The soldiers of the Black Camp truly deserved their reputation as the Tante Kingdom's elite. Seeing Li Qiang fly toward them through the air, one squad immediately raised their spears and fired a volley at a commander's order, while another squad raised their arm shields together, forming a large defensive wall.
After they held him off briefly like this, large numbers of soldiers poured out of the passage behind them. Some carried strange weapons Li Qiang had never seen before.
Large numbers of prisoners who had failed to escape in time died beneath the Spine-Piercing Spears, their cries and wails mingling together.
The Black Camp's troops had gone mad too. They had originally intended to come down, make a show of force, kill a few people, and reorganize the Black Prison. They had never expected organized resistance, let alone so many casualties among their soldiers. Without consulting one another, the officers gave the order to massacre them.
Li Qiang was so furious that he cursed with a savage yell, "Motherfuckers... every last one of you... die!"
The Billowing Essence Battle Armor flashed wildly with golden light as energy spheres struck it. Li Qiang suddenly accelerated his downward swoop, making a terrifying whooshing sound, and plunged headfirst into the soldiers. In an instant, countless spear blades scattered outward, lighting up the entire Great Open Area.
With Li Qiang's landing point at the center, Black Camp soldiers were sent flying by this spear strike. The seven or eight closest to him died on the spot, while those slightly farther away were knocked unconscious by the shock. The standard-issue armor worn by the Black Camp soldiers did provide much stronger protection, after all. Without it, this single strike could have killed every soldier around him.
Li Qiang was thoroughly dissatisfied. He knew the situation here was completely different from Hanlin City.
The Black Camp commander, however, was shocked. This was far too terrifying. This man had killed so many of his men with just one strike. They, too, began yelling wildly.
Several Black Camp soldiers carried a strange, bulky device, hastily aiming it at Li Qiang.
"Get out of the way!" Wuya roared.
Slightly startled, Li Qiang flew into the air almost without thinking. A red light flashed, and a blade of light as large as a tabletop swept beneath his feet at incredible speed, striking the distant rocks. A thunderous crash shook the entire Great Open Area. Huge chunks of black rock broke loose, and smoke spread amid the rumbling.
"Shit! What is that thing?"
Li Qiang raised his hand and fired several golden eagles. The Eagle Strike Crossbow had become even more powerful after he refined it again. The fist-sized golden eagles flew into the air and cried out. Each actually split into two, diving toward the Black Camp soldiers.
The soldiers raised their arm shields to block. Sharp cracks rang out as the shields blasted apart, and the soldiers were flung away, clutching their mangled arms and screaming.
The Black Camp commander's eyes turned red as he kept shouting something frantically. More soldiers raised their Spine-Piercing Spears and fired wildly at Li Qiang. By drawing most of their fire, Li Qiang bought precious time for the remaining prisoners to withdraw.
Wei Yuanqing stood at the passage entrance and shouted, "Boss, fall back, quick..." The Crystal Origin Bow fired streak after streak of red light as he tried to cover Li Qiang's retreat.
In midair, Li Qiang was driven steadily backward by the Spine-Piercing Spears. His whole body looked like a great ball of light, and he was beginning to feel the strain. Seeing that nearly all his people had retreated into the passage, he abruptly moved, charging back into the soldiers like the wind. This time, he began dodging.
Li Qiang knew that although frontal attacks could kill the soldiers, they cost far more True Essence Power. Relying on his ghostlike movements, he deliberately circled behind the soldiers before striking and easily killed more than a dozen. The Black Camp soldiers began to panic, and their shooting grew erratic.
Under their officers' command, however, most of the soldiers continued attacking in an orderly manner, leaving Li Qiang few openings.
Li Qiang secretly admired them. This army's fighting strength was far beyond ordinary. Even with a cultivator's strength, he could not fight and kill as he pleased.
He was finding it increasingly strenuous and thought it was time to retreat. Catching sight of the red-armored commander out of the corner of his eye, Li Qiang smiled faintly at the soldiers firing wildly at him. His figure flickered, then suddenly vanished.
The Black Camp commander was roaring orders for his soldiers to attack when he suddenly felt his neck tighten and found himself dangling in the air. Terrified, he shrieked and flailed both hands wildly. He could scarcely believe it. Once an officer's armor activated its defenses, no one could get close. How had this man done it?
Holding the commander by the neck, Li Qiang flew backward toward the passage entrance.
Wuya's Sharp Cone Cannon finally fired a large sphere of light. He had been hesitating for fear of accidentally hitting Li Qiang. Only now, seeing Li Qiang retreat, did he fire a shot-his one and only shot.
The blue-green sphere of light drifted slowly down from above, striking a passage entrance dead center. A low, muffled hum sounded, and the Great Open Area shook again. Large numbers of Black Camp soldiers were blasted into the air. At last, the ceiling of the Great Open Area could no longer withstand the tremors and began to collapse.
The air filled with a scorched smell. With the glowing crystals shaken loose, the entire Great Open Area had grown too dark to make out anyone's figure. Only when a sphere of light from a Spine-Piercing Spear occasionally swept past could the survivors be dimly seen struggling.
Li Qiang and the others retreated safely into the passage. Wei Yuanqing said nervously, "Wuya, isn't that thing in your hands a little too powerful? You blasted the whole Great Open Area down."
Wuya gave a strange laugh. In truth, he had not known the Sharp Cone Cannon would be so powerful either. Unfortunately, it could only fire a single energy sphere.
Li Qiang said, "Let's go back and station soldiers at every passage entrance. The Black Camp soldiers probably weren't prepared this time. They won't be so easy to deal with next time. Damn it, the soldiers here are real bastards." Carrying the Black Camp officer, he added, "This fellow doesn't seem to be dead yet. Interrogate him as soon as we get back."
After suffering such a heavy blow, the Black Camp soldiers had no choice but to retreat. In this encounter, more than three thousand Black Prison prisoners were killed or wounded. Over a hundred Black Camp soldiers were killed, and more than five hundred were wounded. Most had been killed by Li Qiang, while others were buried forever beneath the fallen rocks in the Great Open Area.
The toughness of the Black Camp soldiers and their officers' organizational ability left a profound impression on Li Qiang. He was also blazing with anger over his own people's inadequate preparations.
When word spread, the Tante Kingdom's military was deeply shocked. It immediately mobilized five thousand troops to rush to the Black Camp, preparing to begin a purge.
The route was filled with wounded prisoners, groaning and wailing. Some curled up in dark corners of the passages, waiting for death to come. The air reeked of blood and foul odors.
When they returned to the pool gathering area, even more prisoners were there. Seeing Li Qiang and the others enter, every prisoner who could stand rose to their feet and watched them silently. Even the surrounding air seemed to grow heavy.
"All the bosses from every section, and everyone on our side ranked squad leader or above, get to my room..." The miserable sights along the way had left Li Qiang in an utterly foul mood. Ignoring everyone else, he turned and headed toward their usual meeting place. Nashan and Nanadun exchanged a glance and followed closely.
Standing beside the table carved from a large boulder in the room, Li Qiang was utterly distraught. He had never imagined so many prisoners would die. A nameless fire kept surging upward inside him. His face shifted between ashen and pale, and the scar on it twisted out of shape. The red slave mark on his forehead looked ready to drip blood, making him appear hideous and terrifying.
This was the first time Nashan and the others had seen Li Qiang in a towering rage. They felt a terrifying, sinister presence about him and could not help becoming extremely cautious.
Paben stood in a corner, trembling all over with fear. Han Jin quietly approached him and whispered, "Go get Qiao Yuhong. Hurry!"
Although Paben did not know why, he could not wait to leave. This invisible pressure was more than he could bear. He turned and slipped out.
The bosses of the various sections entered the room one after another. Having witnessed Li Qiang's superhuman strength firsthand, they were filled with fear as well.
Relying on his one previous meeting with Li Qiang, Bala assumed the role of spokesman for the bosses. "Boss Muzi, what are your orders?" Unable to hold himself back, he added, "Although the Black Camp soldiers suffered heavily, I think they'll soon come back for revenge. When that happens, everyone in the Black Prison might... die."
"Really? I damn well refuse to believe that!"
Li Qiang turned his savage gaze on Bala. In an instant, Bala felt as though he had fallen into an abyss. Great beads of cold sweat appeared on his face. He could hardly breathe, and his body shook uncontrollably. He bowed his head deeply, not daring to look at Li Qiang again.
Just then, Qiao Yuhong entered the room and called softly, "Brother..."
In fact, Li Qiang already had one foot on the demonic path. Hearing Qiao Yuhong call him brother, he immediately came to his senses and cried inwardly, How shameful. That was close! Everyone suddenly felt the pressure from a moment ago disappear.
Back to normal, Li Qiang smiled apologetically and said, "Bala, since the Black Camp wants us all dead, we'll make them remember forever that killing every last one of us comes at a terrible price. If we don't resist, we'll truly never see the day we rise out of this. If any of you want to grow old and die in the Black Prison, I, Muzi, won't force you. Please leave. Those who want to take a gamble with us, stay."
Bala wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and sighed deeply. "Alas, no one will leave. Things have already reached this point. We have no choice but to fight. I, Bala, accept my fate. I'll follow your orders, Boss Muzi."
The bosses of the other sections had no alternatives either and could only submit to Li Qiang's command.
Li Qiang suddenly felt that his personality had changed considerably. He wondered whether he was about to advance beyond the Nascent Soul Realm. Could entering the Leaving the Body Realm change his personality? Why was he becoming increasingly fierce and ruthless?
Li Qiang's danger lay in not knowing how to proceed with his cultivation. Ever since parting with Fu Shan, he had been exploring the path of cultivation on his own, reading only the records in Jade Pupil Slips without guidance from an expert. His cultivation was advancing far too quickly, making it all the more dangerous.
Nanadun smiled bitterly. "Boss, a lot of wounded people need treatment right away. And what are we going to do about food? Too many people have flooded into our area..." He tapped the stone table lightly with his hand, looking haggard and aged.
Li Qiang knitted his brows, calculating what to do. A soldier entered and whispered a few words to Nashan. Nashan caught hold of him and said, "Tell the boss."
Everyone in the room looked at the soldier. Looking slightly nervous, he said, "Reporting: the captured Black Camp officer tried to escape after waking up."
This reminded Li Qiang, and he immediately ordered, "Send someone to bring him here at once."
Lin Fenghe said thoughtfully, "If I were the Black Camp commander, I'd have only two choices: trap the people of the Black Prison until they die, or immediately concentrate my forces and come down to sweep through. What does everyone think?"
After thinking for a moment, Li Qiang asked, "Bala, does the Black Camp urgently need crystals? Normally, do they wait a while before exchanging food for crystal ore, or do they exchange it whenever it arrives?"
Bala exchanged glances with several bosses and said in some puzzlement, "Before, they always waited a long time before coming down to trade, and they only accepted high-grade crystals. Hmm... things have been a little different lately. They often come down to trade food, and they seem to want crystals of every grade. The terms are much better too... Boss, what's the use of asking this?"
Tange and Kankanqi exchanged a few quiet words. Li Qiang rubbed the scar on his face and said, "Tange already understands why I asked. Tange, explain it to everyone!"
Having served as a senior quartermaster, Tange was highly sensitive to supplies and energy resources. He explained, "From what Bala said, I believe the Tante Kingdom urgently needs crystal ore right now. That means they won't use a siege against us... they'll come down to purge us very soon, because they don't have time to waste here waiting for us to die. Although that would be the safest and cruelest method, they have to come down soon for the crystal ore."
Nashan lowered his bald head and muttered, "Who'd have thought the boss had so many twists in his guts? He even figured that out."
Nanadun nodded too. "That makes sense, but it means we have even less time."
"Reporting: the prisoner is here. Get in..." Several soldiers pushed the officer inside.
The officer had been stripped of all his armor and equipment, leaving his upper body bare. Li Qiang noticed that his body was actually covered in scales and could not help being very curious. He walked casually up to him and reached out to touch the grayish-white scales. They felt like densely packed hard points, very unpleasant to the touch.
He asked indifferently, "Name?"
The officer did not understand what Li Qiang was saying, but the imposing presence emanating from him pressed down so hard that he could scarcely breathe. Paben hurriedly translated, "He says his name is Kade Baqi."
Li Qiang snorted with laughter. "What a lousy name. Hmm! Paben, ask him how many soldiers the Black Camp has in total."
The two jabbered back and forth for a few exchanges. Paben shook his head. "He refuses to say."
Before Li Qiang could speak, Nashan jumped up, cocked his bald head, and began speaking the Tante Kingdom's language in a peculiar tone.
Kade Baqi seemed fairly tough, turning his head aside as he answered. After a few exchanges, Nashan lost his temper and punched him in the stomach, cursing, "Damn you! You little demon, I'll pull out every one of your scales..."
Nashan's blow was like lighting a fuse. Bala immediately followed with a punch, and the bosses of the various sections rushed forward together. Even Nanadun quietly slipped in a kick.
Watching everyone vent their anger, Li Qiang did not know whether to laugh or cry. "Everyone, stop!" he barked.
They froze and stopped. Kade Baqi was already covered in blood, with many scales torn from his body. He slumped limply toward Paben.
Terrified, Paben cried, "Stand up straight, stand up straight... uh... I didn't mean to." He jerked his knee up, seemingly trying to stop the man's fall with it, but the movement was far too forceful. His knee struck Kade Baqi squarely in the face, and Kade Baqi flipped backward with a bang.
Nashan laughed loudly. "Paben, you're really fierce! Haha! I like it!" Everyone burst out laughing, seemingly venting the gloom and unease in their hearts.
The entire Black Prison mobilized. Nanadun and Lin Fenghe were the busiest, first gathering everyone in the Black Prison and selecting those capable of fighting as soldiers. Kankanqi, Zhao Zhi, and Wei Yuanqing intensified their training. Everyone knew that once the Black Camp's army came down to purge them, no one would escape.
In his room, Li Qiang desperately refined batch after batch of pills and weapons. Having fought the Black Camp soldiers, he knew their current shortcomings well and decided to begin refining the Supreme Radiance Shuttle and a supreme-grade flying sword Mo Huaiyuan had given him. The sword was named Star-Absorbing and had been discovered by Mo Huaiyuan in the Star Palace.
The origins of the Star-Absorbing Sword were very strange. Mo Huaiyuan had found it in a jade case while breaking the formations in the All Is Empty Palace.
According to Mo Huaiyuan, the Star-Absorbing Sword had an unusual characteristic: it was a sword with both water and fire attributes. Cultivators who used flying swords with these attributes were extremely rare; most used single-attribute flying swords. Because Li Qiang possessed a rare fire constitution, Mo Huaiyuan had told him that if he refined this flying sword, the chances of a good or bad result were equal. Even Mo Huaiyuan could not determine what the outcome would be.
Li Qiang had an inexplicable notion. He believed that since the Billowing Essence Battle Armor also contained the water attribute and worked extraordinarily well, this flying sword should be the same. His blind tinkering with only a partial understanding had brought him many unexpected benefits, but had also made him suffer plenty.
Following the records in the Jade Pupil Slip Mo Huaiyuan had given him, Li Qiang placed the Star-Absorbing Sword in his palm. He now had Heavenly Fire, more formidable than Samadhi True Fire, for refining equipment, as well as Fire Essence to control the heat. Slowly, the Star-Absorbing Sword melted, circling back and forth between his hands like a flowing stream of mercury.
Li Qiang discovered to his surprise that there were actually no formations inside the Star-Absorbing Sword. He sent a thread of True Essence Power into it to probe, but found nothing worth noting. Just as he was about to withdraw that thread, an enormous suction suddenly arose within the flowing sword. His True Essence Power surged into it like water through an opened floodgate.
In an instant, the Star-Absorbing Sword turned into a cloud of silver mist and began revolving around Li Qiang.
A wave of dizziness struck Li Qiang. Knowing this was a sign of exhaustion, he tried using Heavenly Fire to cut off the loss of True Essence Power. The silver mist flickered within the purple light and miraculously dissolved into his hands. When he looked for the Star-Absorbing Sword again, it had vanished without a trace.
Li Qiang thought his equipment refinement had failed. Although he sighed inwardly, he was not too upset. He merely felt he had wasted his time.
Believing the refinement had failed and consumed too much True Essence Power, Li Qiang took out an Immortal Stone to replenish his lost strength more quickly. Without thinking, he took out the Inlaid Front Stone he had obtained in the pool. Holding this supreme-grade Immortal Stone, he sank his consciousness into his Nascent Soul and activated the formations surrounding it. In an instant, the Microcosm began spinning wildly.
Li Qiang looked in bewilderment at his original body sitting cross-legged on the ground. How am I looking at myself from outside my body?
I might as well see how their training is going! With a movement of his mind, he was already beside the pool.
Watching Nanadun and Lin Fenghe direct the squads' training, Li Qiang suddenly understood. He had reached the Leaving the Body Realm.
No one seemed to see Li Qiang. They continued their training in the usual orderly fashion.
Li Qiang was delighted. If I scout the enemy like this, who could discover me?
With the slightest movement of his thoughts, he actually arrived outside the mountain.