Chapter 99: He Who Strikes First Prevails
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Han Jian was quite obviously on Qin Feng’s side.
“What’s the matter? Has the time come to take credit for the kill? It’s not like you guys actually took him out, is it? Even if we were to get our share of the reward, there’d only be ten million for us each. Y’know what, how about I just pay you that measly amount to keep your mouths shut?”
While Han Jian was expressly talking about money, it was a roundabout statement of how incompetent yet greedy these people were.
“Han Jian, don’t you forget that you are also one of those who joined the attack on the Emperor Knight!” Liu Ba yelled out in an attempt to point out the hypocrisy of Han Jian’s statement.
“So what of it? This whole thing involving the Emperor Knight was just something that I stumbled onto back when I was in Chengbei colony.”
Out of the five people at the scene, only Qin Feng and Han Jian were from Chengbei colony. The other three were from separate regions so going by the majority, it became apparent to whom most credit was due.
It was at this moment that Qin Feng interrupted with a laugh.
“If I were you guys, I wouldn’t be frolicking around here for too long. Have you forgotten the fact that the Dark-Robed Ripper is still out there, waiting to strike?”
Qin Feng’s words struck them like lightning.
“This is bad!”
Back there, Lin Zheng alone faced the Dark-Robed Ripper, and none of them were willing to redirect their forces to aid his battle, the reason being that the Emperor Knight was showing signs of weakness. No one wanted to give up on the battle just yet.
Who would have thought that the credit of bringing down the Emperor Knight would be s.n.a.t.c.hed away by Qin Feng. Now, they were left to face the Dark-Robed Ripper who was the main ent.i.ty supporting this spatial pa.s.sage as well as where the most important task lay as of now.
What remained of the group hurried back where they came from.
Unknown to them though, the situation involving the Dark-Robed Ripper was not as good as they had expected!
The Dark-Robed Ripper possessed dark abilities which allowed it to escape from the grasp of its enemies much easier than the Emperor Knight. Not to mention the fact that king-tier beings had intelligence on par with humans; upon breaking away from Qin Feng’s attacks, the Dark-Robed Ripper had gone on to ama.s.s an army of zombies.
Hidden amidst the formation of its corpse soldiers, it was practically impossible to be able to discern which was which.
Lin Zheng’s expression darkened. He had predicted that the scene would turn mult.i.tudes uglier especially after Qin Feng had defeated the Emperor Knight.
Even the ability users who hurried over were visibly hesitant in their every action.
Apart from Deng Nian, there was an E-tier earth ability user as well as a fire ability user of the same tier.
All three of them stood by to observe the situation for a while and only after confirming that things were stable did they start moving forward. After all, ability users were extremely precious a.s.sets on the battlefield and to lose even one was too much a price to pay. While these users possessed extremely strong powers, fighting detached without any support was the last thing they would want.
“It seems that our chances of finding that Dark-Robed Ripper is pretty much nil now!”
“Now that there are so many zombies on the mountain’s peak, the gunners should just carpet bomb the area to thin out the herd or at least take some burden off our hands!”
“Even if we do not find it, orders are orders. The Emperor Knight’s dead now and there’s no guarantee that the ripper won’t bring out some overpowered monster from a new spatial pa.s.sage or whatever the h.e.l.l it has up its sleeve.”
“Agreed!”
Victory or defeat now hinged upon their actions and no one was willing to give up just yet. Without delay, they each started relaying information to the gunners.
However, the people on the receiving side of the information were left speechless.
“Cough cough, Qin Feng!” Deng Nian opened up first, calling out to Qin Feng.
“Princ.i.p.al!” Qin Feng replied as he walked up to the person calling out to him.
“Do you need me to cover your retreat?”
Deng Nian was no young chap. Fighting on the frontlines detached from the main fighting force without backup was just too risky for a man his age.
“No I’m not calling out to you for that. Qin Feng, have you locked down the gunners on the battlefield using your consciousness? We’ve decided to wipe out everything that moves on top of the mother mountain and they’re hoping that you can withdraw your consciousness!”
While speaking to Qin Feng, Deng Nian looked up and down his body as if to appraise him. The old man felt impressed by how Qin Feng turned out to be a fine young man. Still, he could not help but feel that he had grown just that little bit older and weaker.
Whatever talents that resided within Qin Feng was truly too strong for him to comprehend!
He did not expect that Qin Feng was able to suppress E-tier gunners using his consciousness alone.
And while that was happening, Qin Feng had been continuously engaged in different battles but still came out on top. His strength was truly something to be reckoned with.
“I just need them to be more careful with their aim. Tell those trigger-happy freaks to aim their shots away from me, else I’d get back at them once I return!”
Qin Feng remarked thornily.
In fact, they too were actually planning as Qin Feng had said. If it were not for the restraints exerted over the gunners by Qin Feng’s consciousness, they would be the ones firing the last shot, not him.
While their combat capability was not something to call home about, these gunners could be pretty capable when it came to stealing credit.
“Alright, I’ll let them know. Right, before I forget, remember the incident where you injured Lu Heng in a scuffle? Please don’t ruminate over that matter any more. Hmph, he pales in comparison with others so pay no heed to that man!”
Deng Nian replied.
Lu Heng was the gunner that Qin Feng and Liu Ba jointly faced off against when he just arrived here for the first time as a newbie. He was also the same person who, not long ago, shot at Qin Feng behind his back which earned him three sh.e.l.ls in retaliation, fired by none other than Qin Feng himself.
However, gunners were pretty well-known to be money bags so he must have had some kind of runic equipment on hand s.h.i.+elding him against most harm lobbed at him, hence that was why Qin Feng presumed him to still be alive and kicking.
“Yeah, ruminating over pointless things isn’t something I’d do very often.”
Qin Feng said as he nodded.
Right after that, the team made a swift retreat back to the base of the mother mountain whereupon arriving, the continuous sound of gunfire echoed through the skies as h.e.l.l itself rained down upon the mountain.
In mere seconds, large swathes of the Corpse Corps were reduced to smithereens.
The final cannon shot shook the ground a full half hour later which marked the start of their offensive stance. On the ground, everyone, whether ancient warriors or ability users, started rus.h.i.+ng up toward the peak of Zimu Mountains for they knew that the Dark-Robed Ripper had no chance of escaping now. Whoever that first grabbed hold of the enemy would be the one to control the entire place.
Deng Nian was the first to attack.
“Light up!”
Activating the runic ability, a ball of light expanded rapidly. Under the blinding ray of light, the surface of the summit looked as white as a sheet of paper and there was not an inch of the place that was covered by darkness.
Deng Nian instantly charged toward a specific direction where the dark runes were the most concentrated, which was likely going to be where the Dark-Robed Ripper was hiding.
The people formed into a moving wall that trailed closely behind Deng Nian.
One simply could not deny the fact that Deng Nian was quite a capable man, being able to locate where the cowardly Dark-Robed Ripper was taking refuge.
Qin Feng walked right beside Deng Nian, scanning the E-tier apt.i.tude users around him vigilantly. He began to take note of which one whose powers he should absorb should he fall onto the ground dead later on. As they say, one man’s corpse is another man’s treasure.
The group of people who were completely oblivious as to the fact that they were being noted down, pretended to follow nonchalantly behind Deng Nian.
“Hehe, Xiao Bai, time for you to go!” Qin Feng thought in his mind. Xiao Bai, who had forged a contract with Qin Feng, immediately started moving.
While these people were imagining themselves as a praying mantis waiting to strike at the cicada, Qin Feng intended to show them, just what the phrase “he who strikes first prevails” meant.
Bai Li’s spatial manipulation skill allowed her to move about undetected, like a phantom who was out for blood. After taking in the beast king energy core Qin Feng had given her recently, her abilities had now grown to the level of an F2-tier beast king, meaning her cla.s.s was not too far off from the Dark-Robed Ripper.
The most important factor however, was that an unending series of battles had finally taken the toll on the Dark-Robed Ripper who now was inflicted with heavy injuries.
Bai Li stealthily materialised behind the Dark-Robed Ripper’s back.
“s.p.a.ce Blade!”
A silver ray glimmered, with a pure black crack down its very center. Whatever that came into contact with this crack would be rendered into nothingness.
The blade which Bai Li flung landed precisely right on top of the Dark-Robed Ripper’s skull.
Crack!
The head of the Dark-Robed Ripper, who was originally planning a nasty ambush against the humans, had now caved into itself and in the next moment, it came tumbling down onto the ground.
Bai Li raised her hand to catch the pitch-black ability core before disappearing into thin air again.
Right after this happened, the group of humans walked over, and avoiding the large fallen tree, they could finally make out the Dark-Robed Ripper’s silhouette.
With just a few strides, Qin Feng made his way over under the pretense of checking out the situation. The truth was that he wanted to quickly absorb as much consciousness lingering in the air as possible.
It did not take too long for the effects to set in. Qin Feng could feel his own mind ringing, a sign of his consciousness growing in strength.
Ability level–F3-tier!