Heroes Return

All the dead spirits were released in that instant, and all darkness and resentment vanished from the city. Now, the entire holy city also became beautiful, though still dilapidated.

"What on earth is this...?" Leng Yan stared at the scene before him in disbelief.

“Amitabha, this is the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss in my heart.” Master Wuliao said to Leng Yan, while eighteen wrathful Vajras stood quietly beside him: “Benefactor, run away quickly. Your snow won’t fall here, and you can’t beat this monk here either.”

-------------Chapter Dividing Line---------------

"What's going on! What's the deal with your power?!" Leng Yan looked at the Bored Master in astonishment.

"Amitabha," Master Wuliao said calmly, "the world only knows that my Guanggun Temple preserves two major Buddhist scriptures, Yi Jin Xi Sui. But they don't know that there are actually two more scriptures, Zhen Yi Xing Shen. And no one in Guanggun Temple can master all four scriptures simultaneously, except for this humble monk." As Master Wuliao's words fell softly, all the wrathful Vajras around him clasped their hands together in a Buddhist gesture, and at the same time, a faint Buddhist light appeared behind each of them: "Benefactor, you'd better run! If you don't run, you'll be in danger. I've just received orders to kill you!"

"How could I possibly run away!" Leng Yan looked at the Bored Master with a serious expression. Because the snowflakes had disappeared, he had lost that high-speed teleportation technique. But Leng Yan had no intention of backing down. Because that wasn't Leng Yan's strongest move: "But since you've finally revealed your true abilities! Then today I'll crush you head-on!"

"Sigh." Faced with Leng Yan's fighting spirit, Master Wu Liao could only sigh softly: "Then, please make your move, benefactor!"

Even without the boredom master's prompting, Leng Yan had already prepared his attack. The blue flames in his hand erupted wildly, and numerous blue fire rings began to swirl around his hand.

At that very moment, everything around Leng Yan was frozen into beautiful ice sculptures. The Bored Master, however, walked towards him step by step. The angry-looking Vajras guarding him all changed their expressions from fury to serenity, each standing quietly in place. The ethereal sounds of Buddhism echoed faintly between heaven and earth. Lotus blossoms bloomed in this foreign land as the Bored Master advanced.

Upon witnessing this bizarre scene, Leng Yan did not hesitate to bring two fingers together. As the ring of fire surrounding his hand shrank, a pure blue energy representing coldness gathered at Leng Yan's fingertip.

It didn't seem to have much energy, but Leng Yan knew just how terrifying this power was.

Three years ago, when he mastered this ability, he used it in the waters near the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Even that small amount of energy caused snow to fall in that area to this day. Although this technique severely damages the ecosystem, at this moment, Leng Yan only had defeating his opponent in his eyes.

A beam of seemingly condensed blue energy shot towards the Bored Master at that moment.

But the next second, something strange happened before Leng Yan's eyes. The energy struck Master Boredom, but only caused a slight ripple on his body before disappearing from Leng Yan's sight.

"This is!" Leng Yan looked at this scene in surprise: "Even if it's strong, it shouldn't have no reaction at all!"

"Did you really shoot it?" The figure of Master Boredom suddenly appeared beside Leng Yan. The snowflakes on the ground turned into water at that moment. Master Boredom stood up and looked at Leng Yan at the same time: "Benefactor, you still have time to run. The 'me' here now is the real me, and everything else is also an illusion."

"Are you kidding me!" Leng Yan shouted angrily, but the next second he was surprised to find that the power he had gathered earlier was still between his two fingers.

"Did you really shoot it, benefactor?" A bored man standing on the wall looked at Leng Yan with a smile.

"What's going on! An illusion-type ability? Impossible! I clearly set up external sensors and wore a mental protection device! But why am I still affected!" Leng Yan looked at the boring scene in front of him in bewilderment.

"Because you weren't actually hallucinating!" Boredom slowly walked to Leng Yan's side, and the other Boredom figures vanished. "I told you to run, but you didn't! Now it's too late! Listen carefully, the True Self Sutra's power is to turn reality into illusion and illusion into reality. I hope you can break through it, otherwise the entire Hero Association and the world will truly be in danger!"

Bored, he slowly raised his hand.

Seeing that Bored's hand was pressed against her chest, Leng Yan immediately raised her hand and once again shot the energy she had accumulated into Bored's chest.

Of course, it's still useless.

"Are you really shooting, benefactor?" Wu Yi kindly reminded him, while simultaneously placing his palm on Leng Yan's chest. Upon hearing his words, Leng Yan looked at his hand in shock. The power he had gathered was still in his hand, as if he had never used it at all.

"Listen carefully! Now, as long as I say it's an illusion, your attack, no matter how real, will become an illusion." Master Bored immediately reminded Leng Yan, and at the same time, he shook his palm, instantly sending Leng Yan flying more than a hundred meters away.

"Ugh!" Leng Yan coughed up several mouthfuls of black blood in mid-air and looked at Wu Liao with a solemn expression: "No wonder he is known as the one who can cure all kinds of dissent."

"Be careful, benefactor. The next move is a killer!" Master Bored said as he slowly walked towards Leng Yan.

However, at that moment, rings of fire began to encircle Leng Yan's entire body. Simultaneously, his clothes began to flutter without wind. And at that instant, terrifying blue flames replaced the pupils in Leng Yan's eyes.

"Let me see if your illusions can truly defeat me!" As Leng Yan activated this state, a blizzard began to fall throughout Zone O. Large areas of the sea surrounding Zone O also froze over, a sight completely out of place for this season.

"Have you really transformed, benefactor?" At this moment, Wu Liao said something to Leng Yan that startled him.

The next second, Leng Yan was shocked to discover that the trump card he had saved hadn't been used at all. At that moment, it was as if time had rewound to the state where he had just been sent flying by Wu Liao's palm strike.

"Damn it!" Leng Yan cursed in anger.

"Doesn't it feel like you just took a dump and then it got stuffed back in?" Bored had already walked up to Leng Yan and kicked him in the stomach.

The sheer power of that kick actually snapped Leng Yan's body in mid-air.

However, the next second, Leng Yan turned into two balls of cold fire in the air and then merged together. However, the merged Leng Yan was still clutching his stomach and painfully looking at the boring scene in front of him.

"Oh? In that case, you might still have a chance. I didn't expect you to be so resilient." Bored suddenly said to Leng Yan, "My True Self Sutra, which can't even poop, actually consumes a lot of energy, so you just need to hold on. Or wait for that sword immortal from your association to come over. After all, a sword intent that can annihilate both reality and illusion with a single strike is completely unafraid of my kind of skill. So for now, you just need to hold on."

Bored, he walked towards Leng Yan.

"What a joke! That kind of victory is not what I want." Leng Yan clutched his stomach and struggled to his feet. He then conjured up a massive amount of energy in his hands once again, and immediately a large number of huge blue fire pillars rose up.

"Do you really think you've raised the pillar of fire?" Bored still strolled leisurely to Leng Yan's side, and at the same time, Leng Yan saw that the pillar of fire he had unleashed had disappeared.

Leng Yan immediately realized what was happening and jumped back a considerable distance.

"Did you really jump backward?" With the seemingly demonic words of the Bored Master, Leng Yan was surprised to find himself back in the same spot he had been standing in. At that moment, the Bored Master appeared beside Leng Yan and delivered a fatal kick.

Leng Yan was sent flying by the kick. He almost lost consciousness in mid-air from the terrifying blow, but he held on through sheer willpower, knowing he absolutely could not afford to faint.

"Did I really kick you just now?" The words of the Bored Master seemed to possess a magical quality, appearing in Leng Yan's ears once more. The next moment, Leng Yan was shocked to find that the pain in his lower body had disappeared, but this did not make Leng Yan happy. Because he had returned to the moment when the Bored Master kicked him.

After enduring that terrifying pain once again, Leng Yan took to the air once more.

"Did I really kick you just now?" But the Bored Master's voice rang out again like a death knell. This time, Leng Yan's mood couldn't be described as just aches and pains; it was an endless, unbearable ache.

Then the whole process began to repeat itself endlessly, as if the tape had jammed. Every time Leng Yan was hit by Master Boredom's "Child-Severing Kick," he would be transported back to the moment he was kicked. And Master Boredom's voice would echo incessantly in his ears like a deadly curse.

Unbeknownst to him, the accident occurred after he had been kicked for what seemed like the umpteenth time.

A figure wielding scissors flew towards the Bored Master at incredible speed, crashing directly into his head just as he was about to speak. That figure was one of the Heroic Spirits summoned by Ivan.

Faced with such an unexpected shock, the "Master of Boredom" was directly hit.

Leng Yan seized the opportunity, unleashing his full power. The mode he hadn't had a chance to use before was now successfully activated. Taking advantage of the Bored Master's inability to speak after being hit in the face, Leng Yan unleashed all his power at this moment.

In an instant, the world was once again covered in ice and snow, but that wasn't the key point. The key point was that the entire city seemed to freeze in time at that moment. This time, it didn't slow down; it stopped completely.

Leng Yan's fist slammed directly into Master Wuliao's abdomen. Instantly, Master Wuliao's entire body turned to ice.

"Looks like you can finally be free! Congratulations on holding on until now." Although the Bored Master was speaking to him, his mind was actually focused on a tiny figure—a boy who looked only three years old and was holding a sword.

At this moment, Leng Yan was also surprised to see a sword wound on Wu Liao's body.

Immediately afterwards, the Bored Master, whose entire body had turned to ice, vanished into thin air.

"Tch!" Leng Yan retracted his fist and scoffed in frustration. Then he glared angrily at the three-year-old boy: "Who gave you permission to interfere! I already said I'd deal with this person alone! Just who are you?"

-------------Chapter Dividing Line---------------

While the numerous SS-level heroes were battling the remaining three Ivans, what was Lin Jie, who had been disconnected, doing?

He was whipping the corpse...

In fact, Lin Jie was kicking a dead Ivan hard in the face at that moment.

"Damn it, I killed so many people in one go, and none of them turned me into this!" Lin Jie looked at the face in front of him with displeasure. He couldn't believe that after dealing with him so many times, he still fell for his trick this time!

"Huh? This guy's coin for summoning Heroic Spirits is an antique too!" Ling Yu suddenly walked over and said to Lin Jie.

"Really?" Lin Jie looked at the gold coin in his hand with some curiosity.

"Of course it's real! I've been in the antique market for years, and with my expertise, this gold coin is definitely issued by Julius Caesar! That means the guy we just killed was probably someone close to Caesar!" Ling Yu said to Lin Jie. "Speaking of which, these Ivans are really rich. This thing is worth a lot right now!"

"Wait! You mean this thing is very valuable?" Lin Jie's eyes turned into money symbols at that moment.

"It's not that much, just a few million World Coins," Ling Yu said to Lin Jie after thinking for a moment.

"You're saying it's not too much? A few million isn't too much?" Lin Jie looked at Ling Yu in shock.

"It's not really that much, considering that's all the pocket money I get in half a month." Ling Yu looked at Lin Jie with some curiosity: "One of my biggest interests used to be collecting antiques. I've seen coins like these that have survived to this day a few times."

"Holy crap! I never knew you were a tycoon!!" Lin Jie stared at Ling Yu in shock. "Let's go back the way we came! Now!"

"Huh? Shouldn't we continue fighting the final Ivan? Why do we need to go back?" Ling Yu asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Do I even need to ask? Of course, I'll pick up the other summoning items! Those should all be antiques, right? Compared to something as trivial as saving the world, recycling antiques is much more important!" Lin Jie's eyes had already turned into money symbols by this point.

"Are you kidding me?" Ling Yu looked at Lin Jie with some surprise: "But we..."

"Enough with the nonsense!" Lin Jie grabbed Ling Yu and dragged him back. "You can help me with the appraisal, and we'll split it 50/50. If you're a generous guy and don't care about money, you can give it all to me..."

Tempted by the valuable antiques, Lin Jie completely abandoned his fight with Ivan and instead focused on looting the corpses. After looting the corpses for a while, Lin Jie and Ling Yu made quite a few discoveries.

"This thing is absolutely priceless! It was one of the important items of the Egyptian pharaohs in the past!!" Ling Yu exclaimed in surprise when he saw a golden ornament.

"Are you sure this thing is priceless?" Lin Jie asked Ling Yu with a look of surprise.

"It's beyond priceless! Legend has it that this thing possesses a mysterious and powerful force. But I never expected to see it here!" Ling Yu said after observing it carefully. "This thing is similar to the spear in my hand. It also has mysterious power. If used properly, it might even be able to create another powerful being!"

"Is it priceless? I wonder how much it would fetch at auction." Lin Jie was looking at the ornament in front of him with excitement.

"Auction? Are you kidding me! Of course we should hand over something this dangerous to the government!" Ling Yu said righteously to Lin Jie, "This is a valuable cultural relic, so I absolutely must hand it over to the government! I'm a righteous and passionate protagonist, so I would never do something so selfish!"

"No, no, no, you're mistaken." The moment Lin Jie saw Ling Yu's eyes, he knew he was dealing with a righteous idiot: "Actually, this stuff should belong to us. You can think of it this way: what we're doing is no different from playing a game and grinding dungeons! So here's the question: since it's dungeon grinding, the equipment and items we get from killing monsters should naturally be shared among the team members. Besides, didn't you say you're the protagonist? Isn't it normal for protagonists to kill and plunder?"

"Are you kidding me?! Absolutely not! This thing can be used to create a superhero! So I absolutely disagree with selling it off!" Ling Yu's reaction at this moment showed no sign of stupidity.

"Damn! Have you been watching too many shows like 'The Grave Robber's Chronicle'?" Lin Jie couldn't help but look at the person in front of him with a pained expression.

Just as the two were having a heated discussion about what to do with the antiques they had collected, Anya appeared beside them.

At that moment, in Anya's eyes, her beloved was intimately conversing with a gentle woman holding a spear, and they were even occasionally pulling and tugging at each other affectionately. Suddenly, a massive burst of blood-red energy erupted from Anya's center.

"Darling? You really should just die!" A powerful sword aura of judgment erupted directly from Anya's body.

"What on earth is going on?" Anya sensed it the moment she erupted, immediately drew her longsword, and pulled Ling Yu back a short distance, her longsword directly meeting the oncoming judgment sword energy.

"Damn it! What are you doing?!" After the attack, Lin Jie looked at the woman in front of him with her combat power fully unleashed in surprise.

"He's been desperately searching for his darling since they broke up, but why are you here all lovey-dovey with this woman? It seems only by killing a man can we be together forever!" Anya's face revealed a bloodthirsty smile at this moment.

Immediately afterwards, dozens of blood-red spears appeared around her and shot towards Lin Jie and his companion at the same time.

"Damn! How did you figure out we were being intimate?! Even now that we've changed like this, you still recognize me! What's wrong with your eyes?!" Lin Jie stared at Anya in shock.

"Don't worry, now I can recognize you even if you turn into a single-celled organism!" Anya smiled at Lin Jie: "I've been practicing my intuition a lot lately to become a better lover! I have a 100% success rate when I draw a card with my darling's name on it!"

"Although I'm happy that a beautiful woman said that, why do I feel scared when I hear what you're saying?" Lin Jie said to Anya with some surprise, "And can't you let me explain first!"

"So that's what men who have affairs always say! Let me explain first," Anya suddenly said to Lin Jie. "But since you're so eager to explain, then use your life as your explanation! Aha!"

Anya smiled, and more than a dozen blood-red spears shot directly towards Lin Jie. At the same time, Anya herself charged forward.

"I'm telling the truth! Actually, I was turned into this state by that ridiculous guy who fell from the sky!" Lin Jie said while fighting Anya. "As for the guy next to me, he's actually a man! Don't just stand there like an idiot! Explain yourself!"

Hearing Lin Jie's reminder, Ling Yu finally came to his senses from the current situation.

“That’s right! Don’t let my appearance fool you, I’m a man! I’m a typical hot-blooded male protagonist!” Ling Yu immediately shouted to Anya beside him.