Volume 4: Hidden Battles – Chapter 163: Banditry

Faced with such drastic changes, Count Shavi and the others were completely stunned. Such events were a severe test to their nerves. Especially when Chu Tianyu’s face appeared on the black screen, even the four African priests below were filled with shock and disbelief.
“You, you’re that shadow, the one rumored to have slaughtered Europe?” Count Shavi asked in a trembling voice.
Count Shavi’s words seemed to awaken the priest Kriegu beside him from his initial shock. His lifeless eyes fixed intently on Chu Tianyu, as his hands dropped, silently gathering holy energy and preparing to attack.
Clearly, no one could have expected such a turn of events—the person they were searching for was right in front of them, and yet he appeared so foolish and ordinary!
Thus, despite his shock, Kriegu understood the whole situation. It seemed that while they were dealing with ancient families like the Orsini, the other side had already taken action! He also felt angry—today’s events must have been a coincidence. If not for Count Shavi’s subordinate, that so-called Leip, meddling recklessly and accidentally bringing him back, how could the other side escape their secret surveillance…
At these thoughts, Kriegu felt like vomiting blood. Now it was obvious that the other side was pretending to be captured to infiltrate their ranks and catch bigger fish. Not only had his and Count Shavi’s identities been exposed, but the special abilities of the four African priests had also been rendered useless. What a terrible mistake by fate!
“Hehe, Count Shavi, does this need asking? If you don’t believe your own eyes, you should at least trust the miraculous tracking skills of these African priests you’ve painstakingly brought here, right?” Just as Kriegu was filled with regret and anxiety, Sophia proudly answered on Chu Tianyu’s behalf. She was overjoyed—this was exactly what she had wanted. Seeing Count Shavi’s face, a mix of shock, anger, and fear, made her feel relieved for herself and her father!
Only then did the African priests seem to come to their senses. They muttered a long string of words, waved their arms, and smashed the black screen in midair at Chu Tianyu. Along with a foul wind, pairs of them conjured layers of black mist from their arms and attacked Chu Tianyu without any warning or words.

The moment they moved, the well-prepared Priest Krigu also acted like lightning. His tall and lean body seemed to contain immense energy as he swiftly pulled out a short weapon filled with dazzling light from his robes and shot it at Chu Tianyu like a white laser, combining with the attacks of the others to block Chu Tianyu’s path backward.

Moreover, the entire white light column kept absorbing energy from the surrounding air, growing stronger, with its afterglow also reaching Sophia, who was talking angrily on the side.

Chu Tianyu paid no attention to Priest Krigu’s laser attack and stepped forward. The moment he broke through the large dining table, his palms emitted powerful energy, and a mass of purple light, as tangible as solid matter, charged head-on at the black light sphere without hesitation.

Upon contact, with a loud “boom,” the black light sphere vanished like vapor before the purple energy, disappearing in an instant. Chu Tianyu’s energy continued to surge forward, targeting the two African priests who had attacked first. The intense heat generated from the collision of the two energies also hit them, shocking them greatly—retreating was now impossible!

Not to mention the power of the purple energy, even the scorching heat was enough to overwhelm their fists. Their already thin and dark fists began to shrink and crack as if losinglarge amounts of moisture moisture. Almost instantly, their pale finger bones were exposed in the air.

Yet those two priests were extraordinary—they didn’t even grunt. Instead, they bit their tongues and quickly spat out pools of blood, covering their painful, retracted hands with their white bones. Then, they turned outward, twisting their bodies at an almost impossible angle to narrowly avoid Chu Tianyu’s energy blast.

The other two African priests following behind them, as if telepathically connected, immediately changed their tactics the moment their comrades were attacked. They crossed their legs, joined their hands, and somehow rose into the air, avoiding Chu Tianyu’s subsequent energy attack. At the same time, a series of chants in an African dialect began to sound.

The rings of animal bones around their necks began to emit a faint glow, accompanied by the howls of wild beasts. The two priests who had been injured earlier spat out mouthfuls of black blood as they writhed, enveloping the four of them in a blood mist from top to bottom. Clearly, they were exhausting their vital energy and strength; their dark faces turned pale, and their lips became even whiter…

Yet the price they paid was that the howls of the wild beasts in the blood mist grew sharper and louder! All of them reacted extremely quickly, so the entire process was completed in an instant as they dodged Chu Tianyu’s powerful attacks.

Instead of pursuing further, Chu Tianyu threw a punch into the air at the priest Kriegu, who had launched the laser attack. Since Kriegu saw that the laser from his staff hadn’t hit Chu Tianyu at all, he quickly adjusted his angle and focused all his attacks on Sophia, who was using her holy power to defend herself desperately.

Obviously, a priest facing such direct attacks, no matter how strong her holy power or sacred objects might be, would be at a severe disadvantage.

Thus, the purpose of Chu Tianyu’s punch was self-evident—it was a strategy of luring the enemy away from the real target. Clearly, after learning Chu Tianyu’s identity, Kriegu had maintained a distance, using the broken chair as a barrier to prevent Chu Tianyu from charging in suddenly.

But he clearly didn’t expect Chu Tianyu to be able to attack from afar. In his haste, he raised his staff, creating a halo of light in front of him that barely managed to collide with Chu Tianyu’s punch. Yet Chu Tianyu’s invisible punch seemed unaffected at all, passing through effortlessly. With a muffled “bang,” it struck Kriegu’s shoulder blade, followed by the sound of bones breaking and flesh tearing inside his body. As he spat out blood, he crashed into the wall behind him and then fell heavily to the ground, remaining motionless, his fate unknown.

After throwing his punch, Chu Tianyu didn’t bother to check the so-called result, as the sound that followed that punch was the best proof. At that moment, Chu Tianyu’s full attention was on the four priests ahead of him. The swirling blood mist around them resembled the gaping maw of a fierce beast, constantly devouring all light and organic energy in its vicinity, causing the light around them to be significantly dimmer than outside. Moreover, eerie roars could be heard, as if emitted by the souls of many creatures. The sounds were like bells, constantly striking and shaking the hearts of everyone present.

Count Shawei had remained frozen in place since the incident, not moving at all. He had only heard legends about the Shadow Men and didn’t have as deep an understanding as Priest Kriegu. Thus, he didn’t react in any way.

With the African priests and Kriegu already taking action first, he thought it would be easy to deal with them. But Chu Tianyu’s counterattacks left him even more stunned—just a few punches and slams, and he had neutralized their combined attacks, repelling the four African priests and knocking out Priest Kriegu. His strength far exceeded what Count Shawei could imagine.

So to outsiders, he seemed to do nothing other than stand there frozen. Fortunately, he stayed still; otherwise, with his own sacred power, Chu Tianyu could have dealt with him with just one punch.

But now he couldn’t stay frozen any longer—not because he realized he needed to confront Chu Tianyu, but because he was intimidated by the strange formations and spells of those African priests, along with those eerie roars. He kept retreating, showing signs of extreme pain, seemingly unable to bear those sounds.

As for the subordinates on the ground who had been subdued by Chu Tianyu from the start, although they were unable to move, they were still conscious. Hearing those sounds, they not only showed signs of pain but also began to bleed from their eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, creating a terrifying sight.

Among those not involved in the battle, Sophia was in the best condition. Though affected, she managed to withstand the interference of those sound waves thanks to the protective light generated by her sacred ring.

Chu Tianyu glanced briefly at Sofia’s situation and saw that she could still hold on, so he felt relieved. He stared straight at the mass of blood mist, listening to the fierce roars around him without being disturbed, and stepped forward one after another. If someone had observed closely, they would have noticed that each step Chu Tianyu took was exactly the same distance. Upon closer inspection, it became clear that with each step he took, the roars reached their peak intensity…

At this point, Chu Tianyu finally understood the formation created by those African priests. It was fueled by their own life force, combined with the energy of beast spirits, and enhanced through some ancient summoning technique to amplify the power of those beast spirits, creating a unique audio pattern. In China, to some extent, this could even be described as the sound of heaven and earth!

When Chu Tianyu had taken five steps forward, a ferocious wolf head suddenly emerged from the blood mist and lunged at him with a howl. For an ordinary person, even without physical contact, such a howl would be enough to terrify them beyond resistance.

But for Chu Tianyu, the only thing that could slightly affect him was the sound of heaven and earth carried by Xue Feifei, along with the energy of the Green Dragon. Moreover, considering the fusion of the Black Dragon and the Green Dragon, it was more accurate to say that their sounds resonated with each other!

So, facing the blood-red wolf head, Chu Tianyu transformed his palm wind into a fist and struck straight at the center of the wolf head. As if possessed by a spirit, the wolf head instantly turned into a puff of blood mist the moment his fist hit it. By the time it reformed, it had already bitten hard into Chu Tianyu’s hand—or rather, a wolf-shaped mass of blood mist tightly wrapped around his hand.

Chu Tianyu felt a burning sensation in his hand. He immediately channeled his vital energy throughout his fist, and as a coolness spread through it, he pushed outward forcefully. The blood mist was instantly dispersed, and the intense recoil caused pain to those African priests inside it. The swirling blood mist also began to disperse. Only after the two of them spat out more blood did it finally stabilize.

Chu Tianyu didn’t give them a chance to recover. He moved in close, changing his fist back to a palm, and struck with a gust of wind.

Seeing Chu Tianyu’s fierce attacks, the few of them hurriedly forced their Blood Mist to activate once more, transforming into a lion that collided head-on with Chu Tianyu’s powerful gusts. With a loud boom, the blood lion was shattered by Chu Tianyu’s palm wind. Chu Tianyu paused for a moment before delivering a punch in return, using a brute-force attack.

Inside the Blood Mist, the two priests controlling its movement in mid-air suffered two consecutive defeats, which made them roar in fury as they bit their tongues, spewing out blood. With their powers weakened, they threw themselves into the fight with all their might, re-forming the Blood Mist to resist Chu Tianyu’s attacks head-on.

Yet, the expected violent collision never occurred. At the moment of contact, a pitch-black sword that resembled a blazing flame suddenly appeared, passing through the Blood Mist unimpeded. At an extremely precise angle, it pierced through the heads of the two priests controlling the mist simultaneously. As the sword moved downward, the halves of their heads, still alive, separated from their bodies…

The Blood Mist also vanished the moment it touched Chu Tianyu’s energy, leaving only faint red spots in the air and drops of blood scattered around.

The two priests on the ground were already on the verge of collapsing from continuous exertion. Facing this sudden turn of events, they didn’t even have time to react before being split in two by Chu Tianyu’s Inkflame Sword. It wasn’t until the sword disappeared back into Chu Tianyu’s hand that their separated bodies slowly collapsed…

On the other side, Count Shawei, though nearly exhausted, managed to witness the entire process. His shock lingered for a long time. But just then, his vision blurred—Chu Tianyu, who had been standing about a dozen steps away, suddenly appeared silently in front of him. Instinctively, Count Shawei stepped back, his face filled with terror.

Chu Tianyu smiled at him without saying a word. After a while, he turned to Sophia, who was still stunned, and said, “Hey, Priestess, I’ve forgotten what we’re supposed to do in this third step. You’d better come over and tell your former uncle Shawei!”

It wasn’t until Chu Tianyu’s gaze left Count Shawei that he finally breathed a sigh of relief, his expression relaxing. But he knew that just in that short moment, his entire back was drenched in cold sweat.

Sofia shook her head violently, as if trying to shake off the scene she had just witnessed. It was only when she stood before Chu Tianyu and Count Shawei that she seemed to regain her senses.
“What, what did you just say?” Sofia asked, seemingly forgetting Chu Tianyu’s earlier question.
“Our third step!” Chu Tianyu repeated it simply, helplessly.
“Oh, the third step… Count Shawei, this third step is extortion! Hehe…” Finally coming around, Sofia spoke of the third step while looking at Count Shawei with a look of astonishment, finding it amusing—everything was unpredictable! The person who had just seemed so powerful, capable of giving orders and threatening others, now, upon hearing those few words from his captive, must be filled with complex emotions of regret and humiliation that words could hardly express!
At that moment, the door was suddenly forced open, and noisy footsteps echoed in. Soon, a large group of experts from the manor rushed in. Chu Tianyu and Sofia remained unmoved, staying in their original positions.
To those subordinates, although there had been a fierce battle in the hall, the manor master and those two people were still standing unharmed. Moreover, Chu Tianyu and Sofia’s appearances couldn’t possibly suggest they were murderers, let alone that their boss was now in someone else’s hands!
Following the plan they had agreed upon, Sofia smiled and bowed slightly to Count Shawei, saying, “You know he’s the Shadow, you know his strength, and you know he has the power to slaughter everyone. So, Count Shawei, for your safety and the safety of your subordinates, it now depends on how you decide to cooperate with us.”
Sofia spoke calmly and smilingly, making it impossible for outsiders to tell that she was blatantly threatening Count Shawei!
“Back off, there’s nothing here!” Count Shawei, fully aware of his situation, spoke decisively.

When only the three of them were left standing in the room, Sophia’s expression turned serious as she deliberately adopted a fierce tone and said, “Uncle Shawei, I won’t beat around the bush. First, we want you to provide evidence of all your secret dealings with the archbishop; otherwise, we’ll burn down your manor! Don’t say there’s none—if there really is no evidence, then it’s just bad luck for you, but we’ll still burn down your manor! Second, we want you to come with us. Don’t worry, it’s just a few days at my father’s place as a thank-you for your hospitality. If you refuse, we’ll still burn down your manor! Third, you must keep today’s matter a secret. If a fourth person finds out, we’ll still burn down your manor! Oh, right, there’s a fourth point—asked on his behalf…” She pointed at Chu Tianyu before continuing calmly, “He also wants all the deeds and property deeds of your manor. If you refuse, I guess the consequence will be the same—burning down your manor!”
“You guys are nothing but bandits!!!” Count Shawei couldn’t hold back and roared upon hearing the last point.