"Damn it!"
Wang Ni Tian swore as he smashed a fist against the carriage, which earned him a glare from the Qin Emperor. He quickly bowed his head and mumbled and apology, but his rage simmered within him. Clenching his fists, he glared at the Toyota that was surging ahead. The Qin Emperor didn't pause in his pursuit, the chariot once more flying off the ground to chase them. Wang Ni Tian took a deep breath, trying to control his fury.
"I'm going to tear them apart once I reach them," he sneered.
"Hey!" His sister, Wang Ling Er, snapped. "Don't forget, the point is to get the genes from the Zhao family! You can't kill Zhao Huan Shi!"
"We just need him to be barely alive enough to make you pregnant, that's all. As long as I don't kill him, I can beat him half to death."
"Don't forget, we'll still need to make him my husband for the image and reputation of the imperial family."
The imperial family had maintained its power partly by marrying powerful summoners into their ranks and breeding children with "superior genes." That was to say, they erroneously believed that summoning talent lay within one's genes. It wasn't totally unfounded, for there were entire families built around summoning techniques, such as the Zhao family, for example. By and large, anyone could be whatever cultivator they wanted to be, regardless of what family they were born into.
It was as ridiculous as saying that a person's intelligence or physical strength was inherited genetically. As if only professors' children can be intelligent, or businessmen's children are astute at business. Or that only athlete or professional sportsmen's children were talented at sports. Obviously that wasn't true at all. While undoubtedly in several cases, the children took after their parents, but that was because of the environment they were brought up in and the kind of education they received. Nurture was a lot more important than nature. The whole idea of "talent" and "genetic inheritance" was overrated to begin with.
But the imperial family came from a long line of summoners, and sometimes traditions, feudal beliefs and superstitions just refused to die.
"However, in order for me to marry him, you'll need to kill his wife and make him a widower first."
Wang Ni Tian glanced at his sister, a little taken aback. Wow, this woman was so vicious. He had heard that some women had hearts of serpents, bearing poisonous fangs and willing to do whatever necessary to eliminate their rivals. But now he saw firsthand that his sister was such a person.
Unfortunately, Wang Ni Tian was just as, if not more malicious. Rubbing his hands gleefully, he grinned.
"Leave Mu Rong Shu to me. You don't mind if I have fun with her before I kill her, right?"
To be more exact, the kind of fun he had in mind was that sort of intimate physical fusion, which was going to be against the victim's will. To be even more specific, he planned on raping her, preferably in front of her husband, to show off how much more superiorly masculine he was, because it felt good NTR-ing another man, as well as to satiate his own lust.
Mu Rong Shu was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen, and the moment he laid eyes on her, he had always lusted after her gorgeous figure. He wanted to make her his woman. It was a pity she would have to die, for his sister's sake, and the benefit of the imperial family, but he was determined to have a taste of her before her death.
Wang Ling Er frowned and shook her head.
"Don't be stupid. She's too dangerous to be left alive. She's an assassin, remember? If you give her a chance, she'll have a thousand different ways to kill you when you get into bed with her."
"I'll just drug her. It'll be fine. She won't be conscious at all."
Wang Ling Er looked sick at her brother's suggestion, turning a little pale. Being a woman herself, she detested what her brother had in mind. But she was more worried about his wellbeing.
"No, seriously. You cannot afford to underestimate an assassin. They are built differently. Many of them even have resistance against poisons and drugs. Even if you drug her, she might wake up and then kill you."
"Fine, whatever," Wang Ni Tian snapped, but he had no intention of listening to his sister. Whatever she didn't knew couldn't hurt her. As for Mu Rong Shu herself, he was willing to take his chances. Such a beautiful woman, there was no way he would leave her be.
Meanwhile, ahead of the Wang siblings and the Qin Emperor's chariot, I pulled my Toyota up in the driveway of the Huang family's estate. The defensive formations were fully activated now, in full swing and shimmering brightly. The gates were open and I drove through them. They automatically swung shut after my car hurtled through the gap and I slammed my foot on the brakes.
The mystical armor and dragon head rocket engine that had appeared on my Toyota earlier disappeared, and I spun my car about, drifting to a stop before we could collide with the house. We hopped out of my Toyota and spread out, getting ready for the ambush.
"The Wang family and their spirit won't give up just because we are now under the safety of our formations and killing arrays," Huang Hong Lin warned. "They will just charge in and smash through them. Not to mention, the Qin Emperor's ability to summon terracotta soldiers will mean that he will overwhelm our formations and killing arrays with sheer numbers. Our only hope is to ensure that we do as much damage to them as possible."
"Don't worry. Lu Bu is on the case." I had already summoned Lu Bu and he was hovering nearby, holding his spear. "I know how to defeat him."
"What? Really?" Huang Hong Lin stared at me in disbelief. I smiled.
"Trust me."
"I trust you, dear." Mu Rong Shu stood beside me, looking confident. "But I have a request. Leave that Wang Ling Er bitch to me."
"All right, I will." I nodded and prepared for the battle. "Let's do this then."
We didn't have to wait too long. The Qin Emperor and his chariot showed up after a few minutes, moving at incredible speed. He stood up on his chariot and raised his sword, yelling inaudibly. It was clear that he intended to charge straight through the gates and into the Huang mansion.
"What an insane fella," Huang Fei Hong muttered. He then sighed when he saw the next thing the Qin Emperor did. Hundreds of terracotta soldiers rose out of the ground and formed ranks upon ranks of armored figures, marching inexorably toward the Huang estate. "He's really going to spend all of his subordinates' lives to buy victory, huh?"
"That's the Qin Emperor for you," Huang Hong Lin muttered.
Already Wang Ni Tian and Wang Ling Er were hopping out of the chariot, leaving the battle to the spirits. They were circling around, intending to flank us from the side, both brother and sister sticking together. Just from a glance, I could immediately tell what their intentions were.
They were aiming for my wife. Why?
Oh, right. The explanation was simple. If Wang Ling Er's goal was to force me to marry her, then they would have to eliminate my wife first. Because polygamy was illegal and simply didn't exist in modern society, there was nothing she could do when Mu Rong Shu was my legal wife. Not unless she made me a widower first.
As for Wang Ni Tian, given the lecherous stare he was giving my wife, I probably didn't need to say what he intended to do. I was definitely going to castrate him later, though.
But for now, we had to focus on the battle at hand. The Qin Emperor and his troops were charging forward, the latter using their spears and shields to smash the gate open and flood into the front yard of the Huang estate.
The killing arrays activated immediately, along with the barriers. While the front ranks crunched painfully against the shimmering barriers, their bodies shattering from the impact, the rear ranks mercilessly trampled over their destroyed brethren to reach Lu Bu and us. Huang Hong Lin had already summoned Gan Jiang and Mo Ye, but none of them moved. Her brother also stayed close to her, not even bothering to adopt a combative stance.
He didn't have to.
Dozens of qi beams lanced out from the killing arrays, arcing into the rows of terracotta soldiers and blowing them apart. Within the first few seconds, they suffered horrendous casualties, their bodies broken into pieces and scattered all over the place. It looked like a nightmarish scene out of a war, with artillery raining down on running infantry, massacring them.
In just the first minute, over a hundred of them had been slaughtered by the killing arrays alone.
Unfortunately for us, there were several hundred terracotta soldiers. For every one that we destroyed, at least two more were on hand to take its place. Through sheer numbers, they ground forward, every inch of territory claimed with the blood of their comrades.
The Qin Emperor was not a man who valued the lives of his troops, however. He spent them carelessly and willingly, expending countless soldiers to achieve his goals. At the back of his army, he urged them forward mercilessly, and the mindless drones continued marching forward, ignoring the holes in their ranks as more of them were obliterated by the qi lance strikes from the killing arrays.
Despite the fearsome tally we were reaping on them, enough of them would reach us before the killing arrays annihilated the entire army. And there was still the Qin Emperor to deal with.
"What do we do?" Huang Hong Lin asked through gritted teeth. She was evidently hoping that the killing arrays could take care of the entire army at least, but there were far too many soldiers.
"Cut off the head and the body will fall," I replied calmly. The rest of them glanced at me in surprise.
"How do you intend to cut off the head?" Huang Fei Hong inquired. I smiled.
"With my new technique. Or rather, with Lu Bu's new technique that I helped him to master just recently."
"Oh, that technique." Mu Rong Shu smiled. She then moved forward. "We'll open a path for you. The Qin Emperor…we'll leave him to you, dear."
"Got it, my wife. All right."
The Huang siblings didn't know what to do, but they followed Mu Rong Shu and crashed into the lines of terracotta soldiers, breaking them apart and opening up a path toward the approaching Qin Emperor. Gan Jiang and Mo Ye protected them, carving the milling clay warriors up with their swords. Each swing of their swords reaped a fearsome harvest, scything down a few terracotta soldiers at a time.
Lu Bu then moved forward. A red horse materialized and he hopped onto him, grabbing the reins with one hand. Red Hare, the legendary steed of Lu Bu, neighed loudly before smashing his front legs against the ground and gouging out twin craters. At Lu Bu's urging, the red horse began stampeding toward the Qin Emperor's chariot.
The Qin Emperor saw him coming too and immediately swiveled his carriage about to face the challenging warrior. Red Hare trampled and crushed terracotta soldiers under his hooves as he charged toward the oncoming chariot. The Qin Emperor smiled and raised a sword, pushing his own chariot forward at an incredible speed as well.
However, Lu Bu pulled the reins and brought Red Hare to a stop. Despite facing down the charge of a colossal chariot, he sat upon his steed calmly, undaunted by the intimidating visage. Instead, he raised his spear and pointed at the charging chariot of the Qin Emperor.
"Fang Tian Hua Ji (Heaven Piercer)!"
A massive wave of golden qi erupted from his halberd and washed over the Qin Emperor's charging chariot, engulfing it in a tide of destructive inferno before exploding violently and sending shockwaves across the Huang estate.