Book 4 Chapter 28.1 - Ambition
Even though Su’s slaughter in Steel gate was short and fierce, it truly was too fast and vicious, to the extent where when the surviving army was brought out from the steel mill, less than two hours had passed. Within the vast Steel Gate, there were still hundreds of people under Spike who were scattered throughout the city, some of who still haven’t received news of the battle.
The cleanup of the remaining soldiers used up more time than the amount it took for Su to destroy Spike’s main force. Only when night fell did Li Gaolei return to the command building, reporting that all of the rebel army in the city was purged, most of them surrendering, but those who resisted killed on the spot. The cleanup process took three hours, and during these three hours, Su sat precisely in the command building’s command office that originally belonged to Spike. His body was buried in an extremely comfortable high back chair, silently watching Steel Gate be covered by darkness.
He had already maintained this position for three hours, not moving an inch. Cirvanas continued to stand two meters beside him, unmoving like a statue. Madeline stood on the other side, staring into the darkness shrouded city just like Su, unknown what she was thinking.
During Li Gaolei’s report process, Su still didn't make any movements, as if he was completely immersed in his own world. Based on the Black Dragonrider’s conventions, for a high level subordinate like Li Gaolei, Su’s attitude was actually extremely arrogant. However, Li Gaolei didn’t have the chance to feel discontent. He couldn’t even see Su’s figure from his location, but he could feel threads of heavy pressure continuously transmit from Su’s body. That was an indescribable type of feeling, to the extent where Li Gaolei even developed the misconception that if he walked a few steps further forward, he would reach the edge of a cliff. Beyond this cliff was an immeasurable and endless void!
In the void was a floating continent!
Correct, not an enormous rock, not a mountain, but an entire continent, and it stretched out right before Li Gaolei’s eyes!
That type of formless pressure released purely from a sensation of space was enough to make one feel suffocated.
What left Li Gaolei in even more fear was that this pressure didn’t only consist of fear, it gradually extended over every part of his body, moreover making his body system’s activity decrease substantially! If this pressure increased just a bit more, Li Gaolei’s body system would undergo vast areas of necrosis due to a lack of blood.
Fortunately, the silent Su suddenly released an ‘en’ sound, and then he slowly stood up. As soon as he moved, the statue like Madeline and Cirvanas seemed to have recovered life as well. Only then did the pressure around Li Gaolei’s body dissipate, but he still momentarily felt as if his body was as heavy as if he was covered in mercury, the bit of energy he had left even more so vanishing without a trace. When he looked towards Su’s familiar figure, Li Gaolei laughed bitterly inside. This master of his was now harder and harder to see through. After returning from Frozen Throne, he seemed even more like a completely different person.
When Su turned around and saw how pale Li Gaolei’s face was, he was clearly a bit surprised. After carefully looking at Li Gaolei, Su began to think to himself for a bit, and then he said with a smile, “You should go and get some rest. Just leave everything else to me. Also, I plan on leaving in an hour to see Ledesma, take a look at what exactly gave him the confidence to become the king of the great lakes’ western region.”
Li Gaolei stared blankly for a bit, and then asked, “... your distinguished self[1], don’t need to rest a bit?” Unknowingly when, even though Su had already returned to his normal self, the ‘leader’ he was so used to saying just couldn’t come out.
“Didn’t I already rest for three hours?” Su said with a smile.
Three hours was enough? This was completely different from everything Li Gaolei understood. However, he didn’t ask further and instead prepared to leave to take care of what Su needed before he went out for battle in an hour.
“Wait.” Su called after Li Gaolei. He produced a tightly packed syringe and handed it to Li Gaolei. “This is for Kane. Have him inject this when his body is at its best state. It’ll allow him to live a few years longer.”
Li Gaolei accepted this syringe that was clearly wrapped with incredible care. Even though he didn’t say much, a hint of emotions that was hard to detect flashed past his eyes. After fighting so many battles together, Li Gaolei and Kane had long become life and death comrades. Now that he saw that Kane had hope of having his life prolonged, he naturally felt incredibly happy.
Li Gaolei carefully closed the office door, leaving behind quietness for these three statue-like individuals.
Madeline raised her head and looked towards the thick wooden office door. While looking pensively, she said to Su, “He can already share your spiritual perception. En, I don’t know if this is a good or bad thing.”
Cirvanas suddenly raised his head, a rippling blood color surging within the depths of his pupils. He stared at Madeline and asked, “Could it be that you can also sense master’s spiritual world?!”
“Of course.” Madeline shrugged her shoulders, as if it was a completely insignificant matter.
“Why?!” Cirvanas seemed to almost be shouting this sentence.
1. In chinese, it is just a respectable form of the word ‘you’, so it isn’t super, super formal, but still more polite