Am I really hallucinating?

Chapter 708 Teacher Niu Qianliu
"teacher……"

A gentle voice suddenly rang in Niu Qianliu's ear.

Niu Qianliu was startled and looked up. What was reflected in his blue eyes was not something else, but a painting—a portrait of Niu Qianliu.

The gentle brushstrokes depict a man whose expression reveals his weariness. He rests one hand on his lap, while the other holds an unlit cigarette. A bland, slightly helpless smile plays on his lips, as if he wanted to smoke but was stopped.

Niu Qianliu gazes at the man in the painting.

Yes, this is him; the man in the painting is Niu Qianliu.

This is a portrait he recently commissioned from Ke Meng.

Niu Qianliu suddenly came to his senses, swung his hand to create a huge wave, but then realized that there seemed to be no painting in front of him at all.

"Varied……"

Wow...

The sound of splashing water floated lightly in his ears. "Niu Qianliu" turned around abruptly, but before he could react, a cold glint fell, and a simple, ordinary axe struck his neck.

Shang Xia looked at him calmly from close range.

Niu Qianliu grabbed the axe, trying to pull it out, his face contorted with rage: "You are... 'Dadu'! You damned bastard!"

Shang Xia, who had previously struggled to even swing his axe and was barely able to stand, now easily pulled out his own axe, parried Niu Qianliu's arm, raised the axe high, and brought it down with both hands. Despite the seemingly flawed move, Niu Qianliu appeared stunned and unable to react in any way.

How could this be? Move! This useless body! How could my power stop here!

At this moment, the suppressed power seemed to barely respond to Niu Qianliu's inner cry. The water beneath their feet suddenly rippled, and Shang Xia was somewhat surprised, choosing to withdraw and dodge.

Snapped!
A tall column of water erupted from where she had been standing.

Shang Xia glanced at "Niu Qianliu," and his initially puzzled look quickly turned into understanding. Without further hesitation, he picked up his axe, turned around, and ran away.

"Die!" Niu Qianliu, still reeling from the near-death experience of being chopped to death by an ordinary axe, was enraged by Shang Xia's pathetic and humiliating appearance. He unleashed a giant wave towards Shang Xia.

Whoa!

A crimson phantom suddenly flashed by, and the scorching flames dried up the giant waves, even breaking through the water's surface and turning the area into a sauna.

"What!?" There's another expert?
Niu Qianliu gritted his teeth. How could there be people popping up one after another to hinder him inside the time-space track of that Zero subway?

"I can't miss this chance to beat up that big-nosed guy in a fair and square way." The crimson phantom gradually revealed Luo Ye's appearance.

She spat out a word, raised her hand, grabbed a gun, and fired several red bullets straight at "Niu Qianliu," leaving crimson trails.

Niu Qianliu raised a water curtain to defend himself, but the bullets ignored him, passing through the water curtain and hitting him.

Bang bang bang!
After Niu Qianliu was riddled with two bullet holes, he didn't hesitate to move and dodge the remaining bullets. Just as he was about to retaliate, he found that Luo Ye's figure had blurred and disappeared, turning into a portrait of Luo Ye before shattering.

The white spear, like a holy light of judgment, suddenly tore through space and time and pierced his chest, pinning him in mid-air despite having no point of leverage.

"Varied……!"

A pure white phantom took shape, and Hong Yijia, in her initial lamplighter form, held the broken lantern high in the air: "Teacher Niu, thank you so much."

The spear that pierced through "Niu Qianliu" sprouted countless new spears from the center of his body, turning him into a sieve from the inside out.

"Niu Qianliu" roared loudly, and the nine-headed water dragon leaped out of the water and bit at Hong Yijia, but only managed to tear apart a portrait of Hong Yijia.

At the same time, Hong Yijia's power faded, allowing "Niu Qianliu" to escape.

But as soon as he landed, a punch landed squarely on his face, knocking him to the ground.

Li Miaosheng skimmed across the water like a dragonfly skimming the surface, bursting with astonishing speed. After leaving several shadows, he instantly teleported in front of "Niu Qianliu," unleashing the full power of his life force. Countless girl punches washed over "Niu Qianliu's" entire body.

"Pfft!" Niu Qianliu felt his body become incredibly heavy, no longer as light as before.

From the moment I saw the portrait of this body, something seemed to have gone wrong!
"Teacher, this isn't a personal grudge, please bear with it." Li Miaosheng smiled sweetly and delivered a whip kick that sent Niu Qianliu crashing down from mid-air onto the water's surface.

The immense force caused Niu Qianliu to land on the water and bounce back up. He felt something rise into his throat and vomited it out.

Blood!

The sight of bright red blood gushing from his mouth caused Niu Qianliu to be thrown into a state of great turmoil.

How could he possibly bleed! This body was created from water. As the master of the water world and the original representative of "flow," he has existed in a water-like state his entire life, so it is impossible for him to bleed!

That woman just now seemed to have... injected some kind of life energy into his body! But life energy alone cannot be transformed without normal carbon-based flesh and blood, which means... that from some point onwards, his body has already begun to transform into a normal human body, rather than the body of the so-called Lord of the Water World!
He quickly adjusted his body, and sure enough, Li Miaosheng's figure also shattered into her portrait.

Who's next?!

The Lord of the Water World, who possesses Niu Qianliu's body and memories, knows that the newcomers are all former students of this body!

Damn it, what kind of people has this bastard raised!
If it had known that his friends and students were all more outrageous than the last, it would have been better to abandon this body and leave immediately!
The sound of treading water appeared again. Niu Qianliu, who was already a bit PTSD, suddenly turned his head and looked: "Fan... Zhonghong...?"

Suddenly, beams of light of various colors rose from the surrounding water, enveloping "Niu Qianliu".

"The ritual begins, giving the body life and death; the two gates open, revealing the treasures, and awakening its will to return," Fan Zhonghong chanted.

"Stop!" Niu Qianliu realized what these guys were doing. It had been tricked from the very beginning!

As soon as he stretched out his hand, all the surrounding pillars of light converged on him, completely enveloping him, and numerous talismans were pasted onto his body, activating the power of the ritual.

"This body-reshaping ritual is a conjecture that I discussed with you, teacher. I just didn't expect it to be used on you, teacher, and on a world ruler no less. But, this must be a major topic that you like, teacher." Fan Zhonghong smiled, turned around and waved his hand, his body turning into a shattered portrait.

……

Niu Qianliu looked at his struggling self and instinctively reached for a cigarette, only to realize that Ke Meng had taken his cigarettes when he went to see her earlier. He smiled helplessly.

"Niu Qianliu! Was this all part of your plan?! Replacing Xu Leyang wasn't the end of your plan! You want to take revenge on me?! Take revenge on the Water World!" The Lord of the Water World, now in the form of another Niu Qianliu, loudly questioned the original Niu Qianliu before him.

Niu Qianliu laughed and said, "Originally, I was just thinking of planting a time bomb for you. The illusionary world I created to target you will hide in the water world as I am devoured by you. It can directly weaken you when necessary. If one side is weakened during the world impact, the other side will backfire. This is the most I originally intended to do. If you still want to threaten Dadu, then I will make sure you can't get up at all, but that's the most I can do. Originally, I didn't want to go to such extremes."

Niu Qianliu couldn't help but laugh again as he said this: "But what I didn't expect was that Baishi, Leyang, and my students all went too far, making it impossible for me to recognize them."

With that, Niu Qianliu turned around, ignoring the torrential rain and raging waves in front of him, and turned to the bright sunshine and gentle breeze behind him.

"They're all urging me to go back. Looks like I can't be a tragic hero anymore. I have to go back."

"Come back here! Don't go there! This body was created for you! I'm going to make you die with me!" The Lord of the Water World roared with hatred.

……

The Lord of the Water World immediately set about destroying this body. Since it had been tricked in this way, it had figured out what these people wanted and was determined to completely destroy their target!

"No." A voice rang out.

"Lin Yilin" appeared in front of it.

"Lin Yilin... no, it's you... are these your plans in Dadu? Then I've really messed with you, hehe..." The Lord of the Water World forced a cold laugh.

"None of my business, but your luck is indeed not very good. Water really should be calmer; being too irritable is no good."

"Stop talking nonsense! You can't stop me..."

Before the Lord of the Water World could finish speaking, "Lin Yilin" took a step and crossed the distance between them, kicking him.

Bang!
Niu Qianliu's body remained motionless, but a large whale flew directly out from behind him.

"You're the one who talks too much nonsense."

Lin Yilin grabbed Niu Qianliu's body with one hand and casually tossed him behind her without paying him any attention.

The whale let out a long, angry roar, even though another voice kept reminding it to stay calm, to end the plan decisively, and to run away with the water world first.

But it could not contain its rage; its remaining power surged forth without restraint, gathering within its body. It plunged headfirst into the water, which immediately became murky again, revealing swirling currents beneath, a danger brewing...

The water surface trembled violently, and the surrounding whirlpools and the boundary of the water-colored sky above began to blur.

“Mr. Illusion,” Lin Yilin called out.

"Mmm," Zheng replied with a smile.

Whoa!

The giant whale leaped out of the water, its eyes fixed on "Lin Yilin," then flipped over and pressed down on her.

Lin Yilin held her hands slightly apart at her sides, pointing diagonally at the water's surface. She lowered her head for a moment, as if preparing for some kind of ritual, before slowly raising them, her smile becoming even deeper.

"The earth dragon turns over."

At this moment, time seemed to stretch out for a very, very long time.

The image of the giant whale falling was slow and heavy; the magnificent blue specks on its body resembled azure stars. It was a vast world in itself, where everything in the aquatic world was condensed. Few beings here could withstand such immense pressure head-on.

But beneath the deep blue whale.

The water surface disappeared.

Blackness filled everything. The pitch-black earth dragon opened its blood-red maw and drank the water dry. Its mouth, which opened 180 degrees, could completely contain the entire giant whale.

The whale's gaze had not yet changed.

Bang!
The earthworm's slits closed like clamps, swallowing a giant whale large enough to blot out the sky, before slowly sinking and disappearing into the deep shadows beneath the water's surface.

The water became clear again, the turbulent rapids completely subsided, and everything returned to calm.

"Is it over...?" Bai Shi and Xu Leyang together pulled Niu Qianliu out of the water. They had been rescued by Shang Xia; they had almost died after being hit by the giant whale emerging from the water. The Lord of the World was still too strong; they couldn't defeat him even with all their might. Fortunately, they had bought enough time. After checking Niu Qianliu's body, everything was fine. He seemed to still be conscious and alert, but he couldn't move.

"Yes, things are settled here."

As soon as Lin Yilin finished speaking, the Water World lost the Lord of the Water World and most of its power. The Water World was no longer able to catch up with Train Zero in the spacetime track and began to weaken, breaking away on a large scale.

That's not all. After being separated and dispersed in the spacetime orbit, the water world will lose an unknown amount of its resources, almost to the point of being completely rebuilt.

It's likely that it won't rain for a long time after today.

(End of this chapter)