“Wha-“, struggling to produce any coherent form of speech, Liu Zhenshan was shocked to the very core after witnessing Qin Feng unveil his true strength.
Back then, Qin Feng set the bar for himself as an F-tier ancient warrior after being provoked by others. As for the moment though, it seemed that he had long surpassed what they had originally labelled him as.
Qin Feng, in all aspects, was practically an ability user!
There was however, one distinct thing that caught Liu Zhenshan’s eye and he just could not wrap his head around it. How and why was the hue produced by Qin Feng’s ability pure black in color?
Still, remembering the Hellfire attack released by Qin Feng in the second half of his attack, Liu Zhenshan concluded that somewhere along the way, some mutations must have occurred among the fire runic ability users so he stopped giving it more thought.
He busily shuffled over and started operating the smelting furnace again, switching on the rapid cooling process. As icy cold water rushed down the sides of the furnace, so did the interior temperature of the furnace drop. It was not too long before the hatch of the furnace popped open, revealing the prized material floating within.
“Old pal, this is it!” Liu Zhenshan passed the item over to Qin Feng. The result of the decomposition process produced three distinct types of energies, compressed into a physical form. One of them was compressed into a block around the size of three clay bricks but weighed over a hundred kilograms!
“This is really good stuff! It must be a mineral from an alternate dimension. We named it the sunken black stone. It’s an extremely robust material, offering good resistance against attacks for its user. Prime stuff to make shields out of, but I’ll admit that it’d be pretty interesting to make weapons with it. You know what they say, offense is the best form of defense and I don’t think weapons made from it will wear out anytime soon, haha!”
Agreeing with the old man, Qin Feng nodded.
“Uncle Liu, I’ve transferred the funds over to you. Though, I wonder how much longer it’ll take if I let you upgrade this runic equipment right here?” Qin Feng questioned.
“Right now, huh?” Liu Zhenshan did not expect that Qin Feng was still ruminating on upgrading his equipment. The insectoids were breeding like crazy out there right now so was it not better to leave the place as soon as possible?
Qin Feng nodded and replied, “Uncle Liu, keep in mind that the store is located right at the heart of the city. While the insectoids have now infested the entire place, their presence is still unevenly distributed. If we evacuate right now, the chances of a successful escape is high but so is death!”
Liu Zhenshan was visibly confused by Qin Feng’s statement.
Qin Feng’s statement was true. During the initial stage, when the insectoids came crawling out from the spatial rift, their innate instinct was to hunt and feed. This stage was the most chaotic and the worst time for one to evacuate the city. In one moment, you could evade a group of slow-crawling insectoids but end up in the jaws of a bloodthirsty broodmother in the next instant. Stories of how people met their demise in a similar fashion were commonly passed on among the survivors.
Thus, the chances of dying were far from being out of the equation yet.
However, as the insectoids consolidate their occupation of this area, only the high-tier beasts would remain as the weaklings slowly die out. Different species would obviously live in different sectors of the city as they too, were territorial in nature. The chances of surviving the evacuation at this stage were the highest so long as they could maneuver between the insectoids’ territories undetected.
This was common knowledge taught in textbooks in his past life.
Still, only a handful from the past lived to tell tales of such endeavours.
Qin Feng continued, “Also, as long as Han Town remains under enemy control, the spatial rift will continue expanding. Soon, even those from Fu City will move over and encircle us. It’s wiser to stay put and wait it out. At least it’s a better plan than to make a blind escape with no immediate plans at hand. We now have more than twenty people in that basement. Instead of making camp in that cramped space, we can have more breathing room if we hole up in an abandoned hotel. We’ll last longer that way too. For us to be able to do that though, my weapons must be lethal enough to protect the group. Since we already have the core of the crystal armor beast, let’s upgrade the weapon right now!”
The most important reason for Qin Feng to come to this decision however, was that considering Liu Xue’s personality, it was very unlikely that she was willing to evacuate the place by herself. Instead, she would insist on dragging along with her the deadweight that was twenty-odd people or she would die trying.
If that were the case, only God knows what would happen to such a large crowd.
He had seen this scenario repeat before his very eyes too many times for him to quantify. These comrades that stood shoulder-to-shoulder with you would send you toward death’s embrace if their own lives were threatened.
Qin Feng refused to let harm be done toward Uncle Liu under his watch.
Liu Zhenshan was obviously moved by what Qin Feng had to say!
“You’re right. Let’s do it. After all, forging a weapon shouldn’t take too much time. Three to five hours is what I need!”
Still, for Liu Zhenshan to make such a risky decision, Qin Feng’s combat ability played a crucial role in the process. His strength was unrivalled, and was much stronger than Liu Xue. With such a strong ally by his side, nothing was to be feared.
In fact, his worst fear was Qin Feng running off by himself!
Qin Feng nodded in satisfaction upon hearing Liu Zhenshan’s words. He said, “I also have a few other materials which need to be broken down. Give me a moment, I’ll have my girlfriend deliver them to us!”
Qin Feng switched on the communicator and requested for Bai Li to deliver the goods over. The “goods” in question, was the spear of the Emperor Knight.
Receiving Qin Feng’s orders, Bai Li soon emerged from the underground shelter.
While she did not know the exact route to get to Qin Feng’s position, she could sense his presence and roughly make out which direction she had to take. Without using spatial manipulation, she effortlessly followed the path from the underground car park and soon arrived above ground.
The moment she stepped foot outside, a group of humans could be seen fleeing from insectoids, retreating back into the hotel.
“Man, f*ck these bugs!”
“Which motherf*cker was it that shattered the space stabilising device?!”
“We’re totally screwed so what’s the point of saying all that?”
“No, these critters are having a feeding frenzy outside. Let ’em stuff their bellies first before we go out! We gotta find a place to barricade ourselves in. Say, this hotel’s a pretty sweet spot!”
“Just hurry up, find something to block the windows and doors! Lock this place down!”
These were all F-tier aptitude users with a lifetime of experience in survival. They were lightning fast in finding stuff to blockade entry points into the building and soon, the entire place turned into a makeshift fortress.
While they were running about setting up defenses, Bai Li cheekily appeared in front of these ragtag defenders.
However, Bai Li ignored these people and so did they in regards to her appearance, with the exception of a single member from the group who noticed her presence immediately.
That person was the ancient warrior whose entire row of teeth were knocked out by two blows from Qin Feng’s fists a few days ago.
His eyes nearly popped out of its sockets as she entered into his vision.
“Hey, ain’t that the kid’s sweetheart?” The man walked over in long strides, blocking Bai Li from proceeding any further.
Bai Li’s brows furrowed, flashing a look of disgust at the man.
“Haha, little missy, since your husband’s out there feedin’ the bugs, how ’bout you follow me? Service me well and I’ll protect ya. How does that sound? Now, you’re more than entitled to reject my generous proposition but do know that I could just toss ya out and turn ya into juicy bug-feed.”
Bai Li rolled her eyes and imitated Qin Feng’s signature cynical laugh.
“I’ll have you know that my husband’s in the backyard. I don’t know what you’re talking about, bug-feed and all. How laughable.”
A jolt ran down the man’s spine, if he had one, upon realising that Qin Feng was still alive.
Still, Bai Li’s attitude was more than this ancient warrior could handle. In the next moment, he bellowed with rage, “Who cares if he’s in the backyard. I’ll f*ck you right here and now. He can kill me if he wants but I’ll die with a great smile on my face!”
Immediately after, the man reached out with his thick arms to grab hold of the girl. He was aiming to cover up Bai Li’s mouth to prevent her from screaming. An image flashed across his mind with the girl on her knees begging for forgiveness as his toothless mouth curved into a wicked grin.
Bai Li stepped backward in the nick of time and stated loud and clear, “While my husband forbids me from using violence, if you provoke me any further, I swear to God I will rain his fury down upon you!”
“Haha, big words missy. Come on, touch me all you want!”
Bai Li’s eyes glimmered and a cunning smile broke across her face.
“Since you’ve invited me to, sure thing!”
Without hesitation, she lifted her feminine arm high above her head before bringing it down onto the man’s face like a whip.
While Qin Feng held back on his attacks, the same could not be said for Bai Li.
That smack alone sent her opponent flying meters back, smashing open the windows which he had barricaded mere moments ago. This ancient warrior dropped like a sack of potatoes onto the ground outside the hotel. Bugs roaming around the surrounding area immediately swarmed over and turned the toothless sex-offender-to-be into an all-you-can-eat buffet.
Bai Li cackled wryly.
“You don’t have the balls to feed me to the bugs, literally and figuratively!”
She then walked off in her high heels as if nothing had happened.