Chapter 64: Nowhere to Escape

Chapter 64: No Way Out

"The front hall has fallen; twenty-seven clansmen died in battle. The Shu Dao Logistics Group is attacking the front courtyard's cloister."

"The side chambers are lost too; thirty-two dead. Tianfu Heavy Industry has already broken through to the rear guard rooms."

The clansman kneeling in the hall raised his head toward the grand master's chair placed beneath the plaque, his trembling voice tinged with a faint sob.

"Young Master Wen Yuan has been beheaded, and Young Master Wen Sheng was even flayed to the bone by Fei Bai Ju, Second Lord."

Yang Huchou, master of the Yang Clan's Second Branch, sat high above, listening to the reports from his clansmen; his expression remained calm, but bitterness welled in his heart.

A declining scholar clan's second branch actually dared to oppose two great aristocratic houses—truly a fool's dream, a mantis trying to stop a chariot.

Merely a few hounds kept at the feet of the aristocratic houses were enough to tear them to shreds.

"Has the ancestral bequest still not been found?"

Yang Huchou's usually deep and steady voice had inexplicably turned somewhat hoarse.

"Still not."

The messenger clansman kept his head bowed, daring not to look at Yang Huchou's face. After a hesitation, he finally could not hold back and spoke.

"Second Lord, we... can't hold much longer."

Their courage had broken.

Yang Huchou understood clearly in his heart; the terrifying strength displayed by the aristocratic houses had crushed the spines of these ordinary clansmen into powder.

Before the fear of death, the Second Branch's collapse was but a snap of the fingers away.

Everyone knew that continuing to resist would only be sending themselves to death in vain.

Only in the old man's eyes was it not yet the time to abandon the pieces and surrender!

"We have no way back."

Under the astonished gaze of that clansman, Yang Huchou suddenly rose from his chair.

Eyes etched with wrinkles stared at the night outside the door, flickering bright and dark under the gunfire, his gaze steadfast as iron.

"Surrendering now is also a dead end; the Gu and Wu houses will surely exterminate us to the last man, as a warning to other hyenas coveting in the dark."

That clansman stared at Yang Huchou's back, his face twisted in despair, his fists on his knees clenching and unclenching.

"Only by fighting to the death, seizing the ancestral bequest, do we have a sliver of hope."

Yang Huchou whipped his head around, tiger eyes wide, hair and beard bristling.

"Go tell the Yang Clan's sons, your brothers. Today, regardless of success or failure, the Yang Clan genealogy will be rewritten by someone."

"Regardless of your former seniority, from now on you shall be ranked at the source, honored as progenitors; your descendants will build temples to worship you, kneeling day and night!"

The old man's bearing was open and righteous, every word resonant and forceful.

"I, Yang Huchou, will die with them today, never surviving alone. In the next life, I shall be an ox and horse for the Yang Clan, repaying today's grudges one by one!"

The clansman's lips tightened, and in the end, he fell silent.

He only knocked his head against the ground, smashing a patch of crimson blood onto the floor.

The final kowtow, squarely facing Yang Huchou. The force was so great his forehead revealed the white of his frontal bone.

Then he rose and walked toward the door, moving with the stride of a dragon and tiger, his blood-soaked face calm and composed.

Yang Huchou lowered his eyes, gazing at the droplets of blood splattered at his feet, his eyes brimming with sorrow.

"Ancestor, was I wrong?"

After a long while, the old man looked toward the portrait hanging beneath the plaque.

The scholar in the painting wore a cyan official robe; he was the Yang Clan's sole Zhuangyuan in a hundred years, Yang Zhan.

Yang Huchou stared at the egret rank badge on the figure's chest, and his expression abruptly changed.

"You whelp, you actually played the 'dark beneath the lamp' trick on this old man?!"

...........

Night fell like a curtain, the great moon hung suspended in the void.

A Night Owl scout from the Shu Dao Logistics Group circled above the Yang Clan's ancestral manor, keeping all movement on the ground under its watch.

At this altitude, it needed no fear of ground fire, maintaining the lowest-energy cruising mode, never noticing the moonlight spilling from the great moon above onto its back growing gradually dim.

Another fierce falcon, eyes equally blood-red, folded its wings and plunged silently from the clouds above the Night Owl.

Caught unawares, the Night Owl had its skull pierced directly by the falcon's talons, large chunks of flesh torn away, the metal wire bundles wrapped within erupting in clusters of electric sparks.

The dying Night Owl suddenly threw back its head in a long shriek, and immediately a vast swarm of black shadows rose from the front gate of the Yang manor.

They formed ranks and swooped to kill that arrogant falcon.

At the same time, several Tianfu Heavy Industry falcons beat their wings, bursting from the clouds to meet the Night Owl flock head-on.

Beneath the night sky, a massive flock of biomimetic birds, wingspans exceeding three meters, eyes blood-red, feathers like swords, tore into one another.

Talon clashed with talon, beak struck against beak.

Shrieks rang out violently; blood rain and broken feathers fell pattering down, a horrifying spectacle.

A pair of locked Night Owl and falcon drove their talons into each other's bodies, perishing together in a posture of utmost misery.

In the instant they fell from the sky, two pairs of crimson electronic eyes simultaneously captured a single scene.

A figure clad in a black martial uniform had already rushed past the cloister, charging toward the rear courtyard's side chambers.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Li Jun's figure in the night was like a ghost, flickering in and out of existence in the dark recesses untouched by moonlight.

Two Tianfu Heavy Industry Action Division members armed with firearms panicked, firing wildly at where the figure flashed; their magazines emptied in short order.

The very moment the gunfire ceased, a dark-blue blade flashed a biting cold light, and two heads flew up simultaneously.

The neck cross-sections were smooth as a mirror; blood jetted at high pressure from the suddenly depressurized vessels, covering a three-chi radius, yet still failed to catch up to that advancing black shadow.

The Ink Blade, having devoured two lives, did not pause, cleaving forward with terrifying force, bisecting another Action Division member wearing bulletproof martial gear right down the middle.

His half-flesh, half-machine physiology kept a last breath in him.

Through his chaotic, trembling electronic vision, he clearly saw a black-clad, blade-wielding man wantonly slaughtering his own squad.

None where he passed were a match for even a single move.

Bang!

Li Jun shielded his face with his elbow, blocking a bullet aimed at his brow. The impact site throbbed with stabbing pain, yet the martial uniform remained intact.

In the gunner's horrified gaze, the Ink Blade entered from the left neck, slicing laterally through the entire torso without resistance.

Li Jun reached out, clamping his hand around the throat of another gunner trying to flee, and squeezed hard.

With a crisp crack, the gunner's neck snapped; his head lolled, and he collapsed softly to the ground.

In mere blinks, this garden path was nearly paved with severed limbs, the scent of blood in the air thickened to a point where it would not dissipate.

"So many paths to merit tonight, yet you chose to block mine. Li Jun, do you really think I can't kill you?"

A sudden night wind swept through the hall, scattering the metallic tang of blood even as a voice laced with fury reached Li Jun’s ears.

Li Jun gave his wrist a light shake, flinging the gore from the ink-black blade, letting the spine rest slantwise against his shoulder.

He lifted a hand to brush a fingertip against his sword-sharp brow, the curve of his mouth twisting grim, his very aura swelling to the peak of arrogance.

"Fei Baiju, today there is nowhere left for you to run!"