It drizzled all night, and the rain was falling all over Changdao.
In the early morning when the sky was just getting bright, in the rain that had been falling for a whole week, Li Tianlan and Jiang Shangyu walked into a fisherman noodle store along the street.
It was almost July, and the weather was starting to heat up. But Changdao was by the sea, so the temperature difference between day and night was slightly larger. And it was early morning in the rain, the air felt cool and refreshing. The two people walked into the small, neat noodle store in silence. After ordering two bowls of noodles with fish meatballs, they waited for breakfast to be served in silence.
Li Tianlan sat by the window and watched the raindrops tapping the ground with a calm face.
It had been a week since they got rid of the hunting of Mai Shiranui, and he was still with Jiang Shangyu. It was not that he tried to make him stay, but Jiang Shangyu didn’t seem willing to leave him.
In this kind of situation, Li Tianlan couldn’t make him leave. But in front of this man who was clearly hostile towards him and was even trying to kill him, he didn’t care about any manner. Jiang Shangyu’s killing intent still surfaced from time to time. It seemed he still wanted to kill him right now. Li Tianlan was well aware that if he tried too hard to stay away from him, he would only stimulate Jiang Shangyu, and it would make it look like he was afraid of him.
For a man that clearly had power but still placed himself under the Heavenly Sons for so many years, maybe he would hesitate before he was sure, but once he had made up his mind, literally nothing could stop him from doing that. Once he decided to fight him, it would be a blood bath.
Based on Li Tianlan’s power now, he had no need to fear anyone. Jiang Shangyu might hesitate, but he knew very well that what he said a few days ago was true.
If he had a fight with Jiang Shangyu, Jiang Shangyu would die, but he would pay a heavy price himself for sure. After a battle like this, even if he could survive, he couldn’t dodge Mai Shiranui’s hunting.
In a foreign country, it seemed completely idiotic to fight with the so-called person on his side to Li Tianlan. So it would be nice if both of them could control their emotion.
So under the premise that both of them wanted to kill each other, they united together secretly and took actions together.
In about a week, nearly ten big shots in Changdao all died of assassination.
A superior of the Thunder-shocking Realm, three superiors of the Fire-flaming Realm, a principal of the bank, two high officials, a scholar, a gangster leader and a patriarch of a wealthy family in East Island.
So far, they had finished half of the names on Li Tianlan’s hunting list.
And at the same time, Jiang Shangyu, who also got assigned to a part of the second hunting list after Li Tianlan, Wang Shengxiao, Gu Hanshan, the three Heavenly Sons of Zhongzhou State left, finished his targets in Changdao successfully.
The two of them seemed to slowly realize the good side of working together. Based on their ages and strength, it would be hard to find a match for them in the whole Dark World. When two young men of the Fire-flaming Realm who were capable to kill superiors of the Thunder-shocking Realm worked together, it was impossible for the people on the hunting list to escape alive.
They went straight ahead, leaving dust behind.
They passed like thunder and moved like the wind, domineering in an unreasonable way.
Even the only superior of the Thunder-shocking Realm in Changdao on the list was killed by Li Tianlan and Jiang Shangyu in less than three minutes.
Everyone in Changdao was frightened.
In less than a week, they fought ten battles. Jiang Shangyu would fight in every battle, but not with his full strength. He was willing to hide his true power and assisted Li Tianlan, so Li Tianlan had the most pleasurable experiences in every battle. And what pleased him the most was Jiang Shangyu’s camouflage skills.
Camouflage and lurking.
These were Li Tianlan’s weaknesses. In the Sky Academy, he never took this class that was taught by the Enchantress.
His strength was above everyone else in his generation. But in camouflage and lurking, he was on the bottom of the ranking.
This was almost the main reason why Mai Shiranui could hunt him all the way from Ninghu to Changdao.
Jiang Shangyu was the expert in this case, like he was at the master level. Every time before and after a battle, the two of them would change their appearance completely, wandering in very corners of this city like two ghosts. The continuous killing made the Changdao police really frustrated, but none of them could track down Li Tianlan and Jiang Shangyu. The two of them would appear in different places almost every day. In the beginning, the police were excited and angry about it, then slowly, they got numb and silent.
To be exact, the whole Changdao, the city that got blown up by nuclear weapon and then got rebuilt, seemed numb and dead.
The police stayed quiet.
Even Mai Shiranui stayed quiet, after the failure that night.
She seemed to realize that she was no match for Li Tianlan and Jiang Shangyu. In these days, her efforts to search for the two loosened up.
While they were waiting for breakfast, the two men sat in front of each other and looked at the raindrops outside, thinking about something separately in silence.
Wanna have another try?
Jiang Shangyu said suddenly, in a soft tone. This young man, who didn’t have the title of a Heavenly Son or the legacy of the Invincible Realm expert, but very likely had the potential and even the strength of a Heavenly Son, had a very gentle and sweet smile. After being together for the last couple of days, Li Tianlan had to admit that Jiang Shangyu was a wonderful person, even he knew he had some bad intentions, he still felt very good with him being around. Jiang Shangyu looked at Li Tianlan with a sincere smile on his face.
If senior brother wants to do it, then I’m all in.
Never mind.
Li Tianlan shook his head.
There’s no point.
In the days when the whole East Island was dead and quiet, strangely, Li Tianlan didn’t feel safe, but felt nervous and threatened by the danger around him as each day passed.
The intuition that he was born with kept telling him to leave this seemingly safe place.
Changdao was dead and quiet.
But to Li Tianlan, the whole Changdao seemed to become a prison.
A heavily guarded prison.
Three days in a row, after getting rid of Mai Shiranui and killing everyone on the list, he and Jiang Shangyu had been trying to get out of Changdao.
In three days, the two of them had tried to break the defense in different ways to meet the high-end battle force led by Tribulation, six times in a row. But they failed every time.
The road, the deserted mountain, the jungle, and the wharf.
A tight dragnet!
East Island seemed to have been set defense around the whole island in silence. Under the heavy defense, the two people found in surprise that they seemed to have been stuck in this city without their noticing. Right now it was almost impossible to sneak out of this place, and they could only kill their way out.
Killed their way out.
This was a good idea.
But it was also an ill-timed idea.
The status of Li Tianlan wouldn’t get in the way of his fighting, but he was indeed badly injured. In his prediction, he still needed at least ten days to regain his peak strength, by then he and Jiang Shangyu worked together to break the defense, that would be the best timing.
But everything was like what he had said.
There was no point anymore.
When Changdao was officially set as a prison by East Island, there were already huge waves surging in the whole East Island.
It began at Dongdu, then Ninghu, Juban, Jingzhong, Mingwu, Wakayama…
A killing wave surged in the whole East Island like it was doomsday. In the media reports every day, the casualty rate of big shots in East Island was rising sharply. In the dark, a mysterious force appeared in all kinds of places in East Island, swallowing the whole island with unstoppable momentum. And judging from the current situation, this scattered force might possibly gather in Changdao!
This definitely wasn’t Tribulation’s purpose.
Li Tianlan had already contacted Bai Youming and confirmed a piece of information in the end.
East Island seemed to be evicting them on purpose.
In the scheme of Zhongzhou State, the first group of elite fighters that sneaked into East Island was around two thousand people. Including the pawns Zhongzhou State hid in East Island, the total was two thousand and five hundred people. And in the past week, East Island was completely insane. The official didn’t give direct order to kill them, but countless superiors from the Army had secretly joined the hunting camp. In about a week, more than four hundred Zhongzhou State elites had been killed in East Island. About a thousand of them in East Island had run to Changdao under the constant hunting.
When things had reached this stage, the whole Zhongzhou State could no longer step back.
Whether it was out of willingness or not, in a situation like this, everyone in Zhongzhou State must gather in Changdao and then discuss the next battle plan, or ways to defend themselves from East Island’s sudden attack.
Six days ago, the battle between the Master of Samsara Palace and the War God of Zhongzhou State ended with the victory of the Master of Samsara Palace. The news spread through the whole Dark World, in the meanwhile, another shocking news also spread through the whole Dark World.
Tianhai Wuji, the Wuji Sword Master of East Island, and Liusheng Cangquan, the Jifeng Sword Sage of East Island, joined hands together to challenge the swordsmanship of the Sword Emperor of Zhongzhou State, Wang Tianzong, and they got defeated!
The two grandmasters of East Island lost in a heartfelt admiration and had already decided to stay in Zhongzhou State for a while to learn the peak of swordsmanship from the Sword Emperor Wang Tianzong.
Meanwhile, Huan Kong, the Lord of the Fantasy World, and Chaos, the Commander of Knights Templars, made good friends with the Master of Samsara Palace. The three of them were having a wonderful tour in Zhongzhou State.
Jiang Qiannian, the Second Master of the Jiang family in South America, got involved in an investigation over a case of the death of an high-leveled official in Kunlun City…
This was the official statement given by Zhongzhou State.
Learning in admiration, making good friends, chatting and drinking…
People could ignore how ridiculous the news sounded, but all of the five superiors of the Invincible Realm who went to Zhongzhou State and watched the battle had disappeared in Zhongzhou State, this was a hard fact. And the battle in the Dark World couldn’t be done without the official planning, not even the protest through diplomatic channels could be done. Meanwhile, the official planning like this needed time and reason. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Zhongzhou State was famous for a slick tongue ever since the founding of the country. When the other side came up with something to protest, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs made a response. This process would continue.
For Zhongzhou State who had taken the initiative, this battle of words was entirely in their control. They could say whatever they wanted until the whole East Island thing ended.
Right now nobody knew what the Knights Templars and the Fantasy World were gonna do next, but the two grandmasters of the Invincible Realm got stuck in Zhongzhou State. A great number of elite fighters of Zhongzhou State were sent to East Island. The whole East Island already had no choice left.
The final battle was unavoidable!
Two grandmasters of East Island and countless elites and superiors from the Special Warfare System of East Island were hidden in Zhongzhou State.
Zhongzhou State got more control of this kind of force, the bargaining counters Zhongzhou State held weighed the more. As time passed, group after group of elite fighters of Zhongzhou State got into East Island. The whole East Island couldn’t even fight back in the end.
So.
The final battle!
Only if East Island could eliminate all the elite fighters that Zhongzhou State planted in East Island in the final battle and had more bargaining counters against Zhongzhou State, could East Island possibly save the situation.
Zhongzhou State used the strength of the whole country.
East Island now did the same.
Besides, it was in their homeland. East Island could make much quicker moves than Zhongzhou State.
In a few days’ time, East Island used all the strength and resources they could find to make an investigation into all the people from Zhongzhou State in East Island.
They were hunting every single one of them.
They evicted those they couldn’t kill.
Changdao.
Changdao was obviously the spot of the final battle that East Island chose.
For dozens of years, the biggest fight in the Dark World between Zhongzhou State and East Island was about to happen and finish here.
Could this scheme of the whole country succeed? The battle of Changdao became the most important key.
Now the prologue had started, everyone was waiting for the battle to start.
Why don’t we have a go again?
In the long silence, Li Tianlan suddenly opened his mouth again, like a mumble, like a question for Jiang Shangyu.
Jiang Shangyu’s eyes suddenly lit up, and he was about to say something.
Outside the noodle store, a figure of a young man had walked in silently.
This was a poorly-dressed man. No one could guess his age, and no one could even see his face clearly. He was wearing a color-fading formal hat and a thin, dirty wind coat, and was carrying a black traveling bag, walking slowly to the other corner of the store and sitting down.
In Jiang Shangyu’s eyesight, he could only see his side profile and the old red scarf on his neck that was strange in today’s weather.
In a moment, Jiang Shangyu’s pupils contracted suddenly.
What happened?
Li Tianlan, who was looking out of the window, turned and looked at him, then asked casually.
Jiang Shangyu lowered his head and lit up a cigarette. When he lifted up his head again, his facial expression had returned to normal.
Nothing.
He took a deep drag, then said with a smile on his face.
It was nothing indeed.
It got nothing to do with him anyway.
But it got something to do with Li Tianlan.
At that moment, Jiang Shangyu could assure that Li Tianlan was in trouble.
He was in lethal trouble.
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