Chapter 82 - 83: If There Is a Next Time, You Will Not Be Spared

Chapter 82: Chapter 83: If There Is a Next Time, You Will Not Be Spared

Defeat crashed down upon them like a landslide.

Surrounded heavily by numerous Martial Artists, soldiers, and the Iron Armor Army, the Rebirth Sect Martial Artists and the Lianyun Stronghold bandits could no longer stir up much trouble. Only a small number of people, led by Zhu Bao, barely managed to break out of the encirclement. Even so, Zhu Bao was severely injured and had almost been captured.

It was not until the last bandit fell that the battle gradually subsided. The entire street was blanketed in the pungent stench of blood. Corpses were piled up like mountains, and rivers of blood dyed the ground a deep crimson.

The survivors of the massacre looked at the bodies littering the ground, their faces completely blank. Some gazed at the tragically deceased corpses of their friends and family, expressions of grief surfacing on their features.

Hong Ming surveyed the crowd around him before his gaze landed on the few people standing beside him, and he breathed a quiet sigh of relief. This battle had indeed been exceptionally fierce, but fortunately, the members of the Hong Family Martial Arts Hall had only sustained injuries and hadn’t lost their lives.

Subsequently, he looked at Su Chen, his eyes flickering with astonishment. Their survival in this battle was entirely thanks to Su Chen. Otherwise, they truly wouldn’t have had it so easy, nor would they have all lived to see the end of it.

"Men, capture him for me!"

A furious roar rang out. Led by that Husband Leader, five or six Archers stepped forward. Taking advantage of the break while everyone was resting, he marched straight up to Su Chen and issued the command to the surrounding soldiers.

"What are you doing?" Seeing this, Hong Ming immediately took a step forward, confronted the man, and barked.

"What are we doing?" The Husband Leader sneered, pointing a finger at Su Chen. "Executing a traitor, of course! This guy is obviously a traitor planted in our ranks by the Rebirth Sect. Not only did he sneak-attack me, but he also killed several Archers!"

"Bullshit! You were the ones shooting blindly, not even sparing your own people, and you dare to blame us!" Li Mo yelled, highly dissatisfied with the man’s distortion of the truth.

As soon as these words were spoken, they drew frequent sidelong glances from the crowd. The accusation acted like a lit fuse, igniting everyone’s simmering anger. Someone even stepped forward directly to shout, "That’s right! If it weren’t for you, my eldest brother wouldn’t have died!"

"Nonsense!" The Husband Leader’s face darkened, refusing to admit to any wrongdoing. He sneered, "Sacrifices are unavoidable in war. Moreover, the deaths of your friends and family are entirely this person’s fault. If it weren’t for him leaking information, how could they have died?"

He pushed all the responsibility for the information leak onto Su Chen. Then, with a wave of his hand, he ordered the remaining Archers to stand by and aim their weapons at Su Chen.

Faced with the Husband Leader’s baseless claims, Hong Ming and the others weren’t having it. They immediately stepped forward to shield Su Chen behind them.

"Stop!"

Tao Dingfang slowly walked over, and the crowd instantly cleared a path for him. He arrived in front of the Husband Leader, his gaze shifting back and forth between him and Su Chen before asking, "What happened?"

After the Husband Leader recounted the matter with heavy embellishments, Hong Ming immediately retorted, "Your people indiscriminately attacked first, and now you turn around to slander us. You truly play a good hand at stirring up trouble!"

The others also spoke up one after another to reprimand the Husband Leader. Once the crowd had aired their grievances, Tao Dingfang frowned at the man and scolded, "Enough. This matter ends here. The battlefield hasn’t been cleaned up yet, and the enemies haven’t been pursued. What kind of behavior is this, infighting here?"

He then turned to Su Chen and said heavily, "I won’t pursue your responsibility this time, but if there is a next time, I won’t let you off easily!"

With that said, Tao Dingfang ordered the crowd to clean up the battlefield while he led his own troops into the Lin Family Castle.

Seeing this scene, the crowd’s gazes froze. Although they didn’t speak, a trace of dissatisfaction flashed in their eyes, as everyone sensed his blatant partiality. Watching Tao Dingfang’s army enter the Inner City of the Lin Family Castle, this dissatisfaction grew even stronger. They hadn’t forgotten that the majority of the Lin Family’s estate was still hidden inside. Looking at Tao Dingfang’s actions, it was clear he meant to monopolize all that wealth for himself.

Hong Ming gently patted the silent Su Chen on the shoulder and shook his head. He didn’t speak, but the underlying meaning was self-evident. Su Chen remained silent as well, merely nodding. However, his eyes stayed fixed on Tao Dingfang and that Husband Leader for quite a while.

"Junior Brother, your strength..."

As the crowd scattered to clean up the battlefield, Tao Dingfang hadn’t let Hong Ming and the others intervene, so the group retreated to a corner to rest. Li Mo looked hesitantly at Su Chen for a long time before finally asking the question that bewildered them all.

"What about my strength?" Su Chen asked in return.

"We just saw you defeat Han Baichuan. Although he was careless, he’s a Power Training Martial Artist! Just what level has your strength reached now?" Li Mo asked, as everyone else pricked up their ears to listen.

Hearing this, Su Chen chuckled softly, then said seriously, "I told you, I broke through. I broke through to Power Training!"

Everyone was left speechless.

This bombshell of news was absolutely beyond their capacity to process. As soon as he finished speaking, Su Chen saw their bodies turn completely rigid, their eyes going blank.

He smiled and offered a casual explanation. "Han Baichuan probably didn’t expect me to be a Power Training Martial Artist, so he was defeated due to a moment of carelessness. In reality, he wasn’t severely injured at all!"

At this moment, no one cared about those details anymore. The only thing echoing endlessly in their minds was Su Chen’s statement about breaking through to Power Training.

After a long time, Hong Ming was the first to react. Disregarding everyone’s shell-shocked expressions, he asked, "But you haven’t cultivated the Qi Blood Transporting Method?"

"Oh, I’m not clear on that myself. I just broke through in a daze," Su Chen said lightly, too lazy to come up with a valid excuse and leaving it up to their imagination. Since he had already built up the persona of a genius for himself, wasn’t a natural breakthrough perfectly normal?

He just broke through in a daze?!

Hearing this, everyone fell into a long, heavy silence. Hong Ming’s mouth twitched, completely at a loss for words. Was this the insurmountable gap between a genius Martial Artist and an ordinary Martial Artist? He felt a profound sense of defeat!

Qin Hao was rendered utterly speechless. He was tired and weary. So be it. He had completely given up on ever comparing himself to Su Chen. Just a few hours ago, he was still planning to go back, gather all his energy to break through, and catch up to him. Now, he abandoned that thought entirely. How could he catch up? It was simply impossible!

While everyone remained immersed in the shock of Su Chen’s breakthrough, Tao Dingfang and the Husband Leader were walking toward the Inner City of the Lin Family Castle.

"My lord, that brat killed many of our Archers. Letting him off just like that is way too easy on him!" the Husband Leader gritted his teeth.

"What do you know? Now is not the right time to touch him," Tao Dingfang snorted coldly. He had just learned from the man that among the dead Archers, Zhu Bao had killed the most, followed closely by Su Chen.

Upon hearing this news, rage had surged within him. It was one thing for his men to die at Zhu Bao’s hands, but having so many slaughtered by Su Chen was unbearable to him! However, the battle had just ended. If he were to make a move against Su Chen directly, it would definitively incur public outrage. Even if he wanted to act, it wouldn’t be now. It wasn’t suitable to fall out with these Martial Artists yet; keeping them around still had its uses.

"What does my lord mean?" The Husband Leader’s eyes lit up.

"We’ll make our move after this matter is over."

Leaving behind that single sentence, Tao Dingfang walked straight ahead, leaving behind a delighted Husband Leader whose dark, cold eyes fully revealed his killing intent!