Chapter 496 - Deaths
Outside of Julu city walls, two men walked out from an abandoned shack.
Zhang Jiao and Hua Tuo exited the secret pa.s.sage and appeared inside a dummy village, located outside of Julu south walls, which was protected by intelligence agents of Lu Zhi and Sima Fang.
n.o.body paid attention to this dummy slum, which was a perfect place for an emergency exit route.
"We should be safe now," Zhang Jiao looked around, but he found no one nearby, "Wait a minute. Something is not right."
The dummy village should have many agents disguising as beggars, but Zhang Jiao could not find anyone. Moreover, the iron scent in the air alarmed Zhang Jiao.
It was the smell of blood!
"No! Go back to the pa.s.sage. This place isn"t safe!"
"It isn"t safe, indeed. As long as you don"t run, I can ensure your safety."
A burly man in a black leather armor was floating over the building that Zhang Jiao and Hua Tuo had exited. His four black wings fluttered behind his back.
He looked down on them and oppressed them with his killing intent.
"Sloth curse!"
A soul detached from the mysterious black armor man, pointing his finger at Zhang Jiao and Hua Tuo. Dark gas enveloped the latter, forcing them into a slumber.
Both elders collapsed and fell asleep.
Zhou Tai looked at the two elders, expressionless. He descended and entered the shack to inspect the hidden pa.s.sage.
Indeed, he found the underground route toward the city.
As Zhou Tai succeeded what he was tasked to do, he reported his duty to the clan chat.
Zhou Tai: "I"ve secured Zhang Tong"s father and his follower."
Zhou Yu: "Bring them to the government house. We"ll use them as hostages to bargain with Zhang Tong."
Zhou Tai: "Understood."
After getting the new order, Zhou Tai walked toward the two unconscious elders, planning to carry them.
*VHOOM*
A strange sound came from the ground below Zhang Jiao and Hua Tuo.
The moment Zhou Tai got a closer look, the two unconscious old men fell into blue holes. The portals immediately closed after the two men sunk into the warp gates.
Zhou Tai widened his eyes in shock. He sat and scoured for Zhang Jiao and Hua Tuo, but he could not locate them.
"How!?"
Baffled and confused, Zhou Tai reported to Zhou Yu right away.
Zhou Tai: "I"ve lost the hostages!"
Zhou Yu: "What!? How!? What happened!?"
Zhou Tai: "I don"t know. Some kind of blue things expanded and devoured both of them!"
Zhou Yu: "Get out of there! That must be Li Feihong!"
Reading to this point, Zhou Tai kicked the ground in panic, launching himself to the sky.
But a blue gate opened, blocking his flight path. As Zhou Tai had not mastered in flying skills, he entered the portal unwillingly.
As soon as Zhou Tai entered the portal, he found a flying angel with six wings waiting for him. In the angel"s hand, a strange object with a thin barrel of an unknown metal was aiming at his face.
"Not good!"
Zhou Tai s.h.i.+fted his head to the left side to avoid the barrel.
*BANG*
He could see something coming out of the hole at a frightening speed. It grazed his helmet, creating a loud clank noise.
The iron helmet of Zhou Tai echoed, numbing his eardrums.
The second that Zhou Tai flinched, the gun barrel of the angel pointed at Zhou Tai"s chest.
*BANG*
*PU*
Zhou Tai could feel that something hot punctured through his chest and exited his back. The leather armor could not defend against the bullet.
Zhou Tai"s opponent, Li Feihong, was holding an AK-47 in his hands. Just now, he just fired two sh.e.l.ls in a single-mode, probing Zhou Tai"s fighting strength.
Li Feihong sighed in disappointment. He had expected that Zhou Tai could dodge the bullets, even though he reinforced every sh.e.l.l with his power.
It seemed that Li Feihong overestimated his enemy.
"Eh, boring."
He flipped the gun-mode switch, changing it to semi-auto.
*BANG*
*BANG*
*BANG*
Li Feihong pulled the trigger, maintaining the initiative in this brief battle.
Zhou Tai was too confused about what was happening around himself. He failed to react against the follow-up sh.e.l.ls.
*PU* *PU* *PU*
Two bullets pierced Zhou Tai"s chest while the last one went through his forehead.
The legendary bodyguard of Sun Quan ended his story before he could display his true potential.
Li Feihong"s apathetic eyes glanced at the dead body. He put the rifle back in his inventory and picked up a rolled cigarette from his chest pocket.
He put the joint in his mouth and searched for a lighter.
"Ah, I forgot. I don"t have a modern lighter."
He reported his progress to the clan chat anyway.
Li Feihong: "I"ve secured Hua Tuo and Zhang Jiao."
Hua Tuo and Zhang Jiao were sleeping on the ground as Li Feihong teleported them there. Next to them, Zhang Liao arranged a couple of physicians to look after their conditions.
Lu Zhi: "Good work. Please find Minister Sima in the area. He should be around there somewhere."
Lu Zhi: "Minister Sima Fang, please tell us where you"re at, so Li Feihong can pick you up."
No answer came from Sima Fang.
A few minutes later…
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Wu Guotai, Huang Gai, Cheng Pu, and Han Dang were reading the recent clan messages in astonishment.
Although these people had joined forces with Tong, they were still members of Sun Fang"s clan. However, as they kept their mouth shut all the time, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu ignored their existence and used the clan chat to relay instant information.
Currently, Sun Fang"s clan members increased. More people strangely entered the clan.
Sun Fang
Sun Ce
Zhou Yu
Zhou Tai
Huang Zu
Lu Meng
Lu Xun
Chen Wu
Song Qian
Jiang Qin
Pan Zhang
Ling Cao
Ling Tong
Lu Su
Those were the members that were not a part of their faction. It was questionable how Sun Fang invited all of them into the clan in a short amount of time since Sun Fang could only bring in one person a year.
Something was fishy, and Wu Guotai suspected that Sun Fang did something to the clan.
And the answer lied on the clan detail, which had been changed after Lu Zhi demanded Zhen Yi dead in Tong"s clan chat.
Clan Level 2.
The clan features that Lilim had locked suddenly increased its level and all new members entered the clan at the same time!
It was a cheating move that Wu Guotai found. However, she and all her subordinates had not informed Tong or his allies yet.
After all, Wu Guotai was still Sun Ce"s mother. Even if she vowed that she would abandon him, Wu Guotai still wanted to help Sun Ce.
Wu Guotai had summoned all her former subordinates and Sun Quan to her courtyard, so they could follow the movements of this battle together.
Another one fell, which indicated that Tong"s trump cards were at play. With both Li Feihong and Lu Bu in action, Sun Ce would not have a chance.
"That makes it four," Huang Gai inhaled heavy air. His heart sank as he witnessed another old friend falling in the hopeless battle.
Wu Guotai bitterly smiled, "I have to admit. Zhang Tong"s bloodline is worthy to be called the immortal bloodline. Even his daughter killed three of our former elites."
"Ah, they"re not going to make it. Should we help?"
"… I"ll convince them to surrender."
"Please do. I don"t want to see anyone dying pointlessly anymore. The war is over. Why are they insisting on fighting?"
"…"
Wu Guotai operated her clan menu and was about to type, but a new message from Huang Zu interrupted her.
Huang Zu: "Report! I"ve found a suspicious group approaching a slum. I"ve killed all of them, though."
Huang Zu: "Requesting permission to retreat. Zhou Tai is dead, and I don"t want to get entangled with Li Feihong!"
Zhou Yu: "Permission granted. Meet us at the government house."
Wu Guotai stopped her fingers. She had a bad feeling about this report.
"Say, Gongfu."
Huang Gai raised his eyebrows, "Yes, milady?"
"Isn"t Sima Fang heading over to Julu?"
"… I"m not sure."
"I heard it from Dong Bai that Sima Fang is visiting Zhang Jiao. Is he still in this city?"
"…"
A bad omen loomed.
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.
Huang Zu was busy searching through the wagons of the dead men he had killed.
As reported, he slaughtered a group of suspicious convoys, which traveled with many bodyguards to Zhuo Tai"s designated zone. Each of them was armed with a pistol, and they injured him.
Panicked and fl.u.s.tered by the sudden barrage of ranged attacks, Huang Zu unleashed the power of a 4-wing angel, killing everyone in the group, including a middle-aged man, who seemed to be their leader.
He was not aware of it yet. The leader of that convoy was Sima Fang, the father of Sima Yi.
"Ah! Found them!"
Huang Zu found a wagon, which carried many boxes of gold nuggets. The wagon was Ye city"s distribution wagon, which brought excess money to other regions to promote the development of rural villages and northern regions.
The greedy general picked one of the boxes and flew away, ignoring the advanced weapons.
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Meanwhile, north of Zhongshan
A battalion of 20,000 hors.e.m.e.n galloped from Ji city toward Zhongshan at a full speed. They rushed south without caring about their provision as they hoped to reach the city within a day.
Sima Yi"s eyes were bloodshot when the clan system rang and delivered a piece of shocking news. His red face and bulging veins said it all.
Still, he swallowed his tears and inhaled a deep breath, stopping his thoughts and fantasies of killing Huang Zu and Sun Ce.
Two minutes after a systematic breathing routine, Sima Yi turned toward Zhao Yun, the grand commander of the White Horse Legion.
"I"m going to be ruthless as I used to when I served Cao Pi. I hope that you don"t mind."
Zhao Yun gulped and nodded. He used to work with Zhuge Liang in the other timeline, but he had no idea how Sima Yi operated in the other world.
He hesitated, but he did not have a choice. The situation had escalated to the point that Sima Yi"s father died in the raid.
Someone had to pay!