Chapter 965: Path to the Peak
In the entire battlefield, perhaps only Song Zining understood why this was so.
The seventh young noble limped slowly but resolutely toward the summit of the holy mountain.
Murderous roars soon appeared on the battlefield as a group of mercenaries arrived at the foot of the holy mountain. They began charging up amidst loud cries, all of them valiant and unafraid of death. They had no idea what was at the summit, only that the war-banner was pointing there—and that was enough to ignite their blood-thirst and ferocity.
More and more mercenaries appeared at the foot of the mountain and began charging up. Meanwhile, the city guard who should’ve appeared was nowhere to be found.
A young mercenary arrived at the foot of the holy mountain and, stopping briefly to catch his breath, looked up toward the summit. He looked fairly young, perhaps just fifteen or sixteen, but his stature was fairly tall. His face was covered in blood, but he didn’t seem notice that at all as he gazed at the peak—that was the endpoint of his charge.
Suddenly, a great force struck him from behind and slammed him to the floor. The young mercenary looked back to find an old bearded face looking down at him. The old mercenary pointed nearby, saying, “Brat, be mindful if you want to survive! You won’t be that lucky next time.”
The old mercenary was pointing at a small hole with shiny walls, clearly one caused by a beam of sword energy. This sword radiance seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, and if it wasn’t for the kick just now, the young mercenary would’ve become a corpse already.
After saying that, the old mercenary continued up the mountain. The young man also clambered up and made ready to charge when he felt a piercing pain on his palm. He raised his hand and found a silver insignia stuck in his flesh. It looked like a rune but he had no idea what material it was made of.
Hearing the bugle echo once more, the young mercenary plucked the rune and tossed it to the ground before continuing on his way.
The rune started to glow faintly in the mud, but a military boot descended from above and pushed it deeper into the soil. That mercenary had no idea what he had just stepped on and merely rushed forward with bloodshot eyes.
Song Zining reached the halfway point up the mountain with great difficulty. There, he looked up just in time to see a beam of blue sword light streak across the sky to slash at Luo Bingfeng. The city lord casually flicked the beam away with his fingers and fired three beams in retaliation. Li Kuanglan moved like the wind and retreated with due haste, managing to avoid two of the three strikes. The third one was a rare error on the city lord’s part and probably wouldn’t hit its target even if Li Kuanglan were to stand still.
On the other side of the holy mountain, Qianye clambered to his feet once again. His caved-in chest was almost fully recovered now. He pressed his chest with both hands and aligned the broken ribs together one after the other. Finally, he let out a long sigh—the pain from this ordeal was making him sweat slightly. If it wasn’t for the supreme defensive capability of the inner armor, Luo Bingfeng might’ve kicked his blood core into pieces.
The city lord hadn’t imagined Qianye’s defenses to be so strong, either. He might’ve gone all out with that kick had he realized it. Later on, he simply had no time to deal the finishing blow.
After aligning his ribs, Qianye immediately sensed his bones growing back and connecting at a swift pace. The rate of healing fell sharply soon afterward as the regenerative medicine’s effects started to wear off.
Qianye fished out the Twin Flowers and once again took to the air. East Peak was no longer that powerful against an expert at Luo Bingfeng’s level. The only thing that could intimidate this opponent was the Shot of Inception.
Luo Bingfeng was almost in a maddened state, with his hair in disarray and no longer as awe-inspiring as when he had first appeared.
Qianye needed only one glance to see that Luo Bingfeng wasn’t in a normal state. He had revealed several openings in just a short while and two of his attacks were launched in suboptimal conditions. The city lord was like a god of war just moments ago, his every move one with nature and devoid of any weakness. So much so that Qianye had to grab onto the man’s leg in order to fire the Shot of Inception.
Luo Bingfeng was still rampaging through the imperial experts and mercenary army, but he had reverted from god to human.
This feeling was extremely subtle. To the bystanders, he was still that god of death who would kill anyone in his way, but Qianye could see that there was something different.
He couldn’t figure where this change came about, only that it was a good thing. His eyes turned blue as he channeled the Eye of Truth and stared at Luo Bingfeng, waiting for the perfect opportunity to deal a lethal blow.
The city lord, at this point, was like a giant beast surrounded by a pack of wolves. Wherever he went, there were groups of experts buzzing around him.
Another beam of blue sword radiance flickered, drawing a thread of blood from Luo Bingfeng’s shoulder.
The imperial experts became highly spirited. As they saw it, this was the first time the city lord was meaningfully injured. Although this was just a flesh wound and Qianye’s Shot of Inception was where the real damage lay, how could these ordinary experts see through the latter’s might?
Everyone came forth to beleaguer Luo Bingfeng after noticing how weak he was, yet they had no idea that the injury had only served to anger the city lord. He let out a long howl as his figure began to flicker repeatedly, each flash accompanied by a flash of blood. In the blink of an eye, the blood of six imperial experts stained the sky and showered the ground.
Shocked out of their wits, the group began to disperse despite Ji Tianqing’s previous threat, afraid that Luo Bingfeng would lock onto them. Only a dozen or so people including the elders from the Li and imperial family kept fighting to the death, guarding Li Kuanglan and Ji Tianqing’s retreat.
Luo Bingfeng didn’t chase after Li Kuanglan. He instead landed on the ground and, with a wave of his hand, scattered a large swathe of jade green sword radiance. The beams fell like rain and drifted toward the mercenaries trying to climb the holy mountain.
The strands of rain were extremely fine, but it was more than lethal against mercenaries at this level. After being struck on any part of their body, the soldiers would find their life force gradually withering away. They would collapse after a couple of steps, never to move again.
A single rain killed hundreds of soldiers who were charging up at the fore, leaving only the ones furthest down alive.
The soldiers who were charging forward paused briefly, and many of them looked up at the sky. The flame in their eyes had receded, replaced by terror. They didn’t receive any expert reinforcements, merely another wave of sword energy bombardment. In the blink of an eye, hundreds more fell halfway up the mountain.
Ordinary soldiers and experts had different battlefields to fight. Not to mention a peerless character like Luo Bingfeng, even ordinary champions and those close to the realm would find it beneath them to attack ordinary soldiers. Experts were the only opponents for experts.
That was the case for Luo Bingfeng before. Not to mention those foot soldiers, he didn’t even bother looking at the mediocre experts. Only people like Qianye, Song Zining, and the elders from the Li and imperial clan were able to enter his eyes.
Hence, the mercenaries were able to concentrate on charging forward despite the earth-shattering fight in the skies. After all, the battle above was far beyond their scope. Who would’ve thought calamity would suddenly descend from the sky, that Luo Bingfeng would attack them despite his status. With the city lord’s divine might, it wasn’t a problem for him to kill all ten thousand mercenaries. There was no need to fight this war anymore if he was intent on attacking in this manner.
The mercenaries couldn’t help but wonder where the imperial experts were.
After launching two rounds of attacks, Luo Bingfeng cried out, “Down from the holy mountain! Whoever dares take a step forward will be killed without mercy!”