บท 109: Reward
The wide-eyed and bloodied decapitated head of the red hair man, rolled across the wet soil right in front of Hartley's feet.
The man's limp headless body, dressed in a white robe that was drenched red due to the gushing blood from a missing arm, slumped down to the left almost in slow motion, crashing into the mud with a plop.
Not even registering this victory in his mind, as if it was always expected. Hartley turned to the right and stared in a northern direction, inhaling deeply as he stood stock-still focusing on a distant ridge.
As he stood there, cold raindrops fell on his face and raced to his chin. A gentle breeze swept pass, and with it came a sudden clap of thunder, the skies turned white for a split second as a streak of lightning arced through the dark clouds, highlighting the gruesome scene laid out at Hartley's feet.
After the brutal death of Kan Jin, Commander Haiyuan recoiled in shock. He was dumbfounded that someone in the 9th layer of the xiantian realm couldn't even escape with his life.
Then he saw the youth looking his way, it was almost as if he could see the youth's piercing cold blue eyes from 500 meters away.
Feeling a throbbing terror in his bones, he beckoned desperately in a panicked and anxious voice for Chang Lee to hurry up and take them to a safer place.
Chang Lee too didn't feel like hanging around much longer either, he had heard all the reports from the battlefield, today witnessing this youth in the flesh reinforced in his mind just how powerful the youth was, with a face full of concentration Chang Lee gulped down a deep breath of air, waved his right hand in a circle then punched out.
Bam!...
Black energy gushed out from nowhere with loud rumbling sounds, Chang Lee held onto commander Haiyuan's shoulder, they both stepped forward into the inky blackness of the void and disappeared from the rainy scene.
As the pair disappeared with a flash of black energy, Commander Haiyuan was reveling in the glory of his timely escape, thanking the heavens that he had chosen wisely to always carry this subordinate on any mission he embarked on; even the seemingly simple ones.
The only downside was that Chang Lee couldn't take him extremely long distances, or he would have been headed straight back to Sasko right now.
Instead of going to the secret beach-head port that they had used to sneak into the country..
Having Chang Lee close at all times was like having a second life he thought to himself with a cheeky grin. His plans for the country of Tivoli were in tatters, but he didn't care.
He would be glad to just make it back to Sasko alive, and never see this remote backward affiliate country again.
Even though this mission of taking over the gemstone mines was a horrific failure, it didn't matter to him anymore, Kan Jin didn't even manage to keep his head and count Zixen was also dead, any hopes of taking over and changing the allegiance of the country died with the count.
In fact Commander Haiyun thought himself lucky to have escaped that monster of a youth in one piece..... but of course he hadn't escaped yet.
"Really?" Hartley had a playful smirk on his face, beads of water dripped from his chin, he stood soaked in the teeming rain with the dead body of a powerhouse and potential future saint at his feet.
Swirling ice-blue mist enveloped him and rotated vertically around his body, he took a step forward and disappeared from the massive crater an instant later.
Chang Lee was only moving at a ratio of one to two, meaning for every kilometer he traveled through the space crack, he traveled two kilometers in the real world.
Unfortunately for him and commander Haiyuan, Hartley could travel at a ratio of one to four, combine that with his gravity step technique and he was like lightning streaking over the horizon.
Hartley zipped through the mesh-like transparent tunnel with the scene zipping pass outside, quickly catching up to the fluctuations within the void.
He couldn't see the occupants of the spatial crack but could clearly feel the massive turbulence of space ahead of him.
Once he approached, Hartley exited his own spatial crack, engaged his time domain and with the assistance of his modified spiral circulation technique, Hartley managed to splice his way into the Chang Lee's unstable spatial crack.
Once he merged with Chang Lee's spatial crack, he could see the chaotic black energy roiling and raging on the interior mesh like walls, Chang Lee and the commander were up ahead but had yet to discover his intrusion. Hartley chose one of the flawed and unstable spots in the spatial crack then struck out a punch, it made the space inside the crack rumble, the black energy started to behave unstable and erratic.
Hartley immediately exited the spatial crack, a second later there was an almighty explosion of black ink-like energy that rented the air, two screaming people were shot from the void....
After experiencing the horrendous backlash of a ruptured spatial crack, commander Haiyuan was flung out into a a thick forested area, missing his left hand from the elbow down, spewing a trail of blood as he landed and rolled like a rag doll.
Chang Lee managed to keep all his limbs intact, but he was cannoned into the side of a hill and rebounded, rolling down the hill and into the abyss of foliage at the bottom, coughing up a large amount of blood.
A few minutes later, soaking wet and covered in blood and dirt, Chang Lee gathered his wits as he recovered from his pain and shock a little, looking around frantically trying to locate commander Haiyuan in the vicinity.
With no sight of the commander, he began anxiously shouting out the commander's name.
After a short moment, he heard the wailing screams of the commander at the top of the hill and was about to make his way there, he had staggered forward for a few steps when suddenly he saw the the youth appearing like a specter from hell, sending fright down his spine.
He abandoned his quest to rescue the commander and decided to safeguard his own life, even if he initiated a battle with the youth in hopes of rescuing the commander he knew it would be a battle he couldn't hope to win in his current state, heck, even at his peak he didn't think he could compete with the youth.
As a man of few words, the image of the youth had tatooed a frightening entity into his mind, the youth could only be described by one word, "monster." The things he had seen during this day would stay with him for life, the youth had disposed of Kan Jin, who was being touted as the next saint in Sasko, without taking any injuries, not even a scratch.
Chang Lee disappeared in a flash of black energy, in his weakened state he wasn't even sure how far he could make it through another spatial crack immediately after suffering a backlash, he didn't care, any distance he could put between himself and the youth was a blessing.
Hartley saw this and didn't give chase, instead he headed to the top of the hill, where the commander's screams and the smell of his leaking blood, was capturing the attention of the many fierce beasts prowling the area.
Commander Haiyuan was trapped in dense undergrowth surrounded by a grove of thick, tall trees.
Bleeding profusely, he wailed in pain as he tried to untangle himself from the bushes but he could only claw at the vines limply, his three remaining limbs felt as though every ounce of energy was sucked out of them.
He barfed up another mouthful of blood, still suffering the after effects of the backlash in his futile attempt at escape.
Hartley spotted the commander as he came to an area with sturdy trees shooting towards the sky, the foliage was thick and there wasn't a clear path to the commander.
The sound of the pattering rain was amplified by the broad green leaves of the trees, he approached carefully guarding against any possible sneak attacks.
Hartley heard the growls before he saw a massive ape-like creature, it was twenty meters away on the other side of the commander, rustling and breaking through the knee high shrubbery, making its way towards the injured man in a stalking manner.
The volume of the grating growls increased when it spotted Hartley moving towards the commander as well.
It was almost as if the animal was warning Hartley and the other fierce beasts headed this way to not dare think of depriving it of an easy meal.
It closed in on the commander, its long arms thudded in the soil as its short legs swung forward, breaking down the small obstacles in front of it. The beast had thick glossy silver fur soaked by the rain with froth forming at the sides of its mouth.
The weakened commander Haiyuan heard the growls and was frightened to death when he spun his head around to see the sight of the beast.
His screams somehow grew louder, he then spotted the youth on the opposite side of the undergrowth.
At this point he had to pick his poison but who would want to end up in the belly of a beast?
"Help me," he appealed to Hartley with wild eyes. "Help me, I've got information your prince could use, bring me back and I will tell all."
When he saw Hartley still standing at the same spot, the commander started to speak quickly.
"The count discovered a mine even more valuable than the gemstone mines, that's why we wanted to take over the country, if you help me I can tell you where it is. Just help me!"
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