Chapter 513 - Prison Break
"Should I steal their weapon first? No, I should convert lifespan into physical energy for now. Not getting any food hurts."
In the cell, Ma Chao managed to break free from the restraints. Broken chains and pieces of wooden boards lay on the ground as Ma Chao destroyed all of them.
Yet, he could not escape from the prison.
In front of his prison cell, three angels, Cao Chun, Zhu Ling, and Yu Jin, were sitting there, meditating while they were guarding. If Ma Chao wanted to flee, he had to go through these three men first.
It was an impossible task at the moment as he was too weak.
Ma Chao was starving as he hadn"t eaten anything for days. By the order of Cao Cao, the three wardens were told not to give Ma Chao any food to sabotage his strength.
Still, Ma Chao was a cultivator with 4 wings. No matter how hungry he was, he could overcome it by converting lifespan into life force, feeding the exhausted body some energy.
Unfortunately, the process prevented him from cultivating or gathering more lifespan as the life force in the underground prison was too thin. Moreover, three cultivators with 4 wings were absorbing most of the flowing life force in the air into themselves, obstructing Ma Chao from getting any lifespan.
"Despicable! Once I can get out, I"ll come back and kill these sons of b.i.t.c.hes!"
As Ma Chao was fantasizing about killing his prison wardens, a hand-sized portal opened and ejected a small piece of paper into his hand.
*VHOOM*
The mini gate immediately closed without waiting for Ma Chao to react.
"What?"
The blue hole just now reminded Ma Chao of Li Feihong"s ability, which could abduct anyone into a mysterious place.
Ma Chao glanced at his wardens. As usual, the three Cao Cao"s underlings were meditating, concentrating on absorbing the surrounding life force, hindering Ma Chao from gaining any lifespan or recovering himself.
Using this chance, Ma Chao read the paper.
[Ma Mengqi, this is Zhuge Liang. I"ll help you escape from this prison, but you"ll have to work for me in return. If you accept this deal, blink three times. If you don"t, just toss this paper away.]
Ma Chao"s pupils expanded as he finally found hope. Although he doubted Zhuge Liang"s motive, the latter was still a former colleague, who went through several campaigns in the other timeline together. Ma Chao could still remember the Southern Campaign, where he was the vanguard against Meng Huo, the southern barbarian.
It was a good time since Ma Chao displayed his full potential and won several battles for Shu Han Dynasty.
"Kongming, I don"t know why you"re working for Zhang Tong, but I"ll believe you."
He blinked three times as instructed, gesturing that he agreed. He glanced at Liu Bei in the other cell, worrying about his lord.
*VHOOM*
A small blue portal opened again and spat out a sword and a pistol.
*VHOOM*
Another gate opened behind Ma Chao. He could feel that someone placed a hand on his back and inject some life force into himself.
Ma Chao"s eyes widened. He could feel that his strength return and his injuries disappeared. Moreover, the hunger subsided as the life force energized him.
Then, he could hear a whisper.
"To use it, inject your force into that pistol. Then, aim the muzzle at your target and pull the trigger. Help me kill these men, and I"ll get you out of here."
Ma Chao remembered the voice. It was from Li Feihong, the one who had abducted him and Liu Bei!
He did not know why Li Feihong was helping him, but he was not against his instruction.
On the contrary, Ma Chao rejoiced that he could finally have a chance to kill Cao Cao"s goons!
"With pleasure!"
Ma Chao spread his four wings and injected his life force into the pistol along with the resentment toward Cao Cao"s men.
The killing intent from Ma Chao alarmed the three officers. They woke up from their meditation and pulled out their sword in reflex.
But it was too late.
*BANG*
*BANG*
*BANG*
Although Ma Chao had not learned how to shoot, aligning the gun barrel was a simple task for him. Furthermore, the men were only less than 50 meters away. Aiming at three big men was easy even for a rookie.
The sh.e.l.ls pierced into their bodies, damaging their internal organs.
"CHARITY! HEAL!"
"PATIENCE! ENHANCE!"
The three used their soul abilities to save their life, but the shooting had not ended.
*BANG*
*BANG*
Ma Chao could see that one bullet could not take down a four-wing angel easily, so he focused firing at the weakest officer among the group.
.
Cao Chun, the younger brother of Cao Ren, followed after Cao Cao when the latter raised an army to subdue the Yellow Turban in the other timeline.
Unlike other generals under Cao Cao, Cao Chun"s few achievements came from the campaign against Yuan Shao"s sons, whose armies were already on the verge of self-destructing. Cao Chun"s position at that time was the Tiger and Leopard Unit, one of Cao Cao"s favorite cavalry platoons, and he played a small part of hunting down Yuan Tan.
In this world, the Yuan Family was destroyed by Tong, so Cao Chun didn"t have any noteworthy achievement. He ended up working alongside with other minor generals.
Cao Chun might have two lives of experience, but he could not change the fact that he had less experience than the others among his peers.
*BANG*
*BANG*
More bullets punctured Cao Chun"s chest area. Cao Chun could feel the burning metal pa.s.sing through his body and exiting from the back.
He could hardly breathe as blood got into his lungs!
Desperate, Cao Chun sent his four souls to Ma Chao, hoping to kill him before he died.
But that was a common mistake that all newbie immortals usually make. Detached souls were weaker than concentrated force in one"s physical body. With just a single direct hit, one of Cao Chun"s souls could be destroyed, which could lead to Cao Chun"s death.
Ma Chao saw that four souls were rus.h.i.+ng at him. He grabbed Li Feihong"s sword, enchanted it with cultivation force, and slashed at one of Cao Chun"s souls.
*SWUA*
Cao Chun thought that the souls were immune to physical attacks, so the souls didn"t defend themselves. As a result, one of them was severed in half from head to groin.
A chain reaction occurred. All Cao Chun"s soul received the same damage as the cleaved soul.
*SPLAT*
The damage transferred to Cao Chun"s physical body. He got splitted into two.
This was the reason why Li Feihong and Zhuge Liang couldn"t kill these men himself.
First, Li Feihong couldn"t harm fellow clan members, either by melee or ranged skills. But most importantly, the murderer of a clan member would be automatically identified to other clan mates.
An outsider like Ma Chao was the best scapegoat for this kind of incident.
"CAO ZIHE!!" The two officers shouted in shock.
Ma Chao didn"t let Zhu Ling or Yu Jin react or call for reinforcement.
After firing several bullets, Ma Chao learned the basics of aiming. He pointed at Yu Jin"s head instead of shooting their body.
*BANG*
*BANG*
Two sh.e.l.ls punctured through Yu Jin"s skull and brain.
*CLICK*
Unfortunately, the pistol ran out of the bullet.
"Tsk!"
Ma Chao was about to break the iron bars and charge at Zhu Ling, but a new gun suddenly dropped from a portal above his head.
Li Feihong dropped another loaded gun for Ma Chao!
"How considerate…"
Ma Chao grabbed it and aimed.
*BANG*
*BANG*
Zhu Ling managed to react and leaped toward the side, dodging the bullets. The sh.e.l.ls dig into the stone wall, creating small holes.
The survivor didn"t bother trying to fight Ma Chao. He turned tail and ran while he opened his clan menu to ask for help.
But a giant blue portal appeared before him. Zhu Ling"s feet were already in auto-mode as he was running for his life, so he dashed into the other dimension without realizing it.
Upon getting inside Li Feihong"s world, he found a scholar with a strange black and brown weapon. Its long muzzle was pointing at his face. Behind him, one girl and two men were watching him.
"Aim at his legs and hands. Don"t kill him."
"Ah, I forgot."
Zhu Ling stared at the people before him in shock. He recognized two of the four.
"Li Feihong!? Zhuge Liang!?"
*TATATATATA*
It was too late for Zhu Ling to react. The AK-47 in Xu Shu"s hands spat fire. However, they did not hit Zhu Ling"s body. The sh.e.l.ls tore his legs and forced him to collapse on the ground.
*VHOOM*
When Zhu Ling collapsed on the ground, Ma Chao entered the portal after he had broken out from his cell. As soon as he found the injured officer, he plunged the sword tip into Zhu Ling"s skull.
The sword pierced through Zhu Ling"s head as it was soft tofu!
A system message flashed before Zhuge Liang and Li Feihong, but the two master-and-servant didn"t care about it anymore. Their attention s.h.i.+fted toward Ma Chao and another person.
It seemed Ma Chao had freed Liu Bei and brought him into the dimension as well.
Zhuge Liang sighed as he was disappointed in Ma Chao, "We didn"t tell you to bring that man along."
"If I leave him there, he will die."
"That"s none of our concern. Oh well, we can keep him as a pet for now. We don"t want him to bad mouth us when Cao Cao"s guys come."
"Zhuge Kongming! He was your lord! How could you abandon him!?"
"Ma Mengqi. That was the other timeline. In this world, I serve his majesty and General Li. This moron here doesn"t deserve my loyalty!"
While Ma Chao and Zhuge Liang were bickering, Li Feihong opened several more portals to collect bullet sh.e.l.ls in the prison. As for the corpses, Li Feihong got out of the gate and used a sword to cut them to several parts and tossed them all over the place, destroying any evidence that might lead to himself.
He was hiding the traces of bullet holes in their body. If someone saw them, they would believe that it was a work of an insider as only Tong"s trusted men had guns.
Li Feihong wanted to cover the holes in the wall, but he rushed back into his private dimension in a hurry.
Someone was coming, and Li Feihong didn"t want to be seen.
*WHOOSH*
Li Feihong returned to his world and closed all gates.
.
.
10 Seconds later, a burly man with 6 wings rushed to the prison area and found the traces of battles.
"AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!"
Dian Wei shouted in anger as soon as he saw the dead bodies of his colleagues.
"MA CHAO!!"
The bodyguard expanded his sense to find the runaway prisoners, but he found no one.
.
.
Li Feihong watched Dian Wei swinging his axe around and destroying the prison, going berserk. Walls and iron bars were wrecked by the monstrous force of this muscular man.
Clan chat notifications alerted Li Feihong non-stop as the clan members were also in frenzy, shocked that Cao Cao"s men suddenly died.
Li Feihong didn"t dare to open the clan menu to read the messages as he expected that someone might suspect him for this deed.
An odd notification sounded. Li Feihong flinched when he heard it as it was a private message alert.
He looked at Zhuge Liang and Ma Chao, who was still debating if rescuing Liu Bei was a good idea. Aside from Xu Shu and Zhou Cang, n.o.body paid attention to him at the moment.
As for Liu Bei, the loser, he was fidgeting as he stood behind Ma Chao, terrified that he might be killed.
Since the suspicious bunch was not paying attention to him, Li Feihong mustered his courage and read the private message.
Diaochan: "Feihong. Swear allegiance to me using your empowered voice or be forever our enemy."
Diaochan: "I knew from the beginning that you were once Liu Bei, but I allowed you to live since you were working hard to repent of your sins. But since you"re now an 8-wing angel now, it"s time to take sides. Pick one. Join us or die."