Chapter 19 Ambush <TOC> Chapter 21 The Soul Cult
Translator: SumTLMan
“You dare attack the security officer? No matter who you are, you are doomed!”
Kurana’s voice rose in anger as his BTR-60 sank deep into the mud at the bottom of the riverbed. Despite his use of psychic energy to enhance the performance of the power armor, he could not easily extricate himself.
Supported by a hovercraft, he attempted to control the power armor and climb out of the mud.
Li Mei tossed her rifle and held the sword handle in one hand and the sheath in the other.
A sharp, light hum almost pierced their ears.
She was like a light swallow, swooping towards the power armor on the riverbank. Her speed was incredibly fast and in a split second, she had already set foot on the hovercraft.
The power armor’s sensory abilities were limited and could only observe the external environment through the optical and infrared systems integrated in the head. This level of situational awareness was far better than that of infantry vehicles and tanks, but it was still limited, as it could only sense the outside world through optical imaging and infrared imaging and lacked touch and hearing.
Normally, because the hovercraft obstructed his vision, he wouldn’t be able to detect Li Mei’s fast approach.
But Kurana accurately sensed the slight vibration of the hovercraft through the power armor and judged that someone had landed on the hovercraft, even determining Li Mei’s approximate location through the vibration.
This was the strengthened effect of controlling psychic energy.
He directly pulled the trigger of the machine gun.
In the dull roar, the hovercraft was as fragile as paper under the bombardment of the 23mm machine gun.
The whistling tracer bullets shot diagonally into the sky like white-hot flames.
Li Mei leaped in the midst of the whistling bullets. The 23mm machine gun equipped with the BTR-60 power armor was based on the 23mm anti-aircraft gun. Because of the limited carrying capacity of the power armor suspension system and the limit on the number of rounds, the firing rate was reduced to 180 rounds per minute.
This firing rate was not high for a machine gun, but it was already extremely lethal.
Kurana felt for the first time that the firing rate of the machine gun was too slow, and the speed at which the bullets flew out of the barrel was simply slow enough to make one’s fingers tingle.
The sword-dancing girl freely travels through the shower of bullets, leaving the whistling projectiles behind her, as if she were a butterfly dancing in a storm.
“I flourish in slaughter, like a flower in the dawn.”
Li Mu doesn’t know why, but this sentence appeared in his mind to describe the scene before him, and it couldn’t be more fitting.
“Hmph!”
A fierce cold light flickered, and the whistling machine gun suddenly stopped. The reinforced frontal armor of the powered armor was cut open like butter, half of the shoulder plate and the entire right arm fell into the river with a painful metallic friction sound.
“No!”
Kurana felt a numbness in his scalp, and the overwhelming strength of the enemy made him feel hopeless, but he still controlled his remaining left arm and grabbed the tactical whip that popped out.
Under the enhancement of spiritual energy, the end of the whip cracked with a burst, even dragging a white trace in the air. That was the whip compressing the air, causing the water vapor in the air to condense into mist.
His desperate whip missed, and he struck the water.
A loud noise, it was as if a bomb exploded underwater, mud and river water rolled and splashed everywhere.
The fierce sword light shone in the mud water, and the remaining left arm of the powered armor was also cut off.
If the powered armor just slightly touched Li Mu, it could seriously injure her, but the air between them was like the strongest defense, making Kurana just watch in admiration.
Li Mu avoided the whip, raised her sword with a chef’s skill, and directly split the body of the powered armor, then pulled Kurana out.
At this point, Li Mu had not yet dealt with all the fallen security officers.
Kurana, who was no different from a pile of mud, was thrown on the ground, looking embarrassed. His fine beard was wet with mud, his face was pale, and he looked a little bewildered. He never thought that in less than ten seconds, he would fail, and he didn’t even know how he failed.
Li Mu inserted her sword into the scabbard, wiped off the mud spots on her body, and her expression was relaxed, as if she had just dealt with a minor fish.
Li Mu, who shot down the struggling security guard with the precision of a marksman, took a deep breath. With the power armor as reference, he finally understood just how strong Li Mei was and why the governor felt confident enough to only send her to protect himself.
“Who are you?”
Kurana was still somewhat frightened, he still didn’t even know how he lost. The power armor, which had been reinforced by the manipulation system of spiritual energy, was capable of resisting direct fire from a machine gun, so why was it so easily broken? This did not make sense!
Li Mu crouched down and tapped his cheek with the scabbard.
“You don’t have the right to ask questions. I’ll ask, you answer.”
Kurana didn’t speak, still staring fixedly at Li Mei. The young girl’s strength was not simple. Only by mastering multiple powerful holy relics could she easily manipulate him.
Where did this monster come from?
Li Mu grabbed Kurana’s hair and pulled him in front of him.
“Do you look down on me?”
Kurana didn’t answer, but from the look on his face, his contempt was evident.
“Tell me, how did Mahadev die?”
Li Mu asked.
Kurana was not stupid. After a moment of shock, he guessed Li Mu’s identity and burst into wild laughter.
“Are you the new governor security officer?”
He laughed until tears came to his eyes.
“Ha ha, I didn’t expect you to be much more ruthless than I thought, I lost. But don’t be too complacent, I’ll be waiting for you in the Source Ocean.”
Kurana regretted it, regretting his carelessness, and underestimating Li Mu’s decisiveness and cruelty.
Li Mu raised an eyebrow and was not lenient either. He directly cut off all his fingers on his hand.
“Are you playing riddles with me?”
The severed fingers fell to the ground, ten fingers together, Kurana rolled on the ground in pain, holding his broken fingers and making a beastly howl.
“It seems that you are not as strong as you thought, I just want to know the answer. Kurana, who killed Mahadev, and why?”
These people who treat other people’s lives as trivial are surprisingly precious about their own lives. After having his fingers cut off, Kurana immediately became like a dog with a broken spine.
“I swear to the heavens, I don’t know. I only know that Mahadev was a suicide. He started to become mentally unstable a month before he died.”
Li Mu was noncommittal.
“What’s going on with those soul cultists in the area of Orissa?”
He noticed the presence of the soul cultists while inspecting the area. These vermin-like priests were brazenly preaching to the ignorant farmers in the area.
Kurana picked up the finger from the ground and gently brushed off the dirt on it.
“The members of the soul cult have been conducting missionary activities in the Avonigarda Province for a long time. Since there was no security official in the Orissa area, they all gathered here.”
Li Mu gazed into Kurana’s eyes and observed his expression changes.
“Tell me everything you know about Mahadev.”
All information about Mahadev’s death was blocked. He only heard a lot of worthless rumors from the farmers.
Kurana swallowed his saliva and spoke out everything he knew like pouring beans.
According to the testimony of the surviving security officers, Mahadev had been nervous and said that something was watching him. He locked himself in a completely airtight room, allowing only trusted security officers to bring food and water in through a small window.
The Pancaya Council in the area believed that Mahadev was no longer suitable to be a security official and was planning to impeach him at the governor’s office.
Mahadev directly killed all the people in the council with his security officers, completely wiping them out.
It was a cruel massacre. The normally privileged elders were slaughtered like pigs. There were no survivors.
Even in the loosely ruled Avonigarda Province, this was still a major case.
The governor directly ordered several nearby security officers to capture Mahadev, but he had already committed suicide after the security officers entered his area.
He directly killed most of his security officers and then committed suicide after the cruel massacre. The few surviving security officers also completely went mad.