Just as everyone was certain that Lu Xihe would meet his end this time, many people covered their eyes and turned away, afraid to witness the bloody scene.
The violent collision of abilities produced a deafening roar, like a bomb dropping, blasting dust and debris into the air. In an instant, the barrier was shrouded in swirling dust, and no one could see what was happening inside.
Li Yuanshan stared unblinkingly at where the two had been standing within the barrier, the corners of his mouth twitching uncontrollably, as if all the blood in his veins was boiling at this moment.
Yet when the dust cleared, the anticipated sight of Lu Xihe gravely wounded and collapsed on the ground never appeared. Instead, the city guard was firmly restrained by him, and Lu Xihe had merely raised his right hand to effortlessly and steadily catch the city guard’s heavy blow.
The city guard remained suspended mid-air in his attacking stance, continuously channeling ability energy into his right hand, but even with waves of golden light reinforcing him, Lu Xihe stood utterly motionless.
Sensing the force from the other side gradually weakening, Lu Xihe closed his five fingers around the city guard’s hand, spun him in a full circle through the air, and hurled him away with brutal force. The city guard slammed heavily into the ability barrier right in front of Li Yuanshan.
Startled, Li Yuanshan fell straight off the fountain pool. Had the captain of the city guard not caught him in time, the three-meter drop would certainly have broken his leg.
Still shaken, Li Yuanshan climbed back onto the edge of the fountain pool but dared not ascend the cascading platform again. He summoned several more city guards to stand around him for protection before shouting furiously at the city guard inside the barrier:
“What the hell are you doing? Get up and fight!”
The city guard, who had just taken a devastating hit, was dazed from the impact. Rubbing his wrist that had nearly been dislocated, he stared at Lu Xihe in disbelief.
Lu Xihe had simply stood in place and absorbed what was nearly his full-powered strike without even swaying.
The city guard refused to accept it. He was a Level 4 ability user, while Lu Xihe was merely Level 3, there was no reason he should lose.
He backed up a few steps to reset his stance, let out a fierce shout, and charged at Lu Xihe with all his ability energy. But this time, he couldn’t even get close. Still five or six meters away, several green vines materialized out of thin air and wrapped around his limbs.
“?!?!” Li Yuanshan’s eyes bulged in shock. He jumped off the fountain pool, shoved through the crowd pressed against the barrier, and stood at the very front.
With his movements bound by the vines, the city guard transformed both arms into blades and slashed wildly at the vines.
In the Five Elements, Metal overcomes Wood, even at the same level, facing a countering element meant certain defeat. Yet his steel blades couldn’t even sever these thin green vines of Lu Xihe’s.
After a frenzy of chopping, until his ability was depleted and he was utterly exhausted, the city guard still couldn’t break free from Lu Xihe’s vine chains.
“How is this possible?!” The city guard stared blankly at the vines coiled around his arms, as if struck by an earth-shattering revelation. “This morning, I clearly…”
“Clearly what? Clearly tested that I’m only a Level 3 water ability user?” Lu Xihe let out a disdainful snort, a flicker of mockery in his eyes. “Who told you I only have one ability?”
With that, Lu Xihe raised his hand and swept it through the air. In an instant, a fierce gale howled past, sweeping through every corner of City A. Everyone was nearly blown off their feet by the sudden wind.
Lu Xihe lowered his hand and walked slowly toward Li Yuanshan, a teasing smile on his face. Though he was just one man, he somehow exuded an oppressive aura like dark clouds pressing down on a city, threatening to crush it.
“Lord Li, is your performance over? You’ve experienced the joy of having the people’s support, isn’t it time you tasted what it’s like to be abandoned by everyone?”
“Arrogant nonsense!” Li Yuanshan’s chest heaved with rage as he shouted like a madman, “Someone! Someone! Break this damn barrier for me, now!”
But this time, no one answered him. Li Yuanshan spun around abruptly and saw that everyone, including his city guards and assistants, was staring up at the sky.
The massive barrier that had broadcast his impassioned speech moments ago was now playing video evidence on a loop: him embezzling and privately selling spirit stones, bribing the city guard, and framing Xihe’s squad.
Li Yuanshan’s face turned ashen in an instant. He glared viciously at Lu Xihe, his mind racing for a plan.
Before he could devise a countermeasure, the crowd’s fury arrived first. Someone nearby threw a punch that sent him sprawling to the ground, and within seconds, dozens of blows rained down on him from all directions.
Li Yuanshan wailed and struggled, until several city guards frantically dragged him out of the crowd and shielded him behind them, allowing him to catch his breath.
But the moment he recovered, he screamed at the top of his lungs: “It’s all fake! They’re framing me, they used abilities to fabricate illusions! Everyone, don’t believe a word of it!”
Many who had taken Li Yuanshan’s bribes also stepped forward to echo him: “That’s right, it’s fake! I never did any of this, a high-level ability user fabricated the video to slander us!”
“I didn’t do it either! He’s framing us!”
“It’s pure defamation! Spirit stones that big, how could ordinary people even move them? And where would we take them? It’s blatant slander!”
Voices of dissent rose from all corners of the crowd. The spirit stones in the video were over two meters tall, and it was indeed no easy feat for an ordinary person to secretly hide them. This once again turned many people’s doubts toward the content of the video.
“How do you prove your video is real?” someone was the first to ask.
“Exactly. They’re high-level ability users anyway, wouldn’t it be a piece of cake for them to make a fake video to mislead us?”
Seeing the tide about to turn in Li Yuanshan’s favor again, Lu Xihe quickly interjected, “My video is fake, so his must be real? It’s been half a year since the apocalypse, and nearly all network communications have collapsed. Yet City Lord Li has been able to use the internet and his phone normally all this time. By that comparison, whose video is more likely to have been AI-edited or doctored?”
These words woke many from their confusion, and sure enough, quite a few people calmed down and began weighing the credibility of both sides’ claims.
But after mulling it over for a long while, those without inside knowledge still couldn’t determine who was telling the truth and who was lying. Yet no matter who was right or wrong, if they chose incorrectly, it would be the ordinary folks who suffered in the end. So no one dared to step forward and take sides, and the situation fell into a stalemate.
“I do! I have a way!” someone suddenly shouted from the crowd, raising his hand high to draw attention to himself. “My ability is the Truth-Telling Art. If you two aren’t lying to us, do you dare let me use it on you?”
“A clear conscience fears no accusation. Go ahead and try, though I wonder if City Lord Li dares to take the test?” Lu Xihe, with nothing to hide, agreed readily, then turned the spotlight onto Li Yuanshan.
Hearing this, Li Yuanshan’s body gave a violent lurch. The hand hidden behind his city guards clenched tightly, thinking no one could see it, but in reality, his little movements had already been broadcast to every corner of City A through the massive barrier.
The man was quickly lifted over the crowd’s heads and pushed to the front of Li Yuanshan. But before he could even set foot near the fountain, a streak of white light wrapped around his waist, hoisted him into the air, and carried him far away from the city center.
No one saw who made the move, but seeing Li Yuanshan’s visibly relieved expression, suspicion gradually crept into the crowd.
“City Lord Li, what’s the meaning of this?” someone pointed in the direction the man had flown and demanded.
What did it mean? It meant he was afraid of being exposed.
Li Yuanshan ignored the question and changed the subject. “I am your city lord. Besides, I’ve shown you the video and the recording, are you still going to trust some outsiders?”
The crowd grew noisy again, until a clear, crisp voice stood out after a moment: “Wait a minute, I remember our city lord is a woman, isn’t she?”
“Yeah, I remember the city lord being a woman too. How did it become a man?”
More and more people noticed something was off, and the tide of public opinion swiftly turned toward questioning Li Yuanshan’s identity as city lord.
Li Yuanshan didn’t want to answer, but with more and more people asking, he had no choice but to steel himself and reply, “The previous city lord was indeed a woman, my niece, Li Qing. But she left the city half a month ago to find my nephew, and the day before yesterday…”
Li Yuanshan covered his face and choked up. “She’s already gone.”
At those words, the entire city fell into dead silence.
Li Yuanshan sobbed a few times, then forced himself to appear strong. “Before she left, she entrusted me with temporarily managing the city’s affairs. Now that she’s gone, I naturally have to shoulder the responsibility of being city lord in her place, to honor her spirit in hea-”
“Who did you say died?”
A woman’s voice rang out from directly in front of Li Yuanshan, drawing everyone’s attention. Those with sharp eyes recognized her at once and shouted excitedly, “It’s Li Qing! It’s City Lord Li!”
Li Qing stepped out from the crowd and walked straight up to Li Yuanshan, her vicious, piercing gaze locking onto his suddenly panicked eyes.
“Who did you say died, Uncle?” Li Qing’s cold, harsh words struck like a heavy hammer, pounding again and again against Li Yuanshan’s heart.
When things go bad enough, a person is forced to calm down. Li Yuanshan stared at Li Qing with wide, shocked eyes, his hands trembling uncontrollably. After a long moment, he actually managed to squeeze out a few tears.
“Xiao Qing?!” Li Yuanshan murmured through quivering lips. “Xiao Qing, you’re alive? You’re really alive?”
Li Yuanshan hurried forward a few steps, trying to embrace Li Qing, but she blocked him with a raised hand. He wasn’t angered by this, merely raising his hand to wipe his tears as he lamented, “Xiao Qing, it’s so good that you’re back. You have no idea how much has happened in the city these past few days. Your uncle almost… almost didn’t make it to see you again.”
Li Yuanshan wept pitifully, as if he had truly suffered some great injustice.
“So… Uncle, you’ve had a rather difficult time as city lord these past few days?” Li Qing’s expression remained neutral, but her tone carried a faint undercurrent of anger.
“Yes, Xiao Qing. These people, relying on their abilities, tricked me out of a villa and took the spirit stones. Now they’re even trying to deceive everyone and frame me.” Li Yuanshan didn’t blink an eye as he spun his lies.
“Uncle, if you hand over all 51 spirit stones intact right now, for the sake of my father, I can let bygones be bygones regarding everything you’ve done.” Li Qing didn’t want to waste words with him anymore and cut straight to the point.
Li Yuanshan’s heart turned cold the moment he heard that, but he still chose to keep playing dumb. “Xiao Qing, what are you talking about? I’m a man without even a single ability, where would I hide 51 spirit stones? I never did such a thing, so how could I possibly produce them for you?”
“Is that so?”
“Of course it is. We’re family, Xiao Qing, how can you believe him instead of me?” Seeing that Li Qing clearly sided with Lu Xihe, Li Yuanshan played the family card.
“Yes, we are family.” Li Qing gave a self-deprecating smile, then raised his eyes to Li Yuanshan, the cold gleam in them enough to freeze a man to death. “We’re family, so why did you send people to lure the aberrants tide to harm me?”
“Xiao Qing, what nonsense are you spouting? How could I possibly…” Seeing that everything had been exposed, Li Yuanshan had no defense left, so he simply gave up and tried to scrape a sliver of hope out of the chaos.
He turned and pointed at Lu Xihe. “Have you been listening to someone’s instigation? They’re lying to you! The rest of their people don’t even dare come out and face me directly, you can’t trust them.”
“Dare not come out? Little uncle, are you sure you want him to come out?” Li Qing, now fully aware of the truth, was genuinely furious enough to laugh at this. He had never known that his gentle, kind-hearted little uncle could harbor such a rotten core, and even now, he still refused to repent.
“I’m sure!” Li Yuanshan nodded repeatedly. No matter what, he had to stir this muddy water even more. If he could just catch one more flaw in Xihe’s squad, just one flaw would be enough.
“Then have it your way.” Lu Xihe smiled, lightly raising his palm and clapping twice with a crisp sound.
At the sound, the villa’s front door opened again, and this time eight people strode out in force. The three at the lead shattered the last shred of hope Li Yuanshan had left.
It was over. This time, it was completely over!