Chapter 381: Chen Ah Sheng
Shrouded Range, Chaos Heaven Mountain.
Shrouded Range was a difficult mountain range that was shrouded by fog all year long. The ordinary people wondered if there were celestials living in the mountain range, and warriors couldn’t help but look at it with dread. It was how Shrouded Range got its name, and why it was considered to be a highly strategic location.
No one knew if there were actually celestials living in the Shrouded Range, just like no one knew that the Chaos Heaven Brigands had turned it into their base. More accurately, they were based at its tallest mountain, the Chaos Heaven Mountain.
Chaos Heaven Mountain didn’t have a name. It was after the Chaos Heaven Brigands moved it that it got its name.
Of course, Chaos Heaven Mountain was just one of the Chaos Heaven Brigands’ many bases. Even a crafty rabbit has three burrows, much less a notorious brigand group like the Chaos Heaven Brigands. In fact, Chaos Heaven Brigands had a total of six such bases.
Chen Ah Sheng loved living at Chaos Heaven Mountain. It might even be his favorite place of all the places he had been to. It was because the fog and clouds gave it the impression of a paradise-on-earth, not to mention that there were legends of celestials living in this place. When he lived here, he felt like he was one of those immortal celestials. This was why Chen Ah Sheng would spend some time here at least once every year to satisfy his vanity.
But of course, he wasn’t a real celestial. He would grow old and die just like everyone else. Chen Ah Sheng was over fifty years old, but since he was a Half-Step Grandmaster, he had a lifespan of one hundred and twenty years. Technically, he wasn’t even halfway until the end yet.
He was a long, long away from dying from old age, but he could die from murder very soon. It was because a prey who was lucky enough to escape his grasp some time ago was also lucky enough to obtain a champion’s inheritance. He was able to enter the Trueman stage and become a Grandmaster.
As a result, the tables were turned, and this prey-turned-predator was currently hunting him, the bastard who had killed his father, mother, wife, son and friends. He had to use every trick in the book to evade his pursuer and escape to Chaos Heaven Mountain, and for the moment, he was safe.
That safety was temporary, however. The only way to end this endless pursuit was to kill his pursuer. But how could he, a Half-Step Grandmaster, kill a Grandmaster?
He could rally his troops and slowly ground his enemy to death via sheer numbers, but it wasn’t as good of a plan as it might sound. It wasn’t that he was unwilling to make some sacrifice—hell he would sacrifice his whole brigand group if it meant killing his enemy. After all, he was the soul of the Chaos Heaven Brigands, not his people. So long as he was still alive, the Chaos Heaven Brigands would always rise again.
The problem was that his enemy was hardly a mindless puppet. It was entirely possible that he would run away as soon as he found the situation unfavorable, and neither Chen Ah Sheng nor his troops possessed the strength to stop him. Worse, he would have sacrificed his men for nothing.
No, the only way he could kill his opponent and end his threat once and for all was to become a Grandmaster as well. Only then would his numbers advantage actually mean something. That was why he was hiding here in Chaos Heaven Mountain. He would turn the people in the nearby village, Red Sand Village into Human Pills. Then, he would eat those pills and enter the Trueman stage in one fell swoop.
Now, the Human Pills were almost complete. Just two more days, and he would become a Grandmaster.
But today, Chen Ah Sheng wasn’t happy at all. It was because he had been plagued by a faint sense of unease the whole day. He kept feeling like something bad was about to happen, but he couldn’t pinpoint the source of that feeling.
“Is it because of the Human Pills?” He muttered to himself. He didn’t think that his unease was just baseless worry. At a certain warrior, a warrior could intuit the workings of fate and perceive dangers. Some people called it the sixth or seventh sense.
In fact, when someone became a Sage and built the World Bridge, merging their mind with heaven and earth, they could even perceive someone calling their name from hundreds and hundreds of kilometers away.
“Fang Wei!” Chen Ah Sheng looked at the door and shouted.
“Boss?” A brawny man with a square face stepped in.
“I want you to take some men and pay Red Sand Village a visit,” Chen Ah Sheng ordered.
The Human Pills were a matter of life and death. He couldn’t allow anything to go wrong.
“Red Sand Village? I thought Fengsan’s watching the place? You’re worrying too much, boss.” Fang Wei said uncaringly.
“Just do as I say!” Chen Ah Sheng roared. Chen Ah Sheng had a weak-sounding name, but the man himself was anything but weak. Standing at 2.3 meters long, he was a hairy man with purplish black skin, a wide nose and a large mouth that resembled a lion’s. Fang Wei was a tall, muscular adult, but he looked like a child compared to Chen Ah Sheng. That was why the entire house shook, and Fang Wei stumbled away from him with obvious terror when Chen Ah Sheng roared.
“Y-Yes, boss! I’ll head over immediately!” Fang Wei replied in a hurry. He might be one of the Eight Vajrapanis of the Chaos Heaven Brigands, but he knew that he was barely any different from the small fries in Chen Ah Sheng’s eyes. If he wanted to, he could’ve killed them all without batting an eyelid.
Before Fang Wei took his leave, he suddenly recalled something and said, “Oh right, your Child Soup is ready, boss. Would you like it to be served now, or...?”
The Child Soup was, as its name might imply, a soup made from a child's body. First, the child was disemboweled, and their intestines were removed. Then, their stomachs were filled with rice, water, and condiments. The body was then placed inside a steamer and steamed for a full day.
The meal must be eaten hot, or the taste would suffer. Chen Ah Sheng was the one who had invented this cooking method, of course. In fact, the Child Soup was his favorite dish.
“What are you waiting for? Bring it up already!” Chen Ah Sheng broke into a grin for the first time of the day. Nothing was more important than food.
“Enemy attack! Enemy attack!”
It was at this moment a bunch of noises came from outside.
“We are being attacked! Kill them all, brothers!”
“Go get them, brothers!”
“Kill!”
“Kill!”
The battle cries sounded like it was coming from everywhere.
“What’s going on?” Chen Ah Sheng’s heart skipped a beat as he rushed out of the building. He immediately saw fire, yin wind, and chaos breaking out not far away from him. The sounds of screaming and clashing blades seemed like it would never end.
“This yin qi is no joke.” Chen Ah Sheng frowned and bent his knees a little. The ground beneath his feet cracked, and he leaped into the air. He soon descended at the center of the battlefield like a meteor.
Boom!
A large pit appeared where Chen Ah Sheng had landed. Such was the force of his descent that the brigands and yin soldiers within the area were killed instantly.
“What’s going on?” roared Chen Ah Sheng while looking around. His eyes were as round as bells, and his bloodthirst formed a scarlet wind around him.
“Boss, they discovered the secret!” A man whose face was covered in blood yelled angrily.
Chen Ah Sheng looked at the speaker and recognized them immediately. He was one of his Eight Vajrapanis, the “Patrolling Vajrapani” Jiang Chongshan.
Inside the yin wind, Corpse Child was sitting on the one-horned giant’s shoulder. He looked at the Heartless Brain and asked, “Is it him?”
“It’s him,” the Heartless Brain confirmed while looking straight at Jiang Chongshan.
“No wonder a small fry like him dared to steal from my Ghost Tower! It was because someone was following orders!” Corpse Child sneered and looked at Chen Ah Sheng. “You are an audacious man!”
“You guys are pretty audacious yourselves. How dare you ruin my plan!” Chen Ah Sheng looked livid. The Human Pills were a matter of life and death after all. Now that it was found out, there was a huge chance his plan was already ruined. How could he not be furious by this?
If it wasn’t for the fact that the two ghosts were pretty strong, he would’ve charged forward and destroyed them already. A person’s courage only weakens with age.
“Good. It looks like you’re definitely the man behind it all,” Corpse Child said indifferently.
“So what if I am?” Chen Ah Sheng roared.
“Then you die, of course,” Corpse Child replied.
“You think the two of you can kill me?” Chen Ah Sheng scoffed.
“Why are you wasting your breath on them, boss? These idiots are foolish enough to attack us in our base! This is our chance to wipe them all out!” Jiang Chongshan shouted.
Boom! Boom!
Jiang Chongshan had just finished when suddenly, a series of explosions rippled throughout Chaos Heaven Mountain. Fire and smoke immediately filled the sky.
“Boss, that’s... that’s the direction of the granary and treasury!” Jiang Chongshan looked like he might faint from sheer anger.
“Boss, watch out!”
Chen Ah Sheng was still distracted by the sudden news when Jiang Chongshan blocked in front of him. Before he could figure out what was going on, Jiang Chongshan’s chest abruptly caved in, and all four of his limbs were bent at a crooked angle. Bright red blood jetted out of his orifices like fountains.
The next moment, Jiang Chongshan’s head was turned a hundred and eighty degrees around and facing toward Chen Ah Sheng. During his final moments, Jiang Chongshan gasped, “Take care... boss...”
Then, he crumpled on the ground and died just like that.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH! I’M GOING TO KILL ALL OF YOU!”
The death of Jiang Chongshan, the destruction of his granary and treasury, and the ruination of his Human Pills and years of planning finally pushed Chen Ah Sheng beyond the brink. He let out a beastial roar of rage and hatred and charged straight toward Corpse Child.
Chen Ah Sheng was like a rampaging beast. The yin soldiers might as well be made of paper as he ran right through them without pause.
“I’ll fight you!” Earth Ghost yelled and lifted his palm. A massive saber with a ghost head at the hilt extended out of the ground.
“Die!”
Earth Ghost grabbed the saber with both hands, took one step forward, and executed an upward swing.
A saber was a forceful weapon. Most sabersmen attacked their enemies with downward swings or diagonal slashes as if they would split heaven and earth in half. Few would execute an upward swing because it was a lot weaker.
Earth Ghost’s attack didn’t split the sky, but it did lift the earth, literally. The ground beneath his foot rippled and grew taller and taller as it surged toward Chen Ah Sheng like a tidal wave. It reached the height of thirty meters in just the blink of an eye, and from Chen Ah Sheng’s point of view, it looked like it would cover up the sky itself.
Chen Ah Sheng was unafraid, however. His energies condensed tightly around his body, he slammed his shoulder against the wave of earth. The false sky shattered into smithereens just like that.
Rumble!
After the wave of earth was destroyed, Chen Ah Sheng resumed his charge, but with his right shoulder still pointed toward the front. His footsteps looked like that of a drunkard’s, but he wasn’t falling on his feet.
Caught off guard by Chen Ah Sheng’s strength, Earth Ghost had no choice but to hold his saber defensively in front of his chest. A large amount of yin qi gathered around the saber, and the howls of a hundred ghosts could be heard from it.
The next moment, Chen Ah Sheng’s shoulder slammed into the pool of yin qi. Chen Ah Sheng was massive, but he was like a pebble dropped in a pool of water. All his attack did was create a ripple.
But whoever said a ripple couldn’t destroy a pool? The pool of yin qi, the saber and Earth Ghost himself abruptly scattered into pieces.
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