# 529
Chapter 529
I Won
“I still can’t tell you His name—that’s His order,” the red-eyed shadow said solemnly.
“But don’t worry; He stands on exactly the same side as you. Even if the whole world becomes your enemy… He will always be with you.”
Lin Qiye’s brows drew together.
He hated being led by the nose.
The “Him” the shadow spoke of seemed to have seen through everything, even placing Lin Qiye Himself on a chessboard. Though the creature kept saying He meant no harm, the feeling that his fate was already in someone else’s hands made Lin Qiye sick.
Who do you think you are? Are we even close?
“What makes you think I won’t wipe your soul out right here?” Lin Qiye asked darkly. “So your master thinks he’s seen everything—what if I decide to wreck his plan just for the hell of it…”
“You won’t,” the shadow answered calmly. “Because I’m going to buy my life with a single piece of information.”
Lin Qiye raised an eyebrow.
“That sure of yourself? You think this news is enough to move me?”
“Why not hear it first?”
Lin Qiye stared silently into its eyes, waiting.
In the cell the red-eyed shadow stepped closer until it stood before him.
It lifted a hand and tapped Lin Qiye’s chest.
Its crimson pupil met his.
Softly it said:
“He… is going to die.”
Lin Qiye froze.
…
On the plane.
Lin Qiye’s eyes snapped open.
He reached for his chest—
His fingertips brushed something hard; a tremor ran through him.
A moment later he drew out… a single wooden chopstick.
Looking at it, he sat as still as stone.
…
The Fog.
Within the ghost-light city.
Thunderous explosions rolled across the sky; the whole broken metropolis hanging in mid-air shook violently.
Dust sifted from the ceiling of the parking garage, falling onto the burning brazier; far away a tower collapsed with a roar that reverberated like thunder. Beyond the pale barrier, green and sword-light flashed in the clouds.
A heart-stopping pressure flooded heaven and earth.
“C-Chen Han, sir…” Lu Yu stared skyward. “What’s happening?”
Chen Han, equally shaken, watched the flashing blade-light. “That… should be a battle between gods.”
“That man is fighting the Wind God?!” Lu Yu’s mouth fell open. “Then he…”
Chen Han gazed a long while, then said slowly, “He must be Great Xia’s Sword Saint, one of the Human Apex.”
Only the Human Apex could stand against a deity.
But why was the Sword Saint in Anta County?
Coincidence? Or…
A possibility struck Chen Han; shock filled his eyes.
“Why is the Sword Saint here? Did he have business in Anta?” Lu Yu wondered, then shook his head. “No—if he’d been here, the Wind God couldn’t have dragged us out of the Fog in the first place…”
Chen Han’s lips trembled. Hoarsely he said,
“He crossed the Fog to save us.”
Boom—!
Terrific blasts echoed across the pale dome. A glaring sword-arc slashed the heavens like a second sun, ripping the sky open; sword-qi surged in waves. Even through Fengdu’s ghost-light the radiance was blinding.
Chen Han and Lu Yu lowered their heads, unable to watch, worry on both faces.
The hazy light blocked their view; they could only judge who held the upper hand from the sword-intent and gale-force still crashing overhead.
The instant that sword-arc appeared the Wind God’s pressure was crushed. A titanic roar followed—and the shattered city lost its support, plummeting!
Weightlessness seized every heart.
Braziers floated from the garage floor; cars drifted into the air. Chen Han and Lu Yu clutched nearby pillars, hearts in their throats.
From this height the city and every life in it would be smashed to pieces.
Suddenly the metropolis jolted again; everything that had lifted fell back. The weightlessness lasted only a moment. Scattered debris clattered down, but the unconscious civilians lying on the ground were unharmed.
Cars slammed back; alarms wailed through the dead streets, echoing in the dark.
Chen Han and Lu Yu scrambled up and stared skyward.
Beyond the pale glow the green and sword lights had vanished; all was still, as if nothing had happened.
“Chen Han, sir… did the Sword Saint win or lose?” Lu Yu asked uncertainly.
Chen Han shook his head. “I don’t know…”
They stood at the garage entrance, flashlight beams sweeping the black streets, hoping to glimpse that black-shirted figure with the sword-case again.
Tension thickened the silence.
Sword Saint… please be all right.
They prayed.
Suddenly urgent, ragged coughing came from the far end of the street.
“Cough, cough…”
They spun around. In the distant dark a blood-soaked figure limped toward them.
His black shirt hung in tatters, horrific cuts everywhere; blood-matted hair clung to his forehead. Head down, he coughed violently, face deathly pale…
His hands were empty, trembling uncontrollably.
His sword… was gone.
“Sword Saint, sir!!” Lu Yu shouted in joy and ran with Chen Han to support him.
Chen Han clasped the man’s wrist; white light flowed from him into the wounds. His face turned grave.
“Sword Saint, your injuries…” He met Zhou Ping’s eyes, words faltering.
“Cough, cough…” Zhou Ping waved a blood-streaked hand. “I’m… fine.”
“Who won, you or the Wind God?” Lu Yu blurted.
Zhou Ping was silent a moment. “He retreated… so I suppose I won.”
Won?
Lu Yu’s eyes widened in disbelief.
He had prayed for it, but hearing it from the Sword Saint himself stunned him speechless.
The Sword Saint had forced back a god—one of Egypt’s nine pillar gods!
A being who could uproot half a city and haul it through the Fog to the Egyptian Sun City…
Was this man still human?
“S-Sword Saint, sir… what do we do now?” Lu Yu stammered.
Zhou Ping lifted his pale face and gazed calmly eastward.
“Go home.”