Book 3, Chapter 206: Facing The Enemies

Rao Qili hadn’t slept the entire night. When morning came, he received the telegram from Chen Chuan’s unit and mumbled, “Looks like they’re really okay…”

Then, he sighed in relief. His mind started racing, and he gritted his teeth before going to the telegraph station to activate a secret channel that was directly linked to the Intelligence Department.

He sent a telegram to them.

Applying for intelligence deception.

A moment later, he received a simple question.

Confirm?

Rao Qili’s hand paused above the button for a moment before he swiftly tapped the reply signal.

Confirm.

***

The cavalier in charge of scouting and communication left the river by the mountain.

He returned to the Iron Monster and reported what he saw. “Commandant, the unit chasing after us spent the night in the wild yesterday. They have a way to resist the unseen damage from the abnormalities at night. I suggest killing them as soon as possible.”

The Iron Monster didn’t give his reply immediately. He only said a moment later, “We’ll string them along for another day or two. If they last that long, we’ll attack.”

“But what if they do last? We’ll be forced to keep avoiding them, unable to do anything else. Shouldn’t we use this chance to kill them? Our retreat isn’t secure yet,” the scout, who was also a royally appointed warrior, pointed out.

Their advantage of being able to move at night had allowed them to rampage freely through the land. With just one platoon, they could sow destruction and chaos to their enemy’s rear.

But if their enemy had a unit who could resist the abnormalities at night, they posed a huge threat to them. Also, even though they seemed like they could move around freely, they were still in enemy territory. If they got stuck here, they could be surrounded and attacked at any point.

Just then, a cavalier in charge of the telegraph station removed his headphones and came over with the interpreted telegram. He handed it to the Iron Monster. “Commandant, we’ve received a message. Another unit or two are approaching us. They’ll reach us in at most three days.

“Fort 104 has been confirmed to have entered a lockdown. We also received information that the rear has applied to use combat airships.”

The royally appointed warrior immediately whipped his head toward the Iron Monster. “Commandant, we can’t wait any longer!”

One unit could be easily dealt with, but if another joined the fray and surrounded them, their enemies would have an absolute advantage. The root of all their current problems lay in the unit chasing after them. If they could get rid of it, many other options would open before them.

The Iron Monster sank into contemplative silence.

Moments before he was about to give the order to launch a full-scale attack on Fort 73, his instincts had warned him of danger, but he never had that feeling again, even when the unit went after them. Still, a voice in his head kept telling him to avoid that unit.

The change in the situation was forcing him to make a decision, though.

“Have all our cavaliers mount their horses. We set off in ten minutes,” he ordered.

“Understood!”

Once the cavalry received the order, they began sorting out their gear and checking each other’s equipment. A few minutes later, they mounted their dragon-nose horses and rode toward Chen Chuan’s group.

***

Qin Qingque received a telegram and handed it to Chen Chuan with both hands. “Captain, Advisor Rao sent a telegram just now. Please take a look.”

Chen Chuan gave it a quick glance. “Intelligence deception, huh?”

The Iron Monster should have informants based on how they dared to move about so brazenly in enemy territory.

Rao Qili wrote that the Intelligence Department had fed them false information that two more units were swiftly approaching them. Once the Iron Monster learned about this, he would react in one way.

Chen Chuan looked up and met the other two’s gazes. “Get ready. The Iron Monster should come find us soon.”

Yuan Qiuyuan perked up. Eager for a fight, he said, “Are we going to wait for them here, Captain?”

“No. Since they’re coming to us, we can’t let them have an easy time. Let’s find a good place and set up our defenses,” Chen Chuan declared.

“I saw a pretty suitable place while we were coming here,” Qin Qingque immediately offered.

“Alright. We’ll go there.”

They packed up and returned to the SUV. Just then, a long spear pierced through the air heading for them.

Yuan Qiuyuan turned around and grabbed it. His arm did not budge from the inertia, but the pole of the long spear trembled. He raised an eyebrow at that. The person who threw the spear was more than a kilometer away, but the forest obscured his sight, so he couldn’t tell where the person was.

Chen Chuan didn’t even turn around. He entered the SUV with calm footsteps. Qin Qingque was unbothered as well and returned to the driver’s seat.

Yuan Qiuyuan twirled the spear once before snapping it and throwing it on the ground. Then, he jumped into the SUV through the sunroof and grabbed the machine gun mounted on it.

If a cavalier drew close, Yuan Qiuyuan was going to shoot them.

The SUV headed to the place Qin Qingque had seen.

Chen Chuan kept wondering something.

What exactly was the Iron Monster’s ability to predict danger? It had to be something that was born from a martial artist training their mind to near perfection.

It could also be the Iron Monster’s special ability. Due to a lack of information, there was just no way to be sure.

This made the Iron Monster an incredibly tough opponent, because he seemed to be perpetually able to avoid danger.

Still, Chen Chuan believed that even if his mind and instincts were warning him of danger, he needed a target that posed a threat to him. There was also a possibility that Chen Chuan was the reason behind why the Iron Monster had retreated that night.

That was why Chen Chuan had overlapped with his second self after leaving the fort and had him absorb all the unseen damage from the merged space and the strange domains.

Regardless of whether staying in the pre-fusion state was useful or not, it was worth a try.

After traveling for around two hours, they arrived at a spacious place near a river. The water was swift, and there was nothing blocking their view.

The sides of the river were loose mud. This was nothing to a martial artist, but it was an entirely different story for heavy horses.

Hence, this place could effectively put a stop to the cavalry’s charge. The wide river behind them would also prevent the Iron Monster from launching a pincer attack on them from behind.

The average cavalry charge was nothing to them. After all, the horses couldn’t move instantaneously, like they could. Instead, the cavalry would just reveal more openings for them. The machine gun on the SUV wasn’t a decoration, after all.

But the dragon-nose horses all had implants. Their riders were also martial artists, so there might be something special about them, which was why Chen Chuan would rather play it safe.

Once Qin Qingque parked the SUV, they started setting up some simple defenses with the tools they brought before getting ready for battle.

Yuan Qiuyuan brought out his retractable staff and went to the side with a cloth to wipe it. Then, he stood up with his eyes partially closed, as if he was practicing some breathing technique.

He didn’t appear nervous, but his nerves were strung tight. Qin Qingque was different. She appeared relaxed, as if she was used to such situations.

Half an hour later, they started seeing the outlines of horses, and their number was growing. They stopped around four kilometers away.

Once Chen Chuan saw them, he got out of the SUV, smoothed out his uniform, put on his mask, straightened his hat, and went to the forefront of their unit with the Frost King Saber.

Yuan Qiuyuan went to stand on his left with his legs apart and the staff positioned horizontally.

Meanwhile, Qin Qingque stood to Chen Chuan’s right with a red-tasseled spear. She plunged it into the ground and removed the halberd rifle from her back to train it at the horses ahead.

The cavalry seemed to be observing them. After a while, they split up into three units. Two of them went to the sides before returning from where they came back. Only one unit remained.

Three men among them stood out from the rest. They were more than ten meters away from each other and rode forward slowly in the shape of a triangle. When they were around five hundred meters away, they got off their horses and walked over.

They didn’t choose to fight on their horses, because once Third Limit martial artists started fighting, their horses’ speed would just be a joke. Any Third Limit martial artist worth their salt would be able to avoid them easily. The horses’ movements would also be limited on loose soil.

It wasn’t as if they relied on fighting on horseback. When they hunted down their targets, they always thought of ways to kill the Third Limit martial artists before the rest.

Their enemies had the same thought, but up to this date, the Iron Monster and his troops had never lost before.

The two royally appointed warriors beside the Iron Monster were confident in the latter’s abilities, because their commandant had honed his mind and body to perfection. After going through that particular transformation, he could no longer be seen as purely human. His potential was far greater than that of a normal person.

But their enemies didn’t know this, which would lead to them ending up dead, just like all the others who had tried to hunt them down in the past.

Chen Chuan stared at the person in the middle. He looked no different from the photo: the man was decked in thick armor and wore a stab proof robe.

This must be the Iron Monster, he thought.

The man appeared to be more than 1.9 meters tall. His eyes were blood red, and Chen Chuan could smell the stench of blood on him.

The two men behind him were more than two meters tall and had long spears in their hands. They also had five javelins strapped to their backs. When they walked over, their breathing and rhythm matched, a clear sign that they had great teamwork.

Qin Qingque lifted her rifle and fired at the person to the Iron Monster’s right. He immediately brought his hand up to cover his face. The sound of a gunshot tore through the air, and his body trembled lightly, but he didn’t stop.

Qin Qingque didn’t stop. She fired a shot at the one on the left, and he did the same to defend himself.

Then, gunshots kept echoing in the air. The bullets hit the three people continuously. Once Qin Qingque emptied the magazine, she quickly switched it out and continued firing at them.

But the three men ignored the bullets that landed on them and continued walking at the same pace.

The three drew closer until they were two hundred meters away. Then, one of the men behind the Iron Monster suddenly grabbed one of his javelins and threw it.

It went straight for Chen Chuan.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep