Chapter 168: The First Cannon Blast Of Dawn
City of Light Chasing, suburbs, Iron Heart Gang headquarters.
At dawn, as the sun was just rising, the small plaza surrounded by eight steel skyscrapers of more than twenty floors was packed with Iron Heart Gang members, all looking in surprise at the four men tied up in the center.
“Why are these four elders tied up?”
“You don’t know? Something big happened last night. Vice Gang Leader Meng Wei led people in rebellion, but the gang leader and others discovered it in time and immediately suppressed it. These four elders are the ones who planned to rebel with Vice Gang Leader Meng Wei.”
“No way, how could Vice Gang Leader Meng Wei betray us? For the Iron Heart Gang to have what it has today is largely thanks to Vice Gang Leader Meng Wei, that martial artist who led us fighting everywhere. Could the gang leader have made a mistake?”
“I’m not too sure either. I just got here and heard it from others.”
The several thousand Iron Heart Gang members present looked at the four half-dead elders on the stage and privately discussed in low voices, curious about what exactly had happened in the gang.
As a suburban gang of the City of Light Chasing, the Iron Heart Gang’s existence, compared with those long-established gangs, could be called a new gang. Its overall strength could only be considered mid-tier, and its accumulation was far inferior to those old powers and families that had existed for more than fifty years.
The entire gang was basically supported by the two martial artists, Gang Leader Fu Yihai and Vice Gang Leader Meng Wei. The other elders were only Limit Quasi-Martial Artists, and had to rely on B1-grade battle armor obtained at unknown cost by the gang just to hold up appearances and avoid being looked down on by other gang factions.
Those old gangs and families of the City of Light Chasing, even without martial artists sitting in command, generally had quite a few B2-grade battle armors. The stronger ones even had B4-grade battle armor.
Any Limit Quasi-Martial Artist, as long as they wore B4-grade battle armor that increased strength by 1600 kilograms, could easily suppress a Beginner Martial Artist wearing B1-grade battle armor. Moreover, once B-grade battle armor reached B3-grade, because of the addition of some special alloys, it had a certain weakening effect on internal force, letting quasi-martial artists gain strong resistance against internal force.
This was also why, despite clearly having two martial artists, the Iron Heart Gang could only rank mid-tier among the suburban gangs.
Now that the Iron Heart Gang had just resolved a previous big problem and was preparing to reclaim Nanxing Street and gradually step onto the road to prosperity, it was hard for everyone to imagine that Vice Gang Leader Meng Wei would rebel.
If the Iron Heart Gang could reclaim Nanxing Street, its financial power would greatly increase. It could then afford to purchase a bottle of beginner qi and blood enhancement potion from the Martial Artist Association to let Vice Gang Leader Meng Wei impact the intermediate martial artist level. Once he became an intermediate martial artist, the Iron Heart Gang would rise accordingly, and Meng Wei’s status in the gang might even surpass Gang Leader Fu Yihai. There was simply no reason for him to rebel.
While the Iron Heart Gang members were in a flurry of discussion, a middle-aged giant man in his forties, muscles bulging, standing around two meters forty or fifty tall and nearly two people wide, walked onto the stage.
As this middle-aged giant man stepped onto the stage, the entire plaza fell silent, and everyone looked over in unison.
This middle-aged giant man was none other than Fu Yihai, gang leader of the Iron Heart Gang. Several elders of the gang came onto the stage along with him.
“Everyone, silence!”
“This time I suddenly gathered you all mainly to announce three things.”
Standing on the stage, Fu Yihai swept his gaze around, his qi and blood erupting. A wave of heat spread out, making everyone present feel tremendous pressure.
Although Fu Yihai, like Vice Gang Leader Meng Wei, was a Limit Beginner Martial Artist, Fu Yihai was a bit younger than Meng Wei. His qi and blood had declined slightly, but his body was still at its peak. Just the eruption of his qi and blood alone could press quasi-martial artists down as if carrying hundreds of kilograms of stone on their backs.
“The first matter is that Vice Gang Leader Meng Wei betrayed us and fled last night. As for the reason, it is because the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall offered Meng Wei benefits and wanted him to bring the entire Iron Heart Gang into the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall. I discovered this in advance and, together with the elders, suppressed this rebellion. Meng Wei and his two disciples are on the run.”
With Fu Yihai’s words, the Iron Heart Gang members present immediately erupted in an uproar.
“No way, the vice gang leader actually planned to take people to join that Obsidian Martial Arts Hall?”
“Isn’t the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall that wilderness gang being targeted jointly by the Four Major Powers led by the North Ao Family? The vice gang leader is crazy, wanting our Iron Heart Gang to join that kind of faction.”
“Luckily the gang leader found out early, otherwise our Iron Heart Gang would be doomed. Right now the Four Major Powers have already spoken: any faction with ties to the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall will face the wrath of the Four Major Powers.”
News about these Four Major Powers—the North Ao Family, Bei En, Peiwen, and the Gorilla Gang—had already spread throughout the City of Light Chasing. Not to mention the entire suburbs, even the many factions and ordinary people in the city proper all knew.
No one wanted to be entangled in the matter of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall. After all, with the Four Major Powers joining forces, even the factions publicly ranked in the top two in the suburbs would find it very troublesome, let alone other factions.
As for the major powers of the city proper, apart from those with martial artists in the Bone Forging Realm, in other aspects they were not much stronger than the top two acknowledged suburban factions, so they naturally did not want to provoke the Four Major Powers without reason.
Some major powers in the city proper even issued direct orders to their own children and juniors not to get involved, which showed how seriously they took the alliance of the Four Major Powers.
If their Iron Heart Gang really joined the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, they would be finished.
Fu Yihai looked at the fearful yet relieved gang members and nodded in satisfaction.
“Next is the second matter,” Fu Yihai said loudly. “These four elders on the stage are the ones who planned to rebel together with Meng Wei. Originally I intended to execute them directly, but considering their many years of contributions to the Iron Heart Gang, I can give them a chance. That is, if Meng Wei is willing to come and accept punishment before sunset today, I will spare these four elders and let bygones be bygones. If Meng Wei does not come, then they can blame no one but themselves for choosing the wrong person to follow.”
With the announcement of the second matter, the crowd once again broke into commotion.
“As expected, the gang leader is sentimental and loyal. He is willing to spare these four elders just like that. I wonder if that guy Meng Wei will dare show up today.”
“I bet he won’t. There is a strict iron rule that martial artists are forbidden to fight inside the city. Meng Wei is also a martial artist. As long as he is not besieged by people below the martial artist level, who in the entire City of Light Chasing can do anything to him? But if he comes today, with so many experts from our gang here, he definitely won’t escape.”
“Didn’t Meng Wei join the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall? Do you think the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall will send people? I heard that hall has some strength and quite a few experts. Previously, they even annihilated the Great Ape Gang in the wilderness. Now they are being targeted by the Four Major Powers, and if the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall had no strength, they would have fallen long ago.”
“Very likely. If Vice Gang Leader Meng Wei comes with people from the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, they might really have a chance. I heard that Hall Master Lin Qi of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall has special grade potential. Wearing B1-grade battle armor, his strength is probably not beneath the gang leader. If he joins hands with Vice Gang Leader Meng Wei, taking the four elders away might not be impossible.”
“If that happens, wouldn’t we be in big trouble?”
The name of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall was now widely known throughout the city. In particular, information on Hall Master Lin Qi had been dug up thoroughly.
He was a genius martial artist of this generation of the Human Race, and getting into the Genius Training Camp was practically guaranteed. Becoming a city senior official in the future was only a matter of time.
This was also why the Four Major Powers targeted only the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall and did not take action against Lin Qi personally.
Of course, the more important reason was that martial artists were forbidden to fight each other within the city. If the Four Major Powers wanted to deal with Lin Qi personally, they could only send large numbers of quasi-martial artists to pile onto him. But martial artists could always run. If he entered the city proper, battle was strictly forbidden, making it practically impossible to get at Lin Qi.
If Meng Wei brought Lin Qi over and they started killing in all directions in the crowd, Gang Leader Fu Yihai would also have no way to directly attack them. At most, he could kill Meng Wei and the people Lin Qi brought along. After that, it would just be a contest to see which side could outlast the other in consumption.
This was the most common occurrence in territorial struggles between suburban gangs. After a gang war, the gang leaders almost never fell; only those below died. It was not that these gang leaders did not fight hard, but because martial artists were forbidden to fight each other, it was very hard for one side to kill the martial artist of the other side.
Unless they buried them under human waves, but if the martial artist on the other side saw things going badly, he would definitely run. As a result, over many years in the major cities, the members below the martial artist level were replaced again and again, while martial artist-level gang leaders often stayed unchanged for decades. The unlucky ones were always the underlings.
“You don’t need to worry too much. The third matter I am about to announce concerns all of you,” Fu Yihai said with a smile as he looked at the increasingly worried gang members. “Considering the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall behind Meng Wei, I contacted the Four Major Powers last night. The Four Major Powers are very pleased with our choice, so they have specially sent eight hundred elite fighters to assist us. If anyone from the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall dares to come, they will never leave alive.”
As soon as Fu Yihai finished speaking, a group of fully armed Limit Apprentices and Quasi-Martial Artists walked in from the main street outside the small plaza. Each of them wore A6-grade battle armor. All eight hundred lined up neatly below the stage, leaving all the Iron Heart Gang members present deeply shocked.
Eight hundred Limit Apprentices and Quasi-Martial Artists wearing A6-grade battle armor—this was something that even the Iron Heart Gang’s experts, seasoned by over ten years of gang battles, and even the four half-dead elders on the stage, had never dared to dream of.
The Iron Heart Gang was considered a mid-tier gang among the suburban gangs, yet it had fewer than two hundred sets of A6-grade battle armor. As for Limit Apprentices and Quasi-Martial Artists combined, it might not even have five hundred.
“Gang leader mighty!”
“So this is the strength of the Four Major Powers? Eight hundred elites! This force alone could wipe out our entire Iron Heart Gang, right?”
“More than that. Just these hundred elites could besiege and kill a martial artist wearing B-grade battle armor. To deal with us, three hundred would be enough, which means four hundred elites could completely annihilate our Iron Heart Gang.”
“With these eight hundred elites here, I bet the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall absolutely won’t dare to come. I really don’t know what that Obsidian Martial Arts Hall was thinking, daring to provoke the Four Major Powers in the first place.”
Looking at the eight hundred elites sent by the Four Major Powers, the Iron Heart Gang members all felt their hearts lighten. They understood this was a joint performance arranged by Gang Leader Fu Yihai and the Four Major Powers.
The purpose was to humiliate the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall and let everyone in the city know that the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall could not even protect those who wished to join them. In the future, who would still dare have any contact with the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall?
However, just as the Iron Heart Gang members below the stage were quietly talking among themselves, an arrow suddenly shot in from the street at the entrance to the small plaza. Its speed approached the speed of sound as it flew straight toward an elder on the stage wearing B1-grade battle armor.
“It’s a B2-grade arrow! Dodge!” Fu Yihai discovered the incoming arrow at the first moment and shouted a warning.
Hearing this, that elder did not dare be careless. He leaped into the air, preparing to dodge off the stage. But at that moment, an arrow wreathed in lightning struck in the blink of an eye, hitting the first incoming B2-grade arrow.
Boom!
A thunderclap-like roar echoed throughout the small plaza, and a scorching beam, no one knew from when, directly pierced through the chest of the elder in B1-grade battle armor who had been preparing to evade, leaving a bowl-sized charred hole. He was dead beyond any doubt.
