Chapter Thirty-One: Killing Qi Yun

"Idiot!" Gu Sha cursed, yanked off his headset, crushed it underfoot, and charged out, knife in hand. During his brief exchange with Qi Yun, he had already figured out the approximate positions of the enemy scouts.

He no longer bothered to hide.

Brandishing his blade, he stormed forward, colliding head-on with the soldiers searching for him and plunged into their ranks with his Tang sword.

These soldiers were all elite, well-trained and armed with guns—each one a formidable opponent among ordinary people. Yet, unfortunately for them, they faced Gu Sha, now a sixth-tier warrior, and were powerless to resist, falling victim to a one-sided slaughter.

Meanwhile, inside the helicopter, Qi Yun’s expression was dark as ink. He roared, "Kill him! Kill that ungrateful wretch!"

How dare he? To be recruited by me is the fortune of a lifetime, yet he dares refuse? Damn him!

Qi Yun’s face contorted with rage.

Just then, a frantic voice crackled over the intercom: "Young Master, we can’t hold him! He’s too strong! We request permission to use the rocket launcher—we can’t protect the Origin Pearl!"

"Kill him! Forget the Origin Pearl!" Qi Yun bellowed. "Kill him! No—don’t let him die too easily if you can help it!"

Qi Yun clenched his fists tightly.

How dare he—refuse me? What does he think he is, to turn me down and not know what’s good for him?

Boom!

At that moment, a tremendous explosion rocked the shopping mall. Shells burst, and in an instant, fire raged like a roaring beast; walls erupted, bricks and stones flew in every direction, and the entire building shook amidst the cataclysm.

Several floors were engulfed in flames, fire spewing everywhere, many walls collapsing into ruins.

"What’s the situation? Is he dead?" Qi Yun demanded.

The intercom sputtered with static before someone replied, "Not sure, sir. He’s disappeared—maybe he was blown to ashes!"

Inside the mall, amid swirling dust and blazing fire, a squad of soldiers advanced cautiously in search of Gu Sha. The vice-captain in the lead was reporting to Qi Yun.

"No sign of the target so far. He’s probably dead, or at least gravely wounded—"

Suddenly, he stopped.

He saw a figure descend from above—a flash of silver, and in an instant, a head flew skyward, blood gushing in a crimson column.

Chaos erupted among the soldiers. They fired wildly, but Gu Sha was too fast, his speed blurring into afterimages darting among them.

Back in the helicopter, Qi Yun’s face grew grave as screams and gunfire blared through the intercom, painting a grim picture of the battle below.

"Young Master, retreat now!" someone suddenly shouted over the radio, but the cry cut off abruptly.

In that instant, a surge of panic gripped Qi Yun. He shouted to the pilot, "Retreat!"

The pilot instantly pulled the helicopter up, soaring tens of meters higher.

Qi Yun finally exhaled, but rage welled up anew. He hefted a light machine gun and cursed furiously, "Damn him! I’ll wipe out his whole family!"

As the helicopter ascended, Qi Yun fired wildly at the ground below, but the fury in his chest would not be quelled. He grabbed a rocket launcher and bellowed, "Turn around! I’ll kill that insolent dog myself!"

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Qi Yun fired rocket after rocket, blasting the mall into rubble. Over a dozen shells later, the entire structure collapsed.

"Damn it!" Qi Yun raged. "Fly lower—search for him! That scum must not be allowed to escape! No one in C City has ever dared humiliate me, Qi Yun—I’ll slaughter his whole family!"

A bodyguard spoke up, "Young Master, that man’s skills are formidable. For safety’s sake, I suggest we withdraw for now."

"Withdraw? Withdraw your ass!" Qi Yun snapped. "You’re sitting in a helicopter with me—what are you afraid of? That bastard can't fly up here and attack me!"

Chastened, the bodyguard held his tongue, but suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a figure appear on the mall’s rooftop—a man hefting a massive, broken stone pillar.

"Quick, ascend!" the bodyguard shouted.

But despite the warning, it was too late.

That stone pillar, weighing at least a ton, was hurled skyward, spinning as it flew straight at the helicopter.

Boom!

With a deafening explosion, the helicopter crashed into a high-rise, erupting in flames.

Standing atop the building, Gu Sha pulled a pair of binoculars from his pack.

As the smoke cleared, he was astonished to see that Qi Yun, tough as a cockroach, had survived yet again, being helped from the rubble by his bodyguards.

"Even cockroaches don’t have luck like his."

Suddenly, Gu Sha understood how Qi Yun could have been so arrogant and still thrived in his previous life. Beyond his powerful background, the man’s sheer luck was undeniable.

Surviving a barrage of shells, a helicopter crash from dozens of meters up—only something bordering on the supernatural could explain it.

When he saw that Qi Yun had escaped death again, Gu Sha stowed his binoculars and leapt from the twentieth floor, landing on a balcony several floors below, shattering it with a single step, then dropping to the eighth floor to smash through another balcony, and finally landing on the street below.

With a thunderous crash, the street caved beneath his feet, cracks spiderwebbing outward. His sneakers were reduced to tatters.

Gu Sha muttered a curse, drew a machete from his pack, and strode toward Qi Yun, who had just staggered out of the wreckage.

Freshly escaped from death, Qi Yun was still reeling with terror when he saw Gu Sha leap down from over twenty floors and charge toward him, blade in hand. Panic-stricken, he shouted, "Stop him! Stop him!"

Nearly everyone around Qi Yun was dead, save for two battered bodyguards. They quickly drew their guns to fire at Gu Sha.

But Gu Sha moved like lightning, leaving only afterimages in his wake. In the next instant, he dropped from above, severed one bodyguard’s arm with a single swing, and smashed his fist into the second.

The bodyguard reacted fast and punched back, but the sound of bones cracking rang out; his arm shattered, bone piercing flesh, sending him flying dozens of meters into the rubble, lifeless.

From this brief exchange, Gu Sha realized why Qi Yun had managed to survive so many times—the bodyguard was a second-tier warrior.

The power of the great families was not to be underestimated. After only a month of the apocalypse, they already had second-tier warriors—and sent two to protect a wastrel like Qi Yun.

Yet even as he marveled, Gu Sha wasted no time, swinging his blade back to decapitate the already crippled bodyguard.

Now, Qi Yun had lost all the arrogance of a noble scion. He collapsed to the ground, trembling, stammering in terror, "Who… who are you? I’m the eldest son of the Qi family—my father is Qi Rong… Who sent you? Whatever they promised, I’ll double it…"

Gu Sha looked at Qi Yun, memories of his arrogant face from his previous life flashing through his mind.

Without a word, he swung his blade.

A flash of white, and Qi Yun’s head flew from his shoulders, blood spurting high.

(End of Chapter)