"Ahhhhhhh!!"
The heart-rending scream jolted Li Fei awake from the shock of killing someone for the first time.
A man in a dark-gray robe charged toward Li Fei, a blade in hand and a savage look on his face.
From the information he had obtained beforehand, Li Fei knew this man was probably a senior Tranquil God Sect believer and might well know arcane techniques, so he instinctively grew wary.
The person he had just killed seemed to have been very close to the man, which was why the man's eyes were filled with hatred when he looked at Li Fei.
From the way he held his blade and the speed of his burst, it was obvious that he had trained in martial arts.
The distance between them rapidly closed. Just as they were about to clash, the man suddenly flung something at Li Fei with his left hand.
Li Fei's heart jolted. He immediately retreated, lowering his head and raising his arm to shield himself.
He thought the man had thrown lime powder, but it was actually just a yellow piece of Talisman Paper.
At the same time as he threw out the Talisman Paper, the man made a strange sound with his mouth, like a crow cawing.
As soon as the sound rang out, the Talisman Paper burst into flames without fire.
The next moment, Li Fei felt something invisible rushing toward him—and then there was no next moment. He froze for an instant, only to see the man's blade hacking toward him. Almost instinctively, he used the Rolling Thunder Stance again.
His blade swept down from the upper right to the lower left, crashing violently against the other man's blade.
Clang—
The man's blade was knocked aside. Li Fei immediately twisted his wrist, reversed his grip, and whipped his blade upward, slashing from the lower left to the upper right.
"You—"
The man stared at Li Fei in astonishment.
He could not understand why his Tranquil God Talisman had no effect on Li Fei.
The Tranquil God Talisman was the fundamental talisman of the Tranquil God Sect. It could rapidly induce sleep. Even when used against a martial artist with firm willpower and abundant Qi and Blood, it could still make drowsiness surge over them and scatter their attention, causing them to reveal an opening.
Yet judging from Li Fei's reaction, the Tranquil God Talisman had had absolutely no effect on him! The man promptly retreated a step and leaned backward to evade Li Fei's upward slash, then immediately swung his blade at Li Fei's arm.
And so the second thing that surprised him happened. Li Fei actually neither dodged nor evaded, allowing him to slash at his arm.
Whoosh—
His blade tore through Li Fei's clothes and struck his right arm—the one holding the blade—with solid force.
But the sensation was not like cutting flesh. It was more like striking a tire filled with air. The blade only left a shallow mark on Li Fei's arm, without even breaking the skin.
The third surprise.
The man was horrified beyond measure. The successive surprises had cost him his final opportunity. At the same time as he struck Li Fei's arm, Li Fei swept his blade across the man's throat.
Anyone who had killed before knew that once the great artery in the neck was severed, blood would gush out. If one stood in the wrong place, it was easy to be drenched in it.
Li Fei naturally had no such experience, so he was drenched head-on. His face and Stab Proof Vest were splattered with blood, and the intense stench of it drilled straight into his nose, making him feel sick.
But there was no time for him to feel sick. Gunshots rang beside his ears, and an arrow even struck his lower abdomen, though it failed to pierce the steel plate of his Stab Proof Vest.
This was the danger of being the First to Ascend!
"Get up here!"
Lu Changwu shouted loudly.
He had also dispatched one man quickly just now, and together with Li Fei, he had temporarily cleared a safe area on the platform.
The people below climbed up the wooden wall one after another. Li Fei pulled the arrow lodged in his Stab Proof Vest free and charged toward the nearest Tranquil God Sect believer.
The man was holding a Native Gun. He had just fired it and was now reloading.
The Native Gun was loaded through the breech, one round at a time. Its rate of fire was very slow.
Seeing Li Fei charge toward him, the believer immediately tossed aside the Native Gun, which he had not yet finished loading, picked up a blade from the ground, and stabbed at Li Fei.
From the man's posture, Li Fei could tell that he had never trained in martial arts. Li Fei knocked aside the incoming blade with the back of his own, then smoothly pressed his blade edge against the other blade and pushed forward along its surface.
With a single Mountain-Pushing Stance, he easily cut into the man's wrist, forcing him to drop his blade, then swept his own blade across the man's throat again.
This time, having learned his lesson, Li Fei promptly dodged to the side and avoided being drenched in blood.
When he turned around, preparing to deal with the next enemy, he saw several people in the distance turning and fleeing.
"Go!"
Li Fei called out to the people who had just climbed onto the platform, preparing to continue killing his way forward and open the stronghold's gate.
Hearing him, the others stared blankly at him, unable to react for a moment.
Li Fei's face was now covered in blood. His black Stab Proof Vest had been dyed red, and his murderous appearance completely overturned his usual gentle, upright image.
"Go!"
Lu Changwu was still the first to recover. He called out and ran toward Li Fei.
The others followed one after another.
Several ladders had been placed behind the platform, but Li Fei did not climb down them. That would be too slow.
The platform was more than three meters high, so he chose to jump straight down.
Lu Changwu and the others imitated him, leaping off the platform one after another.
"Stop them!"
At that moment, another senior Tranquil God Sect believer in a dark-gray robe came running over with more than a dozen fresh troops.
Fortunately, these people were not carrying guns. They all held ordinary weapons, and some even had hoes in their hands.
Li Fei looked at the senior believer in the dark-gray robe, drew a deep breath, and turned to the others. "Go open the gate!"
After saying that, he actually charged straight at the dozen or so people opposite him! Lu Changwu hesitated upon seeing this. He did not charge forward with Li Fei, instead turning around and heading with the others to open the stronghold's gate.
Seeing Li Fei charging over alone, the senior Tranquil God Sect believer immediately revealed a savage expression.
"Looking for death! Charge with me!"
He took the lead, with a burly man wielding a blade on either side of him as they advanced toward Li Fei.
As the distance between the two sides narrowed, Li Fei and the leading senior believer made almost identical moves.
They both forcefully raised their left hands and threw something ahead of them.
The senior believer threw a Tranquil God Talisman, while Li Fei threw a packet of lime powder.
Whoosh—
The white lime powder scattered through the air, enveloping all three of them at once.
The senior believer was hit in the face with lime, but he still made that sound like a crow's caw.
The Talisman Paper burst into flames in midair without fire.
Completely unaffected, Li Fei continued charging forward and hacked at the other man with his blade.
"Ah!"
The senior believer let out a shriek and was cut down by Li Fei.
At that moment, one of the burly men charging alongside him recovered and swung his blade at Li Fei.
This man had only been obstructed by the lime for a moment. Unlike his companion, he had not gotten lime in his eyes, so he was able to provide timely assistance.
Li Fei shifted to a two-handed grip, twisted his waist and turned his hips, then suddenly spun and swept his blade horizontally toward the left!
Clang—
The blades clashed, sending a spray of sparks flying.
The burly man on the left felt a tremendous force crash into him. The blade flew from his hand and was sent spinning away, and then Li Fei cleaved through half his neck with a single stroke!
Li Fei spun and swung his blade toward the right, cutting down the burly man whose eyes had been struck by lime.
Only then did he have time to lower his head and look at the senior believer in the dark-gray robe lying on the ground.
"You—"
Pfft—
Li Fei drove his blade into the man's chest.
The dozen or so people who had come with the man were so frightened that they no longer dared move forward.
By then, Lu Changwu and the others had opened the stronghold's gate. Lu Sheng and the others, who had been waiting at the entrance, happened to witness the scene: Li Fei, drenched in blood, plunging his blade into the chest of a senior Tranquil God Sect believer in front of more than a dozen enemies!