Chapter 103 : Chapter 103
Chapter 103. Slaughter
At the same time, Wang Tao also moved.
His cultivation was inferior to the red-robed man’s, so naturally he could not walk on water. Instead, he charged straight along the stone path leading off the islet.
Though he was already advanced in years, the surging vitality of someone who had just stepped into the six-meridian realm still made him faster than a galloping horse.
Behind him followed four Bai Family five-meridian martial artists, all of them with dense, powerful auras and sharp, gleaming eyes. Their killing intent was overwhelming.
“Kill them all! Leave no one alive!” Wang Tao shrieked.
“Hold the enemy!”
Though the people on shore were alarmed, they knew there was no path of retreat left to them. One after another, they roared and charged forward.
In an instant, the sounds of clashing weapons, furious shouts, and agonized screams rang out in a single chaotic swell along the shore of Qinglong Lake. The stench of blood spread through the mist.
Wang Tao did not immediately throw himself into the melee. Instead, he swept the battlefield with a cold, sinister gaze, searching for prey.
Very quickly, he fixed on a chief guard who was somewhat closer to him and currently entangled with a Bai Family martial artist.
That chief guard was relatively weak, making him the perfect target to kill for prestige and to raise morale.
Wang Tao moved in a flash, diving into the battle like an eagle pouncing on a rabbit. He ignored the Bai Family martial artist entirely and struck straight at the chief guard’s back with a palm.
The chief guard sensed the vicious wind behind him and turned hastily to block.
Bang!
The two palms collided. A tremendous force surged through him, and the chief guard’s face instantly flushed crimson. He spat out a mouthful of blood and staggered backward.
Wang Tao gave a savage grin. Taking advantage of the man’s disrupted breathing and scattered force, he closed in again and drove his right palm, accompanied by the heavy sound of wind and thunder, straight into the man’s forehead.
Crack!
A sickening sound of splitting bone rang out.
The chief guard’s eyes bulged. Blood poured from all seven orifices as he toppled backward and died on the spot.
A five-meridian chief guard had failed to last even three moves against him.
Several nearby chief guards who had been preparing to surround Wang Tao were struck with terror at the sight, and even their offensive momentum faltered.
Though the six-meridian and five-meridian levels seemed separated by only a single step, there was a qualitative difference between them in vitality, force, and reaction speed. It was not a gap that could be easily bridged by numbers alone.
“Hahahaha! A bunch of spineless trash! You’ve spent too many pampered days in the medicinal fields. All your blood and grit have long since been worn away!”
Wang Tao burst into wild laughter, his curses echoing across the lakeside. “Instead of clinging pathetically to life, you might as well turn your lives into my military merit!”
He then ordered the four Bai Family five-meridian martial artists,
“You four go tie down the other chief guards. Don’t let them interfere.”
Then Wang Tao’s cold gaze locked onto Yang Caiyu, who was at the rear of the crowd and desperately trying to retreat even farther away.
“Chief Guard Yang...”
Wang Tao strode forward slowly, each step making the ground tremble faintly beneath him. His voice was grim and vicious.
“In my life, the people I hate most are the likes of you—trash who rely on family ties, know nothing, and still climb onto my head and piss all over me!”
“In the past, your precious uncle backed you up, so you could order me around however you pleased. Did you ever imagine there would come a day like this?”
Yang Caiyu’s beauty had gone pale with fright. The arrogance and domineering spirit she once carried had vanished without a trace, replaced only by fear and panic.
One chief guard standing in front of her saw that Wang Tao’s target was clear, and a flicker of hope rose in his heart. He quietly tried to shift to the side, hoping to slip free of the battle.
But a fierce light flashed through Wang Tao’s eyes, and his body exploded into motion.
Force surged through his entire body. A yellow-brown glow appeared around his right fist, and the surrounding mist churned violently. When he punched out, the blow carried the force of a falling mountain, aimed straight at the chief guard’s chest.
The chief guard was horrified. In his haste, he crossed both arms in front of his chest and pushed his force to its utmost limit.
Boom!
Fist and forearms collided with an explosive crash.
The chief guard’s arms shattered. His entire body was sent flying like a rag sack, his chest caving inward as blood sprayed wildly from his mouth. After landing, he twitched twice, then fell still.
There was only a single meridian of difference between the five-meridian and six-meridian realms, yet it was a complete transformation in quality. And Wang Tao had struck in fury, without holding anything back.
Yang Caiyu’s beautiful face turned white as paper, drained of every trace of blood.
She had utterly lost the will to fight. All her former pride, scheming, and reliance on powerful backing were swept away in the face of absolute strength and naked killing intent.
“Xu Yuan, quick... quick, stop him! Buy me time! As long as I can escape, I’ll reward you handsomely in the future!”
She practically screamed the order at Xu Yuan, who was nearest to her.
But the instant she opened her mouth—
Whoosh!
The dust beneath Xu Yuan’s feet exploded as his figure shot away like an arrow loosed from the string, or a startled leopard springing for cover, darting toward the dense forest off to the side and behind them.
He was astonishingly fast, and the move came without the slightest warning.
He did not even turn his head once.
“You...” Yang Caiyu was so furious that her vision went black. A surge of blood rose into her throat, but she forcibly swallowed it back down and screamed hoarsely,
“Xu Yuan, get back here! I’ll write off everything between us! I swear it! Hurry and save me!!”
Xu Yuan said nothing. He simply kept running. His figure flickered several times through the mist and trees before disappearing from the edge of everyone’s sight.
He was not fleeing in a straight line. Instead, he cleverly used the terrain and the cover of the chaotic melee to hide his route, moving unpredictably as though he had long prepared for this very moment.
“Damn you... beast, coward!!”
Yang Caiyu’s eyes nearly split with rage. Boundless hatred surged through her heart, but she had no time left to keep cursing.
Wang Tao blurred and arrived before her.
He stared at her pretty face, now twisted by fear and hatred, and his smile turned savage.
“Chief Guard Yang, it seems your colleagues are not all that reliable. Now then, it is time for us to properly settle our old debts.”
With that, he wasted no more words. His right fist clenched, and the yellow-brown radiance of force around it flickered unsteadily. Even the surrounding air let out a low hum.
The sharp waves radiating from it made Yang Caiyu’s skin sting.
Gritting her teeth, she had just begun to gather her force for a counterattack—
When Wang Tao suddenly extended his arm. Force surged outward, plain and direct, as he threw a straight punch without a trace of flourish.
Crack.
It took fewer than five moves.
A clear sound of bone breaking rang out.
Yang Caiyu let out a shrill scream. Her right arm twisted into an unnatural shape, and the piercing pain nearly made her faint.
At that life-and-death moment, a flash of crazed viciousness passed through her eyes. Her left hand suddenly plunged into her robes and pulled out a bead the size of an egg, red as blazing fire.
It was called a Thunderbolt Pearl, a life-saving trump card her uncle Yang Cang had given her. She had never shown it to anyone before.
“Old bastard, die!”
Yang Caiyu roared as she hurled the crimson bead with all her remaining strength straight at Wang Tao’s face.
Wang Tao’s expression changed slightly. He clearly recognized the object.
He did not dare receive it head-on. His forward momentum stopped instantly. He stamped hard against the ground and shot backward while striking out repeatedly with both palms. His powerful force condensed into an invisible wall of air in front of him.
The crimson bead flew halfway there before it gave a low hum, and its surface lit up with a blinding red glow.
Boom!!
A deafening explosion erupted.
Red light instantly swallowed everything within several zhang. Frenzied shockwaves mixed with searing fragments and swept madly in all directions.
A deep crater was blasted into the ground. Earth and mud flew everywhere, and a hole was torn open through the mist.
Though Wang Tao had retreated quickly, he was still struck by the edge of the blast. The protective force around his body rippled violently, several holes were burned through his robes, and his face was blackened with soot. He looked utterly wretched.
On the other side of the center of the explosion, Yang Caiyu used the reverse force of the blast to send herself flying backward like a kite with its string cut. Blood sprayed wildly from her mouth as she crashed heavily into the grass more than ten zhang away.
Her right arm was completely ruined. Her left arm was also a bloody mess, and her internal organs had suffered grave damage. But thankfully, she was still alive.
The desire to survive overwhelmed everything else.
Struggling to her feet, she did not even dare look to see whether Wang Tao was pursuing her. Staggering, stumbling, and half-crawling, she fled with the last of her strength and vanished into the mist-shrouded forest in the blink of an eye.
“You bitch!!”
Wang Tao swept away the drifting smoke and dust. Seeing the direction in which Yang Caiyu had disappeared, his face turned dark as he prepared to chase after her.
But then he heard shocked cries from the Bai Family martial artists. He turned his head and saw that several chief guards had actually made it onto the islet, clearly intending to awaken the Purple Gold Eel.
“Damn it!”
His expression changed. After casting a resentful glance toward the direction Yang Caiyu had fled, he could only abandon the chase and hastily turn elsewhere.