The terror on Loki's face vanished instantly, replaced by a sadistic grin.
He knew he was completely entangled by this bizarre deliveryman and unable to break free for the time being.
"You think stopping me means you've won?"
"Mortal! You understand nothing!"
Before the words had even left his lips, Loki bit his fingertip. Golden divine blood surged out, condensing into eerie runes in mid-air. With his blood-stained finger, Loki rapidly traced a complex seal into the void, his voice beginning to chant an ancient, malevolent incantation.
***
Far across Cangnan City.
Si Xiaonan, who was guarding Shiva's Grudge alongside Team 136, suddenly shuddered. Her focused expression turned blank, and the clarity in her eyes vanished, replaced by a piercing, bone-chilling silver.
The silver spread like frost, utterly swallowing the light in her eyes. On her forehead, a mark identical to the one Loki had drawn burned into existence.
Leng Xuan, a member of Team 136, noticed the anomaly immediately. He whipped around to look at her.
"Xiaonan, what's wrong?"
The response he received wasn't Si Xiaonan's gentle voice, but a lightning-fast backstab.
In a blur, Si Xiaonan appeared behind Leng Xuan, driving her dagger viciously toward his waist. Relying on years of combat experience, Leng Xuan barely managed to dodge, but he couldn't hide the shock on his face.
In that instant, Si Xiaonan's aura exploded, surging to a level of power far beyond anyone's imagination. With a void, expressionless gaze, she unleashed a display of strength that bordered on despair.
The other members of Team 136 didn't even have time to react before she systematically cut them down. Teammates who had fought side-by-side for years were now utterly powerless against her.
Leng Xuan struggled to crawl up from the ground. His left arm was completely numb, and blood continued to seep from a wound in his chest. Still, he summoned every last bit of his strength to grab Si Xiaonan's ankle.
"Why?!" Leng Xuan's voice trembled, filled with confusion and agony. "Xiaonan, didn't we agree to protect this place together?"
Si Xiaonan looked down at him. From those silver, hollow eyes, a single, hot tear suddenly escaped, carving a path down her pale cheek.
She leaned down, whispering in a voice so low only the two of them could hear, "Trust me... this is the only way."
Her voice was laced with pain and resolve. Then, with a swift strike of her hand, she slammed a blow into the side of Leng Xuan's neck.
Leng Xuan's body went limp, and he spiraled into unconsciousness.
Si Xiaonan straightened up, her expression returning to that empty void. She turned toward Chen Muye, plunged her hand into the woman's chest, and pulled out a mass of black energy radiating an overwhelming aura of destruction.
Shiva's Grudge!
Even while sealed, it emitted a heart-stopping pressure. Without hesitation, Si Xiaonan gripped it tightly in her palm and flew toward Loki.
***
Loki now held Shiva's Grudge. The mass of pure destructive power pulsed restlessly in his hand. Feeling its colossal strength, a look of complete satisfaction finally settled on his face.
He cast a contemptuous glance at the delivery driver nearby, then turned to the expressionless Si Xiaonan. "A perfect ruse. You truly were the right pawn for me to choose."
Si Xiaonan's eyes remained a hollow silver, unresponsive to his praise.
"Sir." An ill-timed voice interrupted Loki's victory declaration.
The MiTuan Delivery driver was still standing there, holding his thermal box in one hand and his phone in the other. On the screen, that glaring negative review remained stubbornly visible.
Maintaining his professional, corporate smile, the delivery driver asked earnestly, "Seriously, would you like to reconsider? This thing looks pretty dangerous; why not just give it to me? If you give me a five-star rating, I'll give you a '5 yuan off for every 30 spent' coupon. It's much more practical."
Loki's smile froze.
He ignored the delusional mortal and stopped looking at Si Xiaonan. His gaze pierced through space, cutting across the chaotic battlefield to lock onto a blood-soaked figure standing in the distance, radiating a fierce will to fight—Lin Qiye.
"Obtaining Shiva's Grudge was merely the appetizer," Loki's voice rose, announcing his intent to the gods clashing in the sky and to the entirety of Great Xia. "Now, I shall destroy the 'miracle' that Cangnan City has maintained for the last ten years!"
As he spoke, Loki slammed his foot down.
Golden divine power flooded out, instantly constructing a massive, intricate teleportation array beneath his feet. A pillar of light shot toward the heavens—not to escape, but to lock onto Lin Qiye.
Before Lin Qiye could react, he was swallowed by the powerful beam of light. In the next instant, he vanished, forcibly teleported thousands of miles away.
With Lin Qiye's departure, Cangnan City underwent a sudden, violent transformation.
In the city center, the psychiatric hospital where Lin Qiye had lived for ten years began to turn transparent without warning. Then, like a sandcastle that had stood for millennia, it collapsed in a light breeze, shattering into billions of golden specks that floated slowly toward the sky.
This phenomenon spread frantically from the hospital across the entire city. Streets, skyscrapers, vehicles... everything silently dissolved into points of light and vanished.
The people in the city looked at their own arms and bodies in bewilderment as their edges began to blur, leaking golden light. There was no pain on their faces, only the confusion of a dream about to break.
Chen Muye, who had been standing still, felt her own arm begin to dissipate into light. There was no terror or surprise on her face—only a sense of relief, as if a great burden had been lifted, tinged with a hint of loneliness.
At the same time, on the celestial battlefield, Master Chen, who was maneuvering against Indra, let out a long sigh. The sound wasn't loud, yet it resonated clearly in everyone's heart.
"Cangnan was destroyed ten years ago during the first rampage of Shiva's Grudge."
"The city you see, the pedestrians on the street, everything... was nothing more than a ten-year dream sustained unconsciously by Lin Qiye's 'Mortal Divine Realm'."
The scene shifted back to an old, ordinary residence in Cangnan City. Lin Qiye's aunt, always wearing a smile, sat on the sofa holding a family photo.
The edges of her body began to leak golden light, and her figure slowly became transparent.
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