Forty millenniums of cul.., p.1302
Forty Millenniums of Cultivation, page 1302
Xin Xiaoqi was not a fool. She immediately understood what was going on after Xiahou Wuxin's explanation.
Her dirty face was even paler than before.
"Do you understand now? If you do, just get yourself together and let's go to my secret warehouse," Xiahou Wuxin said. "Whether you want to save your own life or avenge your mother, you will have to get out of here first. Come on. It's the gear that I have been carefully preparing since more than ten years ago for the arrival of such a moment!"
In a trance, Xin Xiaoqi simply allowed Xiahou Wuxin to change her clothing. In a short while, she was already disguised as an emaciated young man in ragged clothes before she was covered in a rusty, worn-out armor that actually had four layers and dozens of defense rune arrays in the middle.
Xiahou Wuxin also disguised himself as a dark, bald man who was short and fat. There were two crossed scars on his face that looked like two slithering centipedes.
Then, he covered the two of them with enormous cloaks. In the end, he took out two rings from the bottom of a box and, after thinking for a moment, gave both of them to Xin Xiaoqi.
Li Yao's eyes immediately shone in great interest. They were Cosmos Rings!
"Let's go!" Xiahou Wuxin said hoarsely. "Whatever happens outside, your master will find a way to get you out of Liberty City today!"
Chapter 2031: Desperate Escape! |
Before, Li Yao had only been interested in Xiahou Wuxin's secret warehouse.
But right now, he suddenly felt that Xiahou Wuxin was also a partner that he could temporarily work with, just like the Fist King.
Although Xiahou Wuxin's combat ability was not as good as the Fist King's, his understanding of Manjusaka was much better than most of the sinners in the Land of Sins.
Leaving Xiahou Wuxin aside, Li Yao was very interested in saving Xin Xiaoqi's life and telling her that there was still hope for revenge!
However, could he jump walk out and introduce himself?
Xiahou Wuxin fought the Fist King hard only half a day ago. His entire chest had collapsed deeply, and ninety percent of his life was gone now.
Besides, the Battle of Liberty City had been raised by 'Fist King' Lei Zonglie.
Li Yao did not feel that Xiahou Wuxin could cooperate with the Fist King without any grudges, at least not right now. There were too many things that needed explaining.
Besides, Xiahou Wuxin was quite right. As the leader of Liberty City, he must be an important target on the Immortal Cultivators' radar. If Li Yao showed up before Xiahou Wuxin with the Fist King, Han Te, and Liu Li and teamed up with him, he would be much more eye-catching and would be noticed by the Immortal Cultivators.
Pondering for a moment, Li Yao decided to follow Xiahou Wuxin and Xin Xiaoqi not far away from him and protect them in secret until he figured out the whereabouts of the Immortal Cultivators.
When a mantis was hunting a cicada, a sparrow was waiting to take them both. Right now, Xiahou Wuxin and Xin Xiaoqi were the cicada, the Immortal Cultivators were the mantis, and Li Yao and the Fist King were the sparrow!
"They are going to a secret warehouse that Xiahou Wuxin has built over decades. There should be things we need inside." Li Yao transmitted complicated waves to the Fist King. "But Xiahou Wuxin is one of the Immortal Cultivators' must-kill targets now. Until we learn more secrets of the City in the Sky, we cannot allow the Immortal Cultivators to kill him or find his secret warehouse."
"They want to shut his mouth forever?" the Fist King said in a low voice. "No wonder I felt that he was sloppy, unconcentrated, and lethargic when I fought him. He was not determined to win at all. It seems that he already knew his destiny as a dog and a chess piece."
While the two of them were communicating, Xiahou Wuxin and Xin Xiaoqi had already stuffed almost twenty pieces of magical equipment into their cloaks. After tightening the cloaks, they opened the door and walked out.
Xiahou Wuxin whispered a few words to Xin Xiaoqi, and Xin Xiaoqi nodded. The two of them seemed to go separate ways from two sides of the garbage dump, but after zigzagging for a while, they were moving in the same direction, except that they were three hundred meters away from each other.
Li Yao kept Neltharion in the stealth state and followed Xiahou Wuxin.
Right now, Xiahou Wuxin's senses had plummeted because of his heavy wounds. Also, after Li Yao advanced into the Divinity Transformation Stage, his cover on Neltharion had improved, and he was not scared that the target might notice him.
As for Xin Xiaoqi's side, she was not too far away from Xiahou Wuxin, and Li Yao had planted a tracker on her. So, her coordinates could not be lost.
The master and the disciple whose relationship was rather special climbed and crawled through the seething city ruins.
At this moment, the fire of war had spread to every corner of Liberty City.
Among the broken walls and the dilapidated buildings, panicked, screaming people were everywhere.
Some were running, some were stealing, and some were looting. A lot of gangs had even gone to capture the bottom-level citizens as temporary cannon fodder and human shields in order to attack the heavily guarded warehouses.
It was a living hell, where humans were no longer humans but hideous zombies and wriggling blocks of meat that spat out black mucus.
In the middle of the crowd, Xin Xiaoqi and Xiahou Wuxin moved toward the outside of the city quietly.
Li Yao, the Fist King, and the two little fellows snuck right below their feet, ready to break out of the soil and join the battle at any moment.
The sky was occupied by lead clouds, with bloody light appearing and disappearing. There was no telling how many pairs of eyes were staring at the city of slaughter.
A riot suddenly broke out before them. A group of gangsters who had covered their faces in blood were capturing slaves as cannon fodder.
They blew up the skyscrapers on the two sides of the street with crystal bombs and blocked the streets with heavy crystal tanks. Spinning the turrets, they aimed at the refugees on the street.
Desperate cries and screams were immediately echoing on the street.
Xiahou Wuxin tightened his cloak and tried to find a path of escape, but he found nothing and wandered in the crowd for a long time. The intense stink of blood from his body and his endless coughs, however, attracted the bandits' attention. They all looked at him warily. One of the bandits even curled his finger at him and shouted, "Come here!"
"They are the gangsters who are here with me, not Xiahou Wuxin's guys," the Fist King said.
Li Yao sighed. "Even if they were Xiahou Wuxin's guys, it would not help. Seeing his appearance that's no different than a sick cat, even his most loyal subordinate would not hesitate to take him down."
Watching as Xiahou Wuxin lowered his head and walked over in a seemingly dutiful way with his back hunched, he knew that it would not end well.
As it turned out, when the bandit raised his cloak casually with a saber, revealing the myriad of storm bolters, chainswords, and crystal bombs below it, Xiahou Wuxin went on a rampage and attacked as fast as lightning!
A moment ago, he had still been a dying old dog.
But in the blink of an eye, he had turned into the most ravenous wolf that was bold enough to bite a piece of flesh off from a god.
Before the bandit who raised his cloak withdrew the saber, his arm was already chopped off from the shoulder. Then, a storm bolter was stabbed into his mouth brutally, blowing up not only his head but also the head of the unlucky bandit who was standing right behind him.
Exclamations and screams echoed in the crowd. The heavy crystal tanks spun their turrets quickly, trying to lock onto Xiahou Wuxin's location, but Xiahou Wuxin was like a weightless leaf as he darted beneath the crystal tanks and crawled out from behind 0.1 seconds later.
Boom!
Enormous fireballs burst out from the bottom of the crystal tanks, pushing them into the sky and turning them into brilliant fireworks.
When the eyes of all the bandits were focused on the iron flowers, Xiahou Wuxin's eyes were focused on their throats.
In half a minute, springs of blood appeared on the burning street one after another.
Simulating Lei Zonglie's tone, the Fist King said, "This should be the real performance of the leader of Liberty City! He is only qualified to be my first target with such a performance!"
Xiahou Wuxin finished the many bandits quickly and reversed the cloak while the crowd was in a mess. Then, he accelerated and moved out.
During the whole process, Xin Xiaoqi had been lurking in another block not far away from him, ready to reinforce him at any moment. It was not until he broke out of the siege safe and sound that she finally took a breath in relief.
Her subtle movement and expression were scanned clearly by Neltharion.
What was scanned clearly at the same time were the unusually dangerous ripples in the air.
"Cr*p." Li Yao hinted at the Fist King, Han Te, and Liu Li. "Be careful. Some experts are coming!"
Xiahou Wuxin suddenly stopped and extended his nose to sniff. He had obviously sensed the unusual scent in the air.
Ripples spread out to him from various directions and surrounded him like gray shadows.
The simmering street around went quiet at some point. It was creepily silent in the middle of the heated, frantic battlefield.
Li Yao saw Xiahou Wuxin hesitate, obviously considering what he should do.
Suddenly, he clenched his fists and bellowed. Taking off the cloak on his body, he crossed his arms and drew two chainswords. He accelerated to a whole new level while he charged to the southwest like a burning cannonball.
Tremendous ripples of gray shadows immediately began to move fast, dragging fuzzy, blurred shadows behind them.
Xin Xiaoqi immediately sensed her master's magnificent aura that was dozens of times stronger than before to the northeast.
Li Yao saw that the cat-like woman crouched at the corner of the wall and pondered in a daze exactly like her master.
Then, the cat turned into a tiger. She charged in Xiahou Wuxin's direction without considering anything else.
The weird master and disciple both fell into the eyesight of the ripples of the gray shadows.
"Idiot!" Xiahou Wuxin let out a desperate scream.
"Master, we will fight out of here together!" Xin Xiaoqi laughed aloud in tears, waving her daggers as if they were two starship-slashing sabers.
"Hehehe. How interesting."
Vague chuckles echoed from the fuzzy shadows around.
The ripples began to condense, and the gray shadows abandoned their camouflage, turning into their battle form. Fifteen gray crystal suits with streamlined designs surrounded the two of them in a seemingly sparse way but blocking all possible escape routes.
The Exo in the lead pressed the helmet and took off the facial cover.
However, the cold and lifeless face hidden inside the crystal suit was actually no different from the metal cover.
It was a man whose age was ambiguous and could be anywhere between thirty and a hundred and thirty. He seemed to be wearing ten skin masks on his face. Although he was smiling in the most brilliant way, one could not help but feel a chill as if they had been frozen from the skull to the spine.
"Leader Xiahou, what has happened to make you so panicked?" the man said with a smile courteously. "The supervisors are very satisfied with the Battle of Liberty City. You have made the greatest contribution once again. Together with all your hard work in the past decades, it is enough for you to earn a precious place in Manjusaka. I was about to inform you of the great news when I discovered that you'd left without a goodbye. I don't think that was very appropriate, was it?"
Xiahou Wuxin was silent. He looked at Xin Xiaoqi in desperation.
"Hehe…" The man whose age nobody could tell chuckled again. "You can stop complaining that your disciple came to your rescue in her recklessness. The supervisors know your relationship very well. The tricks that you are playing right now cannot fool anyone, either. Even if Miss Xin had not volunteered to come, I would also have sent someone to invite her over so that the two of you can enjoy a happy life in Manjusaka together as master and disciple. Won't that be great?"
Chapter 2032: The Last Deal |
"Wei Xiaotian…" Hearing that the guy pointed out his relationship with Xin Xiaoqi, Xiahou Wuxin immediately put on an expression of embarrassment and fury. He bit his lips so hard that blood was spreading out. "If you've known about it since a long time ago, why did you never point it out?"
"Why should we deprive you of the last hope in your life?" The Immortal Cultivator named 'Wei Xiaotian', who was the captain of the gray Exos and the direct liaison for Xiahou Wuxin for the past ten years, was truly fond of smiling. He went on with a smile. "We do not need someone who has lost all hope as our puppet. A donkey will run faster if you hang a carrot before its head. Xin Xiaoqi was your carrot. It was better to keep her alive."
Xiahou Wuxin moaned and completely collapsed.
"Master!" Anxious, Xin Xiaoqi raised her daggers at Wei Xiaotian and glared at him. "Are you the 'angels'? You can stop being pretentious. I know that you never intended to let the two of us go. This is just a game where cats play with mice! Enough of the cr*p. We will definitely not leave with you obediently. If you want to take us away, you can take our dead bodies!"
"Mice?' Wei Xiaotian was slightly dazed. He remarked in great amusement. "Comparing yourself to a mouse, you are too arrogant, little girl."
A few gray Exos seemed ready to jump at Xiahou Wuxin and Xin Xiaoqi.
"Cr*p!" Li Yao, who was lurking below their feet, was very anxious. The gray Exos up above were all elites. Many of them were at the peak of the Core Formation Stage, and Wei Xiaotian, their leader, was even in the Nascent Soul Stage. With Li Yao's iron body, he was truly uncertain if he could kill all of them without a sound while dodging the surveillance from the sky. It was even practically impossible to rescue Xiahou Wuxin and Xin Xiaoqi.
Surveillance. Surveillance was the key in this goddamn large laboratory!
What do I do?
Li Yao's soul was like a swirl that grew larger and larger, gradually involving the entire battlefield. Every action in the ten or so blocks nearby as well as the distribution of all the forces were perceived by him.
An audacious plan slowly popped up inside Li Yao's head.
"Han Te, Liu Li, it is time for you to act!"
Li Yao called the two little fellows over and whispered something to them. Then, he asked the mental devil to crawl into Neltharion and follow them to provide protection.
The two little fellows soon disappeared at the end of the underground sewers.
Above Li Yao's head, the leader of Liberty City was still making the last struggles.
"Wait!"
The look on Xiahou Wuxin's face changed dozens of times in a row. His eyes, nose, and lips shivered for a long time, but he finally managed to put on an obsequious smile. He tossed the chainswords in his hands and the storm bolter on his waist to the ground before he stomped on them with all his strength and crushed them into pieces.
"Master Wei…" His back was completely hunched. He rubbed his hands and said humbly, "I have been serving Manjusaka and you for so many years. Even if I made little contribution, my diligence should at least be credited. Would you please say a few nice words for me in front of the supervisors? As long as my worthless life is spared, I can do whatever I am asked to."
"Of course." Wei Xiaotian agreed promptly, and his smile became even more intense. "Why don't you talk to them in person? I'll certainly be there to support you."
Xiahou Wuxin shrieked in desperation, "Is it possible for me to stay here? Just consider me a useless dog and let me go. You know that I am a smart person. I will never say anything that is against the interests of the sky!"
Wei Xiaotian's smile vanished. He sighed and said, "Leader Xiahou, I know that you are a smart person, so what do you think?"
"I can trade for my life with things." Xiahou Wuxin seemed to be taking a wild gamble. "Over the past decades, I have built dozens of warehouses in secret and stored a lot of good items. As long as I am kept alive, I can submit all of them—to you alone!"
"I said just now that you were a smart guy. Why are you in such a hurry to prove me wrong?" Wei Xiaotian shook his head in confusion. "How could the tricks that you thought nobody knew anything about have deceived the eyes of the sky? We are aware of the coordinates and the opening methods of the dozens of secret warehouses. However, as the saying goes, when the water is too clean, no fish can live inside. Like your secret disciple, Xin Xiaoqi, we did not bother to discuss such trivia with you. Do you think that those things can be used as bargaining chips?"
"You do have a point, Master Wei. Those secret warehouses are truly not worth mentioning at all." Xiahou Wuxin suddenly calmed down and put on a weird smile. "However, for your information, Master Wei, those secret warehouses were just my cover. How could I not know that my every move was under the surveillance of the sky? The only reason I established so many secret warehouses was to cover the real secret warehouse, which I guarantee is not at any location on your list of surveillance."
Wei Xiaotian's face was utterly unchanged. "You are bluffing, Leader Xiahou."
"Maybe. However, as the controller of an Elysian World who has lived the longest in the Land of Sins, I naturally know how to save my worthless life better than anybody else. Besides, Liberty City was built on a metropolis of the civilization of the Martial Meritocrats Sector before Judgment Day. Below Liberty City is the debris of an underground city thousands of meters deep, which is as enormous and complicated as a labyrinth. You can keep an eye on every inch of land on the surface, but can you observe every gap and every collapsed cave below the earth?"
