Chapter 1681: A Terrifying Strike

The large, 1000 foot tall mountain stood between heaven and earth. Rough marks scarred the mountain and it looked as though it was going to topple over anytime soon. These were evidently marks of a battle.

Zhu Tong, Huo Yi and Su Mo led 3000 troops and sped through the sky as they headed for the foot of Dark Mountain.

However, to their surprise, they found the place empty. There was not a single Blood Pupil Clan member there.

There weren’t even men guarding the entrance of the mine and it was obvious that the place was vacant.

“Did the Blood Pupil Clan retreat already?” Zhu Tong frowned immediately.

Su Mo and Huo Yi also wore darkened faces. How did the spies fail to report that the Blood Pupil Clan had retreated?

Right at that moment, the messaging charm on Huo Yi started to vibrate. He immediately burst out into hysterical laughter the moment he checked the message.

“Su Mo and Zhu Tong, the Blood Pupil Clan members retreated before we arrived!” Huo Yi wore a helpless look on his face.

“They really did retreat!” Zhu Tong’s face blackened. This was bad news for him.

Firstly, although they controlled the Dark Mountain Mine again, they had allowed the 2000 troops of the Blood Pupil Clan to escape.

Secondly, if the Blood Pupil Clan members retreated, they would not engage in battle anymore and he wouldn’t be able to attack Su Mo.

He couldn’t randomly kill Su Mo in front of 3000 troops without a valid reason!

Although Zhu Tong was desperate to kill Su Mo, he wasn’t too driven by hatred.

Su Mo’s face darkened. He felt that there was something amiss with the situation. Why did the Blood Pupil Clan not retreat earlier and purposely leave the area right before they arrived?

The Blood Pupil Clan knew that they definitely could not retain control over the Dark Mountain Mine, then why did they retreat earlier? Was it so that they could mine some Dark Iron? That didn’t seem to make sense either.

“Should we head into the mine to see?” Huo Yi suggested.

Su Mo and Zhu Tong did not have any opinion. Thereafter, they arranged for a group of men to stand guard outside the mine while they entered it and proceeded into the cave.

The cave was wide and it was a path that led continuously downwards. It was deep and they only entered the Dark Iron Mine after 2 kilometers in.

The surrounding walls of the mine were completely black and among the rocks were numerous hard Dark Iron.

Nothing seemed to have been destroyed in the Dark Iron Mine as everything appeared normal. This was due to the protective array around the mine.

This invisible array surrounded the entire mine and although it allowed anyone to enter, they could not destroy the mine and could only slowly pick the Dark Iron out.

While the mine was deep and broad, there was not a lot of Dark Iron in it. Simply put, the entire mine was running short on Dark Iron.

In fact, only about 10% of the entire iron mine had Dark Iron.

“The Blood Pupil Clan did retreat. Let’s return!” After circling the mine and checking each corner once, Huo Yi sighed exasperatedly.

“Mm, let’s return!” Su Mo immediately nodded. It was best to quickly return to Black Mountain Fort as he would be safer there.

For some unknown reason, he had a weird feeling in his chest. It was a sense and intuition that crushed his heart as though a downpour would happen soon.

Zhu Tong was silent. He wanted to take action against Su Mo but he couldn’t decide on it.

Most importantly, Su Mo had maintained a fair distance from him and there was quite a number of men in-between them.

Very quickly, the crowd walked up the mine shaft and returned to the foot of Dark Mountain.

Huo Yi swiftly made arrangements for 500 men to guard the mine while the rest of the troops returned to the fort.

Right at that moment, an air-rending sound split the air.

Everyone raised their heads and saw three streaks of light, filled with murderous intention, shooting over.

Hearts jumped instantly as many people thought that the three people were men of the Blood Pupil Clan. However, a closer look showed that they weren’t.

The three people were men of the Black Cloud Army and their leader was Jin Lu.

Many people heaved a sigh of relief but Su Mo and Zhu Tong narrowed their eyes.

Su Mo’s face darkened. Was Jin Lu coming to kill him? He really didn’t want to live anymore.

Honestly speaking, Su Mo was still slightly afraid of Zhu Tong, but Jin Lu was the least of his concerns.

Shoosh shoosh shoosh!

In the blink of an eye, Jin Lu and 2 others lowered themselves before the crowd.

“Su Mo, you colluded with the Blood Pupil…!”

Jin Lu’s eyes immediately fell upon Su Mo as a murderous glare soared up his body. He was going to accuse Su Mo of colluding with the Blood Pupil Clan so he would have an excuse to kill Su Mo.

In that case, even if the Second Princess and others blamed them, they would be able to evade punishment. Jin Lu had carefully planned everything out before he arrived.

However, before Jin Lu could finish, a large invisible force suddenly dropped down on the area.

This force was large and it was as though a large mountain had crushed upon them, it instantly cut off Jin Lu’s words.

With that, the crowd saw another figure coming over from afar from across the large sky.

This figure belonged to an elder who was rather short. The aura around the man was dense and cold.

“An expert of the Blood Pupil Clan!” The crowd jumped in surprise. The elder that came over was a Blood Pupil Clan member.

Blood Pupil Clan members were very different from the average person. They were short and their eyes were bloodshot.

Many people were completely shocked that an expert of the Blood Pupil Clan had arrived at the area.

“Die!”

Elder Xue Cheng looked towards the crowd and he immediately locked his eyes down on Su Mo’s. Blood Radiance shot out from his bloodshot eyes.

“Holy Blood Force Sword!”

The sharp Blood Radiance instantly changed into a large, hundred meter long blood-colored sword that carried massive auras.

Boom boom boom!

The moment the Holy Blood Force Sword formed, space crumbled and the ground shook. Empty Space in a ten kilometer radius around the sword could not stand the force and it immediately crumbled apart.

Boom!

The blood-colored Holy Sword was like a massive streak of lightning that tore through the sky. The shock waves it produced quickly flung back everyone.

Strong waves of aura stunned everyone and they were momentarily unable to react.

Su Mo was also shocked by the force of the sword strike. The man was a Rank 9 Martial Honorable and was very strong.

“Quick, let’s attack together!”

Zhu Tong, as a Rank 8 Martial Honorable, was the first to regain his senses and he immediately yelled out orders as his voice boomed like thunder in everyone’s ears.

Against such a strong attack, there was no way for anyone to dodge. If they wanted to survive, they could only block together. Otherwise, everyone would die under the attack.

Although the main target of the attack was Su Mo, Su Mo was standing among the crowd and the attack seemed to be heading for everyone.

Shoosh!

A longsword immediately appeared in Zhu Tong’s hand. With a jerk, beams of fire shot out in all directions.

With that, a few dozen meters long fire snake roared out like a fierce dragon as it slithered towards the blood colored Holy Sword.

Zhu Tong’s strike was obviously weaker than the Holy Blood Force Sword but its strength was also terrifying. Terrifying auras shout out of the fire snake.

“Attack!”

“Kill!”

“Attack together!”

Yells erupted from everywhere as many people regained their senses and attacked together at the Holy Blood Force Sword.

Jin Lu could not be bothered to attack Su Mo and he also shifted his attention to defending himself.

Su Mo also attacked. With his stone sword in his hand, he pierced directly towards the Holy Blood Force Sword.