Chapter 883: An Ineffable Battle Part 1
The sanguineous threads of Life Plunder were extremely thin yet almost unstoppable—be it walls or battle armor, nothing could stand in their way. Qianye charged his way into the camp and cleared out a good section of it, leaving the army several hundred soldiers short.
This squad was made up of elite veterans with many years of battlefield experience. Losing so many of them infuriated the old man, who duly abandoned Li Kuanglan to chase after Qianye.
Shocked out of her wits, Li Kuanglan became one with her sword as she slashed after the old man. Nonetheless, the old man swept her away with a swing of his black crystal sword—she couldn’t even evade. It would seem this elder’s blade was also an extraordinary object that was no weaker than Cold Moon’s Embrace. It wasn’t even chipped in the process.
Li Kuanglan was about to give chase when the old man pointed at her from afar. A mass of black and white mist appeared in her path, shooting out dozens of monochromatic beams that kept her effectively entangled.
Li Kuanglan sprayed out a large swath of sword radiance that cut the black and white energies apart. However, her expression darkened when she found that her frost energy was greatly weakened against the old man’s own. She had to follow up with a second slash before the wisps of energy were completely destroyed.
This went to show just how high of a grade the old man’s monochromatic energy was. Add to that its ability to suppress all kinds of energy, it was definitely not below Li Kuanglan’s frigid sword energy.
The energies returned to mist after they were destroyed, reformed, and shot back toward Li Kuanglan. It looked like she probably wouldn’t be able to rescue Qianye for the time being.
But the old man had just entered the camp when Qianye had killed his way out of the other end. He charged in a straight line, slashing and ramming through everything in his wake, even the stockade. Then, he simply swaggered off through the large hole he had inflicted on the wall.
The old man swung his sword from afar, summoning black and white wisps of energy around Qianye. They connected with one another and turned into a hazy world of mist which encompassed Qianye like a net.
Countless streams of energy turned into ropes within the misty world and latched firmly onto Qianye’s body. Soon, his speed fell sharply as a fair amount of energy wound around his arms and legs. Their ends also transformed into sharp blades that stabbed at the captive, but Qianye’s body was so tough that they couldn’t even break through his skin.
This was the old man’s domain, one that could lock-down and bewilder the enemy. Damage wasn’t exactly its forte, but the old man didn’t mind either. Sneering, he sped up once the domain had taken shape, raising his blade for the kill.
However, dark golden flames erupted from Qianye’s body at this moment. His body didn’t look very strong, yet it was filled with an incredible amount of power, actually breaking all of the monochromatic chains in one roar!
Qianye ran forward, traversing dozens of meters with each step as he rushed out of the domain’s range and sauntered off.
Dazed, the old man glared at Qianye’s receding figure until the latter had almost vanished over the horizon. Finally, he stomped in anger and halted his steps.
The black and white energies were fairly wondrous—rotating back and forth, empowering and restraining one another at the same time. It possessed a suppressive effect on both daybreak and darkness origin power. Even Li Kuanglan’s frosty sword energy was downgraded by a couple of levels.
However, Qianye had used pure physical power to break them just now. He never used his origin power, to begin with, so there was nothing for the monochromatic energies to suppress. If anything, it served to magnify their fragility, and Qianye was afforded the opportunity to escape.
Additionally, Qianye’s speed was among the fastest the old man had ever seen. He could barely keep up when going all out—yet one was running on pure physical prowess while the other was using secret arts and draining origin power as he did so. The old man simply couldn’t compare in terms of endurance and was bound to lose his target sooner or later.
Additionally, there was Li Kuanglan behind him. If he were to go after Qianye, there would be no one to stop her from overturning the entire camp.
Hence, the old man had no choice but to halt his steps. Li Kuanglan was also quite smart—she also stopped her advance and fled after confirming Qianye’s escape. She was even a bit faster than Qianye, turning into a beam of blue light as she sped away. The old man was left with an ashen face, and almost broke out cursing despite his age and status.
With Qianye and Li Kuanglan both gone, the old man had no choice but to return to camp. His expression was even more unsightly after counting the casualties.
At over three hundred in casualties, the damage was considerable. These soldiers were the elites of Tidehark, capable of defeating the Wolf King’s forces several times over. Their status was only second to Luo Bingfeng’s small group of personal guards.
There were only 1500 men in the entire unit, and the reason it had stayed at that number was because of the lack of elite soldiers to recruit. The old man, to ensure his victory, had brought over 1200 men this time, but now 300 of them had died in Qianye’s hands.
What pained the old man even more was that a famed general was also caught within range of the bloody threads. He managed to fend off three strings but two of them managed to shoot through his body.
Seeing his dispirited appearance, the old man knew at a glance that this warrior would be greatly weakened even if he were to recover. It would be good enough if he could remain at rank four.
The drowsy officer had his head lowered and there was blood all over his body—apparently, the wounds were extremely deep. Only when the old man arrived did he clamber up, saying, “S-Sire Rui. Is this the end for me?”
The elder sighed, “General Zhang, you just need to recuperate, this little injury won’t take your life.”
The general surnamed Zhang laughed wryly. “Even if it doesn’t threaten my life, I’m not willing to live like a cripple. Sire Rui, give me a satisfying end. This Zhang has spent his life on the battlefield, and wish to die on the battlefield.”
The old man nodded silently. A wisp of black energy shot out from his hand and entered the wounded man’s forehead.
General Zhang’s eyes gradually lost signs of life. “What an annoying way to die…”
The old man remained silent for a good while, his expression as gloomy as still water. At this moment, a burly dark-faced man approached in large strides. The person hadn’t even arrived but the killing intent was already rushing in the old man’s face. The man was clad in black heavy-armor and looked like a metallic giant beast when he was walking. His body was shrouded in the glow of black steel, and each of his steps caused the entire camp to tremble.
He arrived beside the old man and scanned him from head to toe in undisguised anger. The moment this person appeared, all the soldiers nearby greeted him with great respect, almost as though they were seeing the backbone of the army. “General Zhu!”
“What’s going on? I went out to patrol and now so many of my brothers have died!”
The old man’s expression sank. “Someone raided the camp just now and killed the soldiers, I’ve already driven them away.”
The dark-faced man walked around the scene, saying, “Sire Rui, this person didn’t take that long, did he?”
“He only used one move.”
The dark burly man snorted. “A single move to kill over three hundred men? Sire Rui, what kind of person did you provoke? Our brothers are there to fight wars and kill enemy armies, that’s a given. But they’re not there to act as your shield, they’re not equipped to fight top-ranking experts!”
The old man’s expression was unsightly. “General Zhu, are you suspecting this old man?”
The big, dark-faced man wasn’t about to give way. “Sire Rui, we still haven’t been told who we’re up against, but just look at the corpses of our brothers. Do you think a bunch of ragtag’s from Southern Blue can do this? I dare say that even Ji Rui can’t do this!”
Looking annoyed, the old man replied, “The other party is only rank-thirteen. Don’t tell me I must report everything to you?”
“Rank-thirteen? And he can kill three hundred brothers?” General Zhu was clearly skeptical.
The old man harrumphed loudly. “Zhu Meng! Don’t forget that I am the commanding general here!”
Zhu Meng wasn’t afraid of him, however. “Sire Rui, since you’re the commander, you must know how to value your men. Yet, I see nothing of that sort. This unit is the sweat and blood of our city lord. Since he’s placed it in my care, I naturally have to take responsibility for this. Our brothers can die in battle, but they must die knowing what they die for!”
“Are you saying I’m incompetent?” The old man’s eyes were suffused with killing intent.
“I said nothing of that sort, but since this person can kill three hundred of our brothers in one go, did you just drive him off or did he leave you in the dust?”
The old man was furious. “Zhu Meng! You think I don’t dare to kill you?!”
“Killing me is easy, of course, but will it be as simple to explain things to the city lord? City Lord Luo is easy to speak to, but he’s not easy to lie to.”
“Are you implying that I was lying to the city lord? What a joke!”
“I don’t know whether you’re a liar or not, but you know best about the information you withheld.”
“Nonsense!”
“I’m definitely going to seek out the city lord after our return and make things clear. Whether or not you have a clear conscience will be revealed. Humph! We don’t even know who we’re fighting up until now.”
“Since General Zhu thinks that way, then feel free to ask the city lord when you return.” With that, the old man left with a swing of his sleeve.
Zhu Meng did not salute the man, either. He instead crouched down and started checking the corpses one after another. An old officer nearby asked, “General Zhu, you think there’s something wrong with this battle?”
Zhu Meng sighed, “What do you think about the battle?”
“The successful ambush wasn’t a surprise since the enemy forces were already exhausted after a long battle. And even then, we didn’t have an easy time. The enemy commander is definitely at the master level, our victory might not be certain if the troops under his command weren’t a bunch of backwater mobsters.”
Zhu Meng asked again. “What do you think about the one we caught and the one who escaped?”
The officer dug into his memories. “They’re young… very young!”
Zhu Meng said in a gloomy voice. “Correct, those people are so young yet so powerful. Do you think they can reach that level by themselves? They must have a giant clan behind them, or maybe certain powerful characters.”
“But, they don’t look like they hail from the surrounding powers, I’ve never heard of them either.” At this point, the officer consoled himself, saying, “Even if they’re from the Spider Emperor or Moonlight Demons, Heavenly Monarch Zhang can still suppress them.”
Zhu Meng said, “What if they come from the other side of the neutral lands, or maybe they aren’t from the neutral lands at all?”
The officer suddenly lost his voice.