Chapter 192: Counterattack! Deadly Firepower!

The sudden abnormal element clearly left everyone somewhat startled and uncertain.

They exchanged glances, momentarily at a loss for words.

In the end, it was Lu Yang—a man of few words but decisive action—who summarized the situation.

“There’s something seriously wrong here.”

This was already beyond doubt.

“Let’s go.”

Gao Xu, his brow tightly furrowed, no longer wished to say more. His mind was set on action.

Only by taking action could they uncover more clues and learn more secrets.

However, just as the group prepared to delve deeper into the ruins, the situation escalated.

Su Ming was the first to detect the anomaly.

As a false Upper-Rank Hunter but a genuine Upper-Rank Sorcerer, Su Ming’s extraordinary Spirit Sense instantly picked up the abnormality, halting him in his tracks.

“Watch out!”

The next moment, someone cried out in alarm.

It wasn’t Su Ming, who had noticed it first, but Bai Xuefei—the only female among the Upper-Rank Professionals.

This Upper-Rank Hunter from the Bai Family had also sensed the anomaly.

But by the time she shouted the warning, it was already too late.

“Bzzz!”

“Bzzz!”

“Bzzz!”

Accompanied by a series of air tremors, ring-like array patterns emerged.

On the ground, walls, and ceiling, numerous circular arrays spun and expanded, encircling the main force of the Six Great Families.

“Boom—!”

Immediately after, the terrain collapsed.

The ceiling shattered.

The walls dissipated like dust.

The ground instantly crumbled.

The entire area’s terrain fell into ruin, as if caught in an earth-shattering cataclysm.

“Damn it!”

“Get out of here, now!”

“Fall back!”

Gao Xu, Duan Xiaofei, Lu Yang, and the others paled, barking orders loudly.

But by then, the warnings were futile.

Soon, everyone present fell with the collapsing terrain, triggering countless screams.

“Eek-eek!”

A certain Lee Marmot, however, slipped into the earth as effortlessly as a fish diving into water, vanishing in no time.

As for the Upper-Rank Professionals, their reactions were lightning-fast. Aside from Su Ming and Bai Xuefei, the others leaped into the air, escaping the disaster.

Gao Xu even had the spare capacity to bring Xu Yanyan with him, soaring to safety and evading the trap.

But Su Ming and Bai Xuefei, who had reacted first, knew the real trouble was just beginning.

“Bzzz—!”

Amid the most intense hum yet, more circular arrays appeared.

Surrounding the collapsed terrain, Underground Professionals clad in black robes emerged from nowhere, encircling the entire ruin.

Their bodies seethed with Spirit Power.

In their hands, circular arrays spun.

“Release!”

At the cold command of what appeared to be their leader, the surrounding Underground Professionals—a group of highly skilled Sorcerers—unleashed the Spirit Arts they had prepared without hesitation.

Thus,狂暴的火焰、密集的弹幕、肆虐的飓风、无尽的沙尘等等等等宛若天灾般的力量袭来，将陷入塌陷中的六大世家的所有人都给覆盖了进去。A violent tremor shook the scene, with roaring and explosive sounds echoing incessantly, refusing to subside for a long time.

……

Ruins, Underground.

This was an underground world so dark it seemed untouched by daylight.

In this dim underground, there was no life, nor any trace of Life Qi—only cold soil and monotonous piles of rubble and debris.

At one moment, a pile of rubble suddenly stirred.

“Boom!”Amid the explosive sound, countless fragments of rubble were blasted away, causing dust to fill the air.”

“Cough, cough…!From within the dust, a coughing sound emerged, revealing a blurry figure in the haze.

The figure was cloaked in a black robe, wore a mask, and had a fingerless glove on his right hand, dressed in an extremely mysterious manner.

It was none other than Su Ming.

“Cough, cough… cough, cough, cough…!”

The dust continued to spread, making Su Ming cough uncontrollably, without pause.

By the end, Su Ming grew irritated.

“Damn this dust… Scatter!”

With an angry shout, Su Ming swung his right hand forcefully, stirring up a fierce gust of wind that blew away the surrounding dust.

Only then did Su Ming’s respiratory system escape further torment, allowing him to catch his breath.

“Those guys should be fine, right?”

Su Ming waved his hand to disperse the lingering sand and dust while scanning his surroundings.

The area was pitch dark, with no signs of movement except for the constant sound of gravel rolling.

Su Ming looked up, glancing at the ceiling above.

To his surprise, he found that the top was completely out of sight, and he couldn’t even tell where he had fallen from.

“It seems I’ve fallen to a very deep place.”

Su Ming frowned in frustration, yet felt a sense of relief.

“Fortunately, I came with the people from the Six Great Families this time, otherwise…”Recalling the earlier trap—the endless barrage of attacks and the concentrated fire of Spirit Arts—even Su Ming lacked confidence in withstanding such firepower alone.”

The reason he remained unscathed now was twofold: first, he had detected the anomaly in advance and taken precautions; second, because there were many targets, the enemy’s collective bombardment was dispersed, allowing Su Ming to use the power of his right hand to blast away the incoming fire. He then leveraged the reaction force from that explosion to actively fall into the collapsing terrain, away from the center of the bombardment.

If Su Ming had entered the Ruins alone, he would likely have been killed by the concentrated firepower of the Sorcerers from ‘Sin’.

“I was too careless this time.”

Su Ming reflected silently.

Having been mixed in with the Family forces in Longyao City recently, Su Ming had almost forgotten that on the battlefield, one should be most wary not of the Hunters charging ahead, but of the Sorcerers lurking in the rear, waiting for the right moment to act and capable of threatening him from a distance with various Spirit Arts.

Although Sorcerers lack the amazing physique of Hunters, the power of Spirit Arts can truly be called the nuclear weapon of the professional circle, giving Sorcerers a slight possibility of counterattack whether facing Phantom Demons or human enemies.For example, when Su Ming encountered the mercenary group led by Yi Junchuan on Warehouse Street in Huaming District, if he hadn’t hidden in the shadows to launch long-range artillery strikes and continuously attacked the enemies with Spirit Arts, catching them off guard and overwhelming them with astonishing firepower, he and Xu Qianqian alone would never have been able to confront that mercenary group head-on.

Later, when facing Yi Junchuan, Su Ming relied on the alchemical potion given by Xu Qianqian to conceal his presence, preventing Yi Junchuan from locating him or eliminating him. He then continued to attack Yi Junchuan unilaterally from the shadows using Spirit Arts, driving him into a corner.

Thus, while Sorcerers lack the close-combat capabilities of Hunters, as long-range rearguards, they are akin to sniper rifles threatening everyone.

No, perhaps they should be described as rocket launchers or even high-powered missile weapons.

Therefore, in one-on-one combat, it’s a different matter, but in chaotic battles and turbulent battlefields like these, the ones to be most wary of are not the Hunters charging head-on but the Sorcerers positioned in the rear or lurking in the shadows.

Recently, having spent more time mingling with the various great families and encountering all sorts of Hunters, Su Ming had almost forgotten about the existence of Sorcerers.

And in “Sin,” the largest underground mercenary organization, it was impossible for there to be no Sorcerers.

Even a third-rate underground professional group like Yi Junchuan’s, which was filled with low-ranking Professionals, was equipped with two Two-Star Sorcerers. This time, the force that appeared was likely a main unit of “Sin,” and it was inconceivable that they wouldn’t have an entire Sorcerer team.

Su Ming even suspected that among “Sin’s” members this time, there might be Upper-Rank Sorcerers.

If even one Upper-Rank Sorcerer had been present in that earlier firepower ambush, then he…

Just thinking about it sent a chill down Su Ming’s spine.

Fortunately, it seemed that no truly nuclear weapon-level Upper-Rank Sorcerer had appeared.

“That’s right,” he thought, “given the power of Advanced Spirit Arts, if one were used in such a confined environment, it would undoubtedly blow the entire Ruins sky-high, burying everyone alongside it.”

Under such circumstances, an Upper-Rank Sorcerer capable of using Advanced Spirit Arts would be better off joining the main force to attack the Xu Family rather than remaining in the Ruins as a deadly bomb threatening both friend and foe.

“I just don’t know if the Six Great Families have prepared countermeasures against Sorcerers.”

If not, the Six Great Families might suffer a major defeat this time.

To put it bluntly, if a single Upper-Rank Sorcerer were to use an Advanced Spirit Art outside the Xu Family Estate, the instantaneous firepower coverage would undoubtedly reduce the entire estate to a sea of flames.

At that point, forget about engaging in battle—Longyao City might not even be able to mount a decent resistance.

“Since they’re top-tier families, they should have considered the threat posed by high-star Sorcerers, right?”

Su Ming could only hope so.

Otherwise, Xu Qianqian, who remained in the Xu Family Estate, might truly be in grave danger.

“Never mind, it’s better not to think that far ahead.”

As the saying goes, “distant water cannot quench a nearby fire.” Even if something were to happen at the Xu Family Estate now, Su Ming wouldn’t be able to make it in time.

Rather than worrying needlessly here, it was better to figure out how to deal with the current predicament.

Su Ming glanced around the pitch-dark surroundings and, for a moment, had no idea how to proceed with his next move.”Let’s first see if there are any companions around.”

After a while, Su Ming made this decision and quietly unfolded a circular array on his wrist.

“【Forty-Fifth Form: Rising Force Binding Stream】.”

Su Ming cast the detection Spirit Art.

Spirit Power waves capable of detecting life responses immediately spread like radar scanning pulses, sweeping through the surroundings one by one.

Soon, Su Ming detected the nearest life response.

“This way?”

Su Ming withdrew the Spell Formula and arrived at the location of the life response.

There was no one there, only a pile of stones.

“Buried underneath?”

Su Ming immediately realized something was wrong and quickly dug through the stone pile before him.

With his right hand possessing ten times the strength of his left, the stone pile was soon cleared away.

Su Ming unearthed a person on the verge of death from within.

“Hey! Wake up!”

Su Ming patted the person’s cheek and was about to retrieve an alchemical potion from his backpack to administer when the person’s breath gradually faded, ultimately extinguishing completely.

Su Ming stared blankly at the scene, then sighed, placed the person back into the stone pile, and buried them on the spot.

Afterward, Su Ming relied on the 【Rising Force Binding Stream】 Spell Formula to find many more people.

Some of these people still had a breath left, while others had breathed their last before Su Ming found them, having lost their lives.

After falling from such a great height, being intensively bombarded by numerous Sorcerers, and then buried, survivors in such a disaster were undoubtedly few.

Even though these individuals were Hunters from various top-tier noble families, with extraordinary Bloodlines and remarkable Physiques, they were still Mortal bodies, making it difficult to survive under such circumstances.

Even Upper-Rank Professionals, if hit by concentrated fire from so many Sorcerers, would inevitably suffer severe injuries—if they weren’t missed entirely.

Su Ming even wondered if there had been casualties among the Upper-Rank Professionals who had come here.

With this thought in mind, Su Ming proceeded to carry out rescue efforts in the vicinity, digging out some survivors from the pitch-dark underground.

Unfortunately, these survivors were all in critical condition; without the numerous alchemical potions Su Ming provided, they likely wouldn’t have made it.

Under such circumstances, expecting them to stand up and move together with him was nothing short of a pipe dream.

Left with no choice, Su Ming found a spot and temporarily set up a Shelter, transferring these critically injured patients inside.

While rescuing people and transferring the wounded in this manner, Su Ming finally encountered a familiar face.

“Ugh…”

With a pained groan, a girl wearing heavy makeup was dug out by Su Ming from a pile of rubble, appearing before him.

“Xu Yanyan?”

Su Ming looked at the girl, his eyebrows sharply raised.

It was indeed Xu Yanyan.

“You…”

Xu Yanyan was severely injured but not yet on the verge of death, allowing her to barely open her eyes and see Su Ming.

Seeing this, Su Ming curled his lips, skillfully retrieved an alchemical potion from his backpack, uncorked it, and shoved it into Xu Yanyan’s mouth.

“Gurgle…! Ugh…!”Xu Yanyan was like a delicate young girl forced to drink an unknown liquid, unable to struggle, as Su Ming mercilessly poured the alchemical potion down her throat, nearly causing her to choke.

Yet, this rough and brutal act actually allowed Xu Yanyan to temporarily breathe a sigh of relief.

When she first realized the person who saved her was Su Ming, she had thought he would take the opportunity to kill her.

Who would have thought that not only did Su Ming not seize the chance to end her life, but he actually saved her.

Of course, expecting Su Ming to show any gentleness toward this Young Miss who had intended to murder Xu Qianqian was utterly impossible.

“Why are you alone? Where’s Gao Xu?”

Su Ming tossed Xu Yanyan aside after she drank the alchemical potion and asked the question as if it were nothing out of the ordinary.

“Cough, cough…”

Xu Yanyan coughed twice, lifted her head, and looked at Su Ming, her eyes flickering with uncertainty.

The two former adversaries now stood face to face, alone in this pitch-black, eerie place.

The atmosphere instantly grew heavy.

(End of Chapter)