Chapter 295: The Final Gift

Lightning slashed across the night sky like dancing silver snakes. In that brief flash of illumination, Lu Xing and I locked eyes.

The floodwaters smashed against the guardrails, battering the dam like an untamed beast.

River spray splashed against my face, mixing with the bead-sized raindrops. My body was already soaked through and numb. Only one thought remained in my mind—kill Lu Xing!

A hundred meters. Fifty meters. Thirty meters.

I dragged the Deer-Slaying Dao until I was within ten meters of Lu Xing before slowly coming to a halt. He wasn't the only one standing in the middle of the dam.

Several weak figures were tied to the guardrails on both sides of the dam. Some had been dead for a while, while others were still in their death throes.

"They are..."

From left to right. The first was a man in his thirties, wearing mourning apparel. A steel rebar pierced straight through his back, pinning him to the edge of the dam.

The second wasn't very old. A hemp rope pulled tight around his neck hung him over the side of the towering precipice.

The third was even more tragic. A mature, remarkably well-groomed woman with fair skin was trapped inside a fishing net. She had an extraordinary air about her and had clearly received "special care." Knife wounds crisscrossed the bare skin exposed through the net's mesh. It seemed Lu Xing was preparing to execute her by a thousand cuts.

Covered in dense wounds, only this third woman still clung to a breath of life.

"Draping hemp, Mourning Guest, mourning gate?" Rain cascaded down as I narrowed my eyes, slowly grasping Lu Xing's plan. He had never intended to target Ye Bing from the very beginning.

They had split their forces into two paths. He personally went to find people whose fates carried the stars of mourning apparel, condolence visitor, and funeral door, while Qiu Ren took Ye Bing away, allowing her to be possessed by the inner demon to serve as a trap to kill me.

If Daoist Priest Xianqing hadn't happened to be raising corpses at Xinhu High School tonight, I would probably have already died at Ye Bing's hands, let alone been able to stop the Two-Faced Buddha's Buddha Project.

"Gao Jian, your luck really isn't bad. At the very least, it's far better than my useless senior brother's." Lu Xing threw his head back and laughed wildly. Facing the continuously rising floodwaters, he seemed to have gone even more insane.

Qiu Ren stood three or four meters behind Lu Xing. Both of his arms were completely broken, and his expression was exceedingly grim. He showed no reaction to Lu Xing's cold mockery, simply stepping on a thick chain.

I followed the chain with my eyes. Facing due east, a piece of black cloth draped over that section of the guardrail.

'What is hiding under that black cloth? Lu Xing's trump card?'

Knowing time was desperately short, I didn't waste my breath talking to Lu Xing. I summoned the Fate Ghost and stepped within his ten-meter radius.

"Halt! Take one more step forward, and I'll kill one of them!" The scarred half of Lu Xing's face looked even more hideous as the rain washed over him. His tone was bone-chilling.

I knew he wasn't joking. But compared to the millions of lives in Jiangcheng, what did a single person matter?

I took a step forward, the blade of my dao scraping along the top of the dam.

"Decisive." He raised his foot, shooting me a provocative glare, before kicking directly at the middle-aged man in mourning clothes.

The middle-aged man must have died several hours ago. Lu Xing was merely kicking his corpse off the dam.

Scraps of the man's flesh clung to the bloody end of the rebar as the bulk of his body plummeted like a torn sack.

Visibility was poor in the rainy night. The people around the dam only saw a dark shadow drop from the crest; they had no idea it was a corpse.

"Still dare to move forward?" Lu Xing looked at me with a wicked grin, drawing a sharp knife from the small of his back.

I didn't answer him, simply taking another step forward.

Thwack! Lu Xing slashed through the hemp rope hanging the teenage boy. Because he had been suspended for so long, the boy's neck was completely deformed. From a distance, it looked as if his head had been separated from his body.

The rope snapped apart. The boy's corpse plummeted into the floodwaters like a kite with a broken string, swallowed by the river in the blink of an eye.

"Still coming?" Lu Xing pressed the tip of his knife against the last woman's cheek, brazenly eyeing her fair skin bulging through the fishing net. "This one isn't fully dead yet."

With shadows dropping continuously from the top of the dam, the workers below grew suspicious. They brought over high-intensity spotlights and aimed them at the crest to see exactly what was falling.

The woman bound in the fishing net wailed and begged for mercy. But with the heavy rain washing over her, no one could see her tears, and amid the flashes of lightning and rumbling thunder, no one could hear her screams.

I wanted to feel sympathy for her, but right now, I had no right to pity anyone.

I lifted my foot, gripping the hilt of my blade tightly, and secretly positioned the Fate Ghost around me.

"This woman is still alive. Don't you want to save her?" Lu Xing let out a bizarre shriek. He slashed the knife across the woman's arm, hysterically plunging the blade in again and again through the gaps in the fishing net.

Her clothes were dyed pitch-black with blood. Her lips trembled as she begged desperately for her life, but the only response she got was Lu Xing's escalating torture.

I quickened my pace. Lu Xing kept his word—he stopped tormenting the woman. Licking the fresh blood off his knife, he brought the blade down and slashed the knot holding the fishing net.

"No, no! Save me! Help me!"

The instant her body plummeted downward, I sprinted forward with all my might. "Fate Ghost!"

Strands of black hair I had already laid in wait shot out from beyond the guardrail, wrapping tightly around the woman's body.

"Grab my hand!" I reached out over the railing, catching hold of the woman in the nick of time.

"Gao Jian, your greatest flaw is that you still harbor kindness in your heart. You want to save everyone. You want to solve your problems perfectly. But is that realistic? The reality is that they treat you like a wanted criminal! Look at the people you're trying to protect—they all wish you'd die sooner. They'd sell out everything for the bounty. To them, you're just a monster worth a hundred thousand."

Lu Xing walked over, knife in hand. He was brimming with confidence, acting as if everything tonight was already irreversible.

"Hold on tight!" The woman was severely injured and had very little strength left. Combined with the battering rain, my palms were slick. If the Fate Ghost hadn't been supporting her from below, she would have fallen long ago.

"Don't let go. Please, I'm begging you, don't let go." She gripped my hand with all her remaining strength, her will to survive stronger than it had ever been.

"Gao Jian, do you really have the luxury to save someone right now? I'm disappointed. You thoroughly disappoint me!" Mid-sentence, he suddenly accelerated, thrusting his knife at me. I hastily raised my dao to parry.

With one hand holding onto the heavily scarred woman and the other fending off Lu Xing's fierce attacks, I wouldn't last long at this rate.

Bang!

A gunshot rang out across the dam. Soon after, two high-intensity spotlights pierced the curtain of rain and struck the top of the dam. The workers doing emergency repairs, along with the police, all witnessed the perilous scene unfolding above.

"Someone fell from the dam! Hurry, get someone to save her!"

"That woman is hanging from the top... Could those two dark shadows that fell earlier have been people too? Has someone died at the dam?!"

"That guy in the insulated suit looks familiar. I think it's the high-voltage electrician who came to the dam later."

"He's trying to save someone! Does that mean the guy chasing him with a knife is the real killer?!"

"Where are the police? Call the police, quickly!"

Illuminated by the spotlights, the life-and-death struggle on the crest was fully exposed. Many of the onlookers broke into a cold sweat for my sake.

Suddenly caught in the glare of the lights, Lu Xing paused for a fraction of a second. Then, fully revealing his vicious nature, his attacks grew even faster and more ferocious.

"Don't let go!" The Fate Ghost was using most of its power to protect me, leaving only a few strands of black hair holding onto the woman. My fingers were going stiff. Having run myself ragged all night, I was at my absolute limit. My strength was utterly drained, and I simply couldn't hold on any longer.

The woman's hands slipped down little by little. Giving one last tragic smile, she let go.

Her despairing expression fell further and further away, but it was branded deeply into my heart. I would probably never forget her face for the rest of my life.

"You can't save her. Everything you're doing right now is useless." Lu Xing let out a booming laugh, pausing his assault and stepping backward. "The Buddha Project has been twenty years in the making. Everything has already been preordained. Not even the heavens can change it!"

"Draping hemp, Mourning Guest, mourning gate. The three-star sacrifice crosses over into the afterlife! The sky burial has begun, and today, I will drape this entire city in mourning!"

Lu Xing raised one hand. Over a dozen loud bangs echoed across the two-hundred-meter crest walkway as the guardrails on both sides caved inward. Only then did I realize that a soaked Talisman Paper was hidden at the base of the railing every few steps.

My body swayed unsteadily. The impact of the floodwaters below seemed infinitely magnified. I felt dizzy, as though a single misstep would send me plunging into the abyss.

"A Seven-Star Labyrinth Array. It's even more precious than an Upper Vehicle Talisman. Gao Jian, did you really think the Buddha would leave a flaw? So what if you found me? So what if you seized the fortune of the Eight Characters Divine Fiends? It's too late!"

Lu Xing retreated to Qiu Ren's side, standing next to the section of the guardrail covered by the black cloth. "Besides, I still have a gift for you."

He gave an eerie smile and reached out to rip away the black cloth.

A pitiable woman, carrying a hint of timidity, was leaning against the railing. Strands of hair clung to her pure, innocent cheeks. No matter when you looked, her exquisite features always exuded a breathtaking beauty.

She turned her head and saw me as well. As our eyes met, it felt as though we were gazing at each other across an entire galaxy.

"Xiaofeng..."