Chapter Ninety-Four: The Artificial Firmament

A blaze of red light suddenly erupted across the rooftop. Everyone at once lifted their heads to the sky, only to see the firmament, bright with sunshine just moments before, turn blood-red in the blink of an eye.

This day... could it be an artificial sky?

Not only Mu You, but everyone present was profoundly shaken by the terrifying feat of Death Row Paradise.

After the sky turned crimson, the entire rooftop actually split open from the middle with a gigantic rift, revealing the bottomless abyss beneath. At the same time, both sides slowly rose and began to tilt inward from left and right.

"Damn it! Again!"

"My injuries haven't even healed yet!"

"Shit, hold on tight! Don't let yourselves scatter!"

Everyone instantly flattened themselves to the ground, but the rooftop was entirely forged from metal, offering no place at all to brace themselves. One by one, they slid toward the bottomless chasm, and once again the convicts deeply felt their own insignificance and helplessness before Death Row Paradise.

"Big brother, how about you blow it up again?!"

One of the convicts beside Mu You could no longer hold on and wailed a desperate plea toward him. Before he could even finish speaking, he vanished into the abyss.

Mu You could only smile bitterly to himself. Last time he had unleashed the Blazing Phoenix Heaven-Sundering Slash, it had been through the combined power of himself and An Ruxiang. Even then it had only barely taken shape. It was only later, when Gui Rulai infused it with endless nether death qi, that the Blazing Phoenix Heaven-Sundering Slash was evolved to its utmost form. But relying on himself alone now, how could he possibly accomplish such a feat?

So that was why the moment he entered, these people had reacted like mice seeing a cat. They had taken that move to be his own!

He was utterly speechless.

At this moment, the incline had already reached nearly seventy degrees, and the number of people left on the rooftop was rapidly dwindling.

Mu You, Jing Fei, and An Ruxiang stood pressed tightly together. None of them looked at the others, and none spoke a word. Their lips were pressed into hard lines, their expressions grave, as they did everything they could to hold back the people still sliding down, including Hu Lei and the others.

Just as the three were on the verge of giving out, the rooftop suddenly stopped.

"That was close..."

Everyone let out a long breath. By now, only four groups remained on the rooftop: all the members of Building A, the strongest trio from Long She, and the six strongest individuals from the various buildings who had come looking for Mu You three days earlier.

The four groups stared at one another. Under the strain of extreme tension, the smell of gunpowder began to spread.

Especially after the other three groups saw that Building A had somehow come through unscathed, their eyes when they looked at Mu You and the others had already gained a measure of caution. It would have been one thing for Building A to produce Mu You, but why were the other two this strong as well? One must know that at this angle, controlling one’s force was extraordinarily difficult, yet these three had managed to bear the weight of six people each with a single person.

But the nightmare did not end there. Just as everyone was sighing in relief, a violent tremor surged up from beneath their feet, growing fiercer and fiercer by the second.

At once, the members of all four groups began sliding again at speed. Even An Ruxiang and Jing Fei beside Mu You could no longer endure it and were about to break away from him.

"Hold on tight!"

Mu You growled, and red-gold flames surged from his palms, melting the metal floor beneath him. His fingers sank deeply into it, anchoring his sliding body and supporting the six people on his back.

Hearing this, An Ruxiang did not hesitate in the slightest. She threw her arms around Mu You’s leg, then spread her own legs wide into a broad, bracing stance to block He Jing and the others from the small-eyed convict group.

Jing Fei hesitated briefly, but in that moment of indecision, he slipped past Mu You and slid straight into the abyss.

At that instant, Jing Fei truly regretted not having grabbed Mu You. Perhaps because he had once stolen candy from Mu You, somewhere deep inside he still did not fully believe Mu You would help him. Or perhaps, having long grown used to relying on himself, he had long since stopped believing in anyone at all...

Just as Jing Fei prepared to resign himself to fate, a pair of powerful hands seized him in a flash.

It was Mu You!

"What are you spacing out for? Do you want to die?!"

At this moment, the weight of all eighteen members of Building A was entirely borne by Mu You’s left hand. The tremors had become so fierce that everyone’s entire bodies were going numb. Apart from the strongest trio from Long She, the other two groups had already disappeared into the abyss.

"Dammit, they’ve decided to toy with us to the bitter end!"

Mu You cursed under his breath. The red-gold radiance gleamed brilliantly in the darkness of the fissure. A pair of magnificent red-gold phoenix wings unfurled from behind him, and with a powerful beat, a surge of air rolled outward in ripples.

"כולם hold on to each other!"

Mu You gave the order, and the three-zhang phoenix wings suddenly spread wide. With a sweep of their wings, he lifted everyone into the abyss.

The trio from Long She could no longer endure it and fell together. The rooftop immediately sealed shut and returned to its original form, and the last trace of light in the dark space vanished completely.

In the darkness, Mu You’s red-gold phoenix wings stood out with unrivaled majesty, carrying everyone cautiously onward through the abyss.

At the same time, a milky-white radiance flickered somewhere in the blackness. There, Long She was enveloped by nine Ruination Divine Mirrors as he slowly descended. Within the region illuminated by the white glow, Building D’s leader could be seen being carried downward by a wave of water. As the spray churned, one could even faintly make out the face of Building G’s leader.

"Thanks, Quan Xi." Seeing that he was somehow unharmed, Building D’s leader, Luo Shan, thanked the man within the spray, still shaken.

"Luo Shan, we came in here together as convicts. Of everyone who entered back then, only the two of us have made it this far. There’s no need for such formalities between us."

Unexpectedly, Building G’s leader, Quan Xi, had a voice that was low and deeply magnetic. Looking at Luo Shan, who seemed to be somewhat afraid of heights, he offered calm reassurance.

Long She’s expression was far from pleasant. Zhen Mei was already dead, and apart from him, the joining of the two strongest on the surface was by no means a good thing. Earlier, Long She had wanted to seize the opportunity to wound them a little, not enough to affect the battle too much, but enough that they would have to obey him. Who could have imagined that Quan Xi’s mastery over water was so refined? He had effortlessly dissolved the crisis for the two of them.

Moreover, there was another point: when they fell just now, Luo Shan and Quan Xi had instinctively moved closer together. It was only after Quan Xi’s wave transformed into water that, upon seeing Long She summon the nine Ruination Divine Mirrors, it "belatedly" surged up to support him.

It seemed these two had been harboring the same intentions from the very beginning. Even if not, they had at least been thinking about probing his depths.

A flash of irritation crossed Long She’s face, only to be instantly noticed by Quan Xi, who revealed the faintest, almost imperceptible smile.

But what Quan Xi did not know was that at the very moment he activated his power, someone else had already fixed their attention on him.

That person, naturally, was Mu You.

Ever since he heard the sound of rushing water not far above his head, Mu You had begun watching Quan Xi closely. At present, his confidant Xu Chen had already grown strong enough to be of use, but He Jing was still lacking. He needed to be helped to grow as quickly as possible. Dongguan had said that the world was about to change, but Mu You still did not know what he meant, or when it would happen. So within the time he had left, he had to grow madly, without restraint.

But he no longer had much energy to spare for Quan Xi at the moment, because stone troughs had suddenly begun to emerge in the once-empty tunnel, blocking Mu You and the others’ path.