Otherworldly Affairs Office-Chapter 568 The Battle Ends (Request for Subscription)

Upon hearing these words, the first thing Lelajin saw as he turned his head was a pair of mechanical feet. Seeing this, a bad premonition rose in his heart, and he struggled to adjust his gaze upward. He saw Pei Yan crouched beside him, a cigar in his mouth, watching him mockingly with those eerie eyes.

The once hateful and pale face was now ruddy and breathing normally, even the mecha on his body had regained its previous vigor. Seeing this, Lelajin's eyes nearly bulged with rage as he struggled to stand, but Pei Yan punched him back to the ground.

"Who are you! Who exactly are you! How could this be, how could it be possible!" Lelajin spat out through bloodied lips, panting heavily while questioning Pei Yan, who was straddling him.

Pei Yan exhaled a puff of smoke through his nose, casually knocking away Lelajin's arm as he tried to strike with all his might, and sneered, "Did your intel only tell you my name without detailing my background? That's not very honest of the divine desire; they know me inside out, so it's clear they're setting you up! Looks like you guys aren't as close as you thought!"

A flicker of hatred passed through Lelajin's eyes at his words. Indeed, the intel provided by the Moorstone Dimension was highly unreliable. They severely underestimated the destructive power of this squad as a whole and had grave inaccuracies in describing Pei Yan's personal strength. They didn't mention the methods he had to reach the ninth tier or even his destructive techniques, which Lelajin only discovered when he got to the battlefield.

The whispers of private power struggles among the leaders within various dimensions weren't a secret in the organization. Was he, an outsider seeking refuge, truly just a pawn in this battle for power? Thinking of this, he glanced at the mocking Pei Yan and couldn't help but give a bitter smile. What's the point of thinking so much now anyway? Dying with a hysterical accusation would just make him a future laughingstock. Better to die with some dignity. Resigned to his fate, Lelajin spread out his arms and said, "Kill me! You've won!"

Pei Yan, having extracted the information he wanted from Lelajin's expression, nodded as he condensed a dagger in his hand. Pressing it against Lelajin's chest, Pei Yan murmured, half to Lelajin and half to himself, "I lost my left eye because of Li Songtao, then my left arm in the battle with Shitang Longsi—yeah, that's the alias I used. And when I came here, I sacrificed my right arm and mutated my right eye to grow stronger."

"Ugh! Ugh! Ugh!" Lelajin, with the dagger digging deeper and deeper into him, endured silently, trying not to scream, while Pei Yan continued his task, seemingly indifferent. He separated Lelajin's muscles, searching through his meridians for something he desired. After a while, with a flick of the dagger, a red origin fragment the size of a pebble was extracted from Lelajin's body.

The removal of this fragment accelerated Lelajin's already nearing exhaustion of life force. His initially weak but youthful and round face immediately caved in, becoming wrinkled and aged, his breathing visibly slowing, more inhaling than exhaling. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"So this is the foundation of your robust defense and swift healing." Pei Yan admired his hard-earned trophy under the moonlight, chuckling as he wiped the blood off it and stored it in his storage ring. Raising his dagger for the next task, he murmured, "Li Songtao, you, and that Vlad, you think you can shit yourselves without your pants on and kill me, kill my friends, and make me accept fate! I defy fate; I will live better and stronger than anyone else, and I will settle all the scores of those wanting me dead. You are the first!"

With the last word, Pei Yan slashed and flicked his dagger, extracting another black origin fragment the size of a fist. Holding the fragment in his hand, Pei Yan grinned, "It's worth it!" Then, kicking the now lifeless Lelajin with irritation, he muttered, "Carrying such a huge lump inside and not feeling uneasy." Then, talking to himself, he added, "I wonder if I'm full of stones too, both big and small? Wouldn't want them mistaking it for gallstones during a checkup at the hospital, would I?"

"Don't you understand your own body? You aren't like them, are you? They can only keep origin fragments within themselves, extracting energy and laws but failing to assimilate them, whereas your body, imbued with my Power of Origin, naturally assimilates and integrates them into your body's meridians," Lin Junzhao scolded, while Pei Yan, giggling, placed the fragment into his ring and asked, "So can you tell me now why Lelajin's curse didn't affect me? Earlier you were very wary of that curse and urged me not to reveal my true name."

"That was then, being cautious saved trouble. Your strength was too low. If someone had truly known your true name, and fought life for life, sacrificing themselves to curse you, even I couldn't block it more than once or twice, and it'd hurt your soul. But this time, the reason I let you face that fool's spell is—hum! Don't you realize that the Samsara Curse targeted the soul? Now that our souls are merged, how does he expect to drag me into samsara?"

With Lin Junzhao's explanation, Pei Yan glanced at Lelajin with newfound pity. If Lelajin hadn't used that curse, with the strength he gained from the Demon God sacrifice, it would have been a fierce fight for Pei Yan to win thoroughly. Lelajin died unaware that his hasty attempt to back his enemy into a corner led him straight to his own doom.

"So now that my name has leaked, won't I be in constant danger?" Pei Yan bent over, hoisting Lelajin's corpse onto his shoulder with difficulty.

"You'll need to become stronger. The stronger you are, the more costly it is for someone to successfully curse you. Masters are quite fond of their lives. If today you weren't forcing him to his death, his first choice would likely have been to flee rather than go life for life with you."

Lin Junzhao paused, continuing, "Now you're half a step into the ranks of top-tier masters. Though when you return and revert to your normal state, your abilities will fall back to the sixth level of awakening, the experience of having seen the mountain's peak and that slight understanding of heaven and earth will benefit you greatly in future breakthroughs, playing an essential role in your progression."