Chapter 705: Section 492: Gudong vs. Blue-Eyes Red-Eyes (Extra Update 1/11)
“Fly Axe, Throw!” Fu Zhao roared as he pulled a flying axe from his waist and hurled it with force.
The cavalrymen behind him followed suit.
Numerous flying axes spontaneously combusted mid-air without a source of fire, resembling torches as they chopped toward Qing Hong Yan in their rapid rotations.
Qing Hong Yan dodged immediately, with only a few axes striking his raised forearms.
After a few clinks of metal-on-metal, the axes fell powerlessly to the ground.
“Damn it, damn it!” Qing Hong Yan was beside himself with rage.
He clearly hadn’t moved against Fu Zhao, yet the latter had the audacity to engage him!
Qing Hong Yan respected Teng Donglang, but he had no relationship whatsoever with the leader of the Axe Gang.
Not to mention, Fu Zhao was merely the son of the gang leader.
Provoked, Qing Hong Yan’s eyes reddened and a vein popped on his forehead.
“I’m not your enemy. I wanted to spare you, yet you insist on troubling and offending me?!” Qing Hong Yan raged inwardly, waves of fury sweeping through his mind.
He bit down hard, and quickly began whispering chants:
“When anger kindles my mind,”
“I must keep my heart as calm as a still lake,”
“And gather the cold serenity of solid ice within.”
With the aid of the chant, a cool sensation materialized out of thin air, like a spring emerging in a burning heart, extinguishing much of his anger.
Qing Hong Yan soared into the sky and then descended in the area most crowded with merchants, bringing death to these unfortunate souls.
“Stay close to me!” Fu Zhao bellowed, leading the cavalry squad in another charge at Qing Hong Yan.
The elders behind the cavalry shouted, “Young leader, what are you doing?! Provoking a Golden Level again and again, have you lost your mind?!”
But there was no helping it—the elders had to join the charge.
The morale of the Axe Gang soared as Qing Hong Yan actively avoided them.
The elders wanted to stop them, but now was not the right moment.
Seeing this group charging heedlessly once more, another vein bulged on Qing Hong Yan’s forehead.
He quickly recited more endurance chants in a low voice:
“Not to be blinded by anger,”
“I must possess the lofty air of ice and snow,”
“The trivial chatter of the mortal world shall not disturb my resolve.”
He dodged the Fire Fleece Cavalry’s encirclement again, targeting merchants scattering everywhere and carriages loaded with goods.
Watching his ruthless carnage, the members of the Axe Gang felt a chill.
“Young leader!” an elder yelled.
Many people kept glancing at Fu Zhao, hoping to convey the subtle message of “quit while you’re ahead” with their looks.
Fu Zhao sensed the change in people’s hearts; frankly, the cruel methods Qing Hong Yan demonstrated made him quake with fear.
“But I can’t back down!”
“I don’t believe my father is dead! He has three Golden Levels with him.”
“But accidents do happen; he might have been seriously injured or temporarily trapped by a snare. That’s why he hasn’t returned yet.”
“My father has a Magic Contract with the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps. He might have freed himself from this bond, but I can’t take that gamble!”
“If he is now severely injured and I deliberately abandon protecting the mercenary corps’ caravan, then once the Magic Contract activates, my father could die from his worsened injuries due to my retreat!”
Fu Zhao’s gaze was resolute; he had reasons not to back down.
He had to do his utmost to protect the caravan.
He led the Fire Fleece Cavalry in another charge toward Qing Hong Yan.
A third vein appeared on Qing Hong Yan’s forehead, his eyes completely reddening as murderous intent surged to his brow.
He clenched his teeth, muscles all over his body trembling, as he chanted aloud:
“Embarking on a journey of the soul,”
“I cast aside the frivolous noise of the worldly dust,”
“And chant from the depths of my heart the serene and bright melody…”
It exploded.
Qing Hong Yan was so agitated that he completely lost control, breaking through his limit.
He threw back his head and let out a heaven-shaking roar as his massive Golden Fighting Energy gushed without care in all directions, creating a tempest that overwhelmed everything around.
“Bad move!” The Axe Gang members were terrified.
After Qing Hong Yan had finished roaring, with a face warped by murderous intent, he fixed his glare on Fu Zhao and the others.
He stretched out his palm, aiming the center at the Fire Fleece Cavalry.
His palm was different from that of an ordinary person, with five pads located at the bases of his fingers.
This was the physiological structure of a Snow Rabbit-man.
But his palm was also unlike that of a normal Snow Rabbit-man; his five pads had been modified, each replaced with red, blue, green, yellow, and purple gems.
Treasure Light Beam!
The next instant, the gems erupted with blinding light, each firing a different colored laser.
The lasers moved faster than lightning, plowing straight through the Axe Gang members.
When Fu Zhao realized what was happening, he immediately looked around in panic.
The next moment, his mouth dropped open, his eyes widened, and a look of terror spread across his face.
To his left and right, the Fire Fleece Cavalry who were close to him were either cut in half, burned to ashes, or frozen into blocks of ice, with many suffering a gruesome death.
Just the first round of attack had reduced the hard-earned ranks of Axe Gang’s cavalry troop by a third!
“Run! This is no ordinary Golden Level!” Fu Zhao’s heart skipped a beat as he truly recognized the enemy’s power, and he quickly commanded the cavalry to change direction and flee towards Blood Kin City.
He finally decided to retreat.
But Qing Hongyan had lost all reason and, blinded by rage, soared into the sky and then dove down upon them.
Fu Zhao’s horse was fast and so were the Fire Fleece Cavalry behind him; they avoided the attack.
But the other gang members were less fortunate.
They were slaughtered by Qing Hongyan as if they were chickens and ducks.
The Elder screamed for help but could only watch as Fu Zhao and the others grew farther and farther away.
“Dammit, come back and save me!!” In his despair, the Elder was crushed into a mix of bone fragments and flesh by Qing Hongyan’s fighting energy.
Fu Zhao glanced back in hurry and saw this scene, a flicker of relief crossing his mind: “Good, with this old guy gone, I can finally rest easy.”
The Elder’s prior probing and his obvious ambition had made Fu Zhao feel threatened.
The reason he had provoked Qing Hongyan was also to rid himself of this internal thorn in the side of the gang by using an enemy’s hand!
He had succeeded.
But Qing Hongyan did not let Fu Zhao off easily and gave up chasing the scattered traders to focus his attack on the Axe Gang members instead.
The Axe Gang members, devoid of any will to fight, were mostly slaughtered by Qing Hongyan while running.
“Dammit, did I mess this up?!” Fu Zhao’s face turned ashen as he was eventually intercepted by Qing Hongyan.
“Kill, kill, kill!” Qing Hongyan had become so frenzied that he no longer recognized Fu Zhao’s identity. To him, any living being within sight at the moment was an annoyance that needed to be eliminated.
A laser beam was fired again, this time targeting Fu Zhao.
Fu Zhao couldn’t dodge in time and could only watch as the laser beam shot towards him.
But in the next moment, a figure suddenly appeared, interposing itself between Fu Zhao and the laser beam.
Boom!
After the violent explosion and the dust had settled, Gudong finally reached the battlefield.
“Thank goodness I made it,” panted Gudong, “That was close!”
“Qing Hongyan, calm down, listen to me… dammit.”
Qing Hongyan was beyond persuasion and continued his rampage.
Gudong had no choice but to step forward, intercepting Qing Hongyan early and shouting to Fu Zhao: “I’m a friend of your father, get out of here, I’ll hold him off!”
“Th-thank you!” Fu Zhao hurriedly expressed his gratitude, leading the few remaining cavalry away from the battlefield in disarray.
Boom, boom, boom…
Qing Hongyan’s battle with Gudong caused continuous thunderous explosions, with shockwaves ripping through the air and combat skills clashing violently.
After several exchanges, Gudong found himself at a disadvantage.
After a few more rounds of attacks and defenses, Gudong’s fighting spirit began to fade, his face bruised and swollen: “Dammit, after going mad, Qing Hongyan’s combat strength is definitely among the top five of the Holy Fighters!”
“Fu Zhao’s already left, there’s no point in fighting to the death with a madman.”
Gudong was no match for Qing Hongyan, even though he was a Holy Fighter of the God of Duels, his strength ranked high among the kingdom’s Golden Level.
But as it was still the Golden Level, if he couldn’t win, at least he could escape.
Snowbird Port.
Fat Tongue knocked on the door and saw Sanda, who looked upset and had a gloomy expression.
Fat Tongue’s heart skipped a beat. He knew that although the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps’s branch was ostensibly run by Menshi and Chi Lai, Sanda was the real manipulator behind the scenes.
“No grave incident would cause Sanda to show such an expression.”
Being survivors who together escaped Mysterious Monster Island, Fat Tongue knew Sanda quite well.
Sure enough, Sanda gestured for Fat Tongue to sit down before handing him a piece of information.
After reading it, Fat Tongue jumped up from his seat, shocked: “What? The caravan was attacked by a Golden Level? All the goods were lost?”
“And this was under the escort of the young Gang Leader of the Axe Gang with the protection of the Fire Fleece Cavalry?”
Fat Tongue lapsed into a brief silence, rapidly pondering for a moment: “Could it be that the information about the Axe Gang Leader’s murder was leaked?”
“Shouldn’t be.” Sanda shook his head. “In this battle, the Axe Gang suffered huge losses, especially their Fire Axe Cavalry, which is now reduced to a third.”
“The good news amidst the unfortunate is that most of the magic potions transported by our caravan were fake. The losses are much less than what the outside world would estimate!”
After Zong Ge killed three Golden Level members, Zi Di and the others had uncovered the identities of Jia Bing and Lin, and after looting Jia Bing’s alchemy laboratory, they might not yet know about the Holy Fighters of the God of Duels, but they had made many conjectures.
Such crucial intelligence, of course, was sent back to the branch of the mercenary group at Snowbird Port immediately.
Therefore, Sanda and Fat Tongue were clear on the difficulties Zong Ge and Zi Di faced, as well as the situation of the survivors.
Even though they had a Magic Contract with the Axe Gang, it no longer inspired trust.
So, after discussing it, they had decided to set up a target, pretending on most occasions to transport a vast quantity of fake potions.
And the real Magic Potions were secretly transported through channels with the Lijian family and the City Lord of Snowbird Port.
“The loss this time is minor, but our guise has been blown. If the enemy finds out later that our magic potions haven’t run out of stock and are still selling well, they will surely realize that we have other transport channels and target us more precisely,” said Fat Tongue gravely.
This was his most significant concern.