Book 4: Near Blood - 201: Acting
Su Chen frowned, staring intently at these human captives.
Their gazes were dull and lifeless, filled with hopelessness.
Su Chen said, “They’re living in this kind of environment?”
Bott, who was following behind him, replied, “These guys are all going to die anyways, and they’re also humans. Is there a need to give them better accommodations?”
Bott’s reply lacked any formality or courtesy.
That wasn’t too surprising.
As the person responsible for maintaining the arena, the Terror Lizard’s escape was entirely his fault.
Even though Su Chen had obtained Anubi’s praises because of this, Bott had still been punished.
The only reason he hadn’t been arrested on the spot was because Anubi was in a good mood and had shown him mercy.
Under these kinds of circumstances, how could Bott still speak politely with Su Chen, who was the one responsible for putting him in such an embarrassing situation?
In that sense, Kenwo’s insight was correct. Even though Su Chen’s tactics had allowed him to rapidly rise through the ranks, he had offended too many other Ravagers.
Su Chen however, didn’t seem to care in the slightest. “Only healthy, vigorous slaves can put on the most beautiful performance...... I’m planning on taking these humans with me. Do you have any problems with that?”
Bott shrugged. “No problems here. They belong to you already, seventy-six of them in total. Sign here and I will release them to you.”
Even though he detested Su Chen, Bott wouldn’t make any trouble for him. After all, Su Chen was now his superior, and a close subject of His Majesty.
He could only wait for an opportunity to arise where he could take revenge.
Of course, he had no idea that this day would never come.
Su Chen quickly signed his own name and brought the seventy-six captives away with him.
The gladiators had special ropes placed on their necks before they were loaded onto the carriages and taken away.
Su Chen requested for the carriages to be sent outside the city.
Bott asked, “Where is Sir Lontu planning on taking them?”
Su Chen said, “Of course it would be to find a suitable place to train them. What? Are you worried I would take advantage of this opportunity to set them free?”
Bott replied, “Of course not. In truth...... I would rather you do something like that.”
Su Chen chuckled. “That’s true. Unfortunately, it seems I can only disappoint.”
Bott replied snarkily, “It’s not a problem if you disappoint me. Just don’t disappoint His Majesty.”
Su Chen stared at him intently and didn’t say anything else. He motioned for the carriages to leave.
The carriages slowly left the gladiator arena, slowly proceeding along Gullan Castle’s main street. After leaving the city, they continued advancing through a forest before they came to a stop in front of a small hill.
Su Chen stopped the carriage procession. “You guys stay here. All of the human warriors will come with me up the mountain.”
“Sir Lontu!” a Ravager soldier said with some agitation.
“What? Are you worried about me?” Su Chen stared at that Ravager soldier. “Do you think that these humans would be able to kill me even if their shackles were taken off?”
As Su Chen spoke, he stretched out his palm, slamming it against a nearby boulder.
Bang!
The rock was immediately smashed into a fine powder.
Shattering boulders wasn’t anything too extraordinary, but turning a boulder into powder wasn’t something that could be accomplished with strength alone. The user needed to have impeccable control over Origin Energy. A Blood Boiling Realm human cultivator would have been able to achieve this result, but to the Ravagers, it could only be done by someone who had gone through at least three baptisms - in other words, a Light Shaking Realm existence.
Given how strong those humans were, the seventy-six captives would not be able to do anything to Su Chen at all.
The Ravager soldier replied respectfully, “Yes, sir!”
Su Chen brought all the human captives back up to the mountain.
Upon arriving at the top of the mountain, Su Chen stopped, turning his cold gaze at the soldiers around him.
He remained silent, causing those human soldiers to grow more and more anxious by the second.
One of the soldiers broke under the pressure and yelled, “Ravager, if you’re going to kill us, then kill us. I am not afraid of you!”
Su Chen said icily, “I brought you here not to kill you but to torment you. Right now, kneel and curse the human race
“Don’t even think about it!”
“You’re dreaming!”
“You can kill a soldier, but you cannot humiliate him!”
All of the soldiers began to howl and yell.
“Is that so? Since that’s the case, then I’ll start killing for you to see!” Su Chen suddenly attacked, placing his palm on a soldier’s heart.
The soldier spat out a mouthful of blood. He shook a few times before falling to the ground, his breathing stopped.
“If you kneel, you can live. Otherwise, you will die!” Su Chen said harshly.
“Don’t even think about it!” all the soldiers began to yell.
Su Chen’s figure flickered among them as a few of the fiercest soldiers toppled over following the repeated bangs of palm strikes.
Su Chen said darkly, “Kneel, now! As long as you are willing to betray your country and your race, you can continue to live. Not only so, but I will also give you freedom. You will be allowed to live under the name of a slave.”
Finally, someone could bear the fear no longer.
A soldier fell to his knees. “Don’t kill me! I am willing to swear allegiance to you! The Ravagers are mighty, and humans are shameless!”
“You bastard!”
“Don’t bow to him!”
“Get up! Don’t insult the dignity of us humans!”
The soldiers around them cursed vehemently, and there were even some soldiers who tried to pull them up, but Su Chen killed them on the spot with his palms.
Another two soldiers knelt as well.
The other soldiers retreated, full of anger and sorrow, leaving behind the comrades who had betrayed them.
They glared at Su Chen as if he was their mortal enemy.
Never surrender, even unto death.
“There’s still too few.” Su Chen shook his head with dissatisfaction. “So it seems like I was only able to get three slaves? Since that’s the case......”
He unleashed a barrage of palm strikes, and soldier after soldier died at his hands.
“Wait! I surrender as well!” A soldier began to yell as he knelt down.
“General Le!”
“General Le, you can’t!”
All of the soldiers began to cry out with grief.
The kneeling soldier crawled over to Su Chen, still on his knees. “Sir, I will agree to anything you demand of me. I only ask that you......”
Su Chen said, “You only ask that I what?”
General Le lowered his voice, making it hard to hear what he was saying.
Su Chen bent over to hear more clearly. General Le suddenly sprang up and roared, “I only ask that you die!”
He wrapped his hands around Su Chen’s throat as a violent burst of energy surged from his body. Even Su Chen was momentarily caught off guard. He was actually shoved off of the mountain, and him and General Le began to fall towards the ground below.
“General!”
The group of human soldiers began to yell loudly as they leapt forwards.
However, a scene which stunned them and filled them with despair suddenly appeared before their very eyes.
That damned Ravager actually flew back up, holding onto General Le.
He actually could fly!
Flying was even harder for Ravagers than for humans. They could only do it after undergoing five Origin Energy baptisms.
How was this Ravager that strong?
Everyone fell into the pit of despair.
In that instant, a soldier suddenly howled, “We cannot let him fly back up!”
He leapt forwards, hurtling towards Su Chen like a rock.”
“Yes, let’s go all out!” the soldiers began to yell as they leapt off the cliff one after another, descending towards Su Chen like meteors.
“Holy hell, you guys are really going at it now!” Su Chen cursed. As the soldiers came tumbling down from the sky, Su Chen made a motion with his arms. Suddenly, countless Air Tentacles appeared. With Su Chen’s current strength, it was no problem for him to make tens of them at once.
These tentacles began to wrap up the soldiers falling from the sky.
But as they continued to fall, Su Chen found that he actually had no way of catching them all.
Su Chen could only helplessly teleport to the top of the mountain and throw all of the soldiers he had caught inside, then barked, “Stay there for me!”
All of the soldiers froze immediately in place.
An instant later, his figure froze, and he reappeared at the very bottom of the cliff.
At the same time, the remaining soldiers were still tumbling through the sky.
Su Chen appeared directly beneath him. His Air Tentacles wiggled like those of an octopus, snagging the falling soldiers and flying back to the top of the mountain.
He wiped the sweat from his brow as he said, “Damn, thankfully I turned Whitetower Teleportation into a Natural Origin Skill. Otherwise, a whole bunch of them would have died! I need to be a bit more careful playing around like this in the future.”
As he spoke, he gestured, and all of the soldiers felt their consciousnesses tremble as they regained their ability to move.
General Le glared at Su Chen with rage. “You Ravager brigand, I’ll......”
“Alright, alright, General Le Feng. It was my fault, okay?” Su Chen interrupted him.
General Le froze. “You recognize me? Your voice...... how come it’s so familiar? And how do you know how to speak human language?”
An instant later, a shocking scene unfolded.
Su Chen reverted to his original appearance.
“Commander Su!?” the soldiers began to yell loudly.
Some of them had seen Su Chen before, while others hadn’t. But regardless of whether they had seen him before or not, they all were familiar with his name, and they knew that he was the one who had saved the Heavenly Might Battalion.
Upon finding out that it was him, everyone grew excited and agitated.
“You...... how are you here? No, you must be a fake!” General Le said emotionally.
Su Chen sighed. “When did you hear of any Ravagers that have camouflage abilities? Didn’t I save you once during the battle at Purple Mountain? And you repaid me by pushing me down the cliff?”
Chalei said with shock, “It really is you! It really is Commander Su! Commander Su is here to save us!”
Everyone began to cheer and yell.
“Shh! Quiet down.” Su Chen held up a finger to his lips. “There are still Ravagers below us.”
“I never expected Commander to be here. But why did you......” some soldiers asked, unable to understand.
Su Chen replied, “Are you surprised? If I revealed my true identity to you just because you were human soldiers, I would be the dummy, wouldn’t I? I would need to test who I can trust and who I cannot trust first, right?”
As he spoke, he waved his sleeves, and the soldiers he had killed earlier were once again standing on their feet.
With Su Chen’s skill, pulling the wool over their eyes was too easy.
Everyone present was stunned.
So it was just a test.
What Su Chen truly needed was soldiers who were truly brave and unafraid of death.
Everyone simultaneously turned to look at the three kneeling soldiers.
Obviously, they were the ones who had failed to pass the test.
The three soldiers had heavy expressions. “Commander, we......”
“I know.” Su Chen nodded. “I can understand your helplessness, and I do not blame you. Anyone who can endure until now under these kinds of circumstances is a real man. Even if you could not endure, I understand. But I hope that you can also understand my actions.”
The three soldiers stared at each other before kneeling. “We are willing to accept Commander’s discipline. We just hope that Commander will not allow our deaths to be in vain.”
Su Chen nodded. “Don’t worry. Your blood will not have flowed in vain.”
He raised his hand, then pressed his palm on them.
This time, it was no act.