Rabble

Rabble

"What was that?!"

Luo Dongbao was horrified. His spiritual senses suddenly blared a frantic warning in his sea of consciousness. With no time to think, he could only barely raise a golden iron ring blade before his chest.

Clang!!

The bronze halberd slammed into the ring blade, only slightly reducing its force. In the blink of an eye, the ring blade warped and then shattered.

"Damn it, my artifact!"

Luo Dongbao's expression twisted. Ignoring the pain in his heart, he surged his mana through his body and used the force of the collision to retreat rapidly, finally dodging that terrifying strike.

Boom!

The bronze halberd continued onward and plunged into an open patch of ground nearby, blasting a huge crater into it.

Xiao Liang's expression changed as well. The crater in the ground was comparable to one made by a cannonball. Fortunately, the attack had been aimed at Luo Dongbao, who was in Late Qi Refining. If it had come at him, he would probably have been severely wounded.

Thud, thud, thud!

Several dozen steps away, the mechanical puppet withdrew its throwing stance. Its arms swung as it took huge strides toward them.

It moved rather stiffly at first, but after several steps, it grew faster and faster. In the end, it was as swift as a savage beast, stirring up a violent gust of wind!

"It's a guardian puppet. Its grade is unknown, so be careful, everyone! I never thought this thing would still be here after several hundred years!"

Yu Guang's face darkened as he shouted a warning. He raised an arm before him and poured mana into it. A beast-head armguard flared brightly, forming half a shield of light in front of him.

The Guan siblings looked somewhat panicked. Standing shoulder to shoulder, they formed hand seals, preparing to unleash a combined spell. Together, their attack could erupt with the power of the Mid Qi Refining Stage.

"Ah... sorry!"

Unfortunately, Guan Lin looked at the vicious puppet charging toward them at high speed, her hands trembling. She quickly made an error while forming the seals, causing the spellcasting to fail.

With no spell to hinder it, the puppet's speed rose to its limit.

Bang!!

The guardian puppet soon collided with Yu Guang, producing a dull, thunderous boom as a ring of force exploded outward.

The beast-head armguard was Yu Guang's prized defensive artifact. Though its light flickered wildly, it had ultimately blocked the attack.

But once the guardian puppet steadied itself, it suddenly threw a heavy punch with its right hand. The shield of light could no longer hold and immediately retracted into the armguard.

Yu Guang's face went pale, and the punch sent him stumbling back more than ten steps.

Only when his feet sank three inches into the ground did he finally stop.

"A peak first-rank puppet, comparable to the ninth level of Qi Refining! Its entire body is impervious to blades and spears—we can't fight it head-on!"

Guan Qiu was horrified. He grabbed Guan Lin's wrist, then slapped out two talismans with two sharp smacks. A gust of wind wrapped around the two of them.

Xiao Liang saw clearly that they were Light Body Talismans that increased movement speed!

But what he had not expected was this.

The siblings picked a direction opposite the puppet without saying a word, turned around, and fled.

"Useless fools who only ruin things!"

Seeing the Guan siblings run away, Luo Dongbao cursed inwardly without end.

But then he noticed that Yu Guang, who had taken the attack head-on, was also hesitating. He had clearly begun considering escape as well, and Luo Dongbao immediately grew anxious.

A peak first-rank puppet possessed astonishing combat strength and seemingly endless stamina. With Luo Dongbao's strength at the eighth level of Qi Refining, fighting it alone would make victory or defeat impossible to predict.

"The difficulty of this mission has changed. The previous one-nine split will become two-eight. Anyone who stays to fight, I, Old Luo, definitely won't treat them unfairly!"

Luo Dongbao shouted reluctantly, yielding another share of the profits. Yet Yu Guang, Qin Long, and Xiao Liang showed little reaction.

Xiao Liang even shook his head inwardly. Anyone with eyes could see that this powerful puppet was impossible to confront at the moment, yet Luo Dongbao was still fretting over how to divide the profits.

And he still wanted to take the largest share for himself.

Sure enough, greed had clouded his mind.

He had originally thought Luo Dongbao possessed some special method, but now it seemed that he was simply greedy and lucky.

"Fellow Daoist Luo, this is not the time to discuss profit-sharing. If you have no powerful methods, I will not fight alongside you."

"With this puppet's strength, this expedition has already exceeded its intended difficulty. We have the right to refuse your command."

Qin Long, who had always seemed mysterious, stared solemnly at the terrifying puppet before her and spoke coldly.

"Exactly. At worst, I, Old Yu, will give up those fifty Spirit Stones. Why risk our lives?"

Yu Guang narrowed his eyes and glanced sideways at Luo Dongbao. Anger simmered in his heart, and his attitude was no longer polite.

He had just discovered that after that brief exchange with the puppet, a crack had appeared in the armguard he treasured as dearly as his life. His heart ached, and he became even more wary of the enemy before him.

Xiao Liang narrowed his eyes and said nothing. He merely kept his gaze fixed on the puppet, secretly activating Ghost Shadow Step as he considered what methods he could use if he had to fight it.

He wondered how effective a shoulder-fired rocket launcher would be against it. Its power should be no weaker than an attack from Late Qi Refining, right?

Combined with Pandora's ability to fly, he had some confidence in protecting himself.

"You... Hmph!!"

Luo Dongbao's expression turned utterly ugly. He had not expected to encounter such a troublesome enemy at the very beginning of this expedition, and his offensive artifact had just happened to be destroyed.

The small rewards he had promised were no longer enough to motivate these teammates, each with their own agenda.

Seeing that the situation could not be salvaged, Luo Dongbao's heart turned malicious. He sneered.

"Since you refuse to join hands with me against the enemy, then flee for your lives!"

After speaking, Luo Dongbao reached into his storage pouch.

A small bronze bell flew up, spinning through the air. It expanded in the wind, then dropped over him with a dong.

The guardian puppet stepped forward and punched the bronze bell, producing a resounding clang.

Luo Dongbao and the bell were sent flying sideways. He looked pathetic, but he had not suffered much damage. While still in midair, he withdrew the defensive bronze bell.

His body moved, and like a large ape, he scrambled up a rock wall at the foot of the mountain, vanishing into the distance in the blink of an eye.

Having lost its enemy, the guardian puppet immediately locked its hostility back onto the three people still present.

"Everyone, farewell!"

Yu Guang had been knocked flying earlier, so he was now the farthest from the puppet. He raised a shield of light and chose a direction to retreat.

Qin Long frowned. She had originally intended to fight.

If Luo Dongbao had possessed some powerful means, she would have been willing to make a move. Yet unexpectedly, he had simply given up and run first.

Seeing this, she sighed and took several steps back as well.

Seeing that everyone was preparing to part ways.

Naturally, Xiao Liang would not stand on ceremony with these strangers he had only met by chance. Though his trump card of modern firearms could likely damage the puppet.

Those things became scarcer with every use, and even if he defeated the puppet, he would not gain much benefit for himself.

As a demonic cultivator, it was already decent of him not to take advantage of the chaos. Taking a loss was absolutely out of the question.

He did not even bother with a perfunctory farewell. Ghost Shadow Step immediately surged to full speed, and he stepped onto nearby boulders, leaping several times before escaping more than a hundred paces away.

Before leaving, Xiao Liang glanced back and discovered that the puppet paused briefly where it stood. After retrieving the bronze halberd, it pursued Qin Long, the white-robed female cultivator.

Before long, intense mana fluctuations and the faint sound of a sword ringing came from the distance!

It seemed that the woman was not skilled in escape techniques and had not fled far. Her luck was also poor, as the puppet had locked onto her. She had begun fighting it now, though it was unknown whether she could escape with her life.

A fifth-level Qi Refining cultivator against a puppet comparable to the ninth level of Qi Refining would likely fare badly.

"Tch. Outstanding swordsmanship is all well and good, but if your escape speed is lacking, you really won't live long. What a pity."

(End of Chapter)