CHAPTER 198: AMBUSH

Mr. Ling, the one who supplied the implants to the group of young adults who had a grudge against the Blood Scars Gang, was standing in a convertible SUV among the motorcade that appeared last. As he watched the fierce fighting below him, he said excitedly, “We came at the right time. Let’s wait a little until they fight to the death. Then, we’ll swoop in to rake the benefits. The most valuable thing Black Orchid had ordered this time were the nutritional injections. They might have gotten some combat praying mantises as well. Once we get them, we can live easily for the rest of our lives.”

Calorie and nutrient dense nutritional injections sold like hotcakes in the black market. Their prices had been driven up to an unprecedented level. Even so, there were people who kept buying them. The moment some showed up, they were gone.

After selling these goods, Mr. Ling would no longer have to stay in this remote place.

He could go anywhere he wanted.

He had poured every last cent the senior leadership gave him for operations into purchasing information. Clearly, he had made the right choice. Time had shown that Tranquil Fields’ information was trustworthy.

He turned around and shouted in the direction of an SUV behind him, “Xiao Xiao!”

A person wearing a hoodie jumped out of the SUV and walked over. While his eyes were sunken, they shone with a ghastly light, and he gave off a murderous air.

Mr. Ling looked him over in satisfaction. He had thought Xiao Xiao would only live for about two months after receiving the implants, but apparently his body was especially suited for implants. He had received the full implant surgery and was able to bring out thirty percent of their power, which was the maximum that normal people could do.

The company even promised to reward him handsomely for finding such a good test subject. Of course, it was just a promise. They hadn’t actually rewarded him.

Xiao Xiao had contributed greatly when they ambushed the Blood Scars Gang. With all the fighting, he had become quite familiar with his implants.

But the repeated usage had increased the burden on his body. Xiao Xiao often felt sore and swollen and started shouting for no reason. Aside from anti-mutation medicine, he also had to take medicine to be able to go to sleep every day.

Mr. Ling pointed at the armored groups firing at each other. “What do you think? Can you take them out?”

“Watch me,” Xiao Xiao replied confidently.

A dozen people walked over from behind him and said, “We’ll provide cover for you.”

Xiao Xiao was not alone. He had a team full of people with implants. Some of them joined the team after he defeated the other armed groups in the wilderness, and some of them were young adults from Smoked Hills. They hadn’t had any expectations for the future, but after obtaining the ability to fight with the implants, they found new hope.

Xiao Xiao looked down. They had to find a good chance. Once both sides were heavily injured, they could jump in.

There was practically no cover in the wilderness. After the tires of the cars were blasted through, the two groups could only rely on the armored cars to provide them cover while they shot at each other. The sound of gunshots rang through the area, and the sparks from muzzles lit up everywhere.

The group attacking Black Orchid Co. was well-prepared. After their first wave of attacks forced Black Orchid Co. to stop, they released large dragonflies with red lights shining from within their stomachs.

The dragonflies arrived above the Black Orchid Co. team in an instant and exploded, releasing large amounts of green liquid. Some of them fell on the armored cars, some on the ground, and some on the Black Orchid Co. members.

The places the liquid touched melted away and released a pungent smell.

The small toxic dragonflies were also products from Compound Eyes. They carried special toxins that were not just highly corrosive, but also released an incredibly poisonous gas.

Even though some of the Black Orchid Co. members wore masks, they were helpless against the corrosive liquid. When more dragonflies lifted up, a large number of them were forced to leave the motorcade, but that left them without a cover, and they had to rely on their protective gear to ward off the gunfire.

But they didn’t just stop fighting and wait for their deaths. They dragged a few boxes out and released the combat praying mantises they had injected with nutritional injections. The moment the boxes opened, the praying mantises jumped out and charged forward after receiving a gestured command.

Two combat praying mantises spread their wings and charged into the enemy in the span of two breaths. They swung their raptorial claws, and in an instant, they cut the ones in their way to shreds.

Xiao Xiao and his team were about to charge over, but when they saw this, they came to a screeching halt. They knew how to fight against armed people, but bio-weapons? Not only were those things fast, they could also fly. How on earth were they supposed to win against them?

***

“They’re really going at it,” Lao Feng commented.

A team member in charge of reconnaissance came over and said, “We’ve checked, Sir. The team on the slope are amateurs. They should be a private armed squad sponsored by someone rich.”

Lao Feng nodded. “Send a few more of ours to keep an eye on them.”

Then, he made a sign, and the team beside him spread out to begin their operations.

He observed the fight for a little while longer. When the Black Orchid Co.’s team was starting to get the upper hand, he turned to Chen Chuan. “We need a sword now. Do you think you can take them on?”

“I can try,” Chen Chuan answered. He had been observing the fight as well. There were no Third Limit martial artists among them, so the situation before him was perfect for him to show his skills.

He plunged the Frost King Saber’s sheath into the ground and sucked in a deep breath with both internal and external breathing. Then, he grabbed the hilt with both hands and drew the saber out.

Once the blade was completely out of its sheath, he caressed the back of it. With the help of his breathing, the crimson line on the back of the saber instantly became startlingly red.

With his eyes trained forward, Chen Chuan took a step forward, and the ground cracked. Then, everything around him seemed to slow down.

In Lao Feng’s eyes, Chen Chuan was beside him one moment, and the next, he was gone. All he felt was a gust of wind that made his scarf flutter.

Chen Chuan ran down the slope, and in just a short few seconds, he arrived where the fighting was happening. He adjusted his stance and positioned the Frost King Saber beside him before charging forward.

The two sides only felt a gust of wind blowing past them. A few of them had been shooting, but in the blink of an eye, they found their upper bodies falling from the rest of their bodies.

One of them was at the Second Limit and noticed something, but he only had time to turn around and cast a glance at the spot next to him before his head flew off his neck.

The two combat praying mantises had been massacring their targets when they noticed the threat and turned to charge at Chen Chuan.

The combat praying mantises’ bodies were sliced into several segments before falling on the ground.

Chen Chuan’s gaze remained calm. The two praying mantises he encountered in the old factory had danced around him, which made them difficult to take down, but these two had been given orders to attack aggressively, thus giving up their advantage in agility to fight him head-on. There was nothing to say about this, because it allowed Chen Chuan to kill them the moment they rushed him.

All the others saw was someone barge into their fight, flit about a bit, and a large number of severed bodies fall on the ground. The two combat praying mantises were also instantly cut apart. The rapid gunfire in the area grew scattered before fading into complete silence.

Then, a person armed with a saber appeared at the center of the skirmish and walked around to see whether there were any survivors. The headlights from the SUVs turned to him, and under the summer night sky, they highlighted someone wearing a black trench coat with his face covered by a scarf. His saber shone with a chilling, sharp, and eye-catching light.

Someone finally realized what had happened and cried out in a panic, “It’s a Third Limit martial artist!”

The expressions of Tranquil Fields employees who had stayed further away to watch the fun changed. With a Third Limit martial artist around, their lives were in danger too. They immediately started retreating as quickly as they could to get away. They even left some people behind them to hold him back.

Mr. Ling’s expression turned sour, while Xiao Xiao and his group watched in stunned silence. What had transpired down there completely surpassed their understanding. What on earth had just happened?

Thank goodness they hadn’t rushed down. If they had, they would have ended up dead along with the others. The thought made their faces go pale, and they started trembling.

Chen Chuan turned around in the direction where Tranquil Fields had fled. A well-built man stood in his way.

When Chen Chuan was killing the people, the man’s gaze was fixed on him, which made it clear that he could follow his movements. However, this man didn’t give him the same feeling as Tan Wang.

The man took out a needle and stabbed himself in the neck, then threw the needle away. In the blink of an eye, his eyes turned bloodshot, and his breathing grew labored. His body also grew bigger.

A team leader from the National General Affairs Bureau saw this and immediately said, “Sir, this should be Rampage, Tranquil Fields’ new drug. Martial artists with unique physiques can stimulate their mutated tissues with it and get a temporary boost to their fighting power.

“That man has incredible reflexes and coordination and should be doing the same thing as Chen Chuan. Even though he hasn’t reached the Third Limit, he can become as strong as a Third Limit martial artist with Rampage.”

Lao Feng knew that Chen Chuan didn’t use any medicine, but he didn’t correct the team leader.

Chen Chuan went over to the man, and the man drew out two sharp knives from his waist. After a brief stalemate, they charged at each other.

While running, Chen Chuan swung his saber, but the man tilted his head and used his shoulder to bear the full force of the slash. When the saber landed, Chen Chuan felt a resistance.

A flicker of surprise appeared in his eyes. He had fought against people wearing protective gear and implants before, and he could cut all of them in half. This was the first time he ran into such a situation.

A vicious look appeared on the man’s face. He sped up and used the momentum to thrust the two knives forward.

Chen Chuan flipped his saber-wielding hand. The back of the saber returned to his shoulder, while the hilt was directed in front of him. At the same time, he thrust his shoulder forward, causing the hilt to ram into the man’s shoulder before his knives could touch him. It caused the man to stumble.

Chen Chuan then used the force generated from the crash to stop moving. He flipped his wrist and brought his saber down in a diagonal slash. With a whoosh, the man’s head flew off and fell to the ground. It bounced a few times before coming to a stop.