Chapter 688: Tonic

Following that, Huang Suyue froze in place.

She stared intently at the open doors of the opera house in the distance, rubbing her eyes as if waking from a dream, and then a look of shock appeared on her face...

"Jinghong Pavilion... how is it open again??"

Logically, everyone from the Jinghong Pavilion should have retreated to Liu Town by now. Kong Baosheng and the others wouldn't have left the doors open when they left. Seeing the open doors now, Huang Suyue's heart skipped a beat...

Could it be that he had returned?

A figure in red flashed through Huang Suyue's mind, but she quickly suppressed it. After giving a few instructions to the busy crowd beside her, she hurried toward the Jinghong Pavilion.

"Miss Huang?!"

"Kong Baosheng!!!"

When she saw the boy's figure behind the opera house doors, they both shouted in unison.

"Why are you still here?" Huang Suyue looked into the opera house in surprise. "Where is Li Qingshan?? Didn't he take you with him?"

"Mr. Li did take me with him, but then some things happened... In short, only I returned." Kong Baosheng looked at the busy motorcade outside. "Miss Huang, why didn't you leave either?"

"I also returned halfway... No, now is not the time to talk about this."

Huang Suyue's expression became extremely serious.

"You can't stay here anymore. It's very dangerous outside right now! There is an underground shelter not far from here; I'll have someone take you there immediately."

"Aren't you going?"

"I will go too, but not right now."

BOOM—!!!

A sudden, thunderous explosion interrupted their conversation.

Huang Suyue looked sharply toward the direction of the explosion. Thick smoke was rising from a certain direction—the very direction where Uncle Quan and the others had gone to set the explosives...

Some silver monsters had already stepped into the trap of another shelter.

Seeing this, Huang Suyue's expression grew even graver. She immediately called over a bodyguard and told him to lead the way for Kong Baosheng.

"Remember, once you enter the shelter, do not come out, understand?" Huang Suyue instructed.

Kong Baosheng nodded, and just as he was about to say something, a loud rumble came from his stomach... He felt a bit embarrassed.

Huang Suyue paused. Looking at the boy who was bowing his head like he had done something wrong, the corners of her mouth couldn't help but lift. She turned and took a bag of bread from the truck loaded with supplies and handed it to Kong Baosheng:

"Take this and eat."

The supply trucks had been mostly emptied by now. The vast majority of bread, water, and other supplies had already been transported to the nearest underground shelters. Even so, the small mountain of supplies remaining in the truck was enough to make Kong Baosheng's eyes widen in shock.

"Miss Huang, where did you get so much food?"

Huang Suyue stood in front of the roaring motorcade and smiled slightly: "People always have to eat, don't they?"

The explosives were for protection;

The bread was for survival.

Huang Suyue had exhausted her family fortune to exchange for a sharp sword and a merciful shield. She stood upon the scarred ruins like a warrior clad in armor and wielding a weapon.

Kong Baosheng stared blankly at her smile, frozen in place.

At the same time, another bodyguard walked up,

"Miss, the explosives have been deployed at the two locations you marked. Where should the third one be deployed?"

"...Wait a moment." Huang Suyue turned back to look at Kong Baosheng,

"You go quickly, there's no time."

Huang Suyue waved her hand to bid farewell to Kong Baosheng, and the bodyguard led the bewildered boy quickly toward the other side of the street.

Kong Baosheng looked back from time to time. That long yellow dress and the roaring motorcade remained where they were, as if earnestly deploying something in the cold wind.

The first time Kong Baosheng met Huang Suyue, she had offered to subsidize his life with a charity fund; every time since, Huang Suyue had treated him with great care, even sending flowers across the ruins after his grandmother died. Although he didn't know what Huang Suyue was preparing to do this time, he could feel that something about her was shining brightly.

He hugged the bread in his arms tightly and muttered:

"Miss Huang is truly a good person... just like Mr. Li."

Kong Baosheng withdrew his gaze and was just about to follow the bodyguard to the shelter, but the next moment, he and the bodyguard stopped in their tracks, frozen like statues!

At the end of the street, three tall silver monsters were walking slowly toward them through the rain.

……

Above the Red Dust Main City.

Above the heavy rain clouds, an alchemy array so vast it almost covered half of the Red Dust Realm was slowly rotating. Its complex, hair-raising patterns intertwined; viewed from the heavens, it looked like the eye of a Witch God staring down at the mortal world.

Under the influence of this massive alchemy array, a vast number of souls rose from every corner of the Red Dust Realm—some from the hundreds of towns swept by fire and rain, others from the chaotic Red Dust Main City. These wailing, suffering souls were torn by invisible hands and forcibly pulled into the array, gradually squeezed and deformed amidst countless wandering red electric arcs.

"Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough..."

In the center of the alchemy array, Brand, covered in wounds, coughed violently, his face still devoid of any color.

"That group from the Hall really didn't hold back!"

Brand still hadn't recovered from the life-and-death crisis he had just faced. Fortunately, he no longer needed to join the battlefield. His only task now was to maintain this massive alchemy array... And in the Realm War, a massive number of souls were being swept into his storm, making the speed of refining the Philosopher's Stone incredibly fast!

His red-bottomed, gold-patterned robe fluttered amidst the wails of countless vengeful spirits. Countless red lightning bolts struck the void in front of him, and vaguely, a scarlet gemstone was slowly taking shape.

The formation of this Philosopher's Stone meant that since the outbreak of the Realm War, millions of lives had already perished.

And as the Realm War grew more intense, this number was still increasing explosively!

Brand reached out and lightly pinched the newly born Philosopher's Stone. In the dim light, it was as dazzling as a condensed red sun, its mysterious brilliance flowing in a way that made one sink into it involuntarily upon a single glance.

"The next Philosopher's Stone is almost ready too, just missing the last few tens of thousands of souls... But let's send this one over first."

Brand looked up at the sky. Above the firmament, a one-to-one replica of the Embroidered Silk Realm was dancing wildly like a weightless scroll. Two figures were colliding and fighting rapidly within it, and the embroidery on the surface of the scroll was surging like a turbulent sea, constantly churning under the shockwaves of their battle.

"My Lord, your tonic has arrived."

Brand chuckled and threw the Philosopher's Stone in his hand upward with force. The red gemstone instantly turned into a meteor, rapidly plummeting into the Embroidered Picture Realm!