Battle Royale of the Sinners

October 30th.

8 AM.

Forty kilometers north of Nie County, Liu Ping and his army persisted on marching to Jinyang. The long marching through the mountains, valleys, and cold weather exhausted them. The path was no longer a stone road or a mountain one, but hills and forests.

The current road was not a flat road in between valleys or a canyon anymore. Everything elevated, and the ground was uneven. All soldiers were now hiking hills and bumpy trails.

Today, most of the soldiers stopped trying to search for food as their feet either got frostbite or blistered from the long walking. Their knees also gave up on them as they kept climbing and descending for days. The horses also moved slower than usual as the animals were not accustomed to the snow and mountain geography.

Liu Ping's face was distorted as he realized his blunder.

'I shouldn't have dispatched my troops in winter. I've totally overlooked this!'

'Or maybe I have chosen the wrong placement. My troops should have been the ones that have gone to Ye City while Huangfu Song and the others were supposed to be here instead of me.'

'Damnit! Wang Yun is not a good strategist, and nobody dares to suggest anything to me! Everything is a mess!'

In his previous life, he was a pampered heir who was raised in a Southern Asia Country, so he was not aware of the climate of the northern part of China. In addition, he did not graduate from a college properly as all of his bachelor, master, and even his Ph.D. diplomas were bought by his father.

"How long until we reach Jinyang?" Liu Ping asked his followers.

"About two to three days at this pace, Your Majesty."

Liu Ping sighed a relief. Traveling a long distance in this ancient era was troublesome. If he were in the 21st-century, it would have only taken him a couple of hours in his private helicopter to make a trip of this few hundred kilometers.

'I guess I have to stay in Jinyang until the winter is over. I also have to contact my detached troops in Ye for the next joint attack.'

The Emperor gave up continuing his journey to Julu for now. As Liu Ping had experienced setbacks after setbacks, he learned a thing or two from his mistakes.

Liu Ping sighed and looked upward to the sky without a cloud, contemplating his future plans.

The corner of his eyes detected movements from the top of the hill to the east. Liu Ping stopped his horse to concentrate his vision on the suspicious location. Alas, he could not find anything.

"Your Majesty?" A retainer was worried.

"I think I saw movements of an animal. Send someone to hunt it. I want to eat meat today."

"Y-Yes, Your Majesty!" The retainer dashed away in a hurry.

Liu Ping closed his eyes and took another deep breath. As he was enjoying the serenity of temporary darkness and cold wind, he heard a whistling noise of an arrow.

*PA*

The right hand of Liu Ping caught the arrow by reflex, and he felt the sensation that he had not felt in this life.

Pain.

The tip of the arrow had cut his hand when he caught it.

The eyes of Liu Ping snapped open in shock. He darted his eyes around, searching for the ambusher. Liu Ping kept searching while he was preparing to leap from the horse and charge at the assailant. However, he could not find anybody.

The ambusher did not follow up with another attack.

A deep frown appeared on Liu Ping's face. From his previous life experience of countless assassination attempts by Ping's victims, all amateur ambushers or assassins always followed up with more attacks immediately if the first attack failed.

In this case, the person did not make a rookie mistake. The ambusher had aborted the assassination attempt and concealed his presence.

'An elite archer, a professional assassin, or an otherworlder?' Thought Liu Ping, 'The natives can never hurt me. This arrow should have been fired by an otherworlder or a monstrous existence like Lu Bu or Huang Zhong.'

'Huang Zhong belongs to Liu Biao Army, so the only ones who can threaten me is Lu Bu and otherworlders.'

'Was it you, Tong!?'

Killing intent exploded out as Liu Ping recalled the taboo name.

Liu Ping shouted, "ALL FORCES! STAY ALERT! THERE'S AN AMBUS-*BOOM*"

*RUMBLE*

He had yet to finish his words, rumble sound could be heard from the back of the marching troops. Liu Ping could feel the ground trembling as if there was an earthquake.

*BOOM*

"Ambush!"

"Boulders!"

Rocks, stones, and boulders in various size rolled down from the east hill, causing a chaotic scene behind the marching troops.

Liu Ping was over 500 meters away beyond the ambush location. If he wanted to gallop his horse back to help his men, it would take him half a minute to reach them.

As he was about to rush back, ten light arrows flew through the sky, passing by Liu Ping and his men. Suddenly, they defied all physics, the tips of the arrows made a U-turn and pointed at Liu Ping before they accelerated toward him.

'Magic arrows!'

Hua Shi's ten magic arrows chased after the Emperor with a speed of 200km/hour. As the homing arrows rushed after Liu Ping, another light arrow pierced his horse's brain, killing it instantly.

The dead horse lost its strength. It collapsed on the ground with Liu Ping on top of it.

The Emperor did not react in time. He also lost balance and his momentum as he was about to parry the oncoming arrows. As the consequences, ten arrows made their ways into Liu Ping's body.

*SOEK* *SOEK*

*SOEK* *SOEK*

Magic arrows ignored Liu Ping's physical toughness and dug itself into his fresh like tofu. Four of the arrows pierced his arms, two for each. The other six embedded themselves as they went through his ribcage. One of it went into his lung, and one into his stomach.

The nauseous and shocking pain numbed Liu Ping's brain and his five senses. The déjà vu experience he had in Hell came back to him.

Liu Ping kicked the dead warhorse away from him. While he was still crawling on the ground, trying to get himself up, a shadowy figure of a woman slipped through his bodyguards and appeared in front of him.

A tip of a spear chased after him, aiming at Liu Ping forehead!

*Clank*

The left hand of Liu Ping managed to back-hand away the incoming spear, changing its trajectory. It stabbed into the snowy ground.

The impact of the brief contact numbed his hand which shocked the Emperor.

'I have a hundred times endurance and strength! Why am I feeling the pain!? Is it another magic attack!?'

He did not realize one fact. He might have the passive physical buff from the system, but he had never utilized it to the fullest. In other words, his body control foundation was weak.

Confused, Liu Ping kicked the ground and turned around, trying to run away to get a better footing before he could counter-attack.

"You can't escape, Ping!"

Friday in Xiao Yu form flashed her red eyes. She pulled back her spear and ran after him.

"Protect the Emperor!"

The surrounding bodyguards finally realized what had happened. All twenty of them drew their weapons and lunged at Friday.

*PHOOF* *PHOOF*

*PHOOF* *PHOOF*

Friday displayed her body strength control by stabbing at twenty bodyguards within one breath, leaving twenty of her afterimages. All her thrust penetrated the foreheads of the bodyguards.

The current Friday's strength equaled the physical strength of Tong with all his passive buff and his two-wing power. As a former four-winged devil, she could exhibit the full potential of a two-wing demon as she had experienced in utilizing its power for countless years.

Tong could only utilize less than 50% of his true potential in battles as he had never trained under the instruction of a senior demon. Meanwhile, Friday grew up under the wings of Medusa. She had overwhelming experiences when it came to fighting.

Moreover, her casual combat strength was Tong's full overclocking mode. The spearmanship she used just now was Tong's [Double Accel]. Friday's perception and foundation were totally different than her husband.

The Imperial soldiers stared at the assailant with widened eyes in shock.

Friday ignored the stunned soldiers. She stepped on the ground with her toes, lightly chasing after Liu Ping as she slipped through the crowd like a snake moving through a series of tree branches.

Medusa's footwork, Lamia Step!

Liu Ping used his explosive force and managed to gain fifty meters distance from Friday. However, he sensed that she had shortened the distance. Liu Ping turned around and drew his sword, planning to retaliate.

Upon looking back, he saw a stunning beauty chasing after him with a spear.

Had it been other circumstances, Liu Ping would have abused his power to bed this woman. Unfortunately, he could not do so at this moment.

The power that she displayed earlier told Liu Ping that she was a threat to his life. His body toughness would not be able to withstand her strikes.

Adrenaline rushed into Liu Ping's brain and his muscle. He forgot his pain, and he felt that the world turned into slow motion.

He subconsciously overclocked his brain!

For one second, he could see the spear coming toward his forehead again.

He tilted his head to the side while the sword in his right hand made an arc, countering Friday's with a slice motion toward her torso.

Sensed the bad omen, Friday's left foot stomped onto the ground and kicked her body to the side. Her body escaped the horizontal swing of Liu Ping, yet the blade sliced through her body armor.

Before a piece of her armor dropped on the ground, half a second after the sword finished its motion, the right heel of Friday hit the ground and launched her body at Ping again. Her eyes locked onto Liu Ping's eyes, not letting him escape from her sight even a tenth of a second.

The tip of the spear rushed at him again!

"Nnhgg!"

Liu Ping groaned as he desperately swung his sword to the side to parry Friday's attack.

*CLANK*

He managed to change the spear's trajectory just in time, but the spear blade cut the side of his temple, leaving a 2cm cut wound above his left eyebrow.

For a second, any onlooker could see his white skull and his inner flesh before blood started pouring out of his wound.

"Die!"

The deflected spear rotated as Friday spun her body and spear, using the force of Liu Ping to generate momentum. The shaft of the spear found its way toward Liu Ping's torso, destroying his golden plate armor and breaking more of his bones.

The body of Liu Ping was launched into mid-air toward the ruckus where the ambush site was. If this were a baseball match, Friday would have scored a home run.

"Damnit! I messed up!" Friday cursed herself for using the blunt shaft of the spear to hit Liu Ping. She relied too much on her muscle memory and her instinct in the fight to the point that she had forgotten about her objective, "I'm supposed to kill that bastard ASAP! FOOk me!"

"With pleasure." A stupid soldier, who misunderstood Friday, jumped at her before his body riddled with holes from her spear.

As she prepared to go after Liu Ping, five more light arrows chased the body of Ping with a speed of 250km/hour.

*SOEK* *SOEK* *SOEK*

All arrowheads entered Liu Ping's torso with half of its shaft before Liu Ping's body landed into the crowd and disappeared from Friday's sight.

Two boulders at the size of a 10-wheeled truck rolled over the direction where Liu Ping landed, crushing the unlucky soldiers in their path.

*BOOM*

One of the two boulders slammed onto the lying Liu Ping, rolled over him, and continued its way toward the other soldiers.

Liu Ping, however, still did not give up his fate. Like a cockroach, he lied on the sunken ground and watched his wound on his body.

Surprisingly, the wound on his hand which caught the first arrow had healed. The endurance passive buff helped Liu Ping regenerated his injuries.

"Bitch! I'll make you my plaything like Wang Li!" Muttered Liu Ping as he slowly took out arrows from his arms and body and watched the wound regenerated.