41: Chapter 41 Turning the Enemy to a Surrender

For Scorpion, this was an unprecedented experience.

It wasn't fear, but rather an absurdity and confusion stemming from a collapsing worldview.

He had seen the awe-inspiring sword formations of righteous cultivators, experienced the vicious curses of his fellow demonic sect members, and even smelled the purest scent of death in countless bloody battles of dog-eat-dog.

But the scene before him overturned everything he knew about the word 'battle'.

These people's eyes, something was wrong with them.

It wasn't killing intent, at least not purely.

It was a light mixed with greed, excitement, and... a playful mockery, as if watching a monkey show.

As if he weren't an eighth-layer Qi Condensation cultivator, but a mobile treasure vault with 'Rare Drops' written on it.

"For the Horde!" a guy as thin as a bamboo pole roared a slogan he couldn't understand at all, then pulled a handful of sand from his chest and threw it straight at his face.

"Damn it!" Scorpion was incensed, his spiritual power vibrating out from within his body to form an invisible air shield, isolating the sand and soil outside.

But in that moment of distraction, a flash of blade light had already torn through the air, carrying a fierce wind as it slashed toward his face.

The blade of Charge to the End was heavy and powerful, with no technique to speak of, yet it was shockingly fast.

Scorpion snorted coldly; after all, he was a battle-hardened cultivator who remained calm in the face of danger.

He retreated rapidly, and the black light at his waist shot out again, arriving first despite being launched later, aiming straight for the wrist that Charge to the End was using to hold the blade.

It was the highly poisonous Scorpion tail needle!

However, the frantic blocking he had expected from the opponent did not occur.

The fanaticism in Charge to the End's eyes intensified; he didn't dodge or evade, as if that wrist didn't belong to him. His blade momentum was unstoppable, as if he meant to trade injury for injury, life for life!

Madman!

Scorpion cursed in his heart; he didn't want to trade lives with a madman.

He flicked his finger, and the Scorpion tail needle traced a strange arc in the air, circling toward Charge to the End's neck.

Just then, a huge shadow loomed over him.

"Bang!!!"

Amidst the dull, hammer-like impact sound, Scorpion felt as if he had collided with an iron-armored rhinoceros charging at full speed.

That huge door-like shield, appearing from nowhere, carried immense force and slammed fiercely into his protective spiritual energy.

The spiritual light flickered violently, nearly dissipating.

Scorpion was sent flying backward by this unreasonable, brute force; his throat turned sweet, and a mouthful of blood nearly sprayed out.

He stabilized his body in mid-air in a sorry state and looked closely. The burly man with the ID "Shield Mountain" stood like an iron tower in front of Charge to the End, the ripples of spiritual energy on the door-shield in his hand not yet dissipated.

"Reckless guy, I told you to wait for my signal." Shield Mountain's voice was steady, carrying a hint of reproach.

"Heh, not waiting anymore, just slash first!" Charge to the End grinned, his muscles knotted on the arm carrying the [fine steel broadsword].

Scorpion's face darkened completely.

A madman-like brute, and an absurdly tanky shield guard.

That wasn't all.

As soon as his feet touched the ground, dozens of cold-gleaming iron caltrops rolled out from nowhere, covering all the positions where he could land.

On the rooftops on both sides of the street, a few players poked their heads out, holding simple slingshots, aiming at him with bags of... lime powder that emitted a pungent odor.

Keyboard Warrior Governing the Nation stood outside the combat circle, waving a fan like a military strategist pointing out the landscape, a wicked smile on his lips: "Helm Master Scorpion, don't be in such a hurry to leave. You've only experienced the first layer of our Lu Family Army's hospitality."

"Lu Family Army..." Scorpion gritted his teeth; he finally understood the origin of this group of madmen.

It was that "mad demon" force that had recently risen to fame and annexed the Qingxi Chen Family!

Rumor had it they were fearless of death and acted without any rules. Seeing them today, it was more than just acting without rules; they were simply a bunch of hoodlums!

"Where is the Black Spider Hall!" Scorpion let out a roar that rolled through the entire Black Stone Market City, "Take down these thieves for me, kill without mercy!"

At the end of the street, a dozen or so guards wearing Black Spider Hall attire arrived upon hearing the sound.

They were Scorpion's confidants and also the force maintaining order in the market city.

However, when they saw the scene before them, everyone subconsciously stopped in their tracks.

Their Helm Master, a great cultivator at the eighth layer of Qi Condensation, was being besieged by a group of "wild cultivators" with uneven cultivation levels, using lime, sand, caltrops, and traps, leaving him flustered and in a sorry state.

And those wild cultivators were shouting slogans of unclear meaning like "Farm the BOSS, drop loot" and "For the ancestor's golden coffin".

What chilled them even more were the merchants and passersby in the market city who usually dared to be angry but dared not speak.

At this moment, although they didn't dare to get close, they were all watching from afar. In their eyes, there was not only no worry about the Helm Master's safety, but instead... a sense of gloating joy.

"Have you heard? That rumor about Scorpion occupying the previous Helm Master's dao companion..."

"Shh! Keep it down! But seeing him like this now, it's truly retribution..."

"These Lu Family Army folks, although crazy, seem to... only target people from the Black Spider Hall?"

The whispering voices, like the most vicious curses, drilled into the ears of every Black Spider Hall guard.

Their hands gripping their weapons loosened unconsciously.

To fight to the death against a group of life-despising madmen for such a disreputable, harsh, and ungrateful superior?

It wasn't worth it.

Scorpion saw the hesitation of his subordinates and was so angry that his three corpse gods jumped: "Trash! A bunch of trash! What use are you to me!"

Keyboard Warrior Governing the Nation laughed: "Helm Master Scorpion, see that? This is called being isolated and without help. By the way, let me tell you, that 'Secret History of the Demon Venerable' the storyteller told earlier was just version 1.0. We have also prepared 'The Black Spider Hall Master and His Puppet Helm Master', 'The Blood and Tears Accusation of the Head Courtesan of Chunfeng Tower'... the material all comes from you."

"You... are courting death!"

Scorpion went completely insane. He no longer counted on anyone, and the spiritual power within his body erupted without reservation.

A cold, foul-smelling black aura permeated from his body, and a jet-black short blade appeared out of thin air in his hand.

"Demonic Scorpion's Three Stabs!"

His figure turned into a blurry black shadow, instantly breaking through Shield Mountain's blockade. The short blade traced three strange trajectories in the air, stabbing separately at Charge to the End, Shield Mountain, and another player throwing lime powder in the back.

This strike was fast, accurate, and ruthless, and it contained highly toxic poison. It was his trump card move.

Charge to the End roared, advancing instead of retreating, sweeping his broadsword in an attempt to counterattack.

Shield Mountain let out a muffled grunt, slamming the door-shield into the ground to protect himself and the teammates behind him, preparing to take the hit head-on.

But Scorpion's target from the beginning was not these two tough nuts.

His real target was that most fragile "ranged DPS"!

The black shadow flickered, and Scorpion's figure appeared ghost-like in front of that player, the short blade stabbing out like a viper.

"Puchi!"

Blood splattered.

The player didn't even have time to let out a scream before his chest was pierced. The wound turned black and rotted rapidly, and the whole person turned into a white light and dissipated on the spot.

Having succeeded with one strike, Scorpion felt slightly relieved.

He thought this bloody scene would at least deter this bunch of madmen.

But he was wrong.

"Damn! A-Wei is dead!"

"Damn it, you dare to steal my kill!"

"Brothers, don't let him catch his breath! He used his ultimate, it must have a cooldown!"

"DPS keep up! Where's the healer? Oh, we don't have a healer... That's fine then, Tank push forward, if you die, just come back in eighteen hours!"

The death of their companion did not bring fear, but even more fanatical attacks.

In the shadows of the street corner, Gossip Reporter Little Trumpet clearly recorded these scenes using a magical artifact.

She didn't participate in the battle, but her heart was beating faster than anyone else's.

She saw Scorpion's brutality, and even more, she saw the terrifying unity unique to the "fourth calamity," where the players treated death as a common occurrence.

She remembered Chen Kang's worried "Be careful."

So, in the eyes of NPCs, they were so unreasonable, so... terrifying.

She took a deep breath, opened the private chat channel with Chen Kang, and sent only one sentence: "Your former boss doesn't seem like he can hold on much longer. Our boss said, the Lu Family Army always welcomes capable friends."

After sending the message, she looked up; the battle had entered a white-hot stage.

Although Scorpion was strong, his spiritual power would eventually run out.

Every time he used a lethal move, he could take away one or two players, but those vacancies would immediately be filled by new players shouting "Let me come and loot the body".

His Scorpion tail needle pierced Charge to the End's shoulder, and the toxin invaded, but it only resulted in the opponent's even more violent slashing.

His short blade left deep scratches on Shield Mountain's door-shield, but it could never break through that desperate defense.

And those endless, low-class tactics were consuming his energy and spirit bit by bit.

He had been blinded by lime, poked in the butt by a bamboo pole coated with golden juice, and even a life-skill female player threw a pot of piping hot, "spiced-up" spicy hot pot from afar, scorching his protective spiritual energy until it hissed.

"You... bunch of... evil heretics!" Scorpion panted like an ox, his spiritual power nearly exhausted.

Keyboard Warrior Governing the Nation said leisurely from afar: "Likewise."

Finally, Scorpion revealed a fatal flaw.

"Now!" Shield Mountain roared, his door-shield flying out of his hand like a spinning millstone, slamming hard into Scorpion's side face.

Scorpion subconsciously raised his blade to block.

On the other side, Charge to the End seized this one-in-ten-thousandth of a second opportunity. Ignoring the rotting wound on his shoulder, he poured all his strength into the [fine steel broadsword] in his hand.

"Die for me!"

The blade light flashed and passed.

In Scorpion's eyes, there still remained disbelief, shock, and anger.

His head soared into the sky, and blood gushed from his neck like a fountain.

The headless corpse crashed to the ground.

The entire street was silent for a moment.

The next second, a tsunami-like roar of cheers erupted.

"Dropped! Dropped! Purple item dropped!"

"Damn! It's Scorpion's Scorpion tail needle! Damn it, who's so fast!"

"Don't grab it! Roll! Roll to decide ownership! Manners, mind your manners!"

A crowd instantly swarmed up, submerging Scorpion's corpse; the scene was comparable to a large-scale unboxing event.

Charge to the End panted heavily, sat down on the ground, and looking at the -1 poison damage constantly popping up on his shoulder, grinned and said: "Satisfying!"

Keyboard Warrior Governing the Nation walked over, waving his fan, and kicked a storage bag that Scorpion had dropped on the ground, a glint flashing in his eyes.

He didn't go to fight that bunch of brutes for equipment, but picked up this seemingly inconspicuous storage bag.

Probing with his divine sense, a more playful smile appeared on his face.

Inside the storage bag, besides a pitifully small amount of spirit stones, there were a few jade slips.

One of them surprisingly recorded the internal resource allocation accounts of the Black Spider Hall.

It clearly stated that 95% of the monthly revenue of Black Stone Market City had to be turned over to the sect, while the cultivation resources issued by the sect were deducted until less than 30% remained.

At the end of the accounts, there was a line of small characters written in blood:

"Old Demon Night Radiance, you bully people too much! If I don't avenge this, I swear I am not human!"