Chapter 44

Nighttime, the 5th of September. Eastward of Changliushui.

It was the same familiar mountain ditch, although there were now several bonfires lit around it, with twenty-two people sitting in a circle surrounding them.

One of them, a geezer wearing rags who had been tapping his smoking pipe, coolly asked, “It’s almost eleven. Why hasn’t the Tranquil Heavenly General come back?”

But even as he spoke, a skinny figure appeared quietly out of the darkness and smirked. “Old Liu, why are you so impatient? Sure, the Tranquil Heavenly General himself may have told us that the operation starts at dawn tomorrow, but isn’t that still a while to go?”

This man had been walking in the night, his figure appearing and vanishing—a rare shadow-type superpower. He then took a seat opposite Old Liu, his form extending and bending bizarrely amidst the flickering bonfire.

There were all sorts of characters in the Sky Demon Cult.

Some were criminals with nowhere to go like Cordo, while others were in it for the profit, and there were even some who had been straight-up brainwashed by the cult. Nonetheless, all of them shared a single common ground in their ruthlessness!

A number of them were extremely cruel in the first place, and the rest of them had gained a fearsome bloodlust following the repeated brainwashing of the Sky Demon Cult.

Suddenly, unusual sounds echoed. Ferals were emerging out of the night, one after the another. There was no lack of rank-five and rank-six Ferals amongst them, and the rank-three and rank-fours numbered over a hundred.

The Tranquil Heavenly General was seated atop of one of the Ferals.

“Tranquil Heavenly General!”

Everyone promptly rose and kowtowed.

The Tranquil Heavenly General leapt off the Feral and spoke flatly, “Up on your feet. I have spoken to that thing at Mount Dadong, and it will arrange for Ferals to attack Yuzhen, which is within the jurisdiction of Linzhou City. When that happens, Duan Tianhe will definitely send his people to help.”

The others were not surprised at all. Being members of the Sky Demon Cult, they certainly knew that their holy faith was adept at communicating with Ferals. There were even rumors that their overlord had adopted a demon king as a pet!

“Most of you are coming with me to take out Duan Tianhe, and the rest of you… hold on, why are there only eight people left?” exclaimed the Tranquil Heavenly General after doing a quick head count.

He counted again—there were indeed eight people standing before him.

Not many Sky Demon Cult elites had been sent to infiltrate the Xibei province. Add that to the tight patrols of the Martial Arts Department, and the military which caused them several losses and prevented them from mobilizing several important double agents, the Sky Demon Cult had only managed to gather twenty-four of their members this time.

And yet, those twenty-four members were now reduced to twenty-two?

The Tranquil Heavenly General’s scowled with killing intent. Taking a look at the time, he twitched and growled, “It’s almost midnight. The operation at Mount Dadong will soon begin. Everyone, come with me to the ambush point to assassinate Duan Tianhe! Old Liu, prepare to move at one o’clock!”

Having arranged everything, the Tranquil Heavenly General roared lengthily and darted away. “Everyone, this shall be our finest hour. For the holy faith!”

Right behind him, the fourteen he had chosen were sprinting away as well. All of them were Sky Sage Faith elites and martial artists, with the weakest of them being rank-three or Awakened individuals with superstrength.

The other eight who remained were naturally not weak either.

Amongst them was the one who awakened shadow-type superpowers and the pipe-smoking Old Liu, the latter of whom was a B-class superstrength Awakened who would not lose out to rank-six martial artists.

***

Meanwhile, in Yuzhen, approximately forty miles from Mount Dadong.

All the residents had been evacuated two days ago, and all the nearby towns and villagers were empty too. Indeed, most of the villagers had left the mountains under the governments’ ecomigration policies years ago.

Now, the only people in Yuzhen were the ones at a garrison stationed there, ready to build a military base to withstand the beasts coming from Mount Dadong.

Suddenly, a sentry cried out, “Ferals! Ferals are coming! P-prepare for battle…”

***

Around 12.20am, two off-road vehicles headed off from Linzhou City towards Yuzhen.

Duan Tianhe was resting his eyes in one of the cars, while the one sitting in the passenger’s seat—a rank-four martial artist—was loudly urging the driver, “Hurry up, floor it. Put on the siren and ignore the red lights. We need to get to Yuzhen before one.”

However, Duan Tianhe suddenly opened his eyes and chuckled from the backseat. “No need to hurry,” he said. “All civilians in Yuzhen have been quietly evacuated last dawn, and the higher-ups have sent elite reinforcements. There is no threat unless the Graywolf King comes down from its mountain.”

“Eh?” The rank-four martial artist was dumbfounded. “Then, what are we in a hurry for, Chief Duan?”

Duan Tianhe smiled and looked outside the window. “The nuclear bomb last time may not have killed the Graywolf King, but it certainly intimidated the Ferals. Would any of them dare to show up now?”

“The Sky Demon Cult believe that their movements are well-concealed, but they don’t know that our people have already discovered their whereabouts. The reason they incited the Ferals of Mount Dadong to attack Yuzhen is simply to have them stir trouble. If I don’t go along with their plan, would they have the gall to make their next move?”

“But… but…” The rank-four artist’s expression changed, asking through clenched teeth, “What is the Sky Demon Cult trying to do then, Chief Duan?”

“Lure me to Yuzhen and assassinate me on the way there. Then, using the vacuum of power at Linzhou, they’ll send their elites and Ferals to attack Linzhou City and cause a huge mess!”

“What?!” The rank-four martial artist couldn’t help exclaiming in shock. “What should we do, Chief Duan? Do we turn back now?”

“No need.” Duan Tianhe laughed out loud. “Just like the Sky Demon Cult, I have my own schemes too. They wouldn’t know that I had Cheng Dongfeng watch over Linzhou City as a diversion, or that I have already arranged for a group of elites to infiltrate the Changliushui scenic route. We will take them all out in one swift stroke once they show up!”

He then gave the rank-four martial artist a meaningful look, grinning. “They may be hard to find in the mountains, but they are easy to handle once they are out in the open.”

There was sweat on the rank-four martial artist’s brow, and his voice was hoarse and shaky as he asked, “Chief Duan, how did you learn about the Sky Demon Cult’s plan? Was it a hunch?”

“No way,” retorted Duan Tianhe. “Why would I depend on hunches when there are lives at stake?”

He suddenly reached out and pressed a hand on the rank-four martial artist’s shoulder, chuckling.

“You may not know this, but I’ve arranged for an Awakened with hypnotic powers to entrance you. You were the one who told me everything about the Sky Demon Cult’s movements, from their departure from the Changliushui scenic route, as well as their plan to kill their way from Baitugang Village into Linzhou city!”

Boom!

The martial artist unleashed his aura, attempting to blindside the driver, but was slapped to death by Duan Tianhe even before he could use his skills.

Handily dumping him out of the car, Duan Tianhe then calmly said, “Stop here. You and the others shall go to backup the elites at Changliushui. I myself have a date with the Tranquil Heavenly General!”

Bounding out, he sprinted along the highway at a speed that matched the cars on it. But after running for over thirty miles in no time at all, he suddenly paused.

His phone was ringing. Nobody would be calling him at such an hour if it wasn’t important. He answered it, and a voice called out urgently from the other end—

“I’m sorry, Chief Duan, but someone has entered the mountain! I recognized him. He was that Jiang He you mentioned before… I tried to stop him but I couldn’t because he ran so fast… He was gone before I could approach him!”