The Sacred Ruins

In the depths of the forest, some golden-haired men were laughing in an unbridled manner. To them, it was harvest time.

Before them was indeed a beast king—an exceptionally rare treasure. Although they did not personally kill it, in the end, they were able to loot all the spoils of war, so every country would be green with envy.

"Ha-ha..."

Their carefree laughter echoed in the mountainous forest. Orders had long been given to collect the spoils and retreat swiftly.

"Li, this operation can be said to be perfect!" a blonde middle-aged man said while laughing. His build was tall and had a certain wildness to it.

The man called Li nodded and replied with a smile, "Everything went smoothly. Now that the beast king belongs to us, it is truly an event worth celebrating. However, we have to leave without delay, a long night will be fraught with dreams [1].

"I agree, let’s pack up the beast king and leave in due haste." An old man with blonde hair nodded. His voice was very odd, and it sounded stern. However, he was smiling as he said, "This reminds me of the a verse from eastern poetry, it truly coincides with our situation—‘discard one’s clothing after concluding matters, deeply hide one’s achievement and fame’." [2]

Their subordinates advanced towards the place where the battle took place with great agility. Equipped with firearms, they were ready to transport the carcass of the Ash Wolf away—all of them were filled with excitement.

To them, this was simply too convenient. Without any losses, they were able to obtain such an astonishing treasure, causing everyone to be in high spirits.

None of them were leaders, yet they would be able to share in the spoils.

This group of people were made up of many races: some where westerners, and some were typical Asians, but they all gave off a similar aura of boldness.

"Trash!"

The Clairvoyant Du Huaijin was cursing from afar. He ran forward as his hands grasped the "war god" brand firearm and began to open fire.

"Bang!"

In the distance, a man’s head exploded like a rotten watermelon as his body fell limp onto the ground.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Du Huaijin fired several rounds in succession as light beams shot out from his pair of golden eyes. His eyesight was far better than any normal human, so it could be said that he was a natural born gunman. One shot, one kill—soon, he had killed off six or seven of them in a row.

Within the forest, chaos ensued.

"Avenge the boss!" Clairaudient Ouyang Qing roared! He leveraged his astonishing hearing abilities to pinpoint the locations of the enemy experts and opened fire.

As for Ye Qingrou, she was even more terrifying. After receiving enemy locations from the clairaudient and clairvoyant duo, she opened her pure white wings, flew forth with extreme speed and started a massacre.

Boom!

Chen Luoyan was also greatly incensed and began to repeatedly bombard the enemy.

Within the forest, sanguine flowers blossomed—their losses were not few.

"This isn’t enough to affect the grand scheme of things," said the blonde elder with a slightly serious expression. After which, they moved rapidly towards the Ash Wolf’s carcass.

"Let’s retreat first, there are sure to be other hunters waiting for an opportunity. The wolf’s carcass takes priority."

Boom!

In the forest, deafening booms and terrifying fiery explosions were breaking out as the group of people began to retaliate.

They moved in large scale weaponry and began to violently shower the whole forest area with devastating firepower. They wanted to suppress Ye Qingrou’s and Ouyang Qing’s group and stall for some time.

They had the advantage in numbers, and outside of the forest, there were even more reinforcements.

"Dammit, how can they have so many soldiers. These aren’t your average bandits, just how were they able to reach the east?" Du Huaijin pondered in surprise.

There were at least over a hundred people facing them, spread out within the forest.

"No matter how many people there are, they must all die. We must avenge Chu Feng!" Ye Qingrou declared as she made her way through the forest, initiating a killing spree.

"You two take care, I’ll go and kill some of the big fish!" said Chen Luoyan.

Learning of the enemy’s locations from the duo, Chen Luoyan deduced the location of the enemy leaders. He wanted to kill them first.

"Don’t worry, even though we’re not at your level, we can still be considered as experts!" Ouyang Qing reassured him.

...

The outside world was boiling over with fury.

The people felt indignant about the final outcome of the battle. As a fellow human, that expert had given his all to kill the Ash Wolf, and yet in the end, he was ambushed and killed.

For normal people, this was totally unacceptable.

In close succession, the major powers received reports about the situation within the great mountain.

"We don’t have sufficient manpower to gain an advantage over them if we charge out right now. Requesting expert backup!" one of them reported back to their headquarters.

"Denied. Don’t act indiscriminately!" The higher ups within some of the major powers issued a direct order not to join the chaos.

Naturally, the agents in the forest were disgruntled. They had the beast king within sight and felt it to be a great pity not to fight for it.

"That expert is dead! We’re not robbing from him so it’s not immoral."

"Shut up, someone was live streaming the whole battle! The whole of the outside world is now in an upheaval."

The troops were dumbfounded after hearing this piece of news.

Similar conversations were taking place between several major powers and their agents. Orders were being passed to the troops to stand down, else it would lead to a catastrophe.

At this moment, a group of people appeared in front of the Ash Wolf’s carcass, surrounding it.

Their actions were swift and orderly. They were preparing to transport the carcass and collect the spilt blood.

All the spectators were green with envy, and everyone was incredibly agitated.

The 4 western and the two eastern leaders also arrived. As incomparably vicious as they were, they could not help but tremble with excitement at this moment.

The beast king had fallen into their hands.

"Which expert was it?" The blonde elder enquired.

"Here he is." Someone pointed towards the side of the Ash Wolf’s carcass.

"Heh, such a pity. There’s a saying in these parts that goes ‘rafters that jut out rot first’ [3]. You were truly unlucky, rest in piece." The blonde elder chuckled as he drew his handgun, planning to shoot Chu Feng thoroughly.

Chu Feng’s body was a bloody mess; some were coughed up during the intense battle, and some were splashed from the wolf—it dyed his ragged clothes a deep scarlet.

Apart from his finger webs being torn, there were no other major wounds on his body.

"He looks so young, yet he was so strong. Truly unexpected," a blonde lady said, licking her lips. She was also one of the leaders and she appeared rather regretful.

Also raising her hand, she prepared to add another shot.

"Ah?!" At that moment, several people cried in shock.

Chu Feng had sat up and was looking at them with cold eyes.

"God, he... he’s alive?!"

The group of people saw his clothes full of bullet-holes and drenched in blood, so everyone had no doubt that he was dead. Who would’ve thought that he would suddenly revive?

People were badly startled.

One had to know that this man was an existence that dared to entangle the beast king in a melee.

The several leaders reacted quickly, instantly opening fire. Each of them felt like they had fallen into a frozen cellar—their hair stood on end, feeling extreme horror.

They realized that a huge problem had arisen.

Naturally, all the bullets hit the air. The man was simply too fast! He brought raging winds with him wherever he went.

Pu! Pu! Pu...

With frosty eyes, Chu Feng’s hands tightly gripped the black short sword—one slash felled one head. He swept through them within the blink of an eye, and the corpses fell to the ground in succession.

Almost all of them were mutants, yet they could not stop him.

Only a few of the leaders reacted fast enough. They dodged quickly and planned to make a run for it.

Chu Feng caught up to one of the leaders with an Asian face. With a sword sweeping towards him, the man had to turn back and, with a loud cry, prepare to receive the blow. Unfortunately, he was not a match.

A slash from Chu Feng had cut the man into two.

"Oh god..." another man cried loudly.

Chu Feng hated these people to the bone. No matter if they were locals or westerners, he would not show the slightest mercy. Ambushing him right after his battle with the Ash Wolf, how could he forgive such malice?

If it was any other person, he would be dead beyond doubt.

Chen Luoyan and Ye Qingrou finally caught up to the leaders and found that Chu Feng had risen from the dead and started a massacre here. At the moment, they couldn’t help but stare.

"Oh my god, the boss has revived!" the Clairvoyant and Clairaudient were shouting from afar.

In the dark, the agents of the major powers were thoroughly shaken. The man was like a ferocious gale, kicking up stones and leaves alike as he swept through the mountainous forest. He was simply too fast.

"There were well over a hundred soldiers in the area, but within a few breaths, half of them had fallen."

He was truly like a demonic god!

"His movements are unclear, but it feels like he’s even more powerful now."

"No kidding, these people are nothing compared to the Ash Wolf. We’re talking about the man who killed the Ash Wolf here! Killing these people would pose no difficulty at all."

Chu Feng’s "revival" had shaken the whole area. No one dared to move, lest they were misunderstood and killed.

Furthermore, the unrelated parties were all in full retreat, unwilling to linger in the area.

Pu!

Another leader was broken in half by a stomp on the spine from Chu Feng.

"It’s the devil!"

The blonde female leader cried out as she unfurled her pair of wings and rushed towards the sky. Absolutely terrified, she had absolutely no intention of confronting Chu Feng.

Ye Qingrou moved to intercept her.

"Oh god..."

At this moment, the people gasped.

It was because Chu Feng had rushed forward while carrying flying leaves and sand. He stepped onto a small hill and kicked off, soaring into the skies.

"Chase down the people who have escaped, leave this area to me!" said Chu Feng.

He leveraged the small hill and soared into the sky with ferocious speed as he unleashed a blow.

"Ah..."

The blond lady was pale with terror, screaming as if she had seen a peerless demonic god.

According to Yellow Ox’s classification, this lady was probably a level 5 awakened realm expert. Yet, at this moment, she was thoroughly intimidated, and even her retaliation was disorganized.

Bang!

Chu Feng delivered a blow as he flew past. The fist had penetrated her chest, causing intense hemorrhage, and he didn’t even spare a second glance as he descended into the forest.

As a matter of fact, there really was no need to look back. Just how could any normal mutant block that kind of fist?

The blonde lady screamed as she fell downwards, her life drifting away within an instant.

Ye Qingrou was shaken. She stood midair, staring at the brutal scene as she felt her heart palpitate, somewhat scared.

However, she didn’t have time to spare. She dashed off into the distance chasing after the escapees.

The clairvoyant and clairaudient cheered; they felt that Chu Feng was too valiant!

Chen Luoyan also left the area to chase down the stragglers.

As for the agents of the other major powers, they were quite intimidated. They gradually withdrew their troops, not daring to linger within the area.

Presently, within the vicinity of the Ash Wolf, only the blonde elderly man and a middle-aged man remained. All the others had been killed!

It was not that they didn’t want to escape, but they had been chased back to this place by Chu Feng.

The place become extremely quiet as most of the people had been scared off.

"Please spare us, we can tell you a huge secret," pleaded the old blonde man. He was terrified as he tried to negotiate for their survival—there was no other way out of this!

Chu Feng’s face was cold and distant, not saying a word.

"We know of a secret path. A path that passes through a bewildering foggy canyon that can instantly take you between this land and Europe," the old man quickly explained.

This startled Chu Feng; indeed, this was a major finding. The east and west could be connected by a single fog covered canyon?

"You have to let us go first. When we arrive at a safe area, I will tell you about this place," the old man spoke as he ground his teeth.

"If you don’t want to speak up, then die. There are so many of your men on the run within the mountains, one of them will be willing to tell us," Chu Feng calmly declared.

The old man yelled, instantly transforming as a devil’s horn grew out of his forehead. His body rapidly enlarged and was covered with black scales.

As for the blonde middle-aged man, he was even more monstrous. His body was silvery white, glowing with a metallic luster. He charged towards Chu Feng, planning to go all out.

These two men were indeed very powerful, but before Chu Feng, they were nothing worth mentioning. Soon, they were coughing up large amounts of blood, with their bodies torn and wounded.

Pu, pu!

The heads of the two men flew as they were mercilessly beheaded by Chu Feng. The battle had officially ended.

Ouyang Qing and Du Huaijin rushed towards Chu Feng, incomparably excited. They were truly delighted to see Chu Feng rise again after seemingly dying.

Chu Feng was overcome by a wave of tiredness and suddenly fell backwards, eventually falling down on the wolf’s carcass.

He had fought many battles in succession, and his stamina was exhausted.

The duo suddenly regained their high spirits and resumed their recording. However, Chu Feng did not let them shoot him. He sat alone in the distance as he recovered his energy.

When the outside world suddenly saw the live stream appear again, everyone was sent into a burst of nervousness as they stared at the monitor.

"Ah, that is..."

On the ground lay numerous dead bodies, quite a scary sight.

"Oh my god, isn’t that the wanted criminal from Europe? How did they suddenly appear in the great mountains?"

Some people exclaimed as they recognized the western leader as a wanted criminal since many years ago. After the great change occurred, he had actually become a mutant.

"Was it them who sniped at the expert earlier?"

"But now they’re all dead, which means..."

In the outside world, people were guessing about what actually happened—the internet was boiling over!

Ye Qingrou and Chen Luoyan chased down and killed most of the enemies, but some stragglers escaped out of the great mountains. Who would have known that another squadron of soldiers were there to reinforce them.

At that moment, to their great astonishment, several armed helicopters flew in from outside the mountains and started to fire at them.

The army had appeared. The men were surrounded!

This group of people did not know that the happenings within the great mountains were being streamed live on the internet. This had alarmed several parties. Not only the citizens were furious, even the officers in the army too!

After the Ash Wolf was "killed" by the nuclear weapon, the army had been stationed outside the radiation zone to prevent unexpected accidents. After they received the news, they instantly dispatched their mutants to this area.

It could be said that this group of people were very unlucky—now, they truly had no way to escape.

"Further investigation confirmed that their leader was a famous western fugitive and that they had control of a secret passage..."

The information gained after their capture was truly shocking.

...

[1] 夜长梦多 - It means that undue delay may give rise to unexpected problems. Said to be a quote from scholar (呂留良) Lu Liuliang’s (Qing 1629-1683) "家训真迹 - authentic family precepts". I was not able to find any further reliable sources.

[2] 事了拂衣去,深藏功与名 - Its initial appearance was in Tang Dynasty poet (李白)Li Bai’s poem (侠客行)Ode to Gallantry. It’s popularity stemmed from one of Jing Yong’s wuxia novel of the same name, in which the poem was part of a supreme technique manual.

[3] 出頭椽子先爛 - literally, exposed rafters rot first; meaning that people in the limelight are more likely to suffer the brunt of the attack.