Chapter 48: Aftermath

White Feather Gang Cultivation Base.

"Dead?"

"The boss was an intermediate apprentice, how could he possibly lose to someone who isn't even an apprentice?"

The four remaining team captains of the White Feather Gang looked at Lante, who had been instantly killed, and fear gripped each and every one of them. Even though Floating Cloud had taken Lante down with a mutual destruction move, Lante was the only intermediate apprentice in the base. With him dead, they had no possibility of winning this battle anymore.

Right now, just Luo Wushang and the injured Zhang Qingwei were enough to require all four team captains to suppress them, while the Grey-Clothed Gang still had nine experts comparable to apprentices present.

To put it bluntly, the two sides were fighting on completely different levels.

"Run!"

"Everyone run! Go report this quickly!"

"Grey-Clothed Gang, just wait! This matter will absolutely not end here. The terror of our White Feather Gang is beyond your imagination!"

Instantly, the four team captains exchanged glances, almost simultaneously reaching the exact same decision.

Run!

After joining a gang, every member was bound to it. Especially those stationed in a specific territory; the gang demanded they hold their ground to the death. Anyone who showed cowardice in the face of battle would be executed directly by the gang afterward. Therefore, turf wars between gangs were exceptionally brutal.

However, there was one type of permitted retreat within the gangs: when the disparity between the two sides was simply too vast, fleeing was allowed. Although there would still be punishment afterward, those penalties were far lighter than death.

There were still over twenty surviving members. As long as they scattered and fled, they would surely break through the signal-blocking zone and notify the other members of the White Feather Gang.

Once they contacted the White Feather Gang's headquarters, the Grey-Clothed Gang would be doomed.

In an instant, all twenty-three White Feather Gang members turned around and bolted, especially the four apprentice-level captains, who each fled in a different direction.

Just as the White Feather Gang members turned to escape, a few remarks from the players present nearly caused the White Feather Gang members to suffer a mental breakdown.

"Look at that! These mobs are so smart, they actually know how to run for their lives!"

"Damn it! These mobs are so hateful. They'd rather let those archers get the credit than us. Do we have a grudge against them?"

"Do you think the game wants us to practice the Leopard Shadow Step, which is why it's making these mobs run all over the place?"

"You know what? This game would totally do that. I haven't practiced my Leopard Shadow Step much, and it's only at 10% mastery. Which of you can let me have one of these mobs later so I can practice? I'm not greedy—just let the mob run out of the base, and you guys can finish it off then."

The players watched the scattering White Feather Gang members and chatted leisurely, making the fleeing White Feather Gang members feel like they were losing their minds before they had even taken a few steps.

What kind of lunatic gang was this, damn it?

It would be one thing if individuals were mental patients, but it turned out these lunatics had all practiced martial arts techniques like the Leopard Shadow Step. Were they terrified that these psychos wouldn't be able to catch people?

Martial arts techniques were such precious commodities; ordinary people couldn't learn them even if they wanted to. Yet the founder of the Grey-Clothed Gang had actually taught them to a bunch of lunatics. Did the founder of the Grey-Clothed Gang have to be so ruthless?

For a moment, inside the White Feather Gang's cultivation base, every fleeing member had a player chasing closely behind them, shouting as they ran.

Run!

Run faster!

Why are you running so slowly?

As for the four fleeing team captains of the White Feather Gang, they weren't nearly as lucky. They were treated entirely as elite monsters by the twelve players led by Luo Wushang, who were all vying for first blood.

After just a few exchanges, the four White Feather Gang captains were swarmed and beaten to death.

Meanwhile, at the main entrance of the White Feather Gang's cultivation base, until the battle came to a complete end, Luo Qi, standing beside Lin Qi, still hadn't recovered her senses.

With a mere thirty people, they had directly taken down a cultivation base of the White Feather Gang, and the number of casualties on their side was a mere five. Such combat power could only be described as terrifying.

However, what made one's scalp truly tingle was the fact that all of these people had mastered martial arts techniques.

Although Luo Qi didn't know if everyone in the Grey-Clothed Gang had learned martial arts techniques, learning such things was extremely costly. Normally, in gangs operating out in the wilderness, only a tiny fraction of the team captains had the fortune to study them, along with figures at the level of vice-boss and above.

As for the gangs in the outskirts of the city, only the team-captain-level members had mastered them; ordinary members still had no chance to learn.

Yet here in the Grey-Clothed Gang, a group of people who clearly weren't even apprentices had all mastered martial arts techniques, and some even knew more than one.

A gang like this was simply terrifying!

"Lin Zi, did you join this gang too?" Luo Qi looked at Lin Qi, her gaze complex.

Although this Grey-Clothed Gang was formidable, joining a gang meant living in constant peril, lacking control over one's own destiny, and frequently getting dragged into turf wars.

From Luo Qi's perspective, the sudden attack by the Grey-Clothed Gang was likely because Lin Qi had joined them and persuaded them to come attack the White Feather Gang. The price paid for this was entirely unimaginable.

"Consider it that way, I suppose." Lin Qi thought for a moment and nodded.

He figured it was better to let Luo Qi keep the misunderstanding. After all, it was hard for him to explain the matter of players, but if they were viewed as a mysterious gang, many things could easily be explained away.

"You must have paid a heavy price to bring these people here this time." Luo Qi looked at Lin Qi, who had tacitly admitted it. While a wave of warmth washed over her heart, she also felt a deep sense of self-reproach. She then said with utmost earnestness, "I am willing to bear this cost all by myself. No matter how many years it takes to pay it off, I will work my fingers to the bone to earn it."

"Pay it back?" Lin Qi looked at Luo Qi, who seemed distressed if she didn't do something to make amends, and after a moment of contemplation, he said, "There's no need for that. Our gang has been in need of quite a few weapons lately. Would you mind forging them with your own hands? Of course, the labor fee won't be lacking."

He was well aware of Luo Qi's craftsmanship. This was abundantly clear just by looking at the A5-grade black steel arrows she crafted.

Even though Luo Wushang and Zhang Qingwei had engaged in intense combat with the intermediate apprentice Lante for so long, the black steel arrows—despite clashing directly with A6-grade weapons—showed almost no damage. On the other hand, the protective gear worn by Lante and the other captains was completely ruined, which spoke volumes about the high level of the forging craftsmanship.

"You just want me to forge weapons?" Luo Qi looked at Lin Qi in surprise.

She considered her forging skills in the city outskirts to be quite decent. Although they couldn't compare to the shop owner's, they were still at the top tier; otherwise, the Azure Bird Gang wouldn't have specifically requested her to make weapons.

She had even prepared herself for the loss of a kidney, only to be told that she merely needed to craft weapons to pay off the debt. How could anyone believe this?

Hiring any gang to take action came at a price that ordinary people could never afford in a lifetime, let alone a gang as extravagant as the Grey-Clothed Gang, where every single member seemed to be made of gold. Five of them had died just like that—an ordinary person couldn't pay with their life even if they wanted to.

"Yeah, that should be it for now." Lin Qi nodded. Though he also wanted to mention crafting protective gear, weapons were currently the most urgently needed item for the Obsidian Martial Arts Academy.

From this battle, Lin Qi had seen things very clearly. If Luo Wushang and the others had been equipped with decent weapons, the battle wouldn't have been fought with such bitter casualties.

Although only five out of the thirty people had died, more than a dozen of the survivors were heavily injured, and the rest had sustained various injuries due to the backlash from the explosive use of martial arts techniques.

If players couldn't simply resurrect after dying, this would have amounted to total annihilation for the gang in a single battle, and their victory had been extremely narrow.

In a high-martial world, player resurrection wasn't an on-the-spot revival; they could only respawn in the confinement room of the Obsidian Martial Arts Academy. This meant that if a player died out in the wilderness, they were completely out of the fight, and by the time they ran back, the battle would already be over.

Shortly after, Lin Qi arranged for the players to quickly sweep the battlefield, taking everything of value from the White Feather Gang's cultivation base that could be carried away. They didn't even leave behind a single unripe stalk of Blood Spirit Rice for the White Feather Gang, loading everything onto carts. Whatever couldn't be loaded was put to the torch, leaving nothing behind.

"The White Feather Gang truly lives up to its reputation as a top-one-hundred gang. Even a single cultivation base is so wealthy. Good thing the White Feather Gang had a medium-sized vintage transport truck and two large tricycles, otherwise there really wouldn't have been enough room to haul it all."

Lin Qi looked at the four fully loaded carts, drove the vintage transport truck, and led the group back to the Obsidian Martial Arts Academy.

As Lin Qi and the others quietly returned to the Obsidian Martial Arts Academy under the cover of night, the Human Refugee Zone was sent into an uproar once again. In fact, it wasn't just the Human Refugee Zone—numerous refugee zones across the city's outskirts were sent into a frenzy.

The White Feather Gang's wilderness cultivation base had been completely wiped out!

Not a single living soul was left behind!

This news spread like wildfire, sweeping through all the major refugee zones.