Chapter 396: A Narrow Victory (7/10, Autumn Subscription)

But there was no choice—if he wanted to survive, Lin Ling had to pop pills, popping them without listening.

Otherwise, the ever-denser rainfall, the ever-faster-falling raindrops, would take his life.

After swallowing the HP-restoring pill, Lin Ling immediately propped himself up and looked ahead.

Even now, he still didn't know what had happened, didn't know why all of them had suddenly been blasted away by the violent shockwave.

But when he raised his head and looked toward the bone sphere, his face instantly lit with wild joy.

The bone sphere—cracked open!

Their pleas for help, their prayers—Lord Han had heard them!

Yet before that feeling could last long, before even the smile of joy had time to bloom, everything froze in an instant.

Because he saw Chen Lao, and he also saw… Lord Han's head.

Lord Han… was dead?

How… could that be?

Lin Ling's head buzzed and went blank, as if it had lost the ability to function, as if… the sky had fallen!

His face turned paper-white, his lips trembling, his whole body as if plunged into an icy pit, dazed and lost.

And this kind of emotional shift in Lin Ling, like something contagious, quickly appeared on every survivor of Gu Yue Cun.

"Lord Han… is dead?"

"No… no! No no no no! No no no!!!"

"Ahhhh! Ahhhhhhh! Ahhhhhhh!!"

Some roared in despair, some wailed in grief, some beat their heads against the ground, some lay there numb.

And without exception, the light had vanished from their eyes, along with any hope of living.

Lord Han's death snuffed out the last flicker of侥幸 in every survivor.

"Ha… hahaha… hahahaha! Hahahaha! Hahahaha! Die, die die die! All of us are going to die! Going to die!!"

In his madness, Hong Dafu suddenly burst into wild laughter, as if gone insane, stumbling as he ran outward—but after only a few steps he went thump and collapsed, covered by Night Rain, and fell silent.

The others were in much the same state.

Many simply gave up popping pills, letting Night Rain batter them; under the pounding of the dense raindrops, their HP was emptied clean, and they dropped dead on the spot.

Some were still numbly popping pills, yet didn't know what they were living for—clearly there was no hope ahead, and in what little life remained, all they could see was a wretched dead end.

An atmosphere of despair hung over everyone's heart.

Lord Han's death was like an enormous mountain, crushing every path that led to survival.

With the path gone, the people died.

Some were still alive, yet no different from the dead.

Numbness, pain, confusion, hesitation… all manner of oppressive emotions shrouded their hearts; every one of them was listless, as if they had lost their souls, lost in despair.

Forming a stark contrast with the people of Gu Yue Cun were the Wuyu Clan within Black Cloud.

After confirming Chen Lao's victory, the Wuyu Clan's distinctive cheer—that wailing sound, like a stirring symphony—rose and fell, deafening.

"Elder Chen! Elder Chen! Elder Chen!"

Amidst Night Rain, thunder exploded!

Lit by lightning, Chen Lao looked down upon the masses below, like a god!

The dense raindrops washed the blood from his body, soaked the exposed white bone, and triggered a flood of dense damage prompts.

Dense clusters of -1-1-1-1 floated up over his body.

But Chen Lao acted as if he hadn't seen, looking into the distance, scanning around, as if searching for something.

Yet after looking in a full circle and finding no one, his brow furrowed slightly.

"Where is Wang Nu?"

"R-report, my lord, the Wang clan lord has been killed by a human!"

What?!

Chen Lao's pupils contracted, his face changing drastically.

He reached out and gave a yank in empty air; the human-bone kite that had just spoken, as if pulled by some force of gravity, was dragged right to his front.

"What did you just say? Wang Nu is dead?"

"Y-yes…"

The human-bone kite answered timidly.

"How could she be dead, how could she possibly be dead! In this mere Gu Yue Cun, apart from Lord Han, who else could have killed her!!"

Chen Lao was so furious that every bone in his body was creaking and trembling.

He had only crossed a few more blows with Lord Han—how had his base been raided?

Ma Ling'er's strength, once fully unleashed, was at Blood-tier!

Blood-tier, converted to a human realm, was the Xiantian Realm!

The entire Gu Yue Cun, at a single glance, was nothing but the old, weak, sick, and crippled—where would a Xiantian-tier expert come from? How could she possibly have died! How could she possibly have died!!

"R-report, my lord, the Wang clan lord was killed by Yese Liming!"

Yese Liming?!

Hearing that name, Chen Lao first froze for a moment, then his expression turned strange.

Wasn't this the very human that Ma Ling'er had been obsessing over, the one she wanted to kill with her own hands?

Why was it now that she had been killed by that human instead?

Chen Lao had seen Fang Yue before and knew the guy was merely a Houtian-tier martial artist, so even if he racked his brains, he couldn't figure out how Fang Yue had managed to kill Ma Ling'er.

Anger made Chen Lao's bones creak and groan; with a forceful grip in his hand—

Crack!

The human-bone kite that had been dragged over here was crushed into fragments on the spot, scattering across the ground.

Watching the raindrops in the night sky gradually pick up speed as they fell, Chen Lao began to descend.

He was going to… find Fang Yue!

Then take Fang Yue's head back to the clan to report!

Tossing Lord Han's head aside carelessly, Chen Lao accelerated his descent.

As for the Black Cloud tribe members within the Black Cloud, they trembled in place, waiting for Chen Lao's orders.

He merely swept a glance at them, then snorted coldly: "All of you, get lost and take shelter from the rain. I'll handle things here!"

"Yes!!"

Only then did the Black Cloud tribe members, as if granted a great reprieve, scatter and flee at top speed—some diving beneath the ruins, some darting into the forest for cover—each seeking a suitable place to shelter from the rain.

"Right now, this is only the 【Light Rain】 stage of 【Night Rain】. If it escalates to 【Medium Rain】, 【Heavy Rain】, or even 【Storm】, even I would find it hard to withstand."

Rain-tier practitioners vary in strength.

The degree to which one can resist 【Night Rain】 also differs from person to person.

Chen Lao had only just stepped into the Rain-tier, barely qualifying as Rain-tier at all—not far off from someone like Lord Han, who was half a step into Rain-tier.

But Lord Han was ultimately held back by his body, and in the final, most critical stage of the battle, his attention was split worrying about the situation outside—only then did Chen Lao find an opening to kill him.

Otherwise, who would have won in the end was still a fifty-fifty toss-up.

"Han Bai… truly a terrifying man!"

Recalling the course of the battle just now, Chen Lao still felt his heart pounding even now. That kind of dance on a knife's edge—a fight between near-equals where a single careless moment meant death—he hadn't experienced in a long time.

The Rain-tier is the peak of secular combat power.

Once one reaches the Rain-tier, the number of times one actually fights becomes very few.

First, there's no need—everyone has worked hard to cultivate to this stage, so a verbal exchange on paper is usually enough.

Second, the number of Rain-tier practitioners is that small, and they all move in the same circle. Apart from clashes between foreign clans like this, they generally give each other face.

"Fortunately, I never neglected my cultivation, which is why I narrowly gained the upper hand!"

(End of this chapter)