Chapter 64: Comrade (2)
As the cult member struggled to escape, more and more officers were injured. The cult member was also filled with injuries. His entire body was dyed red with blood.
Like a desperate beast, he roared, "Liu Pingshan, if I'm going to die, I'll drag all of you into the grave as well!"
"Talk is cheap. Do it if you can."
Liu Pingshan appeared cold and indifferent. With a saber in hand, he continued filling up the gaps left behind by his injured team members. Suddenly, a trident wielder was struck. The trident was sent flying while the wielder's arms broke.
Liu Pingshan's expression changed as he shouted, "Stop him!"
As Liu Pingshan rushed over, the cult member was overjoyed. He finally saw an opportunity to escape, and he was no longer in the mind to keep fighting these officers. His goal had always been to escape this place.
As for what he said to Liu Pingshan earlier, those were merely threats. He definitely didn't want to die together with Liu Pingshan. Who would want to die if there was a chance to live? At the exact moment the cult member made his escape, Liu Pingshan arrived in front of him. The two were less than three meters away from each other.
The cult member only needed to swing his staff forward to crush Liu Pingshan's skull. Naturally, if Liu Pingshan swung his blade without bothering to defend himself, he would be able to inflict a heavy injury on the cult member before dying.
The cult member did not have the intention to stake his life here. Thus, he continued trying to escape. At that moment, the scene before his eyes flickered. Not far away, one of the escaped cult members appeared and shouted, "The hallmaster is here! If we can kill all these officers, we will be greatly rewarded!"
The hallmaster referred to someone from the Myriad Race Cult, not the Windcatcher Department. Their hallmaster had arrived? The cult member blanked out slightly. Then, he was overjoyed.
A hallmaster was someone in the Skysoar Realm. Someone like that had actually arrived? He recognized the distant cult member. That was an underling of his who had escaped earlier. He did not expect to see that person returning. Clearly, that person was not returning to throw his life away.
The cult member was ecstatic. Not only would he survive, he would even earn some contribution points from this! Fully eliminating a team of Windcatcher officers would earn him a decent number of points.
Then, the cult member saw a figure appearing in the distant horizon. The figure appeared illusory, but the cult member did not suspect anything. After all, that figure was still quite far away.
Help was here! Help had really arrived! The helper was definitely someone from their side or that underling of his would have been killed already. Everything had happened too fast. The cult member wasn't given the time to suspect or even think of anything.
For example, his underling was on the ground while the hallmaster was in the air. How did the person on the ground know that the hallmaster was coming when the hallmaster was still so far away?
Did the hallmaster introduce himself loudly from far away to that underling of his? Well, there was no time to consider all that. The cult member only knew that there was hope for him. With hope, his ferocity vanished. He did not want to die. He only needed to last a little bit longer and all these annoying Windcatcher officers would die.
Suddenly, the world before his eyes started flickering. Not far away, Su Yu's head was hurting so much he felt like it was going to burst apart. His willpower was too weak. Thus, the moment he used his illusion on an Infinite Strength cultivator, he instantly over-exhausted his willpower.
However, he had distracted the enemy long enough.
Team Leader Liu was near the enemy. When he noticed that his enemy had been distracted, he immediately grabbed the chance. His enemy had actually been distracted. Su Yu had succeeded.
Without making a sound, Team Leader Liu clenched his teeth and swung his blade. As the blade whistled through the air, the cult member recovered from the illusion. The underling and the hallmaster were all gone from his vision. There was only Liu Pingshan's vicious face and the rapidly incoming blade before his eyes.
"Cultural researcher..."
That was the cult member's final thought. He couldn't believe that a cultural researcher would actually bother to lift a finger against him. Was Liu Wenyan here?
"We'll die together!"
In his desperation, the cult member roared and swung his staff, not bothering to avoid the blade.
Boom!
The staff struck Liu Pingshan, creating a depression on his shoulder. However, a smile could be seen on Liu Pingshan's bloody face. In front of him, the cult member had nearly been cleaved into two. With a plop, the corpse collapsed onto the ground.
"Team Leader!"
The Windcatcher officers exclaimed in alarm. The seventh-stage Great Strength officers hurriedly rushed forth and launched a few more attacks at the cult member, only stopping after the corpse was cut into mincemeat. They then rushed toward their team leader.
"I'm fine..."
Liu Pingshan was able to resist the pain. He had lost an arm from that clash, but it was worth it as an Infinite Strength enemy had been killed as an exchange.
With a trembling voice, Liu Pingshan ordered, "Continue searching the battlefield. Make sure no cult members are pretending to be dead."
After giving his order, he looked at Su Yu. At that moment, the pale Su Yu was resting with his eyes shut. A fierce grin bloomed on Liu Pingshan's face.
Su Long's son was indeed...not a coward!
...
About 15 minutes later.
After a short rest, Su Yu had recovered somewhat. He was still pale, but he was feeling much better. He did not feel any joy. Instead, he sank into a silent melancholy. Two were killed and about a dozen were injured. That was the casualties they had suffered.
The corpses of the dead officers had already been retrieved. The two corpses were lying before all of them.
Meanwhile, Team Leader Liu had applied some bandages on the wound on his shoulder. That arm of his was as good as gone, but he did not seem to care about his arm. While resisting his pain and sorrow, he grinned, "Not bad! We killed thirteen enemies. There's even an Infinite Strength cultivator among them. This is worth a lot of merit points!"
"As for our two departed brothers..."
The smile on Liu Pingshan's face turned ferocious as he said, "All of us are ready to face death the moment we step onto the battlefield. With their deaths, Nanyuan will compensate three hundred thousand to their families, the capital will also compensate two hundred thousand, and us brothers can also gather up some money. Including the rewards of this mission, their families will gain at least a million dollars!"
"It's only a pity that Little Chen is still too young. As for that crafty Old Zhou, this is a worthy death for him."
Team Leader Liu's smile looked so ugly that it looked like he was crying instead of smiling. His face was filled with blood, and his face was twisted as he forced himself to smile. Little Chen was dead. The young officer who chatted with Su Yu on their journey here was the first to be killed.
He was the first person to discover the enemy hidden in the attic of the house. Upon discovery, the enemy had held nothing back and instantly killed him
Su Yu stood in silence. He had seen people dying before, but Big Brother Chen had still just been chatting with him not too long ago. And now, he was a cold corpse on the ground. Su Yu did not know how to describe his current emotions. He recalled that his father...was fighting on an even scarier battlefield. A battlefield a thousand times more dangerous.
"Myriad Race Cult...myriad races..."
Su Yu muttered to himself. He found himself developing a sense of dislike toward the sixth principal of the cultural research academy. He had heard that the sixth principal was the one who had suggested accepting the foreign races as students.
He suddenly felt revolted at the idea of joining the cultural research academy. He did not want to study in the same academy as those bastards from the foreign races.
He suddenly understood why Xia Longwu objected to the proposal so vehemently. Looking at his dead soldiers, his dead companions, if it was up to Su Yu, he would not be able to accept the proposal either.
The cult members were merely the dogs of these foreign races. Now, the masters of the dogs were coming. They were going to openly enter the academy and study alongside humans...
Su Yu clenched his teeth in anger. He did not want to study alongside those bastards. He had completely forgotten about the merit points that he was about to get. His only thought was to kill every last one of those animals.
Unknown to him, Team Leader Liu had arrived beside him. After patting his shoulder with a bloodstained hand, the team leader smiled, "Well done. From now on, you're our comrade! We are comrades that have stared into death together! The next time you see your father, feel free to address him as a comrade!"
Su Yu forced himself to smile, but he was finding it hard to feel any joy.
"Don't think too much. People like us are always dancing on the edge of death. We have long accepted that this would happen to us one day. Their deaths were worth it. You're still young. At the academy, learn well and cultivate hard. Grow strong and kill more of the bastards. That will be the responsibility of you and your peers."
Team Leader Liu was solemn, "Do not be afraid. Do not think that this isn't worth it. With two lives, we took down thirteen of their lives. This is totally worth it. At the Allheaven Battlefield, if you can kill several times more enemies than the deaths on your side, it will be greatly worth it as well.
"The Myriad Race Cult is merely a gathering of worms. Great Xia has been spilling rivers of their blood year after year."
The team leader patted Su Yu's shoulder and said, "If you don't want to see more people die, if you don't want to see your comrades die, work hard. If you're a Skysoar cultivator instead, not one of us would have perished today. We're already old. We're useless. But there is still hope for you.
"Reach the Skysoar Realm faster. The mayor is old. Instructor Liu is old as well. If you can return as a Skysoar cultivator and lead Nanyuan...perhaps even more of us can survive against our enemies in the future."
Skysoar Realm. That was what Team Leader Liu hoped to see Su Yu achieve. Was that difficult? Yes. That was very difficult. At the very least, that was the case for a small city like Nanyuan. Each year, many of them went to the capital to cultivate. But how many eventually ended up reaching the Skysoar Realm?
He was encouraging Su Yu. He also believed that Su Yu really had the hope to reach that realm. After all, Su Yu was already an eighth-stage Source Opening cultivator.
Even if this kid decided to not be a cultural researcher, he still had the hope of reaching the Skysoar Realm through physical cultivation in about twenty years, becoming the new pride of Nanyuan.
It was too hard to become a cultural researcher. But he had a high chance of reaching the Skysoar Realm. How many years had it been since someone from Nanyuan managed to reach that realm?
"Alright."
Su Yu nodded firmly. He wanted to reach the Skysoar Realm. No, he wanted to go even further. What his instructor had not taught him had been learned here today: life and death.
Life and death of his comrades. Life and death of his companions.
They did not stake their life in vicious battles for the sake of any individual or superior. Rather, they were fighting for their own sake, also for the sake of their fellow comrades who were fighting and shedding blood beside them.