223: Chapter 223 Watching from the sidelines, a dog-eat-dog game (3)

The Black-Armored Commander pointed his bone spear toward the Pier.

The forty-one elites behind him turned in unison—the shield wall remained unchanged, but the formation made a right-angle turn.

They pivoted from the front of the narrow alley toward the gravel road—the gravel road was less than two feet wide.

The forty elites formed a single file to turn onto the gravel road—the length of the formation stretched from over a dozen zhang in the open space to nearly fifty zhang.

They squeezed in one by one.

Shorty, behind the Private Soldiers' shield wall, saw the Haiyuan Clan turn—he peeked his head over the edge of the stone wall to take a look.

The direction of the gravel road—it led to the back of the open space.

Behind the open space—the back door of the Lords Mansion.

"They're taking a detour—circling around the outside—it leads to the back door of the Lords Mansion."

Scarface sheathed his short blade.

He slapped a hand over the wound on his left shoulder—pressing his palm against the wound for about two breaths.

When he let go, his palm was stained with semi-dried blood—the blood was so dark it was nearly brown.

He stood up and walked into the depths of the narrow alley behind the shield wall—walking about ten steps.

At the tenth step—there was an extremely old wooden door on the side wall of the narrow alley.

The wooden door was the back door of an old warehouse—it hadn't been used for a long time, and the rust on the door latch had accumulated for at least a year.

He pushed the rusty latch outward—it was rusted shut.

He rammed it with his shoulder—the latch, along with the rust and iron nails, was knocked loose from the doorframe.

The wooden door opened inward—behind the door was a new route.

Cutting through the old warehouse—moving diagonally toward the Lords Mansion—it was nearly half the distance of the Haiyuan Clan's route along the gravel road.

"Move. Go through the warehouse—we'll arrive before them."

The six Private Soldiers—including Scarface and Shorty—left their shields in the narrow alley, taking only their short blades, and squeezed through the old warehouse's wooden door.

The Haiyuan Clan circled via the gravel road—they cut through the warehouse.

On the second floor of the Lords Mansion.

Leng Feng watched the parallel progress of these two routes clearly through the observation lens.

"Scarface is cutting through the warehouse—the Haiyuan Clan is circling via the gravel road. They will arrive at the back door of the Lords Mansion at the same time."

"The intersection—the open space behind the shield wall at the exit of the narrow alley. It's closer than before—less than thirty zhang."

Lu Changyuan did not have an observation lens.

He pushed the window shutter open by a palm's width—the projections of the two routes on the ground happened to fall within his line of sight.

The gravel road—near the outer edge of the stone house, there was a thin layer of accumulated seawater on the ground—the Haiyuan Clan's claws stepped onto it—their bony claw tips crushed the water surface, emitting dull, fragmented, short sounds, without even splashing the accumulated water.

The warehouse—less than a hundred zhang from the Lords Mansion.

A muffled impact came from the direction of the wooden door—the latch broke.

Extremely fast running sounds came from the warehouse—feet stepping on pine boards, the accumulated dust in the gaps between the boards was shaken down in layers.

"They've reached the door."

Leng Feng moved his hand away from the observation lens—turning toward the row of Killing Array control circuits on the wall beside the chart table.

The first slot of the control circuits—the isolation light screen in the direction of the outer narrow alley—had been preheating for nearly the time it takes to burn an incense stick.

The spiritual light on the light screen's circuit was extremely dim—so dim that the naked eye could only see extremely thin silver-gray lines—the lines were running through the backup water spiritual power conduits.

"Isolation light screen—activate?"

"Activate. Seal off the entire open space behind the warehouse back door—let them fight there."

"Shrink the light screen inward—leave them exactly thirty zhang of space."

"Thirty zhang—no cover, no retreat. Whoever wins comes out."

Leng Feng pressed the first slot of the control circuit down.

The isolation light screen rose silently from the array base outside the stone house—the light screen itself had no color, only refracting light.

From the outside—the stone house and the open space behind the light screen still looked normal.

But the light screen blocked physical access in one direction—nothing could get in or out.

The position where the light screen rose folded inward along the outer edge of the stone house—landing about thirty zhang outside the warehouse back door.

Thirty zhang—enough space to fight inside, but unable to get out.

Just as the light screen was halfway up—Scarface burst out of the warehouse back door.

Shorty followed behind him—the remaining four Private Soldiers filed out of the warehouse door.

The six-man formation was gone—after rushing out together, they each took their positions.

Scarface was at the very front—switching his poisoned short blade from his left hand to his right.

Gripping the blade with his right hand—the cut on his wrist was no longer bleeding; a film of blood had covered the gap of the wound—temporarily sealing it.

From the direction of the gravel road—the Black-Armored Commander was the first to step out from the corner of the gravel road.

He extended his bone spear out from the narrow opening of the gravel road—the spear tip poked out of the gravel road first—followed by the body of the Black-Armored Commander.

The elite formation behind him hadn't fully turned off the gravel road yet—the first to emerge were a few bone shield bearers, followed by the False Core Vice-Commander.

The moment they emerged—they saw the warehouse back door—Scarface and the others were standing right outside.

Less than thirty zhang.

The Black-Armored Commander held his bone spear horizontally—and said something in the common language of Zhenhai Fortress that Scarface could understand.

The voice was pushed out from his throat—the pronunciation of the Chinese characters was extremely inaccurate—the articulation was very heavy, and every word was off-key.

"You cannot escape—here—all sides are sealed."

Scarface tapped the flat of his poisoned short blade against his left palm.

"You are blocking my front—you cannot get out either."

The Black-Armored Commander did not say anything more.

He pointed his bone spear straight ahead—one-handed.

Unlike the starting stance for a thrust—this was a gesture for an all-out attack.

The Haiyuan Clan surged out of the gravel road—flooding into the open space.

The shield formation had lost its structure—the gravel road was too narrow, and after squeezing through, each of them was repositioning.

The six Private Soldiers were scattered outside the warehouse door—no shield wall, no long spears, only short blades and the poisoned Magical Artifacts on their bodies.

Both groups struck simultaneously on the thirty-zhang open space.

The Black-Armored Commander's spear tip was aimed at Scarface's chest.

Scarface's blade tip was aimed at the Black-Armored Commander's knee.

Shorty threw his last flashbang into the rear ranks of the Haiyuan Clan.

The flashbang exploded in the air—spiritual power was stirred and scattered—the signals on the detection bone plates were temporarily disabled for a few breaths.

Four Private Soldiers cut in from the flanks simultaneously—the point of entry was where the Haiyuan Clan had just emerged from the gravel road and were scattered—taking advantage of the few breaths while the detection bone plates were disabled, they latched onto two Haiyuan Clan warriors who hadn't yet managed to form a formation.

The short blades entered through the joints of the carapace—striking at the knees and armpits—taking down two within two breaths.

But as soon as the flashbang went out—the Haiyuan Clan's detection bone plates recovered.

The False Core Vice-Commander thrust his bone spear toward Shorty—the spear tip pierced through Shorty's right thigh.

The spear tip entered from the outside of the thigh—and pierced out from the inside—the pierced wound brought out nearly two fingers' width of muscle fiber the moment the spear was pulled out.

Shorty's right leg was useless on the spot—his body tipped forward to the right—he used his left-hand short blade to jab into the ground to steady himself as he fell—but his body could no longer stand up.

Scarface saw Shorty fall—he didn't look back—his blade was currently being pulled out from the joint in the bone armor on the side of the Black-Armored Commander's knee.

The Black-Armored Commander's knee was injured—the right leg below the knee joint was out of control—the Black-Armored Commander used his bone spear to steady himself on the ground to avoid falling—Scarface glanced toward Shorty.

Shorty, on the ground, threw his short blade toward the Haiyuan Clan warrior at the Black-Armored Commander's feet—he missed—the short blade flew less than half a zhang before falling to the ground.

Shorty lay on his back on the muddy ground—his eyes open—muttering something. It couldn't be heard.

Scarface flicked the extracted blade to the side—shaking off the gray-blue body fluid on the back of the blade—then stepped over Shorty's body and retreated.

There were three Private Soldiers left behind him who could still fight. The three Private Soldiers—each side was being pressed by more Haiyuan Clan members simultaneously.

The Black-Armored Commander knelt on one knee—holding the bone spear horizontally in front of him—and issued a final round of full-scale suppression toward the Private Soldiers.

The False Core Vice-Commander pushed forward from the front—with twelve Haiyuan Clan members behind him, crushing forward in a line.

On the second floor of the Lords Mansion, in the Chart Room.

Leng Feng saw clearly through the observation lens the position where Shorty fell, as well as the position of the Black-Armored Commander's knee.

He put down the observation lens—and aligned the floor plan of the isolation zone with the markings of the open space behind the warehouse back door.

"There is one Private Soldier left." He corrected himself, "Two—but there are three standing. The Black-Armored Commander's knee is poisoned—he only has one leg left. The False Core Vice-Commander has pushed up."