Chapter 101: Chapter 101: A One-Man Reversal
Watching their third-in-command get hacked into pieces and scattered across the ground, the surrounding bandits instinctively froze before stumbling backward.
They stared in horror at Xie Yuan, who stood surrounded, and at the great axe in his hand. Fear filled their eyes.
’This guy killed the vice-chieftain, a Third Training master, with a single blow—and in such a savage way!’
The bandits could no longer contain their panic. They stopped fighting, all wanting to get as far away from Xie Yuan as possible.
Panic and dismay rippled through the bandits’ ranks.
A circle of frost seemed to form around Xie Yuan. The bandits closest to him dared do nothing but back away. Meanwhile, the bandits in the rear, unaware of what had happened, pressed forward and fell into disarray, allowing the Escort Team to cut down several more of them.
With just those few swings of his axe, Xie Yuan had instantly turned the tables.
The battlefield became a strange mix of chaos and stillness. Peering through the thinning ranks of bandits, the Escort Team members saw Xie Yuan standing tall while the Third Training master lay dead before him. Their eyes went wide.
’What happened?’
’Was it like a flash of lightning, and the bandit leader just... fell?’
The escort members stood stunned for a moment, then erupted in a massive cheer.
"Xiaoxie, you’re a fucking beast!"
The voices of the dozen or so survivors drowned out the clamor from the bandits, who still outnumbered them several times over.
With a united cry, they rallied their strength and swung their weapons, hacking into the demoralized enemy. Their renewed assault yielded immediate and impressive results.
On the other side of the battlefield, Zhao Xingyang and Boss Song simultaneously stopped fighting. They separated slightly, both staring in astonishment toward the main fray.
Though both were astonished, their expressions were starkly different.
Zhao Xingyang’s face was a mask of shock, but it soon gave way to a sigh of relief, and a faint smile touched his lips.
’This might be the first bit of good news all day!’
Boss Song, on the other hand, looked utterly incredulous. His expression then soured as if he’d swallowed a fly, his face turning as black as a scorched pot. His first instinct was to charge into the fray.
SWISH! A spear struck like a lunging dragon, aimed at the back of Boss Song’s head.
Boss Song spun around and threw a punch, practically mad with fury.
"Zhao Xingyang, are you fucking looking to die?! I was about to let you off, now get out of my way!"
"Idiot. Weren’t you acting pretty arrogant just a moment ago?"
Zhao Xingyang sneered.
"Didn’t you say he was a dead man for sure? From what I see, not only is Xiaoxie not dead, but he’s also about to wipe out all of your men."
"But don’t bother joining them. Today, this ends with one of us dead."
He whipped his spear into a blur of shadows that descended upon Boss Song.
Boss Song was both furious and alarmed, but he was trapped.
’The last job was a failure, and now this one is about to fall apart too!’
’The connections were all in place. All I had to do was finish this job, then offer up my own stronghold as a ’conquest,’ and I, Boss Song, after spending half my life as a bandit, could have gone legit. I could have moved to the city, become a respectable master, opened a martial arts academy, and lived the high life. I would never have had to worry about my safety again.’
’But twice! Both times, it was because of this damn kid...’
’If I’d known, I would have handled it myself last time. But who the fuck could have guessed that sending twenty men would get them all killed instead?’
Boss Song wanted nothing more than to rush down and finish Xie Yuan himself, but he could only rage impotently. Zhao Xingyang’s spear was like the wind; Boss Song didn’t dare expose his back, so he could only duck his head and continue to throw his Iron Fists.
His martial art was unique, allowing his Iron Fists to serve as weapons. But against Zhao Xingyang, who fought with complete disregard for his own life, he couldn’t secure a victory.
Xie Yuan took a few gasping breaths, slowly catching his wind.
He sneered, looking at the bandits whose courage had been utterly shattered.
’That was their best chance,’ he thought. ’Clashing head-on with a Third Training master wasn’t easy to shake off, and unleashing those three full-power strikes took a massive toll on me.’
But in that brief respite, he circulated his Life-Nourishing Art and swiftly recovered a portion of his stamina.
He raised his axe, let out a great roar, and plunged back into the horde of bandits!
The mountain bandits were a disorganized mob to begin with. With Boss Song tied up and both the second and third-in-command dead, they had no one to lead them and devolved into a swarm of headless flies.
Facing Xie Yuan’s great axe, the bandits could no longer put up a fight. Their collapse was undeniable.
Xie Yuan swung his axe relentlessly. He no longer needed to use his advanced Moon-Cutting Axe techniques; simple horizontal and vertical chops were more than enough for the demoralized enemies, the strongest of whom were only at the Second Training level.
With the Escort Team constantly pushing the line from behind, it was as if the bandits were the ones being surrounded.
The surviving bandits looked around and realized it was no illusion. There were only thirty or forty of them left standing, every one of them injured. It struck them with horror that of their original force of a hundred men, more than half were already dead.
Against the Escort Team, which only fought harder as the battle wore on, and the seemingly invincible Xie Yuan, what was left of their force would likely be wiped out in moments.
This realization completely broke the bandits’ will to fight. They routed, leaving a few more corpses in their wake as they scattered into the mountain forest.
Xie Yuan and the Escort Team finally regrouped, clapping each other hard on the shoulder. They detailed a few men to tend to the wounded and clear the battlefield, while the few who could still fight followed Xie Yuan and charged toward Zhao Xingyang.
With a thunderous BOOM, a punch knocked the spear aside. Boss Song’s expression was grim as he stared daggers at Zhao Xingyang, only to see him withdraw his spear and take a step back.
Boss Song whipped his head around and finally realized that his bandits had scattered and fled, leaving him surrounded by the Escort Team.
A vein throbbed on his temple. He took a deep breath, his voice low and dangerous.
"You think this pile of broken soldiers can surround me?"
Xie Yuan scoffed.
"The broken soldiers have already fled. It looks like you’re eager to join them?"
Boss Song whipped his head back around to glare at Xie Yuan, the boy who had almost single-handedly shattered his dream of going legit. He forced the words out through gritted teeth.
"I will repay this grudge a hundred times over. Your family, your friends—I will find every single one of them and torture them to death."
Before Xie Yuan could respond, Zhao Xingyang’s cold voice cut in.
"Keep dreaming. I told you, I’m killing you today."
Despite being surrounded, Boss Song’s presence was no less intimidating. He pointed a finger at the group, his gaze full of contempt.
"With a half-cripple who forced a breakthrough and a few Second Training whelps? Who among you can possibly stop me!"
He and Zhao Xingyang had been locked in a stalemate for a long time, but ultimately, he was in better condition.
Standing alone in the center of the encirclement, his aura surged, completely overshadowing that of the Escort Team members combined.
"Tough talk. If you’re so powerful, why didn’t you just finish us all off a moment ago? Was it because you didn’t feel like it?"
Xie Yuan said wryly.
Despite the grim mood, a few of the escort members couldn’t help but chuckle at Xie Yuan’s dry wit.
Hearing the mockery, Boss Song’s face flushed red and pale with rage. He suddenly roared.
"I’ll make an example of you, you little bastard!"
He took off, charging madly toward Xie Yuan.
Seeing the frenzied aura of a Fourth Training master, Xie Yuan’s heart tightened, and he raised his axe.
Just as Boss Song began his charge, he felt a sudden lurch in his chest. A prickling sensation ran up his spine, and goosebumps broke out on his neck.
He whipped his head around to see Zhao Xingyang bleeding from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. The spear was rising with a deceptive slowness, aimed right at him.
Alarm bells screamed in his mind. He skidded to a halt, let out a great shout, and raised his Iron Fists as Blood Qi swirled around him.
Just as Zhao Xingyang’s spear was on the verge of being unleashed, Boss Song felt another chill, a sense of danger from the opposite direction.
He instinctively twisted his head back and saw Xie Yuan’s face flushed red, his energy surging. He too had unleashed his full power and was already swinging his axe down on him!
Facing those devastating swings head-on, Boss Song finally understood. It wasn’t that his third-in-command had been weak; even at his own level, he couldn’t afford to underestimate this attack!
He threw one of his long-charged fists to meet the axe, while the other shot out in the opposite direction, striking at the spear that lunged like a dragon bursting from the sea!
A gale erupted on the hillside. The Iron Fist that Boss Song used to block the axe was split open, skin and flesh tearing apart. The power shielding his other side was shattered, and with a wet SQUELCH, the spear pierced through his chest.
His eyes bulged in fury as he tried to struggle, but the surrounding escort members unleashed everything they had. A flurry of blades descended, hacking the bandit chief who had ruled the region to pieces, mincing him until he was no longer recognizable.
Comments