The Theft

Meanwhile, across other districts of the Imperial Capital, riots erupted one after another, powerful auras surging into the open air. The entire Imperial Capital trembled.

In the Red Maple Guard barracks, Si Chengxin sat in his office, receiving a continuous stream of reports from his subordinates. His expression was grim.

"Is this connected to that business with Tong Menghan?" he said through gritted teeth. "They dare to cause chaos in the Imperial Capital itself? They have a death wish!"

He considered for a moment, then spoke: "Pass the order — all Red Maple Guards are to move out. Suppress the chaos."

A Battle King Rank warrior standing to one side gave a crisp nod. "Understood!"

Si Chengxin and the others departed.

In the Red Maple Guard encampment, Si Tingfeng received the same report. His eyes flickered, his expression cold as iron.

"Tong Menghan..." he murmured. "Move out. We're going to put down the chaos."

As a captain of the Red Maple Guard, he had his own squad. With them behind him, Si Tingfeng left the encampment.

Daqu City. A hidden basement.

Li Qinghe stared at the Soul-Devouring Orb bearer's corpse slowly consumed by flame before her, a trace of shock still lingering on her face.

Lu Yuan had killed the Battle Sovereign-rank bearer with a single sword strike. It had genuinely startled her.

Watching the Soul-Devouring Orb drift in the air, she composed herself and turned to Lu Yuan, surprise written across her features.

"Yuan, I had no idea your strength had grown this far."

Lu Yuan smiled. "That was close to my full strength. If I'd given him time to react and turn it into a real fight, the civilians outside would have taken heavy casualties."

Li Qinghe gave a small nod. "I understand."

She watched him tuck the Soul-Devouring Orb away, then smiled.

"That's three down. Eight left. Once we recover all the orbs, the danger should be over."

Lu Yuan nodded. "Let's head to the next city with an Aberration. Which one is it?"

Li Qinghe considered for a moment. "Taichuan City — the Aberration there just broke out. Can you sense the source?"

"Let's go take a look first," Lu Yuan said.

He made no promises. If the bearer had already fully activated the Aberration, the Spirit Power fluctuations on their end would be far less pronounced — even he would struggle to pinpoint the source. Within a small enough radius, maybe. But not across an entire city.

That was exactly what had happened when they first arrived in Xikou City.

But they still had to try.

Lu Yuan's arm wrapped around Li Qinghe's slender waist. Space rippled, and they vanished.

An instant later, they materialized above Taichuan City.

The moment they appeared, both spotted the dark clouds blotting out the sky not far away, sinister energy churning beneath them.

Li Qinghe glanced at Lu Yuan with quiet anticipation.

Lu Yuan turned his attention inward toward the Evolution Cube.

His brow furrowed slightly. Nothing. The Evolution Cube wasn't trembling.

"What's wrong? Can't sense it?" Li Qinghe asked, reading his expression.

"Let's search the surrounding area," Lu Yuan said after a moment. "We might find something."

Li Qinghe nodded.

They began moving through the skies around Taichuan City.

Before long, Lu Yuan suddenly froze — then a smile spread across his face.

The Evolution Cube had given a faint tremor.

"Got it!"

He changed direction, pulling Li Qinghe with him as they moved toward the source of the growing vibrations.

Before long, they stopped before a residential building.

Li Qinghe studied the building — over ten meters tall — and her eyes widened slightly.

"Yuan, the bearer is in there? This out in the open?"

Lu Yuan hadn't expected it either. *Among all these people?*

The previous three bearers had at least hidden themselves in basements. This one was camouflaged right in the middle of a crowd.

He frowned. "Looks like it. Let's go check."

Lights flickered in windows throughout the building — many residents were still awake. Hardly surprising; with the Aberration raging outside, sleep was a luxury few could afford.

Guided by the Evolution Cube's tremors, Lu Yuan quickly narrowed it down to a room on the eighth floor.

They exchanged a glance. Li Qinghe smiled faintly, reached out, and took hold of Lu Yuan's arm. Dark energy began to flow around her, wrapping them both in its shroud.

They melted into the shadows and slipped straight through the door.

Li Qinghe wielded dark energy, so this kind of infiltration came naturally to her — though her dark energy wasn't quite as potent as Lu Yuan's, leaving the concealment slightly less airtight.

For Lu Yuan, that was easily remedied. He quietly reinforced the dark energy around her, bringing their concealment to a level sufficient to fool even a Soul-Devouring Orb bearer.

That was exactly how the previous bearer had been caught off-guard — both of them slipping close before Lu Yuan cut him down without effort.

It didn't take long. In one of the rooms, they found him: the bearer, fully absorbed in remote manipulation of the Soul-Devouring Orb, directing Shadows from afar to devour souls.

He was a young man with a mop of black curly hair and a handsome face.

Li Qinghe released Lu Yuan's arm. He vanished from where he stood and reappeared directly behind the young man an instant later.

The young man sensed it immediately — but before he could make a single move, a flash of golden sword light swept through him. His life force snuffed out in an instant.

Imperial Capital. Night Watchman Headquarters. Underground Containment Room.

Elder Zhang and two Battle King Rank warriors were dealing with other Aberration Entities. Elder Perkin and the remaining three Battle Kings had recovered somewhat and joined the effort.

Not far away, a mass of deep, impenetrable darkness lay over a section of the room. Distant rumbling rolled out of it at intervals, and waves of terrifying energy seeped from its edges.

Elder Zhang and the others kept glancing toward the Dark Domain, worry for Li Xinghai plain on their faces.

Without Li Xinghai's Dark Domain containing the battle within its boundaries, the entire Underground Containment Room would already be rubble — and quite possibly Night Watchman Headquarters itself along with it.

This was a Battle Emperor-level clash. The devastation it could unleash was beyond imagining.

"I wonder how things are going inside," Elder Zhang murmured, unease etched into his weathered face.

The others felt the same.

Inside the Dark Domain, Li Xinghai was pressing down on the Cloaked Figure. This was his territory — as its master, he held a combat advantage within it.

The Cloaked Figure was fighting on hostile ground, already at an inherent disadvantage. Moreover, Li Xinghai could tell: though the Cloaked Figure had reached Battle Emperor rank, he had not accumulated nearly as many years of refinement.

They clashed. Steel rang against steel.

Then, without warning, the Cloaked Figure shuddered. A muffled grunt escaped him, the black mist around him surging erratically as his aura dimmed by a fraction.

During the exchange he had been barely holding his own — inferior, yet just managing to weather the storm. This sudden development caught him completely off-guard.

Li Xinghai seized the opening without hesitation.

His eyes turned pitch-black. A terrifying aura surged from him, and the Dark Domain itself seemed to come alive, unleashing wave after wave of overwhelming force. Black scythes materialized around the Cloaked Figure and carved down with crushing power.

**Shhkt — shhkt — shhkt!**

The Cloaked Figure's cloak was slashed open. Wounds carved across his body. Dark-tinted blood sprayed from the gashes.

A scream tore from him, his aura dropping a distinct notch.

Cold dispassion settled over Li Xinghai's face as his power surged again.

The Cloaked Figure's blood-red eyes flickered rapidly. He understood the situation: if he remained pinned here, it wouldn't be long before another Battle Emperor arrived. Something wild blazed in his gaze, and a snarl tore from his throat.

"Damn you all! You forced me to harvest early! Every last one of you is going to die!"

As he spoke, the black mist around him churned into a frenzy. Within it, a gray-white haze bled outward, shot through with pinpoints of black light.

There had been eleven at the start. Now only eight remained.

The Cloaked Figure drew a long breath. The gray mist and the black points of light streamed inward, vanishing beneath that dark cloak as if absorbed into his very being.

Immediately after, the black mist roiled and his aura spiked — climbing, and climbing, and climbing.

Li Xinghai's eyes snapped wide. He stared, a spike of alarm cutting through him.

In an instant, the Cloaked Figure's aura surpassed his own, ascending to the level of a peak Battle Emperor.

*What did he just do?!* A chill settled in Li Xinghai's chest.

Even as Li Xinghai's expression hardened, fury blazed in the Cloaked Figure's blood-red eyes. He roared:

"Damn it! Someone stole my power! WHO?!"

Confusion flickered across Li Xinghai's face at those words.

He didn't dwell on it. Raw power erupted from him, and he launched his assault anew.

The Cloaked Figure had believed that by absorbing the scattered Soul-Devouring Orbs, even if they hadn't matured to their full potential, he would have more than enough power to break through to Battle Saint rank.

But the unthinkable had happened — the energy within the orbs had been stolen. He had only managed to reach peak Battle Emperor.

Far, far weaker than what he had planned for.

Rage burned through him — but there was no time for rage. That infuriating Battle Emperor was attacking again.

With a furious shout, the Cloaked Figure swung his longsword, shattering the scythes around him, then charged straight at Li Xinghai.

With his power greatly amplified, even within Li Xinghai's Dark Domain, he began to gain the upper hand.

Li Xinghai's expression turned grave. He could barely hold off the attacks. The eerie, shrieking wail of the longsword sent spikes of pain through his skull — it was on an entirely different level from before.

Yet he refused to retreat. If he did, the Dark Domain would collapse — and without its suppression, the Cloaked Figure could level every living thing and every structure in the vicinity within moments.

**Clang!**

Steel met steel with a resounding peal. Li Xinghai was hurled backward, his face slightly pale, his sword hand trembling from the impact.

At that moment, Si Qi entered the Dark Domain. Ice-blue scaled armor materialized across his body, and his eyes blazed with golden-red dragon irises.

At the sight of Si Qi, Li Xinghai finally let out a slow breath, some of the tension easing from his frame.

A faint smile crossed his wrinkle-lined face.

"About time, old man. One more moment and I might not have been able to hold him."

Si Qi studied the Cloaked Figure in the distance, expression grave. "Who is he?"

"No idea."

"Capture him and we'll find out."

Si Qi smiled coldly and launched himself at the Cloaked Figure. Li Xinghai followed close behind.

Faced with two formidable Battle Emperors, the Cloaked Figure refused to yield an inch and charged toward them both.

The battle that erupted was fiercer than anything before.

Several minutes earlier.

In a corner of the Imperial Capital, Tong Shu moved through the streets with Tong Menghan at his side. He glanced back at the Red Maple Guards in pursuit, a savage expression crossing his face — dark markings writhing across his skin.

Tong Menghan was still wielding the Soul-Devouring Orb, continuing to devour souls.

Then, without warning, all color drained from Tong Menghan's face. She opened her mouth and coughed up a mouthful of blood — black-tinged, dark and wrong.

Tong Shu stiffened. He turned to her, his expression twisting. "Menghan? What's happening?"

Tong Menghan shook her head, alarm and bewilderment warring in her eyes. "I don't know... the orb... cough, cough..."

She never finished. Another fit of violent coughing seized her, blood pouring out with each spasm.

Then her life force seemed to hemorrhage with every cough. The black mist within her grew turbulent and erratic. A black orb floated free of her body.

At the sight, Tong Shu's expression shattered. "The Soul-Devouring Orb?! What's going on?!"

"No..."

Realization seemed to dawn on Tong Menghan all at once. Her life force was draining away by the second, her once-beautiful face withering at terrifying speed, despair flooding her eyes.

She never had a chance to say more. Every last trace of her life force was consumed, and then her very soul wrenched free from her body — screaming as the Soul-Devouring Orb swallowed it whole.

Then the orb vanished.

Tong Shu stood rooted to the spot, clutching Tong Menghan's desiccated remains, staring at the space where the orb had been. He couldn't move.

"What... what just happened?!"

Disbelief was written all over his face.

At that moment, the black markings on his face blazed with eerie, crackling radiance, and blood-red light erupted in his eyes.

His aura surged dramatically — but all reason left his gaze, flooding away in a tide of crimson.

With a low, savage roar, he charged straight at Si Chengxin and the others closing in on them.

Si Chengxin and his group were momentarily caught off-guard — then slow smiles spread across their faces.

"Capture him! Take him alive if you can — if not, cut him down!"

Back in Taichuan City.

The handsome young man's body slowly turned to ash beneath the Great Solar Spirit Fire, and from the surface of his remains, black mist churned and coalesced into a Soul-Devouring Orb.

A dense stream of unknown energy flowed into Lu Yuan's body and poured into the Evolution Cube. The corner of his mouth curved upward.

*Fourth one.* The Evolution Cube was drinking in the unknown energy with evident satisfaction.

Lu Yuan stepped forward to retrieve the orb.

And then it simply vanished — not a trace left behind.

Both Lu Yuan and Li Qinghe froze. Then Lu Yuan's brow drew together, his expression darkening.