Ten days passed in the blink of an eye, and the atmosphere in the base finally started to lighten. You can’t bring a dead man back to life, and those that lived must continue living. Han Jin and Julia were the only two that didn’t change much.
Han Jin became more solemn and smiled less. Aside from cultivation, he always sat by himself, thinking about who knows what. Everyone saw this shift and was worried about him. Reg and Cessacioun wanted to talk to Han Jin multiple times, but Guevara stopped them every time.
Guevara had experienced a similar failure in the past. He knew failure wasn’t something that should be feared; on the contrary, wise men could learn a lot from failure. Thus, he did not wish for anyone to disturb Han Jin.
Today, Sunier finally convinced Han Jin to go shopping with her. Guevara could stop Cessacioun and Reg, but he couldn’t stop Sunier. After all, she could be at Han Jin’s side all day long, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t very well barge in while the young couples were whispering now, could he?!
Sunier originally intended to take a trip to the Mercenary Association before relaxing, but when their carriage approached the association, they suddenly heard a wave of yelling, and even a fluctuation of magic and strength of fighting.
Han Jin blanked, and Sunier hurriedly flipped up the curtain to look outside. “The Mercenary Association must be hunting for spies.”
“Spies?”
“Mhm.” Sunier answered, “The trouble Cromwell stirred up, along with Caroline and Betty’s infiltration of Isolated Cliff City, has completely pissed off the Chamber of Commerce. Since seven or eight days ago, the Mercenary Association has declared martial law and has started hunting for spies who were sent by various lords. You haven’t left your room for days, so you might not know. Winston and the rest even went to help.”
Just as they spoke, the yelling approached them. Han Jin frowned, then exited the carriage.
Saxon threw the horse whip onto his seat and smiled at Han Jin. “My Lord, allow me to assist them.”
Han Jin nodded, and Saxon jumped off the carriage. He walked a dozen steps forward and waited by the wall.
Two fully armed warriors, an archer, and a female magician hurriedly retreated toward them, as they were being tightly pursued by a dozen more mercenaries.
The female magician appeared especially powerful and occasionally casted flame wall, swamps, and various other spells. Her spells were all released instantaneously and drastically slowed down her pursuer. Meanwhile, the archer would take a sneaky shot behind him; he felled one man for every shot he took with no exceptions. The remaining two warriors violently cleared a way for their companions. Since the city was filled with meddlesome mercenaries who were bored out of their minds in the winter, occasionally, there would be some that would jump out and try to stop them. However, the two warriors cooperated extremely well, and with almost complete disregard for their own lives, carved out a bloody path with raw force.
With one look, Han Jin determined that the female magician was an eighth-grade Sage, while the rest were all sixth or seventh-grade professionals. On the other hand, there were no notably powerful professionals among the mercenaries pursuing them. If the group wasn’t trying to escape the city, they could very well turn around to retaliate, and eliminate every single one of the mercenaries in no time.
Saxon stood completely still by the wall with his arms crossed. He didn’t move until the two warriors charged in front of him. He unsheathed his long sword in an instant and struck straight toward the warrior to his left, leaving a fiery arc in the air.
Sunier pulled her longbow and shot an arrow toward the archer. It was always the duty of the ranged professional to first take out the opposing archers. Archers had very few ways to defend themselves compared to magicians or warriors, and were often the easiest to eliminate; yet, if left unattended, their arrows could pose a substantial threat even if they were of a far lower grade.
The archer felt a violent fluctuation of fighting strength and hurriedly turned, but before he could clearly see the situation, an arrow had buried itself deep inside his temple. He fell backward from his own momentum and staggered the magician behind him.
The opponent Saxon had chosen also had fighting technique; in fact, Saxon had chosen him for that exact reason.
A ball of brilliantly red light and a swarm of frosty fog clashed with each other. In the end, the fog dissipated, and the warrior screamed in pain as he stepped back.
The Frozen Ice Technique of Fighting and Dragon Flame Technique of Fighting countered each other, and a clash between two warriors practicing the two techniques was always the most perilous. The scale of the battle would instantly tilt toward whoever had the superior raw strength and rank, and there was nowhere to hide one’s weakness. Back then, Cromwell had also practiced the Frozen Ice Technique of Fighting, but had lost within a single exchange with Saxon precisely because he was lower ranked than Saxon.
Saxon viciously smiled and dove forward again, completely shattering the Frozen Ice Fighting Technique the warrior had unleashed. Flustered and with no time to dodge, the warrior was forced to raise his sword in a desperate attempt to block Saxon’s attack.
With a boom, Saxon’s long sword was stopped, but the ball of flame was not deterred at all, instantly swallowing half of the warrior’s body.
The warrior dropped his sword and fell on the ground with his hands over his head. He rolled on the ground and screamed in pain as his upper body burned to charcoal. Yet, because of the strength of fighting protection surrounding his body, he was denied a quick death. Had he had known, he would probably have given up from the start.
The other warrior was greatly shocked. At the same time, he saw Sunier draw her long bow again. With no time to think, he hastily dashed to his side and raised his battleaxe to protect his head.
Sunier smiled and slightly pulled her left hand down. The arrow flew out and pierced the warrior’s ankle, tightly pinning his foot to the ground.
But due to the momentum from his own desperate charge, the warrior couldn’t stop himself. His right foot abruptly pulled up with a jet of blood, shattering Sunier’s arrow in two.
Amid a scream of pain, the warrior took another step, but his already torn ankle could no longer support his body. He felt his right leg turn to jelly as he fell forward.
The remaining magician realized the situation had gotten out of hand and took out a magic scroll. She suddenly disappeared into thin air, reappeared on a rooftop forty meters away, and then floated toward the sky.
Sunier pulled her bow again, took aim at the magician’s back, and released another arrow.
The arrow struck the magic shield the magician had released, and another immediately followed. As her shield violently shook, the magician no longer dared to continue ascending and landed back on the ground, continuing his mad escape on foot.
“Ha, this is going to be a big catch!” Saxon let out a clear laugh and dashed forward. He jumped in the air and stomped on the wall, shattering the bricks and leaving a crescent-shaped gap. He rose for twenty or so meters in the air, landed in the alley, then promptly ran after the magician.
Han Jin and Sunier glanced at each other before hurriedly following.
In her desperation, the magician dashed into a construction site. The site was about six hundred meters across, and many muscular men were working hard at moving stones around. The shining rings on their head clearly indicated that they were the slaves from Cold Shadow City.
Hogan and a middle aged man stood in the middle and were talking in a low voice. The female magician charged straight at them and sharply screamed, “Master Julian, save me! Save me….”
The middle aged man’s expression changed. He took a step back and made way, though he showed no intention of helping.
“If you leave me, I will ruin your life too!” the female magician screamed again.
“You stupid bitch!!” The middle aged man finally couldn’t take it any longer and loudly cursed.
Though Hogan was too cowardly to face Han Jin in combat and had even become his slave, he was no idiot. Seeing that Han Jin and his companions were pursuing this female magician, and that this female magician seemed to be quite close to his friend over here, he immediately cast a magic shield, took several steps back, and coldly stared at the middle aged man.
Just then, a rock fell from the mount toward the female magician. With commendable reaction time, she conjured up a fireball and shattered the rock.
Before the shattered rock fell to the ground, another boulder slammed toward her. This one was several times larger than the last and looked well over several hundred pounds. It immediately flew across the one that had just been shattered, and slammed into the magician’s shield.
With a boom, the shield collapsed, and the female magician retreated with a scream. Just then, the slaves, who had appeared to have frozen in fear, suddenly rose up and dove toward her with wooden sticks.
The female magician released another big fireball and squarely hit the nearest slave in the chest. With the ring on his head, he could not unleash any strength of fighting, and his regular body was nowhere strong enough to withstand a fireball. His body almost tore in half from the force as he flew back in a strange position.
The horrific death of their companion did not seem to scare the slaves at all; with even fiercer eyes, they charged on.
Suddenly, a palm-sized rock whistled toward the female magician and squarely hit her nose. Blood splashed out, and before she could even make a sound, the rest of the slaves were upon her. Ten sticks struck her legs at the same time. Without the protection of a magic barrier, her physical body was too weak to withstand the attack and she fell in an instant.
The rest of the slaves dove forward and trapped the magician by her neck. They kicked away her wand, firmly stepped on all four of her limbs, and even stuck a stick in her mouth. The magician could not move nor even make a sound, and the only thing moving was the tear that was rolling down her cheeks.
“Julian, explain!” Hogan asked in a stern voice.
The middle-aged man put on his innocent smile as he stepped back. He abruptly turned into a black bat and fluttered into the air.
“You want to run?!” Hogan coldly humped. A giant cancer formed in the air and shot toward the bat.
Another arrow flashed past and hit the target first. The bat was shot off balance and Hogan’s ice arrow slightly missed the bat, only managing to hit its wing. However, that had caused enough damage, as the bat was frozen tight in ice and dropped down.
Seeing that the escapees had all been subdued, Saxon sheathed his sword and examined the slaves. “Impressive…” He was not surprised by their strength, but more by their cooperation. They had worked together seamlessly!
