Chapter 481 Portals of Death
Chapter 481 - Portals of Death
Ma Chao and Xu Shu could not believe their ears. None of them could ever dream that such an order could come out from Liu Bei's mouth.
Xu Shu jumped down from his horse and knelt, "My lord! They are harmless commoners! You've already won the city. Please spare them!"
Ma Chao was about to beg Liu Bei as well. However, his overbearing attitude stopped him from doing something embarrassing. He only looked at Liu Bei in solemn, hoping that his lord would not do something too cruel.
Unfortunately, Liu Bei's mind had long been corrupted by Liu Ping's remnant soul. Had it been his usual self without the external influence, he would have cried and wailed for the dead people and blamed Pang Tong for using the unauthorized order.
But now, Liu Ping's cruel nature merged with Liu Bei's hidden desire, creating a new persona.
Liu Bei sneered, "Don't worry, you two. Dead men can't tell a thing about today's event. As long as our men kept their mouth shut, we can spread words that Zhang Liao murdered all of these people like how Shanyue Khan and Dong Zhuo killed their innocent civilians."
Xu Shu's face paled while Ma Chao's expression turned rigid. This dark side of Liu Bei was not within their evaluation.
The honest strategist saddened that he had just witnessed the hypocrisy of Liu Bei. He always hated this kind of warlords, which was the reason why he refused to join Tong up till now.
Ma Chao also did not like this side of Liu Bei. Still, for the sake of his revenge, he could tolerate a couple of Liu Bei's dark secrets.
"Mengqi, go and kill those men."
Ma Chao sighed and pulled his reign, guiding his horse toward the civilians.
*VHOOM*
A weird sci-fi sound came from behind Liu Bei, and a hand reached out and grabbed his collar.
With inhuman strength, the hand yanked Liu Bei off his horse and pulled into the blue portal behind his back.
Before Liu Bei could utter a sound, the abductor completed his objective, snatching Liu Bei into Li Feihong's private dimension.
The blue warp hole immediately closed as soon as Liu Bei's last leg entered the gate.
Xu Shu witnessed the entire process. His jaw dropped, and his legs became stiff due to shock.
"L-L-Lord L-Liu."
Another portal appeared before Xu Shu. Another hand grabbed his neck and pulled him inside as well.
Unable to resist this power behind that arm, Xu Shu allowed himself to be dragged into the other world.
Ma Chao heard the weird noise, so he turned around, only to find masterless horses.
"!!??"
The general was baffled. He looked around in confusion if Xu Shu and Liu Bei went somewhere without him realizing it, but he failed to locate both of them.
Ma Chao got panicked. He abandoned the peasant-slaughtering order and rode around the perimeter, searching for Xu Shu and Liu Bei.
10 Minutes later, he returned to the previous location.
"Where did they go!?"
While Ma Chao was still looking for both of them, Pang Tong came back to report his achievement to Liu Bei, hoping to get some credits.
He had already ordered some cataphracts to organize all civilians in one place inside the city, and the city acquisition was going smoothly. As for the missing Zhang Liao and their garrisoning soldiers, Pang Tong guessed that they might have escaped to the north toward the Yellow River as planned.
As for the remaining footmen, Pang Tong had them continue to guard the perimeter and maintain their formation, in case Zhang Liao were to appear with an ambush force.
Pang Tong also had a following up preparation in his mind. From now on, the south regiment would enter the city. The east regiment would barricade Zhang Liao from moving toward Luoyang, and their units would blockade the passages toward Tong Gate.
With this kind of encirclement, Liu Bei Army could have forced Zhang Liao to a desperate fight on an open field, where they had the number advantage. If Zhang Liao and Li Feihong were stupid and attempted to cross the river, Pang Tong could annihilate them by using all three regiments to push them down the river.
'Easy! What's so hard about war anyway? Those central-plain scholars are all stupid!'
Confident with his result and the future prep, Pang Tong also looked for Liu Bei to flex his fantasy.
However, he only found Ma Chao and his retainers. Xu Shu and Liu Bei were nowhere to be found.
"Where is our lord, General Ma Chao?"
Ma Chao shook his head, "I don't know! They just vanish to thin air!"
"Vanish to thin air!?" Pang Tong was on the verge of swearing and dissing Ma Chao as a dumb general. From his point of view, no one could simply disappear without reason.
"Didn't he tell you where he is going?"
"Xuande ordered me to kill all peasants, but he and your friend disappear afterward. How should I know?"
"…"
Pang Tong was shocked when he heard that Liu Bei wanted all those people dead. Then, he realized what Liu Bei might be aiming for and what his real aim was.
'Reputation and image. I get it. Very nice follow-up, my lord.'
He grinned and nodded, "Alright! I'll handle this task myself! You should also lead our men to the city and control the mindless goons."
The strategist laughed and adjusted the horse reign, planning to turn around and inform the footmen to kill everyone.
*WHOOM*
Another portal opened above Pang Tong's head and two hands came out of it. From those hands, a rope circled around the fat strategist without him realizing it.
Suddenly, the rope tightened, squeezing Pang Tong's neck and pulled this strategist upward, but the assailant did not drag him into the gate. Instead, Pang Tong was being choked by the mysterious arms. His body was dangling in mid-air!
This time, Ma Chao could finally see the reason how Liu Bei and Xu Shu disappeared.
A kidnapper!
Someone used a supernatural power to abduct Liu Bei and Xu Shu. And now, he was taking Pang Tong right in front of Ma Chao.
"STOP RIGHT THERE, FIEND!!"
Ma Chao roared and rode toward Pang Tong.
But before he reached the strategist, a large circular gate opened on the ground.
Ma Chao's horse did not expect that the solid ground could turn into a hole. It fell into the warp gate along with its master.
As for the horse's master, he widened his eyes and stared into the large portal in shock before he fell.
Pang Tong, who was being straggled, moved his legs while his hands tried to undo the rope by his neck. The power of the mysterious hands was too strong for the frail strategist. Pang Tong's face turned blue within a few seconds.
Yellow warm water leaked out from Pang Tong's crotch, wetting his pants. Saliva, snorts, and tears dirtied the blue face while the man's tongue stuck out from his mouth.
*KRUK*
A bone-cracking sound was audible to the nearby soldiers, who were petrified by the sight of the mysterious execution of the blue gate.
The hands untied the rope and allowed Pang Tong's body to fall to earth.
*POEK*
Pang Tong's neck was twisted, and it leaned backward over 120 degrees, dangling like a doll without a neck bone. Blood came out from Pang Tong's nose and mouth.
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*VHOOM*
*VHOOM*
*VHOOM*
More portals appeared along with 1,000 soldiers with light leather armors and their new weapons. These mysterious people silently formed a line behind Liu Bei's soldiers and pointed the gun muzzles.
The weapons in their hands were the new rifles that Medusa produced with [Firearm Creation] skill. A thousand of M16A4, each loaded with a magazine of 30 bullets, aimed at the clueless footmen.
Their vice general, Bo Cai, led this platoon himself. He gestured his men with his fingers, counting down.
When Bo Cai lowered his index finger into a fist, thunderous gunshot sound echoed throughout the battlefield.
*TA-TA-TA*
*TA-TA-TA*
*TA-TA-TA*
Several thousands of yellow needles flew across the battlefield, pinning down anyone in their line of fire.
The sudden appearance of the enemies and the new weapons shocked Liu Bei's men. All commanders had no experience dealing with this situation, so they screamed and looked around in confusion.
After Bo Cai Unit ran out of ammo, they swiftly reloaded another magazine and relocated from their position. As for Liu Bei's battalion of 10,000 men that Bo Cai's soldiers maimed, no one survived the hail of 30,000 bullets.
Bo Cai moved toward the other battalion and repeated their action.
*TA-TA-TA*
*TA-TA-TA*
As Liu Bei's men stood in a densely packed formation, it was easy to maim and kill these soldiers. Some of them ran away from the army, but they could not escape from the 1,000-man's line of fire.
However, the last 5,000 footmen managed to scatter and flee in every direction. Some were caught by Bo Cai and killed, but many fled toward the south regiment.
It took only a few minutes to drop most of the remnants of Liu Bei. Bo Cai's unit immediately withdrew into the city.
Unfortunately, a few stray bullets traveled further than Bo Cai and his men's expectations. They hit the stone wall of Hongnong. A few even hit or killed innocent civilians, who already had suffered from Pang Tong's onslaught order.
It was a tragedy for Hongnong people. None of them even realized that they became victims in an accident that Li Feihong had not imagined.
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.
.
Inside Li Feihong's domain, six men were on an empty field.
Zhang Liao sat on his horse, looking down on the collapsed Ma Chao.
Li Feihong was still holding on Liu Bei's collar and Xu Shu's neck.
Zhou Cang stood still with trembling arms, crying. A long rope was still in his shaking hands.
The two angels watched their prisoners with hatred. Li Feihong glared at Liu Bei and muttered, "Should I just kill you here? Scum!?"