Chương 48: Imperial Magistrate Yue Zhenli (Part VII)

With a single bat remaining, Lucian had more room to think. He also endured the pain while interpreting the echolocation feedback. Soon, he sensed that Magistrate Yue stood in front of the house, but he was neither frightened nor anxious. I became duller after waking up in these forsaken lands, he thought, sending more Blood Essence to accelerate the bat's regeneration. The dome is empowering her, and she's avoiding enclosed spaces. How peculiar.

Analyzing the situation for a brief moment gave him a chance to piece together fragments of the battle as they flashed through his mind. The golden lines of Qi empower her and assist her techniques, he reflected inwardly. That boy was protected by golden lines of Qi descending from the sky. I should see them both as part of this... Formation. As his thoughts raced, Lucian sensed Magistrate Yue preparing her technique once more, and the bat's crimson eyes gleamed. Her casting time is longer, he realized.

She's tired. Maybe hurt? Did something happen that hurt her? In Lucian's perception, while her movement technique remained as swift as before, her chanting and preparation for the attack technique had noticeably slowed. Before, a single phrase had been enough to conjure six golden swords and send them toward their target with a simple command. But now, through her labored breathing and rapid heartbeat, he could tell she was struggling to complete it within dozens of seconds!

For most, such change would have meant nothing. Lucian was not among them. Sending more Blood Essence into the bat, nearly depleting his reserves, Lucian burst into motion. He controlled the bat to dart through the rear window, fleeing in the direction opposite to Magistrate Yue, to the north. Picking up his movement, Magistrate Yue frowned but did not pursue immediately. First, she completed her chant, conjuring six golden swords that hovered around her in silence.

Then, through the formation, she observed the bat zigzagging, as if it were lost. Her eyes narrowed as she realized that the creature consistently moved through structures with intact ceilings or enough debris to block visibility from above. Besides, it was not using only houses. Previously, Lucian had always chosen houses, not using the bat's smaller form to slip through narrow gaps or broken openings. He had a few reasons for that, besides conditioning the Magistrate into ignoring the smaller ruined structures.

Lucian wanted to bait her into enclosed spaces where she could fit, where her ranged attacks would be limited.] Also, he needed to ensure multiple escape routes for his bats. After all, most houses had a single front door and several side windows, making it impossible for the Magistrate to predict from which opening a bat would emerge. Because of that pattern, Magistrate Yue noticed the shift as soon as the bat slipped below a broken wall!

The creature moved through tighter spaces, weaving unpredictably among the wreckage. Even so, despite noticing all of this, she did not act. Standing still, Magistrate Yue allowed her Qi to circulate, merely observing. She was recovering her internal wounds while using the moment to reassess the situation. To her, the creature seemed faster than before, and its behaviour had changed entirely. At least, it was not aiming for the formation's core, nor for Xu Duan.

Frowning, she waited, feeling that time was on her side. She did not understand what this change meant, so she didn't dare to be careless. Stolen story; please report. In her mind, she made a foolproof plan. The bat would not be able to escape the formation, and eventually, she would recover enough Qi to use the Movement talisman consecutively, trapping and killing it. Before, with two bats, she had been forced to divide her attention and react constantly. Now, dealing with a single creature would be simple.

She was sure of it. As the bat seemed to fly aimlessly, Magistrate Yue lowered her guard, remaining alert only for any movement toward the center or the golden node. She even let the creature out of sight for longer and longer times, seconds piling up to minutes. Because of this, she was caught off guard by sudden screams. Searching through the formation, she first noticed at the southern edge that Wang Chen was still engaged in battle against Constable Mu and several Inspectors.

Despite the short time that had passed, Wang Chen was bleeding and exhausted, while Bai Xiaomeng stood behind him, trembling, clutching a dagger. Constable Mu and the Inspectors, in contrast, were mostly unharmed, bearing minor bruises from Wang Chen's brute strength. They had discerned his lack of technique, treating him like a demonic beast, wearing him down to deliver a final blow and capture both alive. Realizing the screams did not come from there, Magistrate Yue continued searching.

Xu Duan was safe, crawling on the ground, his head turning cautiously as he watched for danger. He did not dare enter any building, obeying Magistrate Yue's earlier command. Changing her view once more, she finally found the scream's source. The three South Inspectors, who had been sent to search the houses, were running toward the village center, appearing frightened. Deepening her frown, Magistrate Yue tried to identify what was chasing them.

Unable to see anything, be it a person or a bat, behind them, she activated her Movement talisman, appearing beside Xu Duan in an instant, the six golden swords hovering around her. Suppressing the blood threatening to spill from her mouth, she helped Xu Duan to his feet in a single move.

"Magistrate, I—""You are safe. Do not worry," she said, her voice strained. Xu Duan had many questions, but he remained silent, feeling that this was neither the time nor the place to talk. Next, the three Inspectors in blue robes came rushing toward them. Looking at their expressions, Magistrate Yue raised her hand, stopping Xu Duan from moving.

"Stand behind me," she commanded, her gaze fixed on the approaching figures. Her intuition pointed out that something was amiss. Earlier, through the formation, she had seen them fleeing in terror. Now, under closer scrutiny, the two in front still looked frightened, but the one behind wore a vacant, dazed expression.

"Stop. Report what happened," she ordered, ready to unleash Heaven's Decree. Despite her command, none of them slowed or spoke. They weren't even screaming anymore, simply running with fearful or vacant gazes. Magistrate Yue's eyes turned cold when none followed her order. With a slight motion of her hand, three golden swords shot through the air, each aimed at one Inspector. She had recognized that they weren't in their right mind. No Inspector would ever disobey her, not even if ordered to take their own life.

Servants of the Empire did not have the luxury of refusal. Within a second, the swords pierced the Inspectors' chests, yet until the very last moment, they kept running forward, completely unresponsive to the pain. Then the swords detonated. Three bodies exploded in a burst of golden radiance, limbs scattering in every direction. The force of the blast sent fragments outward, splattering blood across Magistrate Yue's robes.

Even an almost intact severed head flew toward her, landing nearby and rolling to a stop at Xu Duan's feet. Ignoring the corpses, the Magistrate immediately turned her focus to search for the missing bat and for Lucian. And while she was searching through the golden images—"Die!" She felt a dagger strike her from behind, along with a familiar voice shouting at her. The force was insufficient to pierce deeply, barely breaking through her skin. Years of training made her react without thinking.

The Magistrate channeled Qi into her muscles, twisting her body and driving her elbow backward, prepared to activate her Movement talisman and create distance between her and the attacker. However, her elbow met a golden cage of Qi formed by lines falling from the sky and rebounded violently. Blood spilled from her lips as the backlash from striking the technique drained her Qi.

The remaining three swords of the Heaven's Decree technique collapsed instantly, and the interruption triggered another Qi deviation, this time more than a minor case. Her meridians ruptured under the strain, and dizziness overwhelmed her senses. Through the haze, she felt movement as Xu Duan, with crimson eyes, rushed forward. He tackled her, forcing her onto the ground, straddling her torso to lock her in place. Next, he raised his dagger and shouted, "Die! You bastard, die!"

The young man's voice cracked with fury. He drove the blade down repeatedly. With each strike, the dagger tore through the Magistrate's robes, inflicting shallow wounds across her chest. Behind Xu Duan, beyond the Magistrate's attention, blood from the fallen inspectors rose from the ground, flowing toward the severed head lying nearby. That stream of blood seeped into the broken mouth, and from within, a small, malformed bat face with its right eye made of blood could be seen. Lucian's counterattack had begun.