Chapter 169 - Daybreak

Chapter 169 Daybreak

…

The blade chopped downward.

As Nanye Xiu roared, large flashes of lightning flashed across his body.

Li Tianlan’s body swayed slightly in midair, and then he succeeded in swapping positions with the third shadow ten meters away.

His long sword failed to strike Nanye Xiu, but the illusory sword light with a blurred color in the sky already plummeted toward Nanye Xiu.

Sword light mingled with lightning.

Nanye Xiu’s relatively short but very strong body gave a violent shudder.

There was a sudden explosion in the air, and a visible wave of air surged around Nanye Xiu. His body did not fall to the ground, but there was a deep pit at his feet, nearly twenty meters wide.

Large clouds of dust rose.

Only the lightning in the sky was still shining.

Right now!

Blood was gushing from the corners of Li Tianlan’s mouth, but his eyes lit up.

Right now!

Almost at the same time, in the grass less than 300 meters behind Li Tianlan, Heavenly Calamity’s eyes flickered as he fiddled with his red scarf.

At this moment, Li Tianlan had used all the shadows, and this was the best chance.

His hands fell directly on the sniper rifle named Grim Smile in front of him.

The sniper rifle was loaded.

And he took aim!

Meanwhile, Li Tianlan also unloaded the Skyattack from his back.

It was raining hard and blowing fiercely.

He stood still and aimed his gun directly at Nanye Xiu in the dust.

He took a step forward and slightly raised the muzzle.

He was going to shoot in a standing position!

The dust dispersed.

At a distance of tens and hundreds of meters respectively, Li Tianlan and Heavenly Calamity pulled the corners of their mouths slightly at the same time.

They pulled the triggers.

“Bang!”

Two muffled, growling gunshots rang out almost simultaneously. The voices mixed and almost completely merged!

Li Tianlan aimed his gun at Nanye Xiu.

Heavenly Calamity, however, aimed his gun at Li Tianlan.

The dull sounds echoed in the mountain forest for thousands of meters. A long, narrow bullet with weird lines on it went straight out through the muzzle of the Skyattack. A flame nearly half a meter long shot from the muzzle. The bullet, however, was already hurling itself at Nanye Xiu amid the loud whistling.

At that moment, all the air in front of Li Tianlan seemed to become a sheet of tangible, material paper or canvas. The bullet went through the air, condensing, twisting, compressing all the air around it. Then, a huge vortex nearly three meters in diameter suddenly took shape in front of him.

Li Tianlan’s body staggered backwards from the tremendous recoil of the gun. Falling into a state of weakness, he managed to fire a shot, but his retreating body was pulled by the vortex in front of him. Since he had been seriously injured, he spat out a mouthful of blood directly and didn’t even have the strength to move.

A sense of deadly danger came clear from behind. Almost in an instant, it was close to his back, the middle of his back.

It seemed to be a wave of fire. With a sharp bullet, it pierced the night, the wind and rain, and easily tore the boundary between life and death. The Grim Smile, like Death, went right to his heart.

Death was close at hand.

Li Tianlan looked calm and did not even look back.

All his strength had been consumed. There was nothing he could do about the approaching death behind him.

His eyes were as calm as still water. There were only attachment and the reluctance to part in them instead of unwillingness and bitterness.

Death seemed to drag time on.

Everything in Li Tianlan’s life flashed through his mind. Only then did he suddenly realize that he had nothing to recall in his life. In addition to the desperate training, he was left with the guilt about the Li family’s cemetery, and, the reluctance to be parted from Qin Weibai.

The perfect face came to his mind. Her voice, smile, and every move were so clear.

“I really… want to see her again.”

Li Tianlan closed his eyes gently, and the trace of attachment in his eyes faded away.

His eyes were finally closed.

It was dark in front of him.

There was nothing but dead silence in his perception.

“Is this death?”

“But…”

Suddenly, Li Tianlan opened his eyes.

It was the same ragged mountain forest destroyed by the fighting in his line of sight.

Nevertheless, the deadly sense of danger behind him, the heat, the vortex in front of him, and even the flickering lightning on Nanye Xiu’s body that was dozens of meters away had completely disappeared.

There was another man in front of Li Tianlan.

He was a slender man, about 1.8 meters tall, who looked young yet middle-aged. He wore a white windbreaker, the corners of which fluttered gently in the night wind. In the darkness, Li Tianlan could only dimly see his face, which seemed to be of an indiscernible age.

A… somewhat weird face.

It wasn’t ugly, but it was handsome in a chilling way.

He seemed to be an Oriental.

A handsome and even a little weird Oriental.

He looked down at Li Tianlan, his eyes bright. It was a clear, cold look, devoid of any emotion.

Finally, he slowly opened his mouth, and his soft, cold tone echoed in Li Tianlan’s ears. He spoke in English.

Li Tianlan frowned because he could not understand even a word. The positioning device in his ear, which was supposed to have a translation function, was silent now and seemed to be broken.

Looking at the silent Li Tianlan, the excessively weird man raised his eyebrows slightly and spoke in Japanese.

Li Tianlan sighed slightly and said with a headache, “Can you speak human language?”

He soon realized the irreverence in his tone and shook his head with a wry smile. “I didn’t mean to be disrespectful to you. Are you an Invincible Realm expert?”

A smile flickered through the eyes of the handsome, charming man. But even in his eyes, there was a touch of coldness in the soft emotion. “No, I’m not. Almost, almost.”

This time, he spoke in perfect Chinese.

Li Tianlan raised his eyebrows slightly. Although he knew it was impossible, he could not help asking, “Are you from Zhongzhou State?”

The man’s eyes flickered, and he shook his head.

Shaking his arm, he said in a soft, cold voice that sounded chilling, “Hey, the elite from Zhongzhou State, I snatched your military exploit but saved your life. Is that all right with you?”

Then Li Tianlan saw that the weird man was carrying a bloody head in his hand. Blood was dripping from the head, but the man’s snow-white windbreaker had no blood stain at all.

The head swayed in his hand. The eyes on the head were wide open, as if the owner were dying in great fear.

Li Tianlan’s pupils contracted slightly.

That was Nanye Xiu’s head.

His strength was infinitely close to a half step to the Invincible Realm.

“What on earth happened in that instant?”

Nanye Xiu died, and the Skyattack’s shot was blocked. Likewise, the shot behind him, no less powerful than that of the Skyattack, was blocked.

All of this seemed to have happened at the same time in a second.

The man who did all these was not an Invincible Realm expert.

“Almost?”

“What exactly is that?”

Li Tianlan was a little confused, so he rubbed his forehead. After his narrow escape, he instinctively wanted to speak, even if it was nonsense.

He asked, pointing to the head, “Did you kill Nanye Xiu?”

“Yes.”

The weird man had a cold smile on his face. “That’s one of my main goals this time. I planned to exterminate all the elites of East Island here. Slaughter arouses a lot of emotions, doesn’t it? But there are already three guys who are not weak working on it. I came ahead of time just in time to see this wonderful fight. You have made a good strike using the sword and a good shot. But you couldn’t kill Nanye Xiu even so, so I didn’t take military exploit from you. Well, besides, I saved your life.”

Li Tianlan said, shaking his head with a wry smile, “Thank you all the same.”

“No need.”

The man in white shook his head and sighed, “I always feel like I’m taking advantage of you. How about…”

He thought for a moment, reached into his chest pocket, took out a small bottle and threw it to Li Tianlan. “Take it, if you believe me, it will restore a little of your combat strength. And I’ll tell you who tried to kill you this time. How about we don’t owe each other since then?”

Li Tianlan froze, holding the small bottle in his hand, silent.

He didn’t doubt that the bottle contained poison. Apparently, the other side was really a super expert who was only a half step or maybe a small half step to the Invincible Realm. He should have no trouble killing him now, so there was no need for him to poison him.

Without a doubt, this was the healing medicine. What Li Tianlan suspected was the other side’s motive.

In front of him, the expert who was a half step to the Invincible Realm seemed to be too nice and easy-going. They met by chance, but the expert gave him medicine to heal him while saving his life. This kindness made Li Tianlan instinctively hesitate.

Since he couldn’t kill Nanye Xiu with that shot, the expert didn’t take the military exploit from him. This was common sense on both sides. Now he should owe him a great debt of gratitude, but strangely, the expert felt apologetic and negotiated with him. “What’s going on here?”

Li Tianlan looked up at the strange and cold super expert in front of him.

This guy didn’t look like a good Samaritan.

“You don’t take it?”

The man in white raised his eyebrows slightly and smiled playfully.

“I just can’t figure out why.”

Li Tianlan shook his head. Without hesitation, he poured the potion straight from the bottle into his mouth.

The potion was slightly bitter, but the moment it entered the abdomen, it was extremely hot. It seemed that his physical strength was beginning to recover little by little.

“It’s simple. Do you really think you’re a nobody? You’re popular in the Dark World. I can’t afford to provoke that crazy woman, and even His Highness is unwilling to do that. If she should know that I have taken your military exploit and that you have been wounded and left alone, that lunatic might go to war with His Highness. Damn it, we can hide from her, though we cannot provoke her. I’ll stay here for ten more minutes, and I’ll leave when you feel better. We don’t owe each other anything, and I have shown extremely kindness.”

The man shrugged smartly. It was a standard westernized gesture, but his Chinese was extremely fluent.

“Samsara… cannot provoke… crazy woman…”

Li Tianlan squinted at the man in white and asked, “May I know which force you belong to?”

The man in white froze slightly. He took a deep look at Li Tianlan and said indifferently, “You’ll see in a while.”

Li Tianlan nodded, squinting, and said softly, “Are we, er, or are you friends or enemies of Samsara?”

The man in white paused. He seemed to think hard, and his brows furrowed slightly. “Who knows for sure? There’s no conflict at the moment anyway.”

The man in white glanced at the position behind Li Tianlan and suddenly spoke, “The man who just tried to kill you codenamed Heavenly Calamity. He’s a super killer who ranks fifth on the killers’ list. He’s not that powerful, but he’s really good at using guns. His two famous guns, Whisper and Grim Smile, can basically shoot all the experts of the Thunder-shocking Realm dead. Boy, with the strength you just showed, it’s possible for you to kill Heavenly Calamity at close quarters. But if he distances himself from…”

He muttered, shaking his head, “Heck, I gave him the barrel of Grim Smile in those days.”

Something flashed through Li Tianlan’s mind, but he kept his countenance.

The man in white waited a few more minutes. Seeing Li Tianlan’s face gradually become ruddy, he directly said, “I’ll catch up with him and talk about the old days with him. As for this, I’ll take it with me.”

He shook the head in his hand. His figure directly faded before Li Tianlan and then disappeared.

“Clap!”

Two bullets fell to Li Tianlan’s side.

Li Tianlan picked them up to have a look. One of them was the bullet he had just fired from the Skyattack, and the other was probably the bullet that almost killed him.

However, the bullets that could kill most of the experts at the peak of the Thunder-shocking Realm were held by the man in white. Furthermore, he had already pinched them out of shape.

The corners of Li Tianlan’s mouth twitched and he put the bullets away without speaking.

“You can call me Daybreak.”

In the darkness, the voice of the man in white came faintly from the distance. “Don’t speak ill of me in front of that crazy woman.”

“Daybreak?”

It was a code name he had never heard of.

Thinking of the fact that the man’s strength was probably no weaker than that of Tribulation, Li Tianlan guessed that the man would be somebody in the Dark World. He hadn’t heard of such a super expert who was a half step to the Invincible Realm, which showed he was ignorant.

Li Tianlan gave a self-deprecating smile. Even before his smile faded, his eyes narrowed slightly.

In the distance, he saw a figure coming straight in his direction through the forest at great speed.

Jiang Shangyu!

A trace of indifference flashed through Li Tianlan’s eyes, but his expression was calm.

“What’s wrong? Are you in trouble?”

Jiang Shangyu rushed up to Li Tianlan and observed his expression. “I just heard gunshots. Were they aimed at you? Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. It’s just a small injury.”

Li Tianlan said insipidly.

“Small injury?”

Jiang Shangyu’s eyes narrowed unconsciously.

Li Tianlan, who had regained some combat strength, was still weak, but he kept his countenance. He wiped the blood from his mouth, pointing to the ruins not far away, and said calmly, “Nanye Xiu died.”

Jiang Shangyu’s eyes focused suddenly and his body shook violently.

“Nanye Xiu? Died?! You killed him?!”

In a flash, Jiang Shangyu could feel emotions surging inside him.

“Has Li Tianlan been able to kill an expert whose strength is infinitely close to a half step to the Invincible Realm?”

“How is that possible?”

Jiang Shangyu’s mind was in a whirl. Without caring about anything else, he unconsciously turned to look at Nanye Xiu’s body.

There were unbearable and undisguised bitterness and unwillingness in his eyes.

“He is dead.”

Behind him, Li Tianlan’s calm voice rang out with indescribable indifference. “I think you should go to hell and meet him.”

Jiang Shangyu’s chaotic mind suddenly became clear.

His body tightened and he turned sharply with the fastest speed in his life, ready to strike.

In his sight, the silver Skyattack in Li Tianlan’s hand was held out.

The deep muzzle of the gun was directly against his chest.

“You…”

Jiang Shangyu’s heart sank, and he was about to say something.

Li Tianlan smiled and held the gun in both hands, pulling the trigger without any hesitation.

“Martyr, goodbye.”

“Bang!”

A large vortex appeared in front of Li Tianlan as the gunshot shook the whole mountain forest.

Obviously, it was just a shot, but Jiang Shangyu’s body was blown almost 100 meters away, just like being hit by a missile.

Blood splashed wantonly in the rain at night.