Chapter 71: Retreat to the Stone Bridge
Looking at Liuli's corpse, Su Xiao couldn't help but wonder why the cute girls he encountered were always enemies. Others met friendly ones who offered help and even generous benefits, but the cute girls he met—six out of ten wanted to kill him, and the remaining four sensed he was too strong and fled early.
Faced with this situation, Su Xiao couldn't help but reflect. Perhaps it was a matter of his conduct style. However, he had no intention of changing his ways.
An enemy was an enemy, regardless of beauty or ugliness, status high or low. All were equal. Though, when encountering exceptionally ugly enemies, Su Xiao couldn't resist hacking a few extra times—like that Grudge Orphan, Siu, with his bloody, mangled bones, setting a new standard for hideousness.
Having eliminated Liuli's team, Su Xiao planned to continue his "old trade"—assassinating healing-type or support-type Contractors.
But as he approached the battlefield, he sensed trouble. The Apocalypse Paradise side had too many healing-type Contractors, and they seemed on the verge of breaking through the Second District. Before the Second District fell, Su Xiao had to reunite with his own main force.
With the number of healing-type Contractors several times greater, it was already remarkable that the Reincarnation Paradise side had held the Second District for so long. The main reason was that Reincarnation Paradise Contractors fought like a bunch of madmen and psychopaths, with no concept of retreat or escape. Either kill them, or abandon the assault.
After 15 large-scale offensives, the Apocalypse Paradise side, leveraging their numerical advantage and abundance of healers, finally saw hope of breaking through the Second District.
...
Deep within the Second District, behind a stone wall, a dog's head poked out from a crack—it was Bubu Wang.
To reunite with his allies, Su Xiao couldn't simply charge in like during the Empire versus Tribe war. That would be suicide. Facing a siege of over a hundred Second Rank Contractors meant certain death.
Fortunately, Bubu Wang could scout ahead. If discovered, he could pretend to be a statue or even infiltrate the enemy lines.
Under Bubu Wang's cover, Su Xiao avoided many Apocalypse Paradise Contractors.
Half an hour later, Su Xiao saw dozens of Contractors locked in combat ahead. This was already the edge of the battlefield.
"Five seconds. Follow me and charge."
Su Xiao patted Bubu Wang's head and began counting in his mind.
At the five-second mark, Su Xiao suddenly burst forward, sprinting toward several Apocalypse Paradise Contractors whose backs were turned to him.
After the battle began, both sides had clear markers. Reincarnation Paradise Contractors had a red light dot floating above their heads, while Apocalypse Paradise Contractors had a green one. This feature was obvious. If someone used stealth skills, the dot would also become invisible, but it couldn't be turned off and only disappeared upon the Contractor's death.
When Su Xiao suddenly charged out, the red dot above him was extremely dark. The more enemies killed, the deeper the color. At this moment, his dot was a deep crimson, indicating he had slain many Apocalypse Paradise Contractors.
Su Xiao's sudden appearance behind several Apocalypse Paradise Contractors stunned those engaged in combat. Upon seeing the color of Su Xiao's dot, an energy arrow immediately shot toward him.
After his fight with Lanjue, Su Xiao had an aversion to all arrow-shaped attacks. He instinctively dodged, but the energy arrow was too fast, hitting him instantly.
[Prompt: You are affected by 'Heart-Seizing Arrow.' Charm Attribute judgment in progress... Intelligence Attribute judgment in progress...]
[Intelligence Attribute judgment passed.]
[Charm Attribute judgment failed.]
[Prompt: You will be charmed for 1.6 seconds.]
[Prompt: Blade Master Lv.30 additional ability 'Mind Blade' activated. You ignore this control effect.]
...
After the energy arrow hit Su Xiao, over a dozen ranged attackers prepared to focus fire on him. However, Su Xiao wasn't controlled at all. Instead, he rushed behind a melee fighter and swung his blade.
Before being struck, this poor melee fighter had only 32% health remaining. One slash later, he didn't die from Su Xiao's blade edge but from the terrifying True Damage of Azure Steel Shadow + Demon Mark.
A breakthrough appeared ahead. Su Xiao charged into his own ranks, with Bubu Wang following closely. Everyone's target was Su Xiao, ignoring Bubu Wang entirely.
Su Xiao rushed straight out of the Second District, arriving near the stone bridge, temporarily safe.
Several Contractors guarding the stone bridge marveled at the deep crimson dot above Su Xiao's head.
"Brother, how many have you killed?"
"Forgot."
Su Xiao had indeed forgotten. He only knew he had killed many healing-type and support-type Contractors, then wiped out Liuli's team.
Su Xiao walked toward the Twilight Palace to rest for a while.
...
One person must hate Su Xiao to the core right now—Xi. Not only had Su Xiao killed many healing and support Contractors, but he had also slain her sister. That was a blood feud.
However, Xi had no time to hate Su Xiao at the moment. The magic lance knight wielding a flaming spear before her was difficult to deal with. His abilities somewhat countered hers.
Crystal had a high melting point, but the magic lance in this knight's hands exceeded that temperature.
Although Yan Chen countered Xi, his condition wasn't good. Several spots on his chest had crystallized, and most of his left arm was crystallized, brittle to the touch.
With ability advantage, Yan Chen had been suppressing Xi. But after half an hour of battle, when he used his ultimate move, he discovered this woman could actually resurrect—on the spot! At that moment, Yan Chen's mood could only be described as "WTF."
"Already died once. A cat's phantom appears upon resurrection, restoring her state to over 80%. Tough to deal with."
Yan Chen knew dragging this out wouldn't work. Enchanting his magic lance with fire attribute continuously consumed mana, and he didn't have much left.
"Pull back. Retreat to the stone bridge."
Yan Chen ordered through the war channel, leading his people to fall back.
Strangely, Xi didn't pursue. Instead, she smiled.
"Perhaps this meeting is our farewell."
Xi's words puzzled Yan Chen, but this was a good opportunity to retreat to the stone bridge. He temporarily ignored the stinging pain from the crystallized areas.
Soon, the Reincarnation Paradise Contractors retreated to the three stone bridges. Now they only needed to defend these bridges and guard against flying-type Contractors, greatly reducing pressure.
The Apocalypse Paradise Contractors stationed themselves within the Second District maze, seemingly preparing to use it as their base camp.
After a round of chaotic fighting, 658 Reincarnation Paradise Contractors remained alive, with 137 killed. The Apocalypse Paradise side had 783 alive, with 202 killed.
This casualty ratio was unfavorable for the Apocalypse Paradise side, especially given their numerical advantage and several times more healing Contractors.
Xi held a list—a battle report obtained through perception-type Contractors.
"Too many casualties."
Xi sighed. It wasn't that she deeply mourned her fallen subordinates, but she worried about one thing: too many casualties might cause a large number of Contractors to abandon the mission.
Xi's gaze swept around. Some Contractors sat leaning against various parts of the maze, some with vacant eyes, some lighting cigarettes and smoking silently, not even noticing they had lit the wrong end.
"Xi, given the current situation, we're not without hope. In fact, our chances are good. This terrain is perfect for that thing..."
A female gunner stepped forward.
"I know."
Xi responded casually, then turned and walked deeper into the maze. When alone, she leaned against a stone pillar.
Drip, drip...
Crystalline droplets fell. Xi's sister was dead, killed in the war.
When Xi smiled, others laughed along. When she wept, she could only cry alone. Such was the burden of a leader.
"Liuli, rest in peace. Perhaps one day I'll come to keep you company. But before that, I must win this war. You can't die in vain. Absolutely not. To deal with madmen, you need even crazier methods."
Xi turned and walked away, her eyes bright, as if the tears against the stone pillar had been an illusion. She didn't notice the faint blackness appearing within the floating crystals beside her.