"You can't keep living like this," Lu Chengxuan said, walking up to stand below Lu Zhi. Occasionally, his purple lightning ability would clash with the thunder falling from the night sky.
The two were currently at the center of a dense lightning strike. Everything around them had been flattened by the lightning, but Lu Zhi was firmly protected by an oval-shaped barrier, its color a duck-egg white with faint streaks of crimson, shining brightly like a falling star in the darkness, drawing all attention.
"Brother, you should leave. Shen Qi will be back soon and can break this. It's too dangerous for you to stay here," Lu Zhi said. Even within the barrier, he could feel the immense, violent energy of the falling thunder. Lu Chengxuan, outside, was a walking target.
"Your brother isn't afraid of lightning. Stand still, I'll try to take you away." Lu Chengxuan took a box from his waist, and silver threads coiled around Lu Zhi's barrier. He pulled hard. "Tsk, nope, it's no good."
Lu Zhi was like someone locked in a space; to take him away, the barrier had to be broken.
"Brother, forget it, I'm fi— Careful!" Before Lu Zhi could finish speaking, Lu Chengxuan violently struck behind him with purple lightning, retreating towards Lu Zhi with a grave expression.
The falling lightning in the night sky suddenly vanished, and a colossal humanoid figure appeared. It was a high-ranking god from a foreign apostle, officially engaging in war with the esper users of the country.
However, if the appearance of the Thunder God brought a sense of impending doom, like dark clouds pressing down on a storm-ridden land, then the man who suddenly appeared before them gave Lu Zhi and Lu Chengxuan a feeling of immense, insurmountable danger.
Lu Zhi's pupils constricted, and he instinctively stopped Lu Chengxuan from attacking. "Brother, don't move."
Lu Chengxuan's face turned cold. "Do you know him?"
Lu Zhi's nerves were taut as he replied, "Shao Xinran."
"What?" Lu Chengxuan couldn't *not* know this name. But it was precisely because he understood its meaning that he found it absurd.
"Hmm? Interesting." Shao Xinran, dressed in a white suit, looked refined and elegant. "Your lightning can hurt me."
Shao Xinran crushed Lu Chengxuan's lightning with just two fingers and looked at Lu Zhi with golden eyes. "Long time no see, my lord."
Lu Zhi's expression was tense. "What are you doing here?"
"You don't remember me, my lord? That truly breaks my heart," Shao Xinran said, looking mournful as he stepped closer to Lu Zhi. "It's alright, I can create new memories with you."
"No!" Before Lu Zhi could stop him, Lu Chengxuan had already attacked Shao Xinran. Lightning of immense force split the heavens and earth into a purple net that covered half the sky.
The Zodiacs, who were jointly fighting the Thunder God, Teigar, with Shen Lu and Xue Jinzhuan, suddenly showed grave expressions. They wanted to rush towards Lu Zhi in unison.
"Too late." Teigar's phantom disappeared, and his true form descended. The mountains shook and the earth trembled. The lightning net covered half the sky, falling densely. Simultaneously, the lightning net formed a barrier, blocking the Zodiacs' path.
Hei Bao Tu and the other Zodiacs furiously charged towards Teigar, finally understanding that Teigar's presence here to intercept them was primarily to allow Shao Xinran to approach Lu Zhi. The teleportation gates to the opened alien divine realms were also part of the diversion, meant to make them focus on protecting ordinary people while ignoring the most important one.
The Zodiacs suddenly grew enraged, their terrifying divine power converging into a single point. Niu Xiao Tong, Huang Kou, and Zhu Zi Qian's divine phantoms gradually appeared, joining forces to attack Teigar.
Shen Lu and Xue Jinzhuan didn't understand why the Zodiacs had suddenly gone berserk. Upon seeing the purple lightning outside the barrier, they realized something had happened to Lu Zhi.
"Worrying is useless," Xue Jinzhuan wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. "Just one high-ranking god from a foreign divine realm has made us so desperate, so unable to resist."
Shen Lu gave a wry smile. "If it weren't for the Zodiacs taking the fatal blows for us multiple times, you and I, and the city behind us, would have already been annihilated by the gods' power."
When gods fight, mortals suffer.
Xue Jinzhuan suddenly received urgent reports from various troops.
"General, this is bad, cages, so many cages."
"Reporting, General, Cloud Sea City has a large outbreak of cages. Anomalies are continuously invading from within the cages, requesting orders."
"Reporting, General, the Y City defense line has been breached by anomalies, requesting support—"