Chapter 296 - 204: A Brutal Battle (Part 2)

Chapter 296: Chapter 204: A Brutal Battle (Part 2)

Can a person’s head turn 360 degrees? Wouldn’t it twist right off?

’Am I in a military exercise? Or some kind of nightmare?’

As she stood there in silence, the figure before her slowly vanished.

The moonlight was bright, the wind whistled mournfully. All Feng Hua could hear was her own frantic heartbeat. The night was terrifying.

So, sword in hand, Feng Hua turned and left. As if having made a decision, she walked faster and faster, eventually breaking into a run—even faster than she had arrived!

She missed the members of the Salted Fish Assault Team dearly—more than she ever had before.

Her rage evaporated. It’s easy to spook yourself when you’re the one with malice in your heart.

Watching Feng Hua retreat into the distance, Yu Fei plopped down on the ground.

That ferocious woman had just shattered eight of his illusions in one fell swoop, leaving him with only thirty percent of his Inner Qi. Seeing that she was still intent on pursuing him, Yu Fei had been forced to resort to this desperate tactic.

He had scared her away by relying on the bizarre effect of his Super Strong Cervical Vertebrae. Otherwise, he would have been in real trouble.

After a long sigh of relief, Yu Fei quickly gave chase again, though he took a slightly different route. He needed to find supplies to restore his Inner Qi.

"How did it go? Did you take care of him?"

Kang Ming asked with a pained expression.

Feng Hua hesitated, then said, "No, he got away... Say, can a person’s head turn a full circle?"

Kang Ming was confused but answered anyway. "Of course. A dead person’s head can turn once, even twice. Why do you ask?"

Feng Hua pressed on.

"Then tell me, are there ghosts in this world? Could we be in a dream?"

"What did you run into?" Kang Ming’s expression turned grave! ’Losing a fight is one thing, but if a seed of doubt is planted, it will cause huge problems down the line.’

"I... I saw that lone wolf turn his head in a full circle. I was furious, but then it just creeped me out, so I stopped chasing him and came back..."

Feng Hua said, her voice lacking confidence. She was afraid of ghosts, and had been even before she started her martial arts training.

Kang Ming pondered for a moment. "You were probably tricked. There are two possibilities. First, he used something like a magic trick to fool you.

"Second... he has a talent for it. Don’t forget that guy on Wanren Mountain who can wiggle his ears shut. With so many people in the world, there are bound to be some oddballs.

"He just used the environment to trick you. Next time you see something that doesn’t look quite human, just go up and slash at it a couple of times. If it runs, it’s human. If you can kill it, it’s also human."

Feng Hua hesitated for a moment before asking, "What if I can’t even cut it?"

Kang Ming shot her a look as if she were a complete idiot. "If you can’t even hurt him when he’s just standing there, are you just going to stand there and wait to die instead of running?"

It was only then that Feng Hua understood. She apologized to Kang Ming, "I’m sorry. I lost my composure."

"It’s fine. This has been a learning experience and has exposed a lot of our problems. We’ll correct them after this is over. At this point, winning or losing is no longer important. All we can do is our best."

-----------------

Under the cover of night, Yu Fei once again trailed the enemy team. Without their few support-type Martial Artists, their pace had quickened considerably. Seeing the mountain pass drawing near, Yu Fei sent Jiang Nianwei a message. They were about to enter his designated kill zone.

The only problem was that Yu Fei now had only nine bullets left.

After running for a moment, he found a spot to set up his rifle, Soul Eater. He calculated the distance and, on his personal terminal, decisively issued an order to Jiang Nianwei.

"Fire!"

Jiang Nianwei immediately notified Qin Hao, who was in the rear in charge of the three Mixed Element Magnetic Cannons.

"Fire! Triangular cross-fire pattern! Full-speed volley!"

Upon receiving the order, Qin Hao stood to one side, looking smug. He drew his blade and swept it forward!

"Fire those damn things!"

Kang Ming, who was force-marching his team, suddenly felt a tremor in his heart. He snapped his head up to see artillery shells with fiery trails streaking across the sky. They were moving incredibly fast, drawing white lines through the darkness, and their impact point was right on top of them.

"Everyone, take cover!"

A single thought surfaced in Kang Ming’s mind.

"We’re finished..."

He feared they were about to add a significant Chapter to Shenhan’s history books—as a prime example of what not to do.

They were very familiar with the Mixed Element Magnetic Cannon, having used it often on the battlefield. Paired with support-type Martial Artists, it was capable of precision strikes. By that same token, if Ling Hu hadn’t been eliminated, they would have surely detected the cannons in advance and avoided walking straight into an ambush.

Shells rained down one after another. With their level of skill, they weren’t in danger of a direct hit, but they also couldn’t escape the five-hundred-meter blast radius.

BOOM!...

Once the shells—energized by four-elemental Martial Artists—detonated, they created a massive elemental imbalance in a 500-meter radius. This caused the Inner Qi of any Martial Artist caught in the blast to fall into disarray and even flow backward through their meridians. For a short period, their Qi Sea would be thrown into turmoil, rendering them unable to summon their Inner Qi.

This was an incredibly deadly effect on the battlefield. The remaining members of the Salted Fish Assault Team were immediately sent staggering and stumbling, Kang Ming included. He felt dizzy, his vision swam, and he fought the urge to vomit.

Kang Ming barely managed to steady himself, only to see dense lines of muzzle flashes light up the distant mountain. A new volley of shells was already arcing through the sky toward them.

"Fuck..."

Suddenly, a sharp pain flared in his chest. He glimpsed a green ripple materialize before him, blocking two bullets before the impact slammed into his torso. His body was flung high into the air. In the last of his vision, he saw a silver flame erupt around Feng Hua as she charged the distant mountaintop—the location of the Yulin Army freshmen.

’That lone wolf... what kind of damn freshman is he?!’

Kang Ming was eliminated!

The moment the shells began to fall, Feng Hua knew the Salted Fish Assault Team was finished. She could charge out of the blast radius, but the others could not.

Remembering the fury of being repeatedly toyed with and ambushed by Yu Fei, she aimed her rage squarely at the freshman rookies on the mountaintop.

Their gunfire was sparse. After each volley, they needed a long time to aim before firing again. The bullet trajectories were obvious and easy to dodge. ’This’ was the skill level of first-year students. How could that cunning lone wolf possibly be a freshman?

His bullets weren’t just powerful and fast—they were silent. It was unbelievably sinister.

If she turned back to deal with him now, she would inevitably run into the same situation as before and accomplish nothing.

Yu Fei opened fire, instantly emptying his two remaining nine-bullet magazines and racking up five kills.

He couldn’t help it; the firepower from the rest of the Yulin Army was too concentrated. They had already taken out ten targets in the first wave.

Through his Illusory Cicada Star Pupil, he saw the ferocious woman who had shattered his bullets charging toward Jiang Nianwei’s group. He immediately sent a warning on his personal terminal, then dropped Soul Eater and gave chase.

’The battle is all but decided. As long as we take care of that silver prodigy up ahead, we’ll get at least ten million merit points.’

Jiang Nianwei and the others received Yu Fei’s warning but were eager for a fight. Yu Fei alone had taken out more than twenty seniors; for just one survivor to dare charge them now seemed outrageous.

Via their personal terminals, they quickly reached a consensus: they would group up and eliminate Feng Hua.

Seeing this, Yu Fei picked up his pace. ’If Jiang Nianwei’s group defeats her first, it might be tricky to copy her talent.’

Suddenly, Yu Fei’s pupils constricted. The figure wreathed in silver flames was a tiger let loose among sheep. He watched as she struck left and right like a bolt of lightning. Wuo Lingxue was sent flying by a single slash, and Li Pengfei’s blood sprayed into the air.

Things had been too easy for them, and they’d forgotten the terrifying combat prowess a top-tier prodigy from the previous class would possess after being tempered by the battlefield.

Jiang Nianwei was filled with regret. The sudden elation of their victory had gone to their heads. They had forgotten that in the past ten years, the best result any freshman class had achieved was barely defending their own base.

They had mistakenly equated Yu Fei’s victories with a victory for the Yulin Army, but the two were completely different.

The personal strength of the freshmen of the 838th class had long been left in the dust by Yu Fei; they just hadn’t realized it.

After cutting down more than thirty people in a row, Feng Hua finally vented some of her frustration. ’This is how strong freshmen are supposed to be! They’re the ones I should be slaughtering!’ As for that lone wolf... what the hell was he?

Jiang Nianwei wanted to order a retreat, to have everyone fall back and regroup, but then she heard Wuu Qifeng roar:

"Fuck it! The Yulin Army has no cowards!"

Then, great axe in hand, he charged. A flash of silver light, and he promptly fed her a kill.

Unexpectedly, Wuu Qifeng’s defeat only served to galvanize the rest. They charged forward, one after another. Jiang Nianwei cursed under her breath and, seeing no other choice, charged to the very front to lead them.

Her twin blades erupted with a blue gleam. One blade carried powerful Qi Jin, while the other hid a deadly intent. It was a dual-wielding style, a technique Instructor Tang Lihui had sought out especially for her.

But she never imagined that a blinding silver light would flash before her eyes. Her twin swords were knocked aside as if they were made of paper. A green ripple flickered, and Jiang Nianwei was sent flying more than ten meters.

"Is the gap... really this huge?"

As her consciousness faded, she wondered how Yu Fei had managed to take down twenty of their people in the face of such a monster.

"I can’t accept this..."

On the mountaintop, the Yulin Army lay defeated. At the foot of the mountain, a field of Salted Fish was strewn across the ground.

Yu Fei raced up from the base of the mountain. Feng Hua stood, sword ready, to face him!