Chapter 36: A Hole in the Yard
Translator: Mike Editor: Chrissy
Mockery was written all over Yellow Ox’s grinning face. He took pride in the compliments it received for posting pictures with a few witty comments it came up with. Seeing how easy it was to be crowded around with people gaping in awe, Yellow Ox was loftier than ever.
Zhou Quan, on the other hand, still could not recover from the aftermath of the huimiliation Yellow Ox had inflicted on him.
"One will never know whether the person hiding behind the screen is a human, a cow, or just an unearthly being!"
These were the last words Zhou Quan left in the comment section below those humiliating pictures of himself. Each word carried profound resentment and discontentment. Together, they poignantly told his own tale of sorrow.
"What a painful insight!"
Someone replied with such remark to his comment, and this almost made Zhou Quan burst into tears. He felt touched by finally being understood by someone else.
However, he then realized that the name of the person who left this message was "Mr. Yellow Ox".
"Puff!"
Zhou Quan could stand this no longer. Flame belched from his mouth as an involuntary act out of anger. This endless string of relentless ridicule from a cow was just too much for him to bear.
Zhou Quan was fulminating with anger.
It was a comment made by Yellow Ox, so naturally, it gained a lot of popularity very soon. A horde of people followed up and commented under the same thread, promoting the exchange of ridicule between Zhou Quan and Yellow Ox to a top comment soon after.
"Shameful! How shameful!" Zhou Quan tossed back his head as he howled in fury.
Chu Feng was taken aback. "I noticed that the flame projecting from your mouth seemed to have become stronger. Do you feel that your power has increased ever so slightly?" Chu Feng asked.
A respectable area of the earth around them had been melted and became a lagoon of molten lava. The bloody lava simmered and bubbled as it gave off a pungent smell of molten brimstone.
Zhou Quan had single-handedly founded a lava tarn in the depths of this mountain!
Yellow Ox nodded. It agreed with Chu Feng’s exclamation.
How did this become a thing? Chu Feng was quite speechless. The flame came out of Zhou Quan’s mouth seemed to have greatly improved after he threw a tantrum.
Yellow Ox wrote on the ground. It admitted that as a member of the clan of Demon Ox, Zhou Quan’s actual strength was proportional to the degree of fury he was at. The more provoked and irritated he was, the more of his strength could be unleashed.
"Can this be consolidated?" Chu Feng asked.
"Yes, but with a bit more provocation," Yellow Ox responded.
More provocation? Chu Feng was afraid that Zhou Quan would be driven completely mad after this.
Yellow Ox did not seem to mind at all. There was nothing for the calf to care for in the first place. It closed the gap between itself and the furious madman then sat cross-legged beside him, impersonating him in a comical sense. Yellow Ox’s blatant ridicule exacerbated Zhou Quan’s anger, making the blue veins in his neck show through his skin.
Then, Yellow Ox prodded Zhou Quan and signalled for him to have a look at the view counts of those photos of him.
"Eight million!?" Zhou Quan cried an unearthly cry. "Are you f*cking kidding me? It has only been minutes after it became the top story, yet it’s already approaching the ten million mark?!"
This really proved to be an effective stimulation. For a moment, his mouth became only one of many exit points for flames to bulge out. His eyes, his ears and even his nostrils were seen forming a blazing sphere of blinding flames.
"Ah…"
Zhou Quan shouted, venting out the profound anger within his heart.
After a long time, this outcry of emotion started to settle. The mountain, on the other hand, had experienced a not-so-pleasant change of appearance. The once verdant forest was now a barren wasteland. Rocks and boulders have become liquid lava, then reformed to become gobbets of blackened igneous rocks.
Chu Feng strode past Zhou Quan then patted him on his shoulder, telling him that it was time to go.
"You’ve done an exceptional job, buddy. Keep up the good work!" Chu Feng told Zhou Quan that his strength had been greatly enhanced.
Yellow Ox also sauntered towards them with a visceral smile. It was infrequent to see that there was not a single hint of despise on its face.
Having left the primitive mountains behind, the frequent chilling roars of beasts also started to fade away. There were no more sights of giant birds of prey soaring in the heaven above, and the air suffused the forest had also become clearer without the miasma of smogs.
The world seemed to have become quieter all of a sudden.
The trio’s homeward trek suddenly halted with Yellow Ox cocking its ears for a sound in the distance. It glared at the forest ahead.
"Stop!"
Chu Feng’s instinct also made him aware of the change of atmosphere in the air. His expression slightly shifted as he hastily took ahold of Zhou Quan’s collar and pulled him aside. They hid behind a sizeable boulder
"What’s wrong?" Zhou Quan was inattentively engrossed in thoughts as he aimlessly walked alongside the other two. Chu Feng’s sudden jerk awoke him with a start, making him rather bemused and clueless of the situation.
"There’s danger ahead. I need you to stay hidden here!" Chu Feng enjoined. He stared at the dense woodland ahead as his eyes gleamed with an aggressive glitter.
Zhou Quan begun to realize the danger of the situation. He grew nervous because the solemn expression on Chu Feng’s appearance was telling him that the opponent would be a formidable one.
"I will go and help you!" Although he was still fearful, he did not want to quail and watch as his mate fought and died.
"No. Your presence will only distract me from my target, so stay here and don’t move a muscle," Chu Feng urged.
Before his voice even died away, Chu Feng had already vanished into the void. His superhuman speed allowed him to travel at an extraordinary velocity, and covering a few hundred meters was only a matter of seconds.
He joined the battlefield without the company of Yellow Ox.
A glint of coldness thrilled through his eyes. He stalled his pace as he stealthily strolled forward on the forest’s dampened soil. He lurked in the forest like a leopard, examining every inch around him for potential hidings of his targets.
He then noticed a quite sizeable group of people who had been armed to their teeth, scattering around in the forest. They were guarding the path to which his homeward trek would lead. They had seized all vantage points in hope to ambush him.
They had all trained their guns on the path. The black muzzles of those firearms were hollow and cold. These were the weapons that could claim his life with a pull of finger.
"They’ve come!
Chu Feng’s blood ran cold. It was expected yet still surprising to see his assassins willingly follow the instructions laid out on a note he absent-mindedly left on the door. They even formed such a sizeable formation to ambush him.
It was a group of at least ten people. All were armed with the best weapons. All the guns were high-calibre. They could easily knock off a person’s arm or leg with only a single shot.
Thanks to Demon Ox Boxing Style, Chu Feng’s instinct for danger had become ever so sharp. He could feel the murderous intent that had suffused the air from miles away. Otherwise, if he had unknowingly stepped into this organized ambush unprepared, it would certainly mean the end of him.
At this very moment, he felt that the best thing he had yielded from practicing the boxing style was the sharp instinct that he had consequently developed. It enabled him to perceive danger in advance and make proper adjustments accordingly.
The armed men were no ordinaries either. They stayed hidden in the grass, motionless as a statue. Their stiff bodies were as if modelled in clay or carved from wood, and their eyes were also bitingly cold. Clearly, this was a group of trained assassins with merciless characteristics.
"Rocket launcher? You really have thought highly of me, haven’t you?"
He could clearly see the frosty glitters of metals that gleamed on a powerful rocket launcher. He knew that if he had been hit by that, it would basically mean the end of him.
He continued lurking in the darkness behind the enemy’s line. He thoroughly scouted the area to get a clear picture of the state of the enemy.
They were a team equipped with advanced firearms. There were forty-two of them in total. Apart from high-calibre automatic rifles, they had also brought a dozen of rocket launchers. Their shells could even penetrate the armor of a heavy tank.
Firearms like this could bombard a mutant into a million pieces, let alone an ordinary person.
"They must have used up all they’ve had." Chu Feng sighed.
He also noticed the presence of two mutants in the group. Both of them had arms cast with gold. Chu Feng conjectured that perhaps they both possessed a similar power and ability because of their similar looks.
Having cut this group of assassins down to size, the murderous desire on Chu Feng’s mind started to grow unchecked. He was certain that this must have been the doing of that woman who had intercepted his call. Her intention was clear, and that was to make sure he would be dead.
One after another, this succession of attacks would have long turned him into a gelid corpse after much humiliation had been done to him.
"I will make sure to take care every single one of your despicable pawns as they come. I will make you fear me then kneel in front of my feet!" Chu Feng mumbled.
Then, he set off for his retaliating operation.
He made a circuitous route around the mountain and reached the back of the enemy’s ambush. Like a skilful assassin, he only needed to raise and land his fist on the neck of two camping snipers before he put them into a comatose state.
Chu Feng silently glanced through the woods. He looked unfeeling and callous.
Only in a matter of seconds, he had managed to put down twenty-one targets in fluent succession. The entire process was silent and unnoticed.
However, everything suddenly took a left turn when he was going for his twenty-second target. To his surprise, he turned around at the second before his death was destined. He looked extremely vigilant, and his pupils were glowing with a gleaming golden shine.
Mutant!
This heavily armed elite soldier equipped with some of the most advanced firearms was actually a mutant in disguise. He perceived danger in that very last moment.
"You…" He was taken aback by Chu Feng’s ability to creep up to him without him noticing.
"Boom!"
Chu Feng hurled both of his fists at him. He was in a rush to put him down.
At the same time, the golden glow in the mutant’s eyes instantly spread through his body. A layer of golden scales wrapped his body and his face. The scales were as thickly dotted as stalks in a field of flax.
He was an utter monster!
The speed of his reaction matched the speed of Chu Feng’s action. He dodged both of Chu Feng’s fatal blow to his neck area and also the black dagger that was going to pierce through his entrails. However, the time did not allow him to also shun away from the blow of Chu Feng’s left fist. It was a deadly punch right onto his chest.
With a blaring boom, the mutant was sent into the air, but the scales that were dotted throughout his body prevented him from being instantly killed by Chu Feng’s deadly blow.
"The target is here!" His roar awoke the entire forest with a start.
Offense is the best defense. This was the decision Chu Feng made at once. With a nimble bound, Chu Feng dove down for the mutant like a venture thrusting for its prey.
Suddenly, deafening gunshots resounded in the woods. They fired in unison in the direction where he stood. A glow of fire soon perished all grasses and woods in the area around him.
At the same time, Chu Feng had also caught up with his target.
With a blaring boom and a blinding glow, his fist landed on his target with great precision and maximal power. The air around both of his fists exploded like a thunderous barrage, daunting and horrifying.
Boom!
Before the mutant even reached the ground, Chu Feng had already sunken his formidable fists into the firm scales on the mutant’s back; but, however rigid and stiff the scales might prove to be as an additional layer of armor, they were still incapable of deflecting all the force that Chu Feng had managed to strike with.
The mutant gave a grunt as his bones were snapped into pieces. However, his ability to defend was admittedly stronger than the other mutants from earlier encounters. Chu Feng’s deadly strikes did not seem to have incapacitated him instantly. The mutant rolled about on the dirt track after landing on the ground, then with a spring and a leap, he got to his feet and attempted to run for his life.
Puff!
Almost at the same time, Chu Feng’s black dagger also glanced through the air like a black lightning striking by. Although the mutant managed to promptly react to the flying dagger with a nimble dodge, he was still caught on the cutting edge of the black dagger.
He managed to prevent the dagger from piercing through his vital parts, but his arm still turned bloody as a result. The blade of the dagger was so keen-edged that his entire left arm was almost completely disjointed from the rest of his body. It was left dangling at his shoulder with only fibers of lean muscles preventing the arm from completely falling off.
For the mutant, this was a severe mutilation. He shrieked and cried. He screwed his face into an expression of extreme agony. The pain had even caused the golden scales to fade in glitter and color.
Pong!
Chu Feng wasted no time. With a full swing of his leg, Chu Feng calcitrated the mutant on his head. The formidable force that Chu Feng delivered sent the mutant into the air. He then crashed into a giant boulder before his body eventually turned lifeless.
Chu Feng evaporated into thin air from where he stood at the very next second.
Bullets were fired like droplets of rain. They lambasted the boulders and trees in the area where Chu Feng was standing.
For a moment, flames roared as bullets fiercely pounced on the boulders’ rocky surface. Some were even pulverized after a fearsome fireball broke into these formidable rocks. Many towering trees tumbled down, sending withered leaves littering around their plummeted trunks.
Someone was using rocket launchers to bombard this place!
Chu Feng arched his back. Like a dormant torvosaurus, he threaded through a network of tracks and paths, weaving in and out of sight, nimbly maneuvering himself across the jungle. He swiftly flashed while adroitly dodging bullets left and right. In the process, he managed to take down another three opponents.
"He’s over there! Bomb him!" someone roared.
Boom!
All of a sudden, the forest had become a dreary scene from hell haunted by conflagration. The team of assassins were attempting to suppress Chu Feng with their intensive firepower. Trees and grasses had all been engulfed by the blazing fire as a result, turning the once verdant forest to a scorching piece of barren land.
The rocket launchers were too powerful!
In the distance, Zhou Quan was dumbstruck. He was utterly petrified by the imbalance of equipment between Chu Feng and his opponent. Hundreds of devastating rockets and thousands of lethal bullets were fired each second, and they were all aimed at just one person equipped with nothing but a sharp-edged dagger.
Pong!
One of the hilltops in the area where the battle was fought had been completely flattened by the crude and brutal bombardment.
Admittedly, Zhou Quan had experienced too much today for his own good. From being one of the savage and the wild to experiencing face-to-face with a daunting string of thrilling monsters to now witnessing an all-out war between a team of super soldiers and a Kung Fu master, Zhou Quan was literally shaking in his boots.
"Hurry up! Let’s go help Chu Feng!" Zhou Quan shouted at Demon Ox.
Yellow Ox was calm and composed, telling him that it was not time yet.
In the forest, patches of scorched earth emerged as the ravages of this war. The potent rockets that were aimlessly fired easily crumpled the trees and bushes like sweeping up dead leaves.
However, they still could not kill their target. Terrified screeches and shrill cries were heard one after another. Gradually, the firepower from the assassins dwindled. Then, soon after, all sounds became muted.
Obviously, all members of the firing squad had been taken out!
"Where do you think you’re going!" Chu Feng bellowed. Chu Feng traversed hundreds of meters in seconds before he caught up with three of his opponents who were trying to escape for their lives.
All three were mutants, and all three seemed to possess the same power. All of their palms were glowing with a faint golden brilliance.
Suddenly, the golden glow dramatically expanded in the size of its coverage to the rest of their body. In a fraction of a second, all three had been shrouded with a layer of golden scales.
Chu Feng now realized that, this time, four mutants had been deployed for his assassination, two of whom were in the guise of an ordinary soldier. Only moments earlier, he had taken one of them out already.
Their scales could deflect some of the most potent high-caliber bullets, and they also served as an effective defense against almost all weapons.
However, in face Chu Feng, they were all seized with terror. Even they could not stand the firepower of a crude bombardment of rockets and bullets, but to their surprise and also to their demise, Chu Feng had stood his ground and survived through their waves of shooting barrage.
Chu Feng’s clothes was only somewhat tattered, but his body was left unharmed and uninjured.
Pong!
One of the mutants suddenly pulled the trigger in hope to take his opponent by surprise. Unfortunately, to his disappointment, the bullets only glanced by the remnant shadow of the fast-moving Chu Feng. At the next second, Chu Feng suddenly re-emerged in the air behind the bemused mutant and landed his fist on his shabby skull. The mutant fell on a state of coma as the blow dealt its impact on him. Even though the scales did serve as an effective layer of defense, the mutant still couldn’t stand the power of the blow and the force it delivered. The wounded man spat out a mouthful of blood before fainting.
This sent the other two mutants into a state of crippling depression. They qualified as some of the most formidable mutants amongst the others, but even so, they still seemed to be unable to withstand even a single blow when they teamed up against this young man!
In fact, Chu Feng was quite shocked too. He had put forth all his power, but it was only enough to knock them out. If an equally forceful punch had been delivered to a slightly weaker mutant, his fist would have well penetrated his opponent’s skull.
"Charge!"
The rest of the two put up a desperate fight.
In the woods, strong wind billowed as the two scaly golden mutants waged a life-and-death struggle against Chu Feng.
Unfortunately, the struggle was proven futile in the end. Both of the two were easily taken out by Chu Feng. While helplessly writhing around on the scorched earth, the two soon went into a state of coma.
Soon after, Zhou Quan came lolloping towards Chu Feng. Seeing the perished woodland in conjunction with the mutilated bodies that were lifelessly lying on the scorched earth, Zhou Quan’s face turned pale as a sheet. "Did you kill them all?" he asked.
"How can I be that cruel? I didn’t kill any of them." The words were said as if by the way.
Zhou Quan vented out a sigh of relief, but soon he realized a more headache-inducing problem. Who are these people? And why is there such a sizeable crowd of strangers wanting Chu Feng to die? Moreover, how are they going to deal with all these bodies that still had a breath of life?
But what Chu Feng then said made Zhou Quan shudder in fear
"Come and help me dispose of these bodies and send them to the depths of the primitive mountains," Chu Feng called Yellow Ox and Zhou Quan.
"All of them?" Zhou Quan was at a loss; he didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry.
"Or do you think I’m going to let them come kill me again next time?" Chu Feng had already found quite a number of vines and rattans to bundle the bodies up.
The forest restored its peace.
However, the depth of the primitive mountains was still resounding with the roars of beasts and the whistles of birds.
"What about these stuff?" Zhou Quan pointed to the rocket launchers left behind.
"Hide them here for now. They will come in real handy in the future," Chu Feng responded. Zhou Quan could see a flicker of a murderous intent wavering in Chu Feng’s eyes.
Finally, they resumed their homeward journey. Zhou Quan was feeling faint and disorientated after this full day of epic adventure, so they decided to drop him off at his town first.
"Stay at home and recover from any illness or discomfort for the next few days. Don’t go anywhere. Especially don’t come look for me!" Chu Feng urged him.
Zhou Quan nodded his head like a rattle-drum. He really wanted some down time to recover from today’s provocation.
At night, Chu Feng was quietly reading. His communicator rang a few times, but he chose to ignore the calls.
After reading, he took out a map then laid it out. It was a copy of the map he found on Zuo Jun.
He carefully studied it, then he called Yellow Ox, "Let’s venture into the mountains together tomorrow. I will get you fruits there!"
Not long after, the communicator rang again. The caller had been the same person. She had been ringing up since the night fell.
Chu Feng did feel quite drowsy. He wanted his night to be undisturbed, so he picked up the call.
"Chu Feng!" A woman’s voice came through.
"Yes, it’s me."
Having heard Chu Feng’s response, the woman was disappointed and fearful at the same time. Her disappointment came from the confirmation that Chu Feng was still well and sound while she feared the possible fate of her deployment to which she had lost all means of communication.
Losing all forty-two men plus a few additional mutants was a considerable lose to the company. She didn’t want to bear the responsibility nor the blame.
"What’s wrong?" Chu Feng asked.
"Have you seen anyone coming to your house yet? Have the injured mutants been picked up?" The woman tried to remain composed to the best of her ability.
"Yes, I did see dozens of people falling out of the sky and landing in my front yard with bodies saturated in blood. Their injuries made them look almost as good as dead…"
"What did you say?!" The woman’s voice had significantly increased in pitch. "Why are they injured again?!"
"Like I’ve said so many times, there is a hole in the yard."