Chapter 118: Chapter 118: Good News, the Survivors Have Started Dying in Large Numbers
"Boss Pei’s Seven Sons United Heart Technique has been broken," Qin Sheng’s second master, Lu Chen, said bluntly.
The other five remained silent.
"What’s your take on it?" Lu Chen pressed.
"Whoever killed Boss Pei is no ordinary person."
"Most likely, he just had bad luck and died at the hands of a Sun Puppet," an old man said leisurely.
He had a nonchalant air, completely unconcerned about Pei Xia’s death.
If anyone was to blame, it was Pei Xia for insisting on leaving. If he’d stayed here to cultivate in seclusion, he wouldn’t have ended up dead.
"Dying to a Sun Puppet isn’t the real issue," Lu Chen said, then paused. "What I’m afraid of is that he was killed by the same mysterious person who killed Qin Sheng."
"This doesn’t sit right with me. I’m going to go out and investigate."
Lu Chen’s words were met with silence, until someone finally said slowly, "The world is in upheaval. It’s better to stay here and cultivate the Martial Dao in seclusion."
"It’s best not to go out and court death."
"But if you insist on going, go alone. I’m not going."
The other five all shared this sentiment.
Even Pei Xia, the strongest among them, had died without a trace. What chance did they stand?
At first, Lu Chen had been the most vocal opponent of Pei Xia going alone to seek revenge. Now, in the blink of an eye, he was about to do the same foolish thing.
They would never even consider such a thing.
"Hah. They don’t even understand a simple concept like mutual dependence," Lu Chen said with a sneer.
’These guys have lived so long they’ve become blind to the reality of the situation.’
’First they killed Qin Sheng, then Pei Xia. They’re obviously targeting us.’
’If we don’t use our current advantage to kill this enemy that’s preying on us, it’ll be too late when we finally decide to act.’
Seeing that no one else would act, Lu Chen gave a cold laugh and left on his own.
’According to the lock and location from the Seven Sons United Heart Technique...’
’When Pei Xia died, the connection from the Seven Sons United Heart Technique was severed, but in doing so, it provided an accurate direction and a rough distance.’
’So finding the location won’t be difficult.’
’The hard part will be getting revenge.’
’Boss Pei has been gone for two or three days, give or take.’
’But if I travel at full speed, I should be able to get there in a day, at most.’
’As for the possibility of draining my stamina and reducing my strength in the process?’
That wasn’t a concern for Lu Chen. All he could think about was getting to the location as quickly as possible.
He didn’t notice anything was amiss with himself.
There was just a slight sense of urgency in his heart.
’My Martial Dao intuition feels... off. Is it a sign telling me not to go?’ Along the way, Lu Chen felt a faint premonition.
But he ignored it.
’After all, he’d encountered countless such warnings in his long years of cultivating Ancient Martial Arts.’
’He hadn’t reached the Land Immortal Realm just through painstaking cultivation; he had fought his way here.’
’There was never any such thing as a guaranteed victory. He had faced many enemies who were stronger than him.’
’But what of those powerful foes now? They were long since turned to dust, while he was still standing.’
So, he had great confidence in himself.
’If he lacked even this much courage, he would never have become one of the seven current masters of the Land Immortal Realm.’
’Boss Pei must have thought we were fools. The enemy must possess some ultimate treasure. He died because he underestimated his opponent.’
’I will be extremely cautious when I make my move. That ultimate treasure is destined to be mine!’
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’He’s certainly fast.’ Following the tracks Pei Xia had left, Qi Suian headed toward his enemy’s lair.
The man’s Ancient Martial Technique was truly remarkable; the trail he left was intermittent, sometimes there, sometimes not.
If he flew high in the sky, his reconnaissance network couldn’t effectively reconstruct the trail, so he had to move at a low altitude.
’I thought he should be able to fly. Why would he travel on foot? Could the energy consumption be too high?’
Logically, upon reaching the Land Immortal Realm, their Tribulation Energy should transform into Divine Energy, at which point flying should be no great issue.
And yet, Pei Xia had still come running on his own two feet.
Then again, compared to flight, running had points of leverage, consumed less energy, and was faster.
Unless one could burst with even greater power during flight to surpass their ground speed, flying with Divine Energy just wasn’t very efficient from any angle.
[According to your evaluation criteria, Ancient Martial Technique is at a low-tier martial level. Flight itself violates human anatomy, so even with Divine Energy, the consumption is considerable.]
[The development of Ancient Martial Technique shows signs of gaps or artificial interference.]
[Otherwise, it is impossible to explain why it is so completely separate from technology.]
[Ancient Martial Arts and technology have no inherent conflict; on the contrary, they could be complementary.]
Qi Suian couldn’t care less why ancient martial arts and technology failed to develop hand-in-hand. To him, the people of the Ancient Martial World were nearly extinct anyway.
None of it had any meaning.
"Instead of thinking about that, I’d rather think about when this group of survivors will finally be wiped out," Qi Suian retorted.
He then glanced at the survivor count. With the start of the limited-time event, the number was dropping again under the two-pronged assault of soaring temperatures and the Sun Puppets.
If things continued this way, it was possible this would end in a total wipeout.
"Ever since they ran into me, a batch of survivors that could have lasted to the end now needs to be replaced for every new Doomsday World," Qi Suian quipped.
The AI didn’t respond to Qi Suian’s joke, simply providing a new update.
[Sun Puppet spawn fluctuation detected...]
Immediately, the entire Tai Sui God began moving away from the location of the fluctuation. Nineteen Floating Cannons emerged from the Subspace Pocket and began to power up.
"Desecrator, you must die!!!"
Taking on its usual humanoid form of ash and bandages, the Sun Puppet roared at Qi Suian the moment it materialized from the sunlight.
’So relentless. And the temperature is even higher now.’
A Dark Energy Beam instantly struck the Sun Puppet, and its body was immediately disintegrated.
’Sigh, too bad I’m not on the leaderboard. Otherwise, with the number of Sun Puppets I’ve killed, I’d be guaranteed the number one spot.’
This wasn’t the first Sun Puppet Qi Suian had killed since the "Sun in a Bottle" had gone berserk.
He had insta-killed it the moment it finished materializing. The rest was simple.
[Multiple Sun Puppet spawn fluctuations detected. Moving away from the danger zone...]
The Sun Puppet had only just died, and already the AI’s alert appeared again.
This time was even more serious than the last—it was reporting multiple fluctuations.
’Don’t tell me the "Sun in a Bottle" has entered a new phase.’
Qi Suian had studied the patterns. Generally, the puppets prioritized spawning near survivors, but only one at a time, and an area that had already had a spawn wouldn’t get a second one.
As long as your luck wasn’t terrible, the chances of encountering a Sun Puppet were moderate.
But now, a second spawn was happening right after the first, and this time, it was multiple Sun Puppets.
A few seconds later, dozens of Sun Puppets materialized, immediately locking onto Qi Suian, the one who had desecrated the sun.
They swarmed him, seeming as if they wouldn’t rest until he was dead.
"AI, have the Sun Puppets changed? It seems to me their temperature is even higher," Qi Suian asked.
For the Sun Puppets, temperature equaled strength; that equation held true.
[Correct. Their temperature has increased by approximately threefold.]
[Preliminary analysis suggests this is a measure targeting you.]
Qi Suian wasn’t surprised to be targeted. With his ’protagonist halo’ and the ’desecrator’ title, it would be a waste of his status if the universe *wasn’t* trying to beat him to death.
"Can I kill them?" Qi Suian asked.
[First, observe if there is a massive die-off of survivors.]
Qi Suian understood the AI’s logic. If survivors were dying en masse, it meant this wasn’t an attack targeting him alone; his situation would just be a higher-intensity version of the same event.
But if there *wasn’t* a massive die-off, it meant he was the sole target.
If he killed these, the next wave of Sun Puppets would be even more numerous and powerful.
In that scenario, it would be best not to kill them and just manage the current number to avoid making things harder later on.
Qi Suian quickly checked. The survivor count was indeed dropping drastically, and the decline showed no signs of stopping.
"Good news. The count is dropping. Looks like I’m cleared to kill," Qi Suian thought, breathing a sigh of relief.
He had been afraid it was a personal vendetta, which would have been much more troublesome to escape.
Every corner touched by sunlight was their territory.
On top of that, these Sun Puppets were single-minded, fixated on killing Qi Suian, the sun’s desecrator.
All factors combined, it would have been a very tricky situation to resolve.
But things were different now. It wasn’t just him being singled out for misfortune; all the survivors were being targeted.
After killing these, there might not be enough spare power to create new Sun Puppets to hunt him, which would count as a temporary escape.
’No wonder the doomsday game’s limited-time event was named after the Sun Puppets. Turns out they really do hunt survivors.’
’In the face of the Sun Puppets, there’s no difference between the Ancient Martial Artists among the survivors and the regular people. They’ve lost any advantage they had.’
’They might not even survive long enough for the extreme heat to arrive; the Sun Puppets might wipe them all out first.’ Qi Suian was naturally pleased by this thought.
His only regret was that he couldn’t turn them into fuel—such a waste.
A few minutes later, the Sun Puppets, still crying "desecrator," were all eliminated by the Floating Cannons.
’Even an Ancient Martial Artist at the Land Immortal Realm would have to turn tail and run from a Sun Puppet.’
’If they were even a little too slow, they’d probably be melted.’
"Tch, this damned doomsday game," Qi Suian cursed.
The survivors were truly just trying to survive. Whether rich or poor, even if they had grasped Extraordinary power, they had little ability to resist in the face of the apocalypse.
Even someone like Qi Suian, with his protagonist’s luck, was being pushed this hard. If one in a thousand normal survivors managed to make it, they’d be something truly special.
"If they push me too far, I’ll find a way to blow up that ’Sun in a Bottle’," Qi Suian said, his voice laced with menace.
If it came down to it, if Qi Suian couldn’t survive, he would absolutely do it. And he might even do something far more drastic.
