novelraw Chapter 220: The Winding Yellow River
Chapter 220: The Winding Yellow River
It was a pure, absolute blackness.
After smashing the giant salt pillar, the bizarre arc of light showed not the slightest pause.
In mid-air, it traced a smooth, lethal arc in defiance of inertia, sweeping horizontally once more toward Lin Jie, who had just barely dodged the previous strike and hadn't yet regained his footing.
Too fast!
And too bizarre!
The attack trajectory of the arc was unlike any Western sword or saber technique Lin Jie knew, which emphasized raw power and speed.
It was more like a flowing art.
A dark dance with death as its ultimate purpose.
Lin Jie felt every hair on his body stand on end.
Though his brain, enhanced by the Mental Staircase, could barely track the black arc's path, his body couldn't keep up with his racing thoughts to execute any effective evasion or block.He could only watch helplessly as the crescent moon of death rapidly expanded in his pupils.
At the very moment the pitch-black arc was about to bisect him at the waist, a thunderous roar exploded from his side and rear.
"Don't even think about it!"
The veteran, pinned down by the cult's long-range fire, erupted the instant he saw Lin Jie was about to be hit.
He stopped evading and counterattacking, emerging from behind cover in a suicidal posture.
William had no time to aim his Church Holy Cannon at the ambusher hidden in the darkness.
He made a gamble of a shot, the kind of choice a marksman only makes in extreme situations.
He would intercept the attack with his bullet.
William's right hand pressed down swiftly, cycling the Winchester's lever.
A heavy alchemical round he had personally loaded chambered itself, a bullet designed specifically for heavy armor units, its projectile forged from high-density "hardened mithril".
Then, he pulled the trigger.
The mithril projectile screamed forth, striking the side of the black arc flying toward Lin Jie's waist at a tricky angle.
"CLANG!!!"
A piercing clash rang out, sounding like two high-speed sledgehammers colliding in mid-air.
Finally, the attack trajectory of the arc was interrupted by the gunshot, sent spinning uncontrollably away before striking the ground, leaving a shattered crater.
Seeing this, William breathed a sigh of relief, thinking the crisis was averted, but unfortunately, things did not go as hoped.
The pitch-black arc, deflected a second time, stopped dead and spun in mid-air, then shot toward William—who had just saved Lin Jie—at an even faster speed, catching him in a moment of undefended vulnerability!
"Damn it!"
Incredulity flashed in William's eyes.
He wanted to fire again to intercept, but the time needed to cycle the lever for a second shot was clearly insufficient.
He wanted to dodge, but the attack angle sealed off his evasion routes.
He had nowhere left to dodge!
The veteran ultimately abandoned all futile attempts at evasion and counterattack.
Using his last moments, he held the Church Holy Cannon across his chest like a shield, attempting to use the weapon itself to block the fatal blow.
The arc slammed heavily into the fore-end, crafted from Sanctified Oak.
The fore-end failed to offer effective resistance. Though it wasn't shattered, the force transmitted through the wood struck William's unprotected chest.
William let out a pained grunt, his body forced backward uncontrollably until he crashed heavily against a salt pillar and stopped.
"Pfft!"
Blood sprayed uncontrollably from his mouth.
He had successfully blocked the lethal strike, but the penetrating force, transmitted through the fore-end, had still grievously wounded his internal organs.
"William!!"
Lin Jie's eyes instantly reddened. Ignoring the potential for further attacks, he rushed toward William.
At that moment, a gentle, magnetic voice, all too familiar to him, rang out from the darkness where the ambusher hid, sounding like a friendly greeting from an old companion.
"Brother Lin's reaction speed truly brings Xilou a pleasant surprise every time I witness it."
Accompanied by unhurried footsteps.
An Eastern man dressed in a white silk robe, with handsome features and a refined, scholarly air, stepped out from the shadows of the darkness.
His face wore a perfect, warm, friendly, and apologetic smile, as if the fatal ambush that had just severely injured William was not his handiwork at all.
He was Yan Xilou.
"It's you?!"
Although Lin Jie had anticipated this possibility, when faced with the reality, he still couldn't suppress his shock and fury.
No matter what, he couldn't believe it.
A compatriot who just days ago had been sharing fine wine and the pain of their homeland with them.
A patriot who had spoken passionately about using foreign strength against foreigners to prolong the life of their native land.
Would now, in the most despicable and shameless manner, stab his own compatriot in the back.
"Why?!" Lin Jie demanded.
"Why?" Yan Xilou's smile turned somewhat peculiar, as if listening to a naive child asking a foolish question. "Brother Lin, we are both intelligent men. Do you truly believe that so-called nations and peoples are sacred shackles that can transcend interests and ideologies?"
"No, quite the opposite."
Yan Xilou shook his head, his eyes revealing a cold, ruthless calmness that felt alien to Lin Jie.
"In my view, a nation is merely a larger family. And a people is merely a colder, more abstract concept."
"When our family is on the verge of perishing from starvation, any sustenance that can fill our bellies and let us survive, regardless of whether that sustenance was once our friend or our compatriot..."
"It must become the food on our plate!"
"And you, Brother Lin." Yan Xilou's gaze fell upon Lin Jie's right hand, covered by the Vulture Goddess's mark. "And the unique spiritual essence you carry, originating from this Western world..."
"Are also a delicious 'dish' in my eyes."
As his words fell.
Yan Xilou's originally gentle, scholarly, and cultured demeanor abruptly transformed.
A terrifying aura erupted wildly from his slender frame, like a millennium-slumbering flood dragon awakening from the abyss.
He shed all pretense, finally revealing his true face.
Yan Xilou withdrew a rather peculiarly shaped traditional Chinese cold weapon from his wide sleeve.
It was a weapon composed of three sections, each about half a meter long, made of an unknown material that exhibited a murky, dark yellow hue, like the silt of the Yellow River.
"Brother Lin is well-read and knowledgeable. I presume you have also heard some of the less-than-glorious legends from our homeland concerning that river of yellow sand?"
He was in no hurry to attack, gently stroking the ancient weapon imbued with silt and resentment with his right hand.
"Legend has it that beneath its turbid waters lie not only the withered bones of successive dynasties but also a suppressed, unruly 'calamitous dragon'."
"And my Black Lotus predecessors were fortunate enough to sever its sinews and take its bones, supplementing them with 'riverbed dark iron' that had been steeped for three thousand years in the waters of the Yellow River and the resentment of countless souls..."
He slowly held the three-sectioned staff horizontally before his chest, wearing a confident expression.
"...Ultimately forging this inauspicious instrument, meant to cleanse the world of its stubborn stones."
"Its name is..."
"Nine-Bend Yellow River."
After uttering the final four words, Yan Xilou's figure abruptly vanished.
When he reappeared, he was already to the left and front of William, who had just struggled to his feet and was caught in the awkward state where his old strength was spent and new strength had yet to be born.
"Too slow."
Yan Xilou's voice, like a devil's whisper, sounded softly by William's ear.
Immediately, the three-sectioned staff, Nine-Bend Yellow River, in his hand seemed to come alive, moving with the grace and spirit of traditional Chinese martial arts forms like Xingyi and Bagua.
With a flick of his wrist, the first section of the staff shot out like a venomous dragon emerging from its cave, carrying a sharp, air-rending shriek and a pitch-black arc of light, smashing viciously toward William's face.
William's reaction was undeniably fast.
With a roar, he held the Church Holy Cannon horizontally before him, attempting to repeat his earlier success, using the sturdy gun body—constructed from both Sanctified Oak and Krupp alloy steel—to forcefully block this strike.
But what happened next overturned decades of combat common sense for this iron-blooded veteran.
At the very moment before the dark yellow staff section was about to collide head-on with the sturdy gun body...
The staff section actually "flowed" past it, as if it were a living, pliable liquid.
Yes, "flowed".
The instant the dark yellow staff section made contact with the Winchester's body, it slid along the gun body at an impossible angle like a boneless, spiritual snake.
Meanwhile, the slender chain connecting it instantly tightened under Yan Xilou's exquisitely controlled force.
Pulling the second and third sections along.
The momentum was like the ceaselessly flowing waters of the Yellow River encountering a stubborn reef, naturally forming a deadly whirlpool.
It bypassed William's impregnable frontal defense.
Striking William's completely unprotected right ribs from an impossible, visually deceptive, bizarre angle.
This was the core ability of Nine-Bend Yellow River!
It ignored all blocks. It was the nightmare of all trench warfare and close-quarters hunters.
"CRACK—"
William's powerful frame shuddered, and the scalp-numbing sound of fracturing bone emanated from his body.
Then, he dropped to one knee, having lost all ability to fight.