NOVPUBCha Naixue watched emotionlessly as a man and woman pushed and shoved each other, seemingly flaunting their love.
"Good, now that the spiritual damage compensation is settled, it’s time for the psychological trauma compensation."
Xia Feng’s lips curled into a kind smile as he unwaveringly stared at Gongsun Ze.
"That’s all I have; I don’t have anything else on me!" Gongsun Ze’s face darkened, with only three minutes left until the Summoning Wood was fully nurtured! He couldn’t delay any longer; he had to figure out a way to get rid of Xia Feng immediately.
"I don’t believe you."
"..."
Don’t panic, don’t panic! As long as he gets this guy to scram, it’s no big deal! Gongsun Ze threw everything he had with Yulina’s into a bag, "Here, take it all! I’m just afraid you’ll have the life to take it but not the life to spend it!"
A large bag was tossed over, and Xia Feng began to eagerly inspect his spoils of war.
1 worn-out knife, 3 Life Fruits, 18 Wisdom Fruits, 50g of Infinite Stone, and 1 Spirit Storage Fruit.
The most valuable were the Infinite Stone and the Spirit Storage Fruit. The haul was not too bad.
But the Summoning Wood he wanted most wasn’t there. Xia Feng frowned and looked up, "You’re not being honest, boy. You’ve hidden something else!"
"?!": Gongsun Ze was slightly shocked. What did he mean? Did this guy find out about the Anubis Ring?
The Anubis Ring had been just an ordinary silver ring on Wen Zaiye’s finger, but he had taken it off and hidden it while in the treehouse.
"I really don’t have anything else on me. If you don’t believe me, you come search." He opened his arms and sneered, "Just afraid you don’t have the guts to come out."
"Stop pretending; I know you have the Summoning Wood. Hand it over quickly." Xia Feng wore a confident expression as if he knew everything.
"?": Gongsun Ze’s heart almost leaped out of his chest. What the hell was going on with this guy? He even knew about that?!
Still, he kept his face unchanged, "What Summoning Wood? I don’t have that thing."
"You do."
"I don’t."
"You do."
"I fucking don’t—"
Then Xia Feng argued with him for over two minutes, insisting he wouldn’t let him go without the Summoning Wood, which left Gongsun Ze utterly confounded.
"Damn you, Xia! I already used the Summoning Wood!" Gongsun Ze blurted out.
"Used it?" Xia Feng raised an eyebrow and slowly shook his head, "I don’t believe it unless you strip down and let me see."
Without the slightest hesitation, Gongsun Ze began to strip, desperate to get Xia Feng to leave. Once the Evil God arrives, he would definitely make this brat pay.
The women present frowned and closed their eyes.
Xia Feng glanced at him and muttered to himself, "So small, like a toothpick..."
"!!!!!!" Gongsun Ze, overcome with anger, spat out blood.
He finally realized that Xia Feng was just toying with him.
"Fine! Very well! Bastard, you just wait!" Gongsun Ze put his clothes back on, his face completely darkening.
At that moment, a wave of force came surging from afar, causing everyone to look over skeptically.
From within the depths of the dark forest, a towering tree was growing at an unsettling rate, its abundant leaves gradually glowing with a divine silver radiance.
"Is that...the Summoning Tree?!" Master Chen’s face changed.
"Ah?" Xia Feng was stunned for a moment. What did that mean? Was the Summoning Wood that Gongsun Ze said he had used referring to this?
Mu Qingtong craned her neck to look towards the far-off glowing giant tree and spoke with furrowed brows, "According to the latest information disclosed by the Spirit Science Institute, a fully nourished Summoning Tree within three thousand meters will sense all that bear the mark of Divine Space and call upon the gods through countless dimensions and timespaces!"
"Summoning God?" Xia Feng blinked, then blinked again, before his pupils slowly dilated, "Summoning God?!"
"Indeed." Master Chen said gravely, "It seems Gongsun Ze may be conducting a Summoning God ritual. Rather than summoning a Star God, I suspect he’s attempting to call forth an Evil God!"
"Damn!" Xia Feng was utterly shocked; a foreboding thought crossed his mind.
"Stop being stunned; this guy definitely carries a space mark of a deity! We must stop him immediately!" Chen Hangdao’s eyes became cold as he called out in a low shout, "Sunflower!"
"Yes!" Cai Kuihua sprang into the air at the call, rushing alongside Master Chen out of the barrier.
Teacher and disciple drew their Peach Wood Swords, and as their Taoist robes fluttered, countless fiery yellow runes burst forth from the swords.
"Be gone, all evil spirits!" the teacher and disciple chanted in unison.
The complex runes surged into the air like a flood, rapidly forming chains and a cage that bound towards Gongsun Ze.
This was Chen Hangdao’s Level B Spiritual Clothes, the Sunflower Sword, a powerful Sealing Skill that could forcibly suppress the target’s Spiritual Pressure, rendering them incapable of using their Spiritual Clothes.
However, the drawback was that it could only seal a Spirit Master, not an Evil Beast; attempting to seal an Evil Beast would result in backlash.
Gongsun Ze looked up at the Summoning Tree in the distance, completely ignoring the countless runes swirling around him, and said calmly,
"I really didn’t want to use this tactic that harms the enemy a thousand at the cost of harming myself eight hundred."
He looked up calmly, his gaze filled with hatred and a hint of mockery towards Xia Feng, "But sadly, brat, this is what you’ve brought upon yourself."
With a sneer, he pulled out a knife from nowhere and stabbed himself in the heart, "Spurt—"
Suddenly vomiting fresh blood, at the same time, limitless black light poured from the stabbed heart, sweeping through in the blink of an eye— 𝖓𝔬𝔳𝖕𝖚𝖇.𝖈𝔬𝔪
Master Chen’s face drastically changed; he recognized at a glance that this man had sealed a "Calamity" inside his body!
"The Sunflower Sword’s sealing of the Evil Beast would result in a tremendous backlash. Master Chen hastily tried to stop the process, but it was already too late.
He and Cai Kuihua both were taken aback at the same moment, their bulging eyes bleeding as they simultaneously fell backward, unconscious.
All of this happened too quickly. Xia Feng watched helplessly as the two were thrown out of the barrier, and then saw them hit the ground within seconds.
At the same time, the black light that burst from Gongsun Ze’s chest engulfed him and Mu Qingtong in an instant.
It was a high-level Calamity Beast’s realm, and they were unable to resist being entirely covered by the newly unfolded domain of the Calamity Realm.
Gongsun Ze clutched his chest in agony, bending over in pain. Pale-faced, wrinkles visibly formed on his skin, and it took him a while to slowly lift his head.
A thirty-meter grey cube loomed before him, trapping Xia Feng, Mu Qingtong, Cha Naixue, and Silver City within.
This was a Calamity Beast bodyguard given to him after he became the proxy of the Evil God Anubis, which could be awakened by offering 30 years of lifespan and all of his spiritual pressure to temporarily trap enemies in the Calamity Realm.
It seemed to be very effective, but the cost was terrifying.
Gongsun Ze walked up to the cube. Through the faint light, he could make out the silhouettes of the four trapped inside. He smirked,
"Xia Feng, keep acting tough, huh? You’re still too green to take on me!"
Gongsun Ze’s mocking laughter rang out like divine music, echoing in all directions.
Xia Feng ignored Gongsun Ze outside and just looked around, frowning. All was pitch black, and nothing could be seen.
"Hello, everyone. I am the Mibao Beast. The name of this Calamity Realm is: ’Love Me, Hug Me~’"
What kind of ridiculous name is that, Xia Feng realized as he looked up, and a light shone in the dark world.
It seemed like a caterpillar glowing with a faint green luminescence, resting on the outside of the sky’s barrier, with its cream-colored belly facing down, a split forming, and a clear female voice chuckled:
"The rules are quite simple."
"After the game starts, you all need to embrace another participant in a ’face-to-face hug,’ switching the hugging partner every 30 seconds, with 3 seconds to change partners. If you exceed this time, you’ll be instantly killed by the force of the rules. However, if you last for 3 minutes, you can leave the Calamity Realm safely."
"Hehe~ Isn’t it simple? Oh, one more very important thing—if you intentionally kill your target during a hug, you can gain one Life Fruit, one Wisdom Fruit, and one Spirit-injecting Fruit. If two or more people die, you can immediately clear the Calamity Realm!"
"Alright, the game begins!"
As the crisp female voice ended, Xia Feng’s nerves tensed. With only 3 seconds to find someone to hug, he could sense no one around in the pitch-black darkness.
The Calamity Realm’s rules suppressed his spiritual pressure state to an extremely low level, making it difficult to indicate his position via releasing spiritual pressure.
Luckily, he had the Vermilion Bird Demon Armor, which allowed him to activate the armor flames without using too much spiritual pressure.
Instantly, three sounds of cutting through the air rushed toward him!
It was three women, with Cha Naixue leading the charge, arms wide open. Xia Feng’s eyes widened as he dodged and was consequently embraced by Mu Qingtong.
Cha Naixue: "?"
Thump, thump, thump—the great inertia brought by Mu Qingtong pushed Xia Feng back several steps against the wall.
"Hisss—" Xia Feng tilted his head back and grimaced, "Slow down, would you?"
"Stop talking, just hug me," Mu Qingtong commanded in a calm voice as she stroked his back.
Xia Feng had already dissipated the flames of the Vermilion Bird Demon Armor, and in the darkness, he skillfully wrapped his arms around the slender waist before him.
"This is like a cage, not particularly dangerous, but it forcibly traps us here for three minutes."
Mu Qingtong’s calm voice resonated beside Xia Feng’s ear, "Gongsun Ze’s preparation for the Evil God descent ritual probably takes about three minutes too. By the time we get out, it might be time for us to die."
"No, after we get out, it’ll be Silver and Xia Feng’s time to die," Silver’s serious voice explained, "Silver remembers, Gongsun Ze is a lecher and is very interested in the Lady and Lady Mu. So Master, you and Lady Mu probably won’t die."
"Silver, you have a good deduction," Cha Naixue’s resigned voice sounded, "though next time, please don’t. Mu Qingtong, Xia Feng, what do we do now?"
What to do, indeed. Everything had taken Xia Feng by surprise—to think a Summoning Tree would suddenly appear!
Gongsun Ze must be crazy! Xia Feng frowned deeply and sighed, "Actually, I have a way out of our current predicament."
"Times up." Following the Mibao Beast’s reminder, the four quickly changed positions.
Xia Feng gently embraced Silver, who was fully clad in armor, clunking and stiff.
Sniff, sniff~ The woman at his side took in a scent, commenting, "You smell nice."
Xia Feng: "..."
Meanwhile, in the darkness, Cha Naixue and Mu Qingtong silently faced each other, purple eyes meeting golden ones without any visible emotion. They politely nodded at each other and then looked away.
"This woman, besides being slightly taller than me, slightly more beautiful," Cha Naixue’s beautiful eyes slightly narrowed as she judged, "is also much... older. That’s about it."
Apart from these three advantages, Mu Qingtong had nothing but flaws. For instance, she was much weaker, hadn’t awakened her Spiritual Artifact, and her singing was atrocious.
Hm, she really is a lot older though! Cha Naixue tightly frowned, suspecting that the woman must have consumed some improper spiritual ingredients!
"Xia Feng, you said you have a way?" Mu Qingtong asked softly.
"What could he possibly—" Cha Naixue instinctively, subconsciously wanted to doubt, but stopped herself midway and slowly closed her mouth.
Time and again, it was proven that her judgment, once involving Xia Feng, was never right...
No matter how low the probability or how unlikely the event, Xia Feng always seemed to defy her expectations.
But this time, she truly couldn’t figure out any way to get out of their current predicament.
Unless, in accordance with the game’s rules...
Kill two people?
