Chapter 62: The Altar Finally Appears

As the words fell, the water droplets hovering within a hundred meters instantly shot toward Jing Shenqiu's direction.

Realizing something was wrong, Jing Shenqiu hurriedly activated Extreme Water, attempting to stop the approaching sea of water droplets, but he soon discovered that he was utterly unable to control them—or to be precise, he could not overpower Li Shenqiu's willpower.

Swish, swish, swish!

The water droplets tore through the air, emitting a piercing, explosive screech.

"Hurry and attack! We cannot die, there's no need to fear these water droplets!" Jing Shenqiu yelled at the top of his lungs.

Li Shenqiu's eyes curved into crescent moons: "You really are naively adorable!"

Dense footsteps approached Li Shenqiu as countless diverse supernatural abilities rained down upon him. Faced with these attacks, his expression remained unchanged, as if he couldn't see them at all.

Seeing this, Jing Shenqiu smiled, his eyes filled with anticipation, but a second later, his smile froze on his face.

The water flooding the sky converged above Li Shenqiu's head, coalescing into a "person" forged entirely of water.

After breaking through the Second Restriction, Li Shenqiu had discovered that his mastery over Extreme Water had become even more effortless, allowing for meticulous manipulations that were previously impossible.

Condensing a simple "water person" using water was the new usage he had devised—controlling the water figure through multitasking to overcome the disadvantage of being outnumbered.

Faced with attacks from all directions, the water figure leaped behind Li Shenqiu, crossed its arms, and slashed forward fiercely. Cicada-wing-thin water blades shot from its arms, cleaving toward the crowd.

Boom, boom, boom!

Successive explosions echoed continuously across the long bridge, and plumes of black mist drifted into the wind.

Although the mirror clones could not die, this did not mean they could instantly recover like the awakened ones.

Having cleared the encirclement, the water figure gripped the empty air with both hands, and two sharp ice blades materialized in its grasp. It then soared into the sky and dove down toward the crowd.

"This..." Jing Shenqiu stared wide-eyed. Extreme Water could be used like this? Why couldn't he do it?

Before he could figure it out, Li Shenqiu's gaze darkened, and he exerted fierce force with both hands.

Bang!

Unable to withstand the blow, Jing Shenqiu once again dissolved into water mist. Just as he attempted to flee further, Li Shenqiu's lips parted slightly: "Condense."

A bizarre ripple spread outward from around Li Shenqiu.

Jing Shenqiu, who thought he had escaped disaster, hadn't even had time to let out a sigh of relief when an unspeakable rule-based force enveloped his surroundings, forcibly condensing him back into human form.

"How is this possible!" Jing Shenqiu widened his eyes. He tried to use Extreme Water to transform back into water mist, but no matter how he tried, it had no effect at all.

Pat... pat... pat...

Dull footsteps sounded behind Jing Shenqiu, moving from distant to near.

Li Shenqiu dragged the hammer by its handle with one hand, letting the metal head trail behind him. The ice scraped against the bluestone bricks, producing an agonizing grinding noise.

Jing Shenqiu supported himself off the ground and stood up, his dark eyes staring fixedly at Li Shenqiu: "Why? Our strengths are clearly identical!?"

Li Shenqiu smiled faintly: "Those who imitate me can never surpass me—just like someone scared stupid by me can no longer make me feel any apprehension. Since you like playing so much, I'll keep you company."

Li Shenqiu's gaze turned cold, and with a thought, countless water droplets appeared out of thin air, shooting into Jing Shenqiu's body like bullets.

Thanks to the thick fog, Li Shenqiu's Extreme Water could be utilized to its absolute fullest extent, leaving him with no awkward worries about running out of controllable water.

Puff, puff, puff—

The water droplets continuously pierced through Jing Shenqiu's body, wisps of black smoke drifting from his form.

"Ah, ah, ah..."

Jing Shenqiu let out a miserable, shrill scream, staring at Li Shenqiu with venomous eyes, as if he wanted to tear him limb from limb.

Li Shenqiu dismissed the giant hammer in his hand and smiled brightly: "Weren't you so proud of your immortality? Then thoroughly experience that pride!"

With that, Li Shenqiu turned and walked toward the pile of corpses belonging to the awakened ones. However, before he had taken more than a few steps, multiple overlapping images appeared before his eyes, and everything flickered between light and dark.

Li Shenqiu knew clearly that this was his body warning him of overusing his supernatural ability.

"And here I thought the Second Restriction would bring some improvement." A trace of imperceptible disappointment flashed through Li Shenqiu's eyes, and then he turned back toward the mirror clones.

Since his ability was nearing the limit of overuse, he would simply have to throw these mirror clones into the abyss.

Seeing Li Shenqiu steadily approaching, Jing Shenqiu shouted weakly: "Ah... what... what are you going to do!"

"Count yourself lucky, you're free."

Having said that, Li Shenqiu's hand struck out like a python, seizing Jing Shenqiu by the neck and casually tossing him off the bridge.

As defeat poured down like a collapsing mountain, under the cooperation of Li Shenqiu and the water figure, the remaining mirror clones also followed in Jing Shenqiu's footsteps.

After settling everything, Li Shenqiu dismissed the water droplets, placed one hand on the railing, and stood beneath the red moon, gazing out into the bottomless abyss with a distant look in his eyes.

For some reason, he always felt an inexplicable urge to jump down.

After resting for a moment, Li Shenqiu walked over to the vortex, crouched down, and began searching their bodies one by one.

He only had two keys and still needed three more to unlock the final trial.

After spending a little under half an hour, Li Shenqiu finally gathered all five keys and strode toward the western side of the bridge.

...

Beiding Mountain Bonfire Plaza

Soldiers were still hauling corpses away, and the three members of the An-Command Bureau sat clustered together around the headless corpse placed in the center.

Ye You, wearing white gloves, used tweezers to slowly peel back the clothing stuck to the surface of the corpse. Once the clothes were pulled back, a series of dense, tiny blood holes were exposed without obstruction to the three of them.

Ye You narrowed her eyes and reached out her hand to the side.

Seeing this, a soldier standing nearby immediately pulled an envelope from his backpack and handed it to Ye You.

Ye You took the envelope, drew out several photographs, and handed them respectively to Zheng Kang and He Lu.

In the photographs were lifeless corpses; identical to this awakened one, these dead bodies were covered in the exact same blood holes.

If Li Shenqiu were present here, he would undoubtedly recognize whose corpses these were—they were precisely the people he had killed earlier on the Lujiang Bridge.

"The wound sizes are completely consistent. It seems the Disaster Water we're looking for is indeed inside," Ye You said in a deep voice, handing the photos in her hand over to He Lu.

"Uncle He, you and Li Shenqiu spent a very long time together inside. Was there anything wrong with him?" Ye You turned her head to look at He Lu.

"Xiao Ye, how can you suspect an honest child because of such nonsense?" He Lu looked at Ye You in disbelief.

"That's right, Sister Ye, that kid definitely has no problems. How could this pair of mine eyes possibly fail to tell good from bad?" Zheng Kang chimed in agitatedly from the side.

Ye You gave the two of them a speechless look, lowered her head, and continued prodding the corpse with her tweezers while speaking:

"Personal opinions are ultimately just personal opinions. From the current perspective, he indeed bears heavy suspicion. Even if he isn't Disaster Water, there is still an extremely high probability that he is connected to it in some way. As for the specifics, it will all depend on the results of the interrogation."

...

Upon reaching the western side of the bridge, Li Shenqiu walked a few more miles ahead and finally spotted the altar mentioned in the blood-red characters.