Chapter 351: To End Like This

Chapter 351: Chapter 351: To End Like This

On the Lindi Clan’s side, of the original fifty-plus Guards, the eight who had been on watch were wiped out in the first clash. After the battle began, two of their Void Realm experts had been killed, and only two of the four Integration Realm experts remained—both of whom were seriously injured.

Of the sixteen at the Divine Separation Realm, only three remained, not counting the ones who had been on watch initially.

Of the main contingent of thirty-five Guards, only eleven remained. Even three of Li Haiqin’s eight personal Maids had died.

As for the enemy’s party of thirteen, Chu Fan had slain two Integration Realm and four Void Realm cultivators. Five of their Integration Realm experts were all that remained.

In other words, aside from the six people Chu Fan had killed, the rest of the Lindi Clan’s forces had only managed to take down two Integration Realm enemies so far.

Although the Lindi Clan’s Guards still outnumbered the enemy, the gap in their Realms was not something that could be bridged simply by having superior numbers or fighting with fearless desperation.

The thirteen who had come from the Cage Race were the absolute elite of their clan’s Guard Team. Now, with only five Integration Realm members left, they knew they couldn’t face their clan if they returned.

Thus, a sense of utter despair began to settle in their hearts.

Only two Maids remained by Li Haiqin’s side to protect her; the other three had joined the battle.

In total, seventeen people were trying to surround and kill the five Integration Realm masters.

But even so, it wasn’t long before another two of the seventeen were killed, while the five Integration Realm masters had only sustained minor injuries.

At that moment, Li Haiqin finally convinced the two Maids beside her and rushed over to Chu Fan.

An enemy’s blade was still lodged in his body, and his own Sword remained buried in his opponent’s Dantian. Chu Fan himself seemed like a spent force.

Tears streamed down Li Haiqin’s face as she carefully pulled the blade from his body. Gazing at the countless gruesome wounds covering him, she wanted to help him up but couldn’t find a single place to put her hands.

But Chu Fan’s eyes were wide open, his blood-red gaze fixed on the distant battle.

"Huo Er, how are you?"

Li Haiqin wept, her trembling hand fumbling for a healing Elixir that she pushed into Chu Fan’s mouth.

"Prin-Princess... rest... rest assured. As... as long... as I’m... I’m here... no... no one... will be able... to... to harm you."

"I believe you! I do!"

’How could I not be moved?’ He was so grievously wounded, yet all he could think about was protecting her.

Even if her heart were made of stone, it would have been touched by now.

Watching the remaining Guards fall one by one, Chu Fan clenched his jaw, gripped his Sword, and struggled back to his feet.

Li Haiqin stared at Chu Fan in disbelief. "What... what are you doing?"

"Prin-Princess... I... I can still fight. The enemy... they’re not all dead yet. I can’t... I can’t just watch my brothers be... be slaughtered!"

Then, Chu Fan let out a furious roar. As if his body had suddenly burst forth with limitless strength, he gripped his Sword and staggered toward the battle.

However, what Chu Fan—no, what all the surviving members of the Lindi Clan—hadn’t expected was this: as Chu Fan charged toward the fight, the five remaining Integration Realm masters turned and fled. They actually fled...

Clearly, they had been terrified by Chu Fan’s reckless, life-or-death demeanor.

Including Li Haiqin and Chu Fan, only eleven people from the Lindi Clan’s side remained. Aside from Li Haiqin, every single one was wounded and had no strength to give chase.

After the five men fled, everyone collapsed onto the ground, too exhausted to care about the pools of blood or the scattered, severed limbs.

Beyond their exhaustion and pain, every single person looked at Chu Fan with boundless admiration.

’Awe’ was the only word to describe what they felt deep in their hearts.

It wasn’t just his desperate Combat Power they admired, but his unwavering loyalty as a Guard.

Without him, they all would have died here tonight.

They applied salves to one another’s wounds and tended to their injuries. The night passed in silence.

After surviving such a battle, they were not just physically exhausted—they were mentally and emotionally drained.

And then there was the relief of having survived the ordeal.

In their hearts, every one of them felt a deep gratitude toward Huo Er for saving their lives.

Meanwhile, the five Integration Realm masters fled back to Moqish, who stared at them in disbelief.

"How are you the only ones back? Where are the others?"

"Dead... They’re all dead!" one of them choked out between sobs.

Moqish stared, dumbfounded. "Dead? How is that possible? How could they all be dead?"

"It was Huo Er! He consumed an Elixir that unleashes one’s potential at the cost of their own life force, then fought like a man possessed. He charged forward relentlessly, even as blades sank into his flesh. He was willing to take a sword straight through the chest just to kill his opponent. The four Void Realm seniors... he killed them all, one by one, just like that."

The Martial Artist seemed on the verge of a breakdown, recounting the events through his tears.

After hearing the gist of what happened, Moqish’s initial disbelief gave way to a profound sense of terror.

He was terrified that the Lindi Clan might pursue them and kill him along with the rest.

He was terrified that his willfulness had cost his clan so many elite masters. He was even more terrified that once Li Haiqin returned to the Lindi Clan, they would come demanding his head.

Either outcome would be a tragic end for him.

"How could this be? How? I sent so many masters... Why did this happen?" Moqish was now so terrified he was babbling incoherently.

"Go! Yes, we have to go now! If they catch up, we’re all going to die!"

Moqish turned to clamber onto his Wind Chasing Beast, but he was trembling so violently with fear that he failed to mount it several times.

Finally, with the help of a Guard, he managed to get onto the Wind Chasing Beast.

Without waiting for anyone, he cracked his whip and fled in a panic.

The remaining Guards sorrowfully gave chase.

Moqish would be punished, but wouldn’t they face the same fate?

But compared to the punishment awaiting them back at the clan, their minds were completely dominated by the image of Huo Er’s savage, blood-soaked face.

His blood-drenched body, his indomitable spirit that stared death in the face and charged ever onward.

Back at Li Haiqin’s temporary camp, no one spoke. They all silently tended to their wounds—both the wounds on their bodies and those in their hearts.

The companions they had been laughing with just that day were now separated from them by life and death after a single night, and they had been forced to watch them fall one by one.

Now, their companions’ bodies lay cold, the blood on the ground already congealed.

But a deep sense of unease still lingered in everyone’s heart.

Of course, Chu Fan was entirely different from them. ’It’s just fighting and killing,’ he thought. ’It’s a routine matter for me.’ He felt no psychological burden whatsoever for killing Northern Domain People.

’As long as history has been recorded, whenever the Northern Domain People raid the Central Domain, they treat human life as worthless. What’s a bit of killing in comparison? The atrocities they commit after breaking through the Central Domain’s border towns are too numerous to count.’

Right now, he was carefully examining his own body, watching as his wounds scabbed over with astonishing speed.

The pain was also fading away at a rate he could physically feel.

’To be honest,’ he mused, ’I didn’t even use seventy percent of my Combat Power in that fight. The wounds look gruesome, but they’re all superficial.’

’It was all just an act. Why would I let myself suffer any real, irreversible harm?’

After a night of observation, he suddenly recalled something the Xiezhi had once said—that it knew who Chu Fan’s parents were.

At the time, he’d dismissed it as the Xiezhi trying to trick him. But now, thinking it over, he shot to his feet in sudden realization...