After the Immortal Disappeared

Chapter 151: Chapter 152: Betrayed and Abandoned

With a Thousand Blades pointed at him, Pei Xinyong suddenly found himself in a desperate plight.

Lui Yao wanted him dead!

Pleading for mercy now would be useless. He understood that Lui Yao had to kill him here and now in order to deal with the over one thousand men swarming outside.

Wu Shaoyi had sent men to warn him, to be on guard for a sudden attack from Lui Yao. But he had been too overconfident.

But Pei Xinyong had no time for regret, as another one of his guards beside him screamed and collapsed.

He had been skewered to death by a chaotic mess of pikes.

With their enemies surrounding them completely, there was no room for martial honor. They just held up their long weapons, stabbing and thrusting chaotically. Sooner or later, they would all be skewered like kebabs.

Pei Xinyong stared daggers at Lui Yao, a flicker of fury in his eyes. He pulled a brass figurine from his robes, bit the tip of his tongue to spray it with blood, then hurled it toward the enemy crowd and roared, ”Grow!”

The figurine was only as long as his middle finger. It looked like a Brass Skin Toy, its surface pitted and uneven, covered in several patches. It was the sort of junk you wouldn’t even bother to pick up if you saw it on the side of the road.

Seeing him toss something over, the Lui Bandits instinctively raised their blades to bat it aside. But Lui Yao’s eyes were sharp. The moment he saw it, he yelled, ”Get out of the way!”

But it was too late.

The object grew as it flew through the air. It was less than three inches long when it left his hand, but it expanded rapidly in mid-flight. The Lui Bandits were suddenly aware of a massive shadow appearing out of nowhere.

When it landed, the ground shook with a deafening THUD.

The little brass figurine had grown into a Copper Armored Celestial Soldier standing four zhang (thirteen meters) tall. Not only was it clad head to toe in Heavy Armor, but blades and halberds bounced right off its rock-hard body, unable to make a scratch.

Pure metal. Solid all the way through.

The color drained from Lui Yao’s face. ”The Saint Master’s Copper Armored Celestial Soldier! He actually gave it to you!”

As soon as the Copper Armored Celestial Soldier appeared, it threw out a leg sweep and two heavy punches, scattering the surrounding Lui Bandits. A few unlucky souls were swept right off the mountain path and into the ten-zhang-deep ravine below, their screams echoing ceaselessly.

With it joining the fray, much of the pressure was taken off Pei Xinyong and his men. The Copper Armored Celestial Soldier was slow, but its blows were immensely powerful. Every heavy strike landed with brutal force, and it was impervious to blades and spears, making it incredibly difficult for the bandit soldiers to handle on the narrow mountain path.

A sudden sense of danger flared in Pei Xinyong’s mind, and he leaped backward.

Right where he had been standing, two or three sharp stone spikes shot up from the ground, stopping at a height of four feet, their tips wickedly sharp. If he had been half a second slower, he would have been skewered from below.

One of his Personal Guards was not so lucky, and now he was screaming, bleeding profusely.

Pei Xinyong winced at the sight. He pointed across the way, and the Copper Armored Celestial Soldier turned, plucked a man from the bandit ranks, and hurled him into the sky.

The man screamed all the way down into the deep ravine. It was none other than Lui Yao’s Mage.

Those Earth Spikes had been his handiwork.

The Copper Armored Celestial Soldier punched a hole in the Lui Bandits’ encirclement, and Pei Xinyong’s men charged forward valiantly, desperate to rescue their commander.

Seeing that his ambush was about to fail, Lui Yao gritted his teeth and drew his Ghost Eye Bow and Arrow. Not wanting to waste any more of his men’s lives, he drew the bow himself, aiming at Pei Xinyong. He whispered, ”A guaranteed hit. Cost: two years of my life.”

The Ghost Eye on the bow suddenly snapped open, its gaze locking onto Pei Xinyong.

Pei Xinyong had just bludgeoned an enemy to death when he felt a prickling sensation between his eyebrows, as if some great and terrible entity had fixed its sight on him.

He risked a quick glance and saw the Ghost Eye before Lui Yao wide open, a streak of light already shooting toward him.

’The Ghost Eye Bow!’

The hair on his body stood on end. Without a second thought, he dove to the side.

As the arrow arrived, the Copper Armored Celestial Soldier happened to swing its arm around.

With a muffled CRACK, nearly half of the Copper Armored Celestial Soldier’s forearm exploded, and the flying copper shards blinded several men.

But the arrow had been knocked off course.

It didn’t matter. The arrow had a tracking property. It corrected its course with a sharp turn and once again sped toward Pei Xinyong.

A loyal Personal Guard rushed forward, using his own body as a shield.

A spray of blood erupted from his back.

The arrow pierced through his body and kept going, still homing in on its final target.

The Ghost Eye Bow had once been Hong Xiangqian’s prized possession, so Pei Xinyong knew its properties: the first strike was the strongest, the second weaker, and the third the weakest of all. Seeing it had already connected twice without losing much speed, he knew he had no time to find cover. He channeled all his strength into his right arm and swung his hammer.

The timing was both sublimely skillful and breathtakingly risky. With a sharp CLANG, the third strike of the arrow hit the face of his hammer dead-on.

An instant earlier or later, and the arrow would have been buried in his forehead.

The Page Hammer was sent flying from his grasp. It slammed into Pei Xinyong’s left shoulder, knocking its own master back three large steps. The webbing of his right hand—the Tiger’s Mouth—split open, blood flowing down the hammer’s handle.

But the arrow had indeed been deflected and did not return.

The sequence of three strikes was over. Pei Xinyong’s left clavicle was shattered, rendering his left arm useless. He couldn’t even hold his weapon.

The moment the arrow left the string, Lui Yao had tossed his bow aside, raised his axe, and charged forward.

Having been knocked back by the arrow’s impact, Pei Xinyong inadvertently dodged Lui Yao’s initial horizontal slash.

The two men locked in combat once more, glaring at each other, panting heavily.

One was wounded, the other spent.

”You’re the one who murdered the Saint Master!” Pei Xinyong could only fight back with his right hand, roaring through the pain. ”Men of the Wu Family, listen! Your General Wu is still alive!” ’I was so panicked before,’ he thought, ’I can’t believe I forgot to shout the truth and sow discord among the enemy!’

A commotion immediately broke out among the Lui Bandits.

Lui Yao had absorbed over three hundred of Wu Shaoyi’s men into his own ranks. This news left them shocked and uncertain, and their blades no longer swung with the same conviction.

”He’s spouting nonsense! Don’t let him break our formation!” Lui Yao shouted in rebuttal. He cursed himself inwardly. ’My brain must have been addled by greed! Why didn’t I return to Desheng Town to regroup first, instead of coming straight after that bastard Hee Gouguan?’

’Relying on my own loyal men is the only sure path. What good are these traitors-in-waiting?!’

Just then, a warning bell went off in his mind, and a sudden chill went down his spine.

’This is bad!’

As a battlefield veteran, Lui Yao acted on instinct, diving forward without hesitation.

WHOOSH! Something shot past, almost grazing his back. If he hadn’t dropped when he did, it probably would have torn his heart out.

Lui Yao had just pushed himself up when he saw it execute a spectacular turnaround, heading straight for his face.

The attack was fast and vicious. Before Lui Yao could even blink, a bone-chilling cold pricked the space between his eyebrows.

’Is it a Boomerang?’

Forgetting Pei Xinyong for a moment, he flicked the object away with his axe.

With a sharp CLANG, a finger-sized chunk was chipped out of his axe blade.

Only then did Lui Yao get a clear look. The object he’d just deflected seemed to be a... Broken Sword?

’No, a Broken Blade.’

’Who threw that?’

But in dealing with the Broken Blade, he had left his chest wide open. Pei Xinyong seized the opportunity, smashing his hammer into Lui Yao’s left side!

Everyone within three zhang heard the sickening thud.

Lui Yao coughed up a mouthful of blood and tumbled from his horse.

Pei Xinyong’s rage-fueled strike had caved in Lui Yao’s left chest, shattering two ribs and driving the fragments straight into his heart!

The heart is the source of one’s qi and blood. Lui Yao struggled to get up, but it felt as if a bottomless pit had opened in his chest, draining all of his strength away.

Fortunately, his Personal Guard rushed over, desperately protecting him.

If they could just break through to the main road to the north, Lui Yao could continue west and rendezvous with his men from Desheng Town.

Just then, a horn blast sounded from nearby. A troop of soldiers charged out of the thick fog, shouting at the sight of them, ”Die, Lui Thief!”

The two warring Bandit Armies froze in astonishment.

’It’s already this chaotic, and now a third party shows up to muddy the waters?’

However, since the newcomers were looking for the ”Lui Thief,” Pei Xinyong’s men instinctively took a few steps back, not wanting to be mistaken for the enemy.

Seizing the opportunity, Lian Deng rushed out from the ranks and yelled, ”General Wu is still alive! Wu Family Brothers, with me!”

He was a veteran who had served by Wu Shaoyi’s side for over six years; the Wu Bandits all recognized his familiar face. When Pei Xinyong had shouted the news, they were skeptical. But with Lian Deng confirming it, it was almost certainly true.

Immediately, a large number of the Lui Bandits lost their will to fight, switched allegiances, and ran to join him.

Lying on the ground, Lui Yao was so enraged he almost coughed up blood again. But survival was paramount. He fumbled for a piece of Talisman Paper in his robes and swallowed it whole.

Ordinary Talisman Paper was made of yellow paper with cinnabar writing, but this one was black paper with blood-red characters.

The sudden turn of events stunned Pei Xinyong as well. ’Reinforcements have arrived, true, but could they really be Wu Shaoyi’s army? They’re clearly wearing the standard-issue armor of the official army!’

And yet, Lian Deng was standing among them.

The situation was so chaotic that even a veteran commander like him was momentarily confused. But his reaction was swift. He issued the order, ”Raise the blue flags! Kill the Lui Thief!”

Once the blue flags were raised, the Pei Army would rally to them, preventing friendly fire on the chaotic battlefield. This had been standard practice for the Pei Army for years, and the habit was deeply ingrained. As a dozen blue flags shot up, the Pei Army’s men immediately consolidated into their squads, creating a clear distinction between them and the forces of the Lui Thief.

The newly arrived official soldiers rallied and focused their attacks solely on the Lui Bandits.

Lui Yao was being helped to retreat by his Personal Guard, but after just two steps, he suddenly coughed up another mouthful of blood—PUH! His legs gave out from under him, and he pitched forward. This time, the blood was black and contained chunks of his own internal organs.

His eyes were filled with disbelief.

’The Talisman Paper I swallowed... Why didn’t it work?!’

At that exact moment, a great gust of wind swept through, and the fog began to rapidly dissipate. Its duration had expired.

With Lui Yao falling and the fog scattering, his men could see everything clearly.

Someone started yelling at the top of their lungs, ”Lui Yao is dead! Lui Yao is dead!”

The situation on the battlefield was already dire for them. Hearing and seeing this, many of the bandits lost the courage to fight a cornered battle. They simply turned tail and fled, unable to withstand the pincer attack from Pei Xinyong and the official soldiers.

A few of Lui Yao’s die-hard confidants tried to lift him onto a horse to escape.

These were walking commendations; the official soldiers weren’t about to let them go. They pursued with renewed vigor, and it wasn’t long before they broke up the last cluster of resistance.

Lui Yao was jostled awake, his face as pale as gold foil. He could barely keep his eyes open.

He had fought life-and-death battles with Wu Shaoyi and then Pei Xinyong, and in between had hunted down the Supporting Army. He was already wounded and exhausted. After taking Pei Xinyong’s final, devastating blow, his new and old injuries all flared up at once. He couldn’t hold on any longer.

Captain Zhao of the Hubei Zhechong Prefecture rushed forward and demanded, ”Are you the Cannibal Demon King, Lui Yao?”

Lui Yao didn’t even spare him a glance. He glared at Pei Xinyong and gave a derisive smile. ”So in the end, it’s you who sided with the official army. It’s you who betrayed the Saint Master!”

His mouth was full of blood. Pei Xinyong’s face turned ashen.

’How did it come to this? How?’

Lui Yao tried to say something else, but Captain Zhao rushed forward. Without another word, his blade rose and fell.

A gash the size of a bowl opened on Lui Yao’s neck.

Blood gushed out. His eyes remained wide open.

Dying with a grievance.