# 463
**Chapter 463: A Life-and-Death Match**
Outside the warehouse.
Lin Qiye and Jialan stood facing each other in a wide open space, eyes locked.
Jialan held a golden spear in her hand, dressed in a deep-blue Han robe, with a wooden bow strapped to her back. Her long black hair cascaded down to her waist like a waterfall, and her bright eyes swept across the empty surroundings before finally settling on Lin Qiye.
Lin Qiye stood there in black, his gaze serious and filled with deep emotion.
She seemed to have thought of something, a faint blush rising on her cheeks as she lowered her head to look at her toes, lost in thought.
Lin Qiye held a Straight Blade in one hand and *White Slash* in the other, staring intently at Jialan.
*How am I supposed to beat her?*
This was the first time he had ever faced Jialan head-on. Her [Immortality] had always been a trump card for their team, but now that he was the one up against her, Lin Qiye finally realized how troublesome it was.
If this had been before Jialan obtained [Celestial Gate], Lin Qiye could’ve at least trapped her with ease, even if he couldn’t defeat her. But now, with that spear in her hand—an ultimate weapon of offense—the difficulty had skyrocketed.
This fight… was not going to be easy.
“Jialan,” Lin Qiye said seriously, “I’m coming.”
Jialan blinked.
The next moment, Lin Qiye’s figure flickered like a phantom, rushing toward her at high speed!
Jialan finally snapped out of her strange daydream, looking slightly annoyed. She reached back and pulled out the pale yellow wooden bow, loosing an arrow straight at Lin Qiye.
Lin Qiye knew the arrow was likely infused with Jialan’s [Immortality] and couldn’t be blocked head-on. He tossed the Straight Blade in his left hand into the air, freeing his hand to summon a magic circle. The longsword [Prayer Abyss] appeared in his grasp.
The blade of [Prayer Abyss] slashed directly into the arrowhead!
*Clink—!*
The arrow’s momentum vanished instantly. Under Lin Qiye’s control, it reversed direction and shot back toward Jialan at even greater speed!
Since he couldn’t destroy the arrow, he’d just redirect it.
Jialan, seeing the arrow flying back, immediately withdrew the [Immortality] trait from its surface, caught it barehanded, and returned it to her quiver.
With a flick of her right wrist, the golden spear erupted in a blinding beam of light that surged toward Lin Qiye!
Lin Qiye narrowed his eyes and vanished from where he stood.
The next moment, he reappeared behind Jialan, the Straight Blade now under the control of the night, slashing down!
*Clang—!!*
The blade struck her body as if hitting metal, letting out a dull hum.
Jialan spun around quickly. At such close range, she didn’t use the spear, but instead lashed out with a whip-like kick aimed at Lin Qiye’s waist.
Lin Qiye raised his arm to block the kick, then grabbed her ankle and pressed his other hand into the air, muttering:
> “On the endless road, a fierce wind races!”
> “Flames rise and scorch the sky red!”
As the two lines of poetry left his lips, a violent wind erupted around him, followed by crimson flames that mixed with the wind and swept across the entire open ground.
Jialan’s robe was blown upward.
At that moment, one of her legs was still trapped in Lin Qiye’s grip. As the hem of her Han robe fluttered up, her fair thigh was exposed, surrounded by drifting embers in the air—a sudden glimpse of spring.
Lin Qiye, about to continue his attack, froze.
Jialan’s face flushed red. Embarrassment and anger flashed in her eyes as she broke free from Lin Qiye’s grip, stepped back, and glared at him.
“Uh… um…” Lin Qiye had never faced a situation like this and was instantly awkward. “Sorry, Jialan, I didn’t mean it. I didn’t see anything white—uh, I mean, I didn’t see anything at all…”
Jialan’s cheeks were burning. She gritted her teeth, her grip on the golden spear tightening.
Lin Qiye could clearly feel it…
Killing intent—surging!
He swallowed hard, suddenly feeling that today’s training session might turn into a real life-and-death match…
…
A few hours later.
An Qingyu, having finally finished setting up the lab, stepped out of the room and cracked his stiff neck. When he saw the scene inside the warehouse, he froze.
“Draw an X, you’ve got to draw an X here!” Baili Pangpang wore jade-green armor, his entire body radiating the powerful aura of the “Sea” Realm. Surrounded by twelve forbidden artifacts, he had the berserk Cao Yuan pinned to the ground.
“Hehehehehe…”
The mad Cao Yuan was surging with murderous intent, struggling desperately against the two artifacts binding him, a look of defiance on his face.
“Old Cao, I beg you, can you stop giggling? It’s been a whole afternoon, and you haven’t drawn a single X!” Baili Pangpang said in exasperation. “I’ve disarmed you over a dozen times—why won’t you give up?”
“Hehehehe…”
Baili Pangpang: …
An Qingyu adjusted his glasses and walked over, puzzled. “Still no progress after a whole afternoon?”
“Nope. I’m exhausted,” Baili Pangpang wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Once he transforms, he doesn’t respond to anything I say…”
A gray light flickered in An Qingyu’s eyes. He crouched down and examined the small string of prayer beads on Cao Yuan’s wrist. After a moment, he said:
“Try using Disarm on this.”
Baili Pangpang blinked. A massive Taiji Bagua diagram unfolded beneath his feet. As the positions of heaven and earth shifted, the beads erupted in a pale golden light that enveloped Cao Yuan’s body.
The berserk Cao Yuan’s struggles weakened slightly, and a faint glimmer appeared in his blood-red eyes.
“[Focus Beads]? He took these from the Forbidden Artifact Vault?” Baili Pangpang asked in surprise. “If he’s wearing them, why can’t he control himself?”
“Because in his berserk state, he can’t channel mental energy into the beads,” An Qingyu said calmly. “So once he transforms, the beads are useless. Only when he can barely control his will can he make use of them.”
“So, before he can control his consciousness, these things are basically useless?”
“Exactly. But once he can slightly control himself, and with the help of these beads, his control over [Black King’s Annihilation Slash] should improve significantly.”
An Qingyu stared at the mad Cao Yuan bathed in Buddhist light. The flicker in his eyes wavered. Cao Yuan slowly reached out, grabbed a broken twig from the ground, and shakily placed it in the corner of the tic-tac-toe board…
And drew a crooked X.