Since We're Friends, Not Enemies, Hurry Up and Let Go
With his Soul Bone receding, Su Chen's toes touched the crown of a century-old red maple tree three miles outside Windwatch Post.
To prevent the innkeepers from taking hostages in a desperate act, Ning Rongrong and Poison Douluo Dugu Bo, following Su Chen's instructions, stayed behind at the mountain pass two miles behind to provide support and block the road, while Su Chen led four of the most mobile battle spirit masters to infiltrate and scout ahead.
Looking ahead through layers of crimson maple leaves, the Windwatch Post at the throat of the Official Road was completely surrounded by three layers of barricades and chevaux-de-frise.
The towering watchtowers were adorned with the purple lightning flag of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan and the bright yellow dragon flag of the Heaven Dou Pseudo Dynasty. Every ten steps, a patrol of armored soldiers moved back and forth.
"The guards are lined up quite densely; even the drainage ditch on the back wall is fenced with iron bars," Xiao Wu said in a low voice. "Su Chen, which way should we start?"
Just as Su Chen was about to activate his Delusion-Breaking Divine Pupils to investigate the inner courtyard, a very faint sound of a dry branch breaking suddenly came from a thicket of bushes thirty paces to his left!
A lithe, fiery red figure, taking advantage of the morning mist, crouched low and crawled out of a collapsed dog hole in the backyard of the inn, running wildly along the edge of the maple forest towards the Official Road to the west.
The girl was about fourteen or fifteen years old, tall and voluptuous. Her long, dark red hair was tied into a neat high ponytail, and dark gold leather short armor tightly covered her full and firm chest and slender waist. Her long, shapely legs created a trail of hot air as she ran.
"It's Huo Wu from the Blazing Fire Academy!"
Shui Bing'er had fought Huo Wu more than once at the Northern Elements Academy, and she recognized the fiery red figure at a glance, whispering a reminder.
Huo Wu, fleeing through the forest, was extremely anxious. This morning, the convoy had just entered Windwatch Post when it was forcibly detained by the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan. The two Veteran Teacher leading the convoy were immobilized with pressure points and imprisoned in the dungeon, and her brother, Huo Wushuang, had been injured while protecting the girls from the Plant Academy.
Taking advantage of her agility, she slipped out through a hole in the back wall during a shift change, intending to rush to the mountain town ahead to seek help from the garrison of the Balak Kingdom. However, as soon as she rushed into the maple forest, the dead branches under her feet made a noise!
Hearing a faint breathing sound coming from the treetop on her right, Huo Wu, filled with Evil Fire and anxiety, changed her expression drastically, assuming that she had run into a hidden sentry set up by the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan Rex outside the forest.
"Get out of here!"
Huo Wu a sharp cry, Huo Wu struck first! Four Soul Ring, two yellow and two purple, suddenly lit up beneath her feet, and a blazing, dazzling orange-red Fire Shadow Martial Soul appeared behind her. The Soul Power of a level 43 Control System Battle Soul Ancestor erupted without reservation!
The third Soul Ring shone brightly— the Repelling Fire Ring!
A violent, orange-red wave of fire, more than five meters in diameter, exploded outwards from Huo Wu's center. At the same time, her palms, wreathed in scorching heat, transformed into two fiery whips that aimed straight at Su Chen's face below the tree canopy!
"You're courting death!" Zhu Zhuqing's eyes turned cold, and she swayed slightly as she prepared to cut in and intercept.
"Don't move, leave it to me."
Su Chen stepped down from the tree branch, casually extending his right hand. A faint crimson-gold light appeared on the surface of his palm as he grabbed Huo Wu's slender, fair right hand!
Huo Wu's third Soul Skill, the Repelling Fire Ring, which even ordinary Soul King dared not directly confront, was like a gentle flame colliding with the Lord of the Furnace the moment it touched the crimson-gold aura in Su Chen's palm!
The raging orange-red flames didn't even make a ripple before being forcefully suppressed by an overwhelmingly domineering superior pure yang fire!
"What?!"
Huo Wu's pupils contracted sharply, and a storm raged in her heart.
Her Fire Shadow Martial Soul was a rare, top-tier fire-attribute Martial Soul, but in the hands of this young man, she felt as if her flames were a trembling child, unable to even muster the slightest thought of struggling!
She desperately tried to pull her wrist back by channeling her Soul Power, but the boy's fingers were as steady as a mountain, and he gently pulled her wrist back with a backhand motion.
Huo Wu stumbled, her hot and alluring body uncontrollably crashing into Su Chen Su Chen, less than half a foot away, her full breasts almost touching his chest!
A strong masculine aura mixed with the pure yang heat that made her Martial Soul spirit tremble and feel close to it rushed towards her. Huo Wu felt a tingling sensation in the wrist that was being held, and half of her body went limp.
"You... you let me go! You lackey of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, have the guts to kill me!"
Huo Wu was both shocked and furious. Her left leg reflexively bent at the knee and aimed at Su Chen's lower abdomen, but Su Chen gently pressed down on the back of her knee with his left palm.
"Huo Wu Dance, look carefully, we are not from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan."
Above the treetop, Shui Bing'er, along with Shui Yue'er, Xiao Wu, and Zhu Zhuqing, nimbly leaped down.
Shui Bing'er approached and, looking at Huo Wu's face filled with shame and indignation, said Huo Wu, "This is Su Chen, the captain of the Dragon God Team. I am Shui Bing'er. We came all the way from Glazed Tile Fortress City to rescue you."
"Shui Bing'er?!"
Huo Wu suddenly turned her head and saw the Shui Bing'er and Shui Yue'er sisters. Then she looked up and carefully examined the handsome young man who was standing close by. She was instantly stunned.
The great earthquake that occurred in the Heaven Dou Imperial City these past few days has already spread far and wide. Su Chen, with his five rings all black, severely injured Tang San, who possessed Twin Martial Souls, at the Meridian Gate of the Imperial Palace, and broke through the Vermilion Bird Barbican. Yesterday, he even burned down the three thousand heavily armored cavalry of the Pseudo Dynasty in the North Wind Canyon!
He had just mistaken this killing machine for a spy of the puppet regime, and even overestimated himself by trying to burn him down with fire?!
The thought of her proud, Repelling Fire Ring being extinguished by a single, casual hand, and her current embarrassing position, almost pressed against his chest, made Huo Wu's ears turn bright red, and her voice unconsciously lowered by half a syllable:
"You... you're Su Chen? Since we're friends, not enemies, let go of my hand immediately!"
Su Chen glanced at her reddened earlobes, loosened his fingers and withdrew his palm. In that brief exchange, he had already sensed that Huo Wu's body had accumulated a lot of violent fire poison due to her forceful breakthrough to the Soul Ancestor realm, which was just right for his Pure Yang Ancestral Dragon True Fire to train.
"How many enemy troops are in the inn now? Who is leading them?" Su Chen asked bluntly.
Huo Wu rubbed her slightly burning wrists, suppressing the strange palpitations in her heart. Her expression turned anxious and serious again. "Su Chen, you've come at the right time! The front courtyard of the inn is surrounded by five hundred heavily armored soldiers and people from the Thunder Academy. The one who came forward to force us to surrender is Lei Zhen, the vice dean of the Thunder Academy! In addition, a group of black-clad experts from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan are staying in the inner courtyard. My brother, Huo Wushuang, guesses that there is at least one Soul Douluo of level eighty or above among them, but that person hasn't shown up yet!"
She gritted her teeth and said hatefully, "They took our Blazing Fire, Divine Wind, and the Veteran Teacher leading our teams from the Plant Academy hostage. Just now, Lei Zhen herded everyone to the front square and forced us to sign a blood pact to be the vanguard in attacking the Red Iron Ridge Mine. The Plant Academy is all girls, and they refused to sign, so that old bastard Lei Zhen used them as scapegoats. When I slipped out, my brother had just been injured. If I had been any later, Liu Qingqing and Jiang Zhu from the Plant Academy would have been killed!"
"Using female students to threaten and force you to resign? Let's go straight in through the main entrance!"
Without further hesitation, Su Chen led Huo Wu and Xiao Wu, the four women, and turned to rush out of the maple forest, heading straight for the main gate of Windwatch Post.
At this moment, the atmosphere in the square in front of Windwatch Post had reached its peak.
Five hundred elite armored soldiers, armed with long spears and powerful crossbows, completely surrounded the three-hundred-foot-square Blue Stone courtyard.
On the east side of the courtyard, Feng Xiaotian, the captain of the Godwind Academy, was pinned to the ground by three Five-Ring Soul King with sharp halberds held to his neck, unable to move, his eyes bloodshot as he stared at the scene.
At the foot of the stone steps in the center of the square, Huo Wushuang, the captain of the Blazing Fire Academy, knelt in a pool of blood. His clothes were charred and torn on his chest, and his mouth was full of blood, clearly indicating that he had just suffered a serious injury.
Behind him, seven female students from the Plant Academy, led by Captain Liu Qingqing and Healing-type Soul Master Jiang Zhu, huddled together tightly.
These young girls, who were usually delicate and fresh like hothouse flowers, were now disheveled and pale, cornered by more than ten grinning Soul Master from the Thunder Academy and the puppet dynasty army.
On the high stone platform, a gaunt old man with a hooked nose and wearing a purple brocade robe stood imposingly with his hand on his sword!
Beside him, Yu Tianxin, captain of the Thunder Academy, crossed his arms and coldly looked down at his former peers.
"Huo Wushuang, you dare to act like a hero in front of me with your level 42 Fire Tyrannosaurus?"
Lei Zhen stomped his foot on the Blue Stone in front of Huo Wushuang, letting out a sinister laugh from beneath his hooked nose. He then turned his small, triangular eyes and greedily scanned the curvaceous bodies of Liu Qingqing and Jiang Zhu in the corner of the wall.
"Liu Qingqing, I've already given your Plant Academy plenty of face. There are only two quarters of an hour left until noon. When the time comes, will I strip you little beauties naked? Hahahaha!"
The dozens of puppet North Korean officers around him immediately burst into lewd laughter, their vulgarities filling the air.
"Lei Zhen! As the Soul Master Academy, how could you commit such a vile and despicable act!"
The captain of the Plant Academy, Liu Qingqing, was so frightened that tears welled up in her eyes, but she still bit her lip and opened her arms to protect Jiang Zhu and her sisters, conjuring a green vine in her hand and pointing it at her own throat.
"Dean Lei! The Plant Academy and Blazing Fire Academy belong to the Heaven Dou Alliance with us. If you let them go, tomorrow when we attack the Red Iron Ridge Mine, count Godwind Academy in!" Feng Xiaotian, with a halberd held to his neck, shouted anxiously, his eyes darting around looking for Huo Wu's figure.
"Shut up! Godwind Academy is meant to be at the forefront, what right do you have to haggle?"
Lei Zhen snorted impatiently. Seeing that Liu Qingqing dared to threaten suicide, a fierce glint flashed in his eyes, and seven Soul Ring— two yellow, two purple, and three black—suddenly lit up beneath his feet.
His figure blurred into a streak of purple lightning, his withered, eagle-claw-like right hand reaching directly for Liu Qingqing's emerald green collar:
"Before me, a level 76 Soul Saint, you'd be lucky to die! Let me tear off your clothes first to entertain everyone!"
The sharp claw wind sealed all of Liu Qingqing's acupoints, and Jiang Zhu and the girls from the Plant Academy closed their eyes in despair and cried out.