The Immortal Ascension

Chapter 81: Jia Tianlong

Golden Wolf Jia Tianlong was brimming with ambition at this moment. His usually pale and sallow face was flushed with excitement, tinged with a few streaks of red.

It was no wonder he looked this way. After all, the lifelong nemesis of the Wild Wolf Gang—the Seven Mysteries Sect—was about to collapse before his very eyes, all thanks to his meticulous schemes. As the leader of the Wild Wolf Gang, how could he not be elated?

He now stood on the mountainside of Sunset Peak, at one of the former outposts of the Seven Mysteries Sect, surrounded by numerous red-clad Iron Guards of the Wild Wolf Gang. These fifty or sixty Iron Guards were the elite troops he had painstakingly nurtured, each one not only highly skilled in martial arts but also fiercely loyal, unwavering in their allegiance to him.

These men had always been his most treasured assets, rarely deployed in ordinary conflicts. Yet now, he had brought them all with him, intending to thoroughly intimidate the restless smaller gangs. Otherwise, how could the leaders of factions like the Iron Spear Society and the Water Severing Sect have obediently submitted to his command?

After all, these smaller gangs would never want the Wild Wolf Gang to dominate alone. Instead, they preferred the two major powers to remain locked in perpetual conflict or balance, allowing them to survive in the cracks between them.

Had Jia Tianlong not acted with lightning speed, suddenly seizing control of the families and children of these leaders while also offering them substantial benefits, these smaller gangs would likely have turned against him long ago.

Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but glance back at the dozen or so leaders of the smaller gangs standing not far behind him.

Each of them looked utterly dejected. When they noticed Jia Tianlong’s gaze, some glared back in anger, while others shrank away, avoiding eye contact.

Seeing this, Jia Tianlong sneered inwardly. Turning back around, his mind began to contemplate feasible plans for annexing these smaller gangs after taking down the Seven Mysteries Sect.

Ahead of Jia Tianlong, nearly a thousand men clad in various colors and wielding all sorts of weapons were swarming toward a Seven Mysteries Sect outpost in a chaotic assault. Their formation was disorderly, lacking any coordination, resulting in heavy casualties.

But Jia Tianlong couldn’t care less. After all, those currently attacking were not his Wild Wolf Gang members but rather the followers of the Iron Spear Society, Water Severing Sect, and other factions. He had never expected these men to break through this final and most treacherous checkpoint at Sunset Peak. His plan was simply to let them exhaust the defenders’ energy before sending in his own elite troops to finish the job with a volley from the repeating crossbows.

At the thought of those military-grade repeating crossbows, a faint smile of satisfaction appeared on Jia Tianlong’s refined face.

If the Wild Wolf Gang had gained the upper hand so easily this time, it was largely due to these lethal military weapons.

Without them, not only would they have failed to annihilate the enemy’s negotiation team, but even capturing the dozen or so outposts before Sunset Peak would have cost the Wild Wolf Gang a significant amount of Origin Qi, greatly hindering his plans to annex the smaller gangs later.

Best of all, these military crossbows had fallen into his lap without him lifting a finger.

Every time Jia Tianlong thought about it, his heart swelled with delight.That incident happened three months ago. At the time, he was planning this operation at headquarters when suddenly an officer claiming to be a relative requested to see him. Feeling somewhat surprised, he met with the man, who turned out to indeed be a cousin of his.

It turned out that over a decade ago, when the Wild Wolf Gang's predecessor was still a band of horse thieves, a group of them had been recruited by the government. His cousin was among them, and after all these years, he had actually risen to the high military rank of deputy general. Now, this cousin, as a deputy general, happened to be escorting a shipment of supplies to a border fortress in Jingzhou and was passing through the area. Hearing the name of Jia Tianlong, the leader of the Wild Wolf Gang and a close relative, he naturally came to visit his younger cousin.

The two exchanged emotional greetings upon meeting and then caught up on their experiences over the years. When Jia Tianlong mentioned the recent conflicts and killings with the Seven Mysteries Sect, his cousin curled his lips disdainfully and arrogantly declared that it was nothing—with just a hundred repeating crossbows, he could wipe out the entire Seven Mysteries Sect from top to bottom.

The speaker might not have meant much by it, but the listener took it to heart. Jia Tianlong's mind stirred, and he tentatively asked if his cousin could procure some crossbows for him. Hearing this, the cousin smiled faintly and frankly told Jia Tianlong that the shipment he was escorting contained many repeating crossbows. It wasn’t impossible to give him some, but they would need to use some silver to silence the receiving officials, and they couldn’t give too many.

Overjoyed, Jia Tianlong immediately spent over twenty thousand taels of silver to obtain more than three hundred repeating crossbows from his cousin. He entrusted them to his most trusted subordinates for careful use, which led to the recent string of victories.

"Breached!"

"It's breached!"

...

A deafening uproar snapped Jia Tianlong out of his reverie.

Startled, he quickly raised his head to look up at the mountain peak. The outpost that had previously flown the Seven Mysteries Sect's banner was now crowded with members of the smaller gangs—it had truly been breached.

Jia Tianlong frowned, finding it strange. Based on the defensive strength of the previous checkpoints, this final one should have been even harder to overcome. How had these ragtag forces taken it so quickly? Could there be some kind of trap?

His expression darkened. Anyone familiar with the great gang leader knew this was a sign of his displeasure. Anyone who provoked him at such a moment would find death a difficult escape.

"Hey, since it's breached, why aren’t we moving?" A voice as grating as a broken gong rang out, carrying not the slightest hint of respect for the great gang leader Jia Tianlong.

By all rights, Jia Tianlong should have flown into a rage, but instead, he turned respectfully and replied:

"Immortal Zhang, I find this breach too suspicious. There might be a trap inside—it’s better to be cautious!"

"What’s there to fear? With me by your side, how could mere Mortals harm you? Hurry up, hurry up! I’ve been stuck here all night and I’m exhausted. Let’s deal with these Seven Mysteries Sect fellows quickly so this old man can rest." The voice wasn’t aged, yet it adopted a tone of ancient authority, making it thoroughly irritating to hear.

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(End of Chapter)