‘’Fuck you! Fuck this mission! I’ll come back a year later and beat the shit out of your ghost ass!’’

Speed picking up even further, Silver booming with brilliant light, Li Ao shot out of the gate behind the throne.

Instantly, he opened the missions tab and pressed on ‘Retreat’.

*Agent In Movement*

*Retreat In Progress!*

*5*

‘’You coward!’’

The spirit took off after him—his steps began to produce heavy clanks, and the armor shone with purple light!

Turning his head, Li Ao saw him into the air and float!

‘’YOU FUCKING CHEATER!’’

*4*

‘’You humans are the cheaters!’’

The spirit drew his sword. His purple aura seemed unable to spread out from the armor, however.

Howling, his figure drew an arc towards the ground and made a big, overhead swing towards the fleeing Li Ao.

*3*

It exploded into a crescent moon of deep purple!

The strike cut through two hundred meters in an instant and reached Li Ao’s back!

Eyes wide, Li Ao planted his feet and threw himself right.

The slash went past him, but suddenly stopped, then exploded into another sphere right in his face!

The moment it blasted, Li Ao heard the crack of a glass, and white crooked lines appeared around him.

His stomach sank as they vanished one by one.

*2—*

*Space is being compressed!*

*Coordinates are redrawn!*

*Retreat In Progress!*

*5*

His jaw on the floor, Li Ao cast a ridiculous gaze at the chuckling spirit.

‘’You can’t escape from me!’’

‘’NO FUCKING WAY!’’

By now, Li Ao had tears in his eyes.

‘’WHY IS LIFE SO UNFAIR!?’’

‘’FUCK THIS SYSTEM!’’

He shot to his feet and began to flee again.

The spirit overtook the sky and chased after him like a ghost.

Well, he was a ghost...

Li Ao tried to evade and move out of the way, but the pathway was narrow, too narrow to ignore, and the spirit always managed to guess where he would leap to avoid the blast.

Time and time again, crying out loud, Li Ao watched the timer reset back.

His body, by that point, was too burnt out. His joints hurt from over-extending, his ligaments burned, and his muscles began to char from the burning flames.

He tried to spread out the Silver Mist, but it couldn’t block the purple aura.

This Gravity Magic seemed to ignore everything, sneaking from another layer of space to appear on his location.

Li Ao used Dream Sight to put suggestions in his mind, either to stop attacking or slow down his strike.

However, the spirit didn’t fall for the same trick twice. The purple aura on his armor blocked the Soul Power from infiltrating his Ghostly psyche!

Li Ao cast a sliver of Hellfire to halt the spirit, but the motherfucker was too persistent to stop!

Its armor could absorb the strike, and the formations on his sword could cut through the remaining power with ease!

He was overpowered!

He was overgeared!

‘’So fucking unfair!’’

Constantly eating 9th-grade pills to hold on, Li Ao escaped for ten whole minutes.

Even then, he still couldn’t find a way to safely retreat.

At this point, desperate, his eyes turned to the broken passages and holes within the walls.

He had a slight chance to use the weird terrain to evade the Gravity Magic there.

There was also a very big chance he could fuck up the situation even more.

‘’Yet!’’

Yet, it was a certainty he would be deader than dead meat if this kept going on!

The ghost had possibly limitless stamina!

Using his body didn’t tire the spirit out. If he needed Qi, being a perfect conductive for it, he could replenish it with a breath.

He didn’t feel pain, nor was inexperienced enough to be overwhelmed by fear of death.

He was a full-fledged warrior who flourished as a ghost!

That was what made Li Ao madder!

Hell difficulty indicated that he had a chance to win—

Where the fuck was that chance!?

‘’Did I fuck it up in the beginning?’’

If he had struck with all his might in the first instance, perhaps it would be another case of Jie Mentai.

Perhaps it was the right move to strike using everything he had without waiting.

However, his encounter with the songstress made Li Ao wary of such a domineering act.

If he could; and this was a pipe hope, that he knew, resolve their grudges without killing, he would be more than happy to do so.

He wasn’t naive. He didn’t dream of getting over difficulties without any hardship.

He was just hopeful.

Hope and naivety could be used in the same circumstances, but they were never the same.

Gritting his teeth, Li Ao’s eyes turned steely.

‘’Just go for it!’’

‘’Isn’t it my specialty to fuck things up!?’’

‘’I’ll fuck it up even more!’’

Thinking so, not forgetting to check the Retreat Progress again, Li Ao laughed at the incoming spirit.

‘’Catch me if you can, sucker!’’

With that, he made a sudden turn and leaped into a hole to his right.

Right as he entered, the flames on his body cast a bright light over the looming legion of servants.

A thousand of them at the very least, all bowing to a bloody altar at the center. A fair lady sat there, sleeping, her eight arms spread out like the petals of a flower.

Each of her hands held a fresh heart, some humanoid, some beastly.

Right as he entered, all heads rose in unison to stare at Li Ao.

The ghastly gazes made his scalp tingle.

No, it was the purple aura striking!

Screeching, Li Ao rolled on the ground—the blast shot him forward, he clutched at the air, rolled, then fell with a boom.

The countdown began again.

Li Ao skidded across the floor to evade another slash and stood up, then began to race towards another hole leading out.

There was no fucking way he could stay here!

‘’Where art thou going, small intruder?’’

Li Ao didn’t turn his head, but the fair lady appeared within his Divine Sense.

Her head twisted, ankles broken, she had a terrifying smile on her gray-skinned face.

She crushed one of the hearts and began to accelerate towards Li Ao’s back!

Worse yet, the armored spirit sailed right into the room and brandished his long sword. One of the formations on it shot out like a flag of command!

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

A circle with a drop of blood appeared on every single servant’s head.

‘’Servants of the divine castle, heed my order!’’

‘’A presumptuous invader has disrupted the rest of our comrades!’’

‘’Chase him, catch him, and skin him alive! Let us sacrifice his flesh and bones to the Heavenly God!’’

‘’FOR THE IMMEASURABLE SUN!’’

With his shout, the servants all rose in unison.

Crackles, chuckles, grins, groans, shouts—fluctuations of martial arts, magical arts, then lights of all kinds.

Feeling his divine sense being overloaded, Li Ao shut it off. He was but a single step away from the other hole!

Taking the final leap, the purple aura exploded behind him and pushed him into the other room!

He tumbled and rolled on his knees, but Li Ao didn’t know any stop. His joints creaked from the large impact and shot him even further away!

Right when the timer reached one, a bloody aura cut at his back!

*Time Is Being Altered!*

*Timeflow With Home Realm Is Being Adjusted!*

*Adjusting Coordinates!*

*Retreat In Progress!*

*5*

Li Ao’s eyes popped out. ‘’Time magic!?’’

Sweat poured down his back, tears trailed down his eyes.

‘’Holy Heavens, I fucked up too much!’’

A thousand strong magical explosion shattered the wall behind him right then!

Li Ao cast a single sidelong glance, gasped in horror, then shot away!

The walls were sturdy, indeed, and even Core Formation cultivators couldn’t pierce through them without a bit of effort.

But what was the power of a thousand thirteenth-level Qi Condensation ghosts!?

Even if cultivators reigned supreme, who could win against pure numbers!?

There was no invincible cultivator!

Even the Demonic Emperor Of Cold Seasons, a peak-Soul Formation Demonic Emperor had no choice but to die in front of fifty thousand lower realm cultivators!

What was Li Ao?

Just a pipsqueak!

Just a foolish young master!

The broken pieces of the diamond wall began to crash all around him. Some small, some as large as thirty meters wide, their descent brought gales and whirlwinds upon his small frame.

They fell and smashed against the ground and furniture, cracking the ground. Li Ao threw himself up and down, trying to evade both the Gravity and Time magic, all the while finding gaps within the falling boulders.

If any of them fell on him, he would be squashed like a bug!

‘’What—’’

Right as he tried to leap again, Li Ao found no ground under him!

He slipped, grasped at another stone, but another volley of magic crashed at the ground!

With a boom, they completely shattered the entire floor!

‘’WAAAAAAAAAAAAA—’’

His balance lost, screaming, Li Ao fell down head first with the shower of rubble and dust.

Another volley arrived after him, a thousand different strikes with bright colors.

There was no need for him to burn himself at this point.

Just the residual light from these terrifying attacks could light up a few kilometers around them!

The spiritual and soul pressure from these strikes made Li Ao’s instincts blare like sirens in his ears. Pouring sweat made his eyes turn bloodshot.

‘Don’t panic!’

Li Ao cast a glance at the incoming volley, then down at the falling boulder.

Time seemed to flow down in his head—his Spiritual Qi poured into every inch of his body like a silent flood.

‘Don’t panic! There is still hope!’

There was still hope left!

So long as there was hope, there was no room for defeat!

Who could defeat a hopeful cultivator!?

‘A cultivator perseveres!’

His eyeballs like bouncy balls, in a moment Li Ao read the trajectory of the falling boulders.

With another gaze to his back, he saw the armored spirit preparing another slash.

The fair lady still held three hearts in her hands, pulsating with fresh blood.

A little away from the duo, yet hot on his chase were the thousand servants with their flashing strikes.

They all looked like falling ants in the gigantic room.

All of these, Li Ao observed in a fraction of a second.

Right after, Li Ao’s eyes flashed deep blue!

A sharp pain stung his head, but he endured it!

He had endured harder pain!

The armored spirit braced himself, but the silent wave of Soul Power passed by him!

It struck the fair lady, and her hand suddenly twisted left instead of right—

The purple slash escaped right then!

The bloody beam of light cut half-way solid, then lost its path and struck the purple aura!

It actually pushed it further away from Li Ao!

Laughing like a mad monkey, Li Ao clawed at the nearest boulder and flung himself away.

The blast pushed him right where he wanted—with a boom, a gust of sharp wind raised him between two boulders.

Li Ao threw himself forward and stomped again!

His cultivation was three-fold—his every strike was three fold!

Now, without any base to support its sturdiness, how could the mid-air diamond walls resist the strong momentum that could crack small hills?

Of course it couldn’t!

With a boom, it fell again, this time shattering through another floor!

The thousand flashes of magical strikes passed overhead right then and crashed at another wall. Booms and explosions rocked the immediate area, but Li Ao was already down and ready to escape!

Holding his body low to the falling boulder, Li Ao pushed himself forward with four limbs and leaped away.

The counter began again!

*5*

As he was sailing through the air, the armored spirit flew down from the upper floor!

‘’You cannot evade me!’’

His sword on hip, the purple aura on his armor flowed in a flash to his blade.

*4*

‘’Who said I’m avoiding you!?’’

Putting his hands forward, a black flame appeared within Li Ao’s palm!

A pair of triangles popped out, one in front of him, and the other right in the spirit’s face!

Behind them, the fair lady jumped down, accompanied by four hundred servants that could follow!

*3*

‘’Little child, don’t forget me!’’

Her smile widening, teeth blinding, she crushed the remaining hearts at once!

The bloody aura around her expanded thrice and formed into vengeful, shrieking shapes of amalgamated spirits.

Blood pouring out of their mouths and ears, each of them began to sail down, screaming towards Li Ao!

*2*

‘’Watch how I fight to death with you two retards!’’

The Hell flame roared into being on his palm and Li Ao pushed it into the triangle!

Right with it, his eyes flashed deep blue towards the duo!

‘’Useless!’’

‘’I am no fool!’’

*1*

The hellflame appeared within the armored spirit’s face, expanded into a mass of writhing black flames, but didn’t explode!

No, right as the screeching blood ghosts and the purple aura expanded, the servants behind them acted out!

A dozen of them mis-directed their spells at the back of the fair lady and armored spirit!

‘’Ugh!’’

‘’AAAGH!’’

The armor protected the spirit, who flew a dozen meters away to the other side, but the fair lady wasn’t so well off—five of her arms got torn in a blinding shower of lights.

Li Ao’s eyes twinkled for a moment— Golden Maw and Bubbles appeared at the same time!

Yet, even then, against all the improvised tactics the armored spirit didn't give in!

He made a single movement—his sword slashed at the Hellfire!

The purple aura expanded again, shot right through the Hellflire, then drew a beautiful arc through the air to strike Li Ao in the chest!

‘’Agh—’’

*Retreat In Progress!*

*5*

‘That fucking armor!’

Bubbles let out a shiver and escaped back into his spatial ring.

Seething, Li Ao grasped the Golden Maw and put him in front of his chest.

The equipment!

It was the fault of the fucking higher-realm equipment!

No, it was magic!

How could mere foot soldiers know Gravity and Time magic!?

‘’Desperate measures!’’

Now, Li Ao had no more tricks left to play.

He crashed onto the ground, cast a single look, then began to rush at the nearest passage leading outside.

The armored spirit withdrew his sword, expanded the purple aura around his armor, then flew after him in a flash. The fair lady let out mouthfuls of blood to follow, and with her the rest of the servants began to pour out.

A few hundred more servants descended after them to join, but Li Ao had put up a good distance with his surprise strike.

They could interrupt his retreat, but that was the only thing they could do. Golden Maw blocked the damage way too well!

Strikes flew in the air like falling stars, cracking the previously-indestructible believed walls of the palace. The booms echoed a few kilometers all around them.

But again, it wasn’t enough!

Taking a deep breath, Li Ao’s chest swelled like an inflated balloon! Air currents surged around his nostrils.

Once he felt it enough, Li Ao shouted.

‘’SENIOR BROTHERS, SENIOR SISTERS, HELP MEEEEEEEEEEE!’’

Behind him, expressions of the armored spirit and fair lady turned strange.

‘’SENIOR BROTHERS, SENIOR SISTERS, I’M BEING MURDERED, HELP! HELP!’’

‘’No, he has no allies! He is bluffing!’’

‘’Right, right!’’

Muttering to each other, the duo of ghost cultivators still pushed themselves further to catch up.

However, it was too fucking hard!

Once this fellow decided to run with all his might, none of them seemed to be able to get any closer!

That damned shield of his, too, absorbed the impact far too well!

They could only maintain this distance!

Right then, Li Ao found the hallway coming to an end, so he leaped to another room.

Inside, he saw two thousand servants and sixteen warriors, all of them kneeling before another empty throne.

With his entrance, the armored warriors turned around to look at him. They seemed more puzzled than surprised by his shout.

‘’There are intruders behind me, you must kill them!’’

‘’Huh?’’

‘’Intruders?’’

‘’Who are you?’’

While the ghost cultivators remained confused, not even up their feet, Li Ao ran right past them and escaped from the large gate behind the throne.

‘’KILL THAT HUMAN!’’

‘’DON’T LET HIM ESCAPE!’’

After Li Ao, the chasing group leaped into the room and bellowed at the crowd. Circled drops of blood appeared on the forehead of the still servants.

Alongside it, shouts of the armored spirit and fair lady brought the warriors’ attention back.

Their hidden eyes flashing with fury and embarrassment, purple auras began to sprout out of their body and envelop their armor.

In a moment, Li Ao found himself being chased by sixteen more masters of Gravity Magic!

‘’Oh heavens, I fucked up!’’

‘’I fucked up big time!’’