Chapter 48: Soldiers and Imperial Pardons

“Whoosh!”

Flames sprang into existence, rising more than a meter high. They instantly dispelled the darkness and chill, bringing warmth with them.

The four members of the Wu family, whose bodies had nearly been frozen by the frigid aura, immediately felt themselves return to normal.

More than that, warmth spread through their hearts, as though some power were protecting them.

At the very moment the campfire was lit, the red candles around them began burning faster, rapidly consuming themselves. Even the red paper money scattered across the ground suddenly caught fire.

The red sedan in the distance came to a sudden halt.

The scene before them was strikingly festive—yet such festivity had no place in the wilderness of the Night-Mist World.

Encountering such a joyous sight in a place like this did nothing but make one’s scalp prickle.

“What kind of fiend is this time?”

Liu Hen felt a gaze filled with terrifying pressure sweeping out from within the red sedan, and he immediately went on guard.

His heart turned cold, but he dared not show any fear. Drawing courage from the campfire, he stared coldly at the sedan.

There was no doubt that the campfire was effective against this fiend as well, temporarily intimidating it.

However, while the campfire could drive monsters away absolutely, its effect on this kind of fiend was merely attritional. It relied on its ability to ward off evil rather than its ability to drive things away completely.

During the process, Liu Hen was astonished to discover that the campfire’s fuel was being consumed at an incredible rate, as though it were struggling against an invisible fiendish power.

As the red paper money burned and the red candles rapidly consumed themselves, the campfire’s fuel dwindled just as quickly.

Liu Hen immediately placed all the large logs he had gathered along the road into the fuel compartment.

“Rustle, rustle…”

The red paper money around them suddenly began to whirl. More sheets even descended from the sky, swiftly sweeping toward the two women among the five of them.

“My lord…”

“Save us!”

Wu Yuanbai and Wu Yuanxia turned pale.

“This is bad…”

Wu Yuanming and Wu Yuanguang cried out in alarm. Even more red paper money shot toward them, but the sheets aimed at them carried terrifying destructive power.

“Get lost!”

Liu Hen suddenly thrust a palm toward the red sedan. The heat throughout his body was instantly drained and transformed into a cannon blast of compressed air.

With a deafening boom, all the red paper money within a dozen meters was blasted away. At the same time, the red sedan abruptly drifted backward.

Perhaps because it had lost the support of the fiendish power, the red paper money sweeping toward the Wu siblings was burned away at that moment, and the crisis was temporarily resolved.

In the next instant, two of the human-shaped monsters carrying the sedan—seemingly paper figures—charged forward. Their bodies began to burn rapidly as soon as they entered the campfire’s range, yet they continued advancing without slowing.

Liu Hen gritted his teeth. He suddenly placed one hand over the campfire to draw in its heat, while his other hand unleashed another cannon blast of compressed air.

The flames’ intense heat did not injure him. Every trace of heat was immediately transformed into compressed air and blasted away.

“Boom—”

The two red paper figures were sent flying. They ignited even more fiercely in midair, turning to ashes that scattered on the cold wind.

It seemed they were not all that powerful after all. Damn it, they nearly scared me to death!

Once he realized this, Liu Hen became furious.

“You miserable fiends think you can stop this great lord?”

“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…”

The remaining six red paper figures around the sedan rose into the air at once, scattering in every direction like flowers tossed by a celestial maiden. While airborne, they fired out sheets of red paper money.

The sheets shot toward him like blades.

Liu Hen once again drew his Tang saber and slashed wildly.

“Clang, clang, clang…”

Sheet after sheet of red paper money was knocked away.

Perhaps the campfire’s evil-banishing property was helping him, for he himself did not feel that the paper money possessed much power.

Yet some of the sheets that flew off course actually cleaved apart the boulders around them.

Boom!

A massive rock jutting more than two meters above the ground nearby was split in half.

Liu Hen’s pupils contracted. He realized that the campfire had contributed greatly to the defense. Otherwise, with only the strength afforded by his Black-Iron-grade thermal suit, he probably would not have been able to withstand those sheets of red paper money.

“My lord!”

The Wu siblings cried out.

Liu Hen pushed off with one foot and rapidly dashed in a circle, knocking away sheet after sheet of red paper money flying toward him.

In the process, he took the opportunity to condense a compressed-air bomb and hurled it violently at the red sedan.

But one of the red paper figures suddenly accelerated and intercepted the bomb.

Boom!

The red paper figure was blasted away. Perhaps because it was positioned beyond the campfire’s outer range, the explosion did not cause it much harm. In the next instant, it came flying back once more.

The compressed-air bomb is far too weak.

Liu Hen frowned inwardly. From the corner of his eye, he glanced at the red sedan that had retreated more than twenty meters away. He felt that it was the true core of the red paper figures.

I have to find a way to destroy that sedan.

All the while, he continued slashing away at the sheets of red paper money shooting toward him like blades.

The red paper figures seemed utterly unhurried. They remained outside the campfire’s range and engaged him in a battle of attrition, firing out red paper money as though it cost them nothing. He had no idea where they were getting so much of it.

At first, Liu Hen was somewhat worried. Gradually, however, he discovered that the campfire’s heat could replenish his stamina.

The campfire still had several hundred thousand minutes of fuel remaining. Even while contending with the invisible fiendish power, it consumed only half an hour of burning time per second.

A battle of attrition? Who’s afraid of whom?

He snorted inwardly.

At the same time, several hundred meters behind them, Chang Xin was sprinting over with Zong Ni and Chen Ye.

“There’s firelight over there. It should be Liu Hen. He must be in trouble. I’ll go ahead!”

Carrying a huge chunk of horse meat over one shoulder, she accelerated sharply. Silver light blossomed across her body, and a silver-white suit of armor emerged.

In the next moment, her speed surged, and she left Zong Ni and Chen Ye far behind.

“Fiends?”

At last, she saw the red sedan and the six red paper figures battling Liu Hen. Her pupils contracted. She immediately set down the horse meat and rapidly formed hand seals.

“By my name as the Silver-Armored Queen—Temporary Warrior, Granting of the Seal!”

…

Beside the campfire, Liu Hen was struggling somewhat frantically when he suddenly heard Chang Xin’s voice.

At that very moment, his entire body erupted with silver light. In the blink of an eye, it transformed into silver-white battle armor that reinforced him.

In an instant, he felt his strength soar. His nerve responses and every other attribute surged dramatically.

That woman’s ability can even reinforce the power of the thermal suit…

He was secretly astonished, but did not dare relax. Taking advantage of the opportunity, he charged forward.

Pfft! Pfft!

Blades flashed. Two of the red paper figures were cleaved apart in an instant.

The red sedan abruptly shot backward.

But in that same moment, Liu Hen fired his sole fragment grenade into the sedan.

“Explode!” he growled coldly.

Boom!

The red sedan instantly burst apart, its fragments scattering in every direction.

Yet in the next moment, those fragments suddenly reassembled into the red sedan. The four remaining paper figures rapidly flew back, lifted the sedan, and charged into the darkness. In the blink of an eye, they vanished.

The red candles on the surrounding ground silently disappeared.

Even the red paper money that had been raining down vanished without a sound, leaving behind only ashes from the burned paper.

It’s unharmed?

Liu Hen frowned inwardly.

“My lord is incredible!”

“So powerful!”

“As expected of an ability user!”

The Wu siblings cried out in delighted excitement. The fiend that had seemed unimaginably powerful to them had actually been driven away by their lord.

Liu Hen, however, was far from satisfied. Even with Chang Xin and himself working together, they had failed to keep a single fiend from escaping.

At that moment, the silver-white battle armor covering his body silently dissipated, and his strength fell back to its original level.

At the same time, Chang Xin came running over while carrying a large chunk of horse meat. Behind her were Zong Ni and Chen Ye, both wearing expressions of shock.

It seemed to be their first time witnessing Chang Xin use such an ability. They were both astonished, and their understanding of ability users had once again been completely overturned.