Chapter 436: Winter Chaos – Part 5
Miaomiao glared at Huang Hansheng without hiding his contempt, "I thought we had an agreement that you wouldn't step foot near Siren City for five years. It has only been a few months, and you already broke the oath."
The old archer was unperturbed. He saluted to Miaomiao, Dian Wei, and Sun Wentai with a straight face.
"We're here as we wish to send our juniors to join your new sect. We have brought talented youngsters from our territory here to broaden their horizons. Since you advertised that everyone is free to take the assessment exam, could we do the same?"
Sun Wentai grumbled, "I'm afraid you misunderstood something, Senior Huang. We only accept respectable candidates, not backstabbers or the ass-kissers of Yuan Shaoqing!"
"Then, are you implying that the advertisement is a lie?"
Sun Wentai stuttered, unable to refute.
Seeing how flustered Sun Wentai was, Miaomiao raised his hand to stop the former.
"Lord Huang, we might have claimed that everyone has the right to participate. However, there are unspoken rules of society. Do you think it's appropriate for Yuan Shaoqing's underlings, who aimed to purge every other race other than humans and Kishin Douji's goons, to join our sect, a place where demons, demi-humans, beastmen, and humans pursued harmony and peaceful coexistence, and ruin our home from the inside?"
"…"
Miaomiao's voice was loud enough for the spectators near the platform could hear him.
Hearing that Miaomiao and his sect pursued peace, everyone admired him and the people behind the city walls. Even the local beastmen, dryads, and monks gazed at him with respect.
"So that why he was so adamant on creating the new sect."
"We've joined the right side. The other clans and sects are all bloodthirsty warmongers. We just want to live in peace and cultivate!"
Many commoners and cultivators had a similar mindset as Miaomiao – They wanted to avoid conflicts and cultivate in seclusion. However, the reality was harsh as many cultivators acted like bandits, killing, stealing, cheating, and plundering others for cultivation resources on a daily basis.
When Miaomiao declared that he pursued peace, the pacifist cultivators and commoners cheered and praised him.
Huang Hansheng glanced around, checking the reaction of the crowd.
Seeing that Miaomiao instantly gained support from the local people by playing with his words, Huang Hansheng sneered.
"So, you're saying that we're not welcomed? I thought all humans, demons, demi-humans, and beastmen are equal in your book. I guess you're just another hypocrite, then."
"Hohoh? Being called a hypocrite by another hypocrite never feels old," Miaomiao burst into laughter. "Instead of reflecting on your past mistakes, you come here and blatantly attempt to plant spies in my sect. When we decline your entries, you call us a hypocrite. What in the world have we come to?"
"…"
Miaomiao maintained his mocking expression, "Alright. Since you have the galls to request this, I shall permit your children to take the test, but there will be extra conditions."
"What's the catch?"
Miaomiao pointed at Huang Hansheng, "You will swear with your dao oath that you will serve me as my war slave from now on. Secondly, the Huang Clan must defect from Liu Biao. You and your families will be branded with a slave mark!"
A slave brand was something common in this world. The slave would never be able to disobey or conspire against their master. Any violator would be tortured and killed by the brand.
Huang Hansheng sneered, "I refuse."
"Then, you can take your children home. Your clan is not welcomed here."
"Alright. Since you're this obstinate…" Huang Hansheng brought out a short sword from his spatial ring.
Next to Huang Hansheng, Huang Zu and other elders sent their signals.
"NOW!!"
The children of Huang Clan, whom Miaomiao and others believed to be commoners and young cultivators, suddenly transformed into imps!
They were from the same race as Xiao Fei, Zhao Bao's disciple!
Imps had a special physique, which made them look like children even if they were 100 years old. The people that Huang Hansheng had guided here were adults from imp tribes, who had the appearance of small children!
Moreover, their foreheads glowed and a crest tattoo appeared.
They were slave brands!
Although their cultivation bases were next to nothing, each of them carried an artifact ball, which carried a large amount of Fire Element Qi.
Miaomiao and Sun Wentai could tell – Those artifacts were fire element grenades, which were usually used in mines and quarries.
But in this case, Huang Hansheng decided to use them and the imp slaves as suicide bombers!
"DESPICABLE BASTARDS!!"
Sun Wentai roared and unleashed his Water Element Qi. A tidal wave expanded and doused the ignited bombs in the hands of these imps.
Yet, the imps dashed toward the other bystanders and spectators. They took out more bombs and threw them to the crowd.
Cultivators from the sideline were not vegetables. As soon as they discovered that the demons were trying to harm the commoners and the local people, they rushed in to disable the grenades.
Most of the ignited artifacts were caught and disabled.
But a few of them were thrown to the crowd of commoners and merchants, who had no cultivation base!
"NOOO!!"
Sun Wentai screamed in despair. He didn't want to see the local people die.
While Sun Wentai panicked, Miaomiao simply raised his right eyebrow like Dwayne Johnson. He lightly tapped his right foot and spread his Qi to the underground.
Instantly, tree vines emerged from the ground and caught the grenades and the suicidal imps. The vines continued to shot up to the sky as if they were trying to compete for its height against the World Tree.
A second later, the ignited grenades detonated.
BOOOM
Multiple flowers of flame erupted and burnt the tree vines. Each explosion covered a radius of 20 meters.
Half of the suicide bombers perished as intended. However, none of them managed to harm the local people and the commoners.
But the danger was far from over.
Huang Hansheng charged at Miaomiao with his short sword. Huang Zu also kept his distance and drew his bow, aiming at Miaomiao as well!
"Assassination attempt, I see."
Miaomiao kicked the ground and kept his distance from Huang Hansheng and avoided Huang Zu's arrows. He glanced at his right side, where a certain spider girl had been standing.
Dian Wei shifted her position and stood in between Huang Hansheng and Miaomiao. She bared her fangs and her humanoid skin was covered by black scales like Nero. A battle axe, which Miaomiao had obtained from the Liu Clan's Vault, appeared in her right hand.
Dian Wei and Huang Hansheng clashed head-on. The spider's left palm strike and Huang Hansheng's right palm strike collided as they were testing each other's strength.
A shockwave from the strike expanded, threatening to kill commoners and weak cultivators!
Before the shockwave could reach him, Miaomiao stomped his feet. This time, Dragon Metal Element Qi from his feet injected the platform and created four Qi-Sealing Amethyst Walls, isolating the platform from the outside arena.
Within a split second, the emerging black walls absorbed the shockwave, caused by Dian Wei and Huang Hansheng. At the same time, they trapped Huang Hansheng, Sun Wentai, Dian Wei, and Miaomiao inside.
But it couldn't trap them for long. After absorbing one round of shockwave, the invincible amethyst walls cracked.
The strength of 9th-stage cultivators was no joke!
Inside the enclosed walls, Miaomiao and Sun Wentai were directly hit by the shockwave. Their bodies were sent flying and crashed onto the amethyst wall along with the blast.
Both men vomited blood, but Miaomiao was instantly healed by his bloodline and Life Essence. As for Sun Wentai, he fell into a comatose.
Ding
[Sun Wu is concerned about Sun Wentai's health.]
[Sun Wu has given you a quest.]
…
Side Quest: Protect Sun Wentai
Currently, Sun Wentai was on the verge of death. Bring him to safety and heal him before he dies!
Quest Objective: Rescue Sun Wentai
Failure Condition: Sun Wentai dies.
Quest Reward: Ten 2nd-grade soul stones.
Failure Penalty: Sun Wu will be very angry.
…
'Eh, annoying quest!'
Even without the quest, Miaomiao planned to save Sun Wentai anyway. He picked the useless elder on his shoulder and touched the amethyst wall nearby.
The wall caved in and opened a path for Miaomiao. He brought Sun Wentai out of the warzone and closed the wall behind him.
Upon closure, Dian Wei and Huang Hansheng ran rampant, unleashing their Soul Qi, and got entangled in a short-ranged dogfight. Their impact and the surge of their energy went up to the sky, which hadn't been protected by the walls.
The surge of unknown attacks broke a portion of the walls. Miaomiao had to turn around and placed his hands on the wall, injecting his Dragon Metal Qi to keep the metal walls intact.
Wei Yuan rushed to Miaomiao's side and picked up Sun Wentai off his hands. The other girls also brought a bottle of unified element of spring water to heal the elder.
But the battle outside had just begun. As Huang Zu was outside the wall, he got to command the remaining imp slaves. He pointed at the Dryad Forest, "Burn that forest down! Don't let any creature escape!"
Emerald Hopea, who had been talking to her subordinates in the outer perimeter of the forest, could hear Huang Zu's remark. She was enraged.
"FUCK OFF!"
The angry dryad screeched and unleashed her domain power. The ground and soil in front of Siren City suddenly became lush with grasses and flowers.
The beauty of nature wasn't the thing that Hopea could do. As soon as the grasses grew, they shapeshifted into man-eating plants. Many giant venus flytraps emerged and uprooted themselves to chase after suicidal imps and Huang Zu!
Huang Zu immediately ordered the surviving imps to throw themselves at the plants and became suicide bombers once more.
The demons were helpless as they were victims of this fight. Yet, they charged at the plant monsters with their fire element grenades.
SCREECH
The giant venus flytraps opened their large mouths and bit the hands that had been holding the artifacts, yet, none of them chose to bite the important parts of the imps.
The digestive fluid burnt the imps' hands, who still held on to the grenades. They forced the imps to let go of the bombs. Then, the venus flytraps kept them in their mouths and leaped to the sky.
BOOM
BOOM
One after another, the giant plants sacrificed themselves to destroy the grenades.
The slave imps stared at their enemies in shock.
Huang Zu stared at the venus flytraps in a daze. He couldn't believe that the monsters would have suddenly emerged and destroyed his expensive grenades, which he had bought from Brocell like that.
"Damn useless slaves! ALL UNITS, RETREAT!!"
Huang Zu was decisive. He ordered his men to withdraw from Siren City as his sabotage scheme had failed.
But he didn't forget to do one thing.
As Huang Zu was in command of the slave brands, he sent his order to the imps.
"You lots are now useless. Now, kill yourselves!"
The voice of Huang Zu echoed and entered the glowing tattoos on the foreheads of the slaves. The imps cried as they couldn't resist the order.
All of them either bit their tongues or slit their throats with their sharp nails!
Just like that, the imps, whom everyone thought to be promising children, were all dead!
BOOM
Meanwhile, Huang Hansheng blasted his way through the east side of the amethyst wall. He looked haggard and exhausted despite having fought with Dian Wei for less than a minute.
The archer took out his great bow and nocked several arrows at once. However, he didn't aim at Dian Wei, who had been chasing after him.
Huang Hansheng aimed at Miaomiao!
"DIE, BRAT!!"
10 arrows were fired at once, and they scattered in every direction. Yet, it curved as if they were homing missiles, chasing after Miaomiao from above.
"BUDDHA IS MERCIFUL!!"
Zhao Bao, who had finally arrived at the scene, bellowed and transformed into a giant Buddha statue. Ten golden hands appeared and flew in the direction of the incoming soul arrows.
As if the arrows were alive, they curved away and avoided the hands.
Zhao Bao snorted and manipulated the golden hands the followed the arrows as well. He managed to knock three of them out.
But seven slipped through!
"Meh."
Miaomiao gazed at the soul arrows and lightly honked at them. A shockwave was created and disabled one of the arrows. However, he failed to disable the other six!
SOEK!!
Six arrows punctured through Miaomiao's body, leaving six gaping holes in his torso!
...
Huang Hansheng smiled as he had confirmed the kill. However, he felt that something was amiss.
Miaomiao should have been a lot stronger than that. His arrows should have only crippled him, not instantly killed him on the spot.
Huang Hansheng didn't have to wait long before the real body of Miaomiao appeared next to Huang Zu, who was a kilometer away from Huang Hansheng.
As for the "Miaomiao" that Huang Hansheng had killed, it was just a clone.
"DAMMIT! SHADOW CLONE!"
Huang Hansheng drew his great bow again, aiming at Miaomiao.
But Dian Wei with her handmade battle axe had gotten behind him.
"FOOD!!"
Dian Wei hacked down!
"HNNNN!!"
CLANK!
Huang Hansheng managed to block the strike with his short sword, but his weapon was destroyed in the process.
"DAMN MONSTER!!"
BOOM
While Huang Hansheng was distracted for a second, an explosion occurred at a distance, followed by Miaomiao's laughter.
Huang Hansheng widened his eyes and turned to the direction in shock.
Huang Zu, his clan patriarch, had been enveloped in flame and was burnt to ash!
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