Chương 38: GRRrrrr, Brainnnsssszz…

Once those martial artists jumped down, all of them immediately started killing everyone who fled from the city. The first target is the carriage that Xiao Cai has entered after she opened the gate. When the martial artists didn't see Xiao Cai inside, they started wreaking havoc on other carriages. All this while, Ren Qingquan's carriage has been advancing at high speed. Amidst the group of panicked people who've just fled the city, the other Ren Family's carriage subtly opened a way for Ren Qingquan's carriage.

Once there's nothing else blocking Ren Qingquan's carriage, the other Ren Family carriages immediately dispersed. Some left the main road and entered the wilderness, while others took a different route from Ren Qingquan's. Aside from them, a few carriages have also dispersed and are following different roads. As the number of surrounding carriages steadily decreased, I returned my attention to the eight black-clad martial artists.

I absorbed light outside of my [Scan]'s range and used most of my calculation power to watch the battle situation that's already beyond my [Scan] range. All this time, the eight of them have been killing people wantonly. Watching them kill so many people makes me feel squeamish. But soon after, I couldn't care less about the people they killed. I saw the Martial Emperor and five other Martial Lords running in the direction the other escaped carriage had fled into.

They left two of the Martial Lord to slaughter everyone around the city gates. Once the Martial Emperor and five Martial Lords caught up with a carriage, they immediately attacked and killed everyone inside. Even the horse pulling the carriage wasn't left alone and also got killed. When everyone in a carriage has been killed, they immediately move to follow the track of carriages and horses on another road and slaughter everyone around.

Their speed is so fast that they can effortlessly surpass horse-drawn carriages multiple times. Before long, it was Ren Qingquan's turn. I noticed from afar that Ren Qingquan's coachman was growing anxious. He must have spotted the Martial Lord pursuing them. Soon, the Martial Lord entered my [Scan]'s range. He's a middle aged man with a ferocious face. On his right hand, there's a dangerous looking double bitted axe. I also do a quick check on his energy and found he's a bit weaker than Xiao Cai.

What a pity that most of Xiao Cai's energy has been exhausted after she transformed into a muscled monster to do a dropkick on the city gate. Right now, Xiao Cai mightn't be an enemy for the Martial Lord chasing them, or so I thought. Ren Qingquan, who had been opening the system map all this time, also saw the Martial Lord chasing the carriage. He got a bit anxious before I heard his thought, 'I guess it's time for my corpse refining technique to shine!'

He swiftly killed several small bugs, such as mosquitoes and flies, that were inside the carriage. Once he infused their bodies with spirit qi and his divine sense, Ren Qingquan directed them to fly toward the Martial Lord. At first, the Martial Lord didn't care about the insects. But when they began to crawl into his ears, I saw him release his energy into his ear and kill the insect before pushing them out. Every time an insect entered his ears, he would kill them with the same method.

Noticing that his corpse refining technique had failed, Ren Qingquan scowled. He leaned his head through the small gap between the carriage and the driver's seat.

"Is there any way you can speed up?" The coachman shook his head as he kept the horse in control. Ren Qingquan went to observe the system map once more and saw that the Martial Lord had gotten closer.

'System, how high is my winning chance if I fought against that Martial Lord?' Although a bit sudden, I still tried to answer his question. I assessed the enemy's estimated power level based on the information I had gathered. Then, the result is quite astonishing. [Host, unless the opponent has been trained in an exceptionally powerful martial arts technique, your chances of winning are actually over 60%. If you factor in Xiao Cai, your chances of victory will be nearly 100%.] Most of the winning chance is thanks to the cultivation technique Ren Qingquan learned. That's just how overpowered the three cultivation techniques Ren Qingquan has learned are compared to martial arts. Hearing my answer, Ren Qingquan's narcissistic tendency woke up momentarily, 'As expected of a main character like me. I could actually do a leapfrog battle against someone of a higher level!' Then, he told Xiao Cai to defeat the Martial Lord together. Xiao Cai agreed and picked up her sword.

Ren Qingquan also picked a spare sword and prepared to jump from the carriage. Once the Martial Lord was less than twenty meters away, Xiao Cai made the first move and jumped from the carriage. She slashed her sword, which was parried by the opponent's axe. With the clanging sound of metal as the mark, Ren Qingquan also jumped down and attacked. Because this is a battle with someone at a higher level, Ren Qingquan immediately used his Four Direction Sword technique and Yang Armor technique.

His spirit qi enveloped the sword and his body. Feeling the thin spirit qi enveloping his entire body, Ren Qingquan immediately ran toward the enemy. While he's running, I'm thinking about how I could contribute to the battle. Although I lack battlefield experience, my [Scan] ability allows me to detect enemy movements, while my [Calculate] ability can easily decipher their next actions based on the information gathered from [Scan].

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it. With that in mind, I decided to provide battle assistance to Ren Qingquan. [Ding! Battle Assistance function activated.] [Host, please slash along the line mark and thrust at the circle mark. The color indicates how weak or open the opponent's defense is in that area. Red spots are the target's weakest points, while green indicates that the opening will soon close.] After I sent that message, I altered Ren Qingquan's vision, allowing him to see several marks of different colors and shapes. There were lines and circles in colors ranging from red and yellow to green.

"System, you have a function like this?!" Ren Qingquan exclaimed in surprise while focusing on the Martial Lord. [System just made it right now.] Right after I finished speaking, Ren Qingquan arrived in front of the Martial Lord. Due to being preoccupied with Xiao Cai, the Martial Lord was distracted, resulting in a red line appearing on his waist in the battle assistance function. Without hesitation, Ren Qingquan immediately slashed his sword at the opponent's left side.

When the Martial Lord noticed the slash coming his way, he quickly attempted to shift his center of gravity and defend himself with his axe. However, the brief moment he had was not enough to muster sufficient force to defend against Ren Qingquan's sword, which was imbued with spirit qi. The hand gripping the axe trembled, causing a slight change in the direction of Ren Qingquan's slash. However, it still grazed his waist, which left a deep wound.

The Martial Lord's expression contorted slightly in response to the pain, revealing several openings in his defense. At that moment, Xiao Cai seized the opportunity and quickly aimed an attack at his neck. The Martial Lord felt the danger and tilted his body. His neck successfully escaped, but the slash fell on his shoulder and cut off his left arm. Without his left arm, the Martial Lord had to get used to his new balance, which left him vulnerable in many areas.

Ren Qingquan and Xiao Cai wasted no time and launched their attack together. As a result of their combined efforts, the Martial Lord ultimately fell. Ren Qingquan also continued his escape after devouring the opponent's soul using the Soul Swallowing method and [Devour]. Thanks to the Soul Swallowing Method, the Martial Lord's soul successfully replenished the refined spirit qi that Ren Qingquan had consumed. On the other hand, as soon as Xiao Cai entered the carriage, she immediately showed signs of exhaustion.

I could tell from [Scan] that she hadn't completely recovered her stamina from the battle against the Martial Lord. I had hoped that the remainder of the journey would be calm, but as I checked [Scan], I noticed a Martial Emperor approaching. This was the same Martial Emperor who had led the Martial Lords in the massacre of every carriage. When he discovered the corpse of his subordinate, the Martial Emperor frowned and quickly scanned the surrounding area.

After a few moments, he then followed the trail of Ren Qingquan's carriage at incredible speed. Seeing this filled me with fear. I quickly calmed down and calculated the possible chances of winning. However, no matter how I looked at it, the chance of Ren Qingquan surviving against the Martial Emperor was extremely small. Finally, I decided to use a method I had recently prepared. This method was originally devised to defeat the Martial Lord.

However, since the battle was imminent and Ren Qingquan's chances of winning weren't exactly low, I chose to hold off on using it during the previous battle. But with the Martial Emperor pursuing, I decided to do an experiment while there's still a big distance from the Martial Emperor. I observed a mosquito flying inside the carriage and decided to use [Transfer] to teleport parts of its body.

This idea stemmed from the fact that the description of [Transfer] did not specify that I had to transfer an object in its entirety. After using [Transfer], I split the mosquito's body in two, with one half still flying while the other lay on the carriage floor. However, I noticed the cost of the transfer was slightly higher than it would have been to transfer the mosquito whole. Transferring a whole mosquito only costs about one-tenth of a point, but transferring half of a mosquito somehow costs me double.

I considered several possibilities and even spent two points to test it on various insects and items. Ultimately, I concluded that the cost of [Transfer] is influenced by the target's resistance. Every creature instinctively resists death or the loss of body parts, which means that the cost of partially transferring a body is higher than transferring it whole.

I believe this is connected to the target's resistance, because when I attempted to transfer the interior of a stone, the cost was only half that of transferring the entire stone. Although I don't fully understand why the target's resistance increases the cost of my [Transfer], that's not important for now. At that moment, the Martial Emperor had closed the distance to within a hundred meters, and Ren Qingquan finally spotted the massive dot on the system map.

Panicking, he shouted, "There's an enemy Martial Emperor chasing us!" Both the exhausted Xiao Cai and the bewildered Fatty Zhang were shocked by his words. Before I could send a message to ask for reimbursement from Ren Qingquan, I saw Xiao Cai's expression darkened, "I'll go and delay him." [Host, stop your maid. System has just thought of an idea!] Ren Qingquan saw my message in time and stopped Xiao Cai. [One hit kill function activated. Please think of the target you want to kill.]'That's quite a domineering name,' Ren Qingquan remarked as he concentrated on the Martial Emperor pursuing us. [The one-hit kill function has been activated!] I assessed the energy surrounding me and realized that it would require more points than Ren Qingquan had to teleport even a part of the Martial Emperor's body. That means I can only use the points I saved for now. I'll definitely ask Ren Qingquan for reimbursement. [Insufficient points. The system has detected that the host is in grave danger. Automatically activating [Transfer] using emergency points for system operation.] [The opponent's brain has been successfully teleported outside of their head.]'Holy shit! You can do that?!' Ren Qingquan let out an internal exclamation upon reading my message. He quickly checked the system map and saw the giant dot representing a Martial Emperor had disappeared. [To activate the one-hit kill and transfer the opponent's brain, System has used the emergency reserve points that were stored for its operation. Please return these points as soon as possible. Until that happens, some system functions will be disabled.]'So, I fell into debt just from that one attack? How much points did I owe?' [200 points.]'Are you kidding me?!' [No. The Martial Emperor's body is protected by some unknown thing that makes 'Transfer' difficult. That's why System needs to spend so many points to teleport his brain out. Also, told the carriage to stop for a moment and absorb the Martial Emperor's soul. It's worth a lot of points!] Ren Qingquan agreed and asked the carriage to stop. He immediately ran and saw a dead person wearing dark clothing. On his face, there's trace of a wet thingy suspected to be a brain.

'This should be the Martial Emperor.' Ren Qingquan thought as he asked me to activate [Devour]. They waited for a few minutes, remaining cautious of their surroundings. From this Martial Emperor, both Ren Qingquan and I each obtained 50 points. This means that teleporting the Martial Emperor's brain costs double the points gained from defeating one. Additionally, I have to factor in a 50% tax. For Ren Qingquan, each one-hit kill will actually cost four times the income. This is definitely a massive loss.