Book 3: Clear River in Turmoil - 53: Showdown 1
The five Shadow Servants had been called to West River Forest nearly seven days ago in anticipation of this exact moment.
The power of the five Shadow Servants was actually pretty average, but once they were taught the Armor Piercing Awl and the Raging Inferno Fists, their explosive power was now a force to be reckoned with.
Sneak attacks were all about explosiveness. If an attack was rendered ineffective, the target would be able to quickly escape.
Su Chen was quite an old hand in setting up ambushes. He had ambushed his way from the Bai husband and wife in Halcyon Gorge all the way to Liu Wuya here. Naturally, he had a deep understanding of the key to success, and he had emphasized this aspect to the five Shadow Servants.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!
The explosions were immediately followed by piteous cries, and blood began to flow from five different wounds on his body.
A large dent had appeared in the back of his head as if it had been caved in by a sledgehammer. This was the work of Gui Dashan, the most powerful of the five Shadow Servants.
His back, midsection, and chest had been blasted into a mangled mess. That had been done by the three Qi Drawing Realm cultivators. They were still somewhat weaker, and there were two whole realms between them and the Yang Opening Realm expert. Even the Armor-Piercing Awl was only so effective against him, and their ability to draw out the full potential of the Raging Inferno Fists was limited.
However, Shi Zhongwei’s nether regions had been completely smashed to pieces. Old Second Cheng, who was responsible for attacking that area, was exceptionally vicious and shady. He was a Blood Boiling Realm cultivator himself; because of his all-out attack against the opponent’s weakest body part, this was the most serious wound that Shi Zhongwei had sustained.
Shi Zhongwei felt as if his entire life had been destroyed by this single blow.
“NOO!” he howled as he punched back at one of the Shadow Servants.
This instinctive counterattack wasn’t an Origin Skill, but it contained all of his hatred, regret, and despair.
This punch, which was filled with a boundless feeling of desolation, slammed into the Shadow Servant, who exploded and was turned to meat past on the spot.
All of the Shadow Servants were stunned and retreated together. Their figures swayed slightly before they disappeared into thin air.
“Falling Emotion Fist, Sorrowful Remembrance......” Shi Zhongwei was stunned himself.
At this moment, he had reached a breakthrough in the strongest move of Falling Emotion Fist, which had been plaguing him for so many years.
So only when he had tasted true despair and was filled with it could he utilize this attack?
Shi Zhongwei finally understood.
Unfortunately, no matter how powerful it was, there was no point in having it any longer.
He stumbled backward a few steps, then fell to his knees.
He hadn’t died yet, but the severe damage to both his head and his nether regions had completely destroyed his consciousness, and his faith had been completely destroyed. After he had infused all of his despair into a single punch and unleashed it, all of his hopes had been completely destroyed.
This person was no longer a threat.
“YOU BASTARD!!” He Lianwei howled with rage when he saw this.
He Lianwei was one of the four Yang Opening Realm experts dispatched here. He had originally believed that assembling such a group to deal with a bunch of West River Forest hicks was giving them too much face. However, he hadn’t expected for two people, one who could forcefully resist a Yang Opening Realm cultivator while in the Blood Boiling Realm and the other who could kill a Yang Opening Realm cultivator with an ambush and even had these invisible subordinates, to appear.
He Lianwei was both shocked and enraged. He yelled, “Old Jin, let’s team up and take out these bastards!”
“Old Jin” was also a Yang Opening Realm cultivator. When he heard this, he nodded and said, “Got it!”
He took the lead and charged toward Su Chen.
Two Yang Opening Realm experts decided to deal with Su Chen at the same time.
When he saw this, Su Chen barked, “I can deal with these two people. You guys stay here and deal with the rest. What do you think?”
“No problem!” the four Shadow Servants replied as they reappeared simultaneously in front of Su Chen.
Now that they had already attacked once, the opponents would have some defenses in place, and the Shadow Servants wouldn’t be of any use against the Yang Opening Realm cultivators. As such, Su Chen decided to leave them here to deal with the Blood Boiling Realm cultivators, against whom they would still have some measure of effectiveness.
Su Chen turned around and charged into the forest.
“Don’t even think about running!” He Lianwei howled furiously as he charged forward, the image of a massive golden-winged tiger appearing behind him.
Iron-Toothed Gold-Winged Tiger!
Tigers were considered kings amongst beasts. They liked to show off and did things in a tyrannical way, winged tigers even more so.
The wings on the tiger’s back unfurled, unleashing a torrent of razor-sharp wind and enveloping He Lianwei as he charged forward majestically and with great momentum.
The other Yang Opening Realm expert, called Old Jin, had the Darkness Cloud-Sundering Beast Bloodline, a rarely-seen strange beast. In fact, just by comparing the Demonic Beast images, Old Jin’s was actually a bit more powerful.
These two bloodlines were both quite agile, so Su Chen couldn’t escape even if he activated his Snaking Mist Steps to their absolute limit.
Thankfully, he had never planned on escaping. After running a certain distance away, he stopped.
“What? You’re not running anymore?” He Lianwei laughed savagely when he saw Su Chen stop and came to a stop as well.
Humans were quite weird. Since the two of them were fighting, they should have just fought. Where did all of this nonsense come from? They just had to spout a bunch of nonsense before attacking.
On the other hand, humans were communicators by nature. Using words to resolve issues was always better than using force.
To weaker individuals, words could be used to stall for time and create opportunities. To stronger individuals, words could be used to affect the mood and subdue someone without fighting at all. Finally, they could be used to avoid ambushes.
He Lianwei had learned from Shi Zhongwei’s mistakes. While he seemed like he was just threatening Su Chen, he was actually inspecting his surroundings to see if there were any hidden troops lying in wait.
Su Chen smiled slightly. “I stopped running because I felt like it would be better for me to take this off here.”
As he spoke, he took off the demonic mask on his face.
When he saw Su Chen’s face, He Lianwei jerked involuntarily. “Su Chen! So it’s you!”
An instant later, however, he grew excited. “Hahahaha, you really ignored the path to heaven and insisted on barging your way into hell! If you remained in Clear River City, with the Blood-Robed Guards to protect you and your 2nd-tier Hero’s Medal, no one would dare touch you lightly. But instead, you insisted on coming to West River Forest to mess with us and seek death! Here, all those things you relied on won’t be of any use anymore!”
“That’s right!” Old Jin also walked over. “My Darkness Cloud-Sundering Beast has already confirmed that there aren’t any people lying in ambush here...... the Blood-Robed Guards aren’t here.”
“Even if they were, it wouldn’t matter. We’d just kill them all,” He Lianwei said sinisterly. “As long as there isn’t any evidence, we won’t need to be afraid of anything.
Su Chen laughed, “The problem is that I was never planning on relying on the Blood-Robed Guards anyways.”
He Lianwei squinted his eyes. “You mean to say that you want to fight against two Yang Opening Realm cultivators on your own?”
Su Chen shrugged and said lazily, “The difference of a single realm isn’t something that can’t be exceeded. In the Primordial Continent, it isn’t actually that rare for people to jump realms. People who can exceed bloodline limits? Now that’s rare. Furthermore, you guys only have mixed bloodlines, so you can only be average even in the Yang Opening Realm. Trash is still trash, the lowest tier in existence. For elites like me from the Hidden Dragon Institute to surpass you isn’t actually strange; it would be strange if I wasn’t able to.”
“How bold!” He Lianwei was infuriated. “Brat, I want to see the tactic that gives you such arrogance.”
Su Chen had the ability to resist a Yang Opening Realm cultivator. He Lianwei was aware of this.
However, he absolutely didn’t believe that Su Chen could do it in a two-on-one situation!
When the gap in strength wasn’t that great, numbers would often determine victory.
Su Chen’s battle with Li Yue demonstrated that he might be able to defeat some of the weaker Yang Opening realm cultivators, but he couldn’t possibly suppress more than one.
As long as he couldn’t crush them, there was no possibility that he would succeed against two Yang Opening Realm cultivators!
“What tactics?” Su Chen laughed coldly. “Haven’t I already used my tactics?”
As he spoke, he glanced at Old Jin, who was next to He Lianwei.
He Lianwei was stunned. He discovered that Old Jin was standing there completely motionless with his eyes glazed over.