When the last iron rod joined its rank collapsing on the ground, it sent a bang that propagated through the air and traveled into the sky far away and dissipated. At last, the iron cage the size of a village finally stopped crumbling.
The remaining crimson tone slowly faded from the clouds into the sky, heralding the arrival of the night.
All the vegetation around the camp had burned to ashes, forming a thick blanket of dark grey dust on the ground. When somebody stepped on it, a gooey dark copperish liquid would ooze out from the damp soil.
A gust blew into the canyon, and the stench of charred dead bodies intensified. The leaves rustled, and the canyon plunged into an even more deadly hush.
Lin Sanjiu sat unmoving on the ground. The bandages on her body were gone, and her wounds were all opened. Her body looked like the surface of the Moon: filled with tonnes of potholes. If her chest wasn't moving up and down as she breathed shallowly, people might mistake her for a corpse that sat upright.
Anybody could see that the woman had reached the end of her tether, and she could fight no longer.
Even though her battle senses and combat ability had been honed and heightened to a whole new level after clearing the Starry Carnival Amusement Park, she was utterly exhausted after taking the relentless onslaught of multiple tamers and their slaves head-on.
However, the battle was just getting started, to her dismay.
Like hyenas attracted to the smell of carrion, the tamers, who had just escaped, returned after realizing that the valkyrie could harm them no further. After they saw that Lin Sanjiu had lowered her head and showed little signs of life, all of them howled and began summoning their slaves.
Standing beside his owner, Ji Shanqing gazed at the flock of shadows and gulped. His throat felt raw.
During their previous all-out battles, Lin Sanjiu had flung the black paint-marked, fully-fledged slaves who had one of their senses reaped into the sky, eliminating them from the battle zone and leaving only those shackled slaves in the clearing. Those slaves were secured by a set of heavy manacles; their bodies had been filled with many pinholes, their faces were drugged and morbid and they no longer could be called as a human anymore. Their tamers had abandoned them the moment CEO and a few tamers died after getting close to Lin Sanjiu.
Ji Shanqing still remembered Lin Sanjiu's expression at that time. The image of how Lin Sanjiu fell to the ground after taking a step forward and being unable to stand up anymore still played vividly in his brain.
Taking in a deep breath, he moved in front of Lin Sanjiu and protected her.
Thanks to his coat, nobody noticed he was shivering in fear. When Ji Shanqing pulled his face, he knew he looked calm and composed, and he could always deceive people with that pacifistic look of his. In the grand scheme of things, this was the only weapon he now possessed that could startle his enemies.
Looking at the tamers, Ji Shanqing tilted his head, smiling. His voice was as soothing as the spring breeze, "Hoh, I admire y'alls tenacity. Anyway, I have some questions."
A few figures on the frontline of the crusade stopped. Then, a small-faced man extended his peculiarly long neck and stared warily at Ji Shanqing.
"Do you think you guys can come-and-go here, killing people as you wish? Stop dreaming!" He yelled adamantly, but he refused to move a step forward, "Bring that crazy woman out of here and leave now! You have only two people, one of which is no longer fit for battle and we still have many tamers and slaves at our disposal. Can't you see that? The odds are in our favor."
Ji Shanqing couldn't help but notice that the guy refused to mention slaves as human beings, and he could only attribute that egoistic speech of his as part of his occupational habit.
"Human just never change," sighed Ji Shanqing inwardly. Then, he looked at the man, and with a mild expression, he quipped, "Is it? By saying those words, I can assume that you understand the concept that you have to back up your words with action, right? What are you waiting for, then? Show me what you got."
When Ji Shanqing uttered those provocations calmly, as expected, a hubbub of murmur spread through the crowd; the fledgling slaves started to retreat. When they moved, their shackles jangled, which snapped the already badly-shaken tamers out from the daze and brought more stern reprimands against them.
Just as Ji Shanqing began to feel his false bravado tactic was going to succeed, a voice suddenly raised from the crowd, "This weenie is just faking! I have seen it with my eyes that woman kicks him away before she fought with CEO!"
Ji Shanqing's smile froze, and he blanched. The murmurs grew into a commotion. Just as the voice died down, a figure threw itself at him.
The oncoming assailant was a tamer. He swished the weapon in his hand, breaking through the wind and lashed it squarely at Ji Shanqing's face. Ji Shanqing realized that the weapon was the thick chain that the tamer used to keep his slaves under his control.
The tamer was moving at sonic speed. Seeing how fast the attack was coming at him, Ji Shanqing was certain that the chain would land on his face first before the effect of his ability Economic Bubbles, "Recession," was activated. With that in mind, Ji Shanqing grit his teeth, spun his body around and pushed Lin Sanjiu to the ground. Riding on the momentum, he rolled along the ground just as the chain whizzed right above his cheek. A tingling pain spread from the point of contact.
Lin Sanjiu fell to the ground and exposed her tightly shut eyes and ashen white countenance. Her breathing was so shallow that it seemed she wasn't breathing at all.
"Haha, what did I say?" The tamer with a large nose and vulgar look let out a brazen fit of laughter, "Even that woman is dying!"
The moment he finished his talking, he stretched his two arms open and his two arms suddenly gave off dazzling red light before honing on Ji Shanqing, who had zero mobility. After Ji Shanqing struggled to regain his composure, he stretched his legs and darted forward. He didn't dare run too fast or too slow, maintaining a speed at which the red light wouldn't lose track of him and give him enough time to retaliate should anything terrible happened. After a few steps of running, the red light that was chasing him suddenly became brighter. It lit half of the already-dark forest like a sunset.
"Now!"
Ji Shanqing growled inwardly. Then, he stopped hard and crouched down. The dazzling red light buzzed above his back, and as the glow whirred past him, it dimmed down.
The tamer looked at his arm, and before he could come back from his confusion of how his attack would fail, he lifted his eyes to see that Ji Shanqing had changed his course to charge straight at him. Amassing all his strength, Ji Shanqing body slammed the tamer and knocked him down. The tamer cursed loudly before plunging into a flock of slaves behind him.
Seeing how immature Ji Shanqing's combat technique was, all the other tamers became high in spirit and stampeded toward him. Panting, Ji Shanqing cursed mentally while prepared himself for the inevitable tough fight. That was when a sharp shriek suddenly burst out somewhere from the crowd.
Similar to Ji Shanqing, all the tamers were stunned, and they paused their progression. Ji Shanqing darted his gaze across the clearing, and then he saw a stream of blood burst from the flock of slaves.
"Kill them!" A hoarse female voice spread across the clearing. Her damaged vocal cord signified how much torture she had gone through, "Kill every last of them!"
Ji Shanqing did a double take as he realized the slaves were rioting. As the jangling of metal, growling, screaming, and the dull sound of a body hitting a metal pole intensified, the flock of slaves rushed madly at the tamers. They even trampled the tamer who had been charging at Ji Shanqing into a pile of meat pulp. When some of them slipped on the ground, the tamers would quickly retaliate and hit them.
His gaze jumped back and forth between Lin Sanjiu and the skirmish not far away, Ji Shanqing didn't think much and quickly return to Lin Sanjiu's side. He grabbed her by her shoulder and shook her with all his might, "Wake up, Sis'! The two kids you're looking for might be over there!"
Nevertheless, no matter how much he pushed and slapped her, Lin Sanjiu didn't show any sign of regaining her consciousness.
With all kind of whizzing, whomping, and other unique sound effects released by abilities filled the air, the slaves covered the sky with blood as torn limbs occasionally flew out from the free-for-all. Compared to the tamers, who were only killed by the slaves due to an accident, the slaves were apparently on the losing side. Evidently, their bodies were just too weak for any large scale battle after they had been tormented for so long. The bloodlust and adrenaline rush after successfully killing a tamer diminished as more and more of their companion fell to the clutches of death. As they began to flee, the tamers chased them and impaled them.
Seeing this, even though the person his master was looking might be alive now, Ji Shanqing was certain that she or he wouldn't last any longer.
Ji Shanqing looked around and realized that everybody was so occupied with the fight that they overlooked them. After he placed Lin Sanjiu down on the ground, he clenched his teeth and bolted into the battle royale.
"Rena! Reno!" As he yelled those names, Ji Shanqing hoped that he didn't have them wrong. However, his voice was instantly overpowered by all kinds of other sounds the moment it escaped his mouth, making Ji Shanqing wonder if anybody heard his call. "Are you guys here? Your sister is looking for you!"
As he zigzagged through the group of war-crazed people repeating the names, he searched for anybody that might match Lin Sanjiu's description. Suddenly, he lost his balance and fell to the ground, face first.
Before he could find out the source that caused him to trip, he sensed something dangerous. He quickly covered his head and rolled to a side to avoid being crushed by the person in front of him. After that, Ji Shanqing took a breath and looked behind him in shock.
A thin, bare-chested teenager with vicious stare stood there. Looking over the teenager's shoulder, Ji Shanqing found another girl standing behind him. Both of them looked very much alike with yellowish skin and cold glare.
"Who are you?" the teenager asked. His expression was as stoic as a thousand-year rock, and his voice was husky as if he hadn't opened his mouth for a very long time.
"You two are Rena and Reno?" Ji Shanqing quickly gets to his feet. As he raised his two arms above his head, he said, "Do you two know Lin Sanjiu? She is here for you guys, and she is just over there—"
The two teenagers' expressions turned mild when the name "Lin Sanjiu" entered their ears. Ji Shanqing couldn't tell whether were they surprised or something else. However, before he could get deeper into his thought, the teenager in front of him changed his expression again. With a vicious face, he pulled Ji Shanqing by his collar and whispered into his ears, "Lead us there. Now!"
The yellow-skinned, high-cheekboned young girl added another comment. Every word that slipped past her lips chilled Ji Shanqing to his core, "If we don't see her, we'll kill you."
"Are they the two haughty and cheerful siblings Lin Sanjiu always talked about? They don't seem equipped with any of the traits as she described."
He knew now wasn't the time to question anything and quickly led the siblings through the crowd of people who had been blinded by their bloodlust. Like other slaves, both of the siblings were chained by layers of heavy shackles. With every step they took, a loud metal clank filled the air, signifying the heavy weight of the manacles, and because of that, their speed was much slower than his. Fortunately, when they finally arrived where Lin Sanjiu was, she was still there, safe and sound.
She had also regained consciousness.
Supporting herself with one arm, Lin Sanjiu struggled to stand up. When the sound of footsteps drifted into her ears, she raised her head only to see the group of people that fighting and the trio that was running towards her.
The gloomy expression on Rena and Reno faces vanished at the sight of Lin Sanjiu. They picked up their speed, shortening the gap between them and Lin Sanjiu in seconds and threw themselves on the ground beside Lin Sanjiu along with their shackles.
The young girl thrust herself into Lin Sanjiu's embrace. Her shoulders shook as she sobbed profusely.
Warm breath, wet tears, rancid and dry hair: as Rena snuggled up to her, Lin Sanjiu still couldn't regain herself from the shock. After a few seconds, she picked up her wobbly hands and winced in pain at the movement. Nevertheless, she still placed her hand on Rena's back and patted her gently.
Reno stood aside expressionlessly. His eyes were reddening, and he bit his lower lips so hard that it became white.
"Alright, alright," Lin Sanjiu's voice sounded so wonderful yet exhausted. She spoke so faintly as if she was afraid that this was all a delusion and any loud or unwelcomed noises might shatter her dream. This was the first time Ji Shanqing saw such a tender, fond expression on Lin Sanjiu's face since they came out of the Starry Carnival Amusement Park. "I'm right here. Don't worry; everything will be fine from now on."
As she spoke, she studied the siblings.
The traces of torture remained clear on their bodies. Their bodies were covered with swollen needle holes, in varies sizes. Their countenances so languished that Lin Sanjiu almost couldn't recognize them at first glance. Despite that, the siblings still had their limbs, and that was what mattered the most.
Without speaking a word, Ji Shanqing slowly walked up to the group.
Hearing the sound, Lin Sanjiu crooked her head and offered him a faint, but genuinely grateful smile.
Only then, Mrs. Manas heaved a long sigh of relief.