Chapter 219: Shadow Guards
Chapter 219: Shadow Guards
September 25, 2017
Total Annihilation?
Over five thousand allied forces wiped out? How is that even possible?
The first to snap out of their shock weren't the elite families but Li Xiong, who burst into laughter upon hearing the news, tears welling up in his eyes.
Li Xiong knew this was the perfect opportunity to drive a wedge between the elite families and Wang Hao. By finding a scapegoat among the Qiangyin families and making an example of them, he could intimidate the entire group.
Once the elite families were subdued, it would only be a matter of months before Li Xiong could create a favorable external environment for Lu Hai Kong. With the Qiangyin side stabilized, Lu Hai Kong would be free to expand his mountain stronghold and conquer the grasslands.
Although the process had been arduous, the outcome made it all worthwhile.
"I told you that you were playing with fire," Li Xiong began, "Our business was doing well, but you insisted on getting involved with the Wang family. Now..."
As Li Xiong spoke, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in the back of his head, and his vision went dark as he collapsed.
To everyone's surprise, it wasn't Wang Hao who struck, but the middle-aged scholar.
The scholar tossed aside the chair he had been holding and ordered his men to take the unconscious Li Xiong away. Then, with a confident smile, he strolled to the center of the room...
...
The middle-aged scholar was quite eloquent. Despite the annihilation of the allied forces and his role as the mastermind behind the incident, he managed to suppress the unease, fear, and, most importantly, the anger that the elite families felt, which could easily be directed at him.
Facing a mountain stronghold capable of annihilating five thousand allied troops, it was best for the elite family alliance to avoid collapsing.
Since Li Xiong had been knocked out by the scholar, no one could drive a wedge between the families, so they temporarily united.
What the Qiangyin families didn't expect was that, as soon as the day turned, Wang Hao and his group quietly slipped away.
The middle-aged scholar was well aware that no one in the elite family alliance was a fool. They had formed this alliance for mutual benefit, and although it had barely held together until now, without a common interest, there was no guarantee how long it could last.
Moreover, what if the Qiangyin family suddenly decided to push the Wang family forward to bear the brunt of Lu Hai Kong's wrath? This was a very likely scenario, so shortly after calming the Qiangyin family, the middle-aged scholar also slipped away. After all, they were in Dingxiang Prefecture, far from Lu Hai Kong. He didn't believe Lu Hai Kong would bring his army all the way there, and even if he did, the prefecture's troops weren't just for show.
With the Wang family gone, the Qiangyin families descended into chaos. At this point, all five families involved deeply regretted their decision, but it was too late.
...
Coincidentally, the Flame Battalion that Lu Hai Kong had sent to the Flowing Camp near Ma Pian was the same group that had delivered the letter and blade before.
However, their previous task had been to simply drop off the items and return. This time was different; they needed to enter the Flowing Camp and find Ma Pian.
It was just a refugee camp, and the Flame Battalion members had been to countless such places. They had no reason to believe that entering a refugee camp would pose any difficulty for them.
The members of the Flame Battalion, mostly Data NPCs, felt a surge of unease as they entered the territory of the Flowing Camp. Their emotional resilience was significantly weaker than that of the Indigenous NPCs, and even as they ventured into the camp, they did so with trepidation, likely due to the area being deserted by locals.
Despite their anxiety, the Flame Battalion members managed to infiltrate the camp. Their stealth techniques, honed through real-world combat experience, were sufficient to deceive the common folk, making infiltration into a relaxed tribal camp relatively easy. However, using these techniques to infiltrate the Flowing Camp seemed somewhat comical.
The Flame Battalion members proceeded with caution, and although their path was unobstructed, they were unaware that their stealth had been compromised long ago, with hundreds of people already keeping a close eye on them.
These individuals, with their disheveled hair and foul stench resembling beggars, lacked the vital energy of living beings, appearing more like lifeless corpses than actual people.
As hundreds of people parted to make way, a single figure stepped forward, and it was none other than Ma Pian.
Ma Pian, compared to a month ago, had clearly improved significantly. The extreme madness that once dominated his face was now barely visible, though his disheveled appearance remained starkly different from those around him.
Ma Pian recognized this group, as their bodies carried the distinct aura of the mountain camp, without which they wouldn't have been able to venture into the Flowing Camp.
"Did the Lord send you here?" Ma Pian's voice trembled as he spoke of the Lord.
"The Lord asks, can you kill?" One of the Flame Battalion members, relieved of some pressure, replied.
Upon hearing these words, Ma Pian's eyes instantly turned red. For two months, since his arrival at the Flowing Camp, he had been waiting for these words.
"Yes!"
"Then get ready, let's go kill together!" The Flame Battalion member, imitating Lu HaiKong's tone, spoke as he took out a letter from his chest and handed it to Ma Pian.
As Ma Pian looked at the letter, he trembled once more, wiping the dirt from his hands before accepting it. Seeing the familiar handwriting on the envelope, Ma Pian's eyes turned red again.
After carefully reading the letter word by word, an overwhelming killing intent surged from Ma Pian's body.
"Shadow Guards, listen up! Let's go kill together!"
On this day, Ma Pian and his Shadow Guards, for the first time, stepped out of the Flowing Camp, exuding an air of infinite terror...
(End of Chapter)
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