The ten tokens fell into a jade bowl, where they bounced about like pearls before finally calming down. The old man glanced at the tokens while calculating with his fingers.
Just as the tokens came into clear view, his entire body trembled and an expression of terror filled his face. The man got up to flee but fell down with a muffled groan, his face pale as he sprayed blood all over the jade bowl and tokens.
The first mouthful of blood made way for waves of hemorrhage that couldn’t be stopped. He tried to cover his mouth in vain as his aura rapidly declined.
The hemp clothed elder didn’t lose hope, however. He struggled up, dipped his finger in the blood, and started writing several big characters on the ground. However, his trembling hands could only produce blurry distortions before he collapsed, never to move again.
The attendant outside the door called out several times. Hearing no response, he knocked again hesitantly. He became rather concerned about the lack of reaction, so after some hesitation, he pushed the door open. The screaming man fell on his butt and, soon afterward, fled for dear life.
Moments later, a serious-looking man in his middle ages walked over in brisk steps. The attendant had to sprint frantically just to keep up.
As the middle-aged man pushed open the door to the isolated room, his expression became extremely ugly.
The attendant followed from behind, gasping and panting. “He was in this state when I realized that something was wrong and pushed open the door. I ran over to report to you without the slightest delay.”
The middle-aged man arrived beside the body of the old man. There, he reached out to test the elder’s breathing, then touched his ear and heart areas. Standing up with a gloomy face, the middle-aged man followed the victim’s fingers to the blood letters.
“Success is in sight, but like a soaring snake exiting…” The middle-aged man read softly.
The words after that had merged into a mass of blood. After a good while of reading, he said angrily, “Still writing nonsense on the verge of death!”
The old man might’ve been able to leave some valuable information if he didn’t beat around the bush.
The middle-aged man asked the attendant to bring pen and paper, with which he traced the messy blood letter onto the paper. He then turned and left.
The attendant asked, “Sire, what do we do with Sire Huangfu’s corpse?”
“Bury him,” the middle-aged man said before he was gone with the wind.
…
Roaring like a dragon, a motorbike crossed the vast wilderness as it headed toward Tidehark. This custom-made vehicle was quite outstanding—its massive frame was enough to store a good amount of black crystals, allowing it to travel all the way from Southern Blue to Tidehark.
A merchant group and a number of travelers were queuing up to enter the city. Although everything was proceeding in an orderly manner, it couldn’t quite hide the melancholic atmosphere of the city.
Hidden in a cloud of rolling dust, the motorbike rumbled with the momentum of descending thunder. It was actually charging over like a frontline combat vehicle! The sentries on the wall became tense upon seeing this uninvited guest and sent a signal to their comrades on the ground.
The guards in charge of the city-wall segment moved into action. The machine gunners and assistants turned their muzzles in Qianye’s direction, which he duly ignored as he drove into firing range. Tires screeching, the vehicle spun about twice and slid forward before coming to a stop just short of the gates.
Qianye’s figure appeared as the dust finally dispersed. When he looked up at the sentry tower, the city guards adopted very different expressions—some were nervous, some were puzzled, while the others shifted their trembling muzzles in a different direction.
What followed the initial clamor was silence.
A loud click echoed amidst the stillness, the sound of a machine-gun safety being released. The gunman, clearly a newbie, was pale, and his hands were trembling. A nearby veteran sent him flying with a slap, scolding, “Are you trying to get everyone killed?”
The new soldier was puzzled. He looked left and right at his comrades, only to find that most of them had already moved their guns away.
At this point, more and more guards recognized Qianye as the person who had killed Luo Bingfeng. The dangers involved in the fight against Luo Bingfeng was way beyond the soldiers’ comprehension. It was when he had sealed off the city that his might was actually established.
Single-handedly sealing off a city was unprecedented, even in legends.
No matter how fierce and bold the city guards were, they were still humans who feared death. They were even less willing to throw away their lives for nothing. The city had been occupied by the Empire and Evernight after Luo Bingfeng’s demise. The fearless men had long since become corpses at this point, and the only ones left were new recruits and sly old men.
If that weren’t the case, Qianye’s aggressive charge would’ve been met with machine-gun fire.
Seeing that there was no movement on the city wall, Qianye shook his head in disappointment. He had planned to fight, but the current city guard was unexpectedly spineless.
Qianye raised his voice. “I’m Qianye, the city lord of Tidehark. Open the gates this instant!”
The guards exchanged glances.
A city of this size possessed two, or even three, sets of gates. Normally, only a part of them was open for the passage of people and vehicles. The gates would fully open only when there was war because that would involve steam power from the kinetic towers. The mechanisms couldn’t be operated by just a couple of soldiers.
Qianye looking at the gates meant that he was demanding a full opening. If he were really the city lord, this demand was more symbolic than not. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that it was a formal announcement of his arrival.
It was just that Qianye’s appointment was only announced to the higher echelons of the city. The sentry officers might know a few things, but the soldiers were completely ignorant. After all, this matter was rather humiliating, and the major powers still hadn’t figured out how to deal with this. Naturally, they wouldn’t make a big announcement about it.
At a loss about what to do, the guards all looked to their officer. Knowing that there was no evading this, the gatekeeping officer walked to the ramparts and said, “We greet the city lord.”
Qianye pointed at the machine gun formation. “Why are you aiming your guns at me if you know that I am the city lord? Are you trying to slight Zhang Buzhou?”
Qianye’s position was announced by the heavenly monarch’s residence. Everyone knew the true story behind this, but to outsiders, this was indeed Zhang Buzhou’s will. It wasn’t entirely wrong for Qianye to claim that not respecting him was not respecting the heavenly monarch.
The gate officer, of course, knew that Qianye was here to stir up trouble. He quickly dispatched someone to make an urgent report while roaring at the other soldiers to put down their weapons. Aiming their guns at this murderous star, what was that if not courting death?
The officer conveniently forgot to issue orders for standby. Two small kinetic towers rolled into action, and the gates of Tidehark slowly opened to the side amidst whistling steam.
Qianye started the bike engine and rolled into the city. “Men, lead me to the city lord’s manor.”
The officer appointed several men as guides, but they were all old or crippled soldiers who would take a good amount of time to reach their destination. The officer was clearly trying to stall for time for those inside.
How could Qianye give him this opportunity? His figure appeared beside the gate officer in a flash, saying, “You, go with me!”
The officer was shocked out of his wits. He started trembling because he had clearly seen Qianye’s frostiness during the short moment of eye-contact.
The man was already dizzy when Qianye boarded the motorbike. He didn’t even have the time to summon a car before subconsciously running ahead to lead the way.
The motorbike rumbled like thunder, drawing eyes wherever it went. After seeing the gate officer running frantically in front, people began to wonder what was happening, and the bolder ones followed them.
The duo arrived in front of the city lord’s manor within moments. Qianye got off here, glancing at the dignified mansion and the large swathe of soldiers in front of it.
The soldiers were tall, strong, and tightly knit into a formation. Arms folded and chin raised, they looked at Qianye provocatively through the corner of their eyes.
The officer had vanished at this point.
Qianye removed his goggles, jumped down the bike, and kicked it away. He then walked toward the manor in a leisurely manner.
The warriors of the city lord manor stood there without the slightest movement. Clearly, they had no intention of making way. Qianye glanced at them and found that none of them wore the decorations of an officer. The highest-ranked among them was a petty officer, with a cultivation of rank five.
Qianye could destroy such cannon fodder with a wave of his hand, but there was no benefit from doing this. It would only make him a blood-thirsty killer.
Whether there was someone controlling them or if they were personally intent on this futile endeavor, Qianye had no intention of letting them remain deluded about being able to threaten him.
He kept walking toward the manor, completely ignoring the people blocking his way. He then raised his voice, which covered a small part of Tidehark.
“Are you people ignoring Zhang Buzhou’s words? Are his words all crap to you?”
Qianye’s words caused everyone’s expressions to change. Although the city had changed owners quickly in the recent period, no one really dared to disrespect the heavenly monarch. Qianye seemed to be upholding Zhang Buzhou’s command but was actually cursing the man at heart.
As the city lord’s manor remained silent, Qianye walked over to the first row of warriors. These soldiers were like small giants and an entire size bigger, but the gap in momentum between the two parties grew wider as Qianye’s eyes turned cold.
“Insolence!”
Qianye took a step forward and crashed into the hundreds of burly men in front of him!
“Halt!” A loud cry echoed from the manor, but it was too late.
The warriors blocking Qianye’s path felt a tremendous force fall upon their bodies. They felt as though a giant rock was bearing down on them, and all they could hear was the roar of tidal waves.
The pressure was too heavy for these ordinary soldiers to withstand. Many of them felt their vision grow dark and a sweetness welling up in their throats as they spat out blood. Soon, no one was left standing.
The damage didn’t stop there—the main gates of the manor and the tower crumbled under the pressure!
Debris fell down like rain, smashing the warriors on the ground. The damage quickly worsened, and everyone was left with broken bones and tendons.
