Chapter 267

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Protagonist:

Chen Yi

Chen Yi chased them to the riverbank; Song Zhuang had long since manned the machine gun and was spraying "da-da-da" bursts, splashing gouts of blood water, but the effect was negligible — merely venting his rage. After all, the few of them cadets had come to the West Continent and never suffered such a heavy loss before.

She Lei crouched on the ground, hand clutching his arm, in so much pain he could not open his eyes, roaring curses from his mouth — until he saw Chen Yi, whereupon he collapsed on the ground, panting heavily. Although it was Chen Yi who had exiled him to the West Continent, he trusted the Hall Master's ability more than anyone.

Ahead, Kaman seemed to have vanished without a trace.

The mercenaries and natives on the riverbank huddled together in panic. A "Temple Warrior" of Combat Skill Level 6 — whether in martial prowess or political power — was someone they could only look up to in awe.

Chen Yi first took out two bottles of Level 6 Divine Oil and poured them on She Lei's arm to stop the bleeding, then handed him two more bottles, saying: "Use them yourself."

She Lei was in too much pain to speak, but Chen Yi kept scanning the river surface. He was at Combat Skill Level 8, and his understanding of the Magic Net was far deeper than others'; now that he linked to the Magic Net, he only needed to sense where the energy fluctuations were greatest to naturally deduce Kaman's line of advance.

The machine gun fire suddenly paused; Song Zhuang, without waiting for anyone to help, changed the ammo belt himself… Chen Yi's face changed, and he abruptly plunged into the river channel.

Kaman was right ahead.

The blood-red river water, once below one meter, turned clear, as if the battle and bloodstains above could not affect it in the slightest.

Kaman floated there quietly, recalling the roller-coaster of this night — the anger and fear, and the revenge to come…

"There is no 'later'." The moment he saw Chen Yi, he knew he was done for.

Combat Skill Level 6 against Combat Skill Level 8 was already a tremendous disadvantage; on top of that, he had fought through half the night, and who knew how much Pocket Qi his whole body had expended…

In a trance, Kaman felt some regret for his retaliation, but he quickly gave up on that thought. If he returned to Ma La like this, the best outcome would be imprisonment… and afterward he would never be able to take revenge anyway; better to die quickly and cleanly.

As he thought this, energy suddenly surged from his entire body.

The river water seemed to boil, bubbling up countless bubbles, making the Heavy Infantry Banner Officer not far away look like an air pump stuck in a fish tank.

Chen Yi sighed. He had learned this move too — the unique technique of High-level Kingdom Knights: burning ability. If the energy supplied by the Magic Net is likened to household natural gas, then Source Energy is the pipeline delivering the gas. Burning ability is equivalent to setting the rubber gas hose on fire along with the gas — naturally it burns fiercer and faster. But the end result is also certain: once the hose is burned away, repair is extraordinarily difficult, and one careless mistake can cause an explosion that kills you.

"Going all out."

Chen Yi, helpless, simply wrapped himself in a thick Pocket Qi defense, then without another word turned and ran.

A good tiger doesn't fight a mad bull; a good man doesn't fight a woman. He's burning Magic Net Source Energy, not fat — charging in would only get himself badly hurt.

Kaman, waiting for the other to charge, was a bit dumbfounded. He was a battlefield veteran; he knew how much merit there was in killing a Pocket Qi Level 6 "Temple Warrior." On the battlefield, plenty of people were willing to take years' worth of injuries for that. He had seen those who maneuvered and tangled, those who met attack with attack, those who defended and waited — but he had never seen anyone turn tail and run immediately.

If that's how it is, I'll turn and flee too — who could catch me?

On second thought, Kaman gave a bitter smile. If he had been prepared to flee, why would he have waited until now?

With no choice, he could only drive his power, switch from defense to offense, and pursue Chen Yi.

"Hua la"

"Hua la"

Chen Yi and Kaman burst out of the river surface one after the other. Chen Yi's body was wreathed in Pocket Qi; he ran extremely fast. Kaman, though two levels lower, because he was burning Source Energy, actually showed signs of overtaking.

"Fire." Chen Yi had no intention of wrestling with a frenzied wild boar; the moment they left the water he shouted.

Song Zhuang's hand tightened; a crisp copper striking sound rang by his ear.

Fiery red shooting trajectories rose from the ground all the way up, finally striking Kaman. She Lei also opened fire from the side, and in two or three seconds emptied a full 30-round magazine.

Chen Yi hastily glanced back, only to see the red tracer rounds deflecting almost at one meter from Kaman. Pocket Qi swirling like rising steam rotated there, almost unaffected by the heavy machine gun.

At least Combat Skill Level 9 standard.

Chen Yi was also very helpless. His technique was quite rusty; if an 8th-level Combat Skill Kingdom Knight of the Saint Qiao Kingdom were to step in, even if he couldn't subdue Kaman, he could surely protect himself while wearing Kaman down to death. But Chen Yi couldn't — not to mention lacking life-and-death trials, he hadn't even experienced the various trials normal knights go through. Reaching this level in one year was thanks to the help of several Holy Knights and over a thousand Knight Attendants, but there had been no time to gain combat experience.

Fortunately, with the heavy machine gun's interference, the two of them managed to sprint two li one after the other.

Just as they were about to run out of sight, She Lei endured the pain and roared: "One kilometer ahead of the city there's a fortified bunker."

Chen Yi paused, then turned toward the West River Water Fortification direction.

Kaman didn't know how much three kilometers was, nor what a fortified bunker was, but he guessed it was nothing good. He could only keep running while staying alert — burning Source Energy is no pleasant experience. Ever since Chen Yi started fleeing, Kaman had naturally fallen into a passive position; besides chasing, he had no other choice.

Body Technique Level 9 is the physical limit. With lives on the line, both were only fast, not slow — even taking a detour of one kilometer would take less than a minute.

Li Changning and the others in the fortified bunker, seeing Chen Yi make a wide turn and dive down, immediately opened fire.

Concentrated fire from three fortified bunkers — even an armored vehicle would lose a couple catties of iron. Kaman might not be harder than an armored vehicle, but he was certainly lighter. If the M2 Browning fired at full speed, it could empty a 200-round long belt in 30 seconds. But those 200 rounds — if just one-fifth hit Kaman, that's 120 rounds from three bunkers. As a 12.7mm caliber heavy machine gun with a muzzle velocity of 940 m/s, its power exceeds that of the vast majority of sniper rifles — if it can hit.

As a result, never mind chasing Chen Yi; he'd be lucky just to keep from being pushed back.

At the same time, Chen Yi wasn't idle either. Left hand fished out a loaded hunting rifle and fired at will, discarding one after each use; right hand threw full metal javelins one by one — no one knew where he pulled them from.

All three bunkers were within one kilometer range. Body Technique Level 4-5 cadets lagged behind special forces in tactical skill, but surpassed them in physical quality; aiming, firing, maintaining stability — they could do it eight or nine parts out of ten without training. In an instant, all one saw were specks of hits all over Kaman, shattered hard leather flying everywhere.

The first round of shooting ended; Kaman was already panting heavily, at most three or four seconds later the first-to-cease-fire Fortification No. 16 began roaring again, followed by the unwilling-to-be-left-out Fortification No. 15. This time, bullets struck him and rebounded only at around 30 centimeters.

Chen Yi himself had taken bullets before; he knew that 30-centimeter-thick Pocket Qi, when facing a heavy machine gun, easily feeds back damage.

Kaman gave him a somewhat dazed look, hands shielding his head and face, still wanting to continue the pursuit.

Chen Yi didn't care, alternating shots with pistol and hunting rifle, reloading and swapping magazines non-stop, movements incomparably practiced. Although firearms couldn't directly kill Kaman, round after round like this, no matter how strong the Pocket Qi, it couldn't hold out. After an hour, Kaman's speed had obviously dropped. All Source Energy burned clean, remaining energy exhausted, not even any left to replenish.

After chasing a bit more, Kaman stopped, glaring sideways at Chen Yi.

Chen Yi smiled, gnawed on a piece of konjac, extended his left hand, signaled the bunkers to cease fire, then laughed: "Any Pocket Qi left?"

Kaman snorted.

"Who are you?"

"Temple Warrior, Third Heavy Infantry Battalion Standard Bearer Kaman." When he spoke this line, Kaman held his head high. Rightly so — among Ma La's military commanders, he counted as a number one figure; losing face or not, otherwise how could he show his face again twenty years later.

"Surrender?"

Kaman snorted again.

Chen Yi "oh"ed with a smile, holding the Remington, leisurely loaded a round, and fired "bang bang bang" seven times at Kaman.

Kaman roared in rage, staggered from the hits, lunged forward two steps — only to see Chen Yi step back two steps, simultaneously reloading another round. Energy exhausted, he was a stove that had burned even its own gas pipe; naturally he posed no threat whatsoever. In other words, Chen Yi only needed to keep shooting, without any frontal confrontation, to capture him — and this man knew quite a lot about Ma La's situation. In the past, Yu Weichao had also captured Ma La residents or outside villagers to interrogate, and he himself had gone to Ma La to observe and learn. But in this world, what ordinary people understand is very limited; to deeply understand Ma La inside and out, one must be a high-ranking official or noble.

Inside Fortified Fortification 16 were native archers; seeing Chen Yi looking at the gun, they opened fire, leaving Kaman's body covered in spots.

Chen Yi quickly raised his finger again, signaling a ceasefire, then asked: "I guarantee you'll live—surrender?"

"Guarantee?" Kaman revealed a strange expression.

"That's right."

"Do you dare swear by the Divine Dragon?"

Chen Yi furrowed his brow; an expert at Combat Skill Level probably wouldn't casually say such things. He pressed: "What do you mean?"

Kaman had just seen Chen Yi eating konjac and knew he wasn't a local, so he explained: "Swear by the Divine Dragon—if you fail to fulfill the oath, you cannot advance to Divine Art Level."

Chen Yi pondered for a moment, then countered: "Does completing the experiment allow one to advance to Divine Art?"

Kaman laughed heartily, tears coming to his eyes, saying: "I was actually defeated by a Temple Warrior like you. Let me tell you: to possess Divine Art, you must gain the Temple's recognition, otherwise forget it. But if you swear by the Divine Dragon and don't keep it, you definitely won't receive the Temple's recognition."

Chen Yi didn't want to ask what the Divine Dragon was, or how the Temple knew. Presumably the Holy Knights of Saint Qiao Kingdom knew a bit more.

"I swear by the Divine Dragon not to kill you." Chen Yi raised a finger and said simply. Not to mention he didn't want to kill Kaman; even if he wanted to kill him later, there were plenty of ways around it. The value of lawyers lies in drafting oath contracts—if a single sentence could make it clear, the legal profession could all go to hell.

……(Unfinished; if you want to know what happens next, please log in to www. qidian. com for more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)