AUBTN -Chapter 398 The God’s-Eye Perspective

At the exact moment he swung his blade, three long swords gleaming with an eerie blue chill had already pierced toward the precise opening in his defense—right at the instant when his previous strength had been exhausted and his new strength had yet to gather!

At the critical moment, several strands of silver thread as fine as silk suddenly wrapped themselves around the three swords.

Shen Jue drifted down from midair like a falling leaf.

His fingertips twitched slightly as he poured his inner qi into the Heavenly Silkworm Threads, attempting to sever the enemy’s weapons.

Yet those men seemed to have eyes inside his mind. Just before the silver threads tightened, they all released their sword hilts in perfect unison. Immediately afterward, short blades slid from their sleeves into their hands. They lowered their bodies and struck directly at Shen Jue’s legs!

“Damn it!”

For the first time, a trace of astonishment tore through Shen Jue’s usually sinister and composed expression.

Too fast!

No—it wasn’t speed.

It was precision!

The enemy’s formation was extraordinarily strange, and their coordination was so perfect that they seemed almost unlike living human beings.

They had no unnecessary moves. Every single attack was already waiting in position a second before Shen Jue and Lu Yan made their move!

It was as if… on a chessboard, no matter where you moved, your opponent had already placed their piece in advance, blocking every possible path to survival!

After a fierce struggle, sweat had soaked through the backs of their night clothes.

At some point, torches had been lit from every direction, illuminating the entire courtyard as brightly as daylight.

Nearly fifty men had surrounded them in layer upon layer, trapping them right in the center.

“Retreat!” Shen Jue gritted his teeth as he forced back another wave of attacks from directly ahead.

Just as he turned around, intending to use the momentum to leap onto the high wall, a silent crossbow bolt suddenly emerged from the darkness, aimed straight at his back!

Shen Jue was already airborne, his strength spent. There was nowhere for him to dodge.

“Clang—Pfft!”

Amid the ear-piercing scrape of weapons colliding, a black figure suddenly threw himself in front of Shen Jue, shielding his back.

Lu Yan struck down the deadly crossbow bolt with a single slash, but at the same time, the short blade of a Star Envoy beside him viciously sliced across Lu Yan’s arm.

Blood instantly stained his black night clothes crimson.

“Lu Yan!”

Shen Jue’s expression darkened. He grabbed Lu Yan by the shoulder and, using the force of the recoil, the two of them awkwardly tumbled over the high wall.

Behind them, there was no hail of arrows as they had expected, nor were there any shouts of pursuit.

Amid the firelight, the man leading the group slowly sheathed his short blade. He did not even seem inclined to take a single step after them.

Through the intricately carved wall, he watched the backs of the two men disappear into the darkness. His voice carried an air of lofty pity and mockery as it drifted eerily through the night wind:

“Destiny has already been decreed by the heavens. Your struggles are nothing more than a few dull ripples added to the celestial chart.”

The words contained not the slightest hint of murderous intent, yet every single one of them reached their ears clearly!

Their first clash with the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion had ended in complete defeat.

Their opponents had not tried to kill them. They had not even bothered to pursue them.

It seemed to have been nothing more than a game of pure amusement—a cat toying with a mouse!

Inside the secluded inn, the dim candlelight swayed violently as wind rushed in through the window that had just been thrown open.

“Oh my god!”

Yu Qing had been resting her chin in her hand, bored out of her mind as she waited for them. The moment she saw Lu Yan covering his arm, half his body stained with blood, she practically sprang off her stool in fright.

She rushed forward in a single stride.

“What happened? How did you get hurt?”

Tears of distress immediately welled up in Yu Qing’s eyes.

Lu Yan quickly reassured her.

“I’m fine. Don’t be scared. It’s just a flesh wound!”

Shen Jue, however, suddenly spoke in a solemn tone.

“Thank you. He was injured because he saved me!”

Yu Qing shot Shen Jue an aggrieved glare before helping Lu Yan sit down.

Su He Wan quickly found the medicine box and efficiently cut open the fabric around Lu Yan’s arm.

The wound was not deep, but the incision was exceptionally smooth. Clearly, it had been sliced open in an instant by an extremely sharp weapon.

As she poured golden wound medicine over the injury, she raised her eyes toward Shen Jue, who was standing by the doorway.

Shen Jue was not injured, but the look on his face at this moment was a hundred times worse than that of the injured Lu Yan.

In those usually unfathomable phoenix eyes, murderous intent that made one’s blood run cold churned alongside deep suspicion.

“What happened? Even Lu Yan was injured. Is the other side’s martial arts really that formidable?” Su Hewan asked worriedly.

Shen Jue gave a cold snort and walked over to the table.

“It’s not a matter of how high or low their martial arts skills are.” Shen Jue’s voice seemed to have been tempered in ice. Each word came out slowly, carrying an unusual gravity.

“It’s prediction.”

Lu Yan let Su Hewan tend to his wound. His cold, hard features likewise showed humiliation and confusion.

“When we infiltrated the place, there wasn’t a single flaw in our movements. Yet every time they repositioned themselves, every time they attacked, they reacted before our intentions had even fully formed.”

“They weren’t simply responding to our moves.”

Lu Yan raised his head, his eyes like cold stars filled with wariness.

“They knew in advance. It was as if they knew exactly where we would dodge and what our next move would be. Even the blind spots were calculated down to the last detail.”

Shen Jue added coldly, “They never intended to kill us. That group of Star Envoys seemed to be there solely to prove one thing to us—that every step we took was already within their expectations.”

“Heaven’s secrets have already been determined…”

Lu Yan recalled those chilling words and clenched his fists tightly.

The moment he said this,

Su Hewan’s hands abruptly stopped as she bandaged him, and the gauze nearly fell to the ground.

Beside her, Yu Qing was equally stunned.

Predicting their movements? Absolute foreknowledge?

Su Hewan and Yu Qing exchanged a glance. Deep within each other’s eyes, they saw the same abyss-like horror.

At that moment, a terrifying thought flashed through both their minds at exactly the same time—a thought that was frightening, yet the only one capable of explaining everything.

“This…” Yu Qing finally couldn’t hold herself back and blurted out,

“Isn’t this basically having a God’s-eye view?”

“What view?”

Lu Yan and Shen Jue frowned simultaneously and looked at the two women before them.

They had heard all kinds of strange and bizarre terms from these two women’s inner thoughts more than once.

But these four words carried an inexplicable sense of oppression.

Su Hewan took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the tremor in her voice. Looking at the two smartest and most powerful men of this era, she tried her best to explain it in terms they could understand.

“You know how to play chess, right?”

Shen Jue narrowed his eyes without saying anything, merely gesturing with his gaze for her to continue.

“The situation you encountered tonight is like someone playing chess against you. But this person isn’t sitting across from you.”

Su Hewan raised her slender finger and pointed toward the roof.

“He’s standing somewhere high above, looking down upon the entire chessboard.”

“Not only does he know where your pieces are and where they can move next, he can even place his own pieces on the path you’re bound to take before your pieces have even landed.”

“This kind of complete control that transcends the perspective of someone within the game, this ability that seems capable of seeing through every veil and looking down upon all living beings… where we come from… ahem, in ancient texts, it’s called a ‘God’s-eye view.’”

Yu Qing nodded frantically beside her and added, “Exactly, exactly! It’s basically like cheating! Maybe it’s not that his martial arts are better than yours. It’s that he can see the entire map! In front of him, you two are just two people with no clothes on… Ahem! I mean, two completely transparent people!”

Shen Jue’s gaze turned sinister.

All his life, he had schemed against people’s hearts and planned every step with meticulous care. He had clawed his way out of piles of corpses to reach his current position of immense power, relying on nothing more than calculating three steps farther ahead than everyone else.

But now, someone was telling him that the other side didn’t need to scheme at all.

Because they had already seen the ending!

“What an ‘Heaven’s secrets have already been determined.’ A God’s-eye view…”

Shen Jue suddenly let out a low laugh.

“The one thing I have never believed in throughout my entire life is fate.”

He turned his head toward Lu Yan, the corners of his lips curling into a bloodthirsty arc.

“Lu Yan, do you believe in it?”

Lu Yan slowly rose to his feet. Beneath the candlelight, his cold, hard features resembled those of an Asura, a god of slaughter.

“I only believe in myself!”