Chapter 363: Circle

"Confirming the enemy has not been killed. Number 031, do you need support from other architects?"

The voice from the walkie-talkie sounded again.

"Yes." Lin Xi nodded without hesitation. "He is very strong, very hard to kill, and his skills are very strange... I am definitely no match for him alone."

"Received. Notifying Number 030 and Number 029 nearby to provide support. Expected arrival within five hours."

"Five hours... by then he might have already left."

Lin Xi's brows were locked tight. After thinking for a moment, his voice suddenly became serious.

"I request to activate the 'Circle'."

"Please confirm the 'Circle' range."

"Liu Town."

"Please confirm the activation time."

"24 hours from now... no, 48 hours." Lin Xi said in a deep voice. "Within 48 hours, we should be able to kill him."

"Number 031, the consumption for a 48-hour 'Circle' is not a small amount... are you sure?"

"Sure. That guy is definitely not ordinary... We cannot let him leave Liu Town."

"Received."

After a brief pause, the voice on the other side of the walkie-talkie sounded again:

"Coordinates Liu Town, 'Circle' activation countdown..."

"Three..."

"Two..."

"One."

As the countdown hit zero, above the dim sky of Liu Town, a drop of ink appeared out of thin air, as if someone had raised a paintbrush in the void, sketching bit by bit on the canvas of the sky...

A perfect arc was drawn in the air, the ink stain turning into ink marks. Within a few seconds, a huge circle was drawn above Liu Town, completely shrouding it!

"'Circle' activation complete. Within 48 hours, one can only enter Liu Town, not leave."

"Number 031 Lin Xi, your time is running out."

As the voice fell, the walkie-talkie fell into complete silence.

Lin Xi slowly put down the walkie-talkie, lying on his back on the ground, his eyes reflecting the starry sky and the circle so faint it was almost imperceptible.

After a long time, he sighed heavily...

……

Dots of starlight twinkled in the sky.

A figure wearing a brown coat stepped over the threshold and walked into a rather exquisite courtyard.

On both sides of the courtyard were three-story white-walled buildings, like homestays from before the Great Catastrophe. Although there were only a dozen rooms in total, for Liu Town, this was already their largest inn.

"Boss, one room." The figure took a silver coin from his pocket and placed it on the table. "Keep the change, just give me a quiet room."

The innkeeper's eyes lit up when he saw the silver coin, and he looked up at the visitor.

It was a young man in a brown coat, wearing half-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose, with a silver chain hanging behind his ears, shining slightly in the dim light. The gaze behind the lenses was as calm as water.

"Alright, 309, this is your room!" The boss respectfully handed over the key.

The man took the key, walked up the stairs calmly, and disappeared from the boss's sight.

309。

Chen Ling stopped in front of this room door.

The gaze behind his lenses glanced lightly around. After confirming no one was there, he opened the door, went inside, and locked it from the inside.

"Hoo..." In the enclosed, safe space, Chen Ling let out a long breath.

He took off his brown coat and walked naked to the mirror. At this moment, his skin was charred black, torn and bleeding, with hideous lightning patterns leaving deep marks on his surface. In some places, he could even see the ghastly white bone...

The black lightning that struck from the sky was truly powerful; hitting him head-on had instantly left him severely injured.

Of course, it was still not enough to kill him with that level of power.

If Chen Ling hadn't been paralyzed in his limbs by the lightning strike at the time, he would definitely have killed that umbrella painter. Unfortunately, the other party was also shaken by the aftermath of the lightning and fell into the river, disappearing. By the time Chen Ling recovered, the man had been swept away and was nowhere to be found.

However, with the 【Blood Garment】, as long as he wasn't missing limbs, these injuries would heal on their own within a day at most, so that wasn't a problem...

The key was still the umbrella painter who had escaped.

"Damn it..." Chen Ling muttered to himself. "After he escapes, he will inevitably bring other Divine Path possessors to surround and suppress me. If a higher-order enemy comes, things will be troublesome."

Chen Ling thought while washing the mud and sand mixed into his wounds with clean water. Only by washing out these impurities could his wounds heal faster.

Fortunately, the 【Blood Garment】 distorted his perception of pain, so this process wasn't too hard to endure. At least Chen Ling could calmly think about what to do next. By the time he finished cleaning all the wounds on his body, he had reached a conclusion.

Leave!

He couldn't stay in Liu Town anymore... Anyway, the people from his sect weren't here, so staying was meaningless.

If that umbrella painter brought high-order reinforcements who had the means to see through his disguise, his situation would become passive... Most importantly, Chen Ling still had lingering fears about the ink-colored lightning that had struck from the sky earlier.

What exactly was that? A precision strike from the sky? It was activated far too quickly.

Chen Ling remembered that the umbrella painter had only reported the coordinates with a walkie-talkie, and that lightning bolt had struck him straight on. And judging by the power of the lightning, it was definitely not something a Third-Order umbrella painter could release... Could it be that this organization called 【Floating Life Painting】 had the ability to provide support anywhere in the domain at any time?

No wonder they didn't need to station people in every place. With this ability, they could completely control every inch of the Red Dust Domain, raining down divine punishment anytime, anywhere, like gods.

However, after suffering a loss once, Chen Ling already had a plan on how to deal with this kind of support.

Chen Ling put on his clothes. He didn't go through the front door, but opened a corner of the window and tore hard at his chin with his fingertips.

The next moment, his figure turned into a wild goose, flapping its wings and flying from the window toward the sky!

A few minutes later, Chen Ling arrived at the edge of Liu Town.

For the Red Dust Domain, hundreds of small towns were scattered all over the domain. The distance between towns wasn't far, and they were basically connected by roads, rather than the industrialized zoning of the seven major districts of the Aurora Domain, which relied on rails. Therefore, merchants or residents often traveled to other small towns.

At this moment, on the road leading to other small towns, a few people were standing sporadically, pointing at an endless arc that had appeared out of thin air on the ground.

"What's going on? Is Liu Town sealed too?"

"It must be about that Huadu Troupe incident, right? Don't you know?"

"What incident?"

"It's said that during the troupe's preliminary auditions this year, a madman appeared, performing a 'person-to-person' transformation in front of everyone and killing all the judges... It must be to catch him that Liu Town was sealed."

"Ah? Doesn't that mean this madman is still in our Liu Town?"