Chapter 252 - Disappearance
Lou Lan was leading the way.
Without his sword embryo, Ai Hui’s ability to detect dangers was largely weakened. Fortunately, they still had Lou Lan. Under Lou Lan’s lead, they twisted and turned along the streets and roads, but were always able to find a less dangerous route.
Lou Lan was very sensitive to blood spiritual force; therefore, he could feel the blood fiends from a distance. This ability was currently playing an important role.
If they really couldn’t avoid a blood fiend, then the craftsmen would stop and hide themselves first, after which Ai Hui would sneak up on the blood fiends and kill them. Finally, they would be able to continue their forward march.
Fortunately, the blood fiends they met were not at all strong.
Gnashing their teeth and gathering their energy, the craftsmen behind them carried the gold needle and closely followed.
At this moment, everyone was pushing themselves.
"The sinkhole is not far away!"
The leader of the craftsmen encouraged them loudly. The shout boosted everyone’s spirits.
Finally, they were just one block away from the sinkhole. Moreover, there were no blood fiends on the street.
But then, Lou Lan suddenly stopped at the crossing, so Ai Hui and the craftsmen followed suit.
Lou Lan said, "Ai Hui, there are five blood fiends there."
"So many?" Ai Hui asked in surprise. He glanced at the street and said, "But Lou Lan, I don’t see any."
"Then they are hiding somewhere."
"So let’s take another route."
Lou Lan and Ai Hui were talking loudly. Hearing their discussion, the five people who were hiding to ambush the group were speechless. They’d thought they were hiding well enough and didn’t expect their enemies to notice their existence so effortlessly.
How did Ai Hui’s sand puppet find them?
Blood fiends? They were regarded as blood fiends? Having just transformed from beasts to human beings, they were extremely disgusted to be treated as blood fiends from the bottom of their hearts, especially the young men like Shi Wei. He almost rushed out on impulse.
They were all looking at Old Lei and waiting for his instructions.
Old Lei was experienced enough to keep his composure.
Although he’d been laughing at Yan Hai just now, he didn’t underestimate Ai Hui at all. He was surprised that they’d been seen through, but chose not to rush out.
Young men like Shi Wei felt angry when they heard themselves being treated as blood fiends, but Old Lei believed this might be a good opportunity. They could take advantage of the mistake.
He thought fast about how to use this advantage.
Hearing Ai Hui say that they were going to the sinkhole, Old Lei became more relaxed. The street they were hiding in was the only shortcut to the sinkhole. If they did not take this route, they would have to go a long way around.
Old Lei was not at all in a hurry.
He was also curious about the big pillar, as he had a feeling that the pillar must be something important. He was sent to the casualty barrack early, before the plan of "treating the city as a piece of cloth" was announced, so he knew nothing about the gold needles. Still, his keen sense of smell made him realize that the pillar was unusual.
Meanwhile, seeing Ai Hui talking to his sand puppet, Old Lei was a bit surprised. It seemed that this sand puppet was unusual too.
He became vigilant about anything unusual.
After a while, Ai Hui walked to the leader of the craftsmen and told him something. Since they were too far away, Old Lei couldn’t hear it clearly, but he did see that the leader’s expression was a bit weird.
Weird?
What had he said?
Old Lei tried to guess the content of their conversation, but didn’t have the slightest idea.
Yan Hai glared at Old Lei with enmity. I am the team leader, thought Yan Hai. Why was he being isolated by the others?
They must envy him for being trusted by Sir!
We’ll see. If the mission fails, then you will know how frightening Sir can be, thought Yan Hai to himself. He made up his mind that if this really happened, he would not intercede on their behalf.
He had cursed Old Lei in his heart thousands of times, but as he was the weakest member and one who feared Ai Hui the most among the five, he didn’t dare to rush out either. He witnessed the battle of the streets himself, the horrible scenes of which still haunted his dreams.
Old Lei waited patiently. It was not at all necessary for them to rush out.
In his eyes, it was their most critical moment. Once they were targeted by elementalists, they could only attract more enemies. The level of hatred elementalists had for blood elementalists and blood fiends was totally different. If they were discovered by an elementalist, only death would follow.
That was why Old Lei didn’t give any orders, so the others continued to wait silently.
Ai Hui didn’t move for a while.
Old Lei didn’t move either. He was patient and calm, qualities he believed an experienced hunter should possess. He had been through too many battles, and with his rich experience in battlefields, he knew it was best for them to wait under such circumstances.
After a while more, Ai Hui still didn’t move.
Old Lei began to wonder what this guy in front of him was doing. In such a chaotic and dangerous moment, the other elementalists were either putting up a desperate fight or hiding themselves. Despite that, Ai Hui was standing still in a place threatened by a growing crisis and could be attacked by blood fiends at any moment. Was he thinking about the philosophy of life?
This was weird!
Old Lei thought hard, but still couldn’t understand. He narrowed his insightful eyes and stared at Ai Hui as if he wanted to pierce him with his sharp stare.
Wait! His eyes suddenly widened. Where was Ai Hui’s sand puppet?
The sand puppet that looked unusual?
He glanced over the whole place, and was astonished to find that the sand puppet had disappeared right under their noses.
Right at that moment, Ai Hui began to move.
It appeared that after thinking for a long time, the stone man was finally bestowed life. Ai Hui moved and the three craftsmen who were carrying the pillar also moved after him.
A flash of vigilance flashed across Old Lei’s eyes. Wait! The craftsmen were now standing at the spot where the sand puppet had disappeared?
Then a craftsman disappeared.
Hmm?
And the pillar disappeared.
Hmm?
And the other two craftsmen also disappeared.
Hmm!
Ai Hui turned around and waved his hands in Old Lei’s direction, then also disappeared.
They’d noticed them long ago!
Old Lei stood up abruptly and felt surprised and bewildered. He didn’t know what had happened, but since they had already discovered his presence, it was meaningless to hide any longer. Thus, he decided to take the initiative to attack.
Old Lei walked out from where he was hiding together with the others, whose expressions revealed their confusion.
What they’d seen just now was really weird.
They walked cautiously toward where Ai Hui had been standing. They were afraid that Ai Hui was playing tricks to lure them out.
When they walked closer, they were stunned to see a huge hole leading deep underground.
Especially Old Lei, whose face was dark and red.
"No wonder he is called the Lightning Blade. Hearing his name alone made us too frightened to move and they were able to effortlessly dig such a big tunnel under our noses. What a shame! I’m wondering what others will say about us if they hear what happened today…"
Yan Hai couldn’t help taunting Old Lei. Actually, he was more than happy to see him being fooled. The more shameful Old Lei was, the happier he was.
Bang!
The next minute, Yan Hai’s face was kicked hard. Like being bumped by a beast, he directly flew out and fell into a pile of ruins, losing consciousness.
Old Lei drew back his leg as if nothing had happened, but the anger on his face made him look like a furious lion that would eat anything and anyone it met.
The others saw this and all looked away at once.
They also feared Old Lei’s ruthlessness and cruelty.
Without saying anything, Old Lei jumped into the tunnel, leaving the other three looking at each other in hesitation.
"Should we just leave that guy alone?"
"You want to take him with us?"
"No. He is too talkative. It’s annoying."
"Then just leave him there."
Having made up their minds, the other three jumped into the tunnel one after another and soon caught up with Old Lei.
They were surprised at how broad the tunnel was. How had they dug such a deep tunnel within such a limited time? It was not an easy job even for a sand puppet.
Shi Wei couldn’t help murmuring, "Sand puppets are so strong nowadays?"
Hearing his words, Old Lei scolded him in rage. "Shut up! Talk less!"
Before he finished speaking, a cold light abruptly rose from under his feet as fast as lightening, and in the blink of an eye, was almost at his throat.
An ambush!
Old Lei was so scared that all his hair stood on end. He quickly stepped backward while crossing his hands in front of his throat protectively.
Dragonspine was originally aiming for Old Lei’s throat, but suddenly bent like a boneless snake and unexpectedly stabbed into his chest.
Ding!
The sound was like hitting a stone with iron.
Ai Hui felt like he had stabbed an iron ingot. The sword pierced only two inches into the chest and couldn’t go further.
Old Lei’s face was all red. Having blocked the stab, his raging energy and blood sloshed around in his chest.
Ai Hui didn’t expect Old Lei’s skin to be as solid as iron. Although he himself had attained [Copper Skin], he could not reach Old Lei’s level. Nevertheless, since Ai Hui had made great progress in swordsmanship, when he felt the resistance from the sword point, he slightly shook his wrist before even realizing it.
The sword vibrated like the tongue of a poisonous snake.
Oblique Slash.
In less than one second, Ai Hui slashed eight times like lightening. Without any complicated changes, the moves were simple and fast. The improvement in his swordsmanship was thoroughly reflected in this attack.
The sword rays of the eight slashes overlapped like a high-speed, rotating circular saw.
The Dragonspine that stuck in Old Lei’s chest suddenly moved forward. Feeling heat in his chest, Old Lei looked down and only saw a blood mist exploding from his chest that blurred his vision.
He growled in fury and kicked out hard with his right leg.
But once again, there was nothing. Although Ai Hui was close, he was like a phantom.
The next minute, he felt a stabbing pain in his leg; it had been pierced by the sword. He could even feel the parts of the sword that were piercing into his muscle.
This sword was weird. It was a soft sword!
He protected his head and throat. As long as these two were safe, he didn’t need to worry about losing his life. Suppressing the fear rising in his heart, he quickly stepped backward.
He could hear his companions’ scolding and steps behind him. They were not far away. As soon as they caught up, they could turn the situation around. They were advantageous in number and would be able to kill this damn Lightning Blade!
Old Lei roared in his heart.
He was protecting his head with his arms, but this also blocked his sight. Therefore, he didn’t see the Dragonspine sneaking in the darkness like a poisonous snake, and didn’t know that lethal danger was quietly approaching closer and closer.
The sword rays around the Dragonspine were becoming stronger. The sword was quivering slightly.
When the sword point stabbed into the wound on Old Lei’s chest again, it quivered fiercely and the sword rays reached their peak. The next instant, the accumulated energy gushed out from the sword point.
[Crescent Moon]!
A crescent moon formed, rushed forward, and exploded in Old Lei’s chest.