Chapter 257: The Reverse-derived Sequence Martial Art
“Leader, those two people seem to have… run away!”
The Half-Scale Race intermediate Bone Forging Realm youth stared at the two red dots rapidly disappearing from the life detector, and only after a long while did he react and remind them through his smart watch.
“It’s not ‘seem to’. I watched the two of them run away.”
Yinuo stared at the two mercenary group leaders disappearing from her sight, unable to believe this was real for a long time.
Two top Bone Forging Realm experts, plus more than forty Bone Forging Realm, could have wiped them out with ease, yet now those two top Bone Forging Realm experts, for some unknown reason, turned and ran as soon as they saw the two high-level martial artist disciples from Obsidian Martial Arts Hall. It was truly baffling.
At this time, on the other side, Blood Rider was also somewhat stunned.
The great name of Smiling Skull, throughout the Wushan Region, was known to most of the City senior officials in the major cities. After all, that was one of the three untouchable existences.
But Southern Skull, Northern Grey Robe?
What was this nonsense?
“Leader Blood Rider, should we make a move?” A Mountain Ridge Race advanced Bone Forging Realm man spoke up. “Although those cowardly mercenaries ran, we still have nearly thirty Bone Forging Realm experts on our side. On the other side there are only twenty Bone Forging Realm, and they are scattered everywhere in chaos. This is the perfect time to strike.”
Now that the Bone Forging Realm experts of the two mercenary groups had both run, they still had nearly thirty Bone Forging Realm left. If they fought head-on, their chances of victory were still very high.
“Attack!” Blood Rider no longer hesitated and shouted, “Let these mercenaries learn what bravery is, what it means to be a warrior of Star Tower City!”
Southern Skull, Northern Grey Robe… nothing but empty threats.
Just two high-level martial artists. So what if they killed them?
As soon as he finished speaking, he led the charge straight at Fang Zhen and Li Ranxing. His terrifying qi and blood were no longer held back at all, and the second-tier battle saber in his hand slashed out mercilessly.
A streak of blood light instantly extended to more than three hundred meters in front of Fang Zhen and Li Ranxing, trying to completely devour the two within the blood light.
This move was Blood Destruction, Blood Rider’s famed super-tier martial skill, and he had reached the Second Level Perfection Realm with it.
With one slash, a blood tide soared to the sky.
The farther the distance, the harder it was to evade. Unless one could tank it head-on, otherwise death was certain.
“Damn it! Using a super-tier martial skill on two high-level martial artists, is he insane?”
Yinuo stared at the blood tide crashing toward Fang Zhen and Li Ranxing like a raging sea and could not help being shocked.
As the leader of the twenty-third regiment of Star Tower City, Blood Rider had quite a reputation in the surrounding cities, and he was an experienced Extreme Advanced Level Bone Forging Realm martial artist. Yet facing two high-level martial artists, he actually chose to go all out. She completely could not understand what was wrong with Star Tower City today; one after another seemed to have lost their minds.
“Blood Rider, why must you do this.” Stone Axe looked back at the overwhelming blood tide and could not help but shake his head.
Clearly, both of them had already warned Blood Rider, yet he still stubbornly insisted that they were cowards.
Southern Skull, Northern Grey Robe.
When he and Iron Claw first heard this title, they had been full of disdain as well, thinking it was just caravans traveling between the two regions exaggerating nonsense.
But after watching a combat video recorded by one caravan, he and Iron Claw were truly stunned.
The grey-clothed people of the Human Race in the video, dressed in silver-gray clothing, looked like utterly ordinary Viscera Refining Realm martial artists. Yet facing dozens of Bone Forging Realm experts from the caravan, and even several Extreme Advanced Level Bone Forging Realm martial artists sitting in town, they actually took the initiative to attack.
At the moment they struck, these humans suddenly went into transformation. Their combat power directly soared by several levels. Forget ordinary intermediate Bone Forging Realm martial artists having no power to fight back; each of these grey-clothed people alone could suppress several Extreme Advanced Level Bone Forging Realm martial artists. In battle they completely disregarded life and death, trading injury for injury without the slightest hesitation.
With just a few grey-clothed people, they forcibly took down more than ten Bone Forging Realm experts from the caravan.
The caravan thought it was over, but in less than an hour or two, several more grey-clothed people appeared and fought the caravan in a death match again, forcing the caravan to lose another ten-plus Bone Forging Realm experts, including one Extreme Advanced Level Bone Forging Realm martial artist.
By the time this caravan left the Mountain of the Dead, only one third of its Bone Forging Realm experts remained, and those alive were all heavily injured.
Facing this wave after wave of grey-clothed people who did not fear death, the major caravans were truly terrified.
This fear was not because they could not beat the grey-clothed people, but because the grey-clothed people seemed endless. After one wave was killed, another wave came, continuing until they were all dead before the grey-clothed people stopped.
So, the prerequisite condition for caravans hiring them on the return journey was just one: they absolutely could not kill a single grey-clothed person. They had to find a way to stall instead, or else they would face endless revenge from the grey-clothed people.
They of course refused such harsh hiring conditions.
Even though they were top Bone Forging Realm experts, facing enemies who individually could resist several Extreme Advanced Level Bone Forging Realm martial artists, and who dared to risk their lives and freely trade injuries in battle, they as top Bone Forging Realm experts could not withstand that either.
Now that Blood Rider was planning to kill those two grey-clothed people, just thinking about what awaited him made him shudder.
But just as Stone Axe was sighing, two terrifying life auras suddenly descended, sweeping directly over his body and making him tremble all over.
“Two calamities? This… how is this possible!”
Stone Axe stared fixedly in the direction those life auras came from, his eyes full of fear.
He had experienced such a life aura before. It was also the memory he least wished to recall in his lifetime. Yet the current life aura forced him to recall it.
A Catastrophe Level Monster.
An absolute taboo of the Mountain of the Dead.
Whenever one encountered it, it meant the arrival of death.
Right after, a golden lion more than a hundred meters in size appeared out of the blood tide. The blood tide crashed against the phantom golden lion as harmlessly as waves splashing, having no effect whatsoever.
Inside this phantom golden lion stood two figures: Fang Zhen and Li Ranxing.
Then, as the phantom golden lion roared, the blood tide was directly torn apart and vanished without a trace, and only then did the phantom golden lion gradually dissipate.
“Monsters! Are they Catastrophe Level Monsters?”
Blood Rider stared dumbfounded at the golden lion that suddenly appeared and then vanished.
No one knew better than he did how powerful his Blood Destruction was. That was a force impact of over a hundred tons. It could collapse an entire mountain, yet when it struck the phantom golden lion, it was like hitting divine iron, unable to shake it in the slightest.
And that terrifying life aura could not be mistaken.
Calamity.
At this moment, not only was Blood Rider stunned, even Yinuo in the distance was dumbstruck.
“Transformation? They can transform too?” Yinuo stared fixedly at Fang Zhen and Li Ranxing, her beautiful eyes filled with confusion and shock.
Back in the Martial Artist Association battle, Lin Qi’s transformation had shaken the entire audience. With one strike of his staff he nearly took Tuan’s life. She had thought it was Lin Qi’s personal ability and talent, but she had never expected that the two disciples of Obsidian Martial Arts Hall would also be able to do this…
And she still remembered vividly the scene of Lin Qi’s transformation. His appearance did not change much, but his life aura became unimaginably terrifying, absolutely not human.
The transformation of Fang Zhen and Li Ranxing was almost exactly the same as Lin Qi’s, without a doubt.
Moreover, Fang Zhen had easily blocked Blood Rider’s full-force strike. Such combat power was comparable to that of other vice city lords.
“Old Zhen, how are you holding up?” Li Ranxing looked at the heavily panting Fang Zhen and asked curiously, “How much of that sequenced martial skill were you able to reproduce?”
He knew a fair bit about the sequenced martial skill Fang Zhen had reverse-engineered using the quantum supercomputer, since he had seen more than once that Condensed Blood Realm leader use Golden Roar, and then die.
Only the person using it would know to what extent this move could be reproduced.
“Right now I can only reproduce about sixty percent.” Fang Zhen panted heavily. “I still can’t unleash the final Golden Roar. The control over internal force and qi and blood that move requires is still a bit beyond my current spiritual secret technique and my proficiency in the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique. If both the first level of the spiritual secret technique and the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique reached one hundred percent proficiency, I should be able to reproduce it perfectly.”
“So to better reproduce martial skills, we still need to improve the spiritual secret technique and the meditation technique, huh?” After hearing this, Li Ranxing could not help falling into thought.
He also had plenty of ideas about reproducing martial skills, especially after witnessing the sequenced martial skill Golden Roar.
If he could manifest qi and blood and internal force into a large mecha, then even if he could not, like that Condensed Blood Realm leader, concentrate all the power into a single explosive point and freely control the manifested mecha, he would still not lose much compared to a sequenced martial skill like Golden Roar.
However, the difficulty of forming internal force and qi and blood into a mecha that could be freely controlled was clearly much greater than simply forming a golden lion. After all, he would have to constantly control the manifested internal force and qi and blood, not just maintain it. The difficulty of such control rose by more than one level.
While Li Ranxing and Fang Zhen were talking, Blood Rider suddenly turned around and fled without a word.
“What is with everyone today?”
Fang Zhen stared blankly at the fleeing Blood Rider, feeling that today’s NPCs were like upgraded intelligent systems, knowing to run when they could not win.
How was anyone supposed to happily play the game like this?
“Let’s chase them! We can’t let these people escape!”
“These people are the key to completing the task. If we can’t complete it, we won’t be able to freely explore on this battlefield!”
Chen Ya, who had jumped down from the flying transport vehicle, could not help reminding Fang Zhen and Li Ranxing.
“I knew this mission was too simple. So it’s actually about hunting down three thousand fleeing enemies?” Fang Zhen looked at Blood Rider’s people scattering in all directions and could not help realizing.
Killing three thousand martial artists was nothing for them now. In transcendent state, any random move could wipe out dozens; even if some were in the Bone Forging Realm, a mere thirty of them was trivial. Their team had more than seventy people, and more than ten could transform. It was no effort at all.
But hunting down more than three thousand people would indeed be a proper task prepared for their over one thousand players.
“This task will be too slow if our team does it alone. Notify the other teams. The sooner we finish, the sooner we can clock off, and then we can head to the battlefield to earn merit.” Li Ranxing said.
After hearing this, Fang Zhen thought it over and agreed. He immediately had people contact Luo Wu Shang, Yi Ye Fu Yun, Lu Fanchen, and the others, asking them to quickly clean up the scattered enemies.
Soon, Luo Wu Shang, Yi Ye Fu Yun, Lu Fanchen, and the others, who had rushed over from Maple Forest Town, received the message from Fang Zhen and the others.
“Sister Wu, I just saw two figures running incredibly fast, heading toward Furious Wind Town on the map. Should we chase them?” Twilight of the Gods asked.
“Furious Wind Town, huh?” Luo Wu Shang thought briefly and said, “To be safe, chase them. We can’t let a single monster for this task escape. If we can’t complete the task, we won’t be able to act freely.”
“Got it!” Twilight of the Gods piloted the rented flying transport vehicle straight toward Furious Wind Town.
While Luo Wu Shang and the others were in pursuit, Stone Axe and Iron Claw, sprinting madly on the ground, were starting to get a headache.
“Have these grey-clothed people gone insane? We didn’t even attack them, so why are they still chasing us?” Stone Axe glanced at the flying transport vehicle closely tailing them from behind. That vehicle was identical to the one the grey-clothed people had disembarked from, and it was heading in the same direction as the transport convoy. There was no other possibility but that it was them.
“Forget them for now. Once we reach Furious Wind Town, as long as they’re not idiots, they’ll retreat on their own.” Iron Claw looked at the map. At their near-sonic speed, it would only take a few minutes to reach Furious Wind Town, and the flying transport vehicle was slower than their burst speed.
They only needed to hold on for a few minutes, and then the grey-clothed people would have no choice but to withdraw.
As a frontline stronghold of Star Tower City, Furious Wind Town permanently housed one hundred thousand martial artists. With several vice city lords sitting in town and, from what they’d heard, the leader of the Holy Blood Mercenary Group present as well, no sane grey-clothed person standing on the City of Light Chasing’s side would dare go near Furious Wind Town.
Thinking of this, Stone Axe and Iron Claw sped up further.
They had also witnessed from afar the clash between the grey-clothed people and Blood Rider just now.
That massive phantom golden lion was unmistakable.
It was the transcendent sequenced martial skill Golden Roar mastered by Smiling Skull.
They had already tried their best to respect and reevaluate these grey-clothed people, yet they had not expected them to be so terrifying that they had obtained the transcendent sequenced martial skill of Smiling Skull, and that some among them had even learned it.
They did not dare imagine what had happened to Smiling Skull’s headquarters in the Mountain of the Dead at the hands of this group of grey-clothed people.
A transcendent sequenced martial skill.
That was the core of a major power, not something one could simply learn, let alone allow people from other factions to learn. The grey-clothed people had always been hostile to Smiling Skull. For them to learn it, there was only one explanation: they had heavily damaged Smiling Skull’s headquarters and seized the inheritance.
Facing grey-clothed people like that, how could they dare to make a move?
This was a force that could heavily damage Smiling Skull. They would have to be suicidal to provoke them.
Their only option was to make the grey-clothed people retreat on their own. Otherwise, they would surely face endless pursuit from them.
Sure enough, after Stone Axe and Iron Claw had run for almost three minutes, they soon saw in the distance a town enclosed by alloy walls over ten meters high. This was Furious Wind Town, under the jurisdiction of Star Tower City.
The appearance of Stone Axe and Iron Claw was immediately detected by Furious Wind Town.
“Lord Vice City Lord, we have detected the two leaders of the Stone Axe Mercenary Group and the Iron Claw Mercenary Group six kilometers away. Behind them is a flying transport vehicle from the City of Light Chasing following closely.” A Half-Beast Race advanced Bone Forging Realm man reported respectfully.
“A flying transport vehicle from the City of Light Chasing?” The Mountain Ridge Race middle-aged man wearing light-blue second-tier alloy battle armor was a bit surprised. “How dare they come here?”
As a frontline stronghold, Furious Wind Town housed Star Tower City’s key combat power. One could say that unless the city lord of the City of Light Chasing personally came, anyone else who came was courting death.
“Do we need to send people out to intercept them?” the Half-Beast Race advanced Bone Forging Realm man asked.
“No need.” The Mountain Ridge Race middle-aged man shook his head. “I just spoke with the leader of the Holy Blood Mercenary Group. Several of their vice leaders are ready to take people to the frontline. Let them handle it.”
“Yes.” After hearing this, the Half-Beast Race advanced Bone Forging Realm man said no more.
With the Holy Blood Mercenary Group taking the field, and several vice leaders together at that, even if all the vice city lords of the City of Light Chasing came, there would only be one outcome.
Death.
