Chapter 20: Meat Mountain and the Dwarf
The flames shooting into the sky illuminated most of the street. Su Xiao did not linger near the Senate building. He brought Bubu Wang and headed toward the Right Imperial Manor. Having an alibi was important, so only Bubu Wang and Amu knew about this plan. Of course, when discussing it in the team channel, Beini had also seen it, but she had already run off somewhere to wander.
The Holy City was very quiet in the dead of night. Su Xiao walked slowly through an alley, with rats occasionally scurrying past in the darkness.
Bubu Wang, yawning continuously, followed behind Su Xiao. Suddenly, Bubu Wang bumped into Su Xiao's leg and looked up at him with a somewhat dazed expression.
A strange, rotten smell filled the alley. Su Xiao stopped in his tracks, his gaze fixed on the exit at the other end of the alley.
A cold wind dispersed the strange smell in the alley. Su Xiao placed one hand on the hilt of Dragon-Slaying Flash. The Black Dragon leather wrapped around the hilt felt smooth to the touch. This item was a gift from Lilim, and there was only one strip, which Su Xiao had wrapped around the hilt. According to Lilim, this Black Dragon leather had a significant origin; her great-grandfather had died in the mouth of this Abyss Prison Dragon, which was later besieged and killed by the Demon Race.
"Bubu, merge..."
Su Xiao's words were cut off halfway. Bubu Wang blinked. Just a moment ago, Su Xiao had suddenly 'disappeared'.
Bubu Wang immediately merged into the environment. It sidestepped to avoid any potential random attacks from the enemy. With a flick of its paw, a glass bottle as thick as a thumb appeared in its hand.
With a crack, the glass bottle shattered on the ground, and a cloud of white powder burst into the air.
Bubu Wang sniffed the air. It quickly determined that there was no spatial fracture or anything similar in this area. This meant Su Xiao hadn't been dragged into an alternate space, which was one of the most common techniques used by top-tier assassins.
Having confirmed there was no spatial fracture, Bubu Wang took out a ball of silver fluid and tossed it high into the air. The silver fluid grew wildly in mid-air, like tree roots, with one part wrapping around Bubu Wang's paw.
Bubu Wang pulled back with all its strength. With a sharp *crack*, the surrounding scenery seemed to be dragged backward, and the silver roots quickly dissipated.
This confirmed to Bubu that Su Xiao hadn't been teleported away by a teleportation array.
Su Xiao had suddenly 'disappeared', but Bubu Wang wasn't panicked. It knew panic wouldn't solve anything; finding the cause was the best approach.
Bubu Wang tried to contact Su Xiao through the team channel. At that moment, it discovered it couldn't open the adventure team channel at all.
Bubu Wang's tail perked up. It felt this situation wasn't simple. It was likely not Su Xiao who had the problem, but that it itself was trapped in an illusion or affected by some ability.
Thinking this, Bubu Wang gritted its teeth. It slightly lifted its paw, touching the ground with only a single pad. Upon closer inspection, a tiny metal flake the size of a grain of rice was stuck to the pad.
*Dzzz...*
Blue-white electric arcs crackled. Bubu Wang was jolted into an awkward dance on the spot. The scene before its eyes twisted, the surrounding buildings disappeared, and it found itself lying in a patch of knee-high weeds. A metal wire was wrapped around its hind leg – it was the Realm Severing Thread.
Bubu Wang jolted upright. It bit the Realm Severing Thread and tugged hard a few times.
*Zzzz~*
The Realm Severing Thread retracted. Bubu Wang followed the direction it was pulled and saw Su Xiao standing in the knee-high weeds, with no one else around.
Though Bubu Wang was confused, it immediately merged into the environment and quickly backed away.
Twenty meters from Bubu Wang, Su Xiao looked around. His experience was completely different from Bubu Wang's. Just moments ago, he had suddenly sensed a surge of space-time power. The previous alley had been pre-set with a trap, a spatial trap. If his perception was correct, it was driven by a dark-type eternal force.
That spatial trap had three effects: one, teleportation; two, perception shielding; three, temporary illusion creation.
The illusion was useless against Su Xiao; he ignored it directly. As soon as he stepped into the spatial trap, he felt something was wrong, but it was too late to retreat.
Clearly, an enemy had known Su Xiao would pass through that spot. This could only mean one thing: there was a spy beside Su Xiao, a spy from another faction.
Bubu Wang and Amu were immediately ruled out. The old divine stick and the King of Dull Hair were highly unlikely suspects. Zuo Si was suspicious, but he wasn't in the manor tonight. As for Wu Fu and the others, it was hard to say. These people were temporarily recruited by Su Xiao, so having one or two spies was perfectly normal.
Su Xiao was in the midst of a struggle for kingship, so the existence of a spy wasn't that important; it was inevitable. What mattered was how the enemy knew Su Xiao would assassinate Blumer tonight and set a trap on his return path.
Su Xiao's return path was random; he chose it entirely on a whim. So the enemy would never set just one trap. To teleport him outside the Holy City, the enemy might have prepared several, or even a dozen, traps.
But none of this mattered now. Whether it was a spy or a leak of information, it would have to wait until after dealing with the incoming assassins.
Rustling sounds came from nearby. Su Xiao turned his head and saw a tall figure walking out from under the moonlight. In the pale moonlight, Su Xiao identified it as a tall, fat man, nearly three meters tall, like a small mountain of flesh.
The small meat mountain had finger-thick iron chains wrapped around its head, deeply embedded into the flesh. Despite its obesity, the contours of muscles were clearly visible beneath the fat. A large cleaver, stained with blood and gore, glowed with a dark red luster under the moonlight. This cleaver was over two meters long, rectangular in shape, and a palm's width thick. Its blade was bright and exceptionally sharp.
"Ugh~"
A strange sound came from the throat of the meat mountain. Its small eyes, squeezed within the fat, gleamed with a fierce light.
"It was troublesome to find you, Duke Kukulin. Not staying in the Right Imperial Manor late at night, are you out for a stroll?"
A voice came from behind the meat mountain. Just as Su Xiao thought someone was behind it, a small, thin figure straightened up from the back of the meat mountain's neck.
Judging by the height of its torso, this was a dwarf. Most of its body was merged into the back of the meat mountain's neck, with several green conduits connecting it to the meat mountain.
"The master ordered us to take him alive."
This time, the voice came from behind Su Xiao. It was an old man leaning on a metal crutch, his face covered in age spots. He was at most one and a half meters tall.
There were only two assassins. Based on Su Xiao's combat experience, the old man behind him wouldn't be hard to deal with. As for the meat mountain + dwarf, that was a very strong pair, their strength perhaps not inferior to his own. The strong of this world were finally showing themselves. Compared to the assassins Blumer had sent, these were enemies that could truly threaten Su Xiao's life.
"Old Cripple, this Duke Kukulin is much stronger than you think."
The dwarf at the back of the meat mountain's neck spoke. He was different from most dwarves; he didn't have that disproportionate body ratio, just being relatively thin.
"Can't take him alive?"
"If we're fighting for our lives, killing him would be a good result. From now on, you focus on dealing with that dog. It's not an easy opponent either."
The dwarf looked at Su Xiao with a serious expression and even nodded slightly at him.
The dwarf felt a hint of respect for Su Xiao. A duke of such high status possessing this kind of strength wasn't something one could obtain through power alone.
"I am Baha of the Western Frontier, Duke. Let us fight amidst the blood, hehehe!"
The dwarf let out a wild and hearty laugh. The ground beneath the meat mountain's feet sank, and with a thunderous *boom*, it charged forward like a tank bearing down on Su Xiao.
The enemy was clearly a strength type, but Su Xiao didn't take a single step back. Practicing the blade arts meant advancing without retreat. If he lacked even that momentum, his blade arts training would have been in vain.
*Clang.*
A blade aura cut through the night. A large cleaver came crashing down vertically.
*Boom!*
The ground within a hundred meters was torn up, plant roots flew everywhere, and the fresh scent of soil filled the air.
Su Xiao gripped the hilt of Dragon-Slaying Flash with one hand, pressing the other against the spine of the blade. He blocked the descending cleaver.
*Whoosh!*
A green metal needle shot past his ear. The dwarf on the meat mountain's back held a biological conduit, and the large lump on the back of its head rapidly deflated.
"Heh, quick reflexes. But... the bee's stinger always hits its mark."
As the dwarf finished speaking, the green metal needle was already stabbing toward the back of Su Xiao's head.
*Pfft!*
Blood splattered. Exile pierced through the dwarf's head, stopping halfway through.
"Alalala, there's this too."
The dwarf's thoughts were clearly scrambled, but it wasn't dead. Bright red flesh buds grew from the wound on its head, quickly wrapping around Exile.
As if swallowing, the red flesh buds surged, forcibly pulling Exile into the dwarf's head, eventually stopping inside its chest cavity.
Su Xiao tried to split Exile, but it was entangled by a gelatinous substance. He decisively gave up. The enemy's regenerative ability was strong, and Exile's lethality was limited. Leaving it inside the enemy's body was also a decent option.