From the moment he was shot in the Qu Family Village square, relying on Qu Zongyan's medicine to stop the bleeding and life source energy to lock down his vital essence, Qu Zongxing had pursued them all the way here with only the barest flicker of life left. At the same time, his mind had descended into total chaos.
That was why he had appeared so bizarrely in that spot, fixing on the helicopter in midair as his target.
With one final explosive leap,
he burned out every ounce of his strength and died right in midair, leaving only his body surging upward on sheer momentum.
And then, Pang Jinghe had slashed his corpse.
Just like that, the battle began and ended in an instant. Under the moonlight, the helicopter flew off into the distance with a person dangling beneath it.
The enemies behind them were now close enough that they slowed their footsteps, beginning to creep forward cautiously out of the dark.
Han Qingyu glanced somewhat helplessly at He Tangtang, who had stayed behind.
"Now that we have another guy who can't run fast, this just got even more troublesome."
With three Bones of Eternal Life in hand, bringing him one step closer to hacking Alphonse to death, Han Qingyu had zero desire to fight right now. Knowing they couldn't win, he only wanted to get away.
He Tangtang himself, however, possessed no such awareness whatsoever.
He could finally fight shoulder to shoulder with Qingzi and the others again! He Tangtang stood there, drawing his new combat saber, and asked with some excitement:
"Are we chopping them? If we are, I'll pop Near-Death Surge."
He said it as casually as if he were just unzipping a jacket.
"Pop your ass! Didn't we tell you that you can't just pop Near-Death Surge whenever you feel like it?! If you do it again, you might not survive next time, you hear me?!"
Wen Jifei yelled at him while leveling his gun. This was genuine scolding—he was truly worked up.
Just as He Tangtang was about to retort, Wu Xu nodded firmly from the side, looking at him with worried eyes as he said, "Yeah. Tangtang, please."
He Tangtang had learned Near-Death Surge from Wu Xu, and now Wu Xu was pleading, begging He Tangtang not to use it again. The word "please" was not something one often heard from Wu Xu's mouth.
His excitement was instantly extinguished. He Tangtang looked awkward and conflicted. "I..."
*Doesn't that make me dead weight again?!* He Tangtang turned to look toward Han Qingyu.
"Pop, pop, pop—pop your head! Remember, you're not allowed to use it again!" Han Qingyu scolded as well.
"Pop, pop, pop, pop your head! Tangtang, you're never allowed to use it again, okay?" Rusty Sister weakly joined in the scolding.
Amid the scolding, Han Qingyu suddenly darted across the ground, rushed to Qu Zongxing's corpse, and bent down to pat him down.
There were no bones. He found three source energy blocks, slipped them into his pocket, hesitated for a moment, then picked up the teapot with the chain from the ground, ran back, and tossed it to He Tangtang.
"Brought this for you."
"..." He Tangtang blankly caught the teapot.
*Does this mean you want me to focus on serving tea and pouring water from now on?! ...Wait, this thing is heavy.* He Tangtang weighed it in his hands and was just about to speak.
*Bang... bang, bang, bang.*
Wen Jifei suddenly fired four shots into the dark woods.
Four bullets zipped through the forest, all passing very close and grazing by, but none hitting their mark.
A temporary standoff formed. With the dense footsteps and rumbling source energy surges in the distance drawing closer and closer, Han Qingyu suddenly whispered, "Tangtang, try running on your own. If you can't keep up, let Wu Xu carry you, and you hold the fish for him."
"Huh? Run?"
"Yeah, get ready."
"Oh."
The instant He Tangtang nodded—
"Run!"
Han Qingyu and Rusty Sister each grabbed one of Wen Jifei's legs and bolted. Wen Jifei hung prone in midair as usual, firing continuously behind them. He Tangtang was dumbstruck by the sight.
At the same time, Zhu Jiaming started running.
Wu Xu started running.
They ran all the way until dawn, with the people from the hidden clans giving chase.
They ran all the way until nightfall, and the hidden clan pursuers were still on their tails.
Constrained by He Tangtang's speed, Han Qingyu was even less capable of shaking them off. At one point, when they were nearly caught, he had even turned to clash head-on with Qu Zongyan for a strike, aggravating his injuries.
"Out of bullets," Wen Jifei said.
"Out of bullets" meant his ordinary ammunition was depleted. Wen Jifei stowed his gun and glanced back with a look up. "These bastards are way too persistent! Don't they ever get hungry?!"
Whether the pursuers were hungry or not, Han Qingyu had no idea. In any case, even with source energy sustaining them, everyone on their side—aside from Rusty Sister—was feeling quite hungry.
They actually had fish with them. Since the weather had turned cool lately and they had been running under the shade of the trees, the fish had not spoiled yet.
"But we can't stop to make a fire either," He Tangtang muttered, eyeing the fish skewered on the Binggu Spear.
Han Qingyu nodded.
"Will you eat sashimi?" Zhu Jiaming asked from the side. "Do you eat sashimi? Technically it should be saltwater fish, but right now we can't be picky..."
"Yes," Wu Xu, Han Qingyu, Wen Jifei, and He Tangtang replied in unison.
And so, Wu Xu hoisted the Binggu Spear onto his shoulder, bunching the fish toward the front half of the shaft. Running behind him, Zhu Jiaming expertly filleted the fish as he ran, slicing off piece after piece of sashimi.
When the slices touched the tongue, there was not a single bone. Freshwater fish, filleted while running, and he could actually slice it without leaving a single bone behind.
*No wonder this guy can get by wherever he goes. He's a real talent.*
As the saying goes, provisions must precede the troops. Just like that, leveraging the advantage of having eight fish, the six of them finally gave the hidden clans the slip for the time being.
***
Around the same time, at Azure's Huaxia Front, Rejecters Southwest Branch, Base No. 7.
Yang Qingbai's helicopter was parked on the helipad. Because its serial code was of a high clearance level, its origin had not been traced.
At this time, word that the missing soldiers from the plateau battlefield had been rescued was spreading like joyful news toward the Coalition Headquarters and the relevant front armies.
Meanwhile, in the classified military intelligence room:
Base commander Yu Sixian, who bore the rank of non-combatant lieutenant general, held the telephone receiver in hand, reporting an important situation directly to the Huaxia Front Supreme Council.
"Yes. Qu Family Village. They were rescued from a siege of a thousand people right at the hidden clans' alliance gathering. The person who stepped in to save them is named Pang. He killed Qu Zongxing!"
Yu Sixian paused here, waiting for the other end's reaction.
The Azure soldiers and the pilot who had returned earlier had already been interrogated one by one.
In the minds of Lin Qiangqiang and the others, however, they could under no circumstances reveal the existence of Han Qingyu and his companions—not even to their own people, to the Rejecters, or to anyone else.
This was Han Qingyu's instruction. They guessed Major Qing's squad had to be carrying out some vital classified mission, perhaps only maintaining a single-line contact with a top official inside the Coalition.
After all, he was Major Qing.
Gratitude and trust kept their lips tightly sealed.
And so the answer was that this Pang Jinghe had single-handedly rescued them. Furthermore, Pang Jinghe really had protected them all the way, and he truly had slain that super, Qu Zongxing of the Qu clan, with a single slash.
Yu Sixian stayed silent, listening intently. A chaotic flurry of hurried sounds came from the other end of the line:
Footsteps, the rustle of dossier pages being flipped through rapidly, people conferring in hushed, urgent tones...
All of this made Yu Sixian thrill with excitement.
Finally, the receiver on the other end was brought close to the mouth once more, and a solemn voice said, "According to our intelligence dossiers, Qu Zongxing, head of the hidden Qu clan, was very likely a super combat power."
"Yes, we have intelligence on that as well," Lieutenant General Yu Sixian replied calmly.
"You say he killed Qu Zongxing during the rescue?"
"Yes."
"He brought those seven soldiers out through over a thousand people?!"
"Yes, verified and accurate."
"He's unhurt?"
"Only minor injuries that pose no hindrance."
"What kind of person is he?"
"Very mild-tempered."
"What is the soldiers' opinion of him?"
"Very high. Deeply grateful."
The result of both sides restraining their emotions was that the exchange sounded somewhat mechanical.
Yet mechanical often signified precision.
At this point, the voice on the other end hesitated for a moment. Then, as if unease and agitation flared up at once only to be carefully suppressed, the voice asked, "So... a super combat power?"
Yu Sixian paused on his side of the receiver. "He did not directly admit it himself, but I believe he is. Furthermore, all current evidence points to it: he is."
Yu Sixian tried his best to keep himself composed, but his voice trembled despite himself.
Because this answer meant:
Out of nowhere, a sixth super had appeared in the Huaxia Front!
Chapter 395