masked Man could actually enhance the abilities of spirit artifacts, causing her to evolve! This was something she had never experienced while by her Master’s side, and it was a wonderfully pleasant feeling.
Experiencing this bliss, she inexplicably desired more, wanting to be optimized by this man again. This was likely why the K-Masked Man was optimizing her now—to show her the benefits of optimization, and that if she didn’t want the optimization to be taken back, she would have to betray her Master and defect to the dark side. To gain power and become stronger, she truly wanted to abandon her useless Master.
However, as a humanoid spirit artifact, she had her dignity and principles as an artifact. Although she desperately wanted to be optimized by this man, she would not abandon Jin Zheng’en! A thousand thoughts flashed through her mind in an instant. The Light Spirit’s beautiful eyes sharpened, and the beam of light, capable of destroying the souls of an exceptionally powerful spirit master, shot directly towards Xia Feng’s forehead.
“Optimize—”
Xia Feng’s devilish whisper echoed in the Light Spirit’s mind again. Her spine stiffened as if electrocuted. Her pupils contracted unnaturally. Her red lips parted slightly, letting out a trembling “ah,” before she stumbled forward and fell face-first.
Optimizing a spirit artifact once enhanced it, but optimizing it twice or more meant its destruction, as spirit artifacts of this level could not withstand further enhancement.
The Light Spirit trembled, her beautiful eyes somewhat dazed. Xia Feng placed his hand on her smooth forehead and, with a slight movement of his mind, continued to optimize her. As several bursts of optimization power instantly flowed into the Light Spirit’s body, her eyes became glazed over, and her mouth twitched.
“?!!” Jin Zheng’en had just pointed at Xia Feng and coldly ordered him killed, but before he could celebrate victory, he saw the Light Spirit’s expression change as Xia Feng held her head. “What the hell— What are you doing?” Jin Zheng’en gasped.
“Master… I, I’m going…” The Light Spirit knew she was dying. She could feel her spirit body and consciousness dissipating with the expanding optimization power, heading towards oblivion. But she also felt her strength increasing madly and ceaselessly! So she couldn’t care less, and didn’t even have the slightest thought of resistance. She just wanted to experience the joy of surging power at the end of her life.
As the Light Spirit screamed, five golden beams of light overflowed from between her eyebrows and ascended into the sky, intertwining. Jin Zheng’en’s face turned grim, and he forcibly broke free from his restraints, attempting to escape to the periphery. Knight Rick, who had just gotten up, and Ito Mi, protected by a Human Skin Puppet, felt their scalps tingle. Their faces contorted, and they turned to flee.
But at this point, with the coordinated attacks of more than a dozen spirit artifacts, their escape was merely a futile struggle. With a sharp screech like fingernails on a blackboard, the ascending beams of light suddenly exploded. A terrifying mental shock erupted like a volcanic eruption, accompanied by waves of air and countless flame-like arrows scattering, piercing the foreheads of over twenty spirit bodies on the battlefield, instantly killing them.
Whoosh—
Knight Rick and Jin Zheng’en were also pierced by the beams of light. Their expressions momentarily froze, and their spirit bodies slowly dissipated. Less than five seconds had passed since the K-Masked Man’s arrival, yet the two of them, until their death, never understood what the hell was happening?! Why could this K-Masked Man use all of their spirit artifacts?! This… could this be the K-Masked Man’s spirit artifact ability? But it was too outrageous!
“Goddess!” Knight Rick called out, hoping for the Black Moon Goddess’s help. However, the Black Moon Goddess was struggling to cope, still preoccupied with dealing with the red mist.
Whoosh—
Ito Mi, the last one remaining, was also pierced between the eyebrows by a beam of light. She let out a roar of unwillingness. If she had succeeded in finding Li Hongdou earlier and stripped her skin, perhaps there would have been a sliver of hope for survival. She was unwilling to die like this. But it was futile. Her soul, in despair, also shattered.
!
The battlefield fell into complete silence, with only the sea of fire, mixed with blood, still burning fiercely, emitting crisp crackling sounds. Xia Feng surveyed the surrounding Miracle Star River and didn’t linger. He quickly gathered the scattered piles of obsidian and Spiritual Material, then sensed the direction and flashed to where the hidden Mushroom was.
“Let’s go! Quickly return to the Real World.”
“Huh?” Although Mushroom was confused, she nodded and cut her palm, dripping blood onto the obsidian. Obsidian could be used to enter the Miracle Star River. To leave, one only needed to fill the obsidian with their own blood. It would take about thirty seconds to teleport away.
He didn’t know the Black Moon Goddess’s current situation, but Xia Feng wasn’t planning to stay here any longer. Running was the priority. He had actually been prepared to unleash the Dragon God True Name when entering the moon’s space, and had planned for the Black Moon to use Crow Feather to escape directly if the Dragon God True Name was ignored. However, since it wasn’t necessary now, he didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks. Fleeing was the best course of action.
***
Meanwhile, amidst the chaos in the Miracle Star River, within the Holy See, in the Knight’s Main Hall. In the dimly lit hall, the figure of Chief Judge Zorav slowly appeared in a high-backed chair, frowning. “Knight Rok? Is there something?”
Seated opposite him was a bald knight clad in blood-red armor, with a dark and strange character ‘罗’ carved onto his bald head. Even stranger, his face was identical to Knight Rick’s, as if they were twins.
“The Mastermind behind the Garden has been identified. It is the Xuanwu Bureau Chief of the Holy Department.” Knight Rok calmly raised his eyes and said in a low voice, “And according to Xuanwu’s confession, the Garden has close ties to the Burning Heaven Sacred Hall, and Xia Feng, a freshman at Weiyang Academy, is a key figure, suspected to be an important member of the Burning Heaven Sacred Hall.”
“Oh? And so?” Zorav asked in confusion, not understanding why the investigation team had come to him to discuss this matter.
