Chapter 155: The Convoy Is Attacked

Just as Granny Wanjun and the others were rejoicing, believing that this batch of medicine would save the villagers, the unexpected arrived—right on cue...

Everyone felt a faint tremor beneath their feet. Tiny pebbles rolled up and down without pause, as though shaken across a sieve.

The sudden disturbance interrupted the exchange. Innately sensitive to the elements, Granny Wanjun sensed that the elemental forces in the air had become unnaturally active.

As if realizing something, she hurriedly looked around.

Chen Pingkui also sensed that something was wrong. He watched Granny Wanjun and Old Yu warily, one hand slipping behind his waist to rest on the grip of his pistol.

At that moment, a group of figures slowly appeared on the hillside across the road. All of them wore leather clothing and trousers—the typical attire of wastelanders.

The man leading them was tall and powerfully built.

Despite the lingering cold of early spring, he wore only a fur vest, leaving arms as thick as a man's thighs bare. He stood with them crossed over his chest, mysterious tattoos winding across his skin.

His hair was gathered into a thick bundle and tied behind his head with a grass cord. With heavy brows and large eyes, he wore a mocking look.

From his elevated position, he surveyed the convoy and Granny Wanjun's group below.

Beside him stood a man and a woman, their hands held loosely in clawlike shapes, palms facing upward. Visible crimson elemental energy continually gathered toward their hands.

Their eyes blazed red as well, and the temperature of the surrounding air rose rapidly.

Nearby, another man crouched halfway to the ground, both palms pressed against it. Earth-yellow light flickered in his eyes.

He was the one causing the trembling beneath their feet.

Once she got a clear look at them, Granny Wanjun shouted, her voice filled with disbelief:

“Baidy, what are you doing?”

The wastelander called Baidy tugged the corners of his mouth into a wicked grin. His voice boomed across the distance as he called back:

“Well, well, if it isn’t Granny Wanjun! You got here just in time!

“You’re asking what I’m doing? Ha-ha-ha! Isn’t this exactly what we agreed on?”

“What? When did I ever agree to anything with you?”

Even the normally wise and composed Granny Wanjun looked utterly bewildered. She turned toward Old Yu, hoping he might offer some explanation.

But Old Yu looked even more confused.

Chen Pingkui understood the implication of their exchange. He took two steps backward as though facing a formidable enemy, his heart jolting with alarm.

...These two groups know each other. No wonder I didn’t see any young people. They were lying in ambush on the opposite hillside all along, sending a few old men and women to conduct the trade and throw me off!

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Time was of the essence. Chen Pingkui no longer had time to concern himself with Granny Wanjun and Old Yu. He turned and sprinted toward the convoy.

But at that very moment, two red meteors streaked across the sky, trailing crimson flames as they shot toward him. They exploded with two thunderous booms.

One burst beside Chen Pingkui’s feet. The other detonated in a dazzling shower of sparks against the front of the off-road vehicle.

The blast gouged a black crater into the earth and sent gravel flying in every direction.

Chen Pingkui was hurled more than six feet away. He crashed heavily onto the roadside, and his pistol flew from his hand.

The vehicle’s front end looked as though it had been struck by a cannon shell. One tire rose high into the air before slamming back down.

A large section of the hood caved in. White smoke poured from the engine, while the airbags deployed inside the cab, leaving the driver seeing stars.

Granny Wanjun was horrified. She turned toward Baidy and cried out:

“No... No, you can’t! Baidy, how could you attack the convoy? Have you lost your mind?”

“Ha-ha-ha-ha!”

Baidy’s wild laughter carried on the wind.

“Why can’t I? Weren’t you the one who agreed that we should rob this convoy? What are you waiting for? Attack!”

Granny Wanjun’s thoughts raced, and at last she understood what Baidy intended.

He meant to rob the convoy and drag her into the crime with him.

She turned, wanting to explain to Chen Pingkui that things were not as they sounded.

But he was struggling to rise. Without even looking back, he crawled toward the pistol lying on the ground, using both hands and feet.

He had no intention of listening to any explanation.

Farther away, the convoy had also been stunned by the sudden attack.

They had watched helplessly as their boss was blasted into the air by a dazzling fireball, and their hearts had risen into their throats.

There was no time to wait for Chen Pingkui to issue orders. They immediately put into action the emergency response plan they knew by heart.

The drivers restarted their trucks, preparing to carry out the emergency measure known as escape.

After all, anyone robbing a convoy was almost certainly after the supplies aboard the vehicles.

Once the trucks scattered and fled, their boss would actually become safer.

In the blink of an eye, the half-crouching man on the hillside gave a low roar:

“Quicksand!”

The ground beneath his palms began to weather at astonishing speed.

The earth, originally composed of rock and gravel, turned into loose sand that spread rapidly down the slope. In an instant, it had reached the area surrounding the convoy.

The earth-yellow light in the man’s eyes flared again, and he roared once more:

“Quicksand Trap!”

In the space of a moment, every truck was swallowed into the field of shifting sand.

Their tires began to sink, and the vehicles lurched and tilted.

Even with the drivers pressing the pedals to the floor, the trucks could no longer move an inch. All they could do was send great clouds of sand billowing into the air.

The harder a vehicle struggled, the faster it sank.

Perhaps because he had unleashed such a large-scale ability, the man’s inner energy was instantly drained.

Suddenly weakened, he dropped to both knees with a thud and gasped for breath, sweat streaming down his forehead.

Baidy patted him on the shoulder and grinned in satisfaction.

But the attack was not over.

The other woman, who had been gathering fire energy, suddenly thrust both hands forward. A dense swarm of flaming arrows erupted from her palms.

Every one of them was aimed at Granny Wanjun.

The arrows carved blazing trails through the air, scorching everything in their path and distorting the atmosphere around them.

The skill seemed to lack precision and could not match the accuracy of a single fireball. But it made up for that weakness with its sheer number, density, and sustained barrage.

Granny Wanjun’s face turned icy. In her heart, she cursed every person in Baidy’s village eighteen times over.

If she had known any proper curses, Baidy would already have been reincarnated as livestock.

Then Old Yu stepped forward.

His fists, large as sandbags, struck together with a bang. He dropped to one knee and slammed one fist into the ground, earth-yellow light swirling in his eyes.

A solid wall of rock and earth surged up from the ground with a thunderous roar, blocking Granny Wanjun and himself.

The fire arrows arrived right on schedule. They struck the earthen wall with a rapid series of thuds, blasting countless chips of stone into the air and leaving black holes of varying depths across its surface.

Old Yu was the village’s earth-element adept. His greatest talent was not actually building earthen walls, but building houses.

Given enough time, he could probably mold an entire three-bedroom apartment for you.

But this was clearly no time to construct a fortress.

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