Chapter 101: Escape

Zhou Tian understood that Anduin had probably not carried the voice through, fearing they could not bear it.

The silhouette of the energy construct drew near, each step steady as if a living man stood inside armor. Its metal hands, each over three times the size of a normal man's, spread wide. Ridges of light flared across them; power gathered, and a mass of pure white flame roared up, then was shaped into a spear nearly three meters long.

Although its sentience had been worn nearly away over ages, it could still recognize that blasphemous language—the vilest of all evil tongues—and had counters prepared for it.

Anduin remained motionless. His mutter quickened, seeping into the void and echoing through the place, and the creatures there writhed all the more violently. They were only petty, peddling little evils. How could they stand against blasphemy, the worst of all corrupting speech?

The energy construct’s armor blazed brightly, runes flickering. Its spear pointed straight at Anduin in the cage.

Anduin suddenly lifted his head. His eyes were utterly black, even the pupils gone. A halo of gold flared in his hand; behind him, a red phantom looked to the sky and let out a long cry as the gold burst outward.

Boom!

Flames rose over the cage, and white runes appeared on the bars. This was a seal hidden deep in the cage’s depths, rarely seen. At this moment it manifested and strengthened itself, to block the divine radiance from passing through.

Alas, when the structure was whole, the cage’s seal could have stopped even this thin strand of divinity without effort; now, it could no longer hold.

The divine light pierced the seal and shot through the armor into the interior, and the construct’s movement stumbled. Its whole body locked.

The inner light flickered wildly. Across the armor covering it appeared line upon line, and impossibly intricate runes formed a massive seal that trapped the core of inner light, tainted by a foreign divinity.

Its outer armored limbs folded in and it froze, rooted in place.

When this construct was made, for safety it had been divided into inner consciousness and outer armor. If one part failed, the other would trigger the lock.

Seeing this, Anduin also closed his mouth, wiped the sweat from his brow, and spoke in a calm voice.

“It is done. Let them come.”

…

In the room where Zhou Tian had brought him, the holy sword fixed beside the statue of the Judging Envoy flashed, and an image was projected: the energy construct, motionless.

“What is that offspring of the evil god doing now?”

A white-robed man frowned. Since the child of the evil god had been confined here, such incidents were no longer unfamiliar.

The first time it happened, they had been at full alert, but nothing came of it; after a while in holy light, the construct recovered by itself.

“One thing,” said another white-robed man, “the Tribunal has brought in quite a few more prisoners in this period. For safety, send a few holy knights to take a look.”
The others nodded.

In the Tribunal, minutes dripped by. Zhou Tian waited in silence. Then Anduin nodded at him; Zhou Tian understood his men were here.

A moment later a glimmering line of gold came into view. Only after they arrived did he realize they were ten knights in gold armor, each fully encased and armed with swords at the hip.

The one in front removed his helmet, revealing a weathered face with tight brows and a stern, cold gaze.

Zhou Tian did not hesitate—he teleported out of the cage immediately. Since the cage was still some distance from the entrance, he could not reach the spatial corridor in a single jump.

Still, he could already see it. As Anduin had predicted, it was a long, enduring corridor, with two gold-clad knights on guard.

No sooner did they sense him than they reacted. Their holy swords flew free from their hilts; two fierce blade-lights cut through the air with shrieking thunder. These were knights of the Holy God Church, each strong enough to contend with someone of the Form-and-Image realm.

The knights behind them reacted too. Their leader’s face changed at once and he shouted,
“Come and die!”

He had no time to move before his sword-light had already struck out—like a flood of stars reversed. The others answered in kind, cutting off their own lines of light. The area flashed, the air ringing with cutting cold energy. Zhou Tian lifted one brow and stayed where he stood, unmoving.

Without a sound, all twelve attacks vanished, each sealed away by him. He teleported again, now one step from the corridor.

Though his movement had been strange, the two guards did not slow. Energy surged across them. With a shout, they raised their radiant longswords and chopped toward him.

“Stop!”

Zhou Tian answered with a light exhale—not at the one before him, but at the knight thrusting from behind. A sacred word, empowered by the count of deaths upon it, descended. The knight—who was no match for that Dao-Master—froze at once.

He flicked his hand and sent out a line of sword-light. Though only eighty percent of its former strength, it was enough. With a wet crack, into the stunned man’s body it drove; blood sprayed, and his head was severed, rolling on the ground, while fear still widened his eyes.

Then he sent another sword-light from his mouth. The knight who had dived from the air was forced to veer away.

In a sidestep, Zhou Tian entered the spatial corridor. The last thing he saw was the leader’s angry strike, but it came a heartbeat too late.

When he emerged from the corridor, the four white-robed men outside all changed color at once. Holy flames rose and rushed him in unison, but he was ready.

A thick sword-light burst from him—the knight-captain’s own kind of blade-light, with several more following it.

Boom!

A crushing collision, shockwaves cascading. The four together met the strike, and when the dust settled, Zhou Tian’s figure had vanished. Their faces were ashen.

Zhou Tian teleported straight upward to his maximum range and appeared in midair. Looking down, he saw the spired district into which he had been forced. Though a barrier formation had been laid there, it had not been enough to stop his departure.

Before that foolish pontiff could even react, Zhou Tian chose a direction at random, dropped to the ground, and slipped away.

Soon after, a burst of light rose from the central cathedral. A human-shaped apparition hundreds of feet high appeared with a laurel crown on its head. Wave after wave of prayer rolled out, holy beyond measure, as it swept its gaze across all of Seler City and found nothing.

Zhou Tian had already left the city by teleportation.

“At last, out.”

Outside Seler City, on a small rise, Zhou Tian appeared. He winced, straightened his back, sat on the grass, and drew out the strip of blood-red silk from his chest.

“Now we just wait for that fellow’s followers to come hunting.”

He thought for a moment, then teleported farther away; this place still felt too close.

He found a cave, slipped inside, and waited in silence.

Please bookmark and recommend.