141: Chapter 141 Slapping the Clown in the Face

From the very beginning, the battle was completely one-sided.

The landslide victory Long Ao had imagined did not happen.

Instead, he and his Black Dragon Legion were being dragged into an abyss of despair, bit by bit, by the opponent's absolute firepower, coordination, and strength.

The battle had no suspense from the start.

With an absolute numerical advantage, combined with Lin Feng's Red Sun Battle Soul keeping that fiercest 8-Star Gold Black Dragon firmly pinned down.

Lin Yin's deadly arrows clung to Long Ao like a shadow... the battle was fought like an adult beating a child.

It wasn't that Long Ao hadn't thought about running.

Watching his black dragons being turned into sieves by arrow rain, blasted to shreds by fireballs, and crashing from the sky with wails, he had long since lost his nerve.

Several times, he spotted an opening and urged his mount to flee, hoping to re-enter the portal and escape back to his lair.

But every time he turned, before he could even accelerate, a tricky silver arrow would whiz by his scalp with a "whoosh," startling him into ducking his head.

Or, a few arrows warping space—God knows where they came from—would seal off his intended escape route.

Lin Yin and the Void Ranger were like the most seasoned hunters, weaving an invisible web with their arrows, firmly pinning him, a bird startled by the mere twang of a bow, within this hunting ground of death.

An hour or so is neither long nor short.

But for Long Ao and his hundred black dragons, it was a hellish torment.

When the last black dragon was pierced through the heart by the phantom of Lin Feng's battle soul, falling from high altitude with a mournful cry and kicking up a cloud of dust.

The battlefield finally fell silent.

Only the sound of the wind remained, along with the dull thuds of black dragon corpses hitting the ground.

Long Ao's mount, the 8-Star Gold Black Dragon leader, had long been beaten into a ragdoll by Lin Feng and Lin Yin working together ten minutes ago.

Covered in bloody holes and scorch marks, it was thoroughly dead.

Long Ao himself had been blown off the dragon's back by the shockwave, crashing heavily into a pile of rubble dozens of meters away, his cloak in tatters.

His armor was dented, he was coughing up mouthfuls of blood, and he didn't even have the strength to stand.

He could only barely prop himself up with his arms, his gaze unfocused, but he was still stubbornly and intermittently spewing threats:

"Lin... Lin Tian... just you wait... I... I will not... let you go... the legendary... Black Dragon's... fury..."

Lin Tian picked his ear, having no interest in the wailing of such a loser.

He gestured to Lin Yin.

Lin Yin understood and drew her bow, nocking an arrow.

Moonlight condensed on the bowstring into a cold silver line, purely composed of killing intent, aimed at the wretched figure on the ground.

She released the string.

"Pfft!"

The arrow accurately embedded itself into the center of Long Ao's forehead.

However, the expected splatter of brains did not occur.

The moment the arrow hit, Long Ao's body went "bang" and exploded into a strange, grey-white mist!

The mist quickly dissipated.

There was no sign of Long Ao's corpse.

Only a tattered doll the size of a palm remained, made of rough wood, carved with crude features, yet faintly resembling Long Ao's contours, lying quietly on the ground with Lin Yin's arrow still stuck in its forehead.

"Hmm?"

Lin Tian raised an eyebrow, walked over, and picked up the doll.

It felt cold to the touch, with the texture of wood and some strange energy. He focused his mind and activated Inspect.

[Item: substitute puppet (damaged)]

[Type]: Special life-saving item (one-time use)

[Effect]: Automatically triggers when the holder suffers a fatal attack, bearing the death in the holder's stead. The puppet simulates the state and position of the holder upon death, while the true body is randomly teleported to a nearby safe location. The puppet can only simulate death and cannot transfer damage; the true body will fall into a brief state of weakness after teleportation.

[Description]: A leisure creation by a puppeteer proficient in the laws of causality and substitution. It can cheat death once, but it cannot cheat fate. Usually, it also cannot cheat... an enemy determined to kill you to the last.

"A substitute puppet?"

Lin Tian looked at the description, his mouth twitching. He was speechless, yet felt it was only natural.

"I knew it. To reach the level of a Legendary Lord and be this arrogant, it would be strange if he didn't have some life-saving trump card. So it was this thing..."

He tossed the damaged doll aside, his gaze turning cold. Run? Can he really escape?

If you don't pull out the weeds by the roots, they will grow again with the spring breeze.

Especially with a guy like Long Ao, who is vindictive and considers himself superior.

If he lets him run today, tomorrow he will dare to return with even more insidious tricks, or hide in the shadows to sabotage him.

Lin Tian had no interest in playing the game of "letting the tiger return to the mountain, only to face endless trouble."

He liked to finish things completely.

"The tides turn; this year it's my turn."

He muttered to himself, a flash of ruthlessness in his eyes.

You, Long Ao, can use an attack order token to strike me, so why can't I, Lin Tian...

...use an attack order token to strike back?

Without hesitation, he took one of the three dark red [attack order token]s from his storage space.

The token was cold and heavy in his hand, radiating an ominous bloody light.

Target locked: Long Ao!

Although he didn't know where his true body had been teleported, the mechanism of the attack order token was to lock onto the Lord's "identity" and the coordinates of their "Territory Core."

As long as Long Ao was still alive and his Territory Core still existed, it could be locked!

"Activate! Target: Long Ao's territory!"

Hum!

The token flared with intense bloody light, and a scarlet spatial portal, identical to the one Long Ao had opened earlier, burst open before Lin Tian!

A vortex swirled within the gate, emitting unstable spatial fluctuations; the other end connected to Long Ao's lair.

"Those with injuries exceeding thirty percent or excessive energy depletion, step out!"

Lin Tian turned and ordered the army behind him, which had just experienced a fierce battle but was at the peak of morale.

Soon, about five thousand soldiers who were wounded and needed rest, along with twenty thousand Archers and mages who had consumed a large amount of arrows or energy in the previous battle, stepped forward.

"You, stay behind, clean up the battlefield, guard the black dragon corpses, and then return to the city to rest and stand guard!"

Lin Tian commanded, then swept his gaze over the remaining nearly eighty thousand soldiers who were in high spirits and full of fighting intent, his voice suddenly rising, filled with unquestionable resolve:

"Everyone else, Golden Armored Spearman, Earth Spirit Guards... every single one of you!"

Pointing to the swirling scarlet portal, his voice rang across the battlefield like a drawn sword:

"Target: Long Ao's lair! Level it for me!"

"Roar!!!"

A heaven-shaking battle cry erupted like a tsunami!

The soldiers, who had been holding back their anger and had just experienced a great victory, had flames of conquest burning in their eyes.

Led by their respective commanders, they marched with firm and ferocious steps, like a flood of steel breaking through a dam, and surged into the blood-red portal!