Chapter Sixty-Six: Subduing the Demons of Shushan
Under the woman's terrified gaze, Lin Fan quietly took out his phone, fiddled with it, spoke a few sentences into a translation app, then held it out before her.
“Sound the alarm. Call out all your people from the Phoenix Society.”
Lin Fan smiled, holding the phone up.
The instant she saw the message on the phone, the woman's face was filled with disbelief. Make her sound the alarm? This man had killed seven of her own, but instead of fleeing, he wanted her to alert everyone?
Was he mad?
Did he not know where he was?
“Do you even know where you are?” the woman glared at Lin Fan, her expression grim.
Lin Fan glanced at his phone, reading the translation, and paused for a moment. “Where is this place?”
“This is the headquarters of the Phoenix Society!” the woman said coldly. “Are you really seeking death?”
“If you run now, perhaps you might escape. But you want me to sound the alarm?”
“You may have killed us, but we’re only the guards for the lobby. Do you know how many powerful espers are here?”
But when Lin Fan saw the translated message, he exhaled in relief.
“You asking me that—I almost thought I’d come to the wrong place.” Lin Fan bent down with a smile, tapped the woman's cheek with the back of his blade. “Sound the alarm. I’ve come today to wipe out your Phoenix Society.”
The woman watched Lin Fan warily, slowly stood up, and turned to walk behind a knight statue. Suddenly, she slapped it hard.
A shrill alarm blared throughout the two-story building!
In an instant, footsteps and urgent shouts echoed from rooms upstairs and downstairs.
The woman who had been watching Lin Fan cautiously, always on guard, now seemed emboldened. She sneered, “You’re finished!”
“You really made me sound the alarm. Now you’ll face the wrath of the Phoenix Society!”
“Today, you won’t walk out of here—”
The blade flashed.
Her smile froze instantly. Her head soared off her shoulders!
Blood gushed forth, and her severed head rolled across the floor.
Lin Fan stared impassively at the fallen corpse. “What’s the point of so much idle talk?”
“The only reason you lived this long was to call reinforcements.”
Bang!
The wooden doors of the hall were suddenly kicked open.
Splinters flew everywhere as a group of espers entered, their faces grim as they looked at Lin Fan.
This scene would forever be etched in their memories.
The young man stood in the blood-streaked, scarred lobby, surrounded by a pool of crimson.
Beside him, eight esper corpses lay in disarray, all headless.
On the floor, a row of heads lay like balls, their faces eerily lifelike.
Blood dripped from the knife.
The young man's face was not particularly handsome, but it held a certain delicate firmness—on any ordinary day, he’d seem like a bright, sunny boy next door.
But now, with blood splattered across his features, he looked like a demon that had crawled out of hell.
For a brief moment, the sight stunned the assembled espers.
“Who is he?”
“What happened?”
In that hush, under the astonished stares of the Phoenix Society espers, the young man holding the blade slowly turned in the pool of blood, chuckling. “Everyone’s here, right?”
“Ah… Almost forgot you can’t understand what I’m saying.”
“But it doesn’t matter. Now that you’re all gathered, you can descend into hell together.”
He raised the bloodied short blade, its tip pointed at the Phoenix Society members who surrounded the lobby from all directions.
Lin Fan’s smile was chilling. He spoke, word by word:
“From today on, the Phoenix Society will be no more!”
His voice was not loud, but carried the whisper of doom.
Despite the language barrier, the Phoenix Society members understood his intent.
He meant to kill.
“Impudent brat!”
“You dare kill Lion and the others!”
“You dare invade the Phoenix Society—kill him!”
“Attack together!”
The Phoenix Society members shouted in English, rushing at Lin Fan.
But they weren’t fools; the carnage before them made it clear this youth was no ordinary foe.
They attacked as one!
More than twenty espers charged from every direction.
Abilities flashed forth: one transformed into a massive black bear, another into a bat, a third summoned a hurricane like a tornado, wind blades swirling!
Murderous intent filled the air!
Though these espers weren’t as formidable as the three ninth-rank espers Lin Fan had slain in Qing City, most were sixth or seventh rank, with three at eighth rank.
Such a force, even in the gods’ war of Lin Fan’s past life, could contend with a demi-god crisis.
Yet—
Lin Fan seemed oblivious to the enemies flanking him from behind and the sides. He drew his blade and slashed at the black bear before him!
A fierce blade light!
Three feet of blade energy surged from the tip, cleaving the massive bear in two.
At the same time, Lin Fan shouted, “First Squad of the God-Slaying Army, commence battle!”
Just as the other espers’ attacks were about to strike Lin Fan—
A thunderous crash!
The windows of the two-story building shattered.
Figures surged in, wrapped in overwhelming might.
As the wind blades, carried by the hurricane, were about to slice Lin Fan’s back, the window to his left broke, and a calm, gentle voice sounded:
“Ah, how perilous, how high!”
“The Road to Shu is harder than ascending to the heavens!”
Master Mo Buzhi of the Confucian Sect, clad in scholar’s robes, stepped into the lobby.
His stride was steady, and though his body was thin, it carried the weight of mountains.
“Silkworms and fish-fowl founded the kingdom, how vast and uncertain! Forty-eight thousand years have passed, yet no one passes the Qin frontier. To the west lies Taibai, a bird’s path crossing the summit of Emei.”
He held a book, walking as though alone in the world.
At the recitation of “The Road to Shu,” the wind blades behind Lin Fan suddenly dissipated, the hurricane instantly ceased.
No, not ceased—suppressed.
A vast mountain range manifested, crushing the winds to nothingness!
As Mo Buzhi recited, the image of the Shu mountains emerged from him, shielding Lin Fan and suppressing every esper in sight.
Shu Mountain!
“The earth collapses, mountains shatter, heroes die, then the stairway of stone links the heavens. Above, six dragons circle the sun; below, rivers twist and surge.”
The majestic Shu Mountain revealed its glory.
Within the lobby, the phantom of Shu Mountain spanned a hundred miles, and Master Mo Buzhi, bearing its weight, strode forward.
At the appearance of the mountain, the espers found themselves unable to move, as if a great peak pressed upon their shoulders, pinning them to the spot.
The Great Xia Shu Mountain!
With a crash, three weaker espers fell to their knees under the mountain’s pressure.
One fifth-rank esper, unable to resist, collapsed to the floor, bones cracking throughout his body.
The Great Xia Confucian Sect!
Upright spirit stirring heaven and earth!
A single recitation of “The Road to Shu” subdues all demons!
Shu Mountain suppresses all evil!
Meanwhile—
As the window to the right shattered, talisman papers floated into the lobby, swirling to envelop the entire hall.
Old Master Dao Wanqian, dressed in Daoist robes, entered, dust whisk in his left hand, wooden sword in his right.