Chapter 146: First Battle, Upgraded Ice Cicada (3k)
“Boom!” A loud noise echoed, the sound of obstacles being knocked away.
The bus rushed past, and the few people gathered around were knocked away by the flying obstacles. Blood mist and dust rose, and the middle-aged man in military uniform watched the speeding bus with a displeased expression, cursing,
“Damn it! A mere Warrior Class is this arrogant? Once this is over, I’ll kill you!”
“Beep beep—”
“Who the hell is calling?”
After a moment, the phone rang again. The middle-aged man stopped his cleanup work, cursed again, and then opened his phone. When he saw the character “Er” on the screen.
He took a deep breath to calm himself slightly, forced an unpleasant smile, and dialed, asking in a low voice,
“Lord Shadow Two, have you intercepted that car? The road on Hua Wen’s side has been completely blown up, so there probably won’t be any new trafficked individuals. I’ve also started preparing for the cleanup.”
“What do you mean? You didn’t stop those fifty people?”
The other party was silent for a moment, suppressing something, and his voice was low.
“Didn’t you tell them to pass?”
The middle-aged man swallowed, continued to ask, and his heart began to feel uneasy at the news he had just received.
“Hiss—”
The person on the other end of the line gasped sharply, then cursed angrily, “When did I say that? You idiot, these are fifty hostages! If the Priest blames me later, I’ll also be in trouble!”
“No… Didn’t you say that to the infiltrator inside the bus?” The middle-aged man realized something was wrong, his face turning extremely pale, and he cursed Su Jiu, who was on the other end of the line, countless times in his heart.
“Say your grandma— Idiot, why aren’t you chasing them? If they get eaten by monsters or escape, bring me their heads!”
The call ended angrily, leaving the middle-aged man and several soldiers looking at each other.
“It must be that mole who exposed himself. He’s only a Warrior Class, so he was probably captured. Damn it, we were tricked! Hurry up and chase them! There are no Battle Generals among them, so we can definitely intercept them if we catch up.”
A moment later, the middle-aged man spoke with some irritation. A white light flashed, his face turned into a volcanic rock-like appearance, and faint sparks emanated from his body. He was clearly of Battle General Level strength. Without further hesitation, he suddenly shot up into the sky.
The remaining few looked at each other, then got into their vehicles and followed.
……
In the bus seat, Su Jiu tried to call the official number in Qinghai City, but it was always busy. She could only use her connections to send a message to Xiao Yu:
“Sister Yu, there’s been an Ancient God Sect attack here. Can you send someone to pick us up at the highway exit?”
“Rumble!”
She looked out the window at the dense blood mist, and in the distance, she could even see a giant flying monster passing by with a loud roar, its wing beats sounding like a large passenger plane, making people tremble with fear.
She withdrew her gaze, her delicate eyebrows furrowed slightly, and she couldn’t help but think:
“If Qinghai doesn’t send someone to meet us, and we get intercepted again… This blood mist should have some hallucinatory effects, which is why those monsters became strange after coming into contact with it.”
“And those soldiers from earlier, they were all wearing energy shields. It’s highly likely that this mist has a similar effect on humans. There are no Advanced Stage Warriors on the bus… there can’t be any problems with this bus.”
Su Jiu glanced at the clouds in the sky, the giant monster’s shadow continuously lowering, and the formations above were full of huge holes. She smiled faintly,
“It looks like I’ll have to do what Yu Yu sis did. That thing above is hostile. It’s a good time to try out the new version of the Ice Cicada Transformation.”
The surrounding passengers looked at Su Jiu with curiosity. To them, Su Jiu, a girl who looked like a cosplayer, was surprisingly able to make the “Old Smoker” yield.
“Is this girl in Hanfu from Zhiyuan High School? Her demeanor doesn’t seem like it?”
“Could she be a student from Lin Chuan High School in the neighboring city?”
“That makes sense. She gives me a sense of inexplicable pressure, and looking at the Captain of the Fox Hunting Team’s attitude, her strength might have reached terrifying Advanced Stage Warrior levels.”
Some students, seeing Su Jiu’s beautiful face under the car lights, praised her while also becoming curious about her identity. Zhiyuan High School didn’t have such students.
After all, as students who were considered among the worst, they had never met the so-called “Lord Su.”
The girl next to Su Jiu was exceptionally well-behaved, not daring to make any other movements, not even daring to play with her phone too much.
Su Jiu glanced around, finding it a bit amusing. She then asked the girl next to her to go call the “Old Smoker” over, as she needed to tell him something.
At this moment, the seductive woman followed the girl over. She scanned the surroundings, and her gaze fell on Su Jiu. With a respectful attitude, she asked, “Is there anything you need?”
This cold and gloomy girl was someone the captain had repeatedly warned her not to offend.
“Tell your captain that the bus cannot stop. Keep driving forward, and there’s no need to avoid some monsters,” Su Jiu said seriously. Before the seductive woman could reply, she pointed to the top of the bus and said faintly,
“A big one is coming down. If you don’t hurry, it might attract the attention of more Battle General Level monsters.”
Unexpectedly, they avoided the Ancient God Sect, but not the monsters.
“No need to avoid monsters? But that will cause the bus to flip…”
The seductive woman stopped mid-sentence as she noticed a white light flashing from Su Jiu, and the surrounding air began to freeze.
An biting cold surged from her body. The gloomy aura turned into a stern chill. Su Jiu’s human face transformed into that of a mermaid, complete with fins and scales… Her hair fluttered with the wind.
“Just do as I say.”
Su Jiu stood up slightly, smiled, and gently snapped her fingers. A water-blue shield appeared around the bus, with faint frost and snow drifting on it, giving it a dazzling appearance.
“What’s going on? What is that outside? Is it a skill?”
“It feels like Qi, but how can Qi wrap around a vehicle? Even the Lord from the Fox Hunting Team couldn’t do that!”
Before the people on the bus could react, they started shouting to each other. The seductive woman swallowed what she was about to say and looked into Su Jiu’s serene, ocean-like eyes.
“No, this is External Qi!”
The woman was shocked, and reverence gradually filled her eyes.
This was External Qi, and it already had elements drifting within it!? Such powerful External Qi, she was at least an Intermediate Battle General!
—Could that blood arrow have been made by this person? No wonder the captain kept reminding me to be respectful to her.
“Understood.”
Ignoring the confusion of the other passengers, the seductive woman nodded heavily, then asked with some worry, “Adult, what is the strength of that monster, and your energy shield…”
She didn’t ask aloud, but her meaning was clear.
Energy shields were very effective against those of lower levels, but against those of the same level, they could only withstand a few blows before shattering.
If the monster outside was of a higher level, Su Jiu, even as an Intermediate Battle General, wouldn’t be able to withstand it.
“It’s much stronger than that silly lion from before, but it hasn’t reached the standard of a Battle General Lord. My energy shield can only withstand about ten or so blows at most?”
Hearing this, Su Jiu smiled faintly and said, she took off the headphones from beside E Huo, grabbed its tail, and casually tossed it forward.
“Again, bad mommy!”
E Huo understood, grumbled dissatisfiedly, and with another white flash, its body transformed into a short sword covered in inscriptions. Su Jiu, in her flowing robes, held it in her hand.
With E Huo’s enhancement, her previously delicate aura instantly changed. She transformed from a spring river maiden into an ancient swordsman.
“Whoosh—”
Three thousand strands of black silk paired with Hanfu, fine wine accompanying a beauty, the sword blade by the swordsman’s side, Su Jiu seemed like a swordsman from the last century, her hair floating backward, exuding both grace and sharpness.
“So… I have to go out and cut it down.”
Opening the car window, the wind carrying frost surged in. Su Jiu smiled in the wind. Although she seemed to be smiling, it gave people an illusion of coldness and ruthlessness—a draw of the sword meant a fatal blow!
“Did this come from the awakening?”
Su Jiu felt her body was extraordinarily powerful, not just the life force, but she felt the frost energy on her had already surpassed the level of ordinary frost, entering a deeper, more profound cold.
She didn’t know if it was below zero, but it was more than twice as powerful as before.
One had to know that the various elemental attributes brought by bloodlines had levels. Once they reached a certain power or temperature, they were no longer ordinary natural elemental attributes but were classified as extraordinary level one.
There were a total of five levels of extraordinary, from level one to the highest level five, with each level crossing resulting in a multiple increase in power.
Moreover—this was not something that even a newly-promoted Battle General could come into contact with. It required reaching the Battle General level, then taking various treasures of the same attribute, or constantly honing it to achieve.
At this moment, even the ordinary people around understood what their conversation meant. Su Jiu was a Battle General, and the monster in the sky would treat them as food.
“Don’t worry, it’s just a stray bird.”
Su Jiu glanced at them, then supported herself with her hand and easily flipped out, standing steadily on the car roof. Her vertical pupils glowed with blue light, and her gaze penetrated the clouds to see a giant wing without feathers.
The owner of the wing had eyes emitting red light, greedily staring at the carriage where Su Jiu was. It was waiting, waiting for the place where the formation ahead was completely destroyed.
It was almost here, in a little while, it would have a good meal.
The red light in its eyes intensified.
