Chapter 157

“An enemy cultivator appeared. Shouldn’t we help?”

“I said this one last time: follow my commands.”

“Are we supposed to watch our soldiers get slaughtered?”

The armor-clad cultivator pointed downward. “That’s just a third-level cultivator. I could slay him in one move! What’s there to fear?”

Han Wang ignored this childish taunt.

He spoke calmly, “Your attempts to anger me only show your stupidity. The squad leader explained the dangers of ‘human thunder’ and ‘serpent crossbow’ yesterday.”

“If you question my authority, complain to the squad leader after battle. But here, now, I command you – return to base and stay out of this mission.”

“You!”

The cultivator flushed crimson. After shooting Han Wang a furious glare, he stormed away.

The remaining cultivator opened his mouth to speak, but closed it upon seeing Han Wang’s stormy expression.

Just as peace seemed restored, the angry cultivator unexpectedly circled back and charged into battle from another direction.

“Fool!”

Han Wang cursed and leaped from the high ground to assist.

His swift response proved too slow against the Eastern Wilderness serpent crossbows.

Snake-like bolts sliced through the night air – thin shadows barely visible from the enemy’s rear.

Han Wang spotted the bolts’ path and dodged effortlessly.

The reckless cultivator lacked such skill. After evading two bolts, he summoned a firewall against the rest.

Sizzle…

Most bolts burned in the flames, but three pierced through.

Properly worn armor might have saved him. But his hastily donned gear left shoulders and sides exposed.

Thunk.

A barbed bolt sank into his shoulder. Han Wang’s stomach dropped.

The cultivator hissed at the burning pain, using spiritual power to eject black blood from the wound.

“Pathetic! What was everyone scared of?” he spat.

He surged forward, scattering Fire techniques that incinerated dozens of enemy troops. Locking onto the third-level cultivator with divine awareness, he prepared to strike –

“Huh?!”

“My spiritual power – why won’t it respond?!”

He froze in horror as his inner energy suddenly failed.

Three death warriors hidden among the enemy forces seized the moment and lunged at him.

“A mere mortal thinks he can hurt me? Dream on!”

As a mid-stage cultivator at the fifth level of Gathering Qi, his spiritually refined body strength allowed him to kill all three with just a few punches.

He kicked off the ground to distance himself from the corpses, trying to evade the human thunder’s blast.

But then horror flashed in his eyes.

The three supposedly dead corpses suddenly sprang up and leaped at him.

He bolted, but his body seemed to magnetically draw the corpses. No matter how he dodged, they clung relentlessly.

Another volley of bolts flew. With his spiritual power blocked, multiple bolts struck him.

The toxin spread rapidly through his veins. Without spiritual power to resist, his nerves soon paralyzed.

Thud.

The cultivator stiffened and collapsed as the corpses piled onto him.

Boom!

A thunderous blast tore through him before he could scream, shredding his body into fragments.

Han Wang abandoned the man after the first bolt hit, retreating into the forest.

“Position compromised. Move!”

He signaled the remaining cultivator.

The man followed hastily, voice trembling.

“Our companion… dead?”

“Gone.”

“But their cultivator…”

He glanced across the battlefield, spotting the once-ferocious third-level cultivator now naked and writhing in the dirt.

“Burning!! Can’t… breathe!!”

The man screeched, clawing at his own flesh despite already being skinless.

Within moments, his steaming blood hissed against the earth like boiling water.

Poof!

The cultivator erupted into a blazing fireball, briefly illuminating the night sky before crumbling to ash.

The surviving cultivator gaped soundlessly at the scorched remains.

“Heartfire Technique—Tiger-Chasing’s secret method,” Han Wang stated. “The East Wilderness Dynasty’s scale dwarfs ours. Even a dying giant retains strength. Though fractured, their cultivators still outnumber us. Without such methods, how could we endure?”

Every Tiger-Chasing soldier’s life-force fuels the technique. Each common soldier slain by an Eastern Wilderness Gathering Qi cultivator adds heartfire embers within them. Accumulate enough, and…” He gestured at the ashes.

Compared to the Eastern Wilderness sect-guided arsenal against cultivators, Tiger-Chasing wields only two tools: the passive Heartfire Technique and Tiger Cannon. Yet these suffice to stall both Eastern Wilderness and their sects, still unbroken after all this time.

Heartfire compels Eastern Wilderness cultivators to count each kill, retreating often to purge accumulated flames. The Tiger Cannon’s late-stage cultivator-slaying force compounds their dread.

“Here.”

Han Wang crouched near the battlefield’s edge. “His death wasn’t wasted. With the serpent crossbow located, the squad leader and Yingxuan advance. We’ll bait another volley for their strike.”

Grabbing the cultivator’s shoulder, Han Wang slashed his hand sideways. “Sprint full-speed along this path. Hesitate, and you die.”

“Understood!”

The man nodded urgently, previous doubts erased by his comrade’s fate.

When the battle peaked below, Han Wang barked:

“Now!”

Swish—

The cultivator blurred across the battlefield at maximum speed, spiritual power surging. Han Wang followed, cutting down a dozen enemies.

“Ignore the runner! Strike the ones below!”

At the Eastern Wilderness command post, the overseeing cultivator spotted the decoy sprint and shouted:

“Aim for the leader! Target Han Wang!”