Chapter 1117: The Old Man
The moment Han Yimo finished speaking, the atmosphere around them shifted abruptly.
Zheng Yingxiong also covered his nose with his hand at that moment.
Before Bai Jiu and Luo Shiyi could even react to what had happened, Jiang Shi slowly lifted his head.
He keenly sensed that something had descended, something that even caused the "Indestructibility" within him to shudder for an instant.
Seeing Jiang Shi's reaction, Bai Jiu immediately became cautious, then extended a hand to signal a combat-ready stance to Luo Shiyi on the rooftop opposite. Luo Shiyi, along with "Shift" Ma Shier and "Hover" Wu Shisan behind him, immediately focused all their attention on scanning their surroundings.
But they did not discover any other "Divine Beasts."
Zheng Yingxiong, like everyone else on the rooftops, felt enveloped by an immense presence of scent but still couldn't pinpoint where the other was.
"It's Xuanwu..." Zheng Yingxiong said. "I remember that scent... she's here..."
Han Yimo froze for a moment. "No way... Speak of the devil..."
Everyone hurriedly looked around, but nowhere did they see any trace of Xuanwu.
One White Tiger alone had already pinned them all down here... If Xuanwu joined in too, would there be even a sliver of hope for victory?
Jiang Shi slowly stood up, feeling that "Indestructibility" which was far stronger than his own. She was too close—almost right in front of him.
"Three-foot dragon spring, ten thousand scrolls of books; what has Heaven intended for me from birth?" Jiang Shi’s folded arms slowly lowered. "If I cannot serve my country and pacify the world, then a man is nothing but a man in vain..."
After tossing out a few lines of a storyteller's opening verse, Jiang Shi's expression gradually turned serious, and the drowsiness from before began to clear away.
"Little Jiang Shi... where?" Bai Jiu asked with a frown.
Jiang Shi slowly extended his hand, pointing in an odd direction.
Luo Shiyi and the others on the opposite rooftop, along with Bai Jiu, all followed the direction Jiang Shi indicated, only to find that it was neither the ground nor any rooftop.
It was a tangled, enormous mess of wires on a utility pole.
The wires now seemed even more chaotic than before, with many black strands nearly drooping to the ground.
Only then did Luo Shiyi realize that some of these black things weren’t wires at all—they were Xuanwu's black hair.
Xuanwu’s curled-up body among the wires slowly straightened, revealing her pitch-black form.
At this moment, not a single inch of skin was visible on her; as far as the eye could see, everything except her long black hair had transformed into the vast cosmos.
Everyone had witnessed Jiang Shi's abilities before—whenever he suffered severe damage, the injured area would reveal a starry, pitch-black pattern. But the Xuanwu before them was entirely black from head to toe... Had she entered some profound state, or had she sustained a fatal injury?
If "Indestructibility" truly covered her entire body... then was the current Xuanwu nothing but a body without flesh?
How could one kill a person without a physical form?
"What the hell..." Luo Shiyi let out a low laugh. "Starting on hell difficulty... I guess it was worth the wait."
Xuanwu lowered her head, using eyes that didn't exist to glance at the chaos below in the square, then murmured in confusion:
"Why am I here...?"
An ethereal, hollow voice emanated from all around Xuanwu's body, sending chills down the spines of Luo Shiyi and the others.
At this moment, Xuanwu seemed to have transcended the category of "Divine Beast," transforming into something else entirely.
White Tiger also seemed to sense something amiss. She quickly raised a hand to summon an unprecedented gale, knocking everyone present back three steps, then lifted her aged, murky eyes toward the midair.
Above the wires stood a bizarre figure—dark and gleaming, faceless and expressionless.
The two seemed to be staring at each other, yet that second of eye contact felt as if it spanned decades.
"You... Could it be... Xuanwu...?" White Tiger's hoarse voice carried a note of disbelief.
Though her voice was not loud, every "Extreme Dao" member present heard it clearly. They all looked up and indeed found a figure resembling Xuanwu standing in midair.
But this Xuanwu was far too different from the image everyone remembered.
Xuanwu stared at the elderly woman before her, then slowly tilted her head. Though she had no expression, anyone could see her confusion.
After a moment, she spoke:
"Who are you?"
"I..." The old woman paused at the question, then gave a bitter laugh. "I have no name... but here, they all call me 'White Tiger.'"
Xuanwu was silent for a while, then tilted her head again.
Everyone present held their breath at that moment, uncertain of what Xuanwu planned to do next. If the two "Divine Beasts" joined forces, it would likely mean death for everyone here.
"Ridiculous." After pondering for a long time, Xuanwu spoke. "Divine Beasts cannot be deceived. How could White Tiger be an old woman?"
"I..." White Tiger paused, then bared her teeth. "Yes... Too bad no one among you ever cared about my life or death. If you had discovered my anomaly earlier, that enormous lie would have been exposed long ago."
"I don't understand." Xuanwu shook her head, continuing in her ethereal voice. "Why are you old?"
"Because I have waited too long." White Tiger let out a crazed laugh. "Alone, I waited too long."
"You have aged, but I have not yet," Xuanwu mused. "What are you doing now? And why am I here?"
"I don't know why you're here. I only know that I'm stopping these 'participants' from destroying the giant bell and the display screen," White Tiger answered truthfully.
"Stopping destruction..." Xuanwu paused. "Stopping destruction is good... These people want to destroy the giant bell and the display screen, and they're attacking you..."
Everyone looked at Xuanwu in horror, then heard two hollow words drift from around her dark form:
"Foul play."
As the words fell, the smallest tree among those embedded in the ground stirred, then slowly rose into the air. It rotated its roots and flew toward Xuanwu.
"Swish—"
Xuanwu did not dodge; she allowed the small tree to pierce her abdomen.
The long, slender trunk entered her body from the roots but did not exit through her back, as if the entire length had vanished into Xuanwu's form.
Xuanwu looked down at the tree in her stomach, then raised her head toward Luo Shiyi.
The one who had performed the move was "Shift" Ma Shier behind Luo Shiyi.
"Hey!" Luo Shiyi laughed. "Xuanwu, throwing that tree into your gut—does that count as a foul?"
Only then did the "Extreme Dao" members notice several black-clad figures standing on the rooftop. Some of them had even made deals with the "Cat" before and immediately recognized these black-garbed individuals.
Xuanwu said nothing. She simply reached down to pull at the small tree. When she found it wouldn't budge, she pushed it further into the starry cosmos inside her body.
"Foul play," Xuanwu repeated.
"That's just perfect then," Luo Shiyi laughed angrily. "My worthless life has been waiting for you to come kill it."
With that, Bai Jiu gave a hand signal. The people on the rooftop bent down, grabbed the ropes beside them, then rapidly rappelled down from the rooftop, disappearing into the streets one by one.
Xuanwu watched the direction they fled, muttering to herself: "If I protect the rules, then this time I will die."