Ten minutes later, the side gate of Blackstone base slowly opened. A modified black heavy duty SUV drove out from the underground garage. The body was covered in bulletproof armor. Alloy anti-slip studs were embedded on the tire exteriors. An automatic machine gun was mounted on the roof.
Su Xiaodao sat in the passenger seat, rubbing his hands excitedly. Jiang Xinyi sat in the back, the Mystic Heaven divine sword faintly visible in her hand. I sat in the driver's seat and pressed the accelerator. The engine roared like a beast.
The black SUV charged out of Blackstone base, heading south along the mountain road. The black fog hadn't fully dissipated. Abandoned vehicles, gnawed by monsters, were scattered on both sides. Occasionally, a few low level mutants lunged out. Before they could get close, the roof machine gun turned them into sieves.
Half an hour later, the South Suburb Industrial Park came into view. The once brightly lit modern park had now completely turned into a monster nest. Factories collapsed, pipes twisted, the air filled with a pungent chemical smell.
Su Xiaodao pushed the door open and jumped out. "Brother Lie, what's the plan?"
I looked deep into the industrial park. Three auras there were significantly stronger than the other monsters. Two tier four mutated ironclad lizards and one tier four poison mist spider queen. Besides them, there were over a hundred tier two and tier three monsters.
To me now, these are nothing. But for Su Xiaodao and Jiang Xinyi, they're the perfect whetstones for real combat.
I raised my hand and waved. The Nine Dragons Pulling a Coffin on my back trembled slightly, and an invisible pressure enveloped the entire industrial park. The movements of the low level mutated beasts instantly slowed, as if a mountain were pressing on their backs. But I didn't directly crush them. Instead, I controlled the pressure to just suppress the beasts' speed without affecting Su Xiaodao and Jiang Xinyi's fight.
"I won't intervene. I'll watch the two of you. Clear the tier two and three beasts yourselves. The tier four beasts, I'll only provide backup. Unless your lives are in danger, I won't help."
Su Xiaodao grinned. "Perfect."
As the words fell, the Erlang Shen totem on his right arm suddenly glowed. A divine warrior's phantom, clad in armor and wielding a blade, slowly materialized behind him.
"Heavenly eye. See through all illusions."
Golden light flashed. On Su Xiaodao's brow, a vertical pupil's phantom slowly opened. Instantly, the world around him became crystal clear. The movement patterns of the two mutated ironclad lizards, the gaps in their scales, muscle contractions, their abdominal weak points, all were captured clearly by the heavenly eye.
"Found the opening."
He gripped his three-pointed double-edged glaive with both hands. His foot stomped down hard, cracking the ground like a spiderweb. Su Xiaodao shot forward like an arrow from a bow, instantly closing in on the first ironclad lizard's flank. The glaive rose high, golden light erupting from its edge. His arms lit up. The blade fell.
A sharp screech of metal on metal rang out.
Su Xiaodao's face changed. The strike accurately hit a gap in the lizard's back armor, but it didn't pierce the defense as he expected. The lizard's scales were thicker than he imagined. The blade only bit in half an inch before being stuck by hard bone armor.
"Crap."
The first ironclad lizard wheeled around. Its thick tail swept toward him with a howling wind. Su Xiaodao had no time to pull the glaive free. He leapt back, but the massive tail grazed past his chest. Even as a glancing blow, it sent him flying backward. He slammed hard into a derelict oil tanker truck. The truck crumpled with a crash.
Su Xiaodao grunted. A trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth. "This thing's tough."
I stood at a distance, not intervening. Jiang Xinyi instinctively looked at me.
"Chen Lie."
I said calmly, "He won't die. Let him fight."
Su Xiaodao jumped down from the dented tanker, wiping the blood. The excitement in his eyes burned brighter. "All right, now we're talking."
The ironclad lizard roared, its limbs powering up, its massive body charging like an armored vehicle. The other ironclad lizard flanked from the side, trying to cut off his escape. Two tier four beasts, one on each side, a pincer in front and behind.
Su Xiaodao stood his ground, not charging recklessly this time. The heavenly eye on his brow grew even brighter. The world seemed to slow down in his eyes. Every step of the ironclad lizard, every scale shifting, every muscle tensing, was captured clearly by the heavenly eye.
The first ironclad lizard charged to his face, its mouth gaping wide. A stench of rot washed over him. Su Xiaodao's body jerked backward, barely dodging the bite. At the same moment, his right foot stamped the ground. He slid past the lizard's jaw into the shadow beneath its belly.
The heavenly eye locked on. The soft plate on its abdomen, right above the heart's position.
"Manifest deity. Slay the demon."
Su Xiaodao roared. The Erlang Shen avatar behind him swung its blade in sync. The three-pointed double-edged blade thrust upward from below. The blade finally pierced the soft plate, skewering the lizard's belly.
The ironclad lizard shrieked in agony, its massive body writhing wildly. The veins on Su Xiaodao's arms bulged, gripping the hilt. He forced it upward with a savage twist.
"Open up for this young master."
A huge gash was torn open in the first lizard's belly. Its massive body crashed to the ground.
But before Su Xiaodao could catch his breath, the second ironclad lizard had already charged from behind. It didn't attack Su Xiaodao directly. Instead, it veered, slamming hard into the half collapsed chemical storage tank beside them.
Jiang Xinyi's face paled slightly. "It's trying to blow the tank."
If that tank exploded, poison gas would flood the entire industrial park instantly.
Su Xiaodao snapped his head up. The golden light from his brow's heavenly eye blazed. "Trying to run? Stay right there for this young master."
He gripped the three-pointed double-edged blade with both hands, plunging it deep into the ground. The Erlang Shen avatar behind him solidified abruptly. A golden heavenly eye opened on the avatar's brow as well. Two beams of golden heavenly eye light converged in midair, instantly locking the second ironclad lizard in place.
"Heavenly eye. Bind the soul."
The second lizard's massive body suddenly stiffened, as if pinned by invisible chains. It struggled frantically. Its claws gouged deep trenches in the ground, but it couldn't break free from that golden light's hold.
Su Xiaodao's face rapidly turned pale. This move was a huge drain on him in his current state. Yet his eyes shone with terrifying excitement. He slowly raised his head, grinning fiercely.
"This blade sends you on your way."
Above, the sky. The black mist was violently torn apart by a golden edge. The phantom of an immense three-pointed double-edged blade, dozens of meters long, slowly emerged from the clouds. Golden light swirled around it. Its edge was like divine punishment. The very air in the industrial park seemed to freeze solid at that moment.
Su Xiaodao wrenched the blade from the ground. He swung it with all his might at the lizard.
"Manifest deity. Heavenly punishment."
The next second, the colossal blade phantom in the sky plummeted down.
Boom.
The golden blade shadow descended, crashing down upon the ironclad lizard's head. Its thick black armor shattered instantly. The massive beast's body was slammed into the ground. The earth cracked open a fissure dozens of meters long, sending rubble skyward.
Dust billowed. As the golden light faded, the level four iron armored lizard lay in a deep pit, motionless.