Chapter 1029 Support!
Their fingers touched. Li Lanfeng looked at Ling Lan and smiled. Ling Lan almost got dazzled by his smile.
Ling Lan calmly reminded him with a cold face, "You don't have to smile in front of people whom you trust. That is a bad habit."
Ling Lan thought about it carefully before continuing, "It's dangerous."
'Damn it! Even I can't handle your smile. Blood, please don't come out of my nose. To maintain my reputation as their boss, I must stop this demon from smiling in front of me!'
Ling Lan didn't believe in her resistance against such a beautiful smile. Hence, she decided to completely stop it from happening instead.
Li Lanfeng was touched by Ling Lan's words of concern. It warmed up his stone-cold heart. Only Ling Lan was able to warm his heart. Li Lanfeng never wanted to let go of this feeling. He wanted more of it. He even had the desire to keep all this warmth to himself.
However, he knew that if he really did it, Ling Lan would stray further from him. Damn it, he took Ling Lan as his most important companion and confidant but Ling Lan had her family and friends. Her family and her friends were more important than him.
Why couldn't he be satisfied? Li Lanfeng hated his selfishness and greed. However, no matter how he tried to convince himself, this selfish thinking wouldn't disappear. The longer he stayed beside Ling Lan, this selfishness and greed got even stronger. This was why he followed Ling Lan to Mai'er Fa even though he knew that she might be angry. He wanted to become more important to Ling Lan. He wanted to become the most important person in Ling Lan's heart.
He didn't know when he would be satisfied, but he knew he wasn't satisfied now, he wanted more. This was not enough at all. Maybe one day, when their friendship reached a certain point, he would be satisfied.
Li Lanfeng tried to suppress his emotions but this feeling of something in the throat was suffocating. He took a few deep breaths secretly to calm himself down. He knew that Rabbit didn't like it when her comrades got too emotional. Freaking out about this kind of thing would just make him look irrational to Ling Lan. He understood Ling Lan's liking so he wouldn't make such a low-level mistake in front of her. He wouldn't let Rabbit have any bad impression of him.
Li Lanfeng threw away his thoughts and coldly said, "It looks like our thoughts are the same. We both think that there's something amiss with this mission."
"They wouldn't be able to interact with the higher authorities of the military in other missions. This is the only mission that they could." Ling Lan continued, "The Flying Dragon Special Forces was assigned to this mission. At first, we thought that the military realized something was wrong with the annihilation of the Magic Ace Mecha Clan so they sent the Flying Dragon Special Forces to prevent other higher authorities from meddling with this affair or to make sure that this matter was attended to seriously. But, from the looks of it now, it might not be the
case."
"The mission for the Flying Dragon Special Forces might be a smoke bomb." Li Lanfeng went into deep thought.
Ling Lan smiled coldly. "It might not be a smoke bomb. It might be like a robber acting like a cop."
Li Lanfeng narrowed his eyes. "Are you saying that there's a problem with the Flying Dragon Special Forces? But, the problem is the Flying Dragon Special Forces!"
The Flying Dragon Special Forces belonged to the military but their top chain of command was with the three marshals. Plus, the Flying Dragon Special Forces had the power to watch over the other regiment commander of the various mecha clans in the military. Once they noticed a problem with a regiment commander, they would be able to arrest the regiment commander with the warrant from one of the three great marshals.
Thus, the commander of the Flying Dragon Special Forces mustn't belong to any factions of the three great marshals. He was an independent faction. He must maintain a neutral position in order to complete the mission given to the Flying Dragon Special Forces.
If something went wrong with the Flying Dragon Special Forces… a chill went up Li Lanfeng's spine. He looked up at Ling Lan and said sternly, "Rabbit, we can't interfere with this matter." They couldn't even get near on this matter. If not, they would get implicated and might even die from it.
Ling Lan felt that this matter was troublesome too. At first, she thought that this case only affected the higher authorities of the military. The person behind everything might be as powerful as her father. However, after going through all the information they received, the waters behind this was too deep. It might drown her and her father.
Ling Lan clenched her fist tightly. She paced around Li Lanfeng's room. Her mind was working furiously. If she interfered with this matter, would there be more benefits or risks?
"This could explain why Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran got eyed on the moment they entered Mailer Fa. They were abandoned by the Flying Dragon Special Forces from the beginning." Ling Lan gritted her teeth angrily.
Although she only interacted Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran for a short while, she had a good impression of them. She knew that they were loyal to the Federation and were two of the most outstanding soldiers of the new generation.
To her, these people would become the pillars of the Federation after they grew up. Such talents were precious so the Federation should nurture them carefully. But, due to some people's selfish desires, they forsook such exceptional fresh blood of the Federation. Ling Lan felt really bad for them.
"Are you saying that Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran were abandoned the moment they accepted the mission?" Li Lanfeng felt that the matter was bad but he didn't expect it to be so terrible.
"By right, with Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran's stealth abilities, it would be hard for the people in Mai'er Fa to discover them within such a short time even if they knew that some people were sent over to investigate the annihilation of the Magic Ace Mecha Clan. The only reason this could be possible was, they knew that the people that were sent over were Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran. Hence, finding them would be easy." Ling Lan explained, "From the start, I didn't understand why Mai'er Fa didn't find you but found Mu Chaoran and Tang Ningyu instead. You took the mission before them but they found the two of them easily instead of you. Now, I know."
Li Lanfeng nodded. He was still too naive. He didn't think too much about these dark dealings. He looked at Ling Lan with admiration. Once again, he felt the difference between him and Ling Lan. There were still many things he had to learn from her.
"Why didn't Mailer Fa kill Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran?" Li Lanfeng agreed with Ling Lan's prediction but as an adviser, he still had to be careful about the loopholes in her prediction.
"This is why I didn't suspect them at the start. By right, since they had already forsaken Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran, they wouldn't bother with how Mailer Fa treated them." Ling Lan frowned. She felt that there were still some things she hadn't seen through in this matter. This could be the key to everything.
"However, we should be glad that Mai'er Fa didn't want to kill Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran now. But, no one knew what would happen in the future." Ling Lan felt relieved for the two of them. If not, she might not be able to help them yesterday night. They would have already been killed by Sword Monarch if they didn't want them to live.
"Do you think that Mai'er Fa is taking pity in their talent so they asked them to enter the mecha tournament? They might want to use them to increase the excitement for the mecha tournament." Li Lanfeng raised another possibility.
"Use them?" Ling Lan felt enlightened by these words. She felt that she was about to grasp something. She repeated, "Use them?"
There were many ways to increase the excitement for the mecha tournament. It was not a good idea to let these two pieces of chess to take part in the mecha tournament, as they possessed a threat to them. Unless, there were some underlying reasons.
To become the leader of the new generation, the mecha piloting skills of these people must be at pseudo imperial level. They might not be the match of those experienced and sly ace mecha masters but their mecha piloting skills could offer good practice for those rising stars.
Practice! Ling Lan felt that she had uncovered the mist covering up this problem.
"Little Four, find all the rising stars that are participating in this mecha tournament." She finally felt that she might have had a breakthrough in this complex situation. It might be useless but she still hoped that she was able to find something.
"I understand." Little Four quickly went to do research. Very soon, he created a list of all the rising stars and gave it to Ling Lan.
"These are all the rising stars the other nations and various factions are grooming. Help me take a look. Who do you think are under Mai'er Fa?" Ling Lan passed the list to Li Lanfeng. She trusted Li Lanfeng's judgment.
Li Lanfeng looked through the list and frowned. He couldn't see anything from this name list.
Because of Xiao Yiqiu, Su Pei used a different identity to participate in this tournament. Hence, their pictures and personal details on the list had nothing to do with their real identity.
"If there's really someone from Mai'er Fa, based on their prudence nature and the fact that they are the host, they might have altered the personal details of their candidates." Li Lanfeng thought of this possibility.
Ling Lan nodded. She said in a low voice, "I have this thought too but I still hope that they will make some careless mistakes. It seems like I'm hoping for too much."
"Boss, don't worry. The personal details might be problematic but the real person will have to appear soon anyways. I'll keep my eyes on the arena." Little Four saw Ling Lan sighing so he quickly consoled his boss.
"Okay. I'll leave it to you." She saw Little Four's excited look so she didn't want to douse his enthusiasm. She didn't think that Little Four would be able to get anything out of watching the arena, but nothing was impossible. What if he really found something?
Little Four was excited when his boss gave him such an important task. He went off hurriedly to watch over the arena. Of course, he didn't forget to evade the stupid god-class hacker. He couldn't act boldly like last time so the areas he could control got smaller.
"What should we do now?" Li Lanfeng looked at the list again. They couldn't find any clues so he asked Ling Lan about their next actions.
"Let's give up Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran's trails for now." Since they couldn't get anything from this line of thought, Ling Lan let go of it.
"Let's look at the mission the Magic Ace Mecha Clan took that time. Their mission was to help the Flying Dragon Special Forces as they retreat. Something might have happened while they were protecting the Flying Dragon Special Forces. What did they see and what did they discover? What made the higher authorities of the Flying Dragon Special Forces lay their hands on the Magic Ace Mecha Clan one month after this mission? Why did they annihilate the Magic Ace Mecha Clan with the help of Mai'er Fa?"
"We know that the higher authorities of the Flying Dragon Special Forces already had contacts with Mailer Fa." Li Lanfeng understood what Ling Lan wanted to say.
"Not only that, they even sent Huang Yaobing out successfully and passed him to Mai'er Fa. The annihilation of the Magic Ace Mecha Clan allowed Huang Yaobing to disappear, creating the illusion that he was dead." Ling Lan said seriously. "I suspect that the Son of God project never ended. They just changed their base of operation."
Ling Lan asked Little Four to look up Huang Yaobing. She realized that he was suspected to be dead.
When Ling Lan passed the information of Huang Yaobing to Li Lanfeng, Li Lanfeng managed to guess what happened that year.
"Killing two birds with one stone! The person who set up this scheme is amazing. If we didn't look up the Magic Ace Mecha Clan again, we might have been fooled by him." Li Lanfeng was thoroughly shocked by this finding. He realized that there were many clever people who specialized in schemes. He needed to work even harder now to catch up to them.
"If Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran died in Mailer Fa while investigating the Magic Ace Mecha Clan, what would the military do?" Ling Lan suddenly asked Li Lanfeng.
He thought for a moment and replied, "There might be two results. First, they will be furious and break ties with Mai'er Fa. Second, they might give up the investigation because they knew that the waters here are too deep."
"Breaking ties on the surface is the best form of cooperation." Ling Lan was determined to get to the bottom of this.
"You mean that they would pretend to be very furious?" Li Lanfeng's eyes lit up. He seemed to understand something.
"Then, the suspicion on them would just wash away," Ling Lan lowered her voice and said.
Ling Lan paced around the room again. After some time, she made a decision. "I'll inform my father to investigate the higher authorities of the Flying Dragon Special Forces."
"Leader!" Li Lanfeng stood up in shock. Although he was attempting to uncover the secret behind the Magic Ace Mecha Clan with Ling Lan, it didn't mean that he supported interfering with this matter.
"Lanfeng, there are some things I have to do. I can't betray my heart." Ling Lan's gaze were resolute as she said, "This is my path!"
Li Lanfeng was unable to persuade Ling Lan when he saw her resolute gaze. He knew that once Ling Lan made a decision, she would complete it even if she had to risk her life. The battle on Planet Haijiao was an instance of this trait.
"I understand. I fully support you," Li Lanfeng said seriously. Since Ling Lan made her decision, he would support her no matter what it took.
"Thank you, Lanfeng." Ling Lan smiled at Li Lanfeng. Li Lanfeng was stunned by the smile. He realized that Ling Lan's smile was as enchanting as his smile. Even with all the scars on her face, they were unable to hide her charisma.
Chapter 1030 Be Careful!
Ling Lan immediately asked Little Four to contact Ling Xiao and she told him what they had discovered.
Ling Xiao's gentle smile slowly disappeared as she was explaining her presumptions. That gentle dad-like aura disappeared from his body and instead, the aura he was exuding was regal and serious, very fitting for someone of such a high caliber. At first, he thought that the mineral veins were already troublesome enough. He didn't expect his daughter to get involved in another even more troublesome matter. Compared to this matter, the mineral veins were nothing.
Ling Xiao looked at the cold-looking Ling Lan and took a deep breath to calm himself down. He was convinced that his daughter was a magnet to troublesome matters. No matter where she went, she would always meet some sort of trouble.
He needed to become stronger. If not, he wouldn't be able to handle all the problems his daughter threw at him. He didn't want his image as an omnipotent father to crash and burn.
"My words are still the same. Leave Mailer Fa to me. If you can, leave Mai'er Fa and come back home." Ling Xiao believed that his daughter wouldn't act rashly but her attractiveness towards troubles might cause them to look for her. It was safer for her to just stay at home.
He glanced coldly at Li Lanfeng who was wearing a mask and standing beside his daughter. He was the culprit. He was the one who led his precious daughter his astray. His instincts were right. This person was 'dangerous' for his daughter.
Ling Xiao's impression of Li Lanfeng dropped drastically. He never interfered with his daughter's life but if he could, he wanted to force him away from Ling Lan. Ling Xiao ascertained the fact that he didn't like Li Lanfeng once again.
Ling Lan shook her head decisively. "Father, I'll not go back before the mecha tournament ends. However, I've asked Lanfeng to give up his mission. We won't interfere with this matter voluntarily. We'll wait for your notice."
Ling Xiao understood what Ling Lan wanted to say. If they continued provoking their opponent, they might attack them.
Ling Xiao saw the firm look in Ling Lan's eyes and knew that he couldn't force her on the matter. This was Ling Lan's belief. If he stopped her, she might get affected mentally. It would also affect her growth in the future.
"Be careful then." Ling Xiao could only end their conversation with this sentence.
After her daughter's face disappeared on his screen, Ling Xiao continued staring at the black virtual screen for a moment before he released a long drawn-out sigh.
"It looked like I have to hasten my pace." Ling Xiao's gaze turned ruthless. He wanted to do things slowly but the information Ling Lan brought back again and again allowed him to understand that he didn't have the time anymore.
He knew that one of the reasons why Ling Lan didn't want to come back was because she didn't want to affect his plan. Most people already knew that Ling Lan went out of the Federation. Once she returned, a lot of attention would be placed on them again, increasing the pressure on his shoulders, making him not be able to carry out his plan.
Ten days passed. Within these ten days, the normal ace mecha masters who participated in this tournament got gradually eliminated. Besides some extremely lucky ace mecha operators, most of those that remained were mecha operators who were close to becoming an imperial operator.
In one of the matches, two ace mecha masters got worked up and started attacking each other's vital points without caring about the rules of the tournament. In the end, one was seriously injured while the other died in battle. The mecha tournament turned bloody all of a sudden.
However, this was what attracted gamblers. The wagers and stakes started increasing. To them, only life-or-death battles were exciting enough to battle high.
In a special room, Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran laid on their beds opposite each other. Compared to ten days ago, they seemed even more tired.
"Our opponents are getting stronger," Mu Chaoran said indifferently.
"Yes. After those normal ace operators left, only the elites remained. Every single match is hard." Tang Ningyu relaxed his fingers. During one of his match today, he fell into the trap of his sly opponent. Fortunately, his hand speed was above the normal ace operator's level so he managed to dodge a lethal attack due to his extreme hand speed. If not, he might have lost.
He would not only lose, but he might also die. That attack was aimed at his vital point. If it hit him, he would be seriously injured.
Tang Ningyu managed to survive but he was injured too. The nerves on his fingers got hurt. When he moved his fingers, he would feel a stinging pain on fingers.
There were still many matches to fight tomorrow so he must recover tonight. If not, he would be in a dire state tomorrow. Fortunately, Mai'er Fa didn't take away their belongings. They restricted their actions and locked them up in a special room where they couldn't escape using their domain energy. However, they still have their recovery agents. They managed to survive until now due to these recovery agents from the Flying Dragon Special Forces.
But, the recovery agent supply was limited. Tang Ningyu appeared agitated and confused. They had lost contact with the Flying Dragon Special Forces for ten days. By right, the Flying Dragon Special Forces should have sent people to rescue them. Why didn't they receive any news from the Flying Dragon Special Forces
yet?
res.
Tang Ningyu knew the capabilities of the hackers from the Flying Dragon Special Forces. If they wanted to send any information out, they would and could find a way. The only possibility was, Chief Lin, who helped them with their fake identity, didn't know that they had disappeared. Hence, the Flying Dragon Special Forces didn't know that something had happened to them.
However, was this even possible? Based on what their superiors told them, Chief Lin was the most trustworthy person among all the people that worked with the Flying Dragon Special Forces. If such a trustworthy person betrayed the Flying Dragon Special Forces…
Tang Ningyu's heart turned cold. Mu Chaoran had also thought about the same thing. He had this thought much earlier than Tang Ningyu.
"We can't wait for death." Tang Ningyu understood the hand gestures Mu Chaoran was doing secretly. This was a game they invented when they were bored. However, it was put to
use now.
"But, there are enemies all around us. We have no chance." Tang Ningyu used hand gestures to reply to him. At the same time, he talked about the brutal fight that he had today. They started exchanging experiences just like last time.
"Can't you tell that our opponents had gotten more ruthless?" Mu Chaoran continued chatting with Tang Ningyu but his hand gestures showed how he truly felt. "They wanted to kill us now. They hope that we will die in the arena."
Chapter 1031 Chess Pieces!
Tang Ningyu agreed with Mu Chaoran's prediction. That was why he was agitated. Even with top of the line recovery agents, they were still unable to handle the intensity of the tournament. They had to participate in three battles every day, and the mecha tournament would last for one month. They wouldn't be able to last the remaining 20 days in their current conditions.
"There's no chance to escape after we come back to this place. The door of our resting area restricts our domain energy. There are also more than ten domain realm masters around us, and these people are not the fake domain realm masters on Planet Azure. They're real domain realm masters. Some are even titled domain realm formidable warriors. There's no way we can leave this place with just the two of us." Mu Chaoran used his hand gestures to tell Tang Ningyu what he observed during the past few days.
Tang Ningyu realized this too. "Our chance to escape is only during the mecha battle. Although the equipment in the arena can control our mechas, we can make use of the time after we ejected out of our mechas and before we reach our resting area."
Mu Chaoran remained silent. In theory, there was a chance to escape in that time frame but their success rate was just too low. The probability of them escaping in that time frame was only slightly higher than the probability of escaping from their resting area. Moreover, this success rate was built on the assumption that Sword Monarch wouldn't act.
"I hope that there aren't many titled domain realm formidable warriors around the arena. I also hope that Sword Monarch won't notice two small rats like us."
Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran had planned their escape but they weren't going to act immediately. Before they carry out their plan, they had to make many preparations to increase their chance of success.
The next day, the old man and the middle-aged man appeared as per normal and brought them to the arena. Only the two of them could be seen but Mu Chaoran and Tang Ningyu knew that there were many domain realm masters hiding around them watching over them. These people might not even plan to hide from them, as they could feel their presence and stares on their backs.
They walked into the mecha hold. When they were about to board their mechas, the old man suddenly stopped them.
"There's a new instruction today." The old man smiled.
Tang Ningyu frowned. He said coldly, "We've participated in the mecha tournament already. What else do you want? Don't get overboard."
His anger didn't affect the smile on the old man's face. He laughed and continued, "Actually, we really didn't want to make things difficult for you. However, Young Master Rong is not happy with your performance in the past few days."
"Didn't we win?" Tang Ningyu replied coldly.
"No. The mecha tournament is not about winning. If it's just about winning, why will it attract so many gamblers to come to Mai'er Fa?" The old man shook his head. "We need blood. Only blood will excite the gamblers."
When he saw the Mu Chaoran and Tang Ningyu scoffing, he knew that they didn't agree with this opinion. The old man's excited expression died down. He told Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran their new instructions. "Our Young Master Rong hopes that you can kill your opponent in the next round."
"What if we can't do it?" Mu Chaoran asked.
"If your opponent doesn't die, you will." The old man smiled coldly. "We don't want disobedient chess pieces here."
Mu Chaoran and Tang Ningyu's expression darkened. They had already felt their opponent's killing intent on them for the past few days but they didn't expect them to expose it so quickly.
"Hence, if you want to survive, you will follow the instructions by Young Master Rong carefully. Let me remind you again. You are able to live until now because Young Master Rong wants to play a game with you. If not, when we realized you are investigating Mailer Fa, we might have…" The old man swiped his neck with his hand. He looked at them as though they were corpses.
Tang Ningyu clenched his fist tightly. He forced his anger down. They didn't know the situation now so they couldn't act rashly.
"I understand. It's just killing a person. We'll do it." Mu Chaoran gave an evil smile. He appeared as though he had no qualms about becoming a murderer and killing someone he didn't know.
"A person who understands a situation is a wise man, and you are wise." The old man pretended to commend them before leaving.
Tang Ningyu looked at Mu Chaoran. He asked, "Have you really decided to?"
"The mecha masters who participated in this tournament have their own desires and motives too. Since their motives are not pure, they can't blame us for dying here." Mu Chaoran said calmly.
Tang Ningyu took a deep breath before turning around and entering his mecha. Although he didn't say anything to Mu Chaoran, Mu Chaoran knew that Tang Ningyu had accepted his decision.
On the other side, Su Pei and Xiao Yiqiu boarded their mechas too. Su Pei was lucky. All the opponents he met along the way were not strong. He only met some difficult but manageable opponents so he managed to survive until now.
What made him happy was, his mecha piloting skills improved through the tournament. At the start of the tournament, he was a mecha operator who had just became an ace mecha master. Now, he was a qualified ace mecha master who was able to pilot his mecha properly. After a few more matches, he might be able to improve even further. No wonder everyone said that the vicious battlefield allowed for mecha operators to grow quickly. After ten days of battles, Su Pei proved this point.
He looked at Xiao Yiqiu gratefully. If it wasn't for his best friend, he might not have participated in this mecha tournament. He wouldn't be able to improve so much either too.
Xiao Yiqiu felt Su Pei's grateful gaze at his back so he turned around and looked at him. Su Pei just smiled at him. Xiao Yiqiu thought for a moment and walked over.
"Did you see your opponent's details yesterday night?" Xiao Yiqiu asked.
Su Pei nodded. "Yes." He managed to survive until now because Xiao Yiqiu gave him information and details about his opponent, allowing him to have an understanding of his opponent's attacks and the ultimate technique ahead of time.
"Your opponent, Dark Flame, is very powerful. Many well-liked candidates lost to him. You can just try your best. If you feel like you're in danger, you can just admit defeat." Xiao Yiqiu reminded him out of concern.
"Don't worry. I feel that Dark Flame is not as ruthless as the other mecha operators. His opponents never got killed or severely injured. I'll be fine." Su Pei looked at Dark Flame's past matches. His mecha piloting was strange but his reputation was good. When he was aiming for his opponent's vital point, he would stop and change his attack the moment he noticed that his opponents couldn't handle it any longer. Hence, Su Pei was not worried that Dark Flame would suddenly change his style and kill him.
Chapter 1032 Unfortunate!
Although Xiao Yiqiu agreed with Su Pei, he still reminded him, "Although that person hadn't killed anyone before, anything could still happen in a tournament. You should still be careful."
"I know. If there isn't any hope of winning, I will just give up." Compared to Xiao Yiqiu's unwillingness to give up, Su Pei was clearly much smarter during certain situations. Once he knew that something wouldn't go his way, he wouldn't force it.
Soon, it was time for Su Pei to enter the arena. Xiao Yiqiu watched as Su Pei piloted his mecha and entered the arena. Xiao Yiqiu slowly formed a mocking sneer on his face. Suddenly his smile froze, then his face began twisting in pain. He only began to return to his original expression after a long while.
'Sh*t. Why is it every time I want to get rid of Su Pei, this body would react negatively and refuse to do so? What's wrong? Does the head not control the emotions?' Xiao Yiqiu held his aching head and thought with confusion.
Suddenly he remembered that Xiao Yiqiu had the innate talent, Bloodline Energy. Was it because of this that he was suffering from frequent headaches? Xiao Yiqiu smiled bitterly. Although he received a strong and rare bloodline innate talent, there was also a lot of trauma that came with it. Was this the price he had to pay for this innate talent?
However, this trauma will soon be resolved! Xiao Yiqiu looked at Su Pei, who was in the arena, with a coldness in his eyes. Every time his emotions were to fluctuate, it would be because of this person. As long as he kills of the root of the problem, he would be able to completely control this body.
Seeing Su Pei walk into the arena, Mu Chaoran's eyes were fixated on him. He originally hoped that he would face someone who was violent and easy to kill, that way he wouldn't feel too much guilt. However, the opponent standing in front of him was not that type of person. Mu Chaoran had seen how Su Pei fought before, and it showed that he was just a newbie. However, Su Peils piloting talents were quite okay for this tournament, but getting this far was because he got lucky… too lucky. He didn't face off against those merciless and bloodthirsty opponents and managed to get past the first 10 days of the tournament. He quickly developed into a qualified ace operator after the past ten days.
This person was probably a newcomer that a faction wanted to nurture… Mu Chaoran narrowed his eyes and thought about why that Young Master Rong wanted to kill this person?
Did that faction want this person to develop into someone that opposes the Flying Dragon Special Forces? Or perhaps there is a deeper meaning? Mu Chaoran began to be on guard. He decided to see first and then decide whether he should kill his opponent or not.
Su Pei knew that Dark Flame was very strong. It could be said that out of all the contestants who participated, Dark Flame was considered to be in the top 10 and was clearly stronger than him. If was just as what Su Pei had said to Xiao Yiqiu, when he knew that his next opponent was Dark Flame, he didn't think he had any chance of winning. However, to be able to battle with one of the strongest mecha operators in the tournament made Su Pei feel excited. He wanted to know just how much of a gap there was between him and these top mecha operators.
Thus, Su Pei used the tactic of timing his attacks at the very beginning!
Su Pei went around him with great agility and made a move when he saw an opening. If the attack didn't hit, he would back up quickly. Mu Chaoran nodded in admiration at his way of fighting him. It was indeed the smartest way for a weaker person to fight against a stronger person.
If a mecha operator wanted to end the battle quickly, they might become frustrated from Su Pei's sticky-candy like fighting style. However, Mu Chaoran wanted to watch for a bit. His opponent's fighting style was exactly what he wanted. He calmly played around with his opponent and didn't show that he was going to force an attack.
Just like that, a slow mecha battle had begun. After ten minutes, the two of them had only gone a few rounds. This made many gamblers yawn in boredom. Some even began to boo at them as they were not happy with how slow the two of them were fighting.
The warning sound echoed in the arena. This meant the two of them weren't allowed to continue fighting in that way.
Su Pei heard the warning sound and sighed. He knew that he couldn't wait anymore. He quickly piloted his mecha and pounced towards the still calm Dark Flame.
"Bang!" A large sword easily blocked Su Pei's sudden attack. Mu Chaoran originally thought his opponent would retreat again, but didn't think that after seeing he had no chance to win, Su Pei would put forth all of his strength and attacked him with a flurry of attacks.
Despite Su Pei's actions being a bit sudden, Mu Chaoran was still after all a pseudo imperial operator whose finger speeds surpassed the limits of an ace operator. A chain of speedy finger movements allowed him to block Su Pei's flurry of attacks smoothly.
Su Pei bit his lip in frustration when he saw all of his attacks were blocked easily. He then decided to use his last ultimate technique. If this technique got blocked by his opponent again, then he would surrender thereafter.
On the back of Su Pei's mecha, a beam saber suddenly got ejected out. Su Pei's mecha's left hand quickly grabbed onto it and sliced towards Mu Chaoran's cockpit that was on the shoulder area. The beam saber on his right hand was going from the bottom up, performing an uppercut towards Mu Chaoran's cockpit as well.
"Cross Chop!" This was a technique specially designed for ambidextrous mecha operators who could split apart their piloting ability and wield weapons in both hands.
Mu Chaoran's eyes narrowed and his finger speed increased even further. His hands were no longer visible in the cockpit.
"Bang, Bang!" Two crashing sounds were almost simultaneously heard.
Su Pei looked at his opponent with a stunned expression on his face, "How's that possible?!"
The mecha that Mu Chaoran was piloting was in a similar position as Su Pei's mecha. It held a large sword in each hand and performed a Cross Chop to perfectly block Su Pei's attack.
"Kill him!" Mu Chaoran had managed to avert the crisis. Before he could breathe a sigh of relief, the elder's cold voice echoed in his cockpit.
It was Mai'er Fa's people reminding him what he should do…
Mu Chaoran had a complicated expression for a moment. Then, the large sword on his left hand stabbed into Su Pei's cockpit without any hesitation.
"Shoo!" The large sword easily pierced through the cockpit. Mu Chaoran actually didn't feel anything blocking the sword. His expression instantly changed. Before anyone could discover his movements, the arm wielding the sword hilt changed the sword's direction slightly and diagonally sliced into cockpit towards the left in an instant.
Su Pei saw the large sword pierce his cockpit and then the right side of his body. Then through his cockpit once again…
Just then, he was about to surrender. However, Dark Flame, who usually never goes for the kill, actually didn't hesitate and went for it. This made him unable to have a chance to surrender!
Was this the end of his road? Su Pei actually wasn't afraid of death. He only regretted that he couldn't keep the promise he made with Xiao Yiqiu to return together and go with him to apply to the Flying Dragon Special Forces, then become comrades-in-arms.
"There's many things that I wanted to do. So unfortunate… Yiqiu, I've disappointed you!" Su Pei held his abdomen as his blood gushed out. As his body started to turn cold, he slowly closed his eyes.
Xiao Yiqiu saw Su Pei get stabbed. Before he could breathe a sigh of relief, his heart began to ache. In his mind images of the time he and Su Pei spent together began to emerge. Although he wasn't the real Xiao Yiqiu, he still felt all the good Su Pei has done for Xiao Yiqiu…
Chapter 1033 Become Stronger!
Sometimes, he was envious of his body. How can such a man have such honest, sincere and trustworthy friends, but he himself couldn't get any friends?
A strong feeling of vengeance filled Xiao Yiqiu from within…
"Destroy him. Only when he dies, I will be able to completely control this body…"
"No, if I can perfectly disguise myself as Xiao Yiqiu, Su Pei will become my friend. His existence is beneficial to me and not an obstacle. He's not going to affect me…"
"Kill him. Otherwise, you will never be able to fuse with this body and always have this flaw."
The two different feelings were fighting against each other in Xiao Yiqiu's mind. Right at that moment, Mu Chaoran took out his large sword from Su Pei's mecha and the mecha fell to the floor. Blood slowly flowed out of the cockpit's crack, dyeing the entire arena into a blood red color.
"Yinrong, the so-called flaws are only your excuses. You want to kill him because you don't have any confidence. You're afraid that these feelings would affect you. You need to know that you are in control of your emotions and not someone else. If you actually killed Su Pei, then your soul would be actually become flawed…"
"Ah…" Xiao Yiqiu suddenly cried out in anger. A bloody hue instantly filled his vision. It was indeed Xiao Yiqiu's bloodline power activating.
"What are you all looking at! Save him." Xiao Yiqiu ran onto the arena as he shouted.
Seeing Xiao Yiqiu's expression, the elders and middle-aged men, who were watching the tournament in schadenfreude, had perplexed expressions on their faces. This was originally arranged by Young Master Rong, so why would he be angry?
However, knowing that Young Master Rong always had plans and had other sorts of arrangement, the elders decisively called the medical team to save Su Pei.
Seeing the medical team quickly enter the arena, Mu Chaoran turned around and walked off the arena.
After walking into his own mecha warehouse, Mu Chaoran then said coldly, "What's the meaning of this? If you wanted to me to kill my opponent, why would you send people to save him? Isn't bleeding to death like this good?" He knew that his words could be heard by those people.
These somewhat cruel words stunned Tang Ningyu, who was waiting on the side to go into the arena. Despite Mu Chaoran's somewhat sinister way of dealing with things, in reality, he respected the rules and had his morals, and would never do something over the top. Why did one fight change Mu Chaoran into a different person? What actually happened in the arena?
"Who told you to not kill him? Now our Young Master Rong suddenly doesn't want him to die." As expected, the elder responded to Mu Chaoran.
No one saw Mu Chaoran's expression turned warner when he heard Young Master Rong did not wanting his opponent to die. This result makes use of the last attack he had done with a slight meddling on his part. His large sword changed its direction by a fraction which allowed Su Pei evade certain death. It provided enough time for him to be saved.
There was no doubt that Mu Chaoran was betting on the faction behind his opponent. They wouldn't want to him to just die like that since they had already nurtured him. As long as that faction was strong enough to breed fear into Young Master Rong, then his opponent wouldn't die. The medical team would definitely appear.
However, Mu Chaoran, who was holding his words for a long time, sneered when he heard the elder's words, "A different day, a different decision. Your Young Master Rong is the same as well."
The elder didn't reply to these words. Soon, it was Tang Ningyu's turn to enter the arena. Perhaps Dark Flame suddenly dealing a death blow scared Tang Ningyu's opponent. He didn't even enter the arena and surrendered willingly. This made Tang Ningyu let out a sigh of relief. It was always good if he didn't need to kill people randomly.
After, the two of them battled in two more battles. It was good that that Young Master Rong didn't want to them to do crazy things. This way, they safely got past this day. Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran then used this time to look around the arena to make their next move more convenient.
Su Pei opened his eyes slowly. All he saw was darkness with light shining bright from above.
Suddenly, the darkness was lifted and a huge head appeared in front of him. It was Xiao Yiqiu.
"So I'm not dead." Su Pei just realized it. He was laying down in a treatment pod. He wanted to laugh. Unfortunately, when he laughed, he felt immense pain in his abdomen. His smiling face instantly broke and turned into a grimace.
"Don't laugh. Your injuries are mainly on your abdomen. If you laugh, it will open the wound up," Xiao Yiqiu said nervously.
"That fight really scared me. Who knew that Dark Flame would actually go for the kill. How despicable." Xiao Yiqiu became angry immediately after saying that as if he hated Dark Flame very much.
"You can't blame him. You said it before that in the arena, anything could happen. Perhaps me dragging out the fight in the beginning angered him." Su Pei didn't blame him.
Suddenly, he remembered something and instantly shouted, "Yiqiu, what about your arena battle?"
"You almost died. Do you think I could fight with a clear head?" Xiao Yiqiu said sadly.
Hearing this, Su Pei felt a warm wave of good feelings washed over his body. He blinked a few times and pushed back the tears that were about to come out. Then, he softly said, "Thank you, Yiqiu." In the end, it was still him who dragged Yiqiu down. With Yiqiu's potential, he would definitely be able to continue for a few more days and be able to gain more experience.
"What are you talking about. Just stay here and recover." Xiao Yiqiu patted Su Pei's forehead and smiled. "When you recover, we'll go back. After going through so many battles in the past few days, I think we should be close to the entry level of the Flying Dragon Special Forces. We promised we'd go together."
"I know. I will stay here and recover," Su Pei said happily. How lucky was he that he was still alive and could continue to work towards his promise? Su Pei was very grateful.
Xiao Yiqiu then stood up and said good-bye to Su Pei. He walked a few steps before he suddenly stopped at the door. He softly spoke as his back was turned towards Su Pei, "Sorry."
This 'sorry' was very very soft. It was like a whisper, but Su Pei heard it very clearly.
Before Su Pei could respond, Xiao Yiqiu quickly walked out of the treatment room.
Was it because he got injured that Yiqiu apologized to him?
Su Pei smiled warmly. How could he think that Yiqiu should apologize to him? Didn't Yiqiu arrange all of this tirelessly to help them develop quicker so that they could get into the Flying Dragon Special Forces to achieve their dream? Yiqiu had already done a lot for him. It was just Yiqiu wasn't a god. He couldn't make everything the way he wanted. He also couldn't know about the thoughts of others. How did his injuries make Yiqiu think that it was his responsibility?
Su Pei understood the good that Xiao Yiqiu had done for him. Even if he was to lose his life because of this, he wouldn't blame Xiao Yiqiu. He would only hate himself for not being strong enough and not be able to return the favor to Xiao Yiqiu.
However, he will have a chance to do that at some point!
Su Pei clenched his fist fiercely. The wound on his abdomen writhed in pain because he used too much force. However, this immense pain turned Su Pei calm and steeled his determination.
"I want to become strong! And become Yiqiu's most reliable and loyal friend!"
Chapter 1034 Escape!
Right as Xiao Yiqiu left the treatment room, he received a notification on his communicator. When Xiao Yiqiu opened it, his expression turned as cold as ice. Then, he replied with three words, "It is done."
If he wanted to enter the Flying Dragon Special Forces and become its leader, the current leaders of the Flying Dragon Special Forces must die.
In the morning of the day after, Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran were taken to the mecha hold of the tournament by the elder and middle-aged man. Mu Chaoran began to use their own exclusive hand signals to quietly move around. Tang Ningyu looked at him coldly with a look that only Mu Chaoran understood.
That was right. Ever since the elder and middle-aged man appeared before them, the two of them knew that they might not return alive this night. Despite the elder and middle-aged man restraining their killing intent, the two of them still managed to catch a whiff of it because they were specially trained to be able to feel this presence.
Mailer Fa had begun to plot their demise. The two of them must find a way to escape today. Luckily, they had already decided to find a chance to escape today and had already done all the preparations that needed to be done. However, the difficulties that laid before them were more serious than they had previously thought…
"We must immediately move out!" The longer they waited, the situation would turn less favourable to them. They must make a move before those people made a move on them.
Despite knowing how dire the situation was, Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran didn't show a hint of anxiousness or anxiety on their faces. They just calmly followed behind the elder with the middle-aged man walking behind them.
They entered the venue of the tournament. Right as they entered the corridor to the mecha hold, Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran sent a glance at each other. In the next second, the two of them suddenly pounced towards the middle-aged man…
This attack was too sudden so the elder walking in front of them reacted a bit slower. However, the middle-aged man unexpectedly reacted very quickly to the attack. He had ruthless expression on his face as he looked towards the two of them. He instinctively clenched his two fists and punched towards the two pouncing towards him.
As long as he could hold on, his comrade would be able to react to the situation and surround these two people to take them down.
Right at that moment, Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran suddenly shifted their bodies towards the right. The two of them actually rammed towards the wall on the right side of the corridor. Of course, they weren't reckless enough to use their own bodies as rams to break through the wall. Instead, they held both of their hands together and a purple flame instantly conjured into a large dragon before it smashed into the wall of the corridor.
Bang! A loud sound of flesh colliding into a concrete wall was heard.
The power of these two energies combined together was not like one plus one. Their domain energies were exponentially stronger when they combined together. The originally sturdy wall suddenly had a large crack in it.
Then, another bang was heard.
The two of them ruthlessly punched into the wall again, and finally created a hole in it. The two of them quickly jumped through the hole and countless surprised voices were heard from the hole.
The elder just reacted a little too slow when he realized they were escaping. The instant Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran jumped through the hole, he had just reached the hole in the wall. He cursed under his breath, but he still jumped down after them without any hesitation.
Right at that moment, a purple colored lightning dragon and a red colored fire dragon suddenly flew up from the hole. Seeing this, the elder didn't panic and only pushed down with both of his hands.
Bang!
It was as though the lightning dragon and the fire dragon had smashed into a formless shield, blocking it before they could reach the elder.
As for the elder, Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran's sneak attack didn't cause him to be in danger as it was too easy for him to counter. However, blocking the attack caused the elder's falling speed to slow down because of the counter force.
"Sh*t." When the elder realized this, his expression changed into a grimace.
This attack by his opponents wasn't actually a sneak attack. It was to give them more time to escape. After intercepting the attack, not only did he cause himself to slow down by half a second, he also gave his opponents half a second to escape. This attack had indeed slowed him down, but for his opponents, it was the complete opposite. These two energies crashing into each other would increase the speed of his opponents to be twice as fast. Just like that, his opponents gained an extra second to escape.
If they were under domain stage, this extra second perhaps would not be significant. However, with them being in the domain stage, one extra second was enough to change the outcome of the battle.
The elder didn't want to fail just like that. He continuously move his palms above him, trying to use counter force to increase his falling speed. However, he was not as decisive as Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran, as he was worried that he would destroy the structure above him by attacking it. With his current speed, he would, of course, not be able to catch up to the two of them.
As expected, when the elder landed at the bottom of the hole, his vision was just filled with chaotic scenes. Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran choosing this location to land was clearly planned out. It was because only this place had an audience seating area below it. They only had the chance to escape if they got into a crowd of thousands of people.
The elder used his domain energy to search for any foreign domain energy around him to find Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran. Soon, many domain realm masters' domain energy were detected. However, some were laced with a warning. This was because this type of powerful searching method was considered a provocation to other domain realm masters. If it wasn't because they were in Mai'er Fa's casino, these domain realm masters would already have an outburst of rage and perhaps would have begun fighting the elder.
"Young Master Rong, Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran got away." After searching for a while, the elder could only contact Young Master Rong.
"Useless trash!" Xiao Yiqiu, who was peacefully sitting in the room, suddenly stomped angrily when he received this information. He kicked away the table in front of him smashing it into a large glass window in the arena, shattering it to pieces.
"They must die!" Xiao Yiqiu's eyes turned blood red. His lips were actually beginning to crack and his teeth were growing into canines. It was because of his anger that his bloodline innate talent had awakened again.
Xiao Yiqiu seemed to feel that his mood was off and he immediately took a deep breath to calm himself down. The red pupils slowly returned to its former colour and his cracked lips also returned to normal.
When he felt he was calm enough, Xiao Yiqiu contacted the Sword Monarch, "Master Sword Monarch, we'll have to trouble you again."
"That's fine. The Celestial King had already given me the order to work with you," the Sword Monarch said calmly. He searched through the casino again and then replied, "They're still standing at the same place and not moving."
"Thank you, sir," Xiao Yiqiu replied respectfully. Then, he told what Sword Monarch said to the elder and the middle-aged man, who then sent their people to surround the area.
"Chaoran, something is off. They didn't split up and chase, but instead surrounded us. They probably have discovered us." Mailer Fa's way of dealing with them made Tang Ningyu, who was in the crowd, feel something was amiss.
Mu Chaoran frowned and thought about how were they discovered? It should be known that they had thought about a fool-proof plan.
Suddenly, Mu Chaoran remembered something and his expression darkened, "Not good. We miscalculated." They originally wanted to make use of a human's thoughts thinking that they were in a hurry to escape from this place that they would just run off and not stay in their current position. That was why they chose to hide at where they were and used a method that their chief taught them to avoid detection. They would then wait for the tournament to finish and follow the crowd out the venue. It was a pretty good plan but now that they think about it, it was a bad plan.
"What's wrong?" Tang Ningyu asked.
"The chief once said that our method could get past the eyes of domain realm masters under the imperial stage. However, Mai'er Fa has the Sword Monarch." Mu Chaoran smiled bitterly.
"So, the Sword Monarch discovered us!" Tang Ningyu finally understood why Mai'er Fa would be able to accurately surround them and not split their forces to chase them.
The two of them looked at each other. Suddenly, Mu Chaoran tossed something to the ground. This thing he took out was very small and it looked like a medicinal vial.
The medicine vial rolled down the stairs.
'1, 2, 3!' Mu Chaoran thought in his head and then a huge bang was heard. A large explosion suddenly shook the ground of the casino.
Then, smoke began to rise and covered the entire area not long after. This was a surprise to all the guests which caused the guests of the casino to scream out in fear. These guests were like headless chicken running amok. The security personnel of Mailer Fa were trying their best to shout at everyone for them to remain calm. However, they couldn't stop those guests and the entire area became wrought with chaos.
Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran used this chaos to run out with the crowd. Right as they were about to get out of the casino, they heard a snort.
The sound was soft, so soft that only they could hear, while the people around them couldn't hear it. This sound was also incredibly heavy. Heavy enough to freeze their bodies in place, causing them to stop in their tracks and unable to move.
"There!" The two people from Mai'er Fa quickly brought a dozen domain realm masters to surround them. Seeing the two of them standing there oddly, they all rushed towards them.
They all heard the cold snort. It was from the strongest person here, the master, Sword Monarch. However, the Sword Monarch's snort was targeted towards Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran, thus these other domain realm masters were not affected.
Once they get surrounded, the two of them would be dead for sure.
Faced with the high possibility of death, Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran's eyes were red with anger even though their bodies couldn't move. Their hearts were filled with the thought of not giving in.
As the first leaders of their new generation, they had their own pride. They didn't want to be killed at such a random place like Mai'er Fa. They still had a lot of questions they didn't have answers for. Even if the died, they must die knowing everything. Die in fashion and not die in frustration.
Perhaps the unwillingness to give in activated their unawakened potentials. They suddenly regained control of their originally petrified bodies.
The two of them quickly rushed towards a domain realm master, who was blocking the door, without hesitation. Now, they could only fight their way out.
Ever since the mission on Planet Azure, the two of them had always worked together in incredible sync with each other. With the two of them both sen odingut a lightning dragon and fire dragon each, these two dragons with strong offensive elements actually combined during its way towards their opponent and became a giant purple and red dragon.
This was a combination technique that they had created in the past when they worked together. Its combined power was much stronger than the power of one elemental dragon. It could even be four or five times stronger.
Being in a life-or-death situation, the two of them instantly used their strongest combination technique to make a way for them to get out alive.
Of course, this combination technique wasn't their strongest sure-kill technique. They were only trying to escape. If they were sure they couldn't escape, then they would choose a sure-kill technique that damaged both themselves and their opponents. Even if they were to die, they would also want to take someone with them. This was the tradition of the soldiers from the Huaxia Federation. They would rather die than be a prisoner and while dying they must take someone with them to the afterlife.
It was also because of this reason that the Huaxia Federation was able to become the strongest nation and be feared by all other nations. The other nations all considered the soldiers from the Huaxia Federation to be crazy individuals… It wasn't fun fighting with insane people.
The domain realm master blocking the door wasn't prepared for this attack. He quickly put up his shield. However, how could his not-so-tough shield be able to block an attack that was N times stronger?
"Bang!" The giant red and purple dragon instantly shattered the opponent's shield. The residual energy instantly hit that individual, sending him flying. A mouthful of blood was seen in mid-air.
Chance! Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran instantly ran towards the door so fast that they looked like lines of light.
"Hmph!" Another cold snort sounded.
This time, Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran were prepared. They bit their tongues fiercely, resolving the dizziness and stiffness coming from the cold snort. The two of them were afraid one of them wouldn't be able to break free of this attack, so the two of them held each other hands firmly. Whoever was awake would take the other and escape.
"Stay right where you are!" Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran were just about to escape the casino. Once they get out, Mai'er Fa would not be able to find them anymore, even Sword Monarch probably wouldn't be able to find them. Thus, seeing that his subordinates weren't doing their job well, Sword Monarch, who had only just made noises, made a move!
A sword flew down from a room within the casino. It cut through everything in its path and was flying towards Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran, who were running for their lives.
Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran ran forwards for their lives. Even if they didn't turn around, they were still able to feel the terrifying energy that could cut them up into mince meat. The hairs on their back shot up. Mu Chaoran's expression showed that he had made a difficult decision. He flung his right hand with all his might to toss Tang Ningyu towards the exit.
Tang Ningyu only felt that holding Mu Chaoran's hand was like holding a fish in water. With Tang Ningyu suddenly slipping and being unprepared, he was easily tossed away by Mu Chaoran. His entire body flew forwards quickly because of Mu Chaoran's strength.
"I'll leave the Flying Dragon Special Forces to you," Mu Chaoran's voice rang beside Tang Ningyu ears. Tang Ningyu's eyes became warm instantly. He understood in an instant that Mu Chaoran was preparing to sacrifice himself to give him a chance to escape.
They could not escape from the Sword Monarch's sword. The only way they could escape was if one of them blocked the attack, while the other lives on. Thus, Mu Chaoran decisively made the decision to stay behind and left him with the hope of living through it all.
Tang Ningyu knew well that Mu Chaoran actually hated him. That was because his existence made Mu Chaoran became a shadow that would never be able to become a leader of the Flying Dragon Special Forces. It was just he didn't think that in the end, Mu Chaoran actually would sacrifice himself to save him…
Tang Ningyu's sadness was only for a moment. In the next second, he became as calm as ever because he couldn't let Mu Chaoran's sacrifice to be in vain.
Tang Ningyu increased his speed and ran towards the exit with seemingly no regard for the safety of the comrade he left behind. In the eyes of bystanders, Tang Ningyu was a coward who would abandon his comrade to save his own life.
Chapter 1035 Who?
Mu Chaoran, who tossed out Tang Ningyu, turned around and faced the sword coming his way in a calm manner. He took a deep breath and put out his right hand. His right arm became a raging inferno and began to give off a molten presence.
"Come!" Mu Chaoran had a determined expression on his face as he jumped up into the air. The inferno engulfed his entire body in an instant. He was like a human torch. He quickly went towards the sword that could slice through anything.
The inferno and the sword smashed into each other. The reality of it was just as everyone had predicted. There wasn't anything that could stop the sword. The raging inferno was instantly dispersed by the sword, revealing Mu Chaoran's real body. If Mu Chaoran didn't have any other ultimate techniques that could save his life, the next time the sword hit him it would instantly cut his body into tiny pieces, turning him into a puddle of blood in the end.
Everyone knew Mu Chaoran could not escape anymore. The difference between imperial stage domain realm masters and an actual imperial realm formidable experts wasn't the difference of two levels. Instead, it was a difference between night and day.
Right as everyone believed Mu Chaoran was about die, light particles suddenly appeared in the air which almost blinded everyone.
The place where Mu Chaoran and the sword crashed into each other had a crystal-clear sword ruthlessly stabbing through the Sword Monarch's sword.
"Bang!" The reaction between the two energies instantly caused an explosion to occur. Mu Chaoran was sent flying and the large following shockwave severely injured him. He spat out countless amounts of blood in the air. What he could rejoice was the fact he was flying towards the direction Tang Ningyu was running towards.
The heavily injured Mu Chaoran, who was encased by a layer of ice, was not discovered by others. This was because he was in the air and also because the explosion causing those around to protect themselves and not look at the situation around them. The layer of ice was the main reason why he was able to survive the explosion caused by the collision of the two energies.
Mu Chaoran was injured to the point where he couldn't even move anymore. However, the explosive energy that sent him flying actually helped him catch up to Tang Ningyu, who was running as fast as he could on the ground.
Tang Ningyu seemingly was already prepared for him to be at that position. When Mu Chaoran flew above him, he jumped up and caught him.
"Who?" Although Mu Chaoran was almost dead, he still wanted an answer. Who was the person that saved him?
"Not sure, but he was also the one who notified me to catch you here." Tang Ningyu told him why he was prepared to catch him. He was already prepared with a vial of medicinal agent in his right hand and made Mu Chaoran drink it. At least for now, Mu Chaoran's life was not in danger.
Seeing the person he was about to kill got away, Sword Monarch actually didn't become angry. Instead, he had a joyful look on his face. The person he was looking for finally made a move.
That was right. The reason Sword Monarch was making a move was mostly to lure out the strong individual who fought against him that night. The Sword Monarch believed that this person definitely had something to do with the two people from the Flying Dragon Special Forces. Otherwise, he wouldn't have saved those two brats that night.
"You finally appeared!" Suddenly, Sword Monarch's voice echoed in the air. Then, the silhouette of the Sword Monarch appeared at the casino's roof, watching all that was below him.
"You knew that I would make a move?" A cold voice echoed in the air. On the ground, a man with a metal mask and black windbreaker suddenly appeared. It was indeed Ling Lan.
"That night, didn't you go against me because of those two as well?" Sword Monarch said confidently.
"Did I?" Ling Lan replied ambiguously, neither ascertaining or denying the claim.
The Sword Monarch took that as acknowledgment and continued, "Becoming an imperial realm formidable warrior makes it so that I have to stay in one place, making me unable to have any chance of fighting other imperial realm formidable warrior. This was something that I regretted deeply. I had thought that I would never be able to realize this wish. I didn't expect that there would actually be an imperial realm formidable warrior infiltrating Mailer Fa…"
"Although I don't know why you went against the Human United Agreement and came to Mailer Fa, for me, your arrival is the best thing that has ever happened to me in the past decade." The Sword Monarch's eyes glimmered. After meditating for decades, he had new realizations about the imperial stage so he was anxiously trying to find an equal to ascertain whether his realizations were right or not. However, a battle in the imperial stage was too destructive. Moreover, it was forbidden by all the nations for imperial stage masters to fight each other. Hence, the Sword Monarch had to give up on his desire to fight and become trapped in this place.
Ling Lan didn't answer Sword Monarch's question. Was she going to tell him that she actually wasn't an imperial realm formidable warrior, but was a pseudo imperial realm formidable warrior with two domains?
The Sword Monarch also wasn't expecting Ling Lan to answer his question. He was very excited and his will to fight was becoming stronger and stronger. As his fighting spirit increased, swords began to seep out from his body and slashing all the things around him into pieces.
At that moment, Mailer Fa's casino's guests had already evacuated through Mailer Fa's arrangements. Other than the domain realm masters from different factions, the politicians, nobles and elite families in the vip rooms, there was also Xiao Yiqiu, who had been watching the chase from his VIP rooms all these while.
Seeing Ling Lan appear on the ground, Xiao Yiqiu instantly frowned. He kept feeling that he knew that person.
"That's odd. When did I meet him?" Xiao Yiqiu began to think hard. Perhaps he had thought too hard that he actually felt an immense headache.
"Again." Xiao Yiqiu held his head in pain and tried to clear his mind. Every time he tried to think deeply, this would happen. This was probably the trauma that came from the surgery. However, didn't those doctors say that it would go away quickly? Why was it after all this time, he would still have a headache when he tried to think?
Xiao Yiqiu thought this headache was the same as the past occurrences that would quickly stop. However, he didn't expect the pain to just become worse and worse, and actually became many times more painful than before.
"Sh*t. I will definitely kill those fake doctors!" Xiao Yiqiu laid on the sofa without any energy. He curled up into a ball and waited for the immense pain to stop.
Yes, he would definitely kill them. They actually dared to say that the surgery was a success? What success? It was clearly a failed operation. It should be known that a real successful operation would not have symptoms like this afterwards.
However, all of this could only be done after he gets past all this pain. Xiao Yiqiu clenched his teeth and forced himself to stop thinking about all that feeling of familiarity… As for the familiar person with the mask and black coat, he didn't dare to think about him again. Thinking more about him was going to kill Xiao Yiqiu.
Back to Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran. Tang Ningyu suddenly felt a huge pressure boring down him. His mind was swayed with the desire of wanting to kneel down.
"Ugh!" Mu Chaoran spat out a mouthful of blood. The overwhelming pressure caused Mu Chaoran to be even more injured.
Mu Chaoran's reaction made Tang Ningyu become more determined. He clenched his teeth to the point of almost breaking them. However, this immense pain also made Tang Ningyu completely break away from the pressure which caused the speed at which he was running to increase once again.
Chapter 1036 Ice Element Imperial Realm!
He must leave the domain territory of these imperial realm formidable warriors. Tang Ningyu knew that Mu Chaoran's body was unable to withstand another injury. The force of a battle between imperial realm formidable warriors was enough to destroy everything around them. The closer they were to the imperial realm formidable warriors, the greater the fight's impact had on them.
Mu Chaoran knew that leaving was the best decision. He looked at the location of the battle behind them. He wanted to know who saved them but the distance was too far, so he couldn't see anything.
The force of presence exuding out of Sword Monarch got stronger. Below, Ling Lan increased her force of presence too. Although the Sword Monarch was on higher ground, their force of presence was equally as powerful.
In a certain room, a young man asked the elder beside him, "Mister Lang Yi, why haven't they started fighting yet?"
The elder was focused on the battle between the two imperial realm formidable warriors, as this was a rare opportunity for him to get a glimpse of the battle between two imperial realm formidable warriors. He turned and replied, "Prince Tali, the fights between imperial realm formidable warriors are not like the usual fights. The result of the battle will occur in an instant. They won't have to fight for days and nights. To launch their lethal attack, they just needed to increase their force of presence to the highest level."
The young man nodded in comprehension but he still seemed a little confused. The old man sighed when he noticed the confusion. Prince Tali was lacking in the mental department, but he still hoped that Prince Tali would be able to gain some enlightenment from this battle and not waste this rare opportunity.
"Luckily, the rooms of Mai'er Fa are able to withstand three attacks from an imperial realm formidable warriors. If not, I won't dare to let you watch this match so closely." The elder felt fortunate that they were at Mailer Fa to spectate this scene.
"Why? Aren't you able to protect us?" Another lady with red hair asked curiously.
"Princess Irene, you're thinking too highly of me. Although imperial stage domain experts like me are imperial stage experts, we're still a half step to becoming an imperial realm formidable warrior. People like us are still considered humans when compared to imperial realm formidable warrior." The elder sighed lightly. "No matter how strong a human is, they're nothing in front of gods. Imperial realm formidable warriors are like half-gods. They just possessed traits of gods. They're not someone people like us can handle."
Prince Tali and Princess Irene's faces turned pale. They looked at the transparent glass in front of them in fear. If Mister Lang Yi was right, would this brittle glass be able to withstand the attack of an imperial realm formidable warrior?
"Don't worry. Mai'er Fa abides by their promise. If they said this glass can withstand three attacks from an imperial realm formidable warrior, it can. Plus, these glass windows have been tested before. No matter how weak they are, they will at least be able to withstand two attacks." The elder consoled the young people when he saw the fear in their eyes.
"Ah! They started to actually fight." Irene had been staring at Ling Lan all these while. She exclaimed instantly when she saw Ling Lan moving.
The elder didn't have the time to chat with them anymore. This battle between imperial realm formidable warriors was useful to imperial stage domain experts like him. It might be their opportunity to advance to the imperial realm if they could peer through the secrets of the imperial realm from the fight.
Ling Lan took a step forward and pointed at Sword Monarch who was in the air.
A huge ice sword instantly appeared on top of Sword Monarch and it slashed towards Sword Monarch.
Ling Lan chose her most powerful single-target technique.
"It's the ice element!" Now, all the domain realm masters knew what Ling Lan's element was the moment they saw her technique.
"Sword Monarch should win this match."
"A single target technique imbued with the ice element is powerful but compared to Sword Monarch's technique using the metal element, it's not as strong. This is a bad fight."
Everyone thought that Ling Lan was fighting an already predetermined fight due to her not fully utilizing her ice element by choosing to use a single target technique instead of something like territorial technique which played to the strength of her technique and not her opponent's strength. Hence, they thought that Sword Monarch would be winning this match no matter what.
They couldn't be blamed for thinking this way. After all, no mistakes were allowed in a battle between imperial realm formidable warrior.
Sword Monarch saw his opponent using a single target technique and felt elated. He was stunned but happy at the same time. He already gained an advantage before the fight really started.
Sword Monarch waved his hand and a huge metal sword rose from the grounds of the arena. It clashed with the ice sword that slashed at him.
Clang! The two huge swords swung at each other. The huge force destroyed most of the structures below it. Luckily, Mai'er Fa was true to their promise. Although the structures around them were destroyed, the main pillar and rooms were still standing.
The people in the VIP rooms felt at ease. They could watch the match with a relaxed heart now.
Chapter 1037 Haggard Young Lady!
Just as everyone thought that Sword Monarch would definitely win this battle, the huge ice sword suddenly dispersed into numerous thin ice needles and flew towards Sword Monarch from all directions.
"Territorial technique!" The domain realm masters watching shouted in surprise.
That single target technique by Ling Lan was actually just a disguise. It was used to fool her opponents into thinking that they were facing a single target technique. The real power behind her giant ice sword was her territorial technique.
"As expected, all imperial realm formidable warriors are sly old foxes." All the domain realm masters had this thought in their minds.
Sword Monarch was flabbergasted by the sudden change in technique. However, as an imperial realm formidable warrior, he had many such experiences in the past, even some against more cunning and sly opponents. He didn't get flustered and quickly released all his domain energy. His domain energy quickly formed a shield made out of swords around him, blocking all the ice needles.
However, many domain realm masters with sharp eyes noticed that the shield was slowly becoming thinner and thinner. It used to be around three meters thick but now, it was only one meter thick. This meant that the attack from Ling Lan was slowly corroding Sword Monarch's domain energy. Now, the battle would now be determined by the person who had a more powerful and stronger domain energy.
Just as everyone was waiting for the result of this match, the man in black suddenly disappeared. The ice needles in the air disappeared too.
"As expected of Sword Monarch. I admire you. Hope to fight with you again." A cold voice grew fainter until it disappeared.
"Damn it!" Sword Monarch was all spurred up. Hence, when his opponent disappeared, he felt humiliated. He felt as though he pushed against a wall but the wall suddenly disappeared. It was frustrating. He shouted furiously. The huge sword shield in front of him flew out and slashed towards the spot where his opponent had disappeared.
A crack a thousand meters in length had formed on the ground.
Sword Monarch didn't expect his opponent to run away before even finishing one attack. This was not how an imperial realm formidable warrior should act.
Sword Monarch wasn't satisfied with this fight. He waved his hand furiously and left the arena. He went back to his room to continue feeling frustrated. The audience just exchanged glances with one another in confusion.
The exciting battle between imperial realm formidable warrior ended the moment it started.
The audience was not satisfied with the battle too. However, since the ice element imperial realm formidable warrior was gone, they could only leave with regret. They didn't know when they would be able to spectate a fight between imperial realm formidable warriors again.
Only workers of the casino remained at the scene. Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran had formed a huge hole in the safest gambling arena known by everyone in the human world, but this was just a small matter. The battle between the imperial realm formidable warrior, although they only exchanged half a blow, formed thousands of holes in the building. They were glad that the main pillars and structures were still stable so they only needed to patch up the holes. However, this was a huge project too. It would take a few months to mend this building.
The middle-aged man and the elder were sitting in a room and watching the fight between the imperial realm formidable warrior too. After everyone had left, the middle-aged man looked at the old man and asked in a low voice, "What do we do now? How do we answer to Young Master Rong?"
Young Master Rong was the leader of the new generation of their organization. If he vented his anger on them, they would have a hard time in the future.
"What else can we do? If Young Master Rong didn't keep those two people alive at the start, they would have been dead by now. All these troublesome matters wouldn't have happened too." The old man scoffed, "He should be the one having a headache, not us. He needs to answer to his superiors about this mess."
The middle-aged man nodded. He calmed down a little.
"However, we'll have some hard time after this. Before this storm dies down, we need to be careful. We mustn't let anyone get hold of our weakness to force us to take the fall." The old man reminded the middle-aged man after thinking for a while. Those two people escaped in their hands. If Young Master Rong wanted to blame them, they could only accept it.
"Maybe we should find a reason to be stationed in a faraway place." The middle-aged man agreed with the old man and gave his own suggestion.
"That's a good plan." The old man felt that this was a good idea. He decided to use his network to make this request after he got back.
At that moment, Xiao Yiqiu's head finally stopped hurting. He regained his senses. When he knew that Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran had escaped, he was angry. However, he wasn't as furious as he had imagined.
"It looks like heaven wants us to have a fair fight. Wish you good luck!" Xiao Yiqiu could only accept this result.
The crack on the ground was a thousand meters in length. There were many water pipes below the ground so when the sword slashed the ground, the water pipes burst and water sprayed everywhere. Many small puddles of water formed on the ground.
Three hours after the battle between the imperial realm formidable warriors had ended, a young lady wearing a shaw hat and a long dress appeared on the walkway. She had many bags in her hands. It looked as though she had just gone for shopping and was walking passed this area. When she realized that the normal path ahead of her was split into two, she stopped in astonishment.
She hesitated for a while. Then, she lifted her dress, wanting to jump over the crack.
However, she was quite unlucky. She lifted a corner of her dress but the other side hooked onto the edge of a pipe. The sound of cloth tearing was heard.
Splash! The young lady fell into a puddle of water. She was flustered. Her hat flew out, revealing a beautiful small face.
She quickly got up. However, there were many workers from Mailer Fa around her. There were also guards watching over the surroundings to watch out for suspicious people. When they saw this scene, they laughed lightly.
The young lady heard their laughter. She blushed as she stood in a puddle of water. She quickly grabbed her shaw hat and climbed out of the puddle to the other side of the road. Her dress was made from water-absorbent material so half of the water from the puddle got sucked by her dress.
"Hey, young lady, eat more papaya. If not, you won't be able to grow big." One of the workers whistled and teased the young lady.
The people around him laughed.
The young lady glared at the person who spoke. Then, she lifted her dress and ran off.
The group of men laughed and whistled again.
To these people, this was an unexpected reward during their working hours. They were able to see a little beauty coming out of the water. She looked a little haggard but she was still beautiful. They didn't mind how disheveled she was. However, they felt pity when they saw she was flat. That was why the worker kindly recommended the young lady to eat more papaya.
Chapter 1038 Hurt!
The young lady quickly ran back to her room. As she closed the door, her wet dress became dry in an instant. The water from the dress moved to the center of the room and congregated into a figure.
Ling Lan stood there with a pale face. Her white face made the scars exceptionally prominent.
The young lady felt a sharp pain in her heart. She asked worriedly, "Rabbit, are you alright?"
Ling Lan bore with the tremendous pain and teased Li Lanfeng, "Lanfeng, I didn't expect your disguise to be so ladylike."
The young lady that fell into the puddle of water was actually Li Lanfeng. His look now was the result of eating a disguise pill. Although it was not as beautiful and mesmerizing as his real appearance, it was still very cute and pretty. He even looked a little like Luo Lang. Ling Lan couldn't help but make a wild conclusion. Did this mean that Li Lanfeng had other thoughts towards Luo Lang? Who would be the dominant one in the relationship? Ling Lan felt that that question was too difficult, as they were both very passive.
Li Lanfeng glared at Ling Lan after hearing what she said. He seemed to be angered by what she said. Ling Lan quickly stopped her brain from making all sorts of conclusions. Damn it, even after this man's beauty dropped after putting on a disguise, he was still so mesmerizing. Ling Lan felt her heart wavering. She really wanted to tease this little beauty more.
However, her thoughts were disrupted by an excruciating pain. She frowned.
Li Lanfeng saw the scary wound on her back which was as deep as half his finger. Sword Monarch's last attack hit Ling Lan. However, Ling Lan changed into her element so Sword Monarch was unable to notice it before Ling Lan left.
Sword Monarch had this misunderstanding because in both encounters, Ling Lan's force of presence felt like the presence of an imperial realm formidable warrior. Hence, Sword Monarch thought that she was an imperial realm formidable warrior. He wouldn't expect that Ling Lan would escape because she got hurt. He just felt that the other party left and got furious about it. Hence, he didn't search his surroundings carefully. If not, with his ability, he might be able to detect something amiss even if he couldn't find Ling Lan's exact position.
The wound was deep but not much blood was oozing out. Ling Lan had contracted her muscles to block her arteries. But, the deep wound still made Li Lanfeng's heart ache.
"Let me clean your wound." Before Ling Lan could reply, Li Lanfeng pushed Ling Lan on the bed and asked her to lie down.
Ling Lan hesitated. Should she undress?
Under Li Lanfeng's firm gaze, Ling Lan quickly revealed half of her back which was injured. 'I am just revealing my shoulders, that should be fine right? I'll just pretend that I'm wearing a backless top.'
Li Shiyu carefully cleaned Ling Lan's wound. Luckily, Li Shiyu prepared many agents for him after knowing that Li Lanfeng was going to Mailer Fa. Some were prepared for him but some were prepared for Ling Lan. Li Lanfeng didn't tell Li Shiyu that he came to Mai'er Fa to look for Ling Lan but Li Shiyu just guessed he would disturb Ling Lan. Hence, he prepared some medicine that was good for her injuries.
Other than Li Shiyu's agents, no other agents would work for Ling Lan.
"What's the situation now?" Ling Lan revealed her shoulder decisively but she still felt awkward. Thus, she decided to ask Li Lanfeng a question to relieve the awkward atmosphere.
"Mai'er Fa is on alert. It's not easy to leave Mailer Fa now. The procedures to leave are now strict." Li Lanfeng knew what Ling Lan wanted to ask, "They told the outside world that they were attacked by an unknown terrorist organization."
"It's okay. I'm able to hide my identity. However, your identity is a problem." Li Lanfeng's current face was fake. Once someone investigated him, they would notice something amiss.
"There is no problem. This disguise will last for just a day. Once the day ends, I go back to where I stayed." Li Lanfeng wasn't worried about himself. He was only worried about Li Lanfeng.
"I'm afraid that you might not be able to go back." Ling Lan frowned.
"Do you mean that my identity is exposed?" Li Lanfeng quickly understood what Ling Lan meant.
"Since Tang Ningyu and Mu Chaoran were betrayed, the other party might have warned Mailer Fa about you," Ling Lan replied.
"I didn't use the fake identity that the military gave me." Li Lanfeng was here to look for Ling Lan. He didn't want to be discovered by the military so he arranged another fake identity for himself.
"It wouldn't affect Mailer Fa's investigation. No matter what disguise you use, a fake is still a fake," Ling Lan said calmly. "As there is a god-class hacker here."
"God-class?!" Li Lanfeng's hands froze in midair. His expression changed slightly. "How is that possible?"
There were god-class hackers in this world. There were two god-class hackers in the Federation. However, God-class hackers were always controlled by powerful nations. How could a small nation like Mai'er Fa have a god-class hacker? Li Lanfeng finally understood why Ling Lan said that his identity might be exposed. No matter how well he faked his identity, it wouldn't be able to fool a god-class hacker.
"When I was searching for information on the Magic Ace Mecha Clan, the god-class hacker discovered me. Fortunately, I ran away in time." Little Four was the one who did this but Little Four was part of her too. Hence, she wasn't lying
Li Lanfeng knew that Ling Lan was explaining why she thought that there was a god-class hacker in Mai'er Fa. He nodded. "I understand. I'll be careful."
"Wait, bring me back to Miss Seven. With Li Yinfei and Miss Seven around, that place is the safest," Ling Lan said.
"It's the safest but the surveillance around them will be strict." Mailer Fa wouldn't ignore these strangers. They would definitely make the necessary arrangements.
Li Lanfeng didn't want to cause more troubles for Ling Lan. Ling Lan had a fake identity she could use to stay here. But, if he stayed beside Ling Lan, it would make things difficult.
"The most dangerous place is the safest place." Ling Lan replied. "But I have to trouble you to disguise as a lady again."
Li Lanfeng finally understood why Ling Lan said that with Li Yinfei around, that place was the safest. With Li Yinfei and Miss Seven around, the people form Mai'er Fa could only search through the starship secretly. If he had to, he could disguise as Li Yinfei to deter them.
"I understand." Li Lanfeng agreed readily.
Li Lanfeng didn't realize that he reviewed his bottomline again. In the past, he would be furious when someone said he was beautiful. Now, because of Ling Lan, he forced himself to dress like a lady for a long period of time, but he wasn't embarrassed or angry about it. The thing that he hated in the past meant nothing to him now.