Legend of the Embroiderer

Chapter 368 Shadow Guard's Soul Chase

Lingyue was enveloped by the pillar of light and fell into an unknown space-time. The biting cold instantly penetrated her bone marrow, as if thousands of ice needles were piercing her skin at the same time.

When she finally managed to open her eyes, she found herself in a void filled with the remnants of nebulae.

A thin, purplish-red mist hangs in the air, and beneath your feet lie fragments of a broken star map, each piece inscribed with ancient and mysterious symbols, emitting a faint glow.

In the distance floated a massive bronze gate covered in cracks. The ancient runes engraved on the gate resonated with the fragment in her hand, and the runes flashed faster and faster, as if they were making some kind of urgent call.

“Li Zhao…” she murmured softly, her voice sounding exceptionally ethereal in the silent void.

She clutched the still-warm fragment of the Yin-Yang Sphere in her hand; the blood-red characters on the surface of the fragment were still burning hot, as if an invisible pair of eyes were watching her every move.

The surrounding air suddenly became viscous, and a chilling sense of oppression swept over us.

Suddenly, the sound of chains being dragged came from the void. The sound grew louder as it approached, like the footsteps of death, each strike heavily on her heart.

Seven dark blue figures emerged from the nebula, clad in tattered silver armor, the plates bearing the marks of time and the scars of battle.

The bronze mask, which partially obscures the face, is engraved with ferocious patterns and exudes an eerie aura.

The spears in their hands swirled with a black and white light similar to that within Li Zhao's body, their tips gleaming with a cold light, as if they could easily pierce any defense—the very Seventh Shadow Guard foretold by the fragmented blood-written words.

The lead shadow guard raised his spear, the tip pointing at Lingyue, his voice like rusty gears rubbing against each other, cold and mechanical: "Hand over the fragment of time and space, and I'll spare your corpse."

There was no emotion in his words; it was as if he was simply following a set procedure.

Without saying a word, Lingyue put the fragment into her bosom and simultaneously mobilized her energy to prepare for battle.

Her hands moved rapidly, creating blue energy ripples in the air. But as soon as she condensed one energy ripple, she found that the surrounding space began to distort, and her attack was easily neutralized by the Shadow Guards.

The distorted space acted like funhouse mirrors, refracting her attacks off course.

“These guys… can manipulate space!” Lingyue felt a chill run down her spine, and fine beads of cold sweat appeared on her forehead.

Even more bizarrely, whenever she tried to escape, a shadow guard would predict her location in advance and force her back to her original spot.

One of the shadow guards swung out his chains, which transformed into a giant net in the air. Corrosive energy flickered at the mesh of the net, and wherever it went, the nebula debris rapidly disintegrated, making a "sizzling" sound, as if it were being corroded by strong acid.

At the critical moment, Lingyue suddenly remembered the black and white vortex when Li Zhao merged his power. She gritted her teeth and briefly merged the source of light with the fragment of the Yin-Yang sphere, forming a small energy vortex in front of her.

The energy vortex spun, emitting a dazzling light, and forcefully swallowed the chains. The chains screamed shrilly within the vortex, turning into specks of starlight and dissipating.

This move, however, triggered an even bigger crisis.

The seven shadow guards simultaneously let out a piercing shriek, the sound like fingernails scraping against metal, sending chills down one's spine.

Black mist seeped from beneath their bronze masks, their bodies began to swell and deform, their bones cracking and popping as they transformed into monsters in the form of seven giant wolves.

Each giant wolf was as large as a small mountain, its fur shimmering with a ghostly blue light, and Li Zhao's black and white pupils appeared between their brows, which made Ling Yue's heart tremble—these shadow guards had somehow formed a mysterious connection with Li Zhao.

The battle reached its climax, and Lingyue gradually became overwhelmed by the giant wolves' attacks.

Her energy shield was shattered time and time again, each shattering accompanied by a powerful impact that shook her internal organs.

She was also injured in many places, and her clothes were stained with blood, which looked particularly glaring in this dark purple void.

The giant wolves attacked like a storm, their claws tearing through the air, their teeth gleaming coldly. Just then, the bronze gate suddenly roared, its sound like muffled thunder. The gate slowly opened, releasing a mysterious power, carrying an ancient aura, which temporarily repelled the seven giant wolves. The wolves roared in unwilling fury, thrown back by the force.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Lingyue rushed into the giant gate and discovered that behind the gate was a hall filled with countless fragments of time and space.

The hall was dimly lit, with only the fragments of time and space emitting a soft glow, each projecting a different scene from a different era:

There are bustling ancient cities, desolate post-apocalyptic worlds, and mysterious otherworlds.

In the center of the hall stands a stone tablet engraved with Wenli's portrait. Wenli's portrait is lifelike, with a firm yet slightly worried look in her eyes.

“Wenli…” Lingyue approached the stone tablet and suddenly noticed a line of small characters engraved at the bottom of the tablet: “The Seventh Shadow Guard is a product of the imbalance between light and darkness. Only by collecting all the fragments and reshaping the triangular seal can it be broken.”

Before she could think it through, the giant door shook again, the sound growing louder, and seven giant wolves smashed through the door and rushed in.

The lead giant wolf opened its blood-red maw and spewed out a black beam of light powerful enough to devour space itself. Wherever the beam of light touched, space began to distort and deform, as if it were about to be torn apart by this force.

At the critical moment, the fragment in Lingyue's hand suddenly flew automatically into the sky above the hall, resonating with other fragments to form a huge spacetime compass.

The light emanating from the compass temporarily suppressed the shadow guards' attacks, illuminating the entire hall. The shadow guards howled in pain within the light, their bodies beginning to become ethereal.

But Lingyue soon discovered that without the last fragment, the compass's power was simply insufficient to eliminate the Shadow Guards.

The light from the compass was gradually fading, and the shadow guards were slowly returning to their physical forms.

"So that's how it is... The truth that Li Zhao asked me to find was to collect all the fragments!" Lingyue suddenly realized.

At this moment, the spacetime compass suddenly trembled violently, and a dark shadow emerged from the center of the compass—it was a figure exactly like Li Zhao, except that it was surrounded by a dense aura of darkness.

The shadowy figure's lips curled into a wicked smile, his voice carrying Li Zhao's tone but filled with malice: "Lingyue, do you think you can escape the game of the dark will? The Seventh Shadow Guard is nothing but an appetizer."

Before the words were finished, the seven giant wolves suddenly charged towards Lingyue, and the light of the spacetime compass was rapidly dimming.

Lingyue gripped the last fragment tightly, silently vowing in her heart: "Li Zhao, I will definitely find you and complete our unfinished mission."

But what she didn't know was that on the other side of time and space, Li Zhao was standing before the heart of darkness, the scepter in his hand gleaming with an eerie light, a meaningful smile playing on his lips...