Chapter 151: The Battle of Minds

Lania helped the feeble Shadow up from the ground and briefly explained what had happened, including their speculations and the matters that had already been confirmed.

Shadow stared blankly at the place where Li Ren stood—or rather, at the enormous black block of ice standing there, radiating waves of deathly silence. It was difficult to believe that anything still living could exist within it.

“No, this is wrong! This is wrong!” Shadow muttered, as though he had suddenly realized something, and what he had realized had shaken him even more deeply. He was beginning to sound almost hysterical. “What he said isn’t true! He isn’t the Underworld King! There has never been an Underworld King! He’s lying! Go save Li Ren! Quickly!”

Shadow roared hoarsely. His already feeble body trembled violently under the strain. Landis watched his agitated expression—the bloodshot eyes, the veins standing out on his neck—then turned to look toward the Skeleton King and Li Ren. Her delicate brows drew tightly together.

Though she frowned, she did not hesitate in the slightest. After all, she had been with Li Ren and Shadow for a long time. Whether the Skeleton King was truly the Underworld King was important to her, but when forced to choose between the two, Landis selected Li Ren without the slightest hesitation.

She firmly believed that Li Ren was the one who would ultimately accomplish everything they had hoped for.

The Skeleton King watched Landis charge toward Li Ren, but made no attempt to stop her. He knew perfectly well that, after the terrifying power of the Annihilating Death Ray and its subsequent eruption, Li Ren had already been utterly annihilated from this world.

Even if Li Ren could somehow be rescued, it would already be too late.

Besides, the layer of black ice that appeared so fragile was nothing like its surface suggested.

Sure enough, Landis struck the black ice with all her strength, yet the blow merely caused it to tremble faintly. The force rebounding from it made her blood surge painfully within her.

Her complexion instantly took on a strange, flushed hue, but she was already preparing her second strike.

The second blow, then the third—she attacked without pause. In the end, the rebounding force alone shook blood from the corner of her mouth. That streak of red against her breathtakingly beautiful face was horrifying to behold.

Shadow let out a furious, unwilling roar.

He shoved away Lania, who had been supporting him, and staggered forward. Under the complicated gazes of Lania, Fan Yunshan, and the others, he swayed unsteadily toward Li Ren.

His pale, sickly face slowly filled with hatred, regret, and overwhelming unwillingness.

The world of the past had once been so familiar to him. Every road they had traveled appeared before his eyes one after another. All the possibilities, everything they might have repaired or remedied, came into view—except for this one missing piece.

The part where that damned Skeleton King had devoured Li Ren’s spirit fire.

They should have come to kill the Skeleton King long ago! He should have warned Li Ren to be wary of him! Or perhaps, in his carelessness, he had simply failed to anticipate that Li Ren would advance to the stage of blue spirit fire in such a short time.

What should have been news enough to fill them with boundless excitement had instead led them into this upheaval capable of overturning everything.

Damn that Skeleton King!

Damn the former Underworld King, who had never even truly existed!

The Skeleton King watched Shadow stagger forward, every step faltering as though he were about to collapse, yet somehow continuing to hold himself upright.

There was something in that stubbornly restrained force that made him deeply uncomfortable.

He could not explain the feeling. Even after hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years, he had maintained a state of mind as calm as still water. Yet in the presence of this insignificant figure, such powerful fluctuations had arisen within him.

He did not even realize that something so unnatural was happening. It all seemed perfectly normal, as though the fury now burning within him was exactly what he ought to feel.

In any case, he acted.

As Shadow made his way toward Li Ren, the Skeleton King finally struck.

Coming from behind, Lania clearly saw the Skeleton King’s fist slowly clench. Realizing that something was wrong, she tried to warn Shadow, but before she could finish speaking—before she had managed to shout more than a single word—the Skeleton King vanished from where he stood.

“Look out!”

Lania’s cry rang out. Her usually cool, faintly seductive voice suddenly rose to an ear-piercing pitch.

She ran toward Shadow as she shouted, as though her actions had been decided in advance, leaving no room for thought. Her forward rush was utterly natural. Only now did she truly understand that, in her heart, the title of former Underworld King had indeed never carried enough weight.

Shadow glanced back at Lania in surprise. As he saw her racing toward him, he seemed to realize something as well.

He smiled, perhaps because this might be the last concern anyone would ever show him.

Thus, within Lania’s beautiful, phoenix-shaped eyes, Shadow saw a skeleton slowly emerge before him. In that instant, he seemed to understand the meaning in her gaze, while Lania clearly saw the fleeting relief in his.

“Don’t!”

Lania accelerated wildly, throwing caution aside as she tried desperately to reach Shadow. The Skeleton King, however, grew even more ominous.

The four fingers of his sharp skeletal hand pressed tightly together. The piercing aura they radiated left no doubt that, with a single thrust, they could penetrate even solid rock as easily as tofu.

With a bang, Shadow was sent flying.

Strangely, he felt no pain at all.

“Go stand over there for now. I’ll settle this account with you later. Hmph! You’ve truly committed a grave offense by reducing me to this state!”

“Uh… what?”

Shadow froze. Even Lania, who had been charging toward him, stopped in astonishment. She had failed to control her momentum and continued rushing forward for quite some distance before finally coming to a halt.

Her breathtakingly beautiful, otherworldly face wore an utterly incongruous look of blank bewilderment.

“My… my lord?”

“Li Ren?”

“You bastard!”

Three voices came from three different people, and there could only be one person capable of provoking such reactions.

“Trying to take my life? It seems you’re still not quite good enough!”

Li Ren had one hand clamped around the Skeleton King’s thrusting arm. Blue flames burned coldly in his eyes as they fixed upon the Skeleton King, who inexplicably felt a bone-deep chill.