Bai Liang could feel his body burning as he strained himself to continue expanding the barrier. Still, his state of mind was perfectly calm as he regulated his spiritual stream in a constant flow to prevent wasting even a minuscule of it.

With the darkness trapping him outside the barrier, he already lost his sense of time. It felt like a day had passed, but he had only covered one-third of the area. From time to time, he could hear shrill laughter from outside the barrier. He couldn’t tell whether it was his hallucination or they were the unknown monsters Xue Liang was fighting.

Seems like he overestimated himself. He thought he could finish this before dinner. He shouldn’t have promised Li Ziyang he would be waiting at home. He must be worried right now.

He had made much larger barriers in the past, but he made them with his master. At those times, his master did 85% of the job. In Dantalion’s world, his restriction was far looser and the devices supporting him were a state of the art technology as well. Doing this with limited help was a challenge.

Xue Liang: [Master, you are reaching your limit. We should stop here for today.]

‘No. Everything must be done today. We can’t fool Li Ziyang after this.’

Xue Liang: [But Master’s qi–]

‘You’re distracting me. Just focus on your part.’

Xue Liang: [Yes, Master…]

Bai Liang closed his eyes and circulated his qi to replenish his energy faster. Because of the restraint, his meridians felt like there were something blocking them, making it difficult for him to cultivate as usual.

That wasn’t a problem though. He would be ashamed to call himself his master’s disciple if he couldn’t overcome this insignificant obstacle.

Unknown to him, the mark on his forehead silently glowed. Feeling an abundance of pure qi entering his body, he didn’t have the time to think where it came from. He didn’t detect anything ominous in it and quickly absorbed them, making them his own. For a second, he thought the qi felt familiar.

In the meeting room, Li Ziyang had just finished settling everything and officializing his position when his energy was suddenly sucked away. At first, he thought it was the unknown being inside of him but then he was struck by a sense of foreboding.

He swiftly signed all the formalities and got up, “We’ll discuss about the international council meeting at another date. My secretary will inform you of the date.”

Ming Zhu blinked and almost couldn’t react as Li Ziyang left the meeting room. He quickly caught up to him, “Boss, is there a problem?”

Li Ziyang took out his phone and called Bai Liang. When the other didn’t answer, his eyebrows fiercely tightened, “Is Bai Lun at home?”

Ming Zhu checked with the bodyguards at the villa, “Young Master Bai hasn’t stepped out of the villa since this morning.”

“I’m asking you whether he’s at home or not,” Li Ziyang coolly glanced at Ming Zhu.

Ming Zhu shuddered and hurriedly asked the bodyguards to confirm Bai Liang’s whereabouts. Until 3 minutes, there was no reply.

It wasn’t 5 minutes later the head guard texted back. Reading it, Ming Zhu knew the head guard was doomed. He felt a little pity for him, but he wasn’t saintly enough to replace him as a dead man.

“B-Boss…” Ming Zhu fixed his glasses nervously. “Young Master Bai is…not at home.”

The temperature suddenly dropped and he jumped in fright from Li Ziyang’s eyes.

“Find him. Now.”

“Right away!” Ming Zhu quickly mobilized everyone to find Bai Liang.

Li Ziyang’s fists shook as he stared at Bai Liang’s contact on his phone. That unknown being must’ve arranged this knowing something would happen to Bai Liang. For him to take energy from him could only mean that he ran out of it. From how much he was taking, normal mermaids would already be depleted in less than 2 hours.

He wanted to go to where Bai Liang was, but he couldn’t let himself run out of energy too. Who knew what would happen to Bai Liang if he did.

Entering the car, he decisively said, “Go to Li Family’s main estate.”

“Yes, Boss,” the driver swiftly drove away.

***

Li Shen hated to admit it, but watching Bai Liang’s progress it would be a lie if he wasn’t in awe. Not only he was the only mermaid he ever knew to have purifying power, he was terrifyingly strong as well. The area he cleansed steadily expanded, and only a fifth of the territory was left. He didn’t know how, but it seemed as if the periphery of the cleansed area repelled away the unknown creatures.

Even if he wanted to help, Bai Liang was too far down for him to do anything. It wasn’t that he wanted to help Bai Liang. Since they had come this far, he didn’t want this to fail.

Honestly, he would rather Bai Liang…

“Young Master Li, Miss Qin, the satellite has picked up on us,” Han Wubin notified. “A military unit is being sent our way by air. Estimated time arrival: 10 minutes.”

Hearing it, the people became restless. From Bai Liang’s progress, it would take him around 40 to 60 minutes to fully purify the area.

Qin Xia-Yu tried contacting Bai Liang, but there was no response, “I can’t reach Young Master Bai. What should we do?”

“Why don’t we try explaining the situation to them?” Li Shen suggested.

“We trespassed and practically brainwashed the people at the island base. Do you think explaining things will be enough? It’ll be good enough if they don’t shoot us on sight.”

“Calm down, Miss Qin. You can see from the surface the area Young Master Bai is purifying and although there are military weapons here, we’re all currently unarmed. At the very least, we can show them we’re not aggressive and you can explain to them what we’re doing. Soldiers will never shoot unarmed civilians. They’ll most likely connect you to the authority,” Han Wubin calmly said. Li Shen noticed something on the monitor. “Bai Lun is resurfacing.”

Everyone turned to the main screen and indeed saw Bai Liang’s indicator rapidly moving toward the surface, leaving the 3 prototypes below. Although they didn't work as effectively, they still functioned properly.

Xue Liang: [Master, is it alright to leave the devices like that?]

‘I already cast a protective barrier on each of them. It’s strong enough to repel a peak golden core cultivator attack. Since you can handle those corrupted mermaids by yourself, they shouldn’t be any stronger than that.’

Bai Liang emerged from the water and pressed his earpiece. “Li Shen, come here.”

Before Li Shen could answer, Han Wubin spoke first, “What is it, Young Master Bai?”

Bai Liang ignored him, “Li Shen, come here if you want to clear you and your family name. Don’t waste our time.”

“Young Master Li, don’t listen to him. It must be a trap,” Han Wubin warned.

“…” Li Shen clutched his shirt and turned towards the stair.

Bai Liang turned off his earpiece and waited until he saw Li Shen coming out of the hatch a few minutes later. He dove into the purified water and emerged a couple of meters away from him.

“What do you want, Bai Lun?” Li Shen warily asked. He didn’t turn off his communication line, letting everyone hear their conversation in case anything happened.

“This was a deal, remember? You help me and I’ll help clear your name,” Bai Liang said. “Now is simply the time to fulfill my end of the deal.”

Li Shen’s eyebrows tightened, “You’re not telling me to claim this entire thing to be my doing, are you?”

“That’s exactly it,” Bai Liang slowly ascended out of the water, sitting on top of Xue Liang. He tossed away his robe and leaned on his arm with a smile, “We both know we can’t be cousins anymore. I’ll give you a chance to kill me.”

“Are you trying to make me a real murderer?” Li Shen didn’t fall for it.

“No, this is another deal,” Bai Liang flicked his tail. “I’ll admit everything, from Li Family’s demise and your murder allegation to be my doing. You can kill me or let the military capture me. In exchange, you’ll let Uncle Ziyang go.”

Li Shen was stunned. He looked at Bai Liang incredulously, “Why are you doing this…?”

“Because I want to?” Bai Liang tilted his head. “Besides, if I didn’t have any personal grudge towards you, your parents wouldn’t die so miserably. They’d still die though.”

Li Shen’s eyes turned fierce and the water around him stirred, “What do you take my parents as!?”

Bai Liang could hear the helicopters coming towards them and smiled satisfyingly at Li Shen, “That’s the spirit.”

BANG!!

Bai Liang paused and glanced down at his chest to see the bloody hole pierced through it. He turned to see Han Wubin by the hatch, the gun in his hand pointing towards him. He chuckled in amusement as his consciousness faded.

Falling, he plunged back into the water and bloomed a vibrant red.