Chapter 419 - Sacrifice

Hostages screamed in terror, all of them shrinking against the walls of the fifth carriage as the two terrorists opened fire on Tang Wulin. Their soul guns spat beams that were too fast too dodge. His gauntlet couldn’t protect his entire body, but Tang Wulin had walked into the carriage prepared. Bluesilver grass sprang up in front of him to form a shield. While soul guns were powerful, these weren’t the heavy beam guns that the military used.

They couldn’t penetrate the shield of thousand-year bluesilver grass.

Tang Wulin’s bluesilver grass was able to withstand the onslaught of beam fire because he was strong. Like all students of Shrek Academy, he was courageous and possessed a martial soul of exceptional quality. In addition to that, he was capable of exerting an exquisite level of control over his martial soul. Only with such control was he able to bring out the full potential of his martial soul.

Ever since he first took action in the fourth carriage, Tang Wulin hadn’t so much as paused for even a moment.

Everything was going according to plan.

“Use the cannon!” the terrorist leader shouted, and his subordinate moved to obey.

But he didn’t have the soul cannon. Not at that very moment.

Before the carriages were detached, the train attendants had been doing their best to deescalate the situation. Then, when the security captain entered the carriage, the terrorists were able to easily beat him into submission. From that point onward, the terrorists figured that any threat to their control over the situation had been dealt with, so they let down their guard. This particular terrorist hadn’t seen any harm in setting the soul cannon aside for the time being.

Of course, there was no way Tang Wulin would let him just pick it back up.

A burst of golden light flooded the carriage. A long tail whipped forth to wrap around the cannon. The light faded to reveal Goldsong, and with a flick of its tail, it hurled the cannon at the terrorist! It struck him with a resounding crack, breaking bone and tearing muscle.

“Don’t come any closer!” the terrorist leader shouted. He began backing away from Tang Wulin, dragging Mo Lan along in a chokehold. She quickly realized that the situation had changed and started struggling. The moment she did, the terrorist struck her with the butt of his gun, leaving a large gash on her forehead. The blow left her dazed. Blood trickled down her face.

“Stop!” Tang Wulin shouted, taking a step forward. His soul rings flared with energy.

“Take another step and I’ll blow your big sister’s brains out!” the man said with a cold snort, bringing the gun back up and pressing the tip of its barrel to Mo Lan’s head. Three yellow soul rings rose up from beneath him to display their brilliance.

The terrorist’s heart, however, was filled with disbelief.

This is insane! He never expected the teenage boy standing before him to be a three-ringed soul master, one even more powerful than he was! This brat has to be from some prestigious clan! He has three purple soul rings!

The leader of the terrorists knew that a soul gun of this caliber would be useless against a Soul Elder. He might have been able to put up a fight if he had the soul cannon, but Tang Wulin had already seized it. In addition to that, his men had been decimated. Out of the original nine terrorists, only he remained.

A metallic groan reverberated through the carriage, and Mo Lan was the first to realize what caused it. She could immediately tell that the fifth carriage had begun decelerating. That meant it had been detached from the rest of the train!

She knew exactly what would happen next.

“Forget about me!” she cried. “Save everyone else!”

“Amazing! You sure are something, brat!” the terrorist exclaimed as he caught on. His expression hardened. His chokehold on Mo Lan tightened. He brandished the detonator. A hint of madness shone in his eyes as he realized that his last bargaining chip had disappeared. “All of you can just die with me then!”

His thumb moved to trigger the detonator, but right at that moment, a flash of purple and gold blinded him. Pain seared his mind into oblivion, his thumb freezing mid-motion as his body went stiff.

The terrorist leader was only a Soul Elder with hundred-year soul rings. He had just entered the Spirit Connection realm and was weaker than Tang Wulin by over a hundred points. Even if he did possess the higher cultivation level, he still wouldn’t have been able to resist Tang Wulin’s Purple Demon Eyes.

Just as the button was a hairsbreadth from being pressed, the arm restraining Mo Lan went slack. She had been struggling as hard as she could to try and stop the terrorist. Now she wrenched the man’s arm down, tearing the detonator from his grasp. The second she did, Tang Wulin shot forward like a bullet and seized the terrorist’s neck in a vice-like grip.

He snapped it without hesitation.

The leader of the terrorists was never a threat to Tang Wulin. The combination of his Golden Dragon King bloodline, his bluesilver grass, and his one-word gauntlet elevated his power far beyond that of a four-ringed soul master. The terrorist hadn’t even thought of facing Tang Wulin as a soul master. But all feared death, and Tang Wulin’s heart had nearly jumped out of his chest when he saw the terrorist trying to detonate the bombs. He had only just managed to save everyone using his Purple Demon Eyes. Now the final terrorist was dead, and none of the hostages died.

“Watch out!” Mo Lan shouted.

Dread gripped Tang Wulin. He could see a beam of light out of the corner of his eye, but it wasn’t headed for him or Mo Lan. It shot toward a bomb!

A tenth terrorist had been hiding among the hostages! He had used a beam pistol to shoot at the bomb, which had more than enough power to detonate it. This would then cause a chain reaction, trigger the rest of the bombs in the carriage, and take everyone to the afterlife with him!

Only two people reacted in time. The first, Mo Lan, threw herself forward to block the beam with her body.

The second was the train’s security captain! After being beaten into submission by the terrorists, he spent the entire time nursing his wounds and biding his time. He knew he’d be able to do something eventually, and that time was now.

He leaped toward the beam at the same time as Mo Lan, placing himself in front of it before she did. He wasn’t as sturdy as Tang Wulin. He wouldn’t survive this shot. But as it pierced his chest, he managed to absorb enough of the beam to change its trajectory. The beam continued through the security captain, slicing the air and through Mo Lan’s shoulder before burying itself into the wall of the carriage, leaving a small hole mere inches from the bomb.

Before Tang Wulin could even give a command, Goldsong rushed out with a swarm of bluesilver grass to capture the last terrorist. The surrounding hostages realized they were now free to move and quickly jumped away from the man.

Meanwhile, Tang Wulin caught Mo Lan as she fell. No blood seeped from the wound that the beam left. Instead, a dark green liquid bubbled from it. The smell of burning flesh lingered in the air. Soul weapons possessed piercing capabilities and destructive power. A single shot killed nearly all victims.

Fortunately, Mo Lan had only been wounded in the shoulder. She didn’t feel any pain, only a scorching heat. Tears ran down her face. The security captain’s corpse lay right in front of her. The beam had burned straight through his heart.

“Li Feng!” Mo Lan cried.

“Pull yourself together, Big Sis Mo Lan.” Tang Wulin sent soul power into Mo Lan’s body as exhaustion washed over him. Mo Lan was pale. An unbearable, numbing heat dominated her body. But as Tang Wulin's soul power coursed through her, a searing pain slowly began to radiate from her shoulder.

It’s over, but I’m still too inexperienced. I didn’t notice the terrorist hiding among the hostages. If those two hadn’t jumped out… we’d all be dead. Tang Wulin could hear the boom of mechas rapidly approaching. Mo Lan and the captain… they saved everyone.