Chapter 346: Killing by Exploiting Weakness

This collapse lasted a full day — of course not.

After returning all the pursuers' attacks, the Iron City pursuers suffered heavy losses, but they weren't wiped out entirely.

Five people still remained standing.

One Iron Spear Guard, one incomparably burly old man, two middle-aged men carrying weapons resembling rocket launchers on their backs, one with long hair and one with short hair, their features eight-tenths similar.

They should be brothers.

The last one was a thin man with long hair covering half his face, pale and bloodless, giving the impression a gust of wind would knock him over.

The burly old man bore injuries, but not from the "returning" hail of bullets just now; he had already been wounded before that.

Chains were bound around his body, his hands crossed in an X shape, tightly restrained against his chest.

Not only that, the chains pierced through his body from the collarbone position, transfixing his shoulder blades; the slightest movement brought excruciating pain.

Looking closely, one would discover strange characters engraved on these chains; they were not ordinary chains.

Obviously he was a captive, yet brought along during the pursuit, clearly someone of status.

These five people all stared at Tang Luo.

Ao Yulie brought Fei Yuan Thirteen and the little girl over.

The little girl looked at the burly old man and called out: "Grandpa!"

Fei Yuan Thirteen straightforwardly knelt on one knee and saluted: "Lord Xin!"

The Lake City Lord, the Yu Kong clan's captain and leader, known by the title "Azure Sky Eagle," Yu Kong Xin.

"Yuan." Yu Kong Xin looked at the little girl and spoke, his voice dry and hoarse, like the grating of something sharp.

Like a scrapheap old car barely moving a meter, he reached his limit after uttering a single syllable.

His burly body hunched over, and he spoke no more.

"Hmph." The middle-aged man with short hair snorted coldly, pressing a dagger glowing with eerie green light against Yu Kong Xin's throat.

This man was named Xin Yan Du, the Iron City leader.

The long-haired man beside him was his twin brother, Xin Yan Liang.

As for that thin man, he was an Executioner Samurai, and also a Ghost-Driving Master descendant, no ordinary person.

These few people survived Tang Luo's casual "return to sender," sustaining only minor injuries, which showed their strength was extraordinary — except for that lucky Iron Spear Guard.

"Not bad." Tang Luo offered a word of praise, light and unconcerned.

Xin Yan Du and the others looked at Tang Luo with extreme wariness.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have directly produced a dagger at a hostage's throat as a threat.

"You two, no matter what this brat promised you, our Xin Yan clan is willing to pay double the price." Xin Yan Liang said.

This white-haired man who suddenly appeared was probably a passing Ghost-Driving Master, very likely even an Executioner Samurai type.

Otherwise he wouldn't have casually gotten mixed up in the battle between Iron City and Lake City.

For this kind of person, money is all it takes.

"Oh, do you happen to have two Scripture Fetchers too?" Tang Luo said.

Xin Yan Du's eyes narrowed as he looked at the little girl and said: "You actually told someone else?"

The little girl didn't speak.

"This power, in times like these, is a curse." Yu Kong Xin spoke with difficulty, "Yuan, you shouldn't have saved me back then."

"I understand, Grandpa." The little girl Yu Kong Yuan said softly, "When I used it, I was already prepared."

"Go on, Yuan, perhaps you really can save this world." Yu Kong Xin said, his body suddenly twisting.

Xin Yan Du, whose attention was on Tang Luo, failed to react in time and couldn't withdraw his hand.

The dagger sliced a deep gash across Yu Kong Xin's throat, fresh blood spraying out.

"Damn bastard!" Xin Yan Du cursed, not expecting the old man to be this ruthless, committing suicide directly.

What's more, his dagger was poisoned; even if the wound wasn't fatal, the death-on-contact poison was enough to kill Yu Kong Xin.

"Hey."

At this moment, that thin man walked up to Yu Kong Xin in a few steps, caught his falling body, took out a pill emitting a strange odor, and shoved it directly into the wound.

"Fresh Ghost-Driving Master corpses aren't easy to find." The man revealed a smile.

"What did you do?" Xin Yan Du instinctively retreated two steps, a bad feeling rising.

This man was named San Chuan, a Ghost-Driving Master descendant who would do anything for money, an Executioner Samurai.

However, the money he wanted wasn't limited to money; he also wanted various corpses, human bodies, and all sorts of messy materials for bizarre experiments.

He came to Iron City some time ago, and upon hearing Iron City planned to attack Lake City, he volunteered himself.

He and several other Executioner Samurai played a remarkable role in the war.

While valued by Xin Yan Du, he was also regarded with some wariness.

Because this man always inexplicably emitted an ominous aura; the Xin Yan clan possessed eagle-like vision and extraordinarily sharp intuition.

Xin Yan Du's intuition told him this man was quite dangerous.

Even the "Counter-Strike Storm" just now, Xin Yan Du hadn't detected how the other party avoided it.

Yu Kong Xin's corpse slammed onto the ground, motionless; everyone watched silently.

Time ticked by, and two minutes quickly passed.

"Huh, failed?" San Chuan stroked his chin, tone quite disappointed, then looked at Yu Kong Yuan, his gaze and expression turning fanatical, "As expected, a special Scripture Fetcher is needed after all? You are an existence more noble than a Ghost-Driving Master."

"Truly boring." Tang Luo said.

He even specially waited a bit, but nothing happened.

"Little White Dragon, clear the field."

"Okay, Master." Ao Yulie raised his hand, thought for a moment, and a bolt of lightning blasted out.

Almost the instant Ao Yulie raised his hand, Xin Yandu reacted, snatching up his younger brother beside him, yanking him in front of himself, and even kicking him hard.

The moment Xin Yanliang's body leaned forward, lightning flickered and had already struck him.

Not only was he electrocuted into a charred lump, the "rocket launcher" strapped to his back simultaneously exploded.

Thanks to his keen intuition, Xin Yandu had already leapt into midair and curled his body, yet he was still struck by exploding fragments, leaving numerous wounds across his body.

Fortunately these wounds were not deep; Xin Yandu instantly turned into a bloodied man, but still landed steadily, retaining the ability to keep fleeing.

That was how it should have been.

But the thunder Ao Yulie unleashed was no ordinary thing; after electrocuting Xin Yanliang — whom his elder brother had used as a shield — into a charred lump.

The thunder did not stop there; instead it surged onto the ground.

The lightning followed Ao Yulie's will, spreading across the ground, flickering and leaping.

Its power was greatly reduced, yet it was already enough.

Xin Yandu, having just landed, felt intense pain shoot up from his soles; the agony lasted only an instant, then came numbness.

Then, the sound of explosions and fire surged from behind, fragments tearing through his body.

The "rocket launcher" on his back likewise exploded.

He lowered his head and glanced at his chest, almost blown apart and torn in two from behind, a hollow cavity now gaping; Xin Yandu fell straight to the ground.

In truth, as snipers of this era, the Xin brothers were far from as weak as they appeared; even in close combat, they could single-handedly thrash Fei Yuan Shisan.

Even the leader of the fully armed Iron Spear Masses could not compare to them.

Exorcists do not merely possess special abilities — they crush ordinary people in every aspect.

Do not ask why; an Exorcist can simply "kill an ordinary person with one slash," with zero reasoning.

It is not that ordinary people cannot contend with Exorcists at all, forced to close their eyes and await death; rather, their margin for error is too low.

The slightest carelessness means defeat and death.

There are strong individuals among ordinary people who can kill Exorcists too. But those are one-in-ten-thousand geniuses, even rarer than Exorcists themselves.

Likewise, Exorcists facing Ao Yulie basically have no scenario where they make a mistake and still survive.

Just now Xin Yandu actually made no mistake, yet he still could not escape this death.

If he and his younger brother had found a corner to ambush, firing a few shots sneakily, they might have caused Ao Yulie some trouble.

They would not have ended up like this — dead the moment it's said, not even a whole corpse left.

The Xin brothers died without whole corpses, killed by lightning strike and weapon backfire.

But that Sanchuan stood there perfectly fine, strange white smoke rising from his body; he did not die, not only did he not die, he stared fixedly at one spot.

That spot held Yu Kongxin's corpse.

At this very moment, Yu Kongxin's originally still corpse was twitching, the sound of heartbeats reaching everyone's ears.

"Look," Tang Luo said.

Ao Yulie let go and stepped back one pace.

Soon, Yu Kongxin climbed to his feet, looking at Tang Luo and the others; his eyes had turned completely black, eerie black-red blood continuously flowing out.

As if those were not eyes, but two hollow holes.

Seeing his grandfather become like this, Yu Kongyuan did not cry out in alarm; instead he said to Tang Luo, "I hope you can end his suffering."

"Mm." Tang Luo nodded.

As they spoke, Yu Kongxin's body began to swell; the chains on him snapped inch by inch, leaving only the two piercing through his shoulder blades and collarbones still hanging on him.

While swelling, his whole body was also undergoing mutation.

Feathers pierced through his skin one by one, growing from inside, from small to large, covering his entire body in the blink of an eye.

Black feathers, but with a cyan tinge at the edges.

Starting from his lower legs, bones burst out, then twisted and recombined into bird-like talons, wrapped in a layer of semi-transparent membrane.

That was skin stretched to the extreme yet not torn, astonishingly tough.

Moments later, what appeared before everyone was a cyan-black monstrous bird five meters tall.

It had feathers sharp as knives, exuding towering ferocity, and two chains dangling from its body; during the "transformation" just now, one segment had tangled into its body.

It looked like a weak point.

For instance, grabbing the chain and yanking hard, or pulling it out, seemed like it could inflict massive damage.

The strangest part was not the chains; the monstrous bird did not have a bird's face.

But a human face — Yu Kongxin's face, not enlarged, a tiny head disproportionate to the massive body, black eyes still slowly weeping blood.

Mouth slightly open, emitting a sound that made one's scalp tingle.

You could hardly tell if it was a wail or a scream; you only knew this sound would become a midnight nightmare.

"Success!" Sanchuan laughed wildly, dancing about like a madman.

The next second, a large hand emitting a faint glow descended from the sky, landing on the monstrous bird.

The midnight nightmare voice came to an abrupt halt.

A blurred corpse appeared on the ground.

Sanchuan's dancing movements seemed to have been paused, frozen in place, utterly motionless.

Targeting the weak point to kill the opponent — a very correct combat approach.

But the weak point is the chains?

No, clearly the whole body is a weak point; as long as I slap it down it can be transcended, ending the suffering.