It's Very Expensive, You're Paying for It

Wen Jifei lit a cigarette and looked up, saying he had sniped and killed a super before. Judging by his tone and demeanor, it did not sound like an empty bluff or intimidation. In this world belonging to source energy, it was exceedingly difficult for anyone to tell such a lie with calm composure without revealing a single flaw. Thus, even though the claim seemed to completely defy common sense and reason, more than half the people present instinctively chose to believe him at that moment... "Under certain circumstances, maybe he really can, or even actually did it. Otherwise, he couldn't speak with that kind of tone and conviction." Besides, he and the sniper rifle in his hands were already beings that defied common sense and understanding. Defying cognition was a terrifying thing. It was a gun of endless ammunition. Coupled with a man who, in a world where firearms had long been useless, had honed his marksmanship beyond the limits of humanity. He had just proven both. At this moment, the 300-man formation fighting back-to-back and Han Qingyu's four-person squad were battling along lines roughly parallel to the beach. The crowd stood watching with their backs to the shore. Seeing that the arrival of the sea vessel had caused no major waves after all, the spectators settled right back into their onlookers' mindset. The tavern proprietress's heart was bursting with joy... Originally, she was already quite fond of that Xiaoji kid. Now she liked him even more, then decided she shouldn't. Still, if he ever came back to help around the tavern, that would be fine too. At the same time, who knew how many women across the crowd were swooning. Watching this, the Little Prince felt a bit envious. He remembered seeing earlier that the women from the pleasure house had also come out to watch the fireworks. Inexplicably, he thought of the misty rain along the ancient Qinhuai River, where courtesans on pleasure boats came out to view the lanterns, witnessing a swordsman bearing steel, rising to fame in a single battle. "In a setting like this... sigh! I really want to charge up there and cut Theodore down with one slash... but forget it." In this clash against a super on the other side, the Little Prince was essentially just making up the numbers, responsible for bluffing and cutting off positioning. The ones truly taking the brunt of combat exchange after exchange were the other three, especially Han Qingyu. Actually, calling it "taking the brunt of combat" was an overstatement. If anything, they were merely enduring... *Boom!* Once more, Han Qingyu was blasted downward by Theodore's shifting-form slash... The edges of the sand crater on the ground continued to collapse; it looked as if he was genuinely going to smash a lake into the beach. *...He's barely recognizable as human anymore!* Zhu Jiaming thought to himself. Han Qingyu, battered beyond recognition, lay in the crater. He wiped away a smear of blood from his face and struggled to his feet. By now, even he didn't know the exact extent of his injuries. The agonizing ache in his bones and internal organs had lasted so long that it was growing numb, but at the same time, the four Bones of Eternal Life—apart from the horn bone—were also dissolving... Compared to his battle with Sean, this absorption was far slower and vastly harder. Yet Theodore's strength and the elemental impact of his life source energy were unmistakably far beyond Sean's. "Maybe it's because I'm like a vessel that temporarily can't hold any more bone source..." "Maybe something will happen." "Maybe before something happens, I'll die first." "Like a dying man taking a medicinal primer brewed from poison." As Han Qingyu climbed up, he turned his head and glanced toward the sea. Because he had been locked in combat the entire time, constantly taking a beating, his understanding of the overall situation was fragmented; he only knew Alphonse was out there. At the same time, he did not believe the Huaxia super on the beach could truly hold Alphonse off forever. Therefore, he had to try to slay Theodore, to fight for a chance to join forces afterward and make a desperate stand against Alphonse. Even though Theodore's actual combat prowess far exceeded Qu Zongyan's. At that moment, Wu Xu and Rusty Sister had already lunged forward, while the Little Prince took up a position that made it difficult for Theodore to land. *Bang!* Another gunshot cracked under the night sky. Wen Jifei suddenly wheeled around again, pivoting toward his rear-left, leveling his rifle upward to fire at the super. Because of what he had just said, an uproar rippled through the beach. Amid the clamor, Theodore hastily retreated through midair... "He fears the gun—he really is afraid!" people began to think. Theodore was indeed annoyed. Lacking full certainty, he was forced to evade first... because that bullet had caught him precisely at the lowest ebb of his life source energy surge, right along the trajectory of his movement. An absurd, inexplicable anticipation... *Ch!* In the end, Theodore dodged the bullet in disarray. However, the black Binggu Spear lunged diagonally, its tip piercing a bloody hole into his leg. The super's third wound. "Qingzi?!" Wen Jifei called out after momentarily stabilizing the situation. "Keep shooting your gun," Han Qingyu said, his voice somewhat hoarse. Dragging the oversized column sword, he walked up the slope of the sand crater he had smashed out, moving slowly and with difficulty. Both Han Qingyu and Wen Jifei naturally knew that on this battlefield, firearms were not decisive. Suddenly: "They're moving again!" The people on the beach cried out in excitement. Because Wen Jifei had turned, the khaki-clad battle formation opposite them moved once more. Originally, they had sought depth to smash through the formation, lining up in dense, layered ranks. At this moment, they abruptly switched tactics, beginning to stretch out to both flanks... They wanted to broaden the entire fan-shaped front, extending the arc to the left and right. That way, Wen Jifei's task of suppressing them with gunfire would become vastly harder, as the sheer width would make it nearly impossible to cover both sides. Amid the shouts, Wen Jifei had already turned back. *Bang! Bang!* Two consecutive gunshots rang out. The shots fired in rapid succession, but the movements before their eyes were faster still... If watched in slow motion: He held the rifle with only his right hand, pivoting his torso to the right; At the initial stage of the pivot, he fired the first shot; Then the rotation continued, slowing as he reached the right flank, at which point his left hand came up... Supporting the rifle, he fired the second shot. The khaki-clad battle formation froze in its tracks. If the men did not move, the gun did not fire. The beach was silent. Because two more had fallen. In the Black Hand formation fanning outward to both sides, the man on the far left and the man on the far right had been hit—one dead, one severely wounded. Thus, the rule for spreading left or right was established, identical to the rule for advancing forward: Whoever set foot ahead died. "...Shall we continue?" Wen Jifei asked in the heavy silence, rifle raised... Sweeping his gaze from right to left, he said, "A fan shape is best for picking off heads." He couldn't kill this many people, nor could he let them charge through. What he needed to achieve was defined by a single word: "suppression." One man, one gun, suppressing an entire front. The khaki formation did not move. Anyone not standing in their ranks could hardly fathom the sensation they felt at that moment—that bone-chilling dread and shudder. And the temptation that nothing would happen as long as they didn't move was simply overwhelming; even the temptation of moving a step later than the person next to them was enough to make them hesitate. Beneath the night sky, corpses struck down by gunfire lay scattered across the sand, with only the severely wounded between the two sides still groaning in low agony... This was the very first time this world had ever witnessed such a performance by a firearm... People tried to find a word to describe it: grand, or perhaps magnificent. Yes, this was a one-man grand performance, a slaughter that even felt magnificent. ... Yet the true experts understood that tonight's decisive battleground did not lie here, but on the other side. On that side, Theodore clearly realized for the first time tonight the "possibility of losing." If this continued, if the people on the ground refused to die, if that sniper rifle could focus all its shots on him... Glancing toward the fleet anchored out at sea, Theodore gritted his teeth in fury. He dared not delay any longer. Burning life source energy to the absolute extreme came at a catastrophic cost; short of a desperate impasse, no super was willing to do it. Yet suddenly, he erupted into a desperate burst. *Whoosh!* Inside a lighthouse a hundred meters away, the roaring blaze was instantly snuffed out by the sheer shockwave of source energy detonating in the air. Only the glowing embers, shifting from black to red, began to rekindle. Theodore slashed down. With the first strike, brilliant arcs of lightning tore through the air, trailing along the blade's path. Following the lightning, a black aura expanded around the edge of the blade... Those who didn't understand what they were seeing shrieked in horror. Three people were still standing on the ground. Theodore's first strike targeted the iron armor—a guaranteed lethal blow as Theodore plunged down. After fighting for so long, he had already realized they would not retreat, or at least would not retreat past that sand crater. *Clang!* Wu Xu brought his spear across, meeting the strike from the flank. Upon collision, his body fell toward the ground like a corpse in midair. Yet Theodore knew he wasn't dead. Like The King, unless a blade genuinely pierced straight through him, he seemed impossible to kill. Sure enough, after crashing down, Wu Xu slowly stood back up. *At least he's crippled; no need to worry about him,* Theodore thought. Erupting with all his might a second time, his vision violently blurring, he still chose to slash toward the iron armor. It was still accompanied by howling thunder... Zhu Jiaming and Rusty Sister stood side by side, bracing themselves for a desperate stand. But suddenly—*Boom!* A wall came from behind them, surging toward Theodore. People saw the wall. It was made of sand and soil, not particularly thick, yet continuously growing, perhaps tens of meters high, rising straight from the sand crater in the ground. Extending outward and upward, the earthen wall curved slightly inward. *Boom!* In Theodore's blurred vision, the wall reared up, sweeping over to envelop him. ...Theodore pulled back his slash, holding his blade as he landed and stood firm. Only at this moment did voices finally return to the scene: "What is that?" "I don't know," people murmured. Rusty Sister, Wu Xu, and the Little Prince whipped their heads around; everyone turned. As if the scene were slowing down, that battered figure once again slowly emerged from the sand crater, dragging his column sword behind him. Only this time, something seemed different. "What's different about him?" people wondered in confusion. They watched as he first raised an arm and vigorously wiped the blood from his face. Then he lowered his head, meticulously patting the sand and dirt off his suit. "He seems to be muttering something..." "Yeah. Wait..." "Look at his face!" Flames rekindling atop several abandoned lighthouses illuminated the view. In plain sight, the man suspected to be Major The Qing, Ah Jing of the Azure Dragon Gang... on his face, where the bloody water had just been wiped away with his sleeve, there was no scar... none at all. Lynne and Jenna, turning their heads at the same time, caught his profile and silhouette from their angle. Even though they should have already pieced together most of it by now, the two of them still stood completely frozen in place... Then, at the edge of the crater, dragging his column sword, Han Qingyu looked up, pointed at the tattered, sand-covered black suit he wore, and said: "It was very expensive. You're paying for it."