Xiao Meng pulled the black cloth on his face down a bit to expose his mouth, yet even so, Jia Lie Nu recognized him.
Jia Lie Nu was stunned, and those guards who were just about to charge in were dumbfounded.
The fellow before them was actually a member of the Xiao Clan? And furthermore, he was the past Xiao Meng who had been called the ultimate trash.
Xiao Meng shrugged and said, A bunch of morons, isn't that your Meng Lord right here?
In truth, as far as the Gale Clan was concerned, Xiao Meng had the lowest presence. If not for Xiao Meng killing Liu Xi, a six-star Dou Zhe, with a single move not long ago, they probably would have forgotten who Xiao Meng even was. After all, over these years, Xiao Meng had lived in seclusion, and let alone people from the Gale Clan, even people from the Xiao Clan rarely managed to see him.
Yet who would have thought that this ultimate trash of the Xiao Clan hid his abilities quite deeply, and to call him a once-in-a-millennium genius would hardly be an exaggeration. But right at this moment, they discovered that this fellow was not just a once-in-a-millennium find—damn it, you wouldn't run into such a fierce monster even once in a hundred thousand years.
Looking at the youth blowing smoke rings, Jia Lie Nu's pupils constricted, and the murderous intent in his heart surged drastically.
If Xiao Meng didn't die, the Gale Clan would surely perish.
"Ah, this thing can only refresh the mind and restore a certain amount of Soul Force. If it had the added function of restoring stamina, it would be simply perfection." Xiao Meng took a fierce drag, his face full of enjoyment.
"Kill him! Hack this little bastard into a thousand pieces and chop him into minced meat!"
Jia Lie Nu's expression was ferocious, and the murderous intent welling up in his gaze grew even more intense. At this moment, he actually spared no cost to boost his battle prowess, unleashing an unprecedented and terrifying attack.
"Bah!"
Watching the twenty-odd people charging over, Xiao Meng didn't care in the least and spat out a thick glob of phlegm.
With one hand on his hip, a cigar clamped in his teeth, and smoke swirling around him, he raised his right hand, revealing the AK-47. His posture could be described as extremely arrogant, and if he were to put on a black windbreaker, he would be the picture of a classic underworld boss.
"Go to hell!"
Jia Lie Nu erupted into motion, his spear growing closer and closer.
Suddenly, for no reason, a chill swept through his entire body, and his hair stood on end as if he had been locked onto by the Grim Reaper.
His gaze instantly locked onto the AK-47 pointed straight at him.
The pitch-black iron barrel magnified in his pupils. It looked like a tunnel leading to the Hell Gate, as if the Grim Reaper descended into the mortal world right from there.
His intuition told him that this was an incomparably terrifying object, and he had to retreat immediately, or even immortals coming down wouldn't be able to save him.
Clang!
The trigger was pulled, making a sound like a striking musical instrument.
"Oh no..."
Seeing a ball of intense flames erupt from that iron barrel, Jia Lie Nu was frightened out of his wits. He forcefully halted his forward momentum and then frantically blasted backward in full retreat.
The speed of the fireball was beyond imagination.
It finally grew to the size of a human head, shooting fiercely right toward Jia Lie Nu.
The fireball tore through space, suddenly blooming with blinding radiance, and immediately after, Jia Lie Nu could be seen retreating frantically, shooting away like a cannonball.
Bang!
Several hundred meters away, Jia Lie Nu, a Four-Star Da Dou Shi, fell to the ground and failed to get back up. Looking closely, one could see that his entire upper body was gone.
Yet the moment Jia Lie Nu retreated, those guards of the Gale Clan subconsciously stopped in their tracks and ceased charging forward. It was just that before they could figure out what had happened, their Second Elder, Jia Lie Nu, had gone flying.
Seeing Jia Lie Nu's miserable state, the lot of them grew rigid and plunged into immense panic. They raised their heads to look at Xiao Meng, as if they were looking at a demon from hell.
Xiao Meng exhaled a puff of smoke, shifted his right hand, and the muzzle of the AK-47 pointed straight at those guards. Without a single hesitation, he pressed the trigger, and bullets fired in quick succession.
Eight Nine-Star Dou Masters exploded without any suspense. After all, these were bullets capable of taking down a Four-Star Da Dou Shi; mere Dou Masters were simply not enough to look at.
Following closely, Xiao Meng's figure rushed out like a phantom, killing the remaining people in three strokes and two moves.
After resolving everyone, he rested for a moment before he finally started collecting his spoils of war.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Finally, he kicked all the corpses and carriages off the cliff, swiftly cleaned up the battlefield, and then vanished into the darkness.
The Gale Clan.
"It's already almost dark, why haven't the Second Elder and the others returned yet?" In the grand hall, Jia Lie Bi paced back and forth restlessly, a faint, bad premonition lingering in his heart.
"Logically speaking, the Second Elder is cautious by nature, and he will definitely send the medicinal ingredients back at top speed to avoid any unexpected complications."
An elder said in a deep voice, "Yet he still hasn't returned by now. Could it be that he ran into trouble on the road?"
"Running into trouble is a minor matter, let's just hope nothing has gone wrong." Liu Xi's master still wore a calm expression and spoke with utter nonchalance.
Snap!
As soon as those words left his mouth, a precious piece of jade that Jia Lie Bi had been holding in his grip instantly turned into powder, and the atmosphere in the hall abruptly grew oppressive.
"Send out all the remaining scouts and have them gather news of the Second Elder and the others..."
At noon the following day.
"What did you say? The Second Elder and the others are all dead?" Hearing the disastrous news, a wave of fury surged straight to the crown of Jia Lie Bi's head, almost causing him to faint on the spot right then and there.
At that moment, everyone's expressions changed drastically as they abruptly stood up. They felt a wave of dizziness wash over their heads, and even Liu Xi's master lost his composure, his heart turning cold.
Seven or eight black-clad scouts knelt on the ground, their bodies trembling slightly with fear and anxiety.
A scout trembled and said, "We searched along the route the Second Elder and the others traveled, and only today did we find the corpses of several clansmen near a cliff edge. Later, when we went to the bottom of the cliff, we discovered that those escorting the medicinal ingredients, including the Second Elder, had all perished without a single survivor."
Jia Lie Bi was struck as if by lightning. With a pale face, he stumbled back a few steps, his heels suddenly going soft before he dumped his backside into the chair behind him, staring blankly with a completely scrambled mind.
Jia Lie Nu was one of the Gale Clan's only three Da Dou Shi, and furthermore the strongest expert second only to him. Therefore, Jia Lie Nu's death directly shook the very foundation of the Gale Clan.
Seeing everyone's panicked and uneasy reactions, the scouts kneeling on the ground also looked ashen. In their minds, they couldn't help but recall the miserable state of the Second Elder Jia Lie Nu—the Second Elder, a Four-Star Da Dou Shi, had been beaten until only the lower half of his corpse remained. If not for a special birthmark on the Second Elder's foot, they absolutely would not have been able to identify that as Jia Lie Nu's body.
"Do you know who killed the Second Elder?" After a long while, Jia Lie Bi finally slowly recovered his wits, his voice carrying a trace of hoarseness and even a hint of panic.
Jia Lie Nu's death dealt him far too great of a shock.
"We don't know."
The guard shook his head, then thought about it and said, "However, there should have been two people who killed the Second Elder."
"Two people?" Jia Lie Bi was slightly stunned, then asked, "On what grounds?"
"The time of death for the Second Elder and the others wasn't long ago—it was probably the night before yesterday. So we found some residual energy on the corpses of the Second Elder and the others: first, flames, and second, lightning," a scout replied.
"Flames? Lightning?" Jia Lie Bi's expression turned cold. He instantly thought of that black-robed person who had rescued the Xiao Clan that day.
"Flames? This was definitely done by the Xiao Clan!" An elder roared with split eyes, bloodshot pupils, and towering rage.
"Yet who in the Xiao Clan practices lightning elemental force? Moreover, none of the Xiao Clan's experts have gone out these past few days," an elder who hadn't completely lost his reason questioned.
"Seventh Elder, don't forget that that black-robed person is an alchemist. Finding a few helpers would be as easy as turning over his hand for him."
Another elder retorted, "If not the Xiao Clan, who else would target my Gale Clan with such brutality? If not the Xiao Clan, who within a radius of several hundred miles around Wutan City has this kind of strength to kill the Second Elder, who had already broken through to a Four-Star Da Dou Shi, leaving him without even a chance to escape?"
With these words said, it practically sealed the verdict that Jia Lie Nu was killed by the Xiao Clan.
"Dammit all! Xiao Zhan, I will make sure not a single chicken or dog is left alive in your Xiao Clan!" Jia Lie Bi roared angrily. He was simply going to be driven mad by rage; they hadn't even done anything to the Xiao Clan yet, and instead, the Xiao Clan had killed one of their Second Elders.
"It seems that black-robed person might be an old acquaintance of mine," Liu Xi's master said abruptly after sitting in silence for a moment.
Jia Lie Bi's expression paused as he asked, "Why would the Master think so?"
"The reason the Xiao Clan secretly intercepted and killed Jia Lie Nu was clearly for that batch of medicinal ingredients."
Chang Shan said, "If they didn't know what kind of medicinal pill I wanted to refine, how could they go to such great lengths to intercept Jia Lie Nu and snatch the ingredients? So this person has a certain understanding of me and should know what kind of pill I want to refine."
"That is to say, this person is extremely wary of the kind of pill the Master wants to refine, otherwise they wouldn't have made a move to intercept the medicine?" An elder's pupils shrank sharply as he spoke in a deep voice.
"The type of pill I want to refine allows a Da Dou Shi to improve their cultivation by nearly two minor realms in a short period of time. How could it not make people wary?" Chang Shan said indifferently.
Jia Lie Bi's expression hardened. Then, he abruptly stood up, looked toward an elder with a mustache shaped like the character for eight, and said, "Fifth Elder, you immediately take out all the savings in the treasury. At all costs, purchase another fifteen portions of the medicinal ingredients on the formula the Master provided. In addition, just to be safe, this batch of medicinal ingredients will be split into three groups of people to be escorted."
The Xiao Clan—I am definitely going to wipe them out.
Before you continue