The Last Sentinel

Two flowers have bloomed, let's return to Chentang Pass.

Dark clouds pressed down on the sky, and not a ray of light could be seen in the heavy sky.

The clouds hung so low they seemed to press down on the battlements, their inky blackness occasionally punctuated by flashes of purple lightning that cast an unpredictable glow over the ancient city.

A fierce gale howled and swirled, while towering, turbid waves surged skyward, crashing repeatedly against the ancient city's dark, jagged stone walls, sending spray flying everywhere. With each impact, the walls trembled slightly, shattering the salt frost accumulated at their base into dust, which, mixed with the stench of the sea, billowed into the air.

The tattered Shang Dynasty royal flag fluttered wildly in the gale, a half-burnt rope wrapped around its pole. Only a third of the flag remained, yet it still stubbornly pointed in a certain direction. The plaque on the city gate tower was stained with dark red, dried bloodstains, and the three large characters "Chen Tang Pass" could be faintly seen.

A beam of divine light descended from the sky and landed on the city wall of Chentang Pass.

The celestial light vanished, and the newcomer was none other than Li Jing, the head of the Li family of Chentang Pass.

Li Jing's face was grim, her brows were furrowed, her lips were pressed into a straight line, and she hurried towards the main hall of Chentang Pass.

As you travel along the road, in the ancient city of Chentang Pass, the official road has collapsed, and cracks extend from the city gate to the end of the main street, with the widest part being able to swallow a horse-drawn carriage.

The buildings in the city were all reduced to ashes, with charred wooden beams leaning against the rubble. Occasionally, unburnt paper money would be swept up by the wind and swirl into the air.

All living things in the city have turned into stone statues, remaining in a state of panicked flight. Some have their mouths wide open, some have their hands outstretched, and some are even holding children, as if a ferocious beast is attacking from above the city walls, causing the people in the city to flee in a panic.

Further in, you can see the skeletons of monsters as big as small mountains, looking ferocious and menacing, with dried flesh still hanging on the white bones, and a few clumps of withered grass growing between the ribs.

If you're lucky, you might even see the skeleton of a half-dragon after walking a few steps, stretching across several streets. The dragon's spine is like an archway across the air, and its scales are scattered all over the ground, crunching underfoot.

Li Jing walked across the street, oblivious to everything, her boots making a monotonous sound as they crushed bones and rubble.

His gaze remained fixed ahead, as if the carnage was irrelevant to him, or as if he had witnessed it countless times before. Soon, he arrived at the entrance of an antique-style mansion.

The two characters "Li Mansion" on the mansion were very eye-catching, and they were spotless amidst the ashes of the city, as if they had been carefully wiped clean.

The two lanterns swayed in the wind, their flames flickering, casting half-light and half-dark light on the stone lions at the entrance.

Li Jing hesitated for a moment, his fingers resting on the door knocker, his knuckles turning slightly white. He took a deep breath and finally pushed the door open. The door hinges made a dull thud, like a sigh.

As soon as I entered, a voice came from the front hall: "Brother Li, how is it?"

Facing them, Young Master Jie, dressed in a black feathered fairy robe, sat cross-legged on a cloud bed, seemingly uninterested in facing the heavens.

Beneath the cloud bed, black mist swirled slowly, obscuring half his face in shadow. The feathers of his black fairy robes were clearly defined, trembling slightly in the windless front hall as if they were alive.

Li Jing cupped his hands and said, "I inform you, young master, as you predicted, Sentinel Ye Feng is indeed in Longyuan!" He lowered his head, his gaze falling on the blue bricks in front of the cloud bed, not daring to look directly at Mo Lijie's face.

If Ye Feng were here, he would probably be utterly astonished by these words.

Ye Feng thought the other party was unaware of his identity, but he never expected that the old fox Li Jing knew everything. She had been putting on an act for him the whole time. From Longyuan to Chentang Pass, every word and every expression was a carefully rehearsed performance.

Mo Lijie said calmly, "When Qi Tian merged with the Great Sage's will of Huaguo Mountain, I guessed that Ye Feng's true body had already returned to the present. However, no matter what, I can't calculate Ye Feng's exact whereabouts. So there can only be one possibility: Ye Feng is not within the scope of the myriad worlds." As he spoke, he slowly opened his eyes, and a black light flashed in the depths of his pupils.

"If it's not within the myriad realms, then it can only be within the myriad phenomena of the heavens or some other third-party force!"

"Therefore, I'm sending you to Longyuan."

"As the leading arms market in the world, Ye Feng, who is always looking for good news, will definitely be waiting for news there!" Mo Lijie's tone was calm, as if he were talking about a trivial matter, but every word was like a chess piece that had been played after countless deductions.

Li Jing flattered, "Young Master, your wisdom is truly admirable. However, Young Master, Ye Feng has now pledged allegiance to the Myriad Realms. Although I don't know exactly what benefits he has gained, the Dragon Abyss Clan Chief Ao Bai is extremely respectful to Ye Feng, even saying that Frost Ancestor is Ye Feng's senior brother!" As he said this, he secretly glanced at Mo Lijie's expression.

"What?!"

Mo Lijie stumbled, nearly falling off the cloud bed. The feathers on his black fairy robe suddenly burst open, then quickly closed again. He grabbed the edge of the cloud bed, his knuckles turning white. "You, what did you say!" For the first time, his voice trembled slightly.

Li Jing said, "Ye Feng has pledged allegiance to the Myriad Forms of the Heavens and has even become the senior brother of Frost Ancestor, the dean of the Scripture Repository of Pangu Academy!"

Mo Lijie frowned deeply, his brows furrowed into a deep frown. His left hand moved with incredible speed, his fingers forming obscure runes that appeared and disappeared at his fingertips. His face grew increasingly pale, turning from ashen to ashen, then flushed, as he muttered to himself.

"How could this happen!"

"That doesn't make sense!"

"How did Ye Feng's luck suddenly change!"

"I calculated his destiny on the Perfect Continent, and it seemed quite ordinary. How could it have changed?"

Mo Lijie continued his calculations, the runes on his fingertips growing denser and denser until they almost condensed into a cloud of black mist, yet he still couldn't figure it out. He abruptly stopped, his chest heaving violently, which he then forcefully suppressed.

This cannot be blamed on Mo Lijie's lack of skill. Ever since he killed his junior brother Zhao Changcheng, Mo Lijie has absorbed all of Zhao Changcheng's divination and deduction power. Now, Mo Lijie's divination power is three times stronger than Zhao Changcheng's! Looking at the entire Heavenly Court, there are few who can rival his divination skills.

You can only blame Ye Feng for being too cunning; who else could summon eight clones to work for them?

Currently, the entity in charge of Ye Feng's original Perfect Continent is Ye Feng's university clone—Old Brain.

The old brain sits somewhere on the Perfect Continent, maintaining the flow of its own energy day after day, compressing all fluctuations into a flat line.

Mo Lijie's calculations were based on the old brain's division of me, not Ye Feng's true self!

This is like having your fortune told by a stuntman; no matter how accurate the prediction is, it's still just the stuntman's fate.

Li Jing handed over the list and contract: "Sir, this is the order Ye Feng and Ao Bai placed with us. Please take a look..."

Mo Lijie didn't even glance at it, simply pushing the order aside, the wind from his sleeve rustling the papers: "No need! I already know the result."

Li Jing was stunned, her hand frozen in mid-air: "Sir, you've deduced it?"

"They're nothing but material possessions." Mo Lijie flicked his sleeve, speaking with nonchalance, his black feathered immortal robes drawing an arc behind him. "They're all just verbal agreements. No matter how much they ask for, or how much we give, it's all fake. I sent you to Longyuan to see Ye Feng for only one thing."

Li Jing asked, "One thing?"

"That's right." Mo Lijie's eyes blazed, the black light deep within them suddenly igniting like two burning black flames. A cold smile curved his lips: "I will force Ye Feng into the dimensional battlefield!"

Li Jing said, "But...but Ye Feng didn't say he was entering the dimensional battlefield!"

"He will." Mo Li robbed, his tone resolute, as if stating a fact already accomplished: "I had you bring Ye Feng the Endless Tear, which he desperately needed, and I also told him its coordinates. Incidentally, I told him this was his first reason for going to the Dimensional Battlefield."

"The second reason is that the ambush I orchestrated killed his junior brother Qi Tian's younger sister. This incident has completely corrupted Qi Tian and greatly enraged Ye Feng. Although Ye Feng hasn't said anything, he always personally takes action to wipe out entire families when it comes to killing his relatives and friends! Therefore, in order to kill me, he will inevitably enter the dimensional battlefield." As Mo Lijie said this, his fingers unconsciously stroked the edge of the cloud bed, and the smile on his lips deepened.

Li Jing nodded and said, "Then, what's the third reason?"

Mo Lijie glanced at Li Jing, his gaze like two knives scraping across her face: "The third reason, and also the reason for the battle of Huaguo Mountain, is that the true deciding factor in the battle of Huaguo Mountain was never on the Huaguo Mountain battlefield itself, nor was it the fierce battle between the soldiers of Chentang Pass and the fifty-five interstellar legions of Qitian, but rather the duel between the strongest on the dimensional battlefield!"

"Our era is an extraordinary era, where the strength of the individual has greatly squeezed the space for collectivist warfare."

"The outcome of the battle between the strongest players will directly determine the victor of this war."

"I understand this principle, and Ye Feng understands it too. No matter the reason, no matter whether he can kill me or not, Ye Feng needs to find an opportunity to clash with me!" Mo Lijie's voice suddenly rose and then fell, like a knife slowly being sheathed.

Li Jing asked, "Then, young master, will you also be going to the dimensional battlefield?"

"Otherwise what?" Mo Lijie flicked his sleeves, stood up, and his black feathered immortal robes unfurled behind him, resembling a giant black bird: "Stay in the Heavenly Court and join Hua Xiaobai and his gang of scoundrels in corruption?"

"Original Sin is greedy and ambitious, constantly suppressing his cultivation and unwilling to enter the Yellow Heaven Realm!"

"This makes it impossible for me to estimate the true power of the original sin of greed."

"This time, he used Hua Xiaobai to ostracize me, just to force me to fight him, so that he can kill me and replace me with the sin of arrogance!" Mo Lijie's fist slowly clenched, his knuckles making a cracking sound, the feathers of the black feather immortal robe exploded again, and his killing intent almost solidified.

"How could he possibly fathom my sin of arrogance?"

"Greed lured me into this game, so I'll drag Ye Feng into it too—let's create a three-way kill!"

At this point, Mo Lijie threw his head back and laughed loudly. The laughter echoed in the empty front hall, hitting the walls and bouncing back, layer upon layer, as if countless Mo Lijies were laughing at the same time.

Li Jing hurriedly chimed in, "How dare those six good-for-nothings be listed alongside Young Master Arrogance as one of the Seven Deadly Sins!"

He was hunched over, a smile plastered on his face, but a fleeting, almost imperceptible glint of coldness flashed in the depths of his eyes.