The Outcome of Time
"Too slow..."
Brand, in the center of the alchemy array, slightly furrowed his brows.
From just now, the collection speed of souls had been continuously slowing down. The final tens of thousands of souls actually hadn't fully returned to their positions even now... However, Brand could roughly guess the reason. The explosive growth of souls earlier was because the war had just begun, especially since the residents in the towns didn't have time to flee, resulting in massive deaths.
And now, the refugees had almost all run into the Main City and hidden, and the main force had still failed to charge into the defense line, causing the soul collection progress to become slower and slower.
Brand cast his gaze below the clouds, and upon seeing the chaotic battlefield near the city walls and the massive number of Calamities weaving through it, he suddenly froze in place...
"This is..."
Boom—!!!
A loud explosion shattered Brand's train of thought.
A bloodstained figure flew backward from the collapsing Embroidery Diagram, closely followed by a figure dressed in white.
"It seems your body has reached its limit."
Lord of Wuji spoke indifferently.
He raised his hand and beckoned. The grains of sand flying in the sky instantly transformed into small metal-like spheres. As they danced wildly in the wind, a massive amount of electrical charge attached to them.
The lightning surging between the clouds was attracted by this silver storm, all of it slithering and climbing within it, like a massive, rotating lightning tornado!
The lightning tornado brewed behind Lord of Wuji. With a point of his finger, thick bolts of lightning surged like giant dragons, striking Yao Qing's blood-covered body!
Crack, crack, crack—
Several lightning strikes engulfed Yao Qing, directly striking him down from the sky to the earth, causing billowing dust to rise.
"Cough, cough, cough, cough..."
Scarlet blood gushed from Yao Qing's mouth, splattering extensively on the ground. If Chen Ling were here, he would be able to see how similar the current Yao Qing was to the once dying Lord of the Aurora, Yang Xiao.
Yao Qing had been out of the Hibernation Pod for too long. His body had already begun an irreversible march toward destruction...
"Have I reached my limit..."
Yao Qing looked at his blood-covered hands and muttered to himself.
He remained silent for a moment, and his weak hands clenched tightly once more. Embroidery Threads, dense to the extreme, madly swam through his blood vessels, trying to repair the aging damage to his organs as much as possible to delay the inevitable.
Back then, when Lord of the Aurora left his Hibernation Pod, he didn't even survive for three hours. If not for the Human Body Embroidery, Yao Qing simply wouldn't have been able to hold on until now... However, no matter how strong the Human Body Embroidery was, it couldn't reverse fate.
"Just a little bit more, just the final little bit... and it will be complete." Yao Qing turned his head, looking in the direction of Willow Town.
Thud—!
Lord of Wuji descended from the sky like a superman, smashing into the ground in front of Yao Qing.
The white scientific research robe walked out from the dust. As Lord of Wuji walked, the earth beneath his feet gradually decomposed, transforming into long swords glowing with a silver light. They hung in midair, like a forest of rain made of swords.
"Do you have any last words?"
Yao Qing felt the terrifying oppressive aura radiating from Lord of Wuji. His face grew increasingly pale, and traces of blood uncontrollably seeped from the corner of his mouth, but his back didn't bend in the slightest; instead, it remained as straight as a spear.
"Discussing last words now is a bit too early." Yao Qing replied hoarsely.
"Not early, because you have already lost."
Lord of Wuji paused for a moment before continuing calmly:
"Objectively speaking... you didn't lose to me, but to time."
Yao Qing's brows arched slightly.
"But even if you returned to your peak, you wouldn't be my match." Lord of Wuji added.
"At our peak, who would be the winner is indeed hard to say... but there's one thing you're wrong about."
"What's wrong?"
"I haven't lost to time."
Lord of Wuji looked at Yao Qing's aged body, the dripping blood he had vomited out, and that gradually annihilating vitality, and shook his head.
"You've lost."
"On this battlefield, I have indeed lost..."
The corners of Yao Qing's mouth slightly curved up. He seemed to have sensed something. A flash of unprecedented joy twinkled in his cloudy eyes, like a bright red flower blooming in a withered Ice Plains.
"But on another battlefield, I haven't lost."
...
Willow Town.
"The Chief's domain has been pierced."
Bai Ye lay on the ground in the courtyard, pushing up the brim of his baseball cap and staring at the distant sky. "It seems the outcome of the Realm War is already decided... what a pity."
"Pack up, it's time for us to work." Jack of Clubs said calmly.
Jian Changsheng, Chu Muyun, and 10 of Diamonds slowly stood up from the ground, about to change into their funeral suits. Then, 10 of Diamonds seemed to remember something and suddenly spoke:
"So, are there really no high-ranking members coming this time? Then what about the Requiem Ballad?"
"None came?" Bai Ye pointed to the four 'King' cards still stuck in the ground. "Then what are these?"
"All four of them came? But if that's the case, why haven't they shown themselves?"
"The thoughts of the higher-ups... how would I know."
"..."
10 of Diamonds shook his head. Just as he was about to leave, a strange aura suddenly spread through the void.
At the same time, Bai Ye and Jack of Clubs' pupils shrank slightly. They abruptly stood up from the ground, their expressions incredibly grave...
"This is..."
In the next moment,
The entirety of Willow Town trembled violently.
Outside the courtyard, among the withered willow trees and flower bushes, dense Embroidery Threads shot into the sky, emitting a faint glow in the air... A Demigod Tier aura rushed against their faces.
Ever since the group stepped into Willow Town, they had sensed the existence of those dense Embroidery Threads. Those were the fallback plans Yao Qing had hidden when Willow Town was created. Now, for some unknown reason, they were all activated, racing towards the center of Willow Town as if they possessed their own minds!
"The painting! The painting!!"
Immediately after, Little Jian's exclamation rang out. The scroll he had hidden in his embrace automatically floated up. The tens of thousands of Embroidery Threads outlining the figure of the Lord of the Red Dust within it were now trembling as if jumping for joy, shooting towards the sky like lightning!!
Thousands of silk threads interwove right under everyone's noses. Under the demigod's aura, no one dared to act rashly. They could only watch as the painting spun under the wrapping of numerous silk threads, eventually crashing into a certain place.
The air fell into a dead silence.
...
Su Residence.
In the quiet courtyard draped with Embroidery Threads, a beautiful figure lay in the center of the petals. Her breathing was steady, her clothes neat, and her hands rested gently on her abdomen, looking as if she were peacefully asleep.
Time seemed to have been weakened on her. Even after three hundred years had passed, her long black hair was still full of vitality, and her face remained cold and breathtakingly beautiful, like a beautiful and timeless painting.
Right at this moment, the outline of a scroll suddenly formed in the void above her head... like a passage connecting to the outside world. The moment it opened, tens of thousands of dense Embroidery Threads surged out from within!
That beautiful figure's eyelashes fluttered slightly.