NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 688 Spirit Away
688 Spirit Away
Daniel fell silent momentarily; he glanced at Guan Yu before nodding. It wasn't that he trusted Zhuge Liang, but he trusted Guan Yu's integrity.
Besides, he doubted that a scholar like Zhuge Liang could pose any real threat to him.
Still, to be on the safe side, he had Nexus Prime scan Zhuge Liang once again to check for anything suspicious in his body, perhaps a curse or some kind of concealed weapon.
"Alright, let's talk while we walk," Daniel said, leading Zhuge Liang outside his house.
In the garden outside Daniel's house, the two walked together. Daniel made sure to stay within Tian Xingyun's line of sight, just in case something happened.
"Alright, what do you want to talk about?" Daniel asked.
"Lord Emberweave… you are the first person who has made my work this difficult. No matter what plans I devised... whether deploying spies or orchestrating efforts to turn the entire world against you. You have crushed them all with ease," Zhuge Liang began, recounting his failed attempts without a hint of malice in his voice.
"There are two key factors in my plans that I failed to thoroughly understand before. First, the range of your abilities. Second, your personality. Your personality is such that you don't trust others easily. But once you do, you give them 100% trust and will likely heed their advice, even above your better judgment. Am I right?" Zhuge Liang said with a smile.
"What are you trying to say?" Daniel frowned.
"I'm saying that one of your rare weaknesses is this: despite your naturally cautious nature, you're willing to let your guard down when you trust someone," Zhuge Liang replied.
"Isn't that part of what it means to trust?" Daniel retorted. "If I were to always remain paranoid, what kind of life would that be? I can't be on guard 24/7. It's against human nature. No, it's against the nature of all living beings. Even animals and beasts have their nests or safe places where they let their guard down. Without that, it's not life at all."
"That's true," Zhuge Liang nodded. He glanced at Guan Yu, who stood nearby, close enough to intervene if necessary but far enough away not to overhear their conversation. Then he looked up at Tian Xingyun on the second-floor balcony. She didn't bother to hide her distrust, her sharp eyes watching his every move, ready to act at the slightest sign of trouble.
"Lord Emberweave, I wish that in this new era, I could have met you first," Zhuge Liang said, his tone melancholic.
"It's not too late. You could start working for us now," Daniel said, his voice tinged with humor.
"No, Lord Emberweave… it's too late."
Suddenly, Zhuge Liang's body began to glow blue. A flash of light erupted from him, enveloping the area instantly. Blood poured from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. The speed of the light spreading from his body was too fast for Daniel to react. It all happened too suddenly.
Daniel was alarmed. The light touched him, but he didn't feel any pain or discomfort. Instead, he sensed an overwhelming surge of mana radiating from Zhuge Liang's body, which began to shape and manipulate the laws of time.
Slash!
A blade flashed. Tian Xingyun instantly decapitated Zhuge Liang in one swift strike, killing him on the spot. She was faster than Guan Yu, who had moved to stop Zhuge Liang, and faster than Daniel, who had just drawn his gun.
Zhuge Liang's body lay lifeless on the ground, but the glow didn't stop. Worse still, his blood fueled the magic ritual that had suddenly materialized on the floor.
"Lord Husband!" Tian Xingyun shouted, rushing toward Daniel to pull him away. But her hand passed through him as if he were an illusion.
"Huh?" Both Tian Xingyun and Daniel were startled. Daniel looked down and saw his body becoming translucent.
Above Zhuge Liang's lifeless body, his soul emerged. It was etched with ancient glyphs and magic tattoos, as though his very soul had become a conduit for a ritual being cast from afar.
"This… this is my final plan, Lord Emberweave," Zhuge Liang's soul said, his face contorted in agony. His spectral form pulsed with an immense flow of mana, and Daniel realized that the glyphs and tattoos on Zhuge Liang's soul were consuming it rapidly. It wouldn't be long before Zhuge Liang's soul shattered into nothingness.
"You… why would you go this far? What could the Qing Empire possibly offer you to make you do this!?" Daniel demanded, frantically attempting to reverse the effects of the spell overtaking him.
Now it was clear why Nexus Prime's scan had found nothing. The trap wasn't on his physical body. It was engraved directly onto Zhuge Liang's soul, thus making Nexus Prime unable to detect it.
Inside his mindscape, Daniel struggled in vain. None of his tools worked. Zhuge Liang hadn't cast the spell himself, so Daniel's counter-spell measures were ineffective. The spell-reversal cards failed as well since he was already in the midst of the spell's effect. Even the spell-returning mechanisms were useless.
—
Card: Spell Reversal
Picture: A mage in blue robe use his spell to reverse his opponent's spell to become just harmless normal element.
Rarity: Common
Type: Quick Spell
Mana Cost: 1 Water, 1 Non-Element
Description: Return target noncreature spell to its owner hand
—
In the game, the card only works in two cases. First, if the spell is in the middle of casting. This was impossible since Zhuge Liang wasn't the one casting the spell—he was merely a relay for the spell to affect Daniel. Second, if the spell is a permanent enchantment or blessing on the battlefield. But this wasn't the case either—it was a one-use spell, like a fireball. And this spell had already taken effect.
Moreover, the various enchantments Daniel had cast on his body—such as "Indestructible" or spells that made him immune to targeting—didn't work either. This was because the spell targeted the area first, and once it locked onto him, it activated, rendering his body transparent and ethereal.
It was as though he had been hit by a spell designed to exile a card from the battlefield, and he had no way to counter its effects. This was intentional in the game: when a card is made indestructible, the only way to remove it is to exile it.
Seeing her beloved in peril and noticing that only Zhuge Liang's soul remained, Tian Xingyun hesitated. She could destroy a soul, but doing so would severely blacken her karma, a blatant violation of the way of the heavens.
Her hesitation lingered for only a second. Gritting her teeth, she charged forward and struck at Zhuge Liang's soul with her palm.
Whoosh.
Her palm passed through Zhuge Liang's soul like he was there but not truly present.
"It's no use now," Zhuge Liang said, his spectral form flickering. "My soul and Lord Emberweave are fading out of this timeline. My soul… it will serve as fuel for this ritual… but this is the last thing I can do for Lord Liu Bei!"
"Elder Brother!?" Guan Yu exclaimed, alarmed. He had never expected to hear this name now. "What are you saying, Strategist Zhuge? What does this have to do with Elder Brother!?"
"Lord Guan Yu, don't you know that the Qing Empire is descended from Lord Liu Bei?" Zhuge Liang replied with a frown, speaking of what he believed to be true. However, the perception distortion spell cast on his soul still held sway over him.
"What are you talking about?! The Qing Empire's royal bloodline has nothing to do with Elder Brother! They're descended from the barbarians of the north and the Ming dynasty!" Guan Yu corrected him firmly.
"What!?" Zhuge Liang's expression shifted to alarm. The perception distortion spell still clouded his mind. Still, spells like this could have been undone by someone Zhuge Liang trusted, such as Guan Yu, who provided the correct information.
Had someone else said the same thing or had Zhuge Liang read it in a history book, he wouldn't have believed it, continuing to trust what the spell forced him to perceive.
"Wait… could it be… No! This… this!" Zhuge Liang's reason returned, but it was too late.
"No! Lord Emberweave! I'll try my best to stop the spell! Arrggghhhhh!" Zhuge Liang cried out in agony as the backlash from the spell began tearing his soul apart. He tried to halt it through sheer willpower.
Then, suddenly, with a brilliant flash of light, Zhuge Liang's soul destroyed itself, taking the spell with it. But instead of stopping the spell outright, a crack in reality formed. The spell, now out of control, destabilized the timeline.
Crack! Crash!
"Shit!" Daniel cursed as the crack shattered, and the rift, in reality, swallowed him into the chaotic void of the dimensional tear.
Daniel was swallowed into the dimensional crack, and Tian Xingyun was unable to do anything to stop it. She fell to the ground, staring at the space where Daniel had disappeared. Her face turned hollow as disbelief and denial began to take root... but the harsh reality stared back at her, making it impossible to accept the outcome.