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Novel: [Night Without Borders]
Chapter 16: [Eliminating the Enemy]
Author: [Chen Dong]
Translator: [Shadow Knight AK]
Editor: [Shadow Knight AK]
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The Snow Ape was cleaved in two with a single strike, a sight that sent a chill down Shao Chengfeng and Feng Yi'an's spines.
They instinctively retreated, their doubts about whether their Team Leader could truly defeat him resurfacing.
Fu Entao's expression shifted slightly, but his attack remained unaffected.
Seizing the opening Qin Ming had created by sidestepping the Snow Ape's attack, his gleaming longsword sliced through the wind and snow, aiming for a horizontal cut across Qin Ming's waist with immense force.
As if anticipating the move, Qin Ming raised his left hand, holding his spear behind him in a defensive posture, back facing Fu Entao.
Then, with a leap, he used the crushing blow of Fu Entao's sword against the spear shaft to propel himself forward.
An ordinary person wouldn't dare attempt such a maneuver. Even if they weren't instantly cleaved in two, the sheer force of the impact would leave them severely injured, possibly even coughing up blood.
Qin Ming, however, remained unharmed.
With a single bound, he closed the distance to his target.
The burly Mountain Patrolman's hair stood on end. It was clear the other man was coming for him, moving with the ferocity of a Giant Beast.
As Qin Ming landed, a blinding blade of light flashed before his eyes.
He immediately swung his own blade in defense, intending to meet the attack head-on.
But in an instant, he realized he could barely maintain his grip on the hilt.
The other man's strength was simply too overwhelming.
Two brief, violent clashes were enough to split the soft flesh between his fingers, causing blood to gush out and stain the hilt of his blade.
He could no longer hold his sword.
"Pfft!"
Reflected in the light of the Fire Spring, a brilliant blade flashed through the air, severing his head.
His headless body crashed to the ground with a thud.
Qin Ming spun around, using his iron spear to block Fu Entao's long blade.
He then turned his murderous gaze on Feng Yi'an and Shao Chengfeng.
The two men were terrified.
They were usually ruthless, their hearts as cold and cunning as jackals, always scheming and resorting to underhanded tactics.
But this young man was too brutal.
Without a word, he had charged in and killed, sending shivers down their spines.
Fu Entao's heart was also clouded with dread.
The pressure exerted by this Second Awakened youth was immense. Every thrust of his spear, every slash of his blade, left his arm numb.
He desperately wanted to flee, to escape into the dark depths of the mountain forest.
But he feared that turning his back on his opponent would leave him vulnerable to a fatal follow-up attack.
Qin Ming spoke: "There are seven heads to be taken at the mountain stronghold. Four have already fallen. That leaves only the three of you."
Fu Entao froze, his face darkening. This youth had grouped the Golden Mastiff, the Snow Ape, and them together, treating them as equals to two beasts?
Shao Chengfeng and Feng Yi'an gripped their iron spears and long saber tightly. If anyone dared to insult them like this in normal times, they'd be courting death.
Qin Ming was deliberately trying to provoke them, sensing that the three were wavering and might be considering fleeing.
He feared he wouldn't be able to catch up to Fu Entao, who had undergone Second Awakening.
As expected, the shadow of doubt that had just flickered in Fu Entao's mind vanished, replaced by burning fury.
Even the most senior Team Leaders of other Mountain Patrol Groups in this area wouldn't dare humiliate him like this.
Fu Entao had spent years cultivating, on the verge of breaking through to the next level, his fingers already brushing the threshold.
"Is he that Qin Ming from Twin Tree Village?" Fu Entao asked the two men behind him.
Earlier, when they had discussed the Blood Bamboo Forest, Feng Yi'an and Shao Chengfeng had both mentioned Qin Ming, intending to use the young man with a Golden Foundation to scout the path and then eliminate him.
"Its him," Feng Yi'an, the bearded man, nodded.
Fu Entao nodded in return, then spoke coldly: "Fine. After this, we'll slaughter Twin Tree Village. Leave no man, woman, or child alive. During this special period, after the Mountain Sweep Operation begins, it's only natural for an unexpected 'Named Beast' to wander out of the deep mountains and massacre the village."
The smile he revealed was cold, as if tinged with blood.
He slowly raised his long blade.
Qin Ming remained unprovoked.
He wanted to stir his opponent's emotions, so they wouldn't lose their fighting spirit and flee in the short term.
He added fuel to the fire, saying, "Wasn't what I said about you earlier true? Chi Xia City pays you quite a lot, and the villagers respects you. They'd rather see their Fire Fields yield less than refuse to help the Mountain Patrol Group plant Black Moon Medicine Herb."
"But how have you repaid them?"
"You've drained the pond to catch the fish, sucked the essence from their bones, and greedily devoured all the Spiritual essence from the Fire Spring, regardless of how many people starve to death in the coming famine."
"You've even callously murdered innocent villagers to intimidate and deter others."
"In your eyes, their lives are worth less than a roe deer, far less than your pampered Golden Mastiffs."
"Do you even possess a shred of humanity?"
"Am I wrong to compare you to vicious dogs and Snow Apes?"
"You are far more dangerous than they are."
"Think of the Mountain Patrol Group's previous Old Group Leader and the responsible Mountain Patrolmen in other teams."
"Compared to them, you are utterly unworthy to stand beside them."
Qin Ming spoke calmly, without passion or anger, his voice barely raised above a whisper.
This revelation caused Fu Entao's hand, gripping his blade, to tense with bulging veins.
He remained silent, instead advancing aggressively.
Even Feng Yi'an and Shao Chengfeng radiated murderous intent, itching to eliminate this calm-spoken youth who had pierced their hearts with his words.
Qin Ming struck first.
With a single hand, he wielded the heavy iron spear as if it were an extension of his arm.
The spearhead flashed, leaving afterimages that stirred up the swirling snow.
When Fu Entao dodged, the spearhead pierced a bowl-thick larch tree behind him.
Qin Ming gripped the shaft and swung it with a slight force, causing the trunk to snap with a loud crack.
Immediately, the wood-chopping knife in his other hand followed suit.
In a flash, the space between them was filled with a dense web of blade light. Their exchange was incredibly dangerous, leaving a trail of fallen trees in their wake, the destruction staggering.
As they fought near the Fire Spring, a massive wooden cabin exploded into splinters under their blades with a resounding boom.
The nearly two-meter-tall Fu Entao, once a figure of imposing presence, now gasped for breath.
Mist steamed from his naturally curled hair.
He was terrified.
His body was exhausted, his arms numb from the tremors, yet his opponent remained as fierce as ever.
If Qin Ming hadn't been fast enough, he would have been defeated long ago.
He sensed something was amiss with his opponent's speed and realized his own advantage.
At that moment, his opportunity arrived.
While Qin Ming was thrusting his spear and swinging his knife, Feng Yi'an and Shao Chengfeng unleashed their full power, striking suddenly.
"Clang!"
A piercing clash of steel erupted as Qin Ming blocked Shao Chengfeng's iron spear with his knife and swiftly knocked Feng Yi'an's long saber aside with the back of his blade.
At that moment, Fu Entao resembled a human-shaped tiger wolf, his ferocity unmatched.
His hair whipped wildly in the snowstorm, his eyes sharpened to an icy glare.
Gripping his long saber with both hands, he unleashed a relentless barrage of strikes, each blow delivered with full force.
He noticed that Qin Ming's grip on the iron spear with one hand had weakened, his strength clearly diminished, as if he were on the verge of being overwhelmed.
"Give it everything you've got and surround him!" he roared.
Qin Ming fended off the other two with his cleaver, while Fu Entao's relentless saber strikes had suppressed his left-hand iron spear, leaving him looking precarious.
On several occasions, in the face of deadly exchanges, Qin Ming chose a mutually destructive strategy.
He allowed Fu Entao's long saber to cleave down, yet his spear tip continued to thrust forward, forcing his opponent to retreat.
Fu Entao revealed a cruel smile.
He wasn't afraid of anyone when it came to ruthlessness.
With a sudden leap forward, he focused solely on avoiding vital areas of his upper body, swinging his gleaming longsword down at Qin Ming in a vertical slash.
Simultaneously, Feng Yi'an and Shao Chengfeng's faces twisted into savage grins.
Their coordinated attack sealed off Qin Ming's escape routes.
With longsword and iron spear leveled, Qin Ming's wood-chopping knife could only be used to parry their onslaught.
Unable to retreat or dodge Fu Entao's descending blade, Qin Ming made an instant decision.
He accelerated forward, too late to raise his spear. Its trajectory remained unchanged as it plunged into Fu Entao's thigh, piercing completely through.
Though Fu Entao's face twitched, his expression hardened further.
In this desperate exchange of wounds, he had only lost a leg.
His longsword, still arcing through the air, could cleave his opponent in two.
At this critical moment, Qin Ming's right hand was still occupied with defending against the other two attackers.
He abandoned his iron spear, raising his left arm to meet the razor-sharp blade head-on.
Fu Entao sneered contemptuously. "With a strike like that, I'd sever both his arm and the man himself."
Feng Yi'an and Shao Chengfeng chuckled as well. No one understood better than they how terrifying a two-meter-tall Team Leader's cleaving strike could be.
They could almost see the bloody scene unfolding before them.
But then, a sharp clang echoed, accompanied by a grating metal-on-metal sound.
The reality was far different from their expectations.
Qin Ming's outer garment shattered, revealing the armor exclusive to Mountain Patrol Group members.
And he wasn't wearing just one layer.
While this armor wasn't as refined as Team Leader Fu Entao's, Qin Ming had layered it three times, which was more than enough to deflect the blade.
If it weren't for the added bulk, Qin Ming might have even donned the armor of the four men he'd killed at the foot of the mountain.
With a thud, Fu Entao landed awkwardly from mid-air, stumbling as his thigh was pierced.
The iron spear remained lodged in his leg, and blood gushed forth.
He could no longer stand.
Feng Yi'an turned and fled without hesitation, his decisiveness absolute.
He knew the entire Mountain Patrol Group was likely doomed.
Shao Chengfeng realized the youth's earlier slump had been a deliberate ploy. He immediately turned and fled as well.
Qin Ming picked up an iron spear from the ground, leaped into the air, and hurled it with all his might.
At such close range, it was a guaranteed hit.
The spear shot through the air, piercing Feng Yi'an's back from above and pinning him to the ground with a sickening thud.
"Aaaah..." Feng Yi'an cried out in agony, unable to die instantly.
He struggled in vain, pinned to the spot.
The moment Qin Ming landed, he pursued the other fleeing figure.
His speed was slightly inferior to Fu Entao's, but catching Shao Chengfeng was effortless.
Shao Chengfeng wouldn't surrender without a fight.
He turned and wielded his iron spear in a desperate counterattack, but it was futile.
Qin Ming's blade severed his right arm.
The iron spear clattered to the ground.
Qin Ming picked it up and, without mercy, pinned Shao Chengfeng to the spot with the long spear as well.
The ground around them was instantly stained crimson.
Qin Ming stood in the center of the arena and spoke: "If you hadn't tried to escape and had fought me to the death right here, I believe I would have eliminated you all long ago. But I had to split my attention, fearing that one of you might slip away. Even if a single one of you had escaped, it would have meant the failure of this Mountain Sweep Operation."
"You..." Fu Entao leaned on his longsword for support, nearly spitting up blood in his fury.
He thought Qin Ming was spouting nonsense.
"Fighting you all while distracted was indeed challenging, but I'm still relatively new to my awakening, so it's understandable," Qin Ming said, reviewing the battle.
"What?!" Fu Entao's expression froze, his heart trembling.
He couldn't believe Qin Ming was a first awakener.
He refused to accept such a reality.
"So you truly haven't undergone Second Awakening yet," Feng Yi'an spat out a mouthful of blood, laughing bitterly.
He knew they were completely finished, having encountered such an unbelievable monster.
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END OF CHAPTER
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