The Almighty Ring

Shroder sighed heavily and left Jiang Fei to kill another martial artist.

Shroder was eternally grateful to Jiang Fei since he had saved his life. However, being grateful to him was different from being loyal to his own organization. As much as Shroder wanted to repay his debt to Jiang Fei, he could never allow his personal business to interfere with that of the Mutant Brotherhood.

In the end, Shroder left Jiang Fei and proceeded to kill other martial artists in hopes that he would die by their hands. At the very least, he would not have wronged Jiang Fei and would have served his best for the Mutant Brotherhood.

High pitch electrical buzzes and deafening discharges could be heard from the Androids. After equipping the alien weapons, the Androids had gained a massive upgrade in terms of firepower. Not only did they gained a powerful weapon, they did not need to waste any of their own power to do so. Even if they chose to fire the weapons on the fully automatic mode, they would not waste their own power to do so, hence, greatly increasing their operation time.

Amongst the martial artists, the one that was fighting with the most vigor was Zhu Tianfei. The man was born with a knack of dealing with violence. However, not long after he had slain a few Mutant, he was outperformed by two swordsmen, fighting side-by-side as if they were one soul with two bodies.

The two swordsmen were Chen Xuanming and Feng Xuanyi of the Soaring Cloud Sect. After being branded as traitors by the Grand Elder, Ye Tianshun, and even finding out that he was the real traitor all along, the two had felt the greatest shame anyone could ever feel. They felt so ashamed that they could not bring themselves to return to their homeland and to face the other sect members.

Hence, the two had steeled themselves to fight without holding anything back. They never wanted to return to China and did not even mind dying in Japan. As such, they had decided to pour our their blood, body, and soul in order to cleanse the name of Soaring Cloud Sect. Even if others might think them as otherwise, they wanted to prove that there were at least a few members of Soaring Cloud Sect that were still loyal to the alliance and to their own nation!

“Let’s go brother!”

“Yes, brother!”

The two killed their way into the crowd of Mutants. Their attack style had changed from being an all-rounder into full-on assault. They did not even care about defending any attacks. If it was not for their own disciples repelling the incoming attacks, the two would already be on death’s bed.

“Do what you can to end this battle as soon as possible,” Jiang Fei commanded Hong Yu. Right then, winning the battle was the least of Jiang Fei’s worry. What he cared about now was the other Mutants discovering his bait and heading over to provide support to Shroder’s group. It would be detrimental to the martial artists to face an attack from both the front and the back.

“I understand!” Hong Yu replied. She snapped her fingers to call all 24 Bio-Human girls to her side and form a fighting stance. All of them drew out their swords and started to attack in unison like a pinwheel. From one side, they looked like they were dancing gracefully with the wind. From another point of view, they were demons that lay waste to anyone that was in their way. Nothing but dismembered body parts were left in their wake.

The girls were only able to perform such a graceful yet deadly formation was because the Mutants were weak in melee combat. All of them specialized in ranged attacks, leaving them open to close melee attacks.

It was then known to all martial artists that Mutants had a great flaw. Like a tipping scale, they might dominate on one side of the scale, but they would have to leave something to be weak. Even though they were powerful Level 4 Mutants that could decimate an entire city, they could not even invoke their full potential whilst being attacked by a weak Level 3 martial artist. Without a proper stance, they could never fully release their powers without being killed first!

“URGH!”

A young Level 3 martial artist cried in pain when he was being struck. His cries drew Jiang Fei’s attention.

“Shroder!” Jiang Fei gasped in horror.

“…”

Shroder cringed hard when he heard Jiang Fei calling his name. As much as he wanted to, Shroder forced himself to look away, pretending to not notice Jiang Fei. He had no idea how to face Jiang Fei or even how to talk to him then.

“What a drag…” Jiang Fei sighed heavily. Jiang Fei fully understood how Shroder felt right there and then. The man was torn between his personal feelings and his duty towards his country and the Brotherhood. Like Shroder, he could not allow him to continue killing his fellow martial artists. It pained him so since Jiang Fei had made a promise with the late Phoenix—never to allow harm to befall Shroder.

Right then, Ganyang Zhenren had spotted Shroder right after he had just killed his disciple. If Jiang Fei did not act right then, Ganyang Zhenren would have his revenge on him. Even though both of them were at the Pinnacle stage of Level 4, Ganyang Zhenren would be able to defeat Shroder with both his hands tied behind his back!

Jiang Fei hesitated to move since the guilt in his mind was pushing him back. He could not betray Phoenix’s promise since Ariel was alive thanks to her. In the end, Jiang Fei bit down his pride and decided to respect Phoenix’s promise.

“Please wait! This one is mine!” Jiang Fei cried out to stop Ganyang Zhenren from interfering with Shroder. Right then, Shroder was not thinking straight. He was still battling his inner conflict.

At that moment, Jiang Fei glared at Shroder and said, “Follow me!”

Shroder snapped back to reality and quickly chase after Jiang Fei. In no time at all, the two, along with Ariel, left the battlefield.

When no one else was around, Jiang Fei stopped and turned to Shroder.

“You and I know understand each other. That is why I have to ask you to leave. You might not know this but this is a war that the Mutants cannot win. I cannot allow you to die here!” Jiang Fei grabbed Shroder’s arms and begged him.

“Jiang… It’s… I cannot leave! I am the commander of these Mutants here!” Shroder gently pushed Jiang Fei’s hands away and turned his back to him. He knew he should listen to Jiang Fei but he could not abandon his duty as one of the high ranking officers of the Mutant Brotherhood. There was no need for Jiang Fei to explain, even he knew that he could not win this fight. Everyone in his current group could not fight in melee combat.

Seeing how Shroder was a good man, Jiang Fei hated to use his trump card.

“I saw Jenny!” said Jiang Fei.

“What did you say?” Shroder snapped. He held Jiang Fei’s shoulder and shook him violently.

“She’s… she…” Jiang Fei choked. He had never expected his words to fail him at that moment.

“She’s? What? Where is she?! What are you implying?!” Shroder roared. Tears began to roll down his cheek.

“…” Jiang Fei turned the other cheek and went quiet.

“No… She’s not dead, is she? She couldn’t have left me!” Shroder violently shouted.

“She’s… not dead… but she’s gone,” said Jiang Fei, turning to look at Ariel before telling Shroder the vague truth.

“What do you mean!” Shroder roared.

“A long time ago, Jenny was abducted by the Japanese and was experimented on. Miraculously, she was enhanced and became a Level 5 Metahuman. However… the Japanese did not perfect the technology before they used it on Jenny. As a result, Jenny… as in her entire consciousness was replaced with a new one. From that moment on, Jenny was gone and Phoenix replaced her–” Before Jiang Fei could finish his explanation, Shroder interrupted with eyes that almost popped out of his sockets.

“Phoenix is Jenny?!”

It was only natural for Shroder to be so shocked about it since everyone knew about Phoenix and how powerful she was.