Translator: Legge
Editor: Legge
No one knew when the young man arrived at the rear of the Zong Consortium. Even Zheng Yuandong, who had been observing the situation, was unsure.
Actually, Zong Cheng's assessment was not wrong. Ren Xiaosu's nanomachines were really at their limits, with the power source almost completely exhausted.
Ren Xiaosu was also not too confident of forcing his way into a position that nearly a 1,000 soldiers were guarding. After an entire night of fighting, he could not endure the backlash from the steam locomotive anymore.
But Zong Cheng and the Zong Consortium's higher-ups were right in front of him, so how could he possibly give up now? If Ren Xiaosu gave up at this point, then he might as well have killed Zong Cheng earlier.
If he did not kill Zong Cheng tonight, he would not be able to take it lying down.
As such, Ren Xiaosu put his armor onto the shadow clone during the pursuit while no one was paying attention. On one hand, he would not have to worry about himself falling into a dangerous situation even if the nanomachines died midway. On the other hand, the armor solved the problem of the shadow clone getting hit by any stray bullets between its eyes.
As the shadow clone was launching its frontal assault on the defensive position while wearing the armor, Ren Xiaosu barged in from the side of the manor. The troops in the Zong Consortium's manor were all concentrated at the front. Throughout the night, Ren Xiaosu had used his actions to mislead Zong Cheng into thinking he would launch a frontal assault.
But just as everyone had gotten used to his movements amid the chaos, Ren Xiaosu decided to execute the decapitation strike at the weakest point of the enemy!
Before Ren Xiaosu, the defenses at the back of the manor were practically useless.
Zong Cheng was shocked when he turned around and saw Ren Xiaosu attacking from behind. Then Ren Xiaosu grabbed one of the Zong Consortium's higher-ups as a human shield as he sped towards him.
Zong Cheng shouted without any regard for the human shield, "Kill him. Ignore the human shield and open fire!"
But the Zong Consortium's soldiers hesitated for a moment. Importantly, the human shield Ren Xiaosu was holding was Zong Cheng's uncle.
As Ren Xiaosu held Zong Cheng's uncle and advanced, he sneered at him, "Ask them to save you. Otherwise, I'll kill you right away."
Zong Cheng's uncle got so anxious that he swore at Zong Cheng, "Zong Cheng, you little bastard! How dare you ignore my safety—"
Suddenly, Zong Cheng raised his gun and shot his uncle dead before he could finish speaking. The soldiers around them and the Zong clan's patriarch were stunned.
While they were momentarily stunned, Ren Xiaosu was already bearing down on Zong Cheng.
But to everyone's surprise, Zong Cheng, who had long been highly regarded as a supernatural being by the Zong Consortium, did not even put up a fight. Instead, he pushed his father into Ren Xiaosu's saber!
With a slash, the Zong clan's patriarch was beheaded!
A moment later, Ren Xiaosu threw the human shield in his hands aside and charged Zong Cheng at full speed. As the black saber in his hands cut through the night, it gleamed with a menacing aura.
In an era where firearms and explosives were clearly king, this saber was like the Sword of Judgment that was capable of slicing through anything.
When the Zong Consortium's soldiers saw that Ren Xiaosu had nothing to shield himself with after throwing aside the body, they immediately aimed their guns at him. But before they could even pull the trigger, the shadow clone had already come back!
The shadow clone ran in a frenzy and crashed into the Zong Consortium troops. The sound of their bones breaking was so loud that it sounded like firecrackers being set off!
When the shadow clone barged into the defensive line, it showcased an almost unparalleled level of individual combat power!
"City Crusher!" Ren Xiaosu roared.
In that instant, Ren Xiaosu took a small step forward and slashed the saber horizontally!
The glow of burning flames in the distance seemed like they were projecting images on the clouds above. Ren Xiaosu could see Xu Jinyuan enjoying his corn, Jin Lan wearing a silly smile on his face, Yan Liuyuan standing next to Big Sister Xiaoyu as he angrily brought about that disastrous earthquake, as well as that ray of hope that had been destroyed.
From that moment onwards, Ren Xiaosu would often recall those scenes over and over every night. He uncovered these "wounds" in his heart again and again just so he could remind himself not to forget the anger of that day.
Even when others thought that it was normal for people to die in war, he wanted to ensure that everyone in the Razor Sharp Company survived and that no man was left behind.
When not even Zhang Xiaoman himself believed he could survive, Ren Xiaosu still insisted on trying.
So when Ren Xiaosu was finally confronting Zong Cheng at this moment, it was as though all of the Underworld's spirits of vengeance had followed him. As it turned out, when he was filled with all this hatred, he wasn't that different from Li Shentan at all.
If he did not have that ray of light left in his heart, he would even want the entirety of Stronghold 146 to perish together with the Zong Consortium.
"Die!" As the black saber slashed across Zong Cheng's waist, Ren Xiaosu watched as Zong Cheng gave him an incredulous expression. Then he turned around and left.
Behind him, the shadow clone started slashing at the enemies without restraint in a bid to protect him. Moments before a hail of bullets could rain down on him, Ren Xiaosu made his retreat. He no longer had any lingering thoughts of fighting the enemy.
It was not that he did not want to continue killing them, but that he must not do so anymore.
The Zong Consortium was about to fall apart now that their leaders were dead. Shortly after, the troops from Fortress 178 would arrive to destroy the place, so he did not have to continue taking further risks.
Furthermore, Ren Xiaosu had been shot.
No matter how unexpected it was that he would attack from the enemy's rear just now, there were still some Zong Consortium soldiers who managed to react. So Ren Xiaosu expected he would get shot.
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As of this moment, Ren Xiaosu had sustained two gunshot wounds to his abdomen. He had to shake off the Zong Consortium's pursuit as quickly as possible so he could extract the bullets and apply the black medicine on his wounds.
But something else unexpected happened. The shadow clone that was now without the armor got shot again between its eyes. It poofed into a lump of black mist before dissipating away.
Ren Xiaosu frowned. He could hear people shouting behind him. Some of them were shouting for medics, while others were alarming everyone else to the presence of an assassin.
Ren Xiaosu's pursuers chased after him relentlessly. Although Ren Xiaosu had already leaped out of the manor and run two streets away, he still could not shake off the Zong Consortium's troops.
Ren Xiaosu could even hear off-road vehicles roaring to life behind him. The Zong Consortium was enraged!
Was he cornered now? Ren Xiaosu smiled. So what?
Thinking of this, Ren Xiaosu suddenly turned around with his saber raised. He stared at his pursuers at the end of that long street, while the rumbling smoke and cloudy sky seemingly came to a standstill. "Come at me!"
No one had expected that Ren Xiaosu would turn around, nor think that he would dare to take on a 1,000 people when he was already injured! But when his pursuers saw this, they subconsciously stepped on their brakes. They even had thoughts of turning around and fleeing.
It felt gratifying when they were chasing after him, but in the course of the pursuit, they never really thought what would happen if they caught up to him. Did they make a suicidal decision to chase him?
Although, the Zong Consortium's soldiers knew that, with their numbers, they could simply pile up on the young man and crush him to death. But why would they do that? Who would see it now that the Zong clan's patriarch was dead?
Furthermore, many of them would probably die in the process.
But when their vehicles came to a stop, they saw Ren Xiaosu suddenly turn around and bolt.
"Fuck, we've been had! That kid is at his limits!"
"After him!"
Of course, some of the troops had figured out what was at stake here, so they completely gave up on pursuing him.
With this temporary cessation, the pursuers halved.
But even though the number of pursuers halved, there were still a lot of them. Some of the troops wanted to kill Ren Xiaosu so they could get a reward. After all, someone would have to take over as the new patriarch of the Zong Consortium, so whoever came to power would definitely have to establish their authority by taking the head of their enemy. And the Zong Consortium would probably not be able to unite for as long as this young man remained alive.
Although, they were never really united in the first place.
Therefore, the Zong Consortium soldiers who were still pursuing Ren Xiaosu were mostly the ambitious ones.
But as Ren Xiaosu fled madly while pressing on his wounds, someone suddenly shouted, "Ren Xiaosu, over here, quick!"
Ren Xiaosu was startled. Who was calling out to him?
He turned his head to the voice and saw Zhang Xiaoman waving at him cheerfully. Meanwhile, Jiao Xiaochen and the others were busy setting up mortars and heavy machine guns on the street corner.
As for the deputy commander of the 1237th Regiment, he was lying helplessly off to the side with his hands and feet bound.
After Ren Xiaosu dropped them off in the wilderness, the Razor Sharp Company had taken the risk of plundering a military factory to seize the military transport trucks and off-road vehicles in it, all so they could get to Stronghold 146 as quickly as possible!
As everyone in the stronghold was attracted by the firepower surrounding Ren Xiaosu tonight, no one noticed the east gate had been breached by the Razor Sharp Company. They did not even encounter any proper resistance!
Zhang Xiaoman was standing there in high spirits as he grinned, illuminated by the burning sky. "Get over here! We've come to save you!"
Ren Xiaosu clutched his abdomen and walked over slowly. "What are y'all doing here?"
Nearby, Fu Rao was loading ammunition into a heavy machine gun. "Didn't you say that in our Razor Sharp Company, no man gets left behind?"
Zhang Xiaoman chuckled. Suddenly, he mimicked Zhang Jinglin's tone and said, "Ren Xiaosu, do you still remember what I said?"
Ren Xiaosu was silent for a moment before saying with a smile, "You said that people always die in battle. The battlefield is a place where we have to put our trust in fate. Everything lies with fate. No one can control it."
Zhang Xiaoman laughed again. "Do you still remember what your reply was?"
Back then, Ren Xiaosu had said, "How would we know if we don't try?!"
All of the Razor Sharp Company was in this together. One for all, and all for one! Since someone had declared that no man from the Razor Sharp Company would be left behind, they would have to keep their word no matter what.
Zhang Xiaoman's cheeks looked especially stiff in the illumination of the fiery glow, but he suddenly turned cute.
He spat on the ground and said with a smile, "Let's give them a fucking good beating!"
In that instant, four heavy machine guns started spitting out a barrage of fire at the end of the long street. The oncoming Zong Consortium troops were all caught off guard and fell to the ground like dominoes.
Someone in the past had killed more than 3,000 people in a single afternoon using two heavy machine guns rigged at an intersection. Since the development of firearms, many people had forgotten that in the history of human warfare, heavy machine guns were ranked highest among all weapons for ability to kill.
Zheng Yuandong was watching this quietly from afar. He had planned to rush to Ren Xiaosu's rescue, but he discovered that his comrades had already made it to Stronghold 146.
Looking at the way the Razor Sharp Company was providing cover and support to each other, Zheng Yuandong suddenly wished he was not a spy anymore. He wanted to return to the Qing Consortium to look for his own comrades.