The Reason Behind the Curtain

Several hours later.

Lu Yuan materialized above a stretch of crimson earth.

He glanced around and caught the thick, cloying reek of blood — enough to make him involuntarily wrinkle his nose. This Forbidden Zone was called the Blood Wilderness, home to a collection of unsettling, blood-hungry Feral Beasts. He'd read about it in the Forbidden Zone files, but this was his first time here in person.

His immediate assessment: the smell was absolutely unbearable.

Still, he'd come to deal with Saint Grade Aberration Feral Beasts, so there was nothing to be done about it. He resigned himself to sealing off his sense of smell with Spirit Power and began sweeping the area through the Evolution Cube.

He quickly identified a bearing and flew in that direction.

Before long, he arrived over a desolate stretch of land riddled with holes — dens of blood beasts honeycombing the surface below.

An odd expression settled on his face.

Something was off about the Evolution Cube's vibrations.

No matter which way he turned — left or right — the tremors only grew stronger.

What did that mean?

*Two Saint Grade Aberration Feral Beasts here?*

He raised an eyebrow.

Every Forbidden Zone he'd visited before had contained only one. He hadn't expected two.

Then again, two was two. At his current strength, a pair of Saint Grade Aberrations wasn't particularly daunting.

He moved left to pinpoint one of the Aberrations first, planning to locate the second afterward.

While Lu Yuan moved, Du Bei lurked in a patch of shadow some distance away, his eyes sharpening as he tracked the approaching figure.

He could sense a strand of powerful aura emanating from that direction — utterly unlike anything native to this Forbidden Zone. Whatever it was, it seemed to be searching for something.

*Could this be the mysterious Saint?*

*He actually showed up.*

*He's hunting the Saint Grade Aberrations — which means he'll pass right by me before long.* Du Bei was supremely confident in his ability to conceal himself. His Aberration had evolved along a stealth-oriented path; even a full Battle Saint would struggle to detect him without a specialized technique.

All he had to do was wait.

Moments later, a rush of aura approached at speed. Du Bei's eyes lit up as he looked skyward.

A young man in battle armor — strikingly handsome — was streaking straight toward him.

Satisfaction curved Du Bei's lips.

*So it really is the mysterious Saint. Finally found you.*

*Now I just need to establish his identity, follow the thread back, and investigate properly.*

But while Du Bei was still working through his plan, the mysterious Saint's behavior took an odd turn.

After passing directly overhead, the Saint doubled back and began circling the area — methodically searching for something.

Du Bei's stomach dropped. Unease flickered across his face.

*Discovered? That's impossible.*

He refused to believe his concealment could be penetrated.

Then the mysterious Saint came to a dead stop in midair not far away.

Du Bei's frown deepened.

An instant later, the space around him warped. His pupils snapped to pinpoints, a jolt of shock running through him.

*Spatial movement — a Spatial Type ability?! No — he's actually found me!*

Green light rippled across Du Bei's entire body. Before he could mount any resistance, he vanished from the spot.

When the spatial distortion cleared, Du Bei found that the patch of wasteland he'd been standing in now floated in a vacuum. His expression turned grim.

Worse still, the Saint Grade Aberration Feral Beast he had been cultivating was here too — and the mysterious Saint himself had appeared a short distance away.

*Damn. He really did find me. How?*

Du Bei's expression turned grave.

At that moment, green light surged from a mass of blood-red earth nearby, and a powerful aura spread outward. The earth cracked apart, revealing the figure within — a blood beast of hideous ferocity, four razor-sharp claws, crimson skin laced with green markings.

Watching the Aberration Feral Beast burst free, Du Bei's eyes flickered as he quickly ran the numbers.

*I've been found, and he teleported me here along with the beast — that tells me something about his confidence. I might not be able to beat him alone... but with the Saint Grade Aberration fighting beside me? Two Saint-level combatants ought to overwhelm him.*

A sharp gleam crossed his eyes. *If I could use this opening to eliminate the mysterious Saint, that might not be such a bad outcome after all.*

With that thought, green flames began coiling around him, his aura surging.

After teleporting both Saint Grade Aberration Feral Beasts into space, Lu Yuan watched the Saint Grade Aberration blood beast burst from the earth.

But the powerful aura rising from the other mass of earth gave him genuine pause.

It was far stronger than the Saint Grade Aberration blood beast — nothing like a freshly broken-through Aberration. It even sent a faint thread of real threat through him.

Lu Yuan's brow furrowed. He turned toward the source of that aura — and from the crumbling earth emerged a handsome man in a long green robe, with dark ashen skin and pale gray hair.

Lu Yuan: *...???*

*That's not an Aberration Feral Beast?!*

A thoroughly strange expression spread across his face.

He'd been expecting another beast. An actual person was the last thing he'd anticipated.

And judging by the robes — someone from the Heavenly Calamity Cult??

He'd been speculating that someone might be pulling strings behind these Aberration Feral Beasts. He just hadn't expected to teleport that very person straight to him.

A complicated tangle of feelings stirred within him.

A Saint Grade Aberration Feral Beast and a member of the Heavenly Calamity Cult — both now closing in on Lu Yuan simultaneously.

He narrowed his eyes slightly, looked at the man, and spoke with an easy smile:

"An Apostle of the Heavenly Calamity Cult? What brings you to Great Qi Star? These Saint Grade Aberration Feral Beasts — you're behind them, aren't you?"

The man's robes and the runes along his cuffs resembled those of the Apostle he'd encountered in the Upper Layer of the Land of Origin. He had a reasonable guess at this man's identity.

Du Bei felt a flicker of calculation. *This man has a Spatial Type Transcendent Gene — holding him here may not be possible. At the very least, I should gather what information I can.*

With that in mind, he reined in the restless Saint Grade Aberration blood beast and offered a faint, measured smile.

"I didn't expect you to know of the Heavenly Calamity Cult. No wonder you found me. The Gaston Demon Dog last time — that was you as well, wasn't it? Who exactly are you?"

Lu Yuan blinked, mildly puzzled.

*Gaston Demon Dog? What's that?*

Then it clicked. A slight contraction of his pupils. *That hideous dog from before?*

The thought made him frown.

*How did they find out I killed the Gaston Demon Dog?*

*The Heavenly Calamity Cult wouldn't have a base of operations in the White Cloud Star Domain, surely?* There were only a handful of Saints in the entire domain. If the Cult were actually based there, the whole region would already be in chaos.

*So where did this man get his information?*

*Nobody else was present that night — just those Battle Emperors and Battle Sovereigns.* And even Li Xinghai hadn't seen his face. There was simply no way anyone could have known.

His thoughts shifted to the Gaston Demon Dog itself. *Had there been something strange about the beast?* But he'd incinerated it to ash with Radiant Fire. How could anything have survived that?

He kept his face perfectly neutral while his thoughts churned, and replied with an easy laugh:

"The Heavenly Calamity Cult — I've had my dealings with them. But I'm curious: how exactly did you know I killed that demon dog?"

Du Bei raised an eyebrow, a condescending smile curling his lips.

"The methods of the Heavenly Calamity Cult are beyond the comprehension of mortals like you."

Lu Yuan's expression shifted slightly.

*Full of himself, isn't he.*

He smiled. "So you came here specifically looking for me? Because I killed the Gaston Demon Dog?"

Piecing together everything Du Bei had said, Lu Yuan had a fairly clear picture now of why the man had come.

*He traced me here after learning something from that night.*

Cultivating this many Saint Grade Aberration Feral Beasts across multiple Forbidden Zones — that was genuinely impressive.

*The Heavenly Calamity Cult lives up to its reputation.* He couldn't help a grudging admiration — these lunatics had even managed to carve out an entrance to the Upper Layer of the Land of Origin. That was no small feat.

Du Bei narrowed his eyes.

"Then who are you? Great Qi Star is just an ordinary Human Race planet. Why are you still here?"

Lu Yuan smiled. "Me? I'm just an ordinary member of the Human Race."

"An ordinary member of the Human Race..." Du Bei began.

He was about to say more when darkness bled into existence from the void around them. The Shadow Sacred Domain expanded, swallowing him and the Aberration blood beast whole.

Shadow Clones materialized throughout the domain — dozens upon dozens of them.

Du Bei's expression shifted sharply. "Damn—"

Green light blazed across his body as he conjured a volley of green fireballs and hurled them at Lu Yuan. At the same time, he released his hold on the Aberration blood beast, and it charged forward in a fury.

At that moment, all the Shadow Clones split into two groups. One group extended their hands toward Du Bei and the blood beast, the Hand of Death reaching out in a sweeping grasp.

The other group blazed with flowing stellar light, condensing it into powerful Stellar Swords and surging straight at Du Bei.

The Hand of Death reached — and Du Bei's body went rigid. The green flames across him guttered, his aura dimming noticeably. On the other side, the blood beast fared even worse: its aura cratered, its body locking in place, unable to press its charge.

A flicker of disbelief crossed Du Bei's face. He hadn't expected such a bizarre Combat Technique.

But before he could dwell on it, the blades of stellar light were already upon him, their force sending ice shooting down his spine.

His pupils contracted. He dissolved into green flame and vanished.

An instant later, he reappeared at a distance — the stellar blades slicing through empty air where he'd been.

He stared at the dissipating sword light, shock plain in his eyes.

*What kind of monster is this?! How does he wield so many different powers — and each one this strong?*

It dawned on him that he had badly miscalculated. He was no match for this man.

*I need to run.*

He made the decision without hesitation and moved to flee.

But the moment he turned, the space around him froze solid. His entire body locked in place.

"What—?!"

Power surged through every inch of him as he strained against the Spatial Confinement — and then gray-white hands lunged for him.

His body seized. A grayish pallor crept across his face — and stellar sword light flashed past, slashing into him.

Du Bei let out a guttural snarl and wrenched himself free of the Spatial Confinement, dissolving into green flame.

The sword light swept through the fire, shredding it into fragments.

In another corner of the space, his body coalesced once more — covered in fresh sword wounds, blood pouring freely, aura badly weakened.

Before he could move, his body locked up again.

*No—!*

Despair flickered in his eyes. He barely had time to process it before the Hand of Death and stellar sword light descended on him once more.

Wounded as he was, Du Bei had no chance to evade. The stellar sword light swallowed him whole.

Lu Yuan kept the Shadow Clones pouring on the stellar sword light for a sustained stretch — until every trace of aura had gone dark. Only then did he call them off.

Where the sword light had raged, nothing remained but a fine mist of blood.

On the other side, the Saint Grade blood beast had been put down by over a hundred Shadow Clones relentlessly applying the Hand of Death, leaving only a corpse behind.

Lu Yuan let out a slow breath and dispersed the Shadow Sacred Domain.

Two strands of Unknown Aura flowed into him. One was noticeably stronger than the other.

*The stronger one must have come from the Apostle.*

He swept his gaze across the remains. Radiant Fire surged, enveloping everything.

Then his thoughts drifted back to what the Apostle had said, and a frown settled on his brow.

Last time, he hadn't detected anything unusual — he'd specifically waited until the Gaston Demon Dog's corpse was completely reduced to ash.

This time, though... He thought for a moment, then severed the space around the Apostle's remains, forming a small isolated pocket dimension.

Within it, Radiant Fire burned without cease, reducing the Apostle's flesh to ash in short order. The fire died away, leaving the vacuum barren.

Lu Yuan watched the isolated space and waited in silence.

Several hours passed.

Then a green point of light flickered into existence within the pocket dimension. The instant it appeared, it darted for the edge — only to be stopped cold by the spatial barrier. Caught, the speck drifted in place, utterly motionless.

Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow. *So there really was something else hidden in there.*

He compressed the small space, folding it into a sphere that settled into his palm — the green speck trapped inside.

He dismissed the spatial barrier and held the speck in his hand. A luminous screen flickered into being above him — and on it played a recording of his battle with the Apostle, from beginning to end.

*Ah. So that's how it works.*

He crushed the green speck between his fingers, and vanished.