Chapter 19: The first one

Bang, bang, bang!

The dense barrage of bullets tore through the light of the flames, striking Gu Lian from behind and making her stumble.

Clouds of blood mist exploded from her back, and purple blood droplets linked together in mid-air like dancing butterflies.

“Ha…”

It hurt!

The pain was bone-deep!

It felt as if, after her body had been ruthlessly impaled, her tormentor was still pouring salt and sulfuric acid into the wounds.

Gu Lian gritted her teeth, doing her best not to scream.

Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, and the Fire of Dead Silence on her arm flared up.

The bleeding stopped instantly.

At the site of the wounds, several twisted and deformed bullets were squeezed out by her flesh and fell to the ground.

The bloody gashes healed completely.

“Let’s go, baby!”

Lan charged out from the flames of the explosion.

The white hair on his head was slightly singed as he rolled and rushed to within 5 meters of Gu Lian, his finger pulling the trigger of his handgun.

Bang, bang, bang!

A continuous succession of gunshots rang out.

At this distance, the gun was essentially hitting whatever he pointed at.

Raindrops of Lightning Light pierced Gu Lian’s body, causing blood to spray.

her frame trembled incessantly, and her eyes began to roll back into her head.

“Too damn beautiful!

Lan, you’re looking sharp today!”

For the first time, Ice Duke felt that this flashy man was actually pleasant to look at.

Feng Nü also nodded, uncharacteristically, and said, “He’s sharp, but I feel like he’s getting a bit cocky…”

Click, click—

After two crisp sounds, Lan spun his handgun stylishly, and the empty magazine ejected from the grip.

He lunged forward, the gun’s butt tracing a semi-arc through the air as it swung toward Gu Lian, a confident smile plastered on his face.

Suddenly, Gu Lian’s rolled-back eyes snapped back to normal.

The Fire of Dead Silence on her right hand extinguished, and she sidestepped while swinging her fist.

In the next instant, Lan was like a fired cannonball—with a thunderous boom, he slammed into a tree dozens of meters away.

The sheer force of the impact snapped the entire tree in two.

‘Hmm?’

Gu Lian was somewhat surprised as she moved forward because the Lan she had just sent flying was actually still conscious.

Even though she hadn’t utilized the Fire of Dead Silence for that punch, it had still been a full-strength strike!

“Just as I expected.

Flashy guys never meet a good end.”

The corner of Feng Nü’s mouth twitched, but Ice Duke pulled two grenades from behind his back and bit out the safety pins with his teeth.

He tossed the two Stun Grenades forward.

Two booms echoed from the front.

Gu Lian’s ears rang, and her vision began to vibrate.

Under the influence of these high-frequency fluctuations, her brain went momentarily blank.

“Lan!”

“Cough… I know!”

Lan crawled up from the ground, coughing up a large mouthful of blood.

He reached up to press the Tactical Earphone on his ear and roared, “Fire!”

One might ask: why were there eleven different auras on the helicopter earlier, yet only three people were currently fighting Gu Lian?

Even if the three people flying the aircraft were excluded, where did the other five go?

The answer was that they were searching for a suitable spot to assemble heavy weaponry.

Ice Duke’s initial shout of “Lan, get over here and save me!

I can’t hold on much longer!” should have been automatically translated as: “Lan, how much longer until the weapons are ready?

If you don’t come soon, I’m done for!”

Bang, bang, bang!

Two muzzles began spitting tongues of fire.

The bullets and muzzle flashes formed a curtain of rain that beat down on Gu Lian, riddling her with holes.

However, as soon as the bullets passed through her body, the pitch-black wounds that smelled of char healed instantly.

‘I can’t… go on like this…’

Gu Ye’s body was hunched over.

After a bullet passed through her arm, the rotating projectile’s momentum remained undiminished as it tore through her waist and exited her back.

Rat-tat-tat-tat—

The sound of machine gun fire erupted.

Under the dense rain of bullets, Gu Lian clenched her fists, and the Fire of Dead Silence flared up from her palms once more.

With a thud, a bullet pierced her thigh.

As blood splattered, the intense pain in her leg caused Gu Lian’s center of gravity to shift, forcing her to one knee.

At the same time, she clasped her hands together, and the Fire of Dead Silence expanded to form a wall of fire that surrounded her.

With a series of clatters, the bullets hit the Fire of Dead Silence but failed to penetrate the flames.

Taking advantage of this brief moment of respite, Gu Lian knelt on the ground, spitting out blood.

As her body rapidly recovered, her cells acted like they were rejecting foreign bodies, squeezing the remaining shrapnel out of her flesh.

“Cough, cough.

Damn it, they have heavy weapons.

Dammit, that hurts!”

Gu Lian cursed under her breath.

The protest from her stomach grew even stronger; she could feel something inside her body slipping away, though she couldn’t describe the specific sensation.

However, the increasingly intense hunger assaulted her brain, nearly causing Gu Lian—who had finally managed to calm down—to go mad.

“Roar!”

The roar was drowned out by the sound of the exploding flames.

The firelight flickered, obscuring Gu Lian’s words.

Within the gray-white fire, one could vaguely see the bullets rapidly rusting, rotting, and withering, before finally turning into fine dust and being roasted into ash by the flames.

‘The bullets… were killed?’

Seeing this scene, this utterly absurd thought actually flashed through Ice Duke’s mind.

He raised a palm and slapped his head a few times.

The blunt sensation hitting his skull finally allowed Ice Duke to shake that terrifying thought from his brain.

He turned his gaze back toward that raging Pale Fire.

The surrounding noise seemed distant.

It was quiet, silent.

The night sky was mysteriously dyed a grayish-black, and gray-white flocculent material drifted down from the heavens.

The embers left behind by the dying fire on the ground drifted up, interlacing with the material from the sky.

Looking at the ground now, a layer of fine, sand-like dust covered the earth.

Those were… the skeletal remains of living beings…

Death was right before their eyes.

It wasn’t an illusion, but something solid and tangible!

Ice Duke licked his dry lips with his moist tongue, his eyes bloodshot.

He felt that they had really hit the jackpot coming to deal with this minor Weiyi outbreak!

The firepower of the two heavy machine guns was still being unleashed.

The concentrated fire almost formed a lethal net, but in the face of the wall formed by the Fire of Dead Silence, the bullets couldn’t advance an inch.

They were all eroded into scrap metal by the flames.

“This is… impossible!”

The muscles in Lan’s jaw bulged.

He realized this Weiyi was far too strange; heavy firepower was actually being blocked by that Gray Fire.

The firepower continued to pour out, the machine guns spitting fire incessantly, but the moment the bullets hit the fire, they began to weather into scrap.

After a full 5 minutes of continuous fire, the guns finally went silent, but the gray gunpowder smoke was still burning.

“Call for backup.

This thing needs an old Lieshou.

The three of us are no match for it…”

After 5 minutes of rest, Ice Duke used his right hand to push himself off the ground.

He unbuckled the grenade belt from his waist; he bit down on the safety pins of the remaining four Stun Grenades one by one.

Boom—

The flames exploded, and a bloodshot-eyed Gu Lian charged out from the fire.

Her pair of Black Claws clenched into fists that reflected a metallic luster.

“Feng Nü, you retreat first.”

Clink—

Biting open the pins, Ice Duke tossed the four Stun Grenades.

With his only remaining hand, he pulled a dagger from the back of his boot.

Feng Nü and Lan didn’t hesitate, each using their own methods to begin their retreat.

They couldn’t possibly call the helicopter down; the memory of it nearly being smashed out of the sky was still fresh in their minds.

“Bastard, come play with your grandpa!”

Ice Duke laughed and charged forward.

Gu Lian, who had already closed the distance, had veins bulging on her arms.

Facing the sharp glint of the dagger, she suddenly lunged, her arms carving five black streaks through the air.

Swish!

The blade’s light grazed over the top of Gu Lian’s head.

A flash of frustration appeared in Ice Duke’s eyes.

Gu Lian took the opportunity to close in on him, her right shoulder slamming into Ice Duke’s armpit as her arms wrapped around both his sides.

Bang!

Gu Lian’s feet slammed into the ground.

The logs she struck shattered into woodchips.

She exerted strength in both arms to lift Ice Duke up before slamming him heavily into the earth.

Boom!

The ground across half the clearing was upturned, exposing shattered tree roots.

A crater 0.5 meters deep appeared.

Gu Lian stepped one foot onto Ice Duke, who was now taking in more air than he was letting out.

A red light flickered in her eyes.

“The first one…”