Aftermath

White Feather Gang Plantation Base.

"Dead?"

"The boss was an intermediate apprentice. How could he possibly lose to someone who wasn't even an apprentice?"

The White Feather Gang's remaining four captains stared at Lante, who had been killed in an instant, and all of them were terrified. Even though One Leaf Floating Cloud had taken Lante down by perishing together with him, Lante had been the only intermediate apprentice at the base. With him dead, they had no chance whatsoever of winning this battle.

Just Luo Wu Shang and the injured Zhang Qingwei alone required all four captains to suppress them, while the Gray Robe Gang still had nine experts who rivaled apprentices.

It could be said that the two sides were fighting on entirely different levels.

"Run!"

"Everyone, run! Go report this!"

"Gray Robe Gang, just you wait! This matter will never be let go! The terror of our White Feather Gang is beyond anything you can imagine!"

The four captains exchanged glances, then almost simultaneously made the same decision.

Run!

After joining a gang, every member was bound to it for life. This was especially true for those stationed in a particular location—the gang demanded that they defend it to the death. Anyone who feared battle would be directly eliminated afterward, which was why clashes between gangs were always exceptionally brutal.

However, there was one kind of retreat permitted within gangs: when the disparity between the two sides was simply too great. They were allowed to flee then. Though they would still be punished afterward, those punishments were far lighter than death.

There were still more than twenty surviving members. As long as they scattered and fled, they could surely escape the interference range and notify the White Feather Gang's other members.

Once they contacted the White Feather Gang headquarters, the Gray Robe Gang would be dead meat.

For a moment, the twenty-three White Feather Gang members all turned and ran. The four apprentice-level captains in particular fled in four separate directions.

Yet as the White Feather Gang members turned to flee, a few words from the players present nearly made them break down.

"Look! These monsters are so smart—they actually know to run for their lives!"

"Damn! These monsters are way too hateful. They'd rather let those archers have the loot than give it to us. Do they have some grudge against us?"

"Do you think the game wants us to practice Leopard Shadow Steps, so it made these monsters run all over the place?"

"Don't say it—the game really might pull something like that. I barely practiced my Leopard Shadow Steps, and I'm only at 10% Beginner now. Later, can one of you give me a monster so I can practice? I'm not asking for much. Just let it run out of the base before you kill it."

Watching the White Feather Gang members scatter in every direction, the players chatted unhurriedly among themselves. The White Feather Gang members, who had not even run more than a few steps, felt as if they were about to go mad.

What kind of deranged gang was this?

It would have been one thing if they were all lunatics, but every one of these lunatics had also trained in martial techniques like Leopard Shadow Steps. Were they afraid these madmen might not be able to catch people?

Martial techniques were so precious that ordinary people could not learn them even if they wanted to. Yet the founder of the Gray Robe Gang had taught them to a bunch of lunatics. Did the Gray Robe Gang's founder really have to be this ruthless?

For a time, the White Feather Gang plantation base was a sight to behold: every fleeing White Feather Gang member had a player chasing behind them, shouting as they ran.

"Run!"

"Run faster!"

"Why are you running so slowly?"

As for the White Feather Gang's four fleeing captains, they were not so fortunate. Luo Wu Shang and the other twelve treated them as elite monsters—existences whose first blood had to be fought over.

After only a few exchanges, the White Feather Gang's four captains were beaten to death by the group.

At the entrance to the White Feather Gang plantation base, Luo Qi, who stood beside Lin Qi, remained unable to come back to her senses even after the battle had completely ended.

Only thirty people had directly taken down one of the White Feather Gang's plantation bases, and only five of their own had been killed. Such combat power was terrifying.

But what made her scalp tingle even more was that all of them had mastered martial techniques.

Although Luo Qi did not know whether everyone in the Gray Robe Gang had learned martial techniques, martial techniques were extremely expensive to learn. In a normal gang active in the wilderness, only a tiny number of captains had the fortune to learn them, along with people at the rank of deputy gang leader and above.

Even among the gangs in the suburbs, only captain-level members possessed them. Ordinary members still had no opportunity to learn them.

Yet the Gray Robe Gang before her was filled with people who were clearly not even apprentices, and they had all mastered martial techniques—more than one, at that.

Such a gang was simply terrifying!

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

Although this Gray Robe Gang was powerful, joining a gang meant living each day unsure of seeing the next, with one's fate no longer in one's own hands, and being dragged into gang brawls every so often.

In Luo Qi's eyes, the Gray Robe Gang had likely come here because Lin Qi had joined them and persuaded them to attack the White Feather Gang. The price he had paid was something she did not even dare imagine.

"More or less." Lin Qi thought for a moment, then nodded.

He decided it was better to let Luo Qi continue misunderstanding. It would not be easy for him to explain the players, but if there was a mysterious gang, many things could be explained.

"You must have paid a huge price to bring these people here this time." As Luo Qi looked at the Lin Qi who had admitted it, warmth rose in her heart, along with deep guilt. She then said earnestly, "I'm willing to bear those costs alone. No matter how many years it takes to repay the money, I'll work myself to the bone and earn it."

"Repay money?" Lin Qi looked at Luo Qi, who seemed as though she would feel terrible if she did not do something. After pondering for a moment, he said, "There's no need for that. Our gang needs quite a few weapons lately. Could I trouble you to forge them personally? Of course, the wages definitely won't be low."

He knew Luo Qi's craftsmanship well. One only had to look at the A5 Black Steel Arrows she had made to understand.

Even after Luo Wu Shang and Zhang Qingwei had fiercely fought Lante, an intermediate apprentice, for so long, the Black Steel Arrows had suffered barely any damage despite clashing against an A6 Grade Weapon. In contrast, the protective gear on Lante and those captains had all been battered out of shape, showing just how superb the forging craftsmanship was.

"I only need to forge weapons?" Luo Qi looked at Lin Qi in surprise.

She considered her forging skills quite good in the suburbs. Though she could not compare to a shop owner, she was still at the top tier. Otherwise, the Green Sparrow Gang would not have specifically named her to make weapons.

She had even prepared herself to lose a kidney, yet he was telling her that she only needed to repay him by forging weapons. How could she dare believe it?

The price of hiring any gang to act was absolutely not something an ordinary person could bear in a lifetime. Not to mention a gang as extravagant as the Gray Robe Gang, where every member seemed forged from gold. Five had died at once—ordinary people could not compensate for that even with their lives.

"Mm, that should be all for now." Lin Qi nodded. Though he wanted to mention making protective gear as well, weapons were what Obsidian Martial Arts Hall lacked most urgently at the moment.

From this battle, Lin Qi had already seen things clearly. If Luo Wu Shang and the others had possessed decent weapons, the battle would not have been so brutal.

Although only five out of the thirty had died, more than ten of the survivors were severely injured. The others had also suffered all kinds of injuries from the backlash of the bursts caused by repeatedly using martial techniques.

If players could not casually revive after dying, then for a gang, this would have been equivalent to the entire force being wiped out in a single battle. The victory had been exceedingly narrow.

In this high-martial world, players did not revive where they died. They could only revive in the confinement room of Obsidian Martial Arts Hall. In other words, if players died in the wilderness, they completely left combat. By the time others rushed over, the battle would already be over.

Afterward, Lin Qi arranged for the players to quickly clean up the battlefield. Everything in the White Feather Gang plantation base that could be taken was taken away. They did not even leave behind a single immature stalk of Blood Essence Rice. Everything was loaded onto vehicles, and anything that could not be loaded was burned in a fire. Nothing would be left behind.

"The White Feather Gang really deserves its place among the top hundred gangs. Even one plantation base is this rich. Good thing they had one medium old-fashioned cargo truck and two Big Three-Wheelers, or there wouldn't have been enough room."

Looking at the four vehicles filled to the brim with goods, Lin Qi drove the old-fashioned cargo truck and led everyone back to Obsidian Martial Arts Hall.

After Lin Qi and the others quietly returned to Obsidian Martial Arts Hall under cover of night, the human abandoned zone erupted once more. It was not just the human abandoned zone—even the many abandoned zones outside the suburbs erupted as well.

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

Not a single survivor had been left behind!

This news seemed to have grown wings, spreading directly across every major abandoned zone.