Chapter 51: The Knight

Chapter 51: The Knight

Black rain shook the tree shadows; the post road lay steeped in a killing stillness.

That car, riddled into scrap by the Doan Yan Guard's assault rifles, detonated with a thunderous roar, a scorching shockwave sweeping outward in all directions.

Kuang Qingyun's hair danced wildly as he strode to stand in the center of the road.

That once-dashing cyan robe was already soaked crimson with blood; his two prosthetic arms held level before him, muzzles trained on the modified sedan barreling toward him.

A crimson blaze flared bright within his eyes!

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The Wei Wu Zu roared with a piercing, near-deafening report, the recoil—absurd for any ordinary man—effortlessly nullified by the Force-Witch Mechanism Heart within his chest.

The fired rounds traced a near-perfect line, their impact precise to the millimeter, striking the oncoming armored glass in rapid succession to punch a thumb-sized hole.

The skull of the Annan Gang member in the driver's seat was half blown away; his hands, frozen rigid by fear, still clung tight to the wheel, jerking it hard right as his mangled body slumped.

The runaway vehicle grazed past Kuang Qingyun's hem, crashing headlong into a roadside plane tree; the Annan thugs, dazed and reeling from the impact, had barely stumbled out before incoming bullets blew their heads apart.

"Ram him! Ram him to death!"

In the following car, the Annan Gang leader witnessed the grisly fate of the lead vehicle with crystal clarity; cleverly, he reclined his seat flat, lying nearly supine in the cabin as he screamed orders.

The driver was no fool either; he dared not raise his head to see the road, pressing his whole body against the wheel, steering purely by feel toward Kuang Qingyun's direction.

Faced with such cowardly tactics, Kuang Qingyun was helpless; no matter how true his aim, no matter the Wei Wu Zu's firepower, they could not punch through a whole car chassis.

Yet while he couldn't kill them, dodging their charge was child's play.

But Kuang Qingyun had no such intention.

He merely sneered, flung aside the two Wei Wu Zu, kicked off the ground, and charged straight at the Annan Gang's modified car.

"Courting death!"

The Annan leader lying in the seat seized the lull in gunfire to sneak a glance forward.

Seeing that cyan figure actually crashing toward him, wild joy erupted on his face.

If he could crush this Bagua Society helmsman, his rise in the gang would be meteoric, and he'd claim the massive bounty from Tianfu Heavy Industries.

This was a fortune delivered right to his door!

In his pupils trembling with excitement, Kuang Qingyun launched himself skyward at the instant of impact, knees drawn like twin siege drills, smashing into the cabin with a savagery bordering on barbaric!

"Rise up!"

Witnessing such ferocious, domineering leadership, the other Muddy Water Bagua brothers' morale surged; they leaned recklessly out of their vehicles, pouring wild fire into the Annan convoy biting at their flanks.

In a heartbeat, Annan vehicles flipped and exploded one after another, teetering on the brink of total annihilation.

Clang!

The twisted door was kicked open; pooled blood gushed out instantly. Kuang Qingyun's cyan robe hung in tatters, revealing the highly mechanized Soldier's Way Mecha-Body beneath.

Seeing the Bagua Society seize total advantage, the flickering light in his mechanical eyes finally settled somewhat.

But the very moment Kuang Qingyun exhaled, a piercing whistle of wind tore toward his skull.

This axe strike came with utter suddenness; Kuang Qingyun had no time to dodge, only managing to shift his vital head slightly aside.

Tear!!

The axe blade split the mechanical bone at his shoulder, severed the connecting nerve bundles, and sheared his left arm clean off at the root!

Kuang Qingyun swallowed the scream rising to his throat with iron will, his right hand reaching behind his neck to the spine, drawing a long saber to slash forward.

Axe and saber collided with a crisp *clang*, both men flung backward.

Kuang Qingyun used the momentum to drive a straight kick forward, perfectly trading a kick with the ambusher; knocked back by the force, he created distance.

Hiss... Hiss... Hiss...

The jagged stump of his left arm sparked intermittently, gushing vast amounts of synthetic blood with buffering agent function.

Kuang Qingyun's eye corners twitched from the agony; through gritted teeth, he ground out two words: "Ruan Yong!"

The man opposite, axe in hand, sneering, was none other than Ruan Yong, the Annan Gang Boss of Sinfolk Street.

Behind him stood a dense horde of Annan gangsters pouring from ambush.

Ruan Yong rested the axe on his shoulder, rolling his thick neck, sneering: "Fast reflexes, Kuang Qingyun. Didn't take your head even so."

His tone shifted abruptly, mocking: "But that brain of yours is useless anyway—walked right into the trap and didn't even know it."

"Ruan Monkey, you really think your 'lure the enemy deep' trick is so clever?"

Ruan Yong's face showed an 'as expected' look. "I know you want to link up with the Shu Dao Logistics people to encircle me. So guess who dies first—you, or them arriving?"

A dread premonition surged in Kuang Qingyun's heart; right then, a vicious wind struck from behind.

Clang!

Kuang Qingyun backhanded his saber, deflecting the incoming weapon, his right leg snapping up in a vicious whip kick that sent the ambusher flying.

The body slammed into a wrecked car, instantly impaled through the chest by twisted shrapnel.

But in the split second Kuang Qingyun's right foot hadn't yet landed, a shadow rushed in with utter ruthlessness.

"Shit!"

Though the bio-chip in his skull pulsed a warning current, in the flash of a spark Kuang Qingyun only had time to brace the long saber before his chest.

The massive, heavy axe slammed into his chest; the explosive impact plunged his mechanical eyes into momentary darkness like human eyes, hurling his body over ten meters back.

"Boss!"

The surviving Muddy Water Bagua brothers, eyes cracking with rage, ignored the Annan thugs surging from the roadside, all sprinting madly toward Kuang Qingyun.

An Annan thug broke through the crowd, shouldering a five-chi-long Iron Dragon, its muzzle trained on the Bagua brothers closing around Kuang Qingyun.

Just as he prepared to hit the firing stud, Ruan Yong, as if suddenly remembering something, threw an arm across the muzzle.

This Annan Gang Master's face was pure greed. "No heavy firepower. I'm swallowing that Force-Witch Mechanism Heart of his whole."

"All of you, kill! Hack these fools to mincemeat with blades!"

Ruan Yong roared, axe horizontal across his chest, head lowered, charging through the hail of bullets with domineering, unstoppable momentum.

Over a hundred elite Annan men swarmed forward, fearless, crashing into the Bagua Society crowd.

The two sides were already point-blank; added to the earlier chase and gunfight that had nearly exhausted the Bagua Society's ammo, the sporadic return fire posed no threat to the Annan men.

The smoke-choked gunfight instantly devolved into an even bloodier melee slaughter.

As a peak Grade Nine Soldier, Ruan Yong moved like a tiger among sheep; every axe fall claimed a Muddy Water Bagua life.

Kuang Qingyun watched his brothers fall one by one, his eyes burning blood-red, roaring in fury: "Qian Jindong, you son of a bitch, if you don't get here now, I'll haunt you Shu Dao Logistics bastards even as a ghost!"

Almost simultaneously, a heavy motorcycle, near one with the night, screamed from the end of the post road at a terrifying speed, arriving before them in a blink.

The Knight drew the saber from his back; where the blade pointed, no Annan man was a match for a single stroke. In an instant, he pierced the entire encirclement, hurtling toward Ruan Hu, wrapped in flying severed limbs and blood!

The previously arrogant Ruan Yong turned deathly pale, firing wildly while swinging his axe to raise a dazzling curtain of cold light.

But all this struggle was in vain.

The knight vaulted from his motorcycle, blade unsheathed; instead, he batted Rong Hu’s axe aside with a bare left hand, clamped his palm over the man’s face, and hoisted him clean off the ground.

Li Jun glanced back at the Hunshui Pao brothers, their faces frozen in horror, and grinned at the bedraggled Kuang Qingyun. "You take a beating and don't call for your own brothers—cry out for an outsider instead. What's that supposed to mean?"