After the Immortal Disappeared

Chapter 123: Chapter 124: The Price

Because of the danger of falling rocks, the village was built far away from the cliffside.

But when the man pointed, the crowd saw a small stretch of mountain path illuminated by two torches. Four bandits stood there, holding two children.

The children were very young, looking to be only four or five years old.

The bandit on the eastern side of the boundary line asked Zhu Xiu’er, ”Are those two your children?”

Zhu Xiu’er’s eyes had already gone wide as she stared unblinkingly at the two children, but now she shook her head vehemently. ”No! They’re not!”

”They’re not?” the bandit sneered. ”Then this has nothing to do with you at all.”

Hee Yue could also see something was wrong and cried out anxiously, ”Wait, you can’t—”

Before he could finish, the bandit raised a hand and gave a signal.

Two childish screams echoed from the mountain path as his accomplices picked up the children and simply flung them over the edge!

It was a cliff with a drop of over 150 feet!

Zhu Xiu’er let out a shriek, her eyes rolled back in her head, and she collapsed.

Zeng Feixiong caught her before she hit the ground, handing her off to his men to be supported.

Hee Chunhua roared in anger, ”How dare you! The children were innocent! What kind of grudge could possibly drive you to commit such a heinous act?!”

”The children were innocent?” The one who answered was Lui Yao. He stepped out from behind a house and sneered at Hee Chunhua. ”It seems Mr. Hee knows this woman isn’t. Mr. Hee, I’ll ask you this: we had a clear agreement to draw a line and keep to our own sides. What do you mean by secretly snatching one of my men?”

Hee Chunhua’s heart sank. ’So Lui Yao found out Fatty Wang was missing and is taking it out on Zhu Xiu’er. This bandit chieftain is utterly savage. The moment he realizes he’s been played, he kills to vent his rage without a second thought!’

”That oaf was about to assault the woman when we stopped him, and that was before we drew the line,” Hee Chunhua said, tilting his chin up slightly. ”Now you’ve killed her children. Does that mean you don’t care if your man lives or dies?”

”Of course I want him back!” Lui Yao snorted. ”Hand him over, or I’ll slaughter you all until you’re pissing your pants in terror!”

”Oh?” Suddenly, Hee Chunhua shielded his eyes with a hand and pointed behind Lui Yao. ”What’s that over there?”

”Mr. Hee, don’t try to distract me.” Lui Yao’s lips curled into a humorless smile. ’What is this, a trick for a three-year-old?’

But the words had barely left his mouth when one of his men screamed in agony from a short distance away. ”AHHH—”

At the same moment, the sound of something slicing through the air came from behind him.

He didn’t turn around immediately. Instead, he dropped into a crouch, spun, and produced a massive axe from seemingly nowhere, holding it defensively in front of him.

The head of the axe was nearly the size of a buckler. While it was nowhere near as exaggerated as the Mengshan Great Axe that Hee Lingchuan had seen in the Dream Realm, it was large enough that when Lui Yao curled behind it, the axe could shield the vital points of his upper body and his knees.

DING! DING! Two arrows struck the face of the axe, their shafts deflecting harmlessly.

Another arrow flew silently past, just above his head.

If Lui Yao had simply turned, that arrow would have found a home in his throat.

’This triangular firing pattern... it seems familiar...’ A sharp glint flashed in Lui Yao’s eyes. He roared, ”Cease fire! It’s me, Lui Yao! Don’t shoot your own men!”

But at that very moment, Hee Chunhua also yelled, ”Traitors! General Lui, capture those traitors at once!”

Immediately, a dozen or so government archers appeared on the roofs of the westernmost houses, closest to the boundary line. Lying prone, they loosed their own volley of arrows, returning fire at the ambushers.

As Hee Chunhua shouted, he covered his head and scrambled to retreat, his body beginning to glow with a faint, cyan light.

It was the halo of the activated Society Command.

In an instant, all the government soldiers were enveloped in the same light.

Seeing this, the attackers had no further doubts.

’Besides an official appointed by the Royal Court, who else could wield Primordial Power?’

As Hee Chunhua fell back, Zeng Feixiong and his men surged forward to cover the retreat, using their Gang Qi to deflect several stray arrows.

The group fled as if their heels were on fire, disappearing behind the houses before Lui Yao’s men even had time to react.

Only then did a contingent of troops burst from the darkness, pouring into Xianling Village like a flood tide.

The night was starless and moonless, leaving the open country in total blackness. The approaching force didn’t carry a single torch.

With everyone’s attention focused on the chaos in the village, Lui Yao’s sentries failed to spot the approaching army until it was right upon them.

Spotting the man at the head of the column, Lui Yao’s voice was sharp with fury. ”Wu Shaoyi, are you insane? How dare you fire on me!” He pointed back toward the west side of the village. ”Your target is over there!”

”You’re exactly who I was shooting at!” Wu Shaoyi laughed. ”Let’s go, brothers! Kill this treacherous bastard!”

He spat the last words through gritted teeth. In the past, Hong Xiangqian had kept them in line, preventing him from dealing with Lui Yao. But the animosity between them had only festered, growing far beyond mutual dislike. Now, seeing the man again, a tide of uncontrollable rage washed over him.

He was a master of the Long Spear. Since he was attacking on foot, he had traded his long cavalry lance for a shorter spear. Without another word, he thrust straight for Lui Yao’s eyes, his movements so fast they left a blur in the air.

Lui Yao naturally used his axe as a shield, parrying the blows. But by the third strike, he had raised the axe high in front of his face. His opponent’s spear tip tapped lightly on the axe’s edge, flicked back, and the shaft bent into an arc, whipping around the axe head to strike at his eye like a venomous viper.

This was Wu Shaoyi’s signature technique, which he called ”Flood Dragon Probes the Sea.” It had claimed the lives of countless government soldiers. Fortunately, having once been in the same camp, Lui Yao was familiar with it. He snapped his head to the side, narrowly avoiding being blinded.

However, the needle-like Gang Qi emanating from the spear tip, though it never touched his skin, still sliced a long gash beneath his eye, deep enough to reveal the bone.

Lui Yao bellowed in pain and swung his axe-shield in a wide, backhanded arc.

Wu Shaoyi didn’t dare meet the blow head-on and retreated two paces.

The blow stoked Lui Yao’s fury. Without bothering to wipe the blood from his face, he charged, unleashing a furious three-move combo of vertical chops and horizontal swings, all while roaring, ”I had the goddamn decency to call you here to join forces! To fight the government dogs! And all you know how to do is fight your own people! Did a dog eat your fucking brain?”

”And I suppose you were being ’decent’ when you set an ambush with seven hundred men at Whistle Rock?” Wu Shaoyi couldn’t be bothered to argue. He simply bellowed to his own men, ”Kill them! Slaughter every last one of Lui Yao’s followers!”

Seven hundred men? Hearing that number sent a jolt through Lui Yao, and he suddenly understood.

’Damn it,’ he thought. ’I’ve fallen for that damned official’s dirty trick!’

”It’s a trick to turn us against each other! Those seven hundred men were for ambushing the damned official!” he screamed, his voice raw. ”Men, take that official down!”

He glanced behind Wu Shaoyi and saw a force of well over two hundred men—more than enough to surround his Lui Family Army and outnumber them three to one. His rage flared again. ”And you! You brought your entire force!”

”You’re the one who set an ambush with seven hundred men! Don’t blame me for bringing everyone I have!”

When old enemies meet, sparks are bound to fly. The battle between the two Grand Generals was white-hot from the start. In the space of a few exchanged words, Lui Yao had already taken a piercing wound to the cheek and two bloody gashes on his right leg—strikes intentionally aimed to slow him down. But his counterattacks were just as vicious. Wu Shaoyi hadn’t escaped unscathed; a deep axe wound on his left arm had nearly severed the tendon, and a heavy blow from the axe-shield to his chest had broken at least one rib.