Chapter 121: Protective Amulet
Chapter 121: Protective Amulet
“You lot, get him!”
Chu Yunfei’s expression changed abruptly. With a flick of his wrist, another small Flying Sword appeared in his hand. It emitted a clear, buzzing hum and instantly shot towards Captain Wang.
Though not old in years, Chu Yunfei understood well the conflicts between Cultivators and martial artists. As the Flying Sword flew out, he simultaneously pushed off the ground with both feet, propelling himself backward.
“Kill!”
“Attack!”
Following Chu Yunfei’s lead, the Black-Clad Assassins who had accompanied him instantly moved. They bellowed war cries, raised their broadswords and longswords, and charged at Captain Wang and his men.
As for Han Pengfei, who was injured, he was encircled by three or four people, guarding him as he recovered.
“Kill!”
“Charge them!”
Captain Wang and his companions were no pushovers, ripe for the picking. One after another, they snatched up longswords from the ground and rushed forward to meet the attack.
Immediately, the scene descended into chaos once more, the two sides clashing violently together.
“Lad, be careful! I’ll deal with Chu Yunfei personally; you’re no match for him!”
Captain Wang saw the Flying Sword hurtling towards him and barked an order at Tang Jinbiao beside him. He then grabbed a broadsword from the ground and swung it forcefully at the incoming Flying Sword.
Although Chu Yunfei was a Qi Condensation Ninth Layer Cultivator, he was still not a Foundation Establishment Cultivator. While an insurmountable foe for most ordinary people, he was not invincible against an experienced old hand like Captain Wang—a martial arts grandmaster who had weathered countless life-and-death crises.
Clang!
Captain Wang seized the broadsword from the ground, pivoted his body, and struck the side of the oncoming Flying Sword with the broad blade. The resounding metallic clang broke the sword’s trajectory, sending it clattering to the earth.
“What?”
Over on the other side, Chu Yunfei clearly hadn’t anticipated Captain Wang’s remarkable insight and agility. His face subtly shifted with surprise.
“Good!”
With one successful strike, Captain Wang wasted no moment. His feet moved swiftly as he pursued the rapidly retreating Chu Yunfei, launching an attack.
“Hmph! Seeking death!”
Seeing Captain Wang aggressively pressing forward, Chu Yunfei’s expression hardened again. He swiftly performed a sword incantation with his hand. The Flying Sword, which had fallen to the ground moments before, gave a light hum, regained its luster, lit up, and soared back into the air, once more attacking Captain Wang.
Clang!
However, Captain Wang seemed alert to it. The instant the Flying Sword took flight, he whirled around and delivered another powerful blow with his broadsword, smashing the sword back down to the ground.
Schluck!
Simultaneously, as he retracted the blade, Captain Wang subtly angled it. The broadsword cleanly severed the head of a nearby Black-Clad Assassin who was locked in combat with one of the guards. Without pausing to look at the beheaded man, Captain Wang immediately drove forward, continuing his fierce assault on Chu Yunfei.
Gulu-gulu!
The head of the Black-Clad Assassin rolled across the ground like a deflated ball, stopping right at Tang Jinbiao’s feet.
“Wuagh!”
Seeing that horrifying head, already gripped by terror and intense nausea, he could no longer hold it back. He vomited violently once more.
Only stomach acid and bile came up this time, no trace of food remained. He had already thrown up once before, deep in the Dense Forest. He just hadn’t expected he’d be sick all over again so soon.
“Die!”
But just as Tang Jinbiao was bending over to vomit, not far from him, a Black-Clad Assassin holding a broadsword lunged into the air and hacked toward Tang Jinbiao’s neck, paying him no mind whatsoever.
“Blargh!”
Tang Jinbiao couldn’t control his nausea; he was sprawled on the ground retching. But suddenly, he sensed an intense killing aura piercing toward him. Heart pounding with terror, he lifted his head and instinctively raised an arm to block it.
“Die!”
Seeing Tang Jinbiao vomiting in this place, the Black-Clad Assassin’s face twisted with disdain and even disgust, but above all, murderous intent. Without hesitation, the assassin swung the broadsword down towards Tang Jinbiao.
Bang!
Just as the broadsword was about to land on Tang Jinbiao’s outstretched hand, Tang Jinbiao suddenly felt someone kick him savagely in the side. His body flew backward, tumbling across the ground.
Clang!
Immediately afterward, a jarring sound of metal clashing rang out, seemingly right next to his ear.
Buzz Buzz Buzz…
After the kick and the deafening noise, Tang Jinbiao’s head resonated with a harsh buzzing noise, leaving him bewildered and disoriented.
“Kid, what are you standing there for? Run! Get out now! If you’re not running, then stand and fight with us!”
At that moment, a man in his thirties shouted at Tang Jinbiao after trading several blows with the Black-Clad Assassin.
“Argh!”
But before Tang Jinbiao could fully process the words, the man turned away without another glance at him and plunged back into the chaotic melee with the assassin.
Though these men weren’t old, each was seasoned and experienced, veterans of the treacherous underworld. Days filled with flying blades and bloody skirmishes were the norm for them. Their ability to react to sudden, violent incidents was far beyond anything Tang Jinbiao possessed.
“Why? Why?”
Tang Jinbiao couldn’t understand why he had gotten caught up in this life-or-death struggle. He had merely intended to deliver a warning to Captain Wang and the others to be on their guard. He never dreamed that his arrival would plunge him into this nightmare.
Tang Jinbiao felt his legs go weak beneath him. Stumbling and scuttling like a crab, he fled towards the distance.
Thump!
Just as he neared a large tree at the edge of the chaos, a corpse suddenly plummeted from the sky, landing with a heavy thud right beside him.
The sudden appearance of the falling corpse shocked Tang Jinbiao motionless. His eyes jerked towards the body. But when his gaze registered the ghastly sight, his pupils shrank violently. Once again, uncontrollable revulsion surged through him, and he violently threw up whatever remained in his stomach.
Splatter!
Tang Jinbiao, however, wasn’t paying attention. As the corpse hit the ground, a few drops of blood splashed up onto his chest.
The corpse’s arm was a mangled mess of flesh. A bloody hole gaped in its chest. Its fallen eyeballs had rolled to land staring fixedly, unnervingly, directly at Tang Jinbiao. It felt as if those sightless orbs were filled with profound resentment and utter shock.
It was one of the men who, moments before, had tried to coordinate the attack to kill Captain Wang. Now, unable to support his weight any longer, the corpse had finally slid off the longsword impaling him and fallen to the ground.
“AAAAAAAAAH!”
Meeting the corpse’s vacant, accusing stare, Tang Jinbiao snapped. A raw, primal scream tore from his throat.
But the battlefield was too chaotic, a tempest of violence. Very few even noticed his outburst.
Tang Jinbiao simply could not grasp why he was facing such a harrowing scene.
Or perhaps the truth was that Tang Jinbiao had always lacked true trials. His life had been spent clowning around with a few close friends. Sure, he’d undergone some training, but that training… that kind of superficial play fighting never really prepared him for this.
Of course, this wasn’t his fault. The entire Tang Family was like this, prioritizing basic training over refining actual experience. That’s why the Tang Family had declined so much over the past century, and why they had been wiped out!
“Want to run? Not that easy!”
Right then, a Black-Clad Assassin spotted Tang Jinbiao some distance away. He charged swiftly towards Tang Jinbiao, raised the broadsword in his hand, and mercilessly swung it down at Tang Jinbiao’s neck.
“Ah!”
Yet Tang Jinbiao continued to roar wildly, utterly oblivious to the danger closing in from behind.
“Ah!”
Hearing Tang Jinbiao’s heart-wrenching howl sent a chill through the charging assassin. To steel himself, he roared back and brought the broadsword down.
“Go die!”
The Black-Clad Assassin saw his blade strike Tang Jinbiao’s back, his face twisting with savage, bloodthirsty glee as he yelled.
“Ah!”
As the broadsword hit him, Tang Jinbiao felt a sharp pain erupt across his back. A powerful force slammed into him, causing him to stumble before being violently hurled away.
Swoosh!
But unexpectedly, it wasn’t just Tang Jinbiao who was sent flying. The black-clad assassin with the broadsword also felt a mysterious force instantly course through his entire body. The arm holding the broadsword exploded with a boom!, disintegrating into a cloud of blood mist. The broadsword itself deformed completely and clattered away.
“Ah!”
The Black-Clad Assassin stared, stunned, as his arm vanished into mist and his sword crumpled into scrap metal. Only after a few breaths did agony, radiating from the ruin of his shoulder, flood his entire being. An involuntary scream tore from him, but before it ended, he collapsed thud as if his soul had fled. He lay still.
“Ah! It hurts!”
Tang Jinbiao, feeling his neck with his hand, found no major wound but winced at the throbbing pain as he stood up.
The pain, ironically, brought him a sliver of clarity. His mind raced: These people mean nothing to me. Should I help them? If I step in, I’d have the advantage—they’re only Mortals, after all. But could Captain Wang handle that Qi Condensation Ninth Layer Cultivator?
Tang Jinbiao might act foolishly, but he wasn’t stupid! Stupidity is incurable, foolishness can be remedied! Or rather, people spend their lives acting foolishly—some just learn to hide it.
“Kill!”
“Ah!”
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Tang Jinbiao leaned against the large tree, ignoring the gruesomely slain corpse nearby. A newfound calm settled in his eyes as he silently observed the desperate, life-and-death struggle raging around him.
He didn’t notice, however, that as he watched the chaotic battlefield, a small Protective Amulet resting against his chest began emitting faint tendrils of light.
Three points held his focus on the battlefield.
First was Captain Wang versus Chu Yunfei. Chu Yunfei, a Cultivator, employed an endless stream of techniques and held the aerial advantage, holding his own for the moment. Yet Captain Wang, though only a martial artist, was formidable. His inner energy was deep, his judgment precise, neutralizing half of Chu Yunfei’s capabilities. Whenever Chu Yunfei tried to deploy a Spirit Artifact or cast a Spell, Captain Wang interrupted it before its completion. Their battle was evenly matched, but Captain Wang, already wounded before, now fought like spent arrow. Clearly nearing exhaustion, he wouldn’t last much longer. Their furious clash had taken them far from the central fight, deeper into the Dense Forest, marked only by distant, thunderous impacts.
The second focus was the Carriage at the very center. A woman remained inside it; Tang Jinbiao hadn’t caught a glimpse of her face and had no idea who she was. What drew his attention was the desperate defense mounted by her guards. Yet, inexplicably, Tang Jinbiao felt a distinct sense that something within the Carriage seemed… poised, like a coiled spring ready to snap. Though his eyes could see the souls drifting through the air, the Carriage’s interior remained completely veiled, opaque.
The final point was the small Black Hole that hung silently in the sky. None of the others seemed to perceive it, nor could they see the drifting Souls steadily drifting towards it like smoke drawn into a vortex, being absorbed. Tang Jinbiber didn’t dare stare at the Black Hole for long; a deep unease told him that doing so might risk his own Soul being drawn into its silent maw.
“Hmm? What should I do?”
Tang Jinbiao coolly assessed. The situation was clear: Captain Wang’s side was weaker. Likely, they’d be annihilated soon. Still, he couldn’t bring himself to choose: flee? Or stay?
“Huh?”
Just then, an icy sensation crawled over Tang Jinbiao’s skin—the distinct feeling of being watched by something predatory. Instinct made him turn his head. His eyes met those of Han Pengfei, who had, unnoticed by him, fixed his gaze upon him.
“What’s that?”
Han Pengfei had originally just felt a faint glimmer catch his eye. But turning his head fully revealed Tang Jinbiao’s chest, where something seemed to be radiating a pale, ghostly light.
“Huh?”
At that moment, Tang Jinbiao also seemed to sense something. He slowly lowered his head, staring downwards at his own chest…