“Freeze! Nobody move!”
“If anyone moves, this guy won't be leaving here alive today!”
Watching the crowd of people who were practically rearing to pounce, Li Xiuman was panicking internally, but his imposing aura didn't falter in the slightest.
He had now secured this guy named Fusuida as a hostage.
But to actually escape, he still needed a breakthrough.
However, if this deadlock continued, how could a breakthrough ever present itself?
If he let Fusuida escape, he would die.
If he kept stalling, he would live.
A war of attrition?
He didn't need to eat or excrete anyway!
He could hold onto Fusuida here until the end of time.
No, no, no. The opponents could easily take shifts.
And if this dragged on, Fusuida would starve to death sooner or later.
What do I do? What do I do? His brain was starting to turn into mush.
Slowly move back, all the way to White Bear City?
That actually seemed like a decent idea.
These guys clearly wanted to assassinate him. If they killed him in broad daylight in a public space, wouldn't they expose themselves?
At that point, Ilu would definitely seek revenge.
With that, he had found his path of survival.
And that was to make his way toward White Bear City.
Moving one tiny step at a time, like the foolish old man moving mountains, he would reach White Bear City eventually.
The previous teleportation spell hadn't sent him too far.
Having studied teleportation magic to some extent, Li Xiuman could feel that much.
So, he would just shuffle over there!
Li Xiuman maintained his posture and began moving in the direction of White Bear City.
As for how to determine the direction of White Bear City...
...it was naturally thanks to the magical world's wonderful tracking magical gadgets!
And so, a peculiar sight unfolded on the outskirts of this magical world.
Li Xiuman held a handsome, blonde man hostage, shuffling forward step by step.
And the Warriors surrounding him shuffled along with him.
It truly made quite the unusual spectacle.
Onlookers who didn't know better would probably think this was some sort of massive performance art.
“Let me go... stop torturing me...”
Fusuida wailed, begging for mercy.
He had originally thought that with his physical capabilities, these wounds would easily heal on their own.
But that wasn't the case at all.
The stumps of his arms, along with his crotch, were continuously bleeding with absolutely no sign of clotting or healing.
On the contrary, the flesh around his wounds seemed to be slowly rotting.
The sensation filled Fusuida with creeping terror.
He had originally believed Li Xiuman was just bluffing when he said the wounds would never heal.
Now, it seemed there was a genuine trend.
If healing magic couldn't restore his body, then he might have to live like this for the rest of his life.
The sheer thought of this possibility filled Fusuida with dread from the bottom of his heart.
“Keep your chin up! Mind over matter!”
“Kid, keep up that strong, positive spirit. Believe in yourself, you can pull through this!”
Li Xiuman offered Fusuida warm encouragement.
“Now that you've lost the root of all earthly worries, your future prospects are truly limitless.”
“Trust me, once you achieve great success in the future, you will definitely be grateful for my sword swing today.”
Li Xiuman kept shuffling along.
“You lot, I told you to keep your distance!”
As he spoke, he scooped an eyeball out of Fusuida's socket and crushed it.
An agonizing scream echoed through the air.
“You bastard! Let me go!”
“I'm going to f***ing...!”
Fusuida was on the verge of a total breakdown.
“Stay strong, Fusuida! Stay strong!”
“Mind over matter! Keep your chin up, and this physical pain will leave your body!”
The kind and saint-like Li Xiuman didn't mind Fusuida's verbal abuse at all, warmly guiding him through his troubles instead.
But the arrogant Fusuida wasn't the least bit appreciative.
This left the kind Li Xiuman with no choice but to slice off Fusuida's nose as well.
Only then did Fusuida finally grasp Li Xiuman's well-meaning intentions, bursting into tears and sobbing uncontrollably.
The blazing sun beat down from above.
Li Xiuman continued dragging Fusuida toward White Bear City.
The wounds on Fusuida's body had begun to fester, and his consciousness was starting to grow hazy.
The atmosphere became dead silent.
No one spoke, the only sound being the heavy thuds of footsteps dragging across the ground.
...
Anxiety began to creep into Li Xiuman's heart.
Despite traveling for so long, there was still no sign of White Bear City.
On the contrary, the perimeter of pursuers surrounding him was only growing tighter and more populated.
Those guys...
...had actually resorted to such underhanded methods.
The Omen Crystal abruptly turned green.
Is this... a poison warning?
The air had been poisoned!
What kind of poison was it? Would it even affect him?
Should he play along with their trap and pretend to be poisoned?
Li Xiuman fixed his gaze onto the two Tier 4 classholder elders.
The two old men stared back at him with grim expressions.
Their gazes made it clear they were looking at a dead man.
...
This unsettling atmosphere sent a shiver down Li Xiuman's spine.
Something was wrong. Extremely wrong.
Li Xiuman looked up at the sky.
The sun was still high in the sky, shining brilliantly and beating down mercilessly.
“The scent of magic.”
“It's a magic circle!”
Li Xiuman pressed Crystal Orchid tighter against Fusuida's neck.
These people had predicted the path of his retreat and had someone set up a magic circle ahead of him in advance!
That look... they really think they have me cornered, don't they?!
Li Xiuman gritted his teeth and looked at Number Zero beside him.
“Skeleton, I finally found you again. I won't let you get away this time...”
Lucia's silhouette flew over from the distance, her arrogant, confident voice echoing through the sky.
This was the first time—the absolute first time!
He had ever found Lucia's voice to be so sweet and enchanting.
Oh, the goddamn charm of this beautiful succubus sister!
“Sister Lucia! Over here! Over here!”
“You've finally come to save me!”
“I've been waiting so long for you, the flowers have already withered!”
Holding Fusuida in one hand, Li Xiuman raised his other hand and waved enthusiastically at Lucia from afar, calling out to her warmly.
Integrity?
If he could trade that for gold coins, Li Xiuman would have traded every single ounce of it without a second thought.
Principles?
If that sort of thing could be used as a bag to hold gold coins, Li Xiuman would have picked them up without hesitation to scoop up the coins he bought with his integrity.
In an instant, everyone's gaze followed Li Xiuman's shout, shifting toward the approaching flock of demons in the sky.
Lucia also came to a halt.
She keenly detected a dangerous aura wafting from the humans surrounding Li Xiuman.
“A mere handful of demons. Since you've come, you might as well stay here forever.”
The Tier 4 Mage elder raised his wand and unleashed a magic circle.
Four intricate, dazzling magic runes were prominently engraved on the magic circle: two red, one yellow, and one green.
These four magic runes represented that this fellow had mastered four Tier 4 spells.
“Karmic fire of hell, rise from the abyss, and become the crimson lotus that incinerates the earth!”
“O Ruler of Hell, show mercy and answer the prayer of your believer!”
“Cast your grand silhouette upon this realm of mortals!”
“Tier 4 Magic, Hell's Crimson Flame!”
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