The First Order

Ren Xiaosu had believed it was unlikely he would ever again come across those four playing cards he had placed on Zong Cheng. But he did not find it sad and even hoped he would never have to see him again. When his new life began, he felt he no longer needed to deal with those people from the consortiums like Zong Cheng anymore.

As they had been carefully avoiding the other bandit gangs along the way, Ren Xiaosu was very sure no one noticed their whereabouts and therefore exposed it to Zong Cheng.

This was something Ren Xiaosu was most careful about, so there couldn’t possibly be any mistakes. He had even caught the spy who had infiltrated the group in order to keep their whereabouts a secret. He also decided they would have to leave the settlement they had grown familiar with. But despite all his efforts, their whereabouts had still been exposed.

Zong Cheng’s previous route should have taken him in the northeastern direction, so based on that logic, he should absolutely not be appearing here in the west, especially not in the vicinity of Mt. Kaolei.

Ren Xiaosu knew there could have been more than one spy hidden amid them. Moreover, the spy was so good they did not get discovered even after being put through so many observations and tests. That person could even be a former soldier of the Zong Consortium.

A second later, he heard a rumbling getting closer. It sounded like a large number of people were approaching the dune in front of them. Right after, a muffled explosion rang out.

Ren Xiaosu stood in place and asked, “Did y’all hear something?”

It sounded like something had exploded within a hard metal container before dragging its tail across the air. It then traveled in a crazy parabolic trajectory across the sky and headed towards Ren Xiaosu and the others.

Yang Xiaojin, who was still searching for a vantage point, suddenly turned to Ren Xiaosu and shouted, “Ren Xiaosu, it’s a mortar!”

With a loud boom, Ren Xiaosu stared blankly at the mortar shell that landed at Xu Jinyuan’s feet. Then he was blown into the air.

A large amount of mud and debris was blown off the ground. That female refugee who was in love with Xu Jinyuan ran in tears to the spot where he fell. She hugged his head and cried out to him, but the man she loved no longer responded to her.

There weren’t any farewells. In a war, there would hardly ever be any chance to say goodbye.

In fact, Xu Jinyuan was planning to marry her after they arrived at Mt. Kushui, but he just didn’t know how to say it to her.

In the middle of the night, he would lie down in the wilderness with his arm cushioning his head and ask Jin Lan, “I’m just a bandit. Do you think I’ll be a burden to her by marrying her?”

At the time, Jin Lan and the others laughed and teased Xu Jinyuan for having romantic thoughts.

But at this moment, Jin Lan and the others were stunned by the sight of their comrade falling. “Jinyuan!”

Ren Xiaosu yelled, “Don’t just stand there! Find cover!”

A fit of extreme rage blasted within him. That glimmer of hope that was just starting to bloom in his soul had been utterly wrecked by a mortar shell.

Ren Xiaosu had gotten a glimpse of that hope and their future, but the more beautiful those moments were, the more hopelessness and anger he felt now.

He had seen that hope before.

The enemy was prepared for the attack as they fired off more than one mortar round towards them. They were going all out to ensure that everyone here would die.

Yan Liuyuan immediately activated his nanomachines and retreated with Xiaoyu. The others also quickly looked for concealed spots on the ground to take cover from the shelling in an effort to reduce their casualties.

The mortar shells landed beside them one after another. Within a minute, dozens of bandits were either killed or wounded!

Ren Xiaosu conjured up the steam locomotive out of nothing behind him and yelled, “Everyone, hide in the train!”

But at this moment, another mortar shell landed, directly on the steam locomotive. Ren Xiaosu spat out a mouthful of blood. So it turned out that he would receive backlash whenever the train took damage! But Ren Xiaosu did not even bother wiping off the blood on his mouth. “Motherfucker.”

Ren Xiaosu mumbled, “Motherfucker!”

Motherfucking hell!

Ren Xiaosu suddenly charged in a frenzy towards where the mortars were fired from. He went past layer upon layer of smoke in the wilderness like an angry lion with a bloody spear stabbed in its body!

It only took 20 seconds for Ren Xiaosu to cover that short distance of a few hundred meters and come into view of the enemy’s defensive line. As it turned out, they were the Zong Consortium’s combat troops.

And there were over a 1,000 of them!

Should he go over? If he did, he might not be able to make it out. But if he did not, the mortars would kill everyone behind him.

Ren Xiaosu started charging again at the defensive line of over a 1,000 people. His lone figure on the desolate wasteland made him resemble a solitary boat in front of a towering tsunami. At the same time, it also made him look like the most brilliant star in the sky!

Ren Xiaosu roared, “Zong Cheng, don’t you want to kill me? I’m right here! Where are you!”

His voice reverberated like a large bell being struck. Ren Xiaosu subconsciously detonated the Explosive Poker cards, and two seconds later, a fireball suddenly shot up in the air at the rear of the defensive line!

That was the “gift” from Ren Xiaosu to Zong Cheng, but he hated himself a little at this moment as he thought, ‘Why didn’t I finish off this hyena from the north when I had the chance!’

Self-blame, remorse, and anger formed into a killing intent within him!

But after the Explosive Poker cards exploded, there were still no signs of chaos within the Zong Consortium’s defensive line. This told Ren Xiaosu that something was wrong. It was not the normal way a fighting force would react when its commander fell!

Zong Cheng was probably not dead yet!

How could Zong Cheng still be alive?!

Ren Xiaosu immediately summoned his shadow clone and instantly covered his entire body with the nanoarmor. The two figures abruptly changed their direction on the battlefield and dashed towards where the Explosive Poker cards had just gone off!

Without seeing for himself that Zong Cheng had really died, Ren Xiaosu would never be able to accept it.

A moment later, the shadow clone rushed in against the intense gunfire ahead of Ren Xiaosu and charged straight into the battlefield where over a 1,000 soldiers were holding the line!

The fearsome shadow clone forced a bloody path through the crowd for Ren Xiaosu to follow.

Amid the chaos, Ren Xiaosu held his black saber in one hand while using the other to constantly throw the grenades he had stored after pulling out the pins on them.

After he ran out of grenades to throw, he started throwing the Explosive Poker cards next. The gratitude tokens he had originally accumulated to around 900 were decreasing rapidly, but he showed no signs of hesitation.

No one was expecting Ren Xiaosu to barge into the defensive line alone, and they didn’t expect him to remain unharmed up til now either.

Ren Xiaosu started killing his way through the ranks while the surrounding Zong Consortium’s soldiers shot indiscriminately at him. However, they discovered that the armored monster and black shadow did not seem like they were affected by the attacks at all.

Someone attempted to aim an RPG at Ren Xiaosu, but Ren Xiaosu deliberately chose to attack where most people were congregated. If the RPG landed there, it would definitely injure many of their own troops!

Ren Xiaosu had single-handedly turned the entire Zong Consortium’s defenses upside down!

When Ren Xiaosu looked at his surroundings, the image of Xu Jinyuan’s smiling face suddenly appeared in his mind. Then the faces of those around him turned into demonic shadows.

But that did not matter as dawn was already here. The gods were about to rise!

In this brand new age of “The Rise of Gods,” superhumans were defined as those who could single-handedly go against a group of people as gods. If this definition held true, Ren Xiaosu was slowly approaching that definition regardless of how he managed to achieve it. Although, he was still a far ways away from achieving that.

The armor on Ren Xiaosu was riddled with holes as the power for it came close to depletion.

He rushed to the spot where the Explosive Poker cards had blown up, but to his surprise, Zong Cheng’s corpse wasn’t there. Ren Xiaosu roared, “Come and kill me!”