Volume Two: Devil's Game Chapter Twenty-Three: A Hair's Breadth from Disaster

A pile of wooden crates in the corner of the wall burst apart with a thunderous crash, and the guard in armor with a long blade in hand rushed out. By then, Lu Yi had already climbed to the rooftop the instant before.

Lu Yi sprinted across the roof, but the rooftop ahead of him suddenly bulged upward. He hurriedly rolled aside and slid down from the tiles.

At that very moment, the swollen roof split open with a deafening blast. A streak of blade-light shot into the sky, followed closely by the armored guard.

“Thief, where do you think you’re going?” the guard roared, charging to the edge of the building. He leaped down and smashed straight through a handcart, landing by sheer coincidence in the center of it, looking as though he were wearing a ridiculous pair of trousers.

“Iron lump, listen to me: you’re too heavy,” Lu Yi taunted, stoking the guard’s rage with his words.

“Argh!” the guard bellowed, snapping the handcart apart with brute force.

Hearing the rapid clamor of armor behind him, Lu Yi was certain the guard was still in pursuit. He glanced at his watch when he could spare a moment. “Not enough time. I just hope the guard can go a little more insane and give me a surprise.”

Soon the two of them reached a factory thick with a heavy metallic smell.

“This place?” The guard narrowed his eyes. “You’re dead, little thief. Of all places, you had to come to the ironworks.”

As soon as Lu Yi entered the factory, he made straight for a workshop. The instant he stepped inside, a wave of heat struck his face; the whole building glowed red, and rivers of molten iron flowed slowly through it.

Without a word, he ran up the stairs and kept climbing higher.

“Boy, is this the place you picked for your own grave?” The guard entered the factory and spotted Lu Yi above at a glance. He sprang upward and crashed straight toward him.

Lu Yi grabbed the railing and vaulted down, landing on a narrow iron bridge just wide enough for one person. The bridge hung above the molten iron, and even standing there was enough to leave one drenched in sweat.

“Black Phosphor Sauce: Streamer, are you really going to keep messing with him here?”
“Sweetheart Yiyi: Exactly. The conditions are terrible. By rights, you shouldn’t have run here.”
“One Who Smooths Ink into Words: There’s a lot of metal here, which may actually enhance the guard’s abilities. Streamers usually don’t act without a reason, so this must have been planned long ago. If so, all I can say is the streamer made a mistake.”
“Phoenix: That’s right. I feel like the streamer is about to shoot himself in the foot.”
“Black Phosphor Sauce: No way, streamer, get out of there. Also, I hate fire.”

After landing on that level of the iron bridge, Lu Yi quickly tampered with something on the bridge, then continued running forward.

“Trying to run?” The guard gripped the railing, then looked down at the bridge below, seeming to measure his own weight.

He slashed the iron bridge beneath his feet. Under the pressure of his weight, the bridge instantly tilted downward, but he held onto one side of the railing and landed securely on the lower bridge.

A blade-light swept by. Lu Yi hurriedly threw himself flat.

“Thief, so you can make mistakes too after all. Didn’t see that coming, did you? Here, my blade aura can be used far more frequently. You’ve made a cocoon to bind yourself in.” The guard’s heavy footsteps sounded behind him.

Lu Yi quickly brushed a hand over the floor, then sprang up and charged ahead. More frequent blade aura? That was still within expectations. As long as the plan went smoothly, everything would be worth it.

“Hmph. You’ll cry only when you see the coffin,” the guard snorted coldly, then launched a fierce rush at Lu Yi.

Hearing the hasty footfalls behind him, Lu Yi’s expression lit up at once. He had taken the bait. He pulled out an object and pressed it quickly.

Two strange sounds rang out at once, and then the guard discovered that the iron bridge had actually split apart from both ends, while the section he stood on was rapidly plunging toward the molten iron below.

The device Lu Yi had used was a Breaker. By attaching the corresponding consumable to a nonliving object he wanted to sever, setting the direction, and pressing the button, the object would split apart in an instant and collapse in the chosen direction. He had once used it to smash the guard over the head.

The guard had just used a jumping dash skill, and in a situation like this there was naturally nothing he could do. Very soon, he fell into the molten iron.

“Black Phosphor Sauce: Is this considered reaching the streamer’s plan? Confused.”
“Sweetheart Yiyi: It should be the streamer’s plan, but I can’t tell what he’s really trying to do. Is he trying to sink the guard again? But this isn’t very deep.”
“Phoenix: Think about it another way. Even if the streamer lures the guard toward the edge of the molten iron again, the guard may not fall for it. On the other hand, a place like this could lower the guard’s vigilance.”
“A Wolf in the Poisonous Miasma Valley: Sinking him again? This time it feels like something’s missing.”
“I’m a Husky: I know what’s missing for sure. It’s that kick to the guard’s body. Doge.”

Although the guard had fallen into the molten iron, Lu Yi did not relax. He was still running along the broken bridge, after all this could be considered a dangerous span, and it was best to get to safety as soon as possible.

At that very moment, a straight and blindingly brilliant blade-light erupted from the molten iron, piercing clean through the roof of the factory.

“Black Phosphor Sauce: What was that? Blade-light? So condensed, and so long a distance.”
“Wind: This can be counted as the streamer’s own consequence.”

With one sweep, that blade-light severed everything it touched, including the iron bridge where Lu Yi stood.

The moment Lu Yi saw it, he understood what the guard intended to do. He no longer cared about the stability of the bridge. He immediately activated the Wind-Soaring Pendant, slapped on a Swift Charm, and broke into a desperate run.

The blade-light drew closer and closer to the bridge, yet Lu Yi was still several meters away from it. Clenching his teeth, he leaped hard. The blade-light swept across the bridge and cut it apart in an instant, while Lu Yi, still in midair, drew nearer and nearer to the broken edge.

“Black Phosphor Sauce: Go, streamer!”
“Sweetheart Yiyi: Keep going!”
“I’m a Husky: Hurry! If you fall, you’re dead meat.”

Lu Yi swung his arm, and his right hand caught the severed bridge.

“Black Phosphor Sauce: Great, he survived!”
“Phoenix: No, not yet!”

Lu Yi’s face twisted in agony. The palm gripping the bridge was smoking furiously, and at last, with a terrible cry, he let go.

“Wind: That blade-light carried extreme heat. The cut surface had been swept by it, and the temperature there was terrifyingly high. He couldn’t hold on.”

With his back to the molten iron, Lu Yi kept falling, while the severed edge of the bridge receded farther and farther from his eyes.

“Black Phosphor Sauce: Don’t!”
“Sweetheart Yiyi: Streamer, use whatever you still have, now!”
“A Wolf in the Poisonous Miasma Valley: What a pity. After all that reckless showboating, the streamer is still going to die in the molten iron.”
“A Warmhearted Man: Exactly. It’s nothing but molten iron.”
“The Bearer of Golden Sands: Could it be that the streamer won’t even get the chance to be purified, and will be neutralized outright?”

Lu Yi was somewhat helpless. He reached for something, and at that moment a lasso suddenly shot down, snagging him. Then the loop tightened and a strong pull came from above, instantly arresting his descent.

“Lu Yi, can you still hold on?” Shen Yixue’s voice came from the roof of the factory.