Chapter 23: The Killer, Dongbo Xueying

Gabin led a group of his men forward, while numerous bandits lurked on both sides of the cliff, watching like tigers ready to pounce.

“Let’s get out of here quickly!”

Zong Ling urged anxiously.

Without hesitation, Dongbo Xueying and Zong Ling turned and fled.

“Escape? Chase them!” Gabin coldly commanded.

“Damn it, how did they discover us so quickly? If only they had walked a bit further, they would have fallen right into our trap.” The other bandits were both furious and astonished. They hadn’t expected that Zong Ling, the Six-Armed Serpent Demon, and that young lord would detect their presence from such a distance. They had always been confident in their ability to hide; otherwise, they wouldn’t have survived in the Destruction Mountains until now.

“Chase!” Gabin growled in rage.

…

Dongbo Xueying and Zong Ling deliberately fled, luring the bandits into pursuit. Especially those on the cliff sides, who now pulled out strange large crossbows.

“Buzz!”

More than ten hunting nets were shot toward Dongbo Xueying and his companion.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…

The spheres shot through the air and exploded mid-flight, unfurling into enormous hunting nets that descended upon the two fugitives.

“Dodge!” Both Dongbo Xueying and Zong Ling swiftly evaded. Even with their strength, entanglement in the nets would be a serious problem, which was precisely why they had chosen to flee in the first place.

Fortunately, they hadn’t entered the ambush zone yet, and the distance between them was still wide. Thus, each hunting net was easily dodged by the two.

“Too agile!”

“Failed to stop them.”

A full dozen nets missed entirely, making Gabin and the others behind gnash their teeth in frustration.

“Uncle Zong, we’ve been running for about a mile now. It should be enough; there shouldn’t be any more ambushes ahead.” Dongbo Xueying stopped and turned around, setting down the pelt of the Silver Moon Wolf King he had been carrying on his back.

“Keep running! Running! There’s a pack of magical beasts ahead. Let’s see how long you can keep escaping!” Gabin and his gang of ruthless bandits were rapidly closing in from behind.

Dongbo Xueying planted his Snow-Flight Divine Spear into the muddy ground beside him, then grinned at the pursuing bandits and spoke, “Gabin, six years ago, you stormed into my Xueying Domain, slaughtering over five hundred civilians. Throughout the Yishui region, countless lives were lost due to your Cutlass Alliance. Today, it’s time for you to pay the price!”

As Dongbo Xueying spoke, Gabin and his men were still rapidly approaching.

“Pay the price?” Gabin sneered. “Too many have wanted to kill me, but in the end, nearly all of them died by my hand.”

The gray-robed old man behind Gabin, however, was already warily holding a staff and beginning to chant incantations softly.

Dongbo Xueying had been closely observing the bandits, especially focusing most of his attention on the gray-robed old man. He had long known that the Cutlass Alliance had a Sky-tier mage! It would be foolish to allow a mage to freely cast spells.

“Exactly, pay the price for countless lives.” Dongbo Xueying instantly drew two short spears from the quiver on his back.

“Go, go.”

A faint crimson aura surrounded his body as Dongbo Xueying, with lightning speed, hurled the two short spears with his right hand. That was his preferred hand for spear-throwing practice. To ensure success, he had fully unleashed his power bloodline in that instant.

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

One after another, the two spears tore through the air with terrifying whistling sounds, covering the distance of over a hundred meters between them in an instant and arriving right before the gray-robed old man.

Too fast! The sheer speed of the spears caused all the bandits to show fear.

“Watch out!” In an instant, Gabin slashed his saber forward, creating a crescent arc to block the path of the gray-robed mage. With a bang, Gabin felt a terrifying force transmitted through his arm, causing him intense pain. The slightly deflected spear changed course and struck another bandit nearby. Thud, thud… It pierced through the bodies of three bandits in succession, leaving behind massive bleeding wounds.

Thud!

The gray-robed mage’s eyes were wide with terror and disbelief. Although the first spear had been blocked by the leader, the second one was already upon him. A layer of black mist immediately formed around his body. However, Dongbo Xueying’s power surge had already equaled that of a Silver Moon Knight! Under such terrifying strength, the layer of dark protective mist was utterly useless. The spear pierced straight through his chest!

The mist dissipated, and the gray-robed mage’s eyes widened in shock. A gaping wound the size of a bowl gaped from his chest.

The Sky-tier mage was dead!

“Scum, all of you, die!” Dongbo Xueying showed no mercy to these blood-soaked bandits. He quickly retrieved more spears from his quiver, channeling his power bloodline into his arms, amplifying their force. As a master of perfected strength, he precisely controlled his power, maximizing the spears’ devastating potential!

Whoosh!

Each spear flew with terrifying speed, piercing through the void and into the bandits.

With cliffs on both sides of the canyon, the bandits had nowhere to run.

“Thud!” A bald man desperately blocked with his shield, but with a loud crash, the shield shattered, and the spear tore through his body, impaling another bandit behind him.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The air was torn apart by the pressure of the projectiles. The spears flew like invitations from Death himself. The entire group of bandits instantly fell into panic and terror. The canyon was wide enough, but with nearly a thousand bandits packed together in pursuit, the spears now tore through them like skewers of meat. One spear could pierce several bodies at once, and those pierced were instantly killed. Who wouldn’t be terrified?

“How can he be this strong? How is this possible? How is this possible?” Gabin, gripping his saber, desperately blocked. He barely managed to deflect two spears aimed at him, but even the deflected spears still killed many of his fellow bandits.

“It turns out the real threat isn’t the Six-Armed Serpent Demon Zong Ling. It’s this young lord in black!” Gabin glared at the black-clad youth who was rapidly launching spears.

Gabin had only been targeted by two spears and barely survived. Dongbo Xueying temporarily abandoned further attacks on him.

As for the other Sky-tier knights and the rest of the bandits, they were now being slaughtered. Some spears flew through the air, piercing through six or seven bandits in succession. The sheer density of their formation made them easy targets.

The threat of death made time seem unbearably long.

Yet in reality, only twelve spears had been thrown. At Dongbo Xueying’s speed, they were launched in a flash.

…

The spear-throwing ceased, and the surviving bandits were still in shock, dazedly looking around.

The second-in-command was dead. The third-in-command was dead. The fourth-in-command was dead…

Except for the leader Gabin, all the other powerful experts were wiped out. Not a single Sky-tier remained. More than half of the Earth-tier knights were also dead! The elite members had all been close to Gabin, so they were the first to be targeted when the spears rained down. They were the ones who suffered the most and died the worst deaths.

“Leader!” The remaining bandits looked toward Gabin.

Gabin gritted his teeth, blood seeping from his gums. He stared at the black-clad youth in the distance, unable to believe that a single round of spear throws had wiped out the backbone of his Cutlass Alliance.

“Dongbo Xueying!” Gabin growled.

“I came to the Destruction Mountains precisely to eradicate your Cutlass Alliance!” The black-clad youth’s faint crimson aura dissipated as the power bloodline surge had consumed a lot of energy. Then, he picked up the long spear planted in the ground beside him.

Whoosh!

Dongbo Xueying became a blur, dashing forward.

“So fast!” All the bandits were shocked.

“Join me, kill him! Kill!” Gabin roared furiously, his body surging with fluctuating black battle aura. He held a saber in each hand and dashed forward like a phantom, launching his attack.

“Attack together!”

“Kill him!”

The bandits followed their leader, some drawing bows, others preparing hidden weapons, rapidly closing in. After all, they lived by the blade, and they had only been frightened by the flying spears before. If it came to close combat, how could they fear a single opponent with nearly a thousand men? And their leader Gabin was leading the charge.

“Die!”

Gabin had long reached the peak of the Starflow tier, with immense experience.

Whoosh, his steps were ghostlike.

As he closed in on Dongbo Xueying, he curved in an arc, attempting to flank and close in from the side.

The long spear was a long-range weapon. If Dongbo Xueying were completely closed in, Gabin’s chances of victory would increase severalfold!

“Hmph.” Dongbo Xueying coldly snorted, and his spear suddenly shot forward like an arrow.

“Clang, clang, clang!”

Lightning-fast spear shadows enveloped the area, and snowflakes drifted down. This was the first layer of the “Dark Ice Spearplay”—”Snowfall.”

Fast and with wide rotational movements, the spearplay caught Gabin off guard. He himself was known for his speed, yet Dongbo Xueying’s spear technique was even faster! Gabin instinctively swung his twin sabers, blocking five spear strikes in succession, and involuntarily retreated. Each spear strike carried the threat of death, making him feel that at any moment he might fail to block. Facing such terrifying spearplay, he had no time to think, purely relying on instinct to defend.

After five consecutive spear strikes, Dongbo Xueying twisted his waist and swept the spear horizontally.

Gabin immediately crossed his twin sabers in front of him, blocking the spear shaft. At the moment the spear met the sabers, a terrifying force surged through the blades into Gabin’s body. His expression changed, and his body was uncontrollably sent flying backward like a sandbag, crashing into the cliff wall behind him. A mouthful of blood spewed from his lips.

He still held the twin sabers, but as his body slammed into the cliff wall, stars danced before his eyes. At that moment, he saw a flash of cold light rushing toward his face!

“Thud!”

A long spear, like lightning, pierced straight through Gabin’s throat and embedded itself into the cliff wall behind him, pinning his entire body to the wall. His feet dangled nearly half a meter above the ground.

Gabin’s eyes widened in disbelief, staring at the cold, black-clad youth before him. He never imagined that he, Gabin, who had roamed freely for years, would die at the hands of a mere youth?

“Gurgle~” Blood poured from his mouth as his eyes gradually dimmed.

Gabin, the most notorious bandit in Yishui City, the “Cutlass,” was dead!

The killer: Dongbo Xueying!