The Way of Death

Liu Feiyu stared fixedly at that lifeless face, every muscle in his body taut as he stood perfectly still.

Everything was exactly as he remembered it.

His lips opened and closed several times, but not a single word came out.

Just then, his fingertips brushed against something gritty. He lifted the trembling hand that had pulled back the white cloth and saw, beneath the deathly pale light of the morgue, that his fingertips were dusted with a few sparkling grains.

The powder glimmered ominously beneath the lights.

“What is this?”

Hong Yuan was the first to notice the detail. She stepped closer and asked curiously, “Fragments of ice?”

Liu Feiyu stared blankly at his fingers, his mind having ground to a complete halt.

“No.”

An Changqing’s gaze was calm. He walked over to Liu Feiyu and said gently, “Don’t move, Liu.”

Then he turned to Chen Guan. “Chen Guan, take a look.”

Everyone’s eyes focused on them.

Chen Guan shook his head and did not touch the powder directly. Instead, he looked at An Changqing. “Do you have a pair of tweezers for testing?”

An Changqing took a sterile sealed bag from his storage ring and handed it over.

He kept all sorts of odds and ends in that ring, enough to deal with almost any situation.

Chen Guan accepted it and carefully scraped a tiny amount of powder from Liu Feiyu’s fingertip and from the edge of the “corpse’s” cheek.

At the same time, Baal’s lazy, mocking voice rang out in his mind.

“Heh heh heh. You finally noticed.”

“Kid, this is Mourning Soul Soil, a rather interesting little trinket. You could call it a specialty of our world.”

There was unmistakable delight in Baal’s voice at finally having something to brag about. “Mix a little demonic power with a living person’s blood and a special kind of clay, and you can mold a perfect replica. It can imitate even the original’s aura to a remarkable degree. It has no signs of life, making it perfect for use as a corpse.”

“The only drawback is that, in an environment this cold, it becomes unstable and slowly breaks down, turning back into powder.”

Chen Guan understood at once. He raised the tip of the tweezers, displaying the tiny speck of powder to everyone.

He looked at Liu Feiyu, then relayed Baal’s explanation.

Chen Guan’s gaze swept over the flawless face before finally settling on Liu Feiyu.

“It isn’t your second brother, Liu Feiyu.”

“It’s merely an exquisite puppet made from a special material.”

Puppet.

The moment those two words left his mouth, Liu Feiyu felt his chest tighten. He staggered backward and slammed heavily into the cold metal wall.

“A puppet…”

He repeated the word under his breath, his eyes unfocused as all color drained from his face.

The corpse he had mourned all this time was fake.

The killer he had gone to such lengths to track down had been a disguise.

The family member he had believed to have been brutally murdered was actually the true demon hiding behind the scenes, manipulating everything.

The enormous reversal left him suffocating. He could not make a sound.

The last shred of hope he had held for his family shattered as well.

Liu Chengjun, who had been watching coldly from the sidelines, immediately stepped forward when he heard the word “puppet.”

The flames of his supernatural ability made him extremely sensitive to demonic substances that contained evil power.

That faint, ominous chill finally had a source.

He was now utterly certain that he had been played for a fool from beginning to end.

“The real Liu Xiao…”

Liu Chengjun ground out the words through clenched teeth, the fury in his eyes twisting his handsome face.

Just then—

Crackle.

Every light in the morgue flickered wildly. With a sharp pop, they all went out.

The emergency backup power failed to respond as well.

Absolute darkness instantly swallowed everyone.

A moment later, a bone-chilling cold filled with killing intent erupted from the darkness. The chill was far more intense than the morgue’s already frigid temperature.

“We have company.”

An Changqing’s voice rang out in the darkness. Before he had even finished speaking, the sharp sound of something tearing through the air followed.

Dense ice spikes shot soundlessly from every direction, all aimed at Liu Feiyu, whose mind was in disarray.

“Looking to die!”

Long Ao’s roar rang out. His fighting spirit surged in the darkness, and with both fists swinging on instinct, he smashed apart the ice spikes flying toward everyone, one after another. A chain of muffled explosions echoed through the room.

“Over here!”

Hong Yuan shouted in a low voice and instantly raised the enormous Profound-Understanding Tortoise Shell, shielding Liu Feiyu and Chen Guan behind it.

Clink, clink, clink—

The dense ice spikes struck the tortoise-shell barrier, sending off a series of tiny sparks, yet they could not budge it in the slightest.

The Profound-Understanding Tortoise, drafted against its will as a shield, was utterly resigned to its fate.

It should have stayed buried underground. Was a tortoise not allowed to sleep?

The battle in the darkness erupted in an instant.

Behind the tortoise-shell barrier, Chen Guan stood as still as ever. The pitch-black surroundings were no obstacle to him.

Relying on his perception, he clearly sensed the attacker’s position and identity.

It probably wasn’t a normal human. Its aura was exactly like the one Thousand Faces had emitted when he was being controlled before his death. It was likely being controlled as well.

Baal continued to provide unsolicited assistance. “Oh? That’s Astaroth’s aura. His little lover has come running.”

Chen Guan immediately whispered to An Changqing beside him, “The attacker is being controlled… It’s her. Su Qing.”

But the moment he finished speaking—

A dagger wreathed in sinister black frost slipped through a gap in Long Ao’s fist wind, then bypassed Hong Yuan’s frontal defense from an impossibly tricky angle and stabbed straight toward Chen Guan’s back.

The instant he sensed the attack, Chen Guan’s expression turned cold.

Attacking Liu Feiyu would have been one thing, but she actually wanted to assassinate him?

She had sealed her own fate!

A cluster of deep-red flames, completely out of place amid the morgue’s frigid cold, ignited out of nowhere in his palm. The flames surged with the wind, transforming into a roaring wall of fire that swallowed the silent shadow behind him.

“Ah…”

A muffled groan of pain came from within the flames.

The towering blaze illuminated the entire morgue and revealed the attacker’s face to everyone.

It was Su Qing, just as expected.

Her delicate face was devoid of expression. Her eyes were hollow, her skin pale as snow. Flames burned across her body, while wisps of black frost stubbornly resisted the blaze, only to be scorched away again and again.

“It’s Su Qing!”

Hong Yuan cried out, her eyes filled with disbelief.

“How could she be here? Didn’t she escape?”

Su Qing’s movements did not falter even while engulfed in flames. Ignoring the fire burning across her body, she flashed out of the wall of fire, and her dagger slashed toward Chen Guan’s throat once more.

She was several times faster than before.

“Look out!”

Long Ao’s roar and his fist arrived at the same time.

Bang!

Fist and dagger collided with a muffled metallic clang. Long Ao was knocked half a step backward, a bone-piercing chill spreading up his arm.

“Her strength is wrong.”

Long Ao shook his numb arm, his expression solemn.

Su Qing retreated like a ghost after her attack failed, dodging the sword An Changqing thrust at her from the side.

She raised her hand, and cold air gathered in her palm.

Dozens of sharp, sturdy ice spikes materialized out of thin air and shot toward everyone like a torrential downpour.

The attack was vicious and utterly merciless, aimed at taking every life in the room.