Several motorcycles rushed towards Yan Qiushan on the road opened by the big snake, surrounding him in a tight circle.

A frightened sparrow flapped its wings and flew into the air, but it collided with something and fell to the ground with a loud "smack," turning into a pile of unrecognizable flesh and blood.

An invisible pressure spread out, and Yan Qiushan's peripheral vision caught a glimpse of a circle of refracted light surrounding him.

He knew that the other party had opened up some kind of space, trying to trap him like a fish in a barrel.

"Mr. Nian," the 'riders' on the motorcycle all lifted their helmets in unison, revealing six identical wooden doll faces.

These six were probably meant to scare people, with their red lips and green eyes, looking terrifying.

They all sang in unison, "Yan Qiushan, you could have been the best of the best, but you chose to degrade yourself and become a dog. Since you love being a dog for those lowly humans so much, why not bark a few times for us? If you bark well, we'll leave your whole body intact."

Yan Qiushan never engaged in pointless verbal battles, and remained unmoved.

He slowly scanned the few wooden dolls surrounding him, and placed his blade horizontally in front of him.

The shiny metal blade reflected his chiseled face like a carving knife: "Do you think you can come here and kill me without Old Lady Yu knowing?"

The puppets were furious: "How dare you mention our Old Lady!"

In the distance, there were rustling sounds and the ground trembled as if something was drilling through it. The entire forest fell silent, and danger lurked everywhere.

Only Yan Qiushan, a real person, felt like he had stumbled into a poorly made horror animation.

"I bet she doesn't know," Yan Qiushan's mental fortitude was exceptional, and he remained calm.

"I also bet that when Old Lady Yu suddenly disappeared without a word, you all became panicked and turned into a group of headless flies. So, you heard a rumor and believed it to be true, thinking that if you killed me, no one would know what He Cuiyu had done. The only problem is that the authorities haven't even started investigating He Cuiyu publicly. So, who is in such a hurry to inform you and pin the blame on her?"

As the final word left his lips, Yan Qiushan suddenly slammed the blade in his hand into the ground.

The earth beneath his feet exploded from the force of the strike, followed by a piercing scream.

With a flick of his wrist, Yan Qiushan lifted the blade to reveal a small wooden puppet, no bigger than a palm, with a miniature mithril gun in its hand.

Before the puppet could even attempt to fire, Yan Qiushan pierced its chest with his blade, causing it to flail about and leaving a gaping hole in its chest.

In the next moment, all of the puppets sprang to life, and six mithril guns fired at Yan Qiushan from all directions.

With agility, Yan Qiushan rolled on the ground, causing the metal that had been supporting him to quickly separate and form a thin film that wrapped around the relentless pursuit of the mithril bullet.

The mithril bullet exploded within the metal film, causing Yan Qiushan to be thrown five or six meters away from the explosion.

At the same time, he felt a sudden chill at the back of his neck and instinctively extended his five fingers, which grew into a giant claw resembling that of a golden wolf.

He stabbed it into the ground, stopping his momentum.

With a "crack" sound, the hem of his long coat, which had flown out, hit the edge of the transparent spatial barrier and was directly blown into a jagged shape.

"You can't run!"

A motorcycle roared towards him, and the puppet on the bike screeched, "So, you want to know who betrayed your journey? Ha! Of course it was your Wind God brother. Yan Qiushan, you little man, it was clearly you who went to the Old Lady's house to beg and plead, and used threats and bribes to deceive our Old Lady into giving you the map of the Mountain prince's tomb. And then, you guys took the map and crazily sacrificed to the ancient demons with dark rituals. When things went wrong, you, Captain Yan, with your powerful background, got away with it and threw the blame on the Old Lady."

"Do you really think that the old lady is confused and fell for my trap?" Yan Qiushan dodged a bit awkwardly and jumped into the nearby bushes.

"Old Lady Yu doesn't care if I testify or not. Her connection with the True Nature Sect is much deeper than you can imagine. She is likely one of the masterminds behind the Yin Sacrifice ritual. Having one more witness means nothing to her..."

"You're talking nonsense!"

A puppet suddenly pulled out a flamethrower from the motorcycle and aimed it at the bushes where Yan Qiushan was hiding.

The dry winter climate in the north made the branches and leaves catch fire easily. Thick smoke rose into the sky but couldn't dissipate, trapped by the transparent spatial array of the barrier. In the next moment, the puppet let out a scream.

Yan Qiushan had somehow turned around and grabbed onto the back frame of the motorcycle. The metal on the motorcycle melted upon his touch, transforming into a curved blade.

He sliced the puppet in half with ease, and the blade seemed to come alive in the hands of a master of metal. It extended half a meter in mid-air and flung the puppet away, blocking another flame spout.

The half-burnt puppet that caught fire rushed towards his companion, but Yan Qiushan took the opportunity to run. He hid in the bushes, wiped the ash off his face, and tried to catch his breath.

His eyes scanned the boundary of the space formation, which was clearly outlined by the thick smoke. His gaze was as calm as a frozen lake.

The space formation was shrinking step by step, and these puppets were all remotely controlled by people.

They were disposable and designed to self-destruct with him.

If the fire continued, this limited space would turn into an oven.

He had to break the space formation as soon as possible, but it required a huge amount of energy. Yan Qiushan searched his pockets and found only a disposable shield given to him by Gu Yuexi, with no energy source.

Energy source... The highly destructive boundary of the barrier was rapidly shrinking, about to engulf Yan Qiushan's hiding place.

Suddenly, Yan Qiushan rushed out, and the wooden puppets that were setting fires all around were so smoked that their eyes turned into carbon, but their vision was not affected.

They immediately spotted him and charged towards him with their flame-throwing devices.

A roaring fire dragon rushed towards Yan Qiushan.

He headed straight for two scrapped motorcycles, and at that moment, he had no distracting thoughts.

His mind was clear, and the world around him was reduced to only two types of matter: metal or non-metal.

As he approached within one meter of the two motorcycles, they automatically disintegrated. All the metal parts on the bikes were instantly crushed into tiny metal dust, which rose up into the air and collided head-on with the fire dragon.

Yan Qiushan charged forward, activating his shield just as the metallic dust was ignited by the flames, causing a massive explosion within the small boundary. The unsuspecting puppets were thrown about by the blast, and the deadly spatial boundary shattered just as Yan Qiushan was propelled upwards.

His shield shattered upon impact, and he quickly rolled on the ground, extinguishing the flames before darting deeper into the forest.

"Intersection of National Highway 404 and Provincial Road in Pingzhou, 3.2 kilometers southwest," Xiao Zheng, who happened to be on duty, received an urgent message from the Wind Gods and immediately dispatched a helicopter team from headquarters.

"This is outrageous! Notify the nearest Pingzhou branch and the Wind Gods..."

"Director Xiao, Wang Ze, the Captain of the Wind Gods, didn't leave the employee service base yesterday. We received news that he has already taken people and driven there!"

"Let's go!"

The enormous propellers lifted them up and they quickly headed south. As they passed over Yong'an, a shadow resembling a shooting star came hurtling towards the helicopter, causing the energy alarm on board to sound.

The tense field agents immediately drew their guns.

In the next moment, the airplane door opened and a familiar voice said, "Need a ride...I'm one of you..."

Like climbing onto a train from the last century, Xuan Ji clambered onto the helicopter, causing it to wobble.

His Majesty was not too keen on such an ungraceful movement, so he lightly placed his foot on Xuan Ji's shoulder, using him as a human stool.

Xuan Ji almost couldn't catch his breath and was about to let out a customary curse, but upon seeing His Majesty's elegant profile, he held it back.

Damn the old society! Damn the exploiting class!

Xiao Zheng stared at him in shock. "Where did you come from?"

"I flew here from home, don't worry, we avoided the cameras," Xuan Ji grinned and winked at him amidst the deafening noise of the helicopter. "Pretty cool, huh?"

Smoke seemed to be coming out of Xiao Zheng's seven orifices as he thought to himself, 'Who the hell asked you how you got here? I'm asking you how you knew something went wrong!'

Just then, the "Sword Spirit" used telepathy to communicate with him, and a voice that was neither too light nor too heavy rang in his ear, "There is a paper shield on Yan Qiushan's body that I placed there."

Xiao Zheng's ears tingled, and he felt uneasy as he moved his neck, accepting this explanation without further questioning.

Xuan Ji caught a glimpse of the Emperor's mouth moving and immediately spread out his divine sense, hearing the message he transmitted and witnessing how the old demon lied with his eyes open.

Sheng Lingyuan didn't care about whether Yan Qiushan lived or died. He only knew about such things as a "paper shield" because of the foolish children from the Wind God's group.

He had hesitated earlier, clearly almost forgetting the word.

He was obviously eavesdropping wherever he went, relying on his lost ancient techniques, similar to the "puppetry technique" he used to eavesdrop on Silver Shadow and his group in the sea, leaving behind a listening device at headquarters!

Sheng Lingyuan glanced at him, and Xuan Ji immediately looked up at the sky and down at the ground, pretending that nothing had happened.

Various groups of people were gathering in Pingzhou.

After Yan Qiushan exploded a barrier and didn't stop, as expected, there was another group of puppet killers waiting for him outside the barrier. The killers were caught off guard by the explosion, but quickly reacted and chased after him.

At this point, Yan Qiushan had already been playing hide-and-seek with his pursuers in the dense forest for over an hour.

At first glance, it seemed like one of Old Lady Yu's disciples had hired someone from Wind God to get his itinerary, trying to intercept and kill the him in order to cover up their tracks.

However, upon closer inspection, there were some inconsistencies.

The puppet had just revealed that there was a traitor in Wind God, as if afraid that the his recent injury had clouded his judgment. But since they had changed cars for the second time, there had been too many opportunities for them to act.

Although Pingzhou was not an ideal location, with its sparse population and mountainous terrain, there was still a local police station nearby, and the headquarters was only about 300 kilometers away.

If they received news, they could fly over or drive over in no time.

Did these people really have 100% confidence that they could take care of him here and now?

The situation with Old Lady Yu was pretty much what he had guessed before - her collusion with the True Nature Sect was a personal act, known only to her closest and most trusted confidants.

It seemed that she had not revealed her secret of immortality to anyone else, otherwise there would be more people in the world who lived as long as she did.

But... why?

The True Nature Sect clearly wanted to expand its followers, repeatedly using worship and special ceremonies to increase their loyalty.

If the person behind the True Nature Sect was He Cuiyu, with so many devout disciples under her, wouldn't it be easy to develop more followers?

"Director Xiao, the ground team has been blocked by heavy fog. We can roughly locate their position based on the abnormal energy reaction, but the helicopter cannot land!"

Xiao Zheng was about to speak when a hand reached out and snatched his sunglasses away.

Xuan Ji put them on his own nose without hesitation. "We, the 'fight-type,' request to become an independent 'Seventh Department.' Director Xiao, will you approve?"

"Approved, approved, approved!" Xiao Zheng was anxious. "From now on, all the flies, mosquitoes, horseflies, and moths will be under your department's jurisdiction. Is that enough for you? Hurry up!"

Xuan Ji flipped him off and opened the cabin door, leaping out with his wings spread wide. The wings were so brilliant that they looked like a sunrise, almost knocking the helicopter over.

Sheng Lingyuan waved away a feather with a flame on it.

The feather floated in the air, rising and falling like fireworks.

He inexplicably felt that this little demon was showing off his feathers.

Sheng Lingyuan shook his head and transformed into a black shadow, landing on Xuan Ji's wings like a dark cloud. The dazzling flames on his wings obediently extinguished the moment he landed, revealing a pair of huge fiery red wings.

Before he could even settle, Xuan Ji suddenly flapped his gliding wings, throwing Sheng Lingyuan down.

Sheng Lingyuan raised an eyebrow, but in the next moment, Xuan Ji caught him with one hand.

The strong wind in mid-air lifted the Emperor's long hair, splashing Xuan Ji with the scent of his family's orange-scented shampoo like never before.

Xuan Ji tightened his grip on Sheng Lingyuan's hand and casually said, "I wanted to say earlier that having someone on my wings feels awkward. I feel like a mount, flying without any dignity."

"What are you thinking?" Sheng Lingyuan laughed and brushed aside his own hair, lightly patting Xuan Ji's face. He felt the face under his palm instantly tense up and hold its breath, like a small animal with its fur raised.

The emperor continued gently, "You fly slower than a human machine. If you were really a mount, I would have stewed you for dinner - keep up."

Before he finished speaking, Xuan Ji's hands were empty, and the person in his arms had turned into a black smoke, blending into the thick fog on the ground and disappearing without a trace.

Xuan Ji: "..."

The black mist blended seamlessly into the thick fog on the ground.

In an instant, the entire Pingzhou mountain area was enveloped by Sheng Lingyuan's divine consciousness, and he immediately locked onto the location of Yan Qiushan.

Yan Qiushan carefully controlled his breathing as the metallic threads within his body traveled through his veins and arteries, rapidly repairing and stabilizing the internal organs and bones that had been shaken along the way.

These threads were completely autonomous, as if his special ability had reached a certain level of affinity with metal, giving them life to move at his will!

It's worth noting that in the general understanding of people, ordinary metal-based special ability users can only sense metal; those who can control the deformation of metal are already at the field level; those who can accurately deform metal into the shape they want are the top experts - special forces level; and those who can internalize metal into their own body to temporarily block wounds, since the establishment of the Bureau, can be counted on one hand.

After leaving the team for three years, Yan Qiushan had reached an unimaginable level of control over metal.

Suddenly, he heard the sound of wind rushing past his ears.

Without time to react, he transformed his blade into a shield, barely blocking the object that was shot at him.

Then, he had a bad feeling and threw away the metal shield, leaping forward. Almost simultaneously, an explosion occurred, and electric sparks appeared on the shield, almost trapping Yan Qiushan inside.

It was a thunderbolt bullet!

This was a special type of bullet that would release an electric shock upon impact, specifically designed to deal with high-defense metal opponents.

Without waiting for him to steady himself, the sound of the wind "swooshed" again. Yan Qiushan covered his ribs and relied on his experience and intuition to dodge.

Then, with a "boom" behind him, a big snake broke the tree in half. On top of its erected head stood a wooden puppet holding a spear.

Several shadows fell beside him one after another, and the pursuers surrounded him!

When Sheng Lingyuan arrived not far from Yan Qiushan, the pursuers had already woven a large net with thunderstorm beads and pressed it towards Yan Qiushan.

Although Yan Qiushan barely managed to dodge, the high pressure quickly pierced through the air. The free electrons in the metal would be moved by the potential difference, and the small metal pieces that supported the wound repair in his body would become a death sentence.

As expected, the thunderbolt bullet's lightning struck, and Sheng Lingyuan couldn't help but sigh.

He watched as Yan Qiushan was about to be electrocuted, but the emperor simply crossed his arms and watched the show, without any intention of saving him.

But then, to Sheng Lingyuan's surprise, Yan Qiushan raised his eyes and they turned into golden pupils.

All the metal in his body, big and small, seemed to have become insulators, and the electrons that could move freely like water were firmly fixed in place by some kind of force.

"This is..." Sheng Lingyuan struggled to recall from countless memories he had cast aside, "metal forging?"

Why did this Yan Qiushan know metal forging?

A black mist rushed into the stalemate between the puppet killers and Yan Qiushan. A pale hand reached out from within and gathered all the thunderbolt bullets into its palm, swallowing the terrifying electric light like it was nothing.

The puppet killers had no chance to react and were pierced through their foreheads by the black mist.

These puppets were all controlled remotely by someone using the Heart-Piercing Gass curse. The demonic energy was directly reflected back onto the puppet masters, causing several puppets to tremble and fall silently to the ground.

It was unclear what fate awaited their masters.

In the next moment, unable to tolerate the arrogance of the heavenly demon, the wrath of the heavens came crashing down like a giant python, splitting the black mist apart.

In the moment the lightning struck, Sheng Lingyuan teleported to Yan Qiushan's side, waving his hand to dispel the dark magic.

He stood unscathed outside the lightning pit, his long hair gently lifted by static electricity, as if a fan was blowing to style it.

He bent down slightly, looking at Yan Qiushan with confusion.

Yan Qiushan's pupils shrank as he recognized the black mist surrounding Sheng Lingyuan - the terrifying master who almost killed him in Dongchuan.

Instinctively, Yan Qiushan held up a newly-formed knife in front of his chest, but the mysterious man asked him in a friendly tone, "Who taught you the art of forging metal?"

Forging metal was a technique for those who were close to the metal, not particularly advanced, but... it was created by Sheng Lingyuan and had not been passed on to anyone else.

No wonder he felt a familiar aura from Yan Qiushan when he was in the hospital in Yuyang last time. It was just a moment of hesitation that prevented him from touching the Spirit Armor on Yan Qiushan's body, so he didn't discover it.

Yan Qiushan looked confused and said, "What..."

Suddenly, the snake head in the "puppet corpse" pile deformed and flashed a strange light. The snake mouth opened and a small puppet the size of a palm appeared.

It aimed at Yan Qiushan from a very close distance and fired a shot, saying, "Die!"

"Be careful!" A small shadow appeared out of nowhere and stood in front of Yan Qiushan.

At the same time, feathers carrying flames fell from the sky, and a water arrow also came from another direction. Water, fire, and thunder collided in front of the small shadow.

Sheng Lingyuan frowned and said, "How dare you."

The snake's head and the wooden puppet inside both burst into black flames, and amidst the hysterical screams, the puppet turned to ash.

The sound of brakes echoed, and Wang Ze leaped down while Xuan Ji flew overhead.

The two of them exchanged a glance and simultaneously exclaimed, "Why do you keep pulling me down?"

However, Yan Qiushan was staring blankly at the object blocking his way - a quaint wooden doll.

It was only a foot tall, exquisitely crafted, with carefully carved features that were gentle and warm, resembling a person.

The doll was splashed with water droplets and immediately realized something was wrong.

Without even glancing at Yan Qiushan, it darted towards the nearby bushes.

Just as Sheng Lingyuan was about to make a move, Yan Qiushan threw caution to the wind and lunged forward, grabbing the doll by its waist.