Chapter 833: Confrontation
Qianye smashed through the roof of the car and rose into the air as countless bullets tore the vehicle apart. The guard and driver inside couldn’t escape in time and were shredded by the flaming stream.
The fire made a sharp turn after tearing the car and lashed at Qianye who was in the air. The auto-cannoneer was clearly at the master-level—their marksmanship was both swift and ruthless, determined to lock Qianye down in a perilous position. At this moment, the windows of two nearby buildings shattered as two more autocannons opened fire at the same time, maliciously sealing off Qianye’s routes of escape.
Qianye curled up into a ball mid-air and remained stationary with his arms covering his face. Three streams of fire reached a wondrous balance together, but all they did was push Qianye higher and higher.
These multi-barreled autocannons possessed great firepower, burning through hundreds of bullets in a flash. The guns suddenly clicked to a stop at one point—the rotating muzzles were bright red and no longer able to fire, even if they had more bullets.
The three cannoneers were huffing and puffing. It took great effort to move these autocannons. Even with their champion cultivation, they were entirely exhausted after a round of all-out firing.
The gunmen’s eyes went wide as they glanced toward the air.
Qianye was slowly stretching his body mid-air. His armor was badly tattered, but the exposed skin was suffused with the luster of red, gold, and tiny specks of blood akin to mosquito bites. Moreover, these bleeding spots were disappearing at a visible rate!
The three cannoneers felt like they were dreaming and couldn’t tell whether their eyes were blurry. They had fired a concentrated barrage from three grade-five autocannons, even emptying all their bullets. Yet they had barely managed to scratch Qianye’s skin?
After stretching out, a plume of scarlet flames ignited on Qianye’s body and his joints began to crackle. He finally opened his eyes and scanned the cannoneers below.
Shocked out of their wits, the three gunmen wanted to turn tail and run, but a loud rumble echoed in their ears. They were soon tossed about by a fierce impact, filling their vision with stars and knocking them out.
Qianye then hauled the three gunmen, along with seven support personnel, to the center of the street block.
He knew at a glance that these people were Highbeards. After all, machine-modified bodies were a telltale characteristic of the race.
Without waiting for Qianye to question him, one of the Highbeard warriors said, “Qianye! You had better let us go and stop meddling in our tribe’s business from here on out. Otherwise, Red Lotus won’t let you go.”
Qianye asked with a calm expression, “Where is Red Lotus?”
The gunman was surprised that he didn’t bother asking who Red Lotus was, but he replied fiercely, “You can forget about it!”
“Is that so?” Qianye smiled indifferently and picked up one of the autocannons by the muzzle. The dark red glow upon it showed that the weapon was in a high-temperature state, but Qianye seemed to show no signs of getting burnt.
This origin autocannon was one and a half meters long and hundreds of kilograms in weight. Those below the champion realm would have to expend great effort just to move the weapon and resist the recoil, let alone fire accurately. Although they were only grade-five as an origin firearm, the destructive might they had shown just now was not inferior to that of a grade-six weapon.
But Qianye had no intention of studying them. He merely swung the gun and smashed down!
The cannoneer screamed as the machinery and flesh on his left leg were smashed into a pulp. There was no way to regrow it, even with the well-developed medical skills of the Highbeards. The tribe specialized in modifications, and these parts worked like an extension of the warrior’s body because of the foundation. There would be nothing special if they were just machines.
“Where is Red Lotus?” Qianye repeated.
The cannoneer was in so much pain that he was drenched in sweat. Yet, he clenched his teeth and said, “If you make enemies out of the Highbeards, you will have no place to live in the Neutral lands! Not just you, but your… Ah!!!”
Qianye swung the cannon again and smashed all of the man’s limbs. “Quite headstrong. My what? Family?”
The man could no longer speak at this point and merely continued to glared at Qianye. At this moment, one of the other Highbeards threatened, “Qianye, these three are important people from our tribe. If you kill them, you’ll form deep animosity with the Highbeards and we’ll fight to the death! Let us go and we’ll let today’s matter be.”
“Deep animosity?” Qianye smiled. The autocannon swung down again and shattered the gunman’s skull before Qianye turned back to the one who was speaking.
That Highbeard man wore a grey beard. His origin power was roughly at rank-eight, with numerous machine parts all over his body. Clearly, his life was drawing to an end, so he had chosen to completely modify his body in exchange for combat strength. His face was twitching from anger and heartache, and his glare was almost spitting out fire.
Qianye couldn’t be bothered to argue. He merely swung the weapon again and sent him on his way.
He then walked over to the second gunman and asked, “Where is Red Lotus?”
The cannoneer seemed to hesitate for a moment, and then he said with a cold expression, “Just kill me. I won’t talk.”
Qianye nodded. “Fine, but I still need to ask what I want to know.”
Qianye repeated the question “Where is Red Lotus?” several more times, smashing the man’s arms and legs each time he failed to get a reply, before finally taking his life.
The other Highbeards cried out in hopes of stopping Qianye, but they were all badly injured during the takedown and couldn’t even move.
The three cannoneers were champions. To the Highbeard tribe that had never produced a divine champion, these people made up the core fighting force. Each of their deaths represented a great loss for the tribe.
Qianye arrived beside the last cannoneer. “Where is Red Lotus?”
This gunman finally revealed a terrified expression. He wanted to resist, but the words simply wouldn’t come out of his mouth. He knew he would be instantly crippled once he spoke those words and killed after uttering some more. Qianye never batted an eyelid while killing them, nor did he do a sloppy job.
Seeing the cannoneer wavering, the other Highbeards were livid. They spewed a string of loud curses and threatened him with his family and children.
An expressionless Qianye turned the autocannon about, and the weapon began spinning under the activation of his origin power.
At this moment, a high-ranking commander of the city guard rushed out from the other end of the street and roared, “Insolence! Hold it right there or else…”
Before the man could even finish his words, the roaring origin cannon unleashed dozens of origin bullets, blasting the remaining six Highbeards into corpses.
The commander pointed a finger at Qianye. “You! You actually dare…”
The autocannon in Qianye’s hand hadn’t stopped spinning. With a loud boom, a single cannon round left the chamber and flew toward the commander’s head. Fortunately, the shocked commander managed to react quickly by throwing himself to the ground. He felt a burning sensation on his head and blood dripping down his face. This sensation delighted him instead because the presence of pain meant that he was still alive.
He was greatly shocked since a brush with death wasn’t a great sensation. He simply remained immobile on the ground, pretending to be unconscious, and the soldiers he had brought only looked on with terrified expressions. No one dared to approach Qianye.
“Where is Red Lotus?” Qianye repeated his question.
The cannoneer finally submitted. “She’s at the city lord manor, living as a guest of Madam He.”
“Bring me to her.” Dragging the gunman in one hand and the autocannon in the other, he walked toward the residence in large strides.
He moved swiftly and soon arrived outside the gates. There he walked in without paying attention to the guards and made straight for the rear courtyard.
At this moment, a sturdy, giant of a man flashed out from the side. “You dare trespass into the city lord’s manor? Die!”
The burly man roared and stomped down his right foot. His entire body erupted with an orange radiance as a giant fist appeared in the air and smashed at Qianye.
This burly man was Guan Zhongliu of the Southern Blue city guard, someone Qianye had met once before. Now that he was going all out, his strength was indeed extraordinary.
But Qianye was no ordinary opponent, either, and this kind of conjured attack was actually quite weak against him.
Qianye made no attempt at evasion. He charged forward, shattered the giant fist with a punch, and rammed straight into Guan Zhongliu.
“Bang!” The man was sent flying and only came to a stop after smashing through numerous walls. He stared at Qianye with a face full of astonishment, hardly able to believe how he couldn’t even take a single blow.
Qianye’s ram was extremely forceful. Even someone like Guan Zhongliu who was proficient in brute strength was utterly defeated in a head-on collision.
A sigh echoed in the halls at this point as Ji Rui made his appearance in the air. He spread his fingers and pressed down at Qianye from above.
This attacked looked like Ji Rui only wanted to stop Qianye, but numerous screams reverberated through the air when he raised his right hand. The entire city lord’s manor was covered in a faint green hue, and the air became thick and stagnant like mercury. A beam of green light burst toward Qianye from Ji Rui’s right hand.
Ji Rui had gone all out with this attack.
No matter how peaceful the city lord normally was, he was still a rank-seventeen expert who was only one step away from the divine champion realm. This made him the strongest opponent Qianye had ever fought head-on.
Qianye had long since expected the green light coming for him. He discarded the autocannon and began circulated his origin power. In the blink of an eye, the sound of ocean waves filled the entire space as a terrifying pressure bore down upon it. Neither the building nor the stones in the wall could withstand this weight. Everything began to crumble and collapse. The green hue in the environment slowed down and was then scattered by the pressure. Although green light quickly grew stronger to compensate, it could do little to change the stalemate.
Ji Rui was secretly surprised that his own domain would be tied with Qianye’s. One had to know that the Azure Suffocation was a famous domain throughout the Eastern Sea.
Qianye’s Profound Combatant Formula accelerated once more, intensifying the sound of ocean waves. Space itself became unstable as countless beams of void origin power seeped out from the cracks. The energy surged around Qianye to form a flickering giant origin vortex!
This was the first time Qianye had used the Combatant Formula to its maximum potential against an enemy.
He unleashed a punch once more. This strike was incomparably slow, but the stagnant fist contained the force of many great mountain peaks.
The origin vortex in the air tilted forward and bore down on Ji Rui like a toppled ocean.