The Demonic Man slowly shifted his gaze from Qian Wu to Fang Zhengzhi, then veered towards Ping Yang struggling profusely in Fang Zhengzhi’s arms.
The ferocious beast crouching beside the Demonic Man also felt a disturbance and abruptly opened its eyes, its icy cold pupils shimmering with a frigid glimmer.
“Roar!”
Its gargantuan body shifted as it plunged its razor-sharp claws into the ground, tearing and shattering the rocks. It opened its gaping mouth and lunged straight at Fang Zhengzhi and Ping Yang without any hesitation.
“Your Highness, get out of here!” In the instant when the beast lunged towards Ping Yang, a figure leapt out at top speed and shieldedher. He was a commander of the Royal Guards clad in a coat of golden armor.
“Crash!” The beast’s razor-sharp claws swiped the commander’s chest armor, instantly blowing him backwards diagonally. He then plummeted to the ground and rolled over.
A Royal Guards commander has been killed with a single swipe.
But the beast did not stop there. After swiping a Royal Guards commander to death, it bounded into the air and pounced towards Ping Yang and Fang Zhengzhi in midair.
“This is …” Ping Yang finally stopped struggling. Her crystal-clear eyes gazed up at the unbelievably enormous figure looming over her head as her delicate little mouth opened up subconsciously.
She certainly saw the three ferocious beasts crouching in front of the Demonic Man. It was a strange sight indeed.
But in the spur of the moment, she could not ponder about this peculiar scene carefully. Only when the beast lunged towards her did she finally sense the menacing aura emanating from the beast and take in the sheer size of its body, capable of obscuring every bit of moonlight.
Instinctively, Ping Yang began struggling against, attempting to break free of Fang Zhengzhi’s grasp, but she then realized that Fang Zhengzhi’s hands had no intention of letting her go – and it wasn’t just his hands.
Fang Zhengzhi had no intention of dodging the incoming attack at all. He simply held onto Fang Zhengzhi in resignation, as though he could not hear the beast’s roars thundering from behind him at all.
“We’re doomed. Her Highness is about to be killed by that shameless scoundrel!” Ping Yang grew hopeless as she stared at the pair of lethal claws right in front of her eyes.
But suddenly, a hellish and murderous surge of bloodlust rose up from behind her, sending chills down her spine.
And then … a blood-red ray of light lit up behind her, instantly travelling in front of her. There was a human figure cloaked in the blood-red radiance, his ink-colored robes drifted softly in the night wind.
He held a dagger-like ray of red light, sparkling and clear yet brittle like a cicada’s wing, but surging with ferocity.
“Stab!”
As the blood-red light flashed through the air, the giant beast became suspended in midair, its icy pupils in its eyes glaring at the man cloaked in the red light. It was an expression of disbelief.
Following that, a pitiful shriek reverberated through the air.
“Ow …”
The giant beast’s heat plummeted to the ground while its two severed claws remained suspended in midair. Two arrows of blood propelled out from the beast’s legs, dripping to the ground. It was too quick.
It took less than a blink of an eye from the time the beast launched its attack to the time the red light flashed through the air. The result was blatantly obvious – another beast has fallen.
Silence!
Unparalleled silence!
The various Palace Guards gazed at the new participant on the battlefield and the shower of blood-red light cloaking him, as well as the giant beast sprawled on the ground.
“It’s Yan Xiu!”
“He can actually …”
“Could Yan Xiu have already reached the Rebirth State?”
Flabbergasted, they were completely flabbergasted, especially the Dragon Protection Squad and the Royal Guards. They had personally witnessed the sheer ferocity of these beasts, but now …
It lost both its claws with a single strike from Yan Xiu!
Yan Xiu? Just which Enlightenment State was he in?
“The Dao of Asura?” Qian Wu’s gaze turned cold as he gazed at the hostile figure standing in front of Fang Zhengzhi and Ping Yang. “Are you Yan Xiu from the Western Liang?”
Yan Xiu ignored Qian Wu, not even sparing him a glance. He merely took a step forward and stopped in front of the moaning beast.
He clenched his right hand and the blood-red light began flashing again.
“Boom!”
He pummeled right through the giant beast’s skull. The already cracked ground could no longer withstand the tremendous impact of his fist, sending debris and dust flying in all directions.
The beast’s moans stopped. Fresh blood poured out from its mouth, staining the ground.
Another beast has died!
Qian Wu finally clenched his fist tightly. As the person who dominated the battlefield all this while, his presence has been consecutively disregarded by Fang Zhengzhi and Yan Xiu.
Furthermore, among the five beasts that emerged from the Near-Life Gate, three of them have died consecutively after Lin Mubai and Chen Feihua slaughtered two more. And it took Qian Wu painstaking effort to locate these beasts.
Yet, they perished one after the other right in front of his eyes.
How could he endure it any longer?
Just as he wanted to say something, he was interrupted by another voice.
“What are all of you standing there for? You still don’t want to attack? The Throne Room has been destroyed, and you still have the shame to spectate the action from the sidelines? Are all of you bystanders? Kill him!”
“…”
Upon hearing these screams, everyone in the Dragon Protection Squad and the Royal Guards shuddered. That was clearly Fang Zhengzhi’s voice. And only Fang Zhengzhi would ‘insult’ them with such ‘righteous rhetoric’ without pulling any punches.
And most importantly … right after he finished yelling, he still remained in his original position without moving an inch. They could never match his level of shamelessness.
Yet in spite of that, they still heeded his command.
As the squad responsible for ensuring the Emperor’s safety, their top priority was clearly to protect the Emperor. But just as Fang Zhengzhi said, there wasn’t a Throne Room anymore, so why would they continue standing there in a daze?
Indeed! Their opponents are strong!
They are faced with twenty elite warriors in the Rebirth State, along with two menacing beasts and a demon king. But so what?
They are the Dragon Protection Squad and the Royal Guards – the elites among the elites of the Great Xia Empire’s finest soldiers. Hence, fear is not an option.
“Kill! Kill them!”
Once Fang Zhengzhi’s voice faded, the Dragon Protection Squad and the Royal Guards finally understood his intentions. Fang Zhengzhi’s words may be uncouth but their underlying rationale was blatantly clear: to protect the Emperor.
They had to protect the Emperor.
But now, their opponents were overwhelmingly formidable, to a point where they could not withstand the pressure at all. In that case, they could only sacrifice their lives to give the Emperor a chance of escaping.
“Eunuch Wei, take the Emperor and the Royal Concubine with you and flee!” After the Dragon Protection Squad’s first Dragon Envoy Yan Qing yelled this, he charged towards Qian Wu and the Demonic Man with all his might.
Behind him, a few hundred soldiers from the Dragon Protection Squad also charged out at top speed. The Royal Guards also began launching their attack.
The soldiers instantly surrounded the people in black as well as Qian Wu, thrusting their long spears towards Qian Wu with an eerie cold glow.
“Whoosh! Whoosh whoosh whoosh …”
Sounds of arrows propelling through the air rang through the battlefield.
Those were the Palace Guards. After the Royal Guards rushed out, the Palace Guards did not delay their attacks, drawing their huge bows and sending a torrential storm of arrows raining down on the twenty-plus people in black.
It was chaos.
And the root cause of this chaos was Fang Zhengzhi’s righteous rhetoric.
The Crown Prince Lin Tianrong’s lips were stained with blood, and his heart was full of hate. He hated the fact that even though he clearly fell out with Qian Wu, the Palace Guards’ arrows were still headed straight for him.
“Your Highness, leave quickly!”
“I’m not going anywhere!” Lin Tianrong shrugged off a person in black and turned his gaze towards Fang Zhengzhi who was standing leisurely at his original spot in the distance. Lin Tianrong clenched his teeth – he hated Fang Zhengzhi, but he hated someone else even more, and that person was the one who landed him in this sorry state. “Quick, kill Qian Wu!”
“Yes!” The people in black studied the expression on Lin Tianrong’s face but still nodded obediently in the end.
Following the Crown Prince’s orders, the people in black, over twenty strong, finally split up. One group headed straight for Qian Wu while the other started an internal struggle.
“Fang Zhengzhi!” Qian Wu glared at the smiling Fang Zhengzhi, then saw the shower of arrows pelting down over him and the numerous figures charging towards him in all directions. His eagle eyes flashed with rage.
This scoundrel is as shameless as the rumors say!
He was not afraid of these ‘moths’ that were flapping towards him, but that did not mean that enjoyed interacting excessively with them.
A single sentence, Fang Zhengzhi’s sentence, sank the originally predictable situation into complete chaos. Yet, as the sole perpetrator, Fang Zhengzhi was simply spectating the drama from the sidelines.
How could this not anger Qian Wu?
“King Xieluo!” A six-colored talisman character quickly lit up in his hand as he bellowed at the Demonic Man standing beside the Near-Life Gate.
“Understood.” Upon hearing Qian Wu’s voice, the Demonic Man twitched his lips and slowly lifted his right hand.
“Om!”
It sounded as though the entire world was being uprooted.
Following that, a ray of dark-green light radiated from the Demonic Man’s palm and instantly dispersed outwards like a ripple travelling in all directions.
“Slash! Slash”
“…”
Soldiers of the Dragon Protection Squad and the Royal Guards originally charging towards the Demonic Man became petrified once they came in contact with the green light, and one by one, they were dissected into two halves.
“Plop! Plop!”
“…”
Their bodies fell to the ground without any resistance.
But the dark-green light did not stop there. It continued expanding to its surroundings like a scythe of a Grim Reaper, claiming one life after another with such ease.
“Crap, we got the wrong person. This guy is the real final boss!” After taking in this sight, the smile hanging brightly on Fang Zhengzhi’s face tensed up slightly.