Chapter 46 When the Battle Begins

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Beyond the City of Chasing Light, at Broken Cliff Ridge.

Night descended over the mountain range, where the trees stood withered and bare. Within the bases formed by stacks of cargo containers, groups of winged young men and women patrolled ceaselessly among the fields where tens of thousands of square meters had been planted with Blood Essence Rice.

Inside one of the containers, five middle-aged men and women wearing the armbands of White Feather Gang captains sat around a table. They ate rice cooked from Blood Essence Rice and savored wild-beast meat, causing the members patrolling outside to stare and drool with envy.

Blood Essence Rice was a delicacy that only a small number of people in the City of Chasing Light could afford. Wild-beast meat, though far less energy-rich than monster meat, was still vastly more delicious and refined than the synthetic food people ate every day in the city.

“Boss Lant, do you really think the Azure Crystal Weapon Shop is willing to pay three hundred thousand to ransom her?” asked a burly man with a triangular pair of eyes. He stood over two meters forty tall and wore alloy armor. As he gnawed on a piece of wild-beast meat, his gaze kept drifting toward Luo Qi, who was tied to an iron table nearby. “This woman is certainly attractive by human standards, but I remember the owner of the Azure Crystal Weapon Shop is from the Three-Eyed tribe. Those people are all as crafty as monkeys. Would he really be willing to pay such a huge sum? Could she be that old shopkeeper’s illegitimate daughter?”

“Mai Ti, do you think there’s still more profit to squeeze out of this?” Lant, a tall, dark-skinned, heavily built man seated in the middle of the group, glanced at the triangular-eyed man, greed flickering in his gaze.

“I don’t know.” Mai Ti shook his head slightly. “I just think that when we demanded an exorbitant price from the Azure Sparrow Gang earlier, we were hoping they would fall out with the Azure Crystal Weapon Shop. Even if we killed one of the weapon shop’s employees, the shop might still have had a grudge against us—but they probably wouldn’t have worked with the Azure Sparrow Gang again. After all, if the gang couldn’t even protect their own employee, how could they possibly cooperate in the future?”

“But who would have thought the Azure Crystal Weapon Shop would actually be willing to ransom her? If this woman has nothing to do with that old fellow, I doubt anyone would believe it.”

“Indeed. When someone from the Azure Crystal Weapon Shop arrives, let’s see if we can squeeze a little more out of them.” Excitement shone in Lant’s eyes as he looked toward Luo Qi. “The vice gang leader offered a bounty of three hundred thousand. I was still worrying about how to gather the money. Now we won’t have to pay a single bit of it ourselves. We can count this as compensation for the cargo we lost before. If we can get anything extra, that will be our personal income.”

“Boss Lant, weren’t you interested in that set of A6-grade armor from the Azure Crystal Weapon Shop?” teased a wild-looking winged woman who was eating meat nearby. “Why not make them hand over another set this time? With A6-grade armor, you could certainly compete for the sixth vice gang leader position the gang master is establishing this year. Then all of us could benefit from it too.”

“A set of A6-grade armor?” Lant swallowed, his gaze toward Luo Qi growing even hotter.

At present, his physical attributes were only at the intermediate apprentice level, with a strength of just over four hundred kilograms and a speed of fifteen meters per second.

With his A4-grade armor, he could barely contend with an advanced apprentice who wore no armor. But if he could obtain A6-grade armor worth more than a hundred thousand, he could absolutely stand on equal footing with those advanced apprentices.

Competing for the sixth vice gang leader position established by the gang master this year was entirely within reach.

The White Feather Gang valued strength above all else. The higher one’s position, the greater the benefits one received. The Blood Essence Rice and wild-beast meat that captains like them were allowed to eat were nothing special to a vice gang leader.

The White Feather Gang’s vice gang leaders could occasionally eat monster meat and sometimes receive martial guidance from the gang master. Each of them could command two hundred men. They were on an entirely different level from the heads of the planting bases, who could command only fifty.

Bound at the side, Luo Qi felt utterly despondent.

Although she had no idea why the Azure Crystal Weapon Shop was willing to spend three hundred thousand bits to ransom her, that amount was an astronomical sum for an ordinary employee like herself—so much that she could never repay it even if she were stripped of everything she owned.

“Boss, someone’s arrived outside. They say they’re here to ransom the prisoner,” a regular member of the White Feather Gang suddenly ran in to report.

“They’re finally here.” Lant abruptly rose to his feet. “I’ve been feeding this woman for so many days for nothing. The Azure Crystal Weapon Shop is going to pay for it.”

He glanced at the triangular-eyed man beside him. “Bring the others. We’re going to take a look.”

The other four White Feather Gang captains laughed and followed him, taking Luo Qi with them.

Outside the White Feather Gang’s planting base.

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Lant led a group of subordinates out of the barbed-wire-wrapped base at a brisk pace. At the entrance stood a large three-wheeled vehicle with three people beside it. All three were short, standing under two meters tall—so short that they looked as though they had not even started middle school.

Lant’s expression immediately darkened.

“Has the Azure Crystal Weapon Shop run out of people? Why did they send a bunch of brats like you?” he growled at Lin Qi.

He had originally assumed that Luo Qi must be the old shopkeeper’s illegitimate daughter and therefore someone of great importance.

But now they had sent three cripples. What profit could there possibly be in this?

When Luo Qi, still bound, saw the three people, her eyes widened in disbelief.

She had imagined many people who might come with the money to ransom her, but she had never once imagined Lin Qi.

“We’re only here to ransom someone. We don’t care about anything else.” Lin Qi’s tone was utterly calm. “You hand over the prisoner, and we’ll hand over the money. You’d better not cause trouble. If word gets out, the White Feather Gang can forget about making a living in the City of Chasing Light.”

“Since our White Feather Gang said the ransom was three hundred thousand, then it’s three hundred thousand.” Lant impatiently glanced at the triangular-eyed man beside him. “Mai Ti, let her go.”

“Yes.”

The triangular-eyed giant nodded and undid Luo Qi’s restraints.

This was the wilderness outside the City of Chasing Light, right outside the White Feather Gang’s planting base. They had no fear that Lin Qi and the others would take Luo Qi without paying. No matter how they looked at it, the three visitors were lucky if they possessed the strength of quasi-apprentices. They could never outrun true apprentices like themselves.

As Luo Qi walked toward him, Lin Qi signaled to the two people beside him, Luo Wushang and Zhang Qingwei, to hand the metal chest containing three hundred thousand bits over to the White Feather Gang.

“So exciting! This is way too exciting! As expected of a team dungeon—there are actually this many people!”

“Why couldn’t the Hall Master choose me to go along?”

Hidden in the dead forest, the twenty-eight players led by Twilight of the Gods gazed at Luo Wushang and Zhang Qingwei two hundred meters away, their envy impossible to conceal.

The first priority of this extermination mission was to rescue the hostage. The second was to kill every member of the White Feather Gang.

Based on their earlier observations, there were quite a few people at the White Feather Gang’s planting base—more than forty in all. To prevent any of them from escaping, the best opportunity to strike was during the ransom exchange, when everyone would be gathered in one place.

Thus, they had devised a plan. Luo Wushang and Zhang Qingwei would first lure the monsters over, causing them to converge in response to the disturbance. Once enough monsters had gathered, the others would make their move.

Unfortunately, luring monsters required considerable strength and skill, and too many people could not accompany them. In the end, only Luo Wushang and Zhang Qingwei had been selected.

For a moment, every player hidden in the dead forest stared fixedly at the two women, waiting for the signal to attack.

Outside the White Feather Gang’s planting base.

As Luo Qi reached Lin Qi’s side, Luo Wushang and Zhang Qingwei carried the metal chest and began walking step by step toward Lant and the other four captains.

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Thirty meters...

Twenty meters...

Ten meters...

When Luo Wushang and Zhang Qingwei were less than five meters from Lant and the other four, the two women suddenly erupted into action.

From one side of the metal chest, Luo Wushang drew a pitch-black Blacksteel Arrow. Zhang Qingwei likewise pulled out another Blacksteel Arrow. They swung the weapons toward Lant and the triangular-eyed giant.

“They dare to attack us?”

“They’re courting death!”

Lant and the others were first enraged when they saw the two women charge at them. But when they noticed the weapons in their hands, astonishment followed.

Arrows?

What were they trying to do?

The White Feather Gang members behind them were dumbfounded as well.

They had encountered plenty of vicious people in the wilderness, but never anyone so fierce and brazen as these two women. Each had charged forward wielding nothing but a single arrow, as though they had no idea what death meant.

Before anyone could recover from their shock, the Blacksteel Arrow in Luo Wushang’s hand transformed into six streaks of black light, while the arrow in Zhang Qingwei’s hand became three dark shadows, all shooting straight toward Lant and Mai Ti.

Quasi-warrior martial technique: Star-Pointing!

Quasi-warrior martial technique: Wave-Stacking Blade!

Luo Wushang and Zhang Qingwei moved so quickly that even Lant and the triangular-eyed giant, whose physical attributes had reached the apprentice level, could not follow them for a moment.

Fortunately, both men were wearing alloy armor.

Six deep arrow marks appeared across the armor protecting Lant’s chest. He staggered backward three steps before managing to steady himself. As for the triangular-eyed giant beside him, his A3-grade armor caved inward under the blow. He spat out a mouthful of blood and crashed heavily into the barbed wire.

“How is this possible?”

Every member of the White Feather Gang present was stunned.

Two seemingly crippled human women had used nothing but a single arrow each—one to drive back the head of the base, the other to severely injure Mai Ti, an apprentice-level captain.

It was as though reality itself were playing a cruel joke on them.