Chapter 2533: Lucian

After barely avoiding his sneak attack, Angela and Helena stared at Lucian with wide eyes.

"What the fuck are you doing, you bastard!" Angela immediately shouted at him.

However, Lucian didn’t show even the slightest reaction on his face and lunged at them again for a second time.

"Snap out of it, Lucian!" Helena shouted at him.

"Stop wasting your breath. He obviously can’t hear you," Yuan remarked as he calmly stood there.

Even though Yuan had blocked Lucian’s first attack, Lucian completely ignored him and went straight for the other two.

"Why is he only attacking us?!" Angela exclaimed with a puzzled face as she continued dodging Lucian’s attacks.

Yuan shrugged, "Beats me."

"Hey! Why are you just standing there and watching him attack us?! Come help us! He is using a weird energy that is similar to yours, and we cannot handle it alone!" Helena shouted at Yuan.

Yuan sighed before confronting Lucian again. However, just like before, Lucian would completely ignore him, only going after Angela and Helena.

Seeing this, Yuan said to them, "Since he is clearly targeting you two, get out of here. I will hold him back."

"You want us to run away? No way!" Angela immediately refused.

Helena then said, "He is clearly suffering from some kind of affliction. We cannot abandon him! He’s our friend!"

"Then you can continue fighting him by yourselves," Yuan shook his head as he stopped trying to block Lucian.

"If he’s acting like this because of your presence, then he might return to normal once you leave," he added a moment later.

"That’s..."

Angela and Helena exchanged glances with each other before finally agreeing to leave.

"If nothing changes, call us back!" Angela said as she used Void Manipulation to teleport away.

"If he does return to normal, make sure you ask him about it!" Helena said before teleporting away as well.

However, Lucian had no intention of letting them escape so easily and immediately attempted to use Void Manipulation.

"No, you don’t!" Yuan shouted, barely managing to intercept him before he could chase after them.

With Angela and Helena gone, Lucian finally turned his attention to Yuan.

"So you can actually see me, huh? I was starting to think I was invisible to you or something," Yuan muttered with a calm smile.

"..."

Unsurprisingly, Lucian remained silent.

Then, without warning, he attacked.

"I won’t kill you since you’re their friend, but I will have to defend myself and wake you up somehow."

Yuan’s body immediately surged with Eternal Essence.

The moment Lucian sensed it, his body briefly froze, as though reacting to its power.

However, Yuan paid it no mind and struck without hesitation, driving a straight punch into his gut.

"Argh!" Lucian coughed up a mouthful of blood as the impact rippled through his body, shattering his bones and tearing apart his muscles from within.

Knowing that Lucian was a Transcendent, Yuan didn’t hold back because he wasn’t afraid of killing him by accident.

Of course, Yuan limited himself to using only ordinary Eternal Essence.

"Aaaah!"

Lucian roared as he unleashed even more of his fake Eternal Essence.

Unfortunately for him, no amount of fake Eternal Essence would allow him to defeat Yuan.

For the next several hours, Lucian endured a completely one-sided beating.

"When are you going to wake up? Do you really want to die like this?" Yuan questioned, his hand wrapped tightly around Lucian’s neck.

"..."

After a moment of silence and complete stillness, Lucian’s body suddenly began to relax, and light slowly returned to his eyes.

"Oh?"

Upon seeing the change, Yuan released his grasp on Lucian.

"Cough!"

Lucian spat out another mouthful of blood before looking at Yuan with a dazed expression.

"W-Who are you...?" Lucian asked.

"Yuan."

"Yuan? I have never heard of you. Are you an Eternal? You don’t look like one, though..." Lucian questioned with a puzzled expression.

Yuan shook his head and calmly replied, "I’m human."

"What?" Lucian’s eyes widened with shock. "B-But you can wield Eternal Essence!"

"Don’t worry about it. Right now, I have some questions for you," Yuan then said.

"Angela and Helena, you know them, right?"

Lucian raised an eyebrow and responded with a surprised face, "Huh? How do you know those names? Did you meet them?"

It was Yuan’s turn to raise his eyebrows.

"You don’t remember?" he asked.

"Remember what?"

"That you met and attacked them. We were fighting for a reason, you know?"

"!!!"

A look of realization flashed across Lucian’s face, and he fell silent for a moment before asking in a concerned tone, "I... I didn’t hurt them, did I?"

"Physically? No."

Lucian released a sigh of relief after hearing this.

"Care to elaborate on why you attacked them out of nowhere? You were also moving around like a lifeless puppet when we fought."

"Sorry, but I cannot disclose anything to you." Lucian shook his head.

"Are you sure? I know Deemo very well, you know?" Yuan said, mentioning the Demon God.

"Y-You know my Master?!" Lucian exclaimed in disbelief.

"Not only that, but I even plan on fighting for him during the next ’event’, if you know what I am talking about."

"!!!"

Lucian’s expression changed once again when Yuan mentioned the event.

"You are going to participate in the Eternals’ Reckoning, too? And under Master Deemo?" Lucian asked in a somewhat doubtful voice. "But you’re a human from the Nine Heavens."

Without saying a word, Yuan activated his Transcended Demonic Awakening, taking on his demon form.

"?!?!"

Lucian subconsciously backed away from Yuan after sensing his ridiculous presence.

"What about now?" Yuan asked with a smile on his face.

"How in..." Lucian rubbed his eyes and looked again, as if trying to make sure he was not seeing things.

"To be honest with you, I have not decided whether I will participate in the event yet, and Deemo really wants me to fight for him. I think you know why. However, if you refuse to tell me about your situation, I’ll tell Deemo that I won’t participate—and then I’ll blame it all on you," Yuan said, pointing at him.

"What?! That’s ridiculous! And unreasonable!"

Yuan shrugged and said, "If you don’t want that to happen, then tell me everything. I won’t tell Deemo. I promise."

"..."

After a moment of silence, Lucian released a defeated sigh and said, "I cannot go into the details, because doing so would cost me my life—literally."

"Then tell me what you can."

Lucian nodded.

"Before that, I have a question for you. How much do you know about my origin, if anything at all?"

"I know about the Great Cataclysm, as well as the Transcedents’ clash with Deemo. I was also told that some of you were killed during that clash."

Lucian then spoke, "No, we weren’t killed. Master Deemo saw potential in us and had us participate in the Eternals’ Reckoning, and we’ve been training and fighting for him ever since then."

"As for why I attacked those two... It’s due to a curse, and I have no control over it."

"Did Deemo cast this curse on you?" Yuan then asked.

Lucian nodded.

"We are forbidden from coming into contact with anyone from our world. If we do... we are forced to eliminate them, regardless of who they are."

"What purpose could such a curse possibly serve?" Yuan raised his eyebrows, puzzled by the restriction.

However, Lucian merely shook his head in silence, either because he did not know the answer himself or because he was unable to reveal it.

"So, are the rest of the Transcendents still alive right now?" Yuan then asked.

A grim expression appeared on Lucian’s face as he responded in a dejected voice, "There were six of us in the beginning, but only two of us remain now."

"How did they die?"

"How else? They all died during the Eternals’ Reckoning."

"Huh? I’m surprised that Deemo allowed you guys to die. I thought he valued the Transcendents."

"Are you kidding me?" Lucian sneered. "We’re nothing but tools in his eyes."

"Even so, there are so few of you. What will he do if you all perish?"

"He’ll just find others to replace us."

"..."

After a moment of silence, Yuan spoke, "Alright. I get the gist of your situation. Now I need to know your connection to Qian Chu—the one who summoned you here."

"He’s just another expendable pawn for my Master."

"What?" Yuan tilted his head, looking utterly confused.

"Sorry, but I cannot tell you the details."

"Then what is your role in all this?"

Lucian silently shook his head.

"Looks like I will have to ask Deemo myself..." Yuan sighed aloud.

Lucian proceeded to stare at Yuan intently, looking as though he wanted to say something.

"What is it?"

"I don’t know what kind of relationship you have with my Master, but if you are not close to him, you should stay away. Otherwise, you will inevitably become entangled in his schemes and cruelty," Lucian warned.

"Anyway, I will take my leave now. Give my regards to Angela and Helena... Oh, and thank you for stopping me from killing them."

Before Yuan could even open his mouth to respond, Lucian vanished into the void.