Book 3, Chapter 154: Tearing Through Their Ranks

The moment the gunshot rang, Sheng Hui trembled. When he saw Xuan Quanfeng’s collapsed body, he took two involuntary steps back.

It had been less than a minute since they rushed up the hill, and three of them were already down. Half of their team was gone.

Sheng Hui looked over to Chen Chuan, who was standing still with his saber. A mask covered his face, causing Sheng Hui to be unable to see his face. He could only see a vertical red line at the forehead part. The jacket was about to blend with the fog, while the tip of the Frost King Saber appeared even more chilling with the spotlights above them shining on it.

Just then, a thought rose in his mind.

Give up on the mission

.

Unfortunately for him, only the boss had the right to decide to retreat.

𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Lao Han detected Sheng Hui’s hesitation, and he said in a ghastly, hoarse voice, “Continue.”

Sheng Hui got rid of his useless thoughts. If he actually retreated, Lao Han would be the first to kill him.

With a deep breath, he said, “I’ll take point.”

He heard no reply, but it just meant that Lao Han had allowed it.

Sheng Hui took two custom-made batons from his waist. It was going to be hard winning against Chen Chuan’s saber with his weapons. Besides, his real strength wasn’t in fighting. While it was easy for him to take down those not at the Third Limit, he wasn’t strong enough to win against other Third Limit martial artists. Still, he was confident that Lao Han would create an opening for him.

Besides, it wasn’t as if he didn’t have any way to protect himself. He swung his batons and stared at Chen Chuan while cautiously shuffling over.

When Chen Chuan saw him approach, he lifted his saber to attack, but Lao Han swung his arms and threw three long needles at him. Two of them blocked his way forward and backward, while the third went for his face.

It was meant not only to disrupt his rhythm, but also to help Sheng Hui determine whether he was standing in place. After all, what had happened to Zhu Haiwu was strange. How could he misjudge Chen Chuan’s position? It even happened twice, which was impossible for someone like Zhu Haiwu.

Chen Chuan flipped his saber around and knocked the needles away. Sheng Hui didn’t let the opportunity Lao Han created for him slip. He moved quickly and closed in on Chen Chuan. One of the batons went for the torso, while the other went for the saber-wielding arm.

It was too late for Chen Chuan to pull his arm back at this point, but he didn’t intend to do that. He brought his free arm up to parry the first baton. With a loud thud, he knocked away Sheng Hui’s baton. Then, as shock colored Sheng Hui’s face, he thrust his arm forward and went straight for his face.

Halfway to his target, he pulled his hand back and grabbed the stone coming for his ear. Still, he had already swung his saber forward.

But another pebble struck his saber true, and it was powerful enough to divert it from its course. This allowed Sheng Hui to turn the second baton around and block the saber, though only barely.

Chen Chuan crushed the stone and was about to chase after Sheng Hui, but just when he brought his foot up, he had to tilt his body back to avoid a curved dagger. It spun in the air once before returning to Lao Han’s hands.

Sheng Hui took a few steps back and stared at Chen Chuan fearfully as he thought,

Body hardening? No wonder...

Chen Chuan cast a glance at Lao Han. The man’s information was incomplete, but based on his physical form and muscle outline, the Resolution Department had deduced that he specialized in long-distance attacks. They were right.

The man had maintained a distance since the start of the fight. He was neither too far, nor too close in order to hold Chen Chuan back and put pressure on him. More importantly, he was probably there to ensure that they could retreat easily. Chen Chuan believed that if they couldn’t find an opportunity to kill him or if he killed Sheng Hui, Lao Han was going to leave without hesitation.

But Chen Chuan’s plan was to kill all of the ambushers, since it would nip the problem in the bud. He had planned to reserve the raccoon stone tablet for Xu Xianwen, but now, he decided to use it on Lao Han.

As long as he got rid of the two before him, the only person left would be Xu Xianwen. This would decrease the difficulty of the fight by a large degree.

Chen Chuan brushed the raccoon stone tablet and ignored Lao Han. Instead, he charged at Sheng Hui.

Lao Han had daggers between his fingers. When he saw Chen Chuan attacking Sheng Hui again, he intended to throw them, but suddenly, he felt a searing pain in his torso, as if something had appeared in him that was ripping and gnawing at his organs.

This shocked him, but he also remembered something.

The Viper Order had split from the Secret Python Cult. While he wasn’t the type to use rituals, he had heard of such methods of attack before. When he remembered the strange things that had happened around Chen Chuan, he turned around to run away.

Meanwhile, Sheng Hui had put all his attention on fighting Chen Chuan and didn’t notice that something had gone wrong with Lao Han. When he saw the saber coming at him, he quickly swung his batons, but when the refined force from the saber charged into him, he found himself unable to parry it. The batons were knocked aside, and his arms turned numb.

Even though he was somewhat able to keep up with Chen Chuan, the disparity of strength between them was simply too large. When there was such a huge difference in strength between two martial artists, even if the weaker one was skilled, they wouldn’t be able to cover up their weaknesses.

During such a crucial moment, Lao Han was supposed to hold Chen Chuan back so that Sheng Hui could reorganize his offense, but this time, he didn’t. Finally noticing that something was off, Sheng Hui moved back so quickly that he left behind an afterimage. Even so, he only barely managed to escape the blade.

Chen Chuan chased after him and was so fast that he was practically in Sheng Hui’s face. He also left behind an afterimage where he originally stood, then thrust his saber through Sheng Hui’s heart.

Sheng Hui didn’t even have a chance to let out a strangled cry before Chen Chuan thrust his palm forward and struck his neck.

With a sickening crunch, Sheng Hui’s head lolled forward until it touched his chest, and his body hung off Chen Chuan’s blade like jelly.

Chen Chuan flicked his saber, and Sheng Hui’s body was flung more than ten meters away. He tumbled a few times on the ground before finally stopping. At this point, he was no longer breathing.

“Four. Next,” Chen Chuan mumbled and turned to the staggering Lao Han.

He followed the man.

While Lao Han was running away, he kept trying to draw on his potential and squeeze out blood essence to restore the torn and eaten mutated tissue and organs.

But it was useless. Whatever he managed to grow back, the raccoon ate. Even when he took medicine that activated his potential, it didn’t work. The raccoon kept eating away like a starved beast.

Realizing that he wouldn’t make it far, Lao Han slammed a hand against a tree for support and took out a syringe from his pocket to inject it into his neck. The moment he brought his arm up, the syringe shattered after being struck by a stone.

Lao Han refused to give up and stumbled forward while scooping up the liquid to bring to his mouth. Suddenly, he heard a loud bang and saw a huge hole in his chest. After taking a few more steps forward, he fell to his knees.

Footsteps slowly approached him. A hand touched his head and adjusted its position. After realization of what was going to happen struck Lao Han, fear appeared in his bulging eyes.

Chen Chuan tightened his grip, and with a crack, Lao Han’s head burst open. Hot steam rose from between Chen Chuan’s fingers.

“Five.”

In a few minutes, he killed five people.

Of course, he had done it while using the raccoon, a ritual, and his own power. By doing so, he had managed to quickly destroy this tough group that should have been impossible for a single person to deal with.

Now, the only Third Limit martial artist left was Xu Xianwen, the boss.

***

On the eve of the Viper Order’s attack, Ferris Wheel did something to make the foreign martial artists the Resolution Department had been keeping a close eye on disappear for a time, which forced the Resolution Department to mobilize a part of their forces to deal with them. After all, they couldn’t dismiss the possibility that these people would cause trouble.

Guan Ziyang was staring at a screen in the Resolution Department. Motie Mountain remained blurry due to a domain interference. He took a few steps forward and asked his resonator colleagues, “It’s not done yet?”

He asked the question out of habit. After all, it had only been around four minutes since the attack started. Based on his experience, the domain interference wouldn’t be dealt with so easily.

But his resonator colleague gave him a pleasant piece of news. “We’ll be done soon! We’ll be able to reestablish communications with Officer Chen in a few moments!”

Guan Ziyang perked up, but still asked in puzzlement, “How were you able to do it so quickly this time?”

“It’s because of the resonator Officer Chen recommended. He had prepared an independent domain boosting entity for the team. Even though we can’t completely crack the interference, we’ll need at most another three minutes to form a direct communication line.”

“Not bad.” Guan Ziyang sighed in relief. “Soon, we’ll be able to send the security guards at Motie Mountain a signal.”

In order to ensure the residents’ privacy and not violate any regulations, the security guards at Motie Mountain were really inflexible. If they entered a manor, they would be entering the residents’ private property, and that wasn’t allowed.

Hence, as long as they didn’t receive any notifications from the residents or alerts, no matter how huge of a commotion was going on inside a manor, as long as the commotion didn’t bother the other residents, they wouldn’t take a single step.

Right now, not only was there a domain interference, even the radio frequency was blocked. Because of this, the security guards were not going to do anything. Even if they were brought to court for this, they wouldn’t be held responsible by the law.

***

At that moment, an armed squad waited beside the motorcade. They were in charge of communications and providing reinforcements and cover for the attackers.

Just then, one of them rushed to a car and said to Xu Xianwen, “Boss, I think there’s a domain boosting entity increasing the strength of the domain signal inside. The security guards outside will know about what’s going on here soon. Lao Han hasn’t sent a reply yet. What should we do?”

Xu Xianwen cast a glance at the increasingly thicker fog and listened to the never-ending gunshots above them. “Patience. We wait a little longer. I trust Lao Han and the others.”

Someone at the front of the motorcade noticed a blurry figure walking toward them from the fog.

Was the mission over already?