Chapter 141: The Fall of Du Tiange

Du Tiange thrust his right claw fiercely, colliding head-on with the Black Dragon's claw. The Black Dragon flipped backwards and plummeted from the high-rise, vomiting blood mid-air.

The Golden Tiger shifted in a myriad of illusory shapes, his tiger hooks locking firmly onto Du Tiange's right arm. Yet, with a sudden, violent yank from Du Tiange, the Golden Tiger was involuntarily pulled straight toward him. *Swoosh!*

A single finger pierced precisely between his eyebrows.

The Golden Tiger had fallen in battle!

Flash-Kill streaked by in a blink, his sharp blade stabbing into Du Tiange. However, Du Tiange was merely jarred three steps back. With a downward sweep of his lethal claws, five bloody holes appeared on Flash-Kill's neck.

The blood-drenched claw pointed toward the last remaining man—the Night Lord, who was already injured.

The Night Lord's form, shrouded in the darkness of the night, should have been formless and invisible. Yet, Du Tiange's claw seized him right in the middle. At the very moment he finally succeeded and was about to deal the fatal blow to end the Night Lord once and for all,

a figure suddenly materialized behind the Night Lord!

A towering figure!

A fist came hurtling forward, striking Du Tiange squarely in the chest with pinpoint accuracy.

*Boom!*

Du Tiange was blasted more than ten meters away by the punch. Just as he was about to tumble off the high-rise, his right foot slammed down heavily, anchoring him at the edge of the roof. The parapet wall behind him shattered instantly, with bricks and rubble flying in all directions.

Du Tiange's hair whipped wildly in the wind, his expression shifting drastically.

The figure standing behind the Night Lord, of massive build and with a gloomy expression, was none other than Kunsha!

"Kunsha..." Du Tiange uttered those two words before suddenly breaking into a violent fit of coughing, vomiting a massive mouthful of blood that shockingly contained chunks of flesh.

Kunsha's strike had been completely unexpected.

Normally, given his defensive capabilities and formidable physical constitution, even a direct punch from someone else wouldn't have been enough to truly injure him. But Kunsha's blow was the exception—the sheer force of the punch was terrifyingly otherworldly, akin to a thousand-pound boulder dropping from a height of ten thousand meters. Strong as Du Tiange was, his internal organs had been crushed by that single fist.

"Go to hell!" As those two words left Kunsha's lips, the floorboards beneath his feet collapsed entirely. Like an ancient demon god rising from a field of ruins, he leaped into the air, hurtling toward Du Tiange amidst a storm of dust and debris.

A flash of fire suddenly erupted beneath Du Tiange's feet.

The instant the fire flashed, the protective armor on his body transformed into a pair of wings, and he leaped off the roof.

Kunsha also shattered the void with a single step, diving off the rooftop after him.

However, Du Tiange's wings tilted abruptly, completely altering his trajectory as he grazed past the face of the building opposite. The edges of the wings scraped against the concrete exterior wall, sending sparks flying in all directions. Though his body wavered unsteadily, Du Tiange finally plunged into the dark night sky.

Kunsha dropped from the roof like a falling body in free fall, the solid concrete ground beneath his feet shattering into spiderweb cracks.

Yet he stood firmly within the massive crater, declaring, "His wings are damaged; he won't get far. Pursuit!"

Three dark shadows soared into the air, chasing after the direction of Du Tiange's escape...

However, they lost his trail before long.

Du Tiange was flying through the sky; the slightest directional change at any point would result in a massive deviation at his landing spot. Once the initial calculation went awry, the final outcome would be off by a thousand miles.

Just because they couldn't catch him didn't mean others couldn't.

At the very least, Lin Xiaosu could.

Just as Kunsha had said, aside from inflicting a fatal injury, the punch from Kunsha had also ruined Du Tiange's gliding wings.

Although he had forcibly relied on the wings to save his life and break out of the Roaring Tiger Manor, the damaged wings could no longer support his weight. They made it impossible for him to soar majestically into the clouds, forcing him to fly at low altitudes—flying with immense difficulty, stumbling and lurching.

Such a flight could be tracked from the ground using reverse space-time tracing.

Struggling to control his direction, Du Tiange fled toward the northeast!

To the northeast lay Great Xia!

He crossed the national border high in the air...

Down below, two figures like ghosts of the night crossed the national border as well...

Lin Xiaosu traced the passage of time step by step, fully concentrated.

***

The Blue Demon watched his intense focus on the sky, her heart beating wildly.

It had been a long time since she had truly admired anyone.

Yet tonight, she genuinely admired him.

The entire plan was tightly interlocked, with not a single superfluous movement, not half a step off course.

The most ingenious point of all was precisely the one she had overlooked, the one he had emphasized...

And that was Kunsha's own martial prowess!

Even the Blue Demon felt a chill at Kunsha's punch.

An outsider wouldn't understand the power behind that strike; only a top-tier expert like her understood just how terrifying it truly was.

If she and Du Tiange had switched places, facing a punch like that head-on would have been a near-fatal ordeal.

From this, it was evident that Kunsha was undoubtedly an Awakened one.

And his awakened power was likely... pure physical strength!

Now, the entire operation had reached its grand finale. Could the final step succeed?

The final step returned to the arena he excelled at the most: Tracking!

Yet, this remained an impossible mission.

Because Du Tiange had escaped through the air, it was utterly impossible for him to leave behind any trace of his flight.

And yet, Lin Xiaosu's expression remained so calm, his footsteps without the slightest hesitation. It seemed he had already discovered Du Tiange's landing spot.

Ahead lay Mount Gongchun.

Why was he so certain that Du Tiange had flown toward Mount Gongchun?

Was it merely deduced through logic? The person determined to kill Du Tiange was Kunsha; as long as he remained in the Azure Face Country, Du Tiange would never escape Kunsha's relentless hunt. Was that why he broke across the national border, using the border itself to cut off Kunsha's pursuit?

Logically speaking, the Blue Demon admitted it made sense.

However, logic alone wasn't enough...

Even if one guessed that Du Tiange had fled toward Mount Gongchun, so what? Could they actually find him?

Right now was the darkest hour before dawn.

In the vast expanse of mountains, tracking a man who had fallen from the sky—was that even possible?

One had to realize that even if a helicopter crashed, bursting into flames with unrivaled commotion, people outside the mountains would still need a considerable amount of luck to locate such an obvious coordinate. How much harder would it be to find airborne wings that made virtually no sound at all?

Suddenly, Lin Xiaosu stopped midway up the mountainside ahead.

The Blue Demon stopped as well, her heart quickening once more as she caught sight of impact marks on the slope...

Furthermore, she saw bloodstains—fresh bloodstains. At the end of the trail of blood was a cave, a rather small cave.

There was no sound coming from within the cave; it was dead silent.

Lin Xiaosu strode forward to the cave entrance. With a flicker of movement, the Blue Demon arrived beside him. Inside the cave, a figure sat slumped against the stone wall.

A remarkably pale, equine face, with blood still staining the corners of its mouth—it was none other than Du Tiange.

At this moment, Du Tiange possessed not a shred of his former scholarly refinement; his eyes were filled with madness, like a trapped beast cornered.

"Du Tiange, we meet again!" Lin Xiaosu said with a faint smile.

Du Tiange's bloodshot eyes stared fixedly at him. "You... today's events had to do with you!"

Overall, tonight's events had been shrouded in mystery for him; he couldn't figure out why Kunsha had acted with such ruthless determination.

Yet, after suffering such a devastating blow, the very first people he encountered were Lin Xiaosu and the Blue Demon. That alone made him realize something was deeply amiss.

"You're not entirely stupid!" Lin Xiaosu chuckled. "Your plight today is entirely the result of our brilliant scheme!"

"A brilliant scheme?" Du Tiange's heart leaped violently. It really had to do with them...

"That's right. We disguised ourselves as you and decimated Taye's garrison. Naturally, Kunsha came looking for you to exact his revenge. By doing so, we accomplished two objectives: first, it helped us track you down, and second, it injured you!"

"Using a borrowed knife to kill!" Du Tiange slowly spat out the four words.

"Indeed. The tactic may be a bit old, but as long as it works, it's good."

Du Tiange's chest heaved violently...

All his doubts were suddenly answered...

His mind was in turmoil...

He was a man with a boundless future; why had he been driven into this desperate dead end?

Was it because of the people before him? Because of Kunsha? Because of the path he had walked for so long? Or perhaps because of his own useless brother...

"Du Tiange, you're out of options!" the Blue Demon declared. "Yet if you're willing to cooperate with me, Lurking Dragon can still spare your life!"

Du Tiange's gaze slowly shifted to the Blue Demon. "Cooperate with you, and tell you the secrets regarding the highest echelons of the Hydra?"

"Yes!"

Du Tiange laughed. "Blue Demon, you chose the absolute best time, but you underestimated my pride. I know how severe my injuries are, and I know that what you call sparing my life merely means keeping my consciousness alive while turning me into a living corpse. To me, that kind of existence is worse than death!"

"So, you refuse to cooperate?" The Blue Demon's expression darkened abruptly.

"No, I choose to cooperate. But you will have to... cooperate with me!" The moment his words fell, his gaze suddenly turned fiercely vicious...

The Blue Demon's expression changed dramatically. Extending a hand, she lunged toward Lin Xiaosu.

At that moment, Lin Xiaosu and she seemed of one mind, and he reached out to grab her in return.

Their palms met, and they simultaneously vaulted backward out of the cave.

With a deafening roar, the cave exploded...

The violent shockwave swept across a radius of a hundred meters. Lin Xiaosu and the Blue Demon were blasted down the hillside like candles in the wind. As they locked eyes, tumultuous shock mirrored in both of their gazes.

Du Tiange had actually chosen to detonate the protective armor on his body.

The armor possessed a self-destruction mechanism after all.

At the very end of his life, Du Tiange had salvaged his pride one last time...

As the smoke and dust cleared, the cave had been completely leveled. Lin Xiaosu's gaze landed on a specific spot where a half-ruined head loomed indistinctly in the grass—it was Du Tiange.

He was thoroughly dead.

Without a shadow of a doubt.

"Any thoughts?" the Blue Demon's voice drifted over.

"The top leadership of the Hydra is truly terrifying."

The Blue Demon replied, "Indeed. Those who manage to climb to that position possess nerves of steel and a willpower far surpassing ordinary people. The most frightening part is that they possess a clear life trajectory; for the sake of that path, they are fanatical and utterly ruthless... Du Tiange is dead, and a lead connected to you has now been snapped."

"What is it?"

"Have you ever wondered who exactly contacted Du Tiange and used him to hunt you down?"

Lin Xiaosu lifted his gaze, looking far off into the firmament...

"Forget it, that question is still too difficult. After all, the enemies you've made with the Hydra are numerous. Anyone within the borders of Great Xia under the Hydra's banner seems to have a reason to want you dead."

"No, I know who it is!" Lin Xiaosu said.

"You know?" The Blue Demon was startled.

Just as she had said, Lin Xiaosu had accumulated far too many enemies within the Hydra. Ever since he debuted, he had cooperated with Lurking Dragon so many times that nearly every single mission had earned him a spot on the Hydra's blacklist. Too many people wanted him dead; with the targets so numerous, precise identification should have been utterly impossible...