Martial Arts: I Have a Wilderness World

Chapter 610: Chapter 315: A Simple and Brutal Assassination

The small valley was lush and green, dotted with wildflowers. A clear stream trickled through it, its gurgling a pleasant sound. The scenery was quite beautiful.

’This place isn’t half bad. I could set up a Teleportation Array here in the future, but what a shame...’ However, Cheng Zongyang was in no mood to admire the view. Once this place became a battlefield, the chances of it being discovered later were extremely high, making it unsafe for a Teleportation Array.

He quickly found a concealed spot near the valley entrance, took out a few items, then hid himself and waited for the middle-aged man and his two companions to arrive.

Before long, the middle-aged man and his two companions, following a trail of tracks, reached the entrance of the small valley.

They stopped and scanned their surroundings. The middle-aged man frowned, a sense of unease rising within him.

Although the chirping of insects and birds was incessant, a scan of the surroundings revealed it to be a small valley with a narrow entrance. ’This kind of place is perfect for an ambush,’ he thought. ’This means he went in here to hide. Otherwise, he could have just left from another direction instead of entering a valley!’

Seeing his leader’s immense caution, the green-robed youth at his side guessed there might be a problem inside. He hesitated for a moment before asking tentatively, "Leader, are we still going in?"

The middle-aged man didn’t respond. Unwilling to give up just like that, he hesitated for a moment before deciding to proceed. He turned to his other subordinate, the youth in gray, and ordered, "You stay here. If we run into any trouble inside, head back immediately and report to the Gang Leader."

The gray-robed youth was inwardly delighted, but his face feigned concern as he asked, "Is that wise? If it’s dangerous, Leader, shouldn’t we go back? We could gather more men and return. What if he has others lying in ambush? We won’t be a match for them."

"I’ll handle it. You wait here." The middle-aged man simply gave a slight nod. The other man’s face went pale. He looked like he wanted to say something but didn’t dare, and could only fall in line behind his leader.

The middle-aged man cautiously entered the small valley, staying vigilant for any movement in his surroundings. Their footsteps were faint in the quiet valley, yet with every step, it felt as though their own tense nerves were being struck.

From his hiding spot in the shadows, Cheng Zongyang frowned when he saw that one of the men had stayed put.

’That guy sure is cautious.’ Cheng Zongyang knew the time was ripe. It was now or never. If the two who entered got too far apart, dealing with them would become difficult.

He immediately took out the ten Tier One Bursting Flame Talismans he had prepared—the kind usable by Martial Artists—clutching them in both hands. Instantly, he channeled his Inner Strength into the talismans.

The middle-aged man was proceeding with caution when a powerful sense of danger suddenly washed over him. Before he could even process it, a dark figure burst out from the shadows to his left, moving so fast he had no time to react.

He took a few steps back on instinct, but in the next instant, Cheng Zongyang was already right in front of him. The image of that cold, sneering face was deeply seared into the man’s horrified eyes.

In the next instant, his peripheral vision was drawn to the talismans Cheng Zongyang had just released, which were now giving off white smoke.

In that split second, a terrifying sense of mortal peril washed over him. His combat instincts kicked in, compelling him to subconsciously deploy his Protective Gang Qi while simultaneously channeling his Inner Strength into a yellow talisman he had been clutching in his palm.

And just as a golden light began to envelop the middle-aged man, Cheng Zongyang abruptly vanished. The next moment, the Bursting Flame Talismans violently erupted!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

A continuous chain of violent explosions erupted where the three men were, like a series of demolition charges being detonated one after another.

It was as if the very air had detonated. A scorching heatwave rolled outward, battering everything in its path. Dust and dirt were blasted high into the air, forming a gray, murky haze. The flowers, grass, and trees at the epicenter were instantly pulverized, while the leaves on the peripheral trees were stripped by the shockwave and fluttered down. The valley’s once-vibrant chorus of insects and birds fell deathly silent, and countless startled birds scattered in every direction, crying out in terror.

At the epicenter, as a series of earth-shattering explosions rocked the valley amidst soaring flames and billowing smoke, the powerful shockwave threw the three men to the ground.

The two men, whose Cultivation had not reached the Innate realm, lacked sufficient Inner Strength to deploy Protective Gang Qi and were instantly killed by the chain of explosions from the Bursting Flame Talismans.

The middle-aged man, in contrast, had deployed his Protective Gang Qi the moment he sensed trouble, while also activating a life-saving Vajra Body Protection Talisman. On top of that, he was wearing a Tier One Protection Magic Robe as an inner layer. He had once stumbled upon the body of a deceased Female Cultivator on the road, stripped the robe from her, and then buried the corpse.

Although it wasn’t a perfect fit, this Magic Robe had become his life-saving inner layer in many battles.

However, even with the protection of his Gang Qi and the Tier One Vajra Body Protection Talisman, the middle-aged man couldn’t completely withstand the power of ten Bursting Flame Talismans detonating almost simultaneously.

His Protective Gang Qi shattered in an instant, and the Vajra Body Protection Talisman was unable to shield him from the successive explosions!

In less than a moment, the force of the ten exploding Bursting Flame Talismans shattered the Vajra Body Protection Talisman, leaving his body to take the full brunt of the remaining blast!

As a result, even his innermost Magic Robe was left in tatters.

Once the explosions stopped, the middle-aged man was left lying on the ground. His torso was somewhat intact, but his limbs were a mangled ruin of flesh and blood. Though his head was mostly in one piece, it was covered in gore—a truly gruesome sight.

The middle-aged man was unable to move, blood continuously welling up from his mouth as his body trembled. He tried to stir, only to find that he had no feeling in his body aside from his head and torso; his limbs were completely unresponsive. A glance from the corner of his eye revealed the even more horrific state of his two subordinates. Their corpses were blown to bits, with chunks of flesh scattered about—a truly shocking and gruesome scene!

’He had never, ever imagined his opponent would be so ruthless as to use that many Bursting Flame Talismans in a suicide attack to take them all down with him!’

’No!’

Suddenly, a realization struck him. ’That person... he seemed to vanish the instant before the explosion!’

’Just what kind of person is this?!’

His heart filled with terror and despair. He knew he had been completely and utterly defeated this time.

After detonating the Bursting Flame Talismans, Cheng Zongyang had immediately entered the Wilderness World to take cover. This was his trump card!

He had eliminated his opponents instantly with what looked like a suicide attack, forgoing any need for a back-and-forth exchange of blows. If he could solve a problem with a direct and simple method, he would never choose a time-consuming and troublesome one. This had always been his combat style.

After a short while, Cheng Zongyang estimated that the Bursting Flame Talismans had all finished detonating and emerged from the Wilderness World. As soon as his feet touched the ground, however, they sank into a viscous, slimy mess of gore, causing him to frown.

’The explosive power of these ten talismans was far greater than I imagined.’

Cheng Zongyang quickly stepped aside, averting his gaze from the bloody scene. He had purchased the Bursting Flame Talismans from the Commerce Association for self-defense before his last trip back, and he still had more. They were one of his trump cards, the reason he didn’t fear pursuit even from Cultivators, and the source of his confidence when facing the many Innate Great Perfection Martial Artists in Jade Peak Immortal City. His other trump cards were his Arrays and the Wilderness World!

But the scene before him, the aftermath, was far more horrific than he had imagined.

"Ugh..."

A low groan suddenly reached Cheng Zongyang’s ears. He turned and was surprised to find the middle-aged man still alive. Looking at the man’s ghastly state, he shook his head slightly. "He’s a tough one. Still not dead after all that! It seems he has plenty of protective trinkets."

Cheng Zongyang carefully picked his way around the chunks of flesh and approached the middle-aged man. The man was grievously wounded, but he was still breathing. He had survived partly because of his Innate-level strength, and partly because of the protection afforded by the Magic Robe.

Lying on the ground, the middle-aged man’s eyes were wide, nearly bulging from their sockets, as if he had seen a ghost.

His heart was filled with both regret and utter shock at Cheng Zongyang’s ability to appear out of thin air. ’All my years of experience, and I judged him wrong! He really is a Cultivator! But what kind of Cultivator... and how powerful?’

Then again, he had never expected Cheng Zongyang to be so decisive and vicious. He had assumed he could take down Cheng Zongyang with ease, never imagining he would be the one to end up in this state.