Chapter 271 - Imperial Order
Despite his feelings of frustration, Song He was currently breaking through this forest with the others. It was only natural that the better the skills of those he journeyed with, the happier he’d be. However, in his heart, there was still the self-respect of a martial artist. He didn’t mind asking a stronger martial artist to watch over him, but letting a pharmacist save him… This kind of reversal in the roles of protector and protected made Song He exert one hundred twenty percent of his strength. He did his utmost to sweep away the surrounding monstrous creatures. Wherever he could, he would help out as much as possible. He was relentless.
At last, after another day and night, Song He followed behind the two and walked out of this forest.
Upon seeing the outside, where the bright sunlight wasn’t hidden by the trees, he heaved a long sigh: “Finally, I got out alive.”
At this moment, even Gongyi Tianheng and Gu Zuo’s bodies were splashed with flecks of strange blood. Not to mention Song He — That guy was basically in tatters. Anyone who saw him would feel pity.
Gu Zuo looked at how Song He had trouble covering his body, and couldn’t help but sympathize with him for a second. After that, he said: “My big brother and I will keep a lookout for you. Brother Song, you’d better quickly change into a new pair of clothes.”
Song He was incredibly embarrassed, but he also felt that this suggestion was timely. After he thanked the two, he promptly turned around and hurriedly changed into a clean set of clothes.
At this time, he had once more become as handsome and neat as he was in the past.
The area outside the forest was a vast plain. The surface was covered by many weeds, and it also formed a large road. Only, this place’s fog was even denser, which hid the plain from view. However, if one peered into the distance, one could still make out the mountainous shadows of ancient buildings on other side of the sea of fog.
It looked like it was another city.
Tianheng said: “Whenever there’s a city, we should scout it out.”
Gu Zuo approved: “Maybe we can meet other people.”
Song He: “…What these two senior brothers say is right.”
Tianheng and Gu Zuo turned their heads to look at him: “Brother Song, what do you plan on doing now?”
Song He hesitated.
He followed the two so that he could smoothly leave the forest. During this period of time, he had seen how strong these two were, and knew that traveling with them would be the most advantageous for him.
However, Song He’s face wasn’t so thick.
While he couldn’t help the others, how could he possibly want them to shelter him the entire time? Hence, he restrained the restless thoughts in his heart, and cupped his fist to bid farewell: “Words can’t express my appreciation for what you’ve done. This Song will part ways here. If we can meet again in the future, this Song will certainly return the favor.”
Tianheng smiled: “The waters of the mountain will inevitably reach the sea. Brother Song, I’m sure we’ll meet again someday.”
Song He heard this, and his heart was gladdened.
No matter how it was said, this was the bond of good karma…
Immediately following this, Song He walked out first. His entire person plunged into the fog, and in the blink of an eye, they couldn’t see his figure anymore. They also weren’t able to discover the direction of his departure.
Gu Zuo swallowed a mouthful of saliva: “Big brother, shall we go in, too?”
He felt that the inside of this fog definitely wouldn’t be peaceful…
Tianheng spoke: “Let’s go!”
Gu Zuo promptly clung tightly to Tianheng’s shoulders. His psychic power was instantaneously discharged and spread out.
In a split second, the two’s silhouettes also plunged into this tract of fog.
After going in, Gu Zuo astonishingly realized that the area that his own psychic power could extend had been greatly reduced — If it was said that it could originally spread out to a kilometer due to repeatedly improving, then the current range was only ten meters. Previously, it was effortless for Gu Zuo to continuously observe up to a hundred meters away from his body, and he still had energy left over. But now, he needed to fully exert himself to achieve only a tenth of that.
Gu Zuo’s heart turned cold as he told Tianheng about this matter: “Big brother, I’m afraid we’ll need to be extra cautious from now on.”
Tianheng said: “No problem. Ah Zuo, wrap your legs around me. I’ll take out the spear.”
Gu Zuo silently nodded: “I’ll save my psychic power, too.”
After deciding as such, Tianheng immediately grabbed a spear in his hand. Gu Zuo’s legs spontaneously clamped around Tianheng’s waist. Gu Zuo stuck to Tianheng’s body as much as possible. This was to lessen the restrictive burden on his big brother when he fought.
Such meticulous preparation wasn’t without its uses.
In a flash, a streak of sword light stabbed from the side!
Tianheng raised his spear!
Clang!
Metal grated against metal, and the sneak attacker was foiled.
The pupils of Gu Zuo’s eyes shrank.
Just then, he wasn’t able to inform his big brother in time!
Gu Zuo couldn’t be blamed for not reacting in time. Rather, it was because the other party was beyond ten meters away. Moreover, that person’s speed was too fast. The instant they entered the ten-meter range, they had already mounted an ambush and had attacked immediately.
During this brief window, from discovering the enemy to wanting to inform Tianheng, there wasn’t enough time for Gu Zuo to act on this thought — On the contrary, Tianheng himself had a very strong intuition towards danger. As a result, he sensed it before being attacked. At the same time, he followed his own vigilance and withstood the ambush.
However, while Tianheng withstood the attack, the other side’s reactions were also very fast. With the help of the fog’s natural cover, the ambusher came and went through the area. Every streak of sword light was incomparably crafty, and every flicker was extremely strange.
At this very moment, the spear and that ambusher’s sword lights were clashing constantly. Tianheng was completely passive as he defended against the other side’s attacks. Only, the opponent’s movements were too quick, and their whereabouts were fleeting. This made it so that, for a while, Tianheng couldn’t find the opportunity to counterattack.
Gu Zuo had a bitter expression.
It seemed that he wasn’t of any use… But after that, he calmed down.
At this time, shouldn’t he centralize his psychic power to enshroud the vicinity? He could find a chance to secretly help his big brother, and directly mount a sneak attack to get rid of that person.
Having decided this, Gu Zuo gathered his psychic power. From a ten-meter range in the beginning, it had been narrowed to within five meters — This range also encompassed the scope of the entangled fight between that elusive person and Tianheng.
Once the battle plan was adjusted, Gu Zuo immediately discovered the tracks of the other side.
Displayed within his psychic power, that ambusher seemed like a faint shadow. To be honest, although the body technique was strange, the attacker moved across the environment by virtue of their dexterity. If there wasn’t any fog to take shelter, this kind of body technique would be fast, but it would only be fast. The ambusher would’ve been found long ago.
And even now, Gu Zuo discovered that his dear big brother was getting faster and faster as he fought with the enemy. After thrusting the spear, there were quite a few times when it pierced the hem of the other side’s robe. If it was but a hairsbreadth closer, then it could’ve given the enemy a serious wound.
Gu Zuo inwardly nodded.
If this continued, then it wouldn’t take a minute for his big brother to ferret this person out of the fog and get rid of them! However, a minute was still a minute. This place had so many dangers. Was he going to just let this minute go to waste?
Immediately after that, Gu Zuo burst forth with dozens of silver needles.
The function of these silver needles wasn’t to cause injuries. Rather, they were cleverly strung together to mess up the gait of that elusive guy’s body technique!
Once the steps were messed up, then the qi emissions would naturally follow.
In a split second, Tianheng grasped the opportunity. His spear stabbed out!
Splat!
The spear skewered the enemy’s chest, immediately killing that person!
Gu Zuo slightly sighed in relief.
Although they were attacked by monsters and all sorts of creatures before, this was still the first time that they were attacked by a fellow martial artist in this place.
It was said that there were many people on the Road of Death who would massacre each other, but he never expected that it would start so soon.
Gu Zuo’s brows furrowed.
It seemed that meeting a reasonable person like Song He was comparatively rare. It looked like he still recognized the favor of saving one’s life… But it also couldn’t be said that Gu Zuo was deluding himself. Could it be that the reason why Song He had been well-behaved the whole time was because he had a clear view of things? Did he know that he basically didn’t stand a chance against Tianheng and Gu Zuo?
Consequently, Song He’s behavior still wasn’t the norm.
Tianheng didn’t seem to be negatively affected by anything, and he easily pulled out the spear. Soon after, the spear tip dug up all of the inter-spatial tools and other such things from the corpse on the ground.
After Gu Zuo used his psychic power to search through these inter-spatial tools, Gu Zuo unexpectedly found a few good things. For example, there were cultivation methods and martial skills from the Golden-Level up to the low Profound-Level. Apart from this, there was a dazzling tile piece.
Following this, Gu Zuo took out the token, and placed it in front of Tianheng’s eyes: “Big brother, look at this. Isn’t this thing a little strange?”
Tianheng swept his eyes over it: “This is probably…a token to prove one’s identity.”
Gu Zuo flipped the token like a coin, and discovered that this thing glittered with golden light. It seemed to have been forged with a mixture of gold. Carved on the surface were the characters for “Imperial Order”. Written underneath that was the character for “Guard”. And below that was a person’s name.
It could be assumed that the person’s name belonged to that low Immortal Realm fellow who just died.
A martial artist of this realm basically wasn’t Tianheng’s opponent, and wasn’t worth mentioning.
However, what they needed to pay attention to right now was what this imperial order meant, and whether the meaning of “Guard” was the same as what they imagined.
If it was…
This gave an ominous type of feeling — It was as if some kind of formidable organization had already shown up.
Tianheng’s gaze slowly turned serene and deep.
T/N: Thanks for the correction, Charysa.
Please don’t forget to support the original author.