Chapter 317: That Faint Light In The City
City of Light Chasing, Red Moon Merchant Guild.
In the VIP box, Kui Lang sat cross-legged on the floor, eyes closed, holding a pale red crystal the size of a fist in his hand as he finished adjusting his body state. His qi and blood were circulating at several times the normal rate. With each breath in and out, all the energy in the entire room was drawn in and expelled.
After several seconds of breathing, Kui Lang directly picked up the pale red crystal and took a bite. The pale red crystal, harder than steel, was bitten into as easily as an apple, making a crisp crunching sound that left the White Masked Youth, who had just entered the room, staring in disbelief.
Although the White Masked Youth had already watched Blood Condensation Realm Martial Artists cultivating many times, every time he still could not believe that energy blood essence, harder than diamond, was actually eaten like beans by Blood Condensation Realm Martial Artists.
“Is something the matter?”
Kui Lang asked as he took another bite of the energy blood essence, as if treating it like a snack. His qi and blood visibly climbed, quenching all the bones in his body.
“Elder Kuilang, you asked me to notify all the major powers about the auction. I have finished notifying them. By then, whether it is Smiling Skull or Earth Star Pharmaceuticals, they should both send people over,” the White Masked Youth reported.
“Very good.” Kui Lang nodded, looking at the energy blood essence in his hand, of which seven or eight tenths still remained. The corners of his mouth lifted slightly. “Those fellows from the Domain City have always been stingy. If only those two were fighting over it, the final price would likely be very low. Now that Smiling Skull and Earth Star Pharmaceuticals are both willing to come, apart from what we contribute to headquarters, we should be able to make a small profit.”
Although he was a Red Moon Merchant Guild elder and a high-level Blood Condensation Realm Martial Artist, he still lacked cultivation resources, especially energy blood essence. The Red Moon Merchant Guild only gave three pieces a year, plus the right to redeem nine pieces a year. Twelve pieces a year was all that a Red Moon Merchant Guild elder could get.
Twelve pieces of energy blood essence a year might be enough for initial and mid Blood Condensation Realm, but for someone at high-level Blood Condensation Realm like him, it was far from enough. He needed at least twenty-four pieces a year to meet the basic needs of cultivation.
If he could not earn some from the Red Moon Merchant Guild’s goods, his cultivation speed would become very slow, let alone aiming for a future breakthrough to the Heavenly Human Realm.
“Right, what reaction is there from the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall?” Kui Lang asked.
“There is not much commotion in Chiyue Town. The Obsidian Martial Arts Hall does not seem inclined to send people to participate in the auction. They are still confronting Smiling Skull in the Mountain of the Dead, fighting over control of the safe route through the Mountain of the Dead,” the White Masked Youth checked the information in his hand and reported one by one.
“No reaction?” Kui Lang was slightly surprised. “Could it be that my guess was wrong?”
According to his estimation, the Body Strengthening Secret Technique should be very important to the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, otherwise they would not have been willing to spend a high price to buy a useless-seeming secret technique. But now, the calm attitude of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall left him puzzled.
He knew very well that the Inheritance Metal Plate definitely could not leave the City of Light Chasing right now. Even he himself could not leave the City of Light Chasing, otherwise he might be targeted by the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall. After all, the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall had the strength to kill high-level Blood Condensation Realm Martial Artists.
So he was holding the auction in the City of Light Chasing, waiting for all the major powers to come and bid.
The Obsidian Martial Arts Hall was currently strong in the Wushan Region, but compared to the Domain City it was worlds apart. If the Inheritance Metal Plate were to fall into the hands of the Domain City senior officials, the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall would no longer have any chance. It was hard to imagine they could sit still.
But just as Kui Lang was feeling puzzled and doubtful, a sudden boom and commotion came from outside the box, followed by earth-shaking shouts of killing and battle. Even inside the box it was clearly audible.
Before Kui Lang and the White Masked Youth inside could say anything, a Blood Pattern Clan Youth who was an advanced Martial Artist suddenly ran in from outside the box.
“Elder, Shop Owner, something has happened! There is fighting outside the shop!” The youth spoke in some panic and tension.
“Why panic! Is this your first day working at the Merchant Guild?” Kui Lang looked at the nervous Blood Pattern Clan Youth with clear displeasure. “If there is fighting outside the shop, then so be it. If someone is causing trouble, can you high-level Martial Artists not deal with it? If you cannot handle it, can you not let the Bone Forging Realm guards inside the shop handle it? What is there to be afraid of!”
Disturbances in the city were usually caused by those below Martial Artist level, since fighting between Martial Artists was forbidden in the city. The side that made the first move would certainly be killed. This was an iron rule throughout the Four Regions.
And in the Red Moon Merchant Guild, even if some Martial Artist did not know better and caused trouble, the Bone Forging Realm guards of the Red Moon Merchant Guild could easily resolve it. As members of the Red Moon Merchant Guild, there was no need to panic.
“Elder Kuilang, there are quite a lot of them. I am afraid those few guards cannot handle it. Just now, we have already lost several Martial Artists on our side,” the Blood Pattern Clan Youth explained, mustering his courage.
“Quite a lot? How many can there be?” Kui Lang looked at the youth who dared to talk back and could not help but laugh. “No matter how many, can they resist the suppression of six high-level Bone Forging Realm Martial Artists?”
Bone Forging Realm Martial Artists were the backbone of any city, and high-level Bone Forging Realm Martial Artists were usually leader-level figures in the city.
With six high-level Bone Forging Realm Martial Artists acting together, aside from the City Lord’s side, any other faction in the city could be easily suppressed, even if the other side had thousands of Martial Artists.
The youth wiped his sweat and cautiously said, “There should be over ten thousand of them. They have already filled the street outside the Red Moon Merchant Guild, and all of them are carrying new-type weapons like the superconducting electromagnetic gun.”
“Over ten thousand? And all carrying superconducting electromagnetic guns? How is that possible!” The White Masked Youth beside him was shocked and could not help but ask, “Do you know which faction they belong to?”
It was not as if the Red Moon Merchant Guild had never suffered an attack before, but even then the number only reached a few hundred at most, and that attack had been carried out by the Holy Blood Mercenary Group, a famous group in the Wushan Region. Other factions simply did not have such nerve.
An attack with over ten thousand people had never occurred in the history of the Red Moon Merchant Guild across the Four Regions. For most forces, that number would be tantamount to emptying their entire nest, not to mention that every one of them carried superconducting electromagnetic guns. Once numbers grew a bit, with coordinated firepower, killing Martial Artists would be like playing a game.
At present, the Red Moon Merchant Guild branch in the City of Light Chasing had only several dozen staff, six Bone Forging Realm guards, plus him as the Shop Owner and Elder Kui Lang, not even a hundred people in total.
“Judging by their clothing, they should be from the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall, and all are grey-robed disciples,” the youth said.
With the young staff member’s report, the box suddenly fell silent.
“The Obsidian Martial Arts Hall? How is that possible! This is the City of Light Chasing! Are they insane?” the White Masked Youth could not help but say.
Sending over ten thousand grey-robed disciples was essentially the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall going all-in. According to their investigation, the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall had, at most, just over ten thousand grey-robed disciples.
And with the city forbidding battles between Martial Artists, dispatching their grey-robed disciples en masse was obviously a violation of the iron rule of the Four Regions. He could not understand how the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall dared to do this.
“Those grey-robed disciples seem to be apprentices or quasi-martial artists below Martial Artist level. We have not sensed any Martial Artists among them,” the young staffer explained.
“No grey-robed disciples above Martial Artist level?” The White Masked Youth was stunned, and then even more puzzled, unable to figure out how the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall had so many grey-robed disciples.
According to the Red Moon Merchant Guild’s investigation, the grey-robed disciples of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall were obviously different from other disciples. First, they were all from the Human Race, and second, they were all smaller in build than even human middle school students, yet their strength progressed extremely fast, and their talent was remarkable.
After the previous battle in the Mountain of the Dead against the Dragon Hunting Corps, it had seemed that those grey-robed disciples were already the limit for the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall. After all, talented individuals were not cabbage; they were not so easy to find.
“Elder Kuilang, Shop Owner, what should we do now? I am afraid they cannot hold outside much longer,” the young staffer asked anxiously.
“What is there to be afraid of? They are just a group of ants not even at Martial Artist level. As long as I am here, those ants cannot overturn the heavens.” Kui Lang glared at the young staffer and then looked at the Shop Owner, the White Masked Youth. “You come out with me. We will kill those grey-robed disciples of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall. It will serve as a good lesson for them.”
With that, Kui Lang was the first to step out of the box, and the White Masked Shop Owner followed closely behind without any hesitation.
As a high-level Blood Condensation Realm Martial Artist, Kui Lang could absolutely crush even Viscera Refining Realm Martial Artists. He alone could destroy a city, let alone dealing with apprentices or quasi-martial artists who were not even Martial Artists.
As the Shop Owner with the white mask stepped out of the box, he saw that the entire bar hall had been blasted into a battered ruin. The two sides were still locked in brutal combat. Nearly every second, dozens of people were dying, blood splattering across the bar hall.
“So this is the power of those new weapons?”
The Shop Owner in the white mask watched both sides exchanging blows and saw the disciples of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall wielding superconducting electromagnetic guns killing the store’s Martial Artist level staff like slaughtering chickens.
Under thirty to fifty scorching beams, even a high-level Martial Artist staff member wearing B4-level battle armor could not dodge them all. Their bodies were pierced through by several scorching beams and taken out in a single wave, with no power to resist.
Only the six Bone Forging Realm guards were still barely holding on, weaving through the crowd, killing grey-robed disciples of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall while dodging attacks. But even with the Bone Forging Realm’s speed and reaction, under hundreds of scorching beams they were still hit multiple times. Fortunately, they wore Tier 2 battle armor forged from C2-grade alloy, so they were not pierced through, only heavily impacted and lightly injured.
“You ants dare run wild in the Red Moon Merchant Guild? None of you are leaving today!”
Kui Lang looked at the chaotic bar hall, and his qi and blood suddenly erupted, instantly spreading through the entire hall, pressing down on all the players so that they could not move. Some even collapsed to the ground, vomiting blood one after another, unable to move as a mere lift of his palm could grind them to dust.
“I knew there would definitely be a big boss in this event!”
“So strong! This level of strength must be the legendary Blood Condensation Realm. He does not even need to move to easily kill us.”
“But how are we supposed to fight a boss this strong? As long as we are within his qi and blood range, we cannot even move, let alone hurt him.”
“Leave that headache to the brothers outside. Anyway, I made a profit by taking down one Martial Artist staffer after I came in.”
“True, but this boss is killing too slowly. I might as well cultivate the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique and self-destruct to get my money’s worth.”
As the players in the hall were crushed to death by qi and blood, some players, knowing they could not escape, chose to practice the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique to recoup their loss.
Even with veteran players’ guidance, cultivating the Stellar Explosion Meditation Technique would still lead to death, because there were too many details that required trial and error. Those things could not be fully conveyed through words and had to be learned through the experience of death.
If they were going to die anyway, dying while testing was undoubtedly a way to earn back another
For a while, players in the bar hall died on their own before Kui Lang could act, bleeding from all seven orifices, as if proclaiming that they would never die humiliated. They would rather commit self-destruction than give Kui Lang the chance.
“These grey-robed disciples of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall are ruthless enough.” Kui Lang was quite surprised as he watched the players dying with blood flowing from their seven orifices.
He had killed many Martial Artists. Even among geniuses of other major powers there were always those who begged for mercy before death. But among the thousands of grey-robed disciples of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall in the hall, not one begged for mercy, and many even took the initiative to die.
This was the first time in his life he had seen a power capable of cultivating so many disciples with such loyalty.
However, before Kui Lang could take more than a few steps, another batch of players rushed into the hall. As soon as they saw Kui Lang and the others, they opened fire, but Kui Lang gave them no chance. His qi and blood burst forth again, instantly suppressing these players, then crushing them to death one by one with his dense qi and blood, leaving deep pits in the ground and turning them to dust.
Out on the street in front of the Red Moon Merchant Guild, the players who had not charged in soon learned what Kui Lang was doing. Some players had been recording video during the event and, upon dying, immediately uploaded the battle footage to the forum so that the players waiting offline could log on and report the situation at once.
“Boss Xing Kuang, this boss is too strong, completely unsolvable. Once we go in, we cannot move and can only watch ourselves get killed one by one. What should we do now?” A bald man with strength at the extreme advanced apprentice level looked at the Red Moon Merchant Guild with a troubled expression.
Facing a Blood Condensation Realm boss like Kui Lang, as players who were not even Martial Artists, they had no way to resist that overwhelming qi and blood suppression. The effective range of their superconducting electromagnetic guns was only one hundred meters, entirely within the coverage of a Blood Condensation Realm’s qi and blood. It was an utterly unsolvable boss.
“The game will not create an invincible boss, especially when this game is almost realistic,” Xing Kuang said calmly as he watched another group of players die. “Tell the brothers to spread the word to everyone: keep going into the Red Moon Merchant Guild in batches. Even if that boss can suppress with qi and blood, his qi and blood is not infinite. As long as we drain more of the boss’s qi and blood than he can recover, we can exhaust him. That is when we make our move!”
“I understand.” The bald man’s eyes lit up. He felt that this was likely the correct strategy for this boss; otherwise, why would this event increase the number of game slots so much?
Immediately, the members of the Stardust Mecha Corps relayed this message to all participating players, telling everyone to take turns going in to deplete the boss’s qi and blood. As long as resurrection kept pace with the consumption, they would have a chance to take down the boss.
All the newcomers followed Xing Kuang’s method, rushing into the Red Moon Merchant Guild in groups of several hundred. Those who died and resurrected immediately returned to the Red Moon Merchant Guild, determined to drain Kui Lang’s qi and blood.
One hour passed… two hours… three hours…
As wave after wave of players continued to charge into the Red Moon Merchant Guild, Kui Lang and the White Masked Shop Owner and the guards inside were growing increasingly shocked the more they killed.
“It has already been three hours! Wasn’t it said that the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall only sent a bit over ten thousand?”
“At this point, we must have killed several tens of thousands of their disciples, right?”
The White Masked Shop Owner and the others looked at the grey-robed disciples of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall who kept rushing in, completely baffled. They could not understand why there were so many grey-robed disciples. They had killed until their arms were sore, yet still had not managed to wipe them out.
In contrast, Kui Lang’s condition continued to decline. Each full eruption of qi and blood, while consuming less than using a single super-tier Martial Skill, still could not be sustained indefinitely.
By now, Kui Lang’s qi and blood was less than half of his peak, and he could maintain it for less than three more hours.
“Elder Kuilang, I feel something is wrong. These grey-robed disciples of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall clearly plan to exhaust your qi and blood with their lives. How about we retreat for now?” The White Masked Shop Owner suggested as he watched yet another wave of grey-robed disciples rush in.
The Obsidian Martial Arts Hall’s behavior was even crazier than rumored. To deal with them, they were actually willing to throw away their disciples’ lives.
He did not know why the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall was so confident, but he no longer wanted to play with such a demon-like martial arts hall.
“Since the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall wants to drag this out with me, I want to see whether they have more grey-robed disciples or I have more qi and blood!” Kui Lang dismissed it, refusing to allow any doubt.
He was a dignified high-level Blood Condensation Realm Martial Artist, a top expert even within a region. If he ran away from a bunch of grey-robed disciples who were not even Martial Artists, he would have no face left if word got out.
“Yes.” The White Masked Shop Owner had no choice but to grit his teeth and agree.
Right now, they were relying entirely on Elder Kuilang to hold the line. If they went out on their own, while as Bone Forging Realm Martial Artists they could also use qi and blood suppression on those below Martial Artist level, their range would only be ten to twenty meters. That was useless against superconducting electromagnetic guns with an attack range of around one hundred meters. Once outside, they would not be facing wave after wave of disciples throwing their lives away, but hundreds or thousands of scorching beams.
Time ticked by, but the number of grey-robed disciples charging in did not decrease in the slightest.
“Madmen! The Obsidian Martial Arts Hall are real madmen! Almost one hundred thousand grey-robed disciples must have died by now!”
“Damn it! Do they not care about their future at all?”
As players continued sacrificing themselves, getting more and more excited as they did, the White Masked Shop Owner and the others inside the Red Moon Merchant Guild grew increasingly terrified and could not help cursing the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.
All this just to destroy one branch of the Red Moon Merchant Guild, and they were willing to sacrifice nearly one hundred thousand grey-robed disciples?
“How do they still have more?”
Kui Lang looked at yet another wave of players charging in and, feeling that his own qi and blood was down to less than one-tenth of his peak, finally panicked a little. Were the disciples of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall endless?
“Retreat!”
No longer able to suppress the grey-robed disciples of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall within one hundred meters, Kui Lang gritted his teeth and spoke in a low voice.
“Yes!”
Hearing this was like hearing heavenly music to the White Masked Shop Owner and the others. They hurriedly followed behind Kui Lang, breaking through the wall to escape the Red Moon Merchant Guild.
With the speed of high-level Bone Forging Realm Martial Artists, if they really wanted to flee, reaching the speed of sound using Martial Skills was easy.
However, once they followed Kui Lang out of the Red Moon Merchant Guild, the White Masked Shop Owner and the others were stunned.
In every direction, from the ground to the rooftops of the surrounding buildings, a dense mass of grey-robed disciples of the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall filled their vision. It was as if they had been waiting there for a long time. The instant they saw Kui Lang and the others, they all raised their guns and opened fire.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…
In an instant, over five thousand scorching beams were fired from all directions at once, like countless streams merging into a great river, engulfing the entire street in light.
“Block it for me!”
Seeing the five thousand-plus beams incoming, Kui Lang almost instinctively unleashed a Sequence Extraordinary Level Martial Skill. A huge phantom over one hundred meters tall appeared, fully covering Kui Lang and the White Masked Shop Owner and the others.
Boom!
After the first wave, Kui Lang and the others were unscathed, but his face had turned deathly pale, clearly showing that his qi and blood consumption was enormous.
Before he could make the phantom move, another three consecutive volleys of over five thousand scorching beams each came.
Once… twice… three times…
In the first volley, the phantom turned hazy. In the second volley, it shattered directly. In the third volley, all five thousand plus beams slammed into Kui Lang and the others. There was nowhere to dodge and nothing to block with.
Even with Tier 2 battle armor, after being hit thousands of times, the armor went from bent, to damaged, to finally destroyed, and their bodies were pierced through.
As the radiance faded, Kui Lang and the others lay on the street, completely mangled beyond recognition.
“Dead? Are the people from the Red Moon Merchant Guild all dead?”
“That white mask, he should be the Red Moon Merchant Guild’s Shop Owner, right? And that old man, I remember he was a Red Moon Merchant Guild elder.”
“Insane! Completely insane! From offending Smiling Skull, one of the three forces you must never provoke, to now annihilating a branch of the Red Moon Merchant Guild… what on earth is the Obsidian Martial Arts Hall trying to do?”
Members of various gangs and bystanders watching from far away were all stunned as they saw the players flooding into the Red Moon Merchant Guild to plunder wildly.
As the players frantically looted the Red Moon Merchant Guild, news of the destruction of its branch spread through the City of Light Chasing at once, shocking every faction in the city.
