26. Lightning, Scythe

"Clack, clack, clack!"

Lin Fan retreated a few steps, his body stiffening abruptly. A wave of numbness spread from the point of contact, and his right arm went completely numb. Lin Fan was astonished; Yao Chenxuan's attack had possessed the force of a thousand pounds and was accompanied by an electric shock. He could not understand what kind of transformation Yao Chenxuan had undergone. He had to remember that he himself had only reached the First Spring realm after consuming the Golden Crow blood and enduring a brush with death.

Yet, Yao Chenxuan had acquired the same level of strength without the slightest effort.

This was troublesome.

Lin Fan finally understood why Huang Dongshan had only seen him once on the day he woke up, leaving the rest to Huang Qiushan. It was because he was confident that they could never stir up any real trouble.

"Perhaps Huang Dongshan gained extraordinary power the moment he entered the ancient ship... that is the only explanation." Lin Fan thought to himself. Yao Chenxuan, standing before him, gave him no chance to catch his breath. The mace in his hand descended like a torrential downpour, strike after strike, shaking the underground palace as if it were suffering from a continuous earthquake.

At this moment, Yao Chenxuan seemed to have awakened some kind of power, and combined with his armor, he was capable of both defense and offense.

"Hmm?"

Suddenly, Lin Fan noticed something. Whenever Yao Chenxuan attacked, seven stars seemed to flicker on the armor. Every time they flashed, Yao Chenxuan launched an attack.

"So, that's the junk providing him with power!"

Lin Fan remained calm, continuing to tangle with him. Suddenly, with a backhand motion, he thrust his sword under Yao Chenxuan’s left armpit. The strike was imbued with vital energy. *Swish!* It moved like a striking viper, incredibly fast. Before Yao Chenxuan could react, he let out a sharp cry. The armor could protect his front and back, but his sides were a weakness.

"Drip, drip!"

Blood trickled down from the tip of the sword.

Lin Fan exerted more force, pushing the Pure Yang Sword upward with a violent surge. *Bang!* The armor was pried off Yao Chenxuan’s body. Yao Chenxuan’s immense strength rapidly faded, and his right arm could no longer support the weight of the mace, which fell to the ground with a heavy thud.

Yao Chenxuan stared at him with absolute horror, "How could you find the weak point of the armor?"

The armor was a rare magical artifact, integrated inside and out. When he first acquired it, he had spent a long time researching how to wear it and had become inseparable from it. He never imagined it would be broken so easily.

Yao Chenxuan, refusing to accept defeat, reached out to grab the armor again, but a flash of cold light struck. He let out another scream as his palm was severed. The sight of the severed hand was stark and jarring. Without the armor, he was just an ordinary man, unable to withstand the attack. Yao Chenxuan clutched his severed hand in agony, cold sweat dripping from his forehead.

"Don't kill me..." Yao Chenxuan stammered, his lips trembling.

"Does Huang Dongshan possess the same power as you?" Lin Fan asked, holding his sword.

"He... I don't know..."

Yao Chenxuan suddenly thought of something, his eyes filled with overwhelming fear. Compared to Lin Fan, he feared Huang Dongshan’s brutality even more.

*Swish!*

Lin Fan slashed his sword across Yao Chenxuan’s throat. Yao Chenxuan clutched his neck as the light of life faded from his eyes. Even in death, he could not believe that Lin Fan had actually killed him.

Everyone in Laboratory 701 belonged to Huang Dongshan; they had never intended to let them leave alive from the very beginning.

***

"I remember that 701 isn't just Yao Chenxuan... there's Huang Dongshan..."

Lin Fan took a deep breath. If he hadn't seen Yao Chenxuan, he might have assumed Huang Dongshan was just an ordinary person. Now, it seemed likely that Huang Dongshan had grasped extraordinary power long ago.

"This mace is heavy; one strike and any person would be crushed to death!"

Lin Fan picked up the mace. Only someone with his strength could wield it with such ease. *Zzzzt!* Lin Fan channeled his vital energy into the mace, and suddenly, electric sparks crackled across its surface.

Yao Chenxuan had no vital energy, so he couldn't utilize the mace properly; he relied entirely on raw strength to smash people, never realizing that the lightning was the true power of the weapon.

"The mace will be perfect for my left hand to swing at people!"

Lin Fan carried the mace and walked deeper into the underground palace, remaining vigilant of his surroundings. This was his first time in the seventh level; if there were any terrifying entities present, he would retreat immediately.

"So many non-human skeletons!"

The underground palace was vast, filled with the remains of non-human creatures: upright beings with wings, others resembling gibbons, and skeletons that looked like dragons... There was no telling how long these remains had been here.

Stepping into this area, every dark corner felt infinitely eerie. With every step, he could hear muffled sounds.

Suddenly—

Lin Fan stopped in his tracks. Ahead of him stood three humanoid figures.

"Yao Chenxuan?"

Huang Dongshan was dressed in a crisp suit with a white lab coat over it, wearing rimless glasses; he looked like a refined scholar. At that moment, he was holding a glass container, force-feeding Golden Crow blood to Tu Lixian. Tu Lixian, a student of Elder Yang, refused to submit, so he was being used for experiments.

Tu Lixian’s hands were bound, and he appeared to have suffered much abuse, having no strength left to resist.

"No! You aren't Yao Chenxuan. He doesn't walk with such light steps." Huang Dongshan immediately sensed something. He turned around, stunned at first, and then filled with immense surprise.

Who did he see? It was Lin Fan, carrying the Pure Yang Sword!

He had kept Huang Qiushan watching Lin Fan, with orders to notify him the moment there was any movement. Just moments ago, he had received word that Lin Fan had entered the Stele Forest. As expected, he had gone to retrieve the sword.

Huang Dongshan had been studying the Sarira with Elder Yang and knew many of its secrets. He had concluded that the fusion of the Pure Yang Sword and the Sarira was what had brought them here, so locating the sword had been Huang Qiushan's primary mission.

Huang Dongshan had been trying to force the secrets of the Sarira and the Pure Yang Sword out of Elder Yang, but the old man was stubborn and refused to say a word.

When he saw Lin Fan approaching with the Pure Yang Sword, Huang Dongshan was ecstatic. Perhaps his luck had finally turned.

From the depths of misfortune, fortune had arrived!

However, Lin Fan wasn't here to deliver a package; he was here to find him. Huang Dongshan had not yet realized this.

"Using living people for experiments—are you even human?" Lin Fan said coldly. Since he had already been exposed, he no longer saw a need to hide.

"As long as I can get what I want, what does it matter if they are living people?" Huang Dongshan looked on with disdain. In his eyes, living people were of no consequence. Tu Lixian was not the first to drink the Golden Crow blood. He gestured to a pool of blood not far away and added, "Look there. Before you arrived, another one couldn't handle the violent energy of the Golden Crow blood and was burned alive, reduced to ash."

That pool of blood belonged to Yan Zhichen, another one of Elder Yang's students who refused to submit to him.

Huang Dongshan had force-fed him unrefined Golden Crow blood, and he had been instantly torn apart by the violent energy.

The scene was like pumping air into a balloon until it popped—*bang!*—leaving nothing but fragments.

"Huang Dongshan, you are devoid of humanity. Don't you know that Yao Chenxuan, Huang Qiushan, and everyone else who took your orders have all been killed by me?"

"I am here today to kill you!"

Lin Fan pointed his sword at Dongshan, his face etched with severity.

"Heh, you don't know what you're talking about. That lot under Huang Qiushan had no value; mere mortals, they died, so be it. Everyone in my Laboratory 701 possesses extraordinary power. You will never know who you are up against," Huang Dongshan sneered.

"Tap, tap, tap!"

Simultaneously, Wu Jingxing walked slowly toward Lin Fan. He was about 1.8 meters tall, with short hair and a long face, dressed in black as if he were blending into the night. Wu Jingxing held a weapon resembling a scythe—a very strange piece, covered in mottled rust that looked like dried blood. As he approached Lin Fan, he swung the scythe violently.

"Whoosh!"

Wu Jingxing’s aura changed drastically. He looked like the Grim Reaper, prepared to harvest a life. The swing of the scythe was accompanied by the howling of an eerie wind, a coldness that touched the very soul, as if he were in an extremely frigid netherworld, making one's hair stand on end.

"Another special weapon!"

Lin Fan felt a chill in his heart. He instinctively raised his mace to block. *Bang!* The scythe passed through the mace in an impossible manner and struck Lin Fan.

"This is..."

Lin Fan felt as if he had been lashed by a whip, experiencing immense pain, yet he could find no wound. Black mist began to seep from his chest.

Cold energy entering his body?

Lin Fan circulated his Jade Void Breathing Technique, forcing the cold energy out of his body, which made him feel much better. But before he could catch his breath, Wu Jingxing’s attack came again. His movements were fierce and domineering, in perfect sync with the scythe. The long blade seemed to carry the screams of countless ghosts as it sliced toward Lin Fan’s waist.

*Swish!*

Lin Fan activated the Pure Yang Sword, channeling his vital energy into the blade. Suddenly, the sword glowed with a brilliant light. A strand of pure yang energy erupted like a thunderclap, instantly dispelling the cold, eerie aura within the palace.

Blade met sword!

The Pure Yang Sword was the ancestral blade of Zhenwu Mountain, kept on the mountain to receive the offerings of incense, and it possessed a powerful ability to suppress demons and evil spirits. The scythe was also a magical artifact, but it could not be compared to the Pure Yang Sword.

"Crack!"

The scythe was sliced cleanly into two pieces. Wu Jingxing froze upon hearing the sound, never expecting the Pure Yang Sword to hold such immense power.