Qu Zongyan was naturally terrified. His younger brother, Qu Zongxing, had been killed in a single shot by this very kind of gun—a bullet that pierced right through his heart. And his brother had been a super combatant as well.
Having never expected Han Qingyu to possess a gun too, Qu Zongyan had been forced back mid-strike from behind. Dodging desperately, he had barely managed to duck behind the far slope of the mountain, holding his breath and pressing himself flat against the solid rock wall.
Meanwhile, members of the hidden clans continued to converge from all across the mountains in an endless stream.
Han Qingyu began assessing the current situation. Tick, one second. Assessment complete.
"Time to run again."
"So if we can break away, our flight begins all over again. Just like before, the hidden clans will keep chasing behind us, but because Qu Zongyan fears the gun, he won't dare charge straight in... Well, if Zhe Shouzhao has the guts, there'll just be more pursuers this time."
"It's fine. We have an extra gun now, too."
"Only, there won't be any fish for this escape. We ate it all, and there's no time to catch more... Oh, almost forgot. We have a slab of cured bacon this time. Can cured bacon be eaten raw?"
If they were going to keep fleeing as before, Han Qingyu would still fire warning shots. Wen Jifei had to deliberately aim wide, whereas Han Qingyu didn't need to try—he would miss anyway. As for ordinary bullets, Wen Jifei had already replenished two pouches.
However, Zhe Shouzhao knew these guns couldn't repeatedly fire source energy dead iron bullets. That part was somewhat troublesome.
"I should have killed him just now."
Holding the rifle in one hand, Han Qingyu stood quietly facing the direction of Qu Zongyan. He took advantage of the pause to steady his physical condition, preparing for the upcoming breakout and flight.
On the other side, the wounded Rocher remained silent, a glint of murderous intent flashing in his suddenly ferocious eyes.
*The King's condition doesn't seem quite right.* He silently slipped down through the cracked fissure in the rocks, dropped soundlessly to the ground, and crawled forward a short distance. In the bushes less than two hundred meters to Han Qingyu's flank, he flattened himself against the earth, holding his breath, not daring to look and relying only on his ears as he waited for an opportunity.
Once Qu Zongyan made another frontal attempt, Rocher would launch an ambush to kill.
"Is the senior from the hidden clans present? Is the head of the Qu clan there?!" Zhe Shouzhao suddenly called out from behind his rock, shouting upward.
Qu Zongyan paused. "Hm?"
"The Zhe family has sent visiting cards and letters before. I am Zhe Shouzhao."
"...Oh." Qu Zongyan nodded as if recalling. Clearly, he had seen the visiting card, though he had never met the man in person.
The Zhe family had contacted the hidden clans; they had contacted the Qu clan.
After the Great Spike mothership was captured on Xilang Peak, Voyage had submitted to Azure, becoming an affiliated organization and sharing all their research findings.
For the sake of source-energy-powered spacecraft, the vast majority of people within Voyage were sincere about joining Azure. In particular, Voyage had a group of scientists who were quite unique—they could probably be categorized as "idealists of cosmic science."
To these people, neither apocalyptic extinction nor escaping to survive really mattered. As long as they could witness deep space with their own eyes and cross the current limits of human scientific exploration, they would be thrilled, even if it cost them their lives.
This was very similar to a subset of idealistic scientists in Azure who served the organization not out of concern for humanity's survival, but purely out of curiosity toward the Great Spike civilization. If the Great Spikes had come to capture humans instead of slaughtering them, some of those scientists would probably have gone willingly.
However, every organization contained all kinds of people. Within Voyage, which had ostensibly reached a consensus to submit to Azure, there still existed another faction. They were unwilling to lose their independent status, or harbored ambitions that lay elsewhere than spaceships.
This faction was drawn from various levels, including a handful of core researchers, but their core lay in the armed forces—in the Zhe family.
Because Azure wielded overwhelming power, this faction could only conceal themselves for the time being, lying low in the crevices to search for an opportunity.
They had established contact with the hidden clans. The true reason Zhe Shouzhao had brought so many people, including all the top fighters in the organization, to the southwest was to pay a visit to the Qu clan.
However, in their early communications, he hadn't disclosed much information about the outside world to the Qu clan.
They had brought guns with the intention of ambushing and killing Qu Zongxing if negotiations fell through, thereby subjugating the strength of the hidden clans and subsequently searching for the Bone of Eternal Life.
Zhe Shouzhao still assumed Qu Zongyan was Qu Zongxing. He had no idea that Qu Zongxing was already dead—the imposter was dead, and the real one was dead too.
Thus, if Han Qingyu and the others hadn't stirred up this whole mess first and Zhe Shouzhao had actually gone to the Qu clan, he might very well be dead by now. He was still too green.
"Is Senior a super combatant?!" Zhe Shouzhao asked, his voice laced with excitement and anticipation.
Qu Zongyan replied, "Yes."
He really was! That made Zhe Shouzhao practically ecstatic.
"Then Senior has no need to fear their guns at all! So long as you're prepared, they can't hit you at all—your speed is faster than bullets! And even if you are hit, there's no way that kind of bullet can inflict a fatal wound on a super combatant!"
Qu Zongyan's gaze darkened at once. He glanced up at Zhe Shouzhao, thinking to himself, *This kid is with them! He's trying to trick me into my death!*
Would Qu Zongyan fall for such a trick?!
First of all, hadn't his brother, Qu Zongxing, been killed by a gun?! Second, that fellow on the other side had fired shots intermittently all along the way, and people on the hidden clans' side had indeed gone missing.
In truth, those people had simply slipped away during the march.
On the other side, Zhe Shouzhao failed to notice anything amiss and continued excitedly, "And those guns... those guns, they have two now..."
*They actually have two!* Panic flared in Qu Zongyan. Stealing a glance down, sure enough, the original person down below still held one in his hands.
Isn't that completely over for us?!
"Between both guns, they have four to five shots left at most before the guns explode!" Zhe Shouzhao said.
*Bullshit! How many shots did he fire along the way?!* Qu Zongyan thought.
"Unless they're using ordinary bullets," Zhe Shouzhao added casually.
"Bull—hm?!"
That single remark finally woke Qu Zongyan up. He began carefully recalling the entire sequence of events and every detail, quickly realizing that there were indeed many suspicious points.
*So he really isn't trying to trick me into getting killed?!* Qu Zongyan thought, his eyes drifting over.
"Truly, Senior! No one knows this better than I do." To induce Qu Zongyan to strike, Zhe Shouzhao did his best to explain: "The gun in Han Qingyu's hands originally belonged to my side. If you don't believe me, look at his left shoulder, Senior! His left shoulder was wounded, and his left arm is immobilized. My man ambushed him from the woods, yet he still managed to dodge a vital hit. For Senior to dodge, it wouldn't be an issue at all. What's more, with sufficient source energy defense, you wouldn't even suffer a serious injury..."
Qu Zongyan saw it. Not only did he see the wound on Han Qingyu's shoulder, but he also saw Zhe Shouzhao's injuries, as well as the aftermath of the slaughter down in the valley.
If nothing else, he was first certain of one thing: Zhe Shouzhao truly was not on Han Qingyu's side. They were enemies.
With that foundation established and combined with the suspicious points he recalled, the logic flowed smoothly. Qu Zongyan gradually began to believe Zhe Shouzhao's words.
Down below, Wen Jifei and the others heard everything clearly. They were anxious, but powerless to act. From this position and distance, Wen Jifei had no hope of hitting a super combatant, nor could he fire and waste ammunition, which would only prove that what Zhe Shouzhao said was true.
They had just seen the hand signal Han Qingyu made with his left hand behind his back; his condition was terrible right now, and all they could do was wait for him to recover his form.
"In short, Senior is a super combatant. There really is no need to fear the gun." Seeing Qu Zongyan remain still and silent, Zhe Shouzhao grew anxious... Suddenly, he looked down and pulled a bone from his chest pocket.
"Look, Senior! This is the Bone of Eternal Life my Zhe family mentioned in the letter, the one we prepared as a gift for you! You recognize this, don't you, Senior?!"
He held the Bone of Eternal Life up high.
Despite the tense situation, Han Qingyu instinctively glanced over. It was a horn-shaped bone, different from the seven pieces he had seen before, which had all looked fairly similar to one another.
Down below, Zhu Jiaming looked up as well. His eyes widened immediately, the reaction in his pupils betraying tremendous emotional turbulence, though he fought hard to restrain himself.
*Whoosh!*
At an unexpected moment, Qu Zongyan suddenly launched his attack.
He believed it—believed about half of it—and decided to take a gamble. Without a word, he struck directly, bursting his source energy only after soaring into midair, zig-zagging in a sharp Z-shaped trajectory.
*Fuck!* No matter what, this shot had to be fired.
What if it hit?! Even wounding him would be good.
Most importantly, it had to stop this pounce.
With the four turbines across his body slowly surging and spooling up, Han Qingyu had no time for second thoughts. Holding the rifle in one hand, he swiftly whipped the muzzle to the right and pulled the trigger.
*Bang!*
Rocher was dead.
In the bushes off to the side, lying prone with his head down, Rocher took the bullet and died.
Chapter 402