Chapter 1009: Breaking the Situation and Retreating Unharmed
Smoke bombs are a relatively low-tier item in the martial arts world, available for sale in many places. They were quite popular among players at the beginning of the game, usually used to attack other players or to escape—affordable and practical tools.
Since smoke bombs lack offensive capabilities and merely create localized smoke to obscure vision, the people of Yipin Tang were utterly helpless facing the sudden onslaught of countless smoke bombs! They could only watch as clouds of smoke rapidly spread across the lawless area, blurring their vision, with no way to counter it.
Although the smoke bombs were fired from the streets, such behavior remained within the tolerance of Longmen Town and the many skilled individuals maintaining order there.
A thick layer of smoke covered the entire Life and Death Platform and the lawless area, instantly rendering the Flying Death Formation ineffective—without a target to aim at, even the most skilled members of the Assassins’ Hall couldn’t risk testing their chances of winning the five million prize with so many of their own people around.
Huang Sha was the first to react.
“Disperse the smoke! Quick!!”
Huang Sha was panicked!
Seeing this, he understood what Kai Xin planned—taking advantage of the unique environment and visual obstacles in Guiwei to launch a pursuit over ten miles, resulting in the complete destruction of the Blood Alliance’s forces.
Kai Xin was alone, acting without restraint, while their numerical advantage became their greatest weakness due to limited visibility.
In short, they must not give Kai Xin the chance to wreak havoc!
Unfortunately…
The smoke bombs shooting in from the periphery of the crowd were not just a few.
Smoke filled the entire lawless area.
Even if dozens of skilled individuals used their palm winds to disperse the smoke, the airflow circulated everywhere, and the situation didn’t improve immediately.
Worse still, terrifying sounds of something tearing through the air began to emerge from the crowd! The noises of flesh colliding with heavy objects and tragic screams!
“Hall Master!”
“The smoke won’t disperse!”
“Someone’s causing trouble outside!” Amid the smoke, many were filled with panic and anger.
The sound of smoke bombs exploding around them and above their heads kept coming.
Just as their vision cleared slightly, it was immediately obscured by new smoke, causing great frustration.
Throughout this time, those terrifying sounds and screams continued unabated.
Huang Sha could sense that Happy was approaching rapidly. At least seven or eight people around him had fallen. The sound of the wind generated as their bodies tore through the air, creating smoke vortices, was very clear. Happy moved at great speed with a steady rhythm, showing no signs of being severely injured—instead, it seemed like a release of pent-up energy after intense suppression! He rushed forward with unstoppable force to a nearby area.
He used the wind to determine direction. Over five years, Huang Sha had already developed this ability. But in such a complex situation, with countless deadly weapons swirling above and everyone around him being his own people, it was the first time he had to deal with a powerful enemy.
His face turned pale. For the first time, Huang Sha felt fear and unease at not having everything under control. Listening to the continuous sounds of wind and screams around him, he quickly retreated through the smoke.
At this moment, Huang Sha didn’t even dare to give orders to the people around him. His earlier words had already allowed Happy to pinpoint his location. He was afraid that speaking would instantly reveal his position to Happy.
Yet…
Huang Sha’s decision was clearly not very rational. The sudden chaos meant that not only had the members of the Assassin Hall lost control of the situation, but even the experts from the First Rank Hall and the Blood Alliance were at a loss. Without visibility, everyone was restricted and unable to act freely. The unknown situation and the continuous screams of their comrades only amplified everyone’s fear of Happy.
Retreat!! Getting farther from the screams became everyone’s only thought.
Meanwhile, the group outside responsible for controlling the situation was extremely frustrated and helpless!
The people in silver robes were quite skilled, but they didn’t dare to act rashly around the people inside Longmen Town’s protective area…
They could only watch as smoke bombs were fired from inside, creating clouds of smoke. Apart from shooting angry glances, they couldn’t do anything.
The members of the Assassin Hall were the most frustrated! As Huang Sha and his group of top-tier experts dodged around, they immediately became the most obvious targets in the smoke!
Those highly skilled experts might have been able to hold their ground against Happy for a few moves, but these assassins moving in the darkness couldn’t even parry a single strike from the Dark Iron Great Sword. They were crushed, spitting blood, or even killed on the spot!
Amid the chaos…
The screams grew more frequent and intense!
“Retreat!”
“All Assassin Hall disciples, withdraw immediately.”
The leader of the Assassins’ Guild roared through the smoke—although the deal with Huangsha hadn’t been like this, in less than half a minute he had heard at least twenty of his brothers’ familiar screams. That damned First-Class Guild had no plan to deal with this situation at all; he couldn’t just sit idly by as his brothers sacrificed themselves one after another.
As soon as he finished speaking, the air moved. A gust of wind drove the smoke straight toward him. The leader of the Assassins’ Guild was quick to react, realizing he might be targeted by Happy. Alarmed, he quickly activated his protective barrier and darted to the left, avoiding the scorching sword beam that passed by his face. Such agility was already quite impressive among top-tier experts!
Unfortunately… he wasn’t facing an enemy of that caliber.
“Come back here!”
Though the sword strike missed, Happy used the flow of air and the sound of the wind to quickly track the opponent’s movement. With his Footsteps on Water technique and Single-Hand Dragon Seizing move, he immediately pulled the opponent into his grasp with an irresistible force.
“Ugh!”
The poor leader of the Assassins’ Guild felt a powerful force take control of him. His body stiffened, then his internal organs were violently struck by a fierce force, sending a mouthful of bloody saliva to his throat. Before he could do anything further, an astonishing sword strike weighed down on him like a mountain. Everything went dark before his eyes, and intense pain erased all his consciousness.
…
Although the leader of the Assassins’ Guild perished due to an order, the guild avoided total destruction. Out of two hundred people, more than one hundred sixty managed to escape from the smoke-shrouded no-man’s-land.
But Huangsha and the others weren’t so lucky…
More than forty renowned warriors, ranked between top-tier and super-top experts, were killed or injured. The Blood Alliance lost seven members, the First-Class Guild lost thirteen, the Tianyin Sect lost three, and five experts from no faction were killed.
As Huangsha and the others withdrew from the smoke-covered area, the number of people throwing smoke bombs gradually decreased. But Happy never came out.
Whoosh!
A fierce wind blew! Most of the smoke was swept away by the wind. The no-man’s-land, once hidden by smoke, gradually became clearer, and the Life-and-Death Platform emerged faintly. At that moment, everyone held their breath!
It wasn’t until the wind blew away all the smoke from the no-man’s-land, revealing everything clearly, that the crowd let out bursts of long-suppressed screams.
All around the Life-and-Death Platform lay corpses… over seventy of them!
Although the number wasn’t spectacular, those who witnessed this scene had mixed feelings. The ones happy about this ambush weren’t ordinary martial artists, nor were they mere disciples from the Yipin Hall branches. Whether from the Tianyin Sect, the Assassin Hall, the Blood Alliance, or Yipin Hall, almost everyone who could make it here was somewhat famous in the martial world! Especially the dozens of experts who joined Huangsha in surrounding Happy—each of them was a powerhouse whose mere presence could make the Central Plains tremble with force. But now… The bodies of those dozens of well-known experts lay cold. The once-mighty Feitian Duoming Formation had disappeared, with only a few broken Feitian Duoming halberds lying on the ground. “Where did he go?!” The Yipin Hall disciples surrounding them scanned the area wide-eyed but found no trace of Happy, leading to murmurs among them. “Did this guy escape?” “He killed so many of us with tricks and just vanished without a word!” The lost momentum seemed to return to many Yipin Hall disciples, who began to ask, “Which direction did he run?” “How could so many of you fail to stop him?!” Amidst the furious discussions and condemnations, only Huangsha and the elders of the Blood Alliance looked grim, staring at the empty wasteland in silence. They knew exactly why Happy had left! Dozens of top experts had been killed in the chaos, and over thirty Assassin Hall disciples had also perished! With only the Assassin Hall members and the remaining dozen or so experts left, they no longer posed a threat to Happy—they no longer even had the courage to face him. Happy must have guessed Yipin Hall’s next move, so he left Longmen Town without hesitation amidst the chaos… “Send a messenger to the hall master immediately. Tell her our mission has failed…” After a pause, Huangsha glanced grimly into the crowd: “Someone is helping Happy, but it’s not from the Xifeng Tower. Happy must be heading north, to the capital. Inform the hall master to prepare in advance.” “…Understood.” The Yipin Hall disciple who replied looked utterly dejected and resentful. … After all, Longmen Town was a hub for intelligence in the Central Plains martial world, the fastest place for spreading news. The news that Happy had confronted Yipin Hall head-on, broken through their network, killed dozens of prominent experts, and escaped unscathed spread throughout the Central Plains in no time. The martial world was once again thrown into turmoil!
Rumors began to circulate in the underworld, claiming that Happy’s ultimate destination was the capital city, the headquarters of Yipin Tang… Happy planned to use the negative impact caused by Yipin Tang’s collusion with the Wild Wolves organization to destroy Yipin Tang outright, eliminating the second-largest force in the Central Plains that had been established there for five years and held dominance for the same duration!